Same. I may not agree with what you say, but I will upvote til dinner your right to say it.
The thing I hate about vertical video is all the footage of rare or historical events that are filmed by someone firehosing their phone back & forth like mad trying to capture the scope of it all, when all they have to do is rotate the phone 90 degrees. Don't make me watch a tsunami through a keyhole. Frame correctly to capture the event.
The band is definitely greater than the sum of their (also exceptionally good) parts. I am saddened to hear about Adam's health issues but selfishly delighted they're back together and planning new releases.
When the band was dissolving after the Blueshift fiasco and Adam shut down the Castle Von Buhler label, I emailed him asking if there was any hope Blueshift would see the light of day. He apologised and said no. A week later, the Stars & Garters CD and a CD-R of Blueshift mysteriously landed in my mailbox. With no band, he had zero reason to pander to a fan base. He's just a good person.
I'm still bummed that the band Splashdown was screwed over by the music industry. They were too jazz for pop fans and too pop for jazz fans but had an amazing sound and a brilliant vocalist in Melissa Kaplan. They released a couple EPs and a brief album (Stars & Garters) before their major label debut Blueshift was permanently shelved.
They posted a goodbye collection of demos & b-sides before dissolving into Universal Hall Pass, Freezepop, and Anarchy Club.
There's also the Pine Salad Productions fan-dub of a few Dirty Pair and Macross episodes from the late-80s, I think? I had a 5th gen VHS of a few ("The Dirty Pair Does Dishes" was one). Insane dubs that were absurd and utterly unrelated to the actual plots or even characters. I thought they were hysterical when I was a young edgy person.
A friend found "remastered" versions a few years ago and...the humour has not aged well, to put it mildly. Watch at your own risk. Glad I'm no longer edgy I suppose.
I played ToA! A friend and I would wait patiently for 45 minutes whilst it loaded to a Commodore 64 via cassette drive. Only once it finished loading would we find out if it actually worked - if not, load again.
In the board game theme, have you tried any 2-player abstract strategy games? Some of my favourites include:
Quarto (complex 4-in-a-row game with a twist: your opponent chooses the piece you must play)
Quixo (from the same publisher, Gigamic - tic tac toe on steroids with an ever-changing board)
Hive (each piece moves a certain way, very portable defend-the-queen game)
Tak (simple rules, deep strategy - connect opposite edges of the board while preventing your opponent from doing it)
Not strategy, but abstract speed game: Nine Tiles by Japanese company Oink Games (not Nine Tiles Panic, tho that one isn't bad). Oink has very clever, easily packable party games and a few can be played with two people.
Found an EMC Model 213 tube tester at a thrift shop this summer. It's a cute little portable unit in a fabric covered hard case, from about the early 60s. Useless without the chart (typeset on a literal typewriter) that tells you how to set the row of 12 switches & three knobs that dial in the proper test for each type of tube. Luckily I found a scan online!
The US is getting more stupid and polarised as school funding is diverted and people sign their heels in against civil discourse. It will be a long time before it is run by normal people.
I wouldn't cry if guns were banned entirely, but given the culture the US population has been sold for generations, common sense gun control that works handily in other countries simply won't work in the US. We're not wired that way.
The best chance we have is pulling the tug o' war rope as hard as possible just to maintain the status quo. We're not fighting for reform, we're fighting not to backslide.
Electronic parts. There used to be several local shops and a Radio Shack where you could go in and just buy basic electronic components (capacitors, resistors, photocells, transistors, breadboards, potentiometers, you name it). They phased all of that out in favour of toys and trinkets before just folding.
Now I have to order on Mouser or Digikey and wait. Sure there's WAY more variety, but I miss being able to just run & grab something I might have forgotten (or, let's be honest, fried somehow).
I was miffed when, in the early 90s, grunge swooped in and wrecked powerpop's resurgence. MTV had Jellyfish in every corner, and seemingly overnight Nirvana took over.
In the search for harmonies, major key power chords, and jangly, summery guitars (not to mention hummable hooks galore) I had to dig.
The Well Wishers
Dressy Bessy
The Lolas
The Beths
The Dahlmanns
The Riffbackers
And I know I'm missing so many more feel-good bands...
Leatherman Juice Pro here. I use it almost every day, mostly the knife & pliers, but the tweezers, screwdrivers, and scissors get used about once a week.
I see the people saying why carry one - if they need tools they'll just go to their toolbox. I do that too, but having this saves me the trip, and on more than one occasion, lots of time. I've done roadside car repairs with just the Leatherman, and around the house it's nice to have immediate access to a capable set of tools without searching. I've even grabbed the wrong tool, got to the top of the ladder, and then just used the Leatherman because it was there.
You might not realise how often you really would use these, and they barely take up any room.
I got hooked when I first laid hands on a friend's Monotribe some years ago. Now I've been over a year & a half with the Dirtywave M8 handheld tracker and it's my favourite workstation bar none. Instant on, multiple synth engines, sampler, amazing sequencer, and lovely effects, all in a Game Boy sized package with a lightning-fast 8-button workflow. Insane that technology has come this far.
If not the kisser, at least the pucker.