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Ah, Voyager - almost sounds like a touch of dementia - or maybe the edge of the solar system has a dark surprise it can't tell us about...

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In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.

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"On the Web, everyone is famous to 15 people." Appropriately enough, many people share authorship of that one.

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In that vein: the best command line games part i and part ii - kind of makes me sad how impressive yet utterly obscure these are. Like Dwarf Fortress is the only thing past Nethack that most nerds are going to have heard of. Bums me out that I'm sure to languish in obscurity - but I am famous to fifteen people online.

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People like to pretend Biden is bad at economy. This and some other charts here say otherwise:

★ ★ ★ ★	Found Toulouse	beautiful, soft, sweet.
	Sweet Dreams (feat. Holly Henry) Trinix	Cool cover of the old classic, who am I to disagree?
	Do Whatcha Wanna Rebirth Brass Band	One of Two versions of this songs I grabbed this month as we played it for New Orleans
★ ★ ★ ★	Seven Nation Army Fercho Triyei	I just collect these covers! This is like the second most abrasive.
	This Beat Is Military K-9 Posse	Charlie Murphy's rap group. Kind of like a cheesy attempt to make Public Enemy more commercial.
	Lean on Me Club Nouveau	Was thinking this would be a good song for my band to play, but maybe a version that's less "We Be Jammin'" as this one.
★ ★ ★ ★	With Arms Outstretched Rilo Kiley	Very sweet early 2000s chick singer vibe.
	See Me King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard	My friend Duane noticed it uses some odd tuning and half-step kind of stuff. I keep seeing this on a very odd "Come And See Him" tumblr video.
	Bangers & Mash Theme Song Chas & Dave	Intro theme to a UK cartoon, fun "rockey" ("pub singalong, music-hall humour, boogie-woogie piano and pre-Beatles rock 'n' roll") goof.
★ ★ ★ ★	I Wanna Know Becca Hannah	Becca played this song to open a comedy show Melissa and I went to... I like her acoustic version much more than her studio version.
★ ★ ★ ★	Praise You (From the Series "Derry Girls") Jordyn Shellhart	Always such a sucker for "cover of a pop song but slow and female vocal'd"
★ ★ ★ ★	Dreams The Cranberries	Another from "Derry Girls" -- the Cranberries had such a distinctive beautiful sound.
★ ★ ★ ★	Good Rockin' Daddy Etta James	Sexy r+b rocker of a song.
★ ★ ★ ★	Do Whatcha Wanna, Pt. 2 Rebirth Brass Band	Grabbed this version because I think it's closest to what my band is trying to learn..

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via tumblr, conceptually I love this:

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So my friend Dylan is probably better at Wordle than I am. And he likes to pick a different word to start with each day, so that maybe someday he's able to "Get It In One"
But his strategy reminded me of an old bit of math weirdness that made me thinking he making a mistake... if you're playing some kind of small, repeated lottery (which trying to guess Wordle on the first try basically is) than the best strategy is to pick the same value and let the win come to you, so to speak, rather than trying to "chase the win" by guessing a new value each day. This is especially true in Wordle, where the game is slowly working its way through an ordered list and will eventually hit everything in that list (not counting the words it has already played)
Without actually looking at the Wordle lists, I made up a computer simulation (Dylan may be better at Wordle but I'm better at computer geek stuff.) - https://toys.alienbill.com/gii1/ - Starting on day 250, "Steady Eddie" picked a word and starts with it every day. "Hopeful Henry" picks a random word to start with each day.
When you run this simulation a lot, Eddie beats Henry over 2:1, in terms of Eddie gets it in one earlier. In fact, Henry NEVER gets it in one about 40% of the time. (Eddie fails to get it in one about 10% of the time, reflecting how we're starting on day 250 of 2300)
So, I dunno. I like to always start with ADIEU, and then follow up with a word with lots of Rs and Ss based on what the vowels are looking like. And I'd be willing to bet $20 that I get it in one earlier than Dylan (assuming no one cheats 😃 ) -- on the other hand, on the day ADIEU is first, I will have my joy in getting 1/6 diminished with all my fellow ADIEU-ers sharing the glory, while if/when Dylan gets it, it's much more likely to be a unique accomplishment that day, so maybe his strategy is better after all! There's a Better Way to Parent: Less Yelling, Less Praise Really interesting piece- objectively speaking, the current American always-praising, rebuild all family life around a kids PoV is rather unusual.

Trying to think if there's a lesson for my interactions with my super niece - it feels like the secret is to make kids reliable judges of their own actions and accomplishments- not dependent so much on others praise and feedback. but on the other hand, not completely disregarding the idea that community standards exist. And that other people WILL judge them, and those judgements may affect their circumstance.

(and glad to hear the term "alloparenting", the other people around who do parent like tasks and so play that kind of role for a kid.)

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Admittedly, it's a declutter fail (in terms of giving me hope to cling on to hardware for some future project) but I am rather impressed that I my circa-1992 Yamaha PSR-300 computer can go through MIDI-to-USB to USB-to-USB-C into my Mac and Garage Band handles everything without a blink. Googol:1 Gear Ratio, made by putting 100 10:1 gears in series. You could set the slow end in concrete, it just doesn't matter - or put in terms of energy not time, it would take more energy than the entire known universe has.

This reminds me of making homeopathic stuff, where you dilute 1:10 until only delusions remain.

Speaking of "a billion seconds", I have to make a better UI for timetoy.net ... you can figure out when you're a billion seconds old. But the UI for that is a little wonky, and the "date math" part is even tougher.

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Scientists were close to a coronavirus vaccine years ago. Then the money dried up.. Coronavirus represents a huge failure of both public health and private investment. Serious question: which one is more likely to be able to do the right thing? Unclear threats over the horizon are tough to generate either sustained public interest in or private capital for such uncertain payout.

Random other thought: while "Coronavirus" is too generic to be a good name, at least we're not naming it something stupid and racist like "Placename Flu"

(UPDATE: on FB Chris H reminds me "COVID-19" is getting some traction in terms of a name.)

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Y'all shame 'Vanilla' sex all the time on here but it's amazing when both people enjoy it. It's not my fault you gotta have your leg in a bear trap and get punched in the face to cum. Relax.

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via I'm sometimes alarmed at my lack of recognition of bodily cause and effect. Sure, little in life is a variable-controlled scientific experiment, and often the feedback loops are long enough that seeing the cause and effect is tough -between "eating a lot" and "showing weight gain", for example - or even better, "exercising" and "seeing positive results". (Of course, the "panting and wheezing" feedback loop is much more immediate.)

Years ago, for example, I was surprised to realize that I got significantly better at a head-to-head block video game (Tetris Attack, I think, at my Aunt's) when the massage chair I was in finished its round of lumbar region magic. I'm sort of in denial about being at the mercy of the physical world I think - it's as if I think sheer willpower, or its lack, fully determines my skill in that kind of game, and in a bunch of other aspects of life. (Does my back ache? Should I maybe skip playing tuba for a bit? Nah, just muscle through! That's the Kirk-y way. My own discomfort can ONLY be considered if it outweighs a greater, possibly group, benefit to be had.)

[CW ahead:farts]

Anyway, the most recent example of the scales dropped from my eyes: perhaps the vast quantities of diet soda I enjoy on the regular is causing the gassiness that has been adding such comic delight to the soundscape at home for me and Melissa. (Luckily carbonation is relatively innocuous, so the smellscape is...well, not as bad as you might fear, at least.) So I'll be trying to cut back in general, stick with water and iced coffee and iced tea.

You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger and more wholesome and good for life in the future than some good memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home. People talk to you a great deal about your education, but some good, sacred memory, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education. If a man carries many such memories with him into life, he is safe to the end of his days, and if one has only one good memory left in one's heart, even that may sometime be the means of saving us.

Vonnegut paraphrases this as "one sacred memory from childhood is perhaps the best education". New diet mandate, posted her for accountability reasons... "CAW-1". 1 meal a day (usually the catered lunch my job tends to bring in), Coffee, Apples, Water. (And Gum. But "CAWG" looks a little weird.)

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Mardi Gras celebration the other week by School of Honk - "We Got That Fire!"

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SNAKISMS - lil' playable philosophical jokes, fun to explore til you get the idea. I get about a year of use out of custom "Mighty Wallets" by Dinomighty - the material holds up, but the design gets too worn away. So, time for a new wallet, based on two Alien Bill works I commissioned from James Harvey over the years...

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blender of love TIL spelling "socks" letter by letter sounds like spanish for it is what it is. (eso si que es). Almost. Never let facts get in the way of a good bilingual pun.

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http://www.vulture.com/2015/02/best-of-haruki-murakami-advice-column.html -- heh.

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Top Five Crimes Based on How Awesome Their Name Sounds Alone

1. Pyramid Schemes
2. Joyriding
3. Public mischief
4. Hooliganism
5. Criminal vampirism

...is that last one a thing? Awesome Pulp Scifi Movie Poster Remakes:

I hate hipsters. Their smug faces, vegan diet, tiny feet, and woodchip bedding. Oh wait. Hamsters. I meant I hate hamsters.

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You're never completely finished with laundry until you're naked.

--via 4GIFS.com

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@LOLGOP Adultery is a sin to Catholic church. So when employers can fire men for it we'll see how fast GOP feels about religious freedom.

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More relevant, if less funny, than "Mitt Romney or Mr. Burns?" it's "Ayatollah or Santorum?" Can you tell who said what? All 3 movies in like 2 1/2 minutes! Impressive!

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Hush little baby, dont say a word
Papa's gonna buy you a jubjub bird
& if that jubjub's claws dont catch
Papa's gonna buy you a bandersnatch

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So, energon is Transformer currency, AND blood, AND food, and also their souls? I dunno man, I can't see that ending well.

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I was enjoying Ether Mermen's "Blow Gabriel Blow" a bit more before it sunk in that it's all that crazy "bring on the apocalypse!" type stuff.

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9-11 never forget
4:20 time to smoke
11:11 make a wish
7:11 make a slurpee The other day I was wondering around and found a used book store in the basement of the Old South Meeting House.... I picked up a book, "The Ape in Me" by Cornelia Otis Skinner. She's a bit like Thurber and Dorothy Parker with a touch of Erma Bombeck, writing here in the late 50s. Anyway, in the entire book, a single passage was outline in pencil (with "hell") double outlined:

It's usually into the outer hallway where, after bustling into wraps and coats, they come to a dead halt. And there they linger because they all at once recall an anecdote they've forgotten to tell you, or they feel obliged to repeat some of the ones they've already told you, and there you stand on one foot, then the other, trying to make polite response and hoping that the wan leer on your face is concealing the ardent wish in your hear that they'd get the hell on out.

I just like the rage and frustration expressed in choosing that particular passage...


...also I was a little surprised at the amount of breastage on the cover.

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The Alice in Wonderland in IMAX 3D.... not too bad but I found the bandersnatch to be insufficiently frumious.

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How low could cellphone rates be if we all got phones online and didn't have mobile stores like Starbuckses? Seriously what justifies 'em?
--According to the BoingBoing comments the video recreation and the audio aren't as well synched as they should be, with stuff clipped from the original transcript, which might explain why the ATC doesn't seem to "get" the Hudson aspect.

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http://slate.com/id/2212953/ - the Watchmen by Woody Allen, Tarantino, Sofia Coppola, etc...

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http://slate.com/id/2208971/ - a large week long series on why we haven't yet had a repeat of 9/11 finally wraps up.

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In the mid-90s "-by-net" was an online indicator. (I did vote-by-net.com) Then it was e-this and i-that. And -ster. And "flickr"-like names were a sign of Web 2.0. What else? So the other night I got accused of being incredibly self-absorbed.

(The irony of taking the time to write up a big blog entry on protesting being called self-absorbed is not lost on me.)

This isn't the first time I've been accused of this. And it is a vexing accusation! To some extent it's of course true, but... I mean, are there really people out there so selfless as to put themselves way behind their interest in everyone else? That seems unlikely. Is the implication, then, that I lack the ability to be appropriately concerned for and interested in other people? That seems an unfair accusation! Or deficient in interest about things in general, I dunno, politics, pop culture, science, etc? That seems blatantly untrue. And despite all this, I'm willing to accept that there's a problem here.

So what is it? Previously I've heard it put that I have trouble talking without sentences that begin with "I" or "Me". I would say that to whatever extent the I/Me thing is valid, this aspect is going to be exaggerated by my rhetorical caution; I hardly ever assert something to be objectively true, I tend to couch things with things like "I think" or "It seems to me that". But that's probably beside the point, the issue is: I talk about myself a lot. (Like, that's what brought this up last night: it was a discussion where I tangented to mentioning playing tuba in church during a poignant pause (actually in response to an observation that something went over "like a fart in church" in a serious conversation. I was trying to be funny, but admittedly it was a story about me.) )

So yeah I talk about myself! I have stories to tell. But I want to hear every one else's stories too! In my interpersonal relationships I tend to have three goals:
A. I want to tell you my stories
B. I want to hear your stories.
C. I want to experience things with you that we can tell stories about.

To me this is a central part of the human condition.

Richard Feynman said that he didn't mind dying so much because "...When you get as old as I am, you start to realize that you've told most of the good stuff you know to other people anyway." Story- and Anecdote-related interaction is a side effect of my "Interestingness-as-Moral-Good" escape from the existential "why bother" hell I might other wise be in. You want to see cool stuff, and then through the power of communication, you can hear about other cool stuff you haven't seen, and return the favor.

But still -- some people, including people I care about, and whose opinions I care about -- see this as a problem. Even to the point of suggesting therapy! Which, as a way of fixing a problem of being self-absorbed, reminds me a bit of California fire fighters setting fires to try to preempt a larger firestorm, but I guess that's why you shell out the big bucks to be able to do in that magic 50-minute span.

As far as I can tell, this isn't a universally recognized problem; I believe that I have an OK relationship with others of my friends, possibly story tellers themselves, they seem to cope with how much I talk about myself and in turn believe in my legitimate interest in them. So is the issue in recognizing people who don't share this brand of mutual extroversion? And how then should I act? Try to tone down the quantity of anecdotes? Be more proactive in expressing my interest in what's going on with them? Just shut up for a change?

Would therapy be able to answer this question? Or is this just the symptom anyway, and therapy should somehow break me free of an underlying condition of needing attention the way fish need water?

I do value candid feedback on this, especially from people who know me in real life. (That I think is one of my positive character traits: I freely admit my flaws even as I consider triaging them into things I like the way they are, things I can change, and things that I don't like but know are here to stay.)

Sometimes I feel I haven't been sleeping well. But I have no idea why... my favorite theory is that I'm not making the room dark enough, but that's a guess based on an experience in a very dark room in Portugal... but thinking back, I might have been jet-lagged and/or keeping weird hours anyway.

Some folks think the trick is to sleep au naturel but I don't think that's the secret.

Of course, a dozen different mattress companies will tell me... it's the mattress. But the thing is, I have no idea what kind of mattress I like, firm, soft, whatever... I just don't know. I go to Jordan's with their stupid "sleep technicians", they ask me questions for preferences I don't know how to form. And then you lie there, fully clothed, maybe even shoes-on, and you're supposed to be able to figure it out? Forget it.

What this country needs, then, is a special mattress hotel. With a full range of mattresses... hard, soft, the ones with the air, the ones with the sleep number, "dux" bed, posturepedic, all that stuff. To try overnight. Even to make love on! (It's not like it would be the first hotel people did that in, but I guess a mattress hotel might want to not emphasize that aspect.)

I'd rent a week's worth of rooms in a hotel like that, just so I could know.

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Funny of the Moment

Teacher: When you grow up you can be anything you want!
Second grader: I can be an elephant?!

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Milestone of the Moment
Happy 50 Years of Independence Ghana! Sounds like you still have a lot of infrastructure challenges and the like, but keeping your act together in that kind of region is an accomplishment!

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Poster of the Moment

--"Ain't It the Truth?"...from BrokenTV, via boingboing

Today's title was the subject of an email my friend Kyle sent me... he says his email provider has a faeture where with one click they can insert a random (and generally non-sequitorish) bit of text as the subject. I like that one.

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Science Politics of the Moment

"Situation science is about respecting both sides of an argument, not just the one supported by the facts! That's why I always teach the controversy! Like the Evolution Controversy, or the Global Warming Controversy... not to mention the Tobacco Controversy, the Mercury Controversy, the Pesticides Controversy, the Coal Slurry Controversy, the Dioxin Controversy, the Everglades Controversy and the Acid Rain Controversy...."

Heh. Look at what I titled that, for all you geeks out there, would you say strikeout is the new "^H^H^H^H^H"? (For non-geeks: the latter is a geekish way of pretending to take something back when writing online text, sometimes a poorly configured computer terminal would put in ^H characters when you went to erase something, so you could generate humor by writing the word you really meant, then a series of ^H's, then writing the polite word or euphemism directly after.)

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Personal Issue of the Moment
Lately I've been trying to think more deeply about what "food issues" I have, and my relationship to eating in general. I know I'm not usually an "emotional eater", in terms of using food to help with stress or bad feelings. And I don't have a particularly big appetite.

I think, ultimately, I find food to be a terrible distraction.

It's sort of like Snoopy and his "I could have sworn I heard a chocolate chip cookie calling me..." line, except it applies to most foods. Having ready to eat food around is dangerous for me, because I'll start thinking about what it tastes like, and often won't stop intermintently thinking about until the food is gone, one way or the other.

Possibly for similar reasons, I don't leave much food behind on my plate. And I do tend to eat quickly, sometimes embarrassingly so, because while I enjoy tasty food a great deal, I kind of want to get it over and done with and move on to the rest of life.

I enjoy good food but in a kind of shallow of way, and so value something that's convenient over food that might ultimately be better but takes more work. (Because, despite its distracting qualities, in my Interesting=Good worldview, I don't find food all that interesting, and will therefore try to adjust my life to spend less time, energy, money, and attention on it.)

The silver lining about this, diet-wise, is that I don't mind eating relatively dull diet-y stuff, as long as there aren't many tastier alternatives readily at hand. Also, sometimes I can get myself to be content with just a nibble of something. But other than that, it's kind of a challenge to deal with.

Let me know what you think, if you ever find yourself thinking in similar ways... it took a lot of introspection for me to codify it to this extent, but I'm happy to finally be able to put it into words.

--This Panel made me laugh off and on for like half an hour last night...from Superman Origin Comics (via Bill the Splut) I think I'm going to enjoy going through the JayPinkerton.com backog.

Link of the Moment
Boingboing linked to this pretty amazing photoblog about a woman motorcycling through the deadzones of Chernobyl. I guess if you stick to the road itself the radiation isn't so bad at this point? Something like that. (And when you're a hardcore motorcycle enthusiast, the chance for wide open roads without meeting any other vehicle outweighs the risk...I mean if you're that into motorcycles, you're probably not that risk-adverse to begin with. To put it charitably.) Still, some very haunting photos. People also recommend the book Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl by Robert Polidori.

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80s Culture of the Moment
Bill the Splut pointed out X-Entertainment's Tribute to Shitty He-Man Coloring Books. Laugh out loud in a few places. X-Entertainment is pretty good, kind of like a poor man's Seanbaby, except before he sold out to write lame stuff for EGM and stopped updating his site. Poem of the Moment

When we meet it's hot and steamy
Afterward I'm tired and dreamy
Bathing in your gaze, moonstruck
How I love you, rubber duck.

I love the curveball sensuality of this, I submitted it to the loveblender.

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Preview of the Moment
Slate.com has decent speculation about the tactics of the likely Iraq war. (Though I'm curious to see what we know about Iraq's preperations.)

You know, at this point I think I'd almost miss Slate more than Salon if either have to go away. Except I don't have good alternate sources for some of the comics I get in Salon.

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Flash of the Moment
Dang, where was this Cool Beating Heart on Valentine's Day?

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Advice of the Moment
Got a lot of papers in your cubicle at work? Hardly ever use 'em? Lay 'em all flat in a drawer! I need an archived piece of paper at work maybe twice a year...I'll never recoup the time it takes to sort through all that crap and get rid of the real junk, so into the filing cabinet drawer they go. Flash of the Moment
Mo's mom sent her this card. Weirdly charming in a dorky way, and I like the music. A testement of hope in these troubled times.

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News of the Moment
Slashdot had this piece on a new crowd control system that makes an area extremely slippery...a "mobility denial system", but mostly I'm tickled by its nickname "banana peel in a can". Quote of the Moment

I am a d____d ODD animal

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Inappropriate AOL-IM Chat of the Moment
(On the San Diego School Shooting)
kirk: Oh, I was just going to say, so I'm watching the breaking coverage on CNN, and you know, I'm feeling pretty bad for them, it's a hell of a thing to go through, but damn it, I'm in a protoblizzard and these jerkies are in shortsleeves
brooke: lucky little traumatized shits

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History of the Moment
While stairmastering I was watching "Wartime Deceptions" on the History Channel. Kind of neat stuff, but I was struck at how blatantly pro-American it was. Good cover of Operation Bodyguard (misleading the Nazis about where D-day was going to happen), and plenty about faking amphibious landings to fool Saddam during Desert Storm, but nothing about how he's run circles around us, or how Milosovich and friends totally fooled us with some really basic tricks-- we bombed a hell of a lot of fake tanks.