Things of no consequence :-)

for more lighthearted news....

If you're a movie fan, lots of sequels headed your way!

* Top Gun: Maverick  - sequel

* The Matrix 4

* Mission Impossible 7

* Indiana Jones 5 - oh come on! He's almost 80 years old! Just stop it.

* Lethal Weapon 5 - I'm conflicted about these OLD guy movies

* Fantastic Beasts 3 

* Minions: Rise of the Guru

* Hunger Games - the prequel

* Jurassic World, Dominion - the 3rd. I totally buy into these movies

* Legally Blonde 3

* Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 - fun for the soundtracks alone! Oh, and of course, groot.

* National Treasure 3 - finally!

* Star Trek 4 - I love the new cast of this franchise. They're so perfect!

* Sing 2 - The world needs more animated singing animals for sure!!

* Knives Out - 2 and  3. I love a good mystery. The 1st one was fun but I hope the next 2 are 

   better.

* a yet to be titled Star Wars movie!

* The Lion King 2 - I LOVE the live action Disney movies

* Aladdin 2 - see above

* Avatar 2 - plus 2 more after that! I hope they aren't all 3 hours long though.

* The Meg 2 - I look forward to the summer shark movies.

* Hocus Pocus 2! - yay!!

* The Tomorrow War 2 - This is an Amazon movie. We really enjoyed it. 

   (fast forward through the battles though, they're too long)

* John Wick 4 - I think my fella will like this.

* Thor: Love and Thunder - well of course it's already my next favorite movie :-) Right after...

* Aquaman 2 - !!!! <3 <3 <3

* Doctor Strange 2

* Captain Marvel 2 - I'm a super heroes fan so all of these make me happy.

* Mad Max 5 

* Predator 5 - I didn't even know there was more than 1!!

* Texas Chainsaw Massacre - number 9 wow!

* Halloween Kills - I don't even know! The 80th one?!

   and countless other horror/slasher sequels!

Great Places?

 Did you see this list last month, from Time Magazine?

It's called, The World's Greatest Places in 2021.

Indianapolis made the list? I'm pretty sure I could've come up with a better list;

https://time.com/collection/worlds-greatest-places-2021/

There are some cool places on the list though!

Pandemic Life 2021

Yep. Still here. Still dealing with the pandemic. Still wearing masks. Still. I never in a million years would've guessed that we would still be dealing with this, 18 months later! WTF! I mean, is it just because people didn't get vaccinated?? Would it be any better if there wasn't the Delta variant? What about the next variant that comes along, because there will be one. I think at this point, all of the new cases are the Delta variant and they are mostly young people. Well, young people (teens through 30 something) are lazy about things like that. Plus, we've been told a 1000 times at least; For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more sever illness like pneumonia, or death.

I still see that exact text at the bottom of articles, even today. What's serious about that? if you're not old? They want people to take this seriously and get vaccinated but the warning really isn't that serious, unless you're older.

The Delta variant is different though. It's affecting children. But younger than 12 can't get a vaccine. Sooooo....what do you do about that? What did you do about chicken pox or measles or mumps??? Should they require that teachers get vaccinated?

At work, you're not allowed to ask people if they've been vaccinated? That's so dumb. Are we so divided as a country?? I saw over the weekend that a radio host in Nashville died of COVID. But the headlines all made a point of saying "radio host who was a vaccine skeptic, dies of COVID," like he deserved it. I don't know who he is but it made me sick to think that we are so divided that people would think that! Holy wow!

Just when it seemed like things could get back to normal, boom. Uh huh. Lots of concerts have been canceled again. Travel is being restricted again. In some countries, they're on their 4th and 5th lockdowns. Which clearly aren't working. I mean, after the first couple lockdowns that didn't make a difference, why keep doing it??? 

Some companies now are requiring their employees to be vaccinated. Is that wrong? Should they be able to force you to get a vaccine? I hear some people say, 'are you now or have you ever been, a communist?' Is that how they feel, really?

Now, some businesses are going to require that you show proof of vaccination if you want to do something. Like Ticketmaster/Live Nation. Starting October 6th, if you want to attend a concert, you have to show proof of being vaccinated or a negative test within 72 hours. Is that wrong? Isn't that a form of discrimination? 

It seems like such a slippery slope.

So many restrictions. So many questions. Still unanswered questions. So much uncertainty, still. So much mistrust.

Americans

It's been a long time since I was in school. What are American schools teaching in American history? I learned about the 13 colonies, the revolution, slavery, the civil war and reconstruction, the 20's, the depression, WWI and II, the Alamo, Lewis and Clark, a little about the cold war, the civil rights movement.
I guess now they throw in 9/11 and more economic and environmental teachings? 

If you are a citizen of the US, that makes you an American. Isn't that right? Regardless of your race, religion, color, sex, whatever...you're still an American. Right?

I saw a story about Illinois passing an act requiring Asian American history be taught in high schools. Specifically, "the contributions of Asian Americans toward advancing civil rights from the 19th century onward. The contributions made by individual/Asian Americans in government, arts, humanities, and sciences. The contributions of Asian American communities to the the economic, cultural, social, and political development of the US."  Is that segregation? I feel like it is. Why can't it just be part of American history? I really struggle with stuff like this. Do they teach a unit just about Native Americans? Or is that just part of the history of that time? I don't remember learning about the Trail of Tears in school. I think it should be a bigger part of our history but I don't think it should be a separate thing. To date, there are no federal requirements for teaching black history in the US. Maybe it would be less divisive if we just did a better job teaching history? Why can't we stop trying to separate everybody?

If you're African American, you should have to be more specific then. Africa is BIG continent. What if your ancestors are from Libya, or Egypt? Then you can say you're African American. Technically, you can be a white African American. What about Russia? If you're heritage is Russian, doesn't that make you an Asian American? How about India or Iraq or Turkey? They're all part of Asia. My heritage is mostly European. Should I identify myself as a European American? Or maybe just a North American? If your ancestors come from Brazil, Chile, or Argentina, do you call yourself South American? Or do you just say you're an American?

Oh I guess I know the deeper answer. Asian is a racial category, not geographical. Same for African American and Latino. Race = a group of people sharing the same culture, history, language, etc. 

No wonder it's so hard for everyone to get along.

Drugs are bad

Did you know, last year there was a 29% increase in drug overdose deaths?! It's the equivalent of 11 deaths every hour. Holy cow! Over 93,000! That's  21,000 more deaths than the previous year.

When you think about it though, it isn't really that surprising, is it? The mental health toll of covid plus every tom dick and harry was making drugs and lots of extra $$ to spend. 

I read, "what's really driving the surge in overdoses is this increasingly poisoned drug supply. Nearly all of this increase is fentanyl contamination in some way. Heroin is contaminated. Cocaine is contaminated. Methamphetamine is contaminated." Also, "when I have extra money, I stock up on my (drug) supply."

So far, this year is probably not looking any better. 

Just another overlooked consequence of 2020.