I mentioned this on Reddit years ago, but I would love to make a TV miniseries for James Bond that’s a period drama, 100% faithful to the original Ian Fleming novels.

Novel Bond was about a dull, uninteresting man whom things happened to. He was a dark and cynical man, thanks to his draining line of work. A loveless, high-functioning alcoholic who did his best work with a few drinks in him at all times. Which is likely why his drink of choice was a vodka martini; a strong, stiff drink to get him going when the going gets tough.

And the books were written in the 1950s, shortly after WWII, of which Ian Fleming served as a British Naval Commander and Intelligence officer. So Bond was written partially based on the experiences of real-world missions that Fleming commanded during the war.

Then in the 1960s, the movie rights for one of Fleming’s novels was sold and they reinvented James Bond for the big screen. People in that era didn’t want a dark, hopeless, cold-blooded assassin. They wanted a hero they could cheer for. So he was made a handsome, suave womanizer, with a penchant for social drinking and smoking (sexy vices of the time). He always dressed for style, always had expensive and luxurious tastes in cars and living, always saved the day, and he always got the girl. He was an idol for men and a dreamy catch for women.

Back in those days, they didn’t care much for loyalty to the source material, so while they were reinventing Bond, they decided to beef up his adventures too. The movies rarely had anything to do with the books, except for borrowing the titles every now and then, plus some key plot points once in a blue moon. And Movie Bond grew with the times. He got more technologically advanced gadgets, bigger global stakes, and more modern threats.

For example, the Moonraker novel was about Bond stopping a nuclear warhead from launching at London, whereas the Moonraker movie was about fighting a villain in space, who planned to poison humanity and repopulate the Earth with genetically superior humans aboard his space station. Totally different stories, same title.

Movie Bond changed in the '90s when Albert R. Broccoli, the producer of the films, passed away and left the franchise to his daughter Barbara (who had been involved with the franchise since the late '70s) along with her brother, Wilson. Barbara helped to reinvent Bond for the modern era, removing his smoking, reducing his drinking, and giving him strong, intelligent women to work with (or fight against) instead of rescuing ditzy damsels in distress.

Then… Austin Powers came out in 1997 and it was a complete parody of James Bond. The trilogy satired every common spy trope that James Bond had made famous over the decades. And it was a global hit. Barbara was pissed. She claimed that Austin Powers completely fucked them over. By turning their formula into a joke, Bond would forever be compared to Austin Powers.

So she rebooted the entire franchise in 2006 with Casino Royale, a movie based on the very first James Bond novel, and mostly faithful to the original story (except set in modern times). It was a return to the dark, gritty origins of the character. Bond was a high-functioning alcoholic, a blunt instrument who was fiercely loyal to his country, but still a wildcard who could barely be controlled.

This Daniel Craig era of films was excellent, my personal favorite version of James Bond out of his many decades of history. And the closest version to the original books, even if only the first movie was actually based on a book.

But I still want to see an actual period piece, set in the 1950s, that follows the original novels faithfully. I would love to see it as a TV miniseries because some of the books are just collections of random short stories, and some books themselves are hard to tell in movie-length detail without adding a bunch of fluff. Like the Casino Royale novel, which was 90% just a bunch of guys sitting at a table, gambling at baccarat. The 2006 film added a lot of action scenes that didn’t exist in the original book, just to pad the runtime.

Amazon recently bought MGM Studios, the company that makes the James Bond movies, and Barbara Broccoli has been complaining online about Amazon trying to ruin Bond. They want to make spinoff TV series, movie franchises based on side characters, as well as their own version of Bond films that Barbara doesn’t agree with. She claims they’re overriding her creative control and are going to run the franchise into the ground at a breakneck pace.

The last I heard, Barbara and Wilson begrudgingly ceded creative rights to James Bond to the new Amazon MGM Studios earlier this year under a $1 billion contract. So the James Bond franchise may already be doomed.

Fun fact: Douglas Adams, the creator of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, actually wrote most of the movie script. He died before the film was finished, but they kept it mostly the way he intended. So everyone complaining that it missed the point of the books or deviated wildly from the source material are arguing against the original creator’s intent.

Another fun fact: One of Douglas Adams’ running jokes with the Hitchhiker series is that it’s never told exactly the same twice. There was a radio show, novel series, video game, comic book, movie… and every version is different. Sometimes the story is told slightly different, sometimes it comes to a completely different conclusion. So having a “loyal/faithful” version made is technically impossible, as there’s no official canon story to recreate. Not should there be, as the ever-evolving retelling is part of the joke.

As a fan of the books in particular, I’d love to see an anthology TV series that is somewhat loyal to the book version. But I understand that Douglas Adams wouldn’t want that, so I’m happy for the various media we have so far.

That’s definitely a dragon in disguise. Looks like a cat to mortal eyes, but weights a helluva lot more.

#4 looks like a shoehorn. Is that even concave enough to use as a spoon? Likely not. That’s out.

#3 is definitely not a spoon. No idea what it is, but it’s not gonna work well as a spoon. Not gonna deal with that one.

#2 is actually a spoon, but a small one. It’ll be frustrating to use forever. I’d prefer not to use it.

#1 is actually a decent sized spoon. Oddly shaped, but it’ll hold a decent amount of food or liquid. I guess I could live with that one.

But she’s the Hero™ fighting against the Bad Guys™. Branding is everything.

But yeah, viewed objectively from a third party perspective, a lot of heroes in games and movies are actually borderline villains. Inserting themselves into a situation they don’t need to be involved in, and then the end justify the means. They may murder tons of no-name henchmen, but a greater threat to society has been eliminated!

I actually find it interesting that a lot of superhero characters came from healthy, sane family environments and fight to protect the Status Quo™, while most villains come from hardship and trauma and attempt to change the Status Quo™ that allowed their injustice of a life to exist, so others don’t suffer the same fate.

But some happy-go-lucky hero always comes by and stops them because their plan changes the Status Quo™. And we can’t accept changes to our structured social environment!

I still clearly remember others’ embarrassing, cringey moments from my high school years, and I’m in my 40s now. I shudder thinking about who still remembers the embarrassing things I said/did way back in my childhood.

I served in the US military for 20 years, from 2002-2022. At least twice that I can recall, they didn’t pass a budget in time and we were told that we wouldn’t be paid until it was resolved, but to keep working like normal and we’d eventually get paid. Both times it was a very short time before it was resolved and we did eventually get paid again. I think the longest time was about two or three weeks.

For members who used USAA for a bank (a company exclusively for military members and their families), the bank automatically deposited our paychecks in our account on time, because they said they knew the US government was good for it. Anyone who used another bank just had to wait for the government to actually pay us.

If you know anything about military members (especially young service members), a decent amount of them live paycheck to paycheck, not because they have to, but because they’re irresponsible with their money. The military pays you well, while also providing food and housing allowances on top of your pay, so your necessities are covered and your base pay is basically pocket money to spend as you like. As such, a lot of service members go out and spend that money and end up with very little in their savings.

So when a government shutdown hits like this, suddenly that safety net of a monthly housing allowance is gone and service members need to pull their own spending money to pay for rent and utilities. Which can be hard to scrounge up last-minute for some.

I was always very fiscally responsible during my service, but most of the people I worked with would go out partying and drinking every week (some every night!) and would be struggling for cash by the next paycheck. Which came bi-monthly for us; we were paid on the 1st and 15th of every month. So there was always a lot of stress and anxiety when the government announced a shutdown.

[…] the Internet (it was a written with a capital I back then)

Back then, an internet (lower case “i”) was a small internal network of computers that communicated with each other.

The World Wide Web, being a massive collection of computers across the globe that are interconnected, quickly earned the title of “THE Internet” (upper-case “i”), to differentiate it from smaller isolated networks.

“World Wide Web” turned out to be a mouthful to say, so we replaced it with “the Internet” instead. Although most websites still start with “www” to represent their global reach.

Nowadays, we’ve stopped using the word “internet” to describe smaller networks, so the word mostly just refers to the global network. And as such, if doesn’t really matter if you capitalize it or not.

However, I was there when the web became accessible to the public and the nomenclature has stuck, so I always capitalize the Internet when referring to it.

It’s not FOSS, but Plex does that. I host my music from a server I built at home (you can literally just use your desktop PC) and then I have access to it from anywhere. I like to stream it to the Plexamp app on my phone, which I connect to my car via Bluetooth, then I have my own homemade “radio” on the go. No ads, just my own music that I can shuffle through.

I paid for the Lifetime Plex Pass, which gave me full access to all their features and apps. It’s expensive, but it’s a one-time payment, vs. their monthly subscription which can add up over time.

I actually got annoyed at Plex for remembering exactly where I was in every song. I’d return to an album I hadn’t heard in a while and it would skip right to where I left off in each song instead of playing from the beginning of the song

Sometimes while trying to find a particular song, I’d skip around in a track, then move to the next until I found it. Then when I returned to that album later, every song would start somewhere in the middle. I eventually needed to turn that feature off. It still remembers exactly where I left off the last time I played music, but it doesn’t save my place in each individual song anymore. Just the last one I played.

On the app, it keeps a list of all the playlists I’ve recently played, so I can pick up on my latest playlist or scroll back in the history and start up one I played a while ago. This is great because I like to just shuffle my entire library as a playlist while I’m mowing my lawn, but my wife likes to hear specific genres or bands while we’re riding in the car together. So I can just keep alternating back and forth between playlists depending on the situation and it remembers where I left off in each one.

Maybe I’m just old, but I read that last line in Popeye’s laugh instead of Mr. Crabs.

I think one of the big concerns is that Trump is looking for any excuse to deploy the military against our own citizens. If he can start something violent in the streets, it justifies declaring martial law and taking over Democrat-run states. But in this digital age, everyone has cameras on their phones, so he needs the citizens to start shit first. He’s not brave enough yet to directly contradict video evidence of crimes (although he’s getting there).

That’s one of the big reasons Americans are trying to keep their protests civil. If we turn it violent, Trump gets his way and we get don’t stand a chance against a military invasion on our own land. Like in California, when Trump sent the National Guard to quell protests against ICE in LA, nothing came of it because no one wanted to start a fight. Protestors showed up, but none of them directly engaged with the military. Eventually the whole military campaign fizzled and the National Guard was recalled home.

We’re dealing with that again in Washington D.C. right now. Trump created some fake crime emergency to deploy the National Guard in D.C., despite an all-time low crime rate right now. Protestors are showing up in force, but nothing’s happening because they’re not directly confronting the National Guard. Just standing their ground and peacefully protesting.

I’m all for revolution; I think the only way we’ll fix our broken system is to tear it all down and rebuild from scratch; there are too many corrupt officials, on both sides of the fence, to repair it as is. And too many corrupt laws and regulations in place to function effectively. But you can’t just go in with violence. It’s a delicate situation right now and violence should be the absolute last resort. Trump has no problem sending millions to their deaths for his ideals and he’ll gladly invade our own nation to cement his dictatorship. We can’t give him the excuse to do it.

I was serving in the US military when Trump got elected the first time, and that was a scary time for us. He spoke very favorably about various dictators and wanting to reshape America like their countries. But he had a majority Democrat government that kept slapping down every BS thing he tried, so his first term was mostly uneventful.

This time around, though, he has a majority Republican government and enough supporters in high level positions that he’s surrounded by yes men. He’s been a lot more bold. I’m really glad I retired when I did because there’s no way I could follow his unlawful orders.

I think that’s the biggest difference between the US and Europe. Europe isn’t going to deploy the military to break up violent protests and then use it to enact martial law and overthrow that nation. Trump will, if given the chance.

Yup, because of his comic about it, paleontologists have officially named it the Thagomizer.

I’m 41 and I still make this mistake all the time.

No matter how old and broken my body gets, I’ll always be a teenager at heart.

That landscape image is called a grid, and you can change it when that game is the first one in your Recent Games list (the one game showing in grid view instead of the normal poster view). If you right-click the grid image in Recent Games, go to Manage, and then click Set Custom Artwork, you can change the grid image.

Any games you want to do this to, you’ll have to start them and then immediately quit them so they’re the first game in your Recent Games list. That’s the only time grid view shows up for any games now.

Before Steam started doing posters for games, your library was composed of nothing but grids. Nowadays, the only time you see a game’s grid is when it’s your most recently played game. So there’s not really a need to change it, unless it stays at the top of your Recent Games for a long time and it’s bugging you.

By the way, you can go to the SteamGridDB to find grids, posters, logos, background images, and icons for every game on Steam. It pulls metadata for every game, then people can upload their own custom artwork and logos. So you can find unique artwork to improve your library. Or add posters to older games that have been abandoned before Steam switched away from grid-only display.

I don’t like having games with blank images, so I update every missing poster, background, and logo that I can in my library.

Interesting… This was right about the time that I started getting pop-up messages on my phone about pre-ordering the Pixel 10 Pro and getting $450 off. Coincidence? 🤔

I posted a review here earlier this year, but A Way Out was an excellent 2-player co-op game! I really enjoyed it. Story rich puzzles with some action interspersed. And it’s split-screen even if you’re playing online, so you can see what your partner is up to and coordinate with them. The ending was heart-wrenching too! Such an emotionally impacting story. Check out my review for a spoiler-free intro to that game.

Diablo 3

My wife, two friends, and I all played Diablo IV online together. We beat the main campaign together and had a lot of fun with it. We’re trying to beat the expansion campaign too, but my wife and one friend dropped out, so it’s just been me and a buddy powering through it.

That’s a game where you can just have fun dicking around in the world, even if there isn’t an objective. And it has plenty of endgame content to keep you entertained after you beat the campaign.

hunter2

I literally just saw this movie for the first time last night. Long overdue. It was an excellent film!

Before anyone asks, it’s from Highlander (1986)

I mentioned in another comment that I’m using Gboard, which is Google’s POS keyboard. It’s not great (and I’m looking for better replacements currently), but it does learn words if you swipe them 3 or more times in a short time.

I have a unique first and last name that never pop up in dictionary words or common name lists, and Gboard swipes them for me now, because I’ve used them enough times in typing and fixed their attempt at autocorrecting it. Or if it mis-reads my swiped name, it’s usually one of the suggested corrections across the top of the keyboard.

I really don’t like Gboard, but it’s been the best I’ve found lately, so I always install it on new phones and tablets as soon as I get them. I’m getting suggestions in another comment thread here for viable FOSS replacements, so I’ll need to test those out.