[Grime/Glitter] No Way Out

The more I see of the homeless population in Seattle, the more I think it’s not a lack of resources available to people that are underprivileged. Shelters, soup kitchens, and scant opportunities are available. But why try? Why is it that there are only a few ways to survive in the Americas: become stressfully rich, scrape by while living in massive debt, or live outside the system? Is there any way out of corporate subjugation?

[The Story] Adoptability of Homelessness

“Do you have 50 cents you could spare this afternoon?[1]” “Yeah, sure… You hanging in there alright?[2]” I gave him all my change, 8 cents, and one dollar more. “Thank you. Yeah, I am.[1]” The man wearing a dirty hoodie in the dry heat walked off, looking disbelieved over money. Life in “The Story” isn’t easier than our own. John (left) had periods of teenage homelessness before being “adopted” into Trishna’s (right) life. Can we adopt everyone?

Spoiler Warning Scale: Minor (worldbuilding, rant piece)

[Grime/Glitter] Spitting Raw Truth

Growing up, I was most interested in observing the peripheries of things. I explored through the lens of an outsider many fictional videogame worlds to see their hidden nuances. I explored my own imagination to figure out myself and explored reality with equal lenses. I wonder, now that our innocent childhoods are replaced with real life, do we want to explore our realities fully? Do we want to see unedited monuments? What is objective truth?

[Grime/Glitter] Animosity Toward Entertainment

We’ve arrived at such an entertainment saturation that we can easily discard anything even remotely disinteresting. I’m just as guilty as any of us. Removing anything that could distract me from accomplishing my goals could be a succinct explanation of my work ethic, and yet, there are proper ways to handle our discarded distractions. Now is the best time to consider the prevention of consuming entertainment wastefully, because we’re only getting more saturated by entertainment!

[Grime/Glitter] Friction of Reviews

Why review anything? What does it matter what I think? It’s my opinion, formed through my perspective and biases, which could change through time and experiencing other media. No matter how closely our opinions could occasionally match, we aren’t the same. Are reviews meant to save time and money? If I say something is good, would you be more likely to check it out? I think reviews should provide information, anecdotes, and friction to consider.

[Grime/Glitter] Distracted From Stress

We have too many distractions. Some distractions are good. Too many distractions leads to that certain indecisiveness that spoils us of our time, enables us to be lazy, and prevents us from doing what we must. These distractions help us cope with terrible commutes or mediocre gigs at the expense of addressing what we must do to resolve the origins of these stressors. Taken broadly, the more we distract ourselves, the less we can do.

[Grime/Glitter] Seattle’s Mercer Problem

Seattle traffic is beyond capacity. A stretch of I-5 (northbound and southbound) that usually takes around 5 minutes to drive through in light traffic now exceeds 20 minutes when all the commuter single-occupancy vehicles leave their gigs at 5PM. Wade it out until 7PM and it’s less terrible. The traffic focuses until, and dissipates after, one point: Mercer Street. Our new neighbor has invited all of their friends without the least bit of consideration for anyone else.