ROLEY

  • Wednesday, July 26th, 2023

    Today I was reminded of my yearly subscription to my refrigerator. Every June or July the compressor switch blows and the part to replace it is around one hundred dollars. Since 2010, when I bought the first iteration of this fridge, I replaced the switch and associated parts that make the fan go fanny and the frost go frosty more times than I care to count. I’ve long since reached the part where we never buy another Frigidaire anything ever again. The thing is, I’ve yet to cross that threshold where 100 bucks for my yearly fridge membership has pissed me off to the point where I spend 1500-2500 for a new fridge. You might ask why I would buy something that costs that much, and my only answer for you is that I married the Redhead so you don’t have to, so let’s just say Yes Dear and leave it at that, okay? It’s a nice fridge, whenever I decide to buy it.

    Sinead O’Connor died today. I hope wherever she is, she’s found some peace. She had a hard life of addiction and mental illness, and we collectively rejected her for telling what turned out to be a truth we didn’t want to accept. We owe her a big fucking apology, and it seems to me the only way we can do that now is to listen to her music. I assume that any royalties she would make now would go to her children, so go buy or stream her music. Everybody knows THAT song, but I urge you to go deeper. The Lion and the Cobra is a great album that deserves your time, as is I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, which contains THAT song. She had a magnificent voice, one that deserves your admiration.

  • Tuesday, July 25th, 2023

    Today is the first day of my 53rd Year.   Today is the day I stop taking any more bullshit from anyone, including myself.   I’m asking a lot of myself here.  One year of consistency.  That’s the mantra for this year.   Consistency now, or never.    

    I must acknowledge why I’m having trouble, address it, and get moving.  

    Let’s see if we can just manage this small blog posting first. We’ll call it my personal journal. Why not, that’s what a blog was in the beginning, wasn’t it? Hell, I think I know at least one person still on LiveJournal doing things, or at least one that isn’t a very tardy novelist.

    When is the Winds of Winter coming out, by the way?

    The point of all of this is simple: I’ve spent six months feeling pitiful and I’d like to not do that anymore, please. That should start with writing at least one thing a day, even if it’s just one sentence.

    So let’s see if we can just do that.

  • Photo: An Unexpected Dragonfly

    When editing photos of the thunderclouds over the weekend, I took this photo as a companion to the VB Convention Center photo from June. The curves complement each other. What I hadn’t expected is my little winged friend in the photo. A happy accident, which I’m happy to share with you. Taken with iPhone 12, edited in Lightroom.

  • Yay. More Reality TV. Great.

    This may not be a very popular take, but what the hell.  I think there are two kinds of reality TV.  There’s one that takes you through a process that has a tangible result at the end.  The other kind is trash tv that manufactures conflict for the effect.  Laughs, Screams, WTFs, whatever it is.   You might have guessed that I’ll watch the former but hate the latter.  It wasn’t always the case; for example, I watched Gene Simmons’s Family Jewels. I’m sure I watched other stuff, but so much of it is so forgettable…I’ve forgotten it.  I have never watched a Kardashian do anything, I have no interest in Real Housewives of Insert city here, I could care less about your love before, during, or after lockup, I just don’t care.  About the only things you can count on in 2023 on TV are a Law and Order, an NCIS, a Chicago, and somebody upending a table and going after someone nails first because they…well, I assume a producer told them to.  

    I mean, we all know the drill at this point, yes?   Reality TV is not real.  Maybe it was at one point that I was naive and gullible in my “When people stop being polite and start getting real” youth.  I thought The Real World NY and LA were legit.  I thought Survivor season 1 was legit.  Of course, living here in Virginia Beach, I had to root for Rudy the retired Navy Seal.   But after that, and before Gene Simmons, certainly, by the time Gene Simmons came around, Reality TV started blurring the lines.  Manufacturing conflicts, Inventing roadblocks, and conjuring plot twists are all designed to get you…to the other side of the ad break.  Cynical, I know, but let’s face some facts.  If reality TV was really “Reality”, as in totally unscripted, it would be boring as fuck.  So they gin it up.  

    The other thing about Reality TV that you may or may not know is how utterly cheap it is to make compared to scripted TV.   The reason is that they have a simple production value and a much higher ROI than NCIS.   Hell, Game of Thrones was around 6 million per episode in the first season.  Reality TV episodes might reach 1 million per episode these days, but that’s probably the big ones like Real Housewives.  They are not paying a million for Mama freakin’ June’s latest train wreck, I promise you that.  

    Regardless, TV is chock full of ‘reality’ish TV, and I hope you’re OK with that because that’s gonna be the only new stuff we see for a minute.   For the first time in 60-some-odd years, the Writers and the Actors are on strike together at the same time.  That pretty much stops everything being filmed right now that’s not reality TV, I would imagine.  Hell, it might stop *some* reality shows but not all, and it certainly won’t stop the networks from coming up with every crazy idea you can think of.    Also, if you believe some reports, management will try and wait this out.  I saw a quote somewhere about the WGA coming back to the table once people start losing their homes.  That’ll be around October or so, and depending on how desperate management is, I expect a phone call.   I’m joking.  Not really.   If you get to me and my crazy ideas, you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel, I assure you.  And just so we’re clear, I’m not scabbing for anyone.   If someone seriously ever wanted my shit, they will be paying me.  

    But what can we do?  Well, for a start, if you’re a creator, don’t give your shit away for magic beans when they come calling.  Don’t cross the line.  You’ll be remembered if you do.  Consumers?  I’m not sure what to tell you.  I want to tell you to stop watching TV, but that’s tricky.  One of the sticking points that caused the strike is streaming.  If I’m binging Season 12 of NCIS right now on Paramount Plus, for example, am I part of the problem? And what about AI?  I had heard that they want to take an extra, scan them, pay them once, and use that image in perpetuity.  I don’t believe that’s cool at all, and if that’s true, they need to come up with another arrangement. 

    Finally, if we just leave the labor unions’ point of view for a second, I heard something this morning that may not cross your mind so I’ll bring it up.  Keith Olbermann on his Countdown podcast—yes, I’m a fan, don’t hate—brought up the tiers of businesses in and around the film and TV industry that a prolonged strike will hurt.  Caterers, Dry cleaners, Custodial staff, Waitpersons and Bartenders, the people down here like you and me that work in what Keith called possibly the last company town in America.  He may not be wrong.   For that reason alone—the little guys who take your order at that bar on Sunset—that this gets resolved quickly, and someone can get back to work writing Gibbs back onto my favorite GD tv show. 

  • It’s Time To Not Be Nice

    In 1968, after Congress passed a gun control bill that was, in the words of the late ABC anchor Frank Reynolds, “emasculated”, Lyndon Baines Johnson asked—to paraphrase—how much more anguish must America endure?   Now, before we start going down the gun control rabbit hole—Trust me, we’ll have time for that—I’m choosing to focus on that quote, and another one.  You’ll know this one, it’s Patrick Swayze from Roadhouse.   “I want you to be nice until it’s time to not be nice.”  

    I find it hard to not be nice anymore.  Here’s another quote for you, Keanu Reeves.  “I’m at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you’re right – have fun.”  I want to be kind or be silent.  I want to get rid of all the drama, go live by the beach somewhere, and just…be. 

    But I can’t.  Because it’s time to ask once again, how much anguish we must endure.  It’s time to not be nice. 

    It’s time that we do not agree with the people that think 1+1=5, and tell them to have fun.  All the fivers believe there is an objective reality where this is true.  They have people in the alternative and mainstream media that pander to their fivieness, They have politicians that lock on this fivedom and run on it.  They post fivist memes on social media to own the twos.   Frankly, I’ve had my fill of fives.  

    It’s time to insist that 1+1=2.   Firmly.  

    It is time to not be nice. 

    It is not time to reason with the fivers that ask “What about the threes?  You don’t mind the people who think 1+1=3?”   It is not time to justify a Two who said something nice, or even something atrocious about the fives years ago.  It is not time to deal with the fives of bad faith who scream about why you, a two, won’t debate them.  

    It’s time to insist that 1+1=2.   Firmly.  

    It is time to not be nice. 

    Fives did not suddenly appear out of thin air.  They weren’t created in a vacuum, they weren’t grown in a vat of ooze, they’re people who, in a lot of cases, hopped on board much later.  It’s kinda like going clear and then they tell you about Xenu and the Space DC 10’s flying Thetans into volcanos.   You, a two, look at these folks and ask HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU BELIEVE THAT? THAT’S CRAZY.   That’s easy.  1+1 didn’t equal 5 originally.   They found time in 1968 while Mayor Daley was out preserving disorder to just bump it up a little.  It equaled 1.1 back then.  And little by little, they bumped up just a tad every year until they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar in 1974.  Then they had to reset.  1+1=2 all the way through to 1981 when they found a guy who was good at making people believe 1+1 was whatever he wanted to be, and we went along with it, mostly, because whatever 1+1 was at the time, this guy had a way of making us feel really good about it.  So much so that we didn’t notice what those incremental little bumps were doing to some of us.  These little bumps continued until someone with a uHaul truck and the belief that God told him the answer was 2.5 said the quiet part out loud and blew the front of a building off, and then things quieted down for a bit.   But one of those guys who got ejected during the reset of 1974 decided he needed to create a platform for all the folks who knew objectively that 1+1 was whatever we say and if you don’t agree, you’re Two Stupid.  They even made up a nickname.  Two Stupid.  If you’re Being Two Stupid you have mental problems.   You might even be what’s destroying this country!   And over the years that number has been growing and growing until some guy who deals with more zeroes than anything else got elected President getting people to believe 1+1 is now 5.   And now you see how things start small and snowball, and it gets crazier and crazier and the people get more and more zealous and…

    It’s time to insist that 1+1=2.   Firmly.  

    It is time to not be nice. 

    I don’t want to be an asshole, I don’t want to cancel anyone, and I don’t want to belittle anyone.  I don’t want to own the fives.   As my Dad used to say “You have the right to be wrong.  You also have the responsibility of what being wrong means.”, and that’s where the proofing meets the problem, which is twofold.   First, the fives believe that there’s no consequence for believing 1+1=5.  Second, and this is more important, there are more twos than fives.   A lot more.  

    And it is time to insist that 1+1=2, it has always equaled two, and it will always equal two. 

    Not maliciously, not condescendingly, but kindly and firmly. 

    Because, at long last, it is time to not be nice.  

  • VB Convention Center Abstract

    black and white photo of the VB Convention Center glass front, camera tilted up towards the roof.

    Taken with iPhone 12, 26mm/1.6

  • Roley Podcast: Week Ending 6/25/2023

    Man On An Island, So That Happened, Stupid People are Stupid, and I don’t want to hear about the tip. #podcast #wfh #biden #boebert #gop #russia #kendrakingsbury #kentchristmas #mileswalker #cagematch #zuckerberg #musk

  • Man On An Island

    I want to take a second to talk about my day job.  Sort of.  I’m not going into a great amount of detail about what I do, but I’m going to talk about where I do it.  The job I have is a work-from-home job.  I started working for this company in August of 2021, and I’m very happy with where I’ve ended up.   I’m making the money I was making before the pandemic, the bills are getting paid, and I have nothing to complain about.   

    Almost. 

    I want to talk to you about something I’ll call “Man on an Island Syndrome”, and the more and more I think about it, the more I think this is the source of the deep blue funk I’ve been in.  If you work from home, it’s very easy to get into a rut.  You sit on your ass in the office, you sit on your ass on the couch, you sleep, you eat, you gain 15 pounds, you get lethargic and don’t want to do anything, and then you get depressed, and when I say you I mean me all GD day.  

    You, a human being who is hopefully blessed with two brain cells that fire in succession and a modicum of common sense, may know this to be true, and I am happy to tell you that you are right.   However, there have been times in my life when I didn’t HAVE two brain cells that fire and succession or even a quark of common sense, and THIS has been one of those times.   How do I know this?  Because on Monday I got the hell out of the house, drove up the Eastern Shore to Ocean City, cruised the Coastal Highway, and made a POV video of that drive for YouTube, and I felt amazing.   What this means is that I’m a creature of habit, and when I fall into a routine that gets comfortable it doesn’t mean it’s healthy.   Just the opposite.   I’ve been an advocate for the Work From Home Lifestyle as soon as it was established that productivity didn’t suffer as a result, contrary to what the PTB wanted to tell you.  I still believe it.   However, I can see a benefit to the hybrid setup.  3 days home two days office, for example.  There’s a need to get out of the house and deal with people closely every day, and I haven’t had to do that.  

    The other thing that I’ve mentioned before is the vortex of suck you get drawn into when you have the self-awareness that you’re not ok but not the motivation to take care of yourself.  In my case, it’s the need to make sure everyone else around me is ok and ignore my problem.  I’m very, VERY good at that until it’s unavoidable.  For me, that means a day to myself to rest, to reflect, to reconnect with that part of me that wants to do stuff.    I used to be good about taking what some of you would call a ‘mental health day’ every couple of months or so just to recharge the battery.  I haven’t done that in a long time, and I need to get back to that.   

    I don’t know if there’s a takeaway here other than to say Hi, it’s me, I’m the bad example, it’s me.   Take the time you’re given to take care of yourself, don’t stay cooped up in your damn house all day every day.  At the very least go do something you think you like to do.  The act of doing, of creating, or just going…you verb however you verb, but if you’re in my situation you might find that you feel better.   

  • Wednesday, March 1st, 2023

    • I’ve lived here in Virginia Beach for decades.  It’s as much my home as anywhere else I’ve lived.   I love this place, but there are some uncomfortable truths about living here that some of you in other places may not know, or you might be aware of one or two things. First, this town is Red.  Very Red.  You can’t be AOC and run for office here.  Elaine Luria voted for Scott Taylor in the election before she ran against him.  Also, they tend to get their way a lot.  We had a referendum about whether or not to extend a light rail system from Norfolk into Virginia Beach.  That referendum passed.  Until the City Treasurer decided he wanted a do over because he didn’t get his way.  The second referendum failed, and now there’s no light rail in Virginia Beach.   Second, If you’re not a fan of the military, this is not the place you want to live.  I would argue that we have the highest concentration of military personnel here than anywhere in the world.  Politics is going to cater to the military here in one form or another.  Third, because of the number of military folks here, folks from the Government like to come here to use our fair city as a backdrop.  I’m pretty sure that every President since Bill Clinton has come here for something, and I’d bet that Reagan and Daddy Bush has been here as well when they were in office.  Every one of them would have traveled by motorcade from the plane to wherever they were going, and each time they have had to close down at least one of the major arteries here.   But you would think from reading Virginia Beach as a trending topic on Twitter yesterday that this has never happened before, and I’m here to tell you that memories are conveniently short.  At the very least, they’re color coded.
      • One Twitter troll who identified as MAGA on his bio responded to my take on this by saying “He’s not a president”.  I’d like to be clear on this:  I did not like Donald Trump.  Didn’t care for Hillary either, but I held my nose and voted for her because I did not feel like opening the Seventh Seal of the Apocalypse.  As much as I hate the fact that Trump won, here’s the deal: He won.  As did Obama, W, Clinton, HW, Reagan, and so on.  Trump was elected President.  Anyone with a shred of fairness and logic about them has to acknowledge that.   See, there’s an objective reality and then there’s the cultish delusion that the MAGA folk have fever-dreamed their way into, and you can wish really hard that it isn’t so, but Biden won the election, just like every other President that’s been elected.  Just because you don’t like the guy doesn’t mean shit.  Flip it around and tell me what the MAGA folk would say if I said “Trump isn’t MY President!”  They’d say something along the lines of “Facts don’t care about your feelings, soy boy.”   I promise you, the sentiment is mutual.  I just happen to acknowledge reality, snowflake. There are two years left on the clock, minimum.  If you want to get rid of Biden, the answer is simple:  Run someone better.  I don’t think that will be Trump, though.  I suspect he will be otherwise engaged or barred from running.
      • Finally, all the clearly Republican folks on Twitter bitching about the traffic today…if only there was alternate transportation, like, say, light rail…
    • Someone on my team made a bot to perform a function, and decided to name it Hubert. Amazingly, I found a GIF in Teams of Hubert Humphrey.  I was shocked.  I mentioned that I’ve had Humphrey on the brain lately because I’ve been watching the CBS coverage of the 1968 DNC from Chicago.   My boss implored me to get a life or two.  I hadn’t thought of an interest like that as being all that indicative of needing to get a life, but I suppose it isn’t a common interest?  I like watching news coverage of historical events.  I’m trying to curate a few playlists on my YouTube Page of those things, so jump over there and check it out as I grow it.
    • Another thing to file under Memories are short:  MTG got the vapors when someone decided to get all up in her grill at a restaraunt: “I was attacked in a restaurant tonight by an insane women and screamed at by her adult son. They had no respect for the restaurant or the staff or the other people dining or people like me who simply have different political views. They are self righteous, insane, and completely out of control. I was sitting at my table, working with my staff, and never even noticed these people until they turned into demons. People used to respect others even if they had different views. But not anymore. Our country is gone.”  This woman has harassed David Hogg, AOC, and at the very least hung up a transphobic sign on her door directly across from a Rep with a Transgender child.  You’ve shown who you are, and you’d think when someone gives you a little of that same medicine, a person capable of self-reflection might pause and reconsider some things.  I’m guessing you’re not that person, Marjorie.   It’s ok.  I used to be the same way, and it’s easy to let that all-ego no heart or brains trick you into thinking that you did nothing wrong and that you’re being picked on.  You’re not being picked on. You’re getting exactly what you deserve.  One thing I learned the hard way is that if you don’t take the time to reflect and change your heart and mind, is that when karma comes along and does that for you it’s not a pleasant experience.  Not at all.
    • Semi-serious question for the White House Press Office:  What is stopping you from yanking FOX News’ credentials?  After yesterday’s revelations, they clearly don’t deserve them.  Seriously, square up and yank those passes, be ready with the receipts, and don’t cave in.  Not the same level, but when Gizmodo ‘found’ the iPhone 4 at a bar and leaked it, Steve Jobs barred them from Apple Events for years.  I always used to tell people on Beach Mac that you could go to all the other tech sites to get the news, or you could go to Gizmodo to get what someone else told them about the news.  Let Fox be the new Gizmodo.   Let ’em be in exile for the rest of the time Biden’s in office, or Harris for that matter if she comes after.  Sure enough a Republican will restore their access. But let them cry about how long that will be.  I think that would be perfect.
    • Remember, this is a Patreon Podcast, as are all the poddlements from Tuesday through Friday.  Go to my Patreon to subscribe, and thanks.

  • Friday, February 24th, 2023

    • I had what I think is a meaningful exchange with a friend on the Birdsite; they were wondering if a small camera like a Canon G7X is worth it when we all have cameras in our pockets.  Putting aside the old saying that the best camera is the one you have with you, I would say that if you’re not getting paid for your work, your phone camera is often better than an SLR any day of the week.  Plus, and this is by no means necessary, Moment makes a case and lenses for your phone.  I generally shoot videos with a CPL and an ND 32 filter attached.  I have a telephoto and wide-angle lens, but I rarely need to use them.  Also, while I have a DJI Osmo Gimbal, I rarely use that.  If I’m shooting a video, I use my mini tripod as a handle with a phone clamp.  If I’m shooting photography, I don’t need anything else. But, again, I’m not a professional, and what works for me may not work for you.
    • My SLR has taken up residence in my studio in a locked-down position, and I’ve just bought a teleprompter system that uses my iPad for the scripts.  We used something similar when I worked at Canon, but I was in the market for something that didn’t cost an arm and a leg.  Next up, lav mics.  I might still have one somewhere; I’ll need to dig around and test it. Finally, perfect world, I want a boom mike on a stand.
    • While caring for the wife, I give a moment of praise for the ability to get groceries delivered and the gig workers who bust their asses to deliver them.  I did it for a while, so I know the wear and tear they put on themselves and their cars.  I also know what a treasure it is to have those 2-3 hours back so I can do other things.  If you use a similar service, please take the time to thank them and tip them as well as you can.
    • A handy tip for those who feel compelled to pick the low-hanging fruit tweets of some of our more colorful wingnuts:  Don’t.  You’re being baited, and too many of us take the bait.  More engagement boosts it in the algorithm.  They cry about being shadowbanned when they don’t get the engagement they think they deserve.  With Elon being Elon, now is the perfect time to follow the screenshot method.  Screenshot the post, crop it, post that picture with your response, and do not tag the OP.  Let them cry to Elon.  Hell, let them cry, period.  We do not have to engage these people.  We can point and laugh at them while they melt down, though.