Quick note: thanks to everyone who has checked this out + subscribed so far. While I started this whole thing out without a clear idea of how I wanted to structure it, I still don’t! But I’m getting a better idea. For now, I think I can condense these to once a week unless something special warrants a more that will come out sometime between Friday and Monday (oops!). Thank you to my millions of loyal readers.
I wanted to talk about a community I had recently joined, Nextdoor. Already, I’ve encountered enough that has made me grow weary with the people who occupy homes that so happen to be near mine.
Nextdoor, kind of like Facebook, is a social network where you post to people close to you, except the vast difference is while of course Facebook lets you broadcast to friends, people that used to be friends or co-workers, and family, Nextdoor is for posting to your neighbors. And like Facebook, usually the loudest voices are the ones rewarded with views and attention.
For better or worse, Nextdoor has helped me get a pulse on the new neighborhood I just moved to and also learn about two hot button issues: a homeless encampment set up under an overpass down the road and a recent surge of break-ins and petty thefts. Both of these topics have dominated my ‘Top Activity’ feed, produced the most comments, and of course, ultimately lead to a lot of people arguing online with their neighbors!
This has been so much of a problem that Nextdoor had to come out with a reminder to please stop getting Mad Online at your neighbors. Oops!
In my own Nextdoor community, it didn’t take long for me to see that the root of a lot of the arguments around the encampments hinged on an overall negative perception of homeless people AND those who think that those typing multiple responses a day, in all caps, should calm down a bit and realize this camp is a mile down the road, completely away from our neighborhood.
One of the biggest threads I came across was started when a homeless man was hanging outside of a neighbor’s RV while it was parked at the grocery store, across from the camp, and well these are about the extent of comments you could expect *especially in Texas.*
“While I appreciate the commentary from all the armchair quarterbacks, internet tough guys, criminal law experts and bleeding heart homeless lovers you all are totally missing the point of my post” The author wrote before stoically closing the thread for no more comments.
This is merely a small example of what I witnessed in my own feed but it didn’t take long to find occurrences of this taking place in other communities, with much more extreme consequences. “On Nextdoor, the Homeless Are the Enemy” does a great job highlighting how Nextdoor has helped spread fear and animosity towards the homeless, highlighting how constant negative sentiments towards the homeless eventually led two to setting an encampment on fire. And who is to say that homelessness is the only issue that Nextdoor can stoke?
Homelessness in general seems nearly impossible to solve with some many variables ranging on a case-by-case basis and as I’ve found, it’s hard to find solutions that appease people who don’t seem to have much empathy or understanding for the people affected in the first place. It feels like the rise of homelessness across the country is nothing more than a reflection of how things are setup in the US of A. It’s our health care system, lowly minimum wages, wage garnishments, drug addiction, over-prescriptions, under-prescriptions, inadequate mental health resources, income equality and so on. Clearly, it’s enough to make a lot of people buckle and give up.
I’ve grown to hate the term “mob mentality” because the only place where people seem to think that exists anymore is in Twitter mentions and comment sections, which in the end is all pretty inconsequential. I can tell you though it’s alive and well on Nextdoor, where this feels 50x more dangerous than on your run of the mill social media platforms.
The ability to swarm on Nextdoor feels a lot more dangerous and conducive to actual mob mentality when fear and hostility are being perpetuated in your own backyard vs online
This outward lie about homelessness was a personal favorite because after spending all of Weekend 1 at Austin City Limits, I can assure you the park was incredibly poop-free…unless you count Axl Rose on Friday! Heyoooo!
In terms of the theft and burglary issue, that’s a bit of a less complicated and I’ll make the very brave stance here that it is definitely in fact, bad. I also can’t blame those who directly got stolen from for being angry, paranoid and dubious. But what I’ve seen out of a terrible situation, is actually some unity - people have offered support, those affected have worked together to compare notes, police followups and any patterns of the burglaries as well as starting some neighborhood watch program. I also want to quickly note in case anyone thinks there is a connection, it’s not the homeless who are involved, but a very unorganized ring of teens instead.
Ultimately, it’s ironic to see that the people who were completely violated by having their home broken into and stolen from, have been acting more humane and level-headed than those yelling about people without homes in the first place.
Some articles to ponder…
Sticking to the topic of spreading fear, while every cable news network is more than guilty of doing this, there’s nobody who spreads manufactured hysteria quite like Fox News! This piece from Slate, highlights how the now ousted, Shepard Smith, was Fox News’ Propaganda-Alert System
Sticking to sports, LA Times sports reporter, Arash Markazi, wrote a great piece on the lost generation of Los Angeles NFL fans and why the league is having such a tough time getting Los Angelenos to give a shit about the Rams or Chargers.
Since I spent last weekend at a music festival, busy dodging festival poop, I spent some great time indoors in the kitchen and watching football…
NFL Mishmash
Week 6 Recap featuring: The Only Games That Mattered™
We had some heaters Sunday! Finally, a proper NFL London game at 8:30 in the morning with a bunch of great noon matchups that still allowed for roughly 10 hours of football viewing since nobody watched Steelers-Chargers on Sunday night.
Panthers-Buccaneers
I didn’t wake up and turn this one on until about 10 and the Bucs we’re already getting their shit pushed in. Jameis continues to be not the answer behind center and Kyle (great name, future HOF’er) Allen is undefeated in all of his starts for the injured Cam Newton drumming up a good ol fashioned QB CONTROVERSY in Carolina. It’s very likely we won’t see Cam or Jameis starting for their current teams next year.
Eagles - Vikings
Before this kicked off, I said this wasn’t on primetime so maybe *maybe* Kirk Cousins will be worth half a shit but also he might not be since he was actually playing a winning team. Turns out, he was not shit! Tune in this Sunday to watch him fall apart.
Seahawks - Browns
Russell Wilson is on putting on an early MVP-type campaign as more of his team seems to get either leave in free agency or get injured and turn into dust more and more each year.
It’s also been fun to watch the Browns again. Enjoyable to watch them win while also equally entertaining to watch them squirm after a loss and the hilariously bad takes and stories that come with it. A win-win either way!
Texans - Chiefs
I was sort of down on Deshaun Watson, not *fully* buying into the hype and aside from a fairly horrid INT, he talked me off the ledge and reminded me, the Texans are actually a fun team to watch. I also know people are freaking out about the Chiefs but they’ll be perfectly fine.
Saints - Jaguars
Honestly can’t believe the Saints have been this good without Brees and still not fully convinced about the Saints defense, they are in fact pretty good, holding the rising legend of Gardner Minshew to a measly 6 points. Can’t wait this Sunday when they hold my Bears to a field goal!
49ers - Rams
I love the 9ers zone running scheme but I thought they were being severely overrated and instead realized that the overrated ones are actually the Rams! Also, it was incredible to see the 49ers defensive coordinator go crazy as they kept stuffing the Rams offense. What a hoot!
Lions - Packers
Lions secondary was paper last night and Aaron Rodgers continues to have some of the most impressive throws by a QB I’ve ever seen. Despite a miserable game of officiating and an early lead by Detroit, the Lions are the Lions who ultimately will go full Lions and find a way towards a Lions loss. Never believe in the Detroit Lions as a big threat, but more of a pleasant surprise because well, they are the Detroit Lions. \
Waste this Sunday on games that matter with…
Raiders - Packers 12 PM CST
Texans - Colts 12:00 PM CST
Vikings - Lions 12:00 PM CST
Ravens - Seahawks 3:25 PM
Saints - Bears 3:25 PM
Eagles - Cowboys 7:20 PM
Patriots - Jets (Monday) 7:15 PM
Things Worth Getting in the Kitchen For
Cooking is a pain in the ass but nothing is more of a pain in the ass than trying to learn or look up a recipe only to see somebody’s boring life story. I won’t be doing that! Instead, I will be telling you *concisely* what I’ve been cooking and point you in the right direction.
Broth Hoes, unite. I’m a soup all season guy and now that Central Texas (and likely wherever you are reading this from) has gotten a solid dose of fall weather, we have full license to go full.
I decided to try my hand at making ramen, which if you know is 98% in the broth. This was probably overkill but I made my own chicken stock from some bones I had saved up from various dishes that I stored then thawed.
This guide from First We Feast, one of my favorite food publications, shows you how to do that as well as what to do to transform chicken-bone-water into gold. Quick note, if you want that ultra-rich broth that comes from pork, well you need pork bones which are a little harder to come by than chicken - if you want to hunt some down, this guide links to a Tonkotsu recipe. Good luck. Anyways, I found adding Miso paste (in step #2) and a little soy sauce to be the perfect flavoring, where I then added in instant ramen noodles (until I can find something better), a 6 and a half minute soft boiled egg, bacon (same cut as pork belly) garlic + chili oil, green onion and shiitake mushrooms.
It was all pretty easy once I figured it out and doggone-it, it was close enough in my mind to restaurant quality…and certainly tasted better than it looked.