Got my first cold since 2019. The kid brought it home from the airport after we visited my family, I think. I took care of her for a few days so of course I have it now. It's weird having a normal cold again after over a year of never getting any because of covid precautions.

Weird Al's parody of New Kids On The Block's "the right stuff" is on the same album as his Nirvana parody (and his MC Hammer parody) making this album (Off The Deep End, 1992) a really interesting snapshot of pop culture at the exact moment that grunge took over from synth-pop

Why dont I ever have enough time to keep the house clean, raise my child, work a startup manager job, do three kinds of online gaming, paint minis, play music, cook for my family, draw comics, learn chinese, keep in touch with all my friends, exercise, and blog regularly?

...

I should be able to do all that, right? I must just not be trying hard enough

Looking at a book of old maps with my kid. Really old maps, with sea monsters in the corners, where California is an island.

Broke: wow people in the old days were wrong about so many things, they were so much dumber than us

Woke: I wonder what thing I'm sure is true now, will turn out in the future to be just as wrong as California being an island

Repeat after me, Depression Brain: "the evils of the world are not improved one single bit by my decision to spend all day doomscrolling and feeling awful about them, or made one single bit worse if I choose to think about something that makes me happy instead"

Depression Brain: "but what about--"

Me: "No. Shhhhhh. You're not helping."

Please enjoy this classic SF book cover illustration

@Thomas I didnt know you lived in Connecticut! That's where I grew up

@drwho I for one would appreciate your perspective on how we should update our threat models for the modern day

I started watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. It's weird that I didn't get into Jojo sooner, actually, I'm a huge fan of prog rock and anime, and Jojo is the "peanut butter in my chocolate " of prog rock + anime.

I'm really enjoying it. It's not just hilariously weird, the storytelling is legit good. It's fast paced, suspenseful, a surprising twist is always happening... unlike some anime where it takes forever for stuff to happen, Jojo really moves.

Anyway here's a drawing of Dio I did

Visiting my mom and have to hide in her basement because

https://www.nbcchicago.com/weather/confirmed-large-and-extremely-dangerous-tornado-touches-down-in-chicago-suburbs/2536730/

"Confirmed Large And Extremely Dangerous Tornado Touches Down In Chicago Suburbs"

Blogging about anime: I wrote a thing about My Neighbor Totoro

http://nindokag.net/j/science-fiction-double-feature/not-all-stories-are-about-conflict-my-neighbor-totoro

about all the things this movie means to me, about why it's not boring even though it has basically no conflict, about ki-shou-ten-ketsu story structure, and about how it's actually a conservative, religious movie

Accidentally got a styrofoam packing peanut wet, and it melted! I looked it up and turns out there's a new biodegradable kind of packing peanut in use now, a small win for sustainability. It's made of extruded starch.

Hmm extruded starch. Sounds... edible doesn't it?

If you know me at all you know exactly what I did next.

They taste, as you'd expect, like soggy unflavored stale cheetos. That's basically what they are. I don't recommend them.

Very petty pet peeve: the phrase "without further ado". Instead of saying that you could just start doing the thing. Saying "without further ado" is more "ado" than not saying it!

@dankwraith ah yes, two six-sided dice, well known as an essential component of the game Magic: the Gathering

Our library opened again so I'm now taking the kid there weekly to check out books.

It's great! I love libraries so much! Like can you believe they just let us read ALL these books FOR FREE?

If public libraries didnt exist and you proposed them, imagine how radical the idea would sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wyQpSDls5E

35 Anime Opening Quiz - 1990 - 2004

this sure was a nostalgia trip. Half of these I never heard before but the other half I instantly started singing along with.

It made me feel really melancholy for the pre-2010 version of myself, like it almost hurt to remember how much that version of myself was, like... capable of hope. And the version I am today, is not.

I was reading about "Cats" the musical, which I've never seen, and the premise is apparently that one cat will be chosen to fly up to the "heavyside layer" to be reborn into a new life

The heaviside layer is a real part of the earth's ionosphere. You can bounce radio waves off of it.

TS Eliot was such a weirdo. How the heck did this musical based on his plotless book of twee cat poems become one of the bestselling shows of all time?

I taught an art class in April and the most important thing I told the class was:

If you think your drawing "has to" be "good" in order for you to be "allowed" to draw, if you're afraid of making bad drawings, you're never gonna finish a drawing and never get good.

Give yourself permission to draw without worrying about quality. Don't even ask "is this good", ask: Am I enjoying it? Am I learning from it? Am I finishing things?

It applies to writing, music, game design, etc. as well

My kid when she's thirsty and tired says "I'm de-freshed". As in, she needs to be refreshed. Very logical.