Having just watched Backrooms (2026), here are some of my thoughts. There may be spoilers, so you've been warned! The thing that stands out the most is atmosphere — nightmarish, 90s setting, bewildering, corporate (?) The film really made use of the drone of fluorescent lights to create a deep sense of unease The soundtrack also really suits the menacing air that thickens as the film progresses If you want closure, this is not the film for you
Another mystery photo, likely originally belonging to my great grandparents - William Lucas Hankins and Mary Jane Kellam. All I know is what is written below the photo - Prude Tut B - 1905. I can't identify any young girls named Prudence or Prudy who were related to either William or Mary Jane in that time period - so she remains a mystery
Well, that was short-lived. The proposed Getty Images and Shutterstock mega-merger is dead, and the stock photography industry remains exactly where it was before: fragmented, under pressure, and staring nervously at the advancing AI army. So what happened, and more importantly, what does it mean for contributors?
There’s been a lot going on around here over the past six months, between upcoming in-person events, a new podcast, a trip to Japan, and ever-expanding brands in our shop! As we get caught up over the holiday weekend - and rest a bit - I wanted to take this opportunity for a few announcements on topics where we’ve received a lot of recent phone calls and e-mails: Store Hours: Unless otherwise posted, our regular shop hours are Thursdays and Fridays from 1pm-6pm, and from 10am-5pm on Saturdays.…
As silly as it sounds, as a student of mechanical engineering, I am partial to technologies that make use of mechanical forces. Today they are harder to come by because the solutions to the problems they solved were replaced by electronic components from the mid-20th century on. Today, newer technologies based on quantum physics are beginning to displace electronic devices, at least in specific use cases. In the landscape of electronic technologies, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are…
In April, I bought a bike, dusted off my Apple Watch SE (2020), and got active. My workouts were walking and bicycling (easier on the knees). All the metrics were tracked. But with a nearly six-years-old fitness/smart watch and a barely all-day battery, I decided a newer and simpler replacement was a good idea. So I ordered a Fitbit Inspire 3…and then cancelled it. I wanted even simpler, plus something cheaper. So I went to Wal-Mart and bought a Casio “dumb” watch. It only tracks time. But…
“Earlier in May, the Texas Attorney General’s office sued Meta for deceiving users on the level of security offered by end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp. E2EE is used as a catch-all term to describe secure messaging features across a lot of different apps, but these apps each apply different implementation standards and the level of security is never the same. You should not assume that all your communications are safe from interception just because your messaging app supports E2EE.” Worth…
Hello, loves! I see one more thing that needs doing. And then I propose that we have a little fun. What am I saying, programming IS fun for me. CW: Brief LLM excursion. Begin with a digression … In fact, I do this simple programming thing, and this prolix writing about it thing, because I enjoy them. I enjoy the puzzles, the mental exercise, the fun of seeing the computer do what I set out to have it do, the occasional joy of someone engaging with me via one of these articles. I have had the…
WACs relaxing after a day’s work * What you answer to is something else. – Lucille Clifton Citizen Ratified in 1868, three years after the abolishment of slavery, … 🐞 Read more about it ➞ ➞ ➞
For me, the American Bicentennial celebrations in 1776 came and went without leaving much of an impact. I was not yet four years old, so am unsure of what I do remember, though certain impressions (crowds, heat, loud sounds) persist. I do remember the atmosphere of the year: lots of red, white, and blue kitsch. A resurgence in Holly Hobbyized “Colonial” fashion. Wrought iron plaques on garage doors and the siding of split level ranches, indicating the inhabitants’ connection to the Colonial…
It was such a lovely day. Everyone was there. So many friends came to Hamburg for the weekend, and we all had a wonderful time.
The Tour de France starts today. I’m still debating shelling out for HBO Max so I can watch stages live on my iPad while I work —the joys of working at home— but I’ll be following along regardless. It should be a fascinating race this year, even if the winner is more than likely to be one of only two men. Barring a crash, Pog will win it. I think. I’m not alone in that prediction. Intrigued to see how some of the teams will adapt, and as ever, will be fascinated as I watch the team tactics…
Dear Constant Reader, Almost exactly six years ago, I filmed this reading and then abandoned it. Yesterday, I decided it should finally see the light of day, filmed a new intro, and edited it. As usual, Scratch gave me a hand, finding the music and the fireworks for the credits. I do wish I had thought of this before we were having massive heat wave and I had to turn off the AC to film the intro. If I look a bit haggard, it’s because I’m actually melting before your eyes. The reading is from…
Lately I've been checking the ol Donyo Lodge webcam in the mornings. It's nice.
On this day in 1976 America celebrated its Bicentennial birthday. And my family had moved to a house that was less than a year old. We had moved into the house in the late fall of 1975. Today I am living in that house after having left it for over twenty years. You might notice that I refer to this place as “a house” or “that house”. I don't refer to it as a home. I am not certain that this building is, or ever really was, a home. There is a big differentiation between a house and a home. That…
for the month of june, i tried my best to engage with as many pieces of queer media (either characters depicted are queer or the author/director are) as i could to celebrate pride month. i unfortunately didn't get to finish the goal i sort of set for myself as i spent much of my time cramming in some prep work for artfight1 this is also why my blog died for a bit shhh — but here's a list of what i did manage to read and watch. movies but i'm a cheerleader (1999) the children's hour (1961) ★ the…
“That is the most terrifying ride on the planet Earth” – so exclaims one of the young men who I have just watched riding Dinoconda at China Dinosaurs Park. It’s a roller coaster with a twist – it’s 4D. So, while the track throws you through dizzying loops, corkscrews and stomach-churning drops, your seat has a mind of its own, rotating independently and flipping you forwards and backwards at precisely the wrong (or right!) moment. The result is a ride that seems to ignore the normal rules of…
This article shows how to build an Autonomous AI Agent with Absurd.NET
I feel proud of myself today. Not because I've been working out, cleaned my apartment, or done the dishes and laundry. I haven't. I feel proud because of what I said. I was going to have dinner with a friend. We've known each other for ages, and it's always a pleasure when we see each other. One thing that wasn't very pleasurable, though, was my sleep last night. I woke up far too early and couldn't fall asleep again. I feel sooo tired... Since the dinner had been planned for weeks, it felt bad…
I was a ‘pocket-constitution’ kind of fellow in college, but one is regularly shocked by how little the average American citizen understands about how their government functioned or what the ideals of the framers were and one is regularly disappointed, but very much not shocked, by the endless parade of political entrepreneurs looking to exploit that gap in knowledge. I will also note, for my international readers, that I think the exercise of looking at these documents is valuable, for the…
Peer pressure takes place when the people around you are doing something that goes against something you believe in. It could be a goal, your values, or a desire. It can be brief, like being the only person not drinking at a party because you want to wake up without a hangover. When your friends all egg each other on, and you decline and say, “I’m not drinking tonight,” or “I don’t drink,” expect peer pressure. It can involve a different multi-year commitment, like renting a property when most…
Moving along well for now. Footer drains and backfill this week, followed by stacking the basement walls. Weather permitting, we may pour the basement this week. It was Florida hot this week. The guys would be on site at 0600 and wrapping up around noon. The worst of the heat should be over for now, but that sun is still pretty intense. We'll have a couple of pop-up canopies in there for shade. There was a pretty good video that dropped last week about using a chilled-water air handler and some…
I’ve been learning French for three years now. When I’m reading French comics, I always have an Ipad Mini with Google Translate going, so that I can just wave it in front of the page when I encounter a word I don’t know (and can’t surmise from the context). (I’ve got a strap attached to the back of the Ipad so I just keep a hand in there, ready for waving…) Back when I started using this, er, methodology, I was pretty impressed by how good Google Translate was… but three years later, it’s still…
Well, this is another long video but so, so much to get through! The bridge is made and I have brief chat about its design, the strings go on and I show you how I set-up my mandolins. And finally……..the New Model Mandolin gets to sing its first notes! So, cuppa at the ready and off we go. Cheers Gary
Thomas Jefferson wrote out the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, but he did not do so alone and without guidance. After all, he had been a member of the Continental Congress that summer, listening to the discussions about what a Declaration should say. Jefferson was also part of a five-person committee that also included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. After the committee produced a draft, additional changes were made by the Continental…
This lovely with her colourful body is an octopus. Like ninety-seven percent of the world's animals, she lacks a backbone. To support their bodies, these spineless animals — invertebrates — have skeletons made of protein fibres. This flexibility can be a real advantage when slipping into nooks and crannies for protection and making a home in seemingly impossible places.On the east side
So here’s a confession that’s been sitting in my chest like a swallowed marble: I haven’t built a puppet in an embarrassingly long time. I don’t even want to count the months. You know how it goes — the foam goes in a bin, the bin goes in a closet, the closet door closes, and then your ADHD brain does its little out-of-sight-out-of-mind magic trick and an entire craft just… evaporates. Not dead. Not abandoned. Just dormant. Hibernating under a pile of half-painted Skaven and a banjo I keep…
I don’t suppose the Isle of Man gets much attention, on a global scale at least. I suspect (rather despondently) that quite a few people who would describe themselves as Britain would have no idea where it is on a map – and that even more (particularly those who have not lived in the UK very long) might not even have heard it at all. Most people imagine it as a sleepy, peaceful island in the northern Irish Sea – and don’t spend too long wondering if it was or wasn’t always like that. Well, it…
I was very sorry to hear that Books Galore in Erie, Pennsylvania is closing.I went to college at Gannon University in downtown Erie, and Books Galore was my comics shop during those years...and the year or so after I graduated but before I moved to Columbus. So, between 1995 and 2000, I used to visit pretty much as often as I could.Books Galore seemed to be a big, old brick house repurposed into a used bookstore with a comic shop in the middle. At one end of the ground floor was a desk and cash…
Tags: #photosI find grocery displays fascinating as a subject of photography. Sweet snacks.Salty snacks.Not snacks. Related photographers: Andreas Gursky 99 cent Brian Ulrich Copia Stephen Shore Uncommon Places William Eggleston Untitled
