Every once in a while I find a comic that I didn't write that I share here. It's rare, but if somebody has made me really laugh, then promoting their work is the absolute least I can do.
This particular strip is from Prolific Pen (Instagram: ProlificPenComics) by Yanni Davros, who says "My parents wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer but instead they got a cartoonist." This one's absolute gold...
IF. ONLY. Though there are plenty of other groups I'd love to give a one-way-ticket to deep space, flerfers are certainly on that list.
My cats are hating me right now because I'm painting in the guest room and have the door closed so they can't get in. Never mind that they have the run of the entire rest of the house, of course the guest room is the only place they want to go!
Typical cats.
Today my Facebook memories came up with the news that I adopted my cats Eight Years Ago (back in February... so they're late) and these two photos popped up...
It's almost enough to make me want to get another kitten. Almost. Maybe this time I will get a kitten that's not a feral rescue and not terrified of absolutely everything. Except... those cats are easily adopted. I'm thrilled to have rescued a couple problem children. Jake and Jenny have been the absolute best cats.
And speaking of them... this week was kinda a Big Deal, cat-wise.
I got tired of having the Litter-Robot in the "Great Room" which has the kitchen flowing into the dining room flowing into the living room. It's not that it smells or anything (except temporarily, every once in a while when one of the cats has a particularly stinky poo to unleash) but I would really rather not have the cats doing their business next to where I'm watching television.
And so... when the electrician was here last week, I had him put an outlet in my hall closet. That way the cats have some privacy. Not that they seem to care about that, but it's sure nice for me...
Now I'll build a shelf above it with an air-seal so that I can still hang coats above the litterbox. Then I'll put a cat door in the closet door so I can close it off. Nice!
I was very, very worried about moving their pooping place. It's been the same since I got them eight years(!) ago. What I did was move the Litter-Robot about six inches every day until it was in its new place. They never batted an eye, and now they're going there automatically.
I don't know what I was expecting. But it certainly wasn't having things go this easily!
Wah! My weekend is already half over and I'm not ready for it to be Sunday! But Sunday it must be... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Goonies Never Die! I watched this video reflecting on the career of Josh Brolin solely in the hopes that he would talk about Men In Black 3. That movie is so incredibly underrated. It's an amazing film. And a large part of that is Josh Brolin doing a Tommy Lee Jones impression... perfectly... for most of the runtime. And obviously GQ knew that's the thing everybody wanted to hear, so they saved it for last...
I sure wish that we could have heard more about his experience working on that movie.
• Otin! Oh man. The new Disney+ series, Iwájú, is Afrofuturism done very well... but it's so much more than that because there's like a lot going on. And it's very much steeped in Nigerian culture, which is to say that it's something wonderfully different than the same old shit we usually get. Bravo to Disney for giving us something fresh and new for a change. And for using amazing voice actors who breath life into these characters...
The frickin' FOOD in this show is unreal. They put a lot of focus on it as a part of entrenching you into Nigerian culture. And, I tell you what, the emotion they pack into these 20 minute episodes is substantial. Tola is the main character of the show... but it's her best friend Kole who will break your heart. Dang they put a lot of hardship on this poor kid. The villain in this series is a very, very bad man! AND GOOD LORD THIS SHOW IS BEAUTIFUL. They use color to illustrate the class divide in this future Nigeria, and it's very, very hard not to see it because it's the visual language they paint with. And, as if all that wasn't enough, the sound design is equally wonderful. Great surround effects to envelope you in the environment. If you have Disney+, it's very much worth checking out. The episodes are short, so it's a quick watch.
• Ramona! Ramona Fradon is a legendary artist whose gorgeous illustration style has been seen on a vast number of comic book characters. I think I first saw her work on Aquaman reprints or the Super Friends comic. But over the years the thing I most remember her for is the "special event" Wonder Woman stories they'd get her to draw. She had a more "cartoony old-style" that wasn't my favorite for the comics I was into, but that didn't mean I couldn't appreciate it from an artistic standpoint. Far from it, her minimalist style is beautiful because she could get some very expressive line-work that stood very well on its own. I remember reading about her retirement (which was January 5th) and she passed four weeks later on February 24th at the age of 97. Her final work was a trio of covers for Women's History Month...
Though one of her more brilliant works was a private commission piece that she did a few years ago...
Rest In Peace. You were a trailblazer and true artist from the start.
• Help Me, Todd! Okay... let's do the math. Paramount+ wants $60 a year to subscribe with ads. Without ads is $120 a year. BECAUSE IT COMES WITH SHOWTIME, WHICH I DO NOT WANT! No option to get CBS shows without ads and without Showtime. I would pay $90 to get a year of ad-free, but Paramount is a joke of a company who wants me to subsidize their Showtime programs which I have no interest in watching. And so... do I pay $60 so I can watch So Help Me Todd with ads... or do I just subscribe to the show on iTunes for $30 without ads and I can watch it as much as I want? Well, because I don't believe in paying for stuff I don't want AND I detest ads, I'll just buy the show on iTunes. It is, after all, my favorite network show on television...
It's not like CBS has any other shows I can't live without. I'll just watch episodes of NCIS Hawaii once Paramount runs out of money from trying to force crap on people they don't want and they're forced to sell episodes of the show to Netflix because the person in charge of the company is a fucking moron. Can't wait for the spin from the Paramount PR office when profits drop to record lows and they have to convince shareholders that the people running the company aren't fucking idiots who just lost $60 from me. Of course, this is the network who canceled Magnum P.I., so it's not like I expect rational thought to come out of their leadership. But hey, maybe they'll renew So Help Me Todd and get another $30 out of me next year? Stranger things have happened!
• Keep Your Fucking Bullshit Politics Out of People's Lives! The insane... FUCKING INSANE... crusade against IVF is usually seen as something that affects only women. That's not true. It affects women, men, and those identifying as neither... it affects families. And I am disgusted to my core that dumbfuck politicians who don't give a shit about facts... or ANYTHING or ANYONE except MONEY and POWER... put these dipshit laws on the books. Fuck them and all the people who vote them into office. A man wrote an article for GQ Magazine talking about what he and his family went through, and it's worth a read.
• NEWSFLASH: Republican senator blocks bill to protect IVF. Cindy Hyde-Smith is a literal ghoul. She's a shell of a woman who has been filled with a hatred for other women that's shockingly brutal and cruel. Nothing quite like watching a woman embrace the patriarchy to dismantle an option for women who want to be mothers. I get why regressive men vote for toxic, misogynistic pieces of shit to represent them in government. But I will never in a million years understand how women vote for... whatever the fuck this horrific excuse of a human being is... who works overtime to endanger their lives and strip away their rights...
If your God didn't want IVF for us, HE WOULD HAVE DESIGNED HUMAN EMBRYOS TO BE DESTROYED WHEN FROZEN! But of course their belief in an all-powerful deity doesn't allow logic to be applied to anything, so here we are. Fucking anti-science dumbshits making a decision for others in the "Land of the Free" over an issue they probably don't even fucking understand. Sadistic fucks.
• Spam! Just when I think I've hit all the keywords to stop spam texts from politicians reaching me, along comes one more to add. Eventually I'll get there! I regret more than just about anything I've ever done sending money to one candidate... ONE... via "ActBlue." And the spam texts and emails have never, ever stopped ever since. No matter how many emails or phone numbers I block. The fuckers just keep making up new ones...
I love how ActBlue, which is about as skeezy an operation as you'll find just says "It's not our fault you keep getting donation requests from us... we just just provide tools for candidates to fundraise! You can't blame us!" And yet... all the people "using their services" are constantly saying "It's not the criminals! It's the guns that are the problem!" So... which is it? If ActBlue acted responsibly and forbade people from using their donation processing system if they send spam texts, and accepted complaints from people getting spammed with ActBlue requests who never "opted in," then there wouldn't be a problem. But ActBlue doesn't give a fuck. The more people using their service, the more money they make. And so I will never, ever donate to any candidate using ActBlue. I wish others would do the same. Then candidates would have nobody to blame but themselves for getting into bed with these fucking assholes.
• Fishy! The first Aquaman was dopey fun. So long as you didn't think too hard, it wasn't horrifically bad. Kind of a fantastical globe-spanning adventure. But Aquaman 2? Yeah, it's horrifically bad. And though some of the visuals are really great... most of it is so bad that it practically looked animated like a cartoon. And not in a good way. As if all that wasn't enough, the film is obsessed with Aquaman having piss be squirted in his mouth. Baby piss. Octopus piss. I spent the movie pretty sure that his wife is going to be pissing in his mouth any minute now. Or just full-on brick in his mouth. Which is the natural escalation we need. Hilariously, they ended Aquaman 2 the same way that they ended Black Panther... and THEN they ended it AGAIN the same way they ended Iron Man! They copied TWO Marvel Studios movie endings in the same film! Holy shit am I glad that the Zack Snyder reign of terror over the DCU is now officially over.
I guess that's enough trash for one Sunday. See you next week.
Monday morning and I am not feeling fine. I'm old and everything hurts!
This weekend I was planning on starting a new project. A huge missed opportunity in my home is that there's no laundry chute down to the laundry room. So while I save up for drywall repairs, I'm going to cut a hole in the laundry room ceiling to see if there's any reason I can't cut a hole in the floor from above and build a chute. I'll then build a tube against the wall with a door on top (so the cats won't be taking rides to downstairs). After that I'll build a lower storage drawer next to it which will act as steps for the cats to get to the shelf I built on the stairwell...
It would be so nice to be able to put dirty laundry and coat hangers and such down a chute than to have to haul loads downstairs.
Unfortunately, the walls ended up being askew... but opposite the way that it would have helped me. Which means that I will have to re-think things. I may have to switch to the opposite wall so I don't have to do additional cutting.
So instead of building a chute I decided to work on something else. It took all weekend, but I managed to clean up all the water damage, sand and repaint walls and furniture, fix and re-stain floorboards, install moisture sensors, and vacuum up all the mess...
Now all that's left is to save up enough money to have all the drywall replaced that I didn't feel comfortable doing myself. Then... ugh... please can I not have any more house expenses for a year or so? Is that really too much to ask?
Growing up in Washington State, you can't help but be very aware of Boeing. It was founded in Seattle just over 100 years ago, and it's tough to grow up here and not know somebody who was touched by the company in some way.
Well, at least until 2001, when Boeing moved its HQ to Chicago (and then subsequently moved to Arlington last year). Since that time, this once-great titan of industry has had its share of problems.
And it turns out that they were bigger problems than I could have guessed, for all the reasons that I should have expected...
Sad. Horrifying. And oh so predictable.
Who I feel bad for are the many Boeing workers whose jobs are in jeopardy because of decisions that were entirely outside of their control... and airlines like Alaska Air who trusted Boeing to put out a quality product that's safe and reliable.
Not to mention all the passengers and crew whose lives are put into danger because Boeing management cares more about making a buck than human lives.
I am not a big football fan. I rarely watch it. I don't care about it. My spectator sports are hockey (Blackhawks) and baseball (Red Sox) and those are the only sports I bother to keep up with. I do like an occasional basketball game because, like hockey, it's fast-moving and can be exciting to watch if you've got two great teams that are well-matched.
That being said...
I became a fan of the Kelce brothers before it was cool (e.g. before Travis started dating Taylor Swift), and so while I don't keep up with football, I definitely keep up with them. Their podcast is excellent, especially when they talk about life outside of football. And their appearances everywhere are always entertaining (Travis Kelce's appearance on Saturday Night Live is one of the best episodes ever).
But anyway...
Jason Kelce retired. Have a tissue ready...
Football is a brutal sport which takes a heavy physical toll. I can't believe that he managed to power through for this long. Regardless, wishing him all the best. I really hope that the podcast continues, because it's filled with so many great moments. And you learn stuff about stuff!
Congrats. You've left quite a legacy.
Total TikTok ban is imminent? - So... it's okay for US corporations and our government to give our private information to China without our consent... but we can't choose whether or not we want to watch TikTok and potentially give our viewing habits and location directly to China? It's okay for US corporations and our government to unload their bullshit propaganda onto social media users, even when it suits Chinese interests... but if China uses TikTok to do it directly, it's a problem?
Got it.
So long as the Chinese monitoring data and propaganda is collected for them by American companies, it's great. But collected directly by China is bad.
God Bless America.
I find it laughable that Congress thinks they're doing something here. They're fucking us on a daily basis while inventing some scenario so they can say they're keeping us from being fucked. Sounds about right. BECAUSE FREEDUMB!
Telling you right now, if Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, and Dr. Kim Schrier support this bullshit... but will still allow Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and the rest to exist (ALL OF WHOM HAVE SHIPPED OUR INFORMATION TO CHINA)... They will never get another vote from me.
Just kidding. I didn't vote for Murray and Cantwell last time... they're shills for Big Pharma who voted against drug-importation from Canada out of "safety concerns." Because, you know, you can't turn on the fucking television without hearing how prescription drugs have killed another million people in The Great White North. And, as if that wasn't enough, they have the fucking gall to talk about people not being able to afford life-saving drugs like they weren't responsible for taking money from pharmaceutical companies to protect their profits.
I fucking DESPISE Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. And yet every time I bring up their hipocrisy, everybody tells me about all the "good" things they do. And I'm like REALLY?!? Washington is the fucking bluest state in the entire country. Anybody replacing them would be Democrats who would do all the "good things" they do... plus be there for the other votes we need our Senators to weigh in on. So vote them the fuck out of office.
Banning TikTok is just another fucking smokescreen for all the heinous shit that's actually going on in politics. But you can't blame politicians for exploiting it because their voters keep believing the shit they shovel.
So more (political) power to them, I guess.
There's no lack in irony that China bans all foreign social media platforms. But here in the good ol' USA, we don't do that because we believe in freedom.
At least we did.
To say that Akira Toriyama is influential in the pantheon of manga creators is a massive understatement. The guy is best-known for having created Dragon Ball, but he had other works which were worthy of praise.
One of the most famous stories about this absolute legend is that he used the same pen to draw every manga he ever created, and the reason he stopped drawing was because he lost his favorite pen holder, which he had been using since he was a teen. I don't know if it's true or not, but boy is that a good story...
Whenever another of my manga and anime heroes passes, I always look back on those we've already lost. Satoshi Kon. Fujio Fujiko. Isao Takahata. Satoshi Iwataki. Yoshito Usui. Kentaro Miura. Kazuki Takahashi. Among others.
So much talent gone from this earth.
And yet their works remain...
Dragon Ball isn't going anywhere.
Rest in Peace, sir.
I'm not writing this on Caturday. I'm writing it on Sunday because Daylight Saving Time starts early in the morning, which is always an adventure.
Of course this is the good time change because the cats get fed an hour earlier, which they will never complain about. The problem is that my new feeders don't reset their clocks, and so I have to manually feed the cats their dry food until they miraculously get themselves set straight.
The irony is that my Chewy order arrived on Friday, which was very exciting for Jake and Jenny...
But today-yesterday (Caturday) was less exciting. Jake had a sneezing fit...
And Jenny demanded belly rubs riiiight up until the breakfast alarm rang...
After cleaning out the closet to make room for the Litter-Robot last week, I found one of the collapsible cat tunnels I bought when they were kittens. Which made them act like kittens all over again...
Jake pounced on the tube once Jenny entered.
Jake ran.
Jenny ran after him.
Bedlam ensued.
Just another Caturday.
Another Spring. Another clock adjustment to screw up my day. But I am not deterred... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• What Was I Made For? I don't watch the Oscars. I do watch moments from the Oscars after I hear who won. The first thing I watched was Robert Downey Jr.'s acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor (he killed it, as you knew he would). The second thing I watched was Billie Eilish perform her Oscar nominated song for the audience (she killed it, as you knew she would). But the best part was her reaction to receiving a much deserved standing ovation...
I've linked to a brilliant video explaining how her brother Finneas created the music for the song, but here's him and Billie talking about it...
Good Lord they're a pair of talented siblings. Her explanation of the directions she could have gone, but chose not to, is why the song his so heartbreakingly beautiful. And why it deserved the Oscar win...
That video was shot in a single take. It's one take. One. Ironic after the amount of time spent on the song itself. If you've seen Billie's career over the years, you will recognize where those Barbie outfits came from.
• Guy! The Gentlemen was great. I loved it. But this is Netflix, so I'm not getting attached for a Season 2, even though I'd love to see it...
If I have a criticism, it's that Guy Ritchie has a consistent problem. He is always introducing stupid characters who only exist to fuck things up, and they continue to fuck things up the whole way because the other characters don't ever seem to do anything about them. Which is absurd, because especially in these types of worlds, nobody could afford to indulge stupid like this. Stupid characters would be eliminated... or, at the very least, be neutralized so they can't keep doing stupid shit and fucking things up. It's fun at first, but eventually it's just moronic and boring. But anyway... it's still a great series, mostly driven by the performances of the main two characters and an entertaining story. Still have no idea how this fits into the movie that it's named after.
• On The Daily! I've seen a lot of those "A Photo A Day" videos where somebody takes a picture of their face daily. This is the best one I've ever seen...
Amazing. He's done videos with more frames added, and apparently plans to keep making more, which I sure hope he does.
• Strangers! Turns out that sometimes the critical acclaim is justified. I was finally in a mental place where I could watch All of Us Strangers on Hulu. It debuted last month, but February is a really tough stretch for me every year, and watching a movie about the overwhelming power that grief has over our lives needed to wait. Until now...
It's an incredible film. Highly recommended if you want to be completely shattered for an hour and forty-five minutes. I cannot get over the performances. There are four principal actors, all of them deserving of all the awards, and what they accomplish here will haunt me for a very long time. One of the most important characters in the film is the music, and I think the key to understanding what's happening sits with the song selection. I, obviously, can't discuss that without spoiling the film, so I'll leave how that works up to you.
• Spirit! "It's a love story, you asshole."
The fact that Nick Offerman threw himself into the episode of The Last of Us so completely is what made it so gratifying.
And now I'll get through the last day of my weekend... WITH ONE LESS HOUR IN IT.
One of the most amazing shows to come along in the "pirate" genre (or any genre, really) in decades was HBO Max's Our Flag Means Death. Running for two seasons, it was a critically acclaimed show that sought to subvert as many tropes as possible while going for the absolute jugular in entertainment value. Its premise is simple... what if real-life historical figures Stede Bonnet and Edward Teach (AKA Blackbeard) were gay pirates who fell in love on the high seas? The implementation is anything but simple, however, because the show has complexities that drive it into some truly interesting territory...
Of course the fact that the two lead characters were gay was a huge point of contention for a lot of people, but that's nothing new. And the fact that they were played by straight, married actors Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi is neither here nor there, because anything gay is "bad" regardless of who's involved. Used to be that people could be gay in media so long as it was never explicitly stated or it was straight people playing gay to ridicule them... but along comes Our Flag Means Death making absolutely no effort to conceal or ridicule a gay pirate romance (just to have fun with it), and of course people lose their fucking minds.
And even though independent tracking shows that the show was phenomenally popular and well-received, HBO decided to cancel it anyway. Because who the fuck knows why. Streaming services are doing everything they can to drive loyal viewers away, so what's one more thing? The reason I renewed HBO for another year last time was specifically because I wanted to see the second seasons of Our Flag Means Death.
But, oh well. Unless they come up with another show I'm just dying to see, I'll be glad to have one less renewal to pay for this year. What else is there on "Max" that's worth paying for anyway? Last Week Tonight maybe. Everything else I can wait on. Because it feels like Warner Bros. Discovery is going to go under any day now, and perhaps their assets will be sold of to Netflix or somebody. Though it's not like Netflix is a beacon of hope when it comes to show renewals.
Bring on another stupid-ass reality series that nobody gives a fuck about, I guess.
The annual rebuttal to the State of the Union address is a thankless job which never goes well on either side of the aisle. And yet, for reasons which escape me, politicians are always lining up to take on the task. I honestly don't see an up-side of any kind for doing so. Best case scenario is that you perform so well speaking out against the president that you impress people enough to further your political career.
But that would take somebody who's truly crafty, clever, and smart... with charisma to match.
Katie Britt has none of those things.
But boy did she ever think she did. Which just goes to show that people are never lacking the ability to overestimate their smarts. She's about as smart as a stick of butter, and she put that on full display for everybody to see (much like I put mine on full display with this blog!).
She also was willing to show what a lying piece of shit she is, but that's neither here nor there given how politicians don't seem to be penalized for lying.
Absolutely everybody who saw her heinously embarrassing performance of the rebuttal was just waiting for her to be the subject of Saturday Night Live's cold open and, well, SNL wasn't about to pass that up (as I noted on Bullet Sunday). Here it is again in case you're one of the three people who hasn't yet seen it...
And now Katie Britt is doubling down on her stupid shit as if her speech was perfect, and is blaming Democrat lies (instead of her own?) for the perceived problems with all the stupid shit she said. Which is baffling. President Biden has done plenty of things that are worthy of scrutiny... so why make shit up? Why over-dramatize it when it speaks for itself? Just point out where the problems are, explain why you thnk they're bad, offer up real solutions, and tell people why you're a better alternative.
It seems as if doing that is a no-brainer, but... well...
Remember how I said that best case scenario is that you perform so well speaking out against the president that you impress people enough to further your political career? Worst case scenario is that you perform so badly that your political career is over.
If there's any justice in the world, that's exactly what we have here.
I have come to terms with the fact that ALL vegan "cheese" is going to suck. Yes... even that vegan cheese you think is awesome... it sucks at being cheese.
Which is not to say that some "cheeses" aren't good in their own right. Like Chao Field Roast. It's not cheese... but I do like it for what it is.
I've tried a few fake parmesans, but they are gut-wrenchingly awful. So I've been leaning hard into Nutritional Yeast, which I love. My beloved Caesar works extremely well with vegan mayo because there's so many other things in that dressing which are vegan and taste great, and extra Nutritional Yeast gives it a cheesy kind of bite...
Soooo... along with the many vegan recipes people have been kindly sharing with me... I think I'm set. No, I am not 100% vegan. I will likely revert back to being vegetarian when eating at restaurants and traveling and such. But I'm "vegan enough" for me now, and not suffering too much. Hopefully there's a health benefit in that.
My favorite show running right now is So Help Me Todd. It was fantastic in its first season, but is now operating and an entirely new level. It's like the first season was a warm-up to find their footing, and now they've got it all figured out.
Nowhere was it more apparent than the current episode (which was pre-empted last week, but they forgot to tell AppleTV, so I got it a week early thanks to my Season Pass)...
If you're not watching, you really should be. Skylar Astin and Marcia Gay Harden are killing it.
A shitty end to a shitty week.
When it comes to cat food, my cats can be picky. Or, in the case of Jenny, very picky.
I think she might not have a great sense of smell, because the only foods she recognizes as foods are pretty stinky. Namely: fish. I have tried all kinds of varieties of food and anything that's not fish is a tough sell.
I received a sample can a while back that I had kept in my car in case I ran across a hungry cat. But I rotate new food in so it doesn't go bad. When I looked at it I saw it was tuna, which is usually okay, so I fed it to my cats... who went absolutely bonkers for the stuff. They were so crazy for it that I ended up digging the can out of the trash so I could buy more of it...
I searched for "Seth & Chewy's Tuna morsels" and saw it was ridiculously expensive. Crazy ridiculously expensive. But I figured it would be a nice treat on occasion, so and bought some of it. But when it arrived, I opened the can and saw pasty, gross-looking "morsels" inside instead of the pink that the original can had been. Then I saw that I actually got "chicken & tuna" instead of just "tuna" because Stella & Chewy's has shitty product labeling that makes it hard to distinguish between flavors. All the cans are the exact same purple, and it's the little square around the flavor that's different.
But the cats loved it just the same, so crisis averted, I guess.
Something else they loved? These Tiny Tiger tuna cat treats...
I am always trying new stuff just in case the stuff I usually buy is out of stock or discontinued. I especially like how small these treats are because the cats think they're getting more than they really are. Always a good thing when it comes to treats.
Fortunately, unlike Seth & Chewy's, Tiny Tiger has excellent color identity on their products. The chicken flavor is in a bright yellow bag instead of tuna's bright blue bag.
Don't even worry about the fact that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Don't give it another thought. There's no need... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Biggie! This video shows the largest city on earth throughout history, and it's absolutely mind-blowing...
Fascinating how the USA doesn't even register until the end.
• Good on NASA! In a day and age when young Black men are getting told left and right that they have to cut off their locs or they can't be in school or can't be in sports... Tyrone Jacobs released his NASA headshot...
If NASA doesn't have a problem with natural hair, why the fuck do schools think they have a right to say a damn thing? Newsflash: THEY DON'T. Same goes for tattoos. Same goes for any outward appearance which doesn't keep you from doing the job.
• Queer Comedy! Hannah Gadsby is headlining a gender-queer Netflix Special and I finally got around to watching it. I was expecting her to not touch on the controversy she had with Netflix because, well, how can you use your platform to criticize your platform? But she just went for it. Nothing held back. And Netflix is obviously airing it, so good on Hannah and good on Netflix, I guess...
It's not a home-run, but a lot of the jokes are very funny. I enjoyed it.
• More Clavell! The new Shōgun series is magical to me. I love that the Japanese is subtitled and not dubbed. The language is taking me back. And bless you, Hulu, for putting some money into this. It looks incredible. Sure they wander from the book a bit, but I think that their choices are interesting ones. And I love the cast...
If only we'd get a 12-part adaptation of Noble House next. Not a gutted version, but complete with the Cold War elements and fascinating look at Hong Kong through its people.
• Just Poor! Am I being punked? I do not in any way understand the acclaim for Poor Things. I fucking hated this movie despite loving the other films from most everybody in it. Yes, it’s gorgeous, the imaginative sets are genius, and the cinematography is incredible (the use of different lenses throughout is just =chef’s kiss=)... but the story is a big departure from the book. And absolutely not in a good way...
The book is a wonderfully layered story of how men view women, and it uses the concept of “unreliable narrator” so that you truly don’t know who or what to believe. And there are multiple conflicting “truths” that are tainted by things like misogyny, perspectives, and even the wishful thinking of different characters. But the movie? Bella is a child’s brain in an adult body as a matter of fact, which makes the entire thing a fucking nightmare. It’s child porn with a loophole. And it lacks the subtlety and complexity that made the book so interesting. In my view, Bella loses a lot of her agency in the movie. Her experience and story is viewed entirely through the lens of men she encounters, even as she is rapidly maturing and coming to understand how the world works for a woman. Movie Bella really doesn’t face adversity to truly understand anything either. It’s all observational, and nothing feels earned as she wanders from place to place. And, good Lord, the music is a horrific assault that made me want to turn on subtitles and view it on mute. Who the fuck wants to listen to this? So many times I am able to dislike popular movies for myself, but appreciate that they exist for others. But this time? Hell no. I regret the precious time I wasted watching this mess. It gutted a wonderfully interesting book and turned it into soft core porn for the male gaze which is contrary to what I took away from the source material.
• Whistle Broken. John Barnett did not shoot himself? Or maybe he did. Regardless, I am putting the 100% entire complete blame on Boeing. The guy dedicated 32 years of his life to this company but had a conscience. So when management decided to ignore his concerns about declining quality and falsify data on serious issues with manufacturing, he reported the cover-up as a "whistleblower." And now he's dead. Right in the middle of the lawsuit against his former employer. Again, this guy devoted 32 YEARS of his life to this company. They then set out to absolutely destroy what life he had left because he wanted passengers to be safe. They finally succeeded. Regardless of whether he ended it himself or somebody did it to him.
• Cancel, Please! Why don't streaming services allow you to block shows and movies? Take HBO Max, for example. I never want to watch Bill Maher. Ever. Never ever. I don't care who he has on. I'd rather light my pubes on fire and jump into a barrel of gasoline than watch that moronic self-righteous piece of shit asshole for even two minutes. But every time I start HBO Max, there he is. There's no way to block the dipshit. No way to get him off my TV. And no amount of ignoring him will get HBO to get the fucking message. On Facebook I can block somebody I don't want any contact with. But with HBO, there's no options at all. Can't even give him a thumbs-down so the algorithm will stop inundating you with his bullshit. It's nearly enough for me to cancel HBO, because having to look at Maher's smug face is tantamount to torture.
Hope the rest of your Sunday is a good one.
Today at my doctor appointment, I asked for ALL THE VACCINES! I figure science has given us these gifts from God, so I might as well accept them. Alas, all he had for me was the TDAP blend update, which I am very happy to get, seeing as how whooping cough is making its way through the valley. Again. Other than that, my doctor said I should get the shingles vaccine even though I never had chickenpox. So I am absolutely doing that.
Sadly, I have everything else he recommends. Which is a bummer given how many people are skipping vaccines, and I'm sure polio and all that other crap we had virtually eliminated are most certainly coming back. God. How stupid are we as a society?
Can't he just sell Mar-A-Lago and be fine with the fines? He says it's worth $739 million!
Of course the property was valued at more like $75 million in court documents, so he might have to sell some other stuff too... but he's got the assets to post that bond. Not a problem at all. He's apparently worth billions of dollars, so it really shouldn't be any problem at all, even if all his money is tied up in "assets and investments." Sell your stuff. That's what everybody else has to do. It's what I've done when I needed money. Granted, it wasn't $464 million, but I don't have a bunch of pricey properties available to me, so...
In other news... Jordan laughing at his own jokes is always a classic...
One more sleep until Hump Day.
I don't use my DSLRs much any more. My iPhone is always with me and I can get good shots with it, so I'd rather just use the camera on me than have to have to lug around a camera bag.
But every once in a while something comes along that makes me seriously want to invest more into DSLR photography. In this case, it's this video looking at the The Laowa 10mm F2.8 lens, which looks absolutely incredible...
It's not cheap... it's $800 on pre-order... but given what it's capable of, it almost seems underpriced. But then I'd want to buy me a new Sony to pair with it (mine are pretty old now), and that's a lot more than $800.
I just... I don't even know what to think... they butchered The Three-Body Problem on Netflix.
It's incredibly dull, relying on mundane interpersonal drama to drive the story in stupid ways (and it's hilarious how they use the musical score to try to make boring things more interesting). I'm half-way through the eight episodes and don't even know if I want to suffer through any more of it. Because I honest-to-God don't understand what the dumbasses who ruined Game of Thrones thought they were doing with the material.
All I can do is implore everybody who is interested in the series to read the original novels. The English translation is not a cakewalk. It's loads of science and physics which is slow-going if you're not into that. And understanding the Chinese historical background is essential to understanding the purpose of the story. But ultimately it's a brilliant novel. Genius, really, with some of the ideas that drive it. Though I don't know that I truly appreciated it until I read through all three books twice...
As for Netflix... for the love of God, stop giving David Benioff and D. B. Weiss money to ruin more source material. Wasn't the Game of Thrones debacle enough to prove they have no fucking clue what they're doing? And definitely stop giving Zack Snyder money to crap stupid films out of his ass. Holy crap... all this money being wasted on shit that could be going towards actual artists who understand how to create compelling films and series.
This morning I was looking through some photos posted by an old friend. Among the photos was one which included a woman I dated for a bit. She looks... incredible.
Meanwhile... I look like what happens when sour cream sits out too long. And then explodes.
Whatever that gene is which causes people to look better with age is the gene that I have the opposite of. Which wouldn't be so bad if I didn't feel like I'm falling apart. Except I totally do. Yesterday morning I bent over to pick up some toys that Jake dragged downstairs and almost didn't make it back upright. I think that if I hadn't taken a couple Advil, I probably wouldn't have made it through the rest of my day. At all.
A part of me thinks that I should take up yoga or pilates or something. Except that may very well be the death of me, so maybe sitting on the couch and watching TV while eating potato chips is the better move?
I'm thinking yes.
At least until I throw my back out reaching for a chip.
Which may be painful, but at least I get a potato chip out of the deal. The same can't be said for yoga or pilates.
I'm gone to Seattle-side today.
Which is always a big source of stress for me, because I worry about the cats being alone. Not so much because they won't be taken care of (there are feeder robots and litter robots and watering robots to handle their care), but because I know they miss me being there. At night when I'm usually home, they will wander around looking for me. And, if it's Jake, he will be crying out for me as well. That's really tough to take.
But, they always survive.
Even if I no longer let them go out into the catio when I'm gone. I do not want them bringing a bird or mouse or whatever into the house when I'm not in a place I can run home and let it back out.
So I dunno. Maybe I'm overreacting, and they're giving each other hugs to console themselves in my absence...
But probably not. They're probably trying to break into the treat cabinet.
Don't worry, I don't take a day off for my birthday, so it's business as usual up in here... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• NEWSFLASH: Apple co-founder calls out 'hypocrisy' of politicians calling for TikTok ban — I am really glad that more and more people are speaking up on this bullshit. Especially when they are as respected as Steve Wozniak. As I have said over and over and over... why is TikTok being singled out and punished for something ALL American social media companies and American tech giants (like Google) do? Facebook can take my tracking data and personal viewing habits and sell them to Chinese companies... and that's okay... but a Chinese company monitoring my viewing habits and location directly is not? American social media companies can promote their interests to their users EVEN WHEN IT PROMOTES CHINESE INTERESTS, but Chinese companies can't do this themselves? By all means, continue to monitor how our information is being collected, distributed, and sold. We should definitely be tightening up on that and forcing companies to keep their users informed. I 100% support that. But when it comes to banning companies who collect our data? Either you ban it for ALL or you ban it for NONE. Period.
• NEWSFLASH: Delta pilot shitfaced on Jaegermeister jailed for 10 months — Oh come on. Who among us HASN'T attempted to fly a plane while shitfaced on Jäegermeister? Oh. Only me and this guy? Never mind.
• MAKE MINE REPAIRABLE! My dryer stopped working this past week. I have absolutely no money for repairs or replacement. But three hours and much Googling got me on track to fixing it myself. Thankfully. These old school dryers with physical switches and knobs are a godsend to self repair. I could have never got through this if I had one of those modern touch screen models where you have no choice but to replace the whole board (which is often more expensive than buying a new machine). And this is exactly why manufacturers use them now, of course. If your appliances have to be replaced every six years, they make more money. — I am thankful every day that my friend told me I was stupid if I got rid of the original Speed Queen appliances that came with my home when I bought it (these were made before Speed Queen had to go on the cheap and started making models that weren't as good). I would have almost certainly had to either replace or pay absurd amounts of money to repair my washer and dryer if I had replaced them with "modern" appliances.
• Quiet! I watched the new documentary, Quiet on Set about all the horrific shit that went on at Nickelodeon during its heyday, and I am both mortified and not the least bit surprised. It just goes to show that exploiting and endangering kids for entertainment is still going strong...
But here's the thing that really gets me. The primary guy the documentary focuses on, Dan Schneider, offers up a half-hearted defense with "Multiple network executives approved the content and look of his shows and that dozens of adults were on set and never raised concerns." And it's like... YEAH! THAT'S NOT AN EXCUSE! IT JUST MEANS THAT ALL OF YOU FAILED THESE KIDS!! How is that not fucking glaringly obvious? There's a lot of responses being bounced around, but the only one I care about is what Cory Feldman has to say, because that guy has been sounding the alarm for decades...
People independent of the studio need to be on-set to look ou for child actors. Period. Because studios only give a shit about money. Period. And they don't care what they have to do and who they have to exploit to get it. Period. Just look at the guy Corey is talking about... Brian Peck. After he was fired from Nickelodeon and served prison time for sexual abuse of a minor, HE WAS SUBSEQUENTLY HIRED BY DISNEY! Good Lord. It's unreal how children in the entertainment industry aren't looked out for by somebody.
• Babe Bullshit! To this day I wonder whether or not Vani “Food Babe” Hari is just a straight-up liar... or if she's a self-delusional ignoramus who has absolutely NO idea what the fuck she’s talking about. Because the amount of misinformation she throws out is mind-boggling. And people somehow believe her crap...
@foodsciencebabe Replying to @Food Science Babe she’s really banking on her followers not fact checking literally anything… #factsnotfear #babyfood #foodscience #nutrition ♬ original sound - Food Science Babe
In a day and age where we should be questioning where we get our information, not enough people are challenging these dipshits in the world who are making a buck off of people's ignorance. That's how we get crap like "The earth is flat!" and "MSG give you cancer!" or whatever. But fortunately there's a growing number of educated people like "Food Science Babe" stepping up to do the job. The problem is that not enough people are listening.
• Pizza! This is not safe for work. But it's funny enough that I am compelled to share it...
@damienpower_ Running into your X #standupcomedy #Australia ♬ original sound - Damien Power
That must be some amazing pizza.
Hope you're celebrating my birthday as hard as I am!
My birthday weekend with family was really nice. Riiiight up until today when I had to drive back over the mountains and The Real World.
One of the things we did was go bowling. Something I haven't done in decades. I used to love it (it's how I met my best friends in college), but as my body started falling apart, it seemed like less and less of a good idea. And though I completely sucked at it (being woefully out of practice and trying not to be too physical lest I throw my back out) I had a great time...
And now that I'm home, I want to sleep.
Except I need to clean up my house since I didn't do it before I left.
Always a mistake, but I'm too old to do the smart thing now.
Facebook memes are often more amusing to me than they probably should be. What can I say? I'm easily amused.
I especially like those memes asking you to score yourself on all the debauchery, danger, and mishaps you've had in life. Partly because people assume that I'm some kind of choirboy or something, but that's never been the case. Not necessarily because I seek these things out... but because they somehow find me.
The latest I ran across asks you to score a point for each thing you haven't done...
I end up with a whopping total of... two points.
It always amazes me how people think that the entirety of a country wholeheartedly believes in their government and supports them in everything they do.
And it's like... do YOU wholeheartedly believe in YOUR government and support THEM in everything THEY do?
No?
So why should it be any different in other countries?
I've never found this to be true in any place on this earth I've visited. Yes, some countries have a government that better represents the majority of the people they serve, but even then there will be those who don't agree with what's being done in their name. But here's the thing... no matter where I've been, I've always been able to find a way to relate to my fellow earthlings, at least in general.
I have been warmly invited into the home of a man who hates America. Literally. Would not cry a single tear if the country would implode after the way our government meddled in the affairs of his country. And I'm not imagining things here. He actually said it to me with a smile on his face. But he doesn't hate Americans. At all. Just our government (for which I think he pities us)... and, to be fair, he has justification for it.
But, once invited into his home, the politics of our countries never came up. We talked about our lives, our work, our families, where we live, and a dozen other topics that resulted in smiling faces and laughter. Because, at the bottom of it all, we are both human.
Too many people in too many countries are losing sight of this very basic fact, and it doesn't bode well for humanity. There is history which makes relations between some peoples difficult... very difficult, even... but it's never impossible.
Person to person, anyways.
I drank tea and had a great chat with a guy who despises my country with fervor. I guess miracles can happen. When governments are left at the door.
I have a very large denim collection. Partly out of necessity, because my weight fluctuates radically depending on what diet I'm having to be on.
Sometimes I have to eat low-carb in order to regulate blood sugars, and that results in rapid weight loss. When that happens, I'm in a 32-inch waist. When I'm on my regular diet, I'm a 33-inch waist. If I am having mobility issues due to my joints being screwed up long enough, then I'm a 34-inch waist. And... for those rare times I've been on a medication that's escalated weight gain and affected my mobility, I have a three pair of 36-inch waist jeans in a bottom drawer. No idea why I don't have any 35-inch.
So I have jeans with 32, 33, 34, and 36 inch waists.
But it doesn't end there. For each size I have multiple styles.
For the longest time I wore "relaxed" fit jeans because I'm skinny and I thought they made me look not-so-skinny. And it happened to be the style of the day, so Levi's 550's were my go-to.
Then the wider leg jeans went out of style, so I switched back to the straight-leg jeans of my youth, Levi's 501's and 505's.
Then I was traveling and lost my suitcase. I stopped at a store to get some new jeans and shirts and the clerk helping me put me in a tapered leg (Levi's 502's) and slim fit models (Levi's 511's and 513's) because they were popular and she thought the fit was better on me. I never in my life thought I'd buy these kind of jeans, but I ended up loving them. I didn't ever drop down to "skinny jeans" (not at my age!), but I've been wearing slim-fit jeans for over a decade.
But now slim-fit jeans are lumped in with "skinny jeans" and they are very much NOT in style.
And so...
All my slim-fit jeans are going into storage. And my straight-leg jeans are coming out of storage. I have loads of them in good shape with a 33 & 32-inch waist, which is perfect (unless I ended up gaining weight). It doesn't matter that some of them are twenty years old, they're back in style now, so I'm really happy I held onto them.
And this is the reason why I'm holding onto all my slim-fit jeans. In another ten years, who knows? Maybe they'll be back in style and I won't be too old to wear them.
I should donate all my relaxed-fit jeans. I don't picture me ever being able to wear those again. Old guys in baggy jeans doesn't really work in any era.
My cats are frustrated with me because I'm on a mission this three-day-weekend to clean and organize as much as I can. They are much happier when there's no shuffling about and definitely no vacuum, but they get that most weekdays, so I'm trying not to feel bad about it.
My cats, by and large, have been uninterested in my computer. Sure if there's a video they find interesting, they will take a look, but most of the time they couldn't care less what's happening on the display. Except this past week when I was editing some text and Jake was inexplicably fascinated with the words that were appearing before him. He sat and stared at my laptop for quite a while...
I still have no idea what it was all about. If I had to guess, he's faking interest in my work because he's still a little clingy after my return from being gone four days over last weekend...
When he's not acting like he has a headache, that is...
As for Jenny? She's been playing it cool since I returned home. She's not been clingy at all... until bedtime, as usual. She has started making a home in my recycle pile from time to time though...
Which means that now I can't bring myself to take out the recycling, of course.
In non-cat news... my Instagram page has been taken over by... BATS! And I really couldn't be happier about that. They aren't as adorable as cats, but they come darn close. Especially when they're in photos like this...
Could Baturday be in my future? Probably not. I love bats, but really don't want them in my house.
And so we've come to the end of a three-day weekend, and I'm really sad about that, but not so sad that I'm taking a day off from bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Jolene! Okay... so Beyoncé didn't just cover Dolly Parton's Jolene she changed it in a significant way. Instead of begging Jolene not to steal her man, Beyoncé is warning Jolene to not try and steal her man...
A good cover song comes from making it your own. Beyoncé did that completely. AND SPEAKING OF DOLLY PARTON...
Tina Fey's talent literally knows no bounds. She claims to have gotten the part accidentally because it was shot during COVID and she was the only one around, but the fact that she nailed it anyway is incredibly cool. DESPITE THE FACT THAT SHE CLAIMS SHE DOESN'T DO IMPERSONATIONS...
Yeah, Tina Fey is the gift that keeps on giving.
• Ultimate Evil. I don't think I was ever going to be in the mindset to watch the documentary The Truth vs. Alex Jones, but I felt it important to watch so I did. I expected that my takeaway would be sympathy and heartache. It wasn't. It's all-consuming rage. On way too many fronts. Parents who lost their kids at Sandy Hook were already going through hell before Alex Jones started unlashing his fucked up lies and bullshit that had them constantly under attack. He doesn't just deserve to lose all his money, he should be in prison for what he did. Over and over again we hear about how the "absence of trauma helicopters" and how "the parents were acting like actors" was proof-positive of Sandy Hook being fake. How the fuck does any rational human being hear that and say "Yeah, that sounds about right!" and feel justified in screaming at grieving parents? Holy fucking shit. Who needs Satan as a symbol of ultimate evil? We have Alex Jones.
• The Willow World! This new Hulu Shōgun adaptation is not the book, but something... else. I've read the novel multiple times and fully admit some of the changes bother me a bit, but most of them do not. The series is its own thing, and I'm appreciating it for what it is instead of what it's not. It's interesting to me how the latest episode is spending a relatively huge amount of screen time in a brothel. But not for the reason you'd think. They are making an effort to contrast what a "brothel" is in Japan vs. what it is in the Western world. But they're doing so in a way which explains things that are happening in the story, albeit in abstract. It's all so beautiful and brilliant...
What I love most is that the series isn't married to simply following Anjin around. I'd argue that he's not even the main character of this series. He really isn't the focus of this episode... he's an accessory. A minor distraction that pops up from time to time. And it's a bold... very bold... tact to take. Ladies of the Willow World is an episode that is very much the calm before the storm, and I'm thrilled that it exists. This is what happens when you take your time and give yourself ten episodes instead of six. Because it makes the big picture so much more rewarding. This is exceptional, not-to-be-missed television.
• SO WOKE! I'm going to put this riiiiiight here...
• Polska! You guys... YOU GUYS... Netflix has a Polish rom-com streaming! — I swear, in a lot of ways, Polish rom-coms can out-Hallmark Hallmark. This one is called Nic na sile (No Pressure) and it has one of the guys from Uwierz w Mikolaja (I Believe in Santa) in it...
I wish there was a Polish streaming service with American subtitles here. Because I would stream the heck out of that! Good news if you're not into subtitles... Netflix has dubbed it into English if you want.
• Harrassment!
Can somebody please explain the point of texts like this? I am not a Democrat. I never have been. I always support the best candidate regardless of party...
But if I were a Democrat, I wouldn't be after this harassment. I have texted STOP to this same exact text a dozen times. And each time I block the number. But they just use a different number and text me again and again and again. I have very few regrets in this life. But donating to every Democrat I could find in the 2019 midterms via ActBlue is one of them. I have been relentlessly hounded ever since. There is no way... none... to escape it. They text you no matter how many times you tell them to STOP... they text you no matter how many times you block their numbers. I just looked on my phone. I have 78 blocked numbers. Seventy-eight. To be fair, not all of them are from Democrats. But I bet most of them are. I bet a huge majority are. Because they never, ever stop. So good luck getting another fucking cent out of me via ActBlue. Fuck you and your dataset.
• Visibility! Um... before anybody gets their fucking panties in a bunch and start screaming "PICK ANOTHER DAY FOR TRANS VISIBILITY DAY... EASTER IS TAKEN!" You should know that Easter is on a different day each year, but Trans Visibility Day has been on March 31st since it was created in 2009. I swear, nobody loves to be persecuted more than Christians. They are constantly finding ways for their faith to be assaulted... even if it's not even happening. But anyway, happy International Transgender Day of Visibility! Especially to my trans friends who deserve to be seen when society is working overtime to try to erase them just for existing and being themselves.
On with your Sunday then...
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