Some Thoughts During “Ready Player One”

Ready Player One is a nice bit of fluff and wish-fulfillment, with some really beautifully executed imagery. Behind that, it’s a basic good guys versus bad guys conflict, and the end is predictable and you can put your brain in “park” and enjoy the explosions. I won’t say “it was a waste of film” because I’m sure everyone involved worked very hard and it was shot on digital. But this is not a review of the movie – I want to discuss thoughts I had during the movie.

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On the Bench

This is what I have on my workbench right now. I’m pretty pleased with how they came out because they’re all my metallurgy. There’s still plenty of time to ruin them, though.

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Heavy Metal

Last Wednesday, knowing the milling machine move was coming up, I assembled a load of stuff-moving gear in the back of my truck: engine crane, crank cargo straps, tow straps, chains, variety of wrenches, 2×4 pieces, pipe pieces, and a first aid kit.

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Sunday Sermon: American Justice

“American Justice” should always be scare-quoted. If you didn’t notice, the justice system has been dragooned into being part of a general push for voter suppression and forced labor that is highly racialized. It has also become a means of farming poor people for money – there are ridiculous crimes like “jaywalking”, and speed traps a’plenty to make sure that a steady stream of fines flows into the coffers of the police.

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The Things We Find

In the course of attempting to identify an apparent dish-like object in a photograph from WWII, I did a confirming search for “Japanese anti-aircraft radar.” That led me over to “early aircraft detection systems” and some really interesting pictures out of what look like steampunk-land. [source]

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