Rubus Leucodermis

29.5˚F. Freeze No. 2.

NWS says 29 on Saturday morning for Eugene.

35.6˚F.

Big Brother just increased the chocolate ration from 30 g/week to 20 g/week. ALL HAIL BIG BROTHER!

Wall-to-wall sunshine with a high of 51.6°F today.

I really don’t think there was much going on in the lead-up but Hamas and Israel both misreading the other. Hamas thought Israel was still prepared to offer VERY stiff resistance at the border, and as such used a massive attack in anticipation of such resistance, because anything less than a massive attack would result in zero hostages being captured. Israel wasn’t aware Hamas was planning a big attack, and had scaled back security at its Gaza border, because they were expecting an attack from the West Bank and wanted to move resources to that border. As Freud once observed, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

#NoSnowNovember is much more likely than that.

I am truly shocked that studios there now rent for almost as much as they do here, once one applies currency conversions. I would pay CAD $1000/mo more in rent for my current place if I hadn’t first signed a lease during the pandemic and since benefited from rent control (and Vancouver wasn’t exactly a low-cost city in 2021). I hear what rentals go for these days and I can’t believe it.

A studio in Silverton, OR rents for $1400/mo? That’s insane! Almost as bad as what one rents for in Vancouver these days (CAD $2450 = USD $1775).

[laughs in Vancouver]

It’s just possible.

Bottomed out at 31.8˚F this morning. Now 32.7˚F and rising. Should be sunny and mild this afternoon. Official forecast now calls for 28˚F on Saturday morning.

Fewer school shootings in Canada than in the USA, and Canada is less religious. Japan is less religious yet, and school shootings are unknown there.

Plenty of Bible Belt states have high violent crime rates. Meanwhile, the famously irreligious Pacific Northwest has lower than average violent crime rates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_violent_crime_rate If there is a causal relation between religiosity and crime, it seems to go exactly opposite the way you think it does!

I live in a city where a majority of people are irreligious, and we don’t have a problem with school shootings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver#Demographics

Well, at least he has a serious plan for reducing school shootings. /sarc New Speaker Mike Johnson Blamed School Shootings on the Teaching of Evolution

Plenty of frost on the roofs here!

32.0˚F now. First freeze.

32.2˚F and frosty out there.

What made me leave Oregon was mostly personal: the vast majority of tech job opportunities are in the Willamette Valley, and the valley is basically unlivable to me due to my grass pollen allergies. There is no grass seed industry in western Washington or western BC, so I can actually be outdoors in June here and not get seriously ill.

Aww, c’mon, we had a nice regionwide ice storm last winter.

36.9˚F.

Always blew my mind in Seattle when I ran into people who had never been to Portland or Vancouver (this was pre-9/11, when you didn’t need a passport to visit Canada). Within my first year in the Pacific Northwest, I had visited all three of Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver.

Lots of sun up this way today. Max of 54.6˚F this afternoon. Now 39.9˚F.