James

My car delivery service was much more professional, as Ysbreker can attest.

Quality image.

Hahahaha, yes!"Oh, just one more thing..."

I'm listening to the latest Danswers, and am pleased to hear Danny and Paul offer a pretty earnest challenge to Dan's "always be doing a job you like" magical thinking for a moment. To be fair to Dan, he was presenting a slightly more measured version of it (i.e. it can't always be a dream job, and that he's very fortunate to be where he is), but he still seems to have trouble accepting that the playing field is hugely uneven. There is something to be said for relentless optimism, particularly when it comes to privileged but defeatist people such as myself, but phrasing it the way Dan does, and coming from the place Dan does, is very dismissive of some very real and very profound differences in people's situations. Not to mention the whole thing that the distribution of work to be done has no reason to correspond at all to the distribution of work people want to do. Toilets need to be cleaned, etc. Anyway, while I do like Dan, it's good to hear him not constantly getting away with his bullshit entirely unchallenged. Also, Austin seems like a pretty great addition. I also briefly had difficulty distinguishing him from Jeff Bakalar, but in the end I decided he (Austin) is the one with the slightly higher voice.

Hey Wrestle:

I'm about, but it doesn't look like anyone else is.

I had that. A science accident turned his name backwards and made him spherical. And evil, I guess.

My favourite thing about the Miles Prower pun is that the developers (or probably translators) of Sonic Chaos on the Master System didn't get it and called him Miles Power.

God, that was awful.

Yeah, I definitely got the impression he was dead or dying, particularly given Doc's reaction. Anyway, I loved this episode. David Lynch in his element. His version of the Red Room/Black Lodge/Other Place is so much more convincing than a more conventional supernatural mythology would be: it's dreamlike and to a certain extent unknowable. I'm with Jake on the frustration of this being the final episode, in that this could have planted the seeds for a much better season two, but it's a very strong ending, especially given how completely off the rails the show had gone up until that point.

But presumably, by this guy's logic, enslaving white men would be fine and good just so long as it were economically beneficial? Or are white men exempt from the status of "utterly unimportant individuals"? Wait, if thousands upon thousands of people can be deemed "utterly unimportant", what is the status of this gaming thing they're so keen to protect?

You missed the part where he said how great apartheid was.

If it's any consolation, that tune is now stuck in my head. At work.

Highlights from today's session: Further reading:

Well yes, when you introduce money to anything it immediately becomes more complicated. Perhaps it's just my reading comprehension, but it seems (as it often does) like there are several conversations happening in parallel. I was more addressing the question of taste than economics ("like" being the operative word), but practically speaking expressing your tastes almost always ends up being manifested in some economic form, which is obviously relevant and important. So yes, you're completely right. The entire thing I was trying to get at with that post is that just because it's not necessarily possible, practical or desirable to expunge all offending material from your life, that shouldn't mean you should give up on applying any critical thought whatsoever. Natellite is right in saying that it's the barest of baselines, but it is a baseline. If you're paying attention to the things that are messed up about the media you enjoy, you can at least decide for yourself whether it's really acceptable to you, and try to be mindful of how that stuff might start creeping into your own behaviour, attitude or speech, for example. I mean, when I type it out it seems like I'm saying the most idiotically simplistic thing, and maybe I am, but I feel like a lot of people react to issues with a very dismissive "Whatever, I just think it's cool, you're thinking about it so hard" kind of response, so I guess that's why I go on about awareness.

Amazing.

Isn't the point to make the effort to be aware of the problems, and not to avoid problematic things altogether? That's what I take from "it's OK to like problematic things". I don't think anyone is demanding we all jettison all culture past and present because it's not 100% free of issues, but it seems important to at least be aware when something messed up is in front of us. If nothing else, it's a matter of respect to the people the issues pertain to. Or does that come across as hollow and obnoxiously privileged? I suppose it's small comfort to hear "I like this thing despite how shitty it is to you". But maybe that's better than "I like this thing and your problem with it doesn't exist". I don't know. It just seems important to be aware.

Thanks, that's very kind. Those first three shots are from one of the very few times I've done the things you're supposed to do: wake up obscenely early and take a tripod with you. The second one is a reverse lens macro shot, which is a very inexpensive way to try out macro photography, particularly if you have an unused normal lens.

My entire knowledge of Rick and Morty is that a clip from the end of an episode of that show comes up if you search for For the Damaged Coda by Blonde Redhead on YouTube.

I'd be interested in a photo challenge, but I'd probably immediately drop out. Anyway, here are some recent-ish photos I'm proud-ish of: 3A1A6440 3A1A6500 3A1A6619 Bus Stop Peeling Paint 3A1A7396 3A1A7488

I noticed! You joined that team game I was in afterwards and beat me!

Yeah, that was loads of fun. I weirdly didn't mind the first-person biking too much. I prefer third person, obviously, but it was less terrible than I expected.

I repeat: EUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Eugggghhhh

"Expresso" is such a common mistake it's on the cover of Common Errors in English (though you can't really see it very well in the graphic on that page). It's pretty rife.