The charity organization I volunteered with... along with the traveling I've been fortunate enough to experience... has shown me exactly what hunger looks like. I've seen starvation first-hand. And it was enough to have me confident enough to say that nobody with a shred of decency should wish that upon anybody.

If you've seen it yourself, you wouldn't even wish it on those you proclaim to hate.

At least I would hope to God that you wouldn't, because it's horrific.

The first time I met starving children I died inside. Until that moment, "starvation" was an abstract concept. People say they're "starving" when they skipped lunch or show up late to a dinner party. "Starvation" is a news headline about something that happens to Other People. Except it's actually neither of those things. It's a brutal condition which should never, ever be acceptable to anyone with a heartbeat. People should never starve anywhere. This planet has the resources, technology, and knowhow to make starvation a thing of the past.

If there's one thing... ONE THING... that humanity should come together and agree on, despite all our differences, it's that regardless of whatever other tragedy people are enduring... they will not have to worry about starvation.

It doesn't matter if you're at war with a people. They will not have to worry about starvation.

It doesn't matter if you don't have the resources to feed them yourself. They will not have to worry about starvation.

It doesn't matter if what god they pray to is different, what color their skin is, how they live their lives, who they love, or whether you love them or hate them personally. They will not have to worry about starvation.

It doesn't matter if you need political leverage and withholding food is on the table. They will not have to worry about starvation.

And to anybody... ANYWHERE, regardless of your politics, beliefs, or what-the-fuck-ever excuse you may have, disagrees, then fuck you.

Fuck you sideways.

You don't get to speak to me on a subject from which you are so obviously willfully ignorant. Because not one person who understood what real hunger looks like could possibly disagree. Unless they are a complete and total monster. Which means their "opinion" on any of this doesn't fucking matter in the first place.

Look, people can think whatever they want about how Zohran Mamdani is either going to save NYC or destroy it. It's not for me to say, because I don't live there.

Personally all I care about is that he wields his power with compassion, makes good choices, and doesn't give in to the temptation to take resources for himself and other powerful people at the expense of people who are struggling. I wish only the best for New Yorkers and hope they give Mamdani a chance and work with him to make their lives better. I hope we all win.

THAT. BEING. SAID.

I believe that to understand a language is to understand the people who speak it. It also gives you a better understanding of people whose languages you don't speak because you know that other peoples and other cultures exist, and they are all uniquely beautiful in their own way. Because Mamdani speaks seven languages (Arabic, Hindi, Kiswahili, Urdu, Luganda, Spanish, and English) I think it reflects very well on him, and gives us a big clue that he's going to to truly represent all the people of New York City. Not just the people who voted for him. Not just the party he runs in. Not just those who shares his faith. Everybody. New York City is everybody...

As a side note, dang do I love seeing the passion he puts in when talking TO people instead of THROUGH people or AT people, as so many politicians do. Best of luck to you sir. Best of luck to New York City.

It isn't even 8:00pm which means that it's actually 9:00pm when you remove Daylight Saving Time bullshit, which explains why I'm exhausted, but not to the point in giving up... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Translate This! "Do you love me?" =cat shakes head no=

When I was talking about my talking to my cats in yesterday's post, this is what I was doing... but without the translator.

   
• Galaxy Girl! Does anybody else consider it utterly bizarre that I can't remember what I did two days ago, but a Schoolhouse Rock video shows up on YouTube and I know every word?

Interplanet Janet is not the most memorable, but the song sure is a bop.

   
• Happy! I am digging the first two episodes of Plur1bus on Apple TV. It's a bit plodding, but you can just feel that it's going somewhere interesting...

The trailer does a pretty good job of letting you know what the show is about without spoiling anything...

I'm not exactly sure where the show will end up landing (though I have my suspicions), but I trust Vince Gilligan to have that figured out.

   
• In Love and War! I tuned in to Kim Kardashian's new legal drama All's Fair for two reasons: 1) The reviews were so bad I was wondering if the show was truly bad or just getting review-bombed... and 2) The cast has some phenomenal actors in it, like Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, Teyana Taylor, and Sarah Paulson... plus Neicy Nash, whom I love.

And, yeah, it truly is that bad.

I could barely make it through the first episode. To see actors I enjoy in this horrific pile of shit with such awful dialogue was unbearable. I am fully willing to admit that my problem with the show may be on me because I don't understand the tone. But either way, it just... fails. If it's supposed to be camp, it doesn't go far enough and feels like serious matters are being trivialized. If it's meant to be serious with camp beats, it is completely sabotaged by moments so cringe that you can't take the show seriously. Which is to say that I honestly don't know what the fuck to make of it all. A show which is assumed to be a monument to women's empowerment feels an awful lot like mocking women's empowerment. But I'm a guy, so maybe I'm missing the point. Good Lord I hope I'm missing the point.

   
• MoonBase Alpha Revisited! Full episodes of SPACE: 1999 are on YouTube thanks to Shout! Studios. When I was a kid, I thought this show was so frickin' bizarre. Decades later, nothing has changed! Though I still think the special effect were darn good for the day and the costumes were some of the best ever made (Paramount must have thought so too, since Star Trek: The Motion Picture copied the general idea two years later)...

What's hilarious is that the excellent special effects shots we got must have been very expensive, because there are episodes where they have the characters stumbling around in the dark instead of inside an alien space ship or whatever. It definitely saved money! The writing in the first season was very smart. And one of the few episodes I remember in good detail was the fifth one (guest starring Christopher Lee!). What makes it so memorable is the ending, which is pretty brutal...

The show, which was always scientifically dicey, is ripe for a reboot. One day.

   
• NEWSFLASH: Teen Who Raped, Strangled and Brutalized 2 Girls Was Facing 7 Decades in Prison — Then a Judge Let Him Walk Free. "Violent criminals threatening American lives will be immediately deported! — Oh... he's white? And his dad was a beloved football coach? Never mind." — Amazing what passes for "justice" in this toxic shithole country. Between horrific bullshit like this and criminals being pardoned left and right not because they were wrongly imprisoned or their sentence was too harsh... but because they will be loyal to a politician... Justice is getting harder and harder to find. Read that headline again and tell me how even 70 years was enough time?

   
• Science Denial In Action. Just like Steve Jobs ignored science... at first... when it came to treating his cancer, so has Dilbert comic creator Scott Adams. And now that it's too late, he wants his buddy the president to intercede and get him the scientific treatment he needs, despite the reason he's likely being denied is because he wasted time thinking Ivermectin would cure him and now it's too late...

I don't get why people who reject science for curable diseases suddenly abandon all their "principles" when death is looming. I mean, you didn't think it would work then, but now you do? And when you've waited too long for science to work any more, then you're back to science being "bad." In the meanwhile, you've convinced other people who could have been cured to abandon science with you. That's incredibly shitty. Bad enough you let yourself die, worse you're taking others with you.

   
I guess that's all I got for the day. Good night.

Josh Johnson is fascinating to me.

The thing that's so brilliant about his comedy is that he can take these wild tangents that make you think he's losing his train of thought... and then BLAM! He brings it all back around to punctuate his point in a brutal cut...

Anybody can be observational of the absurd. Josh isn't telling you anything that anybody who paying attention could say. But it's what he does with the observations which makes him rise above.

This is a really great piece.

Thanks to the absolute madness that is Daylight Saving Time, I get a week of cat anger as they adapt to the time change, but I'm not in a panic yet... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• NEWSFLASH: Lay’s Rebrands Because Customers Apparently Didn’t Know Chips Were Made With ‘Real Potatoes’. Because of course. They haven't had "Potato Chips" on the package since 2007... and I guess those potatoes on the package aren't a big enough clue. That being said, the Lay's rebrand is gorgeous. Kinda. The new logo typeface looks fresh while honoring what came before. The banner is so much better, looking like a design element instead of a weird merging with the sun(?) behind it. And, yep, it IS a sun, because now they have nice rays behind it. Perfect. And I love the wood table look of the background...

BUT THEN... they just take random photo elements and glop everything to the logo unit? What a mess...

AND COULDN'T THEY HAVE STAGGERED THE POTATOES A LITTLE BIT??? OR RE-THINK THE PHOTO ELEMENTS COMPLETELY? WHAT DESIGNER JUST STICKS EVERYTHING TO THE LOGO LIKE IT'S A GAME OF KATAMARI DAMACY??? ACK! ACK! ACK!

Lay's created a gorgeous new logo then sabotaged it utterly. Those chips don't even look like chips (they look more like Pringles) and the potatoes are smaller than the chips they spawn? And because the taters are evenly placed, they look like a new design element which distracts the eye from the logo... they look like boobs on the bag or something? What were they thinking? This is a gorgeous treatment that is completely ruined by the photo elements being badly chosen and badly placed. Blergh. Such a missed opportunity.

   
• Property Brothers! BWAH HA HA HAAAAA. Things like this are when Saturday Night Live shines...

Biting satire that's funny because it's true. This is our reality.

   
• Precious Development?!? Parents are free to make decisions about their kid all they want. I mean, I draw the line when they are endangering the child but, for the most part, you do you when it comes to decisions about your own child. But this is abhorrent...

Fuck you and your Rainbow Bright face glitter shit. If you don't provide the teacher with alternative treats, what is the teacher supposed to do? Give everybody a treat EXCEPT your kid? How pissed off would you be then? It's entirely different if a kid has a peanut allergy and he was given peanuts. But a ring pop? To which she supplied no alternative? Like the teacher is supposed to go out and buy every alternative her class might require ON TOP OF the ring pops she already spent HER OWN MONEY on?!? Get fucked.

   
• Dear Deere! Another must watch video. "Why can't people repair the things they buy?" Because companies love money. iPhone broken? It can't be repaired by anybody but Apple or it gets bricked. McDonald's ice cream machine broken? Can't be repaired by anybody but the manufacturer or else you get sued (which is why they're always broken). Tractor broken? Can't get it repaired by anybody but John Deere because it's locked behind the software paywall. Spend a half-million dollars on a piece of John Deere equipment? You don't own it. They do. You're just paying for the right to license it. This is all kinds of fucked up, but corporations own the government, so they can do whatever the fuck they want to...

You don't own shit even if you pay for it. And lobbyists will keep spending billions to own politicians to keep it that way. God Bless 'Murica. But there is hope. "Right to Repair" laws are becoming a reality because politicians are being called out for their bullshit. More and more people need to speak out against this crap so that politicians will have no choice but to listen.

   
• Pepita Perfect! Last night I made one of my most favorite dishes: butternut squash ravioli in browned Kerrygold butter, crispy fried sage, toasted pepitas, and black peppercorns (which have been ground with a dash of nutmeg)...

I really need to buy a pasta roller so I can make my own though. Rana makes some good stuff, but I would prefer it without the orange color, as God intended, so it looks more appetizing instead of an orange blob. But anyway… a simple dish that’s also a bit complex in flavor.

   
• I HAVE TURBO PENIS! Yes, it happened to me! Lord how I love these debunk videos. Nobody does a takedown like Professor Dave. This should be mandatory viewing so that people understand how fucking stupid anti-vaxer "leaders" are...

The VAERS examination had me howling. How do people get duped by these idiots? It makes me crazy. We are losing herd immunity because people actually listen to these moronic douches.

   
• Men HATE This! GAG!!! I'm of the opinion that people should feel free to wear whatever the hell they want to wear. If you like it and it's comfortable and you can afford it... go for it. Nobody else has to approve. Nobody else's opinion matters. They aren't wearing it... you are. Which is why when I ran across this condescending gatekeeping asshole's YouTube channel, I couldn't roll my eyes hard enough. It's one thing to offer suggestions as to what people should consider wearing... it's quite another to pass judgement in the most immature and idiotic way possible. I mean, just look at these thumbnails...

She has very serious opinions as to what you're allowed to wear when you're over thirty. I'd argue that some could say that a woman over 35 shouldn't be wearing belly shirts as she's often seen doing... but I'm not a sanctimonious douche who spends my time gatekeeping clothing for views. Especially when you're acting like a fucking ten-year-old. An adult would realize that some people have to wear whatever they can afford... or whatever they're handed. So making fun of them or condemning them is a dick move. As it is when you make fun of people for wearing what they like.

   
• NEWSFLASH: RFK Jr. concedes administration lacks scientific evidence on Tylenol claims. OF COURSE THERE ISN'T ANY EVIDENCE, YOU STUPID FUCK! And yet you had the president announce to the world that Tylenol "causes autism." What kind of idiotic shit is running through your worm-riddled brain that you are so confident in spreading this crap misinformation? What kind of idiotic shit is running through President Trump's dementia-riddled brain that he believes your nonsense instead of ACTUAL FUCKING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH?!? Christ, I hate living in the stupidest fucking timeline.

   
And now back to spending an extra hour of my Daylight Saving day.

This year I had a whopping 16 trick-or-treaters. 2024 was 56, 2023 was 60, 2022 was 45. It was sprinkling rain off-and-on, so maybe that's why. Oh well. More candy for me. Not that I should be eating bags and bags of candy at my age, but maybe if I just eat one piece two pieces six pieces a day it will all be fine.

And now, this... something I posted on Facebook a few hours agao

As we yede into All Hallow's Eve, a blessing from me to thee...
   
Maye thy trick-or-treaters be sparse so the candy bounty left for thee be heavy.
   
Maye thy pets be not alarmed by the many intrusions unto thine house.
   
If the weather be not pleasant, maye it not intrude upon thy home when thou openest the door.
   
Maye wicches and devels and the foul forces of the orange satan passe thee by, and blessyngs be upon thee and thyn this night.
   
Amen.

It's tough to have Halloween without thinking back to nine years ago when I very foolishly scheduled a colonoscopy for November 1st ("We're wide open, so you can have whatever time you like!"). Which meant I had my clean-out on Halloween. When I was trying to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters. And having to sit on the toilet every five minutes. What I remember most is not wanting to get anybody sick with pink eye or whatever, so I was washing my hands as usual, but in scalding hot water before grabbing the bowl of candy. My hands were raw for days. Which was worse than the colonoscopy. But not worse than the clean-out, of course.

Today was payday! After turning out the lights at 9:00pm as the rain picked up, it was time to place a grocery order for tomorrow morning.

I am single.

I don't eat a lot.

I am vegetarian so I don't buy expensive meats.

I grocery shop frugally. Very frugally... only buying things that are on sale, and I purchase a lot of in-store brands instead of name brands.

Doesn't matter.

I just bought groceries for the next two weeks... the total was $206 ($12 over what I should have spent because I splurged and bought two packages of "fresh" pasta and a box of donuts, all at discount). My savings from shopping sales and special offers was $83. Meaning that the retail price for feeding one person with a low food intake for half a month is $289.

For half a month!

How can a family of four afford to eat any more? What happened to "lower grocery prices on Day One?" This is fucking abhorrent. People are having to use credit cards to finance food to eat while grocery store chains rake in billions of dollars in profit. People are going hungry while the government is financing multiple private jets, ugly million dollar marble bathroom renovations, and an even uglier golden ball room to entertain the millionaires and billionaires that own them.

How the fuck are people okay with all this? We've been completely sold out while the people who represent us rake in billions of OUR MONEY. It's all grift and scams from here on out.

Happy Halloween. For the USA it's 100% trick and 0% treat.

The Japanese Prime Minister having to corral an obviously confused and forgetful President Trump reminds me of having to corral my mom when taking her to appointments as the dementia was taking hold.

I'm going to say the same thing to Republicans propping up President Trump that I said to Democrats propping up President Biden... "He clearly doesn't have the mental capacity left to run the country, so stop being cruel." Intentionally putting them into situations which confuse and embarrass them is just plain mean. And dangerous.

Obviously the protocol for this meeting would have been explained to the president before they entered the hall. He clearly forgot about all of it and wandered around. Just like he shook the hand of Emperor Naruhito instead of bowing. A heinous breach of protocol. And if you know even the tiniest bit about Japanese culture, you'd understand how seriously embarrassing this is for everybody involved.

Republicans are trying to spin this as "America not bowing to any nation." But that's not what this is. When you visit a country you acknowledge their customs. It's just being respectful. And Trump obviously didn't have a problem bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia to receive a medal... but here we are.

Can you even fathom what the Right Wing media would be saying about President Biden if he wandered off confused like this? Oh, wait... no need to speculate... we already saw what they said about Biden over every little thing that even hinted at diminished mental capacity. Telling us over and over he was unfit to lead. So where is that concern now? It's obviously warranted.

And much needed.

He's testing nuclear weapons without any understanding of what the fuck he's doing, for Christ's sake.

It has been really difficult to get through my work day when I'm checking the news every 15 minutes to see how Jamaica is faring.

Last night I looked through my photos of Ocho Rios and Dunn's Falls Park from when my mom and I visited. There's no photo of my mom where she's not smiling. Jamaica kinda has that vibe. Such welcoming, kind people you can't help but be happy.

Really worried about how the people and animals are faring in the face of such destruction. They say the storm is losing intensity, but is still rated Category 5.

I've been holding this post for a couple days because I was debating whether to say something or not.

I finally decided to say something.

Do not be these people. By heading to Jamaica where you'll be using up valuable resources needed to help people who will have lost everything, you're just being a terrible person. You can get a refund on your ticket during emergency situations like this, so why?

I really hope this is fake.

In which case it's probably worse because you are making fun of people who will have lost everything.

Why are people like this? Empathy and decency are becoming a thing of the past.

As I write this at 5:30am, I'm taking a break from working on spreadsheets all morning. It's a lot of cutting and pasting in really confusing ways, and my brain is having a tough time dealing.

So I wander through the internet for a few minutes to decompress.

And really wish I hadn't done that.

The first thing I check on is Hurricane Melissa. And the news is not good at all...

I’ve only been to Jamaica once. Some of the nicest, most welcoming people I’ve encountered. Worried for them and all the animals on the island. I cannot even fathom how catastrophic this could be for the island. All I can do is hope that everybody tries the best they can to stay safe and save their pets.

Then I run across the news that Dear Leader's Administration has no plan whatsoever to continue SNAP (food stamps) benefits on November 1st.

I will never in a million years understand the willingness of politicians to play games with people's lives. Have your differences. Debate your positions. Do whatever you do when you're not sucking on lobbyist teats. But to take away food from people? In what universe is this some kind of bargaining chip?

People will fight for a fetus with the passion of a million burning suns. But once those fetuses to grow up to become hungry kids? "Fuck 'em!"

For the millionth time... children are victims of circumstance. They have no control over whatever situation they might be trapped in. Including hunger and poverty. Of all the things I am perfectly okay with my tax dollars going towards, feeding hungry kids in the wealthiest nation on earth is somewhere at the top of the list. I know way too many Americans don't seem to give a shit about helping starving kids abroad, but here in our own house? Where is the "America first!" crowd NOW? And exactly who the fuck are these assholes in government serving that this is even on the table? This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. This is a humanitarian crisis.

Alas, we seem to be fresh out of humanity in these United States of America.

What a way to start the week.

I'm sitting here wondering what the heck happened to my weekend and all the things I was supposed to get done that I never did, but I'm still getting Blogography done... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Melissa. Hurricanes are a way of life in the Caribbean. But there are hurricanes, and there are hurricanes. And it's looking very bad indeed for Jamaica. Right now it's looking like Hurricane Melissa is going to hit at a minimum Category 4... maybe even Category 5.

At the 3:29 and 5:40 there's a cat in the frame, and chickens at 5:51, and it fills me with despair for the animals that have no idea what's coming... and no way to prepare and stay safe.

   
• Papal Security! When you're raised Catholic, the Pope becomes a rather large figure in your life. But when I was young, I didn't know much about him other than he was the leader of The Church whom I should keep in my prayers. Then I left... or rather I was kicked out when I was asking too many questions during Sunday School... and that was the end of it. Except my grandmother remained Catholic, and so on my first trip to Rome in 2000, I decided to visit the Vatican museum and buy her a rosary souvenir because I was told they all got blessed by the Pope. It was there that I was first introduced to The Swiss Guard, which is a fascinating topic...

The thing that makes them so iconic is their hallmark colorful uniforms, which I think have got to be one of the most beautiful uniforms there's ever been. Despite being so bright, they don't cross the line into garish. Probably because of the way they're constructed. With the exception of the cuffs, the red accents are hidden in-between the panels of gold and blue, so they are only visible when a guard bends or moves. It' a very cool effect. It's commonly thought that Michelangelo designed the uniforms, but it's not true. They were designed hundreds of years later, long after he died, by Commandant Jules Repond in 1914. It's a fun urban legend though.

   
• WE PWNED! If you're not scared shitless for the future of this country as it's being taken over by corporations owned by the wealthy elite, you're not paying attention...

It's all by design. All of it. Our government is owned by these incredibly wealthy people who get regulations and laws changed to benefit them instead of the American people. You can see it everywhere if you just look around. We are beyond fucked.

   
• Classic! You can have my old-school 1990's Speed Queen Washer & Dryer that came with the condo I bought when you pry them from my cold, dead hands. I am forever indebted to my friend who told me I was crazy to get rid of them. Since I've already had to replace an oven that only lasted 5 years, I'm betting my microwave, refrigerator, and new freezer are not long for this world. And here's why...

There's a huge, huge opportunity for a company to start releasing old-school appliances that will actually last. I would happily go back to an oven with knobs and dials if it means I don't have to replace them so quick. Though it sounds like that might not even be possible given what's presented in that video.

   
• Package PingPong! A couple days ago I wrote about a package which was supposed to have been delivered this past Monday. It made it to Spokane, 3 hours away, but then kept going back and forth. Last I checked, it had made it to Spokane twice but then was headed back to Ohio. Again...

But then Friday night I checked again. Sure enough, it was back in Ohio. But when I checked this morning, all the previous back-and-forth had been erased. As if it never happened...

Apparently UPS has finally realized there's a problem, corrected it (I hope), and then made it look like nothing was amiss. And it gets worse... if the package is in Spokane, then it should be delivered to me on Monday. And that's what UPS says is going to happen. But they've said that previously. Before the mysterious "YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT!" correction, it was projected to arrive on Wednesday. Now it's two days earlier. I will be very interested to see what the package looks like when it (eventually) gets delivered. It's been through a lot.

   
• iBusted! I finally did a Google Search to try and find out why I'm having so many problems with the Apple iPhone keyboard lately. It seems as if it's constantly coming up with words that I'm not typing. And since I use the "swipe" method of typing, it's very, very noticeable. And the answer is nope! Not just me...

It's absolutely pathetic how fucking bad that Apple products are becoming. Between Apple Home, CarPlay, and Siri all being a pile of shit, the Apple "experience" is so far behind what others are doing as to be embarrassing. Forget about all the broken promises that were supposed to make Apple reign supreme by having "Apple Intelligence" make their products the best in existence... Apple can't even be assed to through money at the problems they can actually fix!

   
• ERROR! ERROR! I watch a lot of YouTube videos. It's pretty much the only thing I do watch any more since streaming companies have lost their damn mind with their pricing. Last night a video came up about a horrible software error in a radiation treatment machine which killed people. Twice the city where tragedy happened was Yakima, Washington... a city not too far from me. It was a fascinating watch, but grated on me because they kept mispronouncing "Yakima"...

In the video, he says "yaw-KEEmah" but it's actually "YAKihmah." Now, when it comes to Native American words, nobody is going to get it perfect if they've never heard it before (and even then it's not guaranteed). And then there's the added complexity of non-Natives changing the pronunciation so that it's more comfortable for them to say. But in any event, there's a way that locals say it and, given how this is most certainly available somewhere on the internet with an easy Google search, it's strange that the narrator for a video wouldn't take a minute to make sure their pronunciation is accurate. Or at least in the ballpark. Oh well. Just another case of my being picky, I suppose.

   
And now I guess I'll load my dishwasher so I can feel like I accomplished something before Monday rolls around.