Bill Nye, the idiot guy

Let me start with a borrowed premise. If you are not part of the solution, there is lots of money to be made in prolonging the problem.

The man (is he? even by his own math... wait, that's missing) asserts that gender is just a thing.

I wonder what the twit would think if every person in the physical world were to refer to him when he came to them as her or she. By his own misguided language they would not be wrong. And if he felt wrong about it, he would be wrong in thinking that other people are wrong referring to him that way.

Yanni

I was introduced accidentally to Yanni via the Indianapolis zoo, for which I credit my parents as having the wisdom to think that a zoo was a good thing for a child to be exposed to.

One day, there was some thing going on the whale/dolphin pavilion and we had the good fortune to be there as it was starting.  While all the seating was occurring, some person figured that music was better than silence and had a Yanni CD playing.  I was a teen at this point, and could feel that there was something special about what this man had crafted.  From that point on, I hit the library, record stores, and whatnot else looking for things of his making. 

At no point along any way have I regretted seeking his stuff.

This odd accumulation of happenstance has led to much gratification in my life.  I am thankful to all those that contributed, be they my parents, the zoo as an entity, or the person that chose to run the music during the seating.

Permanent incompetence

Today, I saw a group of three people that may or may not have been incompetent, but one of their number chose to walk in the bike lane as opposed to walking on the sidewalk with the other two. This is some degree of either incompetent or entitlement that really needs to be disabused of the multiple generations that have created it. Unfortunately, when I hear about news stories about somebody killed because they were walking in a bike lane and hit by a vehicle, I will think back to this and have less care than I really should.

Stupid people do stupid things. I'm tired of being forced to humor them.

If you do something stupid, that's on you. Done.

I was tempted to take a picture, but even a picture from the back side would have only gained these idiots some notoriety. And they deserve no notoriety.

Forced Opinions

If I'm not forced to have an opinion, I may or may not have one about said thing. (apathy)
If I AM forced to have an opinion about something, probability is that I won't side with whatever agency (person, group, whatever) forced me to have an opinion.(antipathy)
If I am forced to have an opinion about something, and government says I'm supposed to be tolerant of it, I'm more likely to go the Jefferson way and choose to oppose it.  There is some slush to this in that I'm more likely to accept local recommendations than state recommendations and accept state recommendations over federal recommendations. (fairly aggressive antipathy)

Some gays (male or female) are very tolerable.  I tolerate them.  I actively like many.  Easy. (apathy and/or friendship)
Some people tell me that I'm using the wrong pronoun set for certain people.  I care not.  Until that person comes to me and asks me to use a different pronoun set for them when discussing them with other people, I have no reason to not call that person by what I perceive of their physical makeup.

You want me to not care about you.  This is apathy.  If you force me to care about you and whatever you think you are, then you've forced me to care about what you are.  This is antipathy.  This is a lesser form of hate.  If you want me to not hate you, don't make me care about you.  Making me care about you, by force, ends badly, If I care about you organically, I may care, or not.  That's better than the hate.

Some folks better learn... and fast.

Unintentional taunting

Some places so forcibly project positivity that there is little question given to the inherent negativity that may be present.  The key concept here is projection of positivity. While at the location, any negativity perceived by a customer (no, they are not a guest) is jarring and potentially a reason to summon a manager.

One place this is notable is environmental music of the location.  Often this is done by some clueless person tasked with music selection to match some generic venue-style, approved by some moron tasked with approving such things.

The obvious idiocy and failure of corporate bureaucracy deserves little note but no positive otherwise.

Someone chose these things to be something that would probably be comforting to consumers at the location.  This is all well and good.  But, to a person that is seasoned in the location that is no longer a fan of the location, some songs become more of a taunt.

"Put on a happy face" (not sure of title or artist)
No. My happy face is miles from here.  I might be able to fake a veneer.

Taxes profitmongering

I recently filed my taxes.  Meh.

Federal government owed me money. No surprise.
Indiana wanted more money, on the order of about 66% of what I was getting back in Federal refund.  Seemed excessive, but whatever.

Filed the taxes anyway.  To pay State, was sent to some mostly non-descript site for paying all manner of "government" payments, and as a not-logged-in person, it didn't ask who or what I was paying for.
For a $315 bill, it wanted to charge me a nearly $8 (7.8?) fee to use a card.

I'm sorry, but I'm not.  If this is the payment system you have, it can go unmentionable itself.  Bill me.  I'll send a money order at a cost of maybe a couple dollars, but I will not pay your "convenience" fee.

I hope I'm not the only person to have this annoyance and choose to skip the "convenience" provider, putting said provider out of business.

I'm tired of being treated like a money-source.  EVERY state should be "retired" at this point, with enough money in the bank and investments to support itself without needing ANY taxpayers. States and the federal government were stupid and didn't do this.  That's on them.