ROLEY

Category: Blog

  • Monday, December 2nd, 2024

    There’s an old joke that Gallagher—yes, the watermelon guy—used to tell about the first humans on the planet. They were all nomads. They’d settle somewhere, look around, and say, “Hey, I like it here. ” Then, a few months later, they didn’t like it so much. The root of the problem was that indoor plumbing hadn’t been invented yet, so after a while, it was time to pack up and move somewhere else, preferably upwind.

    This is how I feel about the office/studio where I spend my workday. I did a little decoration in 2018 to keep myself from going nuts when Devin was in the hospital, and if I’m honest, there’s nothing wrong with it. I’m just bored with it and I want to do something else. I keep getting ideas from YouTube from other creators who have done amazing stuff with their office, but I have to remember that these folks have a name and sponsorships. They also have that one other thing…money. I don’t have big money, so anything I do will be piecemeal. I’ll figure out a design and the cost, and then start collecting the parts. I think this would be a good thing to document on video. Stay tuned.

    I think the moment that Meghan McCain decided to weigh in on the Hunter Biden pardon was the moment irony hurled itself into the sun. I’ve read what most everyone has to say about the pardon, and every one of their paychecks depends on them being on whatever side they’re on. In the end, I’m going to remind you of the sage wisdom of Dick Cheney: So what? You know what Joe Biden did? He saved his son in the only way he could, because he could. He couldn’t save his first wife and daughter, and he couldn’t save Beau. He saved his son Hunter. If you can’t have a sliver of sympathy for that, you’re beyond hope. The only thing I can’t stand about this is that Bobo/Butthead/ThreeToes are going to co-opt a talking point I am sick of: No one is above the law. So, for those of you who missed the takeover of the term “Fake News” the minute Trump said that to Jim Acosta from the podium, you’re in for a fun time.

    Just so we’re clear, there are 20 plus seasons of various Law & Orders and assorted NCIS-es to keep your mind off this bullshit.

  • Monday, November 25th, 2024

    The week of Thanksgiving means one thing to me: The crazy people are about to hit the roads. My shopping is pretty much done already, so I try to stay away from the places crazy people go during the holidays. The groceries get picked up or delivered, I give the mall a wide berth, and I try to stay away from anything that looks like an accident waiting to happen. There’s nothing like heading down the expressway at 55 to have a car stuck in the exit lane cut left into your lane with no warning and about 100 feet to make a decision. That will wake you up, trust me. That said, I don’t complain so much about the crazies around here so much anymore, and there’s a good reason for that: I’ve been to New York City.

    I’m good, thanks.

  • Thursday, November 21st, 2024

    Don’t gloat over Gaetz just yet. There’s about to be a vacant Senate seat in Florida, and I think he got offered a consolation prize to withdraw from consideration for AG. Also, don’t get your hopes up about turning Gaetz’s district blue. It’s been red since Joe Scarborough won it in 1994. Could it go blue? Yes. Could I also sprout enough hair on the top of my head to cover my bald spot? Also yes, but like the former it would take a lot of help.

    I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the disconnect between the Right and Left and how they use the media. Going to give this some more thought before I open my mouth. Clearly, there’s a difference.

    The more I use Bluesky, the more I’m liking it. However, something happened on my Threads account this morning, when I first logged into it this morning it presented me with a toggle switch. Turning it on would allow me to see more political content. Go to Settings > Account > Political Content to get there.

    I’ve noticed something hilarious on Bluesky. Folks on Xitter that cried so much about ‘muh free speech” that an overgrown man-child with more money than God and barely enough self-control bought it, are the same folks who realize that now that they’re talking to themselves it’s no fun. So, they’re coming over to Bluesky….and getting blocked or banned like A Taint. The same thing is happening on Threads to some degree. Why are they so mad? They got the safe space they wanted to be as disgusting as they like. D’ya suppose that free speech was never the problem at all? It’s almost as if they have no actual identity without being assholes. Touch grass, like the younglings say.

    Related: Using Threads and Bluesky (deck.blue) on the desktop is amazing. If you ever had Tweetdeck, it’s that same design. I can’t tell you how much I miss Tweetdeck. 10/10 would recommend.

  • Wednesday, Nov 20th, 2024

    Getting away from the politics and assorted fuckery for a moment, I’d like to talk about how some people think it’s perfectly ok to be rude to the people you’re calling to ask for things. It’s not. It’s the bravery of being out of range. It’s the bravery of not having to look at who you’re berating. It takes zero dimes to do the bare minimum of a human being and just not curse at the guy on the phone helping you. Some of us learned this when we were kids, Some of us didn’t, and for those people, I recommend using a chatbot if one’s available on the website of the company you’re wanting to engage. Sure, AI might take my job someday, but if it can help me avoid talking to an asshole, I’m all for it.

  • Tuesday, November 19th, 2024

    Yesterday, I wondered if Rachel Maddow would have anything to say about their channel throwing themselves prostrate on the tiled floors of the Craptastic Compound to save their access, jobs, or whatever. She did not, so she is complicit in their new surrender policy. We must then assume that MSNBC no longer cares about journalism, or if they ever did. What they care about is eyeballs, ratings, and ad revenue. If that is the case, we should refer to cable news—and MSNBC specifically—as For-Profit News. Up to you if you want to trust anything that prioritizes money over truth, but I won’t. I’ll see if I can find something trustworthy to share. Someone suggested Democracy Now as an alternative. I’ve never seen it, so I have no idea. I’ll let you know.

    The Manhattan DA’s Office recommends to Judge Merchan that Trump’s sentencing be delayed so that the Court can hear Trump’s motion to dismiss. Of course, this case will get dismissed, because we have two levels of justice here. The only ‘Lawfare’ being practiced here is what Trump has proven he’s very good at, using the court’s rules against itself, and getting away with it. He will tell you that makes him smart.

    This might be a rhetorical question, but If a culture warrior falls in the forest and no one is there to hear them bitch about Starbucks Cups, books and other people’s junk, do they make a sound? Was there a race between Boebert, Greene, and Mace to be the first person to drop a bill about Ladies’ rooms in the Capitol? Good to know that lot are taking care of the really important stuff, those utter wastes of space.

    Related: I’m reminded of something Michael Stipe said to Tabitha Soren once along the lines of “The only time you should be worried about what I’m doing with my dick is if you’re sitting in my lap.” I would amend that to “The only time you should be worried about what I’m doing with my dick–or if I even have one–is if you’re sitting in my lap.”

    I suppose that this is just a sample of what we’re going to be in for, at least until January 2027 if we’re lucky.

    On a lighter note, caught the first episode of Dune: Propecy last night. Wonderful bit of world building here. Long before the events of Dune, it’s the early days of the Bene Gesserit. If you liked the Recent Dune movies, you’ll like this. Something nice to chew on while we’re waiting for Dune: Messiah.

  • Monday, November 18th, 2024

    The big reveal this morning–that Joe and Mika went to the Craptastic Compound–should be the death of cable news. At the very least, it should be the death of MSNBC. I wonder what the Monday Prime Time contingent has to say about this, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a big rift between Rachel and Joe. It doesn’t matter. They’ve burned their reputation for something they won’t get.

    One of the things I’ve taken to watching during my recovery (I’ve had plenty of time), is Yellowstone. I didn’t think that was going to be my cup of tea, but like every other person who’s been suckered in by this show, it’s all about the next batshit crazy thing Beth is going to do. I’m starting Season 5 next, I understand I’m in for a ride. The guy who created the show has got another one in the works called 6666, the ranch in which Jimmy spent Season 4. I certainly hope that means we’ll be seeing more of Jimmy. His character arc was awesome.

    Managed to get a little B-Roll of time-lapsed stuff over the weekend. Nothinghuge, just the skyline at what passes for a Downtown here in Virginia Beach, and some shoreline at the Chesapeake Day during the very windy weather on Saturday Morning. It looks good, and one of these days I might have a reason to use it.

  • Friday, November 15th, 2024

    I know I mentioned one aspect of this yesterday, but another thing I like about this new design is that it’s clean not only when you’re reading it but also when I’m writing it. It wasn’t always this way with WordPress; the Classic Editor was an insufferable GUI, but it was the best you could do back then. This is true WYSIWYG for both of us. I start a new post with a blank dark blue canvas in front of me. If I go full screen on my Mac, it’s almost like those distraction-free writing tools that were so popular ten years ago. I didn’t see the use in them back then, I do now. I think I can get used to this.

    Possibly a podcast this weekend. It’s all hinging on whether I can get some other “HoneyDo” projects done first without tiring myself out. That’s something I’m having some trouble with lately. As it gets later in the day, I’m exhausted. I might make it to 9 pm on a given day, but I can not promise. I think it has something to do with the strength that my heart is ejecting blood. My first consult after the heart attack says that it was around 40 percent. That number needs to improve, and exercise is about the only thing that will do it. I can’t go straight back to lifting weights; I’ll never make it. No, I literally have to walk before I can run here. Just to get my heart rate up consistently. It’s all cardio, strangely enough.

    If there is to be a podcast, you will see it here in two places. One is here in a post on the front page. The other, for the more observant of you, will be the podcast page at the top right of the site. What it is to be remains to be seen, and I’ll yeet myself off that bridge when I get there. Hey, here’s a shocker, I’ll do whatever the hell I feel like.

  • Thursday, November 14th, 2024

    If you gave me a list of all the people Orange Julius Caesar nominated to be in the next administration, I would have guessed that he was giving us a bait and switch. It goes something like this: If I give you the most outlandish option I can think of and you say no to that, then you might say yes to my second (real) choice because it seems more reasonable than my first option. That was my opinion until the Butthead from Florida resigned from Congress. That gives a little weight to these being real picks. That said, it’s Butthead. He may just be stupid. As I said on Threads last night, the Senate can do something hilarious, reject him and send him back to Tallahassee jobless.

    Back to my favorite dark blue/gray/white palette, you’ll notice a new design here. WordPress has released v 6.7 and with it the Twenty Twenty-Five theme. It allows me to have a clean and simple blog, and it just serves as a reminder of the evolution of my online footprint over 25 years. Here’s one link for the current domain, and another that goes back to 2001. There’s another shared domain (locnetwork.digitalchainsaw.com) from 1999 to 2001, but the Wayback Machine doesn’t appear to have it. You can see the start of it in HTML, to WP to Squarespace, and back. All sorts of bells and whistles as we went on over the years, and now back to a plain old blog, which is what it should have always been. Also how the owner of the blog should have been. I, like the blog, have gotten unnecessarily fancy and dropped it all in the past few years. The heart attack has accelerated it if I’m being honest. I don’t have any more time to be fancy or waste energy on things or people I don’t need, what you think of me, or me being nice just to keep the peace. That, along with other shit, is what got me here in the first place.

    Consider me not on Xitter (pronounced Shitter) anymore. I’m not deleting my account, but I’m not going to post there actively unless I have to post something every thirty days or so to keep my handle. I don’t want to free my handle up for anyone else, like spammers or fraudsters. I am on Threads and Bluesky. Bluesky has blown up since the election as a Xitter replacement. Threads has more users (Meta, duh) but Bluesky appears to have the old pre-Phony Stark DNA imprinted in the source code. Same handle everywhere, so jump on if you like.

  • Friday, Nov 8th 2024

    When we last talked, I said I was going to be doing some weeding. Let me tell you what that looks like.

    First, I’m once again deleting X from my devices. I think for me the final straw was Phony Stark saying “For anyone, whether in America or other countries, who finds this result shocking, they should reconsider where they get their information. This trend was obvious on 𝕏 for months, but almost all the legacy mainstream media pushed a completely false reality. They lied to you.” Well, I don’t buy that for one second. At the very least, I don’t buy that X of all places has the market on objective journalism, or reality for that matter. I feel the same way about MSNBC/CNN/FNC/NewsNation/NewsMax/Insert Right Wing Propaganda Streamer here. Frankly, the whole system of news gathering and dissemination is broken. It’s been that way for a long time, and the reason is simple: straight news on TV sucks, and no one wants to watch it except for a few freaks of nature. Like me

    I remember CNN at the very beginning, pre-Desert Storm. June 1st, 1980. It was a very different animal. Lou Dobbs’ still seemed like a reasonable human being, for example. It’s evolved into something else, and at long last it’s just not watchable. The cable news networks have a bias just like Elon Musk has a bias. I’m not ready or stupid enough to call it ‘woke mind virus’, because anyone who uses that stupid term has a hard enough time defining what woke is beyond trying not to be a dick to other people. So, I’ve deleted X. I’ve removed any news or opinion based podcasts from my feed. I’m swearing off tv news. What do I trust? Well, I trust NPR to some extent, and I trust the AP. Even then, I’m not going to seek out news any more. I just can’t with this crowd. We’ll never get back to Uncle Walter telling us the way it is, but I wish we could. I feel very strongly about Shepard Smith being able to pull it off, but I don’t hold out hope that he’ll ever make a comeback. He certainly knew where we were headed.

    Now, I realize that I’m in a position where I can ignore all of this and curate what I want to consume. I also know others can’t, because it affects them directly. However, I do know this much: Important news finds us, we don’t find it. I will put my trust in that knowledge, and stay off the goddamn news platforms. I don’t need it.

    I was reminded this week that Tunnel Of Love by Bruce Springsteen hit number one on the charts this week in 1987. I know, you wouldn’t think I’m a fan of Bruce, but I am. ToL is one of his best, and in some way I think it’s better than Born in the USA. it’s a deeply personal album, based on what was going on with him at the time. If you’ve never had the opportunity, I recommend giving it a listen.

    I’ve started S3 of Yellowstone. It tickles the part of me that watched Dallas/Knots Landing/Dynasty/Falcon Crest back in the day. True to the formula, there has to be one character in the series you can’t ignore, and on Yellowstone, that’s Beth. Some of you already know this, but…man. Just…wow. If you don’t know, may I suggest looking for her on YouTube, there are several shorts that cover her character very well. That’s what caused me to go find the show in the first place.

    Provided I have the time, I’m going to start working on what a Roley podcast looks like in this day and age, and how we might accomplish it. It’s time to remove the AC units from the windows around here, and while the day time temps will be livable, it’s going to be in the 40’s at night by the end of next week.

    Monday, as ever, is a coin flip. See you then, possibly.

  • Thursday, Nov 7th 2024

    I’m not going to say that Donald Trump is the leader of a cult, but I’m telling you that he’s cult adjacent. That’s funny to me when you stop to consider that some of the people from my life who are members of the Cheeto Temple are the same folks that said the same thing about me and Rush Limbaugh back when I was 20-ish. Memories are short.

    In the end, it’s really not surprising. We have become accustomed to—addicted by—anger, drama, and chaos. We had four years of Joe Biden and his lack of drama that we missed it. We demand that our media both sides and make horse races out of politics and elections and then cry about it publicly. Privately, we need the horse race, and the drama, and the both sides-ism. We can’t live without it. So, now, we don’t have to. We have four years of anger, drama, and chaos. We get what we deserve.

    We deserve this next four years of hell because of the previous forty where we have allowed the Limbaughs and Hannitys and Becks and Olbermanns and Maddows to tell us what we’re supposed to think. Critical thought is no longer required in this society, just flip the switch on your radio or TV and flip the switch off your brain. “No thoughts to think, no tears to cry, down to the very last breath…we have amused ourselves to death.”

    The other thing I can’t help but think as I see the line of ass kissing from Tim, Zuck, Jeff, Elon, Sundai, and Satya is that we have handed the country over to the Tech Bros. It doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies. The Tech Bros will undoubtedly view this opportunity to remake the US in their incel-infused image, which will solidify the idea that women are less-than, that their way is the only way. They’ll sooner put the torch to this country—to democracy itself—than to admit their eventual failure. Make no mistake, they will fail. They will fail because the country is not a product or a platform, and when you fail at the country level people get marginalized, injured, or dead.

    That’s enough for today. I have some weeding to do, which I’ll share with you tomorrow.

  • Wednesday, Nov 6th 2024

    Breathe.

  • Monday, October 14th, 2024

    • There’s a belief about social media that goes something like this: Person A posts something innocuous like “I like cats.” This brings out all the cat haters, dog lovers, the gatekeepers who want you to name three cat breeds, and so on. I don’t get people sometimes. Anyway, Peace, Love, and Dodger Baseball.
    • Navigating this new world of cardiac care, I have a drug called Brilinta that I have to take twice a day. This drug stops platelets from forming and attacking the stent I had installed. If I don’t have this drug, the stent will clot, there will be another heart attack, and you can roll the dice on whether I come out the other side as still metabolizing. Funny thing: My insurance requires a prior authorization for this drug. So, if you understand all of this in context, my question is, “Prior to what, exactly?” Yout don’t schedule a heart attack. “Right, so we’ll handle the presentation at 9am, I’ve got that one on one at 11:30, and remember I have the massive coronary at 2:15? So get those questions to me by email by Noon. Not sure I’ll be on Teams later.”

  • Tuesday, Oct 1st, 2024

    Nothing like a visit to the Doctor to give you a reality check.

    For the record, I’m 54, and both my father and my grandmother were cursed with heart problems. Both were the recipients of angioplasties, stents, and were members of the zipper chest club from the bypasses they both had. Over the weekend, I began having very sharp chest pains, one on Saturday Night, one on Sunday Night. When I say sharp, I mean stop you in your tracks, right in the sternum, radiates down both arms all the way down to the fingers and through to between your shoulder blades in the back, and sweating like nobody’s business. I had already had a Doctor’s appointment on Monday afternoon, so I told the wife that I would keep the appointment and if they sent me to the ER then I would go and we’d get this taken care of.

    I walked into the little room and got the weight and medication information taken care of, and while the PA was taking my blood pressure I mentioned what happened to me over the weekend. She excused herself and soon returned with a box, out of which she took the various attachments for an EKG. She took the test, removed everything but the tape from my chest at my request (“I’ll do that part myself, thanks”) and left. 10 mins later, the Doctor arrives and asks me if I knew that I have had a heart attack in the past.

    Wait, what?

    ”Yeah, your EKG shows that you’ve already had a heart attack. Any idea when that might have been?”

    Some years ago when I first returned to the gym, I had what I thought was a really bad muscle cramp in my pectoral muscles on the way home. I had done the chest fly pretty hard that day, so I thought I was just having a reaction to that. But then I remembered all the things that happened along with that cramp. Sweats, radiating pain, the works. “Oh,” I said, “Yeah, I think I have an idea.”

    “Ok, well, we’re going to send you to a cardiologist, since I knew your Mom and Dad and their issues. Not playing with you.” That’s the advantage (or disadvantage) to having the same doctor since the age of 15.

    Last night was spent re-evaluating a lot of things, as you might imagine. I am prime breeding ground for high blood pressure, cholesterol, heart problems, and cancer. All of this runs in my family. I thought I had dodged this bullet getting to the age of 54 without having any problems, but here we are. I had a problem and didn’t even realize it, and I can’t stress enough what kind of a mindfuck that was.

    Time to make some changes. Again. I’m just not ready for any of this yet.

    The big joke that you slowly come to realize through your life is that when you’re 18 you think 54 is old. Then you get to 54 and realize that you’re nowhere near old if you don’t want to be.

    The really funny part? Doc doesn’t think I had a heart attack this weekend. He thinks I might have overdone the caffeine (totally possible), and that I had really bad acid reflux from what I ate. No damage was done over the weekend to my heart, otherwise the EKG would have shown that instead of the old damage that he saw in the readings. Still, it sent me a very clear message.

    Believe me, I’m listening.

  • Friday, September 27th, 2024

    Back in the early days of blogs–at least on WordPress, anyway–one could have a widget on the sidebar that provided links to that blogger’s favorite blogs. A look at what that blogger finds interesting in the hopes that you’ll find it interesting too. That’s what passed for Social Networks back in the Web 1.0 days. I’m using Web 1.0 to identify the time before Friendster, Facebook, and the like.

    I’m noticing a shift from the Social Networks and back towards Blogs. It appears to me that there’s a segment of the online population that has realized that social networks have changed dramatically over the years. The algorithm rewards engagement good or bad, bad actors use that against us while we are served ads relevant to what we’re engaging with. I don’t know why this is hard to understand. So, I understand why I’m wanting to head back to blogs. I’m just really at the end of my tether with social media. I just don’t think it serves any purpose any more than to make people mad. It certainly doesn’t bring the eyeballs to my content. Such as it is. I know. I’m trying.

    I’m not going to delete my social media, but I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be using it. My place is here, and I don’t care about the algorithm. You’ll notice that comments are turned off here. I don’t want them. WordPress is free at the dot com site, and you can get web hosting relatively cheaply. You can respond over at your place that you control. I’ll serve up what I want here.

    About that blogroll: I’m going to get rid of the Links Page over on the sidebar and figure out how to install a blogroll here. Stay Tuned on that.

  • Thursday, Sept 26th 2024

    This may be older news now, but I’ve been reading a little about what’s been called the Chase Bank Glitch. If I understand correctly, some TikTok person came up with the idea that you can deposit a check made out to cash to your account, and they credit you that money until the check processes. I don’t think that’s a glitch as much as it is check fraud, and that’s a felony. The only ‘glitch’ you’re going to see is the one where you have to explain your conviction to future employers, if you’re lucky enough to have any.

    On the creative front, I’m working out the blocking for a vlog. I think I want to document the process I’m going through, so I don’t know if it’s going to be fancy. Now that I think about it, it may not need to be. It just needs to be me.

    Watched the Kamala Harris interview on MSNBC last night. While it was refreshing to hear an interview that was conducted at a normal volume and without a lot of lunacy, it annoys me to no end that we’re this close to the election and we’re still on vision and the 30k foot view. I want nuts and bolts. That’s why I don’t like these interviews, and why I don’t like debates. Kamala, your campaign keeps talking about Project 2025 as being the playbook for Trump. Where is your playbook? Where can I read it? I think it is necessary to point out that in order for Kamala to be able to do anything, the Democrats must take the House and hold on to the Senate. Even then the corporate tax is Everest, and the Senate filibuster is already locked and loaded for that one. There’s a needle to thread here, and we’re better off believing that the Dem Agenda won’t pass, and be surprised if it does.

    I’m not taking it as read that Kamala will win, far from it. There’s no way this isn’t a squeaker. It shouldn’t be, but here we are. What I can’t do under any circumstances is vote for Trump, and let’s be clear about why: He’s not a serious person, but the people who have lashed themselves to his mast are. He’s a real life Zaphod Beeblebrox, a lunatic distraction while a radical legislature implements a radical agenda, and the judiciary declares it legal. I’m not down with that.

    As I’m writing this, Hurricane Helene is making its way towards the Big Bend area of Florida. It’s a Category 2 storm right now, but they believe it could be a 3 or 4 by the time it hits. It’s been my nature in the past to turn on the Weather Channel and watch the coverage, but it felt different this time. I stopped to ask myself what it was I was going to watch, and the answer is someone else’s destruction. Somewhere in Florida and points North, some nameless person is going to lose everything. It suddenly felt…dirty. I decided to watch Major Crimes instead. Sure, I’ve watched the entire series at least three times, but it’s comfort TV. Also, Mary McDonnell.

    Did I mention Mary McDonnell?

    Meta’s Connect event was yesterday, and while I’m not interested at the Quest headset (gaming doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest), The Orion prototype is VERY interesting. Think of the Apple VIsion Pro, but as regular glasses. This is the future I want. As of now, this is a prototype, a developer model. But the ability to put that information in a pair of Ray-Bans? Yes, please. I would like it to be customizable so that the user can get the full immersion treatment, or something minimal. A heads up display of information in one lens. Maybe we could get monocles back in fashion. I’m kidding, but as I’ve said before give me what Vegeta was wearing in Dragonball, and I’m set.

  • Thursday, August 15th 2024

    🎵 Who Can Take A Tic Tac…🎵

    Seriously, have you ever seen a box of Tic Tacs that small? Anywhere?

    I smell Sharpie. I need to see someone not related to the campaign or the party with a box of Tic Tac that small. I suspect it’s something he had made, it’s not out of the realm of possibility he knows someone who makes props. I’m just not buying it.

    When The Project Laughs At You

    I’ve had a long term photo project I’ve wanted to do for ages. I’m not even sure it will work, but I still want to do it. I want to start in Maine in the summer and make my way down the East Coast, and take photos of life in the small coastal towns, tourist traps, and everything in between. Part two would be doing the same in Winter. I was reminded of this about a month ago when we drove to DC for a talk by Neil Gaiman that didn’t happen (if you know you know). I rented an SUV for the drive (remind me not to do that again), and I was reminded that the reason I bought an MX-5 in the first place was to travel. However, it occurs to me that I can go only so far in a weekend because of the need to—and this is a technical term—not starve. So the project can laugh at me for now, but I’ll come up with a plan of some sort. Even if it’s to go where I can in a weekend and get back in time to continue not starving.

    ME? DIY?

    Thinking about ripping everything out of the studio/office and renovating it. I have some ideas about a floating desk, and I’ve been down a rabbit hole on YT looking for how to do this. I think I can, but I lack power tools. This may be for the safety of those around me. Like the Joker said, “It’s all part of the plan”. I’ll just add that he also said “Do I look like a guy with a plan?” So…

  • Tuesday, August 13th 2024

    The Only British Railway You Know

    Tooling around looking for something interesting, and the NC PBS Station was showing British Scenic Railways, and the episode was about the Jacobite Line. If you’ve been paying attention for the last 25 years, you know why eleventy billion tourists show up for this train.

    It’s THAT Train.

    Also, when the PBS station listed all the TV stations in the NC PBS Network, I learned there is a Bat Cave, NC. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

    Just This Once, Hit Back

    The stepping aside of Joe Biden and the ascendency of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz has the empty barrels doing what they always do. Honestly, we should be insulted by these carnival barkers. You should be insulted by dirty tricks, the twisting of words, the quotes out of context. The truth is, we have allowed this. We like the ad hominem, the ‘owning’, the bomb throwing. I hope one day we will get back to a debate that’s worthy of us, but it won’t be in this election year. Frankly, it shouldn’t be. I think the Harris/Walz campaign has cracked the code on how to deal with MAGA, and it appears to be getting under Trump’s skin. We can still do that and talk policy, I think. What can’t happen is that the Dems go back to being the polite academic folks they’ve been historically. They’ll get slaughtered if that happens. There’s ~90 days to win or lose this, and with the abbreviated nature of Kamala’s campaign, they cannot afford to miss.

    An Honest Question

    I believe that the housing/real estate market is a bubble that’s going to pop, and it’s going to fuck things up. The question is when. The long term bet is that it will pop when those of us who own houses shuffle off this mortal coil, and the market will find themselves with one or two generations that can’t afford a fucking studio apartment for $1500 a month or more. A STUDIO. There may be some factors that could cause it to pop sooner, I wonder if the fed raises interest rates more than a couple times that it may hasten things? Keep your eye on this. A home in a lot of cases is the most significant portion of a families’ wealth in this day and age, and if home values drop, we’re all going to be taking a bite of the shit sandwich.

  • Monday, July 22nd, 2024

    Anything important?

    I’ve been off celebrating the wife’s birthday and our 30th anniversary, so I didn’t get in until very late on Sunday night. When we’re in the car driving for long distances (OK, you may not consider DC a long distance but I do), I generally listen to podcasts, the very fine New Wave Essentials Playlist on Apple Music, or some kind of synthwave radio station on Apple or YouTube. It wasn’t until very late that I heard the news that Joe Biden decided to step away from re-election.

    I mean, hate on the synthwave all you want, but I haven’t heard wall to wall coverage saying the same thing for 48 hours. I’ve heard Moog synthesizers saying the same thing for 24. One of those is decidedly better.

    A note about the 2023 Buick Envision, which we rented instead of me driving Jonathan Livingston SUV. Great car, though it should be said I have a VERY soft space for GM, Pontiac and Buick especially. That said, Not enough space in the back for travel, especially if there’s more than two. This is not a family vehicle. We did the grocery shopping before we left, and we were JUST able to get the weekly haul back there. The only other thing I did not like about the car was the center armrest compartment. It was split in half longways, like a split top hot-dog bun, and opened that way, so the door was still ‘in the way’. Loved everything else about this SUV. One improvement I’d make is to make the compartment underneath the climate control—where the USB and Power ports are—I’d make the bottom plate a MagSafe charger. That way, I could use CarPlay and keep the phone out of sight and mind. I should note that this was my first experience using CarPlay, and my next car must have it.

    On a related note, as I returned the Envision, there was a late model blue Dodge Challenger outside. Had I known I could have rented one of those, I’d…well, I’d probably be in a Fairfax County Jail but I would have had a shit load of fun before I got arrested.

    Coming Attractions

    One other thing that’s happening this week is my hatching day, and while I rarely care too much about it or even draw attention to it, I’ve been giving some thought about the next year of my life and what I want to accomplish. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I’d like to be a bit more regular with posting here, so I will try. The next year will be based on the word “Return”. Return to writing, return to photography/videography, return to podcasting, return to content creation.

    The other thing that I have returned to is a focus on my own mental well being. I engage in way too much drama even when I’m trying to avoid it. So, we’re going to work on cutting that out. The past few months have seen a change in my…I don’t know. The core of me is different, and way more cutthroat when it comes to dealing with things and people. The good thing is that I can let a lot more just roll by me if it’s not ‘important’. It’s a matter of picking what things I want to spend my energy on. It’s also a realization that some of the things I still spend energy on is not important or not healthy and needs to stop. So, that’s another project.

    Finally, the next year is going to be spent on my physical living spaces. The house, my studio, and this carcass. I haven’t done anything to improve any of the above in four years, and I’m fed up with all of it. That’s a valid use of my time and energy, and will receive a huge focus over the next year. We’ll see how well I deal with that.

  • Wednesday, July 17 2024

    Housekeeping

    A follow-up from yesterday: I’ve added a new page to the blog called LINKS, which will be updated daily(ish) with things I find interesting. You’ll note a hashtag next to the heading, which is an Anchor Tag that I’ll use to link you to the appropriate day when I share it via social. I’ve seen other folks use hashtags for the list items themselves, but I’ve found that those send you to a separate single post as well. I don’t think WP has that functionality, so I’ll just use this for the time being.

    This gets me closer to the vision I had for this blog for a long time, where I’m not using posts, but a list divided daily on a single page. I like this, and I may switch to it overall for daily use. I’ll still keep the blog, but that would be for when I need to bloviate a bit more (ok, more than usual.)

    If The Engagement Lasts More Than Four Hours

    The funny part about writing a post about the sad state of clickbait (for lack of a better term), is that when you title the post “Social Internet has ED“, I’m the schmuck that is so amused by that title I’m going to click on it. The upshot of the post is that the current state of the internet is all about the algorithm and manipulating it to your advantage. When you understand that engagement doesn’t care if you’re positive or negative, just that you engage, then you begin to understand why some people craft the posts they do. The ‘Own the libs’ crowd, for example. Boebert, Greene, Gaetz, and that ilk understand this (or their social media team), and yet we still argue with them online. It’s at the point that I don’t even screenshot them and respond anymore. I’m really beginning to wonder if rediscovering and optimizing the blog rather than contributing to social media is the answer. Social media used to drive traffic to blogs and websites, I wonder if that’s still the case. I know it still drives me nuts, that’s for sure.

  • Tuesday, July 16th 2024

    In all of history, it turns out that there is nothing like a crisis to take control of the narrative. It’s the best way to help people point fingers at someone for something they’re also guilty of. The more dire the circumstances the better. Gabby Giffords would like to have a word with us about this.

    CORRECTION

    Starting, I have a correction to make. My friend the photographer who was recently laid off has a website, but it’s different from the one I *thought* he had. I linked to his FB Page yesterday, even though I really can’t stand Facebook. Here’s his page on Pixels. Please take a look at his work and buy something. He’s a great guy and a great photographer. Thanks.

    NEW IDEAS

    Thinking of new content ideas for the blog/podcast. I’ve long had the idea to do a rewatch of Doctor Who, starting with An Unearthly Child in 1963. There certainly wouldn’t be a lack of content. Other shows I have had the itch to do is Bosch, and The Newsroom. I did give some thought to doing a review of WWE Raw and Smackdown, but that would be an impossible turnaround for me. I started watching Bond Movies starting with Dr. No, but the further I got into it, the more creeped out I got by how Connery’s Bond would not be tolerated today at all. Different time, I suppose.

    LINKS 2 3 4….

    What about a separate page here on the Site dedicated to daily links? See here for an example.

    LAYING OFF THE SHINY

    I may have reached the point where the new shiny stuff doesn’t excite me. I upgraded my phone, and as it turns out my new phone is going to be able to do the new AI stuff that Apple is going to release in the fall, but all I wanted was the damn camera. AI doesn’t grab me. Maybe it should, but I also realize that AI is coming for my job one of these days, so I can’t find the room to get that excited about it.

    Additionally, I find myself sick of consumerism, late-stage capitalism I’m supposed to think is synonymous with freedom. I don’t think the new shiny is synonymous with freedom. It’s synonymous with bankruptcy. At least, that’s what Living Color told me.

    JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR…

    ‘Freedom’ has become a word that means whatever the person or group using it wants it to mean. I invite you to go back to the opening scene of the first episode of The Newsroom for a better explanation of the use of that word. I might be a bit idealist, but I don’t think it was always so. You could say the same with ‘American’. I do not have to be a white cis Republican Evangelical to be an American. I don’t have to be a woke bisexual atheist to be one either. There is no real definition other than through the lottery of life I was blessed to be born here. The rest I get to decide because I am allowed to, and folks that would like to set our watches to 1952 don’t get to choose that for me.

  • Monday, June 15th 2024

    Recently I thought I’d try writing things—jokes, mainly-as they came to me. I liked it, but it just doesn’t fit with my mindset of what I (think I) want this site to be. I am forever a work in progress. There was a time where I was convinced that being forever a work in progress was a bad thing. I think there were people around me that were frustrated that I couldn’t be set in one thing, but that’s just not me. I’m going to be 54 next week, and my GAF was all but destroyed years ago.

    It’s not me, it’s you.

    Apparently my former employer is still ‘restructuring’. I saw that some remarkable human beings I had the pleasure of working with were told that his services are no longer required. I’m sure it’s nothing more than cutting the higher paid people in order to have someone else do the same job (or twice the work!) for less money. Still, the thing that’s really bothering me about this round is that it involved call center associates. They said over and over when I dodged the first two rounds of layoffs was that they weren’t going to touch the call center floor. I guess that’s been forgotten. It was only a matter of time. The company makes cameras and printers, neither of which are widely used by consumers anymore, and they were way behind the curve on things the rest of the camera world had embraced years earlier.

    I know it’s not supposed to be personal, but when you invest a great amount of yourself and your time it’s hard to not take it personally. In my case, I’ve always felt it WAS personal. It really destroyed me for a long time to the point that I couldn’t do anything creative at all. I hope my friend can bounce back better than I did. I also hope he can make an honest go with his photography business. I’d like to direct you to his photography website, but it appears to be down. So I’ll direct you to his Facebook Page. Please have a look and if he brings back his shop site, please consider buying something from him, and by all means spread the word.

    We’d like you to decide, even though you’ve already decided.

    I honestly don’t know how this isn’t the simplest of decisions. I don’t care who the Democratic nominee is, I’m voting for that person because I am not interested in opening the Seventh Seal of the Apocalypse. Is Biden older than dirt? Of course he is. Do I care? Maybe, but that’s what the 25th Amendment is for. I’m waiting for the first Republican to say a damn thing about the 25th Amendment, but if I was a betting man, I’d bet they will stay quiet about handing the Presidency to Kamala. Funny thing, that. I bet they do return to the birtherism real quick, tho.

    That said, Biden hasn’t helped his cause. The stuttering is baked in, as far as I’m concerned. What isn’t baked in is the switching up of names, the rambling and gibberish with no real direction, and the long—LONG—pauses. Yes, Trump does it too. Breaking News: They’re both old as fuck. However, that’s the ballot. Unless there’s a real, successful draft at the DNC in Chicago (the irony!), Biden is the nominee. No draft movement has ever been successful.

    He’s Just This Guy, You Know?

    Trump is the immediate existential danger, but if I’m being honest it’s not Trump himself I’m worried about. What worries me is the Zaphod effect.

    In the classic-oh-my-god-this-is-required-reading novel The Hitchikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, the President of the Galaxy is Zaphod Beeblebrox. He brings nothing to the table. He’s a party animal and an idiot. But his antics distract the people so they’re not paying attention to the folks really doing the work. That’s Trump.

    Trump is going to Trump. We know this. They know this as well, and they’re counting on it.

    Yeah, but when is the Two Minutes of Hate?

    The RNC convention started today, and maybe I’m just old. I remember conventions being run differently. Not covered differently (although I can make that argument as well), but it seems more like a marriage of informercial and cult worship than it used to be. I’m watching C-SPAN for neutral coverage (because I am that nerd), and some minor amusements.

    • *First, I see Marsha Blackburn, the protokaren from Tennessee, found the time to brush that rats nest she calls a hairdo.
    • Second, it’s funny to hear the band playing Where The Streets Have No Name, but dare not speak a word of it.
    • They’re doing the nomination election at 3pm on the first day. Why the first day, and why not in Primetime? Also, it has been my experience that at some point, someone makes a motion to wrap up the nomination by acclamation. Not so in this case. Ego much?
    • Junior’s a twat. Also, Junior’s a twat.
    • Youngkin is slightly less of a twat than Junior, but the twatfulness is still strong.
    • They are really calling The Orange Mush ‘the bravest man in America.’
    • All the folks who read their speeches from a phone or a sheet of paper and STILL mangled their way through their state delegate votes totals need to have a fucking seat when it comes to Biden’s stutter or prompter use.
    • You can always count on old white dudes (including me) to have the worst rhythm in the known universe. Awkward knows no party.
    • In what must be the first documented Karen moment of the convention, Senior Karen was upset that Middle-aged Chad wanted her to stop waving her Trump placard long enough for him to get a picture of…something. Probably the house band, Slightly Spicy Mayo (I don’t know, why not?), to document their playing ‘I Want You To Want Me’ for 15 minutes.

    It’s only 4pm. This should be fun…

  • KJP’s Inner Monologue

    (What in the actual, physical and spiritual fuck is happening right now? How many times am I gonna have to answer the same fucking question about this? Jesus, Mary and Frankenberry. I mean, normally it’s just Doocy that acts like a decerebate, now I have a whole fucking room of them.

    Meanwhile, I got a boss that’s hiding under his desk and shouting the Gondor calls for aid. I bet that was the movie on the flight home? While we’re on the subject…jet lag? Really? D-Day and the G7? That was a month ago. How long does it take to get back to normal? It’s six hours, not six fucking weeks!

    I swear, I can just install a See and Say in every one of these motherfuckers that just says “Is he dropping out? Does he have dementia? Why does everything here smell like formaldehyde and regret?” Get me out of here.

    I never want to see a pint of ice cream for as long as I live.)

  • Jobs For The Recently Disbarred Crazy Uncle In Your Life

    1. Quality Control for the YKK Zipper Company

    2. Masking Fragrance Tester

    3. Cloud Tamer

    4. Landscape Whisperer

    5. Box Color Hair Model

    6. “Boxcar Rudy”

    7. Sentence Diagrammer

    8. “OhHELLNOFans”

    9. The comedy stylings of Rudy and Sidney.

    10. Example.

  • LINK: The Final Days of Coyote vs. ACME →

    In a truly inglorious end, a source close to the movie doesn’t believe Warner Bros. would even announce that they hadn’t found a home for the movie. They would unceremoniously delete it. Never to be seen again.

    I can almost guarantee that there’s at least one generation of folks who would have loved to see this as a payoff for watching Wile E. Coyote plaster himself all over the desert floor over and over for years. I certainly would.

    I hope someone reconsiders this someday.

  • My Unvarnished Opinion of the Apple Vision Pro

    It makes Google Glass — and Glassholes — look reasonable by comparison.

    We’re doomed.