Seventh Son of a Bitch
Hello, I Must Be Going
This newsletter is free but depends on the support of you fine people. Work is always slow this time of year and with the pandemic it’s even worse for us independent creators. You can subscribe and directly support me here on Substack, on Patreon, or virtually buy me a drink on Ko-Fi.
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My gramps is still in the hospital, hooked up to machines and not sure where he is. It’s unlikely he’ll survive the week. My father passed away a few months ago, and there was a lot I never got to say to him. I’m trying to remind myself that I’m lucky, my gramps knew I loved him and cared about him, we never had any static really. Last time I saw him we had a couple beers and shot the shit like usual. I was always happy to see him. Gramps is tougher than boiled shoe leather- maybe I will again.
I been thinking a lot about waypoints and shark alarms lately, based on this tweet from elexus jionde on Twitter:
There are people in your life who guide you, but there are people who serve as boundaries, too. Having boundaries is good. Boundaries describe the shape of a playfield, or even a life. You might not even notice the boundaries when you’re out in the world, but you’ll notice when those boundaries are suddenly gone. You’ll notice when those shark alarms sink down beneath the waves and don’t come back up. You’ll notice then, probably. Some never notice, I suppose… or if we do, it takes too long.
I’ve lost a lot of shark alarms this year. Maybe you have, too. Maybe we are lucky enough to get some of them back, if we can get over ourselves. Maybe there are still some conversations that we can have.
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A lot of folks in my social media feeds are celebrating weeks/months/years of sobriety this week. It’s one of the hardest and most important things a person can do for themselves and the people who care about them. For many, even needing and wanting to stop is not enough. If you are having that kind of trouble, hit me up. No judgements. I will talk with you about whatever you want.
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The RetroStrange Movie Night Festivus Marathon
This year for the holidays, RetroStrange is DOING IT UP: a 24 hour marathon of my personal favorite short from RSMN#13 (LEFTOVERFEST) on December 23rd for Festivus. Hit up the Facebook event page to get reminded when we go live.
RetroStrange Movie Night #14: The Mysterious Monsters, Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot
This coming Saturday is a Movie Night (Facebook Event page)! We’re watching The Mysterious Monsters, and Sasquatch: The Legend of Bigfoot. RetroStrange Movie Night is where we stream some old public domain movies and hang out on Discord. You are invited.
You should come to this one! If Senator Tom Tillis has his way, we might become felons for accidentally showing an in-copyright movie.
Combine the good Senator’s idiotic concept with DMCA takedowns and you’ve got yourself a mighty fine new source for the prison pipeline
Divergent League Baseball is coming back!
My atemporal fantasy baseball league is returning for another season. Rumor has it that the next season will take place in the early 90s. Spots are available! If you or someone you know would like to manage a team this season, you can fill out the league form. Feel free to share the link.
Phil’s Good Links
The Good Links never fail us. The Good Links are all.
What’s the most popular programming language in the world? Excel, which is now Turing complete
Redditor falls down a rabbit hole searching a murder that happened on her property in the 1930s, finds awesome cookie recipe
It ain’t just you. Computers are more complicated than ever before:
Japanese packaging always beats the pants off the US version: In this case it even puts a bow on it
I don't need to know why you need to know this, but here’s how to extract data directly from an SD card with a little soldier and patience
This year Mozilla’s cash on hand went up $300,000,000. They still fired huge numbers of staff… and increased manager salaries. Smells like bullshit to me.
A short history of pro wrestler appearances on Family Feud
And, finally, in the latest example of why Crunch is bad, the new AAA game Cyberpunk 2077 has many bugs but this is the funniest: People's Dicks Are Clipping Through Their Pants
Phil Proof of Life Photo
My hair has never been this long or unruly. Thank you for supporting me and my work. Good luck out there.
— Phil