June 06, 2022
78 Years Ago
Point Du Hoc was taken.
Art by Larry Selman
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June 05, 2022
When Someone Tells You What They Want To Do, BELIEVE THEM
Especially if their mask comes off.
This blog is based in the U.S.A. and that has the happy benefit of being in a nation that is kept from falling into a state of anarchic autocannibalism or Hobbesian totalitarianism by it's institutions and laws, which form a set of checks and balances on the ill-considered passions of the people as well as their leaders.
History, of our nation as well as others has taught us that when those safety rails are torn down, then terrible sorrow of one form or another will soon follow. This holds true even if the reasons for removing those guardrails was noble and somehow not clouded by hysteria and emotional passions.
Thus, one should ponder closely any politician that utters such a phrase as this...
"If the filibuster obstructs us, we will abolish it. If the Supreme Court objects, we will expand. We will not rest until we've taken weapons of war out of our communities."
Or this...
"spare me the bullshit about constitutional rightsâ€
Be sure to watch the short videos, and read the context (which is absent from most of these videos.)
SPOILER: the context doesn't help.
Whatever the the merits of a particular political goal might be (and with the goal in question the merit is near zero) removing all of the legal system's arrestor switches and the political system's pause buttons then one is guaranteeing that something very dark will soon come to pass.
The left of today assumes that they will always have the power and that removing the governors and guardrails from the engines of society will only bring suffering upon their enemies. Their current feral mindset does not allow them to recognize that the club they wield could easily be lifted by those they now drive before them, and that those who pursue power without mercy might find themselves begging for it from those they now torment.
Such clubs are hard to put down.
If institutional safeguards and constitutional rights are removed, then which ever side might win a given political contest, ALL of us will ultimately lose.
Paul Schofield has timeless thoughts on the matter here:
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June 03, 2022
Streaming Update
While suffering from COVID, we here at Brickmuppet Blog endured some power failures, internet connectivity issues, and what I assume was a drop bear infestation. However, Wednesday, both power and internet were working and I did a short, unscripted test stream.
There is still an awful lot of scuff, particularly audio issues at the beginning, and the stream was completely unscripted (being just a test) but this was the first stream where stuff mostly worked.
Heh, "Mostly"
He still can't get his PNG to work right, Steam is not linking up to his Twitch, at all, he hasn't received his HDMI capture equipment yet and there is a reverb in his headphones that causes him to sound like a drunk cretin at points.
Hush.
Despite that, I finally got my streaming software (OBS) to work with my Mac to the point that I could do a 'Just Chatting' stream. One of my plans for the channel is to at least once a week do some silent movies, 'cause if it's pre-1928, it's usually DMCA free. (There are exceptions but those are fairly easy to find). There is a big enough backlog of decent silents to last at least two years.
I had 5 people in chat at one point, at least one of whom was not a bot.
"It's a small victory, but I'll take it."
Actual premier with Obligatory Power-Point is set for June 11. If the vidya gaming setup still isn't working by then we'll do a just chatting/movie stream anyway.
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An Interesting Talk With Peter Zeihan
Shorter version: We in the U.S.A. are screwed like everyone else, but we are less screwed than anyone else and have a bit more time.
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A Follow-Up on SNR
About 2 weeks ago I reviewed the pilot of Strange New Worlds and made, what is for post JJ Abrams Star Trek, a bold assertion.
I do not immediately despise this show!
Like Charlie Brown pondering Lucy and the football, I held out hope that this fairly decent pilot might, against all odds foreshadow a good series.
I do not have CBS all access, so I cannot speak firsthand to wether this forlorn hope has come to pass. However Dave Cullen, a certified card carrying member of the 'Irish New Trek Haters Club' suggests that the series has not been bad, and, most surprisingly, that the most recent episode has actually been quite good.
This is high praise coming from Cullen, who has been exceptionally vociferous (and IMHO fair) in his criticisms of the recent offerings of the franchise.
I particularly like that the presence of the Gorn in this prequel, far from being the expected crime against canon is being cleverly handled in such a way as to fit with established lore.
I'm still not likely to get CBS All Access, but I keep hearing good things about the show and might well be persuaded to get the DVDs.
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Gracious!
All that talk about how COVID is "Just the flu" is somewhat misleading.
However, it's quite likely that I had a mild variant. I say this because I never lost my sense of smell or taste (at least any more that those senses are rendered wonky with any head-cold), I never had the headache so often reported or the GI issues.
I haven't been THAT sick in years.
Not only was I having difficulty breathing, my blood pressure skyrocketed to 177/110, I ended up going to the hospital.
After I was discharged I had great difficulty getting up the stairs, due to general weakness.
However, it's quite likely that I had a mild variant. I say this because I never lost my sense of smell or taste (at least any more that those senses are rendered wonky with any head-cold), I never had the headache so often reported or the GI issues.
But every time I coughed, I felt like my skeleton was trying to escape from my skin.
Because of the nigh insurmountable obstacle my stairs presented, I ended up sleeping on the downstairs couch for a few days.
Four days ago I started to improve markedly and by day-before-yesterday I felt much better.
I'm still a bit weak, but I have no other symptoms.
Today, my state quarantine period ended and I went to work. However, UPS policy is to wear a mask for 5 days after symptoms end and, well, I can't wear a mask any more because of the stroke. I have face shields, and the boss decided that was fine but after about 10 minutes my weakness visibly caught up with me. Since we were over staffed, for a change, the supervisor decided to give me the option home. I took him up on it. I'll report to work normally on Monday.
I'll finally get paid again in two weeks.
"Damnit!"
Glad I've got a cushion and plenty of food stocked up.
For a lot of people, loosing 2 weeks pay and gaining a hospital bill would be a disaster, and that is what a huge swath of our population is facing from this bug right now, assuming they don't have any co-morbidities that cause Winnie-the-Flu to leave them dead or crippled.
This bug looks like it will be with us from now on, like a flu but far worse. We've got to learn to live with it without going bonkers or paranoid. And given the likelihood that this was a result of well intentioned but ill conceived experiments in bio-preparedness, we need to reassess our policies in that area.
Corona-Chan remains smugly confident that we won't.
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May 30, 2022
Remember Those Who Gave All To Defend Our Rights When Being Asked To Forfeit Those Rights
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May 26, 2022
An Important Correction!
On May 23 of 2022 this blog stated that this years flu vaccine was lacking in efficacy.
Upon receiving further information, it now appears that this is NOT, at least to the best of our knowledge actually the case.
Do not be dissuaded from your flu shot gentle readers!
It was the Moderna COVID19 vaccine and boosters that didn't work on my mutant weeb ass.
THE SUSPENSE IS OVER! I finally have the 'Rona!
I've been visited by Cronachan and contracted the Pinko-Pox, Chi-Com Cough, Whuhan-Bat-Soup-Death-Plague, Xi Syndrome, The Fauci Fever, The Bolshevik Bug, The Maoist Malady, Winnie the Flu, The 2020 Gain of Function Award!
"I feel like poop."
BUT, I'm, well...I'm off work for another week. Hopefully, I'll be able to do something besides cough and hurt for some of that time.
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May 23, 2022
Decadence
Rudyard has a good overview of the phenomenon.
It's a much better take than several of my history professors, who would angrily declare that "countries don't fall do to decadence" and seem to feel that expressing concern about decadence is a warning sign of being a NAZI .
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The Flu Shot Didn't Work This Year
OK.
All I know is that MY flu shot didn't work this year.
"Suck!"
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10 Weeks
A U.N. study of the upcoming food shortage has determined that there is currently about a 10 weeks supply of grain on the planet.
I knew this was coming, and had heard about rationing being set up in places like Spain and Egypt but I honestly thought we'd have 'till September or October.
Art by TaekwondoNJ
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May 22, 2022
Strange New Worlds
The new Star Trek series has premiered.
After the middle fingers to the fans that were Star Treks Picard and Discovery, faith is weak.
Nevertheless, the pilot episode was run on YouTube last week and, being a trekkie of some 40 years, I watched it.
I do NOT immediately despise this show.
It looks good. The pilot was decently written and it felt in many ways like a decent Next Generation episode. There was a lot of extraneous drama and plot contrivances shoehorned into the pilot but the episode did not actually suffer for it.
For those familiar with Trek lore the Pilot is a first contact story that deals with the origins of "General Order One". The episode takes place immediately after the finale of Star Trek: Discovery and is still cleaning up the mess that show left. Enterprise is getting repaired and Captain Pike is on sabbatical. He's contemplating a vision of his future he received towards the end of STD, which he was given so that the misandric, feminist writers of that atrocity could have the sadistic satisfaction of having a strong male lead scream like a 9 year old girl dropped into a pit of tarantulas. Suffice it to say that plot point left a mark. However, notwithstanding the legit trauma itself, Pike's concern's about the matter are quite professional and rational.
Meanwhile, Number One receives information that a warp signature has been detected from a quarantined system a few hours flight time from Earth. Starfleet is still trying to put itself back together after the events of the previous series, and doesn't have any first contact teams in the core of the Federation at the moment (They stay on the frontier). Eager to give her crew a First Contact Award, Number one asks for and gets permission to take a few off duty Enterprise Crew on a mothballed, but barely functional Hermes class scout to pop into the newly star-fairing system and say "Hi!".
Things do not go as planned, and what should have been an easy day away from the shipyard on fun collateral duty becomes an interstellar incident with far reaching influences upon subsequent events.
It was not a GREAT episode, but it was a quite solid one. It actually has something useful to say about bureaucratic overreaction, which is not a lesson I expected from a Star Trek show in current year.
The pilot has been pulled from YouTube, but there are several trailers, this one giving a good overview of the cast, which I rather like a lot.
Well, except for La'an, who's surname looks to be a crime against canon and who appears to be a parody of a Mary Sue in a Star Trek fanfic. OTOH, if you're gonna do a Mary Sue, this is the place to do it and the actress (who looks to be quite good) seems to lean into it with considerable gusto.
Aside that the cast looks GREAT and, unlike Discovery, the (possible) Mary Sue is not the lead, and to be fair, actually looks to have real potential, this being quite explicitly an ensemble cast.
So I am cautiously optimistic.
On the other hand, I have memories of another pilot, not so long ago that looked to have quite a lot of potential.
That optimism was misplaced.
So a decent pilot is not going to get me to subscribe to CBS-All Access.
I'll wait.
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Remedial Groundskeeping.
Banality is below the fold.
more...
As compensation here is TokyoGenso's take on what the Tokyo Big Sight would look like if the groundskeeper had a stroke:
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May 10, 2022
Status of Streaming
Well, there continue to be technical issues.
The channel has broadcast several short test streams. However, there are multiple issues. One is that APPLE seems to be blocking most of the best png-tuber programs. Currently, the channel is using Fugi-Tech's REACTIVE, which is an excellent tool for collaborations but less versatile for general streaming. There are other issues too that mostly seem to revolve around Mac compatibility...
The net result is that progress is much slower than anticipated. And the short test streams are truly demoralizing studies of the intersection of scuff and cringe.
My speech has still not fully recovered from the stroke so this horror show can be cynically passed off as a sort of therapy. (IRL I used to be a both an actor and a DJ believe it or not.)
I currently aim to be streaming 4 days a week. The new date for the full debut stream (with obligatory power-point) is June 11.
A big thanks to those V-Tubers who have offered advice and support.
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May 04, 2022
This Could Be Taken a Number of Different Ways.
Reportedly, according to people who claim to both speak Russian and watch Russian TV, the Russian public health establishment has told health care workers to prepare for a cholera epidemic.
The Telegram post that is the basis for this is here. It's a Ukranian site and the motivation to spin people up over this is obvious.
It's quite possible that with sewage and water systems smashed by Putin's little war that there have been a few cases and the Russian health experts are trying to head off the inevitable tragedy. It's also possible Putin has lost the plot and called in some assistance from Biopreparat.
The latter theory is likely to get all the press as it fits their previous speculation and current narrative perfectly.
Either way, this is the sort of thing that can inflame rage bring this mess to the next level of horror.
Even if this story and the allegedly impending outbreak do NOT result in military escalation, the unspeakable horror of a cholera outbreak amongst refugees cannot be overstated.
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May 03, 2022
Well! I'll Rest Easier
...knowing that the Air Force Research Laboratory is taking the threat of rogue banana boats seriously.
Those banana spiders never had a chance.
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May 02, 2022
Pandemonium Imminent.
The supreme court looks to have decided to overturn Roe v Wade in the near future, probably.
Decision seems to be 5/4 or 6/3. We don't know more because this is a result of an unprecedented leak. (Apparently by a Supreme Court Clerk.)
Alito, who is more a libertarian than a conservative wrote the opinion and is reasoning is along federalist / separation of powers lines.
In response to the leak, barricades have already been erected outside the court as I type this (~45 minutes after the leak hit the wires) in anticipation of violence.
Despite the hysteria, this decision (that is theoretical and hasn't even been handed down yet) does not outlaw abortion, but puts the question where it belongs, in the state legislatures. I fear a good dead of blood and treasure will be lost in a hysterical overreaction and in an attempt to intimidate the court.
UPDATE: I don't usually spell 'decision' d-e-c-i-o-s-i-o-n. But when I do, I'm generally blogging. Fixed.
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Status Update:
Not, mind you, the status of entertainment media or overall societal trends. Those can be quite adequately summed up with this image macro...
Rather it's an update on the status of my Walter Mitty lifestyle. If you care to see such banality look below the 'fold'.
more...
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April 28, 2022
That's it. I'm Done.
There is literally a Ministry of Truth now.
Once Musk bought Twitter, the mask came off.
Brickmuppet Blog no longer has any comment on any matters of importance as we enjoy having our toes attached to our feet and further enjoy wiggling them.
So we will henceforth be responsible model citizens of good character and maintain the most hygienic of thoughts.
We cannot , however be held responsible for any unfortunate opinions that might or might not be held by certain anime lolis that may or may not find their way into our posts.
I assure you, our most benevolent and credentialed overlords, that we are working on the matter.
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April 25, 2022
Meanwhile: At Twitter
"Should have left the Babylon Bee alone."
UPDATE:
Finally: A Roundup
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