Time magazine just named their widely acclaimed and followed “Person of the Year”, an award sometimes not given to a single person, but rather to several people, a meme or movement, an entity, basically any ‘thing’ that has greatly influenced the public discourse or narrative.
That’s their story and they’re sticking to it.
This year (Dec of 2017) Time announced their selection for the award…”The Silence Breakers”…collectively several women who have individually, and publicly, broken their silence regarding (past) sexual abuse and unwanted transgressions by men in positions of power and influence.
Issues, Problems, (Social) Media and the Manipulation Thereof
By
Cognitive Dissonance
Back when I was knee high to a grasshopper the biggest issues I had were trying to avoid that jerk of a bully living across the street and making sure I returned home promptly when the street lights came on.
There was no wiggle room on the street light thing because a big bright street light had been placed by the town right outside the kitchen window, requested by mom…or so she claimed. Mom always knew when to expect the return of the wild ones and there would be hell to be paid if we were not home when expected.
Mom never believed us when we tried to explain not all street lights came on at the same time. With the twin benefits of hindsight and maturity I now realize she probably did, but knew if she allowed any wiggle room it would be instantly abused by the hellions. No self respecting dictator ever allows their authority to be questioned, especially by the serfs. Continue reading Issues, Problems, (Social) Media and the Manipulation Thereof→
Part 1 of this article (link) covered the 3 D’s (Discovery, Disappointment and Demolition) of our project to replace a gas fireplace with a wood burning stove. Now it’s time for the 3 R’s: Redesign, Rebuild and Relaxation.
I ended the previous installment with a hearth half covered in flagstone, bare studs on the exterior wall and part of the ceiling exposed right down to the ceiling joists and insulation. My wife and I threw around a lot of ideas as to how we might rebuild this area with the least amount of effort but would still look good. The end of Part 1 contained an image mock-up I composed of several different pictures showing the final idea.
Our last home had several large walls finished in stained knotty pine, a look and style we liked a lot. We wanted some sort of stone work behind the wood stove to act as a thermal mass to absorb some of the heat coming off the stove while protecting the woods studs and Sheetrock behind. I most certainly did not want to try and patch the 2’ x 8’ area of the ceiling with drywall and then attempt to match the texture and paint color. You would think an eggshell white is an eggshell white – until you try to match it and find out otherwise. Continue reading Taking a Pass on Gas – Wood Preferred – Part Two→
