Randomization

This past weekend was good ol' Thanksgiving. A time of great food and pie. We headed out to Humboldt to see Daniella's Aunt. Her husband is confined to a wheelchair after a mining accident many years ago so it's easy for us to just go to a restaurant out there and then head to her house after. Of course, we went the day it was raining and snowing and slushy. I drove the new Subaru which handled well. I have a better driving record than Daniella or her mom and since I haven't had a major incident, it just makes sense for me to drive. Of course, in hindsight, I shouldn't have fucking said that out loud. Let us fast forward to yesterday.  Yup. That's my car at about 8am in Warman. And an $80,000 Toyota Supra on the right side. I tried to beat the yellow. He turned left in my way. Technically both our faults, but I'll admit it was a stretch for me to try to beat that yellow, even if I did enter the intersection with it yellow. I'm back at work today but I am...

Music. It seems that the timeline of the recording industry is finally recovering after COVID. All the music was coming out in batches but it seems to be spreading out a bit now. Over the past few years I've started listening to an artist called Jason Bieler and the Baron Von Bielski Orchestra. His music is listed in the prog genre but I wouldn't list it there. It has a lot of those same hooks and riffs that have been going since Beethoven but with much darker lyrics. But the music sounds happier. Happy music but the art style is Victorian plague doctor. It's good stuff to listen to, but I wouldn't go out of my way to suggest him. Until his last album, though that's hardly because of him. He released an album featuring The Baroness. She has a very pop star/country music pop voice and the songs are completely reimagined, but still retaining the riffs. One song that was originally a dark, acoustic tune is now a lounge song. And her pipes are just phenomenal. But, just...

It's my birthday tomorrow. My birthday itself doesn't mean much to me as it's not like my body suddenly ages a year. It's a day just like any other. That said, now that I have a wife, she cooks me a delicious meal and gives me a present. This year she said my present is something you do to make something. Since I can't make babies anymore, that leaves one thing out. Belles birthday is coming up next weekend. She'll be 19 so can finally buy her own weed. She's got the couple of days planned. Unfortunately, we have to do more driving than originally anticipated as she injured her knee at derby, She's been on crutches and in a brace for a week so far and will get it off just in time for her birthday. No idea what is wrong yet but she sees the specialist next week. Possible meniscus or MCL tear. Or maybe it's in her head. She's ended up doing what I would have done in her place: not leaving the house. We kicked her out to go to derby practice last ni...

As told in the annals of Pilot's World earlier this week, I was at the funeral for my grandfather on the weekend. While there, I picked up some sort of plague. Today is my first day working as I was dead the rest of the week. My nephew, Roch, pointed his finger at the Pilot's children, indicating that they may not have felt well that day. I don't know if this is true, but I'm going to blame them anyway. Our sister, Shanna, also came down with the sickness. So, I was at home watching lots of YouTube and Nebula videos. My feed on Youtube is completely full of AI generated content. Just a voice reading a script with some pictures in the background. I didn't really notice it at first but when they start saying one-thousand nine-hundred and forty-two instead of 1942 in a war video, it's obvious. When they say Gen-E-stealers instead of Genestealers in a Warhammer video, it's obvious. I don't mind AI generated stuff, to a point. This stuff is obviously ripped o...

Well, well, well. Aren't our southern neighbors doing a great job at continuing their spiral into BAD. Trump has been attacking free speech for some time now and is getting more and more brazen. In his defense, he's gotten away with everything so far so why wouldn't he keep pushing? But, I'm Canadian. Are we doing any better up here? I immediately say yes, though there are those that would try to control it in their own ways. I'm not a huge union guy, they have their uses, but sometimes overreach or protect lazy employees. In the case of the recent Air Canada flight attendant, the union proved it's worth. The government has forced union members back to work way too much in the last few years or so, which takes away all the power from the workers and basically tells them to shut up. Cupe called the governments bluff and said "Fuck you. Try to arrest us all." It was a good indicator that the government was going too far and it backed off. I wish this kin...

Ugh. As with most tools, it is both the greatest and worst thing to come from mankind. As you have no doubt heard, a few days ago, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at a rally. It took awhile to pronounce him dead after the incident. I'm not going to say anything about my thoughts on Charlie Kirk or what happened. I don't think that's constructive and I leave it at the baseline that I don't think he should have been shot. But, I have some comments about the internet. I mentioned above that it took them awhile to pronounce him dead after the incident. I knew much sooner that he was going to live because a close up video was posted to Reddit showing blood pouring from his jugular and auto-played as I scrolled past. In the first second he lost more blood than a person gives at the blood bank. I have shut off auto-play. I hope the person who posted that video got the amount of upvotes they wanted, but I don't think that needed to be posted. Give it to the police and leav...

About a year ago, Humble Bundle put on a sale of over a hundred Battletech books for $45. As ridiculous as it is to have giant, walking machines as the best fighters in the galaxy, I still love the stories and universe. And that is one hell of a deal. I don't read as much as I should so over the last year only two or three had been read. Last week I read five. It's nice to just have them on your phone. It's also helping my mental health, not so much that I am reading more, but it's keeping me away from non-stop doom-scrolling and reading of the atrocities happening in the world. But the Battletech universe is also a very political one. It's all about the great houses fighting each other and the background politics involved in this. So, after the five books last week, I needed something a little different. That's when I found the Rama series for $13 on the apple store. These are books I've read before but I read them in the order of book 3, 2, 4 then 1. And i...