Don't mind the mess... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Forty-Nine! Even if you don't care about baseball, this short video will tell you why Tim Wakefield's passing is such a blow to Red Sox Nation. He was an absolute inspiration, on and off the field, and I loved watching the guy play...

And this video goes into a little more depth on his remarkable career and that incredible knuckleball...

Rest in peace, sir.

   
• Swiftly! The ongoing saga of the (possible!) romance between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce is something to behold. First he tells the world that he was bummed she didn't want to talk to him after her show that he went to because she's saving her voice. Apparently he had a friendship bracelet he wanted to give her with his number on it (friendship bracelets are a very Taylor Swift thing now, apparently). This was discussed on the podcast he has with his brother Jason. Which I've queued up here:

Adorable. But, I mean, it's Taylor Swift. There's no man on earth who woldn't want to take a shot. AND THEN... Taylor Swift broke the internet when she showed up at a Chiefs/Bears game... sitting in the Kelce box with Travis's mom!

Suddenly Kelce jersey's were sold out everywhere as Taylor Swift fans snapped them up at a record pace. But this could have just been a publicity stunt. At least until she showed up at the Jets/Chiefs game (with Sophie Turner, Blake Lively, AND RYAN REYNOLDS...

So now? Well... let's just say that this tweet pretty much sums it up...

"British Colonialism" being a not-so-thinly-veiled reference to Taylor's previous brief relationship with The 1975's lead singer Matty Healy.

   
• If Karma Was My Boyfriend... The entirety of that last bullet was to set up my sharing Young Jeffrey's latest song parody (of Swift's Karma, here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...

I don't know how Young Jeffrey pulls this off week after week. But it keeps me tuning in to KQMV Seattle, so whatever keeps him going, it's definitely getting listeners.

   
• Karma! If you're unfamiliar with the original song being parodied, this one's for you...

The video is a whole other bit of drama because it features the Ice Spice remix instead of the album version. Many speculate this was damage control for an insult that Matty Healy made towards Ice Spice (he being the previous Swift beau, aren't you keeping up?).

   
• Twilight! Meanwhile... back to the Kelce Brothers... I listen to their podcast every once in a while, and this is the madness that was the last one I heard...

When I looked this up to see if it was on YouTube, I wasn't aware that there was a video of Travis reacting. His pain is palpable. This is how I look when somebody talks to me about Harry Potter.

   
• Underwater! Map Men has another fascinating video out. This time talking about the internet...

I admit that the line from Texas to Louisiana got me. It doesn't seem like the best route for that would be underwater.

   
• NEWSFLASH! Conspiracy theories about FEMA’s Oct. 4 emergency alert test spread online. Uh huh. I just knew I wouldn't be able to get the latest COVID vaccination in peace. There's always people telling me I'm "going to die." Every. Fucking. Time. And this time it's from a FEMA Alert tone. The same damn test tone that they've been using since the 60's... but now is when they will be activating secret nanobots that have been introduced into vaccines? Jesus. It's a wonder that these conspiracy nut jobs have the brain power to breathe and tie their shoelaces. I mean, come on, I'm on COVID vaccination No. 6 AND STILL HAVEN'T DIED YET. But any day now, I'm sure.

   
And there's your bullets, my fellow Swifties.

My love of movies and television cause me to get obsessive over them in ways that are probably not healthy. And one expression of that would be watching YouTube videos that are deep dives into them. I watch these videos for shows I don't even like particularly much. But for shows I do?

Well...

They don't even have to go that deep for me to be all in. They just have to remind me of why I liked the show or movie so much. And here's some that I've watched recently if you've got time to kill. And I mean a lot of time, because they're all over one hour in length.

Good Karma: A My Name is Earl Retrospective (1:12:32)
My Name is Earl is one of my favorite television shows of all time. It was just so... wonderful... to see. It had a good message and the cast was amazing (though I honestly think Ethan Suplee as Earl's brother Randy outshined every other actor). And somebody did a deep dive on a show that deserves it...

   
Scrubs: My Retrospective (1:38:08)
If the above retrospective of My Name is Earl was a good watch for you, then you might want to watch this retrospective of another show I love, Scrubs, by the same guy. This show was consistently funny while tackling subjects that run the gammut from devastating to heart-warming. But it was always smart and entertaining while riding that line, and this takes a look at all of it...

Jason Sudeikis on Becoming Ted Lasso: "I didn't want to snark out anymore" (1:12:59)
When it comes to shows that deserve infinite comprehensive deep dives, number one on my list is Ted Lasso. It's simply the best television show I have ever seen. We're not there yet... but I did run across this interview with Jason Sudeikis which has a great look at his career up to a lengthy discussion on Ted...

Breaking Bad: Full Series Retrospective (1:20:24)
Landing in many critics' Top Ten List (and with good reason) is Breaking Bad. It was an exceptionally well-written show that gave us the spin-off Better Call Saul, which is a genius all its own. There's many lines crossed and, by the end of the series, the consequences of it all is what makes the show so great (along with some incredible performances). If you like deep dives, here's one for you...

Better Call Saul: Full Series Retrospective (1:31:05)
The fact that Vince Gilligan managed to follow-up one of the greatest shows of all time... with another one of the greatest shows of all time... is often called a "Television Miracle." And they're not wrong. Because in some ways, I actually prefer the prequel sequel to the original show. A lot of why that is can be found in this video...

Better Call Saul Did It Better (19:42)
Now, I know that this video isn't over an hour, so consider it a bonus addiion to the previous video. One of my all-time favorite deep divers gives his insight into Better Call Saul which manages to say more about the series in under 20 minutes than most people could offer in an hour...

The ENTIRE Story of Adventure Time in 86 Minutes (1:26:53)
One of the most incredible things to ever come out of animated television is Adventure Time. It's so beautifully imaginative that I was properly gutted when it ended. But then we got some great continuations (like Adventure Time: Distant Lands and the new Adventure Time: Fiona and Cake), but this is the complete story of the original show where it all began...

The ENTIRE Story of We Bare Bears in 109 Minutes (1:49:28)
Another retrospective by JarToon is a retrospective of the horribly underrated We Bare Bears. I cannot for the life of me understand why this cartoon wasn't a massive hit that was talked about endlessly. It's such a fantastic show that I am almost reluctant to recommend watching this video because it would be so much better if you just watched the original show. It's that good...

And that's probably enough deep dives this time around. If you watch them all, that's over 10 hours of content, then you might just have as big a problem as me!

This morning when I was scrolling through Facebook, I ran across a post taken from Tumblr about the FEMA alert which will be blaring on everybody's phones and televisions tomorrow.

I have a lot to say about this heinous idea, but more on that after the post. Please be sure to pay attention to the last line, which reads thusly: "If this doesn't make sense, then good news it's not for or about you but still reblog it because you never know who may need to know this"...

onetwothreemany writes:
FEMA is doing an emergency alert test on all TVs, radios, and cell phones on October 4, 2023, at approximately 2:20pm ET. If you live in the US and you have a phone you need to keep secret for any reason, make sure that it is turned off at this time. Yes, I'm doing this months in advance, and yes, my blog has very little reach, but I figure better to post about it more than less.

absurdistraccoonsterrorizelocals writes:
OCTOBER 4, 2023
TURN OFF YOUR OTHER PHONE AND DO NOT TURN IT ON AGAIN UNTIL YOU ARE ALONE AND SAFE BECAUSE THE ALARM WILL COME THROUGH AS SOON AS THAT PHONE IS POWERED ON.
AGAIN I REPEAT:
OCTOBER 4, 2023
THE ALARM WILL COME THROUGH AS SOON AS THAT PHONE IS POWERED BACK ON. SO ONLY POWER IT BACK ON WHEN IT IS SAFE TO DO SO.
OCTOBER 4, 2023
If this doesn't make sense, then good news it's not for or about you but still reblog it because you never know who may need to know this.

   
On the post I wrote this for people who might be confused...
"I take it that this is meant as a message to people in situations with domestic abuse or are in situations where they might need to have a secret second phone for emergencies so they can call for help even if their primary phone is taken from them. They are just being told to turn off that phone and wait until they are in a place where they won't be discovered so that your secret phone isn't outed. — For this reason, I find it abhorrent that you cannot opt out of the test. This is 'government overreach' that is endangering lives... and I don't know why we aren't talking about THAT instead of 'THE GUBERMINT IS ACTIVATING THE COVID VACCINE!' or whatever."

And I stand by every fucking word of this. Used to be that you could opt out of these tests in your phone's notification settings...

But now the government has the ability to override your settings... even if the reason you have these settings is because you have a secret phone which could put you in life-threatening danger if discovered.

I honest-to-God do not fucking understand how anybody thought this was a good idea. Literally putting already-vulnerable people at risk is considered the government looking out for us? Nobody... at any level... stepped up to say "Hey, I know that FEMA alerts are important, but it's even more important that we don't put one set of lives in danger while looking out for another set of lives?" Or maybe somebody did step up, but they were shouted down over the "lesser of two evils" stance. Which means that woman in an abusive marriage or that gay kid in an unsafe family or that trans guy being bullied at work, well... too bad for them, I guess.

People talk about government overreach all the time. Big corporations which get fined for polluting water supplies... rich people who think they are above paying taxes... ex-presidents being held accountable for doing heinous illegal shit... it's rampant. But those are not cases of government overreach. Those are specific situations where things are actually functioning as they should be. But this FEMA alert? This right here? This is government overreach of the worst possible kind, and I wish we were talking about it.

A couple weeks ago a friend and I were chatting about life and we somehow got around to the worst jobs we've ever had. Mine was easy... picking cherries. His was a bit more complex.

My friend had lost his job when he was in his late 30's. Nowhere was hiring in his field, he needed money to pay the bills, and so he took a job waiting tables. The pay in restaurant work is not great, but when you wait tables you can pick up some fairly good money on tips, so that's where he went.

Then he had to clarify. He actually didn't mind the work at all. It was the job he hated.

Sure it was long hours on your feet spent trying to keep multiple balls in the air... all while trying to serve people who can be less than patient... but there are worse ways to make a living. I understood this perfectly, having had worked in restaurants myself.

The problem could be summed up like this...
One week into the job, he passed a dinner bill off to a couple of guys in nice suits. He was anticipating a good tip, which was money he needed, so he was in a good mood as he picked up the ticket to run their credit card. But when he got to the register, he saw it.

NO TIP! was written on the line that was reserved for it, and he was genuinely puzzled.

He took the receipt back to them to get a signature and said something like "I'm new on the job... can you tell me where I went wrong so I don't make that mistake again?"

The guy who paid the bill looked up at him and said something like "Oh? Were you looking for a tip? Here's a tip... go to college and get a real job if you want more money instead of asking for a handout."

My friend worked at that same restaurant for over a year until he got a job that was profession-adjacent to what his experience was. He eventually used it as a stepping stone to get a job that was better-suited for his training at the same company. Which made the fact that it initially paid less than what he earned at the restaurant entirely worthwhile.

So while the work of waiting tables was okay, the job of having to put up with occasional shitty people was the worst he had ever had.

I wish I could end my friend's story being able to say "Six months later, the guy who treated him so badly showed up asking him for a job, and my friend laughed at him and said HERE'S A TIP: DON'T TREAT PEOPLE LIKE GARBAGE WHO MIGHT BE THE GUY HIRING YOU FOR A JOB ONE DAY! HA HA HA!" But that only happens in internet memes. And in movies, I guess.

A tip is not a handout.

Many states (and all states back then, I believe) pay wait staff something called "cash wage." Which can be something ridiculous like $2 an hour. It was meant to be supplemented by tips so that somebody waiting tables could earn minimum wage. If they did great work and could hustle at a good restaurant, they could do better than minimum wage. Of course now there are states (like my own Washington) where the "cash wage" is the minimum wage... and so a tip is, in fact, a tip. But that's not true everywhere. And it gets worse when you recognize the fact that you don't keep 100% of that tip. You have to "tip out" (share the tip) with cooks, bussers, dishwashers, cleaners, and the like. Some restaurant owners even step in and demand some of the tips you earned.

So, yeah, my friend getting stiffed on a tip by two assholes accusing him of wanting a "handout" might be an amusing anecdote if tips were, in fact, fully additional to minimum wage. But for him it meant something like not being able to put food on the table because he was probably making $2 an hour.

And it wasn't like he wouldn't have rather been working at a "better job," if that was an option, so the "advice" he was given wasn't even helpful. It was just cruel. And can you imagine how cruel it would be if your family didn't have shitloads of money to send you to college so you can "get a real job" and you had to make your way on your own? And I resent the implication that waiting tables isn't a "real job" in the first place. To be a good waiter takes skills that would bury a lot of people. It's an honest job that takes hard work and an ability to be personable and friendly even on your worst days.

In countries like Australia, all wages are living wages. Which actually works out in the end because even though things are more expensive because people can make a living at one job instead of having to work three jobs, it balances out because everybody can do more than just work to live, and they have enough money to do more than just scrape by.

Like eat out at restaurants from time to time.

But here in America? Well, if I can't afford to leave a tip, then I accept that I can't afford to eat out, and instead make meals out of whatever I've got rattling around in my cupboards or stuffed in a corner of my refrigerator somewhere.

Washington State may have a cash wage that's equal to minimum wage, and our minimum wage is pretty good here, but I have no idea what my waiter's circumstances are. They could very well be working to support a family, pay off medical bills, put a parent into a nursing home, or any of a million different things that minimum wage isn't going to touch. Because that's what "entry level, minimum wage jobs" are designed for now-a-days. With the goverment shipping all our "good jobs" overseas, people are doing the best they can with the job they could find.

And I won't tell that person to "get a real job" by writing "NO TIP!" on their ticket.

The new Star Wars series Ahsoka has done something I never thought possible.

Needless to say, this is going to be a spoiler-soaked post, so keep that in mind if you're one of the few people insane enough to have not spent your valuable time watching this excellent series.

You have been warned.

Actually, I lied. The series managed to do two things I didn't think possible.

• Completely redeem Hayden Christensen's performance as Anakin Skywalker. No joke. Turns out it wasn't his acting that was so horrifically bad... it was the shitty dialogue and script he was trying to work with in the shitty prequels. This is something that not even the Obi-Wan series managed to do. It almost makes me want an Anakin Skywalker series, now that I know he could actually manage to lead it.
• Be accessible even though it really shouldn't have been. This series, even more so than The Mandalorian, relies on people having previous knowledge of all the Star Wars. And not just the movies... the animated series and books as well. And yet... despite not dumbing everything down and hand-holding every step... I still think that somebody who was unfamiliar with any of it would manage to appreciate the show just fine. Truly remarkable. You don't have to know who Ezra Bridger (aka "Space Moses") is, he's just a cool character in the present made all the richer if you know his past. Same for Grand Admiral Thrawn. And even Ahsoka, really. Hats off to Dave Filoni for managing that.

Taking place before the rise of The First Order, Ahsoka dips deep, deep into Star Wars lore in order to explain how The First Order could even happen given that The Empire had just been defeated. Along the way we get Zombie Stormtroopers, C-3PO, and Anakin Skywalker in a time period after he became Darth Vader, but who is actually in flashback form prior to that when he was training Ahsoka during The Clone Wars.

There's also plenty of delicious sci-fi battles with starships, blasters, and lightsabers galore. All very, very cool to watch. It makes me thrilled for Star Wars in a way I haven't been in a while.

Unfortunately there's also a race of turtle people that are every bit as annoying as Ewoks. And the whole Zombie Stormtroopers ordeal was absurd.

But anyway...

One of the best surprises for me was how delicious Baylan Skoll was utilized as a villain despite his limited screen time. He's an entirely new character for the series brilliantly played by the late Ray Stevenson, who tragically passed away after filming (he also played Volstagg in the Thor movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe). The fact that he won't be able to appear in future Star Wars projects is a gut-punch to be sure. It sure looked like his story was going somewhere interesting considering those were statues of The Ones at the end.

But Thrawn was the villain of the day, and he was everything you could hope for. Cool, calculating, and oh so deadly. I don't know what I was expecting, but certainly nothing this amazing. His history in the Star Wars universe is crazy long and deep. I've read many of the novels, comics, and saw him in the animated series... but I'm acutely aware that I don't even know the half of it. Fortunately I didn't really need to, and knowing the stuff that I do just made him a more realized villain for me. Whatever Dave Filoni has planned for his feature Star Wars film will very clearly involved Thrawn, and I cannot wait for that.

And speaking of...

Ending the series as a cliffhanger is hardly surprising. We knew that a movie would come next. We knew that this was an appetizer for the main course. And yet... still kinda shitty. Although... Ezra's reunion with Chopper and Hera crushed me a little bit. It was so simple and understated that it caught me in all the feels. They could have dragged that shit on for ages, but short and sweet was brilliantly played. I loved that.

No word on if we're getting a second season of Ahsoka once the movie is done. But Lord I sure hope so, because this is absolutely everything you could want out of Star Wars and the best Star Wars Disney+ series by a mile. The Mandalorian faltered a bit in its third season. Boba Fett rang a bit hollow, and Obi-Wan could have been better story-wise, featuring plot-holes big enough to fit the Death Star through.

And now I'm going to resist the urge to watch the series all over again because I think it will hit sweeter if I hold off for six months.

I'm not an overly-sentimental guy. Sure I have experiences that I treasure and I guess thinking about them could be considered sentimentality... but I don't really view it that way. One area that I fully admit being sentimental about is food. It just pushes all the sensory memory buttons for me. For my Washington grandma, her apple pie was truly epic. Award-winning epic. Mind-bogglingly epic. For my California grandma, it was her incredible enchiladas that send me. I make them more often than is probably healthy, but it was something I associate with her so deeply that it goes beyond a memory. It's a connection with how I remember her.

This is getting somewhere I promise.

Another thing that my California grandma made that I love is "Magic Marshmallow Rolls." I remember very, very well the first time I got to eat them. They were just beyond anything I had ever had before. Melt in your mouth incredible. My mom got the recipe from her, made them from time to time (but never often enough), and once I became an adult I got the recipe and started making them for myself. But then I became a vegetarian, so the gelatin in marshmallows meant that I don't make them very often now. I wish there was a vegetarian marshmallow that worked the same, but it doesn't seem to work that way. Oh well.

Fast-forward to earlier this week.

I needed to place a grocery delivery order on Monday night for delivery Tuesday morning. I decided that I would order the large marshmallows and crescent rolls required for Magic Marshmallow Rolls. Essentially you coat a marshmallow in melted butter with sugar and cinnamon then wrap the crescent roll dough around it. When you cook it, the marshmallow melts and disappears, leaving behind sweet, gooey goodness. It's for this reason that they are also called "Jesus Resurrection Rolls" or "Easter Empty Tomb Rolls"... assumably Jesus is supposed to be the marshmallow in this scenario, and he disappears from his crescent dough "tomb" when he gets "resurrected."

Then yesterday morning I got a notification that Safeway had made substitutions on my order.

The Jet-Puffed large marshmallows were out of stock.

They asked if they could substitute mini marshmallows. And my only option is to click "Yes" or "No." You can't talk to the shopper and ask them to substitute with a different brand of large marshmallows like you can with Instacart. You can select a substitution before you send your order, but it takes a lot of time to go through every item, so I often skip it.

I was mad.

How the fuck can I replace my single Large Jesus Marshmallow with a bunch of Tiny Jesus Marshmallows and get the dough to seal around them without it becoming a lumpy, leaky mess? If I had wanted mini marshmallows, I would have ordered them. Where is the correlation with this substitution? I guess it's for the people who don't care about the size... they only care that they're made by Jet-Puffed.

I don't get it.

It's like the time they wanted to substitute a pepperoni frozen pizza for the cheese pizza I had ordered. I'm a vegetarian. I don't eat meat. Which is why I ordered a cheese pizza. And it's like... in what universe does this make a lick of sense? So lesson learned. I now specify a pizza substitution that I can actually eat. And this week I learned I have to substitute large marshmallows with large marshmallows if I actually want large marshmallows.

If only I wasn't so lazy I'd be enjoying Jesus Resurrection Rolls right now.

Instead his tomb will have to wait until next week when I can =shudder= go to the store.

I almost ran out of the "urinary care" prescription cat food that Jake needs and Jenny also eats. This is what I supplement to "wet" food, which is everything from Chicken of the Sea salmon or tuna and =shudder= anchovies to cat food that's soups, broths, and canned.

It wouldn't be the end of the world. I still have the Meow Mix that I feed to the neighbor cats, but it's not ideal if I'm going to keep Jake out of the cat hospital...

Anyway...

As I always do, I look at the seasonal toys to see if there's anything Jake and Jenny will play with for 20 minutes then abandon. I found Spooky Donuts and Kitty Crackle Catnip Candy Corn...

Jake stopped to smell the ones I threw on the stairs, but was mostly not interested. He has only a mild reaction to catnip...

His sister, on the other hand...

She gets high on the 'nip, that's for sure...

Jake was more interested in the box, as usual...

And, sure enough, the toys are completely ignored now. Halloween was nice while it lasted.

The world is falling apart, again, but there's calm amongst the storm... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Woooooo... ZOMBIES! Any COVID vaccinated people had the FEMA test tone activate the 5G to turn you into an undead zombie yet? Because I got all six COVID vaccinations and still nothing. I wish it would hurry up and unalive me so I can be a real zombie right now instead of a work zombie who only wishes he were dead.

   
• Fly Spirit Airlines! Honesty. How refreshing!

What the heck is this? LOL. Still glad I'm not traveling non-stop.

   
• Satisfying Sound! There's a silly little app called Klack that makes old-style keyboard sounds when you type on a Mac. Right down to the "clunk" sound that the spacebar makes! (and the heavier "click" you get when pressing the backspace key). It's just $4 and I cannot express how much I love it. Makes typing more fun than it has a right to be. If you have a Mac and you're curious to know what it's about, here you go.

   
• Calling All Speakers. There's so much that could be said about the idiocy surrounding Kevin McCarthy getting ousted as Speaker of the House. The dumbass brought it all on himself thinking he could both suck up to the MAGA contingent and go around them, so there's no real sympathy to be had. But anyway... here's one tweet and two videos comment that says it better than I could...

And now this...

And of course Jeff Jackson has the scoop (here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...

Now I guess we sit back and see what nightmare comes next.

   
• GHOSTS! Hallmark Channel has a movie with ghosts?!?

It was actually pretty good. If you're looking for a totally not spooky movie to watch to psych you up for Halloween, give this one a shot.

   
• Your Government in Inaction! Government exists to sit on progress. It's coming up on a YEAR since Digital Driver's Licenses were proposed for Washington State. Still hasn't made it to fucking committee. Honest to God... I have no fucking clue what these assholes do all fucking day that shit never gets done. We should have the damn things by now for people who want to opt-in to using them. A year, AND NOTHING... and lots more steps to go before it gets to sit on Jay Inslee's desk for another fucking year...

At this rate TELEPORTERS will be invented before backwards Washington State has digital driver's licenses. What the fuck is it going to take to get representatives in government who actully want to get shit done?

   
• NEWSFLASH: California governor vetoes bill to make free condoms available for high school students, citing cost! — THIS SHOULD BE THE DECISION OF THE PARENTS! — And I agree. Except there are dipshits who are all "MY CHILD WON'T HAVE PREMARITAL SEX BECAUSE WE ARE A CHRISTIAN FAMILY!" who are essentially endangering their children's lives and inviting unwanted pregnancies because their kids are sexually active despite their ignorance (see: Sarah Palin, and shitloads of other "Good Christian Families" who end up with grandchildren because of premarital sex). So the truth is that abstinence-only education doesn't work. Kids are becoming sexually active whether their parents want it or not. And a decision has to be made as to whether we, as a society, protect these kids from their parent's bullshit. Unfortunately, Gavin Newsom made a bad call. I don't give a single fuck WHAT parents think. IF YOU WANT TO CURB ABORTION NUMBERS... GIVE CONDOMS TO EVERYBODY AND MAKE SURE THEY KNOW HOW TO USE THEM! As for cost... can you really put a price on essential shit like this?

   
Best of luck. To all of us.

I've always been a Peter Gabriel fan. So when my long-time blogging friend, Jester, asked if I would go to see him perform live in Seattle, I jumped on the opportunity.

It was so much more than a concert though. It was more like art from the jump. A countdown clock was projected on the stage where a worker progressively erased the hands and drew new ones to tell the time...

And then the show was on...

I honest to Betsy don’t understand how Peter Gabriel sounds just as good as he did 40 years ago. The guy is 73 years old and killing it. I was expecting his voice to have weakened after all these years, but nope! Here is him performing his hit Sledgehammer now...

Vs. when the song debuted, shown here with the groundbreaking video that Peter Gabriel unleashed back in 1986 (which won nine MTV Music Awards...

Incredible. Interesting to note that portions of the video were made by by Nick Park (of Aardman Animations fame) and had Peter Gabriel being "animated" frame-by-frame for 16 hours while laying under a sheet of glass.

But anyway...

The concert itself was three hours long divided into two parts by an intermission. Which is to say that Gabriel was essentially his own opening act. In what was a very odd choice, he decided to fill the show not with his biggest hits (although some of them were in there, including Sledgehammer*, In Your Eyes**, and Solsbury Hill***)... but with all the tracks from his forthcoming album, i/o, which accounted for a full half of the songs he performed. I'm guessing only a handful of people in the audience had heard the few tracks that got released earlier this year (on each full moon). But, for the most part, these were songs nobody had any experience with what-so-ever.

I was okay with it. Some of them I really liked (Live and Let Live is a wonderfully upbeat track that I loved). The one misstep was the song, And Still, which he wrote for his mother, which ground the set to a screeching halt. It was a lovely song, but horribly out of place. Maybe if he had put it somewhere else in the setlist?

There were people in attendance, however, who did not feel the same as I did.

A couple sitting to our right and three people sitting in the row ahead of us decided to bail at half-time. Apparently a self-declared Peter Gabriel "super-fan" to our right was furious that she had spent money for tickets and called the show "awful" before leaving. Which is to say that she thought it was awful because Gabriel didn't play the songs she wanted to hear (Jester noted "She was probably only familiar with the album 'So' and was mad that she only got two tracks from it (of the five total that he played)." And it's like... well... okay. But the insanity of it all still doesn't process in my brain.

Would I have love love loved to have heard him perform my favorite song, While the Earth Sleeps... a collaboration with Deep Forest for the movie Strange Days (which is the best closing credits song ever made)? Of course I would! I would have lost my mind. But was I going to storm out of the concert in protest? Oh fuck no...

We did get to hear his collaboration with Kate Bush, Don't Give Up though. Unfortunately Kate Bush was not available to perform it with him, so he did it with one of his backup singers (Ayanna Witter-Johnson) and she slayed the part. It was gorgeous...

But anyway... wonderful concert...

In addition to Peter Gabriel telling a bit of a story between songs that wove them all together in an entertaining way and promoting his humanitarian outlook on the planet... each song was accompanied with a great visual art piece. And, in a refreshing bit of acknowledgement, he actually gave a shoutout to the artist each time!

After all is said and done, I am thrilled that I finally got to see peter Gabriel perform live. I was going to take a pass because... well... COVID... but I honestly don't know if he will ever tour again at this scale. So it was very much worth it. I'm fully-six-times-vaxed, and if I die then I die, I guess...

And what a way to go.

*This Sledgehammer anecdote from Harry Styles while talking to Howard Stern about working in Peter Gabriel's recording studio is so great. "Everybody does it"...

**In Your Eyes is a song which has deep meaning to my friends group, and the arrangement that we got was sublime.

***I didn't know that Solsbury Hill was an actual place until I was riding on the bus back from Stonehenge in England and it was pointed out to me.

As I was driving over the mountains for the Peter Gabriel concert with Jester, a big pickup came roaring up behind me. I was in the passing lane, but I was... A) Actually passing somebody, and B) Wasn't going under the speed limit... so there was no cause for him grinding on my bumper. The speed limit was 70mph, I was passing at 75mph. As what usually happens, the person I was passing increased their speed, which meant I had to increase mine to 80mph... then finally 85mph just so I could finally pass them and get that truck off my ass.

The minute I pulled right again, the truck went blasting past me. Probably flipping me off in the process, because isn't that what these aggressive asshole drivers do? Even when I wasn't doing anything wrong (except exceeding the speed limit so he would get off my ass).

But then?

Sweet Justice.

As we rounded the next corner an unmarked police car was pulling off the side of the road with lights blaring.

And sure enough, I caught up to the pickup that was likely going 90mph as he was pulled over.

Ultimately I don't give a shit if somebody wants to exceed the speed limit (although I think that 20mph over the limit is probably too dangerous a speed to be going). Heck, I bounce around 5mph over myself. But holy crap... is it really necessary to terrorize people on the road to do it? It's not like I was driving in the passing lane under the speed limit and not passing anybody! I was using the lane as it was designed to be used!

Oh well. Assholes will be assholes and all that.

With all the violence, death, and persecution going on right now, it would be so great if everybody could just not contribute to any more of it. Find the time to be kind and all that. And yet... exactly the opposite seems to be happening. If anything, the assholery is being ramped up to a frightening degree.

And the response to it all leads to an interesting observation on humanity: there's money and power to be made from hate, and the usual suspects are cashing in hard on it. That's what they do.

Most of the time I find myself rolling my eyes and marveling at the hypocrisy of it all (so much Christian Love™®© out there!) while trying not to go insane.

But, alas, it's too late for me. Nothing else to do but hide under the covers, eat chocolate pudding, and delve into my secret shame: watching reruns of The League for the hundredth time...

Because Taco has the best outlook on life in these trying times.

I can't really comment on "The Fall of Twitter" because I've rarely ever used that platform. On the contrary, I've actively avoided it when at all possible. Finding a way to condense my thoughts into 280 characters or less was a hassle that was rarely rewarded with any meaningful dialogue (but I did get plenty of public hate, whether from my content or the misunderstanding of truncated content). Eventually Twitter allowed you to become "verified" by paying for it, and those users were allowed to blow past 280 characters to 1,000 or 2,500 or some more respectable number. I never wanted to pay for the privilege, so I took a hard pass. Again. Regardless of my personal experience (or lack thereof) using Twitter, I've been reading an increasing number of articles which have proclaimed it dead. Or, in the case of The New Yorker, "no longer fun."

What I can comment on is the disastrous rebranding of one of the most valuable brands in the known universe. Elon Musk renamed "Twitter" to "X" which was a bizarre strategy that could only be dreamed up by a billionaire who doesn't give a shit about the irreplaceable power of brand recognition. "Tweets" have been embedded into world culture (and the world's lexicons) in a way that companies fantasize about. But Musk has an obsession over the name "X" for some reason, so now instead of tweets we have xeets or what-the-fuck-ever. Musk does a lot of crazy shit (but likely no more crazy than the things I would do if I were a billionaire) but this one takes the absolute cake. The guy paid FORTY-FOUR BILLION DOLLARS for something he proceeded to utterly decimate.

And don't think that I am just making an observation over something I refuse to investigate. I read numerous stories and watched interviews where Elon Musk attempted to explain it all. And it goes something like this...

“The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video. In the months to come, we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world. The Twitter name does not make sense in that context, so we must bid adieu to the bird.”

On the surface, this is not at all illogical. Chinese society runs on an app called WeChat (微信).

If you are unaware of the sheer insanity of just how critical WeChat has become to the Chinese people, I've got a mindblowing video for you. It's quite a long video because they address a number of controversies surrounding the app, but it's a fascinating watch...

   
Now, if you didn't watch the above video (and who could blame you), this is a frame from it that's the critical bit...

WeChat combines the shopping of Amazon, the videos of YouTube, the dating of Tinder, the music of Spotify, the search of Google, the financial transactions of PayPal, the social media of Facebook, the telephone connectivity of WhatsApp, the movie studio of Netflix, the ride-sharing of Über, the reviews of Yelp, the videoconferencing of Zoom, and the food delivery of Deliveroo (the American equivalent being InstaCart and ÜberEats)... all in one app!

And this is what Elon Musk is wanting for his "X" platform (a concept he tried once before but never got off the ground). It is, apparently, the main reason behind him wanting to buy Twitter in the first place (along with his ego, I'm sure).

Now, I have serious doubts that a WeChat-type service conglomerate could ever emerge in the USA. We have anti-monopoly laws, sure, but they get ignored or enforced seemingly at random, so that's not my reasoning. My thinking is that there is no unifying government mandate which encourages this to happen. Of course there are politicians who want to keep us from having access to things they don't like (or, more accurately, things that they are fucking PAID to not like, such as TikTok), but apparently nobody has paid them to work on app consolidation yet. Somebody should just tell Musk that he needs to start buying off politicians to make it happen! Heaven only knows that there are enough of them up for sale, so it's really only a matter of money. Of which Musk has plenty.

But anyway...

I am watching the fall of Twitter, er, "X"... with disinterest. Why would I care that a platform is either "dying" or "no fun" when I don't use it?

Okay... I'm watching with a little bit of interest since Twitter is part of the reason that blogging died (ah, those were the days!).

Ultimately to me this is just like the death of FAX machines and pagers. It seems to actually be happening, but we won't know for sure until it's really gone. I take no joy in it, especially because of those who rely on it, but don't expect me to care. And if Twitter weathers the storm and roars back as the "X Everything App" that Musk always dreamed of? Well... I wouldn't want all the apps I use to be consolidated under Elon Musk any more than I would a government... so I wouldn't be thrilled about it (that's why my primary "social media platform" is Blogography!), but I guess I'd have little choice but to install it.

It's either that or retreat to a cave and commune with nature.

Something that is getting more appealing by the day.

It took four years... but my kitchen renovation is finally finished. Well, except for the floor, which I can't afford to replace just yet. But most of the remodel is done.

When I moved in, I was blessed with a kitchen that had dingy linoleum countertops and peachy-putty-grey-brown wood cabinets. It was so awful, and I hated it since day one. I am very particular about keeping a clean kitchen, and everything in this place was fighting me on it. How could I tell if something is dirty if it looks dirty all the time?

In addition to the cabinets being such an ugly color, they were these complex carved inlay design which had a literal ledge-on-a-ledge at the top to collect dirt. I was grossed out every time I cooked in my own kitchen, despite scrubbing it constantly.

See that tiny corner bevel WITHIN the main bevel? Try getting that clean. You have to use a brush and it's always dirty.

And so I had it in my head that I would rip everything out and remodel it.

Then I looked at all the money I didn't have and decided to wait. Which was really tough to do because I hated this kitchen so very, very much.

Finally, in 2019, three years after I moved in... I couldn't take it any more. I ripped those ugly-ass cabinet doors off and decided I would make my own cabinet doors and drawers then paint it all myself. It may take a while... because I'd have to save the money after each step... but I would have the kitchen I always wanted eventually: cement countertops, white subway tile walls, and white shaker-style cabinets.

But then the pandemic hit, and everything stopped until Fall 2020.

First I painted the cabinet frames (August 27, 2020).

The countertops were installed (August 28, 2020).

A new sink was next (September 1, 2020).

I ran out of money for a year (then had issues hiring somebody because of COVID) but finally got my tile walls (November 4, 2022).

Had my cabinet frames professionally repainted (October 19, 2022).

Ordered my cabinet doors and drawers in late 2022. Then waited months for measurements to be taken. Then waited months for the pieces to arrive so I could select paint. Then waited more months to get them installed after several delays (July 19, 2023). Except the glass for the cabinets I wanted to have windows didn't arrive, one of the doors was the wrong size, and one of the doors was built wrong. But, hey, things were looking nearly finished. Here's a before and after...

Then yesterday I finally got the last of my cabinet doors installed... with glass (October 13, 2023)...

Ironically I had glass put in the doors with the dishes and glasses so that when I had guests over they could find stuff without openeing every door in the kitchen. But then COVID happened and I stopped having guests. Oh well. At least I won't be forgetting where they are.

Along the way, I also got the cheap-ass drawer glides replaced with glides that are heavy-duty enough to actually support some weight, and they pull out all the way so I can get to things in the back. It's glorious...

So, yeah. A long time coming. But I have my frickin' kitchen back at last.

AFTER FOUR YEARS.

The first two of which I was living out of boxes on the countertops because I had ripped everything out in anticipation of having work done that never happened.

I don't know if it was worth the wait. But at least I finally have the kitchen I wanted all along.

Today started off good enough.

Woke up. Fed the cats. Handled my emails. Did some work. Read my news feeds. Then waited for Jake and Jenny to come hang out on my electric blanket so I could chill in bed for a while. A long while, since I had no plans of going into the office since I've been working my guts out all week...

But then I done fucked up by getting out of my comfortable bed to watch the (partial) eclipse that would be happening.

Which I should have investigated when I left my bed the first time, because then I would have seen that the skies were completely overcast and I wouldn't be able to see a fucking thing.

It's all been downhill from there.

The only way I even knew the eclipse was happening is that it got dark enough to trigger the light sensor and turn on my lights because my house thought it was night time. I really, really need to get a time range set on that automated routine. Especially now that the weather will blot out the sun at random moments as the weather gets darker and darker.

The good news is that my grocery delivery arrived.

Yesterday I saw an advertisement for Sour Patch Kids and had a craving for the watermelon-flavored candies they came out with. Except the mini mart didn't have them, so I placed a grocery delivery. My local store had the watermelon candies mixed in with regular Sour Patch Kids in a Halloween bagged assortment...

So that's something, I guess.

As for my cats? They've moved on without me.

Fall has come and the weather is dreary and cold, but it's warm in my heart... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• The Price of Cinema is Too Damn High! I loved Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One. It is smart, exciting, and I can't wait for Part Two. What gets me is that the movie cost $291 MILLION to make. And while I'm not staying that it wasn't money well-spent (this movie is insane)... I am saying that it's $567 million box office means that the movie barely made any money after promotion. If it made any money at all...

They seriously need to stop making movies that cost these utterly bonkers amount of money. It is totally fucking up the industry, and failures like this (and so many other... The Flash, Fast X, Indiana Jones, to name some) are going to make it so that studio movies die a horrible death. That's no fun for any of us. Surely they can be more clever with less money? Because this just isn't sustainable any more.

   
• Fantasy Football! I remember when The League first debuted. It was amazing to me that it managed to make it on the air given how raunchy it was. But it endured for seven seasons, and I was a huge fan for the first four seasons. A fan for the fifth and sixth season. And was still watching for the final season, although it most definitely did not go out on a high note...

As I mentioned on Wednesday, I've been rewatching all the episodes on Hulu. Now that I have some distance from the end of the series, I cannot help but wonder if they came back for an 8th season what that would be like. I honestly don't know... but it seems like it would be a worthwhile thing to take a look at.

   
• On the Other Hand... The new Frasier is kinda... not great. It's nowhere near the level of Cheers and Frasier and I'm wondering why this was the direction they took. I mean, it's not as tragic as some of the reviews made it out to be. They tried to get some heart into it and there are funny moments despite itself. But all I feel while watching it is wanting to go re-watch the original Frasier and also rewatch Deception to see Jack Cutmore-Scott in something that was actually good and Sirens so I could see Kevin Daniels in something good. At least that way I won't have to see "David" be a horrific substitute for "Niles"... it's like he's there JUST to be unfunny and cringe.

Will & Grace managed to come back as good as it ever was... but too many of these revivals just aren't working. But because I loved the original Frasier I'm going to keep watching in the hopes that the show finds its footing. Because I'm watching the very first episode of the first Frasier and it was absolute gold from the jump.

   
• Hot Sauce! I love hot sauce. I started with the mild green sauce that my mom loved (something I still eat on tacos when I make them at home, because it's the flavor I'm used to. Later I moved on to Tabasco, which has more heat and a vinegar tang that makes it a delicious addition to everything from sauces to potato salad. Now I split my time between Tabasco, Cholula, and Sriracha. They are similar enough that I can use them interchangeably, but different enough that I prefer them for specific foods (occasionally I pick up a bottle of Frank's RedHot, which is not so hot, and Tapatío as well). Last year I was trying to save money, so I started keeping track of which brand I use most. I thought it would be Tabasco, but it ended up being Cholula because it has a bit more heat. So now I buy just that one sauce to save money so I'm not buying three and four. AND THEN... I decided to try something hotter. So now I'm addicted to El Yucateco Red...

It's more than just "hot" because it still adds nice flavor (unlike the hotter sauces I've tried where I can't even taste anything but fire). And now I'm wondering if I've reached my hot sauce limit? Or eventually will this not be hot enough either? Because it's only 5,790 on the Scoville scale, and that's barely hitting the second of ten sauces if I ever end up on an episode of Hot Ones (which tops out at 2,000,000 on the Scoville scale). Which is a great excuse to post the SNL parody, which is one of my favorites...

That never gets old.

   
• Shoresy Deux! One of the biggest surprises last year was the Letterkenny spin-off, Shoresy. It was rediculously entertaining, and ended up being my fifth favorite show of 2022. And now it's coming back...

Reeeeally looking forward to it.

   
• J-Boy! So there I was watching the movie Robots

The best part of the movie for me was the end-credits song called J-Boy by the band Phoenix. From six years ago...

I liked the song enough that I decided to add it to my Sonos music queue.

   
• Whither Sonos! Except I couldn't add the song to my fucking Sonos music queue because on top of having shitty fucking products that they don't want to fix... their apps are fucking shitty too. First of all my MacOS app decided it wouldn't do shit until my Apple Music account was reauthorized...

EXCEPT I COULDN'T BECAUSE ALL OF A SUDDEN THE APP CAN'T SEE MY FUCKING SPEAKERS...

But of course the "Let's fix it" link was full of shit. After trying that three times, Sonos finally wanted me to turn EVERY FUCKING SPEAKER OFF AND BACK ON...

That didn't work, so I ended up being told that I had to turn the router off and back on...

That didn't fucking work either, so I was told to turn all my shit off and on again. I ignored that and decided to uninstall Sonos and reinstall it again. That finally worked. EXCEPT... then I got an ad for Sonos's "Live Gift Guide Event" that I could not dismiss. There's no cancel button. There's no close button. You can't tap around it to get out of it. I couldn't even reboot the app and get rid of it. I was forced to "add it to my calendar" (which I didn't actually do)...

Fuck Sonos. Fuck them up their piece of shit useless asses. I regret EVER getting involved with them and their shitty products. Maybe I'd feel different if they'd AT THE VERY LEAST make it so that I could use the fucking Dolby Atmos that I paid to get without having my Arc soundbar fail. But nope. It's been a problem for two years and Sonos is still "working on it." Except they're fucking not because I've heard of nobody being asked to send in their system parts so Sonos could watch it fucking happen. Jesus what an asshole company.

   
And on that happy note... I'm back to dreary weather for a dreary Sunday.

Keith Giffen has died.

If you're a comic book fan from the 1980's and 1990's, you're undoubtedly familiar with his work. He's created and co-created some of the best stories and characters of the day. His humor drove books like Lobo and Ambush Bug and the hilarious Justice League reboot. But my favorit of his works was with The Legion of Super-Heroes. He co-wrote amazing story arcs like The Great Darkness Saga and the highly underrated Five Years Later Saga. The first twelve issues of the latter were some deeply satisfying stories for long-time Legion fans like me...

So many years of entertainment thanks to Mr. Giffen.

Rest in Peace, sir.

Hulu forces me to choose between commercials for KitKat or Reeses... then, after I finally choose one so I can get to my fucking show... THEY SHOW ME A COMMERCIAL ABOUT BOTH BECAUSE "I DESERVE BOTH!"

Fuck Hulu for wasting my time with a non-choice. And definitely fuck the assholes at KitKat and Reese's for coming up with a stupid-as-shit ad campaign which wastes people's fucking time and actually makes me hate products I used to love.

Fire your fucking advertising agency for being obscenely fucking stupid. Who thought this was a good idea?

Remember when ovens had a knob you turn and the heat came on and cooked your food?

Now you can only get these stupid-as-shit electronic button boards, and so often when I set mine, IT JUST SHUTS OFF WITHOUT COOKING SHIT! Ironically, you can get knobs if you get a gas stove (not an option where I live) or buy a super-expensive one (which I can't afford).

This blows.

I don't understand why burners have knobs and it's no problem, but ovens are all getting idiotic electronics. I'm guessing it's a cost-savings thing but, if that's the case, then why aren't the burners getting electronic panels as well?

Everything is shitty and nothing makes sense.

I am not exactly obsessed with the whole Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce dating drama. Except to say that I'm a fan of the both of them. I was a fan of Taylor after her album 1989 was released. I was a fan of Kelce after his talk show appearances... and then really a fan after he hosted Saturday Night Live back in March of this year.

Then the world broke when the dating rumors started.

And, weirdly enough, that wasn't all that broke. There are a number of people losing their shit over it. People hating Kelce because he's dating Taylor. People hating Taylor because she's dating Kelce. It's just so frickin' bizarre. Why do people care this much?

And now this (here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...

Dead. Legit dead.

Taylor Swift is probably a billionaire. If not, she's getting really close after the serious bank she's making on her Eras tour. She's got to have a net worth thats 25 to 50 times bigger than his. The idea that anybody thinks Taylor Swift is "gold digging" anywhere is laughable. Doubly so when a man is publicly stating it's inconceivable that a woman could possibly have more money than a man.

Fortunately, critics and their absurdity mean absolutely nothing to somebody with the kind of money either of these people have, so I guess there's that.

All that's left is the laughter over the absurdity of it all.

I live alone. I have casual friends in the area, but all my close friends live nowhere near me. It's for this reason that I live in constant fear that I'm going to crash and die or be hospitalized, leaving my cats to starve and dehydrate because the friends who can do something about it may not find out about my predicament right away.

I have a water fountain, but also a water dispenser which can hold a full gallon to tide Jake and Jenny over until help is dispatched.

But food-wise I have these small auto-feeders which I never like to fill up very full because the food goes stale very quickly. There are "Desiccant Packets" you can buy to put in an interior holder that keeps the food fresher, but they wear out quickly and are expensive to replace.

Which is why I was excited to see a new kind of automated food dispenser being promoted that has an air pump which removes the air to keep the food fresh...

Look how huge that thing is!

This is the large capacity model, which means I could put in enough foood to last a month and it will always stay fresh! The units are huge, but they still fit on the kitty feeding station I built.

One small problem, however.

When the seal is broken to dispense the food there is a hissing noise. Then the food drops out into a metal bowl which makes a clanging noise. Then the air pump activates and makes a whirring noise (it's not loud, but it's frightening to my two scaredy-cats who are not used to it).

I am confident that they will get used to the noise... even welcome the noise because it means that it's feeding time... but for now? Terrorized by it. Though this morning Jake eventually came back to it, which is an improvement over the past couple days when I had to call them over and assure them they wouldn't die each time...

That video is sped up to 4× speed. As you can see, I can tempt them back to finish their breakfast now. Even Jenny, which used to be impossible.

There is a small problem for me, however. My old feeders used to allow dispensing as little as 1/20th of a cup. This new one only goes down to 10/12th of a cup. I used to dispense breakfast in two 1/20th feeding so there's no scarf and barfing. That's no longer possible. Which means they no longer get second breakfast. Which is probably a good thing since they both need to lose some weight. BUT DON'T TELL THEM THAT! They get upset when they wait for a second meal which never happens! They used to get .45 cups a day. I didn't want to go up to .50 cups, so now it's down to .42 cups a day. Oh well.

The app to run these PetLibro feeders is not great, showing me errors that make no sense because everything seems to be working. And while the actual scheduling of feedings is far easier with the PetLibro app, they don't tell you how much total food you're dishing out as you schedule like the PetKit app did. You either have to add it up by hand while you enter everything or wait until the end of the day to see how much total food was dispensed. This should be an easy fix, so I think I'll suggest it and see if I get anywhere.

My old PetKit feeders had internal clocks which tended to drift. Most times it's a small discrepancy. But every once in a while there's a long delay between Jake and Jenny have their food dispensed. This was madenning, because Jake is aggressive and will push Jenny out of the way if his food doesn't come out at the same time. Then his food will eventually dispense and he'll eat that as well. He gets double. Jenny gets nothing. The only way to resolve this is to adjust the feeding schedule so that the clock re-syncs. So while I was traveling, I log in and make tiny changes so that I know they will both get food since I'm not there to keep Jake from eating everything. So far, I'm not seeing this with the PetLibro feeders. They dispense at the same time every time. Hopefully it stays that way.

In conclusion...

Despite how huge these things are, I'm glad I went with the large version because it will give me peace of mind when I'm traveling away from home. The cats could be fed for a long time, the food will always be fresh, and the timing is synced so they both get food. The only con is the sound. But eventually they will get used to the strange sounds (just like they did with the old feeders) so it's pretty much a better solution for me all around.

If you want to try these feeders, I'd advise you to wait for one of the many, many sales that PetLibro has throughout the year. I had a new sale start just a few days after previous sale I missed had ended. Their website is here.

The world has gone mad again, but it's still not worse than reading this blog... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Dr. Nick! The world is so small. I'm watching a fascinating series from NatGeo on Disney+ called Superstructures: Engineering Marvels. One of the episodes is about a massive semi-submersible cargo ship. And one of the experts speaking is Nick Bradbeer, who is billed as a naval architect...

My brain immediately does a flip-flop because the name sounds so familiar. Bradbeer? Where have I heard that name? So I search my computer and come across a slideshow from a talk I downloaded called Spaceship Design Considerations for Writers written by Dr. Nick Bradbeer. And then I remember... I tried to contact him years ago to see if he knew of a video recording of his talk because I'd very much like to see it. Same guy. Yes, he's a naval engineer teaching at University College London... but he's also a massive gaming geek who applies his career speciality to designing games. And when I Google him, I find him on Mastodon where he's engaging his naval engineering students to play games he wrote! What an amazingly cool guy! Still wish I could find a video of his talk on spaceship design, because I'd very much like to see that. If anybody knows anything that could help me track that down I'd appreciate it.

   
• Spherical! A lot of footage is being released of the concert experience at "The Sphere" Las Vegas (featuring the U2 residency). It looks insane. And absolutely everybody I've heard talk about it says the same thing... "It's incredible." What's really amazing is that video from a cameraphone cannot possibly capture what you see and hear, but it still looks absolutely amazing. This is a pretty good look right here...

The structure is mind-boggling...

Image from MEGA/The Daily Mail - Capacity actually 20,000 including standing room

It sounded intriguing enough that I actually considered going to see it. I'm not a big U2 fan, but it seems like the spectacle of it all might be worth it. Until I found out what it actually is. This is not U2 playing all their greatest hits. It's U2 playing the entirety of their album Actung, Baby... plus some other songs (namely off Rattle and Hum). And as if that weren't enough of a buzzkill, apparently the massive video screen isn't actually used to fullest effect on all the songs. So it's like... what's the point? Not a ton of acts could fill 20,000 seats night after night (though Taylor Swift could do that easily for a year or more). But how many acts could do that without playing all their hits? As a one-off, no problem. But as a residency in a single city? Taylor, Pink, Madonna, The Stones, Elton John, Coldplay, Celine Dion... maybe? And given how expensive the visuals must cost to produce, you really need a residency to have it pay off. Odds are that the best shows for this would be multi-act shows... or reunions of major names. One Direction, The Spice Girls, etc. So I dunno. I'd still like to experience The Sphere, I just don't know for who.

   
• QUAID! Every once in a while I run across something from years ago that I never even knew existed. This time it's a Funny or Die clip featuring ennis Quaid from eight years ago that is ridiculously funny...

I love it when celebrities are such good sports and willing to particpate in things like this. And now I need to re-watch Undercover Blues for the hundredth time. A movie so good that I remain despondent that it wasn't a massively huge hit so we could have gotten a sequel.

   
• Ho Ho Ho! Hallmark Channel's annual "Countdown to Christmas" started on Friday... and it started with one of the best Christmas movies I've seen in a minute: Checkin' It Twice...

The story is great... but the actors take it to the next level. Charming and funny. Could it be that my favorite Hallmark Christmas movie of 2023 is the first Hallmark Christmas movie of 2023? Maybe.

   
• Left Bloody and Broken! How big of an idiot do you have to be to pick a fight with Disney, a company famous for employing countless bloodthirsty, vicious, soulless lawyers? Can you believe that dumbass Ron DeSantis was actually a contender for the presidency before everybody woke up to what a fucking disaster he is? All he did with his war against Disney was galvanize people against his worthless, bigoted, meatball ass... all in the name of being “anti-woke”... and the hilarious story of how it happened is right here, courtesy of the Legal Eagle...

Now if only people would wake up to the total tidalwave of idiots either in office or running for office and send them packing, that would be great.

   
• Way To Go! So awesome! People aren't considered freaks anymore based on their weight, their body hair, or their tattoos! I never thought we'd get here as a society, but this bigoted fucking cartoon says it's true, so it must be true!

Congratulations everybody on embracing humanity instead of persecution!

Ugh. If only.

   
• Drought? Oh joy. This precipitation forecast for Winter 2023/2024 might lead to less snow in the mountains where I live this Winter, which means the possibility of another drought Summer 2024 (at least on my side of the mountains)...

But as bad as this might be for us, it's looking disastrous for poor Hawaii. Can't catch a break.

   
And now to return you to the madness of life on earth. At least until next week.

I watch a lot of videos. If I'm awake and working, odds are I am watching (but mostly listening to) YouTube videos. And the subjects I have running in those videos are crazy eclectic because I enjoy loads of different subjects. But ultimately the videos I tend to watch more than others are those that can teach me something. AKA educational videos.

More specifically, math and science videos.

I have watched hundreds upon hundreds of such videos. So when I tell you that I have now found my favorite science video that I've yet seen, I am not speaking from lack of data.

It's an absolutely brilliant video about "element hunting" and "the man who tried to fake an element." Not only is is just wildly entertaining (both in the way it is told and the way it is graphically represented), but it is mind-bogglingly fascinating. On top of that, it miraculously is fairly easy to follow for non-scientists despite tackling a rather complex chain of events.

And it's a year old!

I'm posting it here. It's well worth your time. And you're welcome...

Now, isn't that just fantastic?

As I type this, I'm in the process of watching it a second time immediately after having finished watching it the first time.

What's so utterly bizarre is that YouTube shows me that I've seen two of BobbyBroccoli's previous videos. I remember watching both of them, liked them, and have no earthly idea why I didn't subscribe immediately after watching. It's only thanks to the YouTube algorithm that I happened upon his channel again. Which only goes to show... the algorithm isn't always bad.

At least this time I had the sense to subscribe.

UPDATE: Yeah... I may not get any sleep tonight. This guy makes exceptional videos. Like these, which breaks open a huge scandal in a beautifully visual way...

Yikes. I mean... this is the very definition of a train wreck that you can't look away from.

Yeah, there's no post today.

Look, I am not going to candy-coat this... after "discovering" BobbyBroccoli, all my non-work time has been watching every single video he's produced. And I remain completely blown away.

BobbyBroccoli's channel is six years of video games. Then, three years ago, something changed. All of a sudden Broccoli (Kavan S) switched the focus of his channel to scientific scandals. And this is when things get very, very interesting. His first video in this new direction is actually a video in three parts about Jan Hendrik Schön. If you are a science geek, it's riveting. Mostly because he doesn't just go "Hey, there's this science guy and his lies almost got him a Nobel Prize." Oh no. He goes into glorious detail explaining how everything happened.

PART ONE: The Rise of Jan Hendrick Schön.
PART TWO: The Lies of to Jan Hendrick Schön.
PART THREE: The Demise of to Jan Hendrick Schön.

Last year BobbyBroccoli ran through a series on Ammerica's Missing Collider. As with everything else, it's an absolutely fascinating deep dive into the subject which spans three presidencies...

PART ONE: Ronald Reagan & the Biggest Failure in Physics.
PART TWO: George Bush Vomited & Set Physics Back by a Decade.
PART THREE: Bill Clinton & the Day Physics Died.

That mostly gets you caught up to what I posted yesterday. There's a few other videos, including this fascinating look at The Image You Can't Submit to Journals Anymore...

Assuming I don't fall down another YouTube rabbit hole, I'm guessing things will go back to whatever passes for "normal" here at Blogography.

The past couple nights have been cold and rainy. But today the cold and rainy weather didn't wait for evening. It was cold and rainy when I left work at 4:00pm.

Which is unfortunate because this is exactly the kind of weather that drains what little energy I have left. All I'm good for is sitting in front of the television drinking hot chocolate while wrapped up in a blanket. That's it. I'm done. If I'm lucky I grabbed some Halloween candy before I sat down.

Guess I need to start wearing a jacket to work now. Bleh.

Oh boy.

Here is the photo...

Long time Blogography readers might recognize this as a still from a video I made fifteen years ago for a video edition of "Bullet Sunday"...

But anyway...

I've started increasingly commenting on posts that are racist, bigoted, antisemitic, hateful, or stupid. The reaction is mostly what you'd expect. And I'm used to the hate... this is not my first time on the internet. But now the comments are all about my profile pic, not my comment. I have been called absolutely every name you can imagine. Because I'm wearing black makeup. For Halloween.

This is weird to me because I don't think much about my appearance (which should be obvious to anybody who meets me). The idea of having perfectly matching clothes or dressing in the latest style or looking "cool" or whatever just doesn't interest me. Except when it comes to Halloween, apparently.

I'm fascinated how people don't bother to make an actual argument about what I've said now. They don't like what I'm saying and how I look in my profile pic, but it's how I look that's what they choose to comment on. Which just reinforces the fact that ignorant assholes are ultimately bullies above everything else. Hating people for how they look or how they choose to dress is their priority.

I am trying to be unshocked, but this is not remotely surprising. It's the easiest shot to take, because forming an argument in support of your opinion is hard. And the easy shot is all they know.

Not that I really care. Goth Dave is the hottest Dave.

Not so long ago I noted how strange it is to hear about tragedy in a place I've been on Facebook.

Since I've been to a lot of places on this earth, this seems to happen more and more often.

Not so long ago I posted this:

And now this...

For around a decade I had work taking me to Lisbon, Maine.

Twice a year I would fly into Portland then drive up to the city of Auburn, where I always stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn. It's a nice, reasonably-priced location overlooking the Androscoggin River. The region is home to some very nice people (including those that I worked with), and has interesting eateries across the river I enjoyed like She Doesn't Like Guthries and Pedro O’Hara’s*, a Mexican-Irish restaurant.

Also across the river? The city of Lewiston.

If you've been watching the news since Wednesday night, you know why this has been haunting me.

A single shooter with an assault rifle mass-murdered 18 people in two locations in Lewiston, Maine. Needless to say, I had a rough night followed by two rough days wondering if anybody I know was hurt or killed. As of now I am still wondering because I can't bring myself to email anybody to find out. They have enough to deal with, as the shooter is still at large.

This fucking sucks.

My post about Bangkok was 23 days ago. I didn't even have a month to get over that before this happens. And that's just places I am familiar with. There's loads upon loads upon loads of places going through exactly this kind of thing week by week. And I'm mortified that it's just become background noise to me.

Until it's not in the background. Like Lewiston, Maine.

Lewiston may be the second-largest city in Maine after Portland, but it's not a big city. The first shooting at a children's league bowling alley event is just next door to a restaurant I liked. The second shooting at a cornhole competition even bar & grill is just down the street from a McDonald's that I stopped at for breakfast dozens of times. So, yeah, you might say I'm familiar with the area where the shootings occurred. An area where on Wednesday night people were just living their lives, never knowing that 18 of them would end up dead with even more injured.

Which is all kinds of fucked up. Especially when now-a-days you can't even say you're sad that 18 people were murdered without being told you're "anti-gun" or "woke" or whatever other bullshit labels get hurled by assholes lacking any sense of empathy, decency, or compassion. Something I'm getting used to, despite it never making any sense.

Not that anything surrounding mass-murder ever could.

*Sadly, Pedro O'Hara's closed in 2021.

When I put the teaspoon of wet food down before the automated dispenser drops the dry food, my cats have very different reactions. Jake lunges for his bowl like he hasn't eaten in days. Jenny always... always... rubs up against my leg as if she's saying "thanks" then saunters over to smell the food so she can act disgusted before she starts eating it.

Like I said, different.

And now there's this added element of the hissssss from the new automated feeders as the air seal breaks and the food is due to be dispensed. The cats act like a snake dropped from the ceiling. The good news is that they are getting more and more accustomed to the air pump them removing the air from the food bin again. Thus keeping everything fresh and delicious. Well, fresh for sure, but I don't know about the delicious part. I've never tasted it.

I've reduced the amount of food that actually gets dispensed in a day because Jake is looking especially fluffy. They both are. Realistically I know it's because their fur is getting thicker because the cold weather in the catio (and the colder weather in my home) is making them actually fluffier. Plus the scale in the Litter Robots are showing that they haven't gained any weight... plus they each have lots of loose skin which makes them look bigger than they are. However... just look at this guy right here...

That's not a cat. That's a bear. It's a bear-cat. It's Jakey-Bear.

Hence the reduction in food.

But nobody tell my cats.

Last night I watched the three episodes of The West Wing with Matthew Perry, then fell asleep watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. This morning I woke up and started getting ready for work until I realized that it was Sunday. This really sucks. For all I know Matthew Perry would have never done another project ever. He hadn't done movies or television in years... six years according to IMDB. But there was always a chance he would return. And now there's just the past. After I realized I didn't have to go to work I watched the Nate Bargatze episode of SNL. It was hilarious and brilliant as I knew it would be, and I was able to escape the world for a while. Until there was a title card in memoriam of Matthew Perry at the end and there I was back in the world again. I don't know if I have the headspace to watch my favorite episodes of Friends. David Schwimmer may have been closer to David Simmer in name, but Chandler Bing was where I lived. This really, really sucks.... but an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now... anyway...

   
• Matthew Perry. This will sound like heresy, but as much as I love Chandler Bing... my favorite Matthew Perry character is a tie between Joe Quincy (The West Wing) and Matt Albie (Sunset 60 on the Sunset Strip)...

The guy was phenomenally talented, and was able to play so much more than slapsticky, over-exaggerated roles (as much as he excelled at them). It's always been sad to me that he had such a hard time finding material to match his talent. He should have been in series and movies as good as The West Wing and Studio 60 constantly. Rest In Peace, sir.

   
• Saturday Night! I don't have access to live television, so I had to wait until this morning to see Nate Bargatze's hosting gig on Saturday Night Live. I am a huge, huge fan and had been looking forward to it all week. I'm guessing it was a last-minute substtution because Nate Bargatze canceled a week of shows in order to appear. And people love the guy so much that nobody was mad. They were thrilled that he got such an opportunity. And, as expected, he was incredible. His opening monologue started off a bit rough, but he quickly found his footing and killed it...

His sketches were amazing and I was wishing the show was three hours longer...

Absolutely incredible that his comedy is clean. He doesn't have to curse to be funny. Let me rephrase that, he doesn't have to curse to be hilarious. If you haven't checked out his specials on Netflix, I'd recommend starting with The Tennessee Kid, which is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

   
• Cat Daddy! Hey! It's National Cat Dad Day today! This is the look I got when I tried to explain it all...

Not the reaction I was hoping for, so I tried to explain it again...

What they're saying in this photo is “Happy National Cat Dad Day, dad!” “Yeah! Thanks for everything you do for us, dad!” “Love you, dad!” — Or so I’m guessing.

   
• Bodies. I just finished the Netflix adaptation of Bodies and loved it. One of my favorite shows of 2023 for sure. It's different than the graphic novel in many ways, but it's still totally brilliant...

The changes they made are actually very smart and make the show more accessible and less weird. If you watched the Netflix show and enjoyed it, I encourage you to pick up the original graphic novel, which is due to be reprinted and released at the end of the month. I was saddened to learn that the creator/writer of the series, Si Spencer, died in 2021. The first episode was dedicated to his memory.

   
• Freddy! Seeing Jack Cutmore-Scott on Frasier has me running back to watch him in Deception... one of my favorite shows ever...

It's sad that they canceled the show after one season. It's criminal that they ended it on a cliffhanger and didn't bother to wrap it up with a movie or second season. Even so, it's worth a watch.

   
• Girl You Know It's True! Say what you like about Milli Vanilli... even though the guys on the cover didn't sing the songs (John Davis, Brad Howell, Jodie Rocco, and Linda Rocco did that)... their music was darn good. And the story behind the guys on the cover has been released as a Netflix documentary...

It's a good documentary, and paints a sympathetic picture of how something can snowball out of control when massive success happens. If you're an 80's music fan, this is a decent watch.

   
• King! Hasan Minhaj is the choice to host The Daily Show. Period. Full stop. But bigotry can't allow a Brown Muslim person to have a platform, and he was reportedly the front-runner for the job, so The New Yorker craps out a hit-piece which went way, way beyond the scope of an article explaining how a comedian weaves stories to do their job. But NOOOOOO... they had an agenda in mind. How many movies are "based on a true story" but changes events to tell a better story? ALL OF THEM. THAT'S HOW MANY. Otherwise they would be a DOCUMENTARY. Comedians have to do the same job to entertain people as movie writers, and they change events ALL THE TIME to do that. But Minhaj is an uppity Brown Muslim who dares to speak out on racism and create stories around events he endured, and we can't let that stand. Perfectly okay for legions of white comedians to expand, exaggerate, and reframe events for their jokes. Unacceptable for Hasan Minhaj. Wish I could say I'm surprised. BECAUSE THAT WAS THE ENTIRE FUCKING POINT OF "HOMECOMING KING," WHICH IS EASILY ONE OF THE BEST STAND-UP PERFORMANCES EVER CREATED. But here we are... Hasan Minhaj Offers Detailed Response to New Yorker Story: “It Was So Needlessly Misleading”.

   
Onward and upward. See you with more bullets next week.

It started with the plain vanilla cones. You know... the yellow ones that are not actually cone-shaped. And I say "plain vanilla" even though there may actually be no vanilla flavoring in them... I was using "vanilla" as another word for "plain." Or, "plain plain" as it were.

From there I graduated to "sugar cones"... which are, in fact, cone-shaped.

After that I landed on bigger and better "waffel cones" and never looked back. Sure they're more expensive, but they're the best and I'm rolling in waffle cone cash, so I splurge.

Then I was putting together a grocery order, took a look at how fucking expensive it was, and decided to go back through and see if I could shave some money off my bill. Turns out I no longer have waffle cone cash, decided that plain vanilla is probably good enough considering I am actually more interested in the taste of the ice cream, and made the swap.

Strange thing... I actually prefer the plain cones!

Specifically because the ice cream tastes better in them. Well, probably not vanilla ice cream... but definitely the chocolate ice cream that's my favorite.

But anyway...

Apple had their "Scary Fast" event tonight. Every industry insider in existence had been speculating that this would be the introduction of M3 MacBook Pros and M3 iMacs, so I was not the least bit surprised when that ended up being the case. Not much else to say besides "they're a bit faster," so I will be brief...

• I jumped at trading in my M1 MacBook Pro for the M2 model last year because it promised a pretty big jump in performance for the 3D stuff I do. Turns out it was a bit snappier... but the more I worked with it the more I realized that it wasn't as big a time-saver as I was expecting. So, odds are I won't be upgrading again this year.
• Except... the GPU improvements are very, very interesting. First of all, the GPU memory used to allocate all memory regardless of how many processes were running. Now the memory is dynamically allocated, meaning they can perform more processes. On top of that, you now get hardware raytracing and mesh shading. This could mean more than a little better performance for the work I do, so I may read what real-world effect it has before ruling out an upgrade altogether.
• Also? That new Space Black color is pretty darn sweet. Not sure if I would pick it since I have always preferred the beautiful "titanium-ish" color that Apple offers... but if it looks as good in person as it did during the presentation, I might change my mind.

I'll tell you what did surprise me about the presentation... how it ended. Look at this...

Sooo... Apple wasn't kidding about being able to film motion picture feature quality footage on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. And to prove it, they're eating their own dog food here.

But anyway, that's all for tonight. There's an ice cream cone calling my name.

This is classic. Just look at the look on that cat's face.

Happy Halloween y'all.

UPDATE: Yikes. I bought 70 pieces of candy. I ate two. I had eight left. Which means I had 60 kids. Last year I think I had only around 45?

Booo. BOOOOOOO! I wanted more candy!