This evening I was going through some of the memorabilia I've got stashed in my garage, looking for an old photo.

Along the way I started looking through some of the stuff that my grandmother saved, including a box of things from my grandfather's old barber shop. Including a photo of my grandfather standing in his old barber shop that was taken long before I came along...

According to the calendars on the wall, this was taken in April of 1941.

Also in the box was an atlas. Specifically a war atlas which was printed sometime in 1942, complete with a scary General Douglas MacArthur portrait. It was put together soon after the USA entered the war after Pearl Harbor on December 8th in the previous year...

You can click to embiggen so you can read it.

Inside is some rather cool historical context for the day. Like when The United Nations was an important part of America's alliance with the free world...

You can click to embiggen so you can read it.

And there's a recap of how we got to where we were...

You can click to embiggen so you can read it.

You can click to embiggen so you can read it.

And then? BLAM! A summary of America's defensive capabilities and a history of using them in the war...

You can click to embiggen so you can read it.

In the middle is an atlas with maps of the world and commentary on their part in the war effort. And then there's a plan to smash the Nazis! Back when we actually fought Nazis...

You can click to embiggen so you can read it.

History fascinates me in a way that few things do.

Finds like this bring it to life.

And, just like that, Summer vacation is over.

Now I need a vacation from my vacation...

...which is how you know it was a good vacation.

The third deepest lake in the USA is Lake Chelan, which is an hour from my home (the first is Crater Lake in Oregon, the second is The Great Salt Lake in Utah). Friends and I decided to spend part of our week hanging out at the local big deep.

The weather yesterday was perfect. Plenty of blue sky and sunshine, which means the lake was fairly calm and we could take a boat out to swim and soak up the sun...

Half-way up the 50-mile lake is 25 Mile Creek, where we stopped for ice cream...

It was a fantastic day and a fantastic trip on the lake.

But not all was perfect when we got back.

The condo room I rented inexplicably has a set of stairs immediately after walking in the door...

Now, keep in mind that from the perspective of the photo above, you can actually see the stairs. But if you are on the top of the stairs, you don't see the sides. From your perspective, you can barely see stairs exist and it looks much like this...

Which means that I charged right through the door, concentrating on not catching my bag and suitcase on the closing door, didn't see the stairs... and walked right off the edge, catching myself on the little sink there.

I wrenched by back pretty good, and spent two days of my vacation in pain.

I don't understand how this is even a legal construction. Don't stairs have to have guardrails to keep you from falling off? I'd think that the owners would want to have a railing of some kind for safety. Because even after I learned (the hard way) that the stairs are there, I was still running into them (particularly at night, because the bathroom is just past the sink.

Oh well. I had pills on me so I could push through and have a good vacation despite it all. That's probably the thing to focus on.

Some friends and I decided to do some floatin' on Saturday.

It was bordering on hot, but the water was cold, so it all balanced out in the end.

It seems strange how the water just gets lower and lower every year. Used to be you could float until August. Now it's almost too late to float in July...

Lower...

And lower. I was close to dragging ass at this point...

Duckies were out again this year...

Some with babies...

I didn't see any deer this year, but I did see a raccoon, which is more rare since they usually only come out at night. Guess he just wanted a drink and a quick dip to cool off...

And despite being warned, there were no bears again this year...

And that's my first and only float in 2025.

Yesterday afternoon I was rushing to my car because I was in a hurry for a meeting. I was so wrapped up in the crazy number of things I had to do that I very nearly stepped on a butterfly that was laying on the hot pavement. Despite being late, I ran back to get some sugar water in an effort to revive him. There was no shade, but I moved him to a place that was out of the way and dribbled the water in front of him. He moved a bit, but didn't appear to be drinking.

I had done what I could then headed out to my meeting...

   
When I got back, I saw that the poor thing was back on the street and had been crushed... assumably run over by a car. I'm pretty sure he was a goner anyway, but it was still pretty upsetting.

Remarkably, his wings were still intact and, if you didn't look too close to see that his body had been destroyed, he was still beautiful.

I went on with my life. Maybe appreciating it just a tiny bit more.

But all I could think about was this... If I would have had the ability to put the poor thing out of his misery in a way that was quick and painless (assuming that butterflies can feel pain), would I have been able to do that? Not by stepping on him, which I could not do, I mean finding a killing jar or something. Despite the fact that my beliefs do not endorse taking a life... any life, including a bug... I think that I would. — If one of my cats were suffering, I'd certainly find a way to end their pain. Absolutely. It would kill me to do it, but I would force myself to extend that kindness.

And then my mind took this leap: Would I be able to do that for a fellow human?

And that's a different thing entirely, isn't it?

First of all, it doesn't matter if you're extending them a kindness... it's still murder. You still go to jail over that. But if it's somebody you truly care about. Somebody you love. And you know that they're suffering terribly, and you can end their suffering? Well... what is jail time compared to that?

I thought about this a lot when it came to my mom, but I was grateful to have found perspective at the time that she wasn't suffering. At least not how somebody from the outside would think of it. Her mind was gone. She didn't know and didn't remember. But I sure did. Which is to say that I wouldn't be ending her suffering, I'd be ending mine.

In which case the only life that I was entitled to take would be my own.

Alas, I am totally lacking in compassion for myself, and wouldn't extend myself that kindness.

I may be broiling in the Summer heat, but I must be good to blog... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Stranger, Newer! Look, let's just get this out of the way... it is highly unlikely that ANY show is going to eclipse Andor, The Residence, and Poker Face in my #1, #2, and #3 spots for the best television of 2025. They're just too phenomenal. But if any show has a shot at it, that would be Strange New Worlds. It managed to eclipse the original series as my favorite Trek, and the third season looks like more of the awesome I've come to expect...

   
• Cricket! GAH! I've been replacing some of the outlets in my home with Eve smart outlets. This morning I was replacing the outlet for all my television devices because I want to know how much electricity I'm drawing to be sure I'm not overloading the breaker. The outlet ended up having dual black & white wires, which meant the wire nuts that came with the switch were too small. I quickly ran to the electrical kit to get bigger ones while my Uninterruptible Power Supply was beeping angrily because it had no power. As I was running through the garage, I saw a clump of dirt that must have fallen off the gardening tools I was using this morning. I kicked it under the car so I could sweep it up later. BUT THE CLUMP OF DIRT CRAWLED BACK FROM UNDER THE CAR! BECAUSE IT WASN'T A CLUMP OF DIRT, IT WAS THE LARGEST CRICKET I'VE EVER SEEN! After screaming GAAAAAH! I ran into the house for a paper cup to drop over the insect while I wired the outlet so I could get power back to my UPS. Then I slid a piece of board under the cup and took the cricket out to a nice shady spot in the rock wall behind my home. Sorry, cricket, but I don't want you chirping in my home.

   
• Dip! A friend called and asked what I'm up to. After telling her the killer cricket story, I told her I was making my grandmother's chip dip recipe... except I'm using vegan cream cheese instead of regular cream cheese, vegan mayo instead of regular mayo, tamari sauce instead of Worcestershire sauce, and nutritional yeast instead of cheese. Then I add a little ground black pepper and chili powder to help make the taste of the veggie mayo more palatable. She said "If you're changing all the ingredients, you're not really making your grandmother's recipe tho..." And I was like "Well, the lemon juice in it is still lemon juice... I just substitute vegan ingredients for the non-vegan ingredients. Which is most of them, I guess. Which is to say that I'm not actually making my grandma's recipe after all. Except... I totally am, I think.

   
• Big, Bold, and Beautiful! Well this looks wonderful. A movie that's right up my alley...

Doesn't hurt that the cast is so good.

   
• a-ha! I've never understood the one-hit-wonder status for a-ha. Their debut album and lead single Take on Me are great. Love it. Definitely a hit. But they created a lot of amazing music after. Including Holyground, a beautiful song that defies description...

Lead singer Morten Harket has announced he has Parkinson’s disease.

I flew to New York to see the band on their farewell Ending on a High Note Tour (they were only playing NYC and Los Angeles in the USA). After that they slowed down, but I was so happy they actually kept going.

   
• Pick Me! Lock company sues McNally for showing how easy their locks are to pick. They claim that he "altered" their lock. McNally orders a fresh lock and films himself retrieving the lock from an Amazon locker, opening the sealed box of the lock, cutting an aluminum can to make a pick for the lock, then picks the lock... all without the filming being interrupted. The entire video is two minutes and thirteen seconds long...

I laughed and laughed and laughed. Because this lock company just made things far, far worse for their reputation. He should pick one of their locks live during the trial, assuming the lock company is stupid enough to go through with it.

   
• VARIETY NEWS: ‘Andor’ Creator Says Disney Spent ‘$650 Million for 24 Episodes’ and ‘We Fought Hard’ for Money After Being Told in Season 2: ‘Streaming Is Dead. We Don’t Have the Money We Had Before’ — And every fucking cent is on the screen. This is budget filmmaking. Disney should be thrilled that Tony Gilroy handed them 8 feature films at a budget of only $80 million each. Because every three episodes IS the equivalent. And who makes feature films for only $80 million any more that are this fully-realized and have the talent and dazzling special effects that made them this great? Andor is easily one of the best TV series ever made. It’s the best thing to come out of Star Wars period...

Disney should be begging the guy to do more Star Wars. They should be filling a dump truck with money and backing it up into Gilroy’s driveway to get him to do more Star Wars. This series was an absolute gift to Disney, Star Wars fans, and people who relish great storytelling. Fuck the Empire.

   
And now I'm off! Off the internet Because I'm trying to free up space in my garage.

I really cannot be trusted with dangerous instruments any more.

Yesterday I took a phone call while I was in the middle of cutting out some cardboard pieces. After I finished the call, I went to hang up my phone... didn't realize that I was still holding my X-Acto knife... THEN PLUNGED IT INTO MY FINGER!

It hurt for a second, but I honestly didn't think it was that bad.

Until I pulled the knife out of my finger.

Blood. Everywhere.

I wrapped it in a paper towel I had in my desk, sent a couple texts one-handed on my blood-spattered keyboard, then rushed to clean out the wound and get it bandaged up.

Then come back to clean up the mess... which looked like a murder scene. I felt like I needed to call one of those mafia cleaners or something.

Anyway... it bled through multiple banadages before it clotted. Then this morning it was in pretty good shape, all things considered, and I got to clean it up. Good as almost new!

There was a casulty amongst the carnage, however.

Some of the keys on my keyboard were sticking. Since it's Apple, you can't just unscrew it to clean it out, so I did the best I can with soaking a rag in solvent so I could un-stick the keys. As I was scrubbing to get the residue out of the keyboard, I noticed that my key caps were being wiped clean!

But no problem there. I have a fine-point Sharpie marker!

I thought I was being smart by letting the keyboard dry for a couple hours, but it made no difference. The Sharpie started smearing almost immediately. So much for Sharpies being a PERMANENT marker!

Oh well. Probably need to order a new keyboard anyway since the A, W, and Q are still sticky no matter what I do.

I could be in serious trouble if I need an A&W Root Beer, and we can't have that.

This morning while I was waiting for my second meeting of the day, I took a minute to look at picture frames. I bought a couple prints while I was in Hawaii that arrived, and I wanted to find a frame that might match so I could hang them up.

I was surprised, but not really, to find that a lot of the frames I looked at were made to look like wood... but were actually plastic. And it's like... they've been making cheap picture frames out of wood for forever, so why aren't they still doing that? Is it really so much cheaper and easier to make plastic crap? Heck, even when you find an actual wood frame, it's usually a wood veneer over some kind of cheaper wood. Which ain't great, but at least it's real.

My first instinct was to just make some frames myself, but I honestly don't have the time to do that. It's not a particularly challenging task... but even simple jobs take time that I just don't have right now.

And something tells me that even if I had the time, the wood I'd buy to make the frames would be more expensive than tracking down ready-made wood frames... because that seems to be the way it goes. Big box stores have to add a big markup to cover their overhead and still make a profit, whereas frame manufacturers get to purchase wood direct at wholesale prices.

What I really need to do is grow and mill my own lumber!

But if I don't have time to make a frame I'm sure not going to have the time to make a forest.

Just like I watch Once Upon a Time in Mexico every Cinco de Mayo and listen to I have a Dream every Martin Luther King Jr. Day... I've decided to watch Taking Chance every Memorial Day. It's one of those works where you can't help but tie it to an event in your mind. In the film, Kevin Bacon plays a Marine entrusted with taking the remains of a fellow Marine killed in battle to the soldier's home for burial. It's a well-made movie which isn't worried about embellishing events as much as it is telling a respectful story that's based on something which actually happened...

I knew today was Memorial Day. It was on my calendar and everything. But after my morning meeting (the rest of the world is still running), I somehow forgot. I just started in on work. Then, just before I was going to take a shower and head into the office, one of my foreign colleagues texted "Enjoy your holiday" and I remembered again.

So instead of microwaving my morning veggie burger, I took the time to fry it and harvest some lettuce to go on top. Then I set out my SourJo starter to make bread. And then I decided to play electrician and install the smart outlets I've had sitting in my garage for way too long.

Then it was time for dinner and Taking Chance and my Memorial Day holiday was over.

I only spent about three hours working, so it actually was a holiday. At least as far as I'm concerned.

I was working outside, decided it was way too hot, then decided it was a great excuse to come knock out some bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• New Marriott! New James Marriott is here! Weird video, as usual, but the song is one of my favorites he's ever done. It's always a pleasant surprise when musical artists keep pushing forward like this...

His previous release was darn good too...

His new album, Don't Tell the Dog, will be released on June 13th.

   
• Holiday Road! Even if Rogue One sucked (spoiler alert, it most definitely does not suck), we'd still have one of the most terrifying scenes to come out of Star Wars. And it loses none of its impact no matter what you do to it...

That's Darth Vader unleashed as you'd always imagine him. And, hey, isn't Holidy Road a great song? Makes me want to rewatch Christmas Vacation for the hundredth time. But here's an interesting factoid... Holiday Road was played in all the National Lampoon's Vacation movies EXCEPT Christmas Vacation. And, here's another one for you... did you know that Kesha covered the song last year?

I always love it when somebody decides to make a cover song their own by putting some kind of spin on it that's different from the original.

   
• Justice for Luko! Mickey 17 came to HBO Max and it's surprisingly good, which I wasn't expecting given how it failed hard at the box office, not even making back the money it cost before marketing. I didn't know much about it other than I wanted to see it because Bong Jo Hoon is a genius...

It's a great story that's expertly told (which I did expect). It's also got something to say. Worth a look if you're into thoughtful sci-fi.

   
• 5+5=10!
Well this is interesting...
"That'll be five dollars, mate.'
"Do you have change for a tenner?"
"I do not."
"No worries, mate!"
RIIIIIIP!

You really do learn something new every day.

   
• New Fraser? I kinda lost track of Man Can Cook because while it was fun at first, it ended up being always the same thing... a guy cooking while his dog (Fraser!) sat there. But the other day Facebook had this video in my feed...

Dan is likely not planning on trading in Fraser permanently, but it's nice that he realizes he needs to try different things from time to time.

   
• Young Hotness! Nothing quite like running across an old driver's license to make you realize how old you've gotten!

Dang. so hot back then. No idea what happened. I'm talking about my signature, of course. I'm just as hot as I've always been! My signature is a complete mess now.

   
• Feed. Hungry. Kids! I'm going to put this riiiiight here...

The fact that lunch programs in schools aren't free to any child, regardless of money or paperwork, is abhorrent. The fact that there are people who are perfectly happy to let children starve says all you need to know about where humanity is at right now. These kids have absolutely no control over their circumstances, and people need to stop acting as if they've somehow done something wrong just by existing.

   
And now back to our regularly-scheduled nonsense.