OptimisticallyDepressed
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desistundhalt.bsky.social
OptimisticallyDepressed
@desistundhalt.bsky.social
270 followers 150 following 610 posts
Accidental Motivational Speaker, Amateur Surgeon, Annoyingly Optimistic For a Cynic. He/Him
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Reposted by OptimisticallyDepressed
thewayoftheid.bsky.social
It’s still the Kennedy Center. And the Sears Tower. And Comiskey.
December 19, 2025 at 4:26 PM
desistundhalt.bsky.social
STEM has apparently gone all the way from "Learn to Code" to "Coding Is Too Hard For You, But You Can Pretend!"

Nice job, folks.
kenney.nl Kenney @kenney.nl · 1d
Pretty disappointed in both @humblebundle.com and especially in @girlswhocode.bsky.social. Please teach girls how to code, don't push them into generative AI. That won't build their skills. Prioritize foundational programming skills and awaken their interest. "Tired of long days writing code"???
December 19, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by OptimisticallyDepressed
gbrockell.bsky.social
“That’s Holocaust shit. Come on.” 👑
rudbeckia.bsky.social Rudbeckia @rudbeckia.bsky.social · 2d
I love my two blackout drunk Minnesota sons
December 19, 2025 at 2:34 PM
desistundhalt.bsky.social
Some Canadian culture is worth preserving
jokeb0i.bsky.social 💥Alex.W💪🏾💥 @jokeb0i.bsky.social · 2d
if tumblr dies I need this video to make it's seasonal rotation here instead just in case, Happy holidays 🎄
December 18, 2025 at 9:44 PM
desistundhalt.bsky.social
It is calming to rotate this in my mind
December 12, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Reposted by OptimisticallyDepressed
joshsternberg.com
Today in “Dudes Rock”:

A dude playing Dire Straits’s “Sultans of Swing” guitar solo on…a recorder.
December 12, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Reposted by OptimisticallyDepressed
cooperlund.online
I can think of one non-standard hire for Michigan who has proven leadership experience
December 11, 2025 at 4:17 AM
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noescalators.bsky.social
Indiana was the worst team in college football for 150 years and then they let you start paying players and they immediately became No. 1 and the only conclusion one can draw is they were the only ones who didn’t realize you could pay players under the table for the first 150 years.
December 7, 2025 at 4:39 AM
Reposted by OptimisticallyDepressed
devingtieme.bsky.social
Stancil: “Like there is no possible way to explain that consumer sentiment peaked in APRIL 2021”

The explanation, and what happened next:

1. data.sca.isr.umich.edu/reports.php?...

2. www.crisesnotes.com/one-election...

3. www.kff.org/medicaid/an-...

4. jacobin.com/2025/09/bide...
Michigan Survey of Consumers April 2021 Final Results, summary The April survey recorded continued gains in consumer confidence due and incomes is likely to persist. The renewed confidence is due to record federal stimulus spending, both recent and planned, as well as the positive impact from a growing share of the population who are vaccinated. The largest and most important change in the economic outlook in April was that an all-time record number of consumers expected declines in the unemployment rate in the year ahead. Even if a booming economy resulted in higher inflation, consumer optimism would not diminish since consumers have already anticipated a temporary increase. Overall, the data indicate an exceptional outlook for consumer spending through mid-2022. Chart by Stephen Semler: “Several key US anti-poverty measures expired or were eliminated after 2021.” Chart showing expiration of the following anti-poverty measures between 2021 and 2023: Eviction ban Extended unemployment coverage Additional unemployment benefits Foreclosure ban Child tax credit expansion E.I.T.C. expansion Free school meals Extra S.N.A.P. benefits Medicaid expansion Student loan pause Child care provider grants W.I.C. increase Kaiser Family Foundation, “An Examination of Medicaid Renewal Outcomes and Enrollment Changes at the End of the Unwinding.” Authors: Jennifer Tolbert and Bradley Corallo, September 18, 2024. Chart: Total Medicaid/CHIP Enrollment, February 2020 through May 2024 February 2020: 71 million enrolled. April 2023: 94 million enrolled. May 2024: 81 million enrolled. Jacobin magazine, “It’s Official: Poverty Got Worse Under Joe Biden.” Author: Stephen Semler, September 24, 2025. Graph illustrating this excerpt from the article: “If you choose 2019 as your point of comparison, the increase in poverty under Biden is bad. If you choose 2020, it’s catastrophic. Change, 2019–24: —Poverty: 9.3% increase (+5.4 million people) —Child poverty: 6.3% increase (+491,000 children) Change, 2020–24: —Poverty: 40.2% increase (+13.7 million people) —Child poverty: 38.1% increase (+2.5 million children)” Source: US Census Bureau. Poverty measure: SPM
December 6, 2025 at 1:50 AM
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mxdshipwreck.bsky.social
YOU OPENED THE BOX. WE CAME.
December 6, 2025 at 6:53 PM
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dbrauer.net
“In an interview with Sahan Journal, Amano Dube, the director of Pillsbury United Communities’ Brian Coyle Center, which oversees multiple programs, said he had received reports that Tuesday night, ICE agents entered the C Building at Cedar-Riverside. They knocked on doors, but no one answered.”
December 4, 2025 at 2:02 PM
desistundhalt.bsky.social
If Republicans want, they can insert Hillary's name into the Epstein Files too as a treat if she isn't already in there.
premthakker.bsky.social Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 17d
Hillary Clinton blames TikTok and “totally made up” videos for young people’s views on Israel and Palestine.

She says social media influenced “not just the usual suspects” but also “young Jewish Americans who don’t know the history and don’t understand.”
December 2, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by OptimisticallyDepressed
jchavezmpls.bsky.social
Dear neighbor, I want to let you know that we are witnessing increased enforcement actions by agents in South Minneapolis. There continues to be reports of residents being followed while driving, stopped and taken away. 1/
December 2, 2025 at 5:54 PM
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srirachachau.bsky.social
To me, this is the great American movie
Planes, Trains & Automobiles Planes, Trains & Automobiles
November 27, 2025 at 8:46 PM
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nedraggett.bsky.social
Hell with it, I'm just going to post the whole thing here via screencap and alt text. It's Kaleb Horton, man, his writing always deserves the second read, especially since it could have just easily been lost forever like so much else. Read it, share it.
A look at forgotten Hollywood landmarks By Kaleb Horton Let's say you come in from down south, and you're looking for an unsung movie landmark. So you fly in to LAX, rent a car, blow right past Hollywood, leave Los Angeles county heading north, go over the Grapevine, gape at the monumental hills and, wow, there really is a Smokey Bear Road, then you turn off the air conditioner when the sign tells you. Once you come down the grade too fast and see the world's loneliest Denny's, you're well on your way to what you're looking for – the middle of nowhere. You're going to Kern County to find the spot where Alfred Hitchcock filmed one of the greatest scenes in movie history, the crop duster sequence from "North by Northwest." It takes place in Indiana, of course, but the Indiana road sign and the imported corn field can't deceive this Bakersfield native. The parched and desolate heat of the scene feels too much like Kern County. The scene people know off-hand — Cary Grant running from an airplane — isn't why "North by Northwest" is a classic. The film's greatness, as was often the case for Hitchcock, lies in its build-up, its suspense, its mood. The plane moment is almost anticlimax. It is those five minutes before Grant's desperate escape that constitute a mathematically perfect suspense scene. So expert is Hitchcock's hand that he creates suspense, a slow burning dread, with no camera tricks and no music in broad daylight. Grant's character is a prototypical James Bond. His perfect suit, fast wit, high-alcohol tolerance and effortless charisma have got him out of every predicament so far. In the city, among people, he has powers. Take him away from people, put him nowhere, and he's just like us — totally helpless. He has no powers: His suit is no good out here; his million-dollar tailoring and perfect haircut is just vanity now. No amount of pretending can provide escape. Here, is the one place where he can die, and he gets by on the grace of God. All he can do is wait for what's coming. So when you seek the lost landmark of this scene, you're looking for an idea as much as a place. You're on Highway 99 now, going 30 miles north of Bakersfield, looking for an unassuming patch of dirt that carries spiritual weight. The scene was filmed neart Garces Highway to the west of Delano. You'll think there's a handy exit for it. There's not. You'll probably get lost in Delano, counting on a connection. You're at once a million miles from Hollywood and a hundred miles away. It's lonely. The horizon sprawls forever like there's nothing past it. There are broken down trucks on the side of the road, plumes of smoke from faraway fires. You'll find Garces eventually. You'll pass a bar called Rosy's Place, abandoned houses, an oil field, a prison, a cemetery, a sign that says "we clean headstones," and a whole lot of gold-on-brown punctuated by an occasional trailer or car going faster than you. You're looking for where Garces meets Corcoran Road. That's where this "North by Northwest" scene was filmed. You'll get a vague idea where it is but you'll never be exactly sure, since there's little impetus for clear signage 10 miles from a prison. Maybe Corcoran Road is unlabeled. Besides, that Indiana sign and the prop cornfield haven't been there in 56 years. If you're anything like me, you'll lose the light and call it a day, unsatisfied with the route you took. You return to I-5 northbound. From the 5, you'll meet Route 46, and go through a place called Lost Hills, then back in to the location from Corcoran Road instead. That's how Hitchcock probably did it. More intuitive. Still in the middle of nowhere, but on your way to Corcoran Road, you're right next to another Hollywood landmark: Blackwells Corner, James Dean's last stop. It's a glorified Texaco, and gas is 50 cents a gallon more than it should be. They sell Jelly Bellys and '50s kitsch artifacts — plates with Marilyn Monroe's face on them, and so forth. They really figured out how to cash in on death. You don't want to stop here. But I stopped. I asked the kid at the Blackwells Corner counter how to get to Corcoran Road. He gave me a look that said "there's no reason to go there," and then wearily told me where to go anyway. I was about 8 miles from the destination. Going there is a meditative experience. You're not just going to the middle of nowhere. You're going to the perfect nowhere. Going alone, in the hypnotic heat of the Central Calfiornia Valley, you might even forget what year it is. There is no reason to believe the road would be so well preserved for half a century, intimately tied to the career of an actor born in Bristol 111 years ago, but it has been. There's an abandoned house. A barn with a cross on it. But almost nothing has changed in 56 years. At some point new lines were added on the road. There's overgrowth where there didn't used to be overgrowth. A couple discarded Budweiser cans from who knows when, but mostly it's identical. This is the same sleepy loneliness that Alfred Hitchcock used to make great art in 1959. And that may sound dull, but tranquility is the point. You stand on that dirt and there's no distraction from what's in your soul. It's an inner destination, not an outer one. I told my grandma about it when I got back to Bakersfield. She told me her Uncle Harold thought it was the prettiest road in America. And she showed me a picture of a Corcoran grade school class posing in the dirt with Grant and Hitchcock. It's just a field trip picture. The kids are fidgeting, many with arms folded, some shielding their eyes from the sun, all with obedient smiles. They'd all be in their sixties now, but they'd remember where this road is. It emphasized the ugliness of James Dean's last stop becoming a place to sell T-shirts. It's about what we preserve, and what we don't, and what we remember, and what we don't. It's easy to find shrines to morbidity and hard to find meaningful places. For those, you have to go looking.
November 26, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by OptimisticallyDepressed
monicamedhist.bsky.social
Oh wow! This is what happens when you're photographing MSS & don't capture the text in the inner gutter. 1st, here's the photograph (made about 100 yrs ago) of the Codex Salernitanus, f. 82ra. Although that big tear of the page is obvious, the inner gutter hasn't been fully captured in the photo.
Breslau Codex (Wrocław, Stadtbibliothek, MS 1302, s. xii ex./xiii in.), f. 82ra, showing tear in the page but only the very edge of the text in the inner gutter.
November 18, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by OptimisticallyDepressed
unburntwitch.com
Counterpoint: no it’s not, that’s a stupid thing to say
November 12, 2025 at 1:36 AM
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robertoneill31.latenightgrin.com
Did this surgery take place in like 2008?
November 11, 2025 at 2:53 AM
Reposted by OptimisticallyDepressed
tomtomorrow.bsky.social
I think if you laid out all the random old cords and cables I have end to end you would have a very long and useless line of cords and cables
November 10, 2025 at 7:40 PM
desistundhalt.bsky.social
The Portable Desk Weasel
unburntwitch.com Zoë “Baddie Proctor” Quinn @unburntwitch.com · Jun 2
If you’re wondering what a “least weasel” is, they absolutely live up to the name. This is the least amount of animal you can have that can still meet the bar for “is weasel”
A least weasel. It fits in the palm of the hand.
November 8, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by OptimisticallyDepressed
slimyswampghost.bsky.social
Columbo, the detective!
November 7, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Reposted by OptimisticallyDepressed
stefmowords.bsky.social
succubus - female demon that seduces men

incubus - male demon that seduces women

vengabus - non-binary demon that likes to party
November 6, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by OptimisticallyDepressed
tomtomorrow.bsky.social
(scary commercial voice, image of world trade towers)

ON 9/11, THE NEW MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY WAS ...

NINE

YEARS

OLD

(dramatic pause)

DOESN'T THAT MAKE YOU FEEL ... OLD
November 6, 2025 at 1:58 PM
desistundhalt.bsky.social
Having moved here from Illinois this is something a lot of people neither want to hear or confront: there is an incredible amount of racism endemic in this city & state but because it's more 'polite' than it is blatant Good Liberals can pretend not to see it while feigning ignorance of its presence.
kellyrogers.bsky.social CLICK4TRUTH @kellyrogers.bsky.social · Nov 5
Anyone doing analysis of this outcome and omitting racism is divorced from reality. And I don't think that's me coping. It's from having spent SO MANY hours listening to the All of MPLS people devise this exact plan to undermine him and living their underhandedness in real time in various ways.
November 5, 2025 at 6:46 PM
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ditzkoff.bsky.social
“I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life”
November 5, 2025 at 4:22 AM