CerebralHawks

Good. For a lot of people (Millennials, for example), Tales From the Crypt was their first anthology series, and I remember it being good. I watched The Twilight Zone and Amazing Stories before it. I also watched Red Shoe Diaries, but don’t tell my mother. (That was a softcore/romance anthology series.) Now we have Black Mirror, and of course there are others (American Horror Story and American Crime Story for instance, where each season is its own story rather than each episode). But Tales From the Crypt was legendary in its day, and spawned two movies (Demon Knight, and Bordello of Blood).

How long before they put the Crypt Keeper in Fortnite?

Not by choice.

When I drive with someone else at work (not often but sometimes it happens), they often want to listen to the radio, which means we’re listening to ads for 90% of the trip and then we get one song. And people are okay with that. Fucking mindless drones.

Radio really has gone to shit. If you haven’t listened in a while… the ads are almost worse than going online without an ad blocker. You won’t get a virus or spyware, but you might spend the whole trip listening to ads before you earn the right to hear one censored song. Then you get back in the car and the ads start over again. It really is mostly ads these days. Most radio stations in an area will be owned by the same company, and they sync the ads so you can’t just change the channel.

Wouldn’t change the facts of the past. Just maybe take some heat off her.

Oof. Didn’t know it went up. We paid a total of $15 and we’re happy with it, but we’ve had the benefit of having used it for the past 16 years.

If the price is too high, Google Keep is pretty good for doing a similar thing.

How? Xbox increased more, and first. And Xbox always did poorly in Japan.

If anyone doesn’t know the history, I think it was NEC, was a big electronics company in Japan that tried to make computers that competed with Windows 95 (because they ran something else, I forgot which) and they got their asses handed to them. So the Japanese have been salty toward Microsoft since then. The grudge has started to fade a bit, but it was still going strong at the start of the Series X|S generation (2020). The problem is twofold: Japanese developers won’t make games for Xbox, only Nintendo and/or PlayStation. And two, gamers aren’t buying Xbox in Japan.

I wonder if Xbox went up at all in Japan. It never moved much there. I wonder if they even bothered installing GamePass CDNs there. I wouldn’t.

Also worth noting, a lot of gamers/power user types in the west have been turning against Microsoft for issues with Windows 11 and Copilot. I got tired of their shit years ago and went to Mac for computers, but I still game on an Xbox Series X.

I do like seeing PlayStation get taken down a peg, because for all Microsoft’s issues, PlayStation has always been more anti-consumer. Trophies exist on PlayStation because Achievements were so popular on Xbox that PlayStation (and Steam) were practically forced to adopt them. Xbox has pushed for cross-play and PlayStation has always rejected it. Backwards compatibility is what the PS2 was known for, and the PS3 did it at first, but since then, they haven’t been as good, whereas Xbox has been great about backwards compatibility. Not perfect but great.

Always meant to check it out, but in the age of streaming and looser ratings, it’s a real shame we didn’t get Carmageddon instead.

Carmageddon was Twisted Metal but for PC. They made family friendly versions for consoles, but they mostly sucked due to the compromises they had to make. And honestly only the first one was any good, but the graphics were ass. There was an HD texture pack for good graphics cards, but honestly, it just looked a little smoother.

I mean… yeah. Everything’s a distraction for something with this administration. They hope you forgot about Greenland, or the failed insurrection in 2020, or, yeah, the Epstein files.

But seriously, it’s not like anybody is getting arrested in the US over the Epstein files. People in other countries are facing consequences, but not in the US.

If you’re in the US, you can be jailed for seeing video or pictures of CSA, while the actual perpetrators being named and shamed in the files are getting away with it. So is the crime the CSA or the knowledge that powerful people are doing it? It should be the CSA. I don’t think people should be able to possess CSAM, but if the people doing it are known and getting away with it, is it a crime to see what they did or is it a crime to know who did it to whom?

OurGroceries.

The year was 2010, and the iPhone was not yet available where I lived. I could have bought one, and I could have activated service with it, but I would never be able to use it at home or anywhere around home. So it would have been pointless. I wanted one. Android was cool, but it wasn’t really what I wanted. Wife needed a new phone, and our carrier had a deal. Two Android phones for $100, and each came with a $20 Android Market (what Google Play Store was called then) gift card. So yeah, we took that deal. The phones were ass, but I was able to put CyanogenMod (now called Lineage) on them and make them a little better.

We wanted a grocery app, and we discovered an app called OurGroceries. Free with ads, or $5 to remove the little banner at the bottom. Even without paying, it offered synced grocery lists and even Web access. As in, my wife is at the store and I’m on the computer, I just hit the bookmark and add something to the list, she sees it in a second or two (provided she has signal or WiFi). We both paid. The app was useful and it was nice.

When I got an iPhone, I immediately paid the $5 again. They since changed it to where only ONE person on the sync account needs to pay. That is to say, if you and five family members all download it, all six of you get ads. But if ONE person connected to the sync account pays, the paid status syncs and nobody has ads. That said, I’m not mad because $10 of the $15 I’ve paid wasn’t even mine to start with, it was on a gift card. It’s been 16 years, and we still use it.

Is it the best grocery app? I think it still ranks highly. Personally I think the one in Paprika is a little better. Our first requirement is that it must support iPhone, Android (my wife still uses Android), and computer. Paprika checks those boxes — so does Google Keep, which is another good option (that is also free!). Apple has shopping list support in Notes, and our computers are Macs, so that works, but Apple Notes doesn’t really work on Android. It actually does, I think, through the browser (since my wife has an Apple account, on the Mac and on her iPad), but it’s not as robust if you actually have an iPhone. Any note taking app should work, but the sync won’t be there.

So if you don’t want to pay, Google Keep should be your first stop. If you don’t like Google for privacy or whatever reason, you’ll probably have to pay. OurGroceries is either a single developer or a small team, and they’re independent, and deserve at least the $5 they’re asking for a whole family to use their app indefinitely (as long as they keep the server up — I hope, should they ever decide to take their server down, they allow a self-hosted option). If you want more features, Paprika is definitely a solid choice, but you’ll want to wait for a sale. Normally it’s like $10 on phones and $20 on computers or something. But it’s actually not a shopping list app. It’s a recipe manager that has a shopping list and a pantry inventory. And a couple other things. (OurGroceries also has a recipe manager, but it’s not great, it’s really just another kind of shopping list that can be copied into an actual shopping list — you can have multiple.)

I always thought “dump him” was followed by an unspoken “and give me a chance.” In other words, incel culture.

Might not be all cases, but that is what I generally assume when I see/hear about stuff like that.

Floor 796 is a… I’m not even sure what to call it. Mosaic doesn’t quite cover it. There are interactive parts as well. It’s an art piece featuring various pop culture characters together on a space station. See who you can find.

Oh yes, I’ve used diced white onions in my tuna salad as well. I don’t like relish (or celery), it’s just not the flavour profile I’m looking for.

BBQ sauce = ketchup with molasses, more or less, I think, on the off chance you were asking what it was. I don’t think that’s the case, just covering my bases. Anyway, I use the sweet/spicy kind, so it adds a kick. I wouldn’t do both BBQ sauce and Tabasco. Tabasco gives it a kick, but it’s more subtle, the flavour of the sauce is covered by the tuna, but the heat is still there. For heat plus added flavour, I go for the BBQ sauce. Specifically Sweet Baby Ray’s sweet and spicy (or whatever that variety is called).

Not sure I can trust ice cream from Minnesota. I’d think ice cream from Texas or Florida would be better, when it’s a consumable utility for beating the heat. I quite imagine Minnesota as always being at/below freezing.

Joking, of course — it sounds awesome.

The flavour of toothpaste (assuming mint) isn’t what makes it gross, it’s the texture. The taste makes it palatable in your mouth (or at least that is the intention). When I was a kid, cinnamon toothpaste was an option as well. IIRC there are plain options, but they’re worse.

I’ve made mint frosting (since shops don’t seem to sell it, Wilton’s buttercream icing but with peppermint extract instead of vanilla) and my wife says it tastes like toothpaste. Her sister, my niece, and I all love it though. My wife’s the odd one here. Mint aversion isn’t really that odd, though. It’s just a flavour and not everyone is going to like it.

What’s crazy is when you actually want to watch an ad (like a game or movie trailer, or a review of a product you’re considering buying), and you have to watch an ad to watch the ad. You’d think videos advertising a commercial product would pay a fee to cover the ads.

Fry sauce! I add hot sauce to mine. Popularized in the American Midwest but you can make it anywhere.

I will never think of the new Dark Matter and not think of the older Dark Matter and be annoyed that they just used the same name as an existing show.

The old show was not great. It was barely good. Using its name still feels sketchy to me.

I wish they either just made straight mint ice cream (less peppermint, and more creme de menthe… like Andes mints as opposed to York peppermint patties), or had mint and chocolate swirled or cubed together (like how orange sherbet is packaged with vanilla ice cream sometimes). I would fuck that shit up.

Mint chip is one of my favourite flavours, but the chips kinda ruin it. If they’re the little flakes or shavings, it’s fine, but hard chocolate chips in ice cream (which is frozen) are just not fun.

What TF is tuna spread? We always called it tuna salad, even though it’s not really a salad.

The traditional recipe I know calls for mayonnaise, mustard, and relish. I do not use relish. However, I’ve been known to add minced garlic, Tabasco sauce, and shredded cheese. Sometimes, chopped olives. If you don’t use mustard, you can also use BBQ sauce.

Egg salad is messier by far, and I have an egg guillotine. The kind you put a hard-boiled egg in and it slices it. Then you carefully turn it and repeat. Once it’s sliced two ways, I’ve never been able to get the third dimension, I just push it through to the bowl like that. So I get long pieces, but there are ways to 3D slice it (patience? skill? Yeah, probably a skill issue).

Tuna salad is not that messy. I’ve also been known to eat it without bread. It’s very high in protein, and cheese adds more. Screw those nasty ass snot-consistency protein drinks, I’d rather eat tuna out of a small container. I’d LOVE to get a CLEAN can of cat food and put it in there, and walk around looking like I’m eating cat food like a mad lad (it kinda looks/smells like cat food). Like the old “put vanilla pudding in a mayonnaise jar and walk around eating it to look crazy” thing I’ve never actually seen anyone do.

Yes, it’s largely fallen out of favour in the common vernacular, as in, people generally don’t use it.

There used to be a site (one of the popular dictionaries) that would show you how commonly a word has been used in publications (and, I suppose, online now) over time, but I can’t find it now. It would be interesting to see how less common words rank.

FWIW, I did find a dictionary entry that said it merely means to declare something untrue, with no mention of saying it to gain social status over the person, but that’s how I learned it. Not sure where I picked it up, but if I learned it from a movie or a book, it was being used in that way.

There’s a lot of bad shit happening in the world, and none of us care about all of it as we do about what’s closest to home. Maybe some do, but they’d be miserable all the time. No one likes being miserable, so we tune some of it out. The easy answer is “well it’s on the other side of the planet so it doesn’t affect me.” And while most people will agree, a complete lack of empathy makes a person a psychopath, most people also don’t have empathy for everyone in the world. We all have a filter. Do I agree with what the west is doing to Iran? No, but my heart doesn’t break for them like it might if it were in the next country over. Does that make me a monster? Maybe, to the Iranians, but empathy has to have reasonable limits, because sanity definitely has limits.

Now, if it’s right outside your door (or in your home) and it doesn’t affect you, I think that’s different. But also, everybody mourns differently. I never cried for my father when he passed almost 23 years ago. I do think of him almost every day though. Like our favourite author (Stephen King) said, you do not forget the face of your father (paraphrased from the Dark Tower series). The face meaning, what he taught you. And, like my father before me, I am an Atheist, and we both believe that life is finite, and it is to be enjoyed while we have it, and being upset about someone who lived, not living anymore, is selfish, and unfair to the billions or trillions who were never born. Darwin said it better than I could. Anyway, he didn’t view death as a sadness, but rather life as happiness, and I’m the same. I remember the good. I remember the bad, and I try to learn from it. No one ever called me psycho to my face. Maybe some of them thought it, but I don’t think I am.

How is it the British say it? “Keep calm and carry on”? Yeah, that’s me as well.