Where'd the Boys Go? (PretzelsVlog Aug 19)

Typography as smooth as silk on this thumbnail. Thumbnail feels a bit dark; might have to brighten it up to make the colors pop a bit more (as if I care about clickthrough or hits at all hah.)

toy story four made me laugh made me cry made me yeet

B'nooks!

I went to the library today and checked out a few books but I haven't even read so much as the back cover of any of them, very mysterious. Actually now that I think about it I did glance at the back cover of NeuroTribes (which I've told you about hh he er re ee toola-roola-eh) to make sure it was the objectively better, non-Pulitzer one of those two that came out 'round the same time. Very good research! The best research. There are a lot of books to parents having to deal with children with autism, but few toward the autistic themselves, and it's all like, well what's up with that? Spooks, I'mma reckon.

I also checked out "A User's Guide to the Brain," which I hope is the same thing as "The Brain: A User's Guide" because I've heard good things about that one; a Temple Grandin book that I haven't read yet (!); and a book on living with bipolar disorder because I also like reading about other neurological issues but can't ever really find as good readable or especially workable explanations about life with bpd as I can about autism so crossing my fingers that this one will be good???.  (If I'd found Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World I would have checked that out to; I talk about it hh he er re ee toola-roola-eh, and like I've said, the neurology is probably grossly outdated, but it provides such a fascinating model for the neurological/neurodivergent spectra/spectrum that I can't help but like that book.)

Also still need to polish off the last fifthish of Oathbringer so I've got my reading work cut out for me.

woohatchacha

Executive Functioning Metaphor

Exactly this
👉http://adhd-alien.com/

Especially the "now you know better" thing. It feels like that should be the case but there's never really a "knowing better" and it's like... darn. Am I procrastinating? Am I lazy? But those are with things you don't want to do, and it's like, I want to do this, but I can't. When I get nonverbal, I know exactly what it is that I want to say; my voice just won't work to say it, and it's like, well "I guess I should just accept my fate" accept that that thing won't be getting said. So the stove with a button, and another person, it's like, that's really what I need, but it's a catch-22, because in order for me to be a good "catch" I need to do awesome things but in order to do awesome things I need a mate...? (And it gets deeper than that, like... getting a job, is part of it, and having money, and like not having money is an issue, etc.) The alien says medications help her with motivations, give her some buttons though not all, but it's a start.

Here We Go Again with the The World is Full of Spoilers

I watched the Rise of Skywalker teaser trailer back when it came out, realizing while I was doing it that maybe this would be one that I'd want to avoid spoilers for? I've forgotten most of it by now, and Rey backflipping over a TIE fighter, like, no way that's going to be in the movie, right? A dream sequence at the very very very very beginning, sure why not.

And now there's a new trailer out, and like, man things are going to be difficult.

Totally seeing CATS instead on opening day, but who knows what after that. (don't really have plans of seeing like any upcoming Disney... um... Onward, darn it...)

New Video: Bolshevik Spider-Man Hot Take

https://youtu.be/qoh1TBiqZ3s c l i c k  t h e  v i d

and

George Miller is another guy who's just like magical in every frame but the fandom with him is fairly spot-on so I'm not gonna throw any shade this time ehhhh.

PhilosophyTube - Twitch Reading through the complete works of William Shakespeare for charity and because Shakespeare. Been nonstopish for 12 hours (intermissions exist and stuff) and Olly's heading off to bed right now (he lives in England) but Dan (who lives in Canada) is picking up the slack right now, beginning with Comedy of Errors!

Dan did a vid today as well (I had to squeeze catching it in during intermissions) which I got to watch him live-edit a couple of days ago (also on twitch) and, like, Twitch, man.

 

picking up on that note still

lotsa directors got aspergers Dan Harmon got aspergers (selfdiagnosed but i'm not as sneery about that anymore; not that i'm about to self diagnose m'se'f with yon borderline personality disorder or anything merely gesture vaguely and question like, maybe I have it?) Quentin Tarantino got aspergers and like, i'm not a huge fan of his work or anything (learning that there was a kill bill vol 1 and he didn't just randomly start with vol 2 really shot my expectation of him, and in general I think he's ~kinda~ overrated but that's not really a unique hot take) though he's definitely got a confidence of style I've only seen otherwise in George Lucas and a few others (we don't talk about American Graffiti and THX 1138 enough and when we talk about Star Wars we frequently miss what makes it so special)(so with that in mind maybe that's what doesn't gel about the whole Tarantino fandom, kinda missing the forest for the trees or the trees for the forest or something?) maybe some third guy got asperfers let's say lucas himself heck i can see it it would explain a lot actually
so yeah

think i may be bipolar or maybe borderline? idk

and another thing

FILM! FILLLM! what's the guy's name! what's his contact info! Dad talking to my high school video production teacher about how good I was at producting videos! It's what I'm good at! It's what I enjoy doing! there are all these steps and I just want to edit right now, not have to shoot anything; I enjoy the different steps differently and I'm finding motivation lacking what-cha-cha. The filming part of the process is a problem because of this: I enjoy performing it. I also enjoy shooting it. But I can't be in front of the camera AND behind it at the same time!!

but feeling a lot of pressure lately for jobly job, everybody's trying to push a full time job at me docked an hour a week so getting away with calling it a part time job. I'm disenfranchised with the whole system right now but still want to work because I want to be able to provide for a family! and no other reason. and it's like yes let's bring in that bicycle clown (bike clown is a metaphor for JOB ON FILM SET SOMEHOW.)

totally sober rambler

think i may need medication! for anxiety maybe!? not sure for what just sounds like a good idea in general sometimes. but other times it doesn't so like ~~? when i'm feeling good it's like I'm good so whateves, and when I'm feeling bad it's like uuuurrgghhh too depressed to even bring the topic up with anybody SIMBA. It's not like there be a magical droog that gives me executive function skills. Right now I'm in the "don't need no drugs!" camp because obviously I'm feeling energized enough to talk about it. Medication is good in general yeet.

Angry Burbs v. Ernest&Celestine

There are two primary sapient species in the Angry Birds franchise (well, technically genus in the case of pigs and class in the case of birds, but, species)-- birds and pigs. Eagles are a faction of birds as becomes important THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE 2 IN THEATERS NOW, but phylogenetically there are two distinctly evolved taxa with distinctly different lifestyles and diets and habitats and... And the two factions, so opposed to each other, are pigs and birds.

???

Finland. Rovio is Finnish. You wouldn't expect it to explain that much, but it does.

But watching The Angry Birds Movie 2 (it's hilarious and, though not a perfect movie or anything, really difficult to dislike) the arbitrary which-taxa-are-the-sapient-ones thing reminds me of another beloved-European-property-turned-beloved-movie (seriously The Angry Birds Movie 2 has the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of any video game movie??) Ernest et Célestine, wherein Celestine is a mouse and Ernest is a bear, and there are mice and there are bears, those are the two families/genuses, and it doesn't make sense why these two taxa? until you remember that the books are Belgian and it's all, oh, oh of course.

Squishies!

This is the first time I've heard of this actually and??? 

https://screencrush.com/lost-star-wars-tv-show-detours/

But legit they're doing an animated Star Wars mini retelling series, as-told-by-emoji sort of thing, that stars the cast as BB-8s and, I say more power to 'em.

Artificial Winter vs Mad Times

A large thematic part of the idea was that it's sexier to be a police officer but it's more important to be a parent. An ounce of prevention versus a pound of cure, the ounce still weighs out better, and the good stuff happens preventing in the first place.

I guess I should be excited for living in such a scary time, when things have gone so bad and it it time to be a cop instead of a parent.
But that wasn't my dream. I was pointing out how much better it is to cut these things off before they start.

Now that they have started it feels like the Church could be doing more to stop it. Maybe it's ever only a parent, never a cop. The church is doing a lot of good preventing bad stuff from happening in the first place, on local levels invisibly.

Spent a lot of the evening doing fiddly bits of web design for the upcoming launch (!) of my webcomic (!!). Still not there yet but looking better? It's a sort of a turd polish, so it's nice to have a podcast on in the background. 

I don't consider myself much of a multitasker but it looks like this is something I can do. Even listening to music is

ehh whatever PUBLISH

Buhhh-Buuhhh-BEEEE!

Linked to us from Shannon Hale's twitter feed: Vice article about fanfiction, Neopets, representation, authorship, and Jane Austen.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/j5ww84/how-a-young-adult-author-got-her-start-writing-pride-and-prejudice-fanfic-about-neopets

Generally unrelated though but also: the theme for Math Blaster (1999) for Ages 9-12! I used to be reticent to unironically enjoy this song but HECK IT it's been TWENTY YEARS and LIFE IS actually pretty long since twenty years is a long time but at the same time doesn't feel that way so I'm gonna go ahead and say TOO SHORT.

 

Premiere

Hobbs and Shaw is projected to be the biggest box office pull this weekend, but here is especially crazy since one of our own is in. It was absolutely wild. 81 people showed up.

Josh Mauga, local football hero turned pro and now actor, was in Kansas City but we FaceTimed. Tried to capture the FaceTime, but I guess it was more than just click and go. As I was getting people checked in and concession'd (conceded!) so I missed the whole thing, but maybe somebody recorded it with a camera?