Good Morning. Hello. How are you? #1403
The waning era of Taiki Waititi, school drama, high school girls at Starbucks, Plex, Flash Gordon, Nancy and Elon there you go again, the tyranny of IT-derived URLs
Hello hello hello. Thursday! Which is like a Friday around here. Jane has a half day. I have to work, but only one meeting, and so many chores as we prep for leaving for Boston so, so early tomorrow. Really looking forward to a 12-hour drive with a kid up 95 during the holiday season. It’ll be fiiiine. I will not, however, be writing tomorrow, since we’ll be driving all day and I don’t need that kind of stress on me.
Just back from a bunch of morning chores, so many chores today. Hey, question: is this a thing in the rest of the country where high school girls — and it seems to be girls only – are super into coffee? Like there are, like, ten girls every morning at the Starbucks-in-the-grocery store, literally every time I go. What’s with that? Has no one told them coffee is gross? Also they’re all really thin.
Oh. Shit. Wait a minute.
Man that is kinda depressing now that I think about it.
At Walmart this morning I got the absolute best parking space, just the ultimate tip top pinnacle of parking. I haven’t gotten that space in, well… years! It was amazing, let me tell you.
15 hours, 49 minutes left on the “To Investigate” playlist to clear out for the year. Don’t think I’ll make it. I’m not even close. In my head, I had all day today to get through a bunch more — maybe ten hours (you can get through more than 8 hours in an 8-hour workday because you remove the songs you’ve already starred, or decided you definitely hate, or were lark re-listens to older stuff). But I forgot today I won’t be in front of my computer much, so. Gah. Maybe Emma will let me listen to a bunch of metal and post rock on the drive to Boston.
Oh that reminds me, I gotta check my list of states that allow you to drive with headphones on. I think I am good till… New York? When you got a kid watching ten hours of Bluey and a napping wife, you need the headphones to keep the rock going, to keep you awake while driving.
We are listening to a post-rock band called Tarentel, a track called “Steede Bonnet,” RIP. Bullshit that that show — Our Flag Means Death - was cancelled. Also, let us now pour one out for What We Do in the Shadows, which has ended after six seasons. Not the worst finale, had some really great moments. I kinda wish they had done more to resolve Guillermo’s Van Helsing blood, but what are you gonna do?
Feels like the era of Taika Waititi ruling Hollywood is coming to an end. There were worse eras. Jo Jo Rabbit was better than people like to admit. Yes, some missteps — though Emma sticks up for Love and Thunder – but all in all, a great era. Fingers crossed for a Taika Waititi renaissance. Wonder what he’s up to. Hrm. Werewolves spinoff from WWDITS, not a terrible idea, although honestly, at this point who wouldn’t rather watch a “Real Railroad Company” spinoff.
And Flash Gordon and Star Wars. Well, then. Seems like maybe he’s doing okay.
Coincidentally, I re-watched Flash Gordon (1980) last night. It was both worse and better than I remembered it, but honestly, it wasn’t bad. The effects has a certain charm to them, the palace intrigue was top notch. It is also just occurring to me that the vastly underrated Jupiter Ascendcing was mostly a Flash Gordon knock-off.
(Lotta good old and new releases in my Plex of late, if you are a user. It SHOULD be solid and up and running for everyone, to get us through the holidays before I abandon QNAP and go back to Mac and completely rebuild it in January).
Shall we write about the horrors of the day? Of the week? Do we need to prove to the world we still pay attention to the outside world? To Nancy Pelosi railroading AOC for no good reason, to Elon wagging the dog and shutting down the government, which is… I dunno. It is interesting how Republicans keep thinking that they will manage to shut down the government and not get blamed, and so far, each time, they are so, so wrong. But I always worry, every time, that this time, somehow, they will manage to shut it down and not get blamed for it. I guess I fall for the same logic they do? Every time I see a lib mocking their shutdown efforts, I cringe, I worry. Because every time they shut down the government, well, it’s no skin off my back. It is, obviously, the skin off of many many people’s backs, but the number of people who don’t care may well be larger, and we hardly need millions of people thinking they can live without a government. In the end that is not a useful thing for democrats to have people believe (because you can’t, even if you think you can. It’s so weird how libertarians are so into property rights where do they think property rights come from I wonder).
Anyway, no one needs me rambling about that shit, but I care, I care, boy do I care. Man the next four years are gonna suck. Man I am pissed at Nancy Pelosi. You know, all those years, people bitched about her and I just kinda shrugged it off. But this one? Sidelining one of the, eh, two, three people in the Democratic party anyone has any enthusiasm over for a 74 year-old dude with cancer. Over it.
The principal at Jane’s school quit. It was for personal reasons, but also at the same time the school is under some mysterious “improvement plan” that I cannot tell if it is a Republican plot or not. It seems to involve educating subgroups, and I can’t tell if that means neurodivergent or gifted or minorities or what. They sent out a law-mandated paper letter, and they have only mentioned it once in the SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND phone calls and emails they send us every day, and even then obliquely. Is there something afoot? Is the principal “sick of their shit?” Am I spinning a plot? Who knows!
The oblique, in-passing message said to check out the school’s website for more info. The website just links to the letter.
No one tells parents anything. Really is something. I can live with it, but boy, I can sure see how this engenders and fosters an environment where loonies decide to go all Michelle Bachman on this shit.
Remember her? Wonder what happened her. Probably the dean of a private christian university or something.
Also, the school’s website is: https://www.chatham.k12.nc.us/o/cges
Why on earth did we let IT nerds decide URLs at the dawn of the internet, and how are we still letting them get away with such things? http://chathamgroveelementary.com is totally free. Absolute bullshit those URLs were ever foisted on us.
I would like to congratulate my daughter Jane on her earliest arrival at school yet this morning. Out of six hundred kids or whatever, we were fifth to arrive. We had twenty minutes to kill in the car. We did our Wordle (Jane is obsessed with Wordle these days, she types, I think, I think she thinks it makes her smart but I am not complaining and she is slowly starting to offer pretty decent suggestions), she drew a drawing that said POO POO BUTT on it, we talked about latkes. It was a great morning. Man I hope that Ukrainian place in Somerville still has those latkes.
Latkes!
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Thanks for reading.
And hey! Maybe buy one of my books!
Good Morning, Hello, How Are You vol 1.
Can confirm that teen girls are ALL about Starbucks. Also apparently they use it to settle debts now?
https://www.fastcompany.com/91246792/gen-alpha-starbucks-is-the-new-venmo-report-brand-insights-gen-z