Nothing I can dream up with for dinner tonight can compare with the salad I had last night.

I think my plants have enough tomatoes for one last salad in a couple weeks. I am already looking forward to it, because it doesn't get much better than this...

I'd buy some cherry tomatoes at the grocery store, but they're never the same.

UPDATE: I ended up having Eggo waffles.

And so... the cat fights continue.

I will be reading or working in bed, then hear hissing and howling and screaching coming from downstairs. Usually I just ignore it because it doesn't last long. But last night? Holy cats. I heard Jenny inside hissing and hissing and hissing while Jake was outside screeching. Meanwhile Fake Jake was standing there making cat fight yowls while actually not in a cat fight because there's a fence between them.

But anyway...

This is not Jenny.

But it might as well be her. Or Jake...

Rent means nothing to them. And why should it?

I've been sick all weekend with a stomach bug, but have no fear about going bullet-free this Sunday... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Claws Out! I have a treasure trove of old memorabilia that I've been collecting over the decades. The most prized stuff I have is all the junk I saved from when I was ten years old during my first visit to Disneyland. And there's a lot of other Disney stuff collecting dust too. Prints and brochures and tickets... the list is endless. And then there's the travel stuff. And the comic book stuff. Boxes and boxes of it. And do you know why it hasn't been taken out and framed for display. Partly it's the cost. But mostly it's my scathing hatred of hanging stuff on the wall. It's way too difficult to even things up and get them to end up where you want. Enter CLAW drywall hangers by 3M...

And it really is that simple. The included positioning stickers make getting things where you want them pretty easy. Though I put the hook in the hanger, then put the positioning sticker under the hanger. That way when I position the frame on the wall and the sticker it set, I just put the hook above it... no pencil marks needed. And, yeah, I'm still not a fan of actually doing the hanging (nor the framing cost), but at least now I'm actually willing to do it.

   
• Heated! Preach, Elmo...

We're at the point where just taking out the garbage is a horrible ordeal where I live.

   
• Death After Life! It's no secret that Death: The High Cost of Living is one of my all-time favorite graphic novels. From the minute I saw Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death in the first season of The Sandman, I was dying to see an adaptation of the story. Well... be careful what you wish for... because this adaptation was a complete waste. They took pieces of the story, but missed the entire point of what it was saying. I know that time was limited to an hour and they couldn't put in everything it, but surely they could have been more selective than this?

A few better choices here and there would have made a world of difference. Netflix failed utterly after the absolute perfection of everything that preceded it.

   
• De Niro's Still Waiting! Bananarama, one of the most celebrated "girl groups" on record, has continued to put out great music for decades after their big hits dropped. What I didn't know is that Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward rejoined with original bandmate Siobhan Fahey for a series of tours in 2017-2018. But I found out when this gem appeared in my YouTube feed...

And it turns out, yes, Robert De Niro knew of the song and took the band out for a drink when he met them after its release...

And, yes, Dallin and Woodward are still out there performing to crowds who still know every word to their songs...

If you're a fan, their YouTube Channel is worth a look. They take a look back at their old fashion, revisit old songs, and have their new music available for a listen.

   
• Morphin Time? Please, Lord. Please let this photo get back to the woman who was cosplaying Pink Ranger who didn't know she was standing next to the Pink Ranger...

I love stuff like this.

   
• Mourning in Cincinnati. And, lastly, I was just. talking about how all the people from my childhood are passing, and today got a gut punch when I learned Loni Anderson died. Her playing receptionist Jennifer on WKRP in Cincinnati was such a defining television memory for me...

But the thing that most impressed me when it came to her acting, was playing the title role in The Jayne Mansfield Story (opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger!), which is available in full on YouTube (for now)...

Rest in Peace.

   
And now it's time for more Pepto Bismol and a nap.

For the life of me I cannot figure out why The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare flopped so badly at the box office... not even earning back half of its $60 million budget.

It is a fantastic film. I'm watching it now for at least the sixth time. It's hilariously funny. It's incredibly smart. It's based on a true story. And it's got Nazis being mercilessly taken out in droves. What more could you want? This opening scene will forever be one of my favorites in cinematic history...

And it just keeps getting better from there.

There's a reason this was my fourth favorite film of 2024.

Though, in retrospect, it probably should have been No. 1 given how often I find myself watching it.

I've been rewatching Silicon Valley.

I always seem to find myself rewatching "comfort shows" when times are stressful, and times have been pretty stressful as of late. I've also been doing the ultimate stress-reliever that actually makes stress worse: Buying things I can't afford. Like picture frames to hang up all the souvenir stuff that's been sitting in boxes in my garage.

But anyway, back to Silicon Valley...

I finally made it to the episode with the guys debating over whether to let Blaine die over a miscalculation (or not!) by weighing the pros and cons...

Writing this clever would die on the page if you didn't have a cast capable of pulling it off. Between Martin Starr and Kumail Ali Nanjiani, it's already an embarrassment of riches when it comes to talent. But then you add in Dustin Milligan's hilariously subtle douchebaggery playing Blaine... and... well... now you know why I'm rewatching Silicon Valley. Again.

Now here's where things get interesting.

There's an article on Medium by Rhett Allain called The Physics of Blaine’s Car Stunt from HBO’s Silicon Valley written in 2023 (the original show aired in 2015). Now, it's behind a paywall, which is fine because I'm not a big physics lover who can appreciate it if I read it anyway... but I find it fascinating that the article exists in the first place.

Because I always find it interesting when there's math and science commentary on fictional television series which are actually trying to get the math and science right. Futurama is legendary for this. And that's a cartoon! I can't tell you how many articles I've read about the science on The Expanse. And what about the movie Primer with its mind-bending time travel antics? Or, good heavens, what about Christopher Nolan's movies like Interstellar, Tenet, and Inception?

It's a huge achievement to make entertaining fictional TV series and films while also attempting to add an entirely new level of math, physics, or science accuracy to it. Because odds are that only a handful of people will ever be able to appreciate it.

But even when I don't, it makes me happy to know it's there.

Speaking of comfort films... last night I watched the Oh, God! trilogy.

Now, the original was a remarkable movie to behold. Mostly because of the casting. George Burns was flawless as God. An easy choice. But how did they think about John Denver for the lead? He was perfect for the part, but where did he come from? I would have thought of dozens of names before I ever got to him. Maybe even hundreds.

It was such a clever movie for the day, especially in particular scenes which were written so beautifully. I wish there was a higher quality clip of God answering the questions of the "religious council" that was given to the guy who was claiming he was speaking with God (to prove he was actually speaking with God), because this is as good as it gets...

Oh, God! Book II was a big step down from the first one, but it still tackled some profound questions we might have for God and was a fun watch...

The franchise's third (and final) film made a move so obvious that it seemed almost inevitable... because in Oh, God! You Devil they had George Burns playing both The Almighty and The Devil. I remember an interview with George for the film had him talking about what a stretch it was for him to play The Devil. He said something like "Yeah, I smoke cigars and chase women!" which I still find incredibly funny. The movie itself rebounded a bit from the second one, mostly because of George Burns playing every scene to perfection...

And do you want to know what put these movies on my radar? It was an old Burns and Allen skit that popped up on YouTube...

Say goodnight, Gracie.

There are times that so many things are going wrong in your life that there's just no response to it all. Which essentially leaves you with two options. 1) let it all overwhelm you and just pack it in... or 2) carry on the best you can until things (hopefully) get under control and you can breathe again.

Thanks to this motivational pep-talk from Elmo, it looks like I'll be carrying on for another day...

And so... let's go.

Last night I was trying to figure out the last time I saw a movie in a theater. I ended up thinking that it was probably the Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie back in 2023. It was my first time seeing a movie after the pandemic started, and I haven't wanted to go back since.

Which is not surprising given how much I loathe the theater "experience." People are rude assholes, and paying big money to be trapped in a building with a bunch of them is not my idea of fun. At least not any more. Back in the 80's and 90's I went to the theater all the time. After that, it had to be a really good film to drag me to the cinema. Eventually I was mostly only going for the latest Marvel movies, and that was the end of it.

Except for Taylor Swift, of course.

And I'd probably grant an exception for this "COSM Shared Reality" experience if it ever came to town...

Right now there's two films in release that seem almost inconcievable that I'm skipping... Superman and Fantastic Four. Both of them look to encapsulate everything I love about movies. But, much as I'd love to see them ASAP, I'm content to wait it out because the idea of having to go to the theater fills me with a dread and loathing that's insurmountable.

And that got me to thinking what would be a film that could get me to leave the house to see?

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues? Or Project Hail Mary? Or Avengers: Doomsday? Or Avatar: Fire and Ash? Maybe. But... probably not.

One movie that most definitely won't be enticing me to the theater is Now You See Me: Now You Don't which looks even more stupid than the previous two installments (something I didn't think was possible). There's no magic here. It's just shitty special effects with even shittier dialogue...

It's like they're not trying to provide even the illusion of magic.

Remember the amazing series Deception which was a magic-based caper show that actually gave a shit about making the tricks look possible?

Dang was I sad they canceled that show.

Instead we get millions of dollars poured into piles of shit like another Now You See Me flick.

Oddly enough, if they ever made a Deception movie to tie up the cliffhangers they left us with, I actually would go to the theater.

Yesterday was International Cat Day, which is hilarious because EVERY DAY IS INTERNATIONAL CAT DAY!

In other news... I believe that my cats have a longstanding agreement on dividing my time between them. Jenny mostly wants my attention at night when I head up to bed. Though I don't know why. Most of the time she doesn't care about being petted... she just wants me to act as a foot rest...

What's interesting is that if Jake is laying in bed next to me when Jenny comes in the room, he will most times hop off the bed and leave the room, at which point Jenny will take his place. Sometimes I've even seen Jenny come into my bedroom, see Jake is next to me on the bed, leave the room, then he'll jump down and follow her out, at which point she'll come back so she can lay next to me.

But every once in a while... like last night on International Cat Day... miracles do happen...

And after Jenny left do you think I got my arm back?

Jake's designated time with me is when I get home from work. He and Jenny both sleep on my bed when I'm gone... but Jake listens for the garage door to open, then hauls ass down to the bottom of the stairs where he waits for me to walk in so he can get petted.

Sometimes he's apparently too comfortable to come running to greet me, because he isn't waiting. I used to go upstairs to make sure he was okay because it was so unusual for him to be absent when I walked through the door, but it was always just him being lazy.

They do seem to take turns sitting with me on the couch, however.

Jake wants to sit on my lap and be petted. Jenny prefers to sit next to me and be petted.

The common denominator being that my cats always want to be petted, of course.

Cannot get my hands to stop smelling like the onions I just cut, but I'll try my best not to throw up on my keyboard... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Plague Doctor! I was researching the bubonic plague (don't ask). Eventually I got to Alexandre Émile John Yersin, the Swiss-French doctor who co-discoverer of the cause of the plague and figured out it was being spread by rats. He's a pretty amazing guy with some amazing accomplishments. But here's the thing... he's also a total snack. JUST LOOK AT THIS PHOTO!

He was apparently celibate, dedicating his entire life to making other people's lives better. Which he probably did by melting ovaries as he walked down the street. — And here's where it gets interesting... I remember the "American Market" in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), which is also called "Yersin Market" because it's on Yersin Street, named after our boy here because he ended up moving to Vietnam for the remainder of his life of research (where he founded the Medical School of Hanoi, and was a pioneer in cultivating rubber trees!). When it comes to heroes of history, this guy is definitely on that list.

   
• Neverending! Nothing quite finding a cover of a song that you prefer over the original. This is pretty cool...

Not that the original Limahl track was bad by any means...

I just like the new synth arrangement of the material better.

   
• Addams! The first half of the second season of Wednesday is fun. And there's a couple cameos that are so flawlessly cast that I almost didn't believe it. Yeah, yeah, I know there are people who are big mad that it isn't faithful to the source material, but it can be its own thing and still be entertaining...

Though, to be honest, I still prefer the two films starring Raul Julia, Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, and Christina Ricci over any adaptation of the original The Addams Family comic.

   
• It's Doug! All the Jeopardy and Black Jeopardy sketches on SNL are hilarious, but I find myself watching this one at least every-other month...

The fact that Tom Hanks was willing to make fun of himself this badly makes it even more funny than it already was. And, of course, Mr. Hanks is no stranger to Jeopardy sketches... he has a hilarious role on Black Jeopardy...

Though Eddie Murphy's impersonation of Tracy Morgan in front of Tracy Morgan remains one of the funniest things I've ever seen...

You know it's funny when you can break Tracy Morgan while playing Tracy Morgan.

   
• Unhappy! Watched Happy Gilmore 2 last night. Good Lord. Was looking forward to something charming, nostalgic, and funny to distract me from the day... instead Netflix approved a two hour mess that's more depressing than funny. Adam Sandler is an alcoholic ass-hat who accidentally killed his wife at the very beginning of the movie? Hilarious...

You know you're in deep, deep trouble when you're looking forward to seeing Shooter McGavin more than the main character. Hell, you're happy to see anybody except Happy on the screen (Bad Bunny continues to surprise me with just how good he is... just like in Bullet Train, his character is a highlight). Fortunately, there's some genuinely funny moments and a lot of great cameos which allowed me to get through the film on nostalgia alone. But... come on... in a day and age when life is depressing enough, can we not do this? Killed his wife in the first two minutes? Really? This is where we're at?

   
• Just Fuck Off Already! Precious few people are a bigger piece of shit than Bill Maher. I have never understood his popularity. He has bad take after bad take based on misleading statements and outright lies, and has shown himself to be a dick of the highest order every chance he gets. I ignored him forever... until he was taken to school by Ben Affleck, of all people, over his shitty fucking Islamophobia. From then on I actively loathed him. Which is why Big Joel's latest video really hit for me. Well worth a watch...

Lord. If you want to be dishonest with your audience so you can be a self-righteous douche, nobody's stopping you. But if you actually think that's makes you a better person, who the fuck are you?

   
• Slop! I reported a Facebook page that is nothing more than fake AI-generated bullshit about Dolly Parton dying...

Anybody willing to lay odds on Facebook hitting back with "We didn't delete this page"... because Facebook is ALSO run by fake AI-generated bullshit? In all seriousness, fuck these AI scammer pieces of shit. Dolly Parton deserves far better than this stupid crap.

   
• NEWSFLASH: Tim Cook appeals to Trump’s love of gold with a 24-karat base for Apple plaque. So what's next? Tim Cook just flies the Apple jet to DC and blows Trump on the White House front lawn at a press event? I don't know what's more embarrassing... the fact we have a president who requires you suck up to him personally so you can keep your company in business, or the fact that CEOs are lining up to do it.

   
And now I'm back to smelling like onions.

I wish I knew how I could be this tired all the time but never be able to sleep.

I have been trying to fill in some gaps in my collections on eBay whenever I have a dollar to spare. Most of the sellers on the platform are exceptional. They are honest about the item... they want you to be happy with your purchase... they go above and beyond if there's any issue. All the great experiences I have is what keeps me coming back.

And then there's the scams.

I bought two prints. I only received one.

Then I looked back through the comments from other buyers and found out that the seller does this ALL THE TIME. But it gets worse... the print I received was not authentic! The seller denied it, but let me return it.

Then the seller refused to refund the entire purchase price because the item "was not returned in the same condition." Fortunately, after I found out the seller was a scammer piece of crap, I thought to take a ton of photos.

Not only was it returned in the same condition I received it... I used the same packaging... THEN ADDED EXTRA PACKAGING AROUND IT!

But nope... the seller knew they were caught with a fake and claimed "damage" to get money out of me. Naturally I reported it to eBay. And, because other buyers had problems with the seller, I had my full refund within the hour. The fact that eBay stepped up to protect me from an obvious scammer is what will keep me a customer. But it doesn't make it any less stressful knowing that more scammers are out there.

One thing you can bet on... I will be reading the customer reviews very carefully going forward.

I'm not saying that I rushed home from work to catch Taylor Swift on the New Heights podcast. But I totally rushed home from work to catch Taylor Swift on the New Heights podcast.

I have never understood the hatred that some people have for this woman. If you hate her music, then fine. I can wrap my head around that. But to hate her for being... talented... popular... successful? When she's done absolutely nothing to them except exist? It boggles the mind.

I guess it comes with the territory of being famous.

But should it? To this extent? There are people who have absolutely relished the fact that her attempts to find love have failed. They take joy every time she goes through a breakup. They lay in wait every time she starts seeing somebody new just for the opportunity to laugh at her when she gets her heart broken.

Which is why I was happy to see her and Travis looking so happy together. And I can't help but hope their relationship lasts.

Regardless of how you feel about either of them, the interview is worth a watch. They're hilarious. And charming. And interesting.

"This podcast has done a lot for me. I owe a lot to this podcast. This podcast got me a boyfriend, ever since Travis decided to use it as his personal dating app two years ago."

"This kind of felt more like I was in an 80s John Hughes movie and he was standing outside my window with a boombox like 'I WANNA DATE YOU! DO YOU WANNA GO ON A DATE WITH ME? I MADE YOU A FRIENDSHIP BRACELET!' And I was like, if this guy's not crazy, this is sort of what I've been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager."

They're also... weirdly normal. A huge chunk of the interview is Taylor Swift being obsessed with baking sourdough bread.

But anyway...

Watch the interview. If, for no other reason, than to have fun watching one of the most famous people on earth in an interview where she seems more herself than you've seen before...

I sure hope that The Life of a Showgirl is more "1989" and "Reputation" and "Lover" than "Folklore" and "Evermore" and "The Tortured Poets Department." It would be fun to love her music again.

I'm a vegetarian. I choose to not eat meat. So imagine for a minute that I am a cook at a vegetarian restaurant. One day, the owner decides that we're going to start serving meat. I refuse to cook it because it goes against my vegetarian beliefs. The owner says "Well, that's the job. You either do the job or you can't work here." I not only refuse to cook meat, I also refuse to quit. Then I refuse to leave the restaurant. So the owner calls the police to have me removed. I go to jail for trespassing for five days. The owner says that this entire ordeal has made them decide to fire me, and they tell me to never come back.

And you should know that the entire time I was working for the vegetarian restaurant I was moonlighting as a cook for Burger King, McDonald's, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. And I was eating at McDonald's while I was cooking at Burger King.

Seven years later I petition the Supreme Court to ban meat completely.

Because if I don't want to eat it, nobody should have the freedom to eat it!

OCTOBER 20, 2023: Michigan teen's suicide highlights growing dangers of online sextortion plots.

I cannot fathom what it must be like being a teen today. I'm saying that life was a total picnic back when I was in high school, but there's just so much... more... to growing up now. The internet has changed absolutely everything.

It's increasingly easy to target people with scams and traps that could end up in tragedy, but teens have it especially hard given what they're already going through in life. This story happened back in 2023, but a recent sextortion case involving a teen has the story being shared around again.

Having to talk to your kids about uncomfortable topics like "sextortion" cannot be easy. But since the consequences of not doing so can be so dire, parents really have no choice. The cautionary tale of what can happen when you talk with strangers on the internet... or send nude photos... or, heaven forbid, reveal your address... is almost as essential as reading in today's world.

It's a definite shame, but it's where we're at.

And I hope everybody takes the time to check on the kids in their life so they can be better protected.

I am typing this will Jake on my chest. It's not going well. You'll have to forgive any misspellings.

So there was Jake... sticking his head in a bag. Again. I had my camera ready because I absolutely knew where this was headed...

But don't worry I reached over and pulled it off immediately after snapping the photo. I wanted a photo of Jake with Cheetos dust on his face, but he ran away in shame. And I'm like... I get it.

The guy never, ever learns. If I wasn't as careful as I am to pick the bags up, he'd do this once a week.

But before I go...

I saw this LEGO sculpture on social media and really wish I knew who to credit for it, because it's brilliant...

Apparently somebody needs to learn the importance of spaying or neutering your cat.

Still recovering from a trip to the coast and back yesterday, but that's no excuse... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Super, Man! I loved pretty much every frame of Superman. Thank you, James Gunn for giving us a fantastic spectacle of a comic book movie that has me excited for new DC films. The one thing I don't get is how he could get everything so right with all the characters and the story... but saddle us with one of the most insanely weird takes on Jimmy Olson I've ever seen. I guess no movie is perfect... but damn. So close. And is it wrong that the reason I'm most looking forward to the Supergirl film is to see more Krypto?

And, oh yeah, I will be *very* upset if we don't get a Mr. Terrific series on HBO or HBO Max or whatever. NOT "The Terrifics"... I'm so done with "Team Arrow" and "Team Flash" and "Team Supergirl" and "Team Whatever" series... just Mr. Terrific. Maybe with an occasional guest star. But anyway... I'll put up a post with my full comments when I've had a chance to watch it again.

   
• Have it Our Way! Remember when Burger King actually let you "have it your way" instead of just saying you can "have it your way" but not really? BECAUSE MY WAY IS WITH EXTRA MAYO... AND YOUR NEW APP DOESN'T ALLOW THAT. You either get "regular" or nothing...

And notice how you can't see the ingredient you're altering. I can only guess that some bean-counting dumbass at corporate thinks that not allowing somebody to put an extra 2¢ worth of mayo on their fucking $8.19 Impossible Whopper is a good financial move. Well, it's making me not want to eat at your restaurant any more, so congratulations. I wonder if this dipshit is the same one in charge at Chipotle who thought raising prices and lowering portions at the same time would make their customers happy? What's so fucking stupid here is that I just asked for two packets of free mayo so I could add it to my burger myself, which most certainly costs more than just adding it from the giant mayo bucket. And speaking of this new app... did anybody at BK beta test it? I am assuming this third option is Coke Zero because the one before it is Diet Coke and there's 0 calories in it... but who the fuck knows?

There's absolutely no way to confirm it. And so I had to order for pick-up instead of drive-thru because I knew they'd hand me a cup and I could fill it with the correct Coke myself. Good Lord. Pathetic. This is the whole Sonos app disaster all over. Do these fucking companies ever learn?

   
• Via Variety: PETA Urges Nintendo to Remove ‘Mario Kart World’ Cow’s Nose Ring: ‘It’s-a Mean!’ To think there was a time I actually supported the dumbasses at PETA. What a fucking joke.With each new idiotic act, they make me want to go out and buy a steak...

And since I'm a vegetarian, that tells you about all you need to know.

   
• Pop Quiz, Hotshot! Take a guess...

And now I want Taco Bell. Which is about the only fast food restaurant left to me after this stupid Burger King fiasco.

   
• Via People: Plus Size Park Hoppers' Say Brutal Backlash Over Their Experiences at Disney Theme Parks Won't Stop Them. What is it with people? Just leave them alone. One of the more difficult things I witnessed at a Disney Parks was a couple who stood in line for over an hour to ride the Seven Dwarves Mine Car Ride. But when they got to the front of the line, the woman couldn't fit in the car. She asked if they could ride-swap so she could ride in a row by herself then her boyfriend could ride the next time, but they wouldn't let her because of the way the seats are built. — First of all, you'd think that Disney would have one row in just one car that is built for a larger person. And second of all, if the woman could have only visited a website which would have told her if she could fit, then she wouldn't have wasted an hour of her life for nothing and have to leave embarrassed and upset. — You'd think that assholes who make fun of these ladies or insult them would instead support them sharing this information, because you just know that they're in line complaining because they have to wait for larger people who are trying to see if they fit into the ride car.

   
• More Lies! As if we needed yet another video to point out how full of crap Ben Shapiro is. But here you go...

What a lying little shit stain. I have to wonder if he has ever been anything except disingenuous with his audience. This take-down is beautifully done. Elegantly pointing out that all Shapiro does... all he ever does... is lie.

   
• Via PBS: South Carolina lawmaker in jail on child sex abuse material charges resigns from office. Damn. These drag quee— WHAT? Yet ANOTHER anti-LGBTQ Republican asshole caught assaulting children? You know what... I'm beginning to think that drag queens aren't quite the threat that anti-LGBTQ Republicans say they are! They're just a convenient scapegoat!

   
And there you have it. I'm all out of bullets this fine Sunday.

I've made no secret of my utter loathing of the "Snyderverse" series of films based on DC Comics characters. It was a dark, bored, joyless slog. Man of Steel was a horrifically bad take on Superman, which was a bitter pill to swallow given how much I loved Henry Cavill for the role. Then we moved on to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice which somehow ended up being even worse. There was a brief reprieve with the exceptional Wonder Woman flick, but then we got Justice League which is one of my most hated movies of all time.

And that was that. Other than a cameo in the atrocious Black Adam and a kinda-cameo in the even more atrocious Shazam!, Superman was done.

Until now.

As I said yesterday, I liked the movie quite a lot. I watched it again yesterday so I could write up a running commentary while my first reactions were fresh in my head.

If you're on the fence about watching the film, here's a look at one of the best comic book fight scenes you'll see on the silver screen...

Needless to say, I'll be spoiling the movie completely...

• The opening exposition was done in a way that sets anticipation for the film, which is a pleasant surprise from how we usually get a full book of information that has you bored before the movie even begins.
• This Krypto is a bit of a troublemaker and scamp, just like the earlier comics. It's a lot more fun and interesting than the later, super-smart canine which was more like a person in a dog suit than an actual dog.
• This Fortress of Solitude is a fantastic take on the crystal structure from the 1979 Superman movie. It's so strange that The Fortress in the comic book source material is so radically different, and yet the movie version is what I always think of.
• The Superman robots! Straight out of the comic book era I love! And of course we're getting Alan Tudyk voicing Number Four.
• Bradley Cooper as Jor-El is pretty fantastic.
• In the comic books, The Engineer is a shiny metal hero. Here she's a human-looking regular person. I think this is probably a good call, because we don't have a CGI-based character walking around all the time. And yet... I can't help but feel she's a downgrade here.
• Krypto being Krypto is going to steal every scene in this movie. I can feel it. Lovable mutt.
• It's been criticized online, but I actually like the flying effect they've given Superman. The perspective makes him feel faster.
• I was highly dubious about casting Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. But dang does he own the role from his first minute on-screen. Such a vast, vast improvement over the inexplicably stupid take that Zach Snyder had with Jesse Eisenberg.
• The fact that super-villains never seem to lack the ability to get a never-ending supply of evil henchmen has always been strange in the comics. And here we are. These psychos working for Luthor are nicely comic book accurate.
• The design of The Daily Planet building is awesome.
• The true test of a good Superman actor is how they play Clark Kent. David Corenswet may be my favorite since Christopher Reeve.
• Amazing. The casting for Ma and Pa Kent is flawless. They feel like they actually could be Kansas farmers.
• In the new DCU, Lex created The Engineer? Odd choice. I'm guessing it's to play up how smart he is, so... okay.
• "Planetwatch?" So we're a stepping stone away from getting Stormwatch then?
• I rather like that James Gunn didn't waste time with your typical Lois Lane subplot where she's trying to figure out Superman's secret identity. Done to death.
• Rachel Brosnahan has a modern interpretation of Lois that completely nails the character.
• This "interview," while probably important to define the complex world in which Superman exists, is dragging on in an uninteresting way.
• That being said. This is a real showcase as to why the actors playing Clark and Lois were cast.
• It seems weird as to why Superman would announce he's an alien to the world. Don't his god-like powers make him far enough removed from humanity? Seems this could have been better handled if Lex discovered he was an alien and used it against him.
• Valerie Perrine as Miss Teschmacher in the 1978 movie was a delight. This one is coming across as grating.
• Well. This is brutal. Poor Superman Robots.
• How does The Engineer know this is his parents?
• You can tell that this is not the Real World because in this reality these meta-human battles are so normalized that people are recording them instead of running away.
• Nice callbacks to the incredible John Williams original score keep popping up, but the music itself is fresh.
• "Justice Gang"... okay. I can only guess that eventually this will morph into the Justice League. Very smart of Gunn to not use "Justice League" right away given what a shit-show the last movie was.
• I like the way that they decided to make Green Lantern's energy constructs a bit more grounded. Not wildly glowing but more like glass or something.
• Awwww. Poor kaiju. That's awful. It's like... why kill him?
• Guy Gardner is perfectly captured by Nathan Fillion. Painfully comic book accurate. Except his hair is more blonde than orange-red, and I'm not sure why.
• Oof. Jor-El and Lara are not such good people in this universe.
• Pretty stupid that people immediately turn against Superman when they were just cheering him a minute ago? For all they know, this is AI fakery.
• Stagg Industries! Metamorpho Easter egg!
• "There's no way this message in unauthentic." Well, there you have it. WTF?
• The President of Boravia is suitably creepy. And... oh boy... working with Lex Luthor to boot.
• If the Fortress is keyed to Superman's DNA, I guess that means UltraMan is a clone?
• Hoult is flawless as Lex. Flawless. He's a bad, bad man.
• Peacemaker! Sweet cross-promotion!
• James Gunn having this scene between Lois and Clark taking place in front of a window where the Justice Gang are battling a "space imp" is genius. Just keeps driving home how weird a world with actual super-heroes would be.
• Okay... Superman's concern for Krypto is darn touching.
• The CGI in this movie is pretty impressive.
• Metamorpho is... bad?!? The Engineer I could forgive, but this?!? And how does he know the molecular structure of Kryptonite? Has it landed on earth? Does Luthor have access? If he does, why does he need Metamorpho. These are some bizarre choices.
• Wow. James Gunn has gone full-on comic book with this pocket universe /slash/ outrage farm monkeys /slash/ Krypto containment idea.
• Yikes. Miss Teschmacher is not just annoying, she's bonkers.
• And I am absolutely not a fan with this whole Jimmy Olson, ladies man, take on the character. It just keeps getting worse.
• So Metamorpho isn't bad, he's being forced to be bad? Except he's still being more bad than he really has to be with torturing Superman like this.
• Hypno-glasses. Perfect.
• God. How cool is Mr. Terrific? Edi Gathegi is getting the redemption of all redemptions from the shitty way his character Darwin was treated in X-Men: First Class. Incredible how flawlessly he's been translated to the screen.
• Good Lord. Killing the falafel vendor was a dark, dark turn of events. Seems so unnecessary.
• Ummm. These prisoners have no privacy to use the toilet?!? Sadistic.
• Alrighty then. Mr. Terrific just completely stole the entire movie with this fight scene. The way he gives zero shits about all these bad guys hanging around... treating them like they're not even there... is beyond cool. And having one of them say "It's just the smart one." right before he completely wrecks everybody is brilliant. Lois's reaction to what's happening is all of us.
• Of course the music choices are on-point. It's all James Gunn.
• Yeah. When Krypto can even manage to upstage Mr. Terrific, you know you've struck gold.
• Krypto looks wonderfully fluid when flying. He should look ridiculous, but he just doesn't.
• "The controls are easy and intuitive." They'd pretty much have to be if Lois is going to have to fly it.
• Oh Krypto. Don't ever change.
• Yep. Yep. Yep. The casting of Clark's human parents is genius.
• An otherwise near-perfect film is really close to getting sabotaged by this whole Jimmy Olson situation. That's a shame.
• GAH! Krypto is so adorable right now!
• AND NOW AGAIN!
• How James Gunn is able to transition from balls-out action and weirdness to scenes so remarkably human like this one between Clark and Pa Kent is what makes him such a great fit for comic book movies. It's a rare talent.
• Yeah, the parallels between what's happening in the Real World and the fictional situation in this movie are not lost at all.
• When you have meta-human battles and comic book weirdness going on in your reality, city-wide evacuation is probably a normal happening.
• Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard is great casting. If not for Jimmy Olson, I'd almost like to see a The Daily Planet limited series. UPDATE: Annnd... I'm told that the rumor is there's a Jimmy Olson limited series in the works?!? WTF?
• Okay, the CGI fight here is not so great.
• Yeah. Few people could have pulled off this look of sheer evil the way Nicholas Hoult managed to do it. Worth the money to cast him, I'm sure.
• Ultraman is a Superman clone. I prefer this to my first assumption... which was that he'd end being Bizarro.
• The little kid clinging to his Superman flag is just oddly manipulative at this point.
• Yeah. This is peak Guy Gardner right here. Love it. How they managed to get this movie rated PG-13 between the head-shot to the falafel cart vendor and these middle-finger Green Lantern constructs is kinda a mystery to me.
• A lot of Snyder fanboys made a huge deal over Hawkgirl's unhinged screaming. I, on the other hand, think it's darn smart. Especially if this is the version of the character that's from Thanagar. Making her a frickin' alien for heaven's sake. Of course she's going to have weird, alien things about her.
• "I'm not like Superman." That's for sure. I can't help but think that if asshole world leaders were regularly dropped from the sky when they do evil shit, we'd have less evil shit going on in the world.
• Yeah. This is totally Krypto's movie, and I'm not the least bit mad about it.
• Goddamn Mr. Terrific is going to save the day.
• And... James Gunn totally has a bead on the character here.
• Krypton beating the ever-loving-shit out Luthor is in my top-five scenes in the entire film. Good boy.
• Aw, James Gunn cast his brother as Maxwell Lord. Classic.
• Welp. If Lex didn't hate Superman enough... he sure does now. And he's off to visit Amanda Waller at Belle Reve. How nice.
• WELL OKAY THEN! Since Krypto is Supergirl's dog, that means he'll be in the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow movie. Now I'm doubly looking forward to it.
• Yep. Gunn found the perfect ending to the movie. Yes he did.
• So... if Krypto left with Supergirl, this mid-credit scene of Superman and Krypto on the moon must just be for fun. Cute.
• The post-credits scene isn't much, but it does allow us to see Mr. Terrific one last time. No complaining about that.
• Boy. That two hours just blows by. Even the second time around.

And now we wait for June 26, 2026.

When my mom was in the memory care facility, we made a lot of trips to Fred Meyer. The store has everything she could possibly need, from clothes to toothpaste. On bad days I would either take her to the Freddy's just down the street. Or go alone.

But on good days where I thought she could handle a lunch out? We'd go to the Freddy's 10 minutes to the north where there was a restaurant she liked. On very good days when it seemed she could be out longer, we drove to the Freddy's 20 minutes to the south. There's an Indian Restaurant there I love, and they were happy to make something that mom would like.

I ended up at Fred Meyer every other week when I visited her so I could get whatever my mom needed. But it's the trips we made together for lunch and shopping at Freddy's that I remember whenever I drive by one of their stores. I'm sure we must have done that 30 times. Maybe more.

Now it seems as though the Freddy's to the north is closing, and the one to the south may be closing as well (I know the QFC to the south is closing). I can't help but be a little sad, even though I never shop there now that mom is gone. My nearest Fred Meyer is a half-hour away, so I only get there when I'm already in the area.

Back in the day you may have been able to "find it at Freddy's" (as in the commercial below), but now you're going to have a hard time finding the Freddy's to find what you're needing to find....

What a shame.

But I'm glad they were there when I needed them.

I've played through most every LEGO video game from start to finish. No, I haven't got them all to 100%, because attempting it is often more frustrating than rewarding.

My favorite of the entire LEGO super-hero franchise is, of course, the Batman games. They've all been over-the-top fun and often feature stories that are better than what you find in the comics, movies, and TV shows. Which is to say that I am forever anticipating a new LEGO Batman game being announced.

And today was the day. We're getting a new one in 2026!

The game I want more than anything is a LEGO Batman game which is based entirely on the Bruce Timm Batman: The Animated Series cartoons. Those episodes were so amazing. And I think that they could be the basis for one of the best LEGO Batman games ever.

Alas, that's not what we are getting.

The official description is this...
LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is a brand-new open world action-adventure videogame that invites players to embark on Bruce Wayne’s epic journey to become the hero of Gotham City, inspired by decades of Batman films, television, comic books, and games, and jam-packed with Batman nostalgia, DC lore, and TT Games’ signature brand of fun-filled LEGO humor.

And there's a trailer...

There's some interesting things to unpack here... starting with the fact that there will be a more difficult "Dark Knight Mode" so more mature gamers will have more of a challenge. Which is funny, because the thing I love most about the LEGO video games is that they're not too taxing. You can play without stress or having to think terribly hard about things. They're the perfect distraction at the end of the day when you're tired and just want to relax.

Which is to say that I'll probably play through the regular "Caped Crusader Mode" before digging into something that will undoubtedly frustrate me.

Next up... apparently this game will run through all the various Batman movies to build its story. That feels messy to me, but I hope to be pleasantly surprised. Hopefully they've found an interesting way to chain everything together to make sense.

And then... one of the most fun parts of a LEGO Batman game are all the bat-suits which give him different powers and abilities. From what I can tell, there's none of that going on here. Perhaps there's a deeper game happening (they mention new combo moves), but this is worrying to me. If it's just Batman fighting through levels the same way over and over, it seems kind of one-note. If that's what I wanted, I'd just play Arkham Asylum. They do say that the different playable characters have different abilities and skills, so maybe that's how it will be kept fresh?

And, lastly, there's been news that the game will be released for Switch 2. And yet... when you go to the official website, there's absolutely no mention of it until you go to the FAQ page. Which has me wondering if the Switch 2 version will come out later than the others. Gee I hope not. I really want to be able to play this one on the go.

If you're onboard and sign up for a WB Games account, you get a free Golden Age Bat Suit for free. You can do that at the official site here.

The other day on the way home from work I turned onto a street and there was a pickup stopped in my lane. He was talking to somebody parked on the side of the road. I didn't give it another thought, because I could just drive around since there was nobody coming in the opposite direction. No harm no foul.

But then...

The guy in the truck decided to punch it and try to race me so I couldn't get back in my lane.

What a fucking asshole.

I should have just laid on the horn when I came around the corner.

What is it with people? What was the thinking here? HE was in the wrong, I was just trying to get home after a long day at work without interrupting his conversation.

I guess some people are just assholes.

And then... then... I came home and found it not overly hot, so I decided to pull some weeds out of my plant and flower beds. Which was a mistake. Even though I was done in 35 minutes, I was physically wrecked. Sore legs. Acing back. So embarrassing. I guess maybe I need to do stuff like this more often?

Well, this day was awful. Which you can read about tomorrow. Suffice to say that I am wondering exactly how much longer I have before I collapse in a pile of anxiety and have a heart attack. There is no corner of my life that is consistently stress-free except one, and then even that went off like a (temporary) bomb.

But hey, maybe I'll die of the mother-fucking plague and won't have to worry about it. Fingers crossed. Though with dipshit anti-science fuckhead RFK Jr. in charge of America's health, I probably don't need to cross my fingers. It almost seems inevitable that I'll die of the plague. Or whatever major health crisis drops on us which could have been addressed by science, but RFK Jr. killed mRNA research... or what-the-fuck-ever miracle that scientists were working on... so we're all hopelessly fucked.

If only I could just stick my head in the sand and pretend that the world isn't a toxic pile of shit, I could have a stable baseline from which I could deal with all the other anxiety-inducing shit assaulting me.... but no. This is our normal now.

I'm choosing to embrace the horror.

What else is there?

But anyway...

Today when I got home from work (and was preparing to do more work) I happened across an article "debunking" the infamous Jenny Nicholson video: The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel. It had me laughing out loud because it clearly... clearly... failed badly to "debunk" shit. Jenny, who is the absolute dream guest for a themed hotel because she lives for this stuff, nailed it. She fucking nailed it. She manages to clearly explain why her trip sucked, make comparisons to alternatives, use her vast knowledge of immersive experiences to critique what was offered, brutally dissect Disney's endless greed and incompetence, all while presenting it in a way only she can.

It's glorious.

So tonight I've had it playing while I work... for the sixth time. Which is insane considering the video is four hours long. But I can't help it. Every minute of those four hours is gold. If you haven't watched it, I can't possibly recommend it more...

And, on that note, back to work I guess. Good night. Don't let the plague doctor bite.

=sigh=

If you want to see a photo of me losing my mind... well, what little is left of my mind... here it is...

I had to come home to pick up something for work yesterday morning.

I see Jake laying on the cat tree so I say his name and ask him how his day has been. Nothing.

I say his name and talk to him a little louder. Nothing.

I go up to touch him. Nothing.

Now I'm in a blind panic, so I start shaking him... and... he finally moves, then wakes up and looks at me like I'm the asshole for waking him up. Then squawks. Then goes back to sleep.

Now, for context, both my cats are skittish enough that ANY sound will wake them up. Jake not waking up to look at me when I am saying his name and talking to him is unprecedented. Him not reacting when I touch him? Inconceivable (yes, that word means what I think it means).

And so... that was a flash-forward that had me shaking all day long.

Maybe this is just what happens when cats get older. Maybe Jake is losing his hearing. Maybe he's just decided "fuck it" I am not going to react to meet his expectations. I don't know. But it wrecked my day. And now my anxiety is at an all-time high when I didn't think it was possible for it to get any worse.

I mean, don't get me wrong... there's absolutely no scenario where I would trade the past 9-1/2 years of my life with these cats. They have literally saved my life. But now a part of me cannot help but wonder if they will be the death of me as well.

The Dog Days of Summer may be slowly fading, but the Bullets of Summer are still sticking around... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Yesterland! This video of Disneyland in 1956 is wild. Everybody dressed up for a day out at Disneyland... from dress shirts with long pants and full on suits... to sundresses or Capri pants... nobody was in jeans and a T-shirt (and where were short pants for the guys?)...

I remember for my first visit 20 years later it was the same. My brother and I were dressed up in matching green suits that my grandmother made. And the reason I remember them so clearly? Because the threads in my suit glowed when we were riding It's a Small World. I remember the suits right down to how the buttons looked (but don't ask me what I had for dinner last night). And, wow, were the attractions very different at the beginning! No E-ticket rides in 1956 because they didn't come until three years later. And of course this were back in the days where not much was politically correct. Something I didn't know is that Disneyland was never segregated. Walt Disney wanted everybody with the means to pay to visit the Happiest Place on Earth. That being said, there are precious few non-white people in this film (except for the "Indian Village" entertainment, of course). Interestingly enough, the boat skippers on The Jungle Cruise fired AT the hippos instead of in the air to "scare" them back in the day. Vicious.

   
• I've Been Framed! Every payday I've been buying picture frames to hang up prints and art and maps and bits and pieces I've been collecting over the past 50 years. Last time, I bought some frames that arrived in a totally a different color than I ordered, so they refunded me 50% of the cost and I just spray-painted them. Score! Today they finally stopped smelling, so I hung them up. They're prints by Bill Mudron as a tribute to Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli films (based on prints by Kawase Hasui). I love them. There were actually five I wanted, but two of them were sold out, so I got the these three, which are incredible. They're in the hall as I walk in the front door...

Dang. I wish I could afford glare-free museum glass (to get a closeup glare-free look at them, you can visit the artist's website here). What I really love is that the characters from the films are almost hard to spot in these prints because they're very small. In mine for Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, you have to look a minute...

I really wanted the prints for Kiki's Delivery Service and Ponyo as well...

You can buy reproductions on Mudron's website, but you can't get them at the size of the original prints, dangit. I may buy a few smaller reproductions to hang somewhere else in my home, because they're so frickin' amazing.

   
• The Plot Thickens! If you've never seen Robots Draw, you're missing out. I knew about the account, but I didn't know that the guy behind it did a TedTalk...

Before I could afford a dot matrix printer, I had an Atari 1020 4-color pen plotter, which I'm reminded of every time I see a Robots Draw reel...

The printer was mostly for fun because the paper was only 4.5-inches wide, but it was better than nothing. Even if it took forever to print text because the letters had to be drawn one by one. Wikipedia has a short article on the unit here (which is where I got the photo).

   
• Gooey! I honesty don’t know how in the hell got to be THIS BAD at Apple after Steve Jobs’s died. Granted, I am using a public beta of the latest iOS, and this might be fixed... but... what the fuck does this last button do in Apple Music?

The first is shuffle. The second is repeat. The third is infinity auto-play. But that fourth button provides no feedback as to actually doing anything, so I have no idea. This odd set of buttons could very well be the worst GUI design I’ve ever seen. Coming from a company that used to care about GUI! Fortunately, long-time blogging friend LeSombre managed to remember an article about this very topic and was able to tell me it means "AutoMix" and Apple describes it as "Songs transition at the perfect moment, based on analysis of the key and tempo of the music." So I immediately turned it off, because I wondered why in the hell the end of a song was either sped up or slowed down in weird fucking ways as it faded to the next song via CarPlay. No thank you. And, on that note... APPLE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PROVIDE SOME FEEDBACK FOR YOUR FUCKING BUTTONS SO PEOPLE KNOW WHAT THE FUCK THEY ACTUALLY DO!

   
• Only Connect! If you've ever been frustrated by The New York Times puzzle "Connections," you should know that it was inspired (or stolen) from a UK quiz show Only Connect. These puzzles always feel incredibly difficult, and I can't fathom having to solve them within a time limit. It usually takes me forever when I have forever!

In other news... "Father's Day" was invented at a YMCA in Washington State?!??

   
• Atmosphere! Alaska Airlines has rebranded their loyalty program as "Atmos" now that they've merged with Hawaiian Airlines. Which is fine, I guess, if not for the fact that Dolby Atmos home theater sound standard already exists. I'm guessing that there was no trademark danger since they are wildly different industries, but I still wonder why they'd go with this?

"Atmos" isn't a real word. At best it's an abbreviation for "atmosphere" (which is where Dolby got it, I'm sure, because they're creating an atmosphere of sound). Not sure where Alaska's head is at here, but I can't help but think they could have come up with something better.

   
• Winds of Waiting! I am clinging to the idea that the person asking this horrific question has challenges gauging social situations and perhaps didn't know that what they were asking is awful. Anything else just beats down my faith in humanity to new lows. I don't care how impatient you are for the next book, this is inhuman. And I have zero doubt that this question already haunts George RR Martin himself. So... why?

That. Being. Said. While undeserving of... whatever this was... Martin has kinda brought fan frustration on himself. He has been stringing everybody along for thirteen YEARS. All the promises and all the assurances of Winds of Winter being a "priority" falling by the wayside while he finds another TV show or movie or game or book or convention or talk show or whatever to do. Anything but actually getting the work done. Add to that the HBO adaption utterly destroying the ending of the A Game of Thrones adaptation and making fans even more anxious to know how everything "really" ends... and, well, it takes things to new levels. — No, he did not deserve this terrible question. But I have to wonder if George RR Martin wasn't constantly making promises he couldn't keep, would we have an environment where people feel entitled to ask a question like this in the first place? Something to ponder. Also something to ponder? BRANDON SANDERSON COMPLETING A SONG OF FIRE AND ICE?!? Good Lord. I'd rather have no ending than that. These authors in no conceivable way complement each other. Like... at all.

   
Now it's time to go pick tomatoes for my dinner.

The one-upmanship of life's miseries is physically exhausting.

You're not allowed to feel sad because there are people who have more reason to be sad than you. You're not allowed to feel afraid because there are people who have more reason to be afraid than you. You're not allowed to feel anything any more because there's always, always, a person out there worse off than you. Money, health, security, work, misfortune, friends, family, life, death... whatever the situation... you don't get feel what you're feeling because somebody somewhere has it worse. So what are you complaining about, you ungrateful piece of shit?

And God forbid if anything good actually happens to you. Heaven help you if you manage to carve out a little slice of happiness for yourself. You see something you enjoy, do something fun, go somewhere nice, get to experience something that makes you happy. Because then... then... you're just rubbing it in the faces of people who didn't get experience what you did.

No matter how meager it might be.

And it always escalates in bonkers ways...

"What did you do this weekend?"

"I watched this movie on Netflix I really enjoyed."

"Oh yeah? Well I know somebody who doesn't have a Netflix account. They don't have a television. In fact, they don't even have a home to put a television into. They probably can't even remember what it's like to watch television. Do you want to know what they probably did this weekend? They sat in their grandmothers unheated basement staring at the wall while eating a can of beans. AND IT WAS COLD BEANS BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE A MICROWAVE!"

And then...

"Really? Must be nice... because I read in the news about somebody whose grandmother DIED yesterday!"

But I exaggerate.

Kinda.

Because while this fictional conversation (likely) hasn't happened, it's a pretty accurate scenario generally speaking.

At least from my experience lately.

My bedroom windows don't have blinds on them.

When she was little, Jenny got tangled up in the blinds that came with my place, so I removed them from every window in the house except the living room and guest room (those windows are quite large, so I just raised the blinds out of reach). My bedroom is on the second floor so it doesn't really matter. I suppose if somebody wants to climb a ladder or fly a drone up to watch me sleep... then oh well.

On clear nights, the stars are visible. Most times it doesn't phase me... I just look out and think something like "Oh... that's nice!" But there are times that I am quite phased.

Such as when there was this twinkling star that I kept thinking was an airplane. Except it stayed in the same spot in the sky. For a time. Turns out it wasn't an airplane, it was the planet Mars.

Right now when I lay on my bed and look out my window, I see three of the brightest observable stars in the night sky in the handle of The Big Dipper (AKA Ursa Major AKA Great Bear AKA The Plough)...

The stars, from left-to-right are Alkaid (35th brightest*), Mizar, and Alioth (31st brightest*). Alioth is so bright it was used for celestial navigation. Maybe it still is. Whatever the case, it and the other two stars keep distracting me while I'm trying to fall asleep.

Also distracting? Reading about these three stars on Wikipedia. Mizar, in particular, is absolutely fascinating.

I do feel lucky that Arcturus from the Little Dipper (4th brightest star in the sky*) is jussssst out of view of my window. Though that might change as the stars move around. Once more distraction from my getting a decent night's sleep...

But that's the night, now it's morning and time to face the horrors of the day.

   
*The rank of brightness varies depending on the list... I'm using 31st and 35th because that's what my StarWalk 2 app says. Wikipedia says Alkaid is 40th and Alioth is 32nd, so who knows?

This past Saturday I finally got around to watching the second season opener of Peacemaker. It was even more insane than I had hoped. But first... tomatoes.

I honestly don't understand how my two small tomato plants keep pumping out so many 'maters. Even more unbelievable is that I am using no pesticides, have no netting or fencing, and pretty much ignore them... yet bugs and birds aren't bothering them at all.

Just before I started up Peacemaker I picked enough ripe ones to make another tomato salad with feta cheese and Mediterranean herbs. Unbelievably good...

I think I have at least one salad left in my plants once they ripen. Maybe two. I can't imagine how many I'll end up next year if I triple the number of plants. Hopefully enough for two salads a week instead of one every-other-week. Plus extra for burgers and spinach wraps and such. Dinner was delicious. Except I was embarrassed to include my garlic bread in the photo because it was made from hotdog buns.

And so... on Sunday I made a loaf of sourdough. Then I had to transfer my starter to a bowl so I could wash out the container I keep her in. Always a mess. And, if you've ever mixed flour and water, then you know it becomes glue that takes some effort to clean...

As for Peacemaker... it's as demented, crazy, and entertaining as I expected. Maybe more so. Suffice to say that if you can appreciate a good sex orgy (and are old enough to see such things), then this is the show for you.

Many fans wondered if the first season of the show was going to be canon in the new James Gunn DC Universe of movies. Turns out that, yes, it is. With one exception. The ending. In the original series, Peacemaker sees the Justice League arrive after the fighting is over. Superman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Wonder Woman (I'm guessing that Cyborg and Batman were off-limits for some reason). It's a hilarious bit that I won't spoil here, but I can tell you it's the most memorable thing to come out of Zack Snyder's dark slog of a DC Universe.

So... in the second season recap, Gunn fixes it. Now it's the Justice Gang which shows up... Mr. Terrific, Superman, Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, and even Supergirl...

That's pretty great.

And now we wait for the Gunn DCU version of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman, Cyborg, and The Flash. Hopefully all comic bookey fun like Superman (2025) is.

Last night I tuned into the New Heights podcast while eating dinner. And, no, I didn't start listening to it because Taylor Swift appeared on the previous episode. I was a fan of the show long before they even started dating and have blogged about it many times.

But speaking of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce... they got engaged. And the first thing I thought of after seeing the news is "I wonder if they will televise the wedding like they did The Royal Wedding for Princess Diana?" Because, let's be real, this is about as close as the United States is going to get to something like that...

And back to last night's episode of New Heights... it was filmed before the news of the engagement. But Jason prefaced the show by acknowledging it. Then we went into the pre-recorded show. Where they talked about the jaw-dropping numbers that last week's Taylor Episode pulled. And it was made very clear that if the proposal wasn't soon after they taped the Taylor Episode, he was proposing very soon after this one was taped. The guy absolutely delights in her. Never trying to eclipse her. Never spilling her business. Never feeling less of a man because she's a massively huge star raking in billions of dollars. He is perfectly happy to stand beside and be her cheerleader, which makes him a far bigger man that so-called "alpha males" who think that domination is the only option when it comes to women.

It's a refreshing thing to see...

And a great example to young men.

I hope they make it. Not only because they seem like decent people, but because Taylor Swift has been shitted on her entire career for her relationships. And because of this...

So congratulations to the happy couple.

I guess all their haters can just go be mad about it.

I like to have television playing while I work at home. But it has to be something I've seen before. Otherwise I'll pay too much attention to the show instead of the task at hand. And whenever I don't know what old series to watch, I consult Wikipedia's List of television shows considered the best.

Some shows have to be ignored because I refuse to watch (I still loathe Succession no matter how many people love it), others I have no desire to watch again (All in The Family, Cheers, Hill Street Blues, etc.), and others I've already seen way too many times (The West Wing, for example).

As I started down the list, I saw Better Call Saul and decided that was the one. Vince Gilligan has a new top-secret show in development for Apple TV+ (coming November 9th), so it seemed like a good choice.

But it was a huge mistake, because this exceptional spin-off of Breaking Bad demands your attention. Part of the thrill of the show is the exceptional performances by Bob Odenkirk and the rest of the cast, and so much of that is played out on their faces. Which means it's too distracting because I'm staring at the TV instead of my laptop.

It's such a great series...

Too great, which is why I'm rewatching Community for the hundredth time instead. Also a great series, but one I can work during.

Jenny, as I have undoubtedly mentioned, is a fiendishly clever and intelligent cat. She's also unbelievably manipulative. Not just towards me, but her brother as well. Once or twice a week she does something which has me wondering if she's smarter than I am.*

Except... only in specific areas.

As an example: Jenny loves running up to bed with me so she can get some pets before turning in for the night. Me, not her. Because she would gladly be petted for six hours. But the minute I turn the lights off, she runs back downstairs to sleep. But anyway... She used to head up with me when I went upstairs. But sometimes I'd forget something or was just going up to get something and wasn't actually going to bed. So then she stopped going up with me until I would turn off the television. When that wasn't guaranteed, she would wait for me to call her to say I'm going to bed. When that wasn't guaranteed (I'm forgetful), she started waiting until I'm upstairs and have Siri turn off the downstairs (I tell Siri "goodnight" once I'm in bed for real, and everything outside my bedroom turns off).

On Tuesday night I got into bed and told Siri "goodnight," then Jenny came running up as usual. But I forgot to set out something I needed to remember to take to work, so I had to get out of bed to go back downstairs. Right after Jenny had jumped up to be petted.

She was furious. Started meowing her head off upstairs, because how dare I leave her there un-petted! Then, when I was taking too long, she came downstairs to get me. Meowing the entire time.

So I don't know what happens next. I guess I have to pinky-swear that I'm really going to bed and won't be leaving until morning or something.

So, yeah, she's smart.

And then...

Jenny sometimes wants to be petted while I'm on the couch... but doesn't want to sit next to me for whatever reason. So she'll sit all the way at the other end of the couch and meow in frustration at me because I'm not petting her. I reach out my hand to show her that I can't reach. But instead of realizing it, she'll lean her little head towards me like she can somehow bridge the 4-foot gap between us.

After five minutes of this nonsense, she begrudgingly got up and moved closer because she realized I wasn't moving. But she was angry about it. Wouldn't even look at me, no matter how much I talked to her...

"Just give me my damn belly rubs and shut up about it."

Now, there are other things that I honestly don't know whether she's smart about or not.

Like when she gets a drink.

Jenny refuses to drink from the cat fountain in the dining room. Maybe the moving water bothers her or something. So I ended up buying a still water dispenser for her. No big deal, right? Well, maybe. Because she will never just walk up and get a drink. There's a process. First she sits in front of the bowl and stares at it... waiting for it to move or something. Then she will dip her paw into it... making sure it's not going to move, I guess. Then she will taste it off her paw five or six times... to make sure it's not poisonous, perhaps. Then, and only then will she take a drink.

But here's the problem... she's so skittish that if I walk into the kitchen while she's drinking (or, more likely, preparing to drink) she will run off. This is bad news, because a hydrated cat is a healthy cat. And so, any time I get up to go into the kitchen and Jenny's not around, I will stand at the cat tree and look into the kitchen to see if I can proceed. If she's waiting for the water to attack her or in process of drinking, I will wait for her to finish before heading towards the kitchen!

If she's checking for poison? Smart. If she's worried that the water might be going to attack her after drinking from the same dish hundreds of times? Wellll...

   
* Yeah, I'm sure everybody reading this is thinking "Of course Jenny is smarter than you are." But I'm all... "Well, I don't see her able to earn a living or surf the internet, so how smart could she possibly be?"**

** Oh...

I may not have a three day weekend like some people in the USA, but don't you fear about me making time for bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Small, Small World! The Disfarers YouTube channel has been interesting, and I've been going back through them to see what I missed. This one from three months ago is hands-down one of the most fascinating Disney Parks video I've ever seen. It's not just about It's a Small World, it's about the fascinating process of Imagineering which has a lot of cameos by a lot of rides...

While not a fan of the ride so much, I'm a massive fan of Mary Blair, and have always appreciated the artistry of the ride. And now I appreciate it even more.

   
• Wedneday Murder Club? Why. Why would Netflix make a major change to The Thursday Murder Club when they KNOW that this has screwed up faithfully adapting the future books? Insanity. Just insanity. I know the book was much deeper and some things (like back-story) would be lost when translated to a 2-hour movie (requiring some things to change), but this? THIS?!? What possible reason? My opinion of Chris Columbus as a director just dropped several stories. And the pacing is awful. Slow at the start where things could have been cut, then rushes to the botched ending where the time should have been spent. Character personalities are changed to bad effect. A good director would understand the books well enough to realize that this change wasn't a good one, and had the writers re-think things. Jeez what a disappointment. If you buy the rights to the book to turn it into the movie... ADAPT THE FUCKING BOOK! Two out of five stars because I'm mad a book series I love with actors I love was mostly good... until it wasn't.

   
• Atom Man vs. Superman! YouTube has a lot of cool restoration videos. The ones I'm enjoying now are the paper poster videos, because it always amazes me how they can just dump water on everything in order to flatten it (something I've tried after watching it, and it works... if you're careful). This last one I saw is very cool because it's so big...

I cannot imagine how much this kind of restoration would cost.

   
• Peaches! In my news feed, there was an article about Thomas Rhett's wife being pregnant with their fifth child. And I didn't know who that was. So I Googled him and some images popped up. Didn't recognize him, but he's obviously a famous country singer. then I see him in a Boston Red Sox jersey and am like... okay... I like him already. Then I see how famous he is, and I'm like... oh... I'm sure I've heard his stuff then. I click on the Boston photo and it's from his Instagram. I click though to that. He's got a beautiful family. And then I see gem...

Legendary dad material.

   
• Cracker! I didn't think that the new Cracker Barrel logo was terrible (for the minute it was used). But it was beyond terrible FOR Cracker Barrel. The thing about branding is that people can get incredibly attached to stuff that they form a relationship with. If you're changing something, for better or worse, they're going to react. So you had better have a very good reason to do it. And you need to be very smart about how you do it. This was a massive misstep from the jump, all because whomever was in charge of this mess committed the First Sin of Branding... they did not know their own audience. Because to say that this was a glaringly obvious disaster is not an understatement...

I don't even have Cracker Barrel where I live (the nearest one is in Vegas) but I reacted with a wince to the rebrand because I knew immediately how it would be received. Because I've been to one of them once. A decade ago. What's ironic is that they probably did it hoping it would be more appealing to society at large because sales were sliding. Now they're in the dumpster having to try and crawl their way out.

   
• Negative Four-And-A-Half Stars! Maybe I was too quick condemning Paramount+ for canceling Strange New Worlds after an upcoming abbreviated fifth season. Because Four and a Half Vulcans has got to be one of the shittiest episodes of ANY Star Trek I've ever seen. Good Lord. Somebody watched this dumpster fire and thought it should air? How did it get past script stage in the first place? It would have been better to cut it completely and come up an episode short this season than to air something this horrendously bad...

Apparently when you take the Vulcanizing serum, it changes your hairstyle!

The stupid... it still lingers.

   
• Insecticide! And lastly, allow me to once again comment on a botched adaptation. Butterfly, the comic book series, was a brisk four issues. It was breakneck storytelling and an interesting read. So when I found out that Prime Video adapted the comics with a leisurely six episodes, I was excited. Watching it, I didn't think it was as good as the source material because it got repetitive in ways that weren't interesting... but I liked the cast and thought "Well, this will be a nice diversion!"

AND THEN I GOT TO THE END WHERE THEY CREATED A STUPID FUCKING CLIFFHANGER AND A NONSENSICAL FUCKING TWIST TO SET UP A SECOND SEASON THAT I WILL NEVER... NEVER EVER... WATCH. What a lazy-ass pile of shit. Why is it that nobody can just complete a series any more? It always, always has to have a stupid-ass cliffhanger for a next season that may never come. Lazy fucking writers. Just tie everything up with an ending in case this is all we get! Then, if you get a second season, you can find a new and exciting angle to begin again. But NOPE! Easier to just fuck over the audience. And "easy" is all these talentless hacks have to offer. My God. It's getting to where I don't want to watch TV series any more. Though movies are doing it too. Netflix made a shitty The Old Guard sequel, which I hated, then ended that MOVIE on a cliffhanger which probably won't be resolved. I need to create a new website explicitly where people can share whether or not a show ends on yet another lazy-ass fucking cliffhanger so people can decide whether or not they want to invest time in something THAT MAY NEVER BE FINISHED. At least The Thursday Murder Club was smartly written enough to have a satisfying conclusion (well, if you haven't read the books).

   
If you're an American who's off work tomorrow, enjoy your day off from labor. If you're an American who's not off work tomorrow (like me) try and enjoy your Monday.