“art should not be political”

I’m pleased to hear extraterrestrial aliens have come to visit, because surely this is not a human being who has lived even one day of the human experience. Too bad the alien is cool with genocide.

I go through phases of collecting/trialing hobbies as a hobby. I develop a list of things I’m interested in, what about them is drawing my interest, how much it would cost to jump into entry-level projects, and a target I want to hit to understand if it’s a hobby I want to keep one not. Also how I’ll learn.

So for me that looks something like:

1. leatherworking, I really want a customized notebook holder that fits exactly what I’m looking for. That’s $20 in basic tools, $50 in leather including enough for simpler projects as I develop skills. Target is to try something simple, like a baggage tag or simple bifold wallet to see if I like it before spending more time and money on it. Plenty of YouTube videos available, local Tandy store has classes, my sister also knows the basics.

2. digitizing the parents’ photo negatives. I want a brain dead project to do while watching movies during cold winter evenings when I’m not going outside. Cost is negligible, I have the stuff I need. Time needed to develop a good workflow and file naming and tagging system. Maybe some YouTube videos if needed, brother is a photographer and willing to consult on workflow. Longer term: buy external hard drives and gift to siblings or talk to brother about his Immich server. Branch off into new project to self-host Immich myself?

I have six more items on the “do I want to turn these into hobbies” list. It’s a hobby in itself to learn about and plan potential hobbies.

My initial thought too. Good. At least until they catch on and make some excuse for needing “teens” IDs too.

Anecdotally, I have a sizeable group of colleagues who cruise together. They’re old Gen Z thru to young Gen X. Some are partnered up, some bring partners from outside work. They call them “family trips”. Lots of queer couples, but not all. The queer inclusivity seems like a big element drawing then in.

I am baffled by it. I get how awesome it is to build a chosen family, but not why they’d find their people and then decide a cruise is where they want to spend time together. I don’t even try to decline politely anymore, I just straight up tell them a cruise is everything I don’t want to spend my precious vacation time on.

Money. If I can’t use it directly, it still frees me up from labor to use my time as I see fit.

More by extension. My dad was a huge Joe Paterno / Penn State football fan. He thought very highly of Paterno as a coach, and leader. I was baffled when it broke just how much he had ignored. Just so cowardly and evil, allowing that man to rape and abuse so many kids so his football team wouldn’t look bad in a headline or two.

Ha, six hours no reply. Is it because there aren’t many heel-wearing folks on here? Or because no one wants to yuck your yum and spill the secret that the trick to comfort is to not wear them 😂?

Hope you enjoy them, M.

Yeah, mostly K-12 STEM stuff. The girl scout council in my area knows me through various volunteering events and call me up a few times a year to help with something. Also a middle school that I helped develop a “music in science” couple day-long summer camp curriculum. I have a decent sized set of work colleagues I’ll draft for help too.

I don’t think I have the skills for door knocking or asking people to sign petitions. Or the right perspective. Like, I’d sign a petition to defund ICE right now, but fuck anyone I would have to argue with to get them to sign it. And I don’t like either major party here (US) so not even for the bad-but-not-tyrannical one would I do work phones or doors for.

I stretched the truth a bit to ensure I wouldn’t be listed as a “critical to be onsite” employee. My sports-induced asthma that I manage just fine was enough for me to check “respiratory illnesses”. So I worked from home and avoided the shit tasks that landed on all the people who wanted to go onsite. They did get prioritized for vaccines months before I got mine, so some pros for them as least. Barely any of the work actually required we be physically present though, it was a pile of crap.

Reruns/syndication. I don’t think I watched much of either as they originally aired, not old enough yet or not alive in the case of MSW. We just had free antennae channels, so weeknight evenings were lots of syndicated shows.

MASH was another common one but I didn’t like it as much. I found Alan Alda annoying and the Klinger schtick weird.

Opinion not needed, look at Play store downloads and make some assumptions that Android usage is similar to other platforms.

Boost has more downloads than Voyager, Sync, Connect, or Jerboa.

I probably have unreasonably high hopes for this one. The original is an annual rewatch around Halloween thru Xmas time.

Star Trek: Voyager and Murder, She Wrote

Yeah, this is a super common theme from queer people in small rural and/or religious communities. Online may be the only interaction they have for information and support.

Oh, shoot. I was hoping to catch something there next time I was in town to compare to the Texas and Des Moines markets’ Flix Brewhouse. I only recently started going to theaters post-covid and am liking Flix.

I am conflicted. I don’t know what I want out of this movie. I don’t want anything at all that casts a positive light on child rapist Roman Polanski, yet I want to respect Ms. Geimer’s wishes and see that if anyone profits from all this that it be her, yet I can’t help but feel like this is still somehow exploiting her.

What I really want is for France and the film industry worldwide to stop pandering to this admitted child rapist. So many interesting voices out there and we have to waste even a moment’s thought on this crusty old pervert.

Conveniently ignoring when I gave my opinion. “Cancelling” is just free speech against white dudes. No need to white knight for him.

At a minimum, someone with really bad judgement

Link is just to a movie poster, you’re not missing anything.

If you like claustrophobic cosmic horror, I’d recommend it.

If you like the idea of passionate indie folks putting out quality work without the megacorp shenanigans, and the horror isn’t a hard no for you, then yes, recommended.

At a minimum, someone with really bad judgement, who cares more about making headlines than doing high-quality research, and who shouldn’t be trusted to treat the subjects of this study with respect.

Bailey was the Northwestern professor who had a live demo of a reciprocating sex toy, put on by a volunteer and her partner. It was optional to attend the demo, students were over 18 and allegedly informed on what they were going to see.

He’s also been repeatedly called out for not properly informing participants in his studies. One accusation of sleeping with one of his research subjects. And toed the ethics line on writing evaluation letters for candidates of sex assignment surgery when he didn’t hold a license.

His wikipedia article links to sources.

I caught opening night of Iron Lung last night. Gaming streamers aren’t really my thing so I went in very blind, drawn by the cosmic horror and John Carpenter vibes. I read more about it after seeing it, the budget, the low-almost-no-advertising, the self-funded theatrical release. I was quite impressed.

Melania also opens this weekend. I won’t see that one, it’s too scary for my tastes.