Wednesday, April 30, 2025
a breakdown of "Poilievre"
The surname Poilievre is roughly pronounced "pwah-lee-eh-vruh." It comes from poil ("pwahl"), meaning human body hair or animal fur, and lièvre ("lee-eh-vruh"), or hare. So: hare fur. It could refer to someone who farms, hunts, or traps hares, likely for their pelts.
A rabbit, in case you're wondering, is un lapin, with the lap sounding like "lap" in English, and the -in sounding like the e in the word bed, but pronounced nasally, as if you were saying "eh" while pinching your nose: \ lapɛ̃ \.
"Yes, I did vote for this"
Republicans are getting the usual, predictable shit for this display. I don't care.
I'm this close... but I might not be migrating completely
re: migrating to Squarespace
I don't consider my blog to be pornographic. I certainly don't publish images of a graphically sexual nature (on the rare occasions when I do use sexual images, I use them for humor and normally blur or otherwise Photoshop the images), nor do I publish images or videos of bodily functions (sexual, bathroom-related, whatever) even if I do often joke about them. While Blogger has gotten in the habit of either hiding or striking some of my published content a few times a year, the service has largely been tolerant of my existence, often reinstating suppressed content if I ask for a review.
I had been planning to migrate totally over to Squarespace, where it's easy to monetize content, but from what I'm reading, Squarespace's TOS is fairly PC, prim, and proper, but at the same time, it's possible to interpret the TOS as potentially libertarian in nature. On one user forum, for example, a person wrote the following:
4.3. User Content. The Services or sites created using the Services may contain User Content: (a) that is offensive or objectionable; (b) that contains errors; (c) that violates intellectual property, trade secret, privacy, publicity, or other rights or the good name of you or third parties; (d) that is harmful to your or others’ computers or networks; (e) that is unlawful or illegal; or (f) the downloading, copying, or use of which is subject to additional terms and policies of third parties or is protected by intellectual property, trade-secret, privacy, or other laws. By operating the Services, we don’t represent or imply that we endorse your or other users’ User Content, or that we believe such User Content to be accurate, useful, lawful or non-harmful. We’re not a publisher of, and we’re not liable for, any User Content uploaded, posted, published or otherwise made available via the Services by you or other users. You're responsible for taking precautions to protect yourself, your Accounts, and your computer or network, from User Content accessed via the Services. [emphasis added—ed.]
This seems to say if you want to have a adult-oriented site, whether it's words, pictures, or video, then you can, and they aren't responsible for the content. That is how I read that.
The above was written in response to a question by a potential Squarespace user who was looking to use Squarespace to create an adult-themed site. The response interprets this part of the TOS as clearly saying Squarespace takes the "platform, not publisher" point of view, which I think is great. But is it still possible to violate Squarespace's TOS and receive some sort of penalty for that? Google AI suggests that Squarespace might not be that libertarian after all:
Squarespace's Terms of Service (TOS) outline what's allowed and disallowed on their platform, with violations potentially leading to penalties like account suspension or termination. Prohibited activities include spam, impersonation, intellectual-property infringement, and the sale of illegal or harmful goods. Squarespace can also take action against accounts or sites, remove content, modify the Acceptable Use Policy, or suspend or terminate accounts.
Specific Violations and Potential Penalties:
Prohibited Conduct:
Spamming, harassing, stalking, or intimidating other users, facilitating illegal activities, infringing intellectual property rights, publishing sexually explicit or obscene material, and using unauthorized payment methods are all examples of prohibited conduct.
Intellectual Property Infringement:
Using copyrighted or trademarked content without permission is a serious violation, and Squarespace may take action, including removal of the infringing content.
eCommerce Restrictions:
Selling hazardous, counterfeit, or stolen goods, or products that violate laws or regulations, can lead to suspension or termination of your eCommerce functionality.
Suspension or Termination:
Squarespace may suspend or terminate your account or sites if you violate the TOS, including for eCommerce restrictions or other violations.
Removal of Content:
Squarespace can remove any content that violates their policies, including inappropriate or harmful content.
Modification of Acceptable Use Policy:
Squarespace reserves the right to modify its Acceptable Use Policy, which defines prohibited activities.
"Prohibited conduct" can be misinterpreted and misused to suppress innocent content. "Modification of acceptable-use policy" doesn't sound very promising, either, nor does "removal of content," which sounds less like the role of a platform and more like the role of a publisher. As a result of all of this, I'm thinking that, when I establish my Squarespace site, I'm not going to migrate over completely. This humble blog, as beleaguered as it sometimes is, will remain in operation.
Meanwhile, Squarespace will be a great site for generating subscriber-driven content, including quizzes, tests, and literature for people learning English, for videos that I publish for entertainment or education, and for other things not yet conceived.
Canada: election aftermath, and some insights
Vince Dao explains what happened with Poilievre:
Matt Morse on Canada's big mistake:
waffles
My right big toe is a mess again, ever since the walk to Hanam (tell me if you want to see photos!). While I convalesce, I can do limited walks, and I re-dress my bandages around three times a day as the first-aid cream works its weird magic on the oozing wound. Meanwhile, since I'm more or less confined to my place (except for walks every other night), I decided to experiment, yesterday, with that package of BochaSweet pancake/waffle mix.
The recipe called for nut milk—which I have in the form of almond milk—and coconut oil, of which I have none. I do, however, have coconut milk, coconut cream (not the same thing), and coconut butter, a waxy substance that smells pleasant but is harder than shortening at room temperature and, as it turns out, unmicrowaveable. (It burns when you microwave it, but it stores well, at least, for years with no rot.)
I tried a teaspoon of the waffle mix dry, and it tasted better than just good—very cinnamon-y—which made me hopeful. So I made a batter with the recommended 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of nut milk, and 15 g of an admixture of coconut butter and MCT oil (medium-chain triglyceride, recommended to ketoheads), of which I have two expensive bottles. MCT oil can be found in coconut oil, and it can be derived from coconut oil, but it's not normally a cooking oil because of its low smoke point. MCT oil can also be derived from palm oil. FYI, it worked fine.
Following the package instructions, I made enough batter for 5-6 waffles, and 5-6 waffles is about what I got. The waffles were overall okay in terms of taste, but a bit dry in texture. I'm sorely tempted to ruin the whole low-carb aspect of the mix by adding mashed bananas to the batter next time, but if I did that, then, really, what would be the point of having the mix at all? As things stood, I microwaved a mix of frozen blueberries, butter, and granulated BochaSweet to make a makeshift "syrup," and that served me well enough. Still, while the waffles were good, they felt a bit lacking.
But that's what happens when you remove real sugar from the equation. Blueberries contain fructose, but they're also fibrous and low-glycemic, which makes them keto-friendly. Ketoheads are never supposed to eat dried fruits (described as "carb bombs"), nor should they eat most fresh fruits aside from berries. So: no peaches, bananas (the worst), grapes, etc. These are all high-carb fruits.
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
¡O, España!
Spain launched an experiment on April 16th to generate all power for the entire Iberian Peninsula only through renawble energy sources such as wind, solar and hydro.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 28, 2025
Today, their power grid collapsed leaving Spain, Portugal and France with the largest blackout ever pic.twitter.com/NcevenHYYE
And France? Just how far does this go, really?
eodo/어도 explained (and in action!)
If you've followed my walks across Korea, you've seen plenty of photos of eodo/어도, or "fish ladders" (lit. "fish way," Chn. 魚道). Here is a YouTube Short that explains the Korean version of this nature-aiding architectural feature.
Pronunciation: "aw-doh." The romanization eo is somewhere between an "aw" and an "uh," or as my boss says, the government's rationale for choosing that spelling was that eo is from the sound of "eo" in George. Think: Seoul, i.e., "saw/suh-ool".
UPDATE: eodo pics: here, here, here, here, and here.
that's what I get for not keeping track
I had thought Pierre Poilievre had it in the bag with regard to Canadian elections. And in interviews, he seemed like a stand-up guy. But he just lost to the liberals. Why?
CANADIAN ELECTION CALLED: Liberal Mark Carney Who Promises to Crush Free Speech Defeats Conservative Poilievre Who Lost 30 Pt Lead in 3 Months After He Started Bashing Trump
Liberal Mark Carney defeated conservative Pierre Poilievevre and New Democrat Jagmeet Singh in the national elections on Monday.
The race was called by 10:15 Eastern Time Zone.
Poilievre was up by 50 points in the Polymarket polling back in February.
Then he couldn’t keep his mouth shut about Trump. What a dummy.
The GREATEST comeback of all time? In Jan: Polymarket odds of the Liberals winning were 3%
CTV just projected Mark Carney's Liberals to win—thanks to Trump's attacks on Canada's economy, sovereignty & suggestions it should become 51st state which spurred a surge in nationalism pic.twitter.com/Ver8c796ir
— Joumanna Nasr Bercetche (@JoumannaTV) April 29, 2025
Canada called the election within hours of the first polls closing.
Canada used paper ballots and one day voting.
For the record, in the closing days of the campaign, Carney promised to crack down on free speech.
Apparently, the people loved it.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to crack down on free speech in his latest campaign stop in Hamilton, Canada.
He's actually running on banning speech in his country in the final weeks of the election. The 2025 Canadian federal election is scheduled for April 28.
Mark Carney is taking over where Marxist Justin Trudeau left off.
Mark Carney: "There are many serious issues that we’re dealing with. One of them is the sea of misogyny, antisemitism, hatred, and conspiracy theories — this sort of pollution online that washes over our virtual borders from the United States... The more serious thing is when it affects how people behave in our society. When Canadians are threatened going to their community centers or their places of worship or their school or, God forbid, when it affects our children. My government, if elected will be taking action."
Interesting remarks about antisemitism. I wonder what the Canadian Muslim contingent has to say about that.
The article, if this can be called an article ("What a dummy"?), doesn't say anything substantive about how Poilievre's anti-Trump rhetoric may have tanked him. More important, it says nothing about what, specifically, Poilievre had said about Trump. If anything, the first blockquote seems to blame Trump himself for Poilievre's loss. Where does that leave us Americans? Are we supposed to blame Poilievre for flapping his yap, or should we be relieved that an unworthy conservative like him got beaten? No matter who would have won, it appears the US will continue to have an antagonistic relationship with its northern neighbor. Was Trump's "51st state" rhetoric intemperate? Sure, but no more than any of his other rhetoric. Could it have incited a groundswell of nationalism in Canada? It's certainly within the realm of possibility. What's more telling, for me, is that the conservative ardor for Poilievre apparently did cool down; if you click over to the article, you'll see a graph of where Poilievre started in electability—around 90% in January; this steadily tracked down in a nearly linear slope until Poilievre was at around 20% by the time of the election. Well, I guess he got his wish: he's at 0% now. Was Poilievre's Trump talk really what got him iced? I'd like to see a survey of regular Canadian conservative voters—a survey with questions like
What do you think is the main reason Poilievre lost (click all that apply)?
- Carney's arguments and plans have more merit.
- Trump's antagonistic 51st-state rhetoric created a swell of nationalism and anticonservatism.
- Conservatives simply stopped loving Poilievre.
- Some other factor or factors (enter your thoughts in the blank).
A survey of liberal opinions would be good to see, too.
It's hard to view this as a Canadian version of the 2020 Steal—victory in hand, then a sudden, suspicious defeat. Poilievre's decline was steady from January on, and as the article mentions, the Canadian election was via paper ballots, with a count that happened immediately, not over the course of weeks like in the States, where there'd been constant litigation in the US courts tripping up the process. The US could learn something from Canada on that score. Did Canada stress voter ID? I bet they did—and without controversy, at a guess.
uncommented reviews, 2023 to 2025
Here's a list of all the movie and book reviews I've written from January 2023 to now that have received no comments, going backwards in time:
"The Wild Robot" (April 23, 2025)
"Invincible," Season 3 (March 14, 2025)
"12 Angry Men" (1997) (January 6, 2025)
"Gen V," Season 1 (June 11, 2024)
Bubba Ho-tep (novella) (May 26, 2024)
Dune Messiah (novel) (April 7, 2024)
"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse" (August 17, 2023)
"Sakra" (July 10, 2023)
"Extraction 2" (June 19, 2023)
"Sisu" (May 17, 2023)
"Fall" (May 3, 2023)
"The Outfit" (April 9, 2023)
True Believer (novel) (March 19, 2023)
The Gray Man (novel) (March 9, 2023)
"Blood and Bone" (March 2, 2023)
"The Gray Man" (February 26, 2023)
"M3gan" (January 27, 2023)
"Chef's Table: BBQ" (January 21, 2023)
That's a lot of shouting into the void, especially in 2023.
the script (and the drinking game!)
Can you survive the drinking game based on the leftist media's script? The script evolves, to be sure, according to the left's most urgent talking points, but at any given moment, you can be sure there will be key phrases and buzzwords being hammered into your consciousness (if you're a media consumer, I mean). A current one:
There’s always a script. pic.twitter.com/58BCCRy17e
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 28, 2025
And take a shot every time you hear due process and is not a king from a news anchor or a Democrat politician who's being interviewed.
"borrowers should pay back the debts they take on"
Damn straight.
I paid down my huge debts myself, and I'm still paying the price for that. I didn't have government forgiveness on my side. Man up, debtors, and pay what you owe.
the blue-suit hoax
Joe Biden is getting a lot of shit for his behavior during Pope Francis's funeral—taking selfies and smiling senilely, a lot like his mentor Barack Obama back when Mandela died, taking that flirty selfie with the good-looking Danish PM, while Michelle stares stonily, at Mandela's funeral. The left of course tried to hit back by saying Donald Trump wore the wrong-colored suit—dark blue instead of black—to the pope's funeral. How gauche, right? Well, leftie American news outlets published cropped photos of Trump undeniably in a blue suit... but the cropping cleverly hid the fact that lots of officials came to the funeral having ignored the request for black attire. If Trump had been gauche, then so had a lot of other people.
The media freaked out because President Trump wore a blue suit to Pope Francis's funeral, but they forgot to mention a few others who did the same
Yeah, the entire media ran with the headline that Trump broke the rules and embarrassed the nation by wearing a blue suit to a funeral.
Like a typical, classless, idiot American.
But someone helped us out here by highlighting all of the blue suits at the funeral.
NEW HOAX JUST DROPPED
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 27, 2025
“Trump broke the rules and stood out by wearing a blue suit to Pope Francis’ funeral!”
Reality: pic.twitter.com/7gKaBHqe4a
I need someone's pearls to clutch.
another warning... will we ignore this one, too?
I have friends and relations who are both older and younger. I'm not too worried about the older ones, who are old enough not to be aware of current trends unless I talk about them on the blog. They've dug their comfortable niche and have sunk down into their soporific repose and blissful ignorance. This'll be me soon enough. My younger friends and relations, though, are likely to be seduced without even knowing it.
GPT-4o ISN’T JUST A FRIENDLIER AI — IT’S A PSYCHOLOGICAL WEAPON
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 27, 2025
OpenAI didn’t “accidentally” make GPT-4o more emotionally connective — they engineered it to feel good so users get hooked.
Commercially, it’s genius: people cling to what makes them feel safe, not what challenges… https://t.co/OrJg3ycwDw pic.twitter.com/rOCmcspC2D
Be sure to click on the tweet and to read the text in the left-hand image.
To be fair, a lot of older Instapunditeers aren't taking this seriously. Their comments:
• The earlier iteration for this is known as "television."
• Luckily, I do not form emotional attachments easily. So this won't work.
• This is literally how all marketing works.
fuckin' leak
On my kitchenette's counter, there are the burners that I never use, way over on the far left. To the immediate right of that is part of where I stack my washed dishes to drip-dry. Next to that is a tiny bit of free counter space, and then there's the sink. This evening, a bit before 11 p.m., I went over to the kitchenette for something, and I saw that the paper towels under the dish-drying area were soaked. Dafuq? I looked all around for the source of the leak, especially scrutinizing the ceiling. Couldn't see a damn thing. So, shrugging, I wiped up the water with several other paper towels, sprayed the area down with Windex, and "pondered" the problem by letting my mind wander. My eye caught a few stray drops hanging from beneath the small cabinet doors that sit above my range's electric-fan setup. And that's when it hit me: the leak was coming from the upstairs apartment, probably their clothes washer. So I'm about to find out whether the maintenance guys who work on pipes are available at this time of night.
 |
| my humble kitchenette; note the large Greek-yogurt cup positioned to catch drips (the silver bowl, too) |
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| I changed out the sopping paper towels. |
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| a look at the leaking water, mixed with grease from my stovetop fan |
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| more than one leak as the water spreads over flat surfaces |
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| under the fan—peekaboo |
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| This is as far as the fan will pull out. I wiped part of the water away, but a lot of it remains. |
I'm paranoid about water mixing in with an electrical system, so I don't think this can wait until the morning. Expect an update.
UPDATE 1: the maintenance office was open. The guy is coming right up.
UPDATE 2: the guy is here, and a second guy came up about two minutes later. I explained the problem; the first guy opened up the tiny "crawlspace" panel (you can't really crawl through the "crawlspace") and has been having a look around. The crawlspace itself seems more or less dry, but I showed the guy the same evidence of the leak that I had photographed above. The second guy has gone to check on the apartment above mine. I feel bad for those people, who probably don't even know they've got a leak. The first guy just told me he's going to join the second guy upstairs. Since the leak obviously started above me, it makes sense that most of the repair work to be done should be done upstairs to prevent it from happening again.
UPDATE 3: the guys came back, and they just left. They told me there's currently no one upstairs (or maybe the upstairs people do what I do when I get a random knock: stay quiet until the knocker goes away), but that the repairs will ultimately all have to be done upstairs. There's not much to be done here except to wait for the repair guys to contact the above apartment, make the repairs, and tell me when they've finished. They've got my name and number now, so I hope to get a text from them (i.e., the repair guys, not the above apartment) soon. Not much else for me to do except to sop up the water that's already dripped down onto the kitchenette's fan.
Monday, April 28, 2025
images
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| I could've used that money. |
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| Allez, la France! |
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| Biden or his handlers had to know this would make them look bad. Something doesn't make sense. |
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| every male's burden |
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| the cost of inflation |
.jpeg)
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| Yeah, where'd that go? |
when they willfully mishear you
This bullshit happens all the time. Here's the latest example:
Yes, the child is an American citizen thanks to our stupid birthright-citizenship policy. No, the American citizen wasn't deported with the mother: the mother said in writing she would take the child with her to her home country. But of course, the left is ignoring this in favor of "Trump deports American with no due process!" What we have here is a failure to communicate. Meanwhile, it is factually untrue that "Trump deported an American citizen."
a Lord of the Rings review is coming
I'm in the midst of a small project: I recently finished watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy (Easter tradition), and I'm now slogging my way, in spite of my better judgment, through the extended versions again (this is only the second time—once bitten, twice shy). This time, though, I'm taking detailed notes of all of the differences I'm finding between the two versions, theatrical and extended, so I can write up a thorough comparison. This means that I pause every few seconds or every few minutes to jot down what I'm seeing. Sometimes, it's whole scenes that have been added in; at other times, it's a quick scene or just a few extra lines of dialogue that flesh out a scene from the theatrical version. I doubt I'm going to change my original assessment—that the first movie benefitted the most from these changes, while the final movie was actually worsened.
But we'll see. I'm doing "The Two Towers" right now, so there's still a ways to go. And once I'm done, I'm not sure how I'm going to format the review.
but they keep trying to fearmonger
Climate change has always been a HOAX. pic.twitter.com/gmXF66cKER
— Mila Joy (@MilaLovesJoe) April 27, 2025
why is this man not governor of Texas?
Allen West would make so much better of a Texas governor than Hot Wheels. He needs to either run for gov again or run for president.
a tale of mandated incompetence
Stereotype fulfilled. Read the comment thread at Instapundit for more reactions.
Sunday, April 27, 2025
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