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2 Boxes of Random
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Found
- Hits: 165
So, after the previous blog posts at the Library back home where I'm tackling the boxes of random shit problem.
I unpacked 2 boxes, about as much trauma as I can endure per day.
Finds included:
- 1 broken antique telephone (sadly it might have broken on my watch, now good only for mixed media parts)
- 1 Medalta Crock-Pot lid
- 2 bottles of lavender essential oil
- 1 bottle of orange essential oil
- 1 bottle of wild oregano essential oil
- 1 sonic denture cleaner, new in box (bought for rocks)
- coloured contacts (searched, not good after 10 years, glad I checked)
- 1 bottle Tylenol
- 2 tweezers, 2 nail clippers
- 1 badger-hair barber brush (for shaving)
- 1 hand-blown glass toothbrush holder...
- 1 razor, disposable
- 5 antique calipers
- 1 bottle linseed oil
- 1 plastic container filled with flints and springs from discarded disposable lighters
- 1 filter for vintage 35 mm camera
- pack of 4 flashbulbs
- 1 thing you look through, stereoscope, modern, plastic, suspect it was meant for watching 3D movies on phone but not sure
- 1/4 tube Polysporin
- 12 empty gel caps, in bottle
- 2 (more!) jars of tiger balm
- 1 temporary tattoo of flowers
- 1 bottle of ink for stamp-pads
- 1 legal embosser/stamp
- container of model paints
- a bunch of the old close-up lenses for phone, cheap, clip on over phone lens
That covers most of it. Now only to open and process the remaining 16 boxes...
The Last of Us
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 178
My daughter has a thing for Pedro Pascal, and having heard that I was watching "Temptation Island" - (appalling, but I can see the appeal. Something about a group of idiot couples that want to 'test' the boundaries of their relationships by writhing naked in a hot-tub or pit with 12 hot members of the opposite gender seems appropriately absurd) has recommended I watch "The Last of Us".
Which I did, mostly so you don't have to.
If you're as clueless as I was, it's about a Cordyceps pandemic that turns humankind into flesh-eating zombies. So we go from there, the episodes follow, mostly drivel - a better and more entertaining quality of drivel than "Temptation Island", for sure, but drivel nonetheless. On the plus side it was largely filmed in Calgary and the surrounding areas, if you pay close attention you'll recognize the city, and - I noticed, Calgary looks a lot better when you add 20 years of post-apocalyptic decay. Certainly it's improved the population.
On the bad side (and here I took great delight in confronting the daughter), well, too many bits of silliness to forgive. Like that the cities are all in complete and utter post-apocalyptic decay and ruin, yet the countryside remains largely pristine. That the gas in 20 years works fine. That power lines and many other bits of infrastructure will remain upstanding. I could go on, and if you were my daughter and I was drunk and raving I'm pretty sure I did.
But - what really annoyed me were the "flashback" episodes, where they attempt to provide emotional depth and backstory to the characters. Like the much-talked about gay relationship between Bill and Frank, well done, for sure, but in no ways relevant to the story at hand, merely a "Woke" interlude to embitter conservatives and pander to a liberal fanbase. The same with Ellie's "Best friend/got bitten" episode. Irrelevant, Woke, and just plain bad storytelling.
So, overall, 1/10, lightly entertaining, but if you don't have a crush on Pedro Pascal probably not what you're looking for.
The Week, Sold, Liberal Candidate, Etc
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 208
So, the week past, the restaurant (old) sold, and then not sold, and then sold, and then not.
I trust no one.
I meet the owner, Jack, of the Superette, he's swearing the restaurant sold. I have other information. We disagree.
This morning I run into him again, I was right, word on the street is that they're due to open in a couple of weeks.
Other news from the same family, their son, JR, the one that has a wife, 4 kids and lives in his mom's house, the one I worked with - 6 years of his management stylings, has decided to run for Liberal MP in the Kootenay-Columbia-Southern Rockies riding.
His mom is boosting him on Facebook, they're hoping to ride the coat-tails of Carny's popularity.
Now, if you've followed this blog any length of time you probably know my feelings about JR. The fact that he lives at home with his Mother, Wife and 4 Children would be a start. The fact that last summer he blew off working at a restaurant - the same restaurant that pays his salary, the restaurant that pays him $50, $60 dollars an hour to not show up, not manage, and when he did show up stood to make upwards of $400, $500 a day in tips (on top of his salary) - to be "on call" to stock shelves at a liquor store, well, that tells you all you need to know. The fact that he's still a rooting-tooting Elon Musk Fanboy should be warning enough.
Ambitious? Well, after a fashion, as long as it doesn't require he do any work. But he's "by default" the candidate the Liberals chose, unopposed, well, this is ridiculous. In a riding of just over 100, 000 people there are no less than 90, 000 people more qualified than he is. I'm offended, not just because I think Carny is the best choice for PM and really wanted to vote Liberal, but at the fact that the nepotism that saw him selected as Candidate represents the same level of qualifications and competence we're seeing south of the border.
I'm so spitting mad that I actually wrote a letter to the Liberal Party last weekend condemning their choice, no reply as of yet.
***
The son comes to visit for a couple of days, his new van kitted out for survival in the wilderness, the tree-planting season, his "Shagging Wagon" as I'd call it, only it needs a more glorious paint job...
He's filled it with boxes from the storage locker, a couple dozen, and my place, already cozy and untidy has come once again to resemble a home, "my home",...the broken-down boxes, filled with collections like my broken trumpet & trombone collection, my broken clock collection, "Mixed Media" as I'd call it, more neckties, broken watches, rocks (more rocks!!), dinosaur bones, etc, stuff that I have to deal with, soon, as there will be an annual inspection shortly and I'm in no ways prepared.
I marvel at the contents of the boxes, every "unboxing" reveals a trove of smashed and broken-down treasures, projects that will occupy my retirement long past the sunset years... unpacking these and sorting the contents will take a couple of weeks, for the moment I'm basking in the glorious chaos of what is feeling like home, like indulging in the luxury of an extra-rancid fart in an unventilated space, the man-turned-inside-out, although I'm committed, a box or two per day and I'll be on top of this in a week, much of it bound for the trash, I got this...
And, for the moment this is it...
Orange Cat
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 716
They started off innocently enough.
A fat orange tabby, off on some adventures. AI generated nonsense designed to keep you from reading the news or your friends feed or doing something, anything more productive than this. Facebook, or Meta.
Fat Orange Tabby pulling vegetables, cooking dinner, going on a date.
Hundreds of these videos, more than I could watch if I sat at the computer or on my phone 24 hours a day.
The cut-scenes give it away, different cats (same Fat Orange tabby, but if you look you might spot differences), different kitchens, different and occasionally nonsensical vegetables, backgrounds. The models aren't preserved, the videos are just generated 1 scene at a time and then stitched together with a "Plot".
The plot has been growing darker. The cat, as you might guess, gets tired of eating vegetables. Orange cat befriends chicken, then gets in fight, sharpening knife upon a whetstone (or AI's poor imagining of this), Orange cat eating chicken.
Same again, this time with mice, orange cat throws a bomb into a hole in the wall, mice pour out, orange cat rides home on a bicycle with a basket full of mice, makes dinner. Mice swimming in the soup. Orange cat rescues rabbit, eats rabbit. Or catches fish (with a bomb) or a thousand other trivial details, the story the same, Orange cat finds pig, cow, etc, etc, and finds ways to eat it. Every prompt is reused a thousand times, and the results are stitched together in a narrative.
The plot thickens. All is the same, only Orange cat - when he has dinner made, calls a friend with his cellphone and invites them over for dinner. Here comes rooster/lion/tiger/panther with a case of beer. They toast the beer before dinner and then rooster/lion/panther etc falls over, clearly drugged. Orange cat whets the knife again and cooks them up for his next dinner...
Or skins them and pretends to be a lion....
There are thousands of these, every one different, every one the same. Sometimes they have subtitles, in English, Chinese, most often they don't.
They evolve in the course of days, Lion/Tiger/Panther get muscular, ride motorcyles with sunglasses and lots of gold chains.
Same story.
Now the story takes a twist, all the animals begin protesting, "Arrest Orange Cat", "Orange Cat to Jail", duck as prosecutor, lawyer, or doctor after Orange cat takes a beating.
Orange cat in jail in chains, Orange cat sobbing.
The sound effects - the same music, every video, the “guffaw” you hear in a lot of the “comedy” videos, or a psychopathic baby laugh at the end, or maybe something a little generic, but it’s always the same.
I’m coming to the conclusion that they are encouraging some sort of revolution, Fat Orange Cat is a metaphor for US Politics, devouring strangers and then his friends, that somehow, subliminally, entire populations are being groomed to revolution by inane AI videos on Facebook. There's no other explanation.
In the end that's how the war will be won, by a population so dumbed down with distractions, AI nonsense, that it won't be common sense or decency that leads them to revolution, it will be a dumb AI Orange Cat video when everyone decides Fat Orange Cat needs to get what it deserves...
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