Now I just feel old. Really old.

Who is trusting the google bot that recommended glue on a pizza with their cooking instructions?

Waiting on Hail Mary, the movie. Great book.

I intend to drag the family to the movie theatre.

ETA: try Ted Lasso. It’s feel good, funny, and lightly mocks standard form plotting engrained in those of us who have consumed TV to any degree. It’s smart too.

I too am old. I loved YouTube for the lack of prescribed format until it became prescribed format by becoming enslaved to and hopelessly manipulated by an algorithm.

The random free form was lovely and enjoyable. Was.

There was one point in which I stumbled into “beige” culture, then found myself watching a vid, long form, of a millennial discussing decor. Not my thing. I’m there for comedy, instruction, and journalistic documentary forms. Watching millennial man discuss decor, the psychosocial of it hit me. Here’s this personable fellow talking right to me (the camera) about nonsensical daily crap, on a subject you might engage in a work breakroom. Living space decor is pretty light fare.

For people who are fairly devoid of random, natural socialization that is not stressful for them, of course this is popular. It conveys a false sense of human interaction and agreement. Dopamine hit success without talking to anyone real.

Explains reaction vid popularity, for sure. I find them to be the most obnoxious waste of time, worse than ads, but they are popular. And probably for the lack of socialization and need for that type of dopamine hit reason.

If you have people, and get genuine reaction in regular conversation, why would you want this?

The scifi television renaissance was fantastic, while it lasted. Says the Star Wars generation genx media consumer.

Things like McNally, fast/fancy/clean woodworking snippets, and cat vids are great short form, in moderation, sure. But short form domination feels like the room time of the main character on the second episode of Black Mirror, “Fifteen Million Merits”.

It did get better for a while, but now it is worse.

The problem with short form, which is quite evident to those of us who grew up with regular form TV back in the day, is short form format mimics a TV advertisement of yore, most of the time (exceptions exist, we’re talking middle of the bell curve numbers here). The type of music played is exactly that bad as well.

As such, shorts usually hit the brain like an advertisement under the guise of not being one.

I’d be curious to know if shorts consumers are more likely to consume ads, now that they’ve been thoroughly trained to consume advertisement format vids/music.

Dungeons & Dragons.

6mm aren’t necessarily 6mm on Amazon. And when they do fit, they’re not ideal. Typically a hazard for snapping off the rod at the base, so it’s used like a key instead of a perma knob. Presently have another one, but it is 7mm.

I think I’m going to mill one out of wood, drill a hole, place tape across part of that hole, and use resin to make the flat half. Which is ridiculous and tiresome.

Something I’ve personally noticed as someone who will perform a light disassemble before tossing an “broken” item.

The plug in oil heaters that look like radiators. Efficient, low cost. 3 now, total. The knob spins and I can no longer turn it on. Unplug. Unscrew. And a broken Dshaft knob falls out. They don’t make it obvious and easy to get to these knobs, you have to remove the large side panel without bothering the wires to get to a small panel to unscrew to get to the knobs. Then you have to find or make a Dshaft knob to fit, which isn’t easy.

I agree with legalizing assisted suicide for terminally ill humans. As such, if the pets quality of life at the end of life declines that much, then yes. Sometimes the treatments make things worse.

For example, on the human side, people may not want to spend most of their last days in hospitals hearing machines beep and sleeping in an uncomfortable hospital bed. They want to go home, be comfortable, and die not in pain. Fair. In states where it’s legal, that sometimes means taking prescribed euthanasia on their terms, rather than letting the cancer do it. Sometimes it means just having the option close by as a reassurance while letting the cancer take them, but I digress.

How much do our pets like the vet? Staying overnight? Considering that at the end, alongside pain, is something we have to weigh in these decisions. Unfortunately, unlike humans, our pets can’t make that decision for themselves. You’ll have to decide for them. When is enough enough? What’s the balance between their pain and your want to have them with you? None of us can tell you that answer.

The only real advice I can give you is to listen to them, really listen to them, and don’t allow your personal pain drown out their voice. Humans or animals.

2-3 star reviews. This will help color in which 1 star reviews to believe.

Sadly, the 5 star review is the most questionable.

Aside about Amazon. What didn’t work. I do woodworking so I wear a respirator. 3M, dual cartridge. I found a carton of 30 pairs of P100 for $85 on Amazon. It was through the 3M store on Amazon. Legit, right? The filters that came appeared legit, and nowhere near expiration. The issue is, they sent a box of 6 pairs not a carton of 30 pairs. Customer service fixed it, or so they said. Again, my carton of 30 pairs was a single box of 6 pairs (5 to a carton, probably). Amazon did issue a refund but would not order a replacement. I couldn’t order a replacement, I didn’t trust it.

So, I went to 3M. There is no way to contact their customer service unless you’re a large contractor or seller. 3M store? I guess it’s just a pretty frame on Amazon. The 3M site itself links back to Amazon and 2 others for purchase. The two others: one has no availability and the other wants $100+ for that box of 6 pairs of P100 filters.

This isn’t uncommon. You try to buy direct, and may end up on Amazon anyway.

I never did get my carton of 30 pairs of P100 filters.

You’re British.

Costco isn’t great. Sure, there’s those chickens, flannel, and socks, but most of the rest is no longer cheaper than anywhere else.

We just break down whole fryers, make bone broth with everything that isn’t the meat, freeze it.

This is how the English language works.

Poor people can’t afford canned soup, not since covid. Campbells was was 2/$1, $.79 at most. Now it’s $2. Progresso was 3/$5, maybe $1.50 per. Now it’s $2.79 each.

Crockpot or instapot and a freezer is the way, now.

Booking.com seems great until something goes wrong. Then, there’s no remediation.

Show up and discover a dirty, roach motel homeless flophouse instead of a vacation rental. The pictures are of the hotel but from a different time.

Good odds you won’t be able to get a refund.

Booking.com customer services words: We just talked to the owner, and they say it’s not like that, denied.

Send pictures. “Your picture…”. You mean pictures, plural? “No, there’s only one picture.” Try again. “Ok, I have multiple pictures.” And? “I don’t see the problem.” Mold isn’t a problem? “The owner says there’s no mold.” And the picture? “The owner says there’s no mold.”

Booking.com is awful.

I’m old, I know about magazines. I was curious about Gen Z. LPs shot up in price and scarcity due to younger generations so why not this. They even display LPs like visual art.

Politics is definitely a piece of it. Social media has placed it in front of everything. And now, given the amount of threat and violence in it, people do two things.

In most real conversations people dance around speaking about anything political, lest they reveal themselves. And they’re wholly unwilling to move forward with this other person socially until they know their politics. As such, nothing happens.

I’m fascinated. GenZ is into old school magazines? On paper?

I’m not going to say to go build something. The last 10 years has made anything hobby related incredibly expensive. Fabric. Wood. Paint. Even garden supply. They’ve priced out most people.

Day hiking though, that can be free or cheap. Hearing and smelling are underrated. Get away from the music reminiscent of old school TV commercial advertising that has infused most of social media and YouTube. Smell trees. I’m not saying lean in like it’s a flower. If you day hike, you will notice the nice smells. ASMR sounds are, I think, based on nice sounds you hear while walking: dirt and pine needles under your shoes, leaves rustling in the breeze, etc.

And it’s free. Like a library card. So go take advantage.