Mid Winter Topic Wrap Up

My last few posts related to my scheming to buy a seed drill (an expensive tractor mounted implement of agriculture) and complaints that Hollywood took a steaming dump on the sweet and dopey but also lovable Scooby Doo. Then I went off grid.

I vanished to ride out a case of the sniffles. I’m still working on it. Don’t fret, I’m alive and fine and all that, but I’m not my usual bushy tailed self. In light of being slightly under the weather, I won’t do any literary heavy lifting for a while.

Today’s post is “catch-up”; a few small topics from this, the first month of the third, or fifth, or twentieth year of the swirling of the drain that is our modern world. Thanks for joining me.

Velma: It’s Nice To Know I’m Not Alone

It’s unnecessary to point out that Hollywood, and indeed every media outlet, actively, deeply, completely, and utterly hates us. It hates plain American citizens with the white hot loathing usually reserved for war criminals and genital warts. Why? That topic could fill a book. Lets just say that if you are an “average” person, they hate you. You’re targeted if you hold down a job, have positive relationships with family, married and/or like the opposite sex, raise your own damn kids as best you can, pay your bills on time, and can get through the day without bitching at everyone about everything all the time.

Hollywood, in this case HBO Max, decided to ruin a 50 year old plot about a handful of teenagers and talking dog. Why? Because they hate you. Also they’re too damn stupid and perverse to make their own plot about teenagers with a talking dog so they have to find one that exists and fuck it into the ground.

Incapable of creation they’ve ruined everything else. Star Wars? James Bond? Lord of the Rings? Name any 50 year old plot and there’s a Hollywood entity bending it over the table and shoving “the narrative” up its “plot”.

I usually ignore Hollywood’s depredations. I didn’t respond to Lord of the Rings because of course it sucked. Like Satan, Hollywood can never create, only copy and ruin. The Lord of the Rings was crap because how could it not be? If anyone in Hollywood had the creativity of Tolkien they’d have him drawn and quartered within the week. They’re pissed at J. K. Rowling and all she did was write Harry Potter fer crissakes. Nobody in Hollywood can do anything but suck.

The amusing thing is, Scooby Doo is so fucking simple it takes deliberate effort to ruin it. A six year old with a crayon could run another cycle of Scooby Doo that’s “barely average but not reprehensible”. Hollywood can’t. Some folks learn through reading and some have to pee on the electric fence themselves but Hollywood shoves itself feet first into the woodchipper. “Velma” didn’t have to suck, except that the participants suck so completely that anything they do pulls disaster straight out of the universe and concentrates it into a steaming heap of putrid failure.

They can’t talk this level of failure into non-being. Not only does everyone hate it but it’s bad on such a galactic level that even people who fully control all media can’t hide it.

Here’s how it was going on October 22, 2022. Mindy Kaling’s ‘Velma’ HBO Max Series Assembles Its Scooby Gang:

“HBO Max also released a teaser for Velma that pokes fun at complaints over changes to longstanding IP.”

Here’s how it’s going exactly 4 months later. Velma Pushes Aside Dragonball Evolution to Officially Become IMDb’s Worst Ever Entry:

“…the Mindy Kaling-led series has hit a new low and spectacularly taken its place as the lowest-rated piece of entertainment ever…”

Lowest rated entertainment ever! Yet, they’re still discussing the possible second season.

“…will Velma get a second chance to make a first impression? While not as expensive to make as many of HBO Max’s live-action scripted shows, there is a doubt over whether a second season of Velma would be financially viable for a platform who have recently undergone so many cancelations in the name of cost-cutting and financial realignment.”

Isn’t that hilarious? If “lowest rated ever” doesn’t get a project killed, nothing will. Which, now that I think about it, is why I know how much Hollywood hates us.

[Also it’s the source, not me, that misspelled “cancellations”.]

Thoughts On The Seed Drill:

I had a small fiscal setback. It’s not a tragedy, just an event. Shit happens and so forth. After a thorough review, I had to jettison the idea of the grain drill. Too expensive.

It’ll be more expensive in the future, but I’ll deal with that when the time comes. Economic choices are about the best option within constraints, not the Utopian ideal. (Unless of course you’re spending tax dollars in which case you can do whatever dipshit thing you want with unlimited money.)

I’m sad that the seed drill won’t happen this year but it’s not insurmountable. I have a hand seeder for broadcast planting (it’s more work than you’d think but it definitely does work) and I’m in the market for one of those wheeled cultivator gadgets (plus a bottle of ibuprofen). I also will buy or build a stand planter (recommended in the comments). Also I’m not above employing a dirty hoe (see what I did there)?

I should also note that I am NOT gardening in the traditional sense. I have a zillion irons in the fire and just don’t have the time or labor available to garden. (If we all start starving, I’ll rethink my labor allocation.) I’m just noodling about with “stuff seeds in the ground to see what happens”.

Also, some of what I plant is hunting/nature plots. I jam a seed in the ground after spring thaw and wind up with a steak by Thanksgiving. It’s not gardening but it’s not wasted effort either. I’m thinking of planting something tall (like sunflower) with a hand planter in the middle of plots of stuff that’s short (like brassica) that was seeded with broadcast seeding. I don’t know if that would provide huntable game with more cover? Also I’m wondering if sunflower would encourage songbirds. I figure a smattering of sunflower seedheads (if they stay above the snow-depth) might attract cool birds.

I’ll post more details when summer returns.

Thoughts On Preparedness:

I got a lot of helpful comments when I mentioned the seed drill. An interesting observation was that everyone who commented was amazingly squared away. Give yourself a pat on the back! Thank you all for that ray of sunshine!

Here we are in early 21st century clown world, where the lights are on only because of inertia and the last six serious hard workers that own work boots. Growing parts of the populace tear down everything. They may be motivated by racism or global warming or voting rights for Himalayan swamp rats but the real thing that ties them together is the assumption that civilization runs due to magic and it will continue to do so even if the whole world is busy fingerpainting.

Not so for the readers of this blog! I’ve been producing my own food for a while and fret only that I’m 50% or 30% reliant on a grocery store. Meanwhile, I got comments from folks who make my weed beds and half assed bacon and egg ranch look like random flailing. Not merely gardeners but serious ones. I’m pleased to see that.

We should all take a moment to reflect how well we’re doing. There’s “muddles through just fine” and “got your shit together” and there’s even “this ain’t my first rodeo” but I got comments such as “consider your seed source”.

That’s a level of “well prepared” that’s way off the charts! Way to go folks! We live in a world where “I just noticed eggs are expensive” is probably the mean. Beneath that there’s a vast herd of “I can’t wait for the EBT to pay my next trip to the dollar store”. I’m far out on the tail end with “I canned game meat I hunted”. But there’s always more. At least some of this blog’s readers ponder planting heirloom seeds so they can replant the same strain next year. Awesome! Talk about going off grid!

Thanks everyone. I knew you were there, but it was good to hear it.

Incidentally, for the short term I’ll keep planting evil GMO seeds from Burpee (mostly so I can use my pressure canner with some corn). That puts me at the 99.9% percentile of preparedness. If shits gets weirder (it will), I’ll go further (eventually). In the meantime I’m happy just knowing there’s someone in the 99.999% percentile of preparedness. If you’ve got packets of heirloom seeds stacked in your pantry, God bless ya!