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This isn't Section 8 but is quite similar to it. The money ultimately comes from Housing and Urban Development, then through the Vancouver Housing Authority, then through CSNW.

The previous tenant is in the same housing program as I am, but will be moving to a retirement home.

This last page points out that this housing leads to a significant decrrease in emergency room visits. I go to the emergency room quite a lot; the last time was not long ago, when I"d run out of my antidepressant and got suicidal. The emegency room gave me one dose, then set me up with a bus pass so I could get to my pharmacy.

There is some possibility that the apartment will come furnished. I have a few things in storage here, but not much - I would otherwise be sleeping on the floor. I have a nice futon in storage in Silicon Valley. My mother pays for all four of my storage lockers - RLY - but can't be convinced th financed moving the other stuff to Vancouver. This despite that the present arrangement costs a great deal more in the long run.

I was upset about that, but in the contest of wills between me and my mother, Mom clearly wins. We get along just great to the extent that I don't bring this up.

Hopefully having my own place will enable me to earn some coing through coding. If nothing else it will make it easier to focus on my music; maybe I could join a band someday.

(I'm a good pianist but have a hard time learning anything new, as I can't read sheet music. I can improvise original music but it's not like you can dance to my compositions.)

My case manager says "This is 99% certain". It wont' be a sure thing until I meed the landlord and sign the lease next week. But despite my mental illness people generally like me. All of my real enemies are on the Internet, where I'm more outspoken. In person I'm very quiet and thoughtful.

In other news, I'm going to ask a woman out for a date next time I see her, which should be Monday night. More about that in a future diary. She clearly likes me though, I'm just not sure that she likes me _that_ way.

I'm really looking forward to cooking my own food.

Chinese Cartoon Warns Against 'Dangerous Love' With Foreigners Who May Be Spies

In a colorful, 16-panel cartoon called "Dangerous Love," China is warning female government workers that romancing handsome foreigner strangers can lead to heartbreak — and espionage.

Posters seen around Beijing show a cartoon government worker named Xiao Li striking up a relationship with a bespectacled, red-haired "visiting scholar." They share a romantic dinner and stroll through a leafy park. "Having a handsome, romantic, talented foreign boyfriend is pretty nice!" Li says to herself, according to The New York Times' translation.

But "pretty nice" turns to nightmarish after Li's new paramour persuades her to lend him internal government documents. Suddenly, the foreign boyfriend is nowhere to be found. Li weeps in front of two gruff police officers, who tell her she has a "shallow understanding of secrecy for a state employee," according to The Guardian.

"Dangerous Love" was posted in Beijing's subway and streets to mark National Security Education Day, which was "established after China passed a National Security Law in July outlining greater security efforts in 11 areas, including political, territorial, military, cultural and technological," the Times reports.

Image.

The BBC has an update on France's new bootlicking trend.

A bunch of links that will not make the cut in today's article. I will tidy up and add some more later. While Vice certainly covers drugs more than other news outlets, most of these just didn't fit with the hard facts focus of this year's article, and I didn't want to overuse any particular news source. There will be plenty more to find on aggregators like Google News today.

http://www.vice.com/read/how-decriminalizing-drugs-could-reduce-islamic-terrorism-in-france-and-belgium
http://www.vice.com/read/war-on-drugs-tool-of-minority-oppression
http://www.vice.com/read/luxury-weed-uk
http://www.vice.com/read/veterans-affairs-hospitals-still-wont-give-veterans-weed-medical-marijuana
http://www.vice.com/read/a-prosecutors-regret-how-i-got-someone-life-in-prison-for-drugs
http://www.vice.com/read/why-do-the-irish-take-more-drugs-than-any-other-country-in-eu
http://www.vice.com/read/how-parents-talk-to-their-kids-about-drugs-in-2016
http://www.vice.com/read/this-drug-smuggler-and-hippie-mafia-leader-was-an-og-in-the-weed-legalization-movement
http://www.vice.com/read/the-worst-time-i-ever-did-drugs
http://www.vice.com/read/a-professional-stoner-explains-how-to-smoke-pot-properly-in-2016
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-36055297
http://www.vice.com/read/what-the-un-still-gets-wrong-about-drugs
http://www.vice.com/read/yes-you-can-be-allergic-to-pot
http://www.vice.com/read/drugs-have-been-used-in-pretty-much-every-war-ever-shooting-up
http://www.vice.com/read/the-war-on-drugs-isnt-even-working-in-prison
http://www.vice.com/read/a-cannabis-cook-explains-how-youre-making-edibles-wrong

I love the way stuff like this online just sort of gravitates to me. In this case it was a mere two clicks off of a current Drudge Report headline.

The day they levitated the pentagon.

the authorities finally agreed to allow the Pentagon to be elevated three feet in the air, down from the 300 feet that organizers had initially requested — but three feet is not nothing when you’re talking about the largest office building in the world!

[B]y chanting ancient Aramaic exorcism rites while standing in a circle around the building, they could get it to rise into the air, turn orange and vibrate until all evil emissions had fled. The war would end forthwith.

The cool thing is this is the time of year my family usually breaks out the Peter, Paul, and Mary music, and Peter Paul and Mary were there, although it doesn't say if they participated in the levitation attempt.

Bonus link to a great PPM song I hope my kids learn.

I glanced at yet another smartphone article. The specs table lists support for up to 200 GB of expandable storage for the Samsung Galaxy S7, and 2 TB for the HTC 10 and LG G5. 2 TB SD cards don't exist yet.

2 TB (actually 2 TiB) has been the theoretical maximum capacity for the SD standard for some years now. Although there was an update to the standard recently, it only specified larger block sizes and faster speeds, not capacities greater than 2 TiB. Newer SD cards could hit the limit soon... think 3D QLC (4 bits per cell) NAND, or just the 3D TLC which will become ubiquitous in SSDs soon. Currently, the largest SD card is 512 GB, and the largest MicroSD card is 200 GB. A Falcon 9 Heavy full of 512 GB SD cards would make for some fast data transmission.

All three of the smartphones I mentioned come with a 2560x1440 screen and 4 GB of RAM. Samsung could be the first manufacturer to bump that to 6 GB as soon as next year. With unnecessary specs like these, it's inevitable that they will market smartphones as VR inserts or desktop replacements.

There’s a loud corner of Reddit where millennials look to get rich or die tryin’

“Y-O-F**KING-LO,” the teen wrote, flashing his trading statement. “900 to 55K in 12 days!”

On Reddit, he’s known as “World Chaos,” a Florida high schooler who earlier this year multiplied his money by betting against the S&P 500. His real name is Jeffrey Rozanski, and the 18-year-old’s appetite for risk would make many seasoned market players facepalm.

In one corner of the Internet, though, praise rained down. “You magnificent bastard,” read one reply. “Sailing away on your yacht while the rest of us f**kers who went long are looking for the nearest window.”

That was peak “WallStreetBets,” the Reddit forum where “YOLO” is the war cry, Martin Shkreli is a role model, and irreverent traders trawl for tickets to quick wealth. It has become what one member calls “the beating heart of millennial day traders.”

“It’s tasteless, hilarious and subversive,” said Erik Johnson, a 28-year-old manufacturing worker and forum regular from Boston. “And you definitely need to have a thick skin to partake.”

So in the near future we'll be taking the kids to Scarborough Renaissance Festival in the metroplex. The thought always gets the song "Scarborough Faire" running through my head. So I'm sitting here coding and suddenly my mind sang: "Are you parsing a sage data file?" Maybe I'll sing that to the kids for fun when they get a bit older and are working on programming assignments. :)

France prostitution: MPs outlaw paying for sex

French MPs have passed a law that makes it illegal to pay for sex and imposes fines of up to €3,750 (£3,027, $4,274) for those buying sexual acts. Those convicted would also have to attend classes to learn about the conditions faced by prostitutes.

It has taken more than two years to pass the controversial legislation because of differences between the two houses of parliament over the issue.

Some sex workers protested against the law during the final debate. The demonstrators outside parliament in Paris, numbering about 60, carried banners and placards one of which read: "Don't liberate me, I'll take care of myself", the AFP news agency reports.

Several state initiatives going around to lower the drinking age. In California there will be a ballot initiative to lower the drinking age to 18.

Myself, I'd just like to be able to buy wine for communion on Sunday morning in Texas at Wal-Mart. Even us religious fundamentalists are stymied by the fascist religious fundamentalists.