I've been rewatching a bunch of Black Mirror episodes in preparation for the new season that's releasing tomorrow.

And, I gotta say... there are a lot of amazing episodes over the show's run, but my favorite remains Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too. It's the infamous Miley Cyrus episode that was panned by hardcore Black Mirror fans for being too superficial and "feel-good." But it's just not. It's actually a deep dive into where we're at right now. Musical artists die, then get brought back to tour as holograms. AI is writing songs in the style of artists dead and live. The industry forces artists to conform to the molds they dictate based on profitability taking priority over creativity.

And it's fucking hilarious.

Miley puts everything she has into a role that she is intimately familiar with, and blows the doors off the episode...

The music video they released for the Nine Inch Nails parody I'm On A Roll reamins one of my Miley obsessions...

A couple things I didn't know then that I know now.

ONE: Miley sang the track live at Glastonbury AS Ashley O in 2019...

TWO: FUNKO MADE A POP! OF ASHLEY TOO!!!!

And of course I ordered one. How could I not?

I tell you right now, if Miley Cyrus ever releases an Ashley O album, I will be first in line to buy ten copies.

I hated cable/satellite companies because their idiotic insistence on "packaging" everything made it so that you have to pay for channels you have zero intent of ever watching. Many times they made me pay for channels I actively hated.

Then streaming happened.

Finally, you could buy only the channels you wanted to watch. It was cheaper and didn't mean your money was going where you didn't want it to.

It was good while it lasted.

Now streaming has gotten just as stupid and expensive as cable/satellite ever was. Netflix, for example, has started "cracking down" on password sharing. I don't share my password, but this is the kind of idiotic shit that makes me want to start.

No, I don’t think the entire world should be able to share one account. No business could survive on that, and I want to support those services I use. But I do think that if you pay for an account, it’s none of Netflix’s fucking business who is doing the streaming or where the streaming is being done. Just lock it down so you can’t stream more concurrent streams than you’re paying for. If I pay for one stream at a time only, then Netflix will only stream for one concurrent user. If I pay for five concurrent streams, then Netflix won’t stream six or more at the same time off my account. Software companies have been selling by seat licenses forever.

HBO's "Max" has gone a different route in fucking their customers. Right now in order to keep my subscription when it expires, I'm going to have to pay the $150 annual fee. That's $50 more than the $100 I used to pay. And it's like, whatever, because the price of everything is going up. Except in order to get 4k quality, I will now have to pay $200. So it's like... fuck that. No more paying for a full year. I'll pay once or twice a year for a month of service and just catch up on all the crap I want to see. Because nothing is worth this kind of abuse.

Right now I'm struggling to think of a single service that I'm invested enough in keeping year 'round. I'd say Disney+, but they're planning on cutting and delaying a lot of things I want to watch (Marvel & Star Wars content), so even that will likely be chopped.

It's crazy how streaming won the war only to piss it away like this.

Recovering from being deathly sick has never been more fun... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Toast! Awww... my little Toast nightlight arrived!

It's a nightlight that I put in the dark corner of my kitchen next to my toaster. Get it?

   
• Buses? These captchas are getting frickin' stupid ridiculous...

So what? Now we're just supposed to be clicking on every fucking square on these idiotic things?

   
• Good Omens 2! This looks even better than the first one. The casting was note-perfect for these characters, and seeing more of them is something I am very much looking forward to...

It's weird how flawless the casting was for these.

   
• Schlage Rage! It went something like this...
ME: "I hate my Schlage Sense smart lock SO much. Flames... flames... on the side of my face... Which lock should I get to replace it? Preferably one with HomeKey."
HOMEKIT FORUM MEMBER: "Definitely the Schlage Encode Plus."
ME: "IS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE?!? I hate hate HATE the Schlage I have now!"
HOMEKIT FORUM MEMBER: "I understand. I agree. But know that all the bad things on the Sense have been improved one thousand percent on the Encode Plus. And be sure to get the Plus if you want HomeKey."
OTHER HOMEKIT FORUM MEMBERS: "Hard agree!"
ME: "Just so you know, if I hate this lock I am coming back to haunt all of you."

And... they were absolutely right. No more stupid battery pack cable. No more stupid setup fails. No more stupid "lock not found." No more stupid random lock resets. No more stupid random lock cycling. No more stupid HomeKit disconnects. It's an entirely new product. So good on Schlage for listening and improving, I guess. Doesn't change the fact that they unleashed a shitty product that I've been suffering with for seven years though.

   
• Hilarious! Zuckerberg on Apple Pro Vision: "Our vision for the metaverse and presence is fundamentally social. It’s about people interacting in new ways and feeling closer in new ways. Our device is also about being active and doing things. By contrast, every demo that they showed was a person sitting on a couch by themself. I mean, that could be the vision of the future of computing, but like, it’s not the one that I want." This is the stupidest fucking thing I've heard this week. How many times have a GROUP OF PEOPLE all put on their Facebook Quest VR goggles and sat around interacting in the same room? Nah, buddy. They're sitting alone on the couch! How is the Facebook headset more "social" when you're wandering around as a cartoon floating torso that's always gripping hand controllers? Apple at least went with uncanny valley avatars that attempt to look like you and leave your hands free...

Apple's take will cost HUGE MONEY... to start... but it will get cheaper over time. Facebook, who has lost millions (billions?) trying to do VR... and ultimately failing... shows Zuck's statement for what it is... fear. And bullshit. I'm not sure ANY of this is the "future I want." But I'd take Apple's vision over Facebook any day.

   
• Crossing the Street in Vietnam! Not a lie. Which would have been fine... except I had my mom with me, and most intersections are far busier than this one! I'll never forget the first time we went to cross a street. The intersection actually had a crosswalk signal (many don't). But it was totally ignored. We had the light but it made no difference at all... you're just expected to cross like this...

@travelwithpat Crossing the street in Vietnam is something you need to prepare to do #travel #vietnam #tiktoktravel ♬ Super Mario Bros Main Theme

But still... it's s country like no other and worth a visit. As is this guy's TikTok.

   
• Church & State? Okay, government funded Christian schools are a thing now... so are they going to also fund Muslim schools? Buddhist schools? Hindu schools? So much FOR FUCKING SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE!! This is a big slap in the face to all Americans, even if they consider themselves "Christian." Absolutely outrageous. Can't wait until the government is forced to sponsor Church of Satan schools because they're so fucking stupid that they don't have the fist clue about the can of worms they are opening. Jesus. OR NOT. THAT'S *YOUR* FUCKING CHOICE IN THIS COUNTRY!!!

   
And now I guess I had better make my bed, take a shower, and try and get some sleep .

Today is the day that a new episode of Ted Lasso would be airing if Ted Lasso hadn't (presumably) ended. The show has been so transformative towards my love of television, that I thought I might reflect on it for a minute so I can get it out of my blogging habit.

The year is not even half over, but I'm fairly comfortable saying that the third (and final?) season of Ted Lasso will top my list (yet again) despite being a bit of a mess. But, maybe as time goes on, it will have to battle it out with Jury Duty, Mrs. Davis, and Poker Face for the top spot. I dunno. I'll probably have to watch through a couple more times to know for sure.

The first season of Ted Lasso is flawless. Each and every episode faithfully pushes through a "narrative of nice" without ever becoming cynical about it. That alone is a massive achievement, even though it strayed into being overly-sweet and saccharine more than a few times. Furthermore, we get a conclusion that works along with a nice lead-in to the next season, which probably wasn't guaranteed at the time they filmed it. Talk about a massive achievement!

To me, the second season was almost as good as the first (even though the first two episodes felt a bit unsteady). And yet... I've read many reviews panning it. There were some fans of the show that roundly hated what it became the second time around. And a lot of that had to do with their inability to invest in Beard After Hours (Episode 09), which interrupted the season at a bit of a crucial moment. Meanwhile I'm thinking "YES! IT INTERRUPTED THE SEASON... THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF IT EXISTING!" and loved every minute of it. It was so very, very smart... both in purpose and execution. The previous episode had one of the most emotional moments of the entire series where Jamie's dad burst into the locker room and just wrecked his son. It was an abuse that was painful to watch. All the other players in the locker room were mortified and some looked away. It was unbearable. Jamie lost everything in that moment. But then, unexpectedly, Roy Kent approaches and... gives him a hug? And the moment just ruined me. Because as Roy approaches him, Jamie flinches just a bit. He was at his lowest point and was only expecting things to get worse. It was a masterful performance by Phil Dunster that took his character in an entirely new direction. It was the middle of a wide-reaching arc for Jamie that was concluded in the final episode in the best way possible...

In lesser hands, this scene could have been manipulative and awful. But the performances by Phil Dunsert, Brett Goldstein, and Kieran O'Brien (because, let's face it... the guy may have made you hate Jamie's dad, but his bigger accomplishment was being so awful that you felt sympathy for Jamie Tartt!). And that summed up the second season for me. Scenes that should have been a mess, but was elevated because the actors were too good to let them fail. And then we got Dr. Sharon Fieldstone, who ended up being the point upon which the entire season revolved, and Sarah Niles did not falter. How they managed to cast a character so perfectly (again!) is magic to me. If there was a fatal flaw, it happened at the end with Nate's betrayal. It was a wacky, inexplicable pivot out of nowhere and made no sense at all. I fail to see how somebody who was finally seen could ever betray Ted... especially over the trivial and nonsensical reasons that were provided. It was just so bizarre. It was as if the show worked overtime to create a villain where one just wasn't needed.

If the second season was messy but ultimately salvaged, the third was even messier and meandered into territory that couldn't be salvaged. Nate's entire redemption arc made zero sense. All the players hating him and then inexplicably wanting him back was idiotic. And they went way too far for him to ever be redeemable... even though they shoehorned it in anyway. I hated that. There was no redemption possible for Nate in such a short period of time, and having him return to Richmond first as kitman assistant... then as a frickin' coach?? WTF? But even worse was Keeley's breakup with Roy. Why? What purpose was it when the two of them together provided such wonderful material to draw from? And to add insult to injury, they wheeled in "Jack" so Keeley could have a same-sex relationship that went nowhere and ended so very badly. At least they left things with Jamie and Roy open-ended so they didn't also fall into the trope of having Keeley "needing a man to be complete" which would have been so much worse. These two major plots were nothing but distraction from moments that could have been spent in a much more productive way. But there were many great moments that overshadowed the bad. The setup to Ted leaving England was broadcast from miles away and didn't come out of nowhere... and it was delicately handled in a very real way. Colin coming out to his team was earned and not just slapped on his character. Rebecca finally finding somebody to share her life with had been treated as fate from the very beginning... so having the Dutch guy from earlier in the season pop up at the end so randomly was everything you'd hope for. Jamie, who had the most complete and satisfying character arc of anybody, had become a caring individual at peace with himself and others. We also got more Trent Crimm, who popped up at unexpected moments to provide insight or observation into what was happening in a way that was expertly woven into the story instead of being superfluous fluff. And then there were the many, many moments of brilliance that proved a show built around caring for others could actually work.

So, yeah, my favorite television series of all time. Without question. Nothing was ever going to live up to the incredible first season, and the following two really didn't. But they were a continuation of a story that I never wanted to end, and that was more than enough.

Here's hoping that we get a spin-off or three to fill the massive hole that has been vacated by Ted Lasso.

The heat is on... not just because it's getting ridiculously hot here, but because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Ghosts! The practice of "ghost kitchens"... which creates fake restaurants in order to cash in on food delivery services like Über Eats and Grubhub. Sometimes it's existing restaurants fronting for a second (or third or fourth) completely different restaurant. Sometimes it's a bulk restaurant kitchen that fulfills dozens of "restaurants" on food apps. I kinda fell into a rabbit hole on the topic, and found that Eddy Burback has the best video on the topic...

Actually, Eddy has the best video on a lot of topics. Like Late Night Television...

Subscribe to his YouTube channel here. He has quite a few videos. But boy would I like him to post more often.

   
• It's Not News... It's Bullshit! I love reading reviews which trash my favorite shows. CNN (which I have never cared for as a network and I now actively loathe) had an online review of the incredible Mrs. Davis which has the reviewer essentially saying "I'm too fucking stupid to appreciate the show, therefore it's bad!" And I laughed and laughed and laughed, because that's CNN in a nutshell...

The review ends like this..."To paraphrase 'A Chorus Line,' though, 'different' is nice, but it isn’t necessarily better, or enough to justify an eight-hour commitment. And while the show should have a small cadre of fans – probably tilted toward TV critics and English-lit professors – wedding its sly auteur sensibility to broader appeal is a creative Holy Grail, ultimately, that “Mrs. Davis” doesn’t locate." Yes, this masterful show that's more original (and more bonkers) than anything I've seen in decades since the first season of Twin Peaks, will only appeal to TV critics and English-lit professors. But since the CNN critic is a "reviewer of the people" and not at all "too smart" like some elitist English-lit professor or other TV critics, he can safely say that he's just too stupid to appreciate Mrs. Davis. What a joke (something that ALSO describes CNN in a nutshell). It's okay to not like something. It's a critic's job to TELL you when they don't like something. But to insult others for liking it because they're too smart? Go fuck yourself you useless hack.

   
• Ninja Exposed! The game Fruit Ninja is an app that many, many, many people have played. But the story of where it came from is actually pretty interesting...

I love behind the scenes stuff like this (as you know). And could watch these all day.

   
• Doctors? Is there ANYTHING that "Doctor" Phil touches which hasn't turned to shit?

Curse Oprah to hell for unleashing this asshole on the world.

   
• DARMOK!! I love Language Jones, and this is one of his best videos yet...

If you love languages, be sure to subscribe to his channel after watching.

   
• Hatemongering for Fun and Profit! Politicians passing laws to harm people SOLELY to score political points with their "base" can go fuck themselves. They don't even know what the laws they pass are doing. They don't care. All they know is that legislating for hate gets them re-elected...

God. Just eat shit and die, asshole.

   
• Someone You Love! Sarah Silverman is hit or miss with me. But her new special is hilarious. I've been dying from the start...

   
And that's all the bullets I can stomach for tonight. See You Next Sunday.

I was a massively huge fan of The Smiths from the moment I walked into a Tower Records store in Spring 1984.*

It was the year of my graduation and I was quickly approaching a time when I really needed to figure out what I was going to do with my life. College wasn't really a possibility because there was no way I could afford it. The job market in my area was awful thanks to Reaganomics driving wages lower and lower. I was disillusioned with the politics of the day and life in general. I was despondent about the future. It was, after all, George Orwell's year of doom. It was 1984.

And The Smiths were making music about all of it.

It was as if Morrissey was crooning each track just for me, all while being accompanied by Johnny Marr's bouncy guitar riffs. The Smiths was picking up the social sensibilities of the Punk Movement I had loved, then packaged it for the masses.

I was gutted when The Smiths broke up in 1987. Four albums and done? It really didn't seem fair. Johnny Marr teamed up with Barnard Sumner to form the band Electronic in 1988 and started releasing music the next year (and we got three albums out of the collaboration, all of which were great).

As for Morrissey? He went on to release four amazing albumns... Viva Hate, Kill Uncle, Your Arsenal, and Vauxhall and I... followed by scads more that just didn't hit for me. By 1995 I was done buying his new music, but replayed his old stuff often.

A regret was never managing to see The Smiths in concert.

After a cancelation and a reschedule I couldn't attend, I thought that a Morrissey concert wasn't in the cards, but finally flew to see him in Tampa in 2014. The concert was darn good, but wouldn't have been a Morrissey concert without some drama. He thought the crowd wasn't into it, so he cut his set short and bailed. Which, I ain't going to lie, actually made it feel more special.

Over the years Morrissey has become more and more unhinged, and I can't relate to him at all. I wouldn't want to. Then this morning I read this article about it, and found out I'm not the only one.

About the only joy I get out of anything past his old music is him being skewered on The Simpsons like this...

And definitely this imitator named "Quilloughby" which is actually the best Morrissey non-song in decades...

The fact that Quilloughby is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch is just the icing on the cake.

And on that note, I guess I'll be listening to The Smiths for the rest of the day.

* I want to say it was the Bellevue location, but it could have been the Seattle Center location because I don't know if Bellevue was open at the time. Back in the day I would bounce between both stores looking for those precious British import maxi-singles from Depeche Mode and The Thompson Twins. The Bellevue location was my favorite because they seemed to get more of what I was looking for. I was reminded of this when I saw a video of the old Tower Records Bellevue being torn down...

Oh how I loved Tower Records back in the day. Shopping for music on a computer just can't compare to walking down those jam-packed aisles of albums and discovering some magical release that you didn't even know existed. I really miss that, and am sad that younger generations are missing out on what a cool experience it is.

And so here we are at the end.

I can tell you that Ted Lasso is, without a doubt, my favorite televisiion series of all time. It's everything I never knew I needed to see. The writing, the characters, the acting, everything... it's been mostly flawless most of the time.

And now we're at the last episode of the (presumably) last season...

I'm jotting down my thoughts as I watch, so spoilers ahead...

• Ted slept with Rebecca?!? Well that was unexpected. I thought the time for that had passed. And what about Sassy?!?
• Okay... WITH BEARD IN A THREE WAY?!?
• Oh. Okay. That's better.
• I swear, Brendan Hunt is about as fearless an actor as there is.
• Isaac is never really ridiculous, even when doing ridiculous things.
• Okay... if Nate had to come back, I'm glad they at least didn't give him back his coaching job. That would have been awful.
• See, it's little moments like Jamie putting extra money in Nate's box that shows that his change over three seasons hasn't been superficial. It's intrinsic to his being now.
• And there it is. Confirmation Ted is not long for London.
• Trent's book looks a little light? He's been writing all season!
• Oh Roy. You need the Diamond Dogs badly.
• WHO THEY ARE HIRING TO REPLACE TED?!? WOULDN'T THAT BE ROY?!??
• Boy. Rebecca has a total point. She doesn't really need the club any more. It's served her purpose. Except... hasn't it come to mean so much more than that? But for two billion dollars, maybe that's money too tempting not to take.
• Lord. It makes sense that they would do a musical good bye for Ted, but this? It's bordering on annoying.
• Dani really had wasted potential this season. But you could say the same about most of the players. Except Jamie. And possibly Colin.
• Jamie doesn't belong with Keeley any more. Even though he's changed into somebody who deserves her.
• Rebecca's mom is incredibly self-unaware. I don't get her character. Really could have done without this diversion when Rebecca finding happiness after having finally overcome Rupert.
• Baz, Jeremy, and Paul could have been such one-note background characters if not for Beard After Hours where they gave us a bit more to work with.
• And now I want a beer.
• Okay. This is actually charming as hell... Roy and Jamie.
• Well, it WAS.
• What's so heartbreaking about Rebecca's conversation with Ted is that she knows he wouldn't change his mind before she asks him to. But she had to try. Ted changed all their lives. And hers more than most. Why would she want that to end? But of course it has to if she's to go on and find her own way towards being happy.
• Boys will be boys. And neither of them learned a thing. Well, on some things.
• Sorry. This was a sweet scene, but Nate still hasn't redeemed himself. I honestly don't think that he ever could. What he did was so horrific that he just doesn't deserve the grace he's being given. They took it too far.
• I do like that they didn't make Ted overly-goofy this time. It's a serious situation he's in, and to go overboard with bad puns and folksey Tedisms would diminish it.
• Okay. Showing the older couple once again at a Richmond match is an incredibly sweet gift towards fans of the show who remember them and their sweet story.
• So some guy is taking advantage of the ticket always reserved for Roy Kent even though Roy no longer needs it! Ha! But wait... is that the guy Colin was with earlier?
• Wait... who is the couple at the ticket window who says that he was stared at like an absolute psychopath? Surely they must have appeared before? But when?
• Whether or not Ted ends up with his ex-wife or not... I think her relationship with her old marriage counselor is on thin ice.
• SHARON!!! Oh how I've missed her. I love love loved Dr. Fieldstone last season.
• Roy wanting to be a Diamond Dog is his character arc, I guess?
• "I'm still me." Oh God. Don't ever change, Roy! We love you just the way you are!
• Ruff ruff.
• Oh Sassy. You're the best.
• Barbara is Coach-Beard-level-weird. But not in a good way. She's just... weird.
• Zoraeux (formerly Van Damme) is now Zorro?!?
• LOL. "Richmond seems to be crying!" Poor Jan Maas!
• Dr. Jacob is an asshole. So, yeah, that's not going to last.
• Strange that Zorro, who was unstoppable last time has let two goals slip past.
• Jamie's reading a book?!?
• Okay. Colin keeping his piece of the "believe" sign with him while he plays is pretty great.
• Awww, teamwork. And they can believe again!
• Isaac gets his moment. And deserves it. That was nice.
• Okay, now I really need to know who the guy was who got hit!
• Rupert going full-on psychopath at least lets everybody finally know who he really is.
• Oh look! George's balls... Liam and Noel... have made an appearance! LOL. Another moment for fans of the show.
• Interesting to note that both of Rupert's coaches were coaches at Richmond first.
• Aww, Jamie willingly being a distraction play pretty much completes his arc, I think.
• Okay, that was Colin's boyfriend who got the Winona Judd ticket. AND Colin got to have that moment he's been dreaming of. That was nice.
• Aww. Rebecca selling her 49% to the fans was the perfect solution.
• Ted using Apple Pay! Nice! A win for the sponsor (and network).
• And the ussie guy is back! Classic.
• If you freeze-frame, you get some closure on a few side-characters here.
• Those are real tears for Hannah Waddingham. And can you blame her? The best acting job she will probably ever have.
• Yeah, Coach Beard ain't going to leave.
• Annnnnd... being right has never felt so satisfying.
• Willis. Willis Beard. That works.
• Oh boy. I was waiting for Rebecca's Man from Amsterdam to show up again. Well isn't that perfect. UPDATE: And he showed up at the barbecue with her, so they are definitely together. Gezellig!
• Well, yeah. It would be absurd for anybody except Roy Kent to manage the club.
• So... wait... Sam ended up playing for the Nigerian league after all?
• Jamie having a moment with his horrific dad is a nice moment for him. Maybe a stint in rehab was what he needed to not be so awful?
• Mae bought quite a stake in Richmond there!
• "Trent Crimm... with a very brief foreward by Roy Kent." LOL.
• GIRL POWER!
• Dr. Fieldstone is back with Richmond. Great.
• So Nate is a coach again. Yikes.
• Interesting to note... it looks like Nate was using a gold paint to heal the Richmond sign, which means he was practicing kintsugi (the Japanese method of repairing broken things with gold to make them more valuable than they were before they were broken)... quite the metaphor.
• Dani still in his throuple, I see...
• Okay. It took me a second... but the couple with the large man and a baby at the wedding is the couple from Beard After Hours! Since the guy essentially saved Beard's life, it makes sense that they would be at his wedding.
• Wait... Ted didn't fly back for the wedding? That seems... wrong.
• So... are Ted and his ex-wife back together then?
• The End.
• (Though there is absolutely NO REASON AT ALL that the show couldn't continue as Roy Kent or AFC Richmond or whatever. NONE!

Well, the end was as good as it could have been, I guess. Especially for Rebecca, as I am very happy that she finally found the guy who makes her feel like she's been struck by lightning! Her moment at the airport is hands-down my favorite moment of the finale...

Well, I don't know what else to say. Except I hope the show comes back... in whatever form it can... and this isn't the end...

See ya 'round, Ted.

UPDATE: I still don't know who these people are?

UPDATE UPDATE: As noted in the comments (and on Facebook), that's John... the guy that Rebecca dated who didn't make her feel like she was struck by lightning!

It's a lovely Spring day. As much as it can be, anyway. So I guess it's go time... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Opt-Out of Stupid! =sigh= The first Mother's Day without my mom was, as you can imagine, a soul-crushing event (and each one after is no easier). Not because it reminded me of what I had lost... because there wasn't anything that didn't remind me of what I lost... but because the weeks leading up to the actual day means being inundated with emails telling me to buy a gift for my mom. That's an assault that was incredibly difficult to deal with, because nothing would make me happier to be able to buy something for my mom again. Now-a-days, it's getting a bit easier because companies are allowing you to fine-tune your emails to not include events which my be tough on you. But of course there are total fucking assholes who want to make this kindness into something horrible. Because that's where we are now...

@jwilliamj “My political beliefs = anti 2010 meme”- @Matt Walsh #fyp #foryoupage #viral #foryou #leftistlogic #conservative #woke #stitch ♬ original sound - JJ

Just fuck you. Is there absolutely anything... anything at all... that can make you put yourself in somebody else's shoes for even two fucking seconds? I try to find the best in people, but I sincerely doubt it. Trading off of misery is apparently too profitable.

   
• Tattoo Me! I was outright called a "satan worshipper" once because I have tattoos. I told them that my tattoos have nothing to do with satan... only to be screeched at with "ANY TIME YOU DESECRATE THE BODY GOD GAVE YOU, YOU ARE WORSHIPPING SATAN!!!" And that's when I looked her dead in the face and said "Then hail satan and fuck off, I guess." Because I'm happy to confirm idiotic biases. I'm here to help. Which is why this resonates with me...

@nurse.alexrn My boss was crying laughing #nursesoftiktok #nurselife #nursehumor #nurseproblems #nursetok #medicalhumor #nursinghumor #nursetok ♬ original sound - Tank the GSD

People are so toxic now-a-days that unless you conform exactly to their ideals they go all asshole on you.

   
• Jenno! A conversation I had yesterday...

"Ooh! There's a new Hannah Gadsby special on Netflix!"
"You like Hannah Gadsby?"
"Sure. I mean, there's parts of her sets that don't hit with me, but that's okay."
"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE A MAN!"
"I HAVE APOLOGIZED FOR MY GENDER MANY TIMES!"
"YOU CAN'T APOLOGIZE ENOUGH!"
"I'M SORRY!"
"Okay. You're good for another day."
"DAY? Can't we call me good for a month? Or at least a week?"
"No."
"Okay then, have a nice evening!"
"You too!"
"As good as the patriarchy will allow."

As it turns out, this is my favorite her specials.

   
• Lord of the... Rings?! These Wes Anderson parodies just keep coming. And are fantastic...

As always, I would pay serious money to see this film if it existed.

   
• Dooce. One of the most famous bloggers ever, Heather Armstrong, died this past week after losing her long struggle with depression (a battle she fought very hard, even going so far as to undergoing experimental treatments where her brain activity was stopped then restarted). This is awful. I think she wasn't even 50 yet? She's one of the old school bloggers who started around the time I did. I wasn't into mommy-blogging, but I ran across her posts from time to time and she was about as real as you could get online. Which is probably why she was so popular. I'd read things she wrote and think "Wow, I could never get that personal so publicly!"... and I'm betting that's what made her so relatable and beloved by the community that formed around her (even though lately she became infamous for blogging some pretty heinous things that I disagree with vehemently). Rest in peace, Heather. You can't get Dooced in heaven. Thinking of her two kids today.

   
• Tour of Wealth! Architecture YouTube is a bottomless pit of amazing homes and buildings for me. I can get lost there for hours. This one popped up this past week, and I honestly don't know how to feel about it...

If I had the money? Sure! I'd live there! Except... I just don't know how I could sleep at night knowing that I've used $250,000,000 that could have gone towards helping people. AND STILL HAVE MILLIONS LEFT OVER TO SPEND ON A NEW HOUSE... OR TEN! It's just so unfathomable to me.

   
Wishing you a good rest of your Sunday.

So... Disney+ is yet another streaming service that doesn't get it. They are merging their service with Hulu and removing content (along with providing less new content). And raising prices.

I signed up for Marvel and Start Wars content. Period. I don't watch anything else on their service. So the less content they have of these properties... and the less new content they add of them... the less there is for me to watch and the less reason I have to stay subscribed month-after-month. Adding Hulu crap doesn't compensate for WHAT YOU TOLD ME I WOULD BE GETTING WHEN I SIGNED UP. Another season of Handmaid's Tale (or whatever) does not interest me. And it really doesn't make up for a price increase and less content for me to watch. These streaming services are trying to be all things to all people and failing badly at it. Stick to your niche: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars. I'll pay for that. All your other content should be a separate service that has to succeed or fail on its own. Don't expect me to subsidize it, because I won't.

Oh well. I'll just subscribe once or twice a year to watch whatever new Marvel and Star Wars content I want to see.

Hopefully without ads because there's only so many millions of times I can handle watching commercials for The Vestiaire Collective.

But anyway...

I've had all the camera brands... Canon to Nikon to Olympus to Panasonic to Fuji to whatever. Despite the shitty menus on the camera, my hands-down favorite is from Sony. No joke... Sony Electronics makes the best cameras I've ever used, and I've gone around the world with them.

BUT THEIR SOFTWARE FOR EVEN THE MOST BASIC FUNCTIONS... LIKE TETHERED SHOOTING... IS THE ABSOLUTE FUCKING WORST. They NEVER work. EVER. I have never once been able to get ANYTHING working with Sony tethered shooting for more than two minutes.

This morning I've been trying again for an hour.

NOPE! How in the hell do you fuck up something so simple THIS badly?

PC Remote is ON...

Remote Control is ON...

The camera knows it's plugged into a computer...

But of course the software on my camera doesn't recognize any of it. Thank God I'm mostly done with SLR cameras. The iPhone camera is good enough for 98% of what I need, and those photos I can actually get to on my computer.

The latest episode of Ted Lasso was great... but still filled me with despair because now there's just three left.

I will probably just live-blog the final four because I have nothing better going on right now.

So. Spoilers. Obviously.

And we're off...

• The fact that Brett Goldstein is never out of character... even when just standing on the sidelines... is magical to me. His posture is all Roy Kent all the time.
• Coach Beard is so delightfully weird. IF we get lucky enough for the show to continue and Jason Sudeikas isn't on board, I sure hope he stays in London.
• The two possibilities are that A) Isaac is a raging homophobe and wants nothing to do with Colin now that he knows he's gay... or B) Isaac is upset that his good friend and teammate kept something so important from him. As this is Ted Lasso, I think we all know what it's going to be.
• Dani Rojas is such a great character than it's painful to see his final episodes reduced to smelly socks. But I guess we can't have all the teammates getting the spotlight all the time, darnit.
• Am I the only one who never fast-forwards through the credits? I love the song. I love the design of it all. Short and catchy.
• Keeley's entire diversion with Jack has been so senseless. It's a diversion that hasn't worked at all and I'm glad that it's done with. I guess they had to have something for Keeley to do, but staying in a relationship with Roy and finding something interesting revolving around her new business really should have been enough.
• Nice plug for Apple iPhone "blue bubbles!"
• Lord. Ted can be SO frickin' annoying. This whole heart-bent fart song is just dumb. This is time that could have been spent so much better.
• OH GOD HOW I LOVE ROY KENT! He is, bar none, my most favorite character to ever grace my television.
• I really don't want to objectify Rebecca or anything... but holy shit is Hannah Waddington fit! Her legs are flawless. As is the rest of her.
• Nope. Nope. Nope. They destroyed Nathan as a character after making him so heinously awful. Don't give a shit about him, regardless of whatever redemption arc they've got going on.
• Jade has ended up being a great character. Her deadpan reaction to Rupert dissing her boyfriend is everything. "He seems very wealthy." is classic Jade.
• So Rupert is not getting a redemption arc. He's awful. And there's nothing more than that.
• Like I said, Coach Beard is delightfully weird and I love him in every scene.
• Seriously. Hannah Waddington is frickin' gorgeous. I'm smitten.
• Oh Roy! LOLOL!
• I have mentioned several times how I would love to see more of Richard Montlaur. He is the quintessential playboy footballer with his nonstop parade of beautiful women and sports cars... and we really don't have that in the show. It could make for some funny moments if they'd only give him a chance. But instead we get to hear that he has a hairy ass. Thanks for the character building!
• Trent Crimm has always been an interesting character, and it's truly great that we get to see a bit more of him. Especially in this context with Colin.
• Those rare scenes between Roy and Rebecca are always gold. And they're always so different. They're never on repeat, which is fascinating, because they are also never out of character.
• Again. Couldn't give two shits about Nate. He and Rupert deserve each other. All these scenes are time wasted for me.
• See... I'd much rather devote Nathan's screen time to Mae, Paz, Jeremy, and Paul. Or almost anybody, for that matter.
• The crappy Richmond fan is exactly why I don't go to many sporting events any more. It's more and more common for "fans" to be repugnant assholes in the stands, and I really don't need that. I go to enjoy the game and have fun... not be reminded that people are terrible. To add insult to injury, the fan is being stupid. Richmond is down by one. One! Not five or six! And that's after winning eight straight games. This is a bit sloppy on behalf of the writers. They could have made the fan be an ass over something that actually makes sense.
• Isaac became a great character in the second season. The fact that the actor (Kola Bokinni) manages to add some dimension to what seemed like a fairly one-dimensional player is rewarding. This isn't just the writers giving him some attention.
• Interesting that the "f-word" can be dropped constantly without problem, but the other "f-word" can't be said, says a lot about the word in question.
• And here is why I love Sam & Jamie. Dang. So many incredible characters on this show.
• And now we know which side Isaac is on. As if there was ever any doubt. And here's a softer side of Roy Kent as well. If there was a show called Roy Kent I would absolutely watch that.
• They should have never promoted Nate out of being kit man. That's where his character started going all wrong. And seeing Will Kitman being who Nathan could have been is sobering. They could have still had him still make suggestions for the team to Ted and Beard... that would have been great... but Evil Nate is a waste of time.
• Colin's big moment was... off screen?? Good Lord. Why? Everything has been leading up to this!
• Ted's folksy charm was incredible in the first season. Wearing a little thin in the second season. But now? This story of his is just eye-rolling bad. It's like they used up all their ideas for the character, and now he's been reduced to fart jokes and blowing up toilets. HOWEVER... his ending comment about "hating to bring up work at a time like this" is classic Ted.
• Okay... Trent and Colin's little convo here is hilarious.
• Having Colin suddenly be this brilliant footballer just because he came out to his team is a bit over the top, isn't it?
• Oh shocking. Rupert is a womanizing piece of shit! Still. Guess running that trope into the ground was more important than devoting time to Richmond?
• Roy Kent's press conference is just brilliant all the way around. From Brett's performance to the writing to the reactions of the other actors. THIS RIGHT HERE is everything I am going to miss about this show. The fact that it comes with a life lesson is why Ted Lasso is my favorite show of all time.
• WHY? WHY DIDN'T THEY PAN TO OLD TRENT'S REACTION AFTER ROY SAID THAT HE PREFERS NEW TRENT TO OLD TRENT?!?
• Something I don't talk about much is the genius behind the musical selections that come out of this show. Many times I look up the songs so I can add them to my playlist. You can bet that All That You Are by Bear's Den was added. It's lovely.
• Colin's house is amazing.
• And of course the scene between Colin and Isaac is the best. As you knew it would be. The fact that they managed to make it so funny on top of being so wonderfully sweet and charming is nice.
• Colin tell Isaac that he's not interested in telling the world he's gay, and that tracks with his conversation with Trent in Amsterdam. So I guess that's the end of that. With only three episodes left, they don't really have time to have this leak to the world at large.
• This I Am What I Am and What I Am is No Excuses monstrosity of a song is obviously some kind of gay Broadway anthem... which definitely won't be added to my playlist. Yikes.

Here's that Bear Den song, just in case you need it...

Good night!