Justin_Case001

Yarp. Exactly. I'm just glad they can't push fashion updates involuntarily like Windows 10. Could you imagine?! Oh gawd, that'd be a dark day!

Hey. I'm a huge fashionista. Like Rarity. I love fashion. But y'know what really grinds my gears? Seasonal fashion lines and fleeting trends. I'm not just talkin' about "new" clothes. I'm talkin' about when the fashion industry puts out new seasonal lines, and the media/celebrities/whoever tells us that last season's [perfectly good] fashions are now "out of style". This is just planned obsolescence to squeeze more money of out you, and it's contrived garbage bullsh*t. Let me let you in on a little secret: good fashion never goes out of style. If it looks good, if it actually looks good, then it always looked good, and it always will look good, forever and for all time. And if it doesn't look good, then it never did to begin with. Don't let peer pressure and asinine, contrived trends designed to suck money out of you determine what you wear. Wear you love and what makes you feel fabulous!

Feel like I'm gonna take some flak from all the optimists for this one. Meh. Whatever. Hey. Y'know what really grinds my gears? The saying, "whatever doesn't kill me only makes me stronger." Um... yeah... with some obvious exceptions. How about muscular dystrophy? How about osteogenesis imperfecta? Epidermolysis bullosa? Polio? Varicella Zoster? How 'bout cancer? How 'bout a paralyzing spinal injury? How about friggin PTSD? How about f*cking long COVID?? How about f*ckin'... Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, I know. Overcoming adversity, learning lessons, becoming more resilient, blah, blah, blah. I don't care. Still bugs me. Remember, I'm the world's biggest pessimist. Also, on an entirely serious note, I have long believed and preached that the valuable lessons that people report to learn from experiencing and overcoming extreme adversity can be learned without said adversity happening to you. The lessons are readily available to be learned without having to lose our homes, our limbs, our eyes, our ears, or our loved ones. All one needs to do is learn how to pay attention. And that's all for this episode. See you next time, my little ponies.

I saw that, but I don't remember that joke. Whelp, guess it's time rewatch!

We've always known that there's less than one bit possible!

When I was a young kid, about 7 or so I think, my parents gave me two VHS tapes of the 90's X-Men: The Animated Series as a gift. These tapes were titled Creators' Choice, volumes 1 and 2. These were the tapes including these round table discussions at the beginning, in case any of you old timers remember that: These volumes contained the first four episodes of the series. Volume 1 was Night of the Sentinels part 1 and 2, and volume 2 was Enter Magneto and Deadly Reunions. These two tapes started my childhood obsession with X-Men. I must have watched the tapes hundreds of times. I probably watched them about once a week from age 7 to 12 or so. X-Men were my favorite superheroes during my childhood, and I continued to love them into adulthood as well. However, interestingly, I never saw the rest of the animated series. I don't remember it ever airing on TV when I was a kid. Obviously it did, but it must not have been on when I was home and available, and there was obviously no DVR or streaming or on-demand or Youtube at the time, so I never saw it. Funny thing is, I don't remember ever questioning it. That is to say, I don't remember ever trying to find out when it was on, or asking my parents to help me see it. I couldn't say for sure, but I think that as an ignorant child, I honestly thought that those two tapes were all that existed. I probably just assumed they were movies. Time and life went by, and by the time I was old enough to know that it was a whole series that I missed out on, it was long gone. I don't think they reran it much, and I doubt it was available to purchase back then, so it just seemed like a bygone relic. When the live action movie came out in 2000 (I was 15 by this time), I was super psyched. I loved the live action movies, and I thought that the casting perfectly nailed the characters. But it wasn't until 20 years later (Celestia almighty I'm f*cking old. ) that I thought about how odd it was that my massive excitement about the live action movies, indeed my entire lifelong love of X-Men, was based purely on four animated episodes and nothing more. That was my only experience with X-Men. How curious. Fast forward to today. In the year of our Princess, two thousand and twenty-three, I saw that the complete X-Men: The Animated Series is on Disney+! (Which we have) What a unique and amazing opportunity this was. By pure chance and serendipity, I had unknowingly orchestrated a completely bizarre and wonderful entertainment experience. Here was this series that I was totally obsessed with as a kid, and yet I had never seen past episode 4. It doesn't get any more nostalgic for me than X-Men: The Animated Series, and yet the majority of the show was entirely new to me. Watching this was simultaneously a nostalgia-dripping blast from the past and a brand new, never-before-seen experience. It felt like returning to my childhood while not knowing what comes next. How often does something like that happen life?! I cannot overstate what a strange, wonderful, and exciting experience it was to watch this nostalgic show that defined my childhood, and yet it was basically all new. I just finished the series a couple of hours ago, and unfortunately, as gratifying as it was to finally see it and have closure, I have to report that while the series had a great foundation, it is ultimately an extremely mixed bag filled with weird, nonsensical crap, dead-end plotlines, colossal missed opportunities, and squandered potential, not to mention a final season that, due to budgeting issues, resulted in a completely different animation style that looked like they asked a 5 year-old to draw the X-Men from memory with crayons, and audio that sounded like the VAs recorded their dialogue through traffic cones. It's really a shame, because some of the themes they established early-on were really stellar. X-Men is a franchise that explores themes of bigotry, prejudice, hatred of those who are different, scapegoating, segregation, civil rights, division, discrimination, racism, sexism, and any other -ism you can think of. Mutants are just a stand in for any hated, marginalized group. There are some truly fantastic scenes, too. In one episode, a teenage girl "comes out" as a mutant, and her (extremely conservative) father disowns her. In that scene, mutants are a stand-in for gays. In another episode revolving around political polarization, local businesses are seen displaying signs that either say "no mutants", or "mutants welcome". In this episode, mutants are a stand in for blacks. Anti-mutant domestic terrorist groups then attack and bomb the mutant-friendly businesses. (Wait, this is supposed to be a kid's show, right??!) But sadly, those couple of mind-blowing episodes are the exception. The majority of the series is, well, frankly garbage if you ask me. They took those incredible themes and basically went nowhere with them. The series just went increasingly off the rails, and became less realistic, less serious, and less mature as it went along. But, y'know, credit where credit is due: it's the only kids show I know of that said, not once, but twice, "the price for freedom is eternal vigilance." Wow. But they really squandered the potential. It could have been so much more. I've heard rumors of some kind of Disney+ animated X-Men reboot. This is one time where I actually think it's warranted, and I'm hopeful. Hooves crossed. But the series got me once again thinking about something I've pondered before, and that's the phenomenon by which we've often historically used masculine terms to refer to mixed company. (Ah, there it is. You were wondering what the hell the title was about. ) Y'know--mankind means all humans, phrases like "the dawn of man", or "the age of man" refer to all people. And likewise, the X-Men are a mixed group. In fact, X-Men has been celebrated as one of the early franchises to be very sexually, as well as racially, diverse. And all of the women are still known as "X-Men". Even at the individual level, they'll refer to one female member as an "X-Man". Several times on the cartoon, Rogue and Storm refer to themselves as "an X-Man". This doesn't strike anybody as odd. It's totally fine. But imagine if it was reversed. What if they called it "X-Women". What would that mean? Well, it would obviously mean a group of strictly women... right? That's what anyone would assume... right? But why? Why can't "X-Women" be a mixed group? Why can't "womankind" refer to all humans? Why couldn't Wolverine proudly declare himself to be an X-Woman? I mean, I know that sounds funny, but really think about it for a second--Rogue, a woman, calls herself an "X-Man", and nobody bats an eye, nor does the thought of her being trans or the like even cross their minds. But imagine Wolverine, imagine f*ckin' Hugh Jackman, calling himself an X-Woman. Let the cringe ensue, right? But why? What's the difference? Why can't it be reversed? Why can't a feminine term refer to mixed company? This isn't a rhetorical question, either. I really want to know. I don't have the answer. This isn't one of those essays where I float my theory. I really don't have one. I don't know. I wonder if the answer to this question might lead us towards better sexual/gender equality. Incidentally, I just want state for the record that I'm not offended or upset that the X-Men are the X-Men. In my adulthood, I've tried to adopt inclusive terms like "humankind", but I'm also not particularly bothered by the masculine terms, either. This isn't an angry, offended rant. Rather, I'm just posing the question as a thought experiment. I often wonder why stuff like this can't be reversed. I usually try to have some kind of snappy ending to my blogs, but this one just kinda petered out. I guess that's all I have. Catch you on the flippity flip.

I hear ya. One of the reasons I was able to enjoy that moment is because I knew that all of the snow would be completely melted and bone dry by midday, which it was. But I used to live somewhere much colder where we would get buried and iced over for long periods of time, and it sucked monkey f*ck. That's one of the reasons we moved.

This entry will be somewhat different. I just experienced something extraordinary, and I wanted to write it down while it's fresh. At about 5 am, I pulled back the curtains on my kitchen window and peeked out. Expecting to see drizzling rain, I was surprised to see snow, which is rare in my area. But what left me awed and transfixed was just how hauntingly beautiful this perfect scene was. I watched large, fluffy snowflakes slowly and softly falling in the eerily still, deathly silent pre-dawn darkness, illuminated by the glow of the street light which silhouetted the leafless, winter tree in front of the window. It reminded me of The Dead by James Joyce. It was, strangely and unequivocally, the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. (At least, shall we say, most beautiful nature-related thing.) I stood there and watched this tranquil winter scene for a good ten minutes or so, until the large fluffy flakes turned back into the more slushy sleet-like drizzle that it had been doing earlier. The perfect, silent winter moment was short-lived, and I felt lucky to have seen it when I did. I am, by most metrics, an unmitigated failure at life, and quite a troubled and miserable person. But standing there, at the kitchen window, in a very rare and uncharacteristic moment of profound gratitude, I felt like I had succeeded. I felt like witnessing such a moment of natural beauty, and really seeing it, really connecting with it, really paying attention to it, and finding the meaning in it, was one of the most important things we can do on this Earth, as if it's what we're supposed to do. It made me feel as if I was more successful than Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, and that I had won at life. It made me feel, for a brief moment... ...content.

Hey. Y'know what really grinds my gears? Sneezing. Oh, damn, does this one grind my gears to a f*cking halt. I sneeze more than most people. I don't have any specific, acute allergies, just more sneezing than average. I don't really mind sneezing too much, but it's the inevitable, annoying chore than comes afterward. I absolutely cannot sneeze without then blowing my nose afterwards. It is completely impossible. Many a time I have tried to resist. I'll sneeze and then sit there saying, "I'm not gonna do it. I don't have to do it. I'm not gonna do it. I am the master of my own nose." I'll sit there sniffing for five or ten minutes, then give up and blow. I hate it so much. Interrupts my work all the time. Makes me want to smash my nose with a hammer.

Oh wow, I'm surprised. I hear "sosal" or "sosa", like... I'd say 90% of the time!

Hey. Y'know what really grinds my gears? When people pronounce "social security" as "sosal security". They slur it, y'know? But I don't even understand it, because I don't think "sosal" is any easier to say, even when you're saying the term quickly. Sometimes people even say "sosa security". Drives me nuts. Anyway, that's it. Shortest GMG in history. Okay, I'll give you a couple more. I hate it when people pronounce "million" and "Williams" as "meen" and "weems". Okay, bye.

Hey. Y'know what really grinds my gears? When a character in a movie... um... ok, so, like, y'know how in a movie, somebody's girlfriend/boyfriend or something is presumed dead, and then the person will be all like, "He/she is alive!" And then someone else says, "how do you know?", and then they go, "I don't know how I know; I just know." F*CK YOU. You do NOT. I HATE when they say that. You don't know. How can you? You DON'T. You just want them to be alive. Now, I'm not talking about movies where there's some form of magic, like telepathy or the Force or something. Yeah, yeah, Leia knew that Luke wasn't on that thing when it blew because she could feel it. Yeah, yeah, the Force, that's fine. But I'm talking about the normal reality, realistic, real world movies where they do that. It annoys me to no end when somebody says that they "just know" something that they couldn't possibly know. Incidentally, it annoys me just as much when people do this irl. :/

Well, that changes everything. My life will never be the same from this moment onward.

I remind myself that I'll be dead before I know it and then my troubles will be over.

Well, no, but I'm not even sure what it's supposed to mean, really. Imaginary germs? Specifically from the opposite sex? I dunno... why be afraid of imaginary germs when there's plenty of real germs to be afraid of? Wasn't there a House scene where House tells a kid that cooties are real and it's called chlamydia? I mean, that certainly sounds like House.

Oh... I dunno... off the top of my head... I guess... probably helping my friend put a lift kit on his jeep. I don't even know what a lift kit is. I just handed him tools while he worked. :/

Not sure if I can pick just one favorite, but off the top of my head, a few of my favorites include James Rolfe, Ryan George, Jack Douglass, Beau of the Fifth Column, Rhett and Link, and the greatest Pony fan creator to ever live, DWK.

I don't like my nose, but I can live with it. What I really hate is my smile. Looks like a goblin.

Easy. Friesan. No contest. Arabians are pretty good, too. They'd be a distant second.

Believe it or not, I wanted to be a roller coaster designer when I was a kid. Now? Well, now... I just want to be... dead...

How about we get a chimp and barbecue some shoes? Maybe I'll be a blue piano *ominous tone*.... for Easter...

FFVI is the game that made me. It defined my life and turned me into who I am. FFVI is my origin story. Omg, I'm such a frigging clod. I didn't look at the name. I didn't even realize that you made it! I just thought you wanted to share some random cool youtube video that you found. Geeze louise, what a dope. Anyway, it's great! I'm very impressed.

This song takes me back to a better time, a simpler time, a time of hope and happiness, a time I wish I could return to. This song encapsulates my childhood, and every positive thing about my life.