Good morning. Hello. How are you? #853
Melting gummies, NC passing Obamacare finally, hotel checkin mysteries, general curmudgeonlieness
Good morning. Hello. How are you? All well? I do hope so. Nice day out. Because in my mind the weather in all of America is the same as what’s outside my window right now. Don’t really feel like writing this today. My Tuesdays are absurdly busy these days – I have seven calls today. My Tuesdays these days are kind of like that one semester in college where I put all my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I could have five days off. Except I don’t get five days off.
A year or two ago a friend mailed me a bunch of canisters of edibles from the great state of California. We really milked that package, lasted forever. But unfortunately, from the getgo, the supply was greatly reduced in transit. Four canisters melted from summer heat, because we had them mailed in the summer and they sat outside in the sun. So, having finished all the non-melted canisters over the course of a couple years, this weekend I pried open the gummy-sealed ones, carved out the solid block of gummy material from each canister, laid it out in rectangular metal trays and heated it to the required amount to melt it. Right here, I made a mistake because it turns out that each flavor of the stuff seems to have different concentrations of gelatin in them, so all four blobs had different melting points. But eventually I got the all into a gooey sunstance and pressed it into their rectangular cubes. I let the thing cool in the fridge for a night and yesterday I tried to pull them out and cut them back into 20 individual gummies. They did not come out easy, man gummy sticks to everything. They stick to metal, they stick wax paper they stick to everything I swear to god. I wonder what I was supposed to melt them in. Silicone maybe? The whole process was not neat, and two of the blobs I couldn’t get out at all. So, I lost half of my supply in this experiment.
But the other two big blobs I got cut back into 20 or so mini blobs. This will be a good three month, four month supply at the current rate. But we’re gonna need more soon. It is ridiculous. American laws are ridiculous. I can’t even easily road trip somewhere to get a new supply. Virginia will have recreational dispensaries in 2024. Maryland has passed some legalizing legislation but they’re only this year going to start thinking about a commercial framework for dispensaries. The closest state is New York. But then I’d have to fly with them which is a bad idea. The patchwork regulatory framework right now in the US sucks. It especially sucks when you’re in a state which still has significant regulatory capture from the tobacco industry. Literally every other state I’ve lived in – California, New York, Alaska, Massachusetts — has legalized this. It’s so dumb. Just this year North Carolina is trying to finally, maybe, get around to legalizing it for medical use. They’re literally a decade or more behind.
We did finally pass Obamacare, though. The fortieth state to do so. At least we beat Florida. That’s not nothing, I should acknowlegde it. Obama’s political calculus is proving to be correct, that the states would eventually succumb to the free money, although it really is taking a lot longer than I bet he imagined.
Hello functional question for everyone. How do you check in with a pseuodym at a hotel? I’m not, like, planning to do this or anything, but every time I read a news story or something about this, I have no idea how it actually works. I mean, you have to give them a credit card when you check in, they know your real name. Is the whole thing a big collaboration with the hotel? Like the hotel knows the truth of your real name, but they just let you use a pseudonym? What’s the point of this they’re already pretty good about not letting anyone talk to you unless they know you’re there already and they know the room number? It seems so glamorous, checking in with a pseudonym, but it also seems wildly implausible in actual practice.
Thank you in advance for clearing up this matter.
I need at least one more section here to make this a real GMHHAY but I’m not really feeling it. If forced, I will probably just complain about Midjourney and how you can’t block it out an the internet is full of it. I swear to god the Ice-nine of the internet is Midjourney “art,” ChatGPT talk and tik tok links. Soon it’s all the internet will be. No one can resist it.
See? Not a good topic.
And I didn’t watch Jane last night so I don’t have any great Jane stories from yesterday. She was very good at breakfast and lunch and then a mild pain to Emma at bedtime. Nothing to talk about. We watched the Succession premiere but I still don’t understand the mechanics of Tom talking to Naomi and that inspiring the kids to pursue Pierce and I really dislike everyone in that show but it is very good but the kids are starting to talk like parodies of themselves but whatever it’s almost over we’ll make it we’ll make it.
I’m rambling I’ll stop.
Got another shoegaze playlist for you, the journey goes on, trying to get to the bottom of Spotify’s shoegaze vat. Really into Animal Ghosts these days, and No Sun and Trauma Ray. The last three are brand new discoveries will be checking out their albums today. I thought for a while I was at the end, but nope. More and more. So many shoegaze bands out there. One day my shoegaze will cover the earth.
Until tomorrow, friend. I will make some notes in my topic list so I’m not flying so blind, I promise.
Nice to see your voice Rick. New Jersey is actually further along than NY in cannabis legalization. I personally don't partake, but I know some who will drive to Mass. because "it's just easier there".