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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

Author: Karel Kerezman

  • Whoops: Unintended Posting Break

    What do you mean I haven’t posted in nearly a month?!?

    Well. Whoops.

    To be clear, nothing interesting happened other than, um, I bought a computer. (It’s been two and a half years and the previous one isn’t really suited to upgrading unless I want to replace nearly everything in the chassis anyway, so really it just made sense to go all-in on a new rig.) Mind you… the new computer immediately developed a problem (a ticking noise that has been tracked down to something in the power supply unit) that has necessitated an RMA from the builder (and a future “take it all apart myself and hope it works once I put it all together again” replacement project) (prompting me to wonder why I bothered having someone else build a computer when I have to do all this work anyway).

    (Look, I’m in a parenthetical mood. Be glad you’re getting a post of any kind, yeah?)

    Otherwise it’s just same old same old, suffering through summer, wishing we could get into a nicer larger place that isn’t a noisy cheap apartment, and so forth.

    I’ll try to come up with some Satisfactory content for fans of such once I’ve got this computer situation a bit more nailed down… hopefully soon… hopefully.

  • On Social Media

    Well, just by typing that subject line I’m going to have a particular Pet Shop Boys song stuck in my head for a while.

    There are worse things.

    Anyway: Since that-which-was-Twitter continues its slide toward both irrelevance and hostility toward the masses who made it what it was, I should mention that I’ve (more or less) moved elsewhere. If you look on the sidebar you’ll see the “Find Me Here” link list. Other than the webcomic and the self-referential link to… the website you’re reading now… no, I don’t know why that’s there, honestly… you’ll find the social-media-ish things I’m inhabiting (to greater or lesser degrees) in the meantime.

    I wouldn’t say that any of them are my exclusive hangout. Even Twitter was never my exclusive hangout, just… where the bulk of my time & energy went. (Maybe I should thank the emerald edgelord for freeing me from that? Er, no. No, never, never will I thank that jackwagon for anything, ever.)

    Anyway: I can be found at “the fediverse” (on a Mastodon server), Tumblr, Bluesky, and I really ought to pick my Pixelfed account back up again, plus potentially whatever else may come down the pipe later. (Technically I have accounts at Spoutible and Cohost but… eh. I haven’t touched those in months, not going to bother linking them.)

    Things are a hot mess, aren’t they? Find me somewhere and we’ll chat about it.

  • The Smiley Face Lies

    The scene: Our apartment.

    The time: 3:20am.

    The temperature: Too dingdanged high.

    Observe the “Comfort” indicators. As if higher than 85F indoors was somehow comfortable. Side note: The outdoor temperature sensor tends to read a bit high because there’s no “good” place to mount it on our apartment’s outside deck. Online sources suggest it was more like “only” 72F…

    I’d turned the big AC unit off at quarter to 11pm last night to conserve power (and reduce noise), but by 4am I’d already turned it back on again. We have another couple days of near-100F high temperatures to get through, and maybe afterward we can “enjoy” the rest of the summer.

    Remember when the Portland Oregon metro area was (rightfully!) known for being rainy most of the time? I sure do, but those days are long, long gone. Hundred-degree heatwaves are no longer notable rarities but expected trials, year after year.

    And I hate it.

  • Watchlist – Summer 2023

    In lieu of more interesting content, let’s do a quick rundown of a few of the shows I’m watching lately:

    (more…)

  • Film, Orson Welles, and Facts

    Last night, out of a mix of boredom and mild curiosity, I watched They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead. It’s a weird, somewhat confusing window into a very specific portion of the life of a famous film director. And right out of the gate, a thesis statement of sorts is presented to the viewer: The title is a quote ascribed to Orson Welles… and immediately other voices claim that no, he never said that.

    Huh.

    (more…)

  • Satisfactory: The Flowchart

    I’ve reached endgame for my “ChooChooingScenery” game of Satisfactory, the point where I gear up to send off the final Space Elevator shipment consisting of four products: Assembly Director Systems, Magnetic Field Generators, Nuclear Pasta (which, despite its name, contains zero radioactive source material), and Thermal Propulsion Rockets.

    The math is all sorted out, source materials (almost) entirely in production, and I have a vague notion that I’m going to build a gigantic factory in the “dune desert” to house this last great project. But I want to make it nice and neat for a change. I want to build a set of machines that not only fit together well but looks good doing it.

    And I can’t do that if I’m not absolutely clear on the exact order of what things I need to go into which other things to make the next things.

    (more…)

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