I am on the brink of exhaustion, but that's not going to stop the bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Legotype! I never cease to be amazed at what people are able to build out of LEGO. This blows my mind...
It makes me want to get my LEGOs out of the garage and see what I can dream up. Ezcept I know that's going to do nothing but set me up for disappointment because I will never do anything as cool as create a fully-functional LEGO typewriter.
• He's a Wonder! I have mixed feelings on Wonder Man, the latest Marvel Studios series on Disney+. The concept is good and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley are sublime. But it also drags badly as it attempts to deconstruct the mindset of somebody with super-powers wanting to be normal who's striving for an acting career. Had they split the runtime between psychoanalysis and action, this could have been a home-run. But this is a Wonder Man series without any actual Wonder Man, and it's a problem...
They even cheaped out on the psychoanalysis by bringing up obstacles with a former girlfriend and a brother which just... fizzle (though the brother is a character from the comics who may make for an interesting second season character). One minute it's a huge worry (and even a cliffhanger!) and the next minute there's just a wet fart of a resolution which means nothing and earns nothing. Nobody learns anything. The conflict was artificial and banal. But, hey, the performances are a master-class and that's not nothing.
• Divorce! Instagram has been really pissing me off, because I'll copy a link... post it... then have Instagram show people a completely different video. So who the fuck knows what you're going to see below. Hopefully something funny, as I intended...
• A Toast! And if Instagram is feeling like showing you this video as intended, you'll see a skit set in Australia. But it really could be the USA, and I'm rather proud about that...
• It's the GOAT! Of all the rabbit holes to fall down... I fell down a baby goat hole...
@karyna5600 #Duo avec @alexisrubykeller #babygoat ♬ Monkeyshine-JP - Lt FitzGibbons Men
Why are baby animals always so darn adorable? Are there any ugly baby animals? There's plenty of ugly babies, so I'm guessing there must be. Somewhere. But I'll bet they're so ugly they circle back around to being cute again.
• Truthiness! This is so infinitely relatable as to be frightening...
@mkiwi980 Facts! #whoselineisitanyway #jonathanmangum #facts #news #this ♬ original sound - MKiwi
Or rather... more frightening than the state of the world already is.
• So Cold! Bobby Broccoli's Cold Fusion video series has been compiled into a single video. It's absolutely fascinating (as all his videos are). As a science geek, I remember very well when the Pons/Fleischmann experiment blew up... and ultimately collapsed. But I never really knew much past the headlines. Is this video 3 hours? Yes. But the time flies by, because it's got it all...
The very end of the video has snippets of an interview with Pons/Fleischmann that makes me really, really despise them. They are scummy "scientists" who betrayed scientific principles, lied to the scientific community, and wasted millions of dollars... but they were the victims? Lord. — Cold Fusion is a holy grail of science because the implications are so far-reaching for all humanity on this planet. I don't know if I want to live to see it... or if I'll be better off dead when it happens.
And now? Time for a nap.
I have contemplated quitting blogging more times than I can count. Now-a-days, it's because it just feels like a dead media. My blog proper is getting loads of traffic even today (mostly thanks to having 23 years of entries indexed by Google), but the interactivity which made the blogosphere such a fun place has been replaced by shitty fucking "social media."
But there was a day that the reason I wanted to quit was the negative comments.
People can be real assholes. For whatever reason. And it wears on you no matter how hard you try to not let it.
And I know it's because it's easier to be an asshole behind a computer than it is in real-life. And when there's zero chance for being confronted by the shitty stuff you say, being mean has high entertainment value. At least I'm assuming. Because I used to get a lot of nasty comments. And my way of dealing with it was to just delete them. And after people realized that I wasn't going to engage, the hate-comments went from a flood to a trickle.
Now I'm kinda indifferent to blogging... doing it more out of habit than anything else.
But I was reminded of The Dark Times as I've been revisiting all the old William Osman videos and saw this...
When I saw this years ago, I was going through yet another blogging crisis because my WordPress installation was randomly failing. As I was trying to navigate that hot mess, Blogography was under attack for something I said (likely something political, though I don't remember) and I was trying to deal with that as well. And at the forefront of my head was Why not fucking quit? Is any of this really worth it? Why am I even blogging anymore to begin with? And the video got me to thinking If somebody as awesome and cool as Big Willy is giving up, I would be a total dumbass to keep going... wouldn't I?
But William kept going and so did I. Don't ask me why.
And boy am I glad that William kept going.
I swear... I almost like his second channel more because he's just hanging out on his "farm" and doing crazy stuff instead of when he was just inventing things all the time. He's such a fascinating, interesting, talented, smart, hilarious, entertaining guy.
I mean...
These videos are just so... nothing. I mean he's doing stuff, but it's rarely anything of any consequence. He's just doing stuff because it seems fun to him...
His original channel is mostly dead. It hasn't been updated in 9 months and didn't get any significant updates in three years. But he did post a retrospective that's kinda fun...
This is not to say that Big Willy is without controversy. He's not always big on thinking things through before he says them... but you get the sense that he doesn't mean anything bad by it.
Which, of course, just makes me like him more.
If you're not getting in a little bit of trouble, you're probably not having much fun.
Blogging is dead though, so how much trouble can I actually get in?
I did not get much sleep last night.
Which is nothing new to me, because my chronic insomnia makes this just another normal day. I fell asleep around 11:30, woke up at 2:10am. Unable to fall back asleep, I grabbed my phone to doom-scroll social media. At which point Jenny came running in and jumped on my bed so she could get pets.
Since all the social media sites know that I live in Washington State, they naturally assume that I'm hyped because the Seattle Seahawks made it to the Superb Owl to play the Patriots. Which is not the least bit true. Football isn't my game, and I'm more excited to see the ads and what Bad Bunny's half-time show is like than watching the game. The Puppy Bowl and the Kitten Bowl are more important to me.
Now, if a miracle ocurred and The Kraken somehow made it to the Stanley Cup? Count me in for that.
But anyway... back to Seahawk mania.
Some of the stuff coming out of Seattle's good fortune is worth watching. My favorite so far is this one, which made me laugh all four times I watched it...
Interestingly enough, the Seahawks are actually favored to win the big prize! Something they've only done once before in 2014 (though this is the fourth time Seattle has been to the been to the big game, and back in 2015 they lost to the Patriots by 4 points).
I am happy that once the Superb Owl is over we can turn our attention back to hockey where it belongs.
Today I had to run to the Big City to get a haircut. Which is always awful.
Well, not the haircut... the drive to get there.
Despite the fact that Washington State has anti-distracted-driving laws, people 100% do not follow the law. Whether it's texting at a stoplight or watching YouTube videos while driving, people are insane. The average weight of a car in the USA is over 4,000 pounds. Not giving your entire attention to a machine which could easily kill somebody is beyond insane.
But pedestrians make me crazy too.
I was waiting at a crosswalk for somebody to cross the road.
They started across, but then stopped and stared at their phone in front of me.
Now, I have no idea what was going on and like to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to them existing. Maybe they got some terrible news and it shocked them so badly that they forgot they were in the middle of the street. Maybe they have a neurological condition where they can't concentrate on more than one thing at a time. Or maybe they just like torturing drivers by seeing how long it takes them to honk their horn or something. Anything's possible. And since I wasn't in any hurry I just sat there waiting for them to do something. Do anything...
@maxmanticof_ People gotta learn how to cross the street
♬ original sound - Max
Finally, the car behind me honked.
At which point the person continued crossing without even looking up from their phone.
Sooo... who knows? Maybe they were just a self-absorbed asshole who doesn't give a shit that there's people on the road trying to get somewhere. Maybe somewhere to save their life, like a hospital.
Or maybe they just need to get to their life-saving haircut appointment.
There's just no telling.
In order to get to the WordPress back-end which runs this blog, I have to go through two levels of security. This became necessary because Blogography is well-indexed on Google, and that makes it desirable internet real estate to advertise your crazy shit. People are always trying to break in to commandeer everybody's favorite place on the internet.
The second layer of protection is 2FA (2-Factor Authentication) where I have to enter a number from an authentication app on my phone. Once the code is accepted, I can post stuff and approve comments and all that. But every once in a while, the timing between WordPress and the authenticator gets skewed. Which means I can't get in. And the only way to fix it is to delete the 2FA plugin, log in, then reinstall the plugin. A pain in the ass to be sure, but something I have to do.
And Tuesday was the day. I went to post, couldn't get authenticated, and ended up not being able to get in.
So I pulled up my FTP app, went to delete the security plugin, and... couldn't get in. Apparently something was messed up indeed because I was out of my depth as to where to go from there. This evening I had time to figure it out, which involved a different 2FA which (thankfully) worked out.
And here we are. I can post again.
OR CAN I ?!?
The answer is "no." No I cannot. Everything I attempt to post will only save as a draft.
=sigh=
I don't know that I'm necessarily a "Swiftie," but I do like some of Taylor Swift's music. But where my appreciation really lives is her tour movies and her videos.
She really knows how to present her music in entertaining ways.
And here's me... in that moment half-way through the brand new video for Taylor's Opalite where I figured out exactly what's going on. And it's so good.
And if you watch to the very end, they tell you what's going on if you hadn't figured it out. In order to watch it, you have to see it on iTunes or Spotify. It will end up on YouTube this Sunday, but you can see a tiny piece of it on Taylor's YouTube video shorts right now UPDATE: And here you go...
It's pretty amazing how Tay-Tay's videos have become so brilliant after she started writing and directing them. And this one is no exception. Not necessarily for what's in it... but for the reason why what's in it is actually in it.
What blows my mind is how business-savvy she is about it all.
She's waited a very long time after releasing the first video from the album The Life of a Showgirl for the lead single Life of Ophelia. And it's because that video had such legs to it. There was no point putting out the second video until the first one started winding down. And I honestly don't know that it has, because people are still doing the "Ophelia Dance" on TikTok and the song is still on the charts. Though some people are coming up with their own dance...
But time marches on and she probably wants to get these videos out before her next album drops, which is likely just months away given how frequently she releases them. For heaven's sake, she made The Life of a Showgirl in the middle of her Eras Tour!
My cats have zero fucks left to give.
They've been sliding to this point for years, but it was so gradual that I didn't notice. Now it feels like it actually happened over months. Weeks even.
They want what they want and they want it now. And when it comes to what you want... like sleep? Oh hell no. You don't dare deny them what they want!
And while they do have sweet moments with each other like this...
Jake is a mean bear of a brother. If Jenny is sitting somewhere, he'll decide that he wants to sit there, then antagonize her to leave. Not long ago Jenny was laying at the foot of my bed and Jake decided that this is where he wanted to be, so he just goes over and sits on her. Jenny erupts in a flurry off hisses that seem to genuinely confuse Jake, then she smacks him and runs away because he won't leave.
Jake, for his part, then lays down and goes to sleep as if nothing happened.
But don't feel bad for Jenny.
Because she is happy to treat me exactly the same way.
It's me. I'm the one you should feel sorry for.
Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks! You may be thinking that Bullet Sunday will be canceled because of the Superb Owl (I am not calling it by its real name because you can be sued for that), but you would be wrong... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Loot! This is not a Superb Owl commercial. It's a fake commercial from the television show Loot. And yet, it really should be a real commercial, because...
Can Maya Rudolph do any wrong? A completely serious question here.
• Doggy! If there's anything that will get me to go to the theater to see Supergirl, it's Baby Krypto...
I'm sure the rest of the movie is nice too.
• Daddy! I sure hope that Instagram is fucking working again and the right video is here, because damn!
Nothing beats a good joke before having to go back to work in the morning!
• Unreality. Watch this and be unshocked that this is how the world works...
Nobody and nothing matters more than corporate profits.
• Unreality: Part Two! Lest you think that the USA government is alone for being one of the most horrifically corrupt pile of shit on the face of the earth, here's a video for you. I swear, governments just don't seem like the ever operate in the best interest of the people they are supposed to be serving...
And now is where you fall down a Boy Boy rabbit hole like I did, because they have some phenomenal videos about things that will make you think. Assuming you have an open mind to do so.
• Together! I like it when content creators put some creativity in their stuff. This is pretty funny...
There's so many shitty content "creators" who just play other people's content and react to it. They don't even try. Yet they probably get gabillions more followers than people who put the effort in.
• NEWSFLASH: Trump wanted Dulles Airport, Penn Station named after him — in exchange for releasing federal funds. CAN YOU FOR EVEN FOR ONE SECOND IMAGINE WHAT THE REACTION WOULD HAVE BEEN IF OBAMA HAD TRIED SOMETHING LIKE THIS? CAN YOU? I MEAN, SERIOUSLY... CAN YOU JUST FUCKING IMAGINE???
And there you go. If you'll excuse me, I'm back to not watching the Superb Owl.
Books have been written about Gen X and our mentality when it comes to dealing with the world around us. I think way too much is put on the fact that we were incredibly independent due to being latchkey kids (meaning we came home from school to an empty house because our parents were both at work) and not enough put on how we were incredibly independent because we had disconnected lives. There were no mobile phones everywhere to keep us attached.
I remember very well how I could "go out to play" when I got home from school and just... disappear. I could walk downtown or to the park so long as I was back in the neighborhood before dinner. I could hang out with friends at their houses. I could run wild on the hill behind my house (and the rest of the block). When it was dinner time dad would whistle and, if I didn't hear it, the message would be passed on to me by other kids or (more likely) their parents. After dinner I could go back outside until the streetlights turned on. Then it was homework and television time until it was time for bed.
Being disconnected was a very powerful thing as a kid (and as adults, before mobile phones fucked things up).
I was thinking about that today when I saw a kid walking home from school talking on his mobile phone. Not a teenager, but a fairly young kid.
He was never out of touch... unless his battery died.
No matter where he wanders, he's never more than a phone call away from his parents. Or even his friends, assuming they had access to a phone with which to call him.
It just seemed so... odd... to me.
When I was a kid, you made plans with your friends for after school face-to-ace while you still could. Otherwise, you might not be able to find them. You wrote notes. You left word with others. You called and left messages somewhere. It was a different world. But we adapted to it because it was all we knew.
In that respect, I'm glad that I grew up as a Gen X kid. It was the last generation of true freedom.
Not having something stupid or embarrassing I did go viral for the entire world to see is just icing on the cake.
For the life of me, I cannot wrap my head around the Bad Bunny hate that's ongoing.
I've been a fan of his music since I first heard Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana (YHLQMDLG), which was the album of 2020 during the pandemic. But I've been a fan of Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio since his appearance in Bullet Train where he was fantastic. They wrote his character a good backstory and gave him an awesome fight scene.
He appeared on Carpool Karaaoke which was fun. Just look at James Cordon having a blast here...
And he hosted SNL twice where he was charming and funny from beginning to end...
His Jeopardy sketch was so good...
But I think my favorite sketch of his was this one...
Or maybe this one...
But when it comes to the Superb Owl halftime show... what more could you fucking want? He's from Puerto Rico, which makes him all-American. He's a multi-platinum artist whose music is popular around the world. He's a phenomenally talented performer, in any language. And he has good videos for his songs...
I thought his halftime set was amazing. He put on a fantastic show. And it was nice to have something different. On top of all that, if anybody would take two minutes to Google it, he told a story which is special to him.
But he sings in Spanish, so everybody unloads, like this xenophobic racist piece of shit...
And, as usual, it's Jon Stewart who had the perfect perspective on it all...
The United States of America is a MELTING POT. We are a mix of cultures and faiths and backgrounds and beliefs and languages which make us stronger together. Bad Bunny's show was an opportunity to let loose and have fun with a guy giving it his all to entertain us. You didn't need to understand the lyrics, everybody could just enjoy the vibe. Join in and celebrate what was handed to us. But oh no. If it's not somebody singing about beer, pickup trucks, and shooting guns, it's "UnAmerican."
How fucking sad.
Could somebody refresh my memory... was there this kind of faux-outrage when the Macarena by Los Del Río was topping the music charts? This has to be the stupidest manufactured outrage I've ever seen. There's serious shit going on, but let's all be distracted by the music at a fucking football game. Okay.
Jesus.
Fortunately the voice of reason came from fucking Elmo, of all people... errr... Muppets...
Amen to that, little monster.
One more thing about the Mr. Good Bunny Superb Owl show before I move on...
I love that the guy who got married at Bad Bunny's Superb Owl halftime show is just a guy. A nurse, from the looks of it. Not some social media influencer or other nonsense (he's gained Instagram followers since his wedding, but he's only posted some random pics).
This is just a guy who had Lady Gaga and Bad Buny sing at his wedding in the biggest televised event of the year. And his new wife's Instagram is private. So... yeah... influencer-free and perfect...
Photo from Tommy's Instagram
One thing you can't deny is that they're an adorable couple...
Photo from Tommy's Instagram
Photo from Tommy's Instagram
The entire show was a celebration of love and joy, but Benito sings in Spanish, so let's shit all over it, I guess. Gotta keep the faux outrage machine churning to distract everybody from the actual problems plaguing us.
Back when I used to travel constantly, I took my laptop and had all my work files on Dropbox so they were accessible no matter where I was at.
But my personal files back at home were problematic. I'd go to look at some of my photos while on the road and the Plex server would glitch. I'd be on vacation somewhere and find that I couldn't reach my files back home. It was a serious problem, because sometimes the files or documents I needed were urgent. I once had to have a friend run to my house, print out a document, take a photo of it, and send it to me while I was rushing around an airport. Not fun at all.
So when I traded in my old NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive for a new one, a priority was figuring out how to have a clean tunnel back to my house for whatever I needed to do.
I was about ready to give up when I saw TailScale mentioned in a NAS forum. For personal use it's free, so I really had nothing to lose.
It took some doing to get everything working on my NAS (it's not a click-and-install deliverable, so you have to learn how to run it as a Docker container), but once you get things running? You have your own personal network between all your devices! Just install the client app on your computers and phones and whatever via a VPN, then point your apps to the private address assigned to them, and you're done!
Now I can watch my videos streaming from my Plex server with zero issues (this is something that has always been problematic via Plex itself). I can use my iPhone to look at all my photos being indexed and served from Immich with ease. My personal document library is available anywhere I have internet. And Tailscale is blazingly fast about it, which is so nice.
If you're wanting to have a private network where all your devices can talk to each other securely, then Tailscale might be for you. All the information you need is on their website. And if you're looking for a VPN solution for your work, then Tailscale seems reasonably priced.
I said I was done with commenting on Bad Bunny's Halftime Show, but the hate... it just won't stop.
The things people are saying just blow my fucking mind. On top of the blatantly racist hot takes on somebody daring to sing in Spanish during the Superb Owl... or denying that Puerto Rico is a part of the USA when it's a US territory... and now we've got next-level racism coming at him in the form of The Great Replacement Theory? What the ever-loving fuck?
Just look at this bullshit...
"America first."
Puerto Rico is a part of "America"... a territory of "The United States of America." So what the fuck are you even talking about, you dipshit white supremacist piece of shit? This country's entire purpose is to be a melting pot of cultures. I wonder if this asshole makes similar declarations for Oktoberfest celebrations around the country? Probably not... that's European and white. It's just Cinco de Mayo, Bad Bunny, or anything where people are celebrating while non-white.
Meanwhile, Bad Bunny just goes about being the adorable human being he is.
Like he was when he went on Hot Ones last year...
Yeah. Tell me again how this guy is a threat to American "culture."
Bad Bunny is American culture.
Welcome to another Caturday Pupperday!
I am in Kansas City, far from my cats, so I'm having to make due with Aaron and Henry's dogs this time. It made for a nice change given how adorably enthusiastic dogs are to see you when compared to cats. Especially when you find out just how little dogs seem to care about respecting personal space. I had dogs all over me, and it was pretty great...
The first lapdog was a (relatively) small poodle who was very polite. Just wanted to sit on my lap for a while and be petted...
Fortunately, when my lapdog left, there was a backup lapdog to take their place...
Then a backup to my backup lapdog entered the picture...
And then a backup for my backup's backup lapdog entered the picture. Absolutely no understanding of physical space. Climbed right up on my lap, my chest, my face, and eventually my head...
Then it was a big change in a small package. I had met Asher when Aaron and Henry were living in San Francisco. She patiently waited her turn for pets as a replacement backup lapdog...
Then it was time for a brief return of one of the backups for belly rubs...
Meanwhile, back at home, the home security system alerted me that Jake and Jenny were sleeping.
No worries I'm sure when I return on Sunday afternoon they will be upset that I smell like dog, but eventually wanting lap time of their own.
I've said my good bye to Aaron, have returned home from Kansas City, and am more exhausted than I can process, but never you fear about bullets gone missing... because a Very Special Ace Fontana Memorial Edition of Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• It's a Cluster! I headed to Seattle on Wednesday afternoon and spent the night at the airport so I wouldn't have to stress about making my morning flight (Seattle traffic can be notorious). And all day Wednesday and very early Thursday, I was desperately trying to check in with Alaska Air, but couldn't. Worried that something was wrong, I got to the airport three hours early for my 8:21am flight. And was met with a massive crowd of people. Nobody could check in. You had to stand in line for hours to get a boarding pass, and it was so badly organized that nobody really knew what to do. I barely made my flight. — Look, I know technology goes wrong sometimes... but when you have ZERO plans for how to handle things when it does (especially when you knew there was a problem the previous day) that's a serious fucking oversight. I love Alaska Airlines, but this was one of the biggest cluster-fucks I've ever seen in 45 years of travel. That's saying something.
• In Remembrance! Aaron's Celebration of Life was well-attended, and there were two things I took away from it: 1) Aaron touched a lot of people, and if only a fraction were able to be there, we may never know how many people that is... and 2) It was sobering to find out that our friendship, which I thought was atypically special, wasn't all that unique at all. Everybody there felt as though their friendship was atypically special. How many people have the ability to make most every person they meet feel like that?
His 51st birthday is on Tuesday and, as I found out on Saturday, it's hard to celebrate his life without him in it.
• Arena KC! Aaron's band performed at his celebration, which was bittersweet. Made even more so because they had just completed a new promo video last month...
A rock star from start to finish.
• An Aaron By Any Other Name! While I was waiting for my plane in Kansas City, I was looking through the many, many photos I had collected of Aaron over the years. One caught my eye, because it was double-Aaron...
I first knew him by his blogging handle, Jester. Then I knew him by his name, Paul. Then I knew him by his stage name, Ace. And then I knew him by his middle name, Aaron, which he took as his name because he thought he was more an Aaron than a Paul. But no matter what I was calling him, he was always a great friend.
• FindMy! It's interesting to note that the only person I've ever had in Apple's "FindMy" service was Aaron. Because we were either meeting up when I was in town for work or we were meeting up in some random city with other people, it was just easier to use the technology of the day to make our lives easier...
I don't think I ever bothered to open the app unless I was specifically trying to find him. Which is a shame. Because if I had opened it when I was in Anaheim last February, I would have seen that he was in the city at the same time. But, alas, I never knew he was there until he saw that I was in the city and texted after I had already flown home.
• The Football! My hotel was across the highway from Arrowhead. Just think how close I was to where Taylor Swift likes to watch her boyfriend play football!
Of course that's also where she played her KC stop for the Eras Tour. And where Travis Kelce attended the show in order to try and give her a friendship bracelet, which is far more historically significant than some silly sportsball game.
• MCI! I love Kansas City International Airport. It's beautifully maintained. It's smartly organized. There's plenty of places to sit. There's good variety of things to eat. It's just a generally great place to fly into and out of. In other words, the complete opposite of the shit-show that Seattle-Tacoma International has become. =sigh= I probably wouldn't be so jealous if only Seattle didn't keep ripping out seats to put in retail shops... and could manage to keep all the escalators running for more than five fucking minutes.
• Bright Light! Bright Light! For nearly a decade I had to stop driving in the dark because I couldn't see properly. Even the smallest light source would flare out and obliterate everything. Then I got the lenses in my eyes replaced and, suddenly I could see at night again. Driving back across the mountains from Seattle in the dark was a relaxing experience... except not really. It's shocking (or not) how many people drive with their brights on. And though it doesn't blind me any more like it used to, it is irritating. Whether they are coming at me or are behind me (or coming at me with regular lights and then turn on their brights before they fully pass), it's set me back to square one. I don't remember it being like this before I stopped driving at night but, given the way things are going, I shouldn't be surprised.
And now I really should get some sleep. Or try to.
Sucked in again!
I haven't had access to Hallmark Channel since May 2024, but wanted a mindless watch on my flight home. So I ended up buying a movie called The Royal We for a bargain $8 on the iTunes Store. I picked it because I really like Mallory Jansen.
Turns out it's everything you could want in a Hallmark flick. It was so good that it instantly became one of my favorite Hallmark flicks. Sure it's the tired old "I'M SECRETLY A PRINCESS" movies, but that's not really the focus, which was a refreshing change. They also bypassed the "I'm so goofy and inept" idiocy that plagues secret royal movies. Nice.
SO... if you've been missing my Hallmark reviews and you're looking for a great Hallmark watch, here's your film.
You're welcome!
It is astonishing to me the mental gymnastics that people are doing in order to justify protecting pedophiles. I would have never in a million years have thought that people would ever endorse such a thing.
And yet here we are.
And I have no fucking clue why. The further down the rabbit hole I fall, the more inexplicable it becomes.
And, no, Pam Bondi did not actually say this. But her actions make it clear she might say this.
In all honesty... does a system deserve to stand if it built around protecting those who would sexually assault children?
Hell no.
So burn this mother-fucker down. I don't give a shit who gets prosecuted or what the consequences are.
I worked a very long day, but after arriving home I couldn't help but feel as though it was Sunday and the end of my weekend. No idea why. Maybe it's because I traveled all day Sunday, and Monday was a holiday for me? Whatever the case, all my plans to clean house, unpack my suitcase, and wash clothes went out the window because I felt displaced and exhausted.
So I caught up on A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms instead.
I wish I remembered more about the book, but that was 25 years ago. From what little I do remember, the series is faithful to the source material. I don't remember the flashbacks in the fifth episode, but I appreciate that they tried to flesh out Ser Duncan as a character with a backstory which fit nicely into the battle.
With one episode left to go, I am hopeful that they don't fuck it up at the end. The awful taste of the final season of Game of Thrones is still in my mouth, so you can forgive me having doubts.
One thing I can't get over is just how impeccably cast the leads are. Peter Claffey as Dunk and Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg are just too good to be true...
With each episode they do not falter. The show could have so very easily collapsed under a shitty child lead, but dang is he good. Duncan the Tall is a character that could have gone badly wrong if the actor didn't have a subtlety that felt authentic, but Claffey feels like he's inhabiting the character in a way that works for the series every minute he's on-screen. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms makes you appreciate brilliant casting at a level many shows can only hope to reach.
And, on that note, I guess I'll try to get some sleep.
Something which, understandably, hasn't been easy for me after my sojourn to Kansas City.
On New Year's Day I did something a little crazy. I ordered all the movies I own by their release date, then started watching them in order from oldest to newest.
It's quite an enjoyable way to be entertained. I started with the oldest movie in my collection, The Thin Man (1934), then moved on through The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), North by Northwest (1959), and a slew of James Bond movies (plus 2001: A Space Odyssey). From there the 70's came along, which included a slew of classics (like Star Wars, Grease, Foul Play, Death on the Nile, Superman: The Movie, Alien, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Airplane)...
...and then the 80's hit with The Empire Strikes Back and then Xanadu (1980)...
I am not a fan of musicals. But I loved A) Olivia Newton John, B) Electric Light Orchestra, and C) Greek mythology... so I saw it in the theater with friends when I was in high school. While not a great movie, it was an entertaining spectacle with phenomenal music.
And beautiful Olivia Newton John in that amazing dress she wore, of course.
Every night since I saw the film 46 years ago, I've said a little prayer to Zeus that these dresses come back into fashion. Because, damn...
No joke. The muses wouldn't be sexier if they were naked. Yeah, the wardrobe is very 80's... but I think that's why I'm so into it. It's retro-chic-sexy in a way that we never quite got back to. Even animated...
And of course I fell down a rabbit hole...
The movie actually plays better in 2026 than it did when it was released somehow.
The other day I got an email from somebody who was reading through all my posts from the start. This is something even I am not brave enough to do, so I commend them on their bravery.*
But anyway...
New Blogography reader Jacob pointed out that I invented the "low fare calendar" in 2005 before airlines started using low fare calendars...
Interesting to note that I was using Northwest Airlines as an example, but that airline doesn't even exist because this was 20 years ago!
Kinda funny. I wonder what other stuff is rolling around on this blog that I should have patented when I had the chance?
*Though I've often thought that I should go through all my 23 years of entries and do a series of posts where I comment on them with updates or whatever. How fun would that be?
I talk to my cats... like... all the time. Especially when they talk to me.
They answer back but, don't worry, I'm not pretending I can understand them. At least not yet. It's entirely possible that sometime in the future I'll finally have that mental break that will take me all the way.
Because I reply to my cats when they talk to me, they are talking more and more. Jenny will alter how she meows based on whether she's mad, happy, hungry, wanting to be petted, or is frustrated. Her "mad" meow is very noticeably different than everything else she says. So she's fairly easy to decode.
Jake, on the other hand, just squawks. He can't meow for some reason. Which means I have no idea what's going through his furry little head and have to guess. Usually he wants attention. But sometimes he is looking for a toy or wants food... and it's a matter trial and error to get him figured out.
Ever since I got back from Kansas City, Jake has been spending a lot of time sitting on me. Assumably because he doesn't want me to leave again...
Fortunately, the only "leaving" I will be doing for quite a while is going to work. But I'll be back at the end of the day so I can be pinned to my couch.
Insomnia has been kicking my ass, but I'm not letting that stop me... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Punch-kun! I ran across the tragic story of the macaque snow monkey "Punch-kun" because I still follow Japanese news. Punch was abandoned my his mother and took comfort in an IKEA stuffed orangutan named "Djungelskog." There were numerous photos of the poor little guy doing his best to find acceptance and love from a plushie...
But then, after days on his own, he finally got a hug from one of his troop...
So that's nice. Especially after the shit-show of a week we've had.
• Whither Pixar? When Onward was released in 2020, it was a turning point for me when it came to Pixar. With one exception, I didn't like any of these films. And I never really understood why. I never bothered to search my feelings to understand what it was about Pixar that was turning me off. Then this morning I saw this...
And there it is. The reason there's one exception to Pixar from 2020 onward? It's because I've been to the coastal Italian towns which inspired the film Luca. I have a personal connection to the movie because I can draw on an experience that I've had. It's also why I can like a movie like Elio, but not fall in love with it.
• Dave Smash! I've been a big Morningstar Farms fan since becoming vegetarian decades ago. I veered away to Boca Burger for my burgers because they had superior taste and mouthfeel, but after Kraft bought them out and fucked up the recipe, I went back to Morningstar Grillers. They aren't great, and you have to know how to cook them so the texture isn't awful, but at least I'm not gagging them down. And then... Beyond Meat released Beyond Stack Burgers...
Now, I should say that Beyond does make an actual smash burger product, but they're not sold near me and aren't meant to be frozen (though you can), which means you have to eat them the day you open the package. The "stack" version always come frozen and are meant to stay frozen until used. Which means I don't have to eat them all after opening the package. But anyway... I found that I can get the Beyond Stack Burgers locally (well, 25-minutes away locally, but still). I absolutely love these burgers. A little high in sodium (260mg per patty), but not atrocious. They also cook weird, with a strange foamy residue in the pan, but the results are tasty enough when you smash them that I just don't care. As a bonus, Beyond has packaging that actually works... unlike shitty Morningstar Farms packaging which I hate, hate, hate.
• Thor Tells Jokes! I really want to see this standup as a special... where is Netflix when you really need them?
@thortellsjokes Tour starts now! Honestly best time of my life #comedian #fyp ♬ original sound - Thor Stenhaug
Hearing this makes me want to watch Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King again. It's a highly personal work which happens to be very, very funny. And touching.
• The Dow! The Dow! This is an absolute banger...
I couldn't even watch the hearing because Bondi is a gaping fucking asshole. Instead of using her position to serve the American people and seek justice, she's conspiring to protect child predators. She's such a massive pile of lying fucking shit that any time she speaks I see red, so I don't put myself in a position to watch. Thanks to this video, I can see the highlights in a way that doesn't make me want to hide under my bed and start screaming.
•
SANDIWARA! Given my love of all things Michelle Yeoh, I was thrilled when a friend shared this with me...
The comments having people saying this should be a Malaysian tourism video. I cannnot disagree. This definitely makes me want to visit Penang (I've only ever been to Kuala Lumpur in the country).
• Finalizada! Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família... AKA the Sagrada Familia basilica, is finally nearing completion. After 144 years...
Fascinating. I've visited Sagrada Familia three times over a 20 year span. It never seemed like it was any closer to being completed. Now that we're so close, it feels like it might be time to visit Barcelona again. Not that I need an excuse... it's one of my favorite cities on earth.
• Sci-Fi Entertainment! This list isn't perfect, but dang if it doesn't make me want to re-watch every one of these films...
Even though I've already seen all of them more than once. Some of them many times.
And now back to needing more sleep.
Last Friday I had a meeting for work in The Big City. I didn't finish in time to get back to the office before quitting time, so I decided to go to Petco for kitty litter and then Costco. I renewed my decade-long-expired membership to support them after they decided to say "Fuck your anti-DEI bullshit," but haven't actually shopped in a store. Instead I bought a few things via Mail Order.
I was surprised that now you scan your membership card to get in the store instead of showing it to a door guard. Though there's still a door guard because my membership didn't have a digital photo attached. They asked me if I wanted a physical card and I declined because I assumed I could add a digital card to my Apple Wallet. But you can't? You have to use the Costco app. Oh well.
Because it was a Friday at 3:30, Costco was incredibly busy. Way, way too busy for me to be comfortable.
Because the more people in a place, the bigger the possibility you're going to run into assholes.
And assholes I did find. Three incidents stand out...
An asshole-unrelated problem is that Costco isn't laid out very well. When the checkout lines back up, they completely cut off the snack aisles at the front of the store. This is probably a good thing for me... I don't need to be eating loads of snacks... but it is disappointing. Who knows what tasty goodness I could have discovered.
So... yeah... thus ended my adventure in Costco.
You could not pay me to watch the State of the Union address. I am so done with the hate and lies that I don't have the fortitude to endure it.
Especially knowing that the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy... a non-partisan non-profit organization who does analysis on the taxes we pay... reminds us that unless you're a millionaire or billionaire where your taxes went down, you're paying more fucking taxes now, and have less to show for it because you're losing government services so that millionaires and billionaires can pay less...
You can read all the depressing details on their site here.
In other words, the people who can least afford to pay more are paying more, and the people who have an ungodly amount of money are paying less. Which shows you exactly who the current administration is working for... the top 5% of us. So I hope you have a fucking shit-ton of money so you're getting some kind of benefit out of the shit-show that's become our daily reality.
Shocker.
It's just like where all the economists said that the illegal tariffs will worsen the economy. Then that's exactly what happened, and people are all "HOW COULD WE HAVE KNOWN THIS WOULD HAPPEN?" Well, maybe trusting a guy who could bankrupt a fucking casino would be a good start.
Or you could have just read Project 2025, where everything that's been done was spelled out with alarming clarity.
So... what am I doing if I'm not watching television?
And then I'm going to try to get some sleep. Or try to while knowing I'm paying more in taxes so billionaires can have a better life.
One Beyond Meat "Stack" Burger? Delicious! Wonderful! One of my favorite things to eat! Seriously, I like them better than an Impossible Whopper, which is something I didn't think was possible.
"Diarrhea after eating Beyond Meat is often caused by the product's high fat content (coconut oil), fiber, or specific, highly processed ingredients like pea protein and methylcellulose, which can cause digestive upset. Users reported symptoms like stomach cramps, nausea, and vomiting."
Well alrighty then!
Guess I won't be eating my "Stack" burger... um... stacked, because that was a never-ending experience I don't want to re-live any time soon. Fortunately my medicine cabinet was stocked up with Imodium. This is an excellent dieting tool. It forces you to eat only one. And if you can't resist and end up eating more than one, then you'll shit yourself stupid, thus you'll end up with the calories of less than one!
I gotta say, this is a crazy turn of events. For my entire life I've traveled the world eating dicey foodstuffs from even dicier places and was never worse for wear. But now I cook a veggie burger and end up glued to the toilet.
Say! Maybe Beyond Burgers could be used as a delicious colonoscopy prep! And now...
DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! TOO MUCH INFORMATION FOLLOWS!
Do you want to know how I knew it was the Beyond Burgers causing my explosive diarrhea? It smelled like Beyond Burgers! My bathroom reeked of deliciousness! Kinda. I guess.
Yesterday I wrote about my... um... "experience" when I ate two Beyond Burgers instead of my usual one. In case you missed it, my "experience" was explosive diarrhea.
Am I discouraged? No. I will still be eating Beyond Burgers, just in moderation. The taste is too good to be true, and it's the best veggie burger I've ever had. Even if I can only eat them one at a time.
But what about their latest product? Take a look at this...
I was never much of a steak connoisseur, even when I ate meat... 40 years ago April. Probably because, unlike hamburger, steak looked too much like meat. But I am interested in having something new, so I'll be giving it a try.
Once it's in stores.
Because right now it's only available in a 10/$100 at the Beyond Test Kitchen.
Which is tempting, because the reaction has been pretty positive...
I just worry that eating one will cause my ass to explode, so I'd rather wait so I'm not flushing $100 down the toilet.
Literally.
I've been plagued by a looming sense of dread all week. No idea what that's all about... other than the usual news cycle... but Im really ready for it to be over. Maybe I need a distraction?
After Jury Duty changed everything about a reality television series, it's hard to believe that anybody would fall for it again, but here we go...
I am hopeful.
Jury Duty was phenomenal entertainment, and if Company Retreat is even half as good, I'll be thrilled to tune in for it.
And, to be honest, being "thrilled" to be doing anything now-a-days is a nice change.
Well, Jake's clinginess is apparently here to stay. Usually after I get back from a trip, it will last four or five days... maybe a week. But it's been two weeks since I got back from Kansas City, and he's still all over me whenever I'm home.
Not that I can really complain. Who doesn't like having a warm kitty on their lap when it's cold out?
But now that it's getting warmer every day?
One day soon, when it's hot out and I'm too cheap to turn on the air conditioner, I will likely feel different about Jake sleeping on top of me.
Though I should probably enjoy every minute while I can. Boo-Bear won't be around forever.
And neither will I.
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