Raithe

Watched Flatliners (the new version). Most of the cast are good, the cameoish appearance of a white-haired Keifer Sutherland as one of the teaching Doctor's was nice, but some how the whole thing just runs alone as an average "eh" rather than anything special. I'm not sure what it actually lacked, but it didn't really have any creepy punch to it.

Telling it like it is. Warning, language. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d-LZJ8K1Lk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VGwfkTW4WU

One of the regular Baen authors who has gone through periods of prolific writing did an interesting blog post awhile back. He basically said that over the last year or two he's been engaging with fans, attending various conventions, his marriage is in a stable place and he just hasn't been writing because.. he's engaging socially and positively with people. And that in consideration, the times he's been actually writing and producing novel after novel... were the times he was unhappy with something, when he was withdrawn and didn't have friends and such around him and he realised where he used his writing process as an escape from those feelings. Which left him in a slight conundrum, because of his successs as a writer, he was in a positive place, which meant he wasn't able to get engaged with his muse and write like he used to. He was semi-joking about "If I want to be able to write properly again, I'm going to have to stop talking with fans, stop engaging with my friends, tell my wife to leave me alone for a few months and go and hide out in the basement with bare minimum tv food and lots of coffee and whiskey until I'm not really happy anymore."

Trump's state of the union speech causes fact-checking website to crash

A bit of language, but it's interesting to see just how wound up and run down the HonestTrailer crew are by having to face the Transformers movies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mc-8TwRFy4

If we're talking classics from 1996. A touch long winded, but at the time... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvPQHdVG1lc Which also reminds us of... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sawWLwzV6yQ

Chicago Tribune - US Soldiers revealing sensitive information by jogging

Because it's always worth a repost whenever I see it...

The small things occasionally drive home how much money Amazon must be making. My phone went wonky, and I needed a new one, so rather then get stuck in an expensive two year contract, I thought I'd do the initial expenditure, buy a new phone, and keep a small sim only contract. Thus, I ordered a Blackberry Keyone from Amazon. It turned up, but they dropped it in the porch without signing for it, and the packaging was...bizarely odd for an Amazon package. A normal amazon paperback size box was cellotaped around the phones box. Not properly sealed, not the right size, and with no protective packing inside. So I emailed Amazon about this, and without batting an eye, without asking for any proof or evidence, they simply waved it with a "Eh, we'll refund you. Or if you want to keep it, we'll refund you 20% of the cost."

I knew that one would get some responses on this forum...