There may be nothing good on television, but there's always something good on YouTube... because a very special All Video edition of Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• It's a Great Day! Running across sweet surprises like this on YouTube makes my entire day...
He couldn't have had a better reaction than that.
• Sweep! Ah yes... two guys can't say they're gay on television and traumatize the nation, so back then they were "business partners"...
And their marriage is still going strong, which is more than I can say for straight marriages, half of which end in divorce.
• Frog Pond! I just watched a video that's over an hour long of a guy transforming his back yard into a nature reserve frog pond. It's not just the construction that I found fascinating, it's his documentation of the wildlife that came to live there. If you don't have that kind of time, here's a seconds-long short video of the transformation...
If you do have that kind of time, here you go...
If I had the land for it, this is exactly the kind of thing I would love to do.
• The Worst! It's the Buffy commentary I've been waiting for. If you're a fan of the show... AND DETEST XANDER TO YOUR VERY CORE... this is an interesting take. But it's more than just the justifiable Xander hate. There's a few comments about many aspects of the show that I was nodding my head in agreement with.
So much of this video is spot-on.
• Grand! The fact that a Grandmaster is so encouraging and kind in her game is very cool. As of this writing, there have been 2082 Grandmasters of chess (1833 still living). Of those, only 42 have been women (all currently living).
The idea that a Grandmaster could infiltrate a chess tournament and be unrecognized is kinda silly, but this was fun to watch... even if you don't enjoy chess. There's some interesting things at play here. First of all, his Blitz Rating is pretty close to hers (~2200 vs. 2283) but, if I understand correctly, his Standard Rating is lower (~2100 vs. 2413) but, even so, he's no slouch when it comes to chess and did well for himself.
• Hoffman! It's strange how Philip Seymour Hoffman often gets overlooked when it comes to incredibly talented actors. But he really shouldn't be. The guy was a phenomenal talent who could blend into most any role seamlessly...
Taken far too soon.
And now back to the finalé of my weekend. Boo hoo.
To say that I outright loathe HomeShit HomeKit is a massive understatement. Apple has fucked up their "smart home" protocol since Day One.
When the technology debuted it was so woefully incomplete that I ditched it immediately and went with INSTEON. When INSTEON died years later, I decided to give HomeKit another chance because so many people were saying that it was finally a worthwhile way to control your home and devices. Since I was in a hurry, I went all-in on HomeKit and replaced every light switch and "smart device" in my home (at great expense). But I didn't trust Apple entirely because I made sure to buy devices that would be upgradable to the "Matter" protocol so if HomeKit ended up being awful I could just migrate to Matter and control everything another way.
SPOILER ALERT: HOMEKIT is still most definitely HOMESHIT!
HomeKit in 2024 is still a brain-dead pile of shit that is wildly inflexible and doesn't work consistently. Apple has been working on this for TEN YEARS and yet automations suddenly stop working for no reason and devices won't act as expected. Even worse, all you get to work with is the most basic of basic controls...
That's pretty much it. That's all you get. It's fucking embarrassing. Apple has always dumbed their stuff down to the lowest common denominator, but this is just beyond fucking useless if you want to have any kind of smarts in your smart home. What I need is something like this...
I've tried multiple times to do something this bloody simple and it always fails. Ideally I'd be able to use a WHILE statement so I don't have to create a second IF/THEN loop to turn them off, but at this point I'll take anything I can get.
What I'm really looking for is something like this, where the roof heat tapes only turn on if it's been snowing for a while so I don't have to waste energy on a tiny amount of snowfall that will melt quickly...
But do you think basic variables or even a rudimentary timer is available in HomeKit? Oh fuck no.
This is all off the top of my head, and I'm sure once I got into the logic of whatever system I end up with, I'll get smarter on how to best approach the automations I'm looking to create. The point is that stuff like this simply isn't possible with HomeKit.
Enter Homey Pro...
I actually bought one of these devices last year, but ended up returning it because it wasn't able to control the devices I had (mostly because my light switch manufacturer hadn't gotten out the Matter upgrade as promised). Fast-forward to Black Friday 2024 and miracle-of-miracles, my light switch manufacturer has finally released their Matter upgrade!
And so I am once again giving Homey Pro a try.
Today I received the device. Tonight I'll install it. Tomorrow I'll get started on upgrading all my stuff to Matter and seeing if Homey Pro will work for my needs.
And you, lucky reader, get to come alpong for the ride!
The Homey Pro smart home hub is an expensive investment. Purchasing the unit on Black Friday saved me $50 (plus I saved $4 on the ethernet adapter I bundled with it), but I still had to pay a whopping $372.36 for the thing. In my humble opinion, this is radically overpriced, even considering its wonderful capabilities, and I would have been much more comfortable if it were in the $250 range. At the very least, ethernet could have been included. And yet... I get it. This is the cost that's what you'll pay for a Home Assistant box, but that requires a lot of your time to get working, and I've never been ambitious enough to try and wrap my head around it. So paying Homey engineers to do the heavy lifting is a fair trade-off.
The thing that I just don't know is if my investment is going to work out long-term. Athom, the company that developed Homey, was bought out by LG. This could be a good thing in that more money will (theoretically) be available to continue developing the project. But just as Samsung has hopelessly screwed up SmartThings, there's a very real possibility that LG will fuck up Homey and I'll be forced to jump to Home Assistant. Which is probably what I should have done from the start, but I just don't have the time to invest in learning how to make it work with all my stuff.
But anyway...
Homey Pro (which I'll be calling "HP" from her on out) has an IR blaster which can (assumably) be used to control my television, so I put it directly under the TV (where it also has an ethernet hub available for a more reliable signal vs. WiFi).
Once you've got HP set up via the Homey app, you can visit the HP "App Store" to get free apps for controlling all your stuff. Many are created by the HP community... but a surprising number of them are official apps direct rom the manufacturers themselves.
One of these apps is for Aqara devices. It was my plan to integrate my Aqara stuff via the Aqara hub's Matter upgrade. But when I tried, HP said that my hub didn't have any devices attached? So I used the official Aqara app and paired all the sensors directly to HP. And since you can only pair the devices to one hub at a time, that means my Aqara hub is now useless and got tossed in my electronics box. To be honest, the pairing is not easy. The first sensor took two tries (the second took six?!?). Three more to go. I really hope that's the end of it.
Next up I decided to jump head-first into what I've most been dreading... upgrading my Eve Smart Home light switches to the new Matter Smart Home protocol so that they can be controlled via Homey Pro instead of only horrendously shitty HomeKit.
I started with a single light switch that I rarely use. It went fairly well, but took some time...
If all goes well, you then have a Matter-enabled light switch which is accessible by Homey Pro, Apple HomeKit, and even other smart home ecosystems which can integrate Matter devices (like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa). If all doesn't go well, then you'll end up having to delete the device from HomeKit, reset the Eve light switch, add it back to HomeKit, then do steps 3-5 again. Fortunately, this only happened once so far.
UPDATE 12/4/2024: Over the course of two evenings, all my Eve light switches, motion sensors, door & window sensors, and smart plugs had been updated to Matter and added. Surprisingly, out of dozens of devices, only two light switches ended up giving me problems. But that was easily solved by resetting and re-pairing.
And now the real fun begins.
The biggest benefit of Homey Pro is that it can control such a wild variety of smart devices. And I have a ton of them. Everything from my Roomba robot vacuum to my security system to my smoke detectors (to name a few). Figuring out how to get all that stuff added so I finally have a cohesive smart home that's actually smart and where everything can work together is going to be my obsession for the rest of the week, I'm sure.
Tonight I finally finished upgrading all my Eve devices to Matter. Despite the time involved, it went about as smoothly as you could hope for.
But then it came time for all the other devices, and it's like I've been walking hip-deep in molassas. Devices are taking multiple, multiple tries to get connected. Though once they are connected they seem to be operating just fine. Hopefully they stay that way.
Since it's now past midnight, I think I'm throwing in the towel for the day. Maybe tomorrow night I'll make some headway on the rest.
A full half of my smart devices are from Eve Home. Which meant once I got the routine figured out to get them brought into Homey, it was simple (if time consuming) to power through them all.
But the entire point of Homey (other than getting rid of HomeKit) was bringing the many other devices I have into my smart home. Some of which were never able to be used with HomeKit.
Fortunately, there are apps for that...
The only one I'm having issues with is Google Nest. I'd like to be able to use their motion detection, but haven't figured out how. I'll keep working on it because it's supposed to be possible.
All is not perfect though. There are some devices I own without apps available...
But anyway... all of the devices I own which can be brought into Homey are now in Homey.
Except one.
I was positive to make sure that the Nanoleaf light strip I bought for under my kitchen cabinets was Matter compatible. Except I cannot get it into anything except HomeKit for some reason. And I tried for over an hour to get it into Homey. This is incredibly frustrating. I don't know if Amazon sent me the wrong version or what, but there's no Matter pairing code anywhere to be found on the device or the documentation. I wrote to Nanoleaf to see if anything can be done but, odds are, I'm fucked and will have to buy new ones. What's really frustrating is that the Nanoleaf app seems to imply that they are Matter compatible...
Other than that, everything has gone as well as I could have hoped.
Tomorrow I'll wrap this up with a look at the amazing automation tools that Homey Pro offers. Or "flows" as Homey calls them. It's not perfect, but they're so easy and powerful to use that they're darn close. Most everything I ever lamented not being able to do with HomeKit is a piece of cake, and for that alone I'm very happy to have made the leap.
The fact that Apple HomeKit can't seem to maintain connections... and has its automations fail for no reason all the time... is only half the reason I hate it so much. A major problem with HomeKit is that the automations are so ridiculously underpowered and limited. If you want to do anything more than the most basic of tasks, you're out of luck.
Homey Pro, on the other hand, is fairly robust. Their automations are called "flows." And you have your pick of how deep you want to go. Their standard flows are very reminiscent of HomeKit. Basically an IF THIS HAPPENS, THEN DO THAT situation. But if you want more than that, you can use Homey Advanced Flows.
Despite the fact that they are indeed more advanced, they are surprisingly easy to use because of the beautiful graphic interface that Homey has come up with. In many ways, I find it easier to use than the basic option...
Here I am building a routine that monitors the brightness of the living room. If it drops to certain level of darkness and it's before 9pm, the lights turn on. If it's after 10pm and there's nobody home to turn the lights off, they turn off automatically...
This isn't terribly complex, yet. I have the option of adding an ELSE to the conditionals. For example, if it's after 10pm and somebody actually is home, I can have an entirely different set of routines be initiated. So many possibilities, and I've not even scratched the surface.
Homey Pro may not rely on the cloud to do what it does (everything on the Pro is processed locally) but it's not entirely isolated. For example... if there's a water leak detected, not only will the Homey Pro light up and glow blue, but a text message will be sent to my iPhone and the Sonos speakers in my living room and bedroom will announce the leak...
One of the many features I'm interested in exploiting is global variables. You can have routines set variables in one place, then have them available to every flow you create, at which point they can be modified. This could end up being very handy in the future when I'm doing far more complex interactions between devices.
If there's one thing about all this that I'm certain of, home automation is addicting. And the seemingly limitless options provided by Homey Pro Advanced Flows are certainly going to suck up a lot of my time. The more I play around, the more I'll learn how to do things better. So I'm sure there'll be loads of tweaking from here on out.
And here's the thing... if "Advanced Flows" are still not capable enough for you, then you can turn to Homey Script, which allows programmable goodness...
I really hope that I never get to the point that I need this.
But anyway...
Despite divorcing myself from HomeKit, I'm still firmly entrenched in the Apple Ecosystem. I still want to use Siri as the trigger for manually starting automations that I build. Fortunately, Homey Pro has Siri Shortcuts integration, so I can just delete my HomeKit Automations, rewrite them as Homey Pro Flows that are named the same, then create a Siri Shortcut to run them. That way I don't have to remember any new naming scheme for what I've already learned. Easy.
And there you have it. After a decade I am done, done, DONE with shitty fucking HomeKit.
I hope.
Yes, I left all my devices in HomeKit just in case, because you never know, but for now I am happy that I finally have a way to move past all the limitations I've been trying to work within since I started with home automation all these years.
Any parting comments?
Yes. Thank God I didn't go 100% Aqara as I planned when Homey Pro fell through the first time. The Zigbee protocol that Aqara uses is utter shit. I bought some water leak sensors because they were the most economical leak sensors I could get (at a time when I was pouring money into water leak repairs). Pairing the sensors to the Aqara M2 Hub was not a big deal. But I could never pair the M2 Hub (via Matter) to Homey Pro because it said devices weren't attached. Which they were. So I had to pair the sensors directly to Homey Pro which was a horrific ordeal. For my first two units it took a minimum of six tries. The third took ELEVEN tries. The fourth took eight. The fifth? Still hasn't paired. This is utter madness. I don't know why the Aqara M2 Hub has no problem pairing with them but the Homey Pro is so utterly hopeless. I may end up replacing all the Aqara sensors with Matter versions if I can find affordable ones next Black Friday.
The cats have been extra crafty lately.
Like they're stalking each other. I think it started as an accident, but then things escallated and now they're hunting each other for fun.
Here's Jake looking down the stairwell as his sister comes back from running around downstairs...
But it's just play. They're not aggressive about it or anything. They still hang out being indifferent towards each other...
Meanwhile: It's a tale as old as time this morning...
JENNY: You should rub my belly.
ME: No. It's a trap.
JENNY: It's not a trap. Here's my belly... rub it.
ME: No.
JENNY: Look how fluffy it is tho.
ME: You just want an excuse to attack me.
JENNY: RUB IT! RUB MY BELLY!
ME: OKAY!!
=kicking and scratching ensues=
JENNY: HOW DARE YOU ATTEMPT TO RUB MY BELLY!
=five minutes later=
JENNY: Rub my belly.
The videos have been good again this week... because a Very Special all new, all video Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Infinitly Watchable! Looking for your next watch? Black Doves on Netflix. Two episodes in and I didn't want it to end. If you like crazy spy thrillers, this is the one...
Ben Wishaw is genius in everything. Sarah Lancashire is good in everything. And Keira Knightley... here she is a revelation. She doesn't often get roles like this, but she should. This is contender for my favorite shows of 2024. UPDATE: I should mention that if you are playing "The Little Drummer Boy Challenge," you will lose if you watch the beginning of
• New Skeletons! Star Wars doesn't have to be just one thing. They can tell lots of kinds of stories within that universe. So if you don't like the latest series, Skeleton Crew, fine. If you can't accept that they are making "Goonies in Space," fine. If it's not "Real Star Wars" without Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker to you, fine. But for the love of God... can people stop shitting all over those who ARE enjoying it for what it is? Hate away if that's what you want, but other opinions exist. And I'm happy to see that the tide is turning on Skeleton Crew now that more and more people have seen the debut episodes and loved them. This is a darn good show and really good Star Wars to boot...
Usually I hate shows with kids because they're written to be whiny, annoying, and unwatchable. This series is different. Great characters that just happen to be kids. Worth a look if you've got Disney+!
• All My Love! At 99, Dick Van Dyke is in amazingly good health. Just look at this...
He's also got more marbles rattling around in his head than I do. Incredible.
• Woodworking! I loathe ASMR videos (but you do you, if that's your jam). This wonderful demonstration of craftsmanship is what I consider to be the ultimate destress stimulation...
And that's not the end!
Wonderful. I wish I'd happen upon several million dollars so I can retire and do stuff like this all day long.
• SQUEEEEEEE! Michelle Yeoh is delicious in this role. I love the movie already.
Of course, she's delicious in every role, so there's that.
• Smarty-Bird! Holy shit. Meanwhile, humans are eating paste, thinking the world is flat, and becoming anti-vaxers...
I, for one, welcome our new crow overlords.
• Business Partners! Your Sunday dose of happy...
That there are still people who think this is any less valid a love story than any other is kinda sad.
Until next week's bullets then...
There's a lot that I could say about current events.
But I think that this TikTok from Pastor Paul Drees is the closest to how I am feeling about things, so it's probably best that I just go with it instead of trying to dance around what I'd like to say... what I should probably say... or something I might immediately regret if I say...
@pastorpauldrees hey don't hurt other people. Also I understand the irony of posting this video while I'm recoving from an illness. #progressivechristianity #pastorpauldrees #lutheran #elca #progressiveclergy ♬ original sound - Pastor Paul Drees
"Health care" in these United States is utterly fucking horrendous.
You've got an entire industry whose entire point is to take money out of the system. It serves absolutely no other purpose.
If all the money that the American people paid into "health" insurance only for insurance companies to FUCK THEM OVER was instead put into actual health care, we'd be paying less for far, far more.
I had to go nearly three fucking weeks without medication prescribed by my doctor because my "health" insurance company wouldn't fill it without "prior approval." And it's like... my doctor says that I require it. That's all the fucking approval you fucking need. But no. They had to deny the prescription. Then my doctor had to send in paperwork asking for approval. Then the insurance company had to process shit while I waited. Then I'm guessing the CEO of the insurance company had to fly to St. Barts on their private jet for a week to consider if, in fact, they would allow me to have what my doctor says I need. THEN they decided to allow the prescription to be filled.
Two days after my medication was finally in my hands, I got a letter telling me how "pleased" my "health" insurance company was to approve my prescription request.
For the love of God I don't understand how Americans have been continuously conned into thinking that this is the way health care should work. Forget one greedy fuck at a fucking insurance company... the entire country should be in goddamn flames over this bullshit.
And perhaps one day it will be.
Last night I got into a bit of an online scuffle because somebody was saying that there are some subjects which comedians should never joke about. I responded that since everybody would have a separate list of things they feel should not be allowed, there would be no comedy left because everybody likely has different ideas about what needs to be on the list.
This is very different from saying that there are subjects which I don't find funny... because there definitely are. But most of the time it's not that I feel the subject itself should never be included in a joke, it's because I feel the joke was lazy. Very few things offend me, but lazy jokes very much do.
As an example... my mother had dementia. Something that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy because it's such a horrific condition. Understandably, "jokes" mocking or ridiculing people with dementia are not something I find the least bit funny. But do I think that dementia, as the topic of a joke, should be banned? Of course not. Because in the hands of a skilled comedian, it can be darn funny.
Jimmy Carr is a highly controversial comedian out of the UK. He's controversial because his jokes can include a frightening array of topics from pedophilia to sexual assault that are not funny at all. And while he has jokes that are lazy as fuck for punching down, he's also able to make good jokes out of things that are inherently not funny.
Like dementia.
A couple months ago I saw a clip of Jimmy doing some crowd work. Somebody asked him what it's like to be famous. Jimmy said "It's excellent! No complaints. I'll tell you what it's like being famous. It's like you live in a lovely little village... it's very friendly... but you've got Alzheimer's. Because everyone knows you, and you don't recognize any(body). I wander around all day and people go 'Alright, Jimmy!' and I go... uh... hello." — Half of what makes the joke work is how he tells it. But the best part is that he's not actually making fun of anybody with Alzheimer's. So it's funny without punching down, which is the best way to be funny.
Now, I'm not saying there are people who won't find the joke funny... heck, back when I was in the thick of trying to deal with it, I likely wouldn't have found it as funny as I do now... and that's okay. But to outright ban a comedian from a topic if they are able to construct something clever without being lazy? No thanks.
I found the video, by the way. His Alzheimer's joke is early on. Though if you are easily offended, then it's probably best to not watch anything Jimmy-Carr-related. You've been warned...
Jimmy's biggest talent is presenting British quiz shows, which he is very, very good at. He's at his best when he's bouncing off of other people, and a quiz show is perfect for that. YouTube has videos for 8 Out of 10 Cats and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Big Fat Quiz of the Year, all of which are probably less offensive material than his stand-up, if you're interested.
Today was not a very good day at all. A lot of crazy stuff mucking things up from the moment I turned on my computer at 5:50am until just a few moments ago when I was getting ready to feed the cats their dinner and wanted to turn the stairwell lights on for Jenny because she was still upstairs.
And here's how that went...
ME: "Hey Siri, turn on stair lights."
SIRI: Turns on lights.
SONOS: Plays Starlight by Muse.
JAKE: I'm hungry.
JENNY: Okay, I'm here. Scratch my ass.
Now, Siri actually turning on the lights is not fully expected, but also not surprising. Jake being hungry and Jenny wanting ass scratches are to be expected.
What was completely unexpected was Sonos playing Starlight.
Sonos never does the fuck what you want it to do when you ask it to do something directly and call it by name. Its voice assistant is shit (even if it has a great speaking voice). So why the heck did it pipe up with its bullshit when "Siri" sounds nothing like "Sonos?" Not even in the same ballpark.
But I did get to listen to a song by Muse, so there's that...
I am seriously beginning to wonder if a "smart" home isn't for me.
Back when I was young, naive, and traveling the world, I spent my fair share of sleeping in stations, hostels, and on trains. It always seemed like such a waste to spend money on lodging because the more money I saved, the more I got to travel. Far better to spend my money on flights, transportation, museum fees, and food than "wasting" it on a hotel!
Then... as I entered my late 20's... I decided that globetrotting a little less so I could stay in a cheap hotel was a better way to travel. I got tired of having to carry a bike-lock to secure my backpack to my train seat or hostel bed so it wouldn't get stolen while I slept.
Then... somthing happened in my early-30's that changed everything. I started traveling regularly for work where I got to stay in nice hotels. Nothing crazy... not a room at the Ritz Carlton or anything... but nice hotels that were a big step up from the Motel 6 or Super 8 rooms I was used to.
It was very hard to stay at the Hilton for work then stay at an ultra-budget hotel for personal travel. And so I started adding vacation days to work trips so I could make my money go further and be able to afford nicer hotels. Have work in Germany? Add a cheap flight to Spain after my work is over! Far cheaper than flying to Spain on my own! Between work-work and charity-work, I was in Europe and Asia fairly often, so I got to see a lot of the world without having to foot the bill entirely by myself.
Thanks to the pandemic, my travel for work-work and charity-work abruptly came to a halt in January 2020 and never recovered. In the past five years I've taken exactly three trips requiring plane travel.
Next year I have two trips planned (so far), and that's what sent me down lodging memory lane.
But also got me to thinking...
If I were starting out traveling today, would I be sleeping in a bus station or checking into a hostel? Probably, I guess? I mean, people still do it (obviously), but it seems less safe than it was in the late 80's. Though I fully admit that this is likely more perceptual than anything else. My odds of getting assaulted in a bus station while sleeping may have been less back then, but it was never zero.
The issue that gives me pause on saying that now-a-days I would be staying in a hotel is the expense of it all.
Travel is so much more expensive than it used to be. And hotel rooms almost comically so.
If I were starting out with travel today on a starving post-college student budget, I wouldn't be able to afford to stay in a hotel. Heck, I can barely afford it now! I feel bad for young people in 2024... particularly young families... trying to afford a vacation. Just being able to afford a place to live, food to eat, and American "health" care takes all your money.
Today Giant Freakin' Robot released a video today titled How A 90s Sci-Fi Masterpiece Was Kneecapped By The Matrix and I immediately knew they were going to drag out Dark City because A) The plots of the movies have similarities, B) The Matrix came out just a year later, C) The Matrix shot on some of the same sets, and D) Because of A-C, a lot of people have lumped them together so they could comment on how The Matrix was so much more successful.
I remember when I saw Dark City very well. A friend and I were in Seattle for some kind of morning event and went over the night before. We wanted to kill time after dinner so we went to a theater nearby and just picked the most interesting movie. Which happened to be Dark City. We knew nothing about it and neither of us had even saw a trailer.
Needless to say, it was a mind-blowing experience.
This is one mind-blowing film.
So of course I had to watch it for the hundredth time tonight. Just as good as it ever was. That ending reveal they came up with is pretty epic.
And here's the video I was talking about...
I've heard more than a couple times over the decades that they were planning on a sequel or television series or something new to do with Dark City. The last time was back in 2021 when director Alex Proyas said a series was in development (and said he hopes that Kiefer Sutherland will return for it). Not sure where they can go with a sequel after what happened, but I'd absolutely tune in to find out!
Cats have relatively short lives. And I am incredibly aware of this.
If I'm lucky, I've got another ten years with Jake and Jenny... and, if we're all lucky, they'll have the rest of their lives with me. And that's the thing. Because my cats have such limited time on this earth, I really don't deny them anything. If one of them wants to be petted, I will drop whatever I'm doing to pet them. I mean, I'm not going to make myself late for work or a dentist appointment or taking a cake out of the oven, but most anything else? Not as important as making sure their short time (not sleeping) is doing whatever makes them happy.
Such as attending a meeting on my crappy TV webcam and not caring that Jake is on my lap. Even when he's woken up when I have to talk...
Jenny, on the other hand, just runs away and hides.
Wish that was an option for me.
Don't go thinking that living on a fucking pancake excuses you from the bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Anscestry! Can confirm. This is how I'm treated everywhere I go in the world where I can loudly announce that I am an American whose family was "originally from here"...
Accurate.
• Conspiracytime! Leave it to Big Tugg to crap all over some of the wackiest conspiracies running...
Don't even ask me how we got here.
• Flerfy Flerf! And speaking of wacky conspiracy bullshit, a bunch of flat earthers were invited to Antarctica to personally verify that the sun doesn't set in December because we're, in fact, on a fucking globe. Having been to Antarctica in the month of December, I can indeed verify that the sun does not set. BECAUSE WE'RE ON A FUCKING GLOBE. The flerfers fell over themselves to reject the invitation, but three of them actually went. You can track them and watch the videos right now! — As amusing as it is to ship dipshit flerfers to Antarctica, you could have saved the money had just had them replicate this experiment, which took a whole minute to perform... and is just as hilarious to watch...
Unreal how we had all this shit figured out before the birth of Christ, but here we are going backwards.
• Dooooon! Yikes. HBO Max... WTF happened? Dune Prophecy was going SO well, but last week we got a turd in the punchbowl? Nothing happened! Everything that was set up gets negated by Desmond pulling a Professor X in the most boring way possible. This episode could have been 10 minutes long! Could the characters BE any less compelling this week? Even Mother Superior was a snooze! =yawn= I made this graphic, but didn't post it because I thought we might be going through a calm-before-the-storm kinda situation...
But NOPE! This week's episode was also boring as fuck, providing a reveal as to the identity of Desmond Hart that was about the least-shocking "twist" in a show that I've ever seen. Who he was got telegraphed way in advance, and I cannot imagine anybody not seeing this coming from a mile away. Which is to say that even if to say they totally stick the landing, the show is going to be pretty meh to me.
• HIM! Honest to God I don't understand how A Flock Of Seagulls was relegated to one-hit-wonder status. Some of my favorite tracks came long after I Ran was released. And here they are, still killing it. This is a great throwback track...
Sure it's repetitive, but it's darn snappy.
• We Care! NEWSFLASH: Diabetic groom-to-be dies after taking cheaper insulin to pay for wedding — Fuck this fucking country's fucking inability to understand how our "health care" system doesn't care about anything but making insurance executives wealthy. We're literally killing ourselves rather than taking insurance out of the equation and just letting our money go towards care directly.
• Real Men Don't Eat the Shit! I don't have dairy in my house any more because I try to eat vegan at home and save dairy as a treat when I'm out, but this morning I had to bake a quiche, so I bought some eggs and milk on Friday (to go with the cheese I got on Thursday). While I went into the office I had a panic attack because I left my $7 carton of eggs on the front seat. Eggs seems like something that people would break into my car and steal! On the plus-side, the lady at the market opened the carton to check them all, then put a rubber band on them for safety ("They tend to hop out of the carton now that they're $7.00!")...
Fortunately... the eggs were still there when I got off work!
And now back to living on our globe earth, already in progress.
As I mentioned yesterday, a few flat earthers who were not afraid to risk being proven wrong were flown to Antarctica so they could see that the sun doesn't set but instead circles around you. After two days of the sun going around them, they were indeed proven wrong.
To the shock of absolutely nobody with an analytical thought in their head...
But, hey. Even if you don't trust those globist shills, you can totally trust me! I experienced polar day first-hand. Of course I wasn't as close to the South Pole as the team is, so the sun was lower on the horizon for me than it was for them... but I was in Antarctica and I did see the sun circle around me without fully setting. So, yeah. Welcome to nighttime in the Antarctic Circle (which is even more amazing when there's clouds out like this...
Photo by ME... TAKEN IN ANTARCTICA!
The views in Antarctica are incredible.
Though they're even prettier when the sky is clear...
Photo by ME... TAKEN IN ANTARCTICA!
There's one flerfer who said that the team wouldn't even be able to get to Antarctica because people with guns would stop them and keep them from approaching. To what end? No fucking clue. But they got called from Antarctica by MCToon to hilarious effect...
And... I'm dead.
But of course the diehard flerfers lose their dipshit cult following if they admit that all possible evidence tells us the earth is a globe, so now they're all coming up with every wacky excuse they can think of to explain why what people see is not what's really happening.
Christ.
I'd probably feel better about this shit if people could just admit that they don't know how anything works and are too lazy to learn about it. But nope! You've got a subset of humanity that would rather twist logic in a pretzel than admit they're just being ignorant.
Though the whole "flat earth" deal needs a hell of a lot more than a pretzel given how insane it is.
Well, today didn't go as planned. At all.
Well then. Didn't have a new Defunctland video on my Bingo card.
The channel used to get new episodes fairly regularly. Then the videos started getting more complex and in-depth, which meant that they started taking longer and longer for Kevin to produce. But quality takes time (I'm still amazed by the Disney Channel Theme video from a couple years ago)...
Spoiler Alert: This is only Part One! No idea how long we'll have to wait for Part Two (or how many parts there will be), but animatronics is a fascinating topic, and I'll take as many parts as we can get.
Today is my mom's birthday. Between this and Mother's Day, it's the worst two days of the year for me. Thankfully, my cats were being entitled little shits this morning, so I was well-distracted from thinking about what crap it is that mom would have turned 80 years old today had she not passed six years ago.
Something else that helped distract me from reality? The teaser trailer for Superman dropped today!
I just want the comic books.
I don't want some crappy dark "interpretation" of Superman. I just want comic book Superman on the big screen. There's so much amazing material to draw from. Take the best bits from all of the iterations. Give us All-Star Superman in an amazing story with plenty of action and some heart.
That's it. That's all I need.
All the comic-bookey stuff that makes the character so great is what the movie should be about. Like the first two Richard Donner Superman films managed to do.
But at this point with the mess that the "Snyderverse" became, I don't even care about the story so much as being able to geek out over having a movie that honors the source material and has cool stuff from the comics. But since it's James Gunn, I know we're getting both cool comic book stuff and a good story. I mean, he took frickin' Guardians of the Galaxy and made it compelling to all audiences! I have confidence he'll do the same with Superman.
I mean... just LOOK at what we're getting! Guy Gardner (complete with his horrible haircut)! Mr. Terrific! Hawkgirl! AND KRYPTO!?! ZOMG! That's just beyond my expectations...
Copyright ©2024 DC Comics / Warner Bros.
Copyright ©2024 DC Comics / Warner Bros.
Copyright ©2024 DC Comics / Warner Bros.
It's frickin' Krypto! He's got the cape and everything? Isn't that just the absolute best?
And is that Metamorpho in there too? Plus amazing action and a Lex Luthor that actually looks menacing? THIS IS ALL I EVER WANTED! No joke... the first three times I watched the trailer it was pretty hard to hold it together.
This is looking like the best Superman movie since Superman II from 1981. NINETEEN EIGHTY-ONE! Everything that followed was pretty much crap... including Bryan Singer's Superman Returns (with the exception of that ONE SCENE with Martha Kent waiting outside the hospital to find out if her son is dead in a crowd of people like she's nobody)... and most definitely the Zack Snyder crap which was gut-wrenchingly awful (and that really hurt because Henry Cavill was an amazing choice).
Bring on the Justice League! The REAL Justice League!
Well poop.
This day certainly didn't go as I had hoped. Started out with a major problem that ended up having a heinously expensive solution. But isn't that always the case?I'm used to it by now.
We've had serious snow this past week, which has driven the cats more than a little crazy because the birds have concentrated their activity on the bushes behind the house. Jake and Jenny spend a crazy about of time looking out the window to see what's going on.
When they're not being entertained by their feathered nemeses out the window, they're inside pretending to be cold in the hopes that I'll turn the heat up...
Which is ridiculous since it's far from freezing and they have warming pads they can lay on. Which is Jake's favorite thing because he likes having a warm head. Most times he sleeps with his head up-side-down on the pad...
That he does this 23-1/2 hours a day would be concerning for a human, but is probably normal for a cat.
Ho Ho Ho! Christmas may be around the corner, but the gift that keeps on giving is here, because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Not so flat as we were lead to believe! NEWSFLASH: Flat Earthers realize 'they are wrong' after traveling to Antarctica to prove the Earth isn’t round in hilarious footage. And yet it won't move the needle much (if at all) because flerfers are so accustomed to ignoring painfully obvious empirical evidence in order for their deranged worldview to work that they'll just come up with even more deranged ideas to explain it. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.
• Selfish Cow! I laughed way too long at this...
But can you blame me?
• Swap! The SNL tradition that never disappoints...
• Sad Milk! NEWSFLASH: Infectious Bird Flu Can Linger in Refrigerated Raw Milk for 5 Days. I wish I understood the whole raw milk movement. It makes zero sense to me. And the fact that people are getting really fucked up (or dead) after drinking it, yet people are still drinking it? That makes even less than zero sense.
If only those who developed the first Disney units could see where Imagineers are now.
• Cravin' No More Kraven! The latest super-hero movie fiasco, Kraven The Hunter, is struggling to make $30 million on its likely $120+ million budget. And that's =chef's kiss= because it probably needs at least $250 million to break even. Between this abomination, Madame Web, and Morbius, you have to ask yourself if our Sony Pictures Spider-nightmare is finally over. Lord I hope so. We're already at peak super-hero movie fatigue, we don't need complete shit like this making it worse. Why doesn't Sony sell their Spider-rights back to Marvel Studios and just stop with this nonsense. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD... PLEASE STOP!!!
• Data Broken! I finally went with one of those data-finder services to scrub as much personal information about me from the Internet as possible. Every time they send a new report, I'm dumbfounded at the number of places I've been popping up. These data brokers are absolute parasites that should shut down. No wonder I get shitloads of spam and spam texts... there's companies working overtime to make it happen. If you want to take a look at the service I picked, DeleteMe, here's my link for 20% off. If you don't want my link, that's okay... you can visit the site without it here.
Only one more set of bullets left in 2024.
While having a "smart home" is cool, I would have never spent the money on it if I didn't feel I had to. I bought my home so that I could care for my mom, and part of that was making sure that I could control it remotely. As her dementia progressed, I worked at home whenever I could but still had to go into the office from time to time for a bit. While at work I needed the cameras, a security system, and remote access to everything so I could keep watch and help out if she ran into trouble.
Likely the most important piece of the smart home puzzle was smart smoke detectors.
Mom had put plastic in the oven... twice... while I was home and had the oven on to cook something, so the worry was that she would turn the oven on and do that when I wasn't home. So I bought Google Nest smoke detectors that would alert me to smoke or fire no matter where I was.
Lately the CO2 sensors have started to fail, and so I have been replacing the detectors as needed.
Until I couldn't.
All of a sudden, nobody had the wired Nest Smoke Detectors available. Nobody. Except Google's own store. But the problem is that they will only allow you to order one of them. This is a problem when I have two detectors with dead CO2 sensors and one which had expired.
I finally decided to chat with "Customer Support" to find out what to do.
What followed was my wasting an insane amount of time being passed around while being told to do truly insane things. Including (but not limited to) unplugging the failing detectors and removing the batteries so they'll stop beeping.
Yes, you read that right... YOU CAN SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF NOT BEING ABLE TO REPLACE YOUR SMOKE DETECTORS BY DISABLING YOUR SMOKE DETECTORS!
If I didn't have the complete chat transcript of the bizarre shit Google said from my call, I wouldn't believe it.
Note that at any point in my conversations, all the Google "Customer Support" agents had to do was tell me that they were sorry they couldn't sell me replacements for all my dead detectors and I should buy a different brand so I could stay safe. But rather than tell a customer to buy a non-Google product, they thought it was better to tell me to risk my life and illegally disable my smoke detectors.
I can only guess that wanting your customers dead rather than buying a non-Google product is company policy.
Remember when Google's motto was "Don't be evil?"
Wintertime driving over the mountains in my neck of the woods can be a scary prospect.
Because even though WhizDOT (aka WSDOT, the Washington State Department of Transportation) and their awesome crew of dedicated workers does an exceptional job keeping the roads cleared, heavy snows can overwhelm the system. Whiteout snow conditions married with ice, deep slush, and morons who drive like assholes is a recipe for disaster, and I've experienced more than my fair share of terrifying experiences over the years.
And yet... if you gotta go, you gotta go, and that's just the way it is.
Plus, it's pretty...
Fortunately my trip today wasn't bad at all. A little slush here and there, but otherwise bare and wet.
Alas, the forecast for my return trip is not looking quote so pretty. But we'll see.
Christmas morning was a morning unlike any other when I was a kid. So. Many. Toys. I suppose it's that way for a lot of people, because the saying "It's just like Christmas morning!" had to come from somewhere.
This morning before crawling out of bed I looked through an old digital photo album labeled "Christmas" to bathe in the warm waters of nostalgia for a few minutes. One of the photos was of me playing with my brand new Spirograph as a kid...
And that got me wondering... in this digital age, does Spirograph even exist any more?
Indeed it does...
But of course Spirograph has been taken digital in a dozen different directions too. Including this awesome HTML version you can play with right here...
And here's one which tries to replicate the physical process...
So there you go! Entertainment for days on your Christmas morning. You're welcome!
I keep a running list of cool things I find on these here internets so I can share them on Bullet Sunday.
But sometimes... sometimes... something is so cool that I can't bring myself to wait. Today's YouTube video is one of those times. Except I actually found it on the 23rd, so I guess I did end up having some restraint in waiting three whole days.
This video is 35 minutes of absolute joy. It's got it all... old tech... random strangers helping across international borders... entertaining history... and something so hilarious at the 32-minute mark that I nearly choked to death. This right here is why I love the internet...
Earlier this year I posted this epic video along the same lines where a guy tracked down a McDonalds DS cartridge, which is equally fantastic...
If anybody has any recommendations for more videos like these, be sure to comment. The YouTube algorithm is pretty good, but it can't know everything.
I hope.
Yesterday the mountain passes were off-and-on closed due to weather or stalled due to accidents or requiring chains. Needless to say, I wasn't looking forward to the drive home this morning. I mean, chaining-up is no big deal. I've done that loads of time. And temporary closures are annoying, but part of the game (just make sure you've got a full tank of gas). The problem is, of course, morons driving like assholes and causing accidents. I've seen the consequences far too many times, mostly due to people in 4-wheel-drive rigs thinking they're invulnerable to ice and slush.
It's only my dumb luck that I haven't been sucked into their stupid all these years.
But when I woke up, all passes home were open. And my preferred mountain pass, which was chains-required all day yesterday, was in great shape. So the drive home was easy and, dare I say it, enjoyable...
In the end I felt fortunate that I was able to escape for a few days on my Christmas holiday.
Hopefully yours was equally good.
And here we go... my annual wrap-up of my favorite films of the year! Or, to be more accurate, my favorite films that I actually saw. Which has been hampered severely by my unwillingness to go to the theater. The experience is absolute shit in a day-and-age where people are inconsiderate assholes, and I am just not doing it. And so I am stuck to streaming services where I sometimes miss movies because I rotate through all of them rather than paying the stupid prices they charge. Oh well. Still love movies though.
THE TWELVE BEST...
These are my favorite movies from this year that I managed to see.
#1 Dune: Part Two (Legendary/Warner Bros.)
If Villeneuve's Dune: Part One was a masterpiece, then Dune: Part Two is whatever word is beyond a "masterpiece." It's the grand payoff that the first film sets up, and every second of it looks stunning. Based on one of my favorite novels of all time, the second installment continues the story of Paul Atreides as he forges ahead towards becoming the Fremen messiah. Once again his enemies are all around, headed by the evil Harkonnens and the Emperor himself. While Villeneuve made a few choices I didn't care for (Thufir Hawat was short-changed in the first film... and he was nowhere to be found in this one?) but the vast majority of his approach to the material is interesting and flawlessly executed. Especially when you consider how rich, dense, and impossible to adapt the book is. Overall a stunning cinematic achievement that's my favorite movie of 2024... and has me anticipating Villeneuve's finale to the trilogy with Dune Messiah when he gets around to it.
#2 The Fall Guy (Universal)
Well, well, well, color me shocked. An old TV show turned into a film that doesn't suck? Will wonders never cease. And not only does the film not suck, it's actually very darn good. Ryan Gosling playing stunt man Colt Seavers knocks it out of the park yet again in a story that has a perfect blend of action, twists, mystery, and humor to make it a great watch from beginning to end. Add in Emily Blunt, Hannah Waddingham, and a few surprises and, well, it's unapologetically my #2 film of 2024.
#3 The Wild Robot (Dreamworks)
Chris Sanders created my favorite Disney film of all time, Lilo & Stitch... plus had his hand in loads of other classics like Aladdin, The Lion King, and How to Train Your Dragon. It should come as absolutely no surprise that his take on a beloved children's book would be aces... and it is. Beyond gorgeous in execution, every frame is a work of art, and the story unfolds in a way that is the very definition of "heartwarming." The film was so well-received that a sequel is already in the works, and I can't wait to see it.
#4 The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (Starz/Amazon)
Inspired by Winston Churchill's declassified files, Guy Richie unleashes his cinematic genius in WWII a film that doesn't reach his past heights, but was still entirely great and worth my valuable time. Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson lead a team that excels at stylized violence with a comedic edge. And if you love nothing more than watching Nazis getting slaughtered by the hundreds while witty banter ensues, this is your film.
#5 The Beekeeper (MGM)
After wasting away in The Expendables, The Meg, and Fast & Furious franchises, Jason Statham is finally back in true form for the first time I can think of since 2016's The Mechanic sequel. And it's a glorious action-revenge flick that has some of the best Statham action beats I've seen in a long time. A former "Beekeeper"... one of a mysterious group of assassins with government ties... Statham is out for blood after his landlord is scammed out of charity money and commits suicide. It's a fantastic ride which features... Jeremy Irons? And is one of my favorite flicks of 2024.
#6 Deadpool & Wolverine (Marvel Studios)
I've watched the first two Deadpool films more times than I'd ever admit because they're just so hilariously entertaining. The third film was sure to be a slam-dunk for me, but didn't really live up to my lofty expectations. Not because I'm tired of the character or think the film was bad, but because the franchise swerved from where it seemed to be heading. Wolverine was great fun and handled well... and the action was great, but the whole diversion into the multiverse of Deadpools was boring Fortunately there was a slew of awesome guest appearances and Emma Corrin's deliciously wicked Cassandra Nova to make it all worthwhile.
#7 Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix)
This is what it looks like when somebody takes their time to make sure a project is perfect before starting in as opposed to throwing something together just because you want to release something. A sequel to The Wrong Trousers, infamous criminal Feathers McGraw is back to wreck vengeance on our favorite clay duo for ruining his plans to steal The Blue Diamond and getting him jailed. Hilarity ensues. This is a stunningly beautiful animated feature which uses traditional clay-based characters and physical sets instead of CGI. Really hope that Aardman is not done with the characters yet, because this was gold from start to finish.
#8 Nowhere Special (Lucky Red)
A 2020 film that didn't make it to the USA (or streaming) until 2024, this is a slow, methodical character piece that will destroy you with its exceptional performances. Inspired by a true story(!), a window washer in Ireland finds out he doesn't have long to live and tries to find a home for his young son who's his entire world. And while James Norton adds a depth to his character which is remarkable to watch... it's Daniel Lamont as the kid that will crush you. The majority of the time I find child actors insufferable with their artificial delivery and stiff presentation, but when you get a child actor who just... works... it's gold. Do not go in expecting anything more than a touching observation on love and letting go, and you'll be rewarded. That's all the film is.
#9 Robot Dreams (B-Team/Wild Bunch)
To be honest, this could have easily gone in my #1 spot. It is an amazing film with an emotional core so devastating that it's more than a little hard to wrap your head around. What helps is the simple animation style for a simple story that has something much, much deeper going on beneath the surface, because it's relatable in a very human way. Which is ironic considering it's about animals and robots. That it manages to communicate so much with no dialogue is just icing on the cake.
#10 Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Warner Bros.)
Despite the fact that I was pissed off Charlize Theron was not reprising her amazing turn as the titular character, I tuned in because the critical acclaim was too good to ignore. Turns out it was justified. While not as good as the first film, the prequel has an awful lot going for it, providing back-story for a character that needed to be told. Action-packed with brilliant performances by Anya Taylor-Joy and an unhinged Chris Hemsworth, I'm pretty bummed that it wasn't a much bigger success because I want to see more of George Miller's post-apocalyptic saga.
#11 Alien: Romulus (20th Century)
The Alien movies started with the mind-blowing space-horror original from Ridley Scott that seemed impossible to follow. Then James Cameron said "hold my beer" and proceeded to take things in a fresh direction while honoring every frame of the original. From there it's been a futile series of attempts at continuing the franchise which have moments of brilliance mired in stories that were ultimately forgettable. Fortunately, the curse has been broken with Romulus, which is slick, stylish, scary, and smartly told. No, it's not perfect (resurrecting deceased actors will never feel right), but it's got enough going for it that I was happy to have a new Alien movie.
#12 Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (Netflix)
Yeah, I know. This is just another retread of an old movie that is banking on nostalgia in order to sell the entire movie. But here's the thing. It works. Eddie Murphy is back as Axel Foley and everything else is secondary. While not the fresh take on the character you'd hope for, it's still funny in the right ways.
HONORABLE MENTION
DISAPPOINTING
WORST
DIDN'T SEE, MIGHT HAVE MADE MY LIST
DIDN'T SEE, MOST CERTAINLY SHIT
I'm going to be brutally honest here... 2024 did not hold a lot of music that I absolutely loved. Sure there were songs and albums I listened to quite a lot (you'll find a lot of them below), but it wasn't as it's been in past years where I'm just awash with music that makes it incredibly difficult to choose which I'm going to feature on my end-of-year recap. I don't know why that is. Maybe I spent too much time listening to old favorites instead of exploring something new? Possibly!
#1 Nonetheless - Pet Shop Boys
Well that's a new one... second year in a row that Pet Shop Boys have landed in the top spot. To be honest, this album ranks way below their best, but is still a good listen that tries to look back to their more classic stuff. The fault that this album couldn't overcome for me was yet another fucking song featuring "bohemia." Please. For the love of God. Just stop.
#2 Sincere — Khalid
Gotta say, Khalid really pulled it all together this time, crafting a beautiful album which has a little variety where it counts. Often times when I didn't know what I wanted to listen to, I'd just push play on this one from August onward.
STRFKR — Parallel Realms
This is a very late entry on my list, given that I only found out about it when Kapgar had it on his list two days ago. But I love the band, and a few listens later it was an easy #3. Not that this is new. I often find out about their releases months after it gets released because it's not mainstream enough to land anywhere I'm at. Which is a shame, because they really know how to craft some catchy pop music.
#4 eternal sunshine — Ariana Grande
Miss Grande has always been phenomenally talented outside of music, with her appearances on Saturday Night Live being the stuff of legends (not to mention a little film called Wicked which you may have heard of). But it's music where she shines brightest, and this is probably my favorite album of hers yet.
#5 Tortured Poets Department — Taylor Swift
While I'm thrilled that TayTay escaped from her Folklore/Evermore bubble with Midnights, this feels like a backslide given that the back half goes right back into acoustically-flavored tracks that I just don't care for. My favorite Swift album is 1989, and the further she gets away from it, the more she loses me. Even so, the first half of TPD has enough material to make my list.
#6 Short n' Sweet — Sabrina Carpenter
I was able to safely ignore Sabrina until her single Espresso dropped. It was very catchy, got played way too much, and I finally went back to take a listen to the album it came from. Very nice mix of well-crafted tracks.
#7 Adult Contemporary — Chromeo
It boggles my mind that Chromeo never seems to get the recognition they should. Sure there was a single that gets some play here and there, but their music is consistently excellent and deserves better. This album is yet another example why.
#8 Ask That God — Empire of the Sun
Visually-driven Empire of the Sun always seems to have a single stuffed somewhere in my playlists, and I look forward to when they manage to get together to record something new. This album drop was a complete surprise, and I happened across it completely by accident.
#9 Radical Optimism — Dua Lipa
For the life of me I still don't understand where Dua Lipa came from. One minute I hear her on the radio with Elton John singing Cold Heart and the next thing I know she's everywhere. Including the Barbie movie and Argylle. This is the first album of hers that I've gotten in on from the ground floor, and it's quite a good one.
#10 F-1 Trillion — Post Malone
Posty does Country! And even though I only like half the tracks on this album, those are enough to make my list because they're really good songs.
#11 Hit Me Hard and Soft — Billie Eilish
It seems that there's never enough material I love on a Billie album to propel it onto my list. Until now. Her style is still not one that I latch onto easily, but she's had some songs that are so remarkable that I guess I can call myself a fan. The song that pushed this album over the top for me was this one, which is sublimely beautiful...
As a bit of a bonus, I'm including the "story behind the song" because whenever Finneas and Billie do these I am absolutely captivated by how they create...
#12 Deeper Well — Kasey Muskgraves
Kasey came out of nowhere with Golden Hour back in 2018, and I loved it so much it hit #2 on my list that year. It had a wonderful variety of beautiful songs that each had a different feeling, which is something I really appreciate. This time her songs all sound pretty much the same, which I don't like at all. But they are still beautifully crafted, so Deeper Well just made the cut.
And here are some singles that I ended up really enjoying in 2024...
And it's time once again for my annual wrap-up of my favorite TV shows that came out this year. Or, more accurately, a "wrap-up of TV shows that I saw which came out this year." As always, there's a bunch of shows I never got around to watching that might have ended up on my list... and (more likely) shows I loved but have forgotten about. And here we go... THE 18 BEST
#1 Shōgun (Hulu)
My favorite novel of all time is James Clavell's Noble House. But Clavell is much better-known for another book... Shōgun, a novel set at the onset of the Edo period. There was a very popular television adaptation in 1980 starring Dr. Kildare himself, Richard Chamberlain. It was overwrought and overdramatic, but also entertaining. When it was announced that FX/Hulu was making a contemporary adaptation, I was happy but also concerned. The potential for fucking it up was monumental. The first time around they bent over backwards to make the Japanese a supporting character in their own story. That's not what the book was about. Fortunately for all of us, FX set out to make a faithful adaptation which put Japanese culture and their story at the forefront. It's beautifully made, impecably acted, and uses CGI in all the right ways. It's said that there's a sequel series (or two?) in the works, which is all new levels of terrifying. The next Clavell novel is Gai-Jin which takes place 200 years later, so there's no source material to draw from. I sincerely hope that the people who made Shōgun know what they're doing because I'd love to see more.
#2 Black Doves (Netflix)
The show that came out of nowhere to win me over in a mere six episodes. First of all, Keira Knightley is incredible. Her character is more than a little complex. Plus a total badass. Pair that with Ben Wishaw and Sarah Lancashire, who are always amazing in everything, and it's a show that's primed for dynamite. If they could get the story right. And they did. The wife of an English politician is having an affair. It would be a fairly ordinary show if not for one thing... she's also a spy. A spy who gets involved in a situation that sends several lives into chaos. And there's a cameo appearance that's so unexpected... so good that it made a great show with a great ending even better. Bring on the next season!
#3 The Brothers Sun (Netflix)
If you put Michelle Yeoh into anything, I'm going to watch it. That's just a fact. But this series really put her talents to good use, and the result is a funny, brutal, action-packed bit of genius that I was praying got a second season. Alas, it did not. But it doesn't diminish what they were able to accomplish in the season they had. A guy who's been shielded from "the family business" his entire life gets a rude awakening when the family business drops into his life unexpectedly. Insanity of the best kind ensues.
#4 So Help Me Todd (CBS)
Fuck this shitty network forever for flushing one of their best shows down the toilet and ending it on a cliffhanger. Todd is smart, funny, highly entertaining television which had a cast that killed it every week it wasn't preempted... which was often, because CBS didn't want it to build a fucking audience. It chaps my ass so bad that network execs renew a show just to intentionally kill it like this.
#5 Sugar (Apple TV+)
If you haven't seen this series... just watch it. Don't read anything about it. Don't watch trailers. Just watch it. Then stick with it. Because the show is not what it seems in the early episodes. It takes a hard left-turn into something far more interesting, which was a surprise because nothing prepared me for it. So well done. Colin Farrell is excellent in everything (see The Penguin, below) and he's perfect here. Very, very happy it was renewed for a second season.
#6 The Penguin (HBO Max)
I hated the new The Batman movie and was going to give this spin-off series a big ol' pass... until I heard that Colin Farrell (who's unrecognizable!) was in it, and the rave reviews start dropping. And they were on-point. This is an excellent crime/drama series that just happens to be set in a comic book universe, and they took it all the way. You can set it right next to more "mainstream" series in the same genre, and it's not out of place. I have no idea how/why a show like this exists, but it's worth a watch.
#7 High Potential (Hulu)
Kaitlin Olson is one of the most compelling actors going, and it's amazing that she's still finding time to do Always Sunny in Philadelphia when I'm sure she has a lot of demands on her time for other projects. Like this one! What I love is that they are not making her into some kind of genius as a reason she's helping the police solve crimes... she's just exceedingly observant and has a great memory. And that's more than enough to make her the smartest person in the room. I'm holding off on watching the French(?) original because I'm sure that some of the stories have been taken from there and I don't want them spoiled.
#8 The Gentleman (Netflix)
I will watch absolutely anything by Guy Ritchie because the guy just knows how to create stuff I'll enjoy. And since I loved the movie version of The Gentlemen, I thought the spin-off would be worth a look. And while it's not really a spin-off or re-boot... heck, I don't know how it relates to the original... it was indeed something I enjoyed. I wish that they hadn't taken the brother character to such bizarre extremes because it just wasn't needed, but maybe they'll address that in the second season.
#9 Ripley (Netflix)
This is like the third or fourth time that they've remade The Talented Mr. Ripley, but it's my favorite yet. Not only because Andrew Scott absolutely kills it, but because it's shot as a black-and-white art piece, and every fucking frame is a work of art! It never falters. It's beautiful and interesting from start to finish.
#10 Monsieur Spade (AMC)
This is a take on Sam Spade that was ridiculously well-done. They sunk the money into the cast (Clive Owen!) and the script and the setting to craft a noir-drama that delivers at every turn. I really, really, really hope that they give us a second season where they send Spade back to San Francisco for a hard-noir follow-up. No idea if AMC could finance something like that, but it's worth the money to try.
#11 The English Teacher (Hulu)
This could have just been another "gay teacher" stereotype shoved into the same old jokes in the same old situations... but they make it very clear that this is not going to be the case early into the show. Brian Jordan Alvarez (who writes and stars in it) has come up with something special, and it subverts things nicely while being funny, charming, and entertaining. No word as to whether we're getting a second season, but I sure hope they get on that. This is the kind of unique show we need on television.
#12 Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (Disney+)
I'm one of those people who enjoyed The Acolyte because I thought it was good Star Wars that took things into a direction we haven't seen before. A lot of people didn't agree and it was canceled. Then the hate brigade started dumping on Skeleton Crew next and I thought we were in for a repeat. But here's the thing... this show is too good to die like that. It got a bunch of kids in it, but they're not annoying. They're a terrific set of characters you actually want to see. Plus? Surprisingly dark. And Jude Law. This show is The Goonies in space and Disney really got their shit together this time. It's not even over and I'm hoping for a second season.
#13 Matlock (CBS)
I'm being completely honest when I say that without Kathy Bates in the lead, this show would not be ranking this high. The overall story arc which was a shocking twist at the end of Episode 01 has become a dull endgame in Episode 08. The rest of the cast is struggling to keep up with Bates, as she's stealing absolutely every scene. And the "legal shenanigans of the week" are tired and uninteresting. But... Kathy Bates. She's just phenomenally good in this, and I look forward to new episodes every weeks. Hopefully they find a way to make it all pay off without a cliffhanger, because I will be fucking pissed if I keep hanging in there only to have it canceled before we get answered.
#14 Abbott Elementary (ABC)
This is a series that keeps chugging along... knocking out amazing show after amazing show week after week. Every character is so fully-realized and funny, still, and you just can't help but be entertained by it. Sure the style and tone are taken from The Office, but they've really made it fresh. This could easily go on for ten seasons and I don't think anybody would think it strange if they can maintain the absurd levels of quality and care that Quinta Brunson and Company lovingly pour into it.
#15 Creature Commandos (HBO Max)
It's James Gunn super-hero dynamic crazy in an R-rated package that's well-animated, well-voiced, and of course well-written. Nazi-killing GI Robot is the gift that keeps on giving, and I really, really want to see him brought to the DCU in live-action, which I'm told is a serious possibility.
#16 Reacher (Amazon Prime)
I am crazy in love with this show. First of all, they are trying really hard to honor the books. Second of all, they are casting every role to a flawless degree (including Alan Ritchson as Reacher, which is perfect). No, the second season was not as phenomenal as the first, but it was still loads of violent fun. The fact that Amazon keeps renewing the show (Season 03 drops February 20th!) gives me hope.
#17 Slow Horses (Apple TV+)
This show does not slow down, and that they're managing to keep it so fresh season after season is a testament to everybody involved. Usually spy thrillers lose their steam very quickly and back themselves into a corner that they can't escape from. But I guess everybody involved cares enough to learn from the mistakes of other shows and makes an effort to keep their show moving ahead. Doesn't hurt that you've got Gary Oldman and Kristen Scott Thomas leading an exceptional cast to boot.
#18 Fallout (Amazon Prime)
Shows and movies based on video games usually suck. I was looking forward to Borderlands (based on a game I love) because the cast looked exceptional. No surprise, it sucked hard. And I had zero expectations for Fallout (also based on a game I love)... but they somehow managed to absolutely nail it. I like the story that honors the game. I love the cast. And they sunk in enough money to make it work too. A recipe for success.
Well, here it is. The entry where I recap all the things that happened in the year. Except... such a post only really made sense when I was actually doing lots of stuff (meaning prior to 2020). Not that nothing at all happened in 2024. Plenty of stuff happened. It's just that going through it all month-by-month doesn't really work when the notable stuff just isn't a massive list. And here we go...
The single biggest lesson I learned in 2024 is that Apple is a shitty fucking company who does not give a single fuck about your data. I started using their "iCloud Drive" which was more expensive than other options, but I wanted the benefit of integration with all my Apple stuff. And it was great. Until my data started zeroing out. I called support and we watched as file after file would be reduced to zero bytes in real-time. And they could offer no help except to suggest that I copy my files off iCloud Drive (no shit, I started doing that immediately). Of course I had backups, but recent files that hadn't backed up yet were gone. Very old files that never got backed up were gone. And after jumping through hoops Apple blamed me because "iCloud Drive is not a backup service." So if you're using Apple cloud storage, better get your files off of it before they're gone.
I paid loads of money to have my shower ripped out and rebuilt because a company I hired to diagnose a leak told me that was the problem. Except it wasn't the shower at all. It was the toilet. That's a lot of money down the drain. But at least the leaking nightmare is finally over.
I had kidney stones for the first time in many years (I used to get them regularly). But this time was different in that I suffered in absolute agony instead of going to the emergency room for drugs because I really couldn't afford to do that. Despite paying absurd amounts of money for "health insurance." I fucking despise that Americans pay a fucking shit-ton into "health insurance," whose only function is to pull money out of the system and make profits for health insurance company executives.
I ran across one of the funniest cat videos ever this past year, and here it is. The cat is speaking French, but there's subtitles...
Next up in cat news? Jake has a snaggletooth sometimes now...
After yet another eye surgery, I decided to get my eyeball lenses replaced and blogged all about it starting in Part One here (and here are Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, and a follow up post), and that's been very cool.
And, oh yeah, if you've ever wanted a lot of Drunk Dave stories in one place, here you go!
If you're a Disney Parks fan, I wrote a shitload of posts once I got back from Walt Disney World...
The Aurora Borealis visited a couple times...
I finally played around with that AI garbage that all the kids are talking about...
And I'm going to wrap this up in a surprising way by re-mentioning that I discovered the movie Half Brothers in 2024, which really struck a cord with me for some reason. I'm kinda obsessed with the movie, and it's become the film that I put on whenever I need background noise. It's just so well done, in particular the exceptional performance by Gerardo Méndez. This is a comedy, but he has to communicate far past this because there's a lot of heartbreaking stuff going on.
And that's a wrap on 2024. Hope everybody has a safe and happy New Year.