editengine

The Witcher - I talked a little about this before but this was really a great season. I admit to having something of a man crush on Henry Cavil, and Anya Chalotra is pretty hot too. The non-linear storyline rewards people that really pay attention, and I assume that most of the people that didn't like that were probably watching it while doing other stuff. The Expanse - I am giving the series another chance now that there is a new season and this time I am less distracted by comparisons to the book. Although the acting is sometimes weak, once Thomas Jane is gone and the actors seem to settle into their roles a bit better that ceased to be an issue. The whole thing is still too "pretty" for sci-fi. Ships have very dramatic lighting and tons of useless space to keep warm. Regardless, it is a fine show and gets better as the seasons go by. The following two I watched when I was pretty stoned, so the reviews might be affected by that. Booksmart - the coming of age film by Olivia Wilde was like a surreal Fast Times at Ridgemont High mixed with some elements of Superbad (a tedious comparison by the haters but not entirely wrong). It was surreal in that the high school in the film is a fantasy, run by students and high achievers with little relationship to real schools. I didn't care, it was fun, irreverent, and profane. I loved it. Right after Booksmart we watched the first Ep of Dracula. An homage to Bella Lugosi in many ways, this freaky, creepy, and yet still somehow pg-13 episode clocks in a 90 minutes and had me alternately cringing and giggling throughout. I hate horror movies, but this isn't horror, its a great monster movie though.

It definitely rewards closely paying attention. I actually enjoy that, since it gives the story more complexity and requires me to actively track the storylines. So far I have identified 3 distinct time periods in the first three episodes.

What goggles are you using?

oh mama

That was some fancy haircut

https://slate.com/culture/2019/11/john-ford-science-fiction-fantasy-books.html The Disappearance of John M. Ford I wanted to learn why a beloved science fiction writer fell into obscurity after his death. I didn’t expect that I would help bring his books back to life.

Oh wait, speak of the devil it looks like it is working now! Follow request sent!

I will do so, but the twitter for me is broken and does not show followers at present. I have emailed Twitter and I a sure their crack customer support teams are working on the problem now.

So it has been an eventful week and a half. I was asked to speak at a conference in Orlando. This particular conference is a big deal in my weird little space. More interesting is that a colleague of mine, who used to hold my position, has been trying and failing to get a speaker slot at this conference for many years. Then I went to Vegas for my very first Big Tech Conference. I made a video about it. Also, I am back on twitter due to work stuff. The only positive is that I can reconnect more with WGBers @geographerjay

Congrats!

Hand carrying 70 year old tank rounds to the truck LOL good god.

LOL I can see this same video for weightlifting. I think the rule is that if you're strong but fat and not interested in keeping a healthy diet you can call yourself a 'powerlifter'. Note that this strategy also works if you are a cute female software engineer that wants to post pics of yourself in your underwear after deadlifting or a middle aged office drone that takes every supplement ever made and buys a squat suit so you can brag about getting 500lbs ass to grass. Interesting that in this video the only cyclists are men.

I'm glad you're back, IC. I am always pretty open with her about sex. It is hard to hear that a boy on the bus called her a slut and a ho last week. She googled 'ho' because she didn't know it and then texted her mom to ask why he was calling her a gardening tool... Then she called him a jackass and reported him to the school and he got in trouble But I don't want her to learn about sex from misogynistic shitbags on the bus. I am not one of those weird guys that expects his daughter to be pure and chaste forever, I mean I started talking to her mom in large part because she wasn't either those things. I don't know what she is going to want as she gets older but I want her to be prepared to communicate what she wants to the people she is with at that time. I am not sure if that makes sense, but I'm just trying not to fuck this up too badly.

Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape When I started posting on this board in my late twenties (fucking hell, seriously?) if you had told me that this would be what I was reading at 44 years of age I would have thought you were insane. But, yet here I am. Learning what THOT means, and other stuff (turns out, ass-to-mouth means something completely different than what I thought it meant). I am not through it yet, but so far it is interesting if a bit unorganized. The premise is to help decrepit old fucks like me understand the complex sexual landscape (this is the kind of language the book is full of) that teen girls in the age of instagram, snapchat, and 24-hour online porn have to deal with now. I wouldn't say I am enjoying the book, as it forces you to confront the idea that your precious offspring is about to jump into a world populated by people that might have been you 30 years ago. But some of the ideas are encouraging, such as the concept that many things (like THOTs) aren't good or bad, but instead can be both good and bad at the same time. One thing I have noticed before and it seems to be cropping up here a lot as well is the idea that women and girls can't really win when it comes to their sexual reputation, you're either a prude or a slut. There is no middle ground. I'm not sure this is really something new, surely a lot of my contemporaries who don't share their sexual lives online talk about former partners in the same terms. But the intensely intimate aspect of social media can make it seem like everybody must have an opinion of you and if they all aren't happy then you have somehow failed the slut test. I don't know what is right, but if this helps me talk my kid down after the first boy (the lesbian ship has sailed with this one I think) breaks her heart then it is worth the effort.

I see what you did there