MetaFilter

I watched the (great) Maggie Mae Fish video the other day. I didn't understand that the primary target of anti-smoking and anti-drug campaigns was Congress. It makes a lot of sense why things are the way they are, but very dismaying
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posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 8:46 AM on May 15, 2024

Amazing! And also ND Stephenson is responsible for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and also the most excellent Nimona
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 2:52 PM on May 13, 2024

Bah! Why didn't I preview that one!
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 2:52 PM on May 13, 2024

Holy cats that made my morning.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 7:24 AM on May 13, 2024

I get the same vibe as those food stalls in Pompeii, like lots of things have changed, but the human experience is the same.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 7:23 AM on May 11, 2024

(I believe this is a response to a Twitter thread, and the tl;dr is "No, the system is")
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 8:24 AM on May 8, 2024

I spent a lot of time between 2020 and 2022 volunteering in food banks. While both of them were generally able to offer people coming their choices of food and worked to accommodate allergies, over that time both got much busier.

One was run by a church (it happened to be close to my house, which is why I was volunteering there) and they seemed to think that the increase in attendance was a sign of God's love for people (being a le to provide for people in need or… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 9:43 AM on May 8, 2024

This is the kind of content I need first thing in the morning as I emerge from my (much shorter) hibernation.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 8:58 AM on April 26, 2024

Is sympathetic neck pain a thing?
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 7:00 PM on April 22, 2024

I read a lot of his shorter work as a young philosophy student in the late 80s, and when "Consciousness Explained" came out, I thought "there's a title full of hubris, right there"
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 3:54 PM on April 19, 2024

archive.org
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 12:32 PM on April 19, 2024

shots that don’t even reach the rim are airballs

"Klay Thompson's bizarre vasectomy spree causes panic"
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 8:30 PM on April 17, 2024

I came back to Monterey to work more on cleaning out my parent's house with my brother. I was especially struck this trip with how much more connected he is to our family history than I am. Like, I'm not connected at all, my memories of my grandparents and my mother are mostly limited to the last few years of their lives. But everything we touch he has some story about or some connection to (well, not the shitty right-wing political bullshit books that are everywhere). But like we cam across… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 7:47 AM on April 15, 2024

That mosaic floor with ~1m-3m tiles is mind blowing
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 1:52 PM on April 11, 2024

We had a "fun day" at the large call center I managed once, and had a dunk tank. I agreed to get dunked. I feel like I had a reputation for being a good manager, but let me tell you I learned two things that day. First, if you're ever gonna be dunked, go early in the celebrations, not late, because that water gets nasty fast. Also, I may have been a good manager, but holy shit way more people bought tickets to dunk me than anyone else in leadership.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 6:02 PM on April 10, 2024

At first I was like oh that's cute and then I was like ok now it's weird.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 6:37 AM on April 10, 2024

A+++ title, and

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posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 8:35 PM on April 9, 2024

“A complete guide to pretending you saw the total solar eclipse,” Elan Ullendorff, Escape the Algorithm, 08 April 2024 -posted by ob1quixote


"Wait about a week until the hype has died down, then upload your masterpiece, captioned with an enigmatic quote from a book you haven’t read. Or perhaps a proverb you don’t understand, written in a language you don’t speak. Or better yet, a proverb that doesn’t exist, written in a language… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 12:29 PM on April 8, 2024

I think I got my first King books through the science fiction book club. I believe the order I read them was Dead Zone, Firestarter, Cujo, Christine and then The Stand. Firestarter...ignited...my love of his writing, and Christine cemented it I think similar to grumpybear I like his short form work better, with The Raft and The Long Walk probably being my favorites.

I stopped reading him when I was in college, but still think back fondly of the stuff I read and loved.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 5:00 PM on April 5, 2024

Has MTG blamed immigrants yet? "Our country literally can't support more people!"
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 11:48 AM on April 5, 2024

Oooh oooh my building has falcons too also

Birdies

Well, not *my* building.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 10:25 AM on April 4, 2024

DOT: He just messaged me from school with a pic of them on his desk. The message just says "HOW?"

Solid work!

I got into this thing with a friend one about marmots (the animal). One time when she was out of the office I went to her office and put pictures of marmots everywhere. Taped to walls, the back of her door, etc. I also put them inside books she had, and inside drawers and folders. She would msg me for… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 12:24 PM on April 1, 2024

ThereIRuinedIt (previously) started using AI, which makes me less interested in their work, but holy shit this is great and very wrong (and honestly could have done it the more traditional way)

"Hallelujah" but it's "Baby Got Back"
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 1:25 PM on April 1, 2024

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posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 6:23 PM on March 27, 2024

Love following your journey, AzraelBrown.

This weekend was pretty chill. Did a yoga class, saw Dune 2, volunteered, went for a long walk, and played a lot of Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 7:20 AM on March 25, 2024

I think it was either Fire or Deepness that had the idea of software code archaeology in order to keep the ships running. I think about that a lot at work, when someone says they have to keep things (applications) exactly functioning the same way forever.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 9:13 AM on March 21, 2024

That was a fascinating video, looking forward to others of his. thanks for posting!
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 8:50 PM on March 12, 2024

I started doing yoga a month ago. I was in a class on Saturday, and next to me was someone who was decked out with fancy clothes and clearly practiced at warmup poses (which is just to say they were clearly experienced). I wasn't paying attention to anyone else during class, but during one particularly difficult sequence I was struggling both to balance and breathe. I happened to look over and see that her standing leg was trembling a little bit. I thought, "ok, this is hard, it's not… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 3:09 PM on March 11, 2024

Oh, I loved this. I love trees, although I don't know much about them. There was a (pine?) tree on the campus of Seattle University where the huge branches sagged down to the pavement and then turned back up, and you could walk underneath it and it was like you were inside the tree, just surrounded by branches and needles.

Mind-blowing:
It takes a redwood weeks to pull water up from its roots to the canopy. Sucking water up a straw from a drinking… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 11:04 AM on March 11, 2024

Incidentally, "considered risible in the standing up to pee community" is my new sockpuppet name.

"standing up to pee" sounds like an anti-urine protest.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 11:56 AM on March 8, 2024

From the second link: "So despite the promises of only carrying Hajj pilgrims, and despite landing in a raging storm that still didn’t drown out the sound of nearby gunfire, they loaded 800 passengers onto the 400 seat jumbo and took off."

:-O

and then: "Once again, Boeing’s robust engineering carried #19875 through."

Well, that hasn't aged very well.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 12:32 PM on February 26, 2024

I learned this weekend that in the standard 7-Eleven logo, all the letters are capitalized except the final "n".
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 5:09 PM on February 19, 2024

wurl1tzer_c0 I’m angry with the guy responsible, I’m angry with my teammates, I’m angry at myself.

I'm intimately familiar with blaming myself for things and my responses to things, but I'd compassionately push back and suggest that only two of those three things are actually deserving of anger. Even if you think you should have done something different, or left sooner, or whatever, the responsibility is not on the traumatized person to correct the… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 7:38 AM on February 13, 2024

We took my mother and stepfather to a restaurant in Portland like, 10-12 years ago. I ordered a cocktail, and while she didn't really drink, she looked at the menu and got *very* excited because they had a drink with Fernet Branca. I kind of shrugged (I'd never heard of it) and she talked about the most wonderful book she just finished, Cooking with Fernet Branca. She waxed poetic about the story, and explained that Fernet was very rare and exotic, and she hadn't seen it… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 12:47 PM on February 5, 2024

I had a great volunteer shift yesterday where my partner and I got to hold space for someone who hadn't felt seen or heard for a long time.

Two recent favorite jokes

REM for birds

Bugs and Oates
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 9:59 AM on January 29, 2024

Unfortunately I inherited the Early Male Pattern Baldness gene rather than the Full Head of Silver-White Hair one.

I was volunteering once, and my partner and I were working with a very amusing "older" woman. We needed info, and asked for her DOB. She answered (my birthday but a year earlier). I was like "hey, that's my birthday but I was born in '67!". I was mid-40s at the time.

She lamented, loudly… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 10:15 AM on January 30, 2024

When I was in college I was part of a D&D campaign that was about a year long. Over one particular summer we'd get together 3-4 times a week, for like 8-10 hours each session. Out DM was amazing. He had a campaign he'd written, but he was also flexible so when we'd chase some random encounter monster into the woods he could quickly run us through some extended side quest. The downside of it for me was that one time my dwarf was in some arena battle and misinterpreted some signals from… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 7:49 AM on January 22, 2024

I didn't have time last night to flesh the post out, but there are some other great performances from the competition, including the LSU Tiger Girls and Ohio State University.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 6:27 AM on January 18, 2024

But your body is too hard, and ours, too soft.

That's also how I felt about Casino Royale era Daniel Craig.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 8:59 AM on January 9, 2024

There's a story on one of the first-season Simpsons DVDs that Matt Groening tells. Hank Azaria joined the cast...5-10 episodes in? He wasn't part of the very first episodes. Anyway, Groening says, during the DVD commentary, that, 15 years in he still thinks of Azaria as "the new guy". Anyway.

"41. The Cars - You Might Think"

I hate the The Cars' new music.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 9:31 AM on January 4, 2024

That picture of the wreckage of the Airbus, from the "column of fire" link, is stunning. That no one on the plane died (immediately) is mind-boggling. I mean, I get that it didn't collapse right away, but wow.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 4:25 PM on January 3, 2024

I'd like 2024 to be like 12/31/23 and 1/1/24

-spending time eating good food and watching great movies with Ms. Gorgik
-taking care of my physical health
-spending time with friends
-doing advocacy work with other highly motivated volunteers
-those will all help with 5) taking care of my mental health
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 9:09 AM on January 2, 2024

"The head of Miray, Mr. Ugurlu, owned a pizza parlor in Orlando, Fla., and Mr. Petterson said the company asked him to deposit the initial payments into the shop’s account. According to Ms. Holmes, that was suggested as a temporary solution.

Miray pursued other ways to accept payments, including the use of Square, the online payment platform..."

I agree this isn't a scam, but it was very, very poorly planned and conceived
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 9:54 AM on December 29, 2023

Almost 800,000 Maryland licence plates include a URL that now points to an online casino in the Philippines because someone let the domain registration lapse.

:-O

I was talking with someone who had a domestic violence pamphlet from my city, and asked why they had to enter a credit card when calling the state hotline. I was like "what?", and sure enough the number had lapsed, and someone had taken it over with some scammy scam.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 7:26 AM on December 29, 2023

Viggo Mortensen also makes music. Sometimes with Buckethead. I have one of the early collabs. It's very..avant garde.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 7:07 AM on December 28, 2023

reading some magazine giving the then-new Tesla its highest rating ever for a car, and specifically praising the quality of the build. But I couldn't remember if it was CR, Car & Driver, Popular Mechanics etc.


It was Consumer Reports, and at the time it was big news
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 8:21 AM on December 27, 2023

you wouldn’t go The Financial Times looking for an oral history of NSync.

Financial Times: 'Pop fans of a certain vintage may remember Lance Bass,

MetaFilter: Hold my endless well of knowledge
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 2:52 PM on December 26, 2023

the financial stuff bored the shit out of me, and then periodically there's robots

EVE Online!


Also, while I'm not a fan of short-selling in general, I kind of want to see Capybara Research win.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 1:16 PM on December 19, 2023

Flying home from a work/leisure trip to Chicago. The highlight of which was s'mores patbangsu at Parachute, a hopped-up Korean shaved ice dessert. Chocolate shaved ice, candied red beans, mochi, puffed barley, toasted Swiss meringue, cinnamon-honey ice cream.

Easily in the top 5 desserts I've ever had, and maybe even the best. So many tasty flavors and complicated textures.
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 4:43 PM on December 18, 2023

alt.fan.warlord 4 lyfe
posted to MetaFilter by Gorgik at 5:26 AM on December 15, 2023