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Mostly it's links.

Cranky Old Fart
#206

Nothing interesting to say today, sorry, so mostly it's links.

There are some lovely pictures, though, and I'm working on a bus ride story that rocked me when it happened.

Words are work, so give me a few more days.

When the M's were behind 8-1 in the fifth inning of yesterday's playoff game, I turned the radio off and walked into the kitchen to make a sandwich. Talked with my flatmate Robert for a few minutes, mostly about the game, and then I came back to my room and started watching a movie.

Half an hour later, Robert gently knocked on my door, because he knows I hate intrusions.

"Yeah?" I shouted.

"Uh, Doug, you might want to turn your radio on again."

I turned my radio on again, and heard the last few innings of a remarkable 10-9 comeback win by the Mariners.

Toast, man. I miss toast. The kitchen's smoke alarm goes off when wanna-be toast is barely tanned, and the ceiling is so high nothing can reach the alarm to shut it off. 

The alarm seems to be brand-sensitive, too. Expensive bread can be toasted to a rich brown without setting off the shrieks. Cheap bread, meaning the bread I buy, simply cannot be toasted without the alarm. And I don't even mind setting off the alarm during the day, annoying my three upstairs flatmates *and generating complaints from the four flatmates below. Ain't my fault iof the smoke alarm cries wolf. 

Thing is, toast is mostly my snack of choice when I wake up in the middle of the night, and as much as I enjoy having few friends, I am not setting off the alarm at 2AM to make enemies.

I'm thinking of buying a toaster for my room, just for insomniac snacking. There's no smoke alarm in my room, which is illegal, I think, but it would be quiet.

The early Captchas, where you had to type scrambled text, were bad enough, but I've especially hated the second generation Captchas, where you have to find the tractors, bicycles, bridges etc in a bunch of too small, too dark photos.

After finding thousands of tractors, bicycles, and bridges, though, the damnedest thing has happened.

I've started talking to myself while clicking the pictures, saying, "OK, there's a tractor, and there's a tractor, and… I think that might be the third tractor."

Sweet jeebers, I'm starting to enjoy the Captchas. It's like playing a game from Highlights magazine.

What this means, I don't know. Maybe the body snatchers got me. 

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Christian preacher: "If God tells you to kill someone, yes, you should." 

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Want to hire a January 6 rioter? Now there's a website for that. 

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Starbucks is using the police as strikebreakers 

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Microplastics found in human breast milk for the first time 

One-word newscast, because it's the same news every time...

Climate change isn't 'coming', it's underway. It'll kill billions, and we're not doing squat about it. • climateclimate 

All cops are bastards, or they know who the bastard cops are and do nothing about it, which is the same thing. • copscopscopscopscopscopscopscopscopscops 

Republicans are the enemy of common sense, common decency, simple truth, and democracy. • RepublicansRepublicansRepublicansRepublicansRepublicansRepublicansRepublicansRepublicansRepublicans 

Did JFK really eat the world's largest tamale? 

The Associated Press reported it weighed seventeen pounds.

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Here's kind of a cool site that I hope burns in hell.

"Given a text prompt, Imagen Video generates high definition videos using a base video generation model and a sequence of interleaved spatial and temporal video super-resolution models," or so they claim. There seems to be no way to access any of the videos, though, and the still images, while gorgeous, are small, and coded so as to be uncopyable except by screenshot.

Maybe I'll come back when they're willing to let people touch this technology.


How long has it been since the last apocalyptic volcanic eruption? 

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Mr Doodle doodled his entire house, documenting the madness in stop motion 

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I used to daydream about buying an island, and getting away from all the annoying people forever.

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A hot dog to go, please 

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Nitt Witt Ridge 

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Dollhouse graves 

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Magic roundabout 

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Man-lifting kites that were used for aerial reconnaissance, 1900-1920 

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♫♬  Mix tape of my mind  ♫

"Money Changes Everything," by The Brains
"In Heaven," by Peter Ivers 

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The End

Audrey Evans
Sam Webb 

10/8/2022     
 
Cranky Old Fart is annoyed and complains and very occasionally offers a kindness, along with anything off the internet that's made me smile or snarl. All opinions fresh from my ass. Top illustration by Jeff Meyer. Click any image to enlarge. Comments & conversations invited.
 
Tip 'o the hat to Linden Arden, ye olde AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, Captain Hampockets, CaptCreate's Log, John the Basket, LiarTownUSA, Meme City, National Zero, Ran Prieur, Voenix Rising, and anyone else whose work I've stolen without saying thanks.
 
Extra special thanks to Becky Jo, Name Withheld, Dave S, Wynn Bruce, and always Stephanie...

8 comments:

  1. I was wondering if you were following the Mariners in the playoffs. That must have been a hell of a game, as well as the Guardians winning the series 1-0 on 15 innings.

    I have officially decided to 100% stop following football as a sport. I have been a fan, from casual to avid, since college. Been a 49ers fan most of those years, and a Georgia Tech fan, since that was my school. For the last 10 years or so, I'd follow the standings, listen to highlights, monitor the college polls.

    About 5 years ago, Virginia, also a long-time casual fan, just kinda stopped with the NFL, because of their treatment of Colin Kaepernick, and the handling of CTE. I agree, but still paid a little attention.

    But I can't anymore. The most recent major injury, to Miami's Tua Tagovailoa, is just kinda the end. It's not the NFL, it's the game. The game is being played as intended, and this guy suffered an incredible concussion, might not play again, I think.

    Like, I can't support that. Injuries happen in Baseball and Basketball, but if played as intended, these games are relatively safe. Football is not.

    End rant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Valid grounds for walking away. It makes you, I think, the first and only man I've ever known who doesn't care about football.

      I hate everything about the game, dating back to high school, when very nearly *all* the school's assholes were on the team, every year. Football practice was the only time a geek could safely navigate the halls.

      Delete
    2. Doug, sounds like you care more about football than I do. I live 30 miles south of the Kingdome, or wherever the Seahawks play, and I can't name a single player. The coach's first name is Pete. Or Peet. I got off the bus when the players stopped selling appliances at Sears in the off-season. Yes, it was an old bus; what of it?

      John

      Delete
    3. >Valid grounds for walking away. It makes you, I think, the first and only man I've ever known who doesn't care about football.

      Surround yourself with more nerds. I know, nerds are still people, and they are best avoided. But, as you know, I do Renaissance Faire retail, and come in contact with many nutballs. I see lots of Ravens T-shirts, but also lots of people I talk to know literally nothing of the footballs.

      Delete
    4. Also, a thing I said somewhere, that got me a little shit - "I am not a fucking barbarian."

      Yeah, it's a little edgelord, superior sounding. But damn. I respect boxing a lot more. It's honest. You punch the other guy until he falls, if possible. Football couches its brutality in some war-metaphor ground acquisition baloney.

      Delete
    5. I mean, if I respect boxing, maybe I AM a barbarian...

      Delete
    6. John -- I don't know the current coach's name, but I remember a Seahawks coach long ago, maybe the first one, Jack Patera. He made his men more manly by running them through training drills (Eastern Washington, very hot summer days) with no water allowed, all day. It's amazing nobody dropped dead.

      A savage game, played by savages.

      Cap'n Ham -- You're a barbarian. I just figure, since only the very best players move up to the next level, even the NFL bench-riders were big stars at their high school and college, and it's a prejudice so scold me please, but that means everyone on any NFL roster is a certified asshole. And also, the game itself is boring.

      I missed my one chance to go to a big league ren faire cuz I was an idiot.

      Delete
  2. I'm aware of the site, but I've only rarely and accidentally read it. Arianna Huffington is a rotten human being.

    ReplyDelete

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