sacrament of the Candy Corn God

September 24, 2018

Welcome to Corgi-Class Starship, the newsletter that actually had to turn the heat on briefly this morning (it was that chilly) and sort of reveled in it for a moment as the true beginning of fall. 

You'll Like This

Update(s) on thing(s) I made or somehow helped to bring about.Idea Factory Giveaway82 - Carnival of Destruction"Jon (@ferociousj), guest co-host Kelly (@enthusiosity), and special guest Chris Lamb unshroud ideas for new outdoor activities, romantic pastimes, and a game jam with a readymade soundtrack."I uncovered the rest of the notions for the game jam we get to in the latter part of this episode, and I still want to make them happen:OK ComputerKid AWe also go over the unfortunate fate of the laser tag joint I know I've waxed poetic about on this show before; RIP Tac Ops, and may your tech and concept return someday soon, though you can leave the "chix with guns" website design ideas in the dustbin of history where they belong.If you haven't yet, subscribe by searching "Idea Factory Giveaway" in your podcast app of choice (and let me know if it doesn't pop up). If you're already there, feel free to leave a 5-star rating and a nice review (it helps; algorithms, etc, you know the deal). 

Medium Ramble

Skippable if you're in a hurry.It's candy corn season again! I'm eating through the remnants of my jellybean jar, that room may be made for *C*A*N*D*Y* *C*O*R*N* to appease the Candy Corn God.If you're not a candy corn person, but you do enjoy cream soda, stay with me here, because I'm about to walk you through a recipe that'll blow your fucking mind.You will need: 

  • A fifth of vodka

  • 4oz candy corn by weight

  • Some tonic water

Put the candy corn in the vodka and let it sit for a day, shaking it occasionally. The candy corn should dissolve more or less completely, leaving (at most) an extremely fine particulate at the bottom of the bottle that can be ignored. Congratulations: you've made candy corn vodka, which if you enjoy candy corn is an end unto itself: smooth, eminently sippable, an ideal Halloween beverage.However.You can also mix candy corn vodka with tonic to make something more or less indistinguishable from cream soda, with one vital difference: cream soda doesn't get you solidly puzzled after a few glasses. Use this knowledge responsibly and in good health, and may the Candy Corn God lay his blessing upon you. 

#dadthoughts

Also skippable if you're in a hurry or don't care. No judgment.Quentin is crawling.It's not what I'd call an especially efficient or even coordinated crawl, but forward motion is definitely available when he wants it, and now he ranges all over the living room rug and environs immediately beyond. We've discovered he's fascinated by the curtain that hangs in front of our (glass) front door, and also by the throw rugs immediately below and to the left of it. These rugs are what we step on when first entering the apartment from outside, so they're probably the filthiest things in the place. It seems vital to strengthen Quentin's immune system by exposing him to occasional dirt, and I also want to grant him as much freedom to explore as possible, so I'm not doing much (read: anything) to stop him. We've also already mostly babyproofed the living room -- all the vacant outlets have been plugged, we don't keep poisons in here, and the "active edge" of my footstool (a reappropriate nursing stool that didn't work right for Mavis) has been blunted with the judicious application of a sliced-open pool noodle. Watching him is a lot of fun right now, I have to tell you. I hope this phase lasts a while, because it's still easy to keep track of him.Having said that, just this morning he attempted (unsuccessfully, but still) to lift himself from a sitting position to the "stand/lean" one we've been putting him in by the couch from time to time. We plan to lower his crib floor before the week's out. After that, I'm assuming he'll begin studying for his driver's license. That's how it works, right? 

Fascination Corner

I read a lot of newsletters; here are some links that caught my eye. 

  • This book review disguised as a polemic that's been passed around is actually pretty good: The Deliberate Awfulness of Social Media. Kinda want to read the second book it discusses, just to test myself against it. 

  • Psst: there should be a maximum wage for CEOs. 

  • Right now as you're reading this, there's an asteroid out there orbiting the sun right now with a couple of tiny-ass Japanese robots hopping all over it. 

  • Hmm. The rest of us steal a lot of words from Black Twitter. 

  • I just think this is neat: a stick-on patch no bigger than a postage stamp that can read your blood pressure with ultrasound. 

  • Robot jellyfish. Say it with me now "Europa mission. Europa mission. EUROPA 

  • Your Vox longread for the week is this one on Fidget spinners, weighted blankets, and the rise of anxiety consumerism. 

  • Men make worse investors than women because they're too emotional. No, really. 

  • Interesting data on the gig economy for y'all today. 

  • I've never been to Meow Wolf and I love it -- possibly even more after reading this. Dammit, make one closer to me! (I suppose Vegas isn't that far). 

  • I love Anthropocene, but they need to hire an editor or maybe just a proofreader; check out the headline on this article about how we can keep from wasting milk and try not to cringe (unless they've fixed the apostrophe by the time I send this). Hey, at least the article's good. 

  • The NYT Magazine takes a stark look at the fact that jobs aren't the answer to poverty. 

  • Self-driving cars are already here, at least in a very limited sense, which turns out to be a good thing. How about that! 

  • In theory I enjoy the idea of sensors cheap enough to mass-produce that they can be dropped in clouds from drones onto crops, but ....... what happens when they run out of power? Are we just going to litter our fields with successive drifts of sensors and their tiny batteries? What does that do to the soil? Can we not make them solar-powered? What if they could hook into the plants and derive energy from photosynthesis somehow? 

  • A nice little mediumread from Vox on why we buy the things we buy. 

  • There are only four personality types (and five character traits) according to this new study. Huh. I wish there was a better term for the one I think I am, because it sounds kind of self-important. 

  • Holy shit, there's a thing called the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. 

  • Drawing is the best way to learn, says some guy. Not gonna lie: kinda want to read that book of his. 

  • Drones mapping California's vegetation for wildfire-prediction purposes is a damn good use of the technology! I'm just sayin'. 

  • Space-based missile defense is actually an incredibly fucking stupid idea for these three reasons, only one of which turns out to be "space junk problems." 

  • Those people you just talked to don't actually hate you, and now we have the data to back it up. 

  • Octopuses respond to MDMA, which is interesting because they don't have a cerebral cortex -- all the action, as it were, seems to be literally at the molecular level. 

A Fictional Thing

Something made-up that somehow suggested itself to me and which I could not escape.Some names belonging to science fictional species or individualsThe SchleyThe SethsethYorrgrasken 

Thanks

If you've read this far, I thank you. Feel free to forward this to someone you like, or inflict upon someone you don't.