jasonpettus

jasonpettus, 2 months ago to random

I've gotten in the habit in the last few weeks of doing a jigsaw puzzle every Saturday morning, and this week I'm posting live updates. Here, 2 hours 45 minutes, solved! (With the help at the end of some of my housemates, that is.) I solved this an entire hour faster than last week; it's partly because this one has more text than the others, but it's also definitely a sign that I should change to another type of puzzle next week.

jasonpettus, 2 months ago to random

Was going to go see "Dune 2" tomorrow for my birthday, but AMC wants to charge me 50 fucking dollars for a 4 pm matinee, a popcorn and a soda. So you know what? I think I can wait six months and just download Dune 2 for free off the Pirate Bay. Thanks for nothing, AMC!

jasonpettus, 3 months ago to random

Oh, well, if it stars Jared Leto, you KNOW it's going to be good https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/29/24087003/tron-ares-first-image-2025-release-date

jasonpettus, 3 months ago to random

Weird to think that today will be the very last Leap Day that will ever happen in a free and democratic United States of America

jasonpettus, 3 months ago to random

Instead of saying that they "need an experienced editor," someone at my freelancing website this morning said they "need and experience editor," and I was like, "You certainly do, buddy"

jasonpettus, 3 months ago to random

I know the original poster meant this as a joke, but this is legitimately the best wellness advice I've seen online in months. Thanks, @onan!

jasonpettus, 3 months ago to random

I really, really love that The Verge forgot to put quotes around "Threads" here, thus making it look like they're calling the social network of that name a gripping, miserable experience, and not the infamous 1984 British television miniseries about nuclear war that they actually meant. https://www.theverge.com/24060504/threads-review-a-miserable-experience

jasonpettus, 3 months ago to random

In the spirit of this article, which argues that historical eras should be defined as whenever the fuck you feel like defining them, I've decided that since I used to buy Trojan condoms in high school, therefore the Roman Empire happened between the years 1982 and 1986. https://reactormag.com/the-golden-age-of-sf-but-not-the-one-youre-thinking-of/

jasonpettus, 4 months ago to LateStageCapitalism

The only thing more #LateStageCapitalism than Pantone declaring a "color of the year" is an article entitled "How to Profit From Pantone Declaring a Color of the Year" https://iso.500px.com/capturing-pantones-2024-color-of-the-year-in-licensing/

jasonpettus, 4 months ago to LateStageCapitalism

"Maybe you'd like a bottle of port with that deli sandwich" is peak #LateStageCapitalism

jasonpettus, 4 months ago to random

"My book is just about to go to press, and I need a quick developmental edit of it done before that" is basically an author flat-out stating, "I want to pay you to tell me how great my book is." Such authors are never expecting their book to actually have problems, and will freak the fuck out if you point out that entire chapters need to be redone from scratch two weeks before they go to press, which is why I now tend to avoid these kinds of jobs.

jasonpettus, 4 months ago to random

#RIP #PDQBach, the zany alter-ego of serious music composer Peter Schickele, considered a nerd hero to anyone like me who was in school band in the late 1970s or early '80s. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/arts/music/peter-schickele-dead.html

jasonpettus, 4 months ago to random

Amazon Prime Video pulling "The Christmas Candle" a mere 20 days after Christmas is HARSH, BRO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7I4w8FkU5c&pp=ygUcdGhlIGNocmlzdG1hcyBjYW5kbGUgdHJhaWxlcg%3D%3D

jasonpettus, 4 months ago to random

Ha, the whole time I've been friends with him at Mastodon, I've thought that journalist Clive Thompson (@clive) was the author of the seminal 1984 book "Hackers," but I just realized that's actually Steven Levy. Thompson's book is from 2019 and is called "Coders."

jasonpettus, 4 months ago to random

You never realize how many times in your youth you make up new words for things that already have perfectly useful words, as a way of carving out a little space for yourself in this world when you're too young and poor to do it any other way, until you get old and watch the next generation of young people do it. https://lifehacker.com/money/what-is-loud-budgeting-and-how-to-do-it

jasonpettus, 4 months ago to random

They're officially 1/16th of the way towards the ideal workstation

The computer station in the original "Matrix" movie, showing three monitors stacked on top of each other, over and over in a 180-degree circle.

jasonpettus, 4 months ago to TodayILearned

#TodayILearned that Bing Crosby was the world's very first major investor in magnetic recording tape, specifically so he could record his daily live New York show and re-broadcast it in California later. He spent today's equivalent of several million dollars on the first experimental machines, thus allowing for more R&D and arguably laying the groundwork for the entire resulting computer industry. Thanks, @clive! https://www.honest-broker.com/p/how-bing-crosby-made-silicon-valley

jasonpettus, 4 months ago to random

I'm on a quiet Amtrak from St. Louis to Chicago tonight, so am taking the opportunity to post a bunch of photos that have been piling up on my cellphone. Here, moss overtaking a brick extended sidewalk area in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago where I live.

jasonpettus, 4 months ago to random

#Grammar people, I need your help! I just corrected a line from a client so that it now says, "The creator of Fortnite and the Epic Games Store," and the client is asking me why "Epic Game Store" gets a "the" but "Fortnite" doesn't, and for the life of me I don't know the actual academic grammar rule that explains why. Can anyone help?

CC: @grammargirl, with my gratitude

jasonpettus, 4 months ago to random

Was reminded today that when I was first introduced to the concept of anime in the early 1990s, it was still being called "Japanimation" in the US.

jasonpettus, 5 months ago to random

Today at my #Substack newsletter: I recently learned that Substack profits partially off newsletters from white nationalists and other violent fascists, so I'm shutting down my Substack newsletter. The end. In this issue, where to sign up for the new one, not coincidentally located at my very first professional website just for my freelance editing, which just opened this week. Special shoutouts to Antihustle and @ernie! https://jasonpettus.substack.com/p/substack-profits-from-white-nationalists

jasonpettus, 5 months ago to random

More soon, but for now, I'm excited to say that my freelancing editor website is finally finished and live at https://pettus.rocks . I hope you get a chance to check it out!

jasonpettus, 5 months ago to random

I'm a big fan of Charlie Day, so I was willing to cut him some slack when his new movie "Fool's Paradise," which he describes as sweet and old-fashioned in the style of Chaplin, bombed at the box office, which Day blamed on "people no longer wanting these kinds of movies." But after finally watching it myself on Hulu this week, I now realize the problem is actually that the humor is atrocious, the kind of obscenely broad stuff only loved by slow five-year-olds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaYKG5FMhNc&pp=ygUXZm9vbCdzIHBhcmFkaXNlIHRyYWlsZXI%3D