I came up with a joke about North Korea:

North Korean leadership debate what to do about transportation: Shall we concentrate on cars or on public transportation?
The argument for cars is that road building and auto industry will create many jobs, and will display our productive power to the rest of the world.
The argument for public transportation is that traveling together is more socialist, and that cars are noisy and pollute.
Eventually they arrive at a dialectical compromise: We shall have massive motorways, but there will be no cars on them.

kokorodoko wrote: Fri Sep 24, 2021 9:16 am I came up with a joke about North Korea:

North Korean leadership debate what to do about transportation: Shall we concentrate on cars or on public transportation?
The argument for cars is that road building and auto industry will create many jobs, and will display our productive power to the rest of the world.
The argument for public transportation is that traveling together is more socialist, and that cars are noisy and pollute.
Eventually they arrive at a dialectical compromise: We shall have massive motorways, but there will be no cars on them.

Ha!

Been very preoccupied/at times busy as of late overseeing a couple of reissues. Pretty low stakes stuff, all in all, but still quite consuming when it comes to making these things presentable to the point that I/we won't have to worry about them again.

Two-mile long gun fight in the West Loop

I had just left work and was walking up Kinzie toward the Jewel-Osco on Milwaukee. Such a beautiful day too. Had on my headphones and noticed a car driving erratically, smoke coming out of the windows, and I hear a faint string of pops through my headphones. Noticed everyone ducking and running and made the connection. I immediately ducked, noticed a woman who was walking her dog right ahead of me start limping into a space in a dog park. Immediately followed her in and noticed she was injured. Think she was scraped or hit by shrapnel. Sat with her, called 911, waited until the ambulance showed, then politely dipped away.

In a matter of seconds this all happened. One moment MBV is blaring through the cans, and the next moment you are patting yourself down to make sure you didn't get hit by gunfire. I didn't! Made it through physically unscathed!

Hug your people.

rsmurphy wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2021 9:38 pm Two-mile long gun fight in the West Loop

I had just left work and was walking up Kinzie toward the Jewel-Osco on Milwaukee. Such a beautiful day too. Had on my headphones and noticed a car driving erratically, smoke coming out of the windows, and I hear a faint string of pops through my headphones. Noticed everyone ducking and running and made the connection. I immediately ducked, noticed a woman who was walking her dog right ahead of me start limping into a space in a dog park. Immediately followed her in and noticed she was injured. Think she was scraped or hit by shrapnel. Sat with her, called 911, waited until the ambulance showed, then politely dipped away.

In a matter of seconds this all happened. One moment MBV is blaring through the cans, and the next moment you are patting yourself down to make sure you didn't get hit by gunfire. I didn't! Made it through physically unscathed!

Hug your people.

Christ, Randy. I'm glad you're ok.

Fucking hell, the times we're living in.

That’s awful, Randall, and I’m glad you were able to help.

The Second Amendment should be repealed.

good guys need bad guys need good guys need guns guys, guys

dontfeartheringo wrote: Thu Sep 30, 2021 10:09 am

rsmurphy wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2021 9:38 pm Two-mile long gun fight in the West Loop

I had just left work and was walking up Kinzie toward the Jewel-Osco on Milwaukee. Such a beautiful day too. Had on my headphones and noticed a car driving erratically, smoke coming out of the windows, and I hear a faint string of pops through my headphones. Noticed everyone ducking and running and made the connection. I immediately ducked, noticed a woman who was walking her dog right ahead of me start limping into a space in a dog park. Immediately followed her in and noticed she was injured. Think she was scraped or hit by shrapnel. Sat with her, called 911, waited until the ambulance showed, then politely dipped away.

In a matter of seconds this all happened. One moment MBV is blaring through the cans, and the next moment you are patting yourself down to make sure you didn't get hit by gunfire. I didn't! Made it through physically unscathed!

Hug your people.

Christ, Randy. I'm glad you're ok.

Fucking hell, the times we're living in.

Seriously.

Along the same line, I heard on local news radio that there have been 183 reported incidences of gunfire on Illinois interstates so far this year.

A friend found me on somebody's Twitter feed. Not exactly sure why I decided to rest my headphones on my boot. Last week I had decided to stop wearing that boot. It's cumbersome, my walking and movement is labored, and it leaves me exhausted at the end of the day. However, on that day I decided to start wearing the boot only to and from work. It left me thinking what would've happened if I didn't wear the boot on that day. Would I have passed by that young person walking the dog only to have been grazed on the thigh or worse? I almost got final destinationed.

Although I keep replaying those moments constantly, to be quite frank it all left me not so worked-up. To be clear, I've spent a lifetime in Chicago - all over Chicago. I've never experienced gun violence before so it's not as if I'm inured to it. Numb, maybe? A few weeks ago a friend and I went out to dinner, and the main topic of conversation was horror films and how the world perceives people who willingly expose themselves to art, music, literature, etc., that mines dark subject matter. Seems too simplistic to say that horror prepares one for the real world, but maybe it does?

Today I swapped out the ICEpower units in my integrated amp. Left channel is back! I feel like a boss.