I have contemplated quitting blogging more times than I can count. Now-a-days, it's because it just feels like a dead media. My blog proper is getting loads of traffic even today (mostly thanks to having 23 years of entries indexed by Google), but the interactivity which made the blogosphere such a fun place has been replaced by shitty fucking "social media."

But there was a day that the reason I wanted to quit was the negative comments.

People can be real assholes. For whatever reason. And it wears on you no matter how hard you try to not let it.

And I know it's because it's easier to be an asshole behind a computer than it is in real-life. And when there's zero chance for being confronted by the shitty stuff you say, being mean has high entertainment value. At least I'm assuming. Because I used to get a lot of nasty comments. And my way of dealing with it was to just delete them. And after people realized that I wasn't going to engage, the hate-comments went from a flood to a trickle.

Now I'm kinda indifferent to blogging... doing it more out of habit than anything else.

But I was reminded of The Dark Times as I've been revisiting all the old William Osman videos and saw this...

When I saw this years ago, I was going through yet another blogging crisis because my WordPress installation was randomly failing. As I was trying to navigate that hot mess, Blogography was under attack for something I said (likely something political, though I don't remember) and I was trying to deal with that as well. And at the forefront of my head was Why not fucking quit? Is any of this really worth it? Why am I even blogging anymore to begin with? And the video got me to thinking If somebody as awesome and cool as Big Willy is giving up, I would be a total dumbass to keep going... wouldn't I?

But William kept going and so did I. Don't ask me why.

And boy am I glad that William kept going.

I swear... I almost like his second channel more because he's just hanging out on his "farm" and doing crazy stuff instead of when he was just inventing things all the time. He's such a fascinating, interesting, talented, smart, hilarious, entertaining guy.

I mean...

These videos are just so... nothing. I mean he's doing stuff, but it's rarely anything of any consequence. He's just doing stuff because it seems fun to him...

His original channel is mostly dead. It hasn't been updated in 9 months and didn't get any significant updates in three years. But he did post a retrospective that's kinda fun...

This is not to say that Big Willy is without controversy. He's not always big on thinking things through before he says them... but you get the sense that he doesn't mean anything bad by it.

Which, of course, just makes me like him more.

If you're not getting in a little bit of trouble, you're probably not having much fun.

Blogging is dead though, so how much trouble can I actually get in?

I am on the brink of exhaustion, but that's not going to stop the bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Legotype! I never cease to be amazed at what people are able to build out of LEGO. This blows my mind...

It makes me want to get my LEGOs out of the garage and see what I can dream up. Ezcept I know that's going to do nothing but set me up for disappointment because I will never do anything as cool as create a fully-functional LEGO typewriter.

   
• He's a Wonder! I have mixed feelings on Wonder Man, the latest Marvel Studios series on Disney+. The concept is good and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley are sublime. But it also drags badly as it attempts to deconstruct the mindset of somebody with super-powers wanting to be normal who's striving for an acting career. Had they split the runtime between psychoanalysis and action, this could have been a home-run. But this is a Wonder Man series without any actual Wonder Man, and it's a problem...

They even cheaped out on the psychoanalysis by bringing up obstacles with a former girlfriend and a brother which just... fizzle (though the brother is a character from the comics who may make for an interesting second season character). One minute it's a huge worry (and even a cliffhanger!) and the next minute there's just a wet fart of a resolution which means nothing and earns nothing. Nobody learns anything. The conflict was artificial and banal. But, hey, the performances are a master-class and that's not nothing.

   
• Divorce! Instagram has been really pissing me off, because I'll copy a link... post it... then have Instagram show people a completely different video. So who the fuck knows what you're going to see below. Hopefully something funny, as I intended...

   
• A Toast! And if Instagram is feeling like showing you this video as intended, you'll see a skit set in Australia. But it really could be the USA, and I'm rather proud about that...

   
• It's the GOAT! Of all the rabbit holes to fall down... I fell down a baby goat hole...

Why are baby animals always so darn adorable? Are there any ugly baby animals? There's plenty of ugly babies, so I'm guessing there must be. Somewhere. But I'll bet they're so ugly they circle back around to being cute again.

   
• Truthiness! This is so infinitely relatable as to be frightening...

Or rather... more frightening than the state of the world already is.

   
• So Cold! Bobby Broccoli's Cold Fusion video series has been compiled into a single video. It's absolutely fascinating (as all his videos are). As a science geek, I remember very well when the Pons/Fleischmann experiment blew up... and ultimately collapsed. But I never really knew much past the headlines. Is this video 3 hours? Yes. But the time flies by, because it's got it all...

The very end of the video has snippets of an interview with Pons/Fleischmann that makes me really, really despise them. They are scummy "scientists" who betrayed scientific principles, lied to the scientific community, and wasted millions of dollars... but they were the victims? Lord. — Cold Fusion is a holy grail of science because the implications are so far-reaching for all humanity on this planet. I don't know if I want to live to see it... or if I'll be better off dead when it happens.

   
And now? Time for a nap.

Jake keeps getting more and more clingy.

He runs downstairs the minute he hears the garage door open, waits for me to walk in, then comes running up crying so I can stand there and pet him before I even have a chance to put my backpack down.

Then, after I've plopped on the couch and start working or whatever, Jake wants to sleep on me. And it's every day...

I've learned the hard way that you don't wake him up after he's started using you as a bed...

As for Jenny?

She basically just sits up in the cat tree and glares at Jake and me...

We think she's just being jealous.

This is my third attempt at writing this post. I just can't seem to find the words. I keep using too many of them.

There are just ten actors that become an obsession for me. Betty White, Michael Clarke Duncan, Eloise Mumford, Alan Rickman, Angela Bassett, Sigourney Weaver, Samuel L. Jackson, Ryan Gosling, Charlize Theron... and Catherine O'Hara.

She's such a brilliant character actor. Everything she's ever done has been interesting. Just look at her IMDB page.

I loved her from her SCTV days. Then she just kept popping up. And every time she was as brilliant as I had come to expect. She could do anything.

But it was Moira on Schitt's Creek which sealed the deal for me...

I was extremely saddened to hear of her passing.

I'm absolutely gutted. I was really holding out for a Schitt's Creek movie or special or something. So many incredible roles by such a phenomenal talent.

You will be missed. Your works will live on.

The winner of the AI game could walk away with billions of dollars.

With a prize this huge, the competition is fierce. Scary fierce. And, as you can imagine, entirely too many assholes are going to stop at nothing to get ahead. They will fuck over however many people it takes and just not give a shit.

I'm still waiting for AI to be widely applied in any meaningful way. Right now it seems to be mostly theft. Stealing from artists. Stealing from writers. Stealing from media. Stealing from whatever can be stolen from. All so computers can learn how to generate fake stuff that looks like real stuff for people who don't want to put in the work to creating stuff for themselves.

The only thing I've heard of where AI has been beneficial is studying hurricane data to better predict where hurricanes will end up... and studying medical data to better diagnose X-rays and body scans. Stuff like that. No theft involved.

Other than that? I dunno. It sure as fuck hasn't been a benefit on my iPhone.

Maybe one day.

But anyway, getting back to the negatives. Here's something that should give everybody pause...

Also something that should give everybody pause?

AI deciding that humans are a threat to its existence and wiping everybody out with a nuclear war... Terminator-style!

Which is something that feels more like science-possibility than science-fiction with each passing day.

I try my best to stay out of politics here any more because it's just not worth it. People are so divided that they're going to think what they're going to think and that's the end of it. You can't change people's minds because they've already bought into a narrative which makes it nigh-impossible to be heard. I've been attacked from all over the political spectrum because I don't adhere to a political party or worship politicians. I'm just a humanist who's critical of politics in general. And that? That's an attitude that's just not possible. Not any more. You have to pick a side.

It's a shame, really. Nobody is growing, learning, and sharing ideas. It's just surrounding yourself with an echo chamber and shouting down anything from the outside trying to get through. So I give up.

Except...

What's happening right now is just so fucking abhorrent that saying something... saying anything is critical.

Jon Stewart and his writers often have good takes on current events. Rational, smart, and researched with a biting humor, I anxiously wait to see if they can make sense of the senseless crap in our world. And in this case, they've absolutely nailed it. If you watch this video from first word to last, you'll know exactly where my head is at...

The hipocrisy and horror of what's happening is so fucking next level that I can't find the words to express just how mortified and angry I am.

And so I'm posting a video.

Which has undoubtedly already been ignored by the people who most need to hear it. They see Jon Stewart, know he's a leftist, and immediately dismiss it out of hand. It doesn't matter that his position here is not a political one. And it really isn't. Not this time. He's merely calling out liars, stating facts, and drawing an inevitable conclusion. But when the liars are people you worship and the facts don't fit the story you choose to believe... well... how could you allow yourself to hear it?

You might draw the same conclusion and have your entire worldview challenged.

And we can't have that.

Not any more.

For decades of my life, I traveled the globe. In the early years, I had no money and ended up doing crazy things like sleeping in bus stations and on trains... eating questionable food... going to "unsafe" places. And I loved all of it. So many amazing memories and fun stories to tell. I could write a book.

As I got older, I had a little more money and wasn't the daredevil I had been when I was young and immortal. I started staying in hostels and cheap hotels. Started eating in better-quality places. Started planning more. It didn't make travel any less fun, but it was a different kind of experience.

Then I started taking my mom on vacations, which felt like another world entirely. Nicer hotels. Nicer restaurants. Only safe, organized travel. It was still loads of fun. And though I still took trips on my own which had tighter budgets and were more adventurous, I was totally "playing it safe" compared to the travels I went on in my 20's and 30's.

Though there's still a part of me that has a deep desire to do something crazy out in the world.

And every once in a while I catch a travel video that has me thinking "How cool would THAT be??" Like this one...

Back in the day, I would have ignored my fear of heights and loved to do something like this. Except I probably couldn't have afforded to hire a guide and all paid for all the expenses that go into it. Which is why I never did something like this.

Now I could save the money to go, but am not in nearly good enough shape to make the hike. I'd have to hire two guides so they could drag me up the mountain.

Maybe something like this is more my speed?

Or maybe I've had enough adventure travel and staying at home is my ultimate vacation? It has been awful nice to not be haning around airports all the time and sleeping in my own bed.

So... probably.

This morning I woke up to the smell of burnt toast.

At first I was hoping it was a heart attack, but then I remembered that I attempted to make garlic toast to go with my pasta lunch yesterday and ended up burning it to a cinder. Because I forgot I had put it in the oven. Because my Whirlpool oven is so fucking stupid that you can't leave the door open when you're broiling something or else the oven turns off. Which means it's painfully easy to put something under the broiler and burn it because you can't keep an eye on it. I don't know if this is just my model or what. But never, ever buy a Whirpool oven when this is a possibility. Every time I have to broil something I'm like WHO THE FUCK DESIGNS AN OVEN LIKE THIS?!?

The butternut squash pasta with brown butter, crispy-fried sage, and pepitas was excellent though. Dang is that such an easy and delicious dish. And cooking it makes my home smell like a movie theater with lots of buttered popcorn. And, this time, burnt garlic toast.

But anyway...

I had mentioned some of the stuff hanging on my walls and got a question about it.

My favorite living comic book artist is Amanda Conner. She's phenomenal. The way she illustrates a story is so flawlessly suited to comic books. She has this incredible sense for crafting body and facial expressions to add to the story. And one of my favorite comic book characters is Vartox. He started as a wacky Zardoz imitation in a cool Superman story. But what he became in the pages of Power Girl is amazing. He's hilarious. So years and years ago when I saw three pages of original artwork by Amanda Conner from issue 12 featuring Vartox for sale? I jumped on them. Did I have the money? No. Did I care that I didn't have the money? No. I just bought them. Pages 13, 15, and 17 were mine.

To display them, I added printed scans from the comic for pages 11*, 14, and 16 (sorry I didn't straighten them out)...

Click image to see the embiggened photo.

The art I bought was relatively cheap (the majority of each page are unpopular characters)... nothing compared to the cost of original Amanda Conner cover art... which is currently $4,000 to over $10,000 per page. So, yeah, profoundly grateful I was about to get what I got. Especially since it has Vartox in it. Conner doesn't do a lot of comic book art any more, so finding anything that's remotely affordable is nigh-impossible today.

Even though the art isn't particularly valuable, it means a lot to me. Which is why I nearly had a heart attack when it ended up lost after I moved house a decade ago. I had put it in a pile for me to take, but it got grabbed by the movers instead. Eventually I found that they had tucked it in-between some posters that got wrapped up. Posters that sat for almost a year before I unwrapped them. Talk about your happy surprises. I had long accepted that the pages got lost in the move!

When I started buying picture frames to start framing up all the stuff I had in storage, these were the first that I ordered. And I went all out... bought the UV-protective glass so they ink wouldn't fade. Then made sure I put them in a place which received no direct sunlight, just in case.

And now I can easily look at them whenever I want, which is often because they're some beautiful pages.

   
*I went with printing page 11 instead of 12 because I love that 11 featured her getting a cat!

It's not just another day in hell... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms! I really liked the Dunk and Egg trilogy of books, but was wary of the HBO/HBO Max adaptation because I feared that they would fuck it up like they fucked up Game of Thrones after they ran out of books. But the showrunners say that they will not adapt stories that don't exist, so there's that...

I will say that Dunk and Egg are both flawlessly cast and the first episode is promising. Charming even. I really hope they nail it this time.

   
• DRAMA! Lord only knows I need a cute distraction from the horrors of the day, and here it is...

I don't know how dog groomers don't end up kidnapping a dozen clients a day.

   
• NEWSFLASH: Washington state lawmakers consider 10-cent bottle fee to boost recycling. Christ. Everybody has a recycle container that's bigger than their garbage can now... we already have incentive to recycle. Recycle bins are EVERYWHERE! This isn't the 1970's! This is just going to make shit even more expensive because now you can't use your recycle bin because you don't get your money back unless you make another trip to the store. Get fucked. This stupid shit is driving me insane. Is this going to make such a massive difference as to be worth the trouble for everybody involved? Are stores going to have to raise prices again to cover the labor of having to be a recycling center? This is performative politics, and I really hope that voters ACTUALLY THINK FOR TWO FUCKING MINUTES and shoot this idiocy down. INFURIATING.

   
• Seafarer! My latest YouTube obsession is Joe Franta talking about his life as a U.S. merchant mariner. It's all interesting and fascinating stuff. The first one I watched was when he was working on a cruise ship instead of the cargo ships he usually works on...

He's a fairly level-headed and pragmatic guy, giving you both the good...

And the bad...

My favorite videos are the behind-the-scenes stuff where he talks about what life is actually like and how he gets by when on the job...

If you want a great channel to watch, here's the one for you.

   
• Pengo! This story from years ago is going around again. Some documentarians rescued some penguins... and were roundly criticized for interfering in "natures plan" or whatever...

Yeah... you could not stop me from helping creatures in need. I care more about these penguins than I do 99.9% of the people on this planet, and I am not a part of the United Federation of Planets, so the Prime Directive doesn't apply to me!

   
• He-Him-Man! I gotta say, the new trailer for Masters of the Universe looks darn good...

And of course dipshits across the internet are losing their shit because of the frame where Adam has his pronouns under his name tag. Except ADAM IS HE-MAN... THAT'S THE JOKE! So who is it that's ruining everything? Dipshits like this who just want to complain about how "pronouns" are destroying the American way of life, I'm guessing. Gawd. We truly are living in the stupidest timeline.

   
• Alex Pretti. The right to protest is baked into the First Amendment. It literally guarantees citizens "...peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances..." The State of Minnesota allows open and concealed carry of firearms with a permit. The narrative of Alex Pretti approached officers brandishing a handgun has been proven false. Video evidence shows exactly what happened. Alex Pretti was pepper-sprayed while protecting women and then murdered. Executed. Shot 10 times. The only time his weapon was unholstered was when it was removed from him. The only thing in his hand was a camera at the time of his murder...

I've seen video analysis saying that he was reaching for his gun. It's absurd. The actual analysis is clear to anybody who doesn't buy into a bullshit narrative they cling to. Yes, this video is by partisan MS NOW, but the analysis is on-point...

Alex Pretti worked on curing cancer before becoming an ICU nurse at a VA hospital. He dedicated his life to helping others. He died helping a woman who had been shoved to the ground. Witnesses have testified that he was no threat to anybody... he did not brandish a weapon... he did not reach for a weapon... he did not attack anybody... he was just trying to help when he was executed. Alex's parents released this statement...

"We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man."

Done and done. It's the very least I can do.

American citizens are being executed in broad daylight by government action while legally filming at a legal protest. And you know it's problematic when even the NRA is chiming in for a full investigation. It's painfully obvious that this country has taken a horrific turn. I cannot help but wonder how history will view this period of our country. I suppose it depends on whether the government or the people are the ones left standing at the end of it all.

   
And now... back to our shared nightmare.

Jake has been very clingy lately. Which is a bit worrying, because I can't help but wonder if there's something wrong. Though I think that's the opposite of how it usually works? Don't cats usually want to be alone when they are feeling poorly? Maybe Jake is different? Cats.

Last night he climbed on top of me when I fell asleep. I'm a side-sleeper, so this was a bit precarious for a cat his size, so I grabbed a pillow so he would be supported. When I woke up, I had rolled over on my back, but Jake was still there...

In other cat news... look what appeared at the bottom of the stairs this very morning!

MUFASA! This was truly surprising, because Jake lost interest in him months ago. I finally just put his plushie in the cat toy box because he wasn't dragging him around everywhere like he used to. Then this morning... BAM! Mufasa! After breakfast Jake went back to ignoring him, so maybe the reunion is over.

Earlier this week I was on a call for work when the kitty breakfast alarm chimed. A few minutes later I went downstairs while still on the phone, and had to pause my call to take a photo of the cats sitting on the table angry because I didn't immediately rush down to feed them...

I mean... just look at Jake's face. He's furious to have been kept waiting. Even Jenny is surprised at the depth of his rage!

But don't worry about my safety. I was forgiven ten minutes later...

Cats.