The Very Worst Version of Me

Comic Things, Comnc Thiigs

Darths and Droids has finally, finally begun their Force Awakens story arc. A week ago, but I only checked in today, and hey-hey! https://darthsanddroids.net/ (Darths and Droids is a webcomic in like this, [exhales] so there's this genre that like reinvents the plots of movies and TV shows as being actually D&D-style RPG stories behind the scenes?; this particular one wasn't the first but it is arguably the most influential, and they've been going since 2007 and they're only now getting to the sequel trilogy because they were waiting to see how the whole thing would shake out and the time is finally here, woo.)

Non Sequitur introduced a new character today; that glasses kid has a younger brother with autism. Fingers are crossed??? but we'll see how this turns out??? https://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2020/03/29

Third comic thing to recommend, third comic thing to recommend... there's a "I'm married to Betty Boop" thing making its rounds on Twitter or whatever? It's, something. Dare I say, something that exists.

kay bye again for now.

Dog That Speaks German!?!

(first I was reading about the history of tiki culture and there was this seminal restaurant Don the Beachcomber and trying to track down more information about that ran into Don the Dog instead. Also at Smithsonian.)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-don-talking-dog-took-nation-storm-180968867/
Meanwhile speaking of those guys did you hear about the 2.8 million images they released into the public domain for anybody to do whatever with? (it includes 3D models+stuff too.)

⟾https://www.si.edu/openaccess⟽

Aayyy

Wow I'm actually at a computer in the evening finally at all this year. Been meaning to blog but every time I think about it it's all, not gonna get out of bed for that. 

But being into a new decade (it's an arbitrary dividing line but I love it) each thing feels like, oh first of the decade, gotta record this, ye know? First movie watched this decade, Casablanca. First Killers song I sang this decade, Believe Me Natalie, actually? First U2 song, City of Blinding Lights; first twenty one pilots song, Migraine; first Beach Boys song, Good Vibrations. First song from Cats, it's impossible to say. 

I saw two rainbows so far this decade. I'm not going to let this hellworld strip my joy from me.

Shocky Powers pt I

So I had two dentist appointments, one last week one this week, and let me tell you about them? Like the one yesterday, they drained my wet wet mouth with a hoselike thing when it got too moisty in there, but with last week's they stuck cotton swabs in there right against my teeth and gums and me no likey- and then on top of that I had to fend off laughing while my teeth are being worked on because all I can think about is the tweet by the person claiming to be Zuckerberg's hairstylist claiming his ceasar haircut is from saying zucky no likey whenever it's time to get his hair done and swiveling his head in a circle exorcist-style. 

Because that's a very funny image.

And it's the worst to imagine when you need to not move your mouth.

At the dentist yesterday them sticking in a couple of things, a suction thing I think and a, more pokey thing maybe, I felt this jolt in my mouth like electricity. And the suction thing is just plastic and the pokey thing is non-electric so it couldn't have been either or both, and maybe it was the tiny hole in my mouth where the numbing agent had been injected or something? And I'm like what was that and yes it turns out it doesn't make sense that that happened.

So I at least hoped that I was coming down with superpowers? Like, my mouth could spontaneously generate electrical shocks, and maybe I could train and harness that?

And I guess I would have forgotten about this if not for the strange coincidence of today...

to be continued I guess

The Pros and Cons of Catching an Opening Night Star War

So guess what bub but I've got conflicting feelings on Rise of Skywalker coming out in a week. Like, should I see it or not, and what does its existence mean, and am I even excited for it?? I have assembled a list of reasons, both contra and pro, in the hopes that it would help iron some of the issues out in my poor little heart, and, well, it's definitely helped with something...

• Pro: heckin' Star Wars man; after TLJ, I came on record as officially excited for how Abrams continues/concludes the saga from the ending, what with TLJ both overturning the tea table and ending on a stirringly conclusive note
• con against pro: it doesn't really matter
• pro con con: of course it does
• Con: Dec 20th was the deadline i'd set for myself to get my webcomic up
• con con: i'm not getting my webcomic up by December 20
• con con con: i mean there's still time but
• con con pro: none of the other woodbadge goals i'd set are getting accomplished
• con con pro: 20th is a Friday. webcomic updates on Sunday. TELL ME HOW THAT MAKES SENSE.
• Pro: avoiding spoilers like the plague so like the sooner I get on this the better
• pro con: they slip through anyway because of course they do
• pro con pro: and I'd already seen the teaser trailer to begin with
• pro pro: but other than that I'm doing a decent job
• Con: seeing Cats instead
• con pro: unironically excited for Cats guys
• con pro pro: new Taylor Swift song in collaboration with sir Andrew Lloyd Webber
• con pro pro con: Oscar bait songs are weird and often boring
• con pro pro con con: um not always, and
• con pro pro con con: they can grow on you
• con pro pro pro: it's going to be called Beautiful Ghosts, and, like, I am just the biggest sucker for songs about ghosts, like legitimately there's never been a song about ghosts that's not a total bop
• con pro pro pro pro: Ghostbusters theme, Danny Phantom theme, Grim Grinning Ghosts by Thurl Ravenscroft et al, Ghost Party by Watsky, Kicking the Ghost by Malcolm Rollick, The Ghost by Trevor Something, Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts by Wolf Parade, Ghost Pressure by Wolf Parade, Same Ghost Every Night by Wolf Parade, heck Wolf Parade sings about ghosts a lot and I just love 'em for it, Coldplay's entire Ghost Stories album...
• con pro pro pro con: um the Casper the Friendly Ghost theme song I guess?
• con pro pro pro con con: I mean it's alright
• Pro: I need to update my Facebook profile pic probably, and the one I've currently got is from catching Force Awakens in theaters so like it would be the perfect photo op
• pro pro: i've got a beard now whereas I did not before
• pro con: I can't replicate the photo exactly because 
1. I was sneaking popcorn from the bucket of my cousin who is on his mission currently so I can't do that, and
2. it was at the Fallon Theatre, which I can't match because they don't get first run Disney movies anymore-- which speAKING OF,
• Con: I don't want to give Disney any of my money at all
• con con: but they don't need it
• con con pro: The New Star Wars Movie, it's guaranteed profit for them anyway
• con con pro: and people more politically active than I am against this sort of thing are like whatever, let's go see a Disney movie
• con con: besides already saw Ford V Ferrari and Ad Astra, both Fox films which makes them Disney films, and also would totally have caught Jojo Rabbit, were it playing anywhere near?
• con con: what the hexk i guess i'll go see Frazen 2 now why not?
• con con pro: HACK YEAHS Frazen 2 instead of Satyr Warts
• Pro: still soliciting local business
• pro con: they don't need it with all the others coming in
• pro con con: but yeah they do

so umm

~~Christmas day sounds like a bombad time to catch a Star Wars movie...!~~

~~And also Cats like three more times...!~~

avoiding spoilers for five days, eh I can manage.

Fred

I realized once as a kid watching Mr Roger's Neighborhood that Mr Rogers was mortal and that one day there would be no "next time." (That's how he ended every episode, "see you next time.") And I was right. And I went to go see It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood today because I felt like I needed a good cry, but not even I suspected that I'd be bawling my eyes out before the opening logos had even finished. It was the music; that little glockenspiel or whatever, that really took me back, and, just, heck. Heck.

So yeah Andy Levy is a film twitter guy now.

So the decade is ending in... a month. That's something.

And it's like, WELL WHAT WERE THE BEST FILMS OF THE 2010S? And it's like, shoot just this year was a decade unto itself, and like, you expect me to be able to answer that? (I know I've said that about the year 2000 before, but I'm speaking relatively here and not literally. The year 2000 culturally took up a decade's worth of cultural capital; each year 2016ish to date has taken up a decade's worth of cultural adjustment.)

So anyway I'm not sure I have to compile a list of my own because someone with my apparent exact same taste has already done so; I've never felt so known. Alright that's not true, but... yep. (The most known I think I've ever felt was the Peirce Quincuncial projection analysis from this XKCD comic, speaking of xkcd.)

https://twitter.com/andylevy/status/1199494525292630018

And apparently that's... the same, Andy Levy? who was the ombudsman on Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld?, so long ago, back when Greg Gutfeld still hosted Red Eye, and also wasn't you-know-what? So uh yeah GONNA TAKE A HARD POLITICAL TURN NOW (I don't want to outright call Greg Gutfeld faschie just for being a host on Fox News, and I'd have to look into his current politics more (I remember catching the first episode of his solo show, where he made fun of Tr*mp a whole bunch, and that was the tea,) but, I've seen a clip from The Five where he says that Quid Pro Quo is, okay?? because that's kinda what 100% of human interaction is, is give-and-take??? and it was pretty contrarian and tongue-in-cheek which is on brand I guess but mostly it was like, oh Greg what happened to you. His Twitter is right there off of Levy's in the suggested similar people thing, but I can't bring myself to actually click there; Gutfeld meant so much to me as a teenager and I don't want to have to go through the pain of formalizing the knowledge that we've drifted so far apart politically.) 

Also S.E. Cupp is on Twitter and she appears to be, like, genuinely liberal now? Which is... I mean she was on Fox, she was one of those, fake-libbies, an atheist who argued that religion is necessary for morality somehow, as if that were an inherently self-coherent position at all, and... Seeing her argue actual leftist positions is, strange, to me, but there you go I guess.

So yeah Andy Levy is a film twitter guy now.

I wonder what's become of Bill Schultz....

A Few Articles from Around

• This combines a few of my favorite things in an interesting way. Like that whole Corrupted Blood thing on WoW, everything being virtual and thus being able to scrub back through the history of this and track developments as they cascade? https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/11/18/planet-zoo-is-temporarily-a-game-about-mass-producing-knackered-warthogs/ Wish they'd gone into more detail/that there were more journalism on the topic in the first place (it's the idea of the thing more than this specific article, though the article itself is fun and breezy for what it is,) but, heck, I also wish there were more journalism on that Black Cauldron-themed restaurant they had at Disneyland back in the early 90s, so, like... 
• speaking of... http://destdisney.blogspot.com/2009/10/gurgis-munchies-and-crunchies-1990.html It was called Gurgi's Munchies and Crunchies, and this blogpost is about the most comprehensive reportage of it as exists in the world, which is sad, because if there were this, like, Power Broker-length book on nothing but that restaurant I would still totally read that book because I love the idea of that resto so much.
• So this is happening, and it's concerning as someone who's a fan of movies, and of going to the movies, and who works at a movie theater that shows old movies sometimes, including yes Rocky Horror at least once a year. https://www.vulture.com/2019/10/disney-is-quietly-placing-classic-fox-movies-into-its-vault.html Louder for those in the back, I firmly believe that Disney ri'now have all too much power and someone needs to stay their sinful hand. But anyway.
• Alexander Pushkin was mixed race apparently? And is a black icon? And his grea'grea'grandaddy was a spy? And it's like, sheesh, right when you think somebody can't be any cooler, they totally can be. https://www.calvertjournal.com/features/show/5334/red-africa-gannibal-race-russia-pushkin The Calvert Journal is this journal of culture and photography focusing on the New East (Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia, Central Asia) and it's pretty fascinating because these geo issues aren't things you see in the West much but they're our cousins so it's like, hey wow. 
• Man there's still so much neat stuff in the world.
• MAN OH MAN.

Spooky Short Story 2019

The las man in the world sat alone in his room.

HE'S STANDING RIGHT BEHIND YOU RIGHT NOW.

I Dream of NBC

Good Place final season season premiere tonight at 9:00.  I caught it though we do not have TV, though I've dreamt of having satellite a couple of times the past week, specifically in regards to being able to catch The Good Place.

1. Grandpa J comes over to live with us for a week. For some reason. He brings his satellite TV subscription, which makes me happy because I can catch The Good Place on NBC, Thursday night at 9:00 8:00 central.
2. I explain the premise to Mom who sounds intrigued. We watch it and (someone else? and) I explain some exposition so she knows what's going on. Events occur in real life and not on TV, and have nothing to do with The Good Place. There's a treehouse, and an amnesiac cannibal woman who eats raw human livers but hallucinates they're something else.
3. Real life now. This evening. I head over to Grandpa P's, and we watch Thursday Night football, Green Bay Packers vs Philadelphia Eagles. It's on both FOX and the NFL channel. Packers are 3 and 0, Eagles are 1-2 I think. Packers get an early lead but it's pretty close throughout. At halftime J-Lo and Shakira talk about how they're going to be doing the Superbowl halftime show, which I'd already read about on Twitter, but I don't know for some reason I'm pretty excited for this. The game continues. There's some new rule that allows teams to dispute refs' calls which is pretty interesting. One minute left in the game, Packers are 7 points behind but can still tie it up and go into overtime- they had one minute right before halftime, and made a touchdown then field goal, putting them behind by only one point. The scrimmage line or whatever it's called, the snap point, is like right there in the end zone, so it's looking very possible that the Packers might pull this off. The Packer guy catches it and is stopped by an Eagle guy, and also a second Eagle guy who runs into the first Eagle guy, ramming into his own teammate's head at an angle that practically snaps said teammate's neck. I'm not sure if he's gonna be okay, but he survived long enough to be carried off the field on a gurney. When the game resumes for those last 50 seconds, the Eagles intercept the Packers' throw, taking control of the ball, and let the timer run out for the last 20 seconds. 
1. The Good Place was pretty rad. I get to explain to Grandpa the basics of what's going on, while managing to keep things as spoiler-free as possible. Not as tricky as it sounds.

hrrrgh + (+ meaning in a + way)

so furter corresponence with izzy reveals (??) that 500 words makes up about a full page, and writings are expected to run 1-2 pages. good news- writing doesn't have to be in-depth woo.

https://youtu.be/yKDvw53Y2w4
today i managed to do a vid AND not neglect my duolingo! stonks

Gravity Wells

There's a scene in Ad Astra where Brad Pitt's character is crying in zero-G, and it rolls down his cheek somehow, and I genuinely thought it was symbolic somehow (you can get away with loads of arthouse stuff in an astronaut movie and still be able to market it to mainstream audiences, and boy howdy does Ad Astra exploit that fact.) 

 But no it just turns out that they did realize the mistake but Brad Pitt's acting was so powerful in that scene they decided to use that take. Favoring emotion over continuity is just good editing.

pots!>pot?

I'd be writing a whole thing a day if it weren't for this job (or, well, maybe; subjunctives aren't my strong suit) and choosing the best, or getting better and making the best, like with that thing, total coincidence that my mom blogs about it last night because it's what I'd been thinking about. But now I'm tired good night

EDIT: gosh that was hard to read, looking back over it, so I think I'll translate now: the idea that it's better to make multiple pots, and learn from each one, rather than try to present a perfect pot. I'm trying to write something, but am now afraid I don't have the time to make one pot per day. That's what that all means.

So Much Eventfulness

I'm not going to blame it on luck; I'm going to blame it on how it pours when it rains and it never rains though it does pour. Because this is all truly, truly fortunate, but nothing happens in my life but when it does it all happens at once.

My first idea for scheduling yesterday's meetup I told you about was for today instead, but there was a doctor thing so yesterday worked better for him. Turns out it worked better for me too, because this morning apparently was time for getting a job, temporarily, until that other thing takes place and I go on location to work on set instead. Working at the barn, helping out with another big construction project. Well and good. Except...

Yesterday this other thing came in, contacted by old college friends of mine who want me to write a piece for the 'zine that they do. It's a great publication and a huge honor, but the deadline is the 30th, and until the news less than a day later, getting thrust into a work position, I'd been kind of going to focus on that primarily. Now it looks like I'm going to have to find time between that and the other thing. Wheee.

Exposition

I think about exposition and what constitutes it a lot. Exposition as opposed to narrative. 

I'm talking about this because something's been happening I haven't brought up, though it started Sunday and there was room for it in Sunday's post it wasn't a definitive thing, and it still isn't I guess but things are happening from there, a li'l li'l fruit is being borne. I'm more open to talking about possible dead ends in my journal Doc, but I haven't talked about it there either yet, though both my latest blog post here and entry there were on Sunday.

This exposition needs to take place in both places then; guess I can, copy/paste it from my blog to the other place when the time comes. 

Cramping up, super anxious. stupid bloodless laptop battery. Pants feel dirty. can't launder all pants at once because what would I wear?, also different colors and I like to wash those separately.

So on Sunday buncha people at church for Thomas's mission farewell and setting apart, and Dad talked to somebody or something, about man I don't know, so anyway in the car home he asked what he and Mom could do to support me in finding an occupation, and 

DRUGS. DRUGS. DRUGS WOULD BE HELPFUL. BEING ANXIOUS BLOWS CHUNKS.

I said man I've been saying I want to filmmake for like my whole life, what's that John guy who was at dinner that one time, could you get me in touch with him, and he said he could.

And he texted him, instead of giving me the contact and letting me navigate it myself????, and occasionally he was all, here you text him at this part, but Dad's phone is gross and I don't like touching it, like the grade of plastic is one of those that I hate touching and also I don't trust Dad to keep his phone sanitized, and also the parts of the text I was supposed to do I really don't see how I could have done a better job than what he was. So on Sunday there was some negotiation there, Dad selling me up, and on Wednesday I got set up to meet this morning.

And so that happened, and the filmmaker guy's project begins preproduction next week probably. I mean, it's already been in preproduction, but, for realsies this time, like, preproduction. Things are looking pretty good for me to get in floor level on that, just as a rando worker grunt, but, this is living the dream already.

There's Some Pasta-Based Pun I Can't Think of Right Now

Haven't posted in a week because computer profile reasons, getting logged out of my account and that's okay, but I'm always signed in on my laptop, but my laptop's got dook battery and needs to be plugged in at all times and I'm always so reluctant to use it because it'd be too easy to accidentally unplug. It's Good Actually to be slightly on edge, aware, so well whatever.

Played a game of Dead of Winter. Won it.

woo

Alex was Not the Traitor this time- there was no traitor! Ummm he was the traitor two times in a row when we played a week ago; won the second game but nobody won the first game, we just all died too darn fast.

woo

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.