the mellow tigger's musings

Tomorrow, I expect to write some thoughts about the recent No Kings protest. Contrary to popularization online, it is only the 2nd largest single-day protest in the USA. (sources: Britannica and Wikipedia)

Today, though, I'm in a good mood at the huge and peaceful protests nationwide (even worldwide). One of the curious features of this protest is the collection of inflatable costumes, intentionally expressing the stark contrast between the reality of this very American activity and the characterizations by our Republican government leadership. These constitutional law professors agree (YouTube) with this protest strategy to undermine the propaganda, and this psychologist and retired Army Colonel agrees that it's very effective to disable the attempted "projective identification" from Republicans.

Here is a nice part of the AI-generated lyrics:

"Just a man in green, facing odds. But when the gas rolls in, he don't run away.
He just croaks out loud. Not today.
Ribbit, ribbit. Ribbit, let freedom sing. It's a funny old way to do your thing.
With a smile and a hop, you can make your stand in a frog zoo, holding freedom's hand.
With the chicken, the shark, and the unicorn parade, we all march proud in the frog brigade.
...
They ain't breaking windows or burning cars. They're laughing at the law with electric guitars.
Cause humor, my friend, is a protest too. When the worlds gone mad, you can still stay true.
Ribbit, ribbit. Ribbit, let freedom sing. Ain't nothing so strong as a silly thing.
If the world gets dark, don't be afraid. There's light in the laugh of the frog brigade.
...
Some folks say it's foolish pride, but they ain't seen that frog inside.
Standing tall in a storm of hate, somtimes you got to look strange to be great.
You can't fight fire with the frown and fear, but a big green frog can make it clear.
Love's still louder than a flashbang sound, and a good laugh shakes the battle ground."

I hope you're in a good mood too, watching YouTube videos and other social media about yesterday's massive protests.

For several days, the weather prognosticators were warning everyone of the tornado-prone storm that was coming on Monday. I've never seen anything like this news phenomenon here. Sure, meteorologists predict storms that are days ahead, and they warn of tornadoes even a few hours early, but this was panic in a time frame that I've never seen before.

Reddit was flooded with social media posts. People kept asking how to prepare and where to go, like they were expecting pandemonium. My favorites were The Simpsons, the Dominator 3 storm chaser vehicle (for good reason apparently), the long storm anxiety suggestion list, someone panicked from all of the talk, to someone condemning the hysteria, the Vikings football reference (with this map showing the Twin Cities in the center of the projected severe storm), and a great map of the storm splitting in half and avoiding Minneapolis entirely (supposedly because of our hilarious storm shield).

My threat-meter is calibrated differently. I charged my phone. That's all I did to prepare. There were so many other social media posts warning us about this Monday storm. The post that I'll actually show you you, though, is this one, below. That social media post links to this summary (Weather.gov) of the 2011 May 22 tornado spree.

I don't know when this overhead image was originally taken, but this one was modified by me to show you approximately where I live. The light green path is the path of the tornado over a decade ago. My house is located at the white dot near the top, at the very edge of the tornado path. I live in the Jordan neighborhood of north Minneapolis. My home is now disaster-proof, in that imaginary statistics of The World According To Garp scene where Robin Williams' character buys a "pre-disastered home" after it is struck by an airplane. :)

I posted about my experience of that tornado after it happened, when I lived in a nearby city, after hearing the stereotypical "train" noise of the nearby tornado. Two days later, I posted a map of the approximate tornado path, based on my observations of the destruction left behind. I see that furr_a_bruin posted a reply in that one, RIP.

Just in time for Christmas is this 9-minute comedy sketch. It's designed to present itself as "a news show by autistic people for autistic people". I don't know if anyone in the whole show is autistic, but I found most of this show mildly amusing.

I especially liked the brief segment narrated with "And a cat at a New Year's Eve party has found an autistic person to hang with." It reminds me of my mother's mother who would go visit an old friend of hers, and instead of staying with them I would go outside on the porch in the West Texas desert heat to play with the feral cats. I didn't realize the cats weren't everybody's friends until that adult homeowner called me "the boy who gets the cats to play with him".

Enjoy your holidays. I expect to read a book and play a few more computer games than usual, which is great.