A Crypt of My Own

How I dream of that basement, that attic, that crypt where I can live serene, diligent, with my computers, untriggered.   How happy I would be.

On the Street Where You Live but in Vegas with Showgirls

There are many nice touches in the Paramount series The Offer.  How much of it is true is another matter that is above my pay grade. In one episode, Al Ruddy flies to Las Vegas to recruit Vic Damone to play the role of the fictional Frank Sinatra-like character for the Godfather.  Ultimately although Damone was offered the role he chose not to play it for fear of pissing off Sinatra.

As part of this sequence we are all comped into a show with Damone as the headlining act and we are treated to an unforgettable rendition of "On the Street Where You Live" which is from the musical My Fair Lady.   In the original stage production and movie of Lady, the young swain belts out his love song in Victorian dress in England and he is so sincere.  

 

But in The Offer, we are on stage in Vegas with Showgirls.  It is also sincere!  And authentic.  It captures the essence of Las Vegas and our culture.

Tempus Fugit

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This blog was started as an act of faith and in the hope that certain long-standing goals could be achieved. To my surprise, quite a few of them were.  Not all, but many. 

On the positive side, I can not emphasize enough how much it helps with the chronology of events in my life and the world.  Time flies whether or not you are having fun.

 

Home Fries

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Whats the point of home fries if you cant make them at home.  The following recipe almost works.  All times and amounts are approximate.

 

Take a small number of red or white potatoes.  Cut into quarters and boil for about 10 minutes, let them sit in hot water for another 5 or so.  Rinse in cold water and wait for them to cool.  The idea is that they are not completely cooked and excess moisture is allowed to evaporate.  Slice with a food processor or by hand.  The potatoes should be still firm, not too soft.  The slices should be of a constant thickness so that the cooking can be even.

 

Fry paprika, cumin, and chile powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of Chipotle powder in olive oil with two types of peppers (1/2 anaheim pepper and 1/2 jalapeno will do, deseeded) and 1 stalk of green onion chopped fine.  Add salt, pepper and potatoes.  I also add about one cobs' worth of corn, usually frozen, brought to room temperature.  Fry for about 10 minutes or until suitably crispy and cooked.  Scrape the potatoes off the bottom of the pan as they cook.  Dont be too shy with the olive oil, the salt, or the pepper, etc.  Faint heart never won fair lady.  The oil should be hot when you add the potatoes.

 

The trick seems to be that you dont want the potatoes too soft when you start frying.  Yet they can not be completely uncooked either.

Makes enough for two people.

The Mandalorian, Children's Literature and Boring Adults

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So now here we are in the third season of the Mandalorian, episode 6, and what do we find?  Boring so-called adults judging what is essentially fun-loving children's literature.  That's what.  

 

Instead of enjoying this episode for what it is, a goofy serial episode leading inexorably towards its climax, we have nattering nabobs of negativity complaining about sub-plots that no 12 year old would condemn.  Perhaps these old grouches should go away and watch their 70's sitcoms that they all adore and leave the current children's literature to those of us who can appreciate it.

 

 

 

More Rendering Tests

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The following are more tests of various abstract creatures and rendering techniques.  

 

 

Why this Indictment of Donald Trump is the Right Indictment

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Against all expectations, one of the many grand juries that have been convened to review the evidence of the crimes of Donald Trump have voted to indict and to our amazement an actual district attorney did so.  The Republicans are going nuts and many Democrats are too. "Oh how awful, if only they had indicted him for homicide or attempting to overthrow the government of the united states.  Now we are doomed!" 

Actually I think this is exactly the right crime to indict Donald for because it is somewhat banal.  Yes instead of our failed justice system getting him for something huge, like killing American citizens, they are getting him for misrepresenting the accounting records of his hush payments to a former mistress.  Trump is banal and so is this.  Symmetry is preserved.

There is no dignity in the US government justice system and you shouldn't expect any.  We should be grateful for what we get.

 

 

Cartoon Realism and the Issue of Internet Censorship

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I think that pretty much everyone, except maybe Republicans, understand that the  internet can not be allowed to self-regulate. The world contains malign actors that will attempt to steal money, steal elections, and destabilize the country in many different ways.  How that will all work out, whether with legislation or merely secret cabals of justice loving cyberwarriors or something else is unknown at this point. I have no reason to have any hope that a reasonable system will come into place.  In the meantime, there are some ad hoc systems that claim to enforce community guidelines but maybe have the real purpose of protecting otherwise swine-like gangster capitalist companies from litigation.

As you know, this blog has been whacked several times by these guardians of all that is "good about our great country".  Although they cant tell me what they object to either specifically or generally, I am supposed to accept their judgment and go away and die or something.

One problem that we may be having is that the software used to make this judgment doesnt seem to have a sense of humor or a sense of irony or sarcasm.  I am pretty sure that is because the companies that implement this software dont have a sense of humor either.  

If I say that a certain former president with dyed orange hair should have a piano dropped on his head, will I be referred to the FBI because I am making a threat against someone's life? How about a safe?  An anvil? Ripe tomatoes? Nothing?

For more on the importance of the anvil in fiction, see:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnvilOnHead

Democratic Party of SB

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I am trying to contact my local SB party to tell them that it is unacceptable for my congressman to vote in support of the republican nonsense about the "horrors of socialism".  First of all, in this country, socialism has been what we called such things as minimum wage, the 40 hour work week, sick leave, etc.  Second, what the heck is he doing supporting a nutty boy republican bill.  He should as a matter of course oppose the republican efforts to destroy the rest of america as they have destroyed, for example, our judicial system.

WTF?

Carbajal should resign at once.  I certainly wont vote for him in another election, and I dont care what republican  jerk they run against him.  Its time for the Democratic party to wake up and listen to  their constituents.

Why ChatGPT Will Cause Major Hardship

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Here is why I think ChatGPT will cause major hardship.

When globalization happened our government said: "Lowered cost of transport and new communications technology enables a new approach to how things are built and who builds them. Each country contributes what it does best and most efficiently, and overall the world improves because we reach a "new equilibrium" (*) and everybody is richer.  People who formerly did manufacturing, for example, could now work in offices in "information technology" or "the service industry" whatever that may mean.

But either hindsight, or some would say, a few minutes forethought, would show this was nonsense.  Workers were cheaper in some countries because they were wildly exploited.  Companies used this to bust unions in their own countries.  In some cases it wasn't about efficiency, it was about government subsidies to move an industry from one country to another.  When manufacturing or another industry left, the economic structure of cities would collapse as families became unemployed and left town.  Furthermore there was no money for retraining workers for these different industries which may already be oversubscribed.  Would a 50 yr old worker want to work as a secretary for 1/10th their former salary?  Who would train them?  Who would hire them? So formerly middle class families would slip into poverty. They would lean on their savings assuming they had any. Families would need new sources of income, perhaps a spouse would have to work.  Mothers would have to work so children would have to go to day care with a variety of long term implications for development. Remember the Republican emphasis on the traditional American family? Well, not so much it would appear.   Retirement would be affected as less money could be saved or put into social security.  A family might not be able to support sending a child to college, certainly not an elite one. The restaurants and stores that relied on these workers for customers would go out of business because their customers could not afford to eat out or would have to move away to find work.  There would be less tax revenues for the local community and the local schools.  No doubt large corporations made money, but as always in most countries they dont pay taxes.  The so called shareholders made money, yes, perhaps the top 10% of society, but again the rich dont pay taxes.  And politically we got more extremism, either right or left but mostly right (for reasons that are not so clear to me).

I have anecdotal stories about how this played out in the traditional animation industry, in glamourous digital visual effects and in the community of Culver City. 

Now with ChatGPT a big chunk of the middle class who make their living in part by being able to write competent essays will be disenfranchised and impoverished. What percentage of the population in developed countries am I talking about?  A few percent?  More?  Public relations, marketing and advertising come to mind.  Maybe Hollywood screenwriting (ha ha, thats a joke). If government was actually good at helping people find new careers and training them this might be different.  But our government doesn't even pay for education or pay the expenses of a real family while someone learns a new trade, or prevent ageism in the work place, for example.

So what do I recommend? No, ChatGPT is not about real intelligence or eliminating the great writer, but it is about a lot of real hardship in America and the rest of the developed world.  As usual, our government is useless, except for the rich.  But at the very least we should expect the three minimum requirements mentioned above.  1. Pay for education and retraining.  Seriously pay for it, and remember I am not just talking about junior college or a trade school here.  Think Harvard and Princeton.  2. Pay real expenses of a family, perhaps $50-100K / year.  And 3. Make serious efforts to reduce ageism in the work place which is rampant and about which the government does nothing.

The Republicans will say this is socialism.  But then they said that about the minimum wage, the 40 hours work week, and social security.

 

 

 * Economists get all hot when they talk about "equilibrium".