Running across an unexpectedly good television show is about as it gets now-a-days in this toxic shithole we call life.

As a huge David Mitchell fan, I was curious when I saw an ad for the series Ludwig on "BritBox."

It's already been renewed for a second season. I can't wait. And if you enjoy good television, you can't wait either.

When I got home from work today, I saw a medium-sized brown spider... barely visible on my floor because he was the same coloring. Which is ultimately my way of saying that I barely avoided stepping on a spider when I got home because I didn't notice him until the last second.

Then I did what I always do... run and get a small paper cup and a piece of stiff paper so I can scoop him up and take him outside. It's just a small kindness towards a Tony life that feels better than squishing the poor thing who happened to end up in the wrong place.

After dumping him in the shade outside my front door, the little guy started SPRINTING towards my front door. He was perfectly happy indoors, and decided that's where he was going to be.

After yelping while jumping back and saying "GAH! YOU DON'T WANT TO GO BACK IN THERE... MY CATS WILL EAT YOU!" I jumped inside and closed the door in time to keep him on the other side of it.

Then went to a window so I could look at him glaring at the front door.

I should not be surprised at all if he's back inside tomorrow.

So there I am petting Jenny, my skittish orange cat, when my phone rings. Because of my job, I can't turn my phone off or set it to only ring for known callers, because I can have people calling from anywhere at any time. And I have to answer.

And so I do.

After Jenny gets scared by the ringing and goes running upstairs.

At which point she hangs up on me.

Outright LYING to people over their finances is about as low as it gets. Fuck you. Making it sound like you're some official calling about a person's credit cards like there's a problem when you're just another fucking scammer asshole credit card consolidation company trying to drum up business by throwing out some random number and hoping it hits.

This scammer piece of shit should consider herself very, very lucky that I don't have the ability to make people's heads explode over the phone.

VERY.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I swear my cats are getting worse with each passing day.

Jake and Jenny are now both wailing when something is upsetting them, knowing that I'll drop everything and come running. This past week Jenny wailed because Jake ate her food when she finally bothered to come downstairs for dinner... and Jake was wailing and wailing so strongly that I ran to find out if he was dying, but it turned out he wanted to be petted. Seriously. Just sauntered right up to me and started rubbing against my legs until I pet him.

Then today I heard wailing out in the catio. But when I looked it was just Jake saying hello to Fake Jake, who seems to be getting lighter and shrinking as Jake is expanding, which is to say there's no mistaking them for each other as I once had...

Of course Jenny experienced immediate FOMO and had to go rushing out to see what was up. At which point Fake Jake got bored and left...

Jenny hopped up on a shelf to see if she could could spot where he went. Jake, apparently blaming her for him losing his entertainment, was not thrilled with her...

Jenny, who is above such nonsense, just climbed up to the top shelf while Jake sat below sulking.

Until they heard the dinner alarm, at which point she ran inside while Jake sat in front of the cat door wailing again. I was going to go open the door to let him in, but only after I had put food out. Except that wasn't necessary. Since food is his biggest motivator, he ultimately decided that he'd let himself in.

I don't even want to think of the wailing which would ensue if he came in to find out that his sister had eaten his dinner.

Why can't anybody make a browser that doesn't fucking piss me off?

Apple's Safari is hot garbage and has been for years. Can't load Facebook or Instagram pages to save its life. Fails to display content properly all too often. And I'm not talking esoteric, fringe sites... I'm talking about major websites. Which is to say that either Apple doesn't use their own shitty fucking browser. Or they just don't give a crap. Or probably both.

Google's Chrome reminds you that Google Chrome is not your fucking default browser every fucking time you run it. And when you click out of it, then visit a Google service, it feels the need to fucking remind you again. On top of that, there are some sites which refuse to render properly on it or any of its variants.

The Brave browser (also built on Chrome) wants to sell you its VPN, and didn't turn out to be the bastion of privacy it claimed to be.

Microsoft's Edge is better than Chrome. At least was until they killed its code-base and also built it on Chrome. Now it's got their Copilot AI bullshit being built into it, which I have zero desire to be involved with.

And then there's Arc (also built on Chrome) which has some nice ideas, but keeps getting in its own way while trying to use it on top of inheriting Chrome's failings.

Opera is also built on Chrome.

Vivaldi is also built on Chrome.

Maxthon is also built on Chrome.

Mozilla's Firefox is not built on Chrome and was my former browser of choice until it also had problems loading Instagram and some other mainstream sites. Then they came out and said that their top priority for 2025 was AI. And they killed Pocket. I have zero interest investing in their bullshit again.

Tor is built on Firefox but, strangely enough, gave me even more problems with websites that Firefox can actual open properly.

Midori is also built on Firefox.

   
And so...

I mostly use Safari unless it's for Facebook, Instagram, or a handful of other sites which are unusable with it.

And that's pretty much all you can do because Apple and Google own every fucking thing. And since most browsers are actually Google Chrome in disguise, Google can basically do whatever the hell they want to break standards while Apple stubbornly refuses to be compatible with what they choose to break.

At this point I'm contemplating giving up on the web and moving to a cabin in the woods.

Picture it...

There I am, finishing up an email and pulling up my blog to write today's entry. I start blathering on about Apple's new iOS beta update that dropped today, when my YouTube video ends on the television and something very cool appears in my "up next" suggestions.

It's the only news that matters today...

Not saying that I'm going to head to the theater to see it... but I will be anxiously awaiting the home video release!

When I got home I went to put away my garbage cans, but the clover in my front yard was full of bees! So I guess I'll wait until tonight so I don't disturb them.

Ever since I put out the bee watering stations, the number of bees which inhabit my yard has at least doubled. They're everywhere!

I'm so happy that I begged the HOA to let me keep it instead of spraying herbicides all over it. The stuff has pretty much taken over my lawn and I'm 100% okay with that!

One of my favorite songs of all time is Only You by Yazoo (known as "Yaz" in the USA). It starts as a deceptively simple track which builds to something amazing as it plays out. Vince Clarke wrote it while he was still in Depeche Mode, but didn't record it until he formed a duo with vocal powerhouse Alison Moyet.

I was reminded of the song when I heard it over a commercial for something or other...

What I didn't know is that Moyet sang it with an orchestra at a fashion show for Burberry! And holy cats is she aging beautifully...

This lead me down quite a rabbit hole...

First of all, Kylie Minogue recorded a version. It's perfectly lovely. But here's the thing that blew my mind... she sang it as a duet. WITH JAMES CORDEN?!??...

Mr. Enrique Iglesias recorded the track en español. I don't like how his version starts, but once the cadence builds, it's quite beautiful and respectful to the original...

He also recorded it in English, but I don't think it's as good as the Spanish version...

Selena Gomez stripped away the pop trappings and recorded a haunting version for TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY...

This version by the Flying Pickets is a cappella, which is a style I don't like at all. What's remarkable is that this version was actually more successful than the original. Margaret Thatcher is reported to have loved this version, which is kind of damning praise given how awful she was...

The song is kinda hard to screw up. Which is to say that even if you didn't care for the cover, you can still respect what a great piece of music the original is.

I'm not saying that bland-looking food is bland-tasting food, but it seems as though that should be true.

I thought of this as I was putting some nachos into the oven last week. Chips and cheese? Monochromatic bland-looking. Boring. But with tomatoes, jalapeños, purple onion, and olives on top? Well...

Pretty.

Then last night I was going to have one of my favorite treats: toasted naan with hummus and feta. Something that's far from bland-tasting, but it looks incredibly bland. So I diced up some tomatoes and onions and mixed with some olive oil and Mediterranean herbs to make it look better...

Much better.

And tastier too.

Life is too short for boring-looking food.