The Green Pill Podcast: Cleanliness

TimeHorse April 24, 2024 No Comments

This is one topic I hold quite dear as someone who constantly worries about the way I smell. I used to be a quite ripe individual and I’m very not proud of that. I even used to use cologne, which I’m very ashamed of because many people are allergic to cologne and perfume more so than even natural human oders. That’s why I try to make sure to shower regularly and keep my teeth healthy and clean.

I’ve had dental problems from no doing enough for my teeth. The dentist actually found nine potential bacterial strains in a recent test. I typically see my dentist thrice a year to make sure my teeth and gums are as healthy and clean as they can be. Dental hygiene is just as critical has washing up, because nothing is more off-putting than talking to someone with bad breath.

As for keeping clean, as I have posted before, I was in Texas for the 2024 solar eclipse. It’s a long drive to and from Austin, where I was halfway between my home and Los Angeles, but the 18–19 hours of day one driving from 04:00 to 22:00, to satisfy the Tesla Insurance gods, then another 10–11 hours of driving leaves #NoSO2TeslaP三D and myself rather dirty. A round trip of about 2,500 mi (about 4,000 km), all on Full Self-Driving (Supervised) version 12.

I got a couple car washes in Texas, one of which was the park and let the washer mover around you type, which did okay but the pollen then dirtied the vehicle again, so I had to wash it again. And when I got back from sleeping in the car at a Buc-ee’s, both of us needed a wash badly. I was able to take my ride to my usual place, but the shower had to wait until after the Science Book Club meeting, alas. But oh, did that shower finally feel so very, very good, and clean, fresh clothes the next morning!

So, take a shower and brush those teeth gentle readers and be refreshed and ready to make new friends and meet people, the green pill way.

To Sleep, perchance to dream

TimeHorse April 24, 2024 No Comments

Last year, I read the book Outlive by Peter Attia, MD in my Science Book Club, and although it is cliché, this book did indeed change my life. The TLDR is simply this: to live a healthy you need four pillars of living today to be ready for tomorrow: improved strength, good balance, cardiovascular improvements, and sleep! I have 10 lb / 4.5 kg weights I need to start pumping one of these days for strength. I need to do more yoga, like Saturdays at 11:00 in my apartment, but alas that’s during my Saturday Morning Review. But, for cardio, I climb all 15 flights every time I leave my apartment, typically at lease once a day, and have made a rule to never take the elevator up when I can find the staircase (though I do take it down).

As for sleep, I am epicly failing and it’s really getting to me. But, to fully lay this story out, let’s go back to March of 2024.

Eclipse Planning

I had been planning for the 2024 eclipse for years. I even wrote a presentation about it which I shared with my Toastmasters and Westminster Astronomy Society, Inc (WASI). In it, I talk about how back in 2023 I tried to get a hotel room on Lake Buchanan in Texas, and wasn’t able, but found this state park, right in the centerline of the Eclipse path, in the driest part of the county, just outside of Austin, TX. I worked out with my new job at CACI (which, BTW, is one of the best jobs I’ve ever had and a wonderful place to work and will always be my scheduling priority) that I could change my work location to Austin for the first two weeks of April 2024, and then booked a hotel in Cedar Park so that I would be close to work (actually two hotels were books and I only chose which one I would stay at in March), and got a TxTag so I could use the toll roads around Austin.

I spent March giving that presentation, scheduling a month of Green Pill Podcast episodes and posts (so I wouldn’t have to deal with them in Austin) and cleared my calendar for those two week, only allowing the most important commitments to bother me on my working-vacation. Since I was doing this myself, I used my own money to stay at the hotels, and wishing for adventure, I decided to take #NoSO2TeslaP三D down. (Fortunately, FSD (Supervised) V12 dropped just before I left.) And, I checked my Doctor Who watch log and prepared to watch the mostly missing The Mythmakers on the way there, The Dalek Masterplan while in Austin, and The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve on the way back. My dad contacted me about borrowing his DJI Camera and I scheduled to pick it up two days before I left, the same day I tried to help a pregnant camper with the Green Cab group I’m a part of—which didn’t work out because I just couldn’t pick up the camera and get to the patient in time.

I put in my contacts and readied myself for the long drive.

Driving to Austin

I got up at 03:00 to watch my daily Doctor Who, and left at 04:00 on Friday, March 29. On the way, I attended many work meeting en route and nearly killing my hotspot fast-speed limit on the way. I first hit the Raphine, VA supercharger around 06:30, well before work began. Then, I drove to Atkins, VA, leaving around 10:30, and got my work computer set up for my work meetings. Around noon CDT—I’d crossed the time zone—there was some serious stop-and-go traffic on I40, in Kodak, TN, just outside of Knoxville, and I got rear-ended by an uninsured driver who didn’t leave me his name—I still have to get this fixed. I pulled into the Knoxville, TN supercharger about a half-hour later. I then attended the rest of my work meetings before arriving at Nashville/Charlotte, TN around 15:30, made it to Jackson, TN around 18:00. From there, I was lucky the Brinkley, AR was next to a hotel so I was able to sleep for 6 hours after charging my car to 100%.

I got back on the road around 04:00, arriving in Little Rock, AR around 05:00 with about 60%. I then hit Nash, AR before finally hitting Nash, TX, just outside Texarkana, around 07:15. I then drove a bit west of Dallas to the Royse City, TX supercharger at a Buc-ee’s, arriving around 09:45. I hit Abbott, TX around noon. Because I made such good time, and was looking to get to the hotel before check-in, I decided to instead head toward the Lake Buchanan park to scope it out for Eclipse photos, posting photos to instagram without revealing my location to keep it from being swarmed—and allow me to change my mind. Finally, I made it to the Cedar Park Supercharger, queued for a charge, and checked into my hotel around 17:30.

Working Vacation in Austin

Fortunately, I was able to cancel all my Saturday Morning Review meetings on transit days, committed to on the second Sunday morning there (the first Sunday was Easter and I just spent the day doing touristy things) and on my trip back to The Hourlings, attended my Reston Writers over Zoom (including one on the highway coming back from the Eclipse), attended my EVA/DC board meeting, my WASI meeting, a regularly scheduled Toastmasters meeting, and the Division E Toastmasters Evaluation Contest! I really didn’t want to participate in that while I was on vacation but I kind of fell into it by winning in March, so my Saturday morning before the Eclipse was toast. And that is, for me, a paired down commitment. I wanted to spend as much time as I could in Austin and focus on that, and not worry about what I would deal with when I got back, just in time to run the Science Book Club meeting in person. And I had to wash my car, twice.

I’m not going to talk about my actual eclipse experience here, just that I was not able to view the bats under the Congress Bridge in Austin and the Toastmasters contest and Testing the DJI Camera with a solar filter—which I hadn’t had a chance to test until that point—as well as getting enough charge for my ride, meant I really wasn’t able to do any tourism the weekend before the eclipse, and I was exhausted. But, I did get a call from our Toastmasters Area New Club Director about starting a club at CACI. Unfortunately, my reading glasses broke, the lens fell out, and I had to replace them, looking in H.E.B. and Walmart. I spent about a half-an-hour on the phone while I selected a pair I really liked for about $30.

I spend my last days in Austin meeting some of my awesome Austin colleagues, and attending drinks with the head of the office that Friday night, causing me to go to bed late.

Returning to Virginia

I got up at 03:00 on Saturday, 13 April, watched my daily Doctor Who, finished my Orange Juice, and hit the road around 04:30. I was too tired to take pictures at my first charging stop in Corsicana, TX, driving through the back roads of Texas. But I did get photos in Sulphur Springs, TX, in Hope, AR, in Little Rock, AR (again), in Memphis/Germantown, TN, in Dickson, TN, in Nashville/Charlotte, TN (again), and stopped at the Crossville Buc-ee’s. Unfortunately, the last stop was at a buc-ee’s and because I have mean old Tesla Insurance, it was 22:00, and I couldn’t drive anymore and had to sleep in my vehicle. My air mattress didn’t properly inflate for the first hour but, around 01:00 I hit the head in Buc-ee’s and got it properly inflated, getting a net of about 5 sleep before hitting the road again at 04:00.

I crossed the timezone and made it to Bristol, VA, at a lovely Royal Farms, right on the Tennessee border, around 07:30, just as the sun was rising. The sun looked amazing as I drove up I81 but when I got to Washington County, VA, I got my first speeding ticket in over a decade, all while going the same speed as the traffic around me. I guess the county is short on cash. Anyway, that delayed me arriving at the Sheetz station in Salem, VA, where I was subsequently late setting up the Hourlings Zoom, burning through the last of my hotspot bandwidth before they throttled me because the Sheetz wifi didn’t work. I got pulled over one more time outside of Salem because I accidently breezed passed a cop on FSD but I apologized as I didn’t get to the car and override in time, and he forgave me. Best cop ever! I’m glad he was safe. I then made it to the Mt. Jackson, VA supercharger around 14:45, which I had previously visited on my trip down Shenandoah National Park last Autumn—I was almost home! I didn’t have time to take a much needed shower, but I did have time to get to the car wash before attending my 17:00 meeting at the Panera. I finally had my shower when I got home, and I slept—fitfully.

A Killer Workweek

The main problem with not getting enough sleep is my productivity drops off. Combine that with 2 days of driving and looking at my calendar and seeing events not just 2 days the following week, not just 3 days. Not even 4 days, but 5 days, one every day of the week leading up to Earth Day and that weekend before Earth Day being chocablock with events too, about 3 per day! Combine that with 43 hours of work and you can see why I’m very frazzled.

My first day at work I did my best to move to my new cube (we moved cubes the day I got back) and was so tired, when I tried to recycle my soda and sandwich bag, I had the soda and my glasses in one hand and the sandwich back in the other, intending to recycle the soda and the bag but forgetting the glasses were in my hand too. When I tossed the soda bottle and everything else in my hand, I was confused to see the bag in my other hand. I stared at the trash, wondering what else was in that hand if not the sandwich bag. When I got home, I realized it was my reading glasses. I had to rush home to run Reston Writers’ Review, and I started cursing abominably because I was late and I needed my glasses to read the pieces and write my notes. I met one of my writers in the lobby and he tried to calm me down, but I had to trudge all the way up to my apartment, fetch my old, cellophane taped glasses to run the meeting. I then had to drive back to work, dig through trash, unsuccessfully, and then buy a cheap replacement in Walmart, driving home past the high insurance 22:00 point! That was just day one!?

The rest of the week wasn’t much better. Tuesday, I drove to Columbia for the April Tesla Tuesdays. Wednesday I met with my therapist, missing about half of a work meeting because I couldn’t get sound to work in the car, then drove to the EVA/DC monthly meeting. On Thursday I had Toastmasters, where I was the General Evaluator. And on Friday, I drove down to Regency Furniture Stadium for a secret Tesla event! Meanwhile, at work, my branch had gone out of sync with the main branch, and I had to soft reset it to get it back in sync, but when I did, I forgot to copy all my old commit messages, which had all my notes from my work up until that point. Again, I need sleep because my productivity sinks when I’m tired.

Insane Weekend

Next, I look at my weekend schedule for the first time because, when could I have looked at it sooner. I had a Tesla event in at the Starr Brewery at The Perch (to see a CyberTruck but I saw one in Texarkana so I was good), another in Clarksville Common, and a cosplay event in Ellicott City. I decided to attend all three but I screwed up royally because I forgot to pay for and get a ticket to the Cosplay event, and didn’t check the web page for where the munchie squad would be so I ended up crashing, uninvited, and almost got kicked out of the group which I had been one of the founding members. And thus, I wasn’t able to obtain any photos of that event. And that was just Saturday.

One Sunday, I had a writing seminar with The Hourlings, and then an event in Herndon to promote vegan and sustainable living. I attended the last two hours of the Herndon event, since I was double-booked, then went home for the movie discussion with the Maryland Science Book Club. I was going to meet my friend Lisa that evening but, since she was organizing a very important event taking place today, which I sadly can’t make because of work, we agreed that we were both too busy to make that happen. But, I hope to see her Saturday!

Overscheduling and Undersleeping

Needless to say I was even more exhausted after all that and was happy to cancel the Monday night Reston Writers meeting, quite sleepless, even forgetting my daily weigh-in! I went from a week where every day I had an event to a week where I only had one evening event. Bliss? No, because I have fallen behind with my work and my boss has noticed and put me on warning in our quarterly touchpoints. This is very not good. So, I’m going to shut up now, and get back to work because nothing, but nothing, right now, in my life is more important to me than my job!

My therapist sent my an article which exemplifies my conundrum: How to Stop Overscheduling Yourself.

Take care gentle reader and remember, tomorrow is another day, and another chance to get a good night’s sleep!

The Green Pill Podcast: Finding Your Tribe

TimeHorse April 17, 2024 No Comments

Those who know about me know that I have many, many interests. Indeed, that’s why I have so many different categories on this blog, where I focus on one, particular tribe I feel a close part of.

A couple of those tribes I share with my co-host Cat Smith, one being our shared love of just jamming on our instruments, but also we became acquainted because of Doctor Who fandom. We met at the convention which shall not be named and became good friends over our shared passions.

My regular readers no doubt remember, I’m rewatching the entire series—at the time of this episode’s premier, I’m watching William Hartnell‘s The Ark part 2, The Plague. (Yeah, plague, haven’t we had enough of that—predicting SARS-CoV-13, I think I called it on last watch).

All that said, Cat and I decided to show some of our other passions in this one. Cat is a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a wonderful show about a young warrior learning of his amazing powers, though that certainly doesn’t do this engaging tale justice.

Meanwhile, lacking proper wig tape, I attempted to cosplay Greg Universe, Steven’s dad from Steven Universe. I quite enjoyed this series and was lucky enough some years ago to meet the creator, Rebecca Sugar where I got this cherished selfie at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda. Unfortunately, as you can see in the video, my unsecured wig kept slipping, so I kept having to readjust it.

Please enjoy our latest episode and please tell us about your tribes!

https://youtu.be/XcDiUUtQHeU

The Green Pill Podcast: Having Rizz

TimeHorse April 10, 2024 No Comments

Y’all may be asking, what is Rizz. Well, if you know what it is, this episode is for you. Rizz, my friends, is having pizzazz, style, je ne sais quoi, or just being cool.

The first step to having Rizz is to have the confidence of believing you have it. After all, there’s nothing more attractive than exuding an air of show you are where you are and where you want to be, and believing in yourself. I know it’s hard to feel that way when you’re starting out with little money and no dating options, but if you see the world in that way, it will come to be. If, on the other hand, you see the world as your oyster, and stand out as someone who seems to know where he’s going—even if you have no idea—believe me, it shows and people will respond positively.

Of course, raw confidence isn’t the only thing you need to have Rizz. You also should show kindness, be friendly, and caring. Stand up for what you believe in but always be open to changing your mind. Be a gentleman and most of all, accept rejection with grace and move on.

When I was your age, I didn’t have confidence, I didn’t know what to believe, and I wasn’t very friendly. And that’s why I had so much trouble meeting people when I was younger. But, now I do have confidence, I do have things I care about, I love learning and am open to debate and change, and I’m even learning to accept rejection. And while 50% of them are hundreds, if not thousands of miles away and thus not of any interest to me, I so still have as of 29 March (when last I checked), 68 of matches on OK Cupid, and 35 on Tinder, though Bumble and Hinge aren’t as productive for me, and on Facebook Dating I’m very popular even when you remove the scammers trying to get you to invest in Bitcoin. Indeed, I met my first long term relationship after the divorce through Facebook Dating, a 6-month pairing I very much cherish.

But, do I have Rizz? I don’t care, and that’s why I do, and you can to!

Virginia becomes the 12th State to end Child Marriage!!

TimeHorse April 9, 2024 No Comments

And I could not be more overjoyed that my very on General Assembly Delegate Karen Keys-Gamarra was the one who brought the bill into life here. Virginia is also the first southern state to outlaw child marriage.

Think about this: a 16-year-old girl probably hasn’t even graduated high-school and in 38 states, enough to pass an Amendment to the Constitution, she can still be sold into marriage by her parents. But not in Virginia! No, in Virginia she has a right to reach adulthood before making such an important life-long decision!

And if you really love her at 16, won’t you still be loving her at 18? If not, it’s just as well we made it illegal and if so, then, assuming she’s an interested adult, you will.

This is a great win for decency and I look forward to many more states passing similar legislation. Only legal adults should be marrying, not kids! Let kids remain children!

I could not be more elated!
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Hello from Texas

TimeHorse April 8, 2024 No Comments

If all goes well, I’ll be in Texas when you see this post, and this video from August 2017.

The reason it’s taken me so long to share the video is because when I filmed it, I underestimated how far across the screen the sun would track, so when it was about to go off the edge, I had to reposition the iPhone 5S which created a discontinuity in the video. Now that I have a 2023 Space Grey Macbook Pro with the M3 processor, using Final Cut Pro. I was able to split the video into 3 sections, and then eyeball the adjacent frames to make the movement flow smoothly. I then shifted the whole thing so the entire arc would fit in the frame.

The other problem with the video is when the full eclipse occurs, no light gets through and so the sun disappears! This is what I’m hoping to do correctly right now, somewhere near Austin.

I don’t know where I will be, as I wanted to go to the Lake Buchanan reservoir but if it’s too crowded, my friend Scott Wilson does have an alternate location I may end up visiting.

Don’t forget to light and subscribe!

The Green Pill Podcast: Self-Sabotage

TimeHorse April 3, 2024 No Comments

This episode hits a little bit close to home. There are many things in my life that I regret, and most of them I can only blame myself, for sometimes AITA, am I the Asshole, yes.

For instance, there are two gentlemen I admire, look up to, and wish to emulate, both of who shown too bright and no longer consider me a friend. And, in both cases, it was because I was the Asshole.

A.K.

I’d known A.K. since college and always admired his intelligence, maturity, and thoughtful Canadian who I very much enjoyed talking to and doing things like discussing MST3K, watching RiffTrax together, and coding Python sprints. However, as my marriage started to dissolve, and after a brutal 2021 where I lost so much, continuing to hurt, I was finally starting to see the light as I was stressing over the planning for my half-century birthday bash, when all hell broke loose like a erupting volcano! The week before the festivities, the Supreme Court cast the perhaps worst ruling since Plessy v. Ferguson and Buck v. Bell when the corrupt court decided Dobbs v. Jackson. Of course, as an ERA warrior, I was dismayed, but as a new bachelor, I was apoplectic! Here I was, coming out of a marriage where I didn’t have any access to the one thing that monogamous relations restrict to the relations, I was terrified, incorrectly, I was about to be a bachelor entering a world where physical intimacy was impossible. Unfortunately, I said some things publicly which were reprehensible following the ruling and thus I Self-Sabotaged. A.K. blocked me on social networks and greenpdidn’t come to my party and since then he refuses to even hang out with me apart from allowing me to attend his Maryland Science Book Club. Yes, I was the 100% asshole.

D.B. and L.B.

Then there was time I was ready to start my Bachelorship and looking forward to spend more time with D.B. and L.B. Unfortunately, L.B., who I still care about deeply, got very sick from a nasty chronic condition, the same condition my late Aunt used to suffer from, so it became increasingly impossible to spend time with her. It got to the point that unless it was a very good day, she couldn’t even leave the home she shared with D.B.

L.B. and I were really good friends—we even talked about divorcing at the same time (unfortunately, it took me much longer to realize I needed to go). But, the thing is, it was her boyfriend D.B. who I really admired and wished to emulate. D.B. started a Dungeons & Dragons game before the pandemic and was kind enough to invite me to join. I was thrilled to be a part of the campaign and really enjoyed having him as dungeon master. But, L.B. got sick, and then the pandemic came, and we could no longer play D&D except over Zoom. I missed the personal interactions but I accepted the pragmatic limitations.

The thing is, D.B. and L.B. lived about an hour drive away, so whenever I was going to be close to where they were, I would send them a message asking if they were up to meeting. I didn’t think at the time that L.B. may not be up to meeting and was just sad at the repeated refusals. And so, I became an Asshole. I misinterpreted the refusals D.B. saying he and L.B. didn’t want to hang around with me, and said so, and after that I was blocked by D.B. and kicked out of his D&D game.

That loss caused me to truly hit an all-time low, confused about how I could have done so wrong, and finally forced myself to find a new therapist, since my old one was no longer covered by my insurance. In many ways, I think my mind reeling and making bad assumptions is very typical of an ADHD brain, and as that was the best explanation for why we were no longer friends, I posted a video trying to explain how I tend to self-sabotage, thinking I have friends I don’t deserve, and saying and doing things that fulfill my inner demon’s predictions where I will ultimately always say the wrong thing. Of course, me being an asshole, I didn’t realise the video should be interpreted as someone whining about being hurt by rejection when I only saw it as apologizing for overreacting to rejection. I tagged L.B. on social media and she interpreted it in the former way and began crying profusely while I was at work in the SCIF. It was so bad that my hero D.B. unblocked me just to tell me I did this to L.B. I was mortified and knew I could not say anything to defend myself, that anything I would say would make it worse, and I had to return to the SCIF. And, I had to be an asshole.

E.P.

After I started living on my own, I started dating a friend of mine I met through Bumble‘s BFF feature. E.P. and I got along great and when she suggested we become more than just friends, I ended my relationship at the time and started dating her. We had some awesome experiences together and I even cooked her Lobster on her birthday. But, as the summer drifted into autumn, we started to see less of one another. Then, last November, I had tickets to one of Taylor Tomlinson‘s last two shows on her Have It All tour. I got the ticket months earlier, constantly refreshing the app to get them as soon as they opened, while sitting in the parking lot of my work since I didn’t want to be in the SCIF when I made the purchase. As the day loomed neerer, I went out with a greedy woman who clearly wanted to just get the ticket out of me, and my friend L.S., who I really wanted to go with, was part of a press conference in New York, so she couldn’t make it. So, I ended up inviting E.P. I found out later L.S.’s conference was cancelled, but by then it was too late, as I’d already invited E.P.

E.P. and I had fun, and she got me a nice gift, making me want to return the favour. We weren’t intimate that time, though we had been before, mainly because I didn’t want her to think I was quid pro quo with her. I remember her mentioning she liked some special socks and wanted some special tea so I went and got some inadvertently crappy socks and really nice tea from Ireland. I tried and tried to meet up with her again, but things kept coming up. Finally, we set a date where we could meet for two hours. In the runup to our date, she texted me that her husband—yes, she was married, but she told me she was ENM and I’d have ended it otherwise—said she couldn’t go out. I, of course, being the asshole that I am, misinterpreted this and the husband saying she couldn’t go out that Thursday, and assumed we were still meeting that weekend. So I texted her a few times over the weekend, asking when she was going to get here, and accepting she might not make it. She never replied because of course she had told me she wasn’t going to make it. My overthinking mind misinterpret things and she blocked me. The asshole strikes again.

L.S.

Back in January, L.S., who I am quite attracted to romantically, invited me to a play to raise money for the homeless. I was excited to go and wanted to sit with her. I got their early and scanned the audience, but didn’t spot her. I looked and looks but L.S. was nowhere to be seen. So I found a seat in the third row, right and began to enjoy the performance of Annie. Midway through the third act, one of the actors escorted in a woman—L.S. I didn’t know at the time that he was one of the performers but I decided if L.S. had company, I wasn’t going to disturb her. So, at intermission, I ignored her. I intentionally kept to myself, reading the playbill. Like an asshole. I met her after the play and we did have a nice chat and she seemed to want to continue chatting but I had to get home before my Safety Score went up for driving after 22:00, raising my Insurance. And so I said goodnight, and left as the asshole I was.

AITA?

Actually, it’s complicated. In those situations, yes, I was an asshole. But am I an asshole? No! Most assuredly not. I admit I make mistakes because to see our own mistakes is the only way we can learn from them. So, I accept my poor behavior as being poor, but I’m the better man for it, for I learn from my self-sabotage and I do things differently. And that’s the point. Sometimes you can’t avoid being the asshole—but, unless you learn from it, you’re going to be the asshole again.

All this and more is covered in our episode on Self-Sabatoge.

The Green Pill Podcast: Loneliness

TimeHorse March 27, 2024 No Comments

This week on The Green Pill Podcast, we cover the most insidious problem today’s youth are facing. Last week, I talked a little about Red Pills and Black Pills, and that’s the origin of the Green Pill concept, but I think the core of the problems bringing young men to those other pills is really because so many of them are just lonely, feeling that no-one understands them. But, we do understand, this was the reason we started this podcast panel, to help folks and show them we are listening, we do hear you, and we understand.

Feel free to comment here or on the video. How are you doing today? Like Elmo, we’re listening!

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Happy Equinox

TimeHorse March 19, 2024 No Comments

Today marks the Vernal Equinox, a day when the Earth’s axis of rotation is relatively vertical relative to its orbit around the sun. And to welcome the sun, I thought it would be nice to share the full, raw video I took in Myrtle Beach last January, with the ocean roaring in the background.

I started the video by approximating the location where the sun would appear using the Sun Seeker App, only to realize it was coming up a little to the left, and had to shift my camera’s direction—it was the 2017 Eclipse video all over again!

The whole video is a bit over 80 minutes long and the sun does go off the edge of the screen but you can see the palmetto in shadow from the ocean reflection of the sunlight, which I think the solar filter captures well.

So, happy Equinox all, and happy 81st birthday to my dear dad!

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The Green Pill Podcast: Gender Fluidity

TimeHorse March 19, 2024 No Comments

Folks, over the years as a man who in his 20s was lonely and could not get a date to save his life, I feel for the 15–29 year-olds of today. And, while I didn’t have The Matrix or the concept of the Red Pill back then, with much alarm I’ve seen these concepts and the shinier Black Pill concepts rise up to mislead the hearts and minds of my younger brothers-from-another.

What distresses me most is the misogynistic vitriol of the INCEL movement and I weep. For years I was in a situation which deprived me of marital bliss, where I wasn’t getting to do the things we all assumed married couples did. But, I never saw this as anything but a mismatched needs hierarchy. I was not doing what I wanted, but I was never an INCEL as currently defined. Indeed, now that I’m divorced, I really don’t have any more physical, enthusiastically consensual intimacy than I want, and only accept such intimacy with that enthusiastic consent, so I’m certainly not suffering anymore in that respect. That said, I remember what it was like, and I sympathy—but I don’t contonde the conclusions of those claiming access to the metaphorical Red Pill.

Red Pill addicts don’t see women as anything more than servile, less-than-human people, to put it as politely as I can. They break the world into Chads and Betas, and complain that Chads magically get all the women, leaving nothing for the Betas, which they all claim to be. They often suggest sexual assault as fair play, which isn’t just disgusting, it’s evil! Enthusiastic Consent isn’t impossible and if you wait for it, you’ll enjoy the experience so much more, and even better, she will no doubt have enjoyed it enthusiastically too—she will most certainly consider inviting you back. But, feeling entitled isn’t going to get you anywhere, and there is another way. Ditch the Red Pill, my friends!

Then, there’s the Black Pill. The black pill folks aren’t as bad as the Red Pill ones, but they still commodify women, and see them as less-than-human. People like Andrew Tate try to promote this “better path”, where men are men, and women are there to be conquered. But, this is just red pill dynamics like lipstick on a pig. Sure, no-one is suggesting sexual assault in those circles, but they are seeing women as non-sovereign and unworthy of making their own decisions. That is just too bitter a pill to swallow, and they can’t support enthusiastic consent because it doesn’t see women as being able to give consent, it sees them as obliged—or exited, moving on to the next, like it’s all a game. It’s again dehumanizing.

Instead, my dear friend Cat Smith and I propose a different way—a Green Pill way. A way which allows you to be on the masculine side, but still recognize that women are people with feelings and emotions and their desires, at a fundamental level, are no different than yours. And after all, Gender is just stupid!

I hope you will enjoy our first episode of the Green Pill Podcast, and please, like, subscribe, and share! And, Happy Solstice!