Man card

 As I carried in my laundry from the car in the rain, I realized I had two choices. I could cry about being single and having no one to help me, or I could be a man.

People these days make being a man something like a dirty word. They argue that you're not being in touch with your emotions or something, and it doesn't make things not hurt.

To be fair, it's not good to abuse someone and say "Man up." However, there's nothing wrong with telling yourself to man up.

Men had to use the man card when they built the first houses, ever since houses existed, and they couldn't cry about failing to build a house or having no one to help them build shelter. They did what had to be done, because they were men, and they had to get out of the weather.

A butler patiently endures abuse because he's a man, he's tough, and he can handle it. Plus he gets paid a lot, which helps.  When you're a boxer or a fire fighter, you gotta fight through the pain to do what needs to be done.  That's what being a man is about.

The man card is what you show yourself to remind yourself that you can endure difficulty without having to cry over every little thing.

Maybe it's not emotionally healthy, but it makes me feel better to say that I'm a tough man who can handle things on my own, than weep about nobody coming to help me.

If women want to take this idea and run with it, that's fine, but they already can take advantage of something men can't: Feminine charm.

Sliders: Ruined multiverse 1-2

 I haven't watched Sliders since the nineties. I forgot more than I expected. I'm making notes on the issues that never get resolved.

In the second episode of Sliders, they leave the parallel universe of President Oliver North with some interesting unresolved problems.

1. They have introduced two flying wasp spiders into the world. If they are not drones, the world is history. 

Quinn does not kill them due to his inexpert football throw, so they are still out there, ready to be cloned or bred, bringing the end of civilization.

Come to think of it, it would be best if that happened, for:

2. Quinn and Arturo left equations for the construction of a slider device. Someone took pictures. I am pretty sure this will become a plot point later on, but just in case they don't, let's hang on to that.

3. Rembrandt Brown slept with his parallel universe wife. If she becomes pregnant, the DNA will match the husband who went missing during the Australian war, but he probably will behave like a real son of the crying man, rather than the rebellious snot she currently has. It may have unforeseen consequences in the universe's history.

I wonder if their inability to go home was a butterfly effect from Rembrandt's slipup. Again, it would have been better if the swarm wiped them out.

4. I don't think anyone cares what happens with the commune after their guru left.  I guess, honestly, nobody cares what happens to society when they jump off to a new universe. But it does make you wonder if they made anything better.

Episode 3: Most of this storyline falls under the category of "Don't care, humanity will survive." 

Nothing jumps out as too damaging to the universe, except leaving behind the Constitution. Mainly I wonder if they understand the hastily scribbled document enough to make it into official policy, or if someone kills the prince and society falls back under the monarchy. Or if they left out some details and it's still not entirely fair or American. Hey, they did it all by memory, and a lot of people don't know or remember everything about it.

And what kind of ripple did Rembrandt make my telling everyone about James Brown? If the James Brown there is a doctor or an automechanic...

Also, a crowd of people saw them slide. That has to have some kind of consequence. Of course, this happens almost every episode.