Up and down! 0 motivation to do work but had some nice moments otherwise. And Euro 2024 happening is fun.

Wooo, Framework! I’ve got a 13 and I love it. Enjoy!

I’m always telling people to REALLY watch Napoleon Dynamite. I think it got quoted and proto-memed to death when it came out, leading to most people having an unfair idea in their head of what the movie is.

The soundtrack is phenomenal. The acting is (mostly) way better than you may have thought it was. Jon Gries (Uncle Rico) was nominated for an Independent Spirit award and he absolutely deserved that nomination. The cinematography is excellent, especially knowing how much it cost to make + how much experience the crew had. Though it’s not explicitly said, I think it’s ultimately a story about neurodivergent people finding friendship, solidarity, and happiness in a world not made for them.

Also, the scene where Uncle Rico throws a steak at Napoleon is still funny.

Honestly: I cannot have the Instagram app on my phone (both for privacy and for addiction) - I have it installed on Waydroid and the fact that it works like 50% of the way keeps me from using it more than a couple times a week.

I love clarifications like this! Good on ya.

Win’s is still so tough to me. I read through each of the statements and my final thought was: he did some bad things, but nothing that’s going to get him thrown in jail. Similar to Aziz Ansari if I remember correctly. Now whether or not punishment would be morally right is another discussion, obviously our legal system is Very Flawed.

It was to me too, had to go looking - guessing this from Wikipedia is what it was:

Kiedis acknowledges in his autobiography Scar Tissue that he had sexual relations with a 14-year-old girl when he was 23, before and after learning of her age, in the 1980s. This inspired him to write the song “Catholic School Girls Rule”.

I love the idea! If there was good support from something like GrapheneOS or /e/OS I would be looking at one of these.

If Pomykal can avoid major injuries for a while it’s over for everyone else, as they say… For me, I like the regular season and therefore I LOVE the AppleTV deal. I’m originally from Columbus (woo lamar hunt!) and basically being unable to watch games without paying for cable was terrible. Now I can watch every game and see the MLS360 whiparound show which is fun. But yeah, the USOC change is shameful, I hate it so much. I hope FCD make a good run in it this year, at least! If the Riverhounds and the Crew can’t/won’t win it, certainly wouldn’t mind it being Dallas.

Oooh, Copa America! Nice, hope that’s a good time. FC Dallas has been puzzling, that’s for sure. I bought into the hype, I thought they’d take a positive step forward from last year’s mild success… nope :(

Anyone else going and watching soccer/football this weekend?? Hoping my beloved Pittsburgh Riverhounds can beat Tampa Bay Rowdies to snap a 3-game winless streak to start the season.

Way too many to list but I’ll throw one out. Do you like Radiohead, REM, The National, Pixies, Frank Turner, or Dinosaur Jr.? Well, they (or their lead singer) all love Mark Mulcahy’s music enough to have recorded a cover song for the tribute album when Mark’s wife passed.

Mark led the band Miracle Legion, released some solo work, and led the band Polaris (not the metal band from Australia), best known as the band from the show The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Also noteworthy: Miracle Legion toured and released an EP with The Sugarcubes, aka Bjork’s band.

Song recommendations: The Backyard, All For The Best by Miracle Legion - Hey Sandy, Saturnine by Polaris - Taking Baby Steps, The Fiddler, Hey Self Defeater by Mark Mulcahy.

Album recommendations: Drenched by Miracle Legion, Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete by Polaris, and Fathering by Mark Mulcahy.

King’s Bounty 2. It’s not an amazingly well made game, and it lost a lot of the fun goofiness of the other games, but I do love the combat and think the story was underrated.

A couple examples:

Free with ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb3AUBtm_5o Must be bought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c26o4h0coY

71 on Metacritic, 6.8 user score. Not bad! Will definitely be getting it if it works well on Steam Deck.

2024: album that has my attention is Prelude to Ecstasy by The Last Dinner Party. Glorious, dramatic chamber pop with many lyrical nods for the History majors in your life.

2023: Javelin by Sufjan Stevens + Expert In A Dying Field by The Beths. Suf is the easy choice but man is it good and, in typical fashion, heart-breaking. I don’t know how The Beths continue to make their style sound fresh, but they do. The songwriting, harmonies, guitar work, all so excellent.

2022: The Festival by Tim Baker + Revealer by Madison Cunningham. Tim Baker just doesn’t miss. Leaning heavily into the horns and soul influence, but still grounded in composed, mature folk-pop. Madison Cunningham on the other hand varies style a good deal but it works every time. Great guitar, interesting compositions, lyrically strong.

2021: Peace Or Love by Kings of Convenience + Stunning & Atrocious by Fleece. Kings of Convenience, your modern-day Norwegian Simon & Garfunkel, return in perfect form. Feist returns for a few tracks, every song is strong. Fleece level up from complex guitar-heavy indie-rock to delicious funky indie-pop. The most fun I’ve ever seen a band have together on stage was seeing them play this album.

2020: Half-Empty by The Little Hands of Asphalt + Every Bad by Porridge Radio. Missed Half-Empty until a year ago but wow, it’s such a stellar singer-songwriter album - string arrangements are mouthwateringly good. Begs to be listened to as an album. Every Bad is, to me, pure catharsis in musical form. Vocal performances on tracks like Circling and Sweet are gut wrenching.

Favorite songs not in any of these: Oh How We Drift Away by Tim Heidecker & Weyes Blood (this is what I’d put as my Song of the Decade so far), Feelings Meeting by Living Hour ft. Jay Som, Jackie Down The Line by Fontaines D.C., Your Light by The Big Moon, Hounds of Hell by The Phoenix Foundation ft. Nadia Reid.

I had a manual for about 75k miles, mostly liked it, but have had an automatic since then (inheritence coming into play, free car = free car). I had a little Chevy Spark EV for about a year that was a joy. Honestly, not having to change gears at all is AWESOME. You don’t think about the motion caused by even the best of manual shifts (let alone terrible CVT shifts) until it’s not there. It’s so much smoother to get up to speed and I loved it.

Waiting for battery tech to get a little better and running out my current car (Shoutouts to Toyota), then will be going back to an electric car.

I had the same thought at the description!! Loved that from Kiell

Do April Fools jokes count? I was bereft after reading an article 13+ years ago from a trustworthy gaming site that said Armor Games (a popular flash game dev at the time) was taking over all development for the Elder Scrolls games.

(In retrospect, maybe that wouldn’t have been the worst thing after Skyrim came out)

Correct, no participation. Not even, to the best of my knowledge, from the Puerto Rico Islanders who played in USL/NASL/the USSF 2nd division. Lack of interest + funding is definitely the answer. For the Coupe de France, it’s worth noting that French overseas territories being given spots in the competition started in 1961-1962.