A Lazy Sunday afternoon

 Sometimes a man just wants to sit around the house and paint zombies.

 

Band Names

 Everybody has a list of favorite potential band names.  Just in case, ya know, someday, they start a band.

 Here's mine: 

 

The Former Kings of Gondor

Lighting Strikes the Dingo

Hot Wind from the South 

Pickin' Goobers 

Bailey Brothers Building and Loan

Slap-chop the Nazgul 

Fancy Rats 

Origin of Limes 

That Awful Burning Smell

Hot Slaw

Acid Reflux

The Machines Tell Elegant Lies

Aunt Bessie's Oldsmobile 

Wednesday's Chalupa

Kids and their deep learning A.I.s

Half rotted bone fetish

Solid Milk

Memories of Pie

Renegade Strawberries

Humanoid Life Signs

Yesterday's Coffee

Gravity Shift

There is little more disorienting than discovering that long held beliefs aren't true. 

 To Whit: The Banana Fish, a toy our various cats have enjoyed for years, to me always seemed to have brown ears, and a fin on its tummy. My daughter recently pointed out that the "ears" are actually front fins, and the other is a "dorsal" fin running down its back. I've had the banana fish upside down all this time. 

How about this: Boromir and Faramir in The Lord of the Rings movies? The actors are not actually brothers. <sad trombone>

I've always heard I was supposed to "brush and floss" my teeth, but it turns out you're supposed to floss before you brush, so the fluoride can get between your teeth better. "Floss and Brush" people.  

Recently, I driving down the highway with my wife one night when she starts singing the opening lines of Hotel California, "On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair". I join in and all is golden until we get to "What a nice surprise, When you're out of ice". Nope, it's "Bring your alibis". I'm a bigger Eagles fan than she is, and I've been botching their most iconic songs for half a century.

 It gets worse. I'm the parrot headyist parrot head in Margaritaville, but I always thought a cheeseburger "with mustard be nice", but Jimmy actually said one "with meunster'd be nice". 

That one almost broke me. 

My life is a lie.

Garbage Day

Tomorrow is Garbage Day.  That's the day when everyone puts their garbage can by the street and the Garbage Man visits every house in his big truck, bringing garbage to all the good boys and girls.

Time Travel

In a half hour, I'll be a year older.

 

Think about that.

 

 

What is it about Nostalgia?

 

Lately I've been drawn to things from my youth.  Board games I didn't have, couldn't afford, or didn't know about. Old Science Fiction, music, movies I've seen a bunch of times, though this last one isn't a recent development by any means.

Is it just that enough time has passed that they're no longer stale; familiar - but newish?

I'm playing Starweb, a Play By Mail (PBM) game that's been around since the mid 1970s.  I remember seeing ads for it over the years, but didn't have the money (maybe $2.00 per turn) and later the time (one turn every two weeks) to play.  I bought a book on the history of PBM recently (nostalgia again) and saw that Starweb was still being offered, so I signed up.  It's been a blast so far to play a slow paced game with time for diplomacy, even with the modern concession of email instead of the USPS.  I've so far resisted the urge to write a program to track the game for me.  I'm totally old school, using a hand drawn map and highlighters to track the worlds of the Starweb as I explore them.  Not even a spreadsheet.

Maybe it's dopamine fatigue. Maybe its just carving out something that's more or less unique in my sphere of association, but I'm thinking there's more to it.  What I think really appeals is the sense of possibility that came with things that were then new and not completely understood.  Now it seems as if we can see the limits of what was once wondrous, or at least we think we can project them.  Now we see the algorithms twisting around to increasingly extract more attention and money while returning as little as possible.  And they keep finding ways to lower the floor.  Before I get sidetracked any further, I'll just refer you to "Enshittification" by Cory Doctorow.

Not that I miss being young. I didn't know squat, thought I did, and missed what I now see as some opportunities.  Of course, some of those opportunities could have had consequences I'm glad to have avoided, but that's gotta be true for most everyone.  If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't change much. Except I wouldn't take everything so freaking seriously.  And I'd work on my empathy.  And keep my mouth shut some of the time.

Now, TV has definitely gotten better.  Firefly, Sherlock, Star Trek Strange New Worlds, all head and shoulders above anything from before 2000.  Movies on the whole are better, but my classics (The Godfather, Singing in the Rain, The Blues Brothers) are classics for a reason.

Perhaps I'm just disillusioned and returning to the things that shaped me.  Maybe I'm just seeing the old with new eyes.  Sixty year old Tom can cringe at the original Star Trek, but I so miss the way it felt to watch it as a kid.  When Star Wars came out, it was just a movie.  Not a franchise, not a lifestyle, and you didn't have to pick a side.  

Maybe things are too connected for me now, and some things are better enjoyed in isolation, rather than seeing social and political implications in *everything*.  Maybe young and ignorant is the way to be.  

I'm halfway there. 

Kittens!

The Management Deems the Blog is Trending Towards Negativity

 

Here are the new kittens, Jake and Elwood.  Elwood is the stripey one and he recognizes no boundaries. Jake is gray with very faint stripes and is pretty chill.  

Sep 19, 2025

July 11, 2025

 

 

Kittens make everything better. Now I've restored balance to the force.  Whatever that means.

Treading Water

 If I could just be young for a few days I could catch up on all this crap I've been treading water in the last few months.  Cut the head off the hydra and it grows two more.  

 Has anyone else noticed how cranky this incarnation of the blog has become.  I blame the world around me.  It's certainly not my fault.