daily reminder that there is absolutely nothing normal about being expected to waste a majority of your life at a corporation to survive instead of indulging in better life experiences ✨
In the 1960s it was a common speculation that by 1980 the typical work week would consist of 4 days. And by the year 2000 we’d be working no more than 3 days a week.
Because of computerization, automation, and better efficiencies in workflow.
So from here on out, I will only be doing very serious adult things. And taking very serious and dramatic adult photos of myself.
Err… I mean… not *adult* photos.
No more silly photos.
Yes, much too silly.
As you may know, 44 is the year the prefrontal cortex finishes developing. And then suddenly you are a grown-up and you know exactly what to do in stressful situations and how to fill out your taxes and you say things like, “Those darn kids and their music!”
I watched KPop Demon Hunters all ready to practice and shake my fist at this newfangled noise, but I forgot and found myself bobbing my head and singing along. And maybe crying a bit at the end there.
My brain just wasn’t cooked enough yet, I suppose.
Okay… umm… This is embarrassing. I’ve just checked and apparently the brain finishes developing at 24, not 44.
That’s my bad.
According to ChatGPT I have been an adult for quite some time and I am just… “like this.”
Eh, growing up is overrated.
I wish I could say this will be a happy birthday, but I am still in the midst of a pretty intense medical recovery. And it just doesn’t feel great to heal sometimes. The good news is I am nearing the finish line. There’s a chance in a month or two I could feel a lot better than I have in a while.
But due to a family betrayal that I am not going to speak of on my birthday, my financial circumstances are not wonderful right now. And I am not going to have the health to sort them until I finish my recovery. And certain parts of my house have decided now is the time to be in disrepair.
I just recently needed an emergency A/C repair during the least ideal day for the A/C to conk out. The house got up to 90° and I was feeling pretty sick. But it was fixed in short order and I am okay now.
(Outside, garage, kitchen, living room)
But apparently a groundhog dug a hole under my front porch and may have knocked a pipe. So I have to figure out how to get a small leak fixed now too.
I thought that little jerk was cute.
I still think he is cute, but he is going on my “cute but annoying” list right after all the squirrels that set off my security camera motion alerts at 3am.
I am so close to restoring a bit of my health and it has been a miserable 8 month process and I guess the universe decided I needed a few more obstacles before I completed my recovery.
So… if anyone would like to lend a little help along with their birthday wishes, I would appreciate it.
In any case, I got to see Katrina this morning. She Facetime’d me all the way from Greece. She is my favorite person so that was the best birthday gift I could ask for. I am always grateful for the time I get to spend with my friends. And I’m hoping if I get my health sorted, and save my house, then I can actually visit my friends in person instead of seeing them on a screen.
That will be my goal for when I turn 45.
Your favorite Tumblr Elder is now Tumblr Elderly.
It won’t be long before I shuffle off this mortal coil.
Just make sure my Tumblr “In Memoriam” post is in the form of my greatest Tumblr creation…
The GIFset
Someone reminded me of a GIF I made that I have no memory of.
I think my prefrontal cortex is disintegrating.
But the birthday wishes are much appreciated. And the donations were more than expected. You all bought me time, which is much needed at the moment.
“If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day; if you teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime,” but you have done neither. You have stood before us and eaten fish after fish, and chided us for our greed as you have done so. You have cast aside their offal and simultaneously chided us for our waste. You then told us that, coincidentally, you owned the river, and our parents should have gotten us the same if we wanted fish. You gave a man a fish to murder us if we step too close to the river, or speak too loud, or eat a fish from another river. You’ve copyrighted the fishing net. It costs us fish to leave.
The custodial staff leave for a day, everyone notices.
Sanitation and custodial workers deserve far more money and respect than they generally get.
I don’t think people understand the degree to which society is kept alive by the labor of the least well-regarded professions. If sewage technicians and sanitation workers and their expertise and knowledge were to disappear tomorrow, the streets would pile high with bodies in every city. We live in a world where we get to be blessedly ignorant to just how fast, how brutally and how violently cholera can rip through a community. How many babies it can kill. How many elderly bodies it can devour alive. You’ve never seen what it’s like when typhoid takes root.
“Oh but we have modern medicine” if you don’t have clean drinking water and a way to dispose of your piss and shit and trash you are going to fucking die. No if or but or maybe, you are dead, and so are half the people you know.
ALT