The wildfire smoke may have me cowering in my home, but life goes on... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Imperial Forces! Well this is epic...

When I was sent this TikTok, I marveled at the fact that this cat even allows the helmet to be put on his head. My cats would run off the second I even got the helmet near their heads.

   
• Gadget Time! Speaking of 3D printing...

It's enough to make me want to buy a 3D printer, except I know I'd never be this clever. Here's another video by the same guy...

I mean, come on. All of these are genius.

   
• DIYphone! Speaking of 3D printing... this right here is one of the coolest things you'll see all day. Guy made his own phone with clicky keyboard. The patience required to work through all this is mind-boggling...

Brah. The fact that the result is so killer is just icing on the cake. Instant subscribe to Marcin Plaza's YouTube Channel, which is brilliant, clever, and funny. And worth your valuable time.

   
• Pi Times Two! Speaking of 3D printing... and now... this...

Now, I know this is nothing compared to the earliest days of computing where the components of the computers themselves had to be built... but, still... this kind of thing is pretty amazing. 3D printing is making it possible to do all kinds of cool stuff.

   
• Neat! I was given a link to this article: Obscure But Badass Folks You Should Know About, which is exactly what it claims to be. AND THEN... I fell down the very large rabbit hole that is Neatorama. You've been warned.

   
• More Mitchell! A while ago I shared a video of David Mitchell's rants from the brilliant Would I Lie To You. Well, here's more laugh out loud moments...

I swear, the Royal Wedding statement, which I've watched multiple times now... always, always gets me.

   
And now back to being a hermit.

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.

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.

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.

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'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.

I'm way too tired to blog, but here I am again... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Memories Do Pass. It seems so strange that two more musicians from my youth have passed... namely Ozzy Osbourne and Chuck Mangione...

As if that weren't enough, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, most known for playing Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show also died in a tragic drowning accident. I prepared for getting to the point where all the people from my memories were going to start dying, but I wasn't prepared for how quickly they're passing. Every month a couple more seem to leave us, and I can't help but wonder how many more will go before I do.

   
• McMissing McPies! I don't give a shit how "unhealthy" McDonald's fried pies were... I want them back. Who eats at McDonald's to be healthy?

Of course McDonald's is so fucking expensive now that I can't really afford to eat there any more, so it's not like it matters. Though I might be willing to take out a second mortgage if it meant I could have a fried McPie again.

   
• Perfect 'Maters! When I had to transfer my tomato plants outside, I was certain that they would be pecked at by birds and spoiled by bugs. But no....

Am I just phenomenally lucky? Because the biggest problem I have is to wash off the water spots. They tomatoes themselves are beautiful.

   
• Ares! The original Tron is one of my favorite films of all time. The sequel was okay but hardly in the same league. About all I could say was that the special effects were darn good. And now another sequel has landed and... well... the special effects look darn good...

It looks far removed from the initial concept, though the idea of computer constructs from the digital world being able to make their way into our world was where the sequel ended up, so here we are. If nothing else, I hope it's at least entertaining.

   
• Mickey Kicked the Bucket? ZOMFG! WHEN DID MICKEY MOUSE DIE?!??

When I was at the Walt Disney World Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party last year, I saw that there are people lining up to buy dozens of the special event popcorn buckets and sipper cups. That's some big business on eBay, apparently.

   
• Leaving Las Vegas! Pre-pandemic, I had several work trips to Las Vegas for the charity I volunteered with. But over the years there were fewer, because we were finding the number of conventions wanting to hold events in Vegas were fewer. This video offers some interesting insight into the many problems which make Sin City a less-desirable vacation destination...

#1 on my list? Fucking "resort fees." I personally avoid Vegas for this one reason. I hate being lied to about the rate I'm paying. Hotels country-wide should be forced to list the TOTAL PRICE YOU WILL BE CHARGED at the time you book your lodging. And those absurd fucking "Restaurant Fees" and "CNF Fees" are #2 on my list.

   
• Republican Speaker of the House Just Loooooooves Pedophiles! Well this should shock absolutely nobody... "Speaker Mike Johnson said he would send lawmakers home early for their summer recess in order to head off Democratic demands for votes on calling for the release of files from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein." Gotta protect pedophiles at all costs, I guess. There must be some huge donors and very important politicians on that list. Why else would you protect pedophiles?

And now we just wait for Ghislaine Maxwell to give an interview with the FBI where she says that no Republicans were on the list, names a few token Democrats, then gets mysteriously pardoned by the President of the United States for finally "telling the truth to the American people." Because keep in mind that only the President can pardon her crimes of supplying underage girls to Epstein Island.

   
And on that depressing note, off I go to try and get some sleep before facing the horrors on a new news day.

I'm entirely too tired to blog because I'm working on four hours sleep, but that's no excuse for missing new bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Emmy! It is un-fucking-believable to me that Diego Luna, Stellan Skarsgård, and Genevieve O'Reilly didn't get nominated for their roles in Andor. It's likewise unbelievable that Denise Gough and Kyle Soller didn't get nominated. The only actor getting a nod is Forest Whitaker (who absolutely deserved it)? I don't even know what the fuck to say here. At least Andor managed to get some writing love, directing love, and a drama series nom, which ain't nothing. But it's also not enough. — In other news, I really hope that Uzo Aduba wins for The Residence. No shade to the other talented actors, but she was next level. And it would be a nice cherry on top of the Netflix cancelation sundae.

   
• The Puppy List! I find it incredibly difficult to argue with this list...

Except to say... my order would be different and I'd probably drop Scooby Doo and Courage in favor of Pluto, Zero (The Nightmare Before Christmas), Sam (Sam & Max: Freelance Police), Ren (Ren & Stimpy), Jake (Adventure Time), Seymour (Futurama), and Brain (Inspector Gadget)...

1. Snoopy (Peanuts)
2. Gromit (Wallace & Gromit)
3. Dug (Up)
4. Pluto (Disney)
5. Zero (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
6. Seymour (Futurama)
7. Bluey (Bluey)
8. Sam (Sam & Max: Freelance Police)
9. Jake (Adventure Time)
10. Blue (Blue's Clues)
11. Santa's Little Helper (The Simpsons)
12. Brain (Inspector Gadget)
13. Tramp (Lady and the Tramp)
14. Clifford (The Big Red Dog)
15. Ren (Ren & Stimpy)

   
• Spite House! To explain how crazy the Seattle housing market is... this tiny house (in two stories!) just sold for $745,000. The first part of the video repeats, but it's worth watching to the end, because this is a truly remarkable house!

Perfectly livable. And very cool.

   
• imperson-AI-tion! People getting impersonated by shitty AI slop is not surprising. What's surprising is that people are falling for it. Now. But all too soon AI will likely be impossible to spot... even for a discerning eye...

One can only hope that AI detection tools get better at a faster rate.

   
• That Took a Turn! When it comes to up-and-coming comedy talent, there's quite a lot making the rounds in social media. One of my favorites at the moment is the crowd-work by Will Burkart...

How he was quick enough to roll with those punches is a mystery!

   
• Maladapted! Lord how I loathe Apple TV's Foundation... as an adaptation. As a TV show it's fine. I just wish they would have left Asimov's book out of it and done their own thing, since they're doing that anyway.

In the books, The Mule is an amazing plot device because Hari Seldon is dead. All that's left of him are recordings. So when The Mule comes along to throw a wrench in absolutely everything, both the First and Second Foundations were in a total panic. The Universe is falling and there seems that there's nothing they can do. They have to come up with a plan that will get the universe back on track.

But in the show Hari Seldon is kept alive. He's actively working on a way to stop The Mule. This completely defeats the entire premise of the book because the Foundations have lost their agency. But the book is ruined anyway, because they keep dragging the same fucking characters back again and again over hundreds of years... either through suspended animation or cloning. This sabotages the entire concept of a story which must pass through the generations to be told. What makes the story in the books unique is that they don't focus on a single set of characters. Humanity lives and dies and history marches on so that new characters can find their own way to deal with the crises at hand.

It drives me crazy what a missed opportunity this show was. They could have followed the book and had a series of guest stars come each season to play a character... then die. That would have been so cool. But, alas...

   
• Cancelation! This video is over an hour long. It's frickin' amazing. The more it went on, the more you see exactly how these disingenuous assholes manipulate a narrative to force their awful values on society... and kids. They're "Christians" and yet they outright lie because of a faux persecution complex to get people on their side....

Keep in mind that this is the same asshole who used the modern banana as definitive proof of God because it had angles to conform to the human hand, had an easy-open tab, and was curved towards the mouth. Except bananas have been cultivated by man and wild "bananas" have zero resemblance to his "proof." Not to mention the fact that the human hand conforms to four sides, not the five on a banana... bananas are actually easier to open from the bottom... and the magical curve disappears after two or three bites. It takes all of two minutes of rational thought to debunk this nonsense, but they don't give a shit because they have a series of videotapes to sell. This time it's children's books, but the idea is the exact same.

   
And now it's time for me to say an early good night.

It's 911. The world may be ending, but I'm not sending this blog with it just yet... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• IN THE NEWS: Historic lodge on Grand Canyon North Rim destroyed by wildfire. This is awful. I've never stayed at the Grand Canyon Lodge because it was way out of my price range, but I've eaten dinner there with my mom and it's a wonderful place. Or was...

Image from a news story taken from somewhere on Twitter

The world being both figuratively and literally on fire is really starting to wear on people. Starting with me.

   
• IN THE NEWS: 1 person dies of the plague in northern Arizona. And guess what? The current administration is GUTTING our research and defense against shit like this. All so he can give billionaires more tax cuts while the country goes trillions more into debt. The rest of us just get to die of the plague, I guess.

   
• IN THE NEWS: Mexican volunteers rushed in to help after floods in Texas. Some want to continue recovery efforts. "Oscar Morales is part of the volunteer-led recovery team International Tlatelolco Azteca Rescue Brigade, which was created after the 1985 earthquake that left thousands dead in Mexico City. The group is better known as 'Los Topos,' which translates to 'the moles,' because members search for victims after natural disasters. But the part of the above story which is adding a new level of horrible to an already horrific situation? On social media, Gov. Greg Abbott has thanked almost a dozen states for sending help after the catastrophic floods, but he hasn't publicly mentioned the help of Mexican volunteers. Because of course not. And yet Mexico showed up anyway, even though they knew this would happen. And despite the fact that there could have been seriously harmful consequences for showing up to help a neighbor... like getting deported to a prison in El Salvador. I was holding my breath when I heard they came, just waiting for some stupid racist shit to go down, because that seems to be what this country is all about now.

   
• IN THE NEWS: From Mackintosh Braun on Instagram. "Our independent album The Sound was removed from all streaming and stores by TuneCore because Warner Sync UK Warner Music has claimed they own a song on the album. We made this record broke, sharing a studio apartment back in 2006. This is why the music industry is broken. They’ve effectively removed our music from existence for no reason… if you can write someone do it, no idea how to fix this." This is horrible, but so typical of the abuse which huge companies can unleash whenever they want, and rarely face consequences... even nearly 20 years later. This is an incredible debut album from MB (Macintosh Braun), one of my all-time favorite bands. I've been hoping for a new album for a decade now, but have taken consolation that their old albums are still out there to be enjoyed. Except when they're not.

   
• End of an Era! The Rivers of America has been removed from Walt Disney World's maps. That's where the new Cars attractions are going to go...

The Rivers of America in Disneyland is still there, so that's nice.

   
• PC Mini! If you're looking to kill some time and are mesmerized by electronics videos like I am, here's your next watch...

It's remarkable how much of the work is done by hand. I would have sworn that these would be 90% automated by machine. Also remarkable? How everything is being made to look like a Mac mini now, right down to the packaging.

   
• Hello Depression! Am I the only one who can no longer watch movies about the total fantasy of what this country could be without being filled with abject despair over how it is?

I just wanted a feel-good movie to play while I had a sandwich, so I put on Dave, which I normally love. Now it just makes me depressed.

   
And now we can continue with the ongoing nightmare of our existence.

I may be laying here dying of a sunburn, but never you fear about this blog... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• The Life List! If you too are laying on the couch trying not to move so your sunburn won't give you grief and you're looking for a rom-com to watch, here you go...

Ever since I lost Hallmark Channel, my consumption of rom-coms has been dangerously low. Fortunately they are in endless supply.

   
• Melancholy! There's a new Google commercial showing how you can use your phone's camera to get help via a photo AI search. The song they have in the background is very clearly On Melancholy Hill by Gorillaz. Then, at the very end, the tune takes enough of a turn that you know it's not...

It's a bummer, because every time it comes on, I'm thinking that Google licensed the track from Damon Albarn, who has crafted some of my favorite music of all time (lead by Silent Running which remains one of the most achingly beautiful songs I've heard (link in comments).

   
• Correlation? And yet you see it on social media practically every day. Multiple times a day...

Which is bad enough, except you see it in the news as well. Politicians just love this shit.

   
• Cancelation Rage! One of my favorite shows of 2025 has been The Residence on Netflix. The character of Cordelia Cupp is amazing, the story they came up with for her is fantastic, and the mystery in the show is pretty great. Which is why I was hoping so badly we'd get a sequel. But of course Netflix canceled the show...

It's beyond frustrating that good shows get canceled before their time. And I guess I'll just add this to the pile of shows I'm mad about losing.

   
• Immortal Cat Tales! Matt Damon has more than a few stories which make me like him as a person. And here's one more...

Cats are such mythical creatures. Maybe that's what I like about them.

   
• NEWSFLASH: ‘Sinners’ on Max Will Include a Black American Sign Language Version. The fact that there is a laugh-react to this enrages me to the point of meltdown. Adding accessibility for a group of people DOES NOT TAKE ANYTHING AWAY FROM YOU. The Black Deaf Community has developed a language to better communicate their shared-experience. Everybody should be thrilled to know that HBO Max is putting in the work and money necessary to make sure that this masterpiece film has the best experience possible for everybody. But no. The fact that BASL is an option is somehow hilarious. Get fucked. Go back to your bigot bubble where absolutely everything is just designed exclusively for you and leave those who advocate for their inclusion alone.

   
• Make it Sparkle! LET'S GO TO THE MALL EVERYBODY!

I've been rewatching How I Met Your Mother, but the number of times I've watched this episode go way beyond the number of times I've watched the series.

   
And now back to nursing my sunburn.