The Wolverine Wolverine in Japan. This film was in the middle of the cinematic X-Men franchise getting a little more mature, and it shows here, especially in the dialogue. It would appropriately crescendo, perhaps a little too late, with Wolverine’s sendoff in Logan, but this was the solid beginning. X-Men: The Last Stand The third … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 22
Easy-to-understand part of a lecture on the ideas. A little bit too Platonic for me, but it can get one on the path of breaking away from purely material causes for things. If there’s a meta-force, not necessarily supernatural, but an in-between level between pure classical physical space and that supernatural domain, then material methods … How Matter is Formed and Other Consciousnesses
‘It’s too late’: Alabama doctor shares final moments of Covid patients, urges vaccination This is almost as fake as the Jewish doctor treating the Neo-Nazi that I posted about a few months ago. It has all the tells. The only thing that would make it a more obvious ploy is if Antonio Planas (the article’s … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 42
Escape from New York Not sure why I think this, but I consider this a sister film to the original Mad Max. They came out roughly the same time, so there was a similar cultural context, at least when the final rewrites and filing occurred. Also crazy to note that the depiction of vector graphics … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 21
The rewards for the Kickstarter were sent out, so I jumped it to the top of my reading list. Hawthorne’s prose is playful. It seems like a lot of the sci-fi emerging out of the retro-futurist, first stages of the industrialization of electricity (whatever you want to call it) had a bright, optimistic bent. How … Photos: The Cosmic Courtship Hardcover
WE HAD A scheduled day off today, but the medusazoans showed up. Protocol dictates we have to make an effort to contact them whenever this happens, but there’s nothing said about recording or even logging the event when no one is on an active shift, as it is during our working days. Technicalities and such; … Story: The Ezekiel Triptych
Fist of the North Star Post-apocalyptic 80’s kung fu, with a really dated English dub; Full movie here, with a protagonist so badass, he walks through a building as it falls on top of him, and tables randomly explode when he’s ready to fight. There probably wouldn’t have been JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure if this wasn’t … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 20
…because it’s probably not aliens that are involved at all with this—it’s all large-scale electromagnetic stuff. I am not for or opposed either way to aliens being at least covertly mucking around; my beliefs aren’t based on what I can perceive and understand. Aliens would be a good story to come across in reality, but … I’m Not Saying It’s Aliens
No photos this time, since the route we took we nearly the same as the Wetlands-Scouts-Rachel Caron loop I posted. We did see a snake that we thought was dead, a deer with a sneezing fit, and lots of graduation parties in the park pavilions. We took our time hiking, with some potty breaks, food … No Photos: Scouts’ Trail Hike
As if ads were bad enough, we have to deal with online solicitations in the form of dialog box interrupters. Notice that the one screenshot below is a page about stress reduction. You can make matters even worse by paywalling basic, interchangeable content about something—a book, in the National Geographic example—that could easily be found … How To Annoy People
Y2K Music Curse Good article about the realities of signing onto a traditional record label. tl;dr version: artists need to pay everything back. It’s especially hard when you are a metal band trying to nudge your way into the already-limited fanbase, which is what I went through in the bands I was involved with in … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 41
A.I.C.O. Incarnation A schoolgirl learns she’s not who she thinks she is, and it involves a quarantine zone that resulted from a berserk experiment to create artificial organisms. What’s with trained special forces soldiers who look like Teen Vogue models? At least some series’ lore would explain it away as cyborgs or trained-at-birth/crisis situation scenarios, … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 19
Alltrails mapped this nice hike out for us, a combination of three connected trails at Harrison Hills. Here’s the map. No, we didn’t walk 19.8 miles. I was a dum-dum and started tracking our progress from when I left the house. The real trail length was nearly four miles. These first three are some long … Photos: Wetlands-Scout-Rachel Carson Loop Trail
How Giving Up TV For A Month Changed My Brain And My Life “Never watch more television than the amount of time you exercise.” I am in the clear here, since every day I exercise around 45 minutes. Only some days, I’d only watch a standard-length show with my daughter at night, though nowadays with … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 40
It was the only remaining account I had, besides the one at Goodreads, that was vaguely social or collaborative, that I didn’t really use all that much. I had a few small, personal JavaScript and CSS projects on there that I moved to the UX portfolio page. I don’t code all that much any more … I Am Off GitHub
Well, almost a 15k. This wouldn’t be so bad if I had planned and trained for it; I had originally intended to do a 5k. My wife’s gym organized a casual weekend run at the Westmoreland Heritage Trail. You could do any length of a run, from a 5k (I think shorter than 5k, too) … I Accidentally Ran a 15k
A few photos here of Highland Park, which is less trail-like and woodsy than Harrison Hills, and much more developed and urban park-like. Space is a little tighter. It’s also much more trafficked, mostly because of the generous walking and biking paths on the streets that run through it. A good chunk of park real … Photos: Highland Park
This one was 2.3 miles, with lots of wet spots (duh), elevation changes, and overlapping with other trails. We saw a fox run across the trail near the end, and bear poop (more on that). I don’t know anything about flowers, but this one at the start of the trail was very noticeable. Later on, … Photos: Wetlands Trail Hike
I took my son out on a hike at a local park. Here are some photos. We had an off-path companion for a few moments: This tree had a strange, ugly vine wrapped around it: Pit stop: I really like this one. The sun is in the top center, right in the opening of the … Photos: Spicebush Trail Hike
I like Rupert Sheldrake a lot when he stays in his lane (biology and science), but he’s off when he’s talking about baptism here. There’s no reason to think John the Baptist held people under longer than what was normal for full ritual immersion in the Hebrew tradition. John was a rather popular rabble-rouser, and … Near Death by Baptism