Big single points of failure are a deliberate choice. You don’t have to do it that way! You can make other trade-offs.
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Previously on Phil’s Newsletter: I fixed my guitar and recommended a YouTube channel.
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Orb
After having become totally entranced by Wizard Pondering Orb memes I have purchased an Orb. OK several orbs. Some of you reading this may be getting a wizard orb for Christmas. I’ve heard them referred to as “gazing crystals” and holy shit man. That’s a ponderin’
I am not paid enough to deeply consider what is so appealing about the world-weary wizard, alone, gazing deeply into his Orb. It is oddly soothing to stare into the thing. I will probably buy another orb. This one is only 3” in diameter or so. I think I need one that is at least human head-sized.
Some Recent Video Work
In my off moments I have been creating 30-second spots for RetroStrange TV. So far there are half a dozen of them that randomly play on the channel. I kit bash them together from stock footage and music I’ve made as part of my music side project THE MONSTER ASSOCIATION.
You can find all of these station ident spots on our YouTube channel.
The Good Links
We got all manner of links in here today. Can you tell my brain has been bad this week?
Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator is a game on Steam and it just gets better every time I see it.
The leg lamp from A Christmas Story, one of the few extremely good Christmas movies, was actually a promotional item for Nehi Soda (later renamed Royal Crown or RC)
WNYC puts the cat toilet training method of Charles Mingus, famed jazz musician, to the test
The new regime of worker surveillance has folks installing “mouse movers” to fool the spy apps
“The Beatles Were Friends,” Jeremy Gordon writes about the Get Back for Gawker
“Ten hours a day, streamers are broadcasting lives of obsession and wealth for an unforgiving crowd. How long can any of them last?”
I am a big fan of DVD commentary tracks and this bit from Armageddon is a great example of the joy they can be
2021 was a huge year for cryptocurrency and an even bigger year for crypto scams
The first “AI-generated” music was created in 1956. Jeff Gauge takes us on an electronic music history lesson for The Guardian
There was a massive Amazon Web Services outage this week, leaving a bunch of sites, apps, and even games unavailable
ProPublica on the tax-deductible hobbies of the mega wealthy
R.I.P. to Michael Nesmith. Monkee and producer of such films as Repo Man.
“The head of Instagram was briefly locked out of his account after he was falsely reported as dead” Allow me to say: Heh. Heh.
That is all for this week. I have a shit-ton of other work to do today and this weekend. Wish me luck.
— Phil Nelson
Wizard Tower Gamma, South of Market, San Francisco, California, United States of America, Earth
12.10.2021