Vampire Survivors is out on mobile, ad supported, if you want to see what all the fuss is about go and download it and give it a whirl.
We watched the first 3 eps of Wednesday last night. Absolutely enjoying it so far. Looking forward to doing the last 5 episodes next week.
Stray observations:
– Is Tim Burton actually following a script?? Wow.
– With a few minor changes, this could have been a new series set at Hogwarts. I’ve hear a lot of praise for this show, but I’m surprised I haven’t heard anyone else making Harry Potter comparisons.
– All of the familiar Addams characters are perfectly-cast.
Random phrase overheard from passer-by
“And I was 3D printing little train tracks for it …”
Was it a dog chasing a penguin?
Ha!
Thinking out loud on the keyboard. Please let me know if my perspective is off, or if you disagree:
My recommendations for how we should all contend with the rise of AI art generators:
-Don’t use them to replace human artists on professional projects
-Develop ethical guidelines around their use and technology to ensure that the AIs are not taking images from works created by human artists
-Educate the masses and yourself about which of the AI apps are complying with ethical standards and which are not
-Don’t yell at people for playing with this new technology
-Don’t yell at pro artists who put AI art generators to ethical use to enhance their original work
-Accept that AI art is now a part of the landscape. Don’t yell and complain; join/lead discussions to find ways to ensure that it’s not misused.
Oh, Jack, you’re so adorable some times.
I think we’re just about at this stage of the AI art business
(perfect video response) – – I should have clarified that the the “we” in that statement was all of us low creatures and individuals. Big biz gonna do what big biz gonna do.
I said all that in response to seeing people condemning and threatening to unfriend people who goof around with AI art.
I agree.
I’ll add that whenever new technology is introduced, the uproar is usually a bit too over-reactive. There were a lot of people upset when Photoshop came out–yes, I know that is quite a bit different than this, but… I believe that this will become just another artistic tool in the future. I also think many of the limits that people are putting in place are justified, but I really don’t see AI generated art ever supplanting artists. What I hope is this new tool will encourage new artists to enter the fold.
It will probably take 5 or so years for this to really settle out, imo.
What will probably keep AI from taking over the “creative” market is that the software creators will likely add clauses in their user agreement that allow them to maintain some form of ownership on what ever the AI creates, tracking the use of that art and demanding some payment everytime it shows up in media.
As for private use, most art I have purchased involved a combination of me likeing the work AND wanting to support the artest.
AI won’t have that draw.
Even my black heart loves the Charlie Brown holiday specials.
Loved this as a kid.
Even more as an adult when I read an article on what they went through to make it.
No one “got” what they were trying to do. Kids talking about adult topics, pointing out society’s screwed up values ?? Where is the comedy in that? CBS wanted them to add a “laugh track”.
The use of actual kids instead of adult voice actors was also “out there”. It took a lot of extra effort to make that happen as the kids had trouble with the lines. Many of little Sally’s lines were recorded a phrase or even a word at a time and painstakingly spliced (no digital here) together to make complete sentences.
While Vince Geraldi seems tame now, at the time they picked him his music was considered outside the mainstream and made the Network a little uncomfortable.Schultz hated it.
In the end, CBS wanted to pull the plug on it but it already had a broadcast date locked in.
It is a show by people who wanted to shake things up and it became cannon for many of us.
I love that.
All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.
That is a pretty amazing backstory. I do have to say: a laugh track would have been horrendous.
Completely differrent entertainment thought-
I don’t think I have ever seen a film Joseph Gordon Levitt has been in that I didn’t like. They all seem quirky and I like actors who are willing to take a chance on a strange film.
End of year, we should talk MMMmmmeetup. As a reminder, we’d discussed convening around Houston for the eclipse. This is not me inviting a group of people to Ed’s house. . . Just prodding the discussion.
Of course, the eclipse is in 2024 not 2023.
August would be a bit iffy for me, otherwise, *shrug*
silly me, a different site said 2024 I see it’s in October in 2023
*sigh* I change my mind. I think it is in 2024.
Can someone else double check. I’m getting differing opinions on line
Yeah, I think the total eclipse is April 2024. An annual one is in October 2023 but not quite the same as the total eclipse.
Oh, I see. We’ll just all stay in Ed’s guest room from October until April and catch them both.
I don’t want to sound snobbish, but you really need to see the total eclipse.
Turn around Bright Eyes.
October is CDN Thanksgiving. I’ll have to see the price of flights to determine if I can go.
Yeah, the 24 total one running up through the middle of Texas is the one I was planning for a MMeeetup for. Of course, we’ll still have a 3 hour drive from my house to the path of totality.
And with that, I’m definitely ready to travel in 2023. Where to?
Ok, Canada has been a suggestion, how realistic is that for 2023 for the USA lot?
There are hoops to be jumped for Canada 2023, but I’d be thrilled to make it happen.
My first hoop: I already have a Jan trip and a June trip planned.
(It’s long, but profound. The author is Adam-Troy Castro)
Do I bloody have to do this?
“Half this country has gone insane.”
Half this country has always been insane.
Half this country thought it was just terrific to keep a population of millions in chains.
Half this country used to pose for lynching postcards.
Half this country thought anybody who was against Hitler was a communist.
Half this country thought it was a great thing to beat up people for having long hair.
Half the country thinks that if a ten-year-old girl is raped, the little whore should shut up and have the baby.
Half the country thinks the rapist should get visitation.
Half the country thinks that the moon landing was a hoax.
You can argue that the percentage is closer to 27%, or whatever, that it only seems like half because of all those who simply have no opinion about anything deeper than what host of THE PRICE IS RIGHT is best.
But Trump didn’t make so much of the country insane. Fox didn’t. Even OAN and Sinclair and Alex Jones didn’t.
You know what these people are?
They are marketers.
They find the demographic and they go after it.
The demographic exists and the demographic is eager to lap up more craziness, more insanity, which is why the Overton Window has shifted from the forms of idiocy we had in some past decades to craziness about lizard people and child-trafficking pizza parlors and Jewish space lasers.
This is the country that once had a bunch of people who were proud, PROUD I tell you, PROUD, to band together as what they unabashedly called “The Know-Nothing Party.” Because this was who they wanted to be and they thought that they were labeling a virtue.
And you want to know what?
You want to know what?
The Khmer Rouge thought it was a good idea for a civilized country to slaughter all its doctors and schoolteachers and force everybody else into slave labor.
This country is not special.
The “half this country” complaint? Is true about the human race, in general. Ten percent of all human beings are sociopaths, and another few tens of percent will always listen to those who achieve power because they do not know the difference.
Trump did not do it.
He just stirred a pot that was already keeping warm on the stove.
Yep
What’s the source for that?
I cut-and-pasted from Adam-Troy Castro’s FB page. I don’t know if he’s posted it anywhere else.
So, I recently finished Scalzi’s Kaiju Preservation Society. I had a bunch to say about it, but I see that someone (not me) gave it to Bunny as her DPSS gift. So I’ll wait.
I will just say that, to my surprise, I liked it quite a bit.
I’m in the middle of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir so I probably won’t get to this one ditto gave me until the new year.
The only one of the new Star Wars series I felt the urge to rewatch so soon. It is brilliant,
I’m placing a bet that Lo will hate it though :-p
Your crap joke for the day:
A college pizza delivery boy arrived at the house of Mr.Smith. He delivered the pizza to his trailer. After giving it to him, Mr. Smith asked: “What is the usual tip?”
“Well,” replied the youth, “this is my first trip here, but the other guys say if I get a quarter out of you, I’ll be doing great.”
“Is that so?” snorted Mr. Smith. “Well, just to show them how wrong they are, here’s five dollars.”
“Thanks,” replied the youth, “I’ll put this in my school fund.”
It’s too bad about June, Jack. That would have been the perfect time.
Dates to keep in mind if you’re thinking Canada.
Between the May long weekend and Thanksgiving is best as a lot of things tend to be closed for the winter beyond those dates. (May 20 – Oct 9)
Stampede week is a terrible time to be in Calgary (July 7 – 16)
And August 4 – 6 won’t work for me.
I know this would narrow dates down quite a bit but thought I’d let you know.
Okay, May is sounding promising.
If it’s not too close to Jack’s June trip
September would also be good. Less tourists
I think September will be better for us, but let’s see what everyone thinks. We’ll have kindergarten (!!!!) to contend with in September, but I’m sure we can make something work.
I was just making a sandwich and noticed a graphic on the bread wrapper that proudly proclaims “nutrition in every bite“.
The implications of having to advertise this are stunning.
Is there a commercially available bread out there with zero nutritional value?
“Our bread contains molecular bonds that your body may find beneficial.”
“ This bread is sold for entertainment purposes only. Caution – some bites may have NO nutritional value!”
As soon as he brings him home, the young rooster rushes and screws all 150 of the farmer’s hens.
The farmer is impressed.
At lunchtime, the young rooster again screws all 150 hens.
The farmer is not just impressed anymore, he is worried.
The next morning, not only is the rooster screwing the hens but he is screwing the turkeys, ducks even the cow.
Later, the farmer looks out into the barnyard and finds the rooster stretched out, limp as a rag, his eyes closed, dead and vultures circling overhead.
The farmer runs out, looks down at the young rooster’s limp body, and says:
“You deserved it, you horny bastard!”
And the young rooster opens one eye, points up at the vultures with his wing, and says,
“Shhhh! They are about to land!”
New Scientist likes to remind me I’m not the target audience for the magazine with the expensive tours:
Amazon orders are in! My Deadpan Secret Santa recipient’s gift isn’t coming until sometime on or after Dec. 27, unfortunately. Procrastination reigned this year, and today was my first day of serious Christmas shopping.
In reply to this comment earlier:
>>> End of year, we should talk MMMmmmeetup.
We should!! For 2023, I actually just finalized plans for an Alaska cruise with my parents, May 13-20, 2023. It has a stop in Vancouver, and I do have a current passport, valid through Jan. 2024, so I’m good on that front. Based on the date of that trip, I also vote September for MMMMMeetup (preferably not until after Dragon Con, which is Labor Day weekend, but as Jack said, let’s see what everyone thinks).
Depending on the dates I could do September.
What’s the weather like in Calgary in September?
I remember seeing tornado warnings on the tv when I visited Canada.
That was in July though.
This September we had record breaking heat. However, normally it’s pretty nice. A light jacket is usually fine. That being said, this close to the mountains, snow is also not out of the question
Dressing in layers is usually recommended
You should receive your gift no later than today, Amy. I got a confirmation of deliver 12/12-12/16.
Looks like I won’t get it till January, but whoever sent me a t-shirt via RedBubble, thank you.
I am hubbiless this evening. He’s watching Paws of Fury with a bung of elementary kids tonight. Since I’ve never seen it, maybe I’ll see if I can find the movie and stream it too
I should have liked Paws of Fury, but I didn’t. It was an attempt to remake Blazing Saddles using cats and dogs instead of racism and turning it into a family friendly flick. Just didn’t land with me on any level whatsoever. And I say that with a super heavy heart because Mel Brooks was a producer on that one.
^Thanks, Jack! I have a few random, unopened Amazon packages addressed to me at my place; one of them might be yours. I’ll check for any new ones when I get home.
Sorry to bring this up, but on our last comment thread, JustaJoe posted about reading a roundup of the most recent (2022 study results) research on all of the things Covid is doing to the body; however, he didn’t post a link to it. You don’t happen to still have it, do you, Joe? I ask because I need to present a convincing case for continuing to wear masks as part of my annual Christmas care package project.
I don’t want anyone to ever feel uncomfortable asking reasonable questions about COVID protections. I’ll never shut down that conversation.
A buddy of mine just got his 2nd case of Covid.
First time around it was like a common cold and he was over it in 5 days. This time he is 10 days in and has no energy to do anything.
Symptoms of a different varient or cumulative damage? ♂️
Was surprised “The Night Before” wasn’t on that list.
Directed by Jonathan Levine and staring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
I stumbled across it late one night years ago and thought it was great.
I might have been drunk at the time though so…
Tom Lehrer‘a website is disappearing soon so download all that you want (he released all his songs into the public domain years ago):
Downloaded! “An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer” and “That Was The Year That Was” were so much a part of my childhood. Thanks for the heads-up!
If you want to download the Tom Lehrer albums, note that the link for _The Remains of Tom Lehrer_ (Disc 1) contains a typo: the file is given as trotll.rar, but it’s really trotl1.rar.
@Jack I’ve loved Two Steps From Hell for years. I think I first found them when I was trying to find the music for the 2009 Star Trek trailer. The were/are a Production Music company so a lot of their music ends up in trailers. I’ve also noticed their music in PBS series from time to time.
But, alas, I’ve not heard them score a movie. I’d love to hear that too. And maybe they’ll bring their Live show somewhere near here in the future.
Productive afternoon earlier. Christmas care packages have been sent to my parents, Van, and Mark the Encaffeinated One. Still have Bunny’s and Nutty’s; going to see if I can get Stamps.com to cooperate in order to take care of those. I also got groceries.
We caught the Cirque du Soleil Christmas show in a theater this afternoon. I’m pretty certain that one of them are human. Just mind-blowing.
In other news, watched ep 1 of the Interview with the Vampire series. . . It’s kinda like watching the recent Hobbit film trilogy.
“Why are all of these core story and character elements changed? How is all of this new, extra stuff adding to the story? Why?”
I don’t think I can hang.
Positives: The 2 leads are great.
It seems to be well liked by people who don’t know the source material.
Quite enjoyed some on that list, agree about Amsterdam though.
I’m officially sick and tired of people being blinded by the flash of AI technology. I work with AI and I’m well aware of what it can do an it’s limitations. People always want to focus on it’s abilities and completely ignore it’s limitations. This article is all about how some YouTuber used AI to color enhance a scene from Metropolis and therefore it’s fantastic and they were floored by the improvement. IT SUCKS! It’s the absolute worst colorization I’ve ever seen in my life. The colors are muted and in an almost constant state of flux. It’s actually difficult to watch. WTF?
I agree. The recent Science Friday coverage on this was pretty good. The artists they interviewed were more concerned about how AI was trained on art without artist permission and what constitutes fair-use.
They pump it up, like the wormhole simulation story and the fusion news, shrug.
These are early days, the AI is going to get better.
Yeah, the quality is poor now, but I’m sure it will get there faster than anyone is comfortable with.
Interesting times ahead.
More children now die from gun related deaths than in motor vehicle accidents:
So I got a FB friend request from Amy. I know I’ve received a few bogus friend requests lately, just seeing if this one is real.
Looks like the real deal:
Hello, me. Meet the real me.
(That one’s for you, Jack Mangan. )
When it became clear that I would have to start from scratch with a new Facebook account (my old one got stolen and deleted), I decided that that line would be the first thing I would post on it. RIP, old account. That was one of the OG accounts from the .edu-email-required days. I’m sorry to lose that OG status, the pictures (most of which were also stored elsewhere), and especially the message history.
On the bright side, I have a blank slate to choose my friends and my interactions more wisely so that I have better, more curated content to look at here. I’ve learned a lot since college, about information security, content algorithms, and many other things. This time, my interactions here will be more mindful.
Yes, I trust that to be the real Amy.
Yep! If I have an orange and purple sailor collar in my profile picture, it’s real.
I have no idea what’s going on, but sometimes when I refresh the page I get redirected to a porn site.
This page???
Yup.
I did as well.
Ugh. I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for letting me know.
Same here btw
Whoever ordered that t-shirt for me got my postcode wrong, hopefully it will still get here.
I did a bunch of WP updates. Please do let me know if you see it happen again.
Did today, this was a casino site.
Still happening.
Crap joke for the evening:
By 2030, auto pilots on jet liners will be so sophisticated that the cockpit crew will be reduced to one pilot and a dog.
The pilot is there to feed the dog.
The dog is there to bite the pilot if they try touch the controls.
A good Tonight Show monologue-style joke.
From about the 2-minute mark to the 3-minute mark – Reb Brown talking MST3K and Space Mutiny:
The redirect happened to me once, but now that I’m running dev tools, it isn’t happening again. I’ll try and capture some information, if I can.
If you do capture anything that might help me narrow things down, it would be much appreciated!
Thanks! I’ve been in touch with Tony. Basically elevating to a higher support tier.
*escalating
Hubby got a bunch of cards from one of the grade one classes. One of them said he’s was the best pinspole ever. I think that will be my new nickname for him now, pinspole
I’m also going to start using this for that profession, just on general pinspoles.
Because, Canada. It’s colder now than it was before the sun came up
Tony cleared out all of the potential infections and ran a scan, which came up negative.
We should* be good. Sorry for the unexpected stuff. Damned hackers.
Maybe… hopefully.
If anyone sees any wonkiness, please feel free to message me on FB, it might be the easiest way to catch me. That or you can email me tony at backseatproducers. I’ll try to monitor it as I can.
It just happened to me.
It looks like an attack on the cdn for some of your resources. I’ll email you a screenshot.
The “Immaculate Reception” is probably a little tame by today’s standards, but was a huge deal in its day. One of the biggest plays in all of US sports history.
I feel it’s a stretch to make the central aspect of this story facial recognition. It’s really a story about the legality of policies use by MSG. Facial recognition was just the tool they used to identify the person.
Agreed. The evil isn’t the technology, it’s the actions taken by the venue.
Husband tried to take my picture this evening. We both ended up in giggling fits. He says he doesn’t understand how I don’t look like me in pictures. I say that’s why I don’t like having my picture taken
Will try again tomorrow
Winter storm hitting the Midwest from now through Friday afternoon. Planning on staying inside until church on Saturday evening.
I plan to spend the time I’m snowed in working on Christmas letters and getting my place in shape, as well as cooking So far, I’ve hung up a picture and 3 holiday garlands. Pictures on the new FB account when I’m ready to take pictures.
I look forward to seeing the pictures! Stay safe and warm through that mess. I.e., why I moved to Phoenix.
Looks like snowmeggedon is going to have its grips on most of the US. Stay warm.
So we got a “beer advent calendar”. Anyone familiar with Minhas Brewery from Wisconsin?
There was a Minhas brewery in Calgary. I wonder if they’re related
No time to finish the article, but it’s off to a great start.
First day of holidays for the husband. W00t!
My child just told me that another good game is called “Tunic”. I might not have the spelling right.
Apparently a “puzzle” game and some of the people she knows who play it actually keep notebooks to write down and help sort the clues.
I quite enjoyed Tunic. It was such a bittersweet story.
BTW- currently it is 5°F here. I tried to play the “cold is no big deal“ game and went outside to try and do some chores.
My hands still hurt.
*falls on floor laughing*
That’s unheard of in your top secret location!
I am fortunate (in many many ways) that I occasionally go skiing so I have appropriate outer wear … just had to make myself dig them out
Am out running errands … seeing lots of desperate looks at my fur lined ski jacket from all the folks who are “bundled up” in hoodies.
*cold*
Still on the floor with laughter.
I know it’s due to the ocean and the jet stream but it still weird that I’m at a higher latitude than TEB but get a warmer winter climate.
It’s about “the delta” TEB (rolls eyes… throws another log on the fire.)
I know it’s all relative. It’s like when I complain in the summer about the heat. I’m sure our Arizonians laugh at me.
I was a little uncomfortable in the sun earlier today with my sweater on. But it did get chilly later.
Sent this to my daughter because she’s big into the Five Nights at Freddie’s horror games. I spent many youthful hours at Showbiz Pizza. I think the real thing might be more terrifying than the animatronics in the game.
Oh shit. Damn, I was into Faithless back in the 90s.
Your crap joke for this Xmas Eve:
I went to buy a Christmas tree the other day, and the shop assistant asked “Do you plan to put it up yourself?”
I said “No, I was thinking the living room.”
Dog bless us, everyone!
Your Santa Hat sir.
Merry Christmas you old Deadpan!
Sorry about getting Zsu Zsu’s petals all over the floor.
Whaddya know about that!
I watched that one alone last year. It my happen again this year.
Up early for a zoom chat.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas
Merry Xmas, Deadpan!
It’s a weird one, with Tiffany and the eldest daughter both working, but we made a fun morning of it.
Today’s, bad, Christmas cracker jokes-
Q. What is grey and has four legs and a trunk?
A. A mouse going on holiday
Q. When do spare parts from Japanese cars start falling out of the sky?
A. When it’s raining Datsun cogs.
Q. What is green and bounces around the garden?
A. A spring onion.
CW: Glass Onion
I’m just going to say that Ed Norton is great in this.
We watched this last night after getting back from family gatherings.
Enjoyed it every bit as much as the first.
I do hope this becomes a regular thing.
So a programmer that created Dropzone on the C64, Archer Maclean has died, just 60.
We played “Ticket to Ride” on Christmas Eve.
It was a fun time. I don’t get to play board games as much as I would like.
Great game, the iPad version with online play is a good alternative if you can’t find players or you can play the computer.
Ticket to Ride is a favorite around here too. We haven’t messed around much with expansions or other maps. just enjoying the basic and the 1910 games.
So, after watching the Rings of Power Series while I was also working my way through the Silmarillion. I was trying to find some good articles on just how the show and Tolkien’s various writings of the second age differ. What helped me get through the Silmarillion was the Tor primer written by Jeff LaSala (https://www.tor.com/series/the-silmarillion-primer/). He was really able to put everything in a way that oddly enough made more sense that Tolkien’s own words and I actually enjoyed the primer at least as much as the Silmarillion itself. So, of course, the best version of an analysis of RoP that I was able to find came from… Jeff LaSala. If you have any desire to read a well written analysis from someone who 1) knows his Tolkien lore incredibly well and 2) really went in with an open mind and understanding that shows will always change things in their adaptations, I highly recommend reading his stuff.
I still need to see Everything Everywhere All At Once, goddamn it.
This list seems fine, but I don’t know how you omit the cultural phenomenon of Stranger Things. Even if you didn’t like it, the show was dominant in 2022.
I’d also add that The Peripheral is excellent. I’m rewatching now, so Tiffany can see it, catching so many little details on the second viewing.
Yeah, “The Peripheral” gets top marks from Teresa and me this year.
Will add that to the list.
Finally saw “Bullet Train” last night. It was fun. I definately liked the style/look of the film.
The early parts of this article make me realize how little I follow anything anymore. I don’t know 75% of the people listed. It’s not until you get down to the old fogies section (Michael Douglas, Jamie Lee Curtis, The Sheen Clan, etc.) that I start to know people.
You know I will never stop thinking Vector displays are cool.
In this, you will always be right!
I’ve destroyed many a vector Death Star in my day.
That was definitely one of the highlights of my visit to the pinball museum in Vegas.
I LOVED THE PINBALL MUSEUM!
Also, I think it was called “Battlezone”. You were driving a tank and blowing up random shaped raster objects.
The first time I experienced that game I became thrilled with the potential of computers and what they might bring us.
I saw The Menu in the theaters because I was stuck in Lincoln, Nebraska with little else to do. It was actually quite enjoyable. Really far more of a comedy with thriller aspects than what I would classify as horror. But the comedy was really well done so I like to think of it as a very successful comedy.
Missed that one at the cinema, Wil have to wait for it to come on streaming now.
Having friends over today. Will probably play some Winter Kingdom followed by Cards Against Star Wars
I watched Black Adam last night. Pretty descent flick. Starts to take an almost Watchmen concept of not having everything as simply good or evil. So, of course, it flopped and many people didn’t like it. Getting harder and harder to tell anything but a formulaic story in a comic inspired movie.
I’ve been in no hurry to see this because
It seems like a vanity project for Dwayne Johnson.
Zero connection to these characters.
And it’s DC.
But I’m sure we’ll get to it.
I found Black Adam to be Ok, but not beyond that. You should watch the pitch session on YouTube. It explains SOME of the issues I had
Tonight: introducing the elder daughter to The Lost Boys. She laughed at it and laughed AT it, which is appropriate.
Tiffany was less impressed.
I still love this movie, in spite of the Coreys. I acknowledge every bit of cheese, but I like cheese.
I liked the cheese as well.
This may be another film whose genious was it’s place and time in culture’s timeline.
I believe it was one of the first “teen” vampire flicks and also one of the first to be intentionally a “Dark Comedy”.
Now, teen vamps are/were a franchise (so it lost that edge) and murderous, sarcastic teenagers are a dime a dozen so it’s lost that “novelty” as well.
When it came out though … it was like nothing I had ever seen.
She’ll have her revenge when you’re trying to sleep.
The littlest one got the Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro storybooks for Xmas, so after reading, we had to rewatch Spirited Away last night.
This movie is just incredible.
It’s really a movie about an unhappy kid who has to grow up really fast because her careless, greedy parents put everyone in terrible danger. No wonder it was such a hit with Gen X.
CP: I Am The Black Ace — Black Ace
I think I’m going to get my locks chopped this morning
Well there goes all your power.
It’s always a bit of a shock to discover that a character actor has done so much more than his roles in western media would indicate:
Much as I love the Evil Dead movies, I think I’m gonna pass on Evil Dead Rise. I can’t really stomach “mom being evil to kids.” Even in a fictional setting.
Watched the movie Moonfall on prime. Despite the high budget and name stirs, I wouldn’t recommend it
Where as I watched The Menu on Disney+, horror comedy, gets a thumbs up from me.
It’s been really difficult to get good sci fi movies lately. I’ll pass on Moonfall. Agreed on The Menu though. It was well done comedy.
The eldest daughter was offended tonight by “Tracks of My Tears” by Smokey Robinson because of the “She might be cute, but she’s just a substitute” line – – because he’s just using the substitute girl.
Crap joke for the day:
Professor at the University of Sydney was giving a lecture on ‘Involuntary Muscular Contractions’ to his first year medical students. Realising this was not the most riveting subject, the professor decided to lighten the mood slightly.
He pointed to a young woman in the front row and said, ‘Do you know what your arsehole is doing while you’re having an orgasm?
She replied, ‘Probably fishing with his mates.’
It took 45 minutes to restore order in the classroom…
*Slow clap*
I’m glad I’m old enough to double check things before making comments.
For example, confirming that Van’s post did not say fisting.
The same actress who voiced Lilo in Lilo in Stich and voiced Chihiro in the English language dub of Spirited Away, was Donnie Darko’s sister, and crawled out of the TV in the US version of The Ring.
Ask ChatGPT to write a program in BASIC to sort three numbers:
10 INPUT “Enter the first number: “, A
20 INPUT “Enter the second number: “, B
30 INPUT “Enter the third number: “, C
40 IF A > B THEN SWAP A, B
50 IF A > C THEN SWAP A, C
60 IF B > C THEN SWAP B, C
70 PRINT “The sorted numbers are:”; A; B; C
80 END
As an aside, being asked to do this at school was the first sign I was never going to be a programmer.
If it asks you if you want to play a game
do not
I repeat, DO NOT select
“Global Thermo Nuclear War” !
CP: βios — Hiroyuki Sawano feat. Mika Kobayashi
Just finished the third episode of “Wednesday”
Very much enjoying this.
The style is my kind of thing and the lead actress is killing it (pun intended).
IMHO they have avoided the pitfall of making each scene just a set-up for a snarky remark from her (ala – Roger Moore’s “James Bond“). Her snark seems to be “considered response” rather than “off the top of the head” smarm.
She might be kidding. She might not.
I think that is what makes it work.
Back in the dim and distance past, when you bought a PC it only came with a buzzer for sound and you had to purchase a sound card for better sound.
I was there, Gandalf.
RIP
Playing Gloomhaven on line with friends this afternoon. Last time we failed miserably. Hopefully, today will be better
JW: Puss in Boots : The Last Wish
I wasn’t expecting much but this turned out to be bloody good fun.
We should do some online games! If we can ever schedule it.
Hahahahahahahahahaha
Umm, sorry.
We use Board Game Arena for a lot of our gaming (Not Gloomhaven). They have quite a good selection.
Crap joke for a Sunday morning:
A man climbs to the top of Mt. Sinai and gets close enough to talk to God. Looking up, he asks the Lord, “God, what does a million years mean to you?” The Lord replies, “A minute.”
The man then asks, “And what does a million dollars mean to you?” The Lord replies, “A penny.”
Then he asks,”Can I have a penny?” The Lord replies, “In a minute.”
We don’t have Pennie’s in Canada
Apparently, because of this fact, autocorrect has decided we also mean people of that name too
*sigh*
Speaking of board games….how to we move toward a weekend and country for the next MMMMeetup?
I think we determined September works best for Jack’s schedule but we haven’t actually chosen a weekend or place.
I thought Calgary was the final choice? Would a SurveyMonkey help to finalize everything?
Gawd no, I’m happy to go with Calgary but more concerned with the dates.
OK. Let’s Monkey it.
TIL: Boris Vallejo is still with us. Boris Vallejo turns 83 today! In honor, I shall oil up my muscles and go to the grocery store in a teeny tiny loincloth.
On the back of a giant tiger
You don’t do this everyday? Illusions shattered..
Today I’m getting my paperwork in order so it’s ready for tax time.
How did my life get so exciting.
This is a long read, so I skimmed, but it seems to be really well-presented and difficult to dispute. He seems to stick to verifiable facts and not rely on his own observations as the evidence for any of his assertions.
I spent about 90 minutes last night trying to pick the bathroom door lock, to no avail. No one was trapped inside, just no one can access the bathroom now.
Always something.
I’ve only every had bathroom doors with the hole on the outside of the knob so that one can stick something like a paper clip in it and the door will unlock. Sorry for the struggle.
When my son was 2 years old, he managed to throw the keys to a closet into that closet and lock it. I ended up taking the hinges off the door to retrieve them and put a none locking hardware set on the door so it wouldn’t happen later.
Always late to the party, I started an Instagram account, just because. So far I have one follower.
It’s just been about the cat so far but, let’s see how long that lasts.
Initial success on project “find new standup comedians”. I rather like Tim Minchin, or at least his latest special “Back Live”. His music is good, and the comedy and social commentary are spot on.
I forgot about him. I assume Eddie Izzard is already covered?
Meh.
For my tastes, it doesn’t add any new takes on the song and isn’t better than the original.
I don’t see any reason to listen to this version instead of the original.
CP: Fade To Grey — Visage
Crap joke for the evening:
A husband and wife in their 90s are both having problems remembering things.
During a checkup, the doctor tells them that they’re physically OK, but they might want to start writing things down to avoid forgetting.
Later that night, while watching TV, the old man gets up from his chair. “Want anything while I’m in the kitchen?” he asks.
“Will you get me a bowl of ice cream?”
“Sure …”
“Don’t you think you should write it down so you can remember it?” she asks.
“No, I can remember it.”
“Well, I’d like some strawberries on top, too. Maybe you should write it down, so as not to forget it?”
He says, “I can remember that. You want a bowl of ice cream with strawberries.”
“I’d also like whipped cream. I’m certain you’ll forget that, write it down?” she asks.
Irritated, he says, “I don’t need to write it down, I can remember it! Ice cream with strawberries and whipped cream — I got it, for goodness’ sake!” Then he toddles into the kitchen.
After about 20 minutes, the old man returns and hands his wife a plate of bacon and eggs.
She stares at the plate for a moment.
“Where’s my toast?”
Yeah, it is all over Twitter. It’s been good news for all 3rd party systems that compete with DnD. The publisher of Savage Worlds stated they sold out of all their base rule books for some reason. LOL Hasbro’s lawyers are pretty thickheaded in my opinion. Role-playing tabletop games are a cottage industry and there are plenty of other systems people can use and get the same or better experience. I’m also a little peeved with Hasbro the way they have handled the Rom:Spaceknight IP. James Gunn wanted ROM in Guardians 3, but Marvel stated it would be too difficult to work with Hasbro to get the rights. If Hasbro ever does make a ROM movie, nobody will have a clue who the character is. That was a big marketing opportunity for them, but lawyers.
Started watching Manhunter and nothings says filmed in the 80s then the bloody font on the title screen.
Oh and Will’s wife is played by the actress who was the love interest in Brazil.
The original Michael Mann movie? I’m a huge fan, but I remember this one being kind of a swing and a miss.
The site wants me to pay to read into the meat of the article. I did the replacement when they first put out the recall because my old machine was, well, old and I wanted a free new one. But my doctor said that the issue with the foam was caused by people putting their CPAP machines into sanitizing machines that they were never designed to go into and that if I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t have any actual trouble with the foam. They sent me a new machine quickly and with no muss or fuss. The new machine works fine.
Yeah I’ve never done that as well, will get a new machine on Monday.
Mine isn’t a Philips so… go me?
Well looks like mine has the disintegrating foam, been having flu like symptoms all week that eased overnight when I stopped using the machine.
CP: School — Supertramp
Are you ok ditto? That’s a bit mainstream for you.
Cough
Don’t you talk about ditto, he’s the only one I’ve got.
We have started watching the tv series Let The Right One In. I’ve seen both versions of the movie (French and English) and am quite enjoying the series now, too
Loved the original movie. I’d question the need for a series, but if it works, it works.
You’ve been eaten by a grue
Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold.
I don’t remember Thorin being in Zork
Nope but he was in The Hobbit, another early text adventure based on the Tolkien book:
The Top 40 Prog Rock songs of the year. So, roughly 7,861 minutes of music.
I know a handful of these. . . I’m intrigued by many of the others. In my ignorance, I’d thought that Tangerine Dream ended when Edgar Froese died in 2015. I see they’ve kept going.
I definitely had some Tangerine Dream albums back in the day. You know… the ones you would put into a dual cassette boom box and make a copy of. Those.
They have over 150 album releases. Sadly, some of my old favorites – Thief, Turn of the Tides – are not available through Amazon streaming.
CW: The Last of Us E1
Oh yeah, been waiting for this one.
Got a new CPAP machine, still a Philips but not part of the recall.
I both love and hate doing things I don’t really know how to do.
“I’m from a tech-obsessed subculture, so it’s my habit to look for
scientific and industrial innovations and assume they’re gonna alter
the world’s situation.
That’s not what happens in this decade.”
Reading through Bruce Sterling’s 2023 State of the World.
Ok, watching the first episode of Chippendales and wondering if Backgammon was ever that Big in the USA?
Yeah, I remember it being big in Canada. I’m assuming it was similar in the US.
Watching the 2009 rebooted Star Trek film and man that cast was fricking fantastic,
This first rebooted Trek movie is the best thing JJ Abrams has ever and will ever do.
Crap joke for the evening:
A husband was sitting quietly reading his paper one morning, peacefully enjoying himself, when his wife sneaks up behind him and whacks him on the back of the head with a huge frying pan.
“What the heck was that for!” he asked.
She replies, “I found a piece of paper in your pants pocket with the name Marylou written on it…”
“Oh, dear, remember two weeks ago when I went to the horse races? Well, Marylou was the name of one of the horses I placed a bet on.”
The explanation seems to appease her, and she leaves the room to go about her business.
Three days later, the man is again sitting in his chair reading the morning paper. His wife abruptly hangs up the telephone and then whacks him on the back of the head with the huge frying pan.
“What the heck did I do wrong this time!” he asked.
This seems like the right direction in my opinion. I don’t begrudge Wizards trying to make money on their IP, but I do get how content creators felt the reigns tightening. As for myself, I’m not going to be subscribing to any monthly digital services from Wizards, so if DnD Beyond makes it mandatory, there are plenty of paper & pencil systems that don’t require it, even older editions of DnD.
I imagine it’s too little, too late for some. Still, this is the right thing to do today, given the situation.
Amazon should have done something like this after they wrecked Comixology.
In “Am I Evil?” news: I have a physical promo comic book in my hands!
It’s not the finished product, but – – wow!
THAT is exciting news!
Can’t wait to see it !
W00T!
W00T x2!
BTW – I got my indie gogo email update.
The pictures look really slick!
Actor Julian Sands is missing on a California hiking trail. 🙁
I really liked 1899 on Netflix! I’m disappointed in Netflix for cancelling it.
Calling on Amazon Prime to pick it up and let them finish this thing!
Yeah, we quite enjoyed it too. I know there’s some sort of petition going around to get it renewed but I don’t think that’ll work
End of an era.
I subscribe to two magazines every year. Well just went digital only with one of them.
With postal strikes and the pandemic deliveries of the print magazine were a tad unreliable. Discovered I quite enjoyed reading the digital version of the magazine on my iPad every week so went for the cheaper option.
I’ve gotten the PC Gamer magazine digitally on the Ipad for a few years now. I don’t think I’d ever go back to paper given a choice.
Somehow didn’t expect that people referenced in Bugs Bunny cartoons would even still be around. Not sure why the joke even stuck with me, but I definitely remember Bugs saying to someone “ducka you head, lollobrigida” right before the other character smacks their head on a bridge.
What an iconic voice and character. CSN/CSNY absolutely takes me back to a specific place and time.
I know he’d been “grandpa yelling at cloud” online in the past few years, but whatever. Great musician, great career. RIP
Everything Jack said.
He brought great music and musical stories into the world.
The album “So Far” is a milestone piece for me and is music that will outlive us all
Honestly, I didn’t know he was still around.
Crap joke for this cold morning:
I recently had a mouse infestation in my kitchen.
I sprayed WD 40 around the hole they came in through.
It didn’t get rid of them, but it stopped them squeaking!
I just noticed (I’m slow) that Ryah did not get her Am I Evil? email update.
Did the update miss anyone else?
For whatever reason, these go straight into my read/trash folder. Once I know it exists, I’m able to locate them but they certainly don’t like going into my in box. I’ve double checked all my settings and everything and there seems to be no reason for this.
I didn’t get anything either. Checked the spam and the read emails and the last thing I have is from December of 2021.
CP: Short but Sweet — Louis Armstrong
So Jetbro Tull are doing a concept album based on Norse myths:
So Jethro Tull are doing a concept album based on Norse myths:
Well that became a confusing search really fast. I went to find the latest Tull album and it was The Zealot Gene (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zealot_Gene) in 2022. I though that might be it but when I finally got to the description of the album it was “The Zealot Gene is not a concept album, but biblical references are made throughout and Anderson began writing each song with a passage from the Bible.”
So much for that album. I love Tull, but that really really isn’t up my alley.
Turns out the one on Norse Myths is RökFlöte and has not been released yet. That one I’ll definitely be on the lookout for.
Well I did write doing, which rather indicates it was a work in progress.
Indeed, you are and were correct. Doesn’t mean that you (or anybody else) has always been so. And when I saw 2022 I though there really couldn’t be two new Tull albums in the last year or so. It was still worth investigating, even if it turn out that the 2022 album doesn’t look for me. Would have been worth it for new Tull.
I guess these are the people who cheer for Pinky’s rant in “In the Flesh.”
Funny thing is, 50 years ago Pink Floyd was doing things that caused people who didn’t like change to get upset.
Nice to see they can still do that.
Yet another example of the statement my friends and I used to explain every unexplainable thing when I was an undergrad in college… people are stupid
Eldest daughter is home from school. We were going to watch Terminator 2 (the first isn’t on HBO right now, just the 2nd), but went with John Wick instead. I figured it was a bit more current and relevant to a person born in this century – – and little shorter, which mattered when starting after 11.
I’ve seen the John Wick movies once apiece, in the theaters. This movie is still really good, but far darker in tone than I remembered. I guess it was the sequels that I was thinking of that get more playful with his gun-fu.
Still excellent, but I couldn’t help feeling like we shoulda watched T2.
John Wick has of late, become a running joke around here. For some reason in the Dec/Jan time period, it was almost ALWAYS on if we sat down to watch TV at night.
The real funny part was that when we flipped through the channels and hit it, there was ALWAYS a gun fight going on.
If there is not a drinking game based on him reloading there should be.
Still haven’t seen all of any of those films.
As much as I like the first Terminator movie, it can be hard to watch for younger audiences as the special effects were far far far superior in T2.
T1 will always hold a special place in my heart but it’s prevalence of cultural references and images (which I think made it feel more real and important to me at that time) made it almost unwatchable decades later. I could overlook the aged FX but not the heavy 80’s vibe.
Also- my “decades later” rewatch was with a high school age daughter and I had not remembered the John/Sarah sex scene. I remembered they had hooked up but not that it was given so much explicite screen time.
THAT became very uncomfortable.
I remember an awkward time with my daughter when she got into horror movies and there was a constant struggle to find stuff that contained violence but not sex. I am well aware of the hypocrisy there. However, she and I were both more comfortable watching one than the other. Oddly enough, the most uncomfortable movie for us to watch together had nothing to do with sex scenes. It was, if I recall correctly, Aliens 3 or 4 in which it seemed that every other word spoken was an obscenity. I thought nothing of it the first time I saw it. But watching it with a teenage daughter and we were both superiorly aware of the language. Crazy the things that see off when watched with a school age daughter.
Episode 1 of the Vampire Chronicles completely went there (a shock to me, since there’s nothing like that in the book, goddammit), and after about 20 seconds of everyone silently begging the scene to end, the daughter just said, “bye” and left.
I think the solution is to always always always always check the content warnings.
Just going to pop in and say again that T3 rocks and the downbeat ending is bloody fantastic.
Boy did I hate T3. I last watched it as a Blockbuster rental, so maybe I should give it another shot.
I was thinking – – as Asshat was kinda saying – – that T2 is the better starting point for a younger viewer.
Ok, so in Iron Giant, did the robot have a head injury from the crash landing or when he fell after Hogarth cut the power off at the sub station?
I believe it was from the crash landing. His demeanor changed drastically after the dent was repaired.
How long did they make him sit out before he cleared “concussion protical”?
While some of these ARE clearly based on the previous work … I feel the author was clearly reaching on others to get enough material to make their article marketable.
The husband, myself, and a friend of ours have this running joke about cat people. Last night, John and I decided to watch the eighties movie Cat People. If you like nudity in your movies, this I the one for you. If you want your movies to make sense, then walk away.
I think tonight we’ll watch the fourties’ version
The husband, myself, and a friend of ours have this running joke about cat people. Last night, John and I decided to watch the eighties movie Cat People. If you like nudity in your movies, this I the one for you. If you want your movies to make sense, then walk away.
I think tonight we’ll watch the fourties’ version
… Nastassa Kinski
Seems like I liked Cat People, but have a vague memory of it being fairly dated the last viewing, which was probably over 25 years ago.
Spoken in Cartman voice “yeah I want nudity in my movies”.
I first watched cat people as a horny teenager so it was a fast favorite. Since I’m still a horny adult I expect it will have aged well. Although I remember sections of it being slower and that still won’t bode well with me.
A slice of history about the men who designed the Electroliner train:
Anyone here read Scalzi’s Kaiju Preservation Society? Looks interesting enough and I did like the one other thing of Scalzi’s that I’ve read. Apologies if anyone has already expressed their opinions here and I missed it.
I just finished it. I’m pretty hit and miss with Scalzi. This one was cute but not what I would call ground breaking.
It was entertaining enough, though.
I loved it. It was a fun read and parts were hilarious.
It’s on my TBR pile.
I was greatly entertained by this book. I felt like he was gunning for a big-budget movie adaptation.
I’m definitely hearing that it’s worth a try. It will be next month’s Audible credit purchase.
Last night we watched the 1942 Cat People. With the exception of the nudity, you could definitely see the parts of this movie that made up its remake
CW: The Last of Us E2
We watched it earlier today. I’ve never played the game and I’m usually not into the whole zombie apocalypse genre. But, given the two lead actors, I was up for giving it a shot.
We’re enjoying it so far.
We’ve enjoyed it too. I’ve liked and appreciated almost all the changes and additions. I thought the “kiss of death” just a bit too much though.
We saw episode one yesterday and enjoyed it. I never played the game as it hasn’t come to PC
So, did we come up with a weekend for the Mmeetup yet? I don’t remember seeing results from the survey.
I don’t think Jack has posted the results yet
I leave that to my wife’s capable clicks.
Majority of the votes (6/9) are for Labor Day Weekend.
What do we want to do with that?
The Mangan Fab Four are IN!
Ok, if I lived in the USA I would be seriously tempted:
I am way too much of a cheapskate, but wow. Although the sit-down version would be Fassbender perfection.
That’s pretty great. I don’t think I would have room for such a monster. However, Teresa liked her brother’s arcade emulator so much it is likely we’ll get one of those in the coming years.
If he’s guilty, then kick him to the curb and good riddance.
If the accusations are false, then we’re seeing an innocent person lose his entire livelihood.
I haven’t seen proof either way.
Please remember: should I ever hit his levels of fame, then there is a vindictive, mentally unwell person from my past who will make as much noise as possible with false accusations.
I came to the realization decades ago that “Fame” was something to be avoided.
“Fortune” on the other hand …
Yeah, I’ve appreciated people’s kind words about things I’ve created – – that’s been great. Otherwise, I continue to enjoy my anonymity, thank you.
These are probably best watched with the help of your robot friends.
I only just learned about Tony Iommi’s hand injury that lead to the distinctive Black Sabbath sound.
New meaning to “wow! That song has quite a hook”?
(* this post brought to you by
“people who have no idea what they’re talking about and blithely post before they do any research“)
It’s rumored he is the originator of “palm muting.”
Okay not really. (To no one’s surprise I am familiar with the injury in question)
To this day, he wears little finger caps on his right hand. Many believe that this was the first reason why Black Sabbath tuned down to their ominous, Doomy sound, so the string tension would be easier on his hand.
He’s a lefty player like me!
As was explained to me, to avoid a lot of pain due to the injury, he wears those finger caps, plus he strung his guitar with banjo strings and used drop C tuning.
I hope those Texas tornadoes didn’t affect Ed! I’d hate to have to go pick him up from Oz.
Thankfully, we came through unscathed. An area further east looks like it took an EF-3.
If you google Last of Us, they have a mushroom at the bottom of the screen you can click on.
CP: I Need Never Get Old — Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
..and the ghost of Leonardo da Vinci laughed and laughed..
for those who want to keep watching Netflix during their meetings?
I was just recently introduced to this one. I wasn’t even aware of the “LitRPG” genre. This one is a particularly solid opening and has pulled me out of a bit of a rut I was stuck in with finding something new to read.
Cool, I downloaded the audio version of the first book to check it out. I’ve mentioned before the podcast “Tale of the Manticore” which is a Dungeons & Dragons story that changes with dice-rolling skill checks. The production quality is on par with commercial offerings.
Intrigued. I’m connected to Matt Dinniman on FB – – he has some devoted fans.
MMMmmmeetup polling results are in!
Majority of the votes (6/9) are for Labor Day Weekend.
What do we want to do with that?
The Mangan Fab Four are IN!
The sixth of September is a week day here so how on Earth can that be the memorial weekend?
Labor Day weekend I mean.
The long weekend is the first to fourth here. The sixth is a Wednesday. I’m assuming it’s the first weekend of September that we’re talking about
When people are ready, I can let you know about the hotels closest to me. Although, Airdrie is small enough you can drive from one end of the city to the other in ten or fifteen minutes so anywhere is probably fine.
Also, my car, while having seatbelts for four, will comfortably fit 3 people. I can try to snaggle John to drive so we’ll have an extra vehicle for the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (he’ll work on Thursday and Friday), but there’s a better than average chance he’ll say no. He’s not an overly social person.
I still don’t know if I can get that weekend off, I’ll ask tomorrow.
I guess I need to update my Canadian passport. No, that doesn’t mean I’m growing a mullet.
You can talk, your chocolate pudding is bloody custard!
Man, what a night at the Metal Hall of Fame gala. I can’t even count the number of amazing people I met and talked to through The Metal Voice (I was on their Livestream for quite a while.
Van, have any updates about Sept?
Got the time off, so date wise I’m good to go.
Most excellent. Mrs. from Texas will be joining this year. Both kids will be oft to college, so we’re ready to enjoy being empty nesters.
So, for some planning purposes, what airport should we be looking at flying into?
Calgary. The Calgary airport is less than a half hour drive from my place
Actually, it’s funny. I no longer live in Calgary, but am now closer to the airport than when I did
So Jack, I don’t know US taxes well enough but, if you can arrange to meet with one of your artists while here, can you write off your flight? (I know not the whole family’s)
They are welcome to join us, or come to the Saturday food thing at our place that always happens at meetups
Thanks, Ryah! I was planning on inviting Kyle, Derek, and Jim (the trip from Edmonton might be difficult). Please also feel free to o cite Ryan, Randy, and anyone else who’d be inclined.
When making plans, one thing I can tell you, the closer you can arrive to when a place opens, the better. I’m sure Van can tell you from when he was here, we’d go to the Tyrell, or the zoo, or Heritage Park and there were few crowds by arriving earlier. By the time we were ready to leave, the lines were hours long
The two hotels closest to me is a Best Western Plus and a Days Inn. While the Best Western is about five minutes closer, The Days Inn was only built about five years ago so it’s newer.
I haven’t been inside either one of them so couldn’t say what they are like, but I can take a peek at them next week if people want
Cut my finger trying to separate mini Yorkshire pudding trays with a knife, knew as I was doing it that this was probably not going to end well and it didn’t.
If you’ve you seen Ice Cold in Alex or the Heineken ad that used a scene from the film, that was her.
Carlsberg not Heineken..doh!
I know I shouldn’t have, but I read an article where Tucker Carlson said you shouldn’t sent tanks to the Ukraine but instead use them to invade and liberate Canada. What the hell did we do? Seriously, let me know, I want to make sure we do it again
Can we load Tucker Carlson into a cannon and fire him into the sea?
It would turn the sea into a toxic, EPA Superfund site. It would be safer and more cost effective to launch him into the Sun.
I look outside and I start to worry. The husband has to drive home in this
So today watched the first episode of Extraordinary (sitcom with superpowers) on Disney+ and Poker Face (human lie detector solves murders Columbo style) in Paramount+.
Tired Jack is tired. To respond to the day’s comments:
I hope Van’s finger is OK. I hope husband got home ok in the weather. I hope Tucker Carlson gets fired out of a cannon into space. I hope I’m just feeling rundown, and not actually getting sick.
I never gave Television a fair shot, but with today’s passing of Tom Verlaine and all of the tributes, I’ve given Marquee Moon a spin. I hear why this connected with so many people. Young me would have hated this, but old me gets it. It’s too bad it took the mastermind’s death for me to find this. https://youtu.be/7KvgP8MlEEE
RIP
I had not heard of this band till today.
Same. At least if I had heard I tune by them I didn’t know who it was.
I really like it.
This is early punk rock and has that “edge”. Not the high energy, frenetic punk but the other end of the scale. Less “audio assault” and more “I’ve got something to say”.
There is also some “Talking Heads” feels to the vocals. Interesting as that band had only just released their first album that same year.
Good find.
When you discover an archive of a short lived magazine dedicated to strategy games on the internet:
Just found out that Sal Piro passed a few days ago. Even when I lived on Long Island, I never made it to one of the showings where he was, so I didn’t get to meet him. But I do have to thank him for being a pivotal part in making Rocky Horror what it became.
Yeah, I just saw that a little bit ago. She was great on The Rookie and Picard.
Crap joke for the evening.
As I knelt down with a pair of size 4 shoes in front of this blonde in a short skirt, I couldn’t resist a quick glance at her knickers:
“Hey, cheeky!” She said as she gave me a playful kick.
“I bet the only reason you work here is to look up girls’ skirts isn’t it?”
“That’s an absolutely ridiculous accusation, madam,” I said sternly.
“I don’t even work here.”
So turns out Zachary Levi is an anti-vaxxer, Trumper/MAGA and general douchebag.
Ah well.
I’ll wait on this one.
As one article put it, it wasn’t clear if his “Pfizer is dangerous” tweet was “merely passing judgement on Big Pharma or leaning into anitvax territory,”
As for other “evidence” the internet is leaning into an old Joe Rogen appearance where he referred to a prominent homophobe as a deep thinker.
It’s possible that he isn’t maga but just not as clever as I had hoped.
**shrug**
I’ll wait for his explanation of the Pfizer tweet and see what else appears before I give up on him.
Yeah, I’m going to hold off on the pitchforks for now. It is entirely possible his tweet about Pfizer was about the evils of “big-pharma” and the damaging effect of advertiser money spent on drug costs.
The trailer for his Kurt Warner movie did make me go ;-|
It’s snowing again
My Boo’s birthday is coming up this weekend. Usually we take her out to dinner but haven’t for the last couple of years for obvious reasons.
This year we’re taking her out again. I think she’s taking advantage. Because we’re buying, she’s picked one of the more expensive restaurants in the city. https://www.omoyyc.com/
One to avoid for the meet-up then.
There’s apparently some flap about Sci-Fi editor Tom Monteleone saying terrible things. I don’t know the drama, and I don’t care to spend time researching it. I do, however, really like author Usman Mlk’s commentary, applied to the broader dogmatic movement. An excerpt, edited for TL;DR:
As Tom Monteleone has gone from grouchy old man yelling at clouds to outright bigot as well as providing a platform for bigotry and overt white supremacy, I have no qualms about taking names publicly anymore…
…But Tom belongs to another age, he really does, when men of a certain class and race viewed the world through a particular lens. That lens is affirmed over and over by the way the world treats them, until that becomes their truth. A world where traffic stops for black men go wrong bc ‘they just don’t cooperate with the police like I do’. Where systemic racism, inequality, crime is the fault of the ones at the bottom, not those at the top. Where pull yourself up by your bootstrap libertarianism is taken to its logical conclusion: genocide by ‘natural selection’.
Tom can talk about pronouns and wokeism and identity politics all he wants, but at the end of the day, we all know why we all pursue certain ideologies and not others: power and profit.
Samuel R Delany was talking about this phenomenon in publishing as far back as the 1980s.
Tom’s world is fading (even if the world that’s replacing it isn’t that much brighter) and he knows it. The new world has issues: leftists can certainly lose their minds, become as stubborn and idiotic as the right-wingers/libertarians. We make mistakes and form lynch mobs and hop on bandwagons — but we constantly correct course too. That introspection doesn’t happen in Tom or his similar-minded friends’ echo chamber and bubbles.
I’ve had different sicknesses for pretty much all of January. But hey, it’s now February, so that’s progress!
/complain mode
I hear you, brother. I managed to avoid Covid for three years, I was vaxed and boosted, went to numerous crowded concerts, and nothing. Then over Christmas Teresa and I caught Covid from my son. Luckily symptoms were very mild, but we had to quarantine for the majority of the holiday break. Anyway, on to February!
Ugh, sorry to hear it.
Thank you, I’m sorry for you and yours as well. Bring on February!
Also if Amy shows up, yes I received both Secret Santa gifts and they are great! Thank you.
Look at the coolness but if tempted look at the price:
They went with the wrong joke. “This battle station is fully operational” was the clear choice. It’s for this reason that I won’t give them $3000.00 for a backyard grill.
Sure Jack, sure…
“Many bothans died to bring us this fire pit.”
“The ability to cook a steak is insignificant next to the power of the force.”
“That’s no grill.”
“When I left you I was but the learner, Now I am the grill master.”
“Don’t get cooky kid!”
Honestly, this is the part I can’t get past –
“is the most precise Death Star firepit on the market. ”
Because, you know, THAT market being so competitive and all.
I walked into a store that was just called “General Store”
I told the guy behind the counter I just wanted to browse to see what they had in a general store.
He said “nothing specific”
You walked into that one. 😉
That’s a 4-star joke.
That pun is like a surgeon, cutting for the very first time.
CP: Terminator: Main Title — Brad Fiedel
In the city with the husband
The praise for episode 3 of TLoU is well earned.
Agreed.
It was rather heart wrenching
Up next for us, I think. We’ve decided to watch hour-long of closeups of Elisabeth Moss looking tortured. (The latest season of Handmaid’s Tale)
I always found that to be the dumbest criticism of Titanic. They clearly made an effort in the movie to get him up there, but he was always hyper-protective of her, to a fault.
I think my FB account has been hacked (and suspended) how do I contact them to say such? They want my phone number but I’m not about to give it to them
Yeah, I had to do a bunch of things, including send a copy of my driver’s license. Apparently, not only was it hacked, it was suspended for violating COVID mis-information. Since the last thing I actually posted was about my Boo’s birthday…
I’m now playing the waiting game for FB to contact me.
I think this is similar to what happened to Amy Bowen. It happened to a local friend too – – they both just abandoned their old accounts. . . :-/
When I checked your account, it said it was deactivated, not suspended. I guess we’ll see what happens.
I finished Kaiju Preservation Society. It was, indeed, a fun ride. But Scalzi literally overuses the hell out of the word “literally” which is made all the more prominent by Wil Wheaton literally overemphasizing each instance of the word.
I think I can safely say now: this book was a hell of a fun ride, but I hated, hated, hated, hated, hated , hated the main character. Hated him. Hated.
I think we’re supposed to find him hilarious and relatable, but his constant wisecracks are obnoxious and painfully unfunny. Almost ruined the book.
Otherwise: I liked it a lot. Scalzi was obviously gunning for a big- budget Hollywood adaptation, and I hope he gets it.
For me it was less about the main character (who was fine IMHO) and more about having every character seem to have the exact same sense of humor. As with many audiobooks, I have a hard time determining if something is a product of the author or the reader. I like Wil Wheaton enough but he has a definite over-the-top reading style and he doesn’t seem to bother to come up with new voices and/or personalities for each character. Every character in the book seemed to be the same person. Unclear if it was the writing or the reading. Maybe a bit of both.
Just switched from crappy 20 Mbps AT&T wifi to blazing fast 500 Mbps Spectrum wifi. But the router they provide appears to be a complete and utter piece of crap. Any recommendations on a good router for a Florida style (meaning 1 story and quite long) house? It’s been so damn long that I haven’t had to buy one that I have no clue what the market looks like now.
If you’ve got long distances to cover, I recommend some kind of mesh network. Some are wireless repeater types, other (like the Ubiquiti AP’s that I have) are hard wired.
Depends on how much you want to spend as mesh Wi-Fi can get expensive fast.
I bought the three pack of Google Nest Wifi Pro, which is probably overkill for my 2 floor terraced house. This replaced a two pack Google Wi-Fi. It comes with Matter support ( a standard for controlling devices in your network) and supports Wifi 6E.
If you don’t need Matter support or the latest Wifi standard, then see what sort of deal you can get on Google Wifi as it might be all you need.
Oh and you really need to be able to switch your ISP supplied hardware into modem only mode to let the first mesh unit handle the routing.
Watched League of Extraordinary Gentlemen last night. It was actually better than I remembered
So there is some sort of Charter/Spectrum routing issue between their net and GoDaddy. Packets just die. I can only get to this site using my cell.
What the crap. I don’t even know how to troubleshoot that. Can I do something?
I don’t think so. I’m going to look into it more on Monday.
I’m still having problems today. The ip it fails on is 148.72.36.3. According to db-ip.com, this is managed by GoDaddy and assigned to an address in Maricopa county, in Tempe, AZ.
This feels like my address is being blacklisted by your isp, Jack
I sent you an email with more info
Thanks. It’s kinda over my head. I fwded to Tony Mast.
It is crazy concerning anything with Spectrum. If I can get my phone (in far away parts of the house) to connect to wifi, I’m still getting speeds in excess of 100 Mbps. Just seems to be that it won’t actually connect to the wifi at all. Wonder it is isn’t related to the routing issue in some form or other
I find WiFi hardware supplied by the ISP to be a bit shit. Switching to modem mode and plugging in a dedicated router has always worked better for me,
If this forum allowed us to “like”, I would definately be “LIKE”ing this post.
The movie is The Core. I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard the mockery.
Until Hollywood continued to embarrass itself with bad science with every other movie (e.g., thinking that the dark side of the moon is something that one can rotate into and out of).
Two days into my holiday and I’ve caught a cold..bah!
My whole life, I’ve only ever wanted to be an eccentric genius weirdo.
Although it would seem that I don’t want to be that guy.
I’m no Leo DiCaprio fan, so I’m not blindly defending some idol.
Personally, I do find his choice of much-younger girlfriends to be a little creepy.
“They’re legal!” OK. . . Don’t arrest him. But I still can’t imagine what kind of real, deep connection could form between two people of such disparate age gaps. His behavior definitely raises an eyebrow.
But let’s remember a few things:
Unless there’s proof of him grooming them, drugging them, selecting damaged/fragile women, then he’s not a predator. That’s an inaccurate attack term with ulterior motives.
No one fucking knows him, any of his girlfriends, or the circumstances of any of these relationships. “He dumped her because she turned 25” – – Oh, you were there for the conversation when they split up?
There’s way too much beauty parlor celebrity gossiping.
The main point:
Remember that his environmental activism has put him in the crosshairs of powerful fascist-fetishist anti-green information peddlers. Those memes you’re reposting probably come from a source that you’d find repulsive.
I post this here because I trust you guys. I don’t want to have a 700-comment FB thread full of people I don’t know calling me terrible things.
One more note: My college professor married a colleague 25-ish years younger than him. They’ve been together for decades, have two college-aged children. I’ve met his wife a few times. She’s nobody’s doe-eyed victim. There are times when this works.
Agreed. I’m tired of all the faux outrage and virtue signalling.
I just saw that Van posted about Leo. . . . This wasn’t a passive aggressive snipe at you, my friend.
CP: Cassandra — Florence + The Machine
So my first time tonight to use a nasal spray decongestant as I had a stop using my CPAP machine last night because my nose was so blocked up with the cold the machine couldn’t force air through my nose.
Hopefully it will let me get some decent sleep tonight.
This is why Leonard McCoy was frustrated with medical technology when he came back to our era.
DeSantis is alarming. However, I do expect Trump to run as an independent if the Pubs don’t nominate him, splitting the ticket. Plus, every election cycle more Gen Z votes. While it isn’t impossible that DeSantis gets elected, I wouldn’t call him the “likely” person to be president. At least, that is what I am going to keep telling myself.
A government takeover…of a public college of the State of Florida?
Damn that representative democracy!
Harrison Ford interview, sounds like the interviewer knew what to expect:
Today marks the birthdays of John Williams (91), Stu Hamm, and Vince Neil.
We need to hear an album from these 3.
“Girls, Girls, Girls” with the Imperial March as the refrain?
So I just watched Prospect, low budget sci-fi which is pretty good.
It’s on PlutoTV on demand.
The 1978 Superman didn’t really have the little one glued to the screen, but it held her interest enough. The pre-cape and tights stuff does take awhile to get through.
I still love this movie to pieces. It’s too embedded in my DNA. I kinda wish we could get back to a place where we’d accept and even cherish a movie with such a ludicrous, ridiculous ending.
If this movie was released now, as it is, it would be laughed out of theaters.
His musical talent and career are legendary.
As is the fact that he was once married to Angie Dickinson.
Definitely a good innings.
Imagine a world without Burt Bacharach songs.
That wasn’t snark. Dude was a songwriting powerhouse.
I can’t think of Burt Bacharach without thinking the line “He writes the lyrics. Burt just writes the tunes, only now, he’s married to Carole Bayer Sager.” from Meaning of Life
If you’re a Dune fan, then I have to recommend the official graphic novels, as written by Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert. The first 2 of 3 are out, and they do a fantastic job translating the book into the medium. Especially for those who find the original novel too dense.
Not to be confused with the new comic version of the recent Dune movie. I haven’t read that.
CP: Blinded In Chains — Avenged Sevenfold
I’m listening to the early Bon Jovi albums to prep for an upcoming livestream.
Ppphhhhhhhhheeeewwwwwwwwwwww. Rough going. I’m gonna stop after Slippery When Wet.
Focus on his looks.
That’s what most of their audience did.
So ChatGPT, um….
Input: Write a short story about a funny bank heist involving the characters named Jack, Ed, Van, and ditto.
Output: Once upon a time, in a small town, there lived four friends named Jack, Ed, Van, and Ditto. They were all unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. One day, Jack came up with a crazy idea to rob the local bank to solve their financial problems.
Ed was skeptical at first, but after much convincing from Jack, he reluctantly agreed to join in on the heist. Van, who was always up for a good laugh and a thrill, was on board from the start. And Ditto, well, Ditto always did what everyone else was doing.
The day of the heist arrived, and the four friends dressed up in ridiculous disguises. Jack was a cowboy, Ed was a wizard, Van was a ninja, and Ditto was… well, Ditto was dressed as a copy of Ed.
As they approached the bank, they found that it was guarded by a single security guard. Jack and Ed tried to come up with a plan to distract the guard, but Van, eager to show off his ninja skills, simply snuck up and knocked him out.
The group then made their way inside the bank, but as they were trying to crack the vault, the alarm went off. Chaos ensued as the four friends ran around, trying to find a way out.
Just when they thought all hope was lost, Ditto came up with an idea. He took out his magic pen and copied Jack’s cowboy hat. Suddenly, the hat transformed into a helicopter, and the four friends made their daring escape in style.
As they flew away, they couldn’t help but burst out laughing at their ridiculous adventure. They may not have gotten rich from the heist, but they had a story to tell for the rest of their lives. And besides, sometimes the real treasure is the memories you make with friends.
I do need a cowboy hat that transforms into a helicopter.
Who doesn’t?
I thought it was funny
What kind of name is “Ed” for a Wizard?
I have no fear of our AI Overlords anytime soon.
So Ed, just how much convincing would it take to get you to help me knock over a bank?
That FedEx pilot was an amazingly cool cat.
Saved an horrific disaster from occurring.
The real time animation is just stunning to watch.
Also, this is a very well written article.
I’m sure it will shock nobody to hear we are having someone over for gaming today
Had a good afternoon of gaming. I have nice friends. They were travelling over Christmas and found a Yamazaki 12 year old whiskey which they brought me. I think I’m going to wait until Like a Dragon Ishin is out and drink it while I play.
FYI – the latest episode of “The Last of Us” dropped early this weekend – probably to avoid the Super Bowl.
We just watched it and it was another excellent, though heart breaking, ride.
Yeah, HBO messed up here and replayed episode four. We’re going to check tomorrow and see if we can get episode five
I read it was definitely for Super Bowl avoidance.
Enjoyed it.
People are going to be talking about this kid.*
It’s incredible what a tour de force performance he gives in 9 minutes with just himself and an acoustic guitar. He could do a one-man Broadway show.
By itself, it seems to present researched facts but a subtle, non-fact tone in the article raises red flags for me.
Terms like “Anti-Russian” and “Nordstream hating” are causually dropped into what seems otherwise like just a disclosure of facts.
These are VERY inflammatory and accusatory statements, written without any explanation or even anecdotes to support them and they don’t actually add any more data to the story. They are just short, two or three word phrases specifically meant to colour the readers view in a specific way.
In fact it is the light (but persistent) touch with these “opinions as fact” that makes it feel like someone VERY good at this sort of propaganda is trying to sell me something.
The story itself is plausible … but I think someone is selling something with it.
Apparently HBO is going to air The Last of Us episode five tonight at its regularly scheduled time.
No Superbowl in Canada, so kinda makes sense.
We do get it. Only see about half the commercials as most seem to be US only, though
I didn’t intend to watch, but there it was and the app was free. . .
I was only half-watching, but the commercials did seem to be a bit subpar. As a friend joked:
“I’ve seen a lot of chatter about the unimpressive commercials during this year’s Super Bowl. Well, I thought the one for the Nike movie was hysterical… all the way up until I realized that it was an actual, real movie.”
The elevated stages for the halftime show were seriously impressive. I just don’t know Rihanna’s music, beyond “Umbrella.”
With the husband home, I feel like I’m on holidays even though I’m not. It’s kind of strange.
I’m about 40% into a book called Year One by Nora Roberts. I would call it The Stand (by Steven King) with magic. There’s even a woman who shows up in dreams and says make your way to them.
It’s not a bad book, but the similarity is way to obvious at times
My mother has read a bunch of Nora Roberts, in between her cat-related murder mysteries.
I’ve never been a big fan of Stallone as an actor, but he’s bloody good in Tulsa King, almost finished watching the first season, two episodes to go.
There’s a dimension out there in the multiverse where the auteur Stallone who made the original Rocky kept making genuine art. Maybe it’s the same place where Kevin Smith put away the bong and kept making stuff like the original Clerks.
Washing I expect to go ok, drying I expect to be a long drawn out struggle with my tumble dryer.
I’m 2 episodes into Last of us. As with many shows, I think it’s good… but not the over the top best thing every that many seem to be hyping it to be. Is it me or is this awfully close to being Sweet Tooth?
Part of the reason is there have been a lot of bad game to tv/film conversions and this one is good.
Also, about 1/3 of the way through Eternals. Ooof! Seemed ridiculous from the opening prologue. But I’m approaching it like MST3K. Just going to enjoy the crazy.
It’s my little one’s birthday today! She amazes me every day.
It feels like a thousand years have happened in the last 5. Here’s to 20,000 more.
+100 !!!
Happy Birthday little LeeLoo
Yes! Happy Birthday, Holly!
The husband gave me the Dead Space remake for Valentine’s.
Nothing says romance like spending the day killing mutants 😉
Cool! I for sure going to pick this up, but I’m waiting for the price to drop. $59 (from Steam) for a remake seems excessive. That and the truckload of games I’ve only scratched the surface of (God of War, Control, Doom Eternal, Mechwarrior 5, Half-Life Alex, etc.) LOL
Same, will wait till it drops in price. Or comes on PS plus (Hope springs eternal)..
PS5 pfft!
Here you go Van.
TMBG has added some Uk dates.
14 Nov Manchester
15 Nov Leeds
16 Nov Nottingham
17 Nov Bristol
18 Nov London
Crap joke for a Wednesday morning:
Well, late one afternoon, the Air Force folks out at Area 51 were very surprised to see a Cessna landing at their “secret” base.
They immediately impounded the aircraft and hauled the pilot into an interrogation room.
The pilot’s story was that he took off from Vegas, got lost, and spotted the Base just as he was about to run out of fuel.
The Air Force started a full FBI background check on the pilot and held him overnight during the investigation. By the next day, they were finally convinced that the pilot really was lost and wasn’t a spy. They gassed up his airplane, gave him a terrifying “you-did-not-see-a-base” briefing, complete with threats of spending the rest of his life in prison, told him Vegas was that-a-way on such-and-such a heading and sent him on his way.
The day after that though, to the total disbelief of the Air Force, the same Cessna showed up again.
Once again, the MP’s surrounded the plane…
Only this time there were two people on the plane.
The same pilot jumped out and said,
“Do anything you want to me, but my wife is on the plane and you have to tell her where I was last night!”
I just spotted my PvP standings in Star Realms. I’ve only had 2 different people I’ve played regularly. Tony Mast and I haven’t played in awhile, but he has a slight edge on me; I’m 12-14 vs him. Against my other opponent, I’m up 85-17.
Nice! I’ve only ever played on a tablet against the AI, even though I own a card set. I should learn how to work the game in analog.
I’m down to play head-to-head on the app! Just send me a challenge. My user is Panjack
We own the starter deck and maybe an expansion or two(?) of the actual cards, but we never play.
I’ll send you a note when I can. 🙂 I only have the starter deck as physical cards, but I’m wondering if being able to use them would make me better at the games.
Whenever I do things for people I know, I always feel I’m too tough and always want to add “I’m sorry. Please don’t hate me” to my emails
The husband says I’m too soft and people understand 😉
As the author Pete McLean wrote on Twitter “you know you are getting old when your childhood crushes are dying in their 80s”..
Oof. She was kinda more of our parents’ generation, but still famous enough to be known to us kids. I remember her Muppet Show episode.
Her name was synonymous with beauty and sex appeal. RIP.
Apparently, Ed is friends with one of the bigshots over at Wired Magazine! Pretty cool!
And this is a really good interview. All humans should be more like Keanu.
Not me, plus music on vinyl always sounded better than music on tape.
Let’s just go all in and bring back 8 tracks. The only thing more inconvenient that fast forwarding and rewinding was having to combine that with skipping across multiple tracks.
I saw it three times when it was originally released and never want to watch it again.
True Lies is the only Cameron I’ve seen and is the first movie I saw in a theater.
Now that one I’ve listened to.
Wow, guess I’m in the “mainstream” for once. I’ve got five on that list. Though, as I go through the list again, at least 33 of those I’ve never even heard of.
There are two for me.
I have listened to about a half dozen episodes of “Smartless” and maybe that many of “Wait wait … don’t tell me” although that one is just a re-casting of their radio show. I listen to the radio show much more than the podcast.
I used to play the heck out of tracks 2 and 3 in the 90s.
So we finished the joyless march through the latest season of Handmaid’s Tale.
I get that the show’s premise is bleak and especially relevant now, what with all these widespread attempts to dehumanize certain people, but this season was trying.
On to Last of Us. Never played or saw the game, so we’re going in blind. The first episode was definitely good. Like Jesse, I need to forget all of the hype and just watch.
Enjoyed the first episode of S3 of Picard.
CW: Top Secret
One of those films I never saw it at the time.
I do love a US film where apart from the main lead most of the cast consists of British character actors completely unknown to the US audience.
I will never forget the welcome he got when he visited the NE of England when he was President..it was massive,
He is probably one of the most decent human beings the US has ever had as a president. Honestly, we probably didn’t deserve him. Still don’t.
While, his effectiveness at running the Machiavellian machine that is the US government can certainly be debated, he has shown himself to be someone who has spent a life in service of his fellow man.
I can’t say enough nice things about Jimmy Carter the man.
I did end up seeing the newest Ant-Man.
Pretty good! Not remarkable, but absolutely enjoyable.
You explained what I felt after seeing it better than
I did.
/ theatre review mode
I went to see a Broadway touring production of “Tootsie” last night.
For you youngsters, it is based on a film (comedy) from 1982 that starred Dustin Hoffman.
Having not seen it in over a quarter century it hadn’t occurred to me how many social hurdles they were going to have to overcome to make it feel ok to watch. Plus they turned it into a musical.
Well the writers did their work.
It takes the comedy of the original premise and embraces the wrongness of a man taking a job away from a women. It was quite funny.
Except the end. Because in the end he has to face the terribleness of lying to people who trusted him and thought they were close friends and coworkers.
There is just no real way to spin THAT into “up beat” much less funny.
/ theatre review mode
Some people love to yell, “They couldn’t make that today!” about certain movies. And in almost every case, yes you can, you just need to think the premise all the way through.
^^^ About short fiction magazines cutting off submissions due to floods of incoming AI-generated stories.
Interesting trend.
While at the moment it is more of a nuisance that distracts editors time away from “real stories” in the future I could be problematic.
I have read (some off) a couple of AI generated short stories and while they COULD pass as human written… they did not pass as “good”.
I think that will be the limiting factor in the future.
It gets back to the old quote “Anyone could write a story … but not everyone should.”
I will say that Eternals 2 got a little better further on into the movie. But after looking up the source materials, I could see how it would have been infinitely better the less it had changed.
Eternals 2 got a little better…? Was I time traveling when I wrote that? I mean Eternals got a little better…
Both of these can greatly improve on the originals. I’m glad to see more of them both.
As much as I typically love The Onion, that was the worst reading experience I’ve had. The content was fine. But, I had to scroll down to the slide show and then click to advance each slide. Took me 10 minutes to read something that should have taken 2 minutes.
That’s not the only reason I’ve pretty much dropped AVClub (same parent company as The Onion), but it’s part of the problem. Whatever extra $$ they make from slideshows isn’t worth it.*
*I’m sure it’s worth it to them.
I slowly filling in my instagram with people I know. I haven’t decided what I’m doing about Facebook yet
Linked In sits there too but I don’t feel right posting my cat getting off on there
*cough*
So they are going to remake the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. I guess it will only be a matter of time before Disney remakes A New Hope.
Why is Deadpan making me quip “Who is They?” twice in one day?
Hopefully this gets stuck in the same development hell as the Babylon 5 reboot.
I thought it was more of case they are going to do more stories set in that universe and not remake LOTR.
May every reboot get stuck in development hell. That is the curse I throw out into the universe.
It looks like my password isn’t letting me in, so I’ll get a new one from Tony.
We’ll keep Forge going for now.
In the meantime, paraphrasing a commentary about Cocaine Bear:
“There is a text card dedicating the movie to in loving memory of the late Ray Liotta, which is in the running for the worst thing to happen to him lately.”
About the popularity of bad ass men and girl/young woman in media:
I’m tempted but that silly ass mistake with Martian dust storms is still putting me off.
So there are definitely moments of bad science in the Martian. However, overall, and especially compared to other science fiction writing, it gets an overall decently high score. At least IMHO. And Project Hail Mary is another really good option from Andy Weir if you don’t want to do the Martian.
TIL there is some bad science in The Martian. I’d always thought it was respected by the scientific community.
It is. And as Andy admits, he knows the dust storm was unrealistic, but there would be no story without it. It is a narrative contrivance. I’m fine with it.
Man.
I generally try to find some nuance or context or someway to give a little grace but I can find none of that here.
“Adams, who is white, repeatedly referred to people who are Black as members of a “hate group” or a “racist hate group” and said he would no longer “help Black Americans.”
“Based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people,” Adams said on his Wednesday show.
Busy weekend! Yesterday took the little one to ASU for their “Open Door” for some science! We both sat in a moon rover vehicle, among other things.
Today, the Phoenix Matsuri Festival for some Japanese culture.
CP: Pink Panther theme – Henry Mancini
Dammit!
Suddenly, on Instagram, I seem to be following a whole bunch of people I didn’t actually subscribe to. I’ve changed my password, and started “unfollowing” people. Unfortunately, Insta only lets you unfollow a dozen people or so at a time.
Not sure what I’m doing that seems to be attracting spammers. Especially since it’s an email only used for insta, not any of my other emails.
Did you hit the drop down bar on the app that lets you select favs or following?
Favourites shows a lot of accounts you don’t follow.
Nope. I’m actually following 70 people I don’t know. I’ve now got it down to 40, and will whittle it away to my actual 15 as it lets me. If it happens again though, I think I’ll be done with all forms of social media.
I forgot that I’d recently gone with a new password.
I’m in.
I think I’ll post the new page today at around lunchtime.
The forge is mighty!
Mighty is the forge!
Geordi is La Forge!
La Forge is The Way!
Vampire Survivors is out on mobile, ad supported, if you want to see what all the fuss is about go and download it and give it a whirl.
We watched the first 3 eps of Wednesday last night. Absolutely enjoying it so far. Looking forward to doing the last 5 episodes next week.
Stray observations:
– Is Tim Burton actually following a script?? Wow.
– With a few minor changes, this could have been a new series set at Hogwarts. I’ve hear a lot of praise for this show, but I’m surprised I haven’t heard anyone else making Harry Potter comparisons.
– All of the familiar Addams characters are perfectly-cast.
Random phrase overheard from passer-by
“And I was 3D printing little train tracks for it …”
Was it a dog chasing a penguin?
Ha!
Thinking out loud on the keyboard. Please let me know if my perspective is off, or if you disagree:
My recommendations for how we should all contend with the rise of AI art generators:
-Don’t use them to replace human artists on professional projects
-Develop ethical guidelines around their use and technology to ensure that the AIs are not taking images from works created by human artists
-Educate the masses and yourself about which of the AI apps are complying with ethical standards and which are not
-Don’t yell at people for playing with this new technology
-Don’t yell at pro artists who put AI art generators to ethical use to enhance their original work
-Accept that AI art is now a part of the landscape. Don’t yell and complain; join/lead discussions to find ways to ensure that it’s not misused.
Oh, Jack, you’re so adorable some times.
I think we’re just about at this stage of the AI art business
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZuMe5RvxPQ
+25
I’m afraid I am cynical about what awaits.
(perfect video response) – – I should have clarified that the the “we” in that statement was all of us low creatures and individuals. Big biz gonna do what big biz gonna do.
I said all that in response to seeing people condemning and threatening to unfriend people who goof around with AI art.
I agree.
I’ll add that whenever new technology is introduced, the uproar is usually a bit too over-reactive. There were a lot of people upset when Photoshop came out–yes, I know that is quite a bit different than this, but… I believe that this will become just another artistic tool in the future. I also think many of the limits that people are putting in place are justified, but I really don’t see AI generated art ever supplanting artists. What I hope is this new tool will encourage new artists to enter the fold.
It will probably take 5 or so years for this to really settle out, imo.
What will probably keep AI from taking over the “creative” market is that the software creators will likely add clauses in their user agreement that allow them to maintain some form of ownership on what ever the AI creates, tracking the use of that art and demanding some payment everytime it shows up in media.
As for private use, most art I have purchased involved a combination of me likeing the work AND wanting to support the artest.
AI won’t have that draw.
Now that is small:
https://t.co/z9V2igRIL0
The book this mentions looks interesting.
The best trailers dropped at the game awards:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/12/the-game-awards-awards-picking-the-nights-best-new-game-trailers/
Most are on my wish list.
Holy Hell, they actually made a sequel?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21094994/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2
This right here has got to be Jay Powell’s strongest argument for raising interest rates.
I guess the 2 people who saw the first one wanted more?
Goodbye to Chris Boucher, who was responsible for great classic Doctor Who stories and that banger of an ending for S4 of Blake’s 7:
https://scifibulletin.com/2022/12/11/rip-chris-boucher/
Never heard of this drink before, going to see if I can buy a bottle:
https://cooleswan.com/
Well, despite the world conspiring against me, I think we finally finished our Christmas purchasing this weekend.
For people expecting 2023 to wash away all the bad luck:
Wasn’t there an entire movie dedicated to the belief that the number 23 is cursed?
Luckily the protagonist discovers that there wasn’t anything sinister about the Number 23, he was just insane, and a killer.
https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2018/12/05/a-reflection-vince-guaraldi-trio-a-charlie-brown-christmas-4/
Even my black heart loves the Charlie Brown holiday specials.
Loved this as a kid.
Even more as an adult when I read an article on what they went through to make it.
No one “got” what they were trying to do. Kids talking about adult topics, pointing out society’s screwed up values ?? Where is the comedy in that? CBS wanted them to add a “laugh track”.
The use of actual kids instead of adult voice actors was also “out there”. It took a lot of extra effort to make that happen as the kids had trouble with the lines. Many of little Sally’s lines were recorded a phrase or even a word at a time and painstakingly spliced (no digital here) together to make complete sentences.
While Vince Geraldi seems tame now, at the time they picked him his music was considered outside the mainstream and made the Network a little uncomfortable.Schultz hated it.
In the end, CBS wanted to pull the plug on it but it already had a broadcast date locked in.
It is a show by people who wanted to shake things up and it became cannon for many of us.
I love that.
All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.
That is a pretty amazing backstory. I do have to say: a laugh track would have been horrendous.
Completely differrent entertainment thought-
I don’t think I have ever seen a film Joseph Gordon Levitt has been in that I didn’t like. They all seem quirky and I like actors who are willing to take a chance on a strange film.
Johnny Depp was originally in that category.
RIP Angelo Badalamenti
https://consequence.net/2022/12/angelo-badalamenti-twin-peaks-composer-dead-at-85/
Quantum Leap reboot gets renewed for S2:
https://t.co/4V2wamtkJT
Mine cart Madness, a game developed for NES system that you can play in your browser:
https://mhughson.itch.io/minekart-madness
I feel like these outer space events – – whatever the country or space organization – – should be bigger headlines.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/historic-moon-mission-concludes-splashdown-orion-capsule-pacific-rcna60563
Indeed
Just last week we started to watch “For All Mankind.” Funny how similar this looks to the old Apollo splashdowns.
I can now add French toast to the lists of things I had best leave to eating at a hotel.
I like making french toast at home, but it is always best from pro chefs.
If you remember The Rockford Files:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/stuart-margolin-dead-rockford-files-1235280888/?fbclid=IwAR3ry6bRcUPtZDHPALMJPK5kw81upYB2VuTHEGFH34pFjoouSy9LDzhOUJk
End of year, we should talk MMMmmmeetup. As a reminder, we’d discussed convening around Houston for the eclipse. This is not me inviting a group of people to Ed’s house. . . Just prodding the discussion.
Of course, the eclipse is in 2024 not 2023.
August would be a bit iffy for me, otherwise, *shrug*
silly me, a different site said 2024 I see it’s in October in 2023
*sigh* I change my mind. I think it is in 2024.
Can someone else double check. I’m getting differing opinions on line
Yeah, I think the total eclipse is April 2024. An annual one is in October 2023 but not quite the same as the total eclipse.
This is the eclipse we were discussing: https://eclipse.aas.org/eclipse-america-2023
https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/future
This is what I saw
Oh, I see. We’ll just all stay in Ed’s guest room from October until April and catch them both.
I don’t want to sound snobbish, but you really need to see the total eclipse.
Turn around Bright Eyes.
October is CDN Thanksgiving. I’ll have to see the price of flights to determine if I can go.
Yeah, the 24 total one running up through the middle of Texas is the one I was planning for a MMeeetup for. Of course, we’ll still have a 3 hour drive from my house to the path of totality.
And with that, I’m definitely ready to travel in 2023. Where to?
Ok, Canada has been a suggestion, how realistic is that for 2023 for the USA lot?
There are hoops to be jumped for Canada 2023, but I’d be thrilled to make it happen.
My first hoop: I already have a Jan trip and a June trip planned.
New Miles Morales Spider-Man trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqGjhVJWtEg
(It’s long, but profound. The author is Adam-Troy Castro)
Do I bloody have to do this?
“Half this country has gone insane.”
Half this country has always been insane.
Half this country thought it was just terrific to keep a population of millions in chains.
Half this country used to pose for lynching postcards.
Half this country thought anybody who was against Hitler was a communist.
Half this country thought it was a great thing to beat up people for having long hair.
Half the country thinks that if a ten-year-old girl is raped, the little whore should shut up and have the baby.
Half the country thinks the rapist should get visitation.
Half the country thinks that the moon landing was a hoax.
You can argue that the percentage is closer to 27%, or whatever, that it only seems like half because of all those who simply have no opinion about anything deeper than what host of THE PRICE IS RIGHT is best.
But Trump didn’t make so much of the country insane. Fox didn’t. Even OAN and Sinclair and Alex Jones didn’t.
You know what these people are?
They are marketers.
They find the demographic and they go after it.
The demographic exists and the demographic is eager to lap up more craziness, more insanity, which is why the Overton Window has shifted from the forms of idiocy we had in some past decades to craziness about lizard people and child-trafficking pizza parlors and Jewish space lasers.
This is the country that once had a bunch of people who were proud, PROUD I tell you, PROUD, to band together as what they unabashedly called “The Know-Nothing Party.” Because this was who they wanted to be and they thought that they were labeling a virtue.
And you want to know what?
You want to know what?
The Khmer Rouge thought it was a good idea for a civilized country to slaughter all its doctors and schoolteachers and force everybody else into slave labor.
This country is not special.
The “half this country” complaint? Is true about the human race, in general. Ten percent of all human beings are sociopaths, and another few tens of percent will always listen to those who achieve power because they do not know the difference.
Trump did not do it.
He just stirred a pot that was already keeping warm on the stove.
Yep
What’s the source for that?
I cut-and-pasted from Adam-Troy Castro’s FB page. I don’t know if he’s posted it anywhere else.
A more nuanced look at the fusion news:
https://t.co/zjJSkINW4Q
So, I recently finished Scalzi’s Kaiju Preservation Society. I had a bunch to say about it, but I see that someone (not me) gave it to Bunny as her DPSS gift. So I’ll wait.
I will just say that, to my surprise, I liked it quite a bit.
I’m in the middle of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir so I probably won’t get to this one ditto gave me until the new year.
Designing the Sinclair Radio watch:
https://www.fluxxworks.com/case-studies/
Andor rewatch put to bed.
The only one of the new Star Wars series I felt the urge to rewatch so soon. It is brilliant,
I’m placing a bet that Lo will hate it though :-p
Your crap joke for the day:
A college pizza delivery boy arrived at the house of Mr.Smith. He delivered the pizza to his trailer. After giving it to him, Mr. Smith asked: “What is the usual tip?”
“Well,” replied the youth, “this is my first trip here, but the other guys say if I get a quarter out of you, I’ll be doing great.”
“Is that so?” snorted Mr. Smith. “Well, just to show them how wrong they are, here’s five dollars.”
“Thanks,” replied the youth, “I’ll put this in my school fund.”
“What are you studying in school?” asked Larry.
The lad smiled and said: “Applied psychology.”
I bet somebody enjoyed thinking up that headline:
https://t.co/aEzLmjbceO
Ha!
It’s too bad about June, Jack. That would have been the perfect time.
Dates to keep in mind if you’re thinking Canada.
Between the May long weekend and Thanksgiving is best as a lot of things tend to be closed for the winter beyond those dates. (May 20 – Oct 9)
Stampede week is a terrible time to be in Calgary (July 7 – 16)
And August 4 – 6 won’t work for me.
I know this would narrow dates down quite a bit but thought I’d let you know.
Okay, May is sounding promising.
If it’s not too close to Jack’s June trip
September would also be good. Less tourists
I think September will be better for us, but let’s see what everyone thinks. We’ll have kindergarten (!!!!) to contend with in September, but I’m sure we can make something work.
I was just making a sandwich and noticed a graphic on the bread wrapper that proudly proclaims “nutrition in every bite“.
The implications of having to advertise this are stunning.
Is there a commercially available bread out there with zero nutritional value?
“Our bread contains molecular bonds that your body may find beneficial.”
“ This bread is sold for entertainment purposes only. Caution – some bites may have NO nutritional value!”
Please make no sudden movements around the bread.
Henry Cavill fired:
https://bit.ly/3V0i9gs
I read that more as “Man of Steel 2” scrapped. It sounds like if there are calls for an older Superman to appear, it will be Cavill.
It’s time for Marvel to snag him for Captain Britain.
I saw your FB post. It looks like he’s truly gone.
A shame.
Big Finish’s tribute Chris Boucher:
https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/chris-boucher-1943-2022?fbclid=IwAR09Y9XLW58KNXItxRZQnybFLg6LltKMdr9YvMRDtto4GktuX3eZQxeecpQ
Your crap joke for the day:
A farmer goes out and buys a new, young rooster.
As soon as he brings him home, the young rooster rushes and screws all 150 of the farmer’s hens.
The farmer is impressed.
At lunchtime, the young rooster again screws all 150 hens.
The farmer is not just impressed anymore, he is worried.
The next morning, not only is the rooster screwing the hens but he is screwing the turkeys, ducks even the cow.
Later, the farmer looks out into the barnyard and finds the rooster stretched out, limp as a rag, his eyes closed, dead and vultures circling overhead.
The farmer runs out, looks down at the young rooster’s limp body, and says:
“You deserved it, you horny bastard!”
And the young rooster opens one eye, points up at the vultures with his wing, and says,
“Shhhh! They are about to land!”
New Scientist likes to remind me I’m not the target audience for the magazine with the expensive tours:
https://link.newscientist.com/click/29987787.12582/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubmV3c2NpZW50aXN0LmNvbS90b3Vycy90b3RhbC1zb2xhci1lY2xpcHNlLWluZG9uZXNpYS8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1OU0RU/62f685defc1bdc567269541cD6da3f890
Black Adam pitch meeting:
https://youtu.be/HfrmzSX4J-M
CP: Shelter — MIYAVI
I don’t read a lot of horror, but this guy’s book/story titles are so great, I had to give him a shot:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/7134334.Eric_LaRocca
Over the top:
https://youtu.be/xNNwQ85xoxU
TSO is basically the Metal band Savatage, with a bunch of extra touring members. That tour apparently (evidently) rakes in the dough. Hand over fist.
I haven’t checked this out, but considering most of us liked “Too Many Cooks”, this could be entertaining. 😀
https://www.tor.com/2022/12/12/adult-swim-yule-log-horror-film/
From Superman to Space Marine.
https://consequence.net/2022/12/henry-cavill-warhammer-40000-series/
Amazon orders are in! My Deadpan Secret Santa recipient’s gift isn’t coming until sometime on or after Dec. 27, unfortunately. Procrastination reigned this year, and today was my first day of serious Christmas shopping.
In reply to this comment earlier:
>>> End of year, we should talk MMMmmmeetup.
We should!! For 2023, I actually just finalized plans for an Alaska cruise with my parents, May 13-20, 2023. It has a stop in Vancouver, and I do have a current passport, valid through Jan. 2024, so I’m good on that front. Based on the date of that trip, I also vote September for MMMMMeetup (preferably not until after Dragon Con, which is Labor Day weekend, but as Jack said, let’s see what everyone thinks).
Depending on the dates I could do September.
What’s the weather like in Calgary in September?
I remember seeing tornado warnings on the tv when I visited Canada.
That was in July though.
This September we had record breaking heat. However, normally it’s pretty nice. A light jacket is usually fine. That being said, this close to the mountains, snow is also not out of the question
Dressing in layers is usually recommended
You should receive your gift no later than today, Amy. I got a confirmation of deliver 12/12-12/16.
Looks like I won’t get it till January, but whoever sent me a t-shirt via RedBubble, thank you.
I am hubbiless this evening. He’s watching Paws of Fury with a bung of elementary kids tonight. Since I’ve never seen it, maybe I’ll see if I can find the movie and stream it too
I should have liked Paws of Fury, but I didn’t. It was an attempt to remake Blazing Saddles using cats and dogs instead of racism and turning it into a family friendly flick. Just didn’t land with me on any level whatsoever. And I say that with a super heavy heart because Mel Brooks was a producer on that one.
Okay that is cool…silly but cool:
https://spritesmods.com/?art=doom-bauble
O tannenbaum, mien leben!
Barbie IS the monolith:
https://youtu.be/8zIf0XvoL9Y
There was something both gratifying and very disturbing about that opening.
Time:
https://t.co/DkuqnP24wk
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-retired-sofia-aircraft-finds-new-home-at-arizona-museum
Road trip!
^Thanks, Jack! I have a few random, unopened Amazon packages addressed to me at my place; one of them might be yours. I’ll check for any new ones when I get home.
Sorry to bring this up, but on our last comment thread, JustaJoe posted about reading a roundup of the most recent (2022 study results) research on all of the things Covid is doing to the body; however, he didn’t post a link to it. You don’t happen to still have it, do you, Joe? I ask because I need to present a convincing case for continuing to wear masks as part of my annual Christmas care package project.
I don’t want anyone to ever feel uncomfortable asking reasonable questions about COVID protections. I’ll never shut down that conversation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWmkZC7miyE
Brand new Two Steps From Hell. ATTN: Hollywood. Get these folks to score your movie, I’ll watch it.
Thanks, Jack. I really meant ‘sorry to be a buzzkill.’
Letter has been drafted, but is open to revisions.
Just seeing this. Sorry I forgot the link.
Hopefully this works
https://jessicawildfire.substack.com/p/you-may-be-early-but-youre-not-wrong
That looks like the one. Thank you!
A buddy of mine just got his 2nd case of Covid.
First time around it was like a common cold and he was over it in 5 days. This time he is 10 days in and has no energy to do anything.
Symptoms of a different varient or cumulative damage? ♂️
Oh wait, what?!
https://boingboing.net/2022/12/01/william-gibsons-neuromancer-coming-to-apple-tv.html
Fucking-A!!!!
Just don’t let Ridley Scott anywhere near the adaptation, probably portray Case as secret agent or an Elf.
Alternative Xmas film list:
https://bit.ly/3uSeMhf
Was surprised “The Night Before” wasn’t on that list.
Directed by Jonathan Levine and staring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
I stumbled across it late one night years ago and thought it was great.
I might have been drunk at the time though so…
Tom Lehrer‘a website is disappearing soon so download all that you want (he released all his songs into the public domain years ago):
https://tomlehrersongs.com/
Thanks for the heads up!
Downloaded! “An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer” and “That Was The Year That Was” were so much a part of my childhood. Thanks for the heads-up!
If you want to download the Tom Lehrer albums, note that the link for _The Remains of Tom Lehrer_ (Disc 1) contains a typo: the file is given as trotll.rar, but it’s really trotl1.rar.
Here is a corrected link:
https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/trotl1.rar
@Jack I’ve loved Two Steps From Hell for years. I think I first found them when I was trying to find the music for the 2009 Star Trek trailer. The were/are a Production Music company so a lot of their music ends up in trailers. I’ve also noticed their music in PBS series from time to time.
But, alas, I’ve not heard them score a movie. I’d love to hear that too. And maybe they’ll bring their Live show somewhere near here in the future.
Productive afternoon earlier. Christmas care packages have been sent to my parents, Van, and Mark the Encaffeinated One. Still have Bunny’s and Nutty’s; going to see if I can get Stamps.com to cooperate in order to take care of those. I also got groceries.
We caught the Cirque du Soleil Christmas show in a theater this afternoon. I’m pretty certain that one of them are human. Just mind-blowing.
In other news, watched ep 1 of the Interview with the Vampire series. . . It’s kinda like watching the recent Hobbit film trilogy.
“Why are all of these core story and character elements changed? How is all of this new, extra stuff adding to the story? Why?”
I don’t think I can hang.
Positives: The 2 leads are great.
It seems to be well liked by people who don’t know the source material.
The worst films of 2022 according to Variety:
https://t.co/ZxMmwAKQro
Quite enjoyed some on that list, agree about Amsterdam though.
I’m officially sick and tired of people being blinded by the flash of AI technology. I work with AI and I’m well aware of what it can do an it’s limitations. People always want to focus on it’s abilities and completely ignore it’s limitations. This article is all about how some YouTuber used AI to color enhance a scene from Metropolis and therefore it’s fantastic and they were floored by the improvement. IT SUCKS! It’s the absolute worst colorization I’ve ever seen in my life. The colors are muted and in an almost constant state of flux. It’s actually difficult to watch. WTF?
https://geektyrant.com/news/fritz-langs-1927-sci-fi-film-metropolis-gets-a-colorized-4k-makeover-with-ai-technology
I agree. The recent Science Friday coverage on this was pretty good. The artists they interviewed were more concerned about how AI was trained on art without artist permission and what constitutes fair-use.
They pump it up, like the wormhole simulation story and the fusion news, shrug.
These are early days, the AI is going to get better.
Yeah, the quality is poor now, but I’m sure it will get there faster than anyone is comfortable with.
Interesting times ahead.
More children now die from gun related deaths than in motor vehicle accidents:
https://t.co/Sa3XbeGh8N
The Sunderland flying boat:
https://youtu.be/vmNm7AzsTuI
So I got a FB friend request from Amy. I know I’ve received a few bogus friend requests lately, just seeing if this one is real.
Looks like the real deal:
Hello, me. Meet the real me.
(That one’s for you, Jack Mangan. )
When it became clear that I would have to start from scratch with a new Facebook account (my old one got stolen and deleted), I decided that that line would be the first thing I would post on it. RIP, old account. That was one of the OG accounts from the .edu-email-required days. I’m sorry to lose that OG status, the pictures (most of which were also stored elsewhere), and especially the message history.
On the bright side, I have a blank slate to choose my friends and my interactions more wisely so that I have better, more curated content to look at here. I’ve learned a lot since college, about information security, content algorithms, and many other things. This time, my interactions here will be more mindful.
Yes, I trust that to be the real Amy.
Yep! If I have an orange and purple sailor collar in my profile picture, it’s real.
I have no idea what’s going on, but sometimes when I refresh the page I get redirected to a porn site.
This page???
Yup.
I did as well.
Ugh. I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for letting me know.
Same here btw
Whoever ordered that t-shirt for me got my postcode wrong, hopefully it will still get here.
I did a bunch of WP updates. Please do let me know if you see it happen again.
Did today, this was a casino site.
Still happening.
Crap joke for the evening:
By 2030, auto pilots on jet liners will be so sophisticated that the cockpit crew will be reduced to one pilot and a dog.
The pilot is there to feed the dog.
The dog is there to bite the pilot if they try touch the controls.
A good Tonight Show monologue-style joke.
From about the 2-minute mark to the 3-minute mark – Reb Brown talking MST3K and Space Mutiny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RtoUinBq0k&t=144s
-26C right now, -38 with the wind chill. I think I’m just going to stay by the fireplace with a good book today
Over here in Blighty, there was a 10C temperature rise over night that got rid of the snow.
Designing the map for the Holland 44 board game:
https://theplayersaid.com/2022/12/09/the-beautiful-boards-of-wargaming-holland-44-operation-market-garden-september-1944-from-gmt-games/
As an aside, there was a turn based game for the ZX Spectrum called Arnhem that got me interested in strategy games based on WW2.
The writer was RT Smith, one of those nuggets of information that got in my memory.
As an aside, there was a turn based game for the ZX Spectrum called Arnhem that got me interested in strategy games based on WW2.
The writer was RT Smith, one of those nuggets of information that got stuck in my memory.
So there is a new series on Netflix called The Recruit. A bumbling lawyer for the CIA gets in way over his head.
Silly but fun and the English actress playing the Russian asset does a good job of being menacing.
Hi Jack, have you looked into this?
https://secure.wphackedhelp.com/blog/wordpress-malware-redirect-hack-cleanup/
The redirect happened to me once, but now that I’m running dev tools, it isn’t happening again. I’ll try and capture some information, if I can.
If you do capture anything that might help me narrow things down, it would be much appreciated!
Thanks! I’ve been in touch with Tony. Basically elevating to a higher support tier.
*escalating
Hubby got a bunch of cards from one of the grade one classes. One of them said he’s was the best pinspole ever. I think that will be my new nickname for him now, pinspole
I’m also going to start using this for that profession, just on general pinspoles.
Because, Canada. It’s colder now than it was before the sun came up
Tony cleared out all of the potential infections and ran a scan, which came up negative.
We should* be good. Sorry for the unexpected stuff. Damned hackers.
Maybe… hopefully.
If anyone sees any wonkiness, please feel free to message me on FB, it might be the easiest way to catch me. That or you can email me tony at backseatproducers. I’ll try to monitor it as I can.
It just happened to me.
It looks like an attack on the cdn for some of your resources. I’ll email you a screenshot.
A slice of history about Snow Globes:
https://t.co/x26WmvSgJy
CP: Let It Snow — Broken Peach
Goodbye to Terry Hall:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/dec/19/terry-hall-lead-singer-of-the-specials-dies-aged-63?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Redirecting still happening.
Props to the Director for standing up to trolls but it sounds exhausting:
http://dlvr.it/SfdpFP
I don’t see why he wastes his time.
Also, why tf is anyone still on Twitter??
Recursive Game of Life:
https://oimo.io/works/life/
Bleh
Well, that’s a relief.
https://blog.thespaceacademy.org/2022/12/breaking-physics-nobel-prize-winner-of.html
I’m glad they included the Douglas Adams reference.
I’ve never seen the redirect. Which is good. . . but also makes it harder to troubleshoot.
Can you plz catch a screenshot and send to Tony?
“The biggest stunt in cinema history”
I still have zero interest in Tom Cruise or Mission Impossible, but – – credit where it’s due. Wow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lsFs2615gw
I haven’t had a redirect issue since yesterday.
My favourite place right now is in front of the fireplace
I never switch mine on as it’s electric. The big radiator warms the sitting room up nicely when the central heating is on.
We have a gas fireplace
I miss having a fireplace. Although you’re all welcome to site around our backyard fire pit.*
*Less enjoyable in the dead of summer.
Goodbye to Mike Hodges who directed Flash Gordon:
https://deadline.com/2022/12/mike-hodges-dead-director-get-carter-croupier-1235203897/
An article from Games Radar celebrating the. 40th Anniversary of the Flash Gordon film:
https://www.gamesradar.com/flash-gordon-movie-40-cast-interviews/
Tried The Watcher on Netflix. Based on real events, set in Westfield NJ, where I once lived.
But episode 1 stunk. Contrived, cliched cheese. I’m bowing out of this one.
Not into historical dramas set in medieval times but started watching the adaption of Wolf Hall on the BBC.
Some good actors in this and a very young Tom Holland.
I am more than ready for things to warm up.
RIP Franco Harris. https://sports.yahoo.com/legendary-steelers-rb-franco-harris-dies-at-72-123247304.html
The “Immaculate Reception” is probably a little tame by today’s standards, but was a huge deal in its day. One of the biggest plays in all of US sports history.
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/artificial-incompetence
A possible 150 dollars if you have an interesting story and recipe:
https://t.co/mdjzuahGNW
So what’s the deal with 1899 on Netflix?
It was discounted from 1900. 😉
What savings!
It’s been a minute since we had to get someone their coat.
I liked 1899, be prepared to not be able to follow the plot until the end, and even then only answers a handful of questions.
Be careful what you say about Madison Square Garden
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/20/face-recognition-tech-gets-mom-booted-from-rockettes-show.html
I feel it’s a stretch to make the central aspect of this story facial recognition. It’s really a story about the legality of policies use by MSG. Facial recognition was just the tool they used to identify the person.
Agreed. The evil isn’t the technology, it’s the actions taken by the venue.
Husband tried to take my picture this evening. We both ended up in giggling fits. He says he doesn’t understand how I don’t look like me in pictures. I say that’s why I don’t like having my picture taken
Will try again tomorrow
Winter storm hitting the Midwest from now through Friday afternoon. Planning on staying inside until church on Saturday evening.
I plan to spend the time I’m snowed in working on Christmas letters and getting my place in shape, as well as cooking So far, I’ve hung up a picture and 3 holiday garlands. Pictures on the new FB account when I’m ready to take pictures.
I look forward to seeing the pictures! Stay safe and warm through that mess. I.e., why I moved to Phoenix.
Looks like snowmeggedon is going to have its grips on most of the US. Stay warm.
So we got a “beer advent calendar”. Anyone familiar with Minhas Brewery from Wisconsin?
There was a Minhas brewery in Calgary. I wonder if they’re related
http://minhasbrewery.com/minhas-micro-brewery-calgary
There are 1381 breweries represented in my bottle/can collection. Unfortunately, Minhas is not one of them.
If I said no would that be too predictable?
We’ve slowed down quite a bit. I doubt if I’ve had 24 beers in all of 2022.
We sampled the Peanut Butter Porter (eh. Tiffany liked it) and the Hazelnut Stout, which was tasty.
Disappointing that there are no cheese beers from a Wisconsin brewery.
Today is the last day of classes for the husband before the winter break. I think we are both looking forward to two weeks of him being home
God there’s a lot of chocolate in my house.
Elementary kids (and parents) need to be more creative when giving gifts to their pinspole
Wear sweatpants and enjoy overeating this Xmas.
The t-shirt arrived be Xmas, thank you to whoever sent it.
Hooray! (It wasn’t from me, btw)
Flexible saving accounts are not good for a lot of Americans:
https://money.com/fsa-contributions-workers-forfeit-money/#:~:text=He%20called%20the%20estimate%20conservative,in%2010%20workers%20forfeit%20money
Cool art site:
https://www.gregthings.com/priorcommissions
I am informed by my eldest, college age child that “citizen sleeper“ is a very good PC game that I might like. They thought it had a D&D vibe to it.
Looks pretty cool and has great reviews.
My Steam wish list has 200+ items on it. This is one of them.
It’s currently on sale.
Turn your old Blu-ray player into a microscope:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/12/blu-ray-player-gathering-dust-turn-it-into-a-laser-scanning-microscope/
Going on 3 hours now if watching my laptop cycling. Killed it and restarted about 10 times. What’s the definition of madness?
There’s a reason “Dell” rhymes with “hell.”
Back! For now! #$#%$%&!!
https://www.macleans.ca/society/technology/boo-a-brief-history-of-technology-scares/
Not directly about AI art, but there are some parallels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAk0k6kX3is
Star Trek TV ad from the 60s. A stranger with no heart!?
“A stranger with no heart!?”
Elon?
A brief history of getting fucked over by various social media:
https://catvalente.substack.com/p/stop-talking-to-each-other-and-start
No time to finish the article, but it’s off to a great start.
First day of holidays for the husband. W00t!
My child just told me that another good game is called “Tunic”. I might not have the spelling right.
Apparently a “puzzle” game and some of the people she knows who play it actually keep notebooks to write down and help sort the clues.
I quite enjoyed Tunic. It was such a bittersweet story.
BTW- currently it is 5°F here. I tried to play the “cold is no big deal“ game and went outside to try and do some chores.
My hands still hurt.
*falls on floor laughing*
That’s unheard of in your top secret location!
I am fortunate (in many many ways) that I occasionally go skiing so I have appropriate outer wear … just had to make myself dig them out
Am out running errands … seeing lots of desperate looks at my fur lined ski jacket from all the folks who are “bundled up” in hoodies.
*cold*
Still on the floor with laughter.
I know it’s due to the ocean and the jet stream but it still weird that I’m at a higher latitude than TEB but get a warmer winter climate.
It’s about “the delta” TEB (rolls eyes… throws another log on the fire.)
I know it’s all relative. It’s like when I complain in the summer about the heat. I’m sure our Arizonians laugh at me.
I was a little uncomfortable in the sun earlier today with my sweater on. But it did get chilly later.
Sent this to my daughter because she’s big into the Five Nights at Freddie’s horror games. I spent many youthful hours at Showbiz Pizza. I think the real thing might be more terrifying than the animatronics in the game.
http://www.showbizpizza.com/rae/
So there is this podcast covering cyberpunk and this episode has a cool sounding version of Greensleeves as the intro:
https://bit.ly/3Wl4gLF
Corgi’s in Welsh mythology:
https://corgicare.com/welsh-corgi-history-and-lore/#:~:text=Welsh%20Corgi%20Mythology%20and%20Folklore%20Legend%20has%20it,Wales%20to%20play%20with%20the%20magical%20little%20people.
Faithless lead singer Maxi Jazz dies aged 65 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64087315
Oh shit. Damn, I was into Faithless back in the 90s.
Your crap joke for this Xmas Eve:
I went to buy a Christmas tree the other day, and the shop assistant asked “Do you plan to put it up yourself?”
I said “No, I was thinking the living room.”
Dog bless us, everyone!
Your Santa Hat sir.
Merry Christmas you old Deadpan!
Sorry about getting Zsu Zsu’s petals all over the floor.
Whaddya know about that!
I watched that one alone last year. It my happen again this year.
Up early for a zoom chat.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas
Merry Xmas, Deadpan!
It’s a weird one, with Tiffany and the eldest daughter both working, but we made a fun morning of it.
Today’s, bad, Christmas cracker jokes-
Q. What is grey and has four legs and a trunk?
A. A mouse going on holiday
Q. When do spare parts from Japanese cars start falling out of the sky?
A. When it’s raining Datsun cogs.
Q. What is green and bounces around the garden?
A. A spring onion.
CW: Glass Onion
I’m just going to say that Ed Norton is great in this.
We watched this last night after getting back from family gatherings.
Enjoyed it every bit as much as the first.
I do hope this becomes a regular thing.
So a programmer that created Dropzone on the C64, Archer Maclean has died, just 60.
Bloody hell.
https://www.timeextension.com/news/2022/12/dropzone-and-ikplus-creator-archer-maclean-has-passed-away
My Boo gave us Star Wars Against Humanity. The franchise has never been so rude
..and just in time for the film:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/12/j-robert-oppenheimer-cleared-of-being-suspected-soviet-spy-after-68-years/
We played “Ticket to Ride” on Christmas Eve.
It was a fun time. I don’t get to play board games as much as I would like.
Great game, the iPad version with online play is a good alternative if you can’t find players or you can play the computer.
Ticket to Ride is a favorite around here too. We haven’t messed around much with expansions or other maps. just enjoying the basic and the 1910 games.
So, after watching the Rings of Power Series while I was also working my way through the Silmarillion. I was trying to find some good articles on just how the show and Tolkien’s various writings of the second age differ. What helped me get through the Silmarillion was the Tor primer written by Jeff LaSala (https://www.tor.com/series/the-silmarillion-primer/). He was really able to put everything in a way that oddly enough made more sense that Tolkien’s own words and I actually enjoyed the primer at least as much as the Silmarillion itself. So, of course, the best version of an analysis of RoP that I was able to find came from… Jeff LaSala. If you have any desire to read a well written analysis from someone who 1) knows his Tolkien lore incredibly well and 2) really went in with an open mind and understanding that shows will always change things in their adaptations, I highly recommend reading his stuff.
https://www.tor.com/2022/09/14/concerning-harfoots-and-elves-men-dwarves-and-orcs-delving-deep-into-the-rings-of-power-episodes-1-3/
https://www.tor.com/2022/09/28/a-conspiracy-still-masked-delving-deep-into-the-rings-of-power-episodes-4-5/
https://www.tor.com/2022/10/12/a-wife-in-the-dark-delving-deep-but-not-balrog-deep-into-the-rings-of-power-episodes-6-7/
https://www.tor.com/2022/10/26/the-king-goes-south-delving-deep-into-the-rings-of-power-overall-and-episode-8-specifically/comment-page-1/
Rare astronomical event this week:
https://t.co/Dk7OWcxrat
VFX artists react to bad and good CGI:
https://bit.ly/3VvIDHi
I think I’m still on ship time.
Merry Christmas, Deadpan!
Happy Boxing Day! Go for the TKO.
Violent Night was silly fun. I enjoyed it a bit more than the Guardians Christmas Special.
I think I liked both about equally. Just in different ways.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/20/1143084568/the-best-movies-and-tv-of-2022-picked-for-you-by-npr-critics
I still need to see Everything Everywhere All At Once, goddamn it.
This list seems fine, but I don’t know how you omit the cultural phenomenon of Stranger Things. Even if you didn’t like it, the show was dominant in 2022.
I’d also add that The Peripheral is excellent. I’m rewatching now, so Tiffany can see it, catching so many little details on the second viewing.
Yeah, “The Peripheral” gets top marks from Teresa and me this year.
Will add that to the list.
Finally saw “Bullet Train” last night. It was fun. I definately liked the style/look of the film.
The geology of Wheel of the Time:
https://t.co/Qxd33pOiQB
Directory of AI tools:
https://www.futurepedia.io/
This is a fascinating deep dive into stars with famous/successful parents.
https://www.vulture.com/article/hollywood-nepotism-babies-list-taxonomy.html#_ga=2.137398200.984661705.1671465711-864182502.1671465711
The early parts of this article make me realize how little I follow anything anymore. I don’t know 75% of the people listed. It’s not until you get down to the old fogies section (Michael Douglas, Jamie Lee Curtis, The Sheen Clan, etc.) that I start to know people.
Population density:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1549586418082660352.html
Trailer for the David Tennant and Donna Noble return to Doctor Who, with one second of the newest Doctor:
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/david-tennant-and-donna-noble-are-back-in-doctor-who-trailer?cid=soc_facebook_x_20221226_syfy_org_x_doctorwho_x_tv_x_doctor-who-trailer
Looks great!
Features two creatures from the Doctor Who comic that Marvel published in the UK in the 80s.
http://dlvr.it/Sg1X2R
CW: WarGames
You know I will never stop thinking Vector displays are cool.
In this, you will always be right!
I’ve destroyed many a vector Death Star in my day.
That was definitely one of the highlights of my visit to the pinball museum in Vegas.
I LOVED THE PINBALL MUSEUM!
Also, I think it was called “Battlezone”. You were driving a tank and blowing up random shaped raster objects.
The first time I experienced that game I became thrilled with the potential of computers and what they might bring us.
Narrator: It was indeed Battlezone.
Morning Pan
Been a nice, quiet holiday so far.
Deleted scenes from Star Wars and Indiana Jones:
https://youtu.be/me6f2dVq9q8
Finished the Peripheral rewatch last night, although I forgot about the post-credits scene.
The ending was a bit clearer this time around. I definitely recommend a second pass.
https://www.livescience.com/12-animal-discoveries
Every single one of these is fascinating. Spider warning for #9.
Glass Onion: two thumbs up!
https://www.classicfm.com/artists/yo-yo-ma/netflix-glass-onion-knives-out-mystery/
I’m enough of a music geek that I spotted this.
I saw The Menu in the theaters because I was stuck in Lincoln, Nebraska with little else to do. It was actually quite enjoyable. Really far more of a comedy with thriller aspects than what I would classify as horror. But the comedy was really well done so I like to think of it as a very successful comedy.
Missed that one at the cinema, Wil have to wait for it to come on streaming now.
Having friends over today. Will probably play some Winter Kingdom followed by Cards Against Star Wars
I watched Black Adam last night. Pretty descent flick. Starts to take an almost Watchmen concept of not having everything as simply good or evil. So, of course, it flopped and many people didn’t like it. Getting harder and harder to tell anything but a formulaic story in a comic inspired movie.
I’ve been in no hurry to see this because
It seems like a vanity project for Dwayne Johnson.
Zero connection to these characters.
And it’s DC.
But I’m sure we’ll get to it.
I found Black Adam to be Ok, but not beyond that. You should watch the pitch session on YouTube. It explains SOME of the issues I had
https://youtu.be/HfrmzSX4J-M
Pele: Brazil football legend dies aged 82 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42751517
I don’t know soccer all that well, but I know he played for the New York Cosmos in his later years. Most people considered him the GOAT.
Enjoyed the new Avatar film, sometimes a dumb action flick is all you need for a fun afternoon.
She was either very lucky or a ninja:
https://youtu.be/Hcax0PnTNYM
Required skills for working at Waffle House.
Tonight: introducing the elder daughter to The Lost Boys. She laughed at it and laughed AT it, which is appropriate.
Tiffany was less impressed.
I still love this movie, in spite of the Coreys. I acknowledge every bit of cheese, but I like cheese.
I liked the cheese as well.
This may be another film whose genious was it’s place and time in culture’s timeline.
I believe it was one of the first “teen” vampire flicks and also one of the first to be intentionally a “Dark Comedy”.
Now, teen vamps are/were a franchise (so it lost that edge) and murderous, sarcastic teenagers are a dime a dozen so it’s lost that “novelty” as well.
When it came out though … it was like nothing I had ever seen.
https://www.gamesradar.com/andor-season-2-tony-gilroy-interview-star-wars/
Eve came from the penis not the rib:
https://t.co/RMH9gppfjY
Zardoz quote?
Read the article
A brief IndieGoGo update was emailed out today. Plz let me know if you got the message.
For a change, I actually got it. Usually it seems to get lost in my emails
Okay watching White Noise on Netflix and wondering if compacting your rubbish before putting it in bin a think in the US?
‘Putting it in the bin a thing in the US?’
“rubbish” = garbage or trash
“bin” = can or bucket
Sometimes?
The garbage trucks here compress the rubbish after it’s been pickeded up.
Yeah, that’s the norm here too. Might be a rich people thing.
Tumbleweeds around this place!
Happy New Year’s Eve, Deadpan.
Happy New Year’s Eve!
Well past midnight here.
Welcome to 2023 Deadpan.
Happy New Year!
Well, at least Van made it to the future. Maybe there’s hope for the rest of us.
It’s official now in AZ too. Happy and prosperous 2023 to everyone!
I don’t know. So far, this year doesn’t feel a whole lot different than last year.
Right. I need instant change.
Alright, Van, I expect independent confirmation from you as our most local Panite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcFvegnQpPo
Appears to be legit:
https://metro.co.uk/2022/11/02/historical-alignment-over-uk-as-true-magnetic-and-grid-north-line-up-17684966/#:~:text=Experts%20aren’t%20able%20to%20say%20how%20long%20the,team%20at%20Ordinance%20Survey%2C%20which%20calculated%20the%20convergence.
Ordnance Survey:
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/newsroom/news/three-norths-align-great-britain
As it moves across the country, how close will that point come to where you are? Maybe a 2025 (or so) Meeeetup to be at the intersection of norths?
Well Berwick is about an hour train ride away, so pretty close.
I’m in!
Do you think we can handle that much Northern Exposure?
“ this is a one-off event that has never happened before.”
Maybe we can start a cult!
I went to Scotland a few years back. I’m sure I could take the balmy lands to the South without much effort.
Plus, I grew up in Upstate New York. My being spoiled in Florida for the last decade and a half hasn’t softened me up to the cold that much.
You know I was expecting more of a selfie from that rocky cliff.
Starting the new year right with a trip to the AZ Science Center.
Starting the new year wrong with truly disgusting takeout tacos.
Break from the old routine:
https://youtu.be/1-vW4rP0C_c
having friends over today. Gonna play some Isle of Cats
We played the Bob Ross: Art of Chill boardgame last night, which ironically, had some frustrating game mechanics.
But 2 out of 3 of us liked it. Tiffany and I may play it again.
Fantastic Ministry song, possibly my favorite.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/ministry-song-william-s-burroughs/
The backstory to this song is even crazier than the article tells. It’s amazing that William S. Burroughs lived as long as he did.
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/01/1146517288/goat-gaslighting-banished-words
Here’s the full list of the school’s banished words for this year:
GOAT
Inflection point
Quiet quitting
Gaslighting
Moving forward
Amazing
Does that make sense?
Irregardless
Absolutely
It is what it is
So it goes.
Morning Pan
Miss Kitty goes in for her arthritis shot today. I expect to have a grumpy kitty later this morning.
Deep Space 9 documentary:
https://youtu.be/yHixW9PLsAc
Montage of films released in 2020:
https://youtu.be/nnNuLukx9zU
2022 I mean.
New month, new thing.
https://www.metalhalloffame.org/metal-hall-of-fame-you-are-the-heroes/
Yup, kitty is angry with me and the husband
She’ll have her revenge when you’re trying to sleep.
The littlest one got the Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro storybooks for Xmas, so after reading, we had to rewatch Spirited Away last night.
This movie is just incredible.
It’s really a movie about an unhappy kid who has to grow up really fast because her careless, greedy parents put everyone in terrible danger. No wonder it was such a hit with Gen X.
CP: I Am The Black Ace — Black Ace
I think I’m going to get my locks chopped this morning
Well there goes all your power.
It’s always a bit of a shock to discover that a character actor has done so much more than his roles in western media would indicate:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rade_Šerbedžija
Definitely one of those “hey, it’s that guy” actors.
The anticipated movies of 2023:
https://t.co/ymibnW0ZKy
CP: Let You Down — Dawid Podsiadlo
Much as I love the Evil Dead movies, I think I’m gonna pass on Evil Dead Rise. I can’t really stomach “mom being evil to kids.” Even in a fictional setting.
Americas love of serial killers:
https://t.co/OQkAyTKwrm
Watched the movie Moonfall on prime. Despite the high budget and name stirs, I wouldn’t recommend it
Where as I watched The Menu on Disney+, horror comedy, gets a thumbs up from me.
It’s been really difficult to get good sci fi movies lately. I’ll pass on Moonfall. Agreed on The Menu though. It was well done comedy.
The eldest daughter was offended tonight by “Tracks of My Tears” by Smokey Robinson because of the “She might be cute, but she’s just a substitute” line – – because he’s just using the substitute girl.
Crap joke for the day:
Professor at the University of Sydney was giving a lecture on ‘Involuntary Muscular Contractions’ to his first year medical students. Realising this was not the most riveting subject, the professor decided to lighten the mood slightly.
He pointed to a young woman in the front row and said, ‘Do you know what your arsehole is doing while you’re having an orgasm?
She replied, ‘Probably fishing with his mates.’
It took 45 minutes to restore order in the classroom…
*Slow clap*
I’m glad I’m old enough to double check things before making comments.
For example, confirming that Van’s post did not say fisting.
Carry on.
Well THAT joke just took a turn!
Looks like it could be fun:
https://youtu.be/6LmO6rmDW08
I’m definitely liking what I see so far.
Although I’m definitely looking forward to new Mel Brooks content… I am not a fan of Nick Kroll. Have to wait and see how this one plays out.
https://geektyrant.com/news/mel-brooks-history-of-the-world-part-ii-first-look-photos-of-nick-kroll-wanda-sykes-ike-barinholtz
I applaud Mel Brooks for still being active and productive in his 90s. I’ll be shocked if this is funny at all, but hey, I’m in.
https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/butter-and-happiness/
Harden my arteries with joy.
The other day I learned:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0153738/?ref_=tt_cl_t_1
The same actress who voiced Lilo in Lilo in Stich and voiced Chihiro in the English language dub of Spirited Away, was Donnie Darko’s sister, and crawled out of the TV in the US version of The Ring.
CP: Ur Mum — Wet Leg
WTF:
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/amc-61st-street-season-2-invitation-to-a-bonfire-series-1235480147/
Ask ChatGPT to write a program in BASIC to sort three numbers:
10 INPUT “Enter the first number: “, A
20 INPUT “Enter the second number: “, B
30 INPUT “Enter the third number: “, C
40 IF A > B THEN SWAP A, B
50 IF A > C THEN SWAP A, C
60 IF B > C THEN SWAP B, C
70 PRINT “The sorted numbers are:”; A; B; C
80 END
As an aside, being asked to do this at school was the first sign I was never going to be a programmer.
If it asks you if you want to play a game
do not
I repeat, DO NOT select
“Global Thermo Nuclear War” !
CP: βios — Hiroyuki Sawano feat. Mika Kobayashi
Just finished the third episode of “Wednesday”
Very much enjoying this.
The style is my kind of thing and the lead actress is killing it (pun intended).
IMHO they have avoided the pitfall of making each scene just a set-up for a snarky remark from her (ala – Roger Moore’s “James Bond“). Her snark seems to be “considered response” rather than “off the top of the head” smarm.
She might be kidding. She might not.
I think that is what makes it work.
There is going to be a season 2:
http://dlvr.it/SgTtpn
A lot of that credit goes to Jenna Ortega for her delivery of those lines.
But . . . I will give credit where it’s due. Tim Burton also stepped up his game on this show. I feel like he’d been phoning it in for about 30 years.
CP: Calamity Song — The Decemberists
How 8 bit computers loaded in games from tape:
https://shred.zone/cilla/page/440/r-tape-loading-error.html
Terrible stomach distress today. Not sure what’s going on, but it feels like heartburn run amok. Stay tuned.
https://www.vulture.com/2023/01/romance-writer-susan-meachen-alive-suicide.html
As publicity stunts go, this is seriously fucked up.
The guy who started off creative Labs has died:
https://www.engadget.com/tech-pioneer-sim-wong-hoo-sound-blaster-dies-151258136.html
Back in the dim and distance past, when you bought a PC it only came with a buzzer for sound and you had to purchase a sound card for better sound.
I was there, Gandalf.
RIP
Playing Gloomhaven on line with friends this afternoon. Last time we failed miserably. Hopefully, today will be better
JW: Puss in Boots : The Last Wish
I wasn’t expecting much but this turned out to be bloody good fun.
We should do some online games! If we can ever schedule it.
Hahahahahahahahahaha
Umm, sorry.
We use Board Game Arena for a lot of our gaming (Not Gloomhaven). They have quite a good selection.
Crap joke for a Sunday morning:
A man climbs to the top of Mt. Sinai and gets close enough to talk to God. Looking up, he asks the Lord, “God, what does a million years mean to you?” The Lord replies, “A minute.”
The man then asks, “And what does a million dollars mean to you?” The Lord replies, “A penny.”
Then he asks,”Can I have a penny?” The Lord replies, “In a minute.”
We don’t have Pennie’s in Canada
Apparently, because of this fact, autocorrect has decided we also mean people of that name too
*sigh*
Goodbye to Earl Boen:
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/earl-boen-died-lechuck-monkey-island-terminator/?fbclid=IwAR1Aqz8Yl7Bzo2pG3mqAHj6iK00Y0s65O3pg2RDtydlBeWvFd7pPbw0hOys
Speaking of board games….how to we move toward a weekend and country for the next MMMMeetup?
I think we determined September works best for Jack’s schedule but we haven’t actually chosen a weekend or place.
I thought Calgary was the final choice? Would a SurveyMonkey help to finalize everything?
Gawd no, I’m happy to go with Calgary but more concerned with the dates.
OK. Let’s Monkey it.
TIL: Boris Vallejo is still with us. Boris Vallejo turns 83 today! In honor, I shall oil up my muscles and go to the grocery store in a teeny tiny loincloth.
On the back of a giant tiger
You don’t do this everyday? Illusions shattered..
Today I’m getting my paperwork in order so it’s ready for tax time.
How did my life get so exciting.
The 25 best films of 2022:
https://vimeo.com/786806921
CP: I Really Want to Stay at Your House — Rosa Walton & Hallie Coggins
Whoa:
http://bbc.in/3IweJzx
Alan Moore should be proud.
It failed to reach orbit.
Anyway…
You’ll get another chance to stow away.
New Heike Langhans song:
https://lor3l3i.bandcamp.com/album/passive-resistance
Her voice is lovely, as always, though buried under a lot of ambient synths. The song is decent. Pretty different from Draconian.
It’s the guns:
https://t.co/b3x5p4qHm5
This is a long read, so I skimmed, but it seems to be really well-presented and difficult to dispute. He seems to stick to verifiable facts and not rely on his own observations as the evidence for any of his assertions.
This link from the article is truly appalling: https://www.fastcompany.com/90721663/an-ar-15-designed-for-children-shocks-even-the-most-jaded-gun-control-advocates
I spent about 90 minutes last night trying to pick the bathroom door lock, to no avail. No one was trapped inside, just no one can access the bathroom now.
Always something.
I’ve only every had bathroom doors with the hole on the outside of the knob so that one can stick something like a paper clip in it and the door will unlock. Sorry for the struggle.
When my son was 2 years old, he managed to throw the keys to a closet into that closet and lock it. I ended up taking the hinges off the door to retrieve them and put a none locking hardware set on the door so it wouldn’t happen later.
Always late to the party, I started an Instagram account, just because. So far I have one follower.
It’s just been about the cat so far but, let’s see how long that lasts.
WTFussy
https://www.americandialect.org/2022-word-of-the-year-is-ussy
Nope
CP: Ride — Liz Phair
Counterpoint: It’s not the guns, it’s the M&Ms
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/10/business/m-and-ms-female-pack/index.html
This author is not a fan of new Trek:
https://youtu.be/coha_x5878s
He does like Voyager though which make his judgement rather suspect.
The new Antman flick is looking good:
https://youtu.be/7Pei3CbBZk0
The full list of Golden Globes winners.
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/golden-globes-2023-complete-winners-list/story?id=96316446
I’ve seen exactly none of these.
You really do need to watch Everything Everywhere All at Once, it’s a fun film.
I second that emotion.
This is right at the top of my wishlist – – as soon as my viewing partner and I can string 2 hours together.
Maybe in some alternate universe.
For the Space 1999 fans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr_jUXgZNjA
That was well done.
Initial success on project “find new standup comedians”. I rather like Tim Minchin, or at least his latest special “Back Live”. His music is good, and the comedy and social commentary are spot on.
I forgot about him. I assume Eddie Izzard is already covered?
Eddie Izzard is a long standing favorite.
Baby Shark do do do do….
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64231245?ICID=ref_fark
Wow. Jeff Beck. An absolute legend. RIP
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jan/12/legendary-rock-guitarist-jeff-beck-dies-aged-78
Was just about to post it.
Jeff Beck: British guitar legend dies aged 78 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64228780
Morning Pan
I go for a bone density test this afternoon. I’ve never had one before so it should be interesting.
Ah, the fun things we do as we get older.
I don’t know what that all entails, but I hope it’s as fun as humanly possible.
Has everyone seen the SurveyMonkey for the MMMmmmeetup dates?
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VC5L75Z?fbclid=IwAR13ziCs1c8p81zuYSkAO2NlGAaEiUbUFjVtSDoPCLLr98ohozulf49PT84
Already voted
I’m glad John Fogerty lived to see the day:
https://www.stereogum.com/2210285/john-fogerty-gains-control-over-creedence-clearwater-revivals-catalog-after-50-years/news/
My god – – a RUSH cover with William Shatner on vocals is somehow really good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5lEPZeu4GQ
Meh.
For my tastes, it doesn’t add any new takes on the song and isn’t better than the original.
I don’t see any reason to listen to this version instead of the original.
CP: Fade To Grey — Visage
Crap joke for the evening:
A husband and wife in their 90s are both having problems remembering things.
During a checkup, the doctor tells them that they’re physically OK, but they might want to start writing things down to avoid forgetting.
Later that night, while watching TV, the old man gets up from his chair. “Want anything while I’m in the kitchen?” he asks.
“Will you get me a bowl of ice cream?”
“Sure …”
“Don’t you think you should write it down so you can remember it?” she asks.
“No, I can remember it.”
“Well, I’d like some strawberries on top, too. Maybe you should write it down, so as not to forget it?”
He says, “I can remember that. You want a bowl of ice cream with strawberries.”
“I’d also like whipped cream. I’m certain you’ll forget that, write it down?” she asks.
Irritated, he says, “I don’t need to write it down, I can remember it! Ice cream with strawberries and whipped cream — I got it, for goodness’ sake!” Then he toddles into the kitchen.
After about 20 minutes, the old man returns and hands his wife a plate of bacon and eggs.
She stares at the plate for a moment.
“Where’s my toast?”
A bit of a dustup in the WotC D&D world:
https://gizmodo.com/dungeons-dragons-ogl-announcement-wizards-of-the-coast-1849981365
Yeah, it is all over Twitter. It’s been good news for all 3rd party systems that compete with DnD. The publisher of Savage Worlds stated they sold out of all their base rule books for some reason. LOL Hasbro’s lawyers are pretty thickheaded in my opinion. Role-playing tabletop games are a cottage industry and there are plenty of other systems people can use and get the same or better experience. I’m also a little peeved with Hasbro the way they have handled the Rom:Spaceknight IP. James Gunn wanted ROM in Guardians 3, but Marvel stated it would be too difficult to work with Hasbro to get the rights. If Hasbro ever does make a ROM movie, nobody will have a clue who the character is. That was a big marketing opportunity for them, but lawyers.
Started watching Manhunter and nothings says filmed in the 80s then the bloody font on the title screen.
Oh and Will’s wife is played by the actress who was the love interest in Brazil.
The original Michael Mann movie? I’m a huge fan, but I remember this one being kind of a swing and a miss.
Yup.
Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis, dies aged 54 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64255117
If you have a Phillips CPAP machine you should check if it needs to be replace:
https://t.co/p7mabp5FBl
The site wants me to pay to read into the meat of the article. I did the replacement when they first put out the recall because my old machine was, well, old and I wanted a free new one. But my doctor said that the issue with the foam was caused by people putting their CPAP machines into sanitizing machines that they were never designed to go into and that if I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t have any actual trouble with the foam. They sent me a new machine quickly and with no muss or fuss. The new machine works fine.
Yeah I’ve never done that as well, will get a new machine on Monday.
Mine isn’t a Philips so… go me?
Well looks like mine has the disintegrating foam, been having flu like symptoms all week that eased overnight when I stopped using the machine.
CP: School — Supertramp
Are you ok ditto? That’s a bit mainstream for you.
Cough
Don’t you talk about ditto, he’s the only one I’ve got.
Looks like it will be fun:
https://youtu.be/D0E4YkDwLzA
We have started watching the tv series Let The Right One In. I’ve seen both versions of the movie (French and English) and am quite enjoying the series now, too
Loved the original movie. I’d question the need for a series, but if it works, it works.
You’ve been eaten by a grue
Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold.
I don’t remember Thorin being in Zork
Nope but he was in The Hobbit, another early text adventure based on the Tolkien book:
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/sep/22/i-saw-the-possibility-of-what-could-be-done-so-i-did-it-revolutionary-video-game-the-hobbit-turns-40
Yeah, I saw that earlier. Still not Zork though 😉
We don’t want Van to be eaten by a grue.
Happy Birthday Mr. Mangan!
Happy birthday!
My goodness, a rare sight.
😛
Amy, your letter arrived today.
CP: Chaise Long – Wet Leg
Happy birthday Sénior Mangan!
Happy birthday!
Thank you, thank you! Been a lovely morning.
Beginning to wonder if my DPSS recipient actually got the gift I sent.
They did! They think it’s great. They’re just scatterbrained. Cough.
It was a lovely birthday! If you didn’t see on FB, Tiffany surprised me with front row tix for a great Led Zeppelin cover band.
Earlier, had hot pot for dinner, which was an adventure in itself.
https://theprogmind.com/2023/01/13/tpm-top-40-songs-2022/
The Top 40 Prog Rock songs of the year. So, roughly 7,861 minutes of music.
I know a handful of these. . . I’m intrigued by many of the others. In my ignorance, I’d thought that Tangerine Dream ended when Edgar Froese died in 2015. I see they’ve kept going.
I definitely had some Tangerine Dream albums back in the day. You know… the ones you would put into a dual cassette boom box and make a copy of. Those.
They have over 150 album releases. Sadly, some of my old favorites – Thief, Turn of the Tides – are not available through Amazon streaming.
CW: The Last of Us E1
Oh yeah, been waiting for this one.
Got a new CPAP machine, still a Philips but not part of the recall.
I both love and hate doing things I don’t really know how to do.
That’s definitely one of the books of my life.
Yeah, same he-OMG, it’s Nomad Scry!
https://youtu.be/icfLxm1VabU
Mandolorian season 3 trailer
“I’m from a tech-obsessed subculture, so it’s my habit to look for
scientific and industrial innovations and assume they’re gonna alter
the world’s situation.
That’s not what happens in this decade.”
Reading through Bruce Sterling’s 2023 State of the World.
https://people.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/522/State-of-the-World-2023-Bruce-St-page01.html
Ok, watching the first episode of Chippendales and wondering if Backgammon was ever that Big in the USA?
Yeah, I remember it being big in Canada. I’m assuming it was similar in the US.
Watching the 2009 rebooted Star Trek film and man that cast was fricking fantastic,
This first rebooted Trek movie is the best thing JJ Abrams has ever and will ever do.
Crap joke for the evening:
A husband was sitting quietly reading his paper one morning, peacefully enjoying himself, when his wife sneaks up behind him and whacks him on the back of the head with a huge frying pan.
“What the heck was that for!” he asked.
She replies, “I found a piece of paper in your pants pocket with the name Marylou written on it…”
“Oh, dear, remember two weeks ago when I went to the horse races? Well, Marylou was the name of one of the horses I placed a bet on.”
The explanation seems to appease her, and she leaves the room to go about her business.
Three days later, the man is again sitting in his chair reading the morning paper. His wife abruptly hangs up the telephone and then whacks him on the back of the head with the huge frying pan.
“What the heck did I do wrong this time!” he asked.
She answered, “Your horse just called!”
I’ve been mulling a reread of these books. . .
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/stephen-colbert-george-r-r-martin-chronicles-of-amber-1235302213/
It’s definitely a good idea to re-read them instead of watching the do the same to Amber that they did to the Wheel of Time.
I’ve not read any of his novels.
I did watch Damnation Alley though.
I read the Amber series for the first time around 2009. They took me by surprise – – I rather enjoyed them. Corwin and Random were great characters.
At the request of someone, I made a video presentation of some of my work.
I now have a newfound appreciation for those who work in that field
It’s expensive and what is the point if you aren’t looking through the eye piece, may as well download a photo from NASA:
https://www.universetoday.com/159265/unistellar-releases-a-new-smartscope-the-equinox-2/
https://www.stereogum.com/2210598/nick-cave-chatgpt-newsletter/news/
Someone sent Nick Cave AI-generated lyrics “in the style of Nick Cave.”
He wasn’t happy.
Looks like Wizards of the Coast finally addressed the open license controversy.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1428-a-working-conversation-about-the-open-game-license
This seems like the right direction in my opinion. I don’t begrudge Wizards trying to make money on their IP, but I do get how content creators felt the reigns tightening. As for myself, I’m not going to be subscribing to any monthly digital services from Wizards, so if DnD Beyond makes it mandatory, there are plenty of paper & pencil systems that don’t require it, even older editions of DnD.
I imagine it’s too little, too late for some. Still, this is the right thing to do today, given the situation.
Amazon should have done something like this after they wrecked Comixology.
In “Am I Evil?” news: I have a physical promo comic book in my hands!
It’s not the finished product, but – – wow!
THAT is exciting news!
Can’t wait to see it !
W00T!
W00T x2!
BTW – I got my indie gogo email update.
The pictures look really slick!
I did not get an update 🙁
https://abc7.com/amp/missing-hikers-search-san-gabriel-mountains-los-angeles-county/12716530/
Actor Julian Sands is missing on a California hiking trail. 🙁
I really liked 1899 on Netflix! I’m disappointed in Netflix for cancelling it.
Calling on Amazon Prime to pick it up and let them finish this thing!
Yeah, we quite enjoyed it too. I know there’s some sort of petition going around to get it renewed but I don’t think that’ll work
End of an era.
I subscribe to two magazines every year. Well just went digital only with one of them.
With postal strikes and the pandemic deliveries of the print magazine were a tad unreliable. Discovered I quite enjoyed reading the digital version of the magazine on my iPad every week so went for the cheaper option.
I’ve gotten the PC Gamer magazine digitally on the Ipad for a few years now. I don’t think I’d ever go back to paper given a choice.
CP: Rubberband Girl — Kate Bush
Gina Lollobrigida: Italian screen star dies at 95 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64292026
Somehow didn’t expect that people referenced in Bugs Bunny cartoons would even still be around. Not sure why the joke even stuck with me, but I definitely remember Bugs saying to someone “ducka you head, lollobrigida” right before the other character smacks their head on a bridge.
The classics !
Half of my education of how things worked in that era are from cartoons. I still remember finding out what an A card was for gas rationing (https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2019/12/30/how-gas-rationing-worked-during-world-war-ii) and finally understanding the joke at the end of “Falling Hare” when the plummeting plane stalls out before hitting the ground because it runs out of gas and Bugs saying “You know how it is with these A cards” https://youtu.be/ZElJxTCIsJI?t=484
US rock legend David Crosby dies aged 81 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64341315
What an iconic voice and character. CSN/CSNY absolutely takes me back to a specific place and time.
I know he’d been “grandpa yelling at cloud” online in the past few years, but whatever. Great musician, great career. RIP
Everything Jack said.
He brought great music and musical stories into the world.
The album “So Far” is a milestone piece for me and is music that will outlive us all
Honestly, I didn’t know he was still around.
Crap joke for this cold morning:
I recently had a mouse infestation in my kitchen.
I sprayed WD 40 around the hole they came in through.
It didn’t get rid of them, but it stopped them squeaking!
I just noticed (I’m slow) that Ryah did not get her Am I Evil? email update.
Did the update miss anyone else?
For whatever reason, these go straight into my read/trash folder. Once I know it exists, I’m able to locate them but they certainly don’t like going into my in box. I’ve double checked all my settings and everything and there seems to be no reason for this.
I didn’t get anything either. Checked the spam and the read emails and the last thing I have is from December of 2021.
CP: Short but Sweet — Louis Armstrong
So Jetbro Tull are doing a concept album based on Norse myths:
So Jethro Tull are doing a concept album based on Norse myths:
https://youtu.be/KoBAD-TRxYA
Well that became a confusing search really fast. I went to find the latest Tull album and it was The Zealot Gene (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zealot_Gene) in 2022. I though that might be it but when I finally got to the description of the album it was “The Zealot Gene is not a concept album, but biblical references are made throughout and Anderson began writing each song with a passage from the Bible.”
So much for that album. I love Tull, but that really really isn’t up my alley.
Turns out the one on Norse Myths is RökFlöte and has not been released yet. That one I’ll definitely be on the lookout for.
Well I did write doing, which rather indicates it was a work in progress.
Indeed, you are and were correct. Doesn’t mean that you (or anybody else) has always been so. And when I saw 2022 I though there really couldn’t be two new Tull albums in the last year or so. It was still worth investigating, even if it turn out that the 2022 album doesn’t look for me. Would have been worth it for new Tull.
https://loudwire.com/people-mad-pink-floyd-new-dark-side-of-the-moon-anniversary-logo-rainbow/
I guess these are the people who cheer for Pinky’s rant in “In the Flesh.”
Funny thing is, 50 years ago Pink Floyd was doing things that caused people who didn’t like change to get upset.
Nice to see they can still do that.
Yet another example of the statement my friends and I used to explain every unexplainable thing when I was an undergrad in college… people are stupid
Eldest daughter is home from school. We were going to watch Terminator 2 (the first isn’t on HBO right now, just the 2nd), but went with John Wick instead. I figured it was a bit more current and relevant to a person born in this century – – and little shorter, which mattered when starting after 11.
I’ve seen the John Wick movies once apiece, in the theaters. This movie is still really good, but far darker in tone than I remembered. I guess it was the sequels that I was thinking of that get more playful with his gun-fu.
Still excellent, but I couldn’t help feeling like we shoulda watched T2.
John Wick has of late, become a running joke around here. For some reason in the Dec/Jan time period, it was almost ALWAYS on if we sat down to watch TV at night.
The real funny part was that when we flipped through the channels and hit it, there was ALWAYS a gun fight going on.
If there is not a drinking game based on him reloading there should be.
Still haven’t seen all of any of those films.
As much as I like the first Terminator movie, it can be hard to watch for younger audiences as the special effects were far far far superior in T2.
T1 will always hold a special place in my heart but it’s prevalence of cultural references and images (which I think made it feel more real and important to me at that time) made it almost unwatchable decades later. I could overlook the aged FX but not the heavy 80’s vibe.
Also- my “decades later” rewatch was with a high school age daughter and I had not remembered the John/Sarah sex scene. I remembered they had hooked up but not that it was given so much explicite screen time.
THAT became very uncomfortable.
I remember an awkward time with my daughter when she got into horror movies and there was a constant struggle to find stuff that contained violence but not sex. I am well aware of the hypocrisy there. However, she and I were both more comfortable watching one than the other. Oddly enough, the most uncomfortable movie for us to watch together had nothing to do with sex scenes. It was, if I recall correctly, Aliens 3 or 4 in which it seemed that every other word spoken was an obscenity. I thought nothing of it the first time I saw it. But watching it with a teenage daughter and we were both superiorly aware of the language. Crazy the things that see off when watched with a school age daughter.
Episode 1 of the Vampire Chronicles completely went there (a shock to me, since there’s nothing like that in the book, goddammit), and after about 20 seconds of everyone silently begging the scene to end, the daughter just said, “bye” and left.
I think the solution is to always always always always check the content warnings.
Just going to pop in and say again that T3 rocks and the downbeat ending is bloody fantastic.
Boy did I hate T3. I last watched it as a Blockbuster rental, so maybe I should give it another shot.
I was thinking – – as Asshat was kinda saying – – that T2 is the better starting point for a younger viewer.
Ok, so in Iron Giant, did the robot have a head injury from the crash landing or when he fell after Hogarth cut the power off at the sub station?
I believe it was from the crash landing. His demeanor changed drastically after the dent was repaired.
How long did they make him sit out before he cleared “concussion protical”?
https://planetradio.co.uk/planet-rock/news/rock-news/album-cover-homages/
Similar album covers
While some of these ARE clearly based on the previous work … I feel the author was clearly reaching on others to get enough material to make their article marketable.
New maps of Mars:
https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/planetary-geologic-mapping/news/a-martian-mons-mystery-paleo-climate-change-and
Sigh:
Monterey Park: Nine people dead after shooting near LA, police say https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64364144
The husband, myself, and a friend of ours have this running joke about cat people. Last night, John and I decided to watch the eighties movie Cat People. If you like nudity in your movies, this I the one for you. If you want your movies to make sense, then walk away.
I think tonight we’ll watch the fourties’ version
The husband, myself, and a friend of ours have this running joke about cat people. Last night, John and I decided to watch the eighties movie Cat People. If you like nudity in your movies, this I the one for you. If you want your movies to make sense, then walk away.
I think tonight we’ll watch the fourties’ version
… Nastassa Kinski
Seems like I liked Cat People, but have a vague memory of it being fairly dated the last viewing, which was probably over 25 years ago.
Spoken in Cartman voice “yeah I want nudity in my movies”.
I first watched cat people as a horny teenager so it was a fast favorite. Since I’m still a horny adult I expect it will have aged well. Although I remember sections of it being slower and that still won’t bode well with me.
A slice of history about the men who designed the Electroliner train:
http://forgottenchicago.com/features/good-modern-the-forgotten-work-of-james-f-eppenstein-part-1/
Anyone here read Scalzi’s Kaiju Preservation Society? Looks interesting enough and I did like the one other thing of Scalzi’s that I’ve read. Apologies if anyone has already expressed their opinions here and I missed it.
I just finished it. I’m pretty hit and miss with Scalzi. This one was cute but not what I would call ground breaking.
It was entertaining enough, though.
I loved it. It was a fun read and parts were hilarious.
It’s on my TBR pile.
I was greatly entertained by this book. I felt like he was gunning for a big-budget movie adaptation.
I’m definitely hearing that it’s worth a try. It will be next month’s Audible credit purchase.
Last night we watched the 1942 Cat People. With the exception of the nudity, you could definitely see the parts of this movie that made up its remake
CW: The Last of Us E2
We watched it earlier today. I’ve never played the game and I’m usually not into the whole zombie apocalypse genre. But, given the two lead actors, I was up for giving it a shot.
We’re enjoying it so far.
We’ve enjoyed it too. I’ve liked and appreciated almost all the changes and additions. I thought the “kiss of death” just a bit too much though.
We saw episode one yesterday and enjoyed it. I never played the game as it hasn’t come to PC
So, did we come up with a weekend for the Mmeetup yet? I don’t remember seeing results from the survey.
I don’t think Jack has posted the results yet
I leave that to my wife’s capable clicks.
Majority of the votes (6/9) are for Labor Day Weekend.
What do we want to do with that?
The Mangan Fab Four are IN!
Ok, if I lived in the USA I would be seriously tempted:
https://arcade1up.com/products/star-wars-special-edition-at-home-arcade-game?utm_source=Main%20Newsletter%20List&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=23JAN22_SW%20DROP%20%2801GQG9JJ9S5C0GFG4VN6YVNW28%29&bxid=01FEFAM6YRMX3NXB5W1MA0296M&triplesource=klaviyo&profile_id=01FEFAM6YRMX3NXB5W1MA0296M&_kx=w5pAenz2fxCkZTVVyV0F1-qPWyalMSXKuk5xXXlnYko%3D.TyimuS
I am way too much of a cheapskate, but wow. Although the sit-down version would be Fassbender perfection.
That’s pretty great. I don’t think I would have room for such a monster. However, Teresa liked her brother’s arcade emulator so much it is likely we’ll get one of those in the coming years.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/01/oscar-nominations-2023-list-awards-insider
The only one of the Best Picture nominees I’ve seen is Top Gun, and are you fking kidding me??
I’ve actually seen more than I thought I had … but none in the theater and that may be why I didn’t think I had seen any.
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Top Gun: Maverick
Hands down … “EEAO” gets my vote.
Only haven’t seen Women Talking and Triangle of Sadness of the best pic nominations.
https://www.tor.com/2023/01/24/cover-reveal-murderbot-system-collapse-by-martha-wells/
New Murderbot on the way!
Yes! 😀
Insta buy if they release an audio version
CP: Power — Joy Oladokun
I just heard about this movie. Now I really need to see it
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2781516/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
And read the comic book adaptation!
https://www.dynamite.com/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?PRO=C72513025275301011
Wolfcop and Wolfcop 2 are fantastic! The right balance between comedy and horror.
John Leguizamo looks like a teenager in the Super Mario Bros trailer:
https://youtu.be/pUpQLU3J7fU
I liked Solar Opposites pity the creator turned out to be a douche bag:
http://dlvr.it/ShNsdJ
If he’s guilty, then kick him to the curb and good riddance.
If the accusations are false, then we’re seeing an innocent person lose his entire livelihood.
I haven’t seen proof either way.
Please remember: should I ever hit his levels of fame, then there is a vindictive, mentally unwell person from my past who will make as much noise as possible with false accusations.
I came to the realization decades ago that “Fame” was something to be avoided.
“Fortune” on the other hand …
Yeah, I’ve appreciated people’s kind words about things I’ve created – – that’s been great. Otherwise, I continue to enjoy my anonymity, thank you.
Watching all the Bond films at the cinema:
https://bit.ly/3Xl0YbH
The writer vets high marks for watching all of them and being able to find something good in all of them.
Yes … even Moonraker.
Vets = gets
12 year old me loved Moonraker. I think I tried to rewatch it as an adult and had to change the channel.
Watched Moonraker during the pandemic and still enjoyed it.
Tonight and tomorrow my evenings will be lonely
Stupid parent teacher interviews
Generally speaking, it’s best if parent teachers aren’t stupid.
I assumed it was teacher interviews with lonely, stupid parents.
I guess that could be bad as well.
An archive of public information films:
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/collection/public-information-films
David Prowse is in one!
These are probably best watched with the help of your robot friends.
I only just learned about Tony Iommi’s hand injury that lead to the distinctive Black Sabbath sound.
New meaning to “wow! That song has quite a hook”?
(* this post brought to you by
“people who have no idea what they’re talking about and blithely post before they do any research“)
It’s rumored he is the originator of “palm muting.”
Okay not really. (To no one’s surprise I am familiar with the injury in question)
To this day, he wears little finger caps on his right hand. Many believe that this was the first reason why Black Sabbath tuned down to their ominous, Doomy sound, so the string tension would be easier on his hand.
He’s a lefty player like me!
As was explained to me, to avoid a lot of pain due to the injury, he wears those finger caps, plus he strung his guitar with banjo strings and used drop C tuning.
I hope those Texas tornadoes didn’t affect Ed! I’d hate to have to go pick him up from Oz.
Thankfully, we came through unscathed. An area further east looks like it took an EF-3.
If you google Last of Us, they have a mushroom at the bottom of the screen you can click on.
CP: I Need Never Get Old — Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
CP: Young at Heart – The Bluebells
A board game review:
Heat: Pedal to the Metal Board Game Review
https://ign.com/articles/heat-pedal-to-the-metal-board-game-review
The mechanics sound similar to the DIY miniatures combat car game, Gaslands. https://gaslands.com/
Creepy. https://arstechnica.com/?p=1912236
..and the ghost of Leonardo da Vinci laughed and laughed..
for those who want to keep watching Netflix during their meetings?
I was just recently introduced to this one. I wasn’t even aware of the “LitRPG” genre. This one is a particularly solid opening and has pulled me out of a bit of a rut I was stuck in with finding something new to read.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54659324-dungeon-crawler-carl
https://taleofthemanticore.podbean.com/
Cool, I downloaded the audio version of the first book to check it out. I’ve mentioned before the podcast “Tale of the Manticore” which is a Dungeons & Dragons story that changes with dice-rolling skill checks. The production quality is on par with commercial offerings.
Intrigued. I’m connected to Matt Dinniman on FB – – he has some devoted fans.
MMMmmmeetup polling results are in!
Majority of the votes (6/9) are for Labor Day Weekend.
What do we want to do with that?
The Mangan Fab Four are IN!
The sixth of September is a week day here so how on Earth can that be the memorial weekend?
Labor Day weekend I mean.
The long weekend is the first to fourth here. The sixth is a Wednesday. I’m assuming it’s the first weekend of September that we’re talking about
When people are ready, I can let you know about the hotels closest to me. Although, Airdrie is small enough you can drive from one end of the city to the other in ten or fifteen minutes so anywhere is probably fine.
Also, my car, while having seatbelts for four, will comfortably fit 3 people. I can try to snaggle John to drive so we’ll have an extra vehicle for the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (he’ll work on Thursday and Friday), but there’s a better than average chance he’ll say no. He’s not an overly social person.
I still don’t know if I can get that weekend off, I’ll ask tomorrow.
I guess I need to update my Canadian passport. No, that doesn’t mean I’m growing a mullet.
Another lonely evening for this bunny tonight
Looking forward to E3:
https://youtu.be/0QQatU7IYhw
Before I clicked the link, I was expecting some kind of preview for the Electronic Entertainment Expo…which apparently isn’t until June.
Same here
This is better!
Why Van’s pudding is weird:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgxclUnQI8A
You can talk, your chocolate pudding is bloody custard!
Man, what a night at the Metal Hall of Fame gala. I can’t even count the number of amazing people I met and talked to through The Metal Voice (I was on their Livestream for quite a while.
Van, have any updates about Sept?
Got the time off, so date wise I’m good to go.
Most excellent. Mrs. from Texas will be joining this year. Both kids will be oft to college, so we’re ready to enjoy being empty nesters.
Excellent news, Ed. I look forward to meeting her
Burger and chips:
https://youtu.be/jN19_olA410
So, for some planning purposes, what airport should we be looking at flying into?
Calgary. The Calgary airport is less than a half hour drive from my place
Actually, it’s funny. I no longer live in Calgary, but am now closer to the airport than when I did
So Jack, I don’t know US taxes well enough but, if you can arrange to meet with one of your artists while here, can you write off your flight? (I know not the whole family’s)
They are welcome to join us, or come to the Saturday food thing at our place that always happens at meetups
Thanks, Ryah! I was planning on inviting Kyle, Derek, and Jim (the trip from Edmonton might be difficult). Please also feel free to o cite Ryan, Randy, and anyone else who’d be inclined.
When making plans, one thing I can tell you, the closer you can arrive to when a place opens, the better. I’m sure Van can tell you from when he was here, we’d go to the Tyrell, or the zoo, or Heritage Park and there were few crowds by arriving earlier. By the time we were ready to leave, the lines were hours long
The two hotels closest to me is a Best Western Plus and a Days Inn. While the Best Western is about five minutes closer, The Days Inn was only built about five years ago so it’s newer.
I haven’t been inside either one of them so couldn’t say what they are like, but I can take a peek at them next week if people want
Wow, the snow is really coming down
Well that is dodgy and a Simpsons sort of way:
https://t.co/ep9YRLLyw5
Stupid accidents are stupid.
Cut my finger trying to separate mini Yorkshire pudding trays with a knife, knew as I was doing it that this was probably not going to end well and it didn’t.
Ouch
Sylvia Syms: Veteran British actress dies at 89 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64426891
If you’ve you seen Ice Cold in Alex or the Heineken ad that used a scene from the film, that was her.
Carlsberg not Heineken..doh!
I know I shouldn’t have, but I read an article where Tucker Carlson said you shouldn’t sent tanks to the Ukraine but instead use them to invade and liberate Canada. What the hell did we do? Seriously, let me know, I want to make sure we do it again
Can we load Tucker Carlson into a cannon and fire him into the sea?
It would turn the sea into a toxic, EPA Superfund site. It would be safer and more cost effective to launch him into the Sun.
I look outside and I start to worry. The husband has to drive home in this
So today watched the first episode of Extraordinary (sitcom with superpowers) on Disney+ and Poker Face (human lie detector solves murders Columbo style) in Paramount+.
Enjoyed both.
Travel Alberta’s Last of Us tour
… and here’s the link
https://www.travelalberta.com/us/articles/2023/01/locations-featured-in-hbo-the-last-of-us/
Tired Jack is tired. To respond to the day’s comments:
I hope Van’s finger is OK. I hope husband got home ok in the weather. I hope Tucker Carlson gets fired out of a cannon into space. I hope I’m just feeling rundown, and not actually getting sick.
The dark side of Hollywood:
https://t.co/wB8Mlcgion
Yikes.
I never gave Television a fair shot, but with today’s passing of Tom Verlaine and all of the tributes, I’ve given Marquee Moon a spin. I hear why this connected with so many people. Young me would have hated this, but old me gets it. It’s too bad it took the mastermind’s death for me to find this.
https://youtu.be/7KvgP8MlEEE
RIP
I had not heard of this band till today.
Same. At least if I had heard I tune by them I didn’t know who it was.
I really like it.
This is early punk rock and has that “edge”. Not the high energy, frenetic punk but the other end of the scale. Less “audio assault” and more “I’ve got something to say”.
There is also some “Talking Heads” feels to the vocals. Interesting as that band had only just released their first album that same year.
Good find.
When you discover an archive of a short lived magazine dedicated to strategy games on the internet:
https://archive.org/details/StrategyPlus/Strategy_Plus_01_Oct_1990/
Although initially a UK magazine, it moved to the US and transformed into Computer Games Strategy Plus which had a much longer run.
Now this is cool:
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/our-solar-system/overview/
Just found out that Sal Piro passed a few days ago. Even when I lived on Long Island, I never made it to one of the showings where he was, so I didn’t get to meet him. But I do have to thank him for being a pivotal part in making Rocky Horror what it became.
https://deadline.com/2023/01/sal-piro-dead-rocky-horror-picture-show-superfan-upcoming-movie-1235240424/
Bloody hell, only 45, RIP:
https://t.co/X3HdomdzJh
Yeah, I just saw that a little bit ago. She was great on The Rookie and Picard.
Crap joke for the evening.
As I knelt down with a pair of size 4 shoes in front of this blonde in a short skirt, I couldn’t resist a quick glance at her knickers:
“Hey, cheeky!” She said as she gave me a playful kick.
“I bet the only reason you work here is to look up girls’ skirts isn’t it?”
“That’s an absolutely ridiculous accusation, madam,” I said sternly.
“I don’t even work here.”
So turns out Zachary Levi is an anti-vaxxer, Trumper/MAGA and general douchebag.
Ah well.
I’ll wait on this one.
As one article put it, it wasn’t clear if his “Pfizer is dangerous” tweet was “merely passing judgement on Big Pharma or leaning into anitvax territory,”
As for other “evidence” the internet is leaning into an old Joe Rogen appearance where he referred to a prominent homophobe as a deep thinker.
It’s possible that he isn’t maga but just not as clever as I had hoped.
**shrug**
I’ll wait for his explanation of the Pfizer tweet and see what else appears before I give up on him.
Yeah, I’m going to hold off on the pitchforks for now. It is entirely possible his tweet about Pfizer was about the evils of “big-pharma” and the damaging effect of advertiser money spent on drug costs.
The trailer for his Kurt Warner movie did make me go ;-|
It’s snowing again
My Boo’s birthday is coming up this weekend. Usually we take her out to dinner but haven’t for the last couple of years for obvious reasons.
This year we’re taking her out again. I think she’s taking advantage. Because we’re buying, she’s picked one of the more expensive restaurants in the city.
https://www.omoyyc.com/
One to avoid for the meet-up then.
There’s apparently some flap about Sci-Fi editor Tom Monteleone saying terrible things. I don’t know the drama, and I don’t care to spend time researching it. I do, however, really like author Usman Mlk’s commentary, applied to the broader dogmatic movement. An excerpt, edited for TL;DR:
As Tom Monteleone has gone from grouchy old man yelling at clouds to outright bigot as well as providing a platform for bigotry and overt white supremacy, I have no qualms about taking names publicly anymore…
…But Tom belongs to another age, he really does, when men of a certain class and race viewed the world through a particular lens. That lens is affirmed over and over by the way the world treats them, until that becomes their truth. A world where traffic stops for black men go wrong bc ‘they just don’t cooperate with the police like I do’. Where systemic racism, inequality, crime is the fault of the ones at the bottom, not those at the top. Where pull yourself up by your bootstrap libertarianism is taken to its logical conclusion: genocide by ‘natural selection’.
Tom can talk about pronouns and wokeism and identity politics all he wants, but at the end of the day, we all know why we all pursue certain ideologies and not others: power and profit.
Samuel R Delany was talking about this phenomenon in publishing as far back as the 1980s.
Tom’s world is fading (even if the world that’s replacing it isn’t that much brighter) and he knows it. The new world has issues: leftists can certainly lose their minds, become as stubborn and idiotic as the right-wingers/libertarians. We make mistakes and form lynch mobs and hop on bandwagons — but we constantly correct course too. That introspection doesn’t happen in Tom or his similar-minded friends’ echo chamber and bubbles.
Well consequences have arrived:
https://horror.org/thomas-f-monteleone-statement/
One more thing for you to read:
https://www.stereogum.com/2212139/nick-cave-responds-to-fan-who-misses-his-rage-and-hatred-things-changed-after-my-first-son-died/news/
This is simultaneously the most gut-wrenching and inspiring thing I’ve read in months. I’m inspired. . . .and I need to go lie down.
Do click and go read his full response.
CP: Andor (Main Title Theme) – Episode 12 — Nicholas Britell
Goodbye to the other half:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-01-30/cindy-williams-dies-obituary-laverne-and-shirley?fbclid=IwAR08O5fA0dPUBhUKsnxCI3eaZloteZFVTnDxJ4uCe80TmGe11sFEAlUlrIY
RIP, Shlameel and Schlamozzel. 🙁
A B-52s style cover of Stairway to Heaven will be the best 1:54 of your day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAqwPcGuSpk
Or Beatles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j9s75-whBs
So I’m officially two inches shorter due the arthritis in my knees.
Sigh.
I’m too short to get any shorter
You’re still an English giant.
Another hubiless evening tonight *sigh*
I only just now saw this-
Lisa Loring passes.
https://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/celebrities/article271827347.html
RIP. Too damn young. I hope the Wednesday show brought her some joy.
I believe John Astin is the last of the original Addams now.
I urge you to read the Nick Cave thing I posted yesterday.
And then I urge you to watch those two Stairway videos.
Wow. Homework
Read. Got the feels. Will look at the videos when I get back to my desk
I am trying to gird my loins for the Nick Cave piece.
It sounds like it’s gonna be emotionally triggering.
Ok
It was not emotionally devistating as I had feared.
It IS inspiring and worth the two minutes to read!
Thanks for passing it along Jack.
I don’t usually nag, but that one felt like it needed to be seen.
CP: Through The Fire And The Flames — Dragonforce
Last 747 delivered to company;
https://www.engadget.com/boeing-delivery-last-747-jumbo-jet-104545510.html
I’ve had different sicknesses for pretty much all of January. But hey, it’s now February, so that’s progress!
/complain mode
I hear you, brother. I managed to avoid Covid for three years, I was vaxed and boosted, went to numerous crowded concerts, and nothing. Then over Christmas Teresa and I caught Covid from my son. Luckily symptoms were very mild, but we had to quarantine for the majority of the holiday break. Anyway, on to February!
Ugh, sorry to hear it.
Thank you, I’m sorry for you and yours as well. Bring on February!
Also if Amy shows up, yes I received both Secret Santa gifts and they are great! Thank you.
Look at the coolness but if tempted look at the price:
https://www.westcoastfirepits.com/shop/death-star
They went with the wrong joke. “This battle station is fully operational” was the clear choice. It’s for this reason that I won’t give them $3000.00 for a backyard grill.
Sure Jack, sure…
“Many bothans died to bring us this fire pit.”
“The ability to cook a steak is insignificant next to the power of the force.”
“That’s no grill.”
“When I left you I was but the learner, Now I am the grill master.”
“Don’t get cooky kid!”
Honestly, this is the part I can’t get past –
“is the most precise Death Star firepit on the market. ”
Because, you know, THAT market being so competitive and all.
CP: Iron Lung — Big Pig
If you have a PS5 and PS Plus subscription:
https://t.co/VA6yKOMFxN
The video channel are doing “cheesy” videos.
I honestly didn’t remember Bon Jodi’s Runaway being that silly
Celine Dion’s Think Twice has a topless man making ice sculptures
Whitesnake!
I totally forgot Don Johnson did a song
China Crisis has flying bed and cut out heads
Carly Simon is on an Egyptian barge surrounded by half naked men in My New Boyfriend
Rick Astley!
(But not THAT song)
Van Haley’s Jump. Classic song, cheesy video
Kiss without the makeup and with a different drummer and guitarist
Kiley Minogue wants us to Hand Over Your Heart
So far, Bon Jovi and Kiss are the “best”
Starship Built This City
Some videos don’t stand the test of time
Billy idol has a strange baret on his head
Ok Hot in the City might come close to number one
The last one is Lionel Ritchie Dancing on the Ceiling
He has a tough act to follow
First flight of the last 747
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/10r3k9p/the_last_delivered_boeing_747_made_a_crown_with/
Teaser trailers for commercials… that HAS to be a sign of the impending apocalypse.
https://geektyrant.com/news/alicia-silverstone-talks-about-returning-to-play-clueless-character-cher-for-upcoming-superbowl-ad
Crap joke that actually happened to me.
I walked into a store that was just called “General Store”
I told the guy behind the counter I just wanted to browse to see what they had in a general store.
He said “nothing specific”
You walked into that one. 😉
That’s a 4-star joke.
That pun is like a surgeon, cutting for the very first time.
CP: Terminator: Main Title — Brad Fiedel
In the city with the husband
The praise for episode 3 of TLoU is well earned.
Agreed.
It was rather heart wrenching
Up next for us, I think. We’ve decided to watch hour-long of closeups of Elisabeth Moss looking tortured. (The latest season of Handmaid’s Tale)
Velma pitch meeting:
https://youtu.be/m4K_sxI5Ui8
CW: Poker Face E5
Porcupine Racetrack:
https://vimeo.com/410325198
Fun! So many of those comedians would go on to bigger things.
Testing. Testing.
Check. Check. Check.
Testing confirmed.
Well that is interesting:
https://t.co/JFf0bSKYIP
(Pre-emptive “no offense”)
I always found that to be the dumbest criticism of Titanic. They clearly made an effort in the movie to get him up there, but he was always hyper-protective of her, to a fault.
I think my FB account has been hacked (and suspended) how do I contact them to say such? They want my phone number but I’m not about to give it to them
Not sure if this will help, but I found:
https://www.facebook.com/help/105487009541643?helpref=contact_forms
Yeah, I had to do a bunch of things, including send a copy of my driver’s license. Apparently, not only was it hacked, it was suspended for violating COVID mis-information. Since the last thing I actually posted was about my Boo’s birthday…
I’m now playing the waiting game for FB to contact me.
I think this is similar to what happened to Amy Bowen. It happened to a local friend too – – they both just abandoned their old accounts. . . :-/
When I checked your account, it said it was deactivated, not suspended. I guess we’ll see what happens.
https://consequence.net/2023/02/melinda-dillon-dead/
RIP to Ralphie’s mom.
Ah the 90s:
https://www.pocket-lint.com/gadgets/news/148133-tech-problems-that-only-children-of-the-90s-and-00s-remember/
Some of these are fun to remember. And many of these pre-date the 90s
>:-(
“Prey” was quite good.
Seems like a fun list of links to 90s movies articles:
https://getpocket.com/collections/21-oral-histories-of-your-favorite-90s-movies?utm_source=pocket-newtab
I finished Kaiju Preservation Society. It was, indeed, a fun ride. But Scalzi literally overuses the hell out of the word “literally” which is made all the more prominent by Wil Wheaton literally overemphasizing each instance of the word.
I think I can safely say now: this book was a hell of a fun ride, but I hated, hated, hated, hated, hated , hated the main character. Hated him. Hated.
I think we’re supposed to find him hilarious and relatable, but his constant wisecracks are obnoxious and painfully unfunny. Almost ruined the book.
Otherwise: I liked it a lot. Scalzi was obviously gunning for a big- budget Hollywood adaptation, and I hope he gets it.
For me it was less about the main character (who was fine IMHO) and more about having every character seem to have the exact same sense of humor. As with many audiobooks, I have a hard time determining if something is a product of the author or the reader. I like Wil Wheaton enough but he has a definite over-the-top reading style and he doesn’t seem to bother to come up with new voices and/or personalities for each character. Every character in the book seemed to be the same person. Unclear if it was the writing or the reading. Maybe a bit of both.
Just switched from crappy 20 Mbps AT&T wifi to blazing fast 500 Mbps Spectrum wifi. But the router they provide appears to be a complete and utter piece of crap. Any recommendations on a good router for a Florida style (meaning 1 story and quite long) house? It’s been so damn long that I haven’t had to buy one that I have no clue what the market looks like now.
If you’ve got long distances to cover, I recommend some kind of mesh network. Some are wireless repeater types, other (like the Ubiquiti AP’s that I have) are hard wired.
Depends on how much you want to spend as mesh Wi-Fi can get expensive fast.
I bought the three pack of Google Nest Wifi Pro, which is probably overkill for my 2 floor terraced house. This replaced a two pack Google Wi-Fi. It comes with Matter support ( a standard for controlling devices in your network) and supports Wifi 6E.
If you don’t need Matter support or the latest Wifi standard, then see what sort of deal you can get on Google Wifi as it might be all you need.
Oh and you really need to be able to switch your ISP supplied hardware into modem only mode to let the first mesh unit handle the routing.
Watched League of Extraordinary Gentlemen last night. It was actually better than I remembered
So there is some sort of Charter/Spectrum routing issue between their net and GoDaddy. Packets just die. I can only get to this site using my cell.
What the crap. I don’t even know how to troubleshoot that. Can I do something?
I don’t think so. I’m going to look into it more on Monday.
I’m still having problems today. The ip it fails on is 148.72.36.3. According to db-ip.com, this is managed by GoDaddy and assigned to an address in Maricopa county, in Tempe, AZ.
This feels like my address is being blacklisted by your isp, Jack
I sent you an email with more info
Thanks. It’s kinda over my head. I fwded to Tony Mast.
It is crazy concerning anything with Spectrum. If I can get my phone (in far away parts of the house) to connect to wifi, I’m still getting speeds in excess of 100 Mbps. Just seems to be that it won’t actually connect to the wifi at all. Wonder it is isn’t related to the routing issue in some form or other
I find WiFi hardware supplied by the ISP to be a bit shit. Switching to modem mode and plugging in a dedicated router has always worked better for me,
If this forum allowed us to “like”, I would definately be “LIKE”ing this post.
Speaking of Scalzi:
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2023/02/05/shes-a-little-bit-rebel-senator-hes-a-little-bit-moisture-farmer/?fbclid=IwAR1hcfkk3VZuKlK6YG_i2pTsE797hwWtxYLIE9aK92JY8G1TcCcajccJU7w
lol. I remember that episode.
Most SNL sketches leave me cold, differences in humour I guess but the trailer made me lol:
https://youtu.be/UiIRlg4Xr5w
This is truly great
I can ‘t see it in my country
Watched the first three episodes of Shrinking on AppleTV+ with my sister and really enjoyed them.
Beautiful eulogy from Rudy Rucker for his wife:
https://www.rudyrucker.com/blog/2023/02/06/sylvia-bogsch-rucker-1943-2023/
May we all be remembered and cherished in such a way.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/how-this-laughable-sci-fi-flick-embarrassed-hollywood-into-doing-better-science/ar-AA178AhH?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=ac4f067ce0b949e7b7c81a1b6a5de97f
The movie is The Core. I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard the mockery.
Until Hollywood continued to embarrass itself with bad science with every other movie (e.g., thinking that the dark side of the moon is something that one can rotate into and out of).
Two days into my holiday and I’ve caught a cold..bah!
https://metalinjection.net/metal-in-the-mainstream/move-over-metal-sam-smith-is-the-new-face-of-satanic-panic?fbclid=IwAR3qpGnSk0KSNTnZxZH-aKm6Iz9DChsHDhXrPDe88wx7z3KLHKjvHVw4N5Y_aem_AV-QXgUTnEOcG_hrKsUCIrOOGm9ySVdLhY5evUeHQ4nAv35XEk1BIqzRm6uo5fN7-fiJ_4LLmZGj7g8C-ny0xnF7ueIlXER36nh_1Q9P8RPhpvsQQmKLQim-Y2Z1tLEtlwcDWTzfZXbSXXmlmhwtjSZ8
Hmm, I wonder if I could shorten that link….
Anyway…
This will be hilarious for the rest of time.
It appears that my autocorrect changing Mangan to Manganese never gets old.
I love periodic humor.
It’s off the charts!
So this is clever:
https://youtu.be/DZls7EIkbVk
So the DP website is almost unusable on mobile Safari, hit or miss whether the screen will refresh, often just leaving me with a red screen.
I had to fall back to Chrome on IOS, which gives me a warning symbol but does not tell me what the warning is about. At least it lets me post.
Hmmm works ok for me on Safari on my ipad
Yeah I have no idea why it’s doing that. Might have to clear the history and website data to see if that help.
So bizarre. It works on my iPhone and iPad.
The warning is because the website doesn’t support https
So enjoyed Knock at the Cabin, one of the better M. Night Shyamalan films.
Looks like Rick and Morty might just fine without Justin Rolland:
http://dlvr.it/Sj4f8D
Looks like Rick and Morty might just fine without Justin Roiland:
http://dlvr.it/Sj4f8D
My whole life, I’ve only ever wanted to be an eccentric genius weirdo.
Although it would seem that I don’t want to be that guy.
I’m no Leo DiCaprio fan, so I’m not blindly defending some idol.
Personally, I do find his choice of much-younger girlfriends to be a little creepy.
“They’re legal!” OK. . . Don’t arrest him. But I still can’t imagine what kind of real, deep connection could form between two people of such disparate age gaps. His behavior definitely raises an eyebrow.
But let’s remember a few things:
Unless there’s proof of him grooming them, drugging them, selecting damaged/fragile women, then he’s not a predator. That’s an inaccurate attack term with ulterior motives.
No one fucking knows him, any of his girlfriends, or the circumstances of any of these relationships. “He dumped her because she turned 25” – – Oh, you were there for the conversation when they split up?
There’s way too much beauty parlor celebrity gossiping.
The main point:
Remember that his environmental activism has put him in the crosshairs of powerful fascist-fetishist anti-green information peddlers. Those memes you’re reposting probably come from a source that you’d find repulsive.
I post this here because I trust you guys. I don’t want to have a 700-comment FB thread full of people I don’t know calling me terrible things.
One more note: My college professor married a colleague 25-ish years younger than him. They’ve been together for decades, have two college-aged children. I’ve met his wife a few times. She’s nobody’s doe-eyed victim. There are times when this works.
Agreed. I’m tired of all the faux outrage and virtue signalling.
I just saw that Van posted about Leo. . . . This wasn’t a passive aggressive snipe at you, my friend.
CP: Cassandra — Florence + The Machine
So my first time tonight to use a nasal spray decongestant as I had a stop using my CPAP machine last night because my nose was so blocked up with the cold the machine couldn’t force air through my nose.
Hopefully it will let me get some decent sleep tonight.
This is why Leonard McCoy was frustrated with medical technology when he came back to our era.
So, this is happening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jok7jfOUUxI
Meh
Yeah…. I’m thrilled by the idea… But the trailer not so much…
So there is a museum of bad art in the USA:
http://museumofbadart.org/
I can’t see the difference between some of those and some images considered to be great art.
FFS Iowa:
https://t.co/t1nEAl4mEo
I’ve been up since 2am. Now I just want to go back to bed.
Stolen from Instagram:
Important Spam Alert: The cat has already been fed
We should probably all be alarmed that the guy most likely to be the next US president (Ron DeSantis) just enacted a government takeover of a college, in order to dictate their curriculum.
https://news.yahoo.com/college-takeover-chilling-ominous-tale-124421315.html
Actual fascism.
DeSantis is alarming. However, I do expect Trump to run as an independent if the Pubs don’t nominate him, splitting the ticket. Plus, every election cycle more Gen Z votes. While it isn’t impossible that DeSantis gets elected, I wouldn’t call him the “likely” person to be president. At least, that is what I am going to keep telling myself.
A government takeover…of a public college of the State of Florida?
Damn that representative democracy!
Harrison Ford interview, sounds like the interviewer knew what to expect:
http://thr.cm/pjgHrqE
Well that sounds interesting:
https://t.co/G3kFTr7J12
Today marks the birthdays of John Williams (91), Stu Hamm, and Vince Neil.
We need to hear an album from these 3.
“Girls, Girls, Girls” with the Imperial March as the refrain?
So I just watched Prospect, low budget sci-fi which is pretty good.
It’s on PlutoTV on demand.
The 1978 Superman didn’t really have the little one glued to the screen, but it held her interest enough. The pre-cape and tights stuff does take awhile to get through.
I still love this movie to pieces. It’s too embedded in my DNA. I kinda wish we could get back to a place where we’d accept and even cherish a movie with such a ludicrous, ridiculous ending.
If this movie was released now, as it is, it would be laughed out of theaters.
Colorado appears to be a hotbed of racism:
https://t.co/2gCIRegnFq
30 upcoming books:
https://www.polygon.com/23546367/new-books-science-fiction-fantasy-2023
Morning Pan
I got to sleep in this morning, although it wasn’t enough.
Having hubby home for the next few weeks is both a blessing and a curse
US songwriting great Burt Bacharach dies aged 94 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64587070
His musical talent and career are legendary.
As is the fact that he was once married to Angie Dickinson.
Definitely a good innings.
Imagine a world without Burt Bacharach songs.
That wasn’t snark. Dude was a songwriting powerhouse.
I can’t think of Burt Bacharach without thinking the line “He writes the lyrics. Burt just writes the tunes, only now, he’s married to Carole Bayer Sager.” from Meaning of Life
Huzzah!
The Peripheral gets renewed for S2:
https://t.co/WbtLT9XuLW
The author A C Wise has made a list of her fav short stories of 2022:
http://acwise.net/__trashed/
Morning Pan
Another day here in bunnyland.
Off to the city after lunch
The story behind the song ‘Just the Two of Us’:
https://youtube.com/shorts/LJqWw52Zsfs?feature=share
If you’re a Dune fan, then I have to recommend the official graphic novels, as written by Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert. The first 2 of 3 are out, and they do a fantastic job translating the book into the medium. Especially for those who find the original novel too dense.
Not to be confused with the new comic version of the recent Dune movie. I haven’t read that.
CP: Blinded In Chains — Avenged Sevenfold
I’m listening to the early Bon Jovi albums to prep for an upcoming livestream.
Ppphhhhhhhhheeeewwwwwwwwwwww. Rough going. I’m gonna stop after Slippery When Wet.
Focus on his looks.
That’s what most of their audience did.
So ChatGPT, um….
Input: Write a short story about a funny bank heist involving the characters named Jack, Ed, Van, and ditto.
Output: Once upon a time, in a small town, there lived four friends named Jack, Ed, Van, and Ditto. They were all unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. One day, Jack came up with a crazy idea to rob the local bank to solve their financial problems.
Ed was skeptical at first, but after much convincing from Jack, he reluctantly agreed to join in on the heist. Van, who was always up for a good laugh and a thrill, was on board from the start. And Ditto, well, Ditto always did what everyone else was doing.
The day of the heist arrived, and the four friends dressed up in ridiculous disguises. Jack was a cowboy, Ed was a wizard, Van was a ninja, and Ditto was… well, Ditto was dressed as a copy of Ed.
As they approached the bank, they found that it was guarded by a single security guard. Jack and Ed tried to come up with a plan to distract the guard, but Van, eager to show off his ninja skills, simply snuck up and knocked him out.
The group then made their way inside the bank, but as they were trying to crack the vault, the alarm went off. Chaos ensued as the four friends ran around, trying to find a way out.
Just when they thought all hope was lost, Ditto came up with an idea. He took out his magic pen and copied Jack’s cowboy hat. Suddenly, the hat transformed into a helicopter, and the four friends made their daring escape in style.
As they flew away, they couldn’t help but burst out laughing at their ridiculous adventure. They may not have gotten rich from the heist, but they had a story to tell for the rest of their lives. And besides, sometimes the real treasure is the memories you make with friends.
I do need a cowboy hat that transforms into a helicopter.
Who doesn’t?
I thought it was funny
What kind of name is “Ed” for a Wizard?
I have no fear of our AI Overlords anytime soon.
So Ed, just how much convincing would it take to get you to help me knock over a bank?
Scary:
https://t.co/58lko9b6C2
That FedEx pilot was an amazingly cool cat.
Saved an horrific disaster from occurring.
The real time animation is just stunning to watch.
Also, this is a very well written article.
I’m sure it will shock nobody to hear we are having someone over for gaming today
Had a good afternoon of gaming. I have nice friends. They were travelling over Christmas and found a Yamazaki 12 year old whiskey which they brought me. I think I’m going to wait until Like a Dragon Ishin is out and drink it while I play.
FYI – the latest episode of “The Last of Us” dropped early this weekend – probably to avoid the Super Bowl.
We just watched it and it was another excellent, though heart breaking, ride.
Yeah, HBO messed up here and replayed episode four. We’re going to check tomorrow and see if we can get episode five
I read it was definitely for Super Bowl avoidance.
Enjoyed it.
People are going to be talking about this kid.*
It’s incredible what a tour de force performance he gives in 9 minutes with just himself and an acoustic guitar. He could do a one-man Broadway show.
“Hi Ren”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_nc1IVoMxc
*Every time I say this about any musical act, they end up playing tiny clubs to like 23 devout fans.
If you dig that, check out Violet’s Tale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4R9Vk5_CbU
Got to be in the running for a Darwin Award:
https://nypost.com/2023/02/09/lawyer-dead-after-mri-discharges-gun/
Ok, rewatched Signs in glorious HD.
Still not a fan.
There are trying to discredit him but this guy was the one that broke the My Lai massacre:
https://t.co/RxfoZOV4tf
Something about the article doesn’t smell right.
By itself, it seems to present researched facts but a subtle, non-fact tone in the article raises red flags for me.
Terms like “Anti-Russian” and “Nordstream hating” are causually dropped into what seems otherwise like just a disclosure of facts.
These are VERY inflammatory and accusatory statements, written without any explanation or even anecdotes to support them and they don’t actually add any more data to the story. They are just short, two or three word phrases specifically meant to colour the readers view in a specific way.
In fact it is the light (but persistent) touch with these “opinions as fact” that makes it feel like someone VERY good at this sort of propaganda is trying to sell me something.
The story itself is plausible … but I think someone is selling something with it.
Apparently HBO is going to air The Last of Us episode five tonight at its regularly scheduled time.
No Superbowl in Canada, so kinda makes sense.
We do get it. Only see about half the commercials as most seem to be US only, though
I didn’t intend to watch, but there it was and the app was free. . .
I was only half-watching, but the commercials did seem to be a bit subpar. As a friend joked:
“I’ve seen a lot of chatter about the unimpressive commercials during this year’s Super Bowl. Well, I thought the one for the Nike movie was hysterical… all the way up until I realized that it was an actual, real movie.”
The elevated stages for the halftime show were seriously impressive. I just don’t know Rihanna’s music, beyond “Umbrella.”
Can we have Weird Al now?
Sleep pods and Robot Cafe in Tokyo station:
https://youtu.be/bDxEQY7wFlg
With the husband home, I feel like I’m on holidays even though I’m not. It’s kind of strange.
I’m about 40% into a book called Year One by Nora Roberts. I would call it The Stand (by Steven King) with magic. There’s even a woman who shows up in dreams and says make your way to them.
It’s not a bad book, but the similarity is way to obvious at times
My mother has read a bunch of Nora Roberts, in between her cat-related murder mysteries.
I’ve never been a big fan of Stallone as an actor, but he’s bloody good in Tulsa King, almost finished watching the first season, two episodes to go.
There’s a dimension out there in the multiverse where the auteur Stallone who made the original Rocky kept making genuine art. Maybe it’s the same place where Kevin Smith put away the bong and kept making stuff like the original Clerks.
Being underreported in the press:
https://t.co/M1YEUMzbBW
Yikes.
And talk about life imitating art. This is a central part of the White Noise novel.
We saw the movie (which was an odd film) and have been commenting this last week on it being so spot on.
I have yet to watch, but I’m curious! It’s one of those books I’d call “unfilmable,” so it should be interesting to see how it works as a movie.
Facts about Narwhals:
https://factanimal.com/narwhals/#:~:text=Narwhal%20eat%20flatfish%20and%20halibut%20during%20the%20restricted,also%20consume%20cuttlefish%2C%20shrimp%20and%20squid%20where%20possible.
Note: they do not spear baby seals, penguins and koalas
Narwhals are a big hit around these parts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcYVCvBq0FY&ab_channel=Jordi
Wonderfully deranged.
I’m washing my duvet today.
That is not a euphemism.
It really isn’t.
Washing I expect to go ok, drying I expect to be a long drawn out struggle with my tumble dryer.
I’m 2 episodes into Last of us. As with many shows, I think it’s good… but not the over the top best thing every that many seem to be hyping it to be. Is it me or is this awfully close to being Sweet Tooth?
Part of the reason is there have been a lot of bad game to tv/film conversions and this one is good.
Also, about 1/3 of the way through Eternals. Ooof! Seemed ridiculous from the opening prologue. But I’m approaching it like MST3K. Just going to enjoy the crazy.
It’s my little one’s birthday today! She amazes me every day.
It feels like a thousand years have happened in the last 5. Here’s to 20,000 more.
+100 !!!
Happy Birthday little LeeLoo
Yes! Happy Birthday, Holly!
The husband gave me the Dead Space remake for Valentine’s.
Nothing says romance like spending the day killing mutants 😉
Cool! I for sure going to pick this up, but I’m waiting for the price to drop. $59 (from Steam) for a remake seems excessive. That and the truckload of games I’ve only scratched the surface of (God of War, Control, Doom Eternal, Mechwarrior 5, Half-Life Alex, etc.) LOL
Same, will wait till it drops in price. Or comes on PS plus (Hope springs eternal)..
PS5 pfft!
Here you go Van.
TMBG has added some Uk dates.
14 Nov Manchester
15 Nov Leeds
16 Nov Nottingham
17 Nov Bristol
18 Nov London
Crap joke for a Wednesday morning:
Well, late one afternoon, the Air Force folks out at Area 51 were very surprised to see a Cessna landing at their “secret” base.
They immediately impounded the aircraft and hauled the pilot into an interrogation room.
The pilot’s story was that he took off from Vegas, got lost, and spotted the Base just as he was about to run out of fuel.
The Air Force started a full FBI background check on the pilot and held him overnight during the investigation. By the next day, they were finally convinced that the pilot really was lost and wasn’t a spy. They gassed up his airplane, gave him a terrifying “you-did-not-see-a-base” briefing, complete with threats of spending the rest of his life in prison, told him Vegas was that-a-way on such-and-such a heading and sent him on his way.
The day after that though, to the total disbelief of the Air Force, the same Cessna showed up again.
Once again, the MP’s surrounded the plane…
Only this time there were two people on the plane.
The same pilot jumped out and said,
“Do anything you want to me, but my wife is on the plane and you have to tell her where I was last night!”
Ah the 3DFX range, those were the days:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/02/prototype-of-the-final-unreleased-3dfx-gpu-sells-on-ebay-for-15000/
I just spotted my PvP standings in Star Realms. I’ve only had 2 different people I’ve played regularly. Tony Mast and I haven’t played in awhile, but he has a slight edge on me; I’m 12-14 vs him. Against my other opponent, I’m up 85-17.
Nice! I’ve only ever played on a tablet against the AI, even though I own a card set. I should learn how to work the game in analog.
I’m down to play head-to-head on the app! Just send me a challenge. My user is Panjack
We own the starter deck and maybe an expansion or two(?) of the actual cards, but we never play.
I’ll send you a note when I can. 🙂 I only have the starter deck as physical cards, but I’m wondering if being able to use them would make me better at the games.
Whenever I do things for people I know, I always feel I’m too tough and always want to add “I’m sorry. Please don’t hate me” to my emails
The husband says I’m too soft and people understand 😉
The rebooted Barney is still creepy looking
https://www.ign.com/articles/barney-is-getting-a-reboot-in-film-and-tv-with-a-brand-new-look
Raquel Welch passed
Raquel Welch: US actress and model dead at 82 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64657781
As the author Pete McLean wrote on Twitter “you know you are getting old when your childhood crushes are dying in their 80s”..
Oof. She was kinda more of our parents’ generation, but still famous enough to be known to us kids. I remember her Muppet Show episode.
Her name was synonymous with beauty and sex appeal. RIP.
Apparently, Ed is friends with one of the bigshots over at Wired Magazine! Pretty cool!
And this is a really good interview. All humans should be more like Keanu.
https://www.wired.com/story/keanu-reeves-chad-stahelski-interview/
It is pretty cool. Soon to be Sister-in-Law. Very happy for my brother.
Hmmm!
https://youtu.be/u_rlcSfC8Bs
So still getting a lot of crashes with mobile safari and this site.
This Oates from the mobile version of Chrome.
Post not Oates
Hmmm. I use Safari on my iPad all the time (including this post) and don’t have any issues at all. Not sure what it could be
Yes, I know the classic developer response to bugs is “It works on my machine,” but it typically works on my machine.
You what?
https://youtu.be/-BLM1naCfME
Who TF wants to deal with fragile cassettes and tape decks again??
https://www.billboard.com/pro/cassette-tapes-comeback-taylor-swift-artists/
Not me, plus music on vinyl always sounded better than music on tape.
Let’s just go all in and bring back 8 tracks. The only thing more inconvenient that fast forwarding and rewinding was having to combine that with skipping across multiple tracks.
A reminder this happened in 1984:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY446h4pZdc
Just bought The Last of Us Part2, going to feel queasy killing all those dogs.
You know this is a damn fine looking game.
Looks intriguing:
https://youtu.be/2QP-xrG0kZk
Everyone needs to stop using Twitter.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/15/elon-musk-changes-twitter-algorithm-super-bowl-slump-report
Did that a long time ago. Also quite FB, although that wasn’t by choice 😉
Once more unto the breach:
https://youtu.be/yjRHZEUamCc
It’s pretty hard to get me into a theater anymore. This one gets me there for certain.
A much better cover than Seasons in the Sun.
Will prob have to wait until it streams.
But I’m in.
CD: Sitting in the cinema waiting for the new Antman film to start.
That was fun.
Also down, but also probably going to have to wait until it’s streaming at home.
Well that is bit embarrassing when you consider how much it cost to do it:
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/spy-balloon-live-hobbyists-say-12-pico-balloon-may-have-been-shot-down-by-us-as-biden-rules-out-china/ar-AA17AT51#:~:text=A%20group%20of%20amateur%20balloonists%20has%20revealed%20that,aerial%20objects%20shot%20down%20by%20the%20US%20military.
The strange fate of the business phone call:
https://t.co/bjBJ4mXL1y
It’s backward day today. I’m in the city while hubby is at home
I loved the Opposite Sketches on You Can’t Do That on Television.
I can’t imagine they’d be as hilarious to me now.
The Backwards episode of Red Dwarf is still funny.
So I’m so not on the pulse of America when it comes to podcasts, I only listen to 1 show on this list:
https://www.edisonresearch.com/top-50-most-listened-to-podcasts-in-the-u-s-q4-2022-from-edison-podcast-metrics/?utm_source=podnews.net&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=podnews.net%3A2023-02-15&fbclid=IwAR3kYONM_fzgvTR2W45LqMSeo1wdFBQ5P3SlUCnjgdLcB6sd84z-N–4I2M
I only listen to one on that list also.
That’s one more than me.
I have, at least once, listened to 5 of these. I’m surprised BTB isn’t on this list.
Honest trailer for the re-released Titanic:
https://bit.ly/3XuNIR0
I saw it three times when it was originally released and never want to watch it again.
True Lies is the only Cameron I’ve seen and is the first movie I saw in a theater.
Now that one I’ve listened to.
Wow, guess I’m in the “mainstream” for once. I’ve got five on that list. Though, as I go through the list again, at least 33 of those I’ve never even heard of.
There are two for me.
I have listened to about a half dozen episodes of “Smartless” and maybe that many of “Wait wait … don’t tell me” although that one is just a re-casting of their radio show. I listen to the radio show much more than the podcast.
Tangerine Dream – Turn of the Tides.
Unavailable on streaming platforms, as far as I can tell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeFQHH4SfyY
I used to play the heck out of tracks 2 and 3 in the 90s.
So we finished the joyless march through the latest season of Handmaid’s Tale.
I get that the show’s premise is bleak and especially relevant now, what with all these widespread attempts to dehumanize certain people, but this season was trying.
On to Last of Us. Never played or saw the game, so we’re going in blind. The first episode was definitely good. Like Jesse, I need to forget all of the hype and just watch.
Enjoyed the first episode of S3 of Picard.
CW: Top Secret
One of those films I never saw it at the time.
I do love a US film where apart from the main lead most of the cast consists of British character actors completely unknown to the US audience.
The underwater saloon fight is brilliant.
And the Pinto.
If George Lucas directed 2001:
https://youtu.be/v_suy7gARps?t=69
Looks like we will soon be saying goodbye to Jimmy Carter:
https://t.co/M3HwsXD6Qn
I will never forget the welcome he got when he visited the NE of England when he was President..it was massive,
He is probably one of the most decent human beings the US has ever had as a president. Honestly, we probably didn’t deserve him. Still don’t.
While, his effectiveness at running the Machiavellian machine that is the US government can certainly be debated, he has shown himself to be someone who has spent a life in service of his fellow man.
I can’t say enough nice things about Jimmy Carter the man.
Hmmm:
https://youtu.be/dx6pQo0TwzE
I did end up seeing the newest Ant-Man.
Pretty good! Not remarkable, but absolutely enjoyable.
You explained what I felt after seeing it better than
I did.
/ theatre review mode
I went to see a Broadway touring production of “Tootsie” last night.
For you youngsters, it is based on a film (comedy) from 1982 that starred Dustin Hoffman.
Having not seen it in over a quarter century it hadn’t occurred to me how many social hurdles they were going to have to overcome to make it feel ok to watch. Plus they turned it into a musical.
Well the writers did their work.
It takes the comedy of the original premise and embraces the wrongness of a man taking a job away from a women. It was quite funny.
Except the end. Because in the end he has to face the terribleness of lying to people who trusted him and thought they were close friends and coworkers.
There is just no real way to spin THAT into “up beat” much less funny.
/ theatre review mode
Some people love to yell, “They couldn’t make that today!” about certain movies. And in almost every case, yes you can, you just need to think the premise all the way through.
It sounds like this was handled well.
Goodbye to Richard Belzer:
https://t.co/qANGsiHXal
CW: Moonstruck
This week seems to be about watching films I missed at the cinema and never got round to watching.
Hmmm
Films that might should make that list –
“Get Shorty”
“Ruthless People”
“2 Days in the Valley”
“Tapeheads”
I’ve seen two of them, 2 Days in the Valley has one of the best choegraphed fight scenes.
Really good writing on that one. Multiple plots seemlessly woven together.
2 Days in the Valley is a great crime thriller. That was where we all fell in love with Charlize Theron.
Get Shorty is based on a great Elmore Leonard book, btw. I remember liking the movie, but it’s been a century.
So back in 1977 2000AD was started but there were other comics around at the time in the UK:
https://michaelowencarroll.wordpress.com/2020/02/21/dateline-26-feb-1977/
Crap joke for the day:
When is spanking like a hat?
When it is felt..
Morning Pan
They say we could get up to 30cm of snow in the next 48 hours. The husband is very happy he won’t have to drive in it
Humans strikes back, albeit with a bit of help from another AI program:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/02/man-beats-machine-at-go-in-human-victory-over-ai/
A different AI article:
http://neil-clarke.com/a-concerning-trend/
^^^ About short fiction magazines cutting off submissions due to floods of incoming AI-generated stories.
Interesting trend.
While at the moment it is more of a nuisance that distracts editors time away from “real stories” in the future I could be problematic.
I have read (some off) a couple of AI generated short stories and while they COULD pass as human written… they did not pass as “good”.
I think that will be the limiting factor in the future.
It gets back to the old quote “Anyone could write a story … but not everyone should.”
A cool take on Thunderstruck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=564u39PJfUI
That is impressive.
It took me 3 minutes to realize that was a mask.
Enjoyed the first three episodes of this series:
http://dlvr.it/SjjzD8
CP: Journey – Duncan Browne
Snow, snow, snow
Just some Meiji-era samurai posing for a photo in front of a pyramid:
https://vintagenewsdaily.com/the-story-behind-an-epic-picture-of-a-group-of-samurais-posing-in-front-of-the-sphinx-egypt-1864/
This has not been the best week.
*hugs*
Today I do my taxes. How awesome is that?
We’re 4 episodes in on Last of Us. And it’s good. Yes, THAT episode was really good, but I’m not feeling the hype.
Often just being good is enough.
“Breaking Bad” ruined “good enough” TV for me.
So looks like there will be an Eternals 2 and Shang Shi 2.
So that’s the bad/good news sorted for today.
Art of VFX on The Last of Us tv series:
https://www.artofvfx.com/the-last-of-us-stephen-james-vfx-supervisor-nick-marshall-dfx-supervisor-and-melaina-mace-cg-supervisor-dneg/
I will say that Eternals 2 got a little better further on into the movie. But after looking up the source materials, I could see how it would have been infinitely better the less it had changed.
Eternals 2 got a little better…? Was I time traveling when I wrote that? I mean Eternals got a little better…
Both of these can greatly improve on the originals. I’m glad to see more of them both.
Don’t mess with Finnish old men:
https://youtu.be/2NnPzpuU5ao
Unless you’re Popeye. Then you fight to the Finnish.
That does look like some fun.
I’m in.
30 years ago today
https://www.space.com/in-the-wake-of-shadows-the-legacy-of-babylon-5
And, honestly, I hope JMS is never able to get the reboot off the ground. I can’t imagine anyone else in those iconic roles.
Well the plan to not kill any dogs in The Last of Us part 2 failed spectacularly.
So that happened.
Some crazy people out there:
https://bit.ly/3IeQu7w
Because the actor is responsible for a writer’s choice
Also, chill, it’s just a game
The Onion taking no prisoners:
https://bit.ly/3ZaiLTo
As much as I typically love The Onion, that was the worst reading experience I’ve had. The content was fine. But, I had to scroll down to the slide show and then click to advance each slide. Took me 10 minutes to read something that should have taken 2 minutes.
That’s not the only reason I’ve pretty much dropped AVClub (same parent company as The Onion), but it’s part of the problem. Whatever extra $$ they make from slideshows isn’t worth it.*
*I’m sure it’s worth it to them.
I slowly filling in my instagram with people I know. I haven’t decided what I’m doing about Facebook yet
Linked In sits there too but I don’t feel right posting my cat getting off on there
*cough*
So they are going to remake the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. I guess it will only be a matter of time before Disney remakes A New Hope.
Why is Deadpan making me quip “Who is They?” twice in one day?
Hopefully this gets stuck in the same development hell as the Babylon 5 reboot.
I thought it was more of case they are going to do more stories set in that universe and not remake LOTR.
May every reboot get stuck in development hell. That is the curse I throw out into the universe.
Off to the dentist this morning
Pitch meeting for the new Antman film:
https://bit.ly/3Iv6Zw6
I know we hit 1K. Let’s ride out the day. I’ll reboot the page tonight.
Oooooh:
https://youtu.be/JModI1s9lCI
Bryan Cranston discusses his iconic roles:
https://bit.ly/3ZcrxjO
CP: Paid In Full — Eric B. & Rakim
Classic!
It looks like my password isn’t letting me in, so I’ll get a new one from Tony.
We’ll keep Forge going for now.
In the meantime, paraphrasing a commentary about Cocaine Bear:
“There is a text card dedicating the movie to in loving memory of the late Ray Liotta, which is in the running for the worst thing to happen to him lately.”
About the popularity of bad ass men and girl/young woman in media:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRnAvueK/
So The Martian is audible UK’s daily deal.
I’m tempted but that silly ass mistake with Martian dust storms is still putting me off.
So there are definitely moments of bad science in the Martian. However, overall, and especially compared to other science fiction writing, it gets an overall decently high score. At least IMHO. And Project Hail Mary is another really good option from Andy Weir if you don’t want to do the Martian.
TIL there is some bad science in The Martian. I’d always thought it was respected by the scientific community.
It is. And as Andy admits, he knows the dust storm was unrealistic, but there would be no story without it. It is a narrative contrivance. I’m fine with it.
Scott Adams has gone too far.
https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/dilbert-canceled-newspapers-scott-adams-racist-1235535643/amp/
Man.
I generally try to find some nuance or context or someway to give a little grace but I can find none of that here.
“Adams, who is white, repeatedly referred to people who are Black as members of a “hate group” or a “racist hate group” and said he would no longer “help Black Americans.”
“Based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people,” Adams said on his Wednesday show.
A good innings:
https://t.co/Y9r51TqhfO
Busy weekend! Yesterday took the little one to ASU for their “Open Door” for some science! We both sat in a moon rover vehicle, among other things.
Today, the Phoenix Matsuri Festival for some Japanese culture.
CP: Pink Panther theme – Henry Mancini
Dammit!
Suddenly, on Instagram, I seem to be following a whole bunch of people I didn’t actually subscribe to. I’ve changed my password, and started “unfollowing” people. Unfortunately, Insta only lets you unfollow a dozen people or so at a time.
Not sure what I’m doing that seems to be attracting spammers. Especially since it’s an email only used for insta, not any of my other emails.
Did you hit the drop down bar on the app that lets you select favs or following?
Favourites shows a lot of accounts you don’t follow.
Nope. I’m actually following 70 people I don’t know. I’ve now got it down to 40, and will whittle it away to my actual 15 as it lets me. If it happens again though, I think I’ll be done with all forms of social media.
I forgot that I’d recently gone with a new password.
I’m in.
I think I’ll post the new page today at around lunchtime.
New page:
http://jackmangan.com/february-was-a-long-time-ago/