too much misery

Seriously considering just leaving twitter. Or maybe unfollowing a ton of people because there's way too much pointiness and anger and wild political speculation, even from folks who were originally apolitical. (And I wish sometimes there were two features: one, "Don't show me any tweets with this particular word in it" and "don't show me any retweets from people I don't follow). Also frustrated at the "conspiracy theories" that have been spun up ("The guy did it because he was secretly gay and propositioned someone at the club who turned him down"). I tend to operate under Ockham's Razor: what is the simplest explanation that fits? And some of the things on offer aren't that simple.... Of course, from my own perspective, I say "He gave in to the temptation of great evil (to kill people whose lives were totally separate from his and who had not harmed him in any way)" but it seems "evil" isn't a popular word these days. (And I know, there is an impulse to try to understand what made the person tick, I think because ordinary people want to reassure themselves, "I could never do something so awful." I remember doing that myself during the Amy Bishop case.)

We're under a heat advisory. I opined yesterday that I was surprised how OK I felt but I don't feel OK this morning - even in an air conditioned house (though I have turned the temperature up to avoid overworking the unit) with a dehumidifier going, I am having some minor breathing distress. (I also slept badly). Not gonna try working out today, I think the effort of standing and teaching will be physically stressful enough.

Also am distressed over the lack of a budget so far for fall; I need to start planning if I face a large pay cut - plan to live without cable or a landline phone and do some serious cutbacks in how I buy food. I get that the powers that be that make this budget are probably flailing and struggling because the state just released its budget (and higher ed took another hit) but we really do need information; I deal badly with situations where I don't have enough data to make an informed decision. (And some people may want to start looking for new jobs. I'm not there yet; owning a house outright is a powerful inducement to stay put, but if my department starts to empty out if people go elsewhere I might consider it).

And I'm annoyed at TSET or whoever spends their money. This is the fund that apparently came from suing the tobacco companies. But they've repurposed that money to sugar-shame: there is a series of ads that essentially say "if you drink anything other than water, you're an idiot, because every other beverage has lots of sugar." Granted, I almost never drink anything other than water, milk, or unsweetened tea, and I know the ads aren't aimed at me but this is the whole "I'm a freaking grown-up, let me choose what I want to drink!" issue. And I wonder what they're going to start shaming us for next? Also, I vaguely remember a plan to use some of the TSET money for something else a while back (maybe rural health care?) and the argument was made that no, it was JUST for educating about the dangers of tobacco use....

I also find myself wondering....vape shops must be enormously profitable. Every tiny town I drove through on Saturday had one. It makes me slightly sad as there's little in the way of places in my town I want to shop at (the bookstore closed, the quilt shop closed) and I wish there were more shopping options available to me. (And I suppose, though, vape-shopping isn't "fun" shopping, but still, I look at the shops and go "I wish people felt that way about bookstores and every little town had one")

I hope it gets less hot soon. I'm not even gonna say "cools down" because it won't cool down enough for me now until October or so.