This past week saw my living room completely torn apart while I was having the massive hole in my wall repaired. My drywall guy did a superb job. I mean seriously good. I know where the hole was and I still cannot tell. Amazing the skill of some artists at their job. Even more amazing is that I lucked out so hard in finding somebody who does this great of a job!
But anyway...
My cats do not like it when things change. They like it even less when the change means that they can't go somewhere they are used to going.
And a big corner of my living room has been sectioned off like this...
Jenny was not happy. She was constantly looking over the plastic hanging from the ceiling like it made no sense to her...
It also caused weird cat behavior. I looked over and saw my cats fighting. Which is fine because it was just play...
But then they disappeared around the plastic wall and were rolling all around it. I worried that they were going to tear it down, so I said "OKAY! YOU NEED TO STOP NOW!" and then walked around the corner... only to see this...
Chasing each other around the house was just a bonus...
And now back to the usual, construction-free cat drama.
I'm burnt, y'all.
It was the annual Fabulous Fourth Weekend Float for my friends and I. This year our Summer came early, so the creek and river were lower than usual. This made it a little tough to go through spots, but it was still a fun float in the end.
How it started...
How it ended... Note that I put on two coats of sun screen, but still got royally burnt...
As usual, there were plenty of awesome dogs floating as well. I never get tired of seeing dogs in life preservers...
And there were a lot of duckies out too...
So... yeah! Another great float in the bag. Even though I'm so wiped from being out in the sun that I think I'm good for the year.
Not that it matters much given how low the river is.
Yesterday I was busy getting burnt so your bullets are a day late... because an all new Bullet Sunday on Monday starts... now...
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow! My favorite Star Trek has always been the original. None of the shows that followed come close. Until now. The third episode of Strange New Worlds is just one more brilliant feather in the show's cap...
Even if you're not a Star Trek nerd... you'll want to tune in if you love good television.
• Driven! I WAS NOT PREPARED!!
Fabulous.
• Pebbles! Holy crap...
I'd like... preserve those in acrylic... or something.
• New Pixar! Despite my having zero interest in Elemental, I am incredibly anxious to see the other upcoming Pizar flick...
• Matlock! WHERE HAVE I BEEN? DID Y'ALL KNOW ABOUT THIS?!???
Kathy Bates in a lawyer show? I will watch the hell out of this!
• NEWSFLASH: Titan Sub Search Could Cost Taxpayers Millions. The gubermint should sell insurance to rich people looking for dangerous thrills to cover the cost of rescue/recovery missions. It should be required. I had to buy a huge policy when I went to Antarctica in case I had to be air-lifted back to South America... why do rich people have to pay nothing? If you can afford a quarter million to go see Titanic, you can afford another quarter million in insurance.
• Dreams in Pink! Architectural Digest getting a tour of Barbie's Dream Home is what I need right now...
How somebody at AD thought to do this is pretty great.
Have a nice day at work tomorrow, England!
Given the way that politicians and our Supreme Court are taking a huge fucking shit on everything this country was supposed to stand for, I approach this year's Independence Day with more than a little guilt. So much blood spilled to preserve our liberties over the years... and we're throwing it all in the trash.
And so I celebrated this country's 247th birthday the only way that made sense to me.
First I had red-white-and-blue cupcakes in bed for breakfast...
Then I hung out with my friends at a pool drinking alcohol in the blazing sun.
It felt like a good idea at the time.
Remember when hump-day used to be a good thing?
I've been on a number of boats over the years. Everything from canoes and rowboats to sailboats and cruise ships. I'm comfortable on the water and always have been. I'm especially comfortable on sailboats, possibly because I have fairly good balance and it's easily for me to walk around on them even when the water's choppy.
That being said...
I don't go looking for choppy water to sail on.
Well, mostly I don't.
I did sail over the most treacherous waters on earth in order to go on an expedition to Antarctica. But I was told to stay in bed the entire time, so this is all I saw of it...
The ship didn't roll completely on its side... but it was surely over 45°. It was brutal. There were times I couldn't see sky out the porthole.
But this whole "rough seas" setup is just a metaphor.
The point is that nobody seeks out choppy water unless it's required to get to your destination... and even then you do the best you can to find the calmest path possible.
Which brings us to the latest from Facebook, their Twitter competitor called Threads.
Because I have an Instagram account, I automatically had a Threads account, so I was on it pretty quick to see what's what. Basically, it's a carbon copy of Twitter, which is why I likely won't be using it much. Facebook allows me to hand-select an audience, and that's what I want for my social media. For everything else I have this blog. Threads is not that friendly yet... you can't look at only the people you follow and there's no way to lock anything down... but at least it hasn't degenerated into a toxic cesspool like Twitter.
Yet.
So while I'm happy to check in on my Threads from time to time just to make sure I'm not missing anything, I won't be jumping into Zuckerberg's choppy waters any time soon.
That's a lesson I learned when a fellow passenger on my Antarctica expedition had to be air-lifted to Peru because he was thrown down a stairwell and ended up with multiple compound fractures.
When I got home from work today, I was just... numb. Didn't have the energy to do anything except plop down in front of the television with an ice cream cone. Which sounds more entertaining than it was because I never bothered to actually turn the television on.
Instead I told Siri to put on some music while I caught up on the news.
And the first headline I see? FDA grants full approval to new Alzheimer's drug meant to slow disease.
Now, this is a hell of a long way from an actual cure. It costs $26,500 a year, it has been linked to death, it only slows progression for around five months, and it's more for friends and family than the person with dementia, but it's a step! And, from somebody who's intimately familiar with it... from somebody who would have given anything to have a chance at five more months with my mom where she was still mostly herself... I'd have paid the $26,500 and been grateful if it in any way helped.
And that's the way science goes.
AIDS, some cancers, and many diseases are survivable now, and it all started with a step. A step just like Leqembi is for dementia.
But there will always be those for which the science came too late.
For those left behind, I guess you just cling to the consolation that other people may be spared what you had to go through.
Maybe.
One day.
With Summer reaching temperatures of 90° or more here, the cats have started to abandon the catio around the lunch hour. The evenings are kinda random, but can go quite late depending on the temperature out there. The mornings have become a post-breakfast ritual, and you can count on them being out there from 7am to 9pm...
This can backfire on occasion. Jenny was out there one morning when I had workers over to investigate the leak from my upstairs bathroom. She's terrified of strangers, and ended up being essentially trapped for 20 minutes...
Reminds me of Jake thinking he could hide behind a speaker and not be seen when my living room was under construction...
Oh well. Jenny still feels like hanging with me a lot still...
Good kitty.
The holiday week is over, but don't think it's over yet... because an all new Very Special YouTube Edition of Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Diner! I am addicted to the Architectural Digest YouTube channel. There's a great assortment of videos, and if you're an archtecture nerd, it's terrific time sink. An interesting one is about diner archtecture and how it has influenced other structures... like the Space Needle...
And that's Americana for you.
• Space! Seattle is home to quite a few famous places, but the most iconic is the Space Needle. As a kid, I was kind of abssessed with it. Built for the 1962 world's Fair, it instantly became the symbol of the city. It had a massive renovation in 2017 that essentially gutted it and added glass floors and panels so that it fit into modern tourist attraction trends. This video is an excellent overview over how it all works...
A few notes...
• Talent! Now this is somebody with skills..
It's amazing how people can do this kind of impossible stuff.
• LEGO! The best thing about The LEGO Movie is that it looked like LEGO. It was frickin' brilliant eye candy. And this is how they got there...
I've watched and re-watched The LEGO Movie just because I love how it moved. I skip the end, which is phenomenally stupid, but everything up to then is amazing. Fortunately The LEGO Batman Movie is brilliant from start to finish, so I watch every frame.
• Make Mine Marvel? Alrighty then. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has a lot of things to like, but it's also one of the most sadistic fucking movies I've ever seen. The amount of torture and death is just inexcusable for an escapist super-hero fun comic book movie...
I don't understand the heavy amount of praise this movie has been getting given how utterly horrific it is. WTF?
• JUSTIIIIIICE! JUSTICE! JUSTICE FOR BUZZY! — This is wild. I remember a story at the time about a guy stealing stuff from Walt Disney World, but don't recall ever hearing what happened. The story is nuts...
• Thrown! A video pops up and now I'm mad all over again at the shitty fucking ending of Game of Thrones. Two arrogant assholes took the paycheck to rush the show to a truly awful conclusion instead of handing it off to somebody who gives a shit. All so they could move on to projects which never happened thanks to their horrific mishandling of the show that made them famous...
And then there's the fact that one of them is a shitty fucking writer and the other one has no experience. The only thing they're moderately good at is adapting other people's writing (and we know what happened when they ran out of books for Game of Thrones)...
I am MORTIFIED that they will be show runners and writers for 3 Body Problem over at Netflix. I have no fucking clue how they were ever hired by anybody ever again after the way they completely trashed Thrones.
Now back to my overcast Sunday.
I don't know what's going on with me. My energy is at an all-time low this week.
Which is to say that I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos. Including the entire back-catalog of Eddy Burback videos. One of which is him and another YouTuber driving to every Rainforest Cafe in North America. Of which there are a lot fewer left than I remember.
It's pretty funny...
And this got me to thinking... how many of these things have I been to? They were never a destination to me. Most time I went to one was because I was in town and noticed it, or (more likely) I was in town to visit a Hard Rock Cafe and it was nearby.
Anyway, here's the list I came up with...
Wowzers. Twenty-two? That's a lot.
And I think that I ate something at all of them except the London and Costa Mesa locations. In both of those cases, my time was limited and I had Hard Rocks and Planet Hollywoods to visit.
Priorities.
Just when you think that all the stuff that could be invented has been invented... you stumble across something that's brilliant in its simplicity.
Since the dawn of time, people have struggled with how they can keep bags of foodstuffs closed after they have been opened. Then came the advent of Ziploc resealable bags, and the world rejoiced!
But what about those products that don't have Ziploc? Like chips? What the fuck do you do with that?
Enter the chip clip.
Except they're made of plastic so they bust to shit in no time. Even those made of metal don't work that well because they don't seal the entire bag. You just have to fold up the excess material as best you can and slapping the spring-clip on it. If there's too little material, you barely get a seal and it will fall off. If there's too much material, you have too much to clip and it can also fall off.
Enter the Gripstic!
IT'S JUST THAT EASY!
And you know those shitty fucking Morninstar Farms bags that you can't open with a fucking blowtorch and, even if you do manage to get it open with a fucking knife or pair of scissors, it won't fucking re-seal?
It's a tough fit because there's not a lot of room, but...
GRIPSTIC!
That bag of lettuce that goes brown within five fucking seconds of opening it?
GRIPSTIC!
I even use it on the bags in boxed foods like crackers and cereals... or cat food!
You can get them at their website... or on Amazon, I suppose.
And, as an aside from the stupid fucking Morningstar Farms burger packaging... what the fuck is the deal with tiny little hamburger buns? Even when using a tiny little Morningstar Farms Grillers patty, it still isn't big enough. Something I found out when I accidentally ordered them for grocery delivery. Just look at this idiotic bullshit...
The bun needs to be big enough to at least have condiments and toppings all the way out to the edge of the fucking burger. BUT NOOOOOOO...
Useless. Fucking useless. I have no idea why they even sell these shitty things any more. They're in-between a tiny slider bun and a regular hamburger bun, but would fail for either use. The only way I guess it works is if you make tiny hamburgers. Which is fucking unAmerican and I won't do it.
And there you have it. The answer to all your problems except stupid-ass tiny hamburger buns?
GRIPSTIC!
Order yours today!
=sigh= Home robotics still has a ways to go, don't they?
A long while ago I bought a robot vacuum I named "Carl" after the janitor from The Breakfast Club. He was an imitation iRobot Roomba by Ecovacs, so he was cheap, but I didn't have a lot of furniture to confuse him or junk laying around my house to block him, so I was thrilled with how well it worked. Almost immediately I bought a companion mopping robot by iRobot that I named "Joy" after Joy Mangano (the lady who created the Miracle Mop (and was portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence in the movie biography Joy).
The mopping robot was just okay.
It worked better in my bathrooms which are smaller and easier to clean because they are tile. It worked less better in the kitchen, because it was bigger and the pad got dirty before it could finish. It didn't work AT ALL in any other spaces. Partly because they were too big... but mostly because the little vibrating pad ripped up my hideously expensive (but shoddily-made) hardwood floors. I used it for a half-year in the bathrooms, but eventually trashed it.
Fast-forward to last week after I was washing my floor on my hands and knees and thought to look at mopping robots again. The one that caught my eye was the Bissell Spinwave. The pads aren't a vibrating pad, so I had high hopes that it wouldn't tear up my shitty floors...
So I went to buy one and... FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FUCKING DOLLARS?!? Does it blow me after it finishes mopping? Because that's the only way I'd spend that kind of money.
But then I Googled to see if there was an alternative that might work for less money... only to find that Best Buy was advertising the R5 model I wanted (it has mapping on the app) for $220 (which is less than the cheaper non-R5 model!). Still more money than the $150 that I was wanting to spend, but if it works...
When I got New Joy, I set her up next to New Carl so I could charge it. Once Jake came downstairs from his nap, it took him all of seconds to see (smell?) something new...
My hopes for New Joy were dashed when it left its charging station, turned a corner around the legs of my hutch, and got stuck...
Jake found this to be hilarious...
But, seconds after I took the above photo (and before I could pull New Joy out from under the hutch), she freed herself. Nice!
Which brings us to the R5 model's mapping. The reason it's supposed to be worth the $550 price tag. It's actually very cool. The unit has a LIDAR camera spinning on top which is constantly updating it as it moves around the space. For example... this is what Joy thought my living room looked like...
But once it sees that it can go behind my couch, the map is updated to reflect that...
The mapping even noticed where "rooms" are located and decided to mop the entirety of my "great room" (living room to dining room) before moving on to the kitchen/entry hall, downstairs bathroom, and guest bedroom...
But then... uh oh. The map cleared itself shortly after entering my kitchen. Even worse, Joy stopped reporting her location accurately. She would randomly appear all over my house, but then always snap back to her actual location...
Jesus. THIS is what Bissell charges FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FUCKING DOLLARS?!?
You can define Go/No-Go areas easy enough, and your robot will remember it for any future moppings...
Unfortunately, there is a minimum size area you can define... and it's fucking HUGE. If you need tiny areas defined... like my cat feeding station and second cat water fountain... you'd better fucking hope that they are against a wall so you can have it bleed off the edge. As you can see, I got lucky.
And then we get to one of the most idiotic, head-scratching failures of this FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FUCKING DOLLAR robot... you can't define rooms/areas and save them for future use. Sure you can draw an area you want cleaned and send the robot to do that, but you can't save them for next time. They disappear after the cleaning happens...
What the fuck? It would seem that Bissell expects you to clean your entire fucking house in one go. But come on, that's not even remotely feasible. Because your little mopping pads will get dirty fairly quickly, which means it will be washing your floors with dirt. Blergh. This should be a priority for Bissell, because yikes.
When it comes to my home, I don't have tons of furniture and practically no clutter. Which makes it an excellent candidate for robots. There's hardly any obstacles for it to get caught up on. And yet... this happened...
This seemed weird. First of all because Joy was, as usual, randomly reporting herself where she wasn't located. The map was showing that she was at her docking station. But she wasn't. So I had to go looking for her. Turns out she wedged herself between the toilet and the wall...
I don't even know how to respond to this. It's not smart enough to throw itself into reverse and back out of there?
Later on I stopped hearing Joy run. At first I thought she was out of battery and couldn't return to her docking station. The map wasn't reporting her location, so off I went again to try and find her. Oh. Despite her having a FUCKING "SOFT-EDGE SENSOR" LIKE BISSELL ADVERTISES, she was choking on a rug...
Jesus. But that's not the worst of it. Do you see hoe the bed in my guest bedroom has a dust ruffle around the bottom? Joy thought it was a solid wall and didn't mop under the bed! I added a "GO" area and sent her back in the room... but she returned without mopping under the bed! So the only way to mop my guest bedroom is to remove the rugs and the dust ruffle...
So what have we got here...
Ultimately I'm going to keep New Joy because she mops just well enough that the $220 price is worth it. Had I been able to afford the original $550 price tag, she would have been boxed up and returned within one hour of opening the box.
Maybe I'm just happy that I have a solution for mopping my floors that doesn't involve me doing so on my hands and knees with a wet rag?
I dunno.
But welcome to the family, New Joy.
SO MANY TRAILERS ARE BEING UNLEASHED!
As somebody who loves movies, I'm pretty thrilled... although more and more I'm happy to wait for them to stream somewhere than to go see them in a theater with =shudder= people. I'm more excited about the trailers for television shows.
So let's take a look, shall we?
First up? Blue Beetle! GRADE: D
Are you frickin' kidding me? This looks like complete shit! So many of these movies are serving up boring-ass crap like "MY POWER COMES FROM THE LOVE OF MY FAMILY!" and other bullshit that doesn't make for a good movie when it's used as a substitute for something... ANYTHING... that's actually interesting.
Is DC telling James Gunn to say great things about movies like The Flash and declare Blue Beetle "The First Hero of the New DCU (even though he's not in the DCU)"... whatever the hell that means... in order to bump ticket sales for their failed universe? All it actually does is blow his credibility. Just let the guy focus on what he does best. Like add Metamorpho to his Superman movie? That's the James Gunniest thing that could have happened! Although I'm pretty sure that super-hero movies will be officially dead any minute now. Between the utter shit that came out of DC and mediocre crap out of Marvel, nobody wants this.
Next up? Ahsoka! GRADE: A
Genius. The third season of The Mandalorian faltered a bit, but was still good television. Boba Fett was deeply flawed because all the good moments were in service of The Mandalorian but, again, good television. Obi-Wan had several major plot holes and some inexplicably stupid choices but, once again, I was entertained. Star Wars on Disney+ has been killing it. Which is why I am very excited for Ahsoka. It looks amazing.
And then? Wonka! GRADE: B
Now, see, this is where a trailer can work for a film. Because when I heard they were making a Willy Wonka prequel starring Timothée Chalamet, I had less than zero plans on watching it. But now? I will definitely tune in when it his whatever streaming service gets it. Especially with Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa! Looks like it will have some entertainment value going on, which is about all you can ask for now-a-days.
And then? Twisted Metal! GRADE: B+
I played a lot of Twisted Metal back in the day. It was a depraved video game that didn't quite cross into gross absurdity. The trailer implies that they just went for balls-out fun from start to finish, and it totally works for me. Ah nostalgia. Definitely tuning into Peacock for this one.
And then? Rebel Moon! GRADE: D-
Despite the fact that Zack Snyder creates awful movies that I absolutely loathe, I keep giving him a chance to do something I'll like because I still think that he did a good job on 300 and did a half-way decent job on Watchmen (until he fucked up the ending). I don't quite know what to do about Rebel Moon. The concept sounds good. But this trailer is dog shit. A bunch of cut-to-black moments and obscured action that tells you nothing about the movie. Who the fuck thought this was a good intro to the film? Probably Zack Snyder.
And then? Napoleon! GRADE: B
Look, I'm going to watch whatever Ridley Scott gives us. Period. No, it doesn't always pay off but, if nothing else, it's guaranteed to be pretty to look at. And if he finds the right story? Sky's the limit. This movie looks well-cast, and I'm genuinely interested in seeing what Ridley manages to do with the material. Because, once again, just look at how gorgeous it is! Nobody does visuals like Ridley Scott.
And then? The Retirement Plan! GRADE: A
It's Nicholas Cage. What else do you want? Looks fantastic. And hilarious.
And then? Corner Office! GRADE: B
Say what you want about Jon Hamm's choice of roles, which is not always that great... but he always delivers. This movie looks surreal and intriguing. Which is the perfect genre for Hamm to inhabit. Though I really, really, hope we get another Fletch out of him sometimes soon.
Until more trailers start triggering, I guess that's all I got.
And now SAG-AFTRA (actor's union) has joined the WGA (writer's union) and gone on strike.
Contract negotiations have always seemed like a big puzzle to me. But not a difficult one. Actors and writers are saying that they're being exploited (which they are, especially as AI tech advances) while studios are saying that the new streaming business model has drastically cut into the money they're raking in (which is likely true).
Studios put up the money to get stuff made. Sometimes it's successful (read: profitable) and sometimes it's not (read: loses them money). The success of some shows and movies offsets the losses from other shows and movies. Studio executives try and balance this out favorably so they can return a profit. If they don't turn a profit, then they don't have the money to take a chance on new shows and movies.
So, realistically, writers and actors want the studios to make money. That's how they will continue to find work. Not that there aren't writers or actors who would gladly screw over other writers and actors or the studios so they get more money... of course there are... I'm just saying that, in general, it is in their best interest to want the studios to turn a profit.
But they don't want to be exploited while doing it.
And studios, honestly, shouldn't want that either. No sane person wants to make money via exploitation. Anybody who does is evil and has no business being in control of a company.
And therein lies the problem. There are people in these studios who are, to put it mildly, evil. They don't give a shit how they make a buck, and if it takes fucking over the people who create the product they put out, they're going to do that. Scripts written via AI so you don't have to pay creators and writers? Do it! Actors forced to sign over their likeness so you can fire them and continue to have them in your product? Do it! If they can fuck over creative people for a buck, they will 1000% do that and think nothing of it so long as they keep making money.
Which is why this isn't really about the studios or the talent behind the studios.
It's about us consumers.
Will we support studios who think nothing about their writers and actors and have zero problem exploiting their talent for a buck while not giving a fuck who they're screwing over? I sure as hell hope not. I, for one, would never support a show where the writers and actors aren't fairly compensated for their work and have no security from the work and services they provide. Fuck that. I can very easily cancel all my streaming services with zero regrets. And that's exactly what I'll do if it comes down to it.
This is a strike with two sides that's going to take understanding from everybody involved. And it's largely going to fall on the studios to do the right thing. Because so many of the rank-and-file writers and actors want nothing more than to be able to make a living doing the work they love. But when writers have to live in fear of being cut loose after creating something so their ideas and hard work can be turned over to a computer... or actors have to worry they will be cut loose so computer-generated actors can exploit their likeness... well... that doesn't seem very fair, does it? Just listen to this horrendous crap that was revealed at the press conference...
"They proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity, in any project they want with no consent and with no compensation."
There's a lot of room to create a system where studios can make a profit while treating the talented people that work for them fairly. But it will involve transparency. It will involve not being evil.
And, as much as I would miss the television and movies I love so much, I am more than willing to give it all up to make sure that the system which provides it is a fair one.
"Who is it? Who is it? Is it a kitty? No! This isn't a kitty! This is a handsome bear! Yes it is! It's my handsome Boo-Bear! Hey Boo-Bear!" — I do this because Jake lets me. Jenny does not go for such shenanigans.
I'm not sure what's up with my little girl.
She still spends time with me... especially in the morning while I work in bed. But more and more she's avoiding me. Much like when she was little. She's afraid of me for morning treat time, which is really worrisome because that's how I trick them into the carrier to go to the vet!
And half the time when I'm working in the living room, she prefers to sit in her kitty bed and glare at the room...
Maybe she's decided to get even crankier in her old age?
That would certainly be something!
We don't need another hero, but we've come close to having one... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Droooooones! Drone light shows are getting more and more interesting, and Cyberdrone is on the cutting edge. And their partnership with Studio Drift which completes architectural ruins and structures is one of the coolest things I've seen...
This is beyond cool. DO THE COLOSSEUM! Oh... wait... they did that...
And La Sagrada Familia...
Epic. These are gorgeous and spectacular.
• Cheesecake! None of my favorite restaurants are chains. They are wonderfully unique locations with carefully curated menus that have options I love. But there is one chain restaurant I do love... Cheesecake Factory (there used to be two, but Johnny Rockets completely trashed their vegetarian burger). The menu is huge, which allows for a lot of variation within my vegetarian diet. Although I usually opt for the Sweet Corn Tamale Cakes or the Avocado Egg Rolls, because they are Just That Good. These are destination restaurants for me, and unless there's a favorite in the area, I'll most always opt to eat there. And here is a clever dive into the chain...
If I had one local to me, I would eat there multiple times a week. I can't offer much more of an endorsement than that.
• PLAY BALL! I missed when Rocco Baldelli brought his daughter to a press conference and she decided to help...
ADORABLE!
• Crap Appliances! And my six-year-old dishwasher continues to fall apart. Now it's the adjustable top-rack rollers that have rotted through because they use cheap plastic (I replaced the lower wheels already). What I find hilarious is that I'm told to "Use only genuine Whirlpool replacement parts." Are you kidding me? WHAT THE FUCK FOR?!? SO I CAN HAVE CHEAP-ASS FUCKING PLASTIC AGAIN? SO THEY CAN DETERIORATE IN FIVE YEARS AGAIN? FUCK YOU. I'm buying third-party replacements with METAL FUCKING AXELS so they might last a while. These companies making their products purposely fall apart so you buy replacement parts that will fall apart DISGUST me. Can you imagine selling appliances that fall apart in a few years back in the 70's or even the 80's? You'd be crucified. But now this is our "normal."
• Unbanned! The fact that this is even necessary to say puts the horrific state of society in vivid relief...
Beyond heartbreaking. For him and all of us.
• MiniCoke! AS GOD IS MY WITNESS... I WILL NEVER BE WITHOUT COKE ZERO FOR A ZOOM CALL EVER AGAIN BECAUSE I FORGOT TO GRAB A CAN BEFORE LOGGING IN! MINI COKE FRIDGE UNDER MY DESK! And look... there's room for cheese sticks!
Okay... it doesn't keep my Coke Zero quite as cold as I would like, but it's JUST cold enough. The problem with this thing is that it is not quiet. It's actually pretty noisy. Which means I can't keep it under my desk as I originally planned. It would keep me awake since my bedroom is directly next door. Instead I have it in my office... where it's still kinda noisy. So I dunno what I'm going to do with it. It has a cigarette lighter cord, so I could have cold drinks on the road, which is an option. Or maybe I'll run a cord into the office closet? I'll have to figure that out.
• FounDUHtion! Why did I watch the first episode of the second season when I knew it would be shit? Good Lord I fucking hate Foundation. What a load of overly-complicated and overly-dramatic dreck. "Harry always said that the entire galaxy can pivot around the actions of a single individual"... EXCEPT THE ENTIRE FUCKING POINT OF THE "FOUNDATION" BOOKS IS THAT THIS ISN'T THE CASE! THAT'S HOW PSYCHOHISTORY FUCKING WORKS! And it's when Harry couldn't predict the coming of one very unique individual that the story got really interesting. But here the collective of humanity is ignored so that we can focus on these "single individuals." God. The sheer number of ridiculous shenanigans they dream up in order to have the same characters continue to exist over hundreds of years is beyond idiotic. Let's make one be clones! Let's put others in hibernation! Let's make another a consciousness construct! Let's make another one a computer dream! FUCK!!! And here's a deep dive into it all that is beautifully on-point...
For the thousandth time I wonder why the fuck they bothered to buy the rights for Foundation if they had absolutely zero intention of adapting Foundation. Just do your own sci-fi story and leave Foundation alone so that somebody can make an ACTUAL FUCKING ADAPTION!
Now I'm going Beyond Tunderdome and washing clothes and cleaning house so I'm ready to go to work in the morning.
=sigh=
The last thing I'm going to do is complain about being a homeowner. First of all, I feel grateful that I even have a home. Second of all, the cost to rent an apartment in my parts is even higher than my mortgage payment. Like a lot higher.
But holy shit have I had my share of costs when it comes to my seven-year-old home purchase (A list of the absurd amount of repairs is here).
When I bought the place, I had a hugely expensive renovation to make it safer for my mother to inhabit with her dementia. From there it's been a non-stop parade of problems. The worst of which is my shitty upstairs shower leaking downstairs. And it ain't no old shower... it was installed just six years ago and was likely leaking since Day One (but I only found out about it four years ago as it worsened). I spent thousands of dollars just to get it diagnosed, and even then they're not 100% sure that it was a leak from the drain plumbing which is what they suspected. Which means they ended up having to rip it all out so I can start over...
The demo guys noted that the shower pan was made of something spongey... the likes of which they have never seen. So fuck my old contractor for that. And fuck my old plumber for doing a shitty job that's been leaking. And of course insurance is denying my claim, because they don't cover "slow leaks," only a "sudden catastrophic leak," which fucking sucks.
This time I'm not dicking around. I'm going to find a metal shower pan myself and hire the expensive plumbers I use for everything because they aren't incompetent.
This popped up in my social media this morning, and I felt it to my core...
This is very quickly becoming me. I don't dare ponder what could go wrong next, despite my already having fixed or redone the whole place by now. I think the best I can hope for is that I at least get to complete what's currently fucked before the next thing goes wrong.
I honestly try to be a kind, caring, compassionate person. That kinda goes out the window when there are abusive assholes unloading hate on their fellow humans... I simply cannot be kind, caring, or compassionate towards them... but I honestly try everywhere else.
Which is why even when I'm driving home and am anxious to get out of the heat and relax after a long day at work, I don't climb all over the bumper of somebody going 10 miles under the speed limit (25mph instead of 35mph). Because for all I know...
There could be numerous good reasons they aren't driving the speed limit.
At least I hope there's a good reason.
Because if either you or your vehicle is unable to go the speed limit, then you really shouldn't be driving.
But anyway...
So there I was driving home trying not to crowd the slow, slow car ahead of me, when somebody comes raoring up behind me. And they are right up on me. And it's like... surely they can see that I'm not the problem? So why be an asshole towards me? Then I started worrying they were going to attempt to pass us both on a fairly narrow road. Which might spook the slow driver and lead to disaster. But nope.
Eventually the car turned off and I accellerated to the correct speed.
For a few seconds.
Before the speed limit dropped to be actually 25mph again.
At which point they were all up on me again.
Years ago I was talking with a friend about travel and the places we've been. Inevitably we got to the point where we were discussing the places we've been that we didn't care for. I said that there's nowhere I've been that I wasn't able to enjoy at least some of it. Then tried to give an example by mentioning Korea. Love their culture. Love their music. Really love their television. But I found being a vegetarian there is so difficult there that I didn't feel I could ever fall in love with the country. Indeed there were times I would fly there on one day. Work the second day. Then fly back the third day.
Unless I went to an "American" restaurant or chain, I'd always end up eating kimchi or some kind of vegetarian bibimbap with a red bean paste dumpling for dessert. And, as good as it is, I get tired of it for every meal. Koreans love love love meat...
I did remember having a 16 course vegetarian meal that was nice... but it was essentially the same food in different forms.
But anyway... I ended up Googling "Vegetarian in Korea" to see if I was missing something other than pickled vegetables and garlic. It was then I ran across a YouTube channel called "Korean Englishman" and this video...
The channel was excellent and I checked in from time to time. They do a lot of cool things there, like exposing famous people to Korean food.
At some point the same guys (JOsh and OLLIE) created a new channel called Jolly. I never really looked into it.
But recently rediscovered it. Because of this video...
And now I'm addicted to Jolly. What a fantastic channel. The boys visit the US from time to time, and those videos are gold...
Nothing like seeing your country from the viewpoint of foreigners! And yet they're always so positive, which is nice.
So if you're looking for a Youtube rabbit hole to fall down, here you go.
The official trailer just dropped for The Marvels at Comic Con... which looks much like the initial "teaser trailer" we've already seen.
But before we get to that...
The rumors circulating around this movie are pretty crazy. It had already had a round of reshoots before the first test screening, which is normal. But apparently the test audience reaction was so horrifically bad that they decided to do more reshoots because people felt the tone of the film was way too over-the-top goofy. And, if that's the case, then thank heavens. I can't stand it when bad writing ends up being "goofy" because the writers don't understand "humor." Suffering through films that are so groan-inducing awful like that is what hell must be like (see: both cuts of Justice League).
But anyway, here's the trailer...
Now, to me, that just looks like a fun super-hero action flick. And while there are goofy moments (LOVE YOU, GOOSE!) it's not over-the-top. Hopefully this is what the tone of the final movie will be, because I think I'll really like it.
When I wade into the toxic cesspool that is the internet, there's a lot of hot takes on the film.
Mostly centered around people's "hatred" of Brie Larson.
Which takes me back to the first Captain Marvel film, where fanboys were unloading on Brie and review-bombing the film... apparently because they hate the idea of a female-led Marvel movie. In the comics the first Captain Marvel was a Kree male named Mar-Vell. Eventually his mantel was passed to Carol Danvers, which makes the MCU version comic-book faithful in every way except her origin (which I thought was better in the movie than the comics). The fact that Mar-Vell ended up being a Kree scientist played by Annette Benning (a character I loved) along with Brie Larson hate made it seem like the movie would be a financial disaster.
Captain Marvel went on to make 1.3 billion dollars despite it all.
Anyway. I don't really follow Hollywood, but apparently Brie Larson has said a lot of controversial shit. Like advocating for a more diverse population of film critics because there's an awful lot of 40-year-old white men trashing films that were not made for them. Now, personally I think this is bullshit. A professional critic is able to keep in mind the audience while reviewing a film... that's the job. But realistically? Yeah, Brie Larson is 100% on-point. There will alway be material in a film that a 40-year-old white man can't relate to and this will taint their feelings on the film. In that respect, I would absolutely love to see more diversity in the film critic profession. I love looking at the world (and movies!) from other perspectives. Makes me appreciate people more because diversity is good. So, sure, points to Brie. But come on. She could have phrased that without attacking people. A simple "I would sure like to see more diversity in movie critics so that more viewpoints are out there" would have been a far better way to make your point.
And it goes on and on. The most common critique is that "Brie Larson is unlikeable." And that's fine. If the things she says bothers you so much that you find her unlikeable... you be you and own your feelings. But I have to wonder how much of her "unlikeability" comes from being an outspoken woman. Personally, I think she's perfectly nice in all the interviews I've seen. Abrasive at times, sure, but that's a huge part of my personality, so who am I to judge? Who is anybody? A lot of the drama around Brie seems to be taking small moments (like Don Cheadle grimacing when Brie Larson gave him a friendly ribbing) and exploding them. And even when people shoot that down (Don Cheadle tweeted they were all good), the drama lives on.
Plus... she's friends with Samuel L. Jackson and has the guy on speed-dial, which carries a lot of weight on my opinion because I don't think that Samuel L. Jackson is the type of man who would put up with bullshit from assholes.
Anyway, I guess this is just my long, drawn-out way of saying "I like the MCU Captain Marvel, love Brie Larson's take on her, loved her first movie, LOVE LOVE LOVED her in Avengers: Endgame, like the look of the new trailer, and am looking forward to The Marvels." I hope it doesn't disappoint. The first one sure didn't.
And yes, I fully believe that The Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel are the two most powerful characters in the MCU, so I guess our toxic, misogynistic society can spend their time hating me as well.
Honest to God I don't understand Facebook. They make billions of dollars off of their users, but actively hates them for using their platform. At least I'm assuming they do because I just got banned again.
And I'm not alone. I've recently seen a number of people saying that their Facebook account got banned. And almost all of them are saying that it's for bullshit reasons that they can't appeal to get their account reinstated. And sometimes they get their entire account deleted because some Artificial Intelligence Bot flags them for violating guidelines that they never violated.
I've been thrown in Facebook Jail multiple times for bullshit reasons. My favorite being "Displaying Graphic Nudity or Sexual Activity" which I was 1000% not doing. A guy had his shirt off in a photo and apparently that was enough of a trigger, despite the fact that he was wearing pants! I appealed... was told it had been looked at... but the ban was not overturned. Which leads me to believe that real people never look at these things because it was painfully fucking obvious that there was no "Displaying Graphic Nudity or Sexual Content" in my post. On top of that... THE FUCKING POST WAS FOR FRIENDS ONLY! LIKE 99% OF MY POSTS ARE!! I'd post a screen capture, but Facebook only lets you access a few of your most recent bans.
I've also been thrown in Facebook Jail for defending gay-parented families. The original post which had a photo attacking LGBTQ persons because "they can't have families" didn't get taken down, but calling out their bigotry by pointing out that gay couples can adopt a bunch of kids or have artificial insemination (or whatever) if they want to have kids... BANNED! Because that's "Nudity or Sexual Activity." Yes, adoption... which by definition is getting a kid without sexual activity is defined as sexual activity. And, again, an appeal did nothing.
And here's the original post, which never got taken down (that I know of)...
I was also thrown in Facebook Jail for honoring Thích Quảng Đức... a Buddhist monk who set himself on fire to protest the Vietnam War (which I wrote about here). And it's like... okay. I posted a photo that Facebook considers "graphic violence" (WHICH WAS THE ENTIRE FUCKING POINT!) and they are a private company so they are within their right to take it down. But, on the other hand, fuck them for throwing me in Facebook Jail on top of removing it because there was context for the photo that should have been taken into account. I did not deserve to be thrown in jail for reminding people of our tragic history and honoring a man for demonstrating for peace. And yet I was... on two separate occasions... for the same fucking post. Two, two, two strikes for one!
And then I got thrown in jail again this morning.
For posting about buying allergy medication.
To my friends.
And of course I appealed it because there is fucking nothing about "guns, animals, and other regulated goods." But this is what I get every time I've tried throughout the day...
And, for the record, here is my full post... WHICH WAS RESTRICTED TO FRIENDS ONLY!...
During allergy season, I take one-and-a-half Benadryl so I don’t drown in my sleep. I buy a large bottle at Walgreens that lasts me over a year. Today I went to buy more. Walgreen no longer offers large bottles of the tablets, only the capsules. WHICH YOU CAN’T CUT IN HALF!! So to save money I bought a bottle of 600 capsules and three boxes of 100 tablets. This giving me 600 doses total. — EXCEPT, guess what, Walgreens will only sell me two bottles total because it can be used for self-harm, I guess. But this is where it gets so fucking stupid. I can buy two bottles of 600 capsules for 1200 total pills. But can’t buy four bottles total for 1000 pills. This is the stupidest fucking shit I’ve ever heard of. All I’m asking for is some common fucking sense. But no. AND THEN… Walgreens wants you to buy more, so they have a buy one, get one 50% off… which means to get the discount I have to buy two boxes of 100 and skip the 600 entirely?? My God. The insanity is fucking insane.
And then this nonsense gets particularly unhinged. Because a local friend in the comments told me that she gets her solid-pill, off-brand Benadryl from Costco in a 600-count bottle. She even volunteered to grab me a bottle the next time she's shopping there! And it's like, yes! Thank you! Things like this are the entire reason I am on Facebook in the first place!
It's things like this (and whatever the fuck is happening over on Twitter) that makes me even more sad that social media has replaced blogging as a way of interacting with friends and family. You will always... always... be under the thumb of others when you're interacting with people. Sure these companies are just trying to remove harmful content, which is fine. Bravo. But it's not working. Content which is actually endangering lives, persecuting and threatening people, and promoting stalking and harassment is still there.
As for me?
I could lose my entire Facebook account because of graphic nudity I didn't post. Sexual activity I didn't post. And "guns, animals, and other regulated goods" I didn't post (BENADRYL IS OVER-THE COUNTER YOU FUCKING DUMBASSES!).
So I guess it's pictures of my cats and what I had for dinner from here on out.
EXCEPT, OH NO...
Though I suppose I could always just post more innocent images... like when Tony Bennett's death was announced. EXCEPT ON NO...
Oh well. I'll always have blogging.
Maybe.
Earlier this week I was awakened by a massive clatter downstairs in the kitchen. When I came to my senses, I was like... is the water running? So I went downstairs and, sure enough, the water was running in the kitchen sink and the dishes that I couldn't fit in the dishwasher were scattered in the sink.
It became very obvious what had happened.
One of my cats (Jake) had jumped on the counter, then decided to investigate the dirty dishes to see if there was any food to be found, got too close to the sensor that turns the water on under the neck of the faucet, then got douched with water.
And, sure enough, when I went looking, Jake was under the bed in the guest room with a wet head.
Poor guy.
I think we both learned a lesson. I learned that I shouldn't leave dirty dishes in the sink. Jake learned that he should STAY OFF THE KITCHEN COUNTER AND NOT BE PLAYING IN THE SINK!
And speaking of Jake...
I was working in bed and Jake hopped next to me. As I went to pet him, I noticed that the sunset out my window was beautiful. Look at that amazing sunset, Jakey-Bear! Oh... sorry... you can't see colors very well, can you?
And this got me thinking about an article I read a while back about how cats see the world. Apparently they don't have the ability to see reds and warm colors... blues and greens are muted... their vision is a bit blurry, focusing more on motion... and they can see better than we do in low light. After looking at the images in the article, I adjusted the photo of the sunset to kinda-sorta approximate how I understand Jake sees it...
Yikes. Poor kitties.
Oh well... he got extra belly rubs out of sympathy...
For about fifteen seconds until he bit me. Something that has happened maybe two or three times since I've had him. I guess he really didn't want belly rubs after all.
It's another scorcher out there today, but never you fear about my melting... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Strange Decks! There is now no question what-so-ever that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is my favorite Trek. It has eclipsed The Original Series, as I knew it would. And this latest episode (dropping early in honor of ComicCon!)... which is a mind-blowing crossover with the comedic ANIMATED show, Star Trek: Lower Decks... is beyond genius. They brought voice actors Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid into Real Life and the transition is seamless. They are very much the same characters, just no longer animated...
Now, they could have easily did this as a throw-away episode. Or dismissed it as a dream. Or any number of things which would have kneecapped it into irrelevance. But it was well-thought-out and completely serious while honoring the tone and characters of their respective shows. It's borderline thrilling how Strange New Worlds keeps one-upping themselves episode after episode. AND THAT ENDING! Brilliant Trek. Brilliant television.
• American Heartland! In a shocking announcement, a new $2 BILLION theme park is being built in Tulsa. Called "American Heartland" this seems like a carbon copy of "Disney's America," a theme park outside of Washington, D.C. that was never built which is based around Americana...
Now, I think this is a cool idea. Definitely. But Oklahoma?!? And not Southern Oklahoma which is close to Texas and might have a longer operating season... Northeast Oklahoma, which likely has fairly mild winters, but not California/Florida mild. And it seems primed for failure given that the biggest city (Oklahoma City, 2-1/2 hours away) has under 700,000 people. The nearest actual major city is Dallas or St. Louis, but they're a five hour drive. Which begs the question... why not just put it near Dallas or St. Louis? They at least have a big population and a major airport there! But still... they are promoting a laundry list of experienced Disney/Universal attraction designers, so there's that. I'd like to see it, of course. But it seems as though this is going to go the way of "Disney's America" and won't be built.
• Seek Discomfort! one of my long-time favorite YouTube channels is Yes Theory which is a group of people doing extraordinary things via travel and adventure by stepping out of their comfort zone. It's a channel I binge for a while, then leave for a while, because while it's beautiful to behold... it's also emotionally overwhelming. We're so inundated with reasons to feel cynical that watching the opposite of that for too long can be tough. And a couple of their latest videos are pretty darn special...
If you're a longtime fan of the channel, that surprise guest in France was almost too much to take.
How amazing is that?
• 'MURICA AI! This Buzzfeed article is nuts: I Asked AI What Europeans Think Americans From Every Single State Look Like, And The Results Are Just Plain Mean. Mean? Maybe. But some of them are scary accurate. Go ahead and click through. I dare you.
• Rescued! Miracles happen. What an incredible story...
Is it wrong that the entire time watching the video I'm screaming "BUT HOW IS THE DOG DOING?!?
• Ketchup> Hallmark Channel's "June Weddings" event is over... but I went back to watch the first half hour of The Wedding Contract because I wasn't paying much attention until the end when I watched it last month. What's REALLY NICE is that Hallmark is putting a little diversity over the same old story... they had an Indian wedding, and this is a Jewish wedding (seriously... she's baking a challah for Shabbat dinner!). But the best part is how it takes place in Chicago... but not really. It's shot in Vancouver. BUT IT'S TOTALLY CHICAGO BECAUSE SHE'S SITTING ON A PARK BENCH WITH A SLICE OF DEEP DISH PIZZA NEXT TO HER! BWAH HA HA HAAA! But wait, there's more! They get a coffee at cart called Chicago's Finest Hot Dogs and... what's that on the cart there?
THERE'S A BOTTLE OF KETCHUP ON THE CART! BWAH HA HA HA HAAAAAAA! HA HA HAAAAAA!!! Clearly the set decorator has never been to Chicago. That ketchup would be hidden and provided (RELUCTANTLY) by request only. Ketchup on a hot dog in Chicago... BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA =gasp= HA HAAAA!!! People have died for less!
• POD PEOPLE! I really, really want to see this...
Looks interesting. Looks different. Has great lead actors. Why not?
Hope you're having a cooler Sunday than I am!
I am not particularly worried about my memory. Yet.
But I do have some memory "blind spots" that drive me crazy.
ME AT THE STORE: "Say! That's a great deal on toothpaste! Should I get one 3-Pack or two? I'll just go with one. I think I have a tube in the cupboard."
ME TONIGHT: "GUESS I'LL JUST PUT THESE TUBES WITH THE EIGHT OTHER TUBES IN MY CUPBOARD! WTF?!?"
Interesting to note how mad I got with my previous extraneous purchases, because I just chucked them in there without neatly stacking them.
It's absolutely fascinating how easy it is to drop astounding amounts of money on things that you're already spent money on.
As an example... the paint sample from the new company mixing the paint for my new kitchen doors and drawers arrived and it's a bit less warm. My choices were to A) Ask them to try again and wait another week... B) Wait until the original paint company gets the parts for their machine at the end of August... or C) Repaint my cupboard frames the slightly cooler color. I decided on Option C because I didn't want to wait any longer, and it was more in the direction of my tile color anyway.
$80.00 blown in the blink of an eye so I can pay for new paint...
The end result looks good, so now I wait for the new paint to arrive sometime this week... wait for the pieces to be painted... then wait for the installers to fit me into their schedule.
After that?
Should be my front yard landscaping.
Followed by the re-do of the upstairs bathroom which had to be torn out.
Talk about spending money on something I've already spent money on. That's going to be a doozy ON TOP OF the money I paid to my shitty fucking contractor who fucked it up in the first place.
I seriously should have bought a tent and lived out in the woods or something.
I was already furious that Whirlpool uses cheap-ass plastic axels on their wheels which corrode and fall apart after five years.
I mean, seriously... just look at this shit...
So when I installed the replacement upper rack glides (THIRD PARTY WITH *METAL* AXELS), I yelled "FUCK!" at least twenty times in the ten minutes it took to figure out how to work with Whirlpool's stupid-ass design. Pretty sure all the appliance manufacturers make cheap-ass fucking parts that fall apart so you have to pay for replacements... but that isn't any consolation because I am still filled with rage.
I would have gladly paid 50¢ more for my dishwasher if Whirpool would have used metal fucking axels. God what a fucking piece of shit.
This morning I took an Über back to The Big City to pick up my car. I was expecting a $500+ bill, but it was only $85 because the whole muffler didn't have to be replaced, it was only a connector or flange or something. There is still a rattling when you first accelerate, so that will have to be looked at, I suppose. But... it's far better than it was.
Now I just need to have the roof stripped and repainted, and I guess I've got a car for the next couple years.
The iPhone "Always-On Display" allows me almost two days of battery life (normal usage) which is a big improvement from when I first got the phone and it was just over a day of use. I never thought that I would care about it, but between being able to customize the lock screen with widgets and having live tiles for background app updates (SHADES OF WINDOWS PHONE!), it's a darn handy thing to have...
No more waking up my phone a half-dozen times to check on when my Über is arriving.
Well, that was a day.
I need quite badly to put it behind me and chill.
Like this...
Maybe I'll just drink instead.
My cats are developing personalities that are diverging more every day.
The only time Jake acts even a little bit upset is if he feels that I'm taking too long dishing up his meal. Otherwise? He's ridiculously chill all the time.
Jenny is more of a princess than ever, complaining when she doesn't get her way and letting you know when she feels neglected (which is often).
This is Jake waiting for breakfast. He found a sunny spot on the floor, then dropped down for a nap.
This is Jenny waiting for breakfast. Staring at me and occasionally meowing because I am not acknowledging her presence.
I don't know how Jake could get any more chill. But I'm sure that Jenny will find all kinds of ways of being more of a little princess.
It's Sunday. There's bullets. And life goes on... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Why Is The Clicker Called The Clicker? I actually remember this thing! This is a fascinating, fascinating story about the dawn of the television remote control, which went like this (here's a link in case YouTube is being a flaming pile of shit)...
ULTRASONIC?? I had no idea! Seriously, read the story. Worth your valuable time!
• Van Dyke! Speaking of things I had no idea about, here comes this fascinating look at The Dick Van Dyke Show (here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...
@darastarrtucker ♬ original sound - Dara Starr Tucker
I love running across stuff like this!
• In Your Love. Christ. Now they're burning Tyler Childers T-shirts on TikTok. Over a music video. Have you ever seen such a fragile group of snowflakes in your life? Guess they gotta act so ridiculously triggered in order to reaffirm their heterosexuality or Christianity or whatever it is they're so pressed about this time (here's a link in case YouTube is being a flaming pile of shit)...
It's a tragic love story that fits the song he wrote. But because it's two guys who fell in love, people are losing their ever-loving minds? For the life on me, I don't understand why people care about things that have zero affect on their lives.
• Thank You! I may have laughed for a solid two minutes after watching this (here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...
@wgnmorningnews #chicagonews #wgnmorningnews #wgnanchor #newsbloopers #blooper #chicago #chicagotiktok ♬ original sound - wgnmorningnews
Jesus. If saying "please" and "thank you" is too much for you to bear, just ignore it.
• Ski! THIS IS WHAT COURAGE LOOKS LIKE! She's in fourth grade! Turn the volume up on this one (here's a link in case YouTube is being a flaming pile of shit)...
Was I the only one holding their breath on this one?
• Spaced. After Anthony Rapp came forward with his story, thirty-some-odd additional men accused Kevin Spacey of sexual assault. He publicly apologized to some of them (including Rapp, who was a 14-year-old boy at the time of the alleged assault), came out as gay as a reason(?) for his "clumsy flirting" (AKA grabbing men's crotches), then said he was going to evaluate his behavior and get treatment. But in court he said that absolutely everything he admitted to and apologized for and "evaluated" was just something his publicist told him to say. Even while he admitted that one of the men who accused him of assault looked uncomfortable as he left.
My opinion of Spacey has nothing to do with "hopping on the condemnation bandwagon." It's thirty-plus accusations and Kevin Spacey's own words I am choosing to listen to. I'm not telling anybody how to feel about the guy... if a victory in court exonerates him of all wrong-doing in your eyes, then you do you... I'm just saying that grabbing men by the crotch is sexual assault every bit as much as if he were to grab women by the crotch, and I am not going to write off thirty men by saying they're overreacting to "clumsy flirting." You might as well be saying that they should be honored that a celebrated and powerful actor like Kevin Spacey would deem them worthy of being molested. I will not do that. I refuse to do that. No matter how "gentle and romantic" Spacey thought it was.
Hope you can enjoy what's left of your Sunday.
Paul Reubens has died.
I am a massive, massive fan. I was in college when Pee-Wee's Playhouse debuted, and somebody had recorded a bunch of episodes and played them on the big screen in the lounge. It was incredible. Despite being a show for kids, there was a lot of material for adults to latch onto as well. Pee-Wee's show was fun, smart, imaginative, diverse, brilliant television. Exactly the kind of thing kids should be watching.
But Paul Reubens was more than Pee-Wee. He has the absolute best death scene in the history of cinema from Buffy The Vampire Slayer (here's a link in case YouTube is being a dick)...
But it was Pee-Wee that made him (rightfully) famous, and I've had him make an appearance on Blogography more than once. Like this one from 2011, long before "President Trump" was unleashed on the world...
PolitiFact says... PANTS ON FIRE!
Needless to say, this DaveToon is more relevant today than it ever was.
As is Pee-Wee Herman...
Godspeed, Paul Reubens. You will be very much missed.
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