I remember Wil Wheaton saying this in The Guild, but was he also quoting Rand at the time?

Kamala is the best version of a normal politician fighting against Trump. It remains to be seen if that’s enough, because he’s just so goddamn weird that it’s difficult to even compare Tool A to Problem B.

I think she’s incorporated virtually all of the strengths of any of her comparable peers, and almost none of their weaknesses. I think that, given the nature of the opponent and his total lack of seriousness, she said everything I would reasonably hope she would have said during this debate.

I also think that I don’t properly understand the collective psyche of the American electorate. I don’t understand how the election could be this close, when it is a choice between a serious, competent, passionate, talented professional, and a man who is literally a collection of all of the worst possible traits a person could have. That it could come down to such a narrow choice is a mystery for the ages.

¯\(ツ)/¯

Except double slashes makes the underscores disappear.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So… it looks like adding a slash before the slash and before each underscore does the trick. Thanks!

You know, I think it’s something with the formatting here where it makes the slash disappear. Not sure what syntax I’d need to use to make the whole thing appear properly.

Put phone down on wireless charger. Charging notification lights up. Go to sleep. Wake up. Check phone. Is at 2%. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Fucking. Wireless. Chargers.

X-TREME

For sure, the technology and fashion is all VERY late-90s. But the way that The Matrix informed SO many action and scifi movies to follow, and spawned so many cultural touchstones made it break containment.

And then you’ve got subjects that it brings up, like mixed technophobia and technophilia, gender identity, anti-authoritarianism, and so on that are still at the forefront of our cultural awareness. The Matrix has stayed relevant and meaningful in ways that very few works have managed to.

Hackers

Romeo + Juliet

There’s a filter that I apply to these kinds of questions, and it’s that there are some works that are of a particular time, but they ascend beyond that time and just become a part of culture, broadly. Like, Wizard of Oz just IS, Bohemian Rhapsody just IS; they aren’t bounded by their decades of origin.

I’d argue that at least Jurassic Park, and arguably also The Matrix, are above and beyond the '90s in ways that other movies can’t quite achieve.

Clerks is a lot closer to real people’s experience of the '90s, as opposed to quintessential '90s fictions, like Pulp Fiction or Hackers.

The difficulty in locating the original is that Republicans are ALWAYS trying to destroy public education and public libraries, so it’s kind of like trying to Google John Smith.

So help me there was some big deal right wing personality who talked about how the government shouldn’t subsidize education by saying that when he was a kid he wanted an education so he… went down to the public library and read books there. Not a hint of irony. Can’t remember exactly who it was, but the dissonance stuck with me.

Such magnificent floof…

Most bugs do groom themselves, but here’s a fun fact! Bed bugs don’t groom themselves, and this makes most standard insecticides ineffective, because they won’t ingest any of the poison they might get on their bodies!

Another fun fact: bed bugs are the fucking devil and I don’t hate them, I haaaaaaaaaaaaaate them.

I bought a warhammer. Then I bought a second warhammer. Don’t regret either purchase.

Not sure if…

Trump Secures Crucial Brain Eaten By Worm Demographic

…or…

Breaking: Having Brain Eaten By Worm May Lead To Trump Endorsement

…is the more appropriate headline.

I think the creators will share the full script in the context of putting on a production.

There’s a crowdsourced full-length Shakespearean translation of Pulp Fiction called Bard Fiction, and it’s quite good.

JULIUS

Forsooth, did I thy concentration break? Continue, please! Thou did, methinks, now speak Of our ill will. But now thy tongue is still? Allow me, then, to offer a retort. Describe to me Marsellus Wallace, pray.

BRITTANUS

What?

JULIUS

In which far land did thou first come to be?

BRITTANUS

What?

JULIUS

Thou sayest thou dost hail from distant What! I know but naught of thy strange country What. Which language speak they in the land of What?

BRITTANUS

What?

JULIUS

English, base knave, dost thou speak it?

BRITTANUS

Aye!

JULIUS

Then my words are not Greek to thy dull ears.

BRITTANUS Nay!

JULIUS Then hearken to my words and answer them! Describe to me Marsellus Wallace!

BRITTANUS What?

JULIUS (Holds his blade pointed at Brittanus’ eye) Speak “What” again! Thou cur, cry “What” again! I dare thee utter “What” again but once! I dare thee twice and spit upon thy name! Now, paint for me a portraiture in words, If thou hast any in thy head but “What”, Of Marsellus Wallace!

If you believe that laws forbidding gambling, sale of liquor, sale of contraceptives, requiring definite closing hours, enforcing the Sabbath, or any such, are necessary to the welfare of your community, that is your right and I do not ask you to surrender your beliefs or give up your efforts to put over such laws. But remember that such laws are, at most, a preliminary step in doing away with the evils they indict. Moral evils can never be solved by anything as easy as passing laws alone. If you aid in passing such laws without bothering to follow through by digging in to the involved questions of sociology, economics, and psychology which underlie the causes of the evils you are gunning for, you will not only fail to correct the evils you sought to prohibit but will create a dozen new evils as well.

—Robert A. Heinlein, Take Back Your Government