Me trying to see the "little guy"

Remember when we had a whole impeachment hearing against Trump for withholding aid to Ukraine so he could get a political hit piece on Biden? I'm wondering how long it will take before a quid pro quo scenario pops up again. Either in Ukraine or elsewhere. So ya, we're all feeling for Zelensky in the next few years.

My favorite story about Charlie Watts:

"One anecdote relates that in the mid-1980s, an intoxicated Jagger phoned Watts's hotel room in the middle of the night, asking, "Where's my drummer?" Watts reportedly got up, shaved, dressed in a suit, put on a tie and freshly shined shoes, descended the stairs, and punched Jagger in the face, saying: "Never call me your drummer again. You're my fucking singer!"[44][45] He expressed regret for the incident in 2003, attributing his behaviour to alcohol.[20]"

From a different article:

https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2026/02/18/arizona-senate-approves-renaming-loop-202-after-charlie-kirk/

"Green Valley Democratic Sen. Rosanna Gabaldón said the proposal bypasses the normal process — one set up by the Legislature itself — that assigns the task of reviewing name changes to the Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names.

“SB1010 politicizes the state highway naming process,” she said, with the board designed to pursue a process “that’s supposed to be neutral (and) reflective.”

“Our transportation system should unite Arizonans, not be used for political statements,” Gabaldón said.

Sen. Lauren Kuby pointed out that the board policy — the one lawmakers are overriding — is not to name anything after someone until at least five years after they have died. That, said the Tempe Democrat, “both avoids political controversy and allows historical perspective.”"

I'll say a vacuum.

When I was a college kid in an apartment I bought the bottom-shelf, bagged Dirt Devil vacuums and dealt with it. All the clogging, hair in the brush, cheap quality/you get what you pay for, etc. Then I moved into a house I got a mid-range Bissell to help deal with all the pet hair. The thing was questionably designed, still got a bunch of the hair in the roll, and needed regular upkeep to make sure it functioned properly. When that one went out I wasn't going to pickup the same thing even though it technically lasted for years.

I recently picked up a Shark Rotator and it sucks in the best way possible. Was it expensive? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely. I can vacuum my whole house knowing I'm getting as much dirt, dust, hair off the floor as possible. And I'm not going to have to deal with even half the problems the low-end vacuums have. It pivots and gets right up against walls. There is a clear window to see the brush roll from the top. It also uses fins that just don't collect hair anyway. The whole canister comes off in one easy motion and I can dump it without spilling all over the now clean floor. There are two roll speeds for hard floors and carpet. The brush roll doesn't spin when it's locked upright so it's not flinging stuff around or grinding into the carpet while I try to clean corners or the couch. And even though it's one of their "heavier" models it's still lighter than the Bissell I lugged around for years.

This is a case that better design and features comes with a price. And those design choices can directly make your life easier. So if you can afford it, go for it.

The first one that comes to mind is Jared Leto. Can't stand him in any role but I will tolerate him in Requiem for a Dream. And even then I've only seen that movie once which is more than enough.

Ya she was awful. She won her seat as an openly LGBTQ+ Democratic candidate. You'd at least figure she'd vote in line with the party. But with a closely divided Congress, every vote counts. Remember the ACA repeal vote was foiled by one no vote from John McCain.

So it was pretty obvious when she started to vote against the party, in favor of special interests and not people, that she was getting something from being one of the holdouts. I think she switched to Independent toward the end of her career there. Now she's pushing AI data centers in AZ because she just goes where the money is.

"Since leaving college, Fugate has had a meteoric rise in the political world, having served as an “advance team member” on President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, according to his LinkedIn page.

An avowed Republican, he also interned at the Heritage Foundation...

Fugate was reportedly hired as a “special assistant” in an immigration office at the DHS in February, according to ProPublica. He then took over CP3 after its previous director quit."

Ya, Tchaikovsky made bangers, plain and simple. 1812 Overture, Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, the list goes on....

Recently,

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I think the soundtrack was the best part of the game.

All time,

Anything Final Fantasy or Elder Scrolls is timeless.

Well now I need to go watch Duck Soup.

Pretty much. I recently had my mastodon feed spammed with racist, homophobic, and gore-filled posts just because they would post with a list of unrelated hashtags. You could keep blocking the poster or the instance but they would pop back up from another instance or with another account. It eventually stopped but I'm sure it'll happen again. You're apparently able to filter out certain offensive terms with a filter but I think you have to manually enter the terms yourself.

But... Does it help?

After seeing the keynotes at CES this year I am convinced every tech CEO desperately sees themselves as the next Steve Jobs on this one. "Hype" of the iPhone But with none of the innovation. The iPhone was something tangible and useful to people. It actually enhanced something we all used. So many things that were talked about this year were met with crickets from the audience. AI in GPUs you can't afford and frame generation, AI in CPUs, AI in your coffee maker. The audience was skeptical and uninterested because the technology hasn't proven itself yet. But here we are going all-in.

I literally just had a conversation with a coworker where he said we need more AI to auto generate and populate forms and save us the hassle. He gave a bunch of examples and I said, never touching copilot, "It sounds like you should just be able to ask it to do these extremely basic tasks and it would complete them." And he replied that he tried a number of ways but it could never get them right. It's a half baked technology at best.

All that is happening is geared towards data centers and the tech companies themselves. All we get to do is ask a fancy search engine things and it spits out things that may or my not be true or plagiarized. Its not an original thought but just a smashed together search. We can ask it to complete tasks with a 30% success rate. They want to feed it so much information it will destroy your basic privacy as well as the ecosystem. Oh but we get the privilege of renting comupting power to play games on their servers. Don't worry about the hastle of a home PC anymore.

Nothing tangible, nothing better than what we already have.

Ya back there, on the engine itself, a black cap.

You'll lose your mind once you see how much sugar is in everything.

Honey Nut Cheerios? The "healthy breakfast choice" we were told? Serving size is 1 cup. ~25% of the recommended daily sugar. 1 cup doesn't fill a bowl or your stomach so you eat 2 cups, boom 50% of your daily sugar. You grab a can (12oz) of Dr Pepper with lunch? Boom that's another ~75% of your daily recommended sugar.

It's not even dinner and your over your sugar quota. Like 80 grams of sugar in two items.

"For the ultrawealthy, the document floats eliminating the federal estate tax, at an estimated cost of $370 billion in revenue for the government over a decade. The tax, which charges a percentage of the value of a person’s fortune after they die, kicks in only for estates worth more than around $14 million."

So cut $37 Billion/year the government gets from dead rich people and make up for it....by slashing benefits for the middle class and poor. Truly the party of the people.

Could be fun. I just desperately want an animated adaptation of the Stormlight Archives. Mistborn would be a killer three season animated show too.

Vinland Saga

"I have no enemies." It's an anime with two seasons so far. The manga is getting close to complete. Takes place around 1000 ad with the wars between the Vikings and the English. Basically the first season is about revenge while the second pivots hard to redemption. It's ultimately a story about pacifism.

I mean, this sounds like a perfect job for Linux but if that's not what you're looking for then I'd stick with Windows 10.

It also sounds like a swap partition might help with your memory issues. Set aside a couple gigs from your ssd to use when your ram is maxxed out. Not sure what the process is in Windows but certainly wouldnt hurt to try.