Happy New Year 2024

 I know, I'm a week late wishing you all a Happy New Year. I've been busy. Anyway, as a sorta kinda New Year's resolution, I've decided to start writing more. I'm not talking about just posting, I mean actually hand writing my posts before I put them on the interwebs. I have a notebook that can handle this task and it just takes a little bit of editing after it's uploaded. Prior to this, my day-to-day writing has been relegated to short phrases and part numbers on repair forms. I want to write more.

I have enlisted the help of my lovely and talented girlfriend to provide my writing prompts which I will use to...well...write. The next post will be the first writing prompt and my results. That, along with my other blog, should get my handwriting skills back up to speed in no time.

I hope you enjoy, and if you feel like it, use the prompts on your own site of choosing.

Cleaning Out The Cobwebs

With the unfortunate decline of Twitter/X and the chaos of plenty of contenders vying to take its place, I've decided to grab a broom and a mop and come back to the old blog and clean out the dust and cobwebs. I know, blogging is so 2004, but at least I have some modicum of control over responses and don't have to subject people to hateful comments. Anyway, with these new social networks popping up like orange barrels during Ohio construction season, I've joined a few of them...or more. So, I'm going to give my impressions of each service as I use them and experience them.

Twitter/X (@AlienCG, @illuminatipod, @AlienBiblical)
OK, first off, that last sentence of that last paragraph is important for context, I am talking about this network from my own experience. Now that that's out of the way, I have no real problem with X when it comes to my primary account, @AlienCG. I follow the people I want to follow and have good interactions with folks. Also, this is where almost everyone I interact with online still is, so there's that. However, when it comes to @Illuminatipod, it's a dumpster fire of misinformation, disinformation, and absolute bullshit from the deepest sewers on the internet. Finally, when I'm bopping around @AlienBiblical it's an absolute garbage dump, but that's what I'm looking for because it gives me inspiration for posts over on my Bible Study Blog. The functionality and the fact that idiot-in-chief of that site wants everyone to pay for it makes it a steaming pile when it comes to responses.
Grade: AlienCG: B+/Illuminatipod: D-/BiblicalAlien: C

Mastodon (@AlienCG@mstdn.social)
Mastodon has been around for a while, but it wasn't until Twitter got bought that it would hit popularity. It took me a while to get into using this network, and due to the technical barrier for many, it's still slow growth. It's not as simple as signing up for an account and posting. There are several networks and I have another login out there somewhere, but I can't remember the server. I don't think Mastodon is going to be the Twitter killer for that reason, but it will stick around.
Grade: B-

Bluesky (@AlienCG.bsky.social, @illuminatipod.bsky.social)
The Twitter killer? Probably not, actually. First of all, Bluesky is still invite only which means you have to know someone in order to sign up. The quality of the journalism is up there as opposed to X since most of the journalists left the bird app behind. It's another slow-growing network due to the invite thing, but when it finally does open up, provided it's moderated properly, could be the replacement for Twitter when it comes to breaking news.
Grade: B+

Threads (aliencg)
Meta threw its hat into the short form social media game earlier this year when they introduced Threads. It showed great early growth thanks to the ease of entry for Instagram users. The app allows for a chronological timeline of only people you follow, but the default is still the "For You" feed which is algorithmically generated to show you influencers and other Instacelebs. It's not ideal for me because it's tied directly to Facebook and I've always kept that and Twitter separate. It seems to have died down now, but Threads also had the "Isn't Threads great!" problem when it comes to new social networks, which is why I was done with it after two days.
Grade: C-

Spoutible (@aliencg)
I really want to like Spoutible, but it came around later than the rest, and currently I only know two people on there. This is the new social media problem, fragmentation. The app is great and offers control over what you see and how you see it. It's a little busy which can be distracting. I don't have a lot of experience with it yet, so that is factored into the grade.
Grade: B+

Pebble (formerly T2) (@AlienCG)
Pebble was actually started by former Twitter employees and it shows. They use the 280 character limit, the interface is clean and uncluttered, and all in all it should be able to give X a run for its money. Like Bluesky, Pebble is invite only so its user base is smaller at the moment. They also don't have an app, so you have to use a web app which isn't the end of the world. They were originally called T2, which was a placeholder, and it was difficult to search for and find using Google. Unfortunately, they chose another name that may prove to be a misstep in Pebble.is ("Pebble Is..."). You see, Pebble is a defunct tech company, so anytime you want to find out information about the social network, you usually have to wade through a few pages of stories about a former watch maker.
Grade: B-

Smokey And The Bandit (1977)

As a  way to get back into writing for this blog, I will be reviewing movies that I have either not seen in ages, or have never seen.

I saw Smokey And The Bandit when I was about 10 years old and, naturally, having the mind of a 10 year-old, I thought it was fun and hilarious. Now, being forty-something, I still think the movie downright funny and, with the exception of a few lines here and there, still holds up.

When rich people want illegal beer from across the Mississippi, they call on The Bandit and the Snowman to go get it. This movie is less about the plot and more about the one-liners, thanks to Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), and slapstick car chases. It is truly representative of the 1970s with fast cars, truck drivers, and CB radio. It's a fun road trip movie that I thought was more bawdy than it actually is.

Sally Field plays Carrie, a runaway bride that we find out was supposed to marry Junior, the son of Sheriff Buford T. Justice, which is why the pair are chasing The Bandit. It is unclear if she ever actually revealed this to him or not. At the end of the movie, as they drive away, she yells, "Tell Junior, no hard feelings." Besides that, there is really nothing else to say about the "plot" of this movie. 

While reading up for this post, I found out that yes, Coors beer was in fact illegal to transport east of the Mississippi because it was not pasteurized and contained no preservatives. Also, the reason that CB radio was all the rage in the 1970s was because it was accessible to all thanks to solid state technology and the 55 mph speed limit. 

Smokey And The Bandit is the only movie that there was by this name. There were absolutely never any crappy sequels made that Burt Reynolds refused to take part in. Nope, they never happened. Just like there was never a sequel to Caddyshack. That never happened either.

Repost: New Product Announcement

SGMR Industries. Inc. has always been committed to selling products for money to people who probably don’t need them in the first place. Since we first introduced our first product, people have been throwing money at us and clamoring for more. Well, we gave them more. We added more adjectives, and more shiny bits and sold it for more money than the previous version. That’s what we do and people love us for it.

Today, we introduce yet another, new, revolutionary, shiny, big, fabulous, and highly improved product. It will do something more impressive than the previous version and we will introduce something else that people didn’t think they needed. However, people will make a reason to need this product and they won’t care how much they have to pay for it, because it’s from us. We are excited to see how much more money we’re going to make off of this product and how many people will buy it before we obsolete it in six months when we tease our next product that will contain one more thing that people don’t need. 

We will begin preorders at retail outlets on Friday morning which means that we will control the entire news cycle that day. This is our mission, and when the product is released, we will only distribute at those same retailers so that we can build hype for the next iteration. People like to stand in line for exclusive products that they spend a lot of money on to look more impressive in front of their friends. Our commitment to our customers is to make them feel more important than everybody else.

Introducing A New Blog

I know, I know, I haven't written anything new on this blog in a while. Well, it will still be a little longer, but I am going to start writing on the ISC Blog. The first post is going to be an article from a website that for some reason sends me newsletters called Prophecy News Watch. It's exactly what it sounds like, a "news" website that looks at the world and tries to shoehorn events to fit "biblical prophecy".

The first post is based on an article talking about 9 signs of the apocalypse. It's not very good and it is quite underwhelming. I can't see how anybody would read that article and think that the world is ending. Things happen. We're seeing things happen and they don't need a reason to happen. So I wrote again, but not here unless you count this post tell you that I wrote somewhere else.

I hope you like the new blog, and I will try to get back to writing real stuff here as well. I need an outlet for all of the stuff running through my brain. 

Repost: Boba Fett Ain't No Badass

Original Post Date: July 11, 2013

I grew up thinking that Boba Fett, galactic bounty hunter from the Star Wars Saga, was one of the biggest badasses of them all. He was the strong, silent type. He captured Han Solo. And he was the coolest dresser.

But wait.

Look at that second item again. Did he really capture Han Solo? No. He followed him. He narced on him to the government. Then he took credit for his capture when he collected his money from Jabba the Hutt. However, it was Darth Vader that would ultimately capture Han Solo and hand him over to the bounty hunter. He fired his weapon once and missed. He couldn't even be bothered to chase after the person at whom he was shooting. What if it was another bounty hunter trying to take credit for his…er, Darth Vader's, hard work. So, he was lazy as well as a lousy shot. He couldn't even load his own cargo into his ship, the damn thing floated and it didn't look like those Bespin guards were struggling. Hell, his downfall was even worse.

The next time we catch up with Boba Fett, he's hanging out in what amounts to a good ol' boys club in the backwoods of the galaxy. Hell, Princess Leia was more badass than him when bargaining over Chewbacca. She pulled out a grenade and threatened to kill everyone and die in the process. Oh, but Boba Fett pulled his gun. What are you gonna do, Fett, shoot that little monkey thing? Were you even around when Luke Skywalker entered or were you still sleeping? On a side note: Jabba's palace was a sausage party. There were two females in the whole joint and neither were much to look at.

Things happen

Oh look, Boba Fett reveals that he can fly. He also reveals that he has a bunch of other toys in his arsenal. He ties up the only guy with the light saber with a piece of string that can easily be cut. Luke only acts like he's detained to get Fett to let his guard down. While he's distracted, Han Solo hits his backpack with a long rod and launches him into the Sar'laac Pit. While he's down there, he can listen to stories of everyone else got there. Thrown in by the Jedi Knight, an explosion caused another to fall, another was thrown in by the only black guy in the trilogy. Finally Boba Fett can tell his story, "I was knocked in my defective backpack by a blind guy with a stick who had been in a coma for a few years." When the laughter subsides, he can get on with being digested for a thousand years. Frankly, if it came down to choosing someone to have my back in a fight, I'll take an Ewok or two.

15 Years? Seriously?

So yesterday (December 1) I decided to transfer this domain name over to Google Domains since the ISC domain is already there, my blogs are all on Blogger (a Google company), and I am an admin on three other domains. It was a minor formality, but something hit me. In March 2019, I would have owned the aliencg.com domain for 15 years. That means that the AlienCG name that I use online is already more than 15 years old. That name came about in June 2003 when a few friends and me decided to start a video game forum called The Game Board.

I was looking for a new online alias because in 2004, you didn't reveal your personal details online. I was always obsessed with aliens and UFOs, so I was looking for an alien-related alias. I had already used Alien Underground and Alien Overground, so I wanted something new. My friend, Mitch (aka Golden Boy/Amorphous Blob on The Game Board), said, "Why not Alien Coffeeground," at which I laughed, and soon decided that it was perfect. Due to a slight over-saturation of video game related forums out there, I decided to shutter the account and sold the domain name (big mistake since over the past couple years, I could have sold it for a lot more than $50).

I enjoyed having a website and I had learned a lot about PHP/SQL development, so I looked for and bought aliencg.com in March of 2004 as a personal website and blog that I called Alien's Planet. I still have the original code and some slightly broken iterations can be found on The Wayback Machine at archive.org. After many frustrations with shared hosting sites, I moved to the free WordPress service and renamed the blog Swamp Gas & Moonlit Reflections after having a renaming contest, and starting fresh (I did save the XML files from the old site). Eventually I moved to Squarespace where I had also started the SGMR Podcast (a personal podcast) and then to Blogger to save money. I shortened the name to SGMR and now host the podcast at archive.org.