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"Divorced CarMan | Castle Super Beast 349"
Dec. 7th, 2025 01:55 amAs I was watching this, I started thinking "Man, wouldn't it be cool if you could just order a car online and have it delivered to your house without having to deal with any of this shit?" literally about 30 seconds or so before they started saying basically the same thing.
"While Billie Eilish slams non-philanthropic billionaires, this CEO says telling people what to do with their cash is 'invasive' and to 'butt out'"
Anyway, with that infinitesimal bit of catharsis out of the way, I'm just going to go ahead and say it: I'm a fan of Billie Eilish, have been for at least four or five years now, and not just (or even mostly) because of stuff like this.
Here, have a few Charles Cornell videos about Billie Eilish:
( Youtube embeds behind cut )
Anyway, with that infinitesimal bit of catharsis out of the way, I'm just going to go ahead and say it: I'm a fan of Billie Eilish, have been for at least four or five years now, and not just (or even mostly) because of stuff like this.
Here, have a few Charles Cornell videos about Billie Eilish:
( Youtube embeds behind cut )
"Poor Little Rich People"
Nov. 28th, 2025 04:06 pmA post on John Scalzi's Whatever.
The gist: Someone at the bottom end of the 1% is closer to someone with no money at all than they are to someone at the top end of the 1% who has billions of dollars, yet the person at the bottom end of the 1% is still in the 1%, so too often tries to live like the guy with billions of dollars. The whole thing is simultaneously utterly asinine but also makes sense that idiots with more money than brains would try (and fail) to live like that.
I read the whole post but only watched the video, at 2X speed, until about halfway in, bailing at the start of the shill. The post itself is more humblebragging about how John Scalzi and his family mostly don't do all the stupid shit that 1%ers do.
The gist: Someone at the bottom end of the 1% is closer to someone with no money at all than they are to someone at the top end of the 1% who has billions of dollars, yet the person at the bottom end of the 1% is still in the 1%, so too often tries to live like the guy with billions of dollars. The whole thing is simultaneously utterly asinine but also makes sense that idiots with more money than brains would try (and fail) to live like that.
I read the whole post but only watched the video, at 2X speed, until about halfway in, bailing at the start of the shill. The post itself is more humblebragging about how John Scalzi and his family mostly don't do all the stupid shit that 1%ers do.
Once they got past the escargot and the balut and whatever other weird ass-foods that Reggie kept bringing up, they finally mentioned french fries toward the end, and that's what I'll focus on here. When I was a kid, I used to drown fries in ketchup. If I didn't have a little pat of ketchup to dip them in, I didn't really want them. Nowadays, though, it's like... keep that shit away. Let me enjoy, or at least tolerate, my fried potato sticks in peace, without diluting them with tomato paste. Like, even McDonald's fries are pretty decent without ketchup on them. The only kind of fries that I still think "need something else" are those shitty crinkle cut fries that mostly local restaurants tend buy frozen in bulk and then just dump into a vat of grease (or, worse, just toss into a microwave) to heat up. Those things are the french fry equivalent of cardboard.
As for the rest, well, like Woolie says, it really depends on what it is. If it is specifically intended to complement the meal, that's fine. If it's meant to just drown out the shitty taste of whatever subpar food it's there to be dumped on, then fuck off with all of that shit.
Or, at least, that's what Windows Update said today after it had downloaded and installed whatever "final" updates that were available today (on this, the official final day, supposedly, of support for Windows 10). So... I signed up for that shit, and I have access to security updates for Windows 10 until October 13, 2026 now, presumably. *shrug*
So, I suppose I can faff around and not upgrade my 15 year old CPU and motherboard and RAM for another year or so now.
So, I suppose I can faff around and not upgrade my 15 year old CPU and motherboard and RAM for another year or so now.
I'm guessing the title says "@$$holes" instead of "Assholes" for aLgOrItHm reasons.
Yeah, the gist of this video is "people, just in general, are incredibly fucking stupid."
"Mike normally streams on Twitch, but he is back this one time to discuss The Haunted Mansion and other spooky Disney stuff with James!"
That "and More!" in the title there is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Still, it's a pretty interesting video.
"CSotD: Laughing While It's Still Legal"
Sep. 20th, 2025 01:09 pmA post on The Daily Cartoonist.
Only the first two or three are about Trump or politics in general. The rest is about family stuff, writing, money management, sportsball stuff, and driving stuff.
And in response to this preposterous dumbfuckery that was linked to in the above post, I'll just leave the same quote here (which also sits in my Dreamwidth profile) that I left over there on The Daily Cartoonist:
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
-- Theodore Roosevelt, The Kansas City Star - May 7, 1918
Only the first two or three are about Trump or politics in general. The rest is about family stuff, writing, money management, sportsball stuff, and driving stuff.
And in response to this preposterous dumbfuckery that was linked to in the above post, I'll just leave the same quote here (which also sits in my Dreamwidth profile) that I left over there on The Daily Cartoonist:
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
-- Theodore Roosevelt, The Kansas City Star - May 7, 1918
Bleurrrrgh
Sep. 14th, 2025 03:02 pmJust spent like an hour or two trying to diagnose and fix my sister's iPhone, because it wasn't making or receiving calls (unless WiFi Calling was turned on and the phone was within range of a recognized WiFi network, such as the home network here, in which case it could make and receive calls). You want to know how I finally "fixed" it? It randomly occurred to me to just try turning the damn thing off and back on again. And when it did occur to me, I said that it should have been the first thing we tried. And, indeed, that's what "fixed" the phone. It's something that my sister (and my other sister and my brother) didn't think to try at all, and it's something that I didn't think to try until an hour or two into futilely going through settings and shit.
We still have no idea what caused the phone to not be working properly for the past half a week or so now (and today was the first I'd heard of it), but we do know that rebooting it somehow magically made those problems go away.
So, note to self, for future reference: if you're having phone/computer/electronic problems, step #1, before trying any damn thing else, is literally "try turning it off and back on again."
We still have no idea what caused the phone to not be working properly for the past half a week or so now (and today was the first I'd heard of it), but we do know that rebooting it somehow magically made those problems go away.
So, note to self, for future reference: if you're having phone/computer/electronic problems, step #1, before trying any damn thing else, is literally "try turning it off and back on again."
Cancel Culture, or the lack thereof
Aug. 19th, 2025 02:33 pmHonestly, at this point, whenever I hear about someone going on a tirade against "cancel culture," all it does is make me think, "Well... hmm... so I wonder what kind of heinous skeletons this person has in their closet waiting to be exposed to the light that they're trying to get ahead of by wailing about cancel culture."
On the one hand, Denzel Washington isn't necessarily wrong, ridiculous angry word salad about followers and leaders and "can't be canceled if you haven't signed up" (whatever the fuck that dumbshit is supposed to mean) and "faith in God" dumbfuckery aside. Cancel culture doesn't really exist at all in any truly meaningful way, given how so many of the high profile asshats who ostensibly have been "canceled" over the years now have multi-million dollar Netflix specials in which they do nothing but whinge and baw about how "canceled" they are.
On the other hand, if you say or do something incredibly stupid or incredibly evil or incredibly squicky, and the general public finds out about it, then they tend to turn against you, and that may or may not lead to you losing work that you otherwise would have had, had you not done or said the incredibly stupid/evil/squicky thing. If "cancel culture" exists at all, then that is all it is, no more and no less. It has been that way ever since the very concept of fame came into existence. It comes part and parcel with being a celebrity. Your career lives or dies solely at the whim of everyone else, simple as that. If people no longer want to watch your movies or read your books or listen to your music or whatever, because you said or did something incredibly stupid or evil or squicky, then if you want to cry and say you've been "canceled," then sure. If you want to call that "cancel culture" rather than "suffering the consequences of your own dipshit actions," then fine. But then, of course, if there are enough lickspittles out there who still want to continue watching/reading/listening to you, either despite or because of the incredibly stupid/evil/squicky thing you did or said, then no, you have not been "canceled."
(Well, unless your name is Donald Trump, of course. In that particular case, you can do/say every stupid/evil/squicky thing, and all it means is that you get to be the President twice and that you get a legion of sycophants who bow and scrape to your every whim and who want to dictate to everyone else, in your name, exactly how the country is to be run, despite every other non-stupid, non-evil, non-squicky person in the world wanting you and your army of adulators dead and gone.)
See also.
On the one hand, Denzel Washington isn't necessarily wrong, ridiculous angry word salad about followers and leaders and "can't be canceled if you haven't signed up" (whatever the fuck that dumbshit is supposed to mean) and "faith in God" dumbfuckery aside. Cancel culture doesn't really exist at all in any truly meaningful way, given how so many of the high profile asshats who ostensibly have been "canceled" over the years now have multi-million dollar Netflix specials in which they do nothing but whinge and baw about how "canceled" they are.
On the other hand, if you say or do something incredibly stupid or incredibly evil or incredibly squicky, and the general public finds out about it, then they tend to turn against you, and that may or may not lead to you losing work that you otherwise would have had, had you not done or said the incredibly stupid/evil/squicky thing. If "cancel culture" exists at all, then that is all it is, no more and no less. It has been that way ever since the very concept of fame came into existence. It comes part and parcel with being a celebrity. Your career lives or dies solely at the whim of everyone else, simple as that. If people no longer want to watch your movies or read your books or listen to your music or whatever, because you said or did something incredibly stupid or evil or squicky, then if you want to cry and say you've been "canceled," then sure. If you want to call that "cancel culture" rather than "suffering the consequences of your own dipshit actions," then fine. But then, of course, if there are enough lickspittles out there who still want to continue watching/reading/listening to you, either despite or because of the incredibly stupid/evil/squicky thing you did or said, then no, you have not been "canceled."
(Well, unless your name is Donald Trump, of course. In that particular case, you can do/say every stupid/evil/squicky thing, and all it means is that you get to be the President twice and that you get a legion of sycophants who bow and scrape to your every whim and who want to dictate to everyone else, in your name, exactly how the country is to be run, despite every other non-stupid, non-evil, non-squicky person in the world wanting you and your army of adulators dead and gone.)
See also.
"Today In 'Prices Aren't Real'"
Jul. 12th, 2025 05:34 pmA post on John Scalzi's website.
"I know this is a bit of an aimless rant, but I think what I'm really getting at is that the answer to the question 'why are things so expensive right now' really is 'because fuck you, that's why.' That candy bar quite evidently doesn't need to be $2; that 12-pack of soda doesn't need to be $8, and there are a lot of people who can't afford the clearly arbitrary high prices that things have, who have to pay them anyway. It's annoying for me, but for someone else it might mean skipping a meal or two, or more, here and there. It doesn't seem fair, and it doesn't seem right."
Yeah, I occasionally go the four miles to the nearest Dollar General to get the 5 for $5 deal on Crunch and/or Baby Ruth. Or, more likely, I might occasionally stop on the way back from the slightly farther, 7 mile trip to Food Lion for groceries, during which I don't even look at the candy on the candy aisle at Food Lion and certainly not at the checkout counter at Food Lion, because it's way too fucking expensive, and that is with the Food Lion card potentially shaving off a dollar or three if it's on sale. But even that's still relatively cheap compared to, like, gas stations or movie theaters or any given vending machine I might come across in the wild.
Oh, and the first comment under this post mentions the Vimes Theory of Boots, which I'd never heard of before today, but which makes 100% sense. And then the next comment mentions shrinkflation, though not by name.
I guess here, as with the previous post, is another example of me (and John Scalzi and the comments under John Salzi's post) bemoaning the fact that Capitalism is a foul, encrusted asshole that deserves only to be eaten by abuzzardvulture.
On a mostly unrelated topic, Dollar General stores seem to pop up like weeds. There are roughly 12 separate DGs within 10-ish miles of where I live, currently. So who knows, there might be one even closer than four miles, eventually. *eye roll*
"I know this is a bit of an aimless rant, but I think what I'm really getting at is that the answer to the question 'why are things so expensive right now' really is 'because fuck you, that's why.' That candy bar quite evidently doesn't need to be $2; that 12-pack of soda doesn't need to be $8, and there are a lot of people who can't afford the clearly arbitrary high prices that things have, who have to pay them anyway. It's annoying for me, but for someone else it might mean skipping a meal or two, or more, here and there. It doesn't seem fair, and it doesn't seem right."
Yeah, I occasionally go the four miles to the nearest Dollar General to get the 5 for $5 deal on Crunch and/or Baby Ruth. Or, more likely, I might occasionally stop on the way back from the slightly farther, 7 mile trip to Food Lion for groceries, during which I don't even look at the candy on the candy aisle at Food Lion and certainly not at the checkout counter at Food Lion, because it's way too fucking expensive, and that is with the Food Lion card potentially shaving off a dollar or three if it's on sale. But even that's still relatively cheap compared to, like, gas stations or movie theaters or any given vending machine I might come across in the wild.
Oh, and the first comment under this post mentions the Vimes Theory of Boots, which I'd never heard of before today, but which makes 100% sense. And then the next comment mentions shrinkflation, though not by name.
I guess here, as with the previous post, is another example of me (and John Scalzi and the comments under John Salzi's post) bemoaning the fact that Capitalism is a foul, encrusted asshole that deserves only to be eaten by a
On a mostly unrelated topic, Dollar General stores seem to pop up like weeds. There are roughly 12 separate DGs within 10-ish miles of where I live, currently. So who knows, there might be one even closer than four miles, eventually. *eye roll*
Requiescat in pace, Peter David.
I wouldn't say he changed Star Trek forever, since it was "just" a non-canon TNG novel, but still, it was a very good non-canon TNG novel. I liked the concept of Trelane being a young member of the Q Continuum.
Most people probably knew Peter David for his comic book stuff, but for me, it was his Star Trek novels. In addition to Q-Squared, as mentioned in the article above, other Trek novels of his that I really liked were Vendetta (the one that claimed the the Doomsday Machine was an ancient anti-Borg weapon, and also brought in its bigger brother), Q-in-Law (the one in which Q met Lwaxana Troi, Deanna Troi's mother, which was something that sadly never happened in the show proper), Imzadi (which tells the tale of the first meeting between Will Riker and Deanna Troi, and also involves the Guardian of Forever [and he wrote a sequel called Triangle: Imzadi II, which also involved Worf and Thomas Riker]), and I, Q (a book he co-wrote with John de Lancie, in which Q gives himself the task of preventing the destruction of the universe as we know it, with some help from Picard and Data), among a whole bunch of other stuff. I haven't actually read any of his New Frontier stuff, though. And pretty much anything else of his that isn't Star Trek-related is stuff with which I have very little familiarity.
I wouldn't say he changed Star Trek forever, since it was "just" a non-canon TNG novel, but still, it was a very good non-canon TNG novel. I liked the concept of Trelane being a young member of the Q Continuum.
Most people probably knew Peter David for his comic book stuff, but for me, it was his Star Trek novels. In addition to Q-Squared, as mentioned in the article above, other Trek novels of his that I really liked were Vendetta (the one that claimed the the Doomsday Machine was an ancient anti-Borg weapon, and also brought in its bigger brother), Q-in-Law (the one in which Q met Lwaxana Troi, Deanna Troi's mother, which was something that sadly never happened in the show proper), Imzadi (which tells the tale of the first meeting between Will Riker and Deanna Troi, and also involves the Guardian of Forever [and he wrote a sequel called Triangle: Imzadi II, which also involved Worf and Thomas Riker]), and I, Q (a book he co-wrote with John de Lancie, in which Q gives himself the task of preventing the destruction of the universe as we know it, with some help from Picard and Data), among a whole bunch of other stuff. I haven't actually read any of his New Frontier stuff, though. And pretty much anything else of his that isn't Star Trek-related is stuff with which I have very little familiarity.
Galactic Mermaid
Apr. 27th, 2025 11:56 pmSometimes, only listening to Galactic Mermaid on infinite loop for a solid hour or two is enough to assuage a personal slight.
I heard at least part of this story on the car radio yesterday. It's the story of an old woman who was scammed out of over half a million dollars by savvy con-artists pretending to be law enforcement agents fighting against fentanyl drug cartels. One of the things that they kept repeating was that it was not this woman's fault that she was scammed, how it is kind of ridiculous to expect an 80 year old to catch all the "red flags" (such as how the emails she was receiving from the scammers came from a spoofed "USA.com" email address, rather than anything with ".gov" at the end), and how scammers like this have been perfecting their technique for decades.
And...
...
...(you can probably already see where I'm about to go with this if you've read my blog at all for the past decade)...
...
( Obviously incoming Trump rant behind cut )
And...
...
...(you can probably already see where I'm about to go with this if you've read my blog at all for the past decade)...
...
( Obviously incoming Trump rant behind cut )
I've never had a flying experience quite as bad as the one Woolie describes here, but... I'm not entirely surprised or shocked by his description, either. I mean, it's like, sure, what he said sounds really terrible, but yeah, that tracks.
It could've been worse, of course. At least the plane didn't crash or anything.
(EDIT)
Wait... that was the same airport that this happened, last night. Their podcasts are usually recorded days before the clips are uploaded to Youtube, so that couldn't have been the reason why Woolie had such problems, but still... holy shit...
(EDIT 2)
Actually, I think the clip is mislabeled. This should be a clip from CSB 305, which was only just released yesterday, not CSB 304, which came out over a week ago. The timing is... not great, regardless.
(/EDIT 2)
(/EDIT)
Full headline, because it wouldn't all fit up there: "'Predators' Review: A Damning Look at the Legacy of 'To Catch a Predator' Argues that We're All Complicit in America's Perverted Sense of Justice"
An interesting article that happened to pop up in my Google News app.
Disclaimer: I have never seen a single full episode of To Catch a Predator. The most I have seen are short clips on Youtube. And the memes, of course. The memes were pervasive and inescapable for a while, back when the show was on the air, and they're still a thing even now, too. And prior to reading that article, I'd never heard of this documentary, either. I'm not sure I would want to see the documentary, any more than I ever wanted to see the show itself, but... still. An interesting article.
An interesting article that happened to pop up in my Google News app.
Disclaimer: I have never seen a single full episode of To Catch a Predator. The most I have seen are short clips on Youtube. And the memes, of course. The memes were pervasive and inescapable for a while, back when the show was on the air, and they're still a thing even now, too. And prior to reading that article, I'd never heard of this documentary, either. I'm not sure I would want to see the documentary, any more than I ever wanted to see the show itself, but... still. An interesting article.