Some folks have uploaded a few videos of the old band I was in, Life In Your Way, at this year’s Furnace Fest. I’ll post more when I find them. “Reach the End”: “Who I Am”: “Making Waves”: “Growth in Passion”: “We Don’t Believe”: Two different recordings of “Salty Grave.” Love the fanny pack on … Videos: Life In Your Way at Furnace Fest 2022
Not a 15k by accident, like last year. Additionally, this was an actual timed race, so my reputation as a world class runner was at stake. I was able to get 2nd place in my division, the 40-49 year old dude category, and 14th overall for the runners. It was the first year of this … I Ran a 5k Race
Check out the disaster playlist on the Suspicious0bservers channel to get acquainted with what Catacomb Resident is talking about here. There is some conspiracy theory with the science industry involved, but that’s irrelevant to the main point. There is evidence, though I don’t think it’s quite conclusive, of a pattern of cyclical disasters every 12k … Catacomb Resident: Prepare for Doom
I dislike horror, both watching and writing it, so someone can take this premise and run with it. Whether it actually becomes a good story is up to the writer’s skills and drive. Premise: A shadowy MKUltra-type program accidentally produced your typical patient zero of the zombie apocalypse—the traditional mindless, plodding kind. The effect was … Story Idea: Reverse Zombie Apocalypse
Go here to read up.
An addition to this earlier post. #5 Unnecessary Stops This one isn’t confusing or dangerous, just unnecessary. Opposing stop signs on the side of the store. The two screenshots are from opposite directions: the top going into the main parking lot area, and one leaving, which routes around the back of the store. On the … Addendum: Stupid Traffic Situations #5
These are all near where I live, and they bother me just a little bit every time I encounter them. 1. Who Should Yield? #1 Car A and B are traveling “up,” I guess is the direction. Car A’s onramp forms a new lane, but he has a yield sign. Why would Car A have … Four Stupid Traffic Situations
After 100 straight wins on hard mode, I think it’s time for me to put Wordle out to pasture as part of my daily morning routine. I was hoping my usual start word of “AUDIO” (lots of vowels) would be the answer of the day, so I’d have a one-guess win in the bag, but … Done With Wordle
My daughter and I went to the August 1 Pittsburgh stop of the Coheed and Cambria tour, at Stage AE’s outdoor stage. Here’s two bad photos of Mothica and Alkaline Trio, respectively: I realize part of it was the sound system/engineering and their tech crew, but Coheed and Cambria had one of the best, most … Photos and Video: Coheed and Cambria, Alkaline Trio, Mothica
I don’t do environment photos on vacation, or photos much at all, but here are two photos and a video from a recent trip to Massachusetts. We were walking the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, and I saw the stained glass of the First Baptist Church of Boston, which faces north and a little west, across Commonwealth … A Few Massachusetts Photos
Ever since Google discontinued its Reader app 2013, I’ve been using Feedly as an RSS aggregator. I’ve had no problems with Feedly: the app and browser versions work well, good interface, minimal ads, they’re not pushy with their enhancements. Despite all of that, and in an effort to find out where I can dogfood icecream* … More Icecreaming: RSS Readers
Though these are recently published, it’s these kinds of videos that made YouTube a goldmine of interesting things. Now the most popular videos are loud and obnoxious political or pop-culture commentators, reaction videos, and mostly-miss-sometimes hit TEDx Talks. Then advertising happened and all grifters stormed in. A guy made a leaf blower from a miniature … A Jet-Powered Leaf Blower and Keanu Reeves
Craiyon is one of the forms of the new AI-driven image creators, started with (I think) Dall-E. It’s interesting to see how these programs interpret the ideas. They sometimes are too literal, or not figurative enough, or some of the words and phrases are ignored or downplayed. The weirddalle Twitter account post some interesting produced … Some Craiyon Images I Made
Anything based on Enlightenment principles, including “human rights,” isn’t courting disaster, it’s slapping the start button on a judgement time bomb. If we want to get to the fundamentals of it, human rights are products of men’s minds, implicit agreements to use force a certain way. The bigger the parties involved, the more complex and … Catacomb Resident: The American Lie
Roosh V posted a bunch of pointers on reading better, and it mirrored very generally some ideas I had in mind already. So I will use his hard work as lazy leverage for my own post, which you are reading right now. 1. Devote a shelf to unread books Most modern households have a bookshelf, … Reading Advice
Cigar acquired: +5 intelligence, +3 motivation,grumpiness and weight gain debuffs removed. A lengthy interview article, most of which I read a few days ago, is now completely lost to me: I didn’t save the URL anywhere, it’s not in my browser history, and I forget the referring page that lead me there. How does that … How Smoking Made People Smarter
Interesting, if only for story fodder, which is in the works on my end. The Gateway Process and the Monroe Institute stuff has gotten a lot of attention recently because of all the holographic universe bejabbering, the popularity of MMPORGs and litRPG with the youngins, The Matrix, and all the official attention on UFO phenomenon. … Video: The CIA On Time Travel And The Holographic Reality – The Gateway Process
There are two Kickstarter campaigns of note, launched recently. Both have already well-exceeded their goals so the rewards will definitely be fulfilled, and there’s plenty of time left to back them. The first is Jon del Arroz’s Overmind. There’s a graphic novel and a sequel prose novel up for grabs: Ayla Rin, Agent of Terra … Overmind, The Adventures of Mongoose and Meerkat 2 Kickstarters
The actual title of this is “The Final Trial: The Champions’ Ballad,” but the game’s title is long enough and I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s attention span. This is a long and ominous-sounding one. It’s a leitmotif: it repeats the previous—I assume “previous,” because this one is titled “final”—trial tracks in the game, and … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: The Final Trial from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Shaking Them Loose (mirrored on archive.org): Shaking Them Loose 26 October 2021 The single biggest issue for people of faith today is building up faith among other Christians. We have no pretense of telling them where faith will lead them. Our only concern is that they are set free to walk by their own convictions. … Catacomb Resident: Shaking Them Loose
Most of us can intuitively answer the question on what a woman is, based on a bundle of personal past experiences. Yet, some people are lead to believe one needs to be a biologist to really determine what a woman is, or what have you. If you’re confused by that situation, you are probably normal, … What A Woman Is
A relaxing and melodious song from MapleStory, with some nice clarinet action doing the main melody, or at least parts of it. I feel like the easy path would’ve been to use flutes for that, because forests = flutes, I guess. Instead they do some of the background harmony. The entire MapleStory soundtrack is pretty … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Ellin Forest from MapleStory
Some quick, amateur photos of the Lord’s handiwork.
Senko no Ronde is a weird game. It has elements of bullet hell/shoot-em-up mixed with one-on-one competitive fighting, with a strange angular (called “isometric” in design terms) perspective. Anyways, this song is typical of the soundtrack on all installments of the franchise: frantic rhythm with “slow,” flowing melodies on top of it. INOJ was one … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Assemble from Wartech: Senko no Ronde
Here’s where a lot of people might get tripped up, on both sides of the religion debate. The idea that a religious concept is good for people, but not so much for God, requires a little parsing. The rituals exist for men, not for God. God isn’t pleased with ritual itself, but rather, if anything, … Catacomb Resident: The Necessity of Ritual
Ubisoft made a good move getting a Anamanaguchi, an actual band who does this music normally, to do the soundtrack. The chitpune power pop style fits perfectly with the nu-retro graphics, gameplay, and character tropes of the actual game. The track I have here seems to be a slightly different than the one in the … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Another Winter from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Captain America teams up with Spiderman in a race to find the Infinity Stones before Magneto and his new ally, Drax the Destroyer, do. Those, obviously, aren’t exactly the dramatis personae, but the real ones in the movie are of a certain type. Another paint-by-numbers video game adaptation for kids. Sonic … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 35
I posted about this song a while ago, so maybe it’s time to do it again. I don’t know anything about NieR or any of its variations or sequels, except for the hovering book (I’m not calling it a “grimoire” like the game does). Because of that, I can’t give a whole lot of context … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Song of the Ancients (Fate) from NieR
It might be good to point out here that what we think are America’s particular sins, real or imagined, are ultimately irrelevant to the judgment cycle itself. It’s not gays, or that America hates gays, or racism, or lack of universal healthcare, or lack of veteran care, or pollution, or whatever other political scapegoating you … Catacomb Resident: Back to Eden
As the cube drags itself through the drying mud, its path cuts an even sheen into the brown. In later years, when all the water has left for the sky, we can break through the cracked dirt, open it, and discover the blessings underneath.
Octopath Traveler’s “Title Theme” is everything I want to hear in fantasy RPG when you start it up: symphonic, rousing, memorable, dynamic, all stuffed into two and a half minutes. Not to invoke Final Fantasy VI yet again, but that’s one thing that bugged me about its introductory music was that it was too ominous … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Title Theme from Octopath Traveler
Futile Philosophy 4 (mirrored on archive.org): Futile Philosophy 4 23 October 2021 If you rely on what your senses and reason tell you, you’ll never understand reality. From our human capabilities, we surmise that nature is totally unconcerned about us, if not outright hostile at times. This is false. Jesus boldly spoke to supposedly inanimate … Catacomb Resident: Futile Philosophy 4
I have no idea what this game is about, other than it’s some kind of space opera involving music as a magic system. This song plays during the final boss battle with a huge ship or robot, after which an entire planet is created. Looks like there are multiple endings for this game, not uncommon … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Ra-Ciel Reincarnation from Ar Nosurge (Ode to an Unborn Star)
The subject of the pre-modern view of the supernatural coincides nicely with the most recent post over at History for Atheists, Jesus Mythicism 8: Jesus, History and Miracles. Humean skepticism and falsifiability is so ingrained in how we think that it’s near impossible for even reasonably intelligent people to even conceive that others in the … Catacomb Resident: Futile Philosophy 3
The Polar Express A boy and a group of children ride a fantastical train to the North Pole. This was the first movie ever to use all-digital motion capture, which made for realistic movements in the animated human characters. I’m not quite into that type of CGI—I didn’t like it when Ghost in the Shell: … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 34
I don’t know anything about this game, nor racing games in general, except for one of the Forza Horizon installments I played a while back. I also don’t know anything about house music, which is the overall genre this song belongs to. What is going on with that weird clicky-winding sound? Club music is weird, … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Liquid Soul from R: Racing Evolution
A catch-all version of the NPC meme, applicable to any situation your nation happens to be in. A jaydinitto.com original.
What Catacomb Resident is explaining here is similar to Alvin Plantinga’s sensus divinatus, the faculty that senses and processes ideas about metaphysical things as a form of a priori knowledge, just as philosophically legitimate as the physical senses or logic. Our sensus divinatus is damaged by default because of the Fall, since we are tied … Catacomb Resident: Futile Philosophy 2
At least in the two Xenoblade games, the night version of an area’s theme a more somber version of the day theme. Satorl Marsh’s night theme is unique in that it’s a completely different song than the day’s. I don’t play a lot of open world games that have the day/night mechanic, so I don’t … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Satorl, The Shimmering Marsh (Night) from Xenoblade Chronicles
Futile Philosophy 1 (mirrored on archive.org) Futile Philosophy 1 20 October 2021 This may be a little too cerebral for some readers. It’s normally pointless to discuss philosophical basics. Most people don’t understand the discussion, and those who do often don’t actually walk by it, and cannot seem to translate it very well for those … Catacomb Resident: Futile Philosophy 1
Game soundtracks sometimes need better titling approaches, like this one here. They could at least give it a generic name like “Overture,” or “Theme from the Origami King,” or “Don’t Let the Previously Minor Henchman Character Fool You—He’s Gonna Add Some Hardcore Emotional Depth Later On.” Whatever. I haven’t played every blessed Mario game out … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Title Screen from Paper Mario: The Origami King
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Tanjiro, his sister-turned-demon, and two other companions, meet (big breath) Demon Slayer Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku on a train and encounter, uh, demons. Though it’s an asterisk achievement, Mugen Train was the highest-grossing movie of 2020 because of you-know-what screwing things up. I’m not familiar with the Demon Slayer series at … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 33
Critical response to the actual game itself is contentious, but the soundtrack is unique in that Masashi Hamauzu—and not the series’ usual, Nobuo Uematsu—was the composer. There’s a lot of moodswinging throughout the song, which I think was used primarily for boss battles or intense cinematic scenes. A good boss battle song will have ups … Wednesday Humpday Midday Song: Saber’s Edge from Final Fantasy XIII
There was a meme image, screenshot from a Twitter post, I saw a while back. It was a woman mentioning the fact that Jesus never told women to cover up but told men to pluck out their eyeballs to avoid sexual temptation. The implication is that the onus is all on men, though the idea … Catacomb Resident: Indecent Exposure
I have a new page up: Now. Enjoy responsibly.
One of my mother’s uncles, Adam Schuch (pronounced “shook”), was a cryogenecist who worked on nukes, post-World War II. I never met him, or I don’t remember meeting him, really. Either way, I found a few photos of him floating around online, and some other textual references to him or his work. Some of the … Uncle Adam Schuch, Cryogenecist
America Defiled (mirrored on archive.org) One thing to note here is that the covenant of Noah and its seven laws were made with all humanity, meaning. A nation (people) following the Noahic laws, even if the nation isn’t especially Christian, could expect some reasonable blessings, because Noah addresses core human behavior and consequences. In other … Catacomb Resident: America Defiled
Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV Nyx Ulric and the Kingsglaive, the special forces of King Regis, protect the kingdom of Lucis and its crown city, Insomnia, from the attacks and deceptions Emperor Iedolas Aldercapt and his military empire, Niflheim. That’s too many unusual proper names for a one-sentence summary, but whatever, because the movie was damn … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 32
A few months after using a static document for the front page of this here domain, I’ve reverted to a standard dynamic page. It looks the same, but without the “this is a static HTML document” disclaimer at the way bottom. I discovered that the WordPress plugins had a hard time updating, I couldn’t preview … Index Page Silliness
I came across this anonymous writer, Catacomb Resident. Much of what he (she?) has posted about aligns closely with my religious beliefs, which are at the same time common and familiar, but rare, and rarely expressed in the same way CR does it. He encourages theft of anything he posts, so I’ll be doing a … Catacomb Resident: Know Him
Ingredients Soup 2 large carrots 1 yellow onion 2 sticks of celery 1 head cauliflower 1 head broccoli 1 tbsp salt (or to taste) 1 tbsp oregano 1 tsp pepper 4 tsp of bullion powder or paste or 2 cubes (chicken or veg) 3 tbsp butter 5 cups water Cheese Sauce 6 tbsp butter 3 … Recipe: Paleo Cheesy Broccoli Cauliflower Soup
Belle (2021) An unassuming Japanese high school student becomes a singing sensation in a virtual reality world, but gets caught up in finding the identity of the virtual world’s mysterious Beast creature. When people talk of of remakes of older stories, in this case Beauty and the Beast, this is the direction movie makers should … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 31
Squatting, as in the Holy Grail exercise move, that is. From the article, “Do You Really Need to Back Squat?”: Watch Naudi’s Video on the Back Squat HERE Watch Naudis Video On how he suggests How to Deadlift [ed. – link is to a private video] While Mike and Naudi have different training methods, their … Squatting Isn’t Everything
The story below is a work of fiction. The morning back at work, to the office. All maskless. My state just said to hell with everything and do what you want, and what we wanted, it seems, is to go back to how it was. Mass normalcy bias hypnosis to replace the other fearful hypnosis. … Story: Quarantine VIII
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, Part 1 Jolyne Cujo, Jotaro’s daughter, is framed for murder and ends up in prison. As expected, epic Stand battles abound, and it’s fascinating how Shō Aimoto made it this far without the Stand trickery and lore getting stale. The swamp search that lasted a few episodes illustrates an aspect … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 30
Almost. It’s more like The Web Is Fucked. I’m not really up or down on swearing so much, but having harsh language in a post title crosses a boundary with me. Anyways, from the linked site: I’m not saying you should avoid all social media – that shit’s pretty much impossible these days and is … The Web Is Flucked
Love, Death + Robots A series of animated science fiction shorts. As usual, most of these stories were more action and horror than science fiction. Some individual reviews: “Zima Blue” – An enigmatic artist reveals his final piece. This wasn’t just the best of the entire series, but one of the greatest actual science-fiction short … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 29
The Cosmic Courtship, written by Julian Hawthorne (the son of Nathaniel, of The Scarlet Letter fame) was serialized in pulp magazines in 1917, and hadn’t seen print since then until Cirsova Publishing came along and offered it in novel format. It’s considered an early science fiction work, though like all good science fiction it was … Book Review: The Cosmic Courtship by Julian Hawthorne
While watching RazörFist’s stream of the new Halo Infinite game, I realized how not-great the subtitle UX (user experience) was. It ranged from serviceable but awkward, to slightly confusing, to unreadable. Good video game dialogue and subtitle UX should (in rough descending order of severity): Have good color contrast, size, and line length The subtitles … How to Create Good Video Game Subtitle UX
From That Hideous Strength: “Why you fool, it’s the educated reader who can be gulled. All our difficulty comes with the others. When did you meet a workman who believes the papers? He takes it for granted that they’re all propaganda and skips the leading articles. He buys his paper for the football results and … C.S. Lewis on Educated Readers
Order of the PenTriagon is the first of two books about the peaceful aftermath of an alien presence on earth, two youngins damaged by the vaccine deployed worldwide to combat the disease the aliens brought with them, and a prophecy of a future warrior to battle said aliens (I think I got all of that … Book Review: Order of the PenTriagon by Jill Domschot
Cowboy Bebop (2021) Let’s get this out of the way, first: this was bad, to no one’s surprise, but I gave it the ol’ three-episode college try. The original 1998 series was storytelling perfection and accepted as such by a wide margin of viewers and critics, so any kind of reboot is not only unnecessary, … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 28
Ingredients 8oz sugar-free dark chocolate 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1/2 cup of Stevia or natural sweetener 1 pinch of salt 1/4 tsp ground pepper (optional) cocoa powder for dusting Directions 1. If your chocolate is in bar form, chop it up into tiny pieces. I’d do it if it’s … Recipe: Spicy Grimdark Chocolate Rocks
Here’s Lynnette with a copy of Pale Blue Scratch. Print books are life. Send a photo of you with the book, or just a photo of the book, send it to me, and I will post it here. Here’s the paperback, but you can also send a photo of the free e-book version on your … Lynnette Got Scratched!
These were taken by Jonathan from Hot Metal Studio for a behind-the-scenes type of story run for Noisecreep, for The Devil Wears Prada’s “Assistant to the Regional Manager” track. It was filmed by Danny Yourd (he had an official crew at the time; sorry, forget the name) at 31st Street Studios in the dead of … Photos: Jay at The Devil Wears Prada Video Shoot
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
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