Year: 2025

Guy Cred

Chill Killin' It

What’s the most “guy” thing you’ve done that you’re secretly proud of, but would never admit in public?

I’d admit most anything in public, but a very “guy” thing I did was this.

I was at a company picnic. Saw some dudes with their truck stuck in the mud in on one of the nearby fields in the park where the shindig was being held. I grew up in rural North Florida so one of the few car things I know is how to get a truck out of the mud.

I’d seen some discarded boards and such nearby so I picked up some of those, walked over and said I could help get them get their truck free. They were amenable to the idea as they had made zero progress. So I placed a few of the boards in front of the rear tires in a little ramp and had the driver put the truck in L. Then me and one of the guys rocked the vehicle a little as the driver slowly gave it some gas. The truck came out quite easily after that of course because it had some traction.

Even though they’d been trying to get out of the mud for 20 minutes (and making it worse), in less than two minutes I had freed their truck like it was nothing.

Then I walked back over to the ~100 spectators from my work, many of whom congratulated me on how smooth that was.

That was pretty cool.

Bowerful

Chill Music Video, Video

God she’s good. She really just has the touch. I don’t think I’ve seen her play that white Fender Strat before. Beautiful guitar with a bright but still melancholy sound.

I like that she’s not a show-off; Grace cares about the music and what would make a good sound, not merely playing the most difficult possible thing. And just think: she’s only 18. She is only going to get better.

(Also, I love her zip cord coat.)

Comet

Chill Regular-ass Post

I don’t think I could never be scammed, but I am completely immune to most common scam tactics and pressure techniques as no one can compel me to do anything.

Your urgency is not mine. I’ve stood first in the door of a C-130 in the middle of the night over a strange drop zone loaded for bear and then jumped into the darkness. What stresses other people out is nothing to me. The first time someone attempts to force my hand, I’m out. I do things in my own time and in my own way. Or I just do not do them at all.

Scammers depend on wanting to follow the pack and being nice. And I don’t have much to do with either of those things.

Comp Sys

Chill Regular-ass Post

It takes a really long time to learn complex systems. I’ve been using Windows since 1986 and I still discover new things about it all the time. And I already know absurdly-vast amounts about the OS and its underpinnings.

And I’ve been using the modern version (BSD-based) of Mac OS since 2014 and I learn things about it daily. Anyone who claims you can master a complex system in a few months is lying. It’s just not possible, not even those of us far to the right on the IQ curve.

Chill Links

Has America Given Up on Children’s Learning?

Zero ships from China are bound for California’s top ports. Officials haven’t seen that since the pandemic.

Scientists Bioprint Living Tissues That Could Revolutionize Diabetes Treatment. This is the sort of thing clown-ass RFK Jr. is attempting to kill.

Remote Work Empowers Workers. Conservatives are using Pandemic Culture Wars to Target it.

We’re All Living in a Carl Hiaasen Novel.

The rise of a new form of germ theory denial.

Wells Fargo Wants to Privatize USPS. We Should Dismantle the Mega Bank Instead.

The New Right’s Zombienomics.

India-Pakistan ceasefire shouldn’t disguise fact that norms have changed in South Asia, making future de-escalation much harder.

Politricks

Chill Evil

Might as well put Xi Jinping in charge of the country. This is more than about politics. Even though I disagreed enormously with Reagan and the first George Bush, I did believe they had the best interests of the US at heart.

I do not believe that about Trump and his cronies. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Chill Links

Whatever Happened to the Power Elite? The trio of interests atop business, military, and government depicted in C. Wright Mills’s postwar critique is no longer united in setting the national agenda.

Stephen Miller’s War on Cancer Cures.

Only 9/11 and COVID Have Been Worse for U.S. Tourism Than Trump.

The Academic Pipeline Stall: Why Industry Must Stand for Academia.

Our Universities are the Crown Jewels of Civilization. And the barbarians are coming for them. Indeed. MAGA doofs hate the idea that anyone might be smarter than they are.

Buffett’s life work—the elevation of shareholder capitalism as the world’s dominant economic model—is ultimately a failure, for humanity.

‘Friends of steel’: Xi and Putin pledge to stand together against US.

Children Forever

Chill Evil

Wow, all of that has gotten so much worse. I rented a hotel room back in the 90s as a sixteen-year-old in Orlando, Florida. A decent one too. My friends and I were going to see Tori Amos and didn’t want to drive back in the middle of the night.

It looks like that’d be totally impossible now even as a twenty-year-old. Which is fucking insane. But I guess that goes hand in hand with the insistence by many “feminists” that women are children until they are 35 or 40. Different aspects of the same terrible trend.