Yeah I’d like to know if you hear back. I’ve only had a short hike in the Shawnee National Forest and I got about six ticks on me. It was high tick season and not nearly my worst tick experience. I got hundreds somewhere in southern Missouri, if I looked at a map I could probably figure out where but it’s kind of the opposite of a recommendation. Just avoid the hills of southern Missouri during tick season.

I camp almost every time I have 48 hours away from work so if you have a campground recommendation I’d love to hear it. I’m currently in Cincinnati so all I have to do is get across the barren landscape of Indiana to get there.

Yeah now I’m generalizing another state. I think Indiana has really weird laws and is mostly boring but Indianapolis has a ton of energy. I go there for concerts pretty often. Geographically the only interesting places are near Lake Michigan and in the very south along the Ohio river where there are some hills. Clifty Falls is beautiful but the campground isn’t great. The town next to it - Madison, it’s like out of a movie, and one of the few places in that part of the state where both progressives and conservatives might feel very comfortable.

I can’t quote your text on the android app I’m using, but talking about the deliverance music - you’re not wrong lol.

I’ve also spent a lot of time in rural places, not just big cities. And there are some amazing and wonderful hillbillies/rednecks whatever they call themselves. So welcoming and will spend half their day helping you out asking nothing in return. There are also some really terrible people in those nowhere swamps and hills. You don’t want to be stuck needing help with the wrong people around. [deliverance music continues]

Oh one more thing, I mostly agree about the places I worked being the bad side of St. Louis. Except Alton. Alton is a nice little town and has it’s own vibe. I haven’t been there in quite a few years but if it hasn’t gone way downhill it’s a nice place.

I never really spent any time in East St. Louis. I worked in Belleville, Collinsville, Fairview Heights and Alton. I’ve been down south and up north and most of the middle of the state. I’ve lived in Minneapolis too, and a lot of other big cities both in the US and Europe. Minneapolis wasn’t my favorite either. I love Portland, San Francisco, Duesseldorf, St. Louis and Cincinnati. I’ll pass on most of southern California too. Paris is another one I’m not a fan of, but France overall is nice. I think it’s okay to have broad opinions based on your personal experiences. Obviously I’m not judging every individual. Some places just have a certain vibe.

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He was going to give it to whoever won. Of course he wants to be on the good side of those in power. It’s not about the president, it’s about Tim Cook.

He always has.

Thanks, Biden.

/s - added unfortunately because I’ve come back to a sarcastic comment the next day only to find a heap of downvotes from people who don’t know how to detect sarcasm, and replies telling me how stupid what I wrote was.

I don’t have a strong opinion on Chicago, I’ve only spent a few days there and it was downtown in a cold snap in February. There were some nice things to do but it was expensive and overall I’ve had better experiences in other cities. I liked it better than my wife did, she hates the cold. I on the other hand like to go snow camping (without her).

The people in the rest of the state hate Chicago because it dominates the politics, and the few Chicagoans I know aren’t a fan of the rest of the state. For awhile I lived in St. Louis but worked across the river. I still have to drive across Illinois pretty often. It’s flat fields of corn and thunderstorms in the summer, and frigid and hostile in the winter. I don’t really hate Illinois by any means and I didn’t choose to move away - I was only two and my parents moved to the Netherlands. I actually like Champaign/Urbana, I have lots of connections there. I still wouldn’t choose to live in Illinois though.

I never say it to my wife (I think people should utilize a filter between their thoughts and their lips, but my mom doesn’t have a filter either) but I often catch a glimpse of my wife’s glasses showing just a touch below her nose when looking from a particular angle, and I think she has snot starting to drip from her nose.

Also I hate the modern American version of female beauty. But my wife doesn’t even wear makeup so I’m happy at home.

The rest of Canada would never have a vote worth anything ever again. California and Canada have about equal populations.

Everybody hates Illinois. People who live there even hate it. I was born there and promptly left.

I have FB for (by priority):

My job’s business profile I have to help manage (for now).

Communication with extended family and a couple of friends from years ago I don’t live near anymore.

Rarely, marketplace.

I hate messenger and have myself set on permanently unavailable. I wish I could keep my basic FB but completely disconnect from it.

I don’t post anything on my personal page.

I’ve never had an Instagram or used it. I have an okay VR but have never even looked into meta. I have Steam.

I’m in about the least snowy part of the state and I have almost a foot on the ground still.

I’ve gone in and ordered two when it was dead and no one was around, I just sat down and ate them at a table near the ordering line area and the staff watched me eat both of them. Nobody cared.

That’s fine, I just choose to share last. Same as gun control. Every other entity needs to be disarmed. Every fucking government and billionaire too. Then I’m good with sharing everything.

It’s automatic garage door culture. You pull up to your house and hit the garage open button and when you leave it’s the same, you just drive away and never see anyone, you close your garage remotely and you’re gone. Maybe if you do your own lawn care you’ll see neighbors but many people hire lawn care professionals. I don’t have a garage to park in. But my wife likes to do the lawn care. So I’m only outside while walking to or from my car. My wife hates the cold so snow shoveling is on me. I’m about to be shoveling more in five minutes :)

This is it. As long as I can remember in the US, the winning party (winning with 23.7% of the eligible voters approval vs 22.9% on the other side) have always essentially said, “suck it losers!” and done as much as they can of what the other party hates. It’s tyranny of the majority and why the US has a constitutional Republic framework to limit that tyranny, however ineffective it may be. Never has a party come into power and said, “let’s make sure we also represent the will of the millions of voters who voted the other way.”

This is true. Denser populations tend to be more antisocial. Europe and much of the US northeast is crowded, most of the US south is not. It’s also why a lot of people from small-town US think most “city folk” are rude, and that includes many Europeans. It’s really just culture.

This is why people moved en masse to suburbs. You go to your car and drive away, rarely even see a neighbor. I’ve spoken to a neighbor once in the last year and it was because we were both shoveling snow (it was yesterday). We shoveled for an hour in silence but we kept getting closer to the street (she’s across the street). At some point we were only about 20 feet from each other and the silence was awkward. At least it was just a 30 second convo.