Depressing stuff

[voyager]

NorCal drivers have to be the worst in the state.     Gas pedal to the floor, then, QUICK, slam on the brakes.    The lane is always faster on the other side of the striping.    No, back to the other lane.   YIKES!  There's the offramp!   So cut across three lanes while others brake to avoid you.   

We cross the Valley several times a month en route to the country.    And it seems that every trip involves husband's super fast response as some yoyo swerves into our lane without looking at 75+mph.   

I remember, as a newlywed, buying a sewing machine.    The store wouldn't let me take it until I completed a free one hour lesson on its operation.    Today you can drive off the lot with nothing more than a credit card and driver's license.   At least I THINK you have to have a license, but it's sure not obvious on the freeway.

[StephanieL]

You needed lessons before they sold you a sewing machine??  I wonder what people who wanted a circular saw had to go through.

You're spot on about the local drivers.  Don't forget the people drag racing each other on I-880, in full traffic.

[voyager]

1 minute ago, StephanieL said:

...people drag racing each other on I-880, in full traffic.

That too, but also exactly how casual drivers act on CA 4.      Just normal driving.  

[small h]

I just assigned an essay to ChatGPT, 500 words on Sorry to Bother You that discusses the film with regard to appropriation, assimilation and class consciousness.  If I'd received it from a student, it is very unlikely I would have recognized it as AI generated, although it did not (as my prompt instructs) include any independent research or references to personal experience. So I would've given it a B, probably. This is somewhat nerve-wracking.

[StephanieL]

Two mass shootings in two days here in California--the latest one just an hour or so ago--and both seemingly perpetrated by older Asian men against other Asians.

[small h]

Birthday dinner last night for a very old friend who had successfully (and necessarily) quit drinking a couple of years ago. He has apparently un-quit, and is also a few months unemployed, which is very un-good. He has many people to support him, including his exhausted sister (who had to leave the dinner early because her husband's band was playing), and no one knows what the hell to do. I ended my evening by escorting his drunk ass home. Depressing stuff! as the thread title says.

[Sneakeater]

Oy.

[small h]

Indeed. I was wondering why his Facebook page suggests that all he's doing is watching daytime soap operas and annoying his cats, and now I know. Sigh.

[voyager]

FWIW, our family included a incredibly enjoyable guy who turned into a party-spoiler when he drank, which became all the time.    His cousin, with whom he was very close, took him aside and  made his listen to an account of his behavior at a wedding, scene by embarrassing scene, showing him how agonizing his antics were to those who loved him.   A people pleaser, he got the picture of how his drinking was destroying his social viability and making him a pariah.  

[small h]

I'm glad that was effective. This guy usually responds to attempts at intervention by a) lashing out and storming off or b) breaking down and promising to reform. He did A LOT of hard work to get clean (alcohol was not his only problem). I think he's relapsed because his (objectively terrible, but loyal, at least) boyfriend is taking an extended trip to the DR. And he's been job free. He says he quit, but I very much doubt it.