Category: Miscellaneous

September is National Brain Aneurysm Awareness Month

~ James Viscosi ~ 12 Comments

Hey, look, it’s September, and that means, once again, that it’s Brain Aneurysm Awareness Month!

In much the same way that Thanksgiving and Christmas have become occasions for annual reposts over at the animals’ blog, it seems that one post in September is going to be dedicated to revisiting The Event. This year, rather than just link back to all the original posts (although I’m still doing that too), I thought I would reproduce the first of the Event posts in its entirety, since that’s the one that includes most of the helpful tips about what to look for and what to do (and, uh, what not to do) should aneurysm troubles come your way. Read on for more!

Continue reading “September is National Brain Aneurysm Awareness Month” →

Spoiler Alert: It Isn’t.

~ James Viscosi ~ 3 Comments

Spamcommentology: Well, Bokep, This Is Rather Awkward

~ James Viscosi ~ 9 Comments

Post Title: That Crazy Bokep, Always Oversharing in the Spam Folder

Bokep Bots: “Ooh, we have got to leave lots comments on this one!”

The Sunshine Blogger Award

~ James Viscosi ~ 14 Comments

Check it out, I got a blog award! Me! Not the animals, for once! It’s the Sunshine Blogger award, and I was given it by Thomas Wikman of Leonberger Life and Superfactful:

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The Early Years: You’ll Be Hearing From Magneto’s Attorneys

~ James Viscosi ~ 7 Comments

So this week I decided to dip into my big pile of old papers that aren’t rejection letters, and as it happens, I’m still in the section that’s full of old Villains & Vigilantes NPC character sheets, and there at the top was a fellow will be familiar to anyone who used to participate in those games I ran, or who was writing on “Marvel Mania” at college back in the day: Magneto! Thunderbolt!

Continue reading “The Early Years: You’ll Be Hearing From Magneto’s Attorneys” →

That Crazy Bokep, Always Oversharing in the Spam Folder

~ James Viscosi ~ 10 Comments

So a while back I set up an automatic rule to look for any comment with the name “Bokep” in it and send those directly to trash, because I was getting inundated with spam comments from that name, all with the same structure. After setting that rule I kinda just forgot about it, but then the other day I noticed that I had well over 400,000(!) messages sitting in trash, so I figured I would go take a look, and there was Bokep, still trying to get my attention with fake posts about playing football, going to his mom’s house, cooking dinner, and … OH MYYYYYY.

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That Was The Year That Was (In Books): 2024 Edition

~ James Viscosi ~ 11 Comments

So this year, as it does every year, Goodreads compiled a list of the books I read, making a nice little ― or not so little ― tapestry of covers, along with a few details. You can check out the list at Goodreads here, or look at the screen shots below. The advantage of visiting the list at Goodreads is that you can interactively click on individual books to see their entries; the advantage of viewing the screen shots is you get to go make a nice hot cup of tea while waiting for them all to finish loading. Let’s review a few notes about this year’s list!

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Private Eyes, They’re Watching You, Maybe Your Kitties Too

~ James Viscosi ~ 16 Comments

The other day I read an article at Ars Technica about a new web site that will take your photo and show you everything that Google’s AI would say about it, were it to train its attention upon said photo.

Artist’s rendition of Google AI looking at your photos
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Merry Christmas (Eve)!

~ James Viscosi ~ 12 Comments

This year’s Christmas card from the animals:

I hope everyone has an excellent holiday!

Let’s Ask ChatGPT Medical Questions!

~ James Viscosi ~ 11 Comments

So a while back, having finished up the final season of The Umbrella Academy* and the first season of 3 Body Problem**, I had canceled our Netflix subscription while we watched some other stuff on Britbox, Starz, and elsewhere. But then the Jamie Foxx special What Had Happened Was … came along, and I wanted to see it, so I signed back up. The special is being billed (sort of) as standup comedy, but that’s not really what it is. It’s more or less Jamie Foxx speaking about a very serious incident and cracking the occasional joke, kind of not unlike somebody else we know.

We’re #1!
Continue reading “Let’s Ask ChatGPT Medical Questions!” →