Yesterday afternoon I was rushing to my car because I was in a hurry for a meeting. I was so wrapped up in the crazy number of things I had to do that I very nearly stepped on a butterfly that was laying on the hot pavement. Despite being late, I ran back to get some sugar water in an effort to revive him. There was no shade, but I moved him to a place that was out of the way and dribbled the water in front of him. He moved a bit, but didn't appear to be drinking.

I had done what I could then headed out to my meeting...

   
When I got back, I saw that the poor thing was back on the street and had been crushed... assumably run over by a car. I'm pretty sure he was a goner anyway, but it was still pretty upsetting.

Remarkably, his wings were still intact and, if you didn't look too close to see that his body had been destroyed, he was still beautiful.

I went on with my life. Maybe appreciating it just a tiny bit more.

But all I could think about was this... If I would have had the ability to put the poor thing out of his misery in a way that was quick and painless (assuming that butterflies can feel pain), would I have been able to do that? Not by stepping on him, which I could not do, I mean finding a killing jar or something. Despite the fact that my beliefs do not endorse taking a life... any life, including a bug... I think that I would. — If one of my cats were suffering, I'd certainly find a way to end their pain. Absolutely. It would kill me to do it, but I would force myself to extend that kindness.

And then my mind took this leap: Would I be able to do that for a fellow human?

And that's a different thing entirely, isn't it?

First of all, it doesn't matter if you're extending them a kindness... it's still murder. You still go to jail over that. But if it's somebody you truly care about. Somebody you love. And you know that they're suffering terribly, and you can end their suffering? Well... what is jail time compared to that?

I thought about this a lot when it came to my mom, but I was grateful to have found perspective at the time that she wasn't suffering. At least not how somebody from the outside would think of it. Her mind was gone. She didn't know and didn't remember. But I sure did. Which is to say that I wouldn't be ending her suffering, I'd be ending mine.

In which case the only life that I was entitled to take would be my own.

Alas, I am totally lacking in compassion for myself, and wouldn't extend myself that kindness.

My parents, education-forward that they were, bought not just one set of encyclopedias... they bought us two. They were different brands, but years apart, so I'm guessing they wanted to have books with the most current information while we were in school. No idea how my parents were able to afford such an extravagance... probably a monthly payment plan or some kind... but I was very glad to have them. Not just for the sheer convenience of having such a massive resource for doing school work at home (no trip to the library for me!), but also for entertainment.

I remember pulling volumes off the shelf and just reading them. Sometimes randomly flipping pages to learn something new. But most times starting on page one then working my way through it. I had an encyclopedia on my nightstand a lot as a kid.

Then came CD-ROMs. A media just begging for an encyclopedia set.

The big one being Microsoft Encarta, which I actually owned because it came with some bundle I got. But since I was on a Mac, I never used it. I had one of the alternatives, The World Book Encyclopedia. Which was handy, sure, but it was so slow and such a hassle that I didn't use it much. It was so much easier to grab a book off the shelf.

Except you couldn't, because the minute CD-ROM versions came out, the print versions were discontinued. Which I get because printing that many full-color pages were not cheap.

Which brings us to an interesting aside... apparently The World Book Encyclopedia is the only American encyclopedia still available in print. Sure it costs $1,175.00, but dang is it beautifully-designed...

World Book's owner Berkshire Hathaway's CEO Warren Buffett has committed to keeping the encyclopedias in print so long as a demand for them exists, which is darn cool.

But anyway...

The reason I fell down this encyclopedia rabbit hole is because I was wondering what happens when kids no longer know what an encyclopedia actually is. They'll likely be all Oh... you mean Wikipedia?" or something. And THAT got me wondering what happens to my childhood literary hero, Encyclopedia Brown? Perhaps the publisher will change his name to Wikipedia Brown? Or do they revert to using his real name... Leroy Brown.

They might as well, because it's not like kids now-a-days have ever heard of the Jim Croce song Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.

Holy cow is it hot out today. I didn't even stay out as long as I did yesterday morning! But enough of my heatstroke woes... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• SAVE THE BEEEEES! I see bees around my home... sometimes honey bees, but there's been plenty of bumblebees around too (which are my favorite, because they always look so adorable being all fluffy like they are). In an effort to help them, I always let the clover overgrow my lawn where it feels like it. And now that I've got some new plants out that they seem to like, I decided to make some watering stations for them. I bought shallow trays, filled them with water and rocks so they don't drown, then placed them in some shady spaces where they will fill up when the sprinklers run. I made two different heights of rocks to see if it makes a difference...

I've heard that bees can smell water. I might set some cameras outside to see if they come visit. And, if they do, then I'll have to make some more.

   
• AI EVERYWHERE! It is darn-right scary how good AI video generators have gotten recently. I mean just look at this scary-ass nightmare of people who don't exist!

There are a lot of people who are going to be completely fooled... and it's just going to get worse.

   
• Hilarity Ensues! Oh no. Oh no no no no no... BWAH HA HA HAAA! Lying to CONGRESS?!? This is GOLD. GOLLLLLLD!!!

Unfortunately, nobody seems to give a crap when these fucking assholes lie to the American people like this.

   
• ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Will End With a Fifth and Final Season. Well fuck. How typical. Strange New Worlds is hands-down my favorite Star Trek and I've been loving every episode in a way that even The Original Series never took me. I guess I should be grateful that we're getting two new seasons after the upcoming one (even though the fifth is "truncated")... but, dammit, I'm still bitter. The writers have proven over and over that they get the franchise and know creative ways to keep it moving forward. — Next Generation got seven seasons. Deep Space Nine got seven seasons. Voyager got seven seasons. Then again, Enterprise only got four. But still... all those shows were getting around 26 episodes each season, and Strange New Worlds only gets TEN?!? Insanity. It's just insanity. Well, unless the Starfleet Academy blows me away, there's no reason for me to keep Paramount+ after the best Trek ever is over.

   
• Read Your Bible? "This will not be a newsflash for anyone with the capacity for critical thought..." This 16-minute burn is delicious, and just gets better as it goes on. Dan usually doesn't get this fired up.

How is it that the people who profess to live their life by The Bible... love to use The Bible as a tool to persecute people... and act like they know The Bible... actually don't know shit? Cherrypicking?!? Pot meet kettle.

   
• SPACE NEWS: NASA's Voyager Spacecraft Found A 30,000-50,000 Kelvin "Wall" At The Edge Of Our Solar System. Obviously God put this barrier there to contain our nonsense to our own solar system and not allow us to fuck up the entire galaxy with our bullshit. Humanity ain’t it. We never were. And, at this rate, we never will be.

   
• Money Well Spent! Look, I don't give a shit if the President wants to embarrass himself. I'm used to it. But I think it's fucking reprehensible to embarrass our military like what happened with his $45 million dollar vanity birthday parade. Our military isn't trained for pageantry. They're just not. So to force them into a situation they weren't prepared for is embarrassing to the country... and the men and women who serve this nation. They absolutely didn't deserve that. You know what they do deserve? The benefits that come from risking your life to fight and die for their country. You know, the benefits that keep getting cut so we can have a pathetic parade that barely any people attended...

I'm so sick of this shit I could vomit. Give our military the respect they've fucking earned. Give our country the respect it deserves.

   
And now... I'd go back out into the heat so I can work in the yard some more, but that ain't happening. Guess my Sunday is going to be a day of rest after all..

Jenny has night terrors from time to time. It's really tough to watch when I see it happening, and I never know the best course of action. Usually, I very carefully start petting her until she stops kicking and fighting... which works some of the time. Other times she wakes herself up during her nightmare and then is pretty upset with me.

This morning Jenny fell asleep next to me, started having night terrors about fifteen minutes later, so I petted her to calm her down... only for her to flip over and wrap around my arm. Progress? At least this time I didn't get attacked for scaring her!

Anyway...

Before it got too hot, I was outside kneeling in the dirt while working in my shrub beds. When the heat finally hit and I went back inside, Jake came up to me after. He started smelling my dirty knees and rolling around on me. Maybe I accidentally kneeled in catnip?

Makes me think that I need to plant some stuff in the catio for my cats to roll around in. I bought grass a while ago, but they didn't seem to be interested enough to make it worth the cost. Maybe I need different grass!

It's tough to put into words the love I have for the many songs of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys.

So rather than using words, I'll just say that I've never Googled him. Ever. I was so terrified of him turning out to be a raging asshole or homophobe or racist or something awful, that I never risked it. I couldn't fathom his music being tainted to me, and losing it would be too much of a risk to take.

He wrote a ridiculous number of tracks, and a great many of them mean a lot to me. Including my favorite of them all, Don't Worry Baby...

It's beautifully constructed, deliciously intricate as it builds to a finale, and every word of the lyrics hit in the best way... telling the story of a guy who agrees to a drag race, but instantly regrets it and confides his fears in his girlfriend who tells him "Don't worry baby. Everything will turn out alright." And it's just so... flawless.

It's made even more interesting when you consider that the entire song was written as a response to Be My Baby by the Ronettes...

But that's not the end of it!

Originally, Brian wrote the song for the Ronettes. But Phil Spector wouldn't ever entertain the idea of them recording a song he didn't write, so it didn't happen. Except eventually it did...

Gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful.

And apparently Brian Wilson was not aware that Ronnie had recorded it, because THIS happened...

Then later on in life...

Ronnie Spector. Another legend I miss dearly. I know that Ronnie and Brian performed together at least once. Probably more. A vocal match made in heaven.

Of course the number of Brian Wilson & Beach Boys covers are legion (She & Him, AKA Zooey Deschanel's band, did an entire album tribute to him). Which you'd expect give how incredible the catalog of songs are. Who wouldn't want to cover one of his songs? Just look at this megaton of talent on God Only Knows...

And so... yeah. Brian Wilson will be truly missed. But the sheer volume of music he left to an undeserving world means he's never really gone. Rest in Peace, sir.

I know that there's probably (maybe) at least one person out there who's devastated that I promised a deeper look into the new Apple OS 26s that got released, but I'm still not... there... yet. I keep running into weirdness that I need to look into further so I know if it's not user error... or it's not a bug from a developer release that's not Apple's intent.

Something which sounds easier than it usually is for whatever reason.

So, hopefully tomorrow I'll be back on track. In the meanwhile? The latest Superman trailer is here. And probably the last pre-release trailer we're getting...

And now for my live-watch reaction...

• I honestly thought we would get a break from full-scale disaster porn after Zack Snyder's crap-fest. Boy am I sad to be wrong. This is James Gunn via Michael Bay, and how depressing is that? Not that I'm here to dig on Michael Bay... I'm just saying that I was really hoping for something different this time out.
• I like that Lex Luthor is truly menacing instead of just being some weird, dopey comic book villain (something I hated about the way Zack Snyder and Jesse Eisenberg made him be in Man of Steel).
• I am dying to see what approach that Gunn took with Ultraman. There's dozens of ways that it could go, and I'm hoping he picked the most interesting direction.
• Once again, Krypto is stealing the trailer. He will likely steal the movie as well. I'm okay with that. Because DANG is he looking like a fun take!
• And... back to disaster porn. Again. =sigh=
• Zack Snyder thought he had cracked the way to make heroes work for the big screen. He made them into gods. But not in a fun or interesting way. Which made it all the more inexplicable when they acted so damn stupid all the time. Gunn gets it. You don't make them gods by their actions. That's boring. You make them gods by the utter casualness that comes from their actions, but add elements that still make them relatable to non-comic-book-fan audiences. It's working very well in this trailer for Gunn.
• The Superman/Ultraman fight has a rough CGI look that's pretty bad. Woof.
• Blergh. I hope we get a very good reason as to why Lois Lane can fly a spaceship. Because this scene is cringe. So very cringe.
• Cannot possibly enunciate how happy I am that not only is Mr. Terrific in this movie... but Gunn very clearly wanted to be sure he comes off as cool as he does in the comic books. Nice.
• There has been more than a little bit of complaining from people as to how... weird... Superman looks with their weird angles as he's flying. I didn't see it before. I am definitely seeing it this time. There's a weird distortion effect applied for some reason. Maybe to show speed? Upsetting.
• Thank GOD the age of dour, depressing, and overly-serious comic book films are (seemingly) on the way out at DC. It has been too long since Superman was portrayed as the beacon of joy and hope that he is supposed to be.

And, as if this new trailer wasn't enough, more Spaceballs too?!?

Reports are saying that not only is Bill Pullman back as Lone Star and Mel Brooks is back as Yogurt, but Rick Moranis is back as Dark Helmet?!?? How sweet is that? The guy obviously realizes how much people love him in that role, and it convinced him to come out of retirement for another run...

Sadly, we know that Barf (John Candy) and Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers) can't make a return... but it's nice that they seem to be doing what they can to get as many actors back as possible.

And then... Bill Pullman's son, Lewis Pullman, is also on board to boot, which is very cool.

I was beginning to think this would never happen. I'm glad it is, because the original was just too dang entertaining to let the franchise lay dormant.

Before installing the iOS 26 Developer Beta, here's what I did when I rounded the corner of the street where I live (once I got a vehicle with Apple CarPlay). I'd say "Hey Siri, open the garage door." Then my garage door would open. Then I would drive into my garage. Then I would say "Hey Siri, close the garage door." Then my garage door would close. Then I would turn off the car engine and go inside my house.

I used to have my garage door automatically when I rounded the corner, but then I became paranoid when I saw my iPhone misregister my location. I thought "Huh. What if it thinks I'm going home when I'm not?" Which is when I switched to telling Siri to do it via voice control.

Then I upgraded to iOS 26 Developer Beta.

Now when I say "Hey Siri, open the garage door," Siri tells me that I have to unlock my iPhone first.

To which I can only say "What the actual fuck?!?"

I'm guessing that this is some kind of pretense by Apple telling us this is a safety precaution. They want to make sure it's really you before it opens a door to your home.

Except...

1. You still have the option to have CarPlay automatically open your garage door using your location... whether your iPhone is unlocked or not. And...
2. A widget now appears on the CarPlay screen which you can press to open your garage door... whether your iPhone is unlocked or not.

Which is all to say... this is not Apple being "concerned" over "security" at all.

But it gets better...

Do you know what happens when I pull into my garage and say "Hey Siri, CLOSE the garage door?"

Siri tells me that I have to unlock my iPhone first.

You know... out of "security concerns"... or whatever bullshit that Apple will blow up our asses when we complain how this crap makes absolutely no fucking sense whatsoever.

And so I installed the developer betas of Apple's latest and greatest OSs for my devices... iOS 26 on my iPhone, iPad OS on my iPad Pro, and macOS Tahoe 26. I dunno if watchOS is out yet.

I have mixed feelings about what's going on. Some of it looks great, but some of it is pretty bad. I'll write about it in full tomorrow, but what I can say right now is this: Using Apple's new "Liquid Glass" Graphic User Interface reminds me very much of that scene in Bedazzled* where Brendon Fraser gets turned into a star basketball player, ends up breaking the backboard, then spits the glass at the camera...

Which is to say I'm finding that Apple is spitting this glass effect everywhere, and it doesn't always land...

Now, at this size when displayed on a computer, it's not so bad. But keep in mind you're using it on an iPhone, which is smaller. And, if you're old like me, you have to hold it out so you can see it without reading glasses on. Apple desperately needs to refine this. Or even give you a way to turn the glass off so people with poor eyesight can read everything more easily...

What a mess.

Another quick observation before I take my leave of you... many of the icons look blurry. It gives me a headache.

Not at computer size so much... but iPhone size at a distance. Just look at the Photos app icon here...

But more tomorrow when I've had a chance to play with it all a bit more.

* If you've never seen Bedazzled (the Elizabeth Hurley version), I give it my highest recommendation. Here's that entire scene...

Apple's World Wide Developer Conference is an event unto itself every year. Today I woke up at 4:30am so I could catch up on work and watch the event live so I could add the commentary you've all been dying for. If you want to watch it while reading this, you can find the entire thing on YouTube here.

Craig Federighi once again makes everybody fall in love with him due to his filmed-intro, screaming around the top of the Apple Park building in an F1 car to promote their new movie F1 (original title!) with Brad Pitt. And heeeeere's Tim Cook... to introduce more Craig!

To read all the gory details of Apple's keynote and my random thoughts about what they announced, you can find it in an extended entry, because it's rather long (I type fast and think a lot of things!)...

I may be broiling in the Summer heat, but I must be good to blog... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Stranger, Newer! Look, let's just get this out of the way... it is highly unlikely that ANY show is going to eclipse Andor, The Residence, and Poker Face in my #1, #2, and #3 spots for the best television of 2025. They're just too phenomenal. But if any show has a shot at it, that would be Strange New Worlds. It managed to eclipse the original series as my favorite Trek, and the third season looks like more of the awesome I've come to expect...

   
• Cricket! GAH! I've been replacing some of the outlets in my home with Eve smart outlets. This morning I was replacing the outlet for all my television devices because I want to know how much electricity I'm drawing to be sure I'm not overloading the breaker. The outlet ended up having dual black & white wires, which meant the wire nuts that came with the switch were too small. I quickly ran to the electrical kit to get bigger ones while my Uninterruptible Power Supply was beeping angrily because it had no power. As I was running through the garage, I saw a clump of dirt that must have fallen off the gardening tools I was using this morning. I kicked it under the car so I could sweep it up later. BUT THE CLUMP OF DIRT CRAWLED BACK FROM UNDER THE CAR! BECAUSE IT WASN'T A CLUMP OF DIRT, IT WAS THE LARGEST CRICKET I'VE EVER SEEN! After screaming GAAAAAH! I ran into the house for a paper cup to drop over the insect while I wired the outlet so I could get power back to my UPS. Then I slid a piece of board under the cup and took the cricket out to a nice shady spot in the rock wall behind my home. Sorry, cricket, but I don't want you chirping in my home.

   
• Dip! A friend called and asked what I'm up to. After telling her the killer cricket story, I told her I was making my grandmother's chip dip recipe... except I'm using vegan cream cheese instead of regular cream cheese, vegan mayo instead of regular mayo, tamari sauce instead of Worcestershire sauce, and nutritional yeast instead of cheese. Then I add a little ground black pepper and chili powder to help make the taste of the veggie mayo more palatable. She said "If you're changing all the ingredients, you're not really making your grandmother's recipe tho..." And I was like "Well, the lemon juice in it is still lemon juice... I just substitute vegan ingredients for the non-vegan ingredients. Which is most of them, I guess. Which is to say that I'm not actually making my grandma's recipe after all. Except... I totally am, I think.

   
• Big, Bold, and Beautiful! Well this looks wonderful. A movie that's right up my alley...

Doesn't hurt that the cast is so good.

   
• a-ha! I've never understood the one-hit-wonder status for a-ha. Their debut album and lead single Take on Me are great. Love it. Definitely a hit. But they created a lot of amazing music after. Including Holyground, a beautiful song that defies description...

Lead singer Morten Harket has announced he has Parkinson’s disease.

I flew to New York to see the band on their farewell Ending on a High Note Tour (they were only playing NYC and Los Angeles in the USA). After that they slowed down, but I was so happy they actually kept going.

   
• Pick Me! Lock company sues McNally for showing how easy their locks are to pick. They claim that he "altered" their lock. McNally orders a fresh lock and films himself retrieving the lock from an Amazon locker, opening the sealed box of the lock, cutting an aluminum can to make a pick for the lock, then picks the lock... all without the filming being interrupted. The entire video is two minutes and thirteen seconds long...

I laughed and laughed and laughed. Because this lock company just made things far, far worse for their reputation. He should pick one of their locks live during the trial, assuming the lock company is stupid enough to go through with it.

   
• VARIETY NEWS: ‘Andor’ Creator Says Disney Spent ‘$650 Million for 24 Episodes’ and ‘We Fought Hard’ for Money After Being Told in Season 2: ‘Streaming Is Dead. We Don’t Have the Money We Had Before’ — And every fucking cent is on the screen. This is budget filmmaking. Disney should be thrilled that Tony Gilroy handed them 8 feature films at a budget of only $80 million each. Because every three episodes IS the equivalent. And who makes feature films for only $80 million any more that are this fully-realized and have the talent and dazzling special effects that made them this great? Andor is easily one of the best TV series ever made. It’s the best thing to come out of Star Wars period...

Disney should be begging the guy to do more Star Wars. They should be filling a dump truck with money and backing it up into Gilroy’s driveway to get him to do more Star Wars. This series was an absolute gift to Disney, Star Wars fans, and people who relish great storytelling. Fuck the Empire.

   
And now I'm off! Off the internet Because I'm trying to free up space in my garage.