Ideas like “informed consent,” “weighing all the options,” “be yourself,” “never hide what you are,” assume an allowable range of opinions and expressions. Some things are just not permitted, culturally; it’s always been that way, universal to human societies. But through our powers of observation and simple logic, and appreciation of a larger cultural context, … Don’t Think Too Much If You’re British
Interesting experiment, where some guy formed a crater and its rim companion using electricity, water, and silica. Reading up on craters, they seem to be formed by explosions of the impact bodies’ immense kinetic energy on the surface of larger bodies (planets), not the mechanical impact of the body itself. That’s the official explanation, anyway, … Electric Crater Experiment
In addition to references I’ve come across online, I’ve had a few folks independently mention the incoming solar minimum to me. It brought to mind this fascinating series of rambles from Eric Dollard. The first part appears to be filmed by a turtle, while the second half was edited by someone with tachypsychia. Everything before … Solar Minimum, 2020 Edition
From a news roundup article at Anonymous Conservative linked in Vox Day’s “The charade of success”: I always thought it bizarre Erik Prince walked into the CIA, fresh out of the Navy SEALs, heir to a billionaire fortune, as comfortable in a high-society soiree at a five star restaurant as he would be hip deep … The Limits of Ability
Pokémon Detective Pikachu Deadpool, but for kids: Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool and does Pikachu’s voice, and has pretty much the same dynamic, but without the penis jokes and wanting to kill Baby Hitler, etc. Otherwise, a forgettable cast, and there was that one scene near the end where somehow the protagonist went from one of … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 16
Anon The video record (people’s eyes record everything and everyone’s basic personal data is visible) of a spate of murder victims is replaced with the murderer’s point of view, so the investigator protag doesn’t know the culprit’s identity. Investigator-protag coincidentally comes across a woman who does not have any data. Hazard a guess as to … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 15
White Chamber Closed this one out after twenty minutes or so. I didn’t want to endure a full movie of a half-naked woman trapped in a hi-tech cube. Torture sci-fi is the worst. Coherence A dinner party goes awry when a comet passes by and they start meeting replicas of themselves down the street. So … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 14
One of my sister’s recipes. I could just call this cauliflower salad but it doesn’t sound as fun as “fake potato.” I used an avocado-based mayonnaise. It still has canola oil in it, but not as much as normal. There are better avocado-nnaises out there but they can get awfully expensive. Ingredients 2 lbs of … Recipe: Keto-Paleo Fake Potato Salad
2047: Virtual Revolution It felt like this was trying to be one of those litRPG stories in cinematic form. Or Blade Runner with updated tech. Pass on this. The Colony (2013) Paint by numbers zombie smash and grab, in an arctic-weather apocalypse. Also pass on this. Sunshine I watched this while I was high on … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 13
The 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage was earlier this week, but this isn’t directly related. A grant of suffrage privileges implies a claim ownership places on the grantee, by the state appratus. The state enters into an agreement with the voter that he casts his vote free of coercion or accountability, and in turn the … A Quick Thought About Suffrage
I stole this from a horrible recipe blog—again, one with so many ads that it crashed both Chrome and Firefox for me. It was actually a fritter recipe, but I had tried it a few times as such, but they end up being too delicate. You really need gluten to make it bind like they … Recipe: Keto-Paleo Stuffing Rice
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets From the same director who did the mostly excellent The Fifth Element, so the setting is envisioned as a colorful whizz-bang future. Being based on a graphic novel series didn’t hurt, either. This was going pretty good until the trashy Rihanna strip tease scene. A-list celebs cameos … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 12
John Carter Very ambitious offering of a story based on the excellent Barsoom book series from Edgar Rice Burroughs. The worldbuilding was nicely executed but the plot wasn’t anything unusual, but I have to give Disney credit (ew) where it’s due for making it what it was: a strange, action-filled pulp adventure. Hitchiker’s Guide to … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 11
The final boss(es) from my favorite game. I had trouble finding a decent-sized version of both the three-tier statue and Kefka, so I cobbled this together from three different images: the statues, the sun and sky background, and the crazed Kefka himself. The images are from the iOS version of the game, so the pixels … Image: Final Fantasy VI Statue of the Gods and Kefka
Investigation finds doping cover-ups in weightlifting If you found some doping and cover-ups going on, that means there’s a ton of it that is still being covered up. It’s probably everywhere at the professional level, but it’s only investigate if someone with a lot of money makes someone else with a lot of money angry. … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 35
The setting doesn’t have to be medieval period, but shouldn’t be technologically advanced. There is a mostly undetectable Functional Magic source that we’ll call tellura, since it comes from all around the earth. A rare number of people, called tellurics, are born with the ability to sense tellura more fully, and utilize it. Think of … Someone Steal This Video Game Idea: High Fantasy Open World Magic Puzzler
If you’re a working stiff like me, you will have seen a printout of the moral alignment chart tacked up in the break room somewhere, assuming your co-workers have a base level of humor. The printouts feature characters from a fictional universe (I refuse to use the word “fandom”) and the characters’ perceived alignment. If … What Is God’s Moral Alignment?
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising MHA has great animation values in the first place, but this movie added to it with some richer scenery and fight dynamics. You know something’s going to happen when a group of superheroes in training are away from their mentors on a remote island, with a “what could go wrong?” … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 10
Metal/jazz drummer Sean Reinert, died last January. He played on my favorite album of all time, Cynic’s Focus, as well as other runners-up albums, like Death’s Human and Aghora’s self-tilted. I first heard his playing at a local show in Northborough, I think at the Trinity Church. As is the standard procedure at punk and … Sean Reinert Tribute
Hawk, the Slayer I don’t know how this got greenlighted, and I don’t know how Jack Palance fell into getting involved. He probably owed someone a favor. A few funny moments here and there, but a stock, poorly-executed, sword and sorcery plot with the most non-reactive protagonist since Dar from The Beastmaster. You can watch … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 9
Around Thanksgiving one year, Seth (Buzzgrinder editor) came up with the idea of “foodifying” band names, and the resulting graphics we used for the post are below. I did the Photoshop work to screw with the band logo’s, and most of the band name bastardizations were mine. Had a hard time figuring out who Lunches … Punny Band/Food Names
This is ambiguous for a reason. Those of you who hold the proper awareness and bias would be able to understand the details. The moving images we’re seeing seeing didn’t come out of nowhere. All the opposing sides were previously hedged away from each other by geography and a veneer of civility, which began to … How It Goes
Attack on Titan, Season 1 One of the only kinda-horror series that I can tolerate, and actually enjoy. The setup with the titans is pretty basic and not a lot is spent diving into their lore; most of this first season’s runtime exposes the structure of Paradis’ military and military police. Humanity here is not … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 8
I left this comment on a recent post over at Jill’s blog: I have a theory* that we’re not really designed to hold opinions on large-scale events and the players involved. It has nothing to do with level of intelligence, it’s really a curse of information technology (starting with the telegraph) combined with our natural … It’s Entertainment All the Way Down
I created a page of all the stories I’ve posted here at jaydinitto.com—really just the “Story” category archive page. The default is to show an excerpt of the post on archive page, but I wanted to show the whole post content. Unfortunately, that’s not a option in the WordPress admin console, and WordPress’ miasma of … How to Show Full Posts on WordPress Archive Pages
Edit: I retitled this as “Part 7.5” because I had two Part 7 review posts. I can’t count. 2012 Total apocalypse p0rn to cash in on the 2012 Mayan calendar nothingburger. Totally implausible equality fingerwagging speech near the end; dude would’ve been tossed off of a glacial cliff if it happened in the real world. … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 7.5
In Soviet Russia, glasses move you! The very last scene of Tarkovsky’s Stalker has Monkey reading a book while a voiceover (presumably) announces what she is reading, which is a poem. She then closes the book, looks at the three glasses atop the table next to her, then uses telekinesis to move the the glasses. … Stalker (1979) Final Scene Explanation
The topic of the Ship of Theseus experiment came up in the last few days, from two sources independent of each other. Why not post about it? My solution involves three different concepts of ships that exist simultaneously, which we will call Rose, Sina, and Maria. Ship Rose is the concept of Theseus’s ship as … Ship of Theseus Paradox Solution
Taken from this video. Be sure to use non-frozen cauliflower; I used frozen and I think it had too much water—see the wet spots on the parchment in the photo below. Still pretty good, but a fork was needed. Ingredients 2 cups grated cauliflower 1 cup grated hard cheese (parmesan, romano) 1 egg Directions 1. … Recipe: Cauliflower Pizza Crust
Don’t take this seriously; I’m just having some fun in an “unreasonable jerk” kind way, here. Most of these were inspired from IMDB’s top list, but their popularity isn’t necessarily why I won’t watch them (there’s a number of movies I do like that are on that list). These movies listed I hear/read too much … A List of Movies I Refuse to Watch
As I Lay Dying gets their own post because I got a lot of halfway decent photos of them, and they were a pretty good live band. This was the summer before they released Shadows Are Security, their third album—or their second album with their signature sound. They weren’t too far into their career but … Photo Dump: As I Lay Dying at the Purple Door Fest (August 23, 2004)
I read Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales, cover to cover, and this story was the only one that wasn’t dark; in fact, it’s rather wholesome in a feuding siblings kind of way. It’s pretty telling the view of the world held by the Brothers Grimm, and probably most of Germany, if didactic literature for children had … Grimm’s The Four Skilful Brothers
I tried this specific recipe before but lost the link, and it took every brain cell and mouse-click finger energy to refind it. I’ll link back to the original recipe because it’s not bad as far as recipe sites go: there’s not a million ads and a novella of words to scroll past to get … Recipe: Whole Roasted Cauliflower
Gluten-free and no-bake. I stole this from somewhere. I’m not a food photographer, either. Ingredients 1 cup oats 1/2 cup chia seeds 1/3 cup sunflower seeds 1/4 cup honey 1/2 cup nut butter (peanut. cashew, almond, etc., preferably no sugar added) 1/4 cup coconut oil 1/3 cup protein powder (chocolate or vanilla) 1/3 cup chocolate … Recipe: Nut Butter Oatmeal Protein Cookies
This isn’t vanity—I was really checking my squat form, and it’s not the greatest. You’re supposed to go down far enough to “break parallel,” meaning your butt should go lower than your kneecaps so that your thighs angle down. I only have 230 lbs in the first video; my PR is 250 but even without … Rare Video Footage of Jay in the Wild
Back when I had Facebook, the Classical Art Memes page was one of my favorites. Below is a jd.com original.
An anime-only special post! Cowboy Bebop Leading with the absolute best! There’s a reason this is rated 8.9 on IMDB, 8.9 on TV.com, 100% and 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, 4.9 on Google, etc. A haphazard crew of bounty hunters try to make it in life and space. They’re not terribly great at their job, they … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 7
It’s a terrible show, but I spotted Stairwell posters in the background of the “Ted Mosby, Architect” episode of How I Met Your Mother. It’s unusual because: 1) I like the band, 2) they aren’t well-known at all, 3) even though they aren’t well-known, it still hard to find any reference to them online, and … Stairwell Posters in “How I Met Your Mother”
I’ve just published a new design of this blog. It’s not finished, so bear with me for a few days while I tighten things up. WordPress still doesn’t have a robust, native sandbox environment, so sometimes you have to put things into production in order to fix them. More details to come.
Not my blog, but blogs in general. From a post by an old friend: That’s why I think it can return to the slow and steady blog world, when we realize we don’t need to consume 1000s of bits of content every day to feel full. Open up our bookmarks, or type a URL into … The Return of the Blog
Spoilers, etc. Looks like I was wrong about Rey being a clone, but how it turned out is actually much more conducive to how I thought the film, and maybe the recent trilogy, should have gone. The movie itself was…good. The pacing was unique, at least for Abrams. There were some scenes where it felt … Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Sort of Review, and How it Should Have Gone
Rian Johnson, director of Episode VIII, really painted the franchise’s storyline into a corner. There was a lot of burning away, literal and narrative-wise, what was thought to already be established: “The Force and the Jedi are like this, which isn’t what you thought it was. Heh.” This is the fashion of things after Disney … Star Wars Episode IX Predictions
Consent culture, like everything, has hidden qualifiers. That’s just the reality of language, especially activist language. There’s plenty of forces in modern life that actively work against our consent, like taxes, but very few people would bother to frame that as an actual issue of consent. I suppose there is at least a choice: we … Death and Not Taxes
Posting some more recipes on here for the next few days. This is probably the best virtual place to keep them for me: I won’t lose them and I won’t have to patronize horribly-designed and ad-infested recipe sites. Ingredients 1/2 cup nuts (salted or un) 2/3 cup coconut flour 2 tablespoons psyllium husk powder 1 … Recipe: Keto-Paleo Rosemary Bread
Posting some more recipes on here for the next few days. This is probably the best virtual place to keep them for me: I won’t lose them and I won’t have to patronize horribly-designed and ad-infested recipe sites. Ingredients 1 lb of grass-fed ground beef 1 small onion 1 cup of sliced mushrooms 4 slices … Recipe: Keto-Paleo Hobo Casserole
Posting some more recipes on here for the next few days. This is probably the best virtual place to keep them for me: I won’t lose them and I won’t have to patronize horribly-designed and ad-infested recipe sites. Ingredients 1 Tablespoon of coconut oil (or bacon fat, if you’re the non-vegan version) 1 head of … Recipe: Keto-Paleo-Vegan Spiced Cauliflower
In reality, it does mean something, because meaning requires both a communicator and receiver. It’s more accurate to say Tolkien didn’t intend for the trilogy to be anything other than a story. Not all stories have to be intended to be deep or symbolic; I share Tolkien’s distaste for allegory. With allegories, I’m always of … The Lord of the Rings Doesn’t Mean Anything
As posted on Goodreads. Total dreck! Who greenlighted this book? The author commits every cardinal sin of basic fiction writing: breaking the 4th wall, using the first person, using second person, hand-waving, telling instead of showing, archaic dialogue tags (“said Bilbo”). Some offenses the more advanced reader will notice, like no plot twists or shocking … Review of The Hobbit
You can’t subscribe to Instagram users unless you have a third party website produce an RSS feed for the account you’d like to follow (Instagram doesn’t publish feeds natively). My RSS generator decided to make you pay for their service, so I’m on the lookout for a free one because I’m cheap and have zero … Instagram Sucks Unless You Use It
Posted on Goodreads. This is more of a review of the series than the final book. Spoilers ahead. There’s two hurdles with steampunk fiction: the gadgets (and to some extent, the fashion), and the alternate history. The former challenge is a highly visual concern and doesn’t lend itself immediately to the prose format; it’s more … The Society of Steam Series Review
A quick review I left on Goodreads, for Animal Farm: One of the quintessential allegories describing the danger of democracies, and (to me), an illustration of the inevitable cycle of the nation-state apparatus itself. One thing to note: Squealer wasn’t the real villain–Napoleon and, temporarily, Mr Jones were–but he was the linchpin that made Napoleon’s … Animal Farm Review
“Barely. I’m spilling all over the pages, blood the color of graphite, gray soul spatters into the shape of letters.” Is something I would not say. None of the writing process is so dramatic. It’s boring to observe: it’s all yawning and staring off into empty space in front of you. I get the need … I’m Still Alive
The quoted part of this blog post’s title is something I overheard in a dream. Maybe. Do we “overhear” things in dreams, if people inside your dream say something, or do we simply dream them? I failed miserably at the earlier hiatus I attempted. I thought I would have more free writing time because of … Blog Hiatus Redux, AKA: “Okay Google, Women Celebrities Dress Like Cheap Prostitutes Committing Sudoku”
I found this in a copy of Machiavelli’s The Prince. It was obviously an ad hoc bookmark, but either side had blocks of content unharmed. Looks like it was torn from one of those skeevy urban alt-magazines that complain about everything.
Spoilers, etc. Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, Godzilla: The Planet Eater These weren’t as well received as the first film in the series. I think people were still looking for a big Godzilla defeat, which didn’t happen. I like the idea of a tribal human remnant that just lives their lives and presumes … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 6
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Some reviews didn’t like this installment because of aliens. Why aliens are so wildly out of the picture, while magic chalices, magic Hindu stones, and magic golden God boxes are just fine, isn’t really explained. Either way, I was glad to finally have some Communists get … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 5
Spoilers, mmkay? Avengers: Endgame I’m leading off with this for obvious reasons. A capstone to a good run of movies that were very precise and intentional in their cinematic aesthetic and marketing. All of the movies took very few narrative chances, except for this one and its prequel, Infinity War. Nearly ruined by the most … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 4
WARNING: 91 photos on this page. I didn’t get sick this time, unlike last year. I’m going to update this post with more photos after today’s gathering.. Updates added! Forgot to mention two key things: 1 – I participated in a world record-setting effort, for the most number of people spinning a Beyblade at once. … Photos: Tekko Con 2019, Pittsburgh
Transcendence A mildly interesting depiction of a human achieving singularity and becoming more or less a really powerful AI, like The Lawnmower Man, though with slightly more realism and considering the practical matters an AI has to accomplish in the real world to make things happen. Might require more than one viewing but it didn’t … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 3
Check it out here. With the previous design, I was trying out brutalism with minimalism as combined design aesthetic, and I carried some of that over into this new version. Now it’s a lot less taxing on the eyes as there’s less contrast (though it still meets color contrast requirements for accessibility purposes). tl;dr – … UX Portfolio Redesigned
I hate having to do this, this “lifting content without attribution” move, but the site I visit for this recipe never stops loading, and sometimes it just crashes Chrome on mobile if I keep it up long enough. So my hand is forced. The original recipe used almond milk, too. If there’s anything worse than a … Recipe: Keto Cinnamon Muffins
Car Error Feedback With most newer cars now coming with digital dashboards, there’s an opportunity to ditch the red engine light and help drivers know what’s going on. I know next to nothing about computerized autos but I’m sure there can be a way to make potential auto issues more well-known and user friendly. Naturally, … Someone Steal These App Ideas
Spoilers, etc. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann A completely bonkers coming-of-age mecha anime, with all those extreme perspective shots and everything gets bigger and bigger. Similar to FLCL, but there’s an actual story and there’s no annoying music constantly playing. Pandorum Interesting premise and monster origin, though I didn’t think the monster’s “design” was inspiring, merely … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 2
Spoilers ahoy…though this post will be totally uninteresting if you haven’t seen the series already. The Netflix series Lost Song has literal cycles of civilization as its overarching practical plot element. The cycles of destruction and rebirth of the series’ Earth-like planet feature repeating timelines—with repeating people, events, places—that only have a mild range of … Lost Song’s Timelines Explained (Maybe)
Spoilers, etc. The Beyond Surprisingly competent hard sci-fi, with some unusual stylized visions of space—stylized probably because of the low budget. It got low ratings because there’s no gross alien reveal at the end and there’s little action, and some of the performances are wooden. Like every movie, there’s a great twist at the end, … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movie and Series Reviews, Part 1
MREs (“meals ready to eat”) are made for soldiers on the field, in situations where it’s not practical for cooking supplies to be hauled around. One bag has everything needed for an individual meal, even a self-heating bag—though a little water needs to be added for those to work. The main bag itself is waterproof, … I Ate a Military MRE and Wanted to Die
From Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH: We were reluctant to admit it at first. We tried to ignore he feeling or fight it off by building more things—bigger rooms, fancier furniture, carpeted hallways, things we did not really need. I was reminded of a story I had read at the Boniface Estate when … Modernity Is Insanity
AKA: Why the sky is blue. Probably one of the easiest to understand videos on the phenomenon, without knowing any more than the basics of physics. One thing that I wish he went into a little more detail is the actual process of scattering as the light travels through the atmosphere, starting at the 9:18 … Rayleigh Scattering Explained
On a weird whim, I started the keto diet about a month ago. It wasn’t terribly hard since I was sorta doing paleo for a few years. Keto is basically a stricter form of paleo dieting, where all sugar is removed and very little carbohydrates are consumed. Most calories come from most forms of natural … Results of Keto Dieting for a Month
September 9, 2018 Dear Superintendent Pallone, I realize the great weight you carry, both physically and bureaucratically, but that doesn’t justify talking to my wife in the manner you did, late Thursday morning, 9/6/2018 in front of Valley High School. My daughter and wife are new to the school and it safety protocols, and literally … Open Letter to Superintendent John Pallone, New Kensington-Arnold School District
Yes, this is silly but it’s a jaydinitto.com original. A joke for my daughter. Thank you for humoring me.
Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services A great resource for reading about the full breadth of what it means to be involved on a UX team, from start to finish. It can be read straight through but may work best as a reference guide when you need some process … Hella Book Reviews, Part 2
I redid my UX and UI portfolio, which you can see here: https://ux.jaydinitto.com. It looks very rough and “defaulty” in terms of style, and doesn’t read or flow like a traditional UX portfolio. That was intended, partially as a response to the over-designed portfolios most designers offer (the UX design community is outlandish in its … UX Portfolio Now Up
Screenshot taken yesterday (8/7/2018). The only winning strategy is to not play.
Some book reviews I’ve left on Goodreads. Kim I’m sure this is an excellent book, if I could understand it. Kipling stuffs it to the gills with so much colloquialisms and British-Indian cultural in-jokes that I may as well be reading Greek upside down and from the back. Much of the humor and significance is … Hella Book Reviews, Part 1
Why: 1. haven’t I heard about this until now? 2. does this interest me so much? 3. does Wikipedia have a rinky-dink few sentences about it, when the article itself describes it as “a major turning point in the history of clothing?”
I collect and read books because I want to have a few damn things in my life that I don’t have to recharge, restart, reboot, silence, shut down, troubleshoot, buy a cover for, update, upgrade, adjust brightness, adjust volume, adjust notifications, insert an SD card into, clear cache, ignore spam calls on, replace, repair, pay … Photo: Books to Read
When life hands you lemons, you grind them into thirds so they can go with the normal trash. It’ll save yourself a trip to the dump.
Similar to the Primal Energy Bites that I posted a while back, though these ones have a different feel to them. I’d post the original recipe, but as all recipe sites go, there’s way too many ads and scripts running on the page; I don’t want to subject you to that. It crashes my mobile … Recipe: Paleo Vegan Energy Spheres
I suppose there are further parallels between the two, but I don’t bother with the news enough to draw them.
Just when I thought everything in music had already been done, this comes along and drowns that idea in an ocean of wasabi. I want to burrow into their discography and nestle there until Shogun is ported to Xbox One (which will never happen). They have another video where they play atop a stratospheric tower, … A Traditional Japanese Rock Metal Nagasaki Tsunami
Add me if you’d like: [email protected] Wife had one that she didn’t really wear any more, so I took up the mantle. I don’t need one, for sure, but it couldn’t hurt.
There’s been more than one philosopher who have posed the hiddenness of God as an argument against His existence. If you’re a strict materialist, it makes sense that you would expect sense data, at the very least, of God to begin a framework of proof for God’s existence. Some skeptics argue that an ideal God … Someone Steal This Book Idea: The Obvious God
I swear I had this up here before for safekeeping, as I usually do, but it went the way of the buffalo. It’s back! 8 oz dark chocolate 1/8 tsp chipotle or cayenne pepper 1/2 cup heavy cream big pinch of salt cocoa to dust 1. Chop up chocolate and place in bowl, add the … Recipe: Hot Chocolate Stones
This was sung by a singer named Eri Kawai for the game Soma Bringer. I don’t think she’s in a minor key here, but it still gives me some bluish mystery vapors. It turns out Kawai died the same year this game was released, at 43, from liver cancer. She died on August 5, 2008, … A Sad Song
I made this on Valentine’s Day. You can say it: it looks like a junior-year home ec project. The reasons for this are myriad: 1. It was the first cake I ever made from scratch. 2. Since it’s paleo, it doesn’t use normal flour but coconut flour, honey, and fruits. It bakes and looks very … Photo: Paleo Raspberry Coconut Cake
Hollywood and celebrity culture are Satanic dumpster fires in dire need of wiping off the face of the earth, despite producing a few good movies here and there. I have doubts that all of the #MeToo claims of harassment are all true (thought plenty of them aren’t necessarily related to celebrities but upper-level executive-types), especially … #MeepToo
Spoilers, etc. “9” came out on 9/9/2009 (heh), and was somewhat overlooked because the director, Shane Acker, was a no-name nerd, and although Tim Burton was a producer, his name wasn’t prominent enough in the pre-prod. The film does come off as Burton-esque, and part of its unappeal to some audiences was that it couldn’t … Two Reasons the Film “9” Was Good, One Way It Could’ve Been Better.
I posted a link to this video in one of my Links of Possible Relevance before, but watching it again recently, it struck me how non-rock-or-metal-live-show-as-video it is. Consider how most of these types of videos go: There are multiple cameras, usually far back near the house’s soundboard, side stage, or in the photo pit … Speaking of Subverting Things, Periphery’s “The Way the News Goes” Subverts Metal Videos
I’m not a bodybuilding expert but this comment left on a subbreddit called “Natty or not?” sums up the state of commercial and professional bodybuilding and fitness. Look after the quote for some defined words that may be unfamiliar to you. Everyone you will see online selling you a workout supplement or program (both of … Your Natural Physical Limits
Spoilers ahoy! A lot can happen in a fictional universe in two and half hours, and director Rian Johnson took the opportunity to subvert a lot of the established narrative rules of the Star Wars franchise. Monumental things happen in interpersonal relationships, while large-scale events are drawn out with explicit detail. Granted, this happened in … Review: Star Wars: The Last Jedi Subverts the Star Wars Universe, Makes Me Use Two Colons in This Post Title
I’m posting this here for my own benefit, because I make these a lot and can never remember the recipe. But more importantly, since the original site that holds this recipe, like most cooking sites, is stuffed to the gills with browser-crippling ads. I’m a stickler for giving online credit when it’s warranted, but I’m … Recipe: Paleo Sweet Potato Pancakes
Warning: tons of photos! Click here for the photos from the comic con earlier in the year. Jyn Erso, in the Scarif disguise: Dr. Doom: Daughter DiNitto on the left, as Keith from Voltron, with Pidge: A blurry photo of yours truly with R2-D2. See way at the end of the post for a video … Steel City Comic Con 2017 Photos (December)
Don’t be deceived, children—”pop metal” shouldn’t evince audible visions of Fred Durst in JNCOs. The title doesn’t refer to nu-metal but to a certain aesthetic of songwriting. By “pop metal”—or “pop” anything—I mean a song in a specific genre that can easily be translated into a standard pop song…one that can easily be translated into … The Perfect Pop Metal Song
It’s the calculation problem. Always has, always will be: By arbitrarily changing existing markets for internet service, regulators risk corrupting the fragile preconditions necessary for firms and consumers to calculate rationally, and the incentives necessary to lure investment and risk-laden innovative enterprises. The result could be excess demand in the market for internet service if … Net Neutrality Is Still Retarded
These clippings are from a newspaper called The Boston Sunday Advertiser, from February 15, 1931. It was a small society-type newspaper that had articles on theater shows and various local events, stories, comics, contests, etc. The front page story on Washington and Lincoln seemed out of place. I had thought this was the Sunday version … Really Old Newspaper Clippings
Original, cringe-worthy, video here, about some limp noodles from BuzzFeed and their t-count test results. But the important thing is that the UX design centers of my brain were delighted that the width dimension of their names matched their comparative testosterone level results with ridiculous accuracy:
Minor spoilers ahoy. Blade Runner 2049 is getting ridiculously high ratings, which disturbed me because people like a lot of crap I don’t like and I’m in general agreement with these ratings. What to do? Subconsciously (or not), a lot of the praise may be from the visuals, which isn’t an off-the-mark assessment since films … Review: Blade Runner 2049
You can see it a few times in the Sherlock Holmes clip, the first one, at the 1:37 and 1:50 – 1:54 marks, and also some parts during the fighting scenes after that. It seems the same effect is used in the second video below, from Elysium, but to a much milder degree, from 0:35 … Crowdsourcing: Anyone Know What This Camera Effect Is?