my careless contagion

Recently, I was sad to hear of the suicide death of Daisy Coleman, who was featured in the Netflix documentary Audrie & Daisy (2016). Audrie Pott killed herself in 2012, so both the girls are now dead. I recall watching the film and some themes stuck with me, which I will discuss. These girls were sexually assaulted, then victim-blamed and further traumatized by their communities after the fact. If you want to know the whole story, you can watch the documentary or read more online. The death of Daisy effectively ends this story, but it also brings up a lot of questions.  Audrie Pott Sexual assault is as old as the world. It's the image of a caveman bonking a girl on the head and dragging her back to his cave. We see it in King David's family (actually, his family was rife with sexual sins of all sorts), where Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar. The characteristic rapist progression is obsession followed by consummation, followed by disgust. We saw the same thing pl...

I wrote this post a long time ago and never finished it because it didn't seem right to post something lighthearted when the world had seemingly gone mad. I figured I would get it off my plate now. It is incomplete but may trigger a few smiles. Apparently, I have a lot of pet peeves. So many, in fact, I could not fit all of them in one post. Herein I reprise my role as the Lovable Curmudgeon, which is a much better role than the Obvious Jerk, the role for which I am known worldwide. Without further ado, I present what you've all been waiting for — part two of Joshua's pet peeves!  My old-man forgetfulness. I'm sure you've seen some of these pet peeves before. This is why you're seeing them again.  People who say they have no pet peeves but are clearly pissed off all the time. Just fess up. You hate everyone and everything. See? Feels good. Keep doing it. No, don't. Stop. You're scaring everyone.  Sick kid. Nothing worse than a sick kid. I w...

This is another post from this summer I neglected to actually post. I don't know why I held back on this one. It's kinda dumb. Maybe that's why. That's a great introduction. So, enjoy! Oh, also, I think there's at least one more from this summer I haven't posted. The last one I think I'll post next year since it feels like a proper middle finger to this year, which felt like reality intruded a little too much. An added note of import: I have prayed about my son's babysitting situation since he was probably one year old. I've never taken it out of my prayers, in fact. When my son's latest babysitter announced her impending retirement, it wasn't much of a shock. It was the fourth time we lost a babysitter. And there is only one person we know who had openings. Sometimes God makes our decisions easy. One choice. I'm probably not smart enough to make a decision with more than one choice, so that's good. Okay, problem solved. Only it...

Above is a picture of Iron Cowboy, aka James Lawrence. Netflix is currently offering a documentary, which I have seen, about his ridiculous feats. See the description below.  I'm no Iron Cowboy. But I do have a lot of positive things going on! I'm not pushing my body like James Lawrence, but I am pushing boundaries and making gains. Many are small things, but small things add up. Everything matters, and I choose to not "despise the day of small beginnings." It's true that redheads have a measurably higher pain threshold than the rest of us, but that alone cannot explain James Lawrence's feats. Human beings are capable of amazing things. Even regular people like me can push boundaries in a good way! I dwell on problems here in my blog. That is deliberate. It's part of the understanding and problem-solving processes. However, to balance things out a bit, how about I post some positive stuff? Here we go.  I got a loveseat. This makes my livin...

   I don’t know exactly when it started. I think I started watching TV with the closed captioning on when my son was a baby (so I wouldn’t wake him up). But he’s not a baby anymore. So why do I still watch TV with the closed captioning?  An article at medium.com called “Why Gen Z Loves Closed Captioning” explores the reasons why we’re seeing a surge in Generation Z kids (born mid-1990s to mid-2000s) watching TV with closed captioning. These are kids with no hearing impairment. It’s just ... odd.  One of the reasons why Gen Z kids may like captions is because it helps them deal with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). I never thought about this until I read the article, but I have long exhibited ADHD symptoms (in fact, I didn’t even finish the above-mentioned article). Could this be a reason why I prefer watching TV with the captions on? Maybe.  It seems captions help those with ADHD focus and block out distractions more easily. I don’t feel re...

  One of the weird things about me is that I forget about myself. That may seem strange to my readers, as I'm writing about myself here an awful lot. However, this forum is the exception. My life is not my blog, though I talk about my life here. Most of the time, I simply disappear. Maybe we all do this to some extent. Anyway, as a fun excuse to write, I thought I'd post a few of my favorite things (and strangely enough, somehow Taylor Swift shows up yet again). Here they are in no particular order.   Food - I've always thought food was pretty bomb. When I was a baby, I was eating food. In fact, I still eat food. I eat food almost every day! Though the importance of food has become pretty basic (as in, I need it to live), I still think food is pretty great. While there aren't any "floor lunches" with meats and cheeses and breads and olives and other stuff from Zingerman's anymore, I still get down for some boiled peanuts and pistachio ice crea...

*** Spoiler alert. ***  Netflix's series You is a journey into the mind of a self-proclaimed "good guy," as in the last good guy in New York, who happens to be a serial killer. He's not just a serial killer, though; he's a guy who has convinced himself he's killing to protect those he loves. He never wants to kill. But he has to. Because he's really just a good guy who is forced into some bad situations, right?  It's hard not to see this as another brick in the wall of the narrative that there are no good guys, a theme that has been running in popular media for a few years now, highlighted most recently by the MeToo and TimesUp movements, movements I wholeheartedly agree are past due. Without getting into the irony that MeToo's great push came out of heathen Hollywood, a town long given over to vices such as giving sex for work (prostitution), let's take a look at how You fits into things.   Let me say first that I agree with the MeTo...

  Netflix offers a mind-boggling assortment of garbage shows, many dark and twisted in nature. Basically, it's perfect for me. Except when I don't want my mind getting dragged down yet another dark corridor to some predictable end. Enter Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour!  This show captures Swift's final performance of her Reputation tour at Dallas. Her entire tour was stadiums, in fact, which is a testament to her wide-ranging appeal and popularity. By contrast, I've only seen one performance at a stadium — the Beastie Boys in Cleveland (during their Hello Nasty tour, I believe). They played Egg Raid on Mojo , one of their early punk songs, as I recall. I don't remember much else except we were far away.  Okay, I know Swift can make a good pop song, and traditionally I don't care for pop songs, but there's no reason I'm sitting in my recliner crying as I watch her perform. Suddenly I was alarmed. What's happened to me?   I don...