You know the most popular constructed language in the world, created with the hope of unifying all of the peoples? Yeah, I hate it. L.L. Zamenhof designed it to be easy to learn, particular for people in his environment, and in that area, thee language succeeds. It is definitely easy to learn, due to its simplicity and familiarity, but in every other regard, I hate it. First of all, it often sounds like someone just spoke Latin and then intentionally mispronounced everything. Seriously, wh
It's from earlier this decade, and I think that it's the one that they made in the first half of 2014, according to the tech support guys who sold it to me. There have been a few major discounts coming from their office, selling used Macbooks for a couple hundred dollars and stuff like that. Not just anybody can buy them.
In any case, the takeaway here is that I have a Mac. Specifically, a five-and-a-half-year-old Mac Mini, with some dismal I/O and a little bit of dust inside. However,
I'm saving my more serious review for another blog. This is just the one where I give a synopsis of my thoughts. Good movie, as a standalone. There was an interesting theme about finding balance between living for others and finding time for yourself. Buzz was strongly out of character, and they didn't have enough of him in the movie. He really should have been there as a constant thematic foil to Bo Peep, and also to make the movie as emotionally fulfilling as possible. Bo Peep needed a f
I said that I would wait until the next Big Thing before upgrading everything of mine wholesale to the Apple ecosystem. After asking a lot of people at Best Buy, I've decided that the thing I'll wait for will be the eventual 6G network. So basically, it will probably be around 2030 when I upgrade to Apple. Also, I discovered that while 2G and 3G are being phased out of service in the next year or two, there are some 4G (and inevitably, 5G) flip phones. That's right, my father can still hold
You never go back. At least, that's what I hear. Honestly, if I went Mac, I probably wouldn't go back, either. It isn't because it's so much better than everything else, because I actually never liked the interface of Macs. At least they have changed their mouses from those ugly early 2000's which thought that it was a good idea to be featureless. Still, fewer viruses are written for them. Once you get to a certain age, you become a single-issue voter when it comes to which computer gets your
Some controversy has been raised on this subject, courtesy of my idol Steven Spielberg. He's a big believer in the power of the Big Screen, and that the Oscars celebrates the culture of the Big Screen every year. It isn't necessarily a celebration of all movies across all mediums. After all, movies that are made for television win their awards at the Emmy's. So how does Netflix fit into this? Netflix movies have budgets, and major directors and actors attached, and they aim for a cinematic exp
To be honest? Probably Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I expected good animation. I wasn't expecting something that was great in every conceivable way. It was some real movie magic. Otherwise, here were some of the other movies that were among the best of the year but were not nominated for Best Picture. A Quiet Place, Crazy Rich Asians, The Mule, Ready Player One, 12 Strong, First Man, The 15:17 to Paris, and Game Night. I highly recommend all of these. Lemme see...yeah, and now th
Alfonso Cuarón is, in my opinion, one of the greatest directors of all time. He's basically up there with Spielberg and (when he's on a roll) James Cameron. So I'm absolutely rooting for him to win Best Picture and Best Director. And also Best Cinematography, because his movies have consistently had some of the best cinematography I've ever seen. I'm also a sucker for black and white. Furthermore, he's more talented than Alejandro González Iñárritu, and deserves as many Oscars as him at the
For the last few years, I've had a certain perception of masculinity. Just before I sat down to write something, I noticed that someone had carved into the public desk I was using a rather rude way of saying, "Earn lots of money and get girls." This struck me as peculiar. Since when was a man's masculinity dependent upon picking up girls? Why should men obsessed with masculine things find so much value in mingling with some"thing" so fundamentally opposed to their masculine pursuits? Somet
If I were a rich man (da ba de ba de ba de ba de ba de ba de ba dum) I would be a sponsor for a few thousand people trying to immigrate to America, although because I'm someone eccentric, there would a a certain condition. Lately, I've been offering several friends to pay for all of the expenses should they legally change their last names to "Skywalker." So anyway, in the age-old tradition of Americanizing the surnames of immigrants, if I could pay ten thousand people to change their last nam
Well, I watched it a couple of days ago. So here we go: This is one of the only movies I've ever immediately bought a ticket to rewatch it after leaving the theatre. It really excited me. At various points, it reminded me in the best possible way of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: James Cameron Edition, the Sam Raimi Spider-Man, Mad Max: Fury Road, TRON: Legacy, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Godzilla, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Finding Nemo, Jules Vern, old pulp serials about pirates, th
I've been seeing this on the internet a lot. People will address the opinion that someone else has on something large and complicated, and they will make a video which they will title "XXXXX Debuked" for your suggested videos list. Then I will see people who make videos that debunk the videos that debunked the original point. Presumably, somewhere out there is a video where someone debunks the video debunking the video debunking the original video. "Debunking" sounds pretty definitive to m
No more BIONICLE. Hasn't had much BIONICLE in a while. Wait, let's interrupt this rewind to talk about what's really important and pat the backs of BZPers who stood for something bigger then themselves. Like Audible! Speaking of which, they're the sponsor of today's blog post. You're busy, we're busy; everybody's busy! They told us all that we wouldn't read another book again after we finished high school, but now we can beat that statistic by listening to books on the go. I use Audible all th
Recently, charges were laid against a popular Thai Youtuber because she criticized a dress worn by Ms. Thailand. The dress in question is designed by a fashion company run by a member of the royal family, Princess Sirivannavari Nariratanna. National law makes it illegal to criticize or speak ill of the royal family, although this only applies to the king, queen, and immediate successors to the throne. Sirivannavari Nariratanna is not an immediate heir, but there is still an argument to be mad
There was only one person on the ballot in my regional election. Understandably, he won his reelection bid. I told him that maybe he needs a challenger next time, so I'll put some thought into running against him. And just to make the ballot form really fun, I'll legally change my name to Alexandria Santa-Ana-Pinta-Nina-Maria-Quintanilla-Poco-Loco-en-el-Coco-Buffalo-Buffalo-Buffalo-Buffalo-Buffalo-Buffalo-Buffalo-Buffalo-Pinocchio-Picasso-Ocasio-Cortez. And require that that whole thing be p
Sadly, the issues that really matter are not on the ballot. I almost got to meet my governor and talk about them before election day, but sadly that moment for the history books never happened. Next election, though, I propose these core issues: Convert our counting system to Base 120. Pass a constitutional amendment denying the existence of Canada. Change all of the lame state flags that looks alike. The ones that are okay can stay the same, but all those others need to go. Make Ithkuil
"Why is the U.S. so stupid and uses non-metric? Why they so stubborn that way? I hate you you stupid Americans!" Sure, I'll answer that question with another question. "Why does the rest of the world use measurements where you can't divide by 3?" Let's put it this way: there are countries that have been to the moon...and then there are countries that use metric. I really don't feel like America is a bunch of primitive men with sticks because of our road signs are different. We're a laug
So what I found out it that my governor, Kim Reynolds, made it so that henceforth in the state of Iowa, Columbus Day is also Indigenous People's Day at the same time. Sure, I can get behind that. I'm not Italian and don't really care much about Columbus. And frankly, the point behind that day isn't just to celebrate one man, but the whole general idea of world history including both hemispheres for the first time. Personally, I still like the idea of just calling it "New World Day," but I'm
Let me be clear. No, I will not watch Venom. No interest. Zero. None. He's a pretty cool villain, but I want his origins done right. I want him to show up in a storyline with Peter Parker. Peter Parker must be a well-developed character who has gone through multiple character arcs. The symbiote should be the stimulus that takes him to a new level. After all, it messes with his personality. It's a cool way to take a character that's normally light-hearted and make him a little more seri
A trailer hasn't made me this excited since the "Chewy, we're home" one came out in 2015. I saw this within minutes of it coming out and initially didn't think anything of it, until I saw the official channel name. And then I dropped EVERYTHING.
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Take all of its most charming features and compound upon them! The country is called Fraiçzzaeioux (pronounces "Froz"). The language is called Fraiçzzeieiolluoixs (pronounced "Fras-wa!"). Chinese can also be improved. I propose that the name of the Chinese language be pronounces as Han125. The superscript means that it is pronounced with the 125st tone out of 625 tones. The character will take 744 strokes to complete, and be dozens of shade-sensitive colors. The colors are morphemic.
So long story short, if you die in Canada, you die in real life. It's a meme, and we all know that people actually die in Canada. Why do I need to clarify this? I'm showing this one guy, a student resources person at one of the local colleges, this Canada-themed sewing project that I'm working on. "Canada, there's a place we need to learn lessons from. They don't have any murders up there." "Well, not as many," I clarify. "No, almost none at all. Did you know that in the last ten year
Red, blue, and...green. When we were kids, we thought that we had it all figured out. We knew that the primary colors were red, blue, and yellow. All other colors came from these three. Our kindergarten art teachers told us so, and who better qualified to give us such truisms than them? Then we made it to fifth grade. We landed ourselves in a class with a science teacher who also had something to say about color, and she contradicted our art teacher. The three primary colors were not what we
