ROLEY

  • Sunday, Jan 25th, 2026

    • At this point, I don’t know how anyone who considers themselves to be reasonable people can look at Minneapolis and think this is acceptable. If you’re keeping track of the accelerating fascism that is taking over, they are now trying to make the argument that simply possessing a gun is justification for execution. The man was on his knees, and shot in the back. If that’s not an execution, you tell me what it is. Minneapolis is being overrun by untrained and unaccountable thugs who think this is a giant game of Call of Duty. I used to joke about Reagan replacing the fired air traffic controllers with people who played Space Invaders. Comedy plus time equals tragedy in this instance.

  • Wednesday, January 7th, 2026

    • Don’t watch the news coming out of Minneapolis unless you want to get mad. Having said that, I have two questions
      • Do you think this is the kind of action that would result in the invocation of the Insurrection Act?
      • When do we say “Enough?”
    • I don’t know who needs to hear this, but Season 2 of The Pitt is coming out in the next couple days, and Season 1 was the best damn thing I’ve seen since Bosch was my obsession. You can keep your Stranger Things over there somewhere. I highly recommend getting up to speed on The Pitt. Just amazing.

  • Thursday, Jan 1st, 2026

    There be blog here.

    • I managed to go for almost 30 years without having to engage in the dubiously honored Christmas tradition of “some assembly required”. I am currently setting up a twin-size bed with a bookcase for my middle child. What have I become?

  • Wednesday, November 12, 2025

    Things have been very busy around here, so much so that I have not been paying attention to the blog or anything else. I do have some things going as of yesterday, so stay tuned. I’m not going to add the little hotspot to this post because it’s only a little thing.

    I am going to leave you a new photo that I caught today while I had errands to run in Downtown Norfolk. I had to go and update my credentials or my day job at the Federal Building. I was skeptical that anyone was going to be there due to the current government shutdown, but suprisingly the Federal Building was open. Not surprisingly, this meeting really could have been an email. It look less than 10 minutes to do, and I spent 15 waiting for the guy. On the plus side, I do enjoy riding the train into Norfolk, parking has never been anything I like messing with when I’m down there.

    On the way back, we had to stop at the intersection before we got to the Civic Center stop, and I happened to look up. After a little light editing, here’s the finished product.

  • Friday Sept 12th, 2025

    • This week has really turned into a clusterfuck, hasn’t it?

      So, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to leave the bullshit outside today, and I’m going to tell you that fifty years ago today, one of the greatest albums of all time dropped. It’s an easy one to get lost in and forget all the other stuff for 35-40 minutes. Put the headphones on and Shine On. #

  • Thursday, Sept 11th, 2025

    • Yesterday afternoon became a time when it became necessary to resume my binge-watching of Chicago Med. I have nothing nice to say about Mr. Kirk, and so… #
    • I will say this about the death of Mr. Kirk: You would think that his death is some earth-shattering event. It is tragic to be sure, but I would wager that the majority of people had no clue who he was before yesterday. A friend of mine quoted Biggie “You’re nobody til somebody kills you”. Might be the start of something new here: The Internet Is Not Real Life. We’ll get the sound bite of the airplane woman and make it a thing for the podcast, if it ever comes back. I’m sure it will, maybe soon. I’ve really got to feel it at this point. #
    • Someone asked me if it would be different if you just stayed of the For You Page. Maybe? The upside to just comsuming the people you follow on your drug of choice is that you may not be getting served by the algorithm, but here’s the thing: Your friends may not be as thoughtful. You may end up seeing things they repost or quote. Not as often as the full FYP experience, but still a possibility, I’d just as soon be done with it. #

  • Wednesday, Sept 10th, 2025

    • Last week I may have mentioned that my endo put me on Monjauro. Apparently when it is combined with Jardience, I have not had to take insulin for a week. That’s outstanding. I have not yet broken into dance, I’ll keep you informed. #
    • I’m not a geezer by any stretch, but I have lived long enough to see walled gardens like CompuServe give way to the open web, only to see us head backwards towards something like Meta, or other social media. It’s not the same kind of walled off product like CS, but I know too many older folks that call Facebook ‘The Internet’. If it had just stayed there, it might have been fine, but the collecting of our information, and the creation and weaponization of the algorithm is malevolent.

      I’m at a stage where I really believe staying on social media makes us (me) complicit in something I think is partly responsible for, well, all this fuckery. With social media, I no longer have a lot of control over what is shown to me. I can choose what I consume with an RSS feed reader. I can subscribe to a blogger, or a news site, and I get what I asked for. Will I see ads? Sure. But the RSS doesn’t extrapolate based on my viewing habits and decide I’m not seeing enough right-wing reactionary bullshit. If I do, I can unsubscribe and move on. No big whoop, as Linda Richman would say.

      The prevailing wisdom is to share your content on social media, but I won’t actively do that. I’m not creating content to ‘be’ anything anymore, I just want to have fun at this point, and share what I know, and what I learn on the way. I’ll just do it here on my corner of the world. I have an RSS Feed here, find yourself a feed reader and subscribe. #

  • Tuesday, Sept 9th, 2025

    • Last night, the Epstein Birthday letter from Trump was made public. Remember that Trump claimed that this letter didn’t exist. It does. It won’t matter. Trump’s ability to lie about everything is already baked in. It won’t matter to anyone who supports him.

      We have to realize that there is no one (man-made) thing we can rely on to be the end of Trump. This is nothing new. Mueller, Ukraine, J6, Documents, Financial Crimes, E Jean Carroll, and much more before and after. Some of these things happened concurrently; you will remember. Would this be the end of anyone else? Definitely if that politician were a Democrat. Any other normal person with the capacity for shame would have been long gone. Trump does not have that capacity. There’s only one thing that ends this phase, and even there, we’re placing too much faith in it. You still have the family, the VP, and the Congress to deal with. The cult won’t survive, but they’ve already served their purpose. Parts of the cult are realizing that now, because the leopards are hungry. #
    • Todd Cochrane, the founder of Blubrry, a pioneer in podcast hosting, died at the age of 61. I was not a fan of the guy, truth be told. That said, he’s responsible for many of the things we might take for granted today when it comes to podcast hosting and sponsorships for podcasts. He made it easier for someone to make a show and maybe make a little money from it. It’s got to be noted that he did this at a time before comedians and marketers saw the possibilities. No easy feat. Requiescat in pace #
    • Today is Apple Day, and I watched the event presentation. I know there were leaks of final designs and such, but I made a point to miss them. These things are no longer a surprise, even if you keep yourself ignorant. My current phone is a 15 Pro, and I am wondering if I even need a Pro anymore. I do like that they bumped up the storage to 256 minimum on the Pro. I do like the colors on the pro. The dark blue and the orange/copper got my attention. I couldn’t give a fuck about Apple Intelligence, Liquid Glass, and all the other design bits and bobs they were on about. The fascination with tech is no longer part of life. It’s more about what you do with it these days. That’s the part that’s worth exploring. #
    • Since I started today’s offering, there have now been–by my count–nine separate examples of his signature dating back to 2003. If you are the type to believe that this is some hoax, take a moment to think about the preparation (and the clairvoyance) that needed to have taken place for this to be fake. Also, I find it hard to believe that anyone who’s giving a card to someone they know would sign it with their full name. They know who you are.

      It’s his signature. It’s clear at this point. #

  • Monday, September 8th, 2025

    • Just saw two things from The Tedious Politics Dept. First, the Concierge Court is letting El Naranja resume raids in Los Angeles. Second, DHS has launched an action in Chicago. The well-regulated 2A folks could not be reached for comment. #
    • Sean Duffy, Secretary of Reality TV: “Sometimes we can let safety be the enemy of making progress .” [Audio]

      I’d like to point out that Duffy is 53 years old, was alive on this planet in January of 1986, and should FUCKING. KNOW. BETTER. #
    • In a story that combines two different flavors of douchebaggery to form a Megazord of Idiocy, an attendee of Burning Man was hit by a Cybertruck. #
    • On last Friday’s post, I started using anchor tags on these different paragraphs in the post so I could separate them out, for lack of a better term. On Friday, I used a line separator to further indicate different sections of the post. Today, I won’t be doing that. I want to see for myself which looks better. I don’t think there’s much of a difference when it comes to the amount of time I spend on a post, I think it’s just a matter of format and ease of use for your intrepid host. #
    • I suppose everyone has a guilty pleasure, and I must confess a new one. Have you seen these ads on social media for these vertical soap opera movies? They all follow some version of the same plot, the actors are all really over the top in an awkward kind of way, and they’re so bad I have to watch them. Seriously, please go find one of these, and here’s a hint: you can generally find them at the site that motions daily. #

  • Friday, September 5th, 2025

    At the end of July, my endocrinologist (apparently, I need one of these now) put me on Monjauro. This is one of these fancy GLP-1 drugs that are all the rage now. Basically, this is a harpoon that I need to shoot into me once a week, and while there are weight loss benefits, the thing it’s supposed to do for me is elbow my pancreas into making insulin again. It seems to be doing its job, but I’d like to focus on that weight loss thing. I understand why it works so well; the last thing you want to even think about when you start taking this is food. Get a good set of kneepads, you’re going to be spending a lot of time in that position for the first few days. #

    From The Tedious Politics Dept: “…numbers always tend to benefit the left.” Dude. You’re so close.

    If you’re not following Aaron Rupar, fix that. #

    It occurs to me that we’re now on a track where school shootings will be the number two source of child mortality. The hot new trend for 2026: Suburban Tradwives with headstones in the yard! #

    A story that came out Thursday afternoon had me going down a rabbit hole. Someone reported that the DOJ was considering banning guns from people with gender dysphoria. CNN and the NYPost had stories on this, several local station sites, and something called The National News Desk. I might be cynical at this point, but I think someone on the Right sent this as a troll. I think the Dems should call their bluff and see if they fold right there. If not, bring a bill. Tell everyone that while this is maybe a million people at most, this starts a conversation we’ve been wanting to have for years, and you’re happy the GOP recognizes that the 2nd Amendment isn’t absolute anymore. Have amendments ready for DV, SA, Stalking, Violent Crime, and Mental Health Crisis. Have them in your back pocket, ready to go. Make them tap out, and then message that shit all day long until the Midterms. #

    If you’ve followed this site for any length of time, then you’ll know that I’ve been trying to figure out how to do one thing: How to make one post a day with all the stuff I want to talk about, but be able to share a unique link for a new entry in that day when I update it. Or, if I take these posts and make them my podcast, then I can send the main link for that and/or send the individual links at various points of the day.

    This is basically how a couple of my favorite sites update their content, but both of those sites are on very different platforms. One of those platforms is very DIY. How DIY? It’s the guy who invented blogging and podcasting. So the bar I seem to be trying to jump over appears very high.

    Today, I figured it out. You’ll see somf thingamajig at the end of this train of thought, and that will have an anchor link on it. That link will be unique this tinsection. The next section will have one of its own, and so on. That link is the one you and I can use elsewhere.

    Yes, I had heard of anchor links before, but not what they were. It’s bloody amazing to me that the answer has been there the whole time, sitting in HTML, which I have Macromedia Dreamweaver age knowledge in (Note: that means old).

    We shall never speak of this again. #