What a slow dull week. I am not sure its worth posting, but I should also keep up the habit I suppose.
In personal life stuff, my wife finally got her test done on Tuesday, after being delayed/rejected 3 times due to not meeting the needed pre requisite numbers. The Doc basically told the lab to just do it, I guess he doesn’t think it needs done but insurance is requiring it. Yay healthcare.
I also took my daughter driving for her first time. She did pretty good, we just circled around an empty school parking lot for an hour or so. She has never driven at all before, despite being in her 20s. She has her own legal and licensed business though, just not her own way to get there. Anyway, I can say, her time playing Mario Kart and Forza, did not help at all, she is absolutely atrocious at both. Like, can’t even finish one lap atrocious.
Toys
I did get some new stuff, nothing exciting. The new “Kids Line” of Transformers has this goofy Sky-byte car. Its pretty funny because, it’s actually a thing that happened for like one scene in Car Robots. I don’t even remember the context of the scene but I like Sky-byte and its silly.
Wal-mart also had some of the Prime movie stuff on clearance, though only Optimus Prime for the size class I care about. This Prime is, surprisingly really good, given its not part of the “proper line” and is technically “simplified”. He is basically a deluxe Transformers in every way. I particularly like how his axe weapon stores in vehicle mode.
His hinges do tend to pop off, but they go right back on. I guess lack of pin joints is part of the “simplified” aspect.
I also got Tasmania Kid at Ross. It was cheap, and it was basically the only Transformer they had. The only anything interesting they had. And he is, kind of pretty bad. The flat hands are kind of a reference ot the original Beast Wars toy, but they look weird, especially with the way the joints are visible. It make his wrists look goofy. It’s also an extremely tight pain to actually transform. I can’t get the head flap to go flat at all.
Music
I picked up another handful of random CDs. A couple more Melissa Etheridge albums, a very early Shania Twain album, the soundtrack to Ghostbusters, and this Northsounds album of native music. I have collected up quite a few of these from various estate sales over the years. All of these came from a thrift store though.
Something more exciting, since I have a lot of my unsorted digital notes and things, now sorted, I am better able to deal with them. Like building a giant playlist of all of these “Hey I like this song” notes I have randomly piled up. I also started finishing moving my Spotify Lists to Youtube, though my script is limited to like, 60 a day. Due to API limits. I was going to use the script on my To Listen list from Joplin after the big Spotify list, but its kind of faster just to manually find and add them.
CVS has a photo coupon for some super cheap prints, as they often do, and I got a couple of large prints made up from my more recent concert trips, one from when I saw Lauren Mayberry, and another of Cedric LeMoyne playing guitar at the Alanis Morrisette concert. I just really like that one.
Tech
I guess its tech. Another cheap thrift store pick up that I am looking forward to messing with. This is a “Bloxels Game Maker” kit. I had something similar before called Pixiecade. Hell they may be the same company.
Basically, you can take these plastic bits and build shapes, then take a photo with your phone in the app, and it turns into a playable level. The Pixiecade one work by drawing.
Its not “real coding” but I am a sucker for these sorts of curiosities. I did another once that involved taking photos of Pocky sticks to program a robot in a maze.
Gaming
I started playing Yars: Recharged, the sequel to the old Atari game Yar’s Revenge. Maybe it’s a remake not a sequel. It’s the one that doesn’t have a waifu, that’s Yar’s Rising. This one is just a big shooting aliens. It’s basically a fun bullet hell style shooter.
I also managed to get tot he top 1% for both Standard and Deluxe in Beatstar. There are a little over ten days left. We’ll see how far I get. My main driver now is more music discovery. I’ve added quite a few tracks to my big playlist (mentioned above under music) that I found through Beatstar.
Pokemon Go also did their level adjustment this week. I am now at Level 58, from Level 41. And like almost everyone, I have way way too many items, which sucks because it means I can’t spin stops.
You also get this random egg, which just had… a Fennekin in it. At least mine did. I have no idea if its always the same. It felt, very anticlimactic. Maybe they could have thrown something actually rare in the special egg.
News Clips
Blogging Intensifies Link List for Saturday 2025-10-18
17-Oct-2025 - Magdalena Bay have revealed two new tracks, âHuman Happensâ and âPaint Me a Pictureâ
Brief Summary: “Magdalena Bay have unveiled two new tracks, âHuman Happensâ and âPaint Me a Pictureâ. The duo de”
Personal Notes and Commentary: “Feels like they just had a new album, is there another one already on the way?”
17-Oct-2025 - Kaiju Cleaner Simulator will get you and friends to clean up massive titans together
Brief Summary: “There’s another game coming out that will have you clean up the bodies of massive creatures, with Ka”
Personal Notes and Commentary: “Scrub a Dub Dub for Godzillas.”
17-Oct-2025 - The popular physics sandbox game Brick Rigs has added Native Linux support
Brief Summary: “A nice surprise, Brick Rigs is another game that recently added Native Linux support and it’s quite "
Personal Notes and Commentary: "”
17-Oct-2025 - Muslim legislator running for governor says Georgia deserves leaders who reject scapegoating trans people
Brief Summary: “At a small table in a bright corner of Joeâs Coffeehouse in Atlanta, the October sunlight streaming "
Personal Notes and Commentary: "”
17-Oct-2025 - A famous meme comes to life in This Is Fine: Maximum Cope with a demo out now
Brief Summary: “Memes, you gotta love ’em right? Question Hound from This Is Fine is getting a metroidvania platform”
Personal Notes and Commentary: “This is fine…”
16-Oct-2025 - Jakks Pacific The Simpsons Deluxe King Homer
Brief Summary: " Itâs Halloween, time to get in the treehouse! These days, The Simpsons is as synonymous with Hall"
Personal Notes and Commentary: “Kind of want.”
16-Oct-2025 - Reddit’s AI Suggests Users Try Heroin
Brief Summary: " Redditâs conversational AI product, Reddit Answers, suggested users who are interested in pain man"
Personal Notes and Commentary: “Because AI isn’t smart.”
16-Oct-2025 - McDonaldâs Japan reveals Street Fighter-themed Street Burgers and crossover videosăVideoă
Brief Summary: " Ryu takes on Gouki Nalds and Chun-Li battles Smile Guile. McDonaldâs Japan recently teased a colla"
Personal Notes and Commentary: “I kind of wish the food game was real.”
16-Oct-2025 - The Big Pokemon Go Level 80 Update⌠Seems Kind of Lame
Brief Summary: “I am going to defend that headline up front by explaining what level cap increases usually mean in o”
Personal Notes and Commentary: “It was kind of lame.”
Brief Summary: “IN A NUTSHELL đ Deep Sky plans to build one of the worldâs largest carbon removal facilities in Sout”
Personal Notes and Commentary: ""
16-Oct-2025 - 3 tips to improve your opening moves in chess
Brief Summary: “If youâre new to chess, you might be intimidated by all the coordinates, complicated opening variati”
Personal Notes and Commentary: ""
15-Oct-2025 - Courtney Barnett is back with a new single, âStay In Your Laneâ
Brief Summary: “Courtney Barnett has made her return with a new single âStay In Your Laneâ, her first new material s”
Personal Notes and Commentary: ""
14-Oct-2025 - Reddit shuts down its NFT avatars project
Brief Summary: " Three years after launching “Collectible Avatars”, the NFT project they didn’t want to call"
Personal Notes and Commentary: “But NFTs are the FUTURE!!!!”
14-Oct-2025 - Travel Back to the Future with This New Polly Pocket Compact
Brief Summary: “This playset is 1.21 gigawatts of tiny, time-traveling fun! The post Travel Back to the Future with "
Personal Notes and Commentary: “So you can reenact that time Marty and his Mother were making out in a car.”
14-Oct-2025 - Texas city could be first in nation to rescind LGBTQ+ antidiscrimination protections
Brief Summary: “A city in Texas could become the first in the nation to reverse its anti-discrimination protections "
Personal Notes and Commentary: “Fuck Texas.”
14-Oct-2025 - LEGO Speed Champions Time Machine from Back to the Future (77256) Officially Announced
Brief Summary: " A new LEGO Speed Champions set has been officially revealed with the Time Machine from Back to the "
Personal Notes and Commentary: “Sweet.”
14-Oct-2025 - Anti-trans gay people are putting their own rights in danger in their war on trans people
Brief Summary: “As trans rights issues have entered the mainstream discourse, thereâs been a growing vocal minority "
Personal Notes and Commentary: “What is the TERF term for this? TEGS?”
14-Oct-2025 - Only One Network Has Signed Hegseth’s Knob-Slobbing Journalist Pledge, Three Guesses
Brief Summary: “Quick, imagine a world where Newsmax has a legitimate claim to sneering downward at One America News”
Personal Notes and Commentary: “Good.gif”
13-Oct-2025 - Supreme Court let parents opt kids out of learning about LGBTQ+ people. Almost no one is doing it.
Brief Summary: “The Supreme Court recently ruled that a Maryland school district must allow parents to opt their chi”
Personal Notes and Commentary: "”