Why are you a Democrat?Why are you a Republican?

Hello again. I've been reading a lot of grieving and wondering lately about how some people remain loyal to their political party, despite being around unsavory characters and ideas.
And I have some thoughts on that. Of course I do, that's why I'm here. Why else would I be?
You don't choose your party, your party chooses you. Where you stand on certain issues determines where you're going to land. (Insert Harry Potter witticism here. Gd forbid we not reference nerd culture during a serious discussion.)
Here's a quiz for you to demonstrate:

Is abortion
a) murder
b) a woman's inalienable right to choose
?
Are semiautomatic assault rifles
a) weapons of mass destruction
b) a citizen's inalienable right to defend their home
?
Are latinx migrants in cages on our southern border
a) trespassers on our sovereign land
b) refugees deserving of civil rights
?

I could go on, but you get it - you're answering these questions because they matter very much to you, and those answers determine which side of the political fence you will always be on.
So who's in that camp with you? It shouldn't matter, should it?
They're not going to be your friends, necessarily. As a member of the BAB+ camp, I wish I wasn't around people like Moby or Michael Moore, but that isn't going to change my core values. And people in the ABA+ camp probably don't like being in with people like Sheriff Clarke or Sean Hammity, but that's not going to change their core values either. Why would it?!
That goes all the way to the top. Me being in this camp with The Squad or them Clintons doesn't change my core values, and someone else being in the camp of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell doesn't change theirs. And you're going to see this proven as the elections grind on.
So that's a trope I'd like to see go away on twitter - "How can you stand to be in the party of ?" I won't hold my breath, though.


This blog is for random essay topics. For my formal blog about work stuff, go here. Thanks!

Unpopular Opinions: #walkaway is bullshit

I've dusted off this old blog because I have something to say about the upcoming election and current political climate. (Something about these times that's making that impossible to ignore, n'est ce pas?) In the bowels of the hell pit that is Twitter, something called the #walkaway (or it's more explicit variant, #walkawayfromdemocrats ) is being reported and promoted. It's the concept that Democrats are so in love with Trump because he created jobs, and so tired of Democrats because political correctness, that they're all going to vote for their Republican candidates.

Is this a joke? Of course it's not a joke.

#Seemslegit

For. The. Love. Of...
Because certainly, it's been a monologue I've been hearing all over my community. Yours too, I'm sure:

"You know, I was a liberal person with liberal values. But then I saw Dana Loesch and Sheriff Dave Clarke basically go full stormtrooper on social media, yelling about how much they would love to see gun owners massacre liberals in the streets. And I saw Stephen Miller literally leering at me from the podium on CNN, ordering the citizens to obey the President without question, and then heard he was delighted to see the suffering of children taken from their parents and thrown in internment camps - or left in the desert for traffickers to pick up and take away. And I read that Steve Bannon, his trusted Senior Adviser, really liked racist novels, and J. Beauregard Sessions, our Attorney General, thought the KKK were too softly liberal for his tastes.
"And I saw the President overseeing it all, conducting himself like a two-bit mafia boss, running the show from the luxury resort he still owns even though that's got to be against the law, right? And I saw him spend more time speaking/performing to his adoring crowds in stadiums, mocking victims of sexual assault and the handicapped, whipping them into violent frenzies against the press and anyone sort of liberal, than doing any actual governing.
I saw him basically tell police in Long Island they could do whatever they wanted to suspects because Latino gangs. I saw him give his personal cell phone number to a sworn enemy of the United States, defying the advice of his Secret Service and security force in general, while belittling the Prime Minister of Canada and The Pope.
"And I thought, "Wow! Trump conservatism sure is the way to go!"

Yeah, that's totally what happened.
Who believes this stuff?

...oh.
#thatsnotMelania



Know your history

Coming soon: Mario At Work (a new blechg)

One thing I'm consistently warned about is that everything I post on the internet is reviewed by future employers. (And sold to marketers and advertisers. Oh, sorry, I meant to say my data is mined. Same thing.)
I'm not ashamed of my sociopolitical opinions, but I would like to write about stuff I do that I can actually get paid for in a neutral setting. So I set up a blog for the following topics:

Programming Topics:
App and Site Development
Design
Science

Post-Production Professional Topics:
Animation
Visual Effects
Editing

General writing stuff can still go here where no one can find it. :p
UPDATE: It's live! Check it out!

Belief Grief

Much has been written about the Five Stages Of Grief. It is experienced with people when you lose them, but what about something even more important? A deeply held belief that, in many ways, defines you...and it's a lie. You're wrong, and you're caught.
Imagine how awful that must be. What goes through a person's mind throughout the transformation. Like fixing an addict or a cult member...who tend to show the same creepy, desperate characteristics of your least favorite online commenter or angry social media poster.
So you go through the five stages as follows. See if you recognize these from, say, social media:

Denial: There is NO evidence to support that! Also, the hundreds of links you've provided with detailed evidence in every single one is wrong because I don't like those sources because they are dumb and so there.
Anger: YOU DIRTY ROTTEN CUCKOLD! You're through, pal! Get me?!?!?! You'll never eat at a nice restaurant while I'm alive!!!
Bargaining: Yeah, well, YOUR side has jerks, too!!!
Depression: Oh my god...everything I know is a lie. Everything...they're all laughing at me, I'm a failure, kill me...
Acceptance:

Sorry, I've never seen any examples of that last one....at least not on social media.

Motivations

A wise man pointed out that motivation is bullshit: :) Sometimes it's not that simple, of course.
I like to hang out on sites where I am given prompts - questions to write long answers for, or projects to draw or code or whatnot - to create. When I don't get the prompts, I am truly useless.
Why is that?
If you have the same problem and you came here for advice, well...sorry.
I'm bringing this blog back to work through problems, and like you, I hope to solve them...but that is the always moving goalpost that life makes us score on.

Rock bands and startups: A Field Guide

Rock and roll, as it was once known, mutates and reinvents itself and reboots itself and fights day after day to keep up with a changing world. Just like small businesses, or as they're known these days, startups.
What kind of people go into a winning combo? Let's take a look:

Lead Singer/CEO

Talks louder than anyone in the room. Reads and plays your emotions better than anyone in the room. Doesn't always make sense, but everyone loves her/him anyway.

Guitarist/Developer

Builds the sound and vision by hand with almost supernatural skill and smarts. Is usually a douchebag.
(A lead singer is an asshole, which is different. A douchebag will snipe, spill sarcasm and undercut your dignity and confidence; an asshole will beat you up if you cross her/him, but have a beer with you later. Who would you rather hang out with?)

Bassist/DevOps

Nobody really pays attention to her/him, but you know what? Nothing gets done without her.

Drummer/Manager

Her or his big racket holds the whole ridiculous enterprise together. Ignore her or him at your own peril.

Keyboardist, DJ/Designer

What the fuck is s/he even doing? Search me, but s/he really ties the operation together.

Everyone has a job to do here. Sometimes you get a one man band,

or a guy who can do a whole lot of things well,

but those stars are rare. A great team is always a beautiful thing.

What do "Dr. Strangelove" and "Reservoir Dogs" have in common? A lot!

(caution: Spoilers for both movies ahead! Watch the two movies for a double feature or separately, then you can read the below. NO spoilers for "The Great Dictator")
This fateful Election Day Eve, I watched Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" and Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb)" back to back. I had never seen the first, but I had seen the latter many times. You always hear about Charlie Chaplin being the greatest performer of comic cinema history - he's one of those performers you hear that about until you're sick of hearing it. Yet watching him literally float across the screen, you get what all the hype was about. Much like Stanley Kubrick's directing.
Now that the axe has fallen (on democracy's neck), I was thinking what would be a great pairing with "Dr. Strangelove" and for some reason I came up with "Reservoir Dogs". What do they have in common?
(Did I mention there are spoilers here? There are spoilers.)
Both feature an apocalyptic calamity brought on by a few reckless, violent and insane alpha men. One calamity is global, the other personal, but the scenarios follow a similar path. And there are parallels here with the characters, too:

The Architect Of War

General Turgidson / Joe

The boss. It's his war. He plots the strategy and directs his troops to battle, strangely gathering bravery from the notion that he's not going to be on the front lines. This being the movies, that doesn't save him...either of them.

...and his Enforcer

President Muffley / Nice Guy Eddie

President Muffley (Peter Sellars) makes a big noise about Turgidson's shocking disregard for human life, if only because he doesn't want to be seen as "the greatest mass murderer in history". But he acts reactively to Turgidson's demands and the situation of the rogue nuclear attack - Turgidson's wishes become his orders. At least Nice Guy Eddie (Chris Penn), for his bluster and awful wardrobe, doesn't forget to admit "Daddy" is the boss. President Muffley doesn't go there, but it's clear - it's Muffley's War Room, but it's Turgidson's war.

...and his Ruthless But Loyal Executioner

Major Kong / Mr. White

They ARE the front line. Skilled, efficient, stone hearted killers. Still, they got nothin' but love their team: King Kong (Slim Pickens) loves his crew on the doomed bomber, and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) loves his posse, especially Mr. Orange. Yes, he fights with everyone, but he makes up, at least long enough to torture the unfortunate Officer Nash. Or at least until with Joe (Lawrence Harvey), he can't.

So with this posse, what could possibly go wrong?! Enter...

The Agent Of Chaos

General Ripper / Mr. Blonde

Pissed off, crazy outlaws with nothing to live for or lose. Balls over brains. And they're in exactly the wrong place at the right time. General Ripper (Sterling Hayden) defies the US government, sealing off his base from the outside world and launching a nuclear attack on Russia on his own, all over fear of "commies" and a vague threat to his "precious bodily fluids". Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) upends the diamond wholesalers' heist by shooting unarmed employees, and kidnaps a cop so he can torture him to death, basically because "they set off the alarm". But they both really did it because they can. And everything goes right to hell.

The Two Faced Liar

Ambassador de Sadesky / Mr. Orange

When is being a two faced rat a good thing? It isn't, so you try to find truth in your loyalty inside. Ambassador de Sadesky (Pete Bull) is just a proud Russian patriot, and Officer Noondyke (Tim Roth) is just a cop handling a real bad situation.

The Failed Voice Of Reason

Captain Mandrake / Mr. Pink
They tried to warn them. Captain Mandrake spends his screen time trying to reason with General Ripper, and then with Sergeant Bat Guano (Keenan Wynn); Mr. Pink fights (literally) to keep Mr. White on the game plan, plaintively bellowing "We're supposed to be professionals!!!" But if you think herding cats is hard, try herding unhinged killers having a bad day.

He Who Stands To Gain From This

Dr. Strangelove / Whoever would buy stolen diamonds from these guys

Seriously, who the fuck would do that? Even the Agents Of Chaos aren't that nuts.