I’ll be back with my own video soon, but in the meantime, two end of the year videos to share.
First up, the Google Year in Search:
And DJ Earworm’s United States of Pop:
It’s been a year. But at least we got some videos to celebrate its end!
Here is DJ Earworm’s United State of Pop:
And a bonus from DJ Earworm, all the top songs from 1970 to 2020:
And of course, the year in search from Google, always a great/tough one to watch:
I’ll be back with my own end of the year wrap-up(s) soon!
Alright, catching up on a bit of a backlog in addition to some current items, but let’s see what we have today. First up, a favorite web comic/series, Surviving the World is returning with classic reposts! Here’s where he ended it. Class Dismissed.
Science news you can use: don’t drink your whiskey ‘neat’:
The United Methodist Church is splitting over gay issues. As someone who has come out of that on the other side, hey welcome, it’s a bumpy ride. Sorry you have to do this, it’s painful.
This fight (is still going on all across the country) happened in September in Arizona. Their GOP governor said they don’t need to extend non-discrimination protections to gay people, and their supreme court said businesses can deny service to gay people. The fight continues, and is seemingly never ending.
In other disturbing news, the Interior Department cut sexual orientation from their internal discrimination policies as well.
I wrote earlier about my displeasure at Marvel (and Star Wars) for LGBT erasure. The upcoming film, The Eternals, will, for the first time, feature a gay superhero (and kiss). Yes, it’s progress. Should it have taken 11 years? No.
In other movie news, the trailer for the new Wes Anderson film looks amazing:
If you haven’t, check out Eastsiders on Netflix. It was an amazing series, and here’s an interview with the creator.
Stranger Things 4 gives us a present from Russia (with love).
In good news, a New York state park will be named for Marsha P. Johnson!
The Church of England said sex is only for straight, married people. Then they apologized for offending people, not actually changing their minds.
Firefighters who got angry comments when they showed their support for the queer community hit back in an awesome video.
NASA is adding a luxury hotel to the ISS. Spoiler, if you’re reading this, you will not be able to afford visiting.
An awesome video from a favorite creator that I’ve been mulling over: death and minimialism:
The Utah Governor pulled the campaign that put AMAZING art on condoms to prevent STIs. They’re all great, and it’s a shame he pulled them.
Speaking of, the UK has seen a massive decline in HIV infections due to PrEP. No surprise there.
The Catholic bishops in Texas have blasted their governor (who is Catholic)over his rule to not accept refugees. I’m highly, highly critical of the Catholic Church, so I have to give them points when it’s appropriate. Good for them.
Disney is announcing more details of their immersive Star Wars hotel for their resorts, and it looks amazing and I can’t wait to go!
Google pretty much hit it out of the park with their Superbowl ad:
And another great ad, this time from Microsoft:
We’re just a short bit into 2020, so it’s time for a quick look back at 2019 and a look ahead. I’m working on finishing up my year in review video for 2019 (as well as 2018), so those will be done soon. In the meantime, here are the two that I really enjoyed, first up from Google:
And secondly, the year in music from DJ Earworm:
As I have done the last few years, I like to make resolutions at my birthday, not the new year, but I have a few, very attainable, things I’d like to work on this year:
- Purchase more music. I tend to make lists of music that I hear and like, and then never do anything about that.
- Cook a wider variety of dishes for game nights. Specifically, I want to use the cookbooks that I have!
- Clean at least one thing a month. By thing, I mean, a filing cabinet, a closet, a chest of drawers, etc. I have too many ‘things,’ and I need to declutter a bit, so we’ll go bit by bit!
- I signed up on Goodreads for a reading challenge, but again, kept it attainable: hoping to finish 7 books this year! I have a big pile next to my bed, but just hoping to make a dent.
- I’m also working on my birthday resolutions which include things like swapping out an outlet, installing a new thermostat, those kinds of things. Like I said, very attainable!
Happy new year, everyone: may it be better!
Part of my Camp NaNoWriMo project has been working on this site, so doing a lot of behind the scenes work as well as getting some public pages finally up and sorted. I have two projects left for that. The first is a minor change, but will take a bit of work to future-proof it.
The second, was what I was working on yesterday, so I want to take a minute to write about it, because, it’s a story.
So, one area I’d like to include is photo galleries. I tend to take a lot of pictures (especially of signs) and I do enough interesting things that I have a sizable photo library. Years ago, on an older version of this site, I uploaded them into galleries, but then I realized that I didn’t want to deal with server space and manually uploading everything.
Enter Picasa. I was able to upload images to it and quickly and easily create shareable galleries. Worked great (and I do still like the, no unsupported, desktop client), but eventually Google moved to Google Photos.
Here’s what I’ve found out in the last few days: they didn’t make a Google Photos API, meaning, there was no way for other websites to communicate with Google Photos. The Picasa API still exists, it just hasn’t been updated in the last two years (and my galleries are still out there, thank goodness). So while there are plenty of plugins to make image galleries easy for Picasa, all my photos which are now automatically uploaded to Google Photos, had no where to go.
There are workarounds, but it takes quite a bit of know how, and I stumbled my way through about half of it, but I”m still working on getting things how I actually want them to be.
But all of that changed a few weeks ago! Google released an API for Google Photos and now extensions are being updated and added. So while I won’t have the galleries up for July, it will still, finally, be a thing! So look for that sometime soonish, I hope!
Each year I pull together the year in review videos that I see, and don’t worry, I am working on my own year in review video (although it might come out a few days after the New Year).
First up, the amazing video from Google:
DJ Earworm returns with his mashup of the year:
And here is this year’s Youtube Rewind, which, I really actually don’t like that much, mostly because there are only a very small few of these creators that I recognize and watch, but it’s still kind of fun:
Alright, let’s see what we have today, first up, the new Google ear buds are going to change the world with live translations.
Stan Lee takes a stand against bigotry.
Fitz and the Tantrums’ new song is my new jam:
A touching tribute to Matthew Shepherd.
And speaking of, the politician who was saved by a married lesbian spoke at a convention dedicated to taking away her rights.
Oh hey, so did the president. The first to do so. He spoke at a convention that has discussed ways to pass legislation to put gay men to death. Let that sink in.
Also in the horror show that is this administration, Jeff Sessions has rescinded protections for trans* people.
The president has also removed all mention of the queer community from the Health and Human Services department, meaning no mention of queer focused health initiatives.
And Jeff Sessions rescinded other protections for all members of the queer community. These are things that affect people you love. Be fucking pissed.
Okay, quick pallet cleanser. The new trailer for Super Mario Odyssey takes the form of a Big Band musical number:
After the horrific shooting in Vegas, just a reminder that your thoughts and prayers do jack shit. We need comprehensive gun control in this country, including a rescinding of the second amendment.
It boggles my mind that it takes something personally happening to someone for them to take action. It is not that hard to actually think about other people and try to imagine a better world for them, as well as yourself. But, predictably, when gun violence is close to a gun fanatic, suddenly, he realizes his mistake. It infuriates me that it takes a tragedy like this for him to realize how wrong he is, but hey, at least he came around I guess. I just won’t be patting him on the back for his sudden realization.
A Dutch news program takes on (with dark humor) the insanity that we live with here in the US:
Okay, the graphic designers have gotten a hold of the US map.
Speaking of graphic designers, a great SNL skit about fonts:
And if you can believe it, the man who created Papyrus, responds!
Stranger Things 2 (or the second season, not sure what to call it) looks amazing:
The president rolls back the mandate for birth control under health care, because he wants to drive up abortion rates, the cost of healhtcare and get rid of preventative medicine. Just kidding, he’s a racist and since it is both something Obama put into place and a GOP wet-dream, it’s gone.
And I’ll just drop this here, the 10 things you need to know about Patriotism:
In good medical news, due to PrEP, there has been a huge drop in new HIV cases in England (where it was studied).
And finally, the amazing trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi:
Alright, here we go, the big year in review post. First up, DJ Earworm’s United State of Pop:
Next up, a great review of the year by The Onion:
This year, Google’s Zeitgeist is really short, but still very good:
Also really short this year, is JibJab’s year in review:
Youtube’s Rewind was really good this year:
And lastly, instead of putting together a slide show for the camp staff kids, I didn’t want to let the music go to waste, so I’m starting a new tradition. Here’s a look at my life in 2013, all the adventures, friends and people that inspired me, hope you like it:
Here’s to a great 2014!
Alright let’s see what we have today. First up, I’m really hoping I can figure out a way to go see this, but here is the first poster of NPH as Hedwig.
A huge chart of beer. Freaking huge.
Chris Christie, Governor of NJ, is a giant asshole. He’s on the record stating that if one of his kids was gay, he would tell them they had no right to get married. No, I take that back, he’s not an asshole, he’s a fucking monster.
A medal was struck to commemorate Pope Francis’s first year and it quotes Lesus. Yep, they misspelled Jesus.
In case you forgot, Pat Robertson is a raging, evil asshole. And Ccn we all just agree that Pat Robertson is just really reaching for ratings at this point?
In case you missed it, Firefly is coming back as a comic!
My favorite Halloween costume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkBDRUO8hAo
On Jupiter and Saturn, it rains diamonds.
I’m not sure what’s going on with Vogue UK, but if you put in the Konami code, you see a raptor. Seriously.
This is such a tragic and sad story. Get the Kleenex ready.
A new kind of horror movie:
Also in the spirit of Halloween, living with Jigsaw.
Jessica Chobot is coming back to the Internet, this time on The Nerdist!
A statistic that will shock no one with a brain: when funding for mental health goes down, suicides go up.
The big Disney songs from our childhood:
The headline is a bit ridiculous, but still not cool. But of course, it’s Fox News, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone.
I’ve never really trusted the ads using Google autocomplete, only because it’s so easy to manipulate, or even photoshop. But the UN is doing a campaign to highlight LGBT issues.
That’s it for now, I’m not sure if the Youtube Videos are going to work, they’ve been a bit wonky lately (as has the whole site, actually). They’ll be some big updates coming next year (when the new version of Joomla is released), so we’ll just stick it out until then. Hopefully!
Alright, let’s see what we have today. First up, the second season of Zombies, Run! was just released. I’m still working my way through their training program and season 1, but it really is an awesome way to get into running:
The Chicago Tribune bought the staff of The Boston Globe lunch.
Well this is pretty amazing:
A one night stand stretches into two days…because of the Boston bombings.
The Onion is coming to Amazon video, and I couldn’t be more excited:
Hopefully this link works (it may or may not), but the Chicago Tribune takes a look at the state of American fantasy.
There have been some good gun control ads, I think this is one of the best:
It’s a little trippy, and if you get motion sickness, it may not be for you, but a really cool video made from images from Google Earth. Also a great way to showcase the persistence of motion.
That’s it for now, have a great one!
