Why Dark Knight Rises Totally Sucks

 

 Gordon: they said there was gonna be glitter. 

The new Batman movie was good. A little long but overall I didn't have complaints. After discussing it with people they keep bringing up the Dark Knight movies and how fond they are of them. The joker one was good, I don't remember the middle one but here's my take on the last one. I watched it twice just to make sure I wasn't crazy but it still sucks. I haven't seen it in a long time so I might not remember but this was my review from back then after watching it for the second time.

somebody's dark knight is rising.  heh heh 

OK so... they waste three months tracking the bomb truck down. Then after getting duped they miraculously end up finding it in the last 10 minutes. Bruce Wayne magically gets from a random generic place in the middle of nowhere Asia all the way to Gotham City in just a few days. He does this somehow with absolutely no resources, no money, shoes or anything. (remember he's just an angry rich guy who relies on gadgets, he's not dumb ass Superman who can fly) After he teleports across the world in 2 days he's somehow able to get right into the city that's being heavily guarded on lock down without a fight or any explanation.

When their big plan to get the bomb back into the reactor fails he just decides to tow it with his bat plane out of the city to a safe distance over the ocean. Which he somehow survives by the way. Which he could just have done first and saved everyone a whole heap of trouble. I thought it would make more sense the second time but it still pisses me off at how fucking stupid it is. It's almost as bad as Iron Fist.

Never watch this movie.

Old Man Musician Soapbox Time:

We Need To Talk About Your Band's Stage Appearance.

A friend saw a band at his local club that he really liked and posted a video on his facebook.  I'm not gonna post it here or mention the band because it's really not about them.  They are a really good sort of progressive sort of thrash/death metal type band and there was nothing really wrong with them other than some pitchy melodic vocals but that wasn't what kept distracting me. It's something I notice more and more lately about a lot of bands.  

A lot of bands have their shit together, they play very well and they probably play out and practice a lot which makes me hate to talk about what I'm about to talk about but visual appearance is more important than a lot of bands realize.  This seems petty but when serious heavy metal bands wear cargo shorts or dickies shorts or sweat pants other casual shit on stage.  I don't need leather pants and corpse paint, just show the audience a complete cohesive package that fits the aesthetic of the music.  I'm sure cargo shorts fit a certain musical style just like tight jeans, ripped t-shirts and puffy white basketball shoes fit whatever Anthrax and Megadeth was doing in the 80's  Maybe I'm just really old I don't know what's cool anymore but it's not 2004 and to me Limp Bizkit isn't the vibe I'm getting from the music here.  Not because I don't dress like it's 2004 still, or that I don't like loose fitting jeans as a comfortable thing to wear, it's because looking like a schlub takes me out of the dark and scary heavy metal world I wan't to be in while watching a band like this.  It makes them look like they just got off the couch or off of work and picked up a guitar.  This may be the case for many, I know times can be tough but it all falls into that same 'make it look like you give a shit' basket.  I watched an official music video of theirs and they have and there's a clear theme to the video and they're all period accurate clothing to match which is fucking awesome.  I can tell they clearly know how to bring it in the image department so what the fuck is up with the cargo shorts?  

Another thing I noticed about the video my friend posted was,  and again this isn't a knock on the band, unless it is –but I hate that the lights are behind the band. This is a pet peeve of mine which could mean that the venue doesn't know how stage lighting is supposed to work (which is common) or maybe this is what the band wants but all I see is silhouettes.  Lights are supposed to be shining on the band so the audience can see them.  This ties into the visual appearance thing.  Be proud of your music and yourselves, don't hide in the dark or in your comfy every day clothes.  And even if you have a bad sense of style, as most dudes do, I'm not saying you need a visit from Queer Eye, you just need to leave that shit at home and present yourself on stage in a way that presents a complete package for your music.  Image can seem dumb but it makes a difference.  I once got some advice a long time ago that went something like; you can get away with things on stage that you could never in real life.  The audience came for a show, give them one.  Don't just have band practice on stage. 

I have fallen in love with some bands after hearing them. Some major heavy hitting national bands... and then I looked them up on Youtube and seeing them live was like looking behind the Wizard of Oz curtain. The music is still really good but all I can think of now is Supercuts and the job interview clothes section at Kohls when I listen to them. So you're just a bunch of computer programmers? There's a thin line tho, you can't come out in matching elaborate costumes and just completely suck. There's definitely a balance.   Just show as much passion and care for your appearance as a band as you do about your music. It feels fucking shallow of me to say shit like this but a little bit goes a long way. 

Here's the part where I talk about being a hypocrite.  Yea I haven't really practiced what I'm preaching lately but I've also never been in a serious progressive metal band.  And despite actually being in a post grunge nu-metal band in the early 2000's where cargo shorts and baggy pants would have been appropriate for the genre, we actually did have specific matching stage attire and a theme when we were starting out.   We all had matching dickies work shirts with our band insignia on the back. Each in a different color.  I was orange.  At times we also died our hair to match the colors.  It was cheesy and sort of indicative of the Power Rangers but like it said, stuff that feels super cheesy,  you can get away with on stage.  It's a show and you're a character in that show.   People loved it and it was memorable and recognizable.  

Pirate Ship Designated Driver, Dog Poop, Some Pictures and a TV Show Obsession - Hold the Pickles.

How is it March?  January 1st feels like it was 7 years ago.  I know Feb is the shortest month but it literally flew by.  If I'm being honest 2019 feels like a whole different lifetime ago.  Anyhoo, here's some nonsense.  

Today I was at the Jack in The Box drive thru.  I hate drive thrus but our one and only Jack in The Box is still closed for dine-in because of Covid.  A lot of dining rooms have opened back up but the few that haven't by now I think have just gotten used to not having to deal with shitty customers in person, homeless bugging them and messy assholes shitting up the place.  I don't blame them but that doesn't change the fact that I hate drive thrus.   Like I've said before the combination of shitty speakers and employees who's first language is not English is a recipe for disaster.  Today I ordered my Jumbo Jack like I always do; no mayo, no ketchup. Add mustard.  But they must have gotten new people because the old guy would finish my order for me because he knew it was me. Today as with the last couple times when I ask for no mayo, no ketchup the read out says "no pickles"  I never said pickles.  One time it said no lettuce.  I never said lettuce.   I tried to correct him but he just told me my total and said thank you.  They had to remake when I clarified at the window.  Sorry line of cars behind me.  Fucking drive thru!! 

When I got home to let my dogs out there was shit all over the floor.  This is the whole reason I go home for lunch and am late almost every day going back to work and these fuckers shit on the floor anyway.  The fucked up part is I found out about the shit because I stepped in it.  I love my dogs but got damn. 

Last night I had a dream that I had to take over driving a pirate ship.  For some reason the captain was unable to do it but was sitting near me telling me what to do.   Most of the time I really didnt do shit but keep the giant ship steering wheel straight. But then it got super windy and I didnt know what to do.  The captain was hella drunk but he was yelling in a gruff pirate voice  "TURN LEFT!!!!!"  so I'd spin the motherfucker with all my might to the left.  then "RIIIGGHHHTTTT!!!!"  So then I'd spin it the other way.  I started to get the hang of it then suddenly there was hella traffic.  A bunch of other big pirate ships, smaller boats, then huge modern oil tankers and yachts.  I was still going full speed like it was open ocean so I had to keep zigging and zagging like crazy to not hit any of the other ships.  It was intense.  Then out of no where I see a semi truck.. A big rig with a 70ft trailer.  Then I noticed that there was an asphalt highway.  A paved road that went straight through the middle of the ocean rising up out of the sea.  I was headed straight for it and hit it but skidded my keel up the side and back down the berm of road popping out of the water.  Amazing it didnt break right off but it was a dream so fuck it.  I got back in the water and zigged and zagged some more .... then I woke up. 

I've been obsessed with this new TV show on AppleTV Plus (I know another streaming service I hate that I have to have)  called Severance.  Open the web version if you're on mobile (link at the bottom) and use the searchy thingy in the top right and search for Lost. You don't have to read any of it but you'll get an idea of how utterly stupid I was over that show.  Anyway, 3 episodes into Severance and I'm getting the tingles again like I did back then.  Luckily there's reddit now and I can get my theory fix there instead of blasting it all on here.   Just watch the trailer.  

here's some crap. 

 

My thoughts are with the people of Ukraine - Putin sucks.  That's it.   

Welcome to 2022. Please Drive Thru. Here's Extra Napkins. You'll Need Them.

 What a wild year 2021 was… or two years?  Three?   From Trump to Covid and Black Lives Matter, school shootings, fucking Russia and everything in between it's felt fucking nuts for like 7 god damn years.  I used to write a Noggin on here almost every day.  In 2006, the first full year of the Noggins, I wrote exactly 365 of these damn things.  They weren’t all zingers but I was active.  Life was normal enough that an annoying coworker got a 3 part series on here.  Or that time my boss thought bringing doves into the office was a good idea was enough inspiration to clack away about it.   I feel like some crazy ass shit happens 20 times a day now and I really can’t stop and put together anything more than a Facebook post or tweet about it.    Frankly it’s overwhelming.  But there’s something I saw recently that I just had to pause and say something about.  It’s from a place we here at the Noggins have had a long- on again, off again, love-hate relationship with; the ol' yellow and red clown himself,  McDonalds. 

I recently scrolled passed an ad for this new thing called McDonalds Menu Hacks.  I thought it was some joke so I really didn’t pay much attention. I might have tried to subconsciously keep scrolling because it mentioned the Filet O Fish. Gross.  But it was later brought to my attention what all of this actually was.   It’s a legitimate marketing strategy by McDonalds for new ways to order their normal-ass menu items.  As a fast food aficionado I am very familiar with menu hacks and secret menus.   Usually they are a way to get an item at a lower price by mixing and matching or getting something you like that's not on the menu by editing the items it usually comes with.  Burger King made it their friggin motto "Get it Your Way" so what the hell was McDonalds trying to do?  This seemed similar but not the same thing as the Secret Menu made famous by In N Out.  Not to be confused with my In N Out “Fantasy Menu”  which was an early popular post on the Noggins which inspired it's own spin-off blog. An official Secret Menu is where the restaurant has sanctioned some unofficial menu items that they will actually make for you but are not listed on the menu.  You can tell the cashier “Animal Style Burger”  and they will know what it is, what to charge you for it and make it.  And there’s the main difference between the secret menu and this Hack Menu nonsense.    Imagine if the Double Double wasn't on the menu but you could still order it as a hack, but they give you two Cheeseburgers.  I'll explain what I mean.

Here’s what is going on with this Hacks menu and why after all the bullshit going on in the world right now I'm writing about this.  The items you can now order are:  Hash Brown McMuffin,  Surf & Turf, Crunchy Double and Land, Air & Sea.   Let's take a pretty basic one and show you why this is the fucking dumbest, most pointless shit ever.  

Hash Brown McMuffin is a Sausage Egg & Cheese McMuffin with a Hash Brown on it.  Simple enough, and I’m sure many people have gotten a McMuffin Breakfast Meal and put the hash brown on it already.  But now you can order a Hash Brown McMuffin from the “Hacks” menu and they will………. wait for it…….  Put a Sausage Egg McMuffin AND a Hash Brown, separately in your bag and charge you for a Sausage Egg McMuffin and a Hash Brown.   What the actual fuck?   What’s the fucking point?  To save 2 seconds and breathing  0.4 ounces of air from you having to order two separate things?   And if you're looking at the photo of the lineup above you can probably guess... it gets worse.  The Land Air & Sea is the President Trump of this lineup and it’s a Big Mac with a chicken patty and a Filet of Fish patty and whatever ever portions of the toppings that come on them ends up on it after you follow the instructions on how to build it.  But as you guessed it you’re buying three fucking sandwiches and throwing away four buns and whatever else falls off while you’re sitting in your car in the parking lot trying to carefully build this stupid, gross monstrosity.   Do people really order this enough they needed to make it an official thing? How would they even know people are doing this.  If someone orders a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and a 6 piece Chicken Nuggets, like I’ve been known to order from time to time, who’s telling them they’re gonna put the nuggets on the burger and call it a Crunchy Double?  Who decided to call it the Crunchy Double?   Was the McDonalds ad department just getting high and trying to think of crazy shit? That's actually not too different than how me and a couple friends came up with the Fantasy Menu I mentioned before.  Apparently people do order this crap.  Some of these and other creations have been popular on something called Tik Tok and McDonalds jumped on the bandwagon... in all the wrong ways.  This whole thing just insults my sensibilities as a civilized person in society.  

On the menu page it shows the items with a fun colorful bubble letting you know how cool it is to “Make it yourself”  YAY! … NO!!  That’s a bug, not a feature you dumb shits.  That’s like the main thing that makes this whole thing suck so much.  I mean, other than throwing away two halves of a sandwich for literally no good reason.  Oh and I just noticed that the Surf & Turf is only available for a limited time.  WHY!??  They aren't making anything!  "Can I get a Surf & Turf?"  Sorry we don't have those anymore that was for a limited time only.  "Uhh ok, can I get a double cheeseburger and a filet o fish?"  Absolutely, thank you, please drive thru...    It's- the - same - fucking - thing.  This is completely insane. Am I going insane?  Is this not fucking ridiculous?

 

I get it, having unique variations on classics is a great way to freshen up your menu but for fuck’s sake pay an employee a living wage and let them take the extra 2 seconds to add a fish patty to a double cheeseburger instead of making two fully made sandwiches and throwing them in the bag.   It’s not rocket science.    I dunno, it might actually be asking too much tho because once I tried a hack … a real one that I thought of myself, not this Hacks Menu bullshit. … I asked them to add a slice of cheese to my Big Breakfast with Hotcakes.  This way you can make a sausage egg & cheese McMuffin out of the sausage patty, scrambled eggs and muffin they give you, but now it has cheese.  Anyway the dipshit cook put the cheese on the pancake. Who puts cheese on a pancake? Who would ever think this is what the customer wanted?  Before it came out I saw the cheese on there and was getting ready to complain but the manager saw it and yelled at the cook in Spanish. “¿something something queso something pancake?”  He remade it and everything was cool and I got to have hotcakes, a Sausage Egg &Cheese McMuffin and a little left over scrambled egg for the price of just a Hot Cake Big Breakfast.  Another hack a friend of mine used to do was to order two $1 cheeseburgers; substitute Big Mac sauce and add lettuce. then combine them for a Big Mac for only $2.  You still throw away a bun but it’s an actual hack, with a purpose.  And that’s the thing tho right?  If you’re thinking your sneaky, coming up with a way to actually HACK the menu and you end up with extra buns or something it’s because it wasn’t a sanctioned official item and them's the beans if you gotta toss a bun, but now, from a corporate level they're legitimatizing throwing away food.  In 2022, It’s bonkers.  As far as pricing goes, since people were doing this shit before and McDonalds just decided to roll with it, I'm sure you're still getting charged full price for everything individually.  Hack, my ass. This was just dumb kids thinking they're being creative so they can get internet points. 

Creators of McDonalds realizing Ray Crock
totally fucked them in The Founder. 

In conclusion, it’s a stupid, stupid, wasteful, lazy marketing campaign coat-tailing an even stupider internet trend where McDonalds literally gets to do nothing but give a single name to ordering 4 separate things you have to build yourself while losing the satisfaction of it being a clever thing you think you thought of yourself.  It’s the fast food equivalent of putting an advertisement for the secret swimming hole location on a billboard and still calling it the “secret swimming spot”.   Well, McDonalds has never really been famous for not being a piece of shit company who underpays their workers and sells addictive shitty food to people like me.  I guess if you took the time to read the nutritional facts they post on the wall of the restaurant and watched the movie The Founder and are still OK with going there… I guess this bullshit shouldn’t surprise you(me).  

If you're wondering what they taste like you probably have never been to a McDonalds before.  But if you're still wondering, this guy ate them so you don't have to. 

I still haven’t gotten Covid as far as I know so there’s that I guess.  If this topic interests you, you’re probably a horrible piece of crap like me, but despite this, please still get vaccinated.  I love you. 

DoNt YoU kNoW HoW tO UsE a GuN?

Today in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial... which is a whole other shit-show of injustice... there is a photo of the prosecutor pointing the AR-15 from the case at what many thought was the jury. Many pointed out that he had his finger on the trigger which started a firestorm of comments about all of the things he was doing was wrong. Wrong how? All of these commenters were gun enthusiasts or had an ample amount of experience with firearms. I agreed with everything they were saying but what I think it's funny, (strange? ironic?) when these people complain and mock non-gun people for handing firearms incorrectly and for not knowing what they know... for saying things like "OMG don't you know you aren't supposed to point a gun at anyone?" or "WTF don't you know you never put your finger on the trigger unless you intend on pulling it?!!" "IDIOT, Dont you know you're supposed to always act like it's loaded no matter what?!!!"

Actually no... No I don't know that.. because there are no regulations for requiring training or testing for skill, coordination, eyesight etc for owning a gun that says I have to by law. There's literally nothing stopping an untrained normie like me from buying something designed specifically to kill things. Other than my own sense of self control and common sense.

The NRA crowd fights so hard to keep their perception of the 2nd Amendment going. No regulations, no rules, no restrictions, but then also complain, even laugh at the audacity of someone who dares to use a gun without knowing how to use it... meanwhile fighting any law that would require what they want. What is also interesting is that the NRA for most of it's existence was the unofficial arbiters of gun control for this country. Now they're just lobbyists.

(This meme might make more sense if you watch I Think You Should Leave on Netflix)

I want to add that I actually do know all of the things I jokingly said I didnt know. I am an observant, curious, intelligent person. I was making a point, much like the scene in the meme above that not everyone knows everything even though you may assume it's common knowledge. Which is why the scene is funny, It's safe for the angry guy to assume an adult behind the wheel of a car, that's pulling out of a parking space would have a driver's license. Moreso than it would for someone with a gun to have gone to training of some kind to learn basic gun safety. Because one is required by law. One isn't. So shut the fuck up or vote for the type of gun control that deep down, you actually want.

I call him "The Photographer" (Fresh Freeze Incident Update)

Some of you might remember The Mysterious Fresh Freeze Incident I posted back in 2016.  You can click the link for the details but basically as I was about to pull out of my parking space after picking up burgers and shakes this dude is standing next to my car yelling at me.   Repeating  "DO NOT TRY TO CONTACT ME - I WILL FILE A RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST YOU" while snapping as many pics as he could with a little point-and-shoot camera.   I yelled back to see what the fuck he was talking about but he kept snapping pics with the camera backwards as he walked away.   It was totally bizarre and chalked it up to him thinking I was someone else and just kind of laughed it off.  I wrote that blog post and then pretty much forgot about it. 

 That was until I saw him again several months later in the same part of town.  I was at a red light and I was just sitting there waiting for the light to change, checking out the scenery of the intersection and I noticed that it kind of looked like that same guy.  He already had his phone out pointed at me taking pictures!  The light turned green so I just drove off thinking "what the fuck?" ... Then again about a year later I saw him in what appeared to be a shitty dress thing and he did a double take as he saw me pass and then flipped me off.    And again closer to down town, again I was driving and he locked on me as I noticed him and he whipped out the double eagles with full conviction directly at me.  And over the past five years I've had a few more similar interactions with The Photographer.  

Just when I sort of forget about him, I'll see him again and it's as if he's been just walking around town all this time just looking for me.  Ready with a camera phone or middle fingers to let me know he remembers me and that for some reason unbeknownst to me he absolutely hates me and "will file a restraining order against me" I'm reminded of him now because just last week as I was driving home from work on the other side of town and I saw him again... and he totally saw me... snapped his sunglassed gaze directly at me and blasted me with two fully erect middle fingers.  

If anyone knows this guy,  ask him what his deal is with me... and if he thinks I'm someone else, please correct him.  Maybe it's just my car that he's recognizing as someone else.  It's a white 2011 Scion xB.  It's a little creepy but I don't really feel threatened.  It's mostly funny at this point that he's so dedicated to hating me, a total stranger, after five years.   

My Problem With Superman

original art by me @kirkiscool - come at me DC Comics. 

Ok so I probably shouldn't be going off on shit I really don't know that much about.  Especially when it's something a ton of nerds are hella passionate about and will definitely defend.  Well, despite me just casually knowing that this shit exists for the last 30 years of my life I thought I'd give my very unsolicited, uninformed opinion.   Everyone loves those.  

Even as a kid I never really could get into Superman. I've always felt like I was supposed to. He's super after all, but he's basically invincible. If you think about it, there's nothing really exciting about that. There's only one thing can harm him and it's not even something that's naturally found on earth. Why is he super buffed? If he naturally has super-strength from outer space why does he even need muscles? They couldn't just let him be super powerful and completely invincible tho they had to give him X-Ray vision too. Oh but he can't see through lead for some reason. What a bummer to end up on a planet with tons of lead on it. OK, so lead and Kryptonite are the two things that can fuck with him. He has less rules than a vampire. Wait, is he immortal? That makes having a girlfriend kind of awkward. .......Oh yea AND he can fucking fly. HE CAN FUCKING FLY!! What the goddamn fuck? One other thing I just realized... accepting the suspension of disbelief that having underwear outside the pants is just normal alien clothes, why does the underwear need a god damn belt? His whole body can defy gravity but his space underwear tights need help staying up? None of this makes sense.

How have there been nearly100 years of Superman storylines that just have him just majorly winning all the god damn time? I never read a Superman comic but I've seem some of the movies. In the movies the only trouble he ever really faces is from some rich maniac who somehow was able to get Kryptonite. It's like making a comic about a regular sized human that ends up on a planet of just ants and fights ant crime and puts on some ant glasses and works at the ant newspaper and none of the ants notice he's 800 times taller and not an ant. My point is how is this still entertaining? (actually I'd probably check out the ant movie lol)

OH MY GOD I totally forgot another power he has. I can't believe I forgot about his laser beam fucking eyes. This beautiful, perfect, immortal, X-ray vision having flying motherfucker can shoot god damn laser beams from his eyes. And now that I'm thinking about it, he can fly like HELLA fast. He flew so fast once he literally reversed the rotation of the earth and went back in time. As if that's how it works. Morons. Fuck you Superman.
And can we talk about that disguise tho? LOL. I mean, his disguise is more unbelievable to me than the whole story of an alien baby with super powers who can't be killed or hurt being blasted to Earth and raised by farmers in Kansas... without anyone finding out about it. But yea the glasses have everyone fooled? Not to mention he literally works with investigative journalists who's job is to notice shit. "KENT I need you to get to the bottom of this Superman business" "Wait, has anyone seen Clark?" "He's always busy doing whoknowswhat when there's a Superman scoop in progress..... darn that Kent!" Morons!!!!

Another funny thing is that the other super popular DC hero from the last 100 years is a guy with ZERO superpowers who is very mortal but somehow is just as successful at stopping bad guys, not dying and being a popular comic book character... and some could argue a more popular movie franchise. Fuck Superman.  Don't get me started on Supergirl.. How the fuck does that even work?  Wait, you probably totally know and will tell me all about it in great detail, I don't want to know.   And Batgirl while we're at it.  It's like the pink bike or 'Bic Pen For Her' version of comic book heroes. 

I'm sure there's gonna be comic nerds out there screaming at me for this post.  Telling me about some other important aspect to this that I'm probably missing completely that makes bazillions of people love this shit but I don't get it and don't really care.  Superman is dumb. 

Anyway, get vaccinated.  It's kind of like being Superman. Your kryptonite is anti-vaxxers and led is like, not dying from covid but you can still get it....or something...  Whatever, just get the shot. Wear a mask and don't have or attend  superspreader events.  May the force be with you.  Nanu Nanu , live long and prosper. 

Plasma Waste Converters: The Answer To Everything...

 ...and how capitalism will find a way to fuck it up. 

You know that scene at the end of Back To The Future where Doc Brown puts a banana peel and a half full can of Miller Lite into the engine of the Delorian via something called "Mr. Fusion" ? Well this is that.  Kind of.   I learned about Plasma Waste Converters on my favorite podcast Stuff You Should Know.  While listening I was thinking to myself why the fuck is there not one of these plants in every fucking town in the world?   Oh because of the shitty capitalists that run Earth.   The reason I'm so excited about this is because of what it could mean for not only the energy problem but the waste problem us dirty fucking humans have.    Watch this short video.  Or listen to the podcast I listened to.  (You should be listening to these guys anyway)

So basically, you put in literally any kind of trash, normal, gross, toxic or whatever and it converts it into a durable, useable material but also clean hydrogen gas that not only powers the plant itself but also can power your whole fucking town.  Why do we still make stupid solar panels again?  I mean, this is as clean as nuclear power but there's no radioactive waste.  Fuck, it actually eats waste. 

 For us to not be implementing this on a large scale is such a human/capitalist fucking way to go out .  We have the solution but no one wants to rock the boat. I hear the argument that it's too expensive... yet oil companies have no problem building refineries all over the country. Power plants and solar arrays and wind farms are built all over the country. Huge amounts of money is invested in oil drilling and pipelines. Landfills are probably not cheap either. It's not that it's expensive it's that it's not as profitable.  I wouldnt be surprised if energy companies were actively spending money trying to stop these plants from being built.   Chevron could buy or merge with Waste Management and invest in converting Oil Refineries into Waste incinerating power plant trash dumps. Create govt. incentives for waste companies to work with energy companies, or something along one of these lines.

This is some Star Trek "we don't use money any more" utopia-level shit that 21st century, dick-brain Earthlings aren't ready for apparently.

I Was Born in the Mid-Late 20th Century...

...Like a Fucking Artifact that Archeologists In The Future Will Dig Up and Study.

 I just read this comment on a throw away meme that's blowing my mind a little.  The meme was joking about a young person saying that teh movie The Matrix was made in the late 1900's and how its making middle aged people like myself feel old.  The comment someone wrote was talking about a conversation with a kid in the not-so-far future. "...I tell them I was born in the late 1900's ...They go tell their friends that I lived back in the old times of horses and buggies and flip phones, during Vietnam and the Great Depression and WWI because at this point the 1900's is a monolithic century in the distant past that all kinda runs together and they have no concept that 1998 was very different from 1908. " –  insert head_exploding.gif here.

It took me doing a bunch of historical photo research for work to really start to get a grasp of the 1800's.   1808 was very different that 1898. Not as different as the advancements and changes that happened in the 1900's but more that most people think.  Saying the 1900's and the Matrix movie together threw me off since we usually say "19th century" or "20th century"   I always associate late 1800's as 1808-1809 and so on.  It's funny to think that some kid is just gonna yadda yadda the whole 20th century some day tho.

I have also often wondered how the 1970's seemed so much different to me as a teenager in the 1990's than the 1990s does to me now.  So much happened from the 70's to the 90's that I'm sure people who were teens in the 70's notice the difference right? Does the 90's seem as goofy to teenagers in the 2010's as the 70's did to me? Or even the 2000's to kids in high school now? When I was a kid growing up in the 80's the 1960's was like antique Black and White, Hippy fueled Twilight Zone of giant steel cars and olden times.  Were the 2000's that much different than 2021?   Did kids growing up in the 2000's think the 80's was some ancient wood paneled, VHS cassette, neon sit-com, acid-washed, Walkman, MTV Twilight Zone?   Gah.. just crazy to think about.

Yea, The Matrix came out in the "late 1900's" Jesus fucking shit I'm an old person now.

A Year Later

Lately my Facebook Memories feed is full of all of the things that we did a year ago to "get us through a couple months of quarantine" –These things gave us hope that we could survive not only physically but mentally get us through a new temporary way of living.   And it worked– with the hopeful  idea in the backs of our heads that it was going to end soon.  Then spring turned to summer and when the sunny weather didn't 'magically' make it go away autumn arrived cases kept soaring, people kept dying reality set in and all of these fun distractions just devolved into daily reminders of how fucked up this whole thing actually is.   Stores being sold out of N95 masks turned into a new market of fun, designer pandemic masks.  This all was more of a reminder of how shitty people  truly are and how this was probably going to last a whole year.  Or longer.

 

I even jumped on the bandwagon and made some funny stickers.  My band made a social distance demo with a tongue-in-cheek title and album cover.  We were even worried the pandemic would be over before we could release it.   It came out in August. 

 It was just around a year ago I remember seeing the news stories of new Covid outbreaks in the Midwest and New England all traced back to Spring Breakers in Florida.   With every positive news story or low infection day, there was Trump telling a stadium full of unmasked people the virus wasn't real.   Eventually the howling at 8pm started to fade and the sun started to go down at 6pm.  No one sang opera from their balconies.  The Zoom parties with friends got less frequent.  Not only was Tiger King was a distant memory but Carole fuckin' Baskin was already voted off Dancing With The Stars.  We even stopped baking sourdough bread despite the stores finally restocking those coveted yeast packets. We just wanted it to end.  As I open the last Costco pack of my toilet paper stockpile I wonder if it will ever end.

Here we are a year later.  We survived the winter while going out to eat under a tarp in a freezing, semi-permanent outdoor restaurant seating structure.  The country is nearly ready to open the vaccine to all adults over the age of 18 but yet again thousands or horny dumb shit college students went back to Florida to breed a new strain of Covid-19 that they'll take home with them. To towns full of morons who refuse to get the vaccine.  So now I wonder, what kind of mutations is this virus going to morph into that will render the vaccines people are getting useless?  How much longer am I going to have to wear a fucking mask?

I think I probably said this a year ago, but this is how I think humanity dies. Not war, not an asteroid, not global warming...  just our own damn stupid selves being too bothered to stay home for a couple months and wear a mask.