Commenter Archive

Comments by Jaybird

On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025

Maybe the LGBT group should do a better job of respecting London's culture.

On “Weekend Plans Post: Found a New Dinner to Add to the Rotation

The brie and apple one is positively divine. I don't want to say that it's my favorite, lest I indicate that I'd be disappointed with one of the others.

But if you haven't tried it, it's very much worth looking for while you're in the freezer aisle.

On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025

I've heard rumors of the IBS conventions but I think that the people talking about them were full of crap.

On “A Backlash Is Coming

My main thought when looking at the title is "we're already in one".

Followed by "we've *BEEN* in one."

On “POETS Day! Things from William Carlos Williams

One I wrote back in 2016:

I have eaten
the chickens
that were beside
the red wheelbarrow

forgive me
so much depended
upon them

On “Weekend Plans Post: Found a New Dinner to Add to the Rotation

If you know what kind of dogs she has, maybe a driver cover with that type of dog on it?

If your budget is only $20 or so, golf balls.

"

Feed it to the AI. Humans may not reach other planets but Earthlings will. Make sure that they're populated with your stuff too.

On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025

I can understand being anticompetitive in order to make people buy your singular product that they either have to pay out the nose for or pay a subscription for.

But even casual gamers buy more than one game a year.

It makes no sense to buy out InXile to sell more copies of Halo. Wasteland and Halo have zero overlap!

It's like cornering the market on frozen pizza in an effort to hope that people buy *YOUR* dino nuggies when they get hungry.

On “A Backlash Is Coming

The Omnicause thing is getting in the way and there seem to be two basic opinions on the Omnicause:

1. The Omnicause is important because it maintains solidarity between everyone in the group.
2. The Omni cause is important but we need to allow dissent on my pet issue while policing all of the others.

The whole "someone who votes with you 80% of the time is not a 20% enemy" position that seems to be held by normal non-online people doesn't have a seat at the table and it's weird that making one is contentious.

On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025

Microsoft could screw up a two-man parade. They went out of their way to buy a bunch of interesting game companies to take over the online GaaS niche and what have they done with it?

Rare (GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark), Mojang (Minecraft), Bethesda (Elder Scrolls, Fallout), id Software (Doom, Quake), Arkane (Dishonored, Prey, Redfall), and Blizzard (Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo), Ninja Theory (Heavenly Sword, Devil May Cry, Hellblade), and InXile (Wasteland, Bard's Tale IV, that Torment spiritual sequel).

If you are like me, you winced a couple of times as you wandered down memory lane going through those.

How in the hell do you drop that ball?

"

And it looks like GiantBomb is going under as well.

Rock Paper Shotgun got bought out last year.

What's left? Kotaku? Aftermath?

"

Erstwhile brother Ethan Gach reports: Polygon Sold To Valnet And Hit With Mass Layoffs

That's right, Vox Media sold Polygon to Valnet. Valnet owns, among other webpages, GameRant. (Some accuse GameRant of being clickbaity.)

This comes with layoffs, unfortunately.

On “US Department of Education Announces that it is Restarting Loan Collection

They should set it up so that paying for your student loans with Trumpcoin gets a 10% extra payment.

On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025

The Trump McDonald's thing was one of the craziest moments during the campaign.

He put on an apron while still wearing his signature tie. He salted fries and served them up to carefully vetted customers. He waved.

It was the dumbest photo op imaginable... DUMB LIKE A FOX.

Even Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, when talking about the stuff she did to make sure that kindygardy teachers could peel oranges, looks weird and off (but in a charming way!).

How in the hell do you bottle charisma?

"

I think that there's this weird thing where different people who are good at this or that are weeded out at different levels of the game and so by the time you reach the level of having a recognizable name, only the blandest porridge is left.

I do think that a handful of the less dumb Democrats have started to notice that Trump won for a reason beyond Clinton/Harris being awful, awful candidates and are wondering what to do with this cursed knowledge.

I'm wondering what Whitmer is thinking... Whitmer vs. Vance 2028? Siphon off some of the Trump support and, seriously, where in the hell are the pinkos going to go? Jill Stein?

"

Oh, and Maine is doing something freakin' *AWESOME* to stick it to transphobes.

Maine's Speaker banned Rep. Libby (R-HD90) from speaking and voting unless she recants her views about Maine allowing biological males to participate in female sports.

No, not removed from office. No, not impeached. Just banned from speaking or voting.

What makes this so awesome is that Republicans are constitutionally opposed to doing something like this in Republican states so there's bound to be zero unintended consequences!

(The Republican Supreme Court is probably going to squash it, though.)

"

So a mere "not smart, not canny, and certainly *NOT* looking at internal polling"?

"

Good news for High Speed Rail enthusiasts: California high-speed rail leader pushes state to support private investment

The guys building the thing figure that they can get from Gilroy to Palmdale by 2045 if they can secure funding. Might be a good investment for people thinking about retiring around then!

"

A handful of questions itching in the back of my head:

1. Is she stupid? (Quite possible!)
2. Is she crazy? (Almost certainly!)
3. Has she been looking at internal polling? (The answers to #1 and #2 might inform this one.)
And the ever popular:
4. Am I in a bubble?

On “Cats Are The Best: An Annotated List

The cat distribution system is no joke. There should be someone that we could write a letter to.

On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025

YES! EXACTLY! This is the exact sort of story that I was wondering would be on the same level as a "bar complaint"!

The lawyer gets back from lunch and the receptionist says "you got two more bar complaints from Ms. Bottleblond."
"Throw them in the circular file."
"Already did."
"Thank you, Gladys."

Or if it's something that it's actually rude to ask about.

I now know that it's something that's actually rude to ask about.

"

It's a question that I didn't know the answer to. I assume that most of the non-lawyers on the board don't know whether a "bar complaint" is a trivial thing that even the best lawyers attract every couple of months.

Like, if a guy in the military mentioned his squaddie got an LOC versus an LOR versus an LOA. One of those is one that everybody gets and they tell funny stories about. Other ones are mentioned only in hushed tones.

I mean, until this particular incident, I don't think that I'd ever heard of a "bar complaint".

Wait, was that what they got Clinton with after The Incident? So, I guess, maybe I had heard of one. Is this the same thing that Clinton got hit with?

On “Open Mic for the Week of 4/28/2025

Nevertheless, and speaking only for myself, I find “Have you ever been ethically grieved to your bar association?” a rude question to ask, especially in a public forum.

Okay, this answers nuances to the question I had. Like, having one of these filed is a big deal and while most of the lawyers on the board haven't had one filed, it's now something that Ms. James has to answer "yes" to, if under oath (for whatever reason) and, presumably, a lot more rare than, for example, getting written up at work.

I guess the comparison to what *I* do is "Have you ever been PIPed?"

Because *I* have been written up at work. I, personally, am responsible for multiple HR emails being sent out clarifying official company policies for everything from "the dress code" to "whether you should talk about politics at lunch". So if someone asked me "have you ever been written up at work?", my answer would be to laugh and tell the story about some of those emails.

"Have you ever been put on a Performance Improvement Plan?"

Now *THAT* is a personal question. (I mean, no I haven't, but still.)

So I now know the parameters of about how bad a Bar Complaint is.

As for America First Legal is acting in bad faith, I'm sure that they are. That said, it's possible to say something true in bad faith. That's something that can do a lot of damage.

Anyway, thanks for answering. I didn't mean to cause offense!

On “Cats Are The Best: An Annotated List

Toxoplasmosis isn't that bad, really. It's got upsides, anyway.

And falling asleep with one of them under your hand? I can't imagine falling asleep any other way.

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