• Incredible! Michel Gagné spent 14 years animating a feature film. Here's the trailer...

Looks amazing. Those fourteen years don't seem wasted, that's for sure.

   
• Tomb Raider! Footage from the reimagining of Tomb Raider is burning up the internet, and it looks more like a film than a game...

By way of comparison, here's what I was playing with on my PlayStation 1 back in 1996...

And, keep in mind, that was cutting-edge back in the day. It was the best graphics yet seen at the time and I couldn't believe how crazy-good it looked.

   
• DOOM! Every time they release a new trailer for Avengers: Doomsday they add just a little bit more of what's going on. This latest trailer adds more than a little bit, and the film looks phenomenal...

December seems so far away.

   
• Scrabbled! Well this is more than a little mind-blowing...

There are people whose brains just work different. And sometimes those people make the rest of us look less than smart. And speaking of less than smart...

   
• The Stupid, It Burns! Pretty much...

Nobody, including scientists, are saying that science gets it right every time. But there is a scientific method that, when followed, is an authentic method of understanding the world... and medicine. Those who deny it and buy into the misinformation bullshit without knowing what the fuck they're talking about are literally responsible for harming society. We've got thousands dying from measles worldwide now. Measles!

   
• Stay Seated! I keep hearing these stories of airline passengers losing their shit because they asked somebody to swap seats with them and that person refused. It's insane. People book the seats they want. Sometimes they pay extra money to book the seats they want. If there's a seat you want, then book that fucking seat! I don't care if you want to sit next to your husband or grandmother or child. I want the seat that I paid for! I have swapped seats when asked a couple times... but only to an equivalent seat. I have twice asked somebody to switch seats with me... but they were military personnel flying home, and I was asking to swap my First Class seat with their Economy seat because they had already been on a very long flight from their deployment and I wanted to thank them for their service by letting them have a seat they could rest on before they get home to people who were excited to see them and not letting them rest. But otherwise? STOP EXPECTING PEOPLE TO GIVE UP THEIR SEAT!!!

   
• Super! "Artificial" means that something is "not naturally occurring." AI is not naturally occurring, and the only thing super about it is that real human intelligence made it possible. That's about as accurate as it gets.

This is just an attempt by billionaires to rebrand their tech to try and spin it from a negatively-perceived technology to a positively-perceived technology. You can call me "the enemy" all you want, but it's not going to change facts.

   
• Going Out on a High Note! I had never seen this before. It's wonderful...

Fuck anybody who thinks that public programming like this deserves to be defunded. Every other fucking thing on television is built to sell things to kids... not educate them. We need more education.

   
And now I'll go back to eating ramen because my cats like heat.

It was announced today that the Fort Hood terrorist who killed 13 people will be executed for his crimes. And that the execution will be live-streamed.

Now, I've tried to live a life of non-violence since I studied Buddhism in the late 80's. I don't consider myself a Buddhist, but I do find that integrating some Buddhist precepts and teachings in my life leads to my living a happier, more fulfilling existence. As an example, it's a small joy to me to catch a spider and release it outside as opposed to killing the poor thing. There's a power which comes from not taking a life that makes me feel better about my existence in a way few other things do. It's why I'm a vegetarian.

So you can imagine my confusion here.

One one hand, I'm thinking "Fuck yeah! Light the asshole up! He's a piece of shit terrorist, a murderer, and he deserves to be executed!" But on the other hand, I'm thinking "Doesn't wishing a man dead, regardless of his crimes, make me just as bad as he is? Can't there be a way to punish him in a way which doesn't result in killing?"

Ultimately I would prefer to not kill under any circumstances, I think. But in this case? I just don't know. I'm glad it's not my decision to make.

Regardless of what side of the fence I reconcile with, I absolutely do not feel that an execution should be presented as public entertainment.

And let me tell you why.

First of all, I do not buy into the argument which says it makes the country look strong in the face of terrorism. What it does is make us look like a country of psychotic monsters who get a thrill from watching somebody be killed in real-time. Live-streaming an execution? Who does that? Terrorists... and, apparently, We The People of The United States of America. What a sick thing to be presenting to the world.

Second of all, I do not agree that publicly executing somebody will dissuade others from committing terrorist acts. Especially when we all know that this will just drive more people to commit terrorist acts. Because they're terrorists. Nothing makes them happier than public displays of violence which advance their cause... even when it is them on the receiving end of that violence. It's all part of their plan. They become martyrs for the cause, and the entire world can see it happen live. And the reaction will be the opposite of what's intended. Dissuade terrorists? Hell no. You're inspiring them. If you absolutely must lower yourselves to executing the asshole, then do it in private and let him slip into obscurity. Don't give him the martyrdom notoriety he's craving.

And lastly, I honestly do feel that this makes us no better than the person we're executing. He used violence to make a public statement. Public execution is the same thing. It's not going to solve anything.

Over and over again I see people on the Right justifying public execution with "Liberals cheered when Charlie Kirk was executed publicly... why is this execution any different?" And the answer is that people tuning in to watch Charlie Kirk were not expecting to see him murdered. Whereas people tuning into Hegseth's snuff film will be watching somebody be killed as entertainment intentionally. And if I have to explain why that's wrong, then nothing I can say will change your mind, so I hope you have fun watching a person being killed.

I, however, will not be tuning in to watch.

I prefer my violence as entertainment to be fake and come from Hollywood, because they know how to do it up right. An actual execution is likely boring as hell. And highly disturbing. And destroys your soul, whether you know it or not. But in a movie? Well, it's not for everybody. But for me? That's entertainment.

UPDATE 10/12/26: Oh look... co-signed by somebody who actually knows what they're talking about...

This is so important that I'm typing out Lieutenant General Sean McFarland's post for accessibility...

This is a terrible idea - Pete Hegseth is giving Hassan exactly what he wants. I have no problem with executing this man. In fact, when I was CG of Fort Hood, it was my responsibility to approve his death sentence. I also had the solemn duty of presenting Purple Heart medals to those he wounded and to the next of kin of those he killed. But it is fair to ask whether carrying out the sentence at Fort Hood and live streaming it is justice, vengeance, or a mere spectacle for the masses. It also surrenders a piece of the moral high ground we have held up to now in our campaigns against Al Qaeda and ISIS by adopting their barbaric practice of video recording the executions of their prisoners. Once it is aired, it is bound to make it harder for our service members to be seen as "the good guys" in foreign lands. How many insurgents were inspired to attack our troops by photos from Abu Ghraib prison? Worst of all, it will make Nidal Hassan an international martyr. Shooting a hole in the chest of a wheelchair bound paraplegic on live tv will not be a good look for America, no matter who we are shooting. By all means, deliver justice to this man. But do it humanely, with dispassionate professionalism, in seclusion at the US Disciplinary Barracks. This will deliver the necessary punitive and deterrent effects while upholding our reputation as a civilized nation to be admired and emulated. It will also deprive our enemies of a propaganda weapon to use against us.

What in the hell are we even doing any more?

   
• Solo Funtime Gaming! If you've taken a look at my game collection at Board Game Geek, you'll have seen that there's only one game which gets a perfect 10 ("Outstanding. Always want to play and expect this will never change")... and it's called Puzzle Dungeon. It's essentially a more fun version of Solitaire. I originally had it as a "print-and-play" game, where you pay for a file that you can print out and play with. I fell in love with it immediately. Until my cards were lost and I couldn't find the file to reprint them. I tried to buy a printed set but, wisely, there were none available on eBay because people don't want to part with them. Except I recently found out that the designer, Brian Garber, has reprinted the game and is selling it on his Etsy shop...

And, let me tell you, I snapped up the Deluxe Box, the Expansion Set, and the Play Mat SO fast. I haven't played in years, and October 19th (the ship date) can't come soon enough. I really hope that his Puzzle Dungeon: Pets expansion gets printed one day. And that his other game, To The Death eventually gets reprinted, because I'd love to play that.

   
• Not Helping! One of the most classic of the classic BritComs is That Mitchell and Webb Look. There's been a hit of controversy over this 20-year-old show lately because the BBC cut out some sketches which were deemed "insensitive to modern audiences" or something like that. But the situation is a bit more complicated than that. One of the sketches was cut because Mitchell and Webb were in blackface. But the sketch was pointing out that the white people were able to overlook that the blackface was racist until the situation escalated, and it was the escalation which convinced them to stop and not the actual blackface. The ignorance is the entire point of the sketch. So maybe it's not that modern audiences are "sensitive" to it... it's more likely that modern audiences wouldn't understand it. I don't know. Since I'm white, it's really not my place to say whether it's racist, so I trust that the BBC looked into it by consulting those who can make that call. But in any event, Mitchell and Webb have been back for a few months with a new YouTube series called Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping. I've been enjoying it...

I hope they keep going with the series, because their humor has had more than a few bits that were highly insightful and relevant even today, with this being their most famous...

Though there's talk that the BBC wanted to cut that sketch as well, so maybe I'm completely out of the loop? I wonder if this one was considered...

AND THEN... the state of inoffensive comedy gets a comment...

A new classic.

   
• Perfect! Verbi can be brutal. But always hilarious...

I've used Verbi to try and expand my vocabulary, and the app is never completely happy with your performance.

   
• Cash! A dollar is a dollar...

LOL. As insane as it sounds, I'm sure there are plenty of people wearing a band shirt who can't name any of their songs.

   
• The Mighty Thor! For the longest time, I'd see a guy named "Thoren Bradley" pop up on my social media. His entire deal was grabbing an axe and splitting big chunks of wood. And a lot of women shared his posts, which is why he was everywhere. But I never thought to follow him until he started sharing his thoughts on anything and everything. And it turns out he's a very smart thinker who can enunciate his takes on things very well indeed. Which really seems to piss off the "alpha male" contingent...

Whatever his sexuality may be, he's never going to stop having female fans, that's for sure...

And about that...

   
• Feeeemales! It's fucking incredible that this country is content to treat half the population as nothing more than birthing machines, undeserving of proper care when something goes terribly wrong...

This country hates women. Hates them.

   
• SERIOUSLY HATES THEM! A 20-year-old Cornell student says she was pressured into snorting ketamine at the Chi Phi house in Ithaca on the night of October 19, 2024. At 1:42am, according to her lawsuit, a fraternity member posted two words in the frat’s Snapchat group chat, Chi Phi Actives: "Free pussy.” The complaint says Johnathan Newell sent it. More men came upstairs after that. She says the assault went on until about 5:45 in the morning. More than four hours. These seven men are named in the lawsuit:
      • Matthew Ingalls
      • Johnathan Newell
      • Winston Lee
      • Gillio Lopes
      • Diego Sarabia
      • Scott Norris
      • Scott Kretzschmar
She reported it to campus police on November 8, 2024. The fraternity was suspended, and so were those seven men, temporarily. Then, according to the lawsuit, Cornell offered them a way to “mitigate” what they’d done. Write an essay... yes, an essay. Those named deny any wrongdoing. This information was taken from a Facebook post, but reported in The Cornell Daily Sun.

   
And, on that entirely depressing note, I'm off to prepare for the busy week ahead.

I read a story from 2019 today that kinda hit different.

It was out of Smithsonian magazine, and is titled A Young Arctic Fox Traveled From Norway to Canada in 76 Days.

It's remarkable. She's so small...

Elise Stromseng/Norwegian Polar Institute

I mean, just look at this journey...

Arnaud Tarroux/NINA

I wish I knew why this story makes me so sad for her. It's like she kept going because she didn't know what else to do?

Then I got it.

It's the same for most of us. You just keep going because you don't know what else to do.

The difference being that I can turn on a movie and forget about survival for a bit.

I'm going to say the same thing I said about the Democratic Party when they wanted Biden to run for a second term... the Republican Party wheeling out a confused Mitch McConnell because they needed his vote is elder abuse.

Hell, Mitch was so confused that he was going to vote with the Democrats before his Republican colleagues stepped in to stop him. It's all so disgusting how people are so eager to take advantage of older people whose minds are not capable enough to understand what's going on.

Public officials and politicians make decisions which affect our lives. If they are demonstrating signs of confusion or dementia... whether due to age or not... they need to undergo a mental evaluation which is then made PUBLIC if they are deemed mentally capable. If they are not deemed mentally capable, they should be relieved of their duties. I'm sick and tired of these behind-the-scenes evaluations which are kept secret. If they are so mentally capable as to hold office, why is the evaluation not made public? If they aced the evaluation, what possible reason could there be not to release a video of what took place?

There isn't one. Full stop.

The current hostile atmosphere in the "Land of the Free" towards my Muslim friends has me worrying about their safety. All they want is what all of us want... to live their lives in peace. But because they worship God differently than other people, they get villainized for anything and everything. And they're having to endure the consequences of Islamophobic rhetoric coming from the highest level of government.

How can you possibly compete with that?

How about fact-based comedy?

Politicians and their advocates use buzzwords like "SHARIA LAW" to control people... despite the fact that the vast majority of people know nothing about it... except what gets thrown at them by people who pick-and-choose the pieces. Which is hardly surprising, because these same people pick-and-choose what they're going to believe from the Bible.

It's only fitting that the fear mongering gets lobbed back to those who are propagating it, which is why this video is so perfect.

Because in a time where most every headline makes you want to tear your hair out and cry until you have no tears left, comedy is the best medicine.

The first fashion designer I ever knew by name is Bob Mackie.

He got a shout out on The Carol Burnett Show, which I was obsessed with as a kid when it was on television reruns. I learned that he was responsible for the outfit designs on the show, and eventually I found out he was responsible for a lot of designs on a lot of shows of the day... including those amazing outfits worn by Cher and Marilyn Monroe! And he never slowed down. He was still designing incredible fashions for stars like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Zendaya, and many more.

Lest we forget his work for Elton John!

But there's always that one dress I'll forever remember him by, and it's probably not the one you think...

It's comedy genius on a level that few will ever achieve. And its story is best told by the man himself...

Rest in Peace, sir. You made the world a more beautiful place.

   
• Snek! I meant to post this on Caturday, but forgot. This is SO Jake with his stuffed lion toy, Mufasa. He took that thing everywhere for years. I would find Mufasa in his food dish, the water dish, and even the litter box...

Gotta make sure your best friend is getting enough to eat when they're looking a little thin.

   
• Oh Deer! I don't have a snek friend, I've got a deer friend now...

Such a pretty girl.

   
• U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! So proud...

In an age that science is attacked, education is ridiculed, and intelligence is mocked, this is where we are now. How sad.

   
• BUSINESS! Exaggerated. But still conceptually true...

Business is war, after all.

   
• Middlemen! It's insane. It's just insane...

The near-constant mantra from politicians continues to be that the USA has the best health care in the world. But every conceivable metric has shown that's not true. The truth is that it's the best if you can afford it! Studies show that Medicare for All would save ONE TRILLION DOLLARS A YEAR AND SAVE 114,000 LIVES ANNUALLY! But we continue to pay "health" insurance companies to provide worse care for more dollars. Disgusting.

   
• UnJournalistic! Getting facts completely wrong on your news story is one thing... but editing it so that the original wording is preserved so as to obscure the fact that you got it wrong? Shitty...

The edit should have eliminated the word "released" completely, as NOBODY TALKS THAT WAY. "Bail has been set at $1 million" is the only edit which takes responsibility for your misinformation. But because they went the dipshit route, now we've got a bunch of "READ IT AGAIN!" assholes in the comments chiding people who commented on the original headline. I am so sick of this shit I could vomit. If you don't have journalistic integrity, don't be a journalist.

   
And now back to preparing my home for Fall.

Every day I have to remind myself we're not living in a nightmare. Then I look at the news...

   
• Dolly Redux! I have spent a lot of time thinking about the legacy that Dolly Parton left behind. What's most amazing is that she seems to have somehow transcended politics, despite the fact that she was fairly apolitical. Of all the interviews and videos I've watched over the past several days, I think this one is where Dolly's legacy should lay...

And you know what? I don't think Dolly would mind one bit.

   
• Slop! Something I think Dolly would mind very much? The death of shitty fucking AI songs eulogizing her. It started when I happened across a song by Enya on YouTube which was a tribute to Dolly Parton. I started listening to it and realized it didn't sound like Enya. Then I saw a shit-ton of other AI-generated shit and realized that everybody and their dog were "creating" AI slop tributes by real people who never made them. It's so fucking disgusting. And it pisses me the fuck off that YouTube isn't cracking down on this crap. Because I don't want to hear it. Ever.

   
• Skylines! This looks like it's a glorious LEGO mashup of SimCity and Animal Crossing...

Yeah, can't wait for that. Any time I can spend in a fake world is bound to be better than what we've got going on in this world we've got for reality.

   
• Lanterns! Nothing has me laughing my ass off harder than people claiming that HBO's Lanterns has ruined the character by going "woke." Race was a huge... massively huge... part of the comic book series. This small exchange is but a drop in the bucket...

The introduction of John Stewart was specifically made to add perspective to Black persons in the situations which were normally occupied by white people...

I wasn't reading comics in 1971, as I was five years old, but I very much remember reading the stories as back issues later in life. I was a massive fan of Green Lantern (his comic, along with The Flash, were the first I had ever bought) and I read through many back-issues where these foundations were made. The fact that the characters are being dusted off and revised for modern audiences is not an accident. It's what the foundation of the book has always been. I think Lanterns is honoring the source material very well. I just wish there was more action going on. I'm trying to be patient, but we're running through the series quickly without it.

   
• Dantzig! I never tire of hearing this story, which popped up today. I've copied it from his Wikipedia article...

During his study in 1939, Dantzig solved two unsolved problems in statistics due to a misunderstanding. Near the beginning of a class, Professor Neyman wrote two problems on the blackboard. Dantzig arrived late and assumed that they were a homework assignment. According to Dantzig, they "seemed to be a little harder than usual", but a few days later he handed in completed solutions for both problems, still believing that they were an assignment that was overdue. Six weeks later, an excited Neyman eagerly told him that the problems he had solved were two of the most famous unsolved problems in statistics. He had prepared one of Dantzig's solutions for publication in a mathematical journal. This story spread and was used as a motivational lesson demonstrating the power of positive thinking. Over time, some facts were altered, but the basic story persisted in the form of an urban legend and as an introductory scene in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting.

   
• Recall! Recall! Recall! Can anybody keep up with all the foods being recalled? I sure can't. Which means I'm probably going to die any day now. Which is strange given that everybody said I was going to die from all the COVID vaccines I've had (11 and counting!). If only there was some kind of government agency responsible for keeping our food safe. That wasn't dismantled. By assholes who keep cutting necessary government agencies so their billionaire owners can get even more tax cuts.

   
And now back to my post-vacation nonsense, already in progress.