Buying toilet paper with whogivesacrap, part 1: ISP thinks it’s bad and blocks it with Cisco automated protection. Turning on VPN. Works. Buying .. Shopify: “oh no, you have VPN, you’re bad. Also, we have a different delivery and billing address on file.” Turning off VPN to fix. Cisco comes back 🤬
For brunch today, we wanted to try a new cafe in the neighborhood that looked interesting. It was small and loud with conversation and beats. We waited for our veggie burritos - 20, 30, 40 minutes. The sign on the door said they take some time to make food, so we were patient until the table that got in after us was served the same dish we ordered, while we only had our tea and coffee still.
Turns out the waitress, even though she nodded and repeated our order to us when we oredred, completely forgot to put it in the system. A dog owner walked in and sat next to us, and when the dog started barking loudly, I felt the blood drumming in my ears, and I excused myself for a minute outside. The food, which was disappointing (it was OK, but more of a breakfast veggie wrap with nothing on the side, not a burrito with extra rice and beans), finally arrived. We swallowed the food without a word, paid, and left.
As soon as I walked into my apartment, I felt the calm surround me. The relaxing feeling was even better when I got into my room and stepped on the rug I got, colored in blues and brownish-coffee colors 📷 . It’s incredible how such a simple thing can affect my mood so much. I don’t know why I’ve waited so long without having one.
Macmini instead of a smart TV?
I’m considering a new entertainment setup for my apartment. Should I get a smart TV or a projector? Should I use my Apple TV or my Mac mini?
About Micro.blog summaries
Micro.blog has introduced an AI-powered summarization feature for long-form posts that helps to automate cross-posting to other social media by providing AI-assisted summaries, allowing the author to tailor summaries to their needs.
Some results are in
After a long sleep and setting up an exercise corner in a spacious new apartment, a commitment to self-recovery and improvement is being embraced.
You know things are really bad when you get email after email from leadership with motivational stories and “Here’s what we’re doing” and “We’re taking this very seriously.” blerg.
Now that my personal projects and worries from January are fading into new (and good!) reality, my concerns revolve around the tomato in chief and the musky circus. Since I work for a large medical center and a university, these uncertain times affect my colleagues and me.
Some happiness, at last
After a refreshing walk in the new charming neighborhood, feelings of euphoria replace months of stress, leading to a productive evening unpacking.
The move is complete. New apartment. New neighborhood.
I have so many things to set up and many more to learn how to do here; I get stuck in mental loops of “I can’t do A before B, but that’s up to C, which comes with requirement D.” Oh well, getting there. Hey at least the internet is up!
It's too easy to get Windows 11 VM on Linux
I set up a Windows 11 virtual machine on my Linux Pop OS desktop with surprising ease. Here’s what I did:
Whoa, configuring a virtual machine on Linux was much easier than anticipated. Windows 11 is running smoother than it ever did. Nice! 🤓🖥️💪
Linux for games, Mac for work
My Thelio from System76 has become an automatic part of my workflow, and I can happily say that every game I have tried works.
A year ago, I started using Tiny Theme. I haven’t looked back since. I am wondering about Sumo though… maybe when I have time to tweak things again.
I watched the first two episodes of Silo, and I can’t wait to watch the others. I vaguely remember the books. It feels like what I was hoping out of Fallout so far. Good stuff. 📺
Sick today. It’s been on the verge of happening and I think last night I lost the fight by being out late in an event in the cold weather. Stress didn’t help much, but at least things are shaping up!
Gave up on the Expense series for now, and picked up the second C. J. Box. I enjoyed the first and wanted me some more Picket: Savage Run by C. J. Box 📚
I’m peeping from under my rock for a second, so please be gentle with me:
Can someone explain to me like I’m a 5 year old what is Trump doing that is freaking out higher education institutions so much? I hear grant money. What’s the status on that?
Please keep it as matter-of-fact as possible 🫣
It’s a very subtle thing. Today, when I was texting a friend: “Meet me at the apartment,” instead of “Meet me at home.”
This place, which I am still writing from, is not home anymore. I want to say it’s sad, maybe it is, but I don’t feel sad about it - it just is.
Rambo: Last Blood, 2019 - ★★½
A missed opportunity. Starting as a movie about a deranged veteran and his crumbling mind, the movie quickly shakes off any emotional backdrop and drives full speed into the action.
I didn't expect much else from a Stalone movie (his company, his writing—and I'm treating him here as the director, too, even though he isn't), sure. But the elements are there: the medications, the adopted family he built around him, the tunnels he built in his backyard, where he gets lost in PTSD-induced flashbacks. The movie has a good start, showing us an unstable man trying to build a stable world.
The first Rambo, based on a book of the same name, is a tragic story about a Vietnam veteran returning to a home that doesn't want him back or knows what to do with him. In this movie, Rambo explains that he didn't change; he's the same person and just learned to "put a lid on it, every day." Excellent. There's so much stuff to pick on and go on from there. Instead, I can imagine Stalone yelling, "Cut! Enough with the emotional bullshit, let's blow some shit up!"
As for the action, it's over the top (fine, it's a Rambo movie) but also not entertaining enough. That's mostly because we've seen everything in the other movies. Stalone didn't just borrow a few signature moments from his older films, it feels like he copied all of them. The bow is there, and so are the spike traps (same kinds), the same explosives, the same old trick of different weapons at different spots, the same "final boss" fights... only in this movie, there are two, and it seems like Stalone doesn't know what to do with him, so he just dies a very gruesome death, and way too quickly.
They also seemed to have confused bad guy number 2 with bad guy number 1: the primary villain at the end of the movie is not the one who should really have the spot.
It doesn't help that the bad guys are Mexicans at the center of a sex trafficking cartel, apparently 5 minutes away from the border, which is as easy to pass as to drive a pickup truck through. It feels too much like a political narrative I heard too many times.
I'm not a director or a movie writer, but I still have advice for Stalone: Slow down.
This movie would have been so much better if Rambo was fighting his own demons, perhaps getting into trouble with the law and his own family because of his mental state. The tragedy of Rambo is that he's a warrior without an enemy, and that tragedy should have remained all the way to the end instead of forcing it unto target-practice baddies.
Two things I absolutely hate about automated phone bots: the recorded keyboard sound in the background while they “search for your information,” as if it’s a human, and that they mention you can access them online to save time. You 🤬🤬🤬, I’m obviously calling because I cant access you online.