Creed 2 Creed fights the son of his father’s killer, Ivan Drago. Rocky IV was a big staple of my childhood, so it was neat to see Dolph Lundgren in the role again, even though he wasn’t a huge part of this particular movie. I also liked that Viktor, Drago’s son, wasn’t as cartoonishly villainous … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 27
I wouldn’t quite call this exposition as much as it is the backstory for Rosalina, but you don’t know the story’s protagonist is actually her until later. The player is also not required to read the book to understand the world of SMG, since all of that is communicated as the game progresses. Still, it’s … Super Mario Galaxy’s Storybook
Kate sent me this photo of Pale Blue Scratch, Juniper, and Juniper’s formidable whiskers.
That title says “Static Index Page” in Spanish, in honor of it being the Day of the Dead, of Jill getting her blog back up, and of me starting to read her new book. She often posts Mexican music and language, and is Catholic, so it seems like all of these things are related. The … Página de Índice Estático
Spoilers ahead. I will also note that I read Dune many years ago, but have since forgotten much of it. Yes, I plan on reading the series again soon. “DUNE?” More like, “DUDE, call a plumber.” Score: 9/10 The Frank Herbert’s literary sci-fi classic was previously adapted for the large hypnosis machine movie screen with … Review: Dune, Part 1 (2021)
Time Bandits A young boy with neglectful parents helps dwarves time travel throughout history, escaping the owner of a map they stole. I watched this a lot when I was a kid, not realizing how non-kid-friendly it was. I mean, his house burns down and his parents combust right in front of him at the … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 26
The old building in which my wife used to work had a display case of old typewriters in the lobby. One of the security guards was nice enough to let me take them out and photograph them (very averagely, it looks like) in the last few weeks before last day there. I didn’t know it … Photos: Underwood Typewriters
It turns out the woman’s iconic face from Converge’s Jane Doe album cover art is a real woman’s face, and that woman found out 20-ish years after the fact and posted on Instagram about it. Converge’s vocalist, Jacob Bannon, who also did the artwork, responded: “Just to be clear: This is definitely one of the … Jane Doe Lives and Has a Face
Some photos I took of the Cathedral of Learning a few years ago. It was inspiration for the de Sales College building from Pale Blue Scratch.
I created what I think is the best workout playlist, using the most anal retentive criteria imaginable. 1. The songs shouldn’t take longer than 5 seconds to get going in some manner, and there shouldn’t be more than 5 seconds of silence, feedback, or any fadeouts at the end. This eliminates a lot of songs, … Behold! The Best Heavy Metal Workout Playlist
The map below is inaccurate, as AllTrails’ UX for recording hikes sucks. There’s no easy way to “stop” the hike recording, and “pausing” the hike recording restarted it after a certain time for some reason, so the app recorded me driving home. Encountering these hiccups in a process annoys me both as a user and … Photos: Deer Lakes Park Blue Trail Hike
From the article “Tech Workers Rebel Against a Lame-Ass Internet by Bringing Back ‘Geocities-Style’ Webrings“: Take Linvega’s LowTech WebRing as an example. A given site connects to two other sites, which connect to two more sites, forming a closed-loop: a ring. Users tout the format as something more like wandering through a neighborhood, reinfusing cyberspace … Decentralize Your Internet
There has to be one millionaire on earth, doing absolutely nothing of worth, who can look into the sorry state of home printer tech. You don’t even have to really get involved—just toss some cash to some engineers and programmers and have them figure it out. They’ll do a Kickstarter or something and pay you … Someone Needs to Do Something About Printers
Expendables 2 A group of for-hire mercenaries race to find a stockpile of Cold War-era refined plutonium before the villain, named Vilain, does. I think every 80’s and 90’s action movie guy was stuffed into this, maybe even more than the first one, so it kind of makes it fun in that regard for middle-aged … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 25
The Minds of Men | Official Documentary by Aaron & Melissa Dykes A rather exhaustive documentary on the MKUltra program. The link leads to a timestamp later in the video that offers a decent summary. It “feels” like all that research went nowhere, but you can be sure there were things discovered about the mind … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 44
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace Say what you want about George Lucas, but the man knows how to world-build. Despite this, lot of folks criticized this movie as unnecessary, because you could start with Attack of the Clones and still get Anakin’s necessary character arc. The prequel Star Wars movies were about … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 24
Why Sexual Morality May be Far More Important than You Ever Thought Kirk (the author) rightly points out the sexual restraint is a sign, not a cause, of civilizational flourishing. We could assume that loosening sexual restraints is also a sign, not a cause, of decline. There’s probably a myriad of causes that contribute to … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 43
My Hero Academia, Season 4 This represented a little bit of a departure from previous seasons, because the big battle came early on, and someone actually died. There’s a decent pop rock song in the filler storyline of the school talent show. But really, the soap opera of MHA continues as soap operas do: you … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 23
It was time to put the 36 year old Functional to rest. Her cassette and chain got rusted out from disuse over the perpetual scamdemic months, as I was working from home all the time. The steel frame was starting to take a beating, too, that she couldn’t really come back from. So I traded … Photo: New Giant Rincon Bike
A ghost tries to scare a visitor away from her decrepit house so he isn’t harmed, but her attempts have a much different effect. I stood on the precipice of a grand philosophical conclusion one afternoon, when a group of boys, stepping over the leaf-drowned border of the estate, bantered back and forth loudly enough … Story: Prisoner Invisible