I came across this interesting video about the My Little Pony fandom (the Bronys). It is by Jenny Nicholson, who has a great long-form YouTube channel, and who was an active part of the Brony fandom, so she is a great guide.
It is not a fandom I know much about, so this was a fascinating introduction to me. What I appreciated is that Jenny Nicholson is non-judgmental but is also not afraid of pointing out negative things about the fandom.
Just a nice little Halloween themed music video
This blog is somewhat quiet due to my work/life balance not being as healthy as it should be. I am working hard on fixing this, in part so I can blog some more.
A lot of stuff is happening in the world right now – the indictments of Trump moving forward in several different courts, the war in Ukraine continuing, more and more right-wing grifters grifting for Putin etc., so there is plenty of blogging material. I just need to tap into it.
If you want to keep track of what I am doing between my rare blog posts, I would suggest following my Instagram feed, where I am the most active.
A little fun gem I came across on the internet today
Denmark has been part of the EU since the EU was created out of the EC, but it has never been a full-blown member. Rather, Denmark has held some opt-outs since joining the EU. This was because the Danish citizens rejected joining the EU in full in 1992, but accepted a watered down membership in 1993 (interestingly enough, the last election I couldn’t vote at, and the first I could vote at, respectively). Ever since then, there have been attempts at getting rid of the opts-outs, but every time the Danes rejected this – that is, until yesterday, where there was a national referendum on the Danish opt-out on defense, where the Danes voted yes.
This will allow Denmark to participate in EU missions and to use the resources of the EU. This is a historical development, as it is the first time since joining, that Denmark moves closer to the EU.
The abolishment of the defense opt-out was endorse by most major parties in the Danish parliament, with two far-right and one far-left parties being against. But even among the far-left party’s voters, there was some support for the idea.
Unsurprisingly, those of us that supports stronger ties to the EU are very happy with the results.
Unrelated, yet somewhat related, I just want to mention that while I was at a referendum-day party with the political party I am active in, we had some rather prominent gate-crashers, as five ministers from the government, including the Danish Prime Minister, dropped by for a short period to celebrate a together with us. This was pretty interesting, since my political party, is not the government party. This was a good gesture, showing that the fight for overturning the opt-out was a common cause among the parties.
Also, it is great to live in a country where it is actually possible for the PM and 4 of her minister, to drop by a party more or less unannounced (I am sure some people heard about it before it happened). There was not security screening of people beforehand, and while there obviously were security along, it was not particularly noticeable. And even before the PM and her crowd showed up, there were several members of parliament (members of my political party) at the event.
Yesterday, I feel down a hole of watching clips from past episodes of Masterchef Canada. I like the Canadian version of the show, because the people in it are truly skilled, and the judges are not assholes (unlike the US version). While watching those clips, I came across this clip
The setting is that contestants are split into two teams, who have to make the food for the customers at one of the judge’s restaurants.
The video is focused on the eventual winner of that season of Masterchef Canada, Beccy Stables, but I wanted to share the clip not because of her performance, which was outstanding, but because of the great example of the team captain, Kaegan Donnelly. He realized that he was out of his dept, and instead of trying to cling on to this position, he stepped aside, and let Beccy Stables take over the role, allowing their team to win.
I have worked with many great people over the years, and this is one of the rare skills that set them aside – the ability to look beyond their ego, realize what is needed while knowing their limits, and then step aside, and let other do the job.
I guess most people have some kind of weird hobby, and I am no exception – I collect vinyl mini figures. Not funko pops, but a lot of different others.
Recently, I received a package from the US that I was quite happy to get. It contained this:
Two boxes of Gorillaz vinyl figures
Those two boxes are display boxes with 12 blind boxes of figures from the Superplastic X Gorillaz Mini Series. As a Gorillaz fan, and as a collector of vinyl figures, this was something I could not pass on getting.
Mystery boxes of Gorillaz figures
The collection of figures were pretty cool. Very few duplicates, and some chase versions (different color variations) of different figures.
For anyone who follows Blackpink, it is no secret that Lisa is an incredible dancer. She frequently demonstrates her skills during solo dance acts at concerts, and through releasing small dance clips on her own YouTube channel. Two days ago, she released her newest dance clip, this time in the form of a mini movie. Like her other clips, it is choreographed by Cheshir Ha, who really knows how to show case Lisa’s skills.
Cheshir Ha is one of the backup dancers in the clip, but all four of them are choreographers as well as dancers, which probably explains the amazing quality.
Over at her Instagram, Cheshir Ha explains the reasons for the choice of music
I chose this song “Tomboy” because the meaning behind it really spoke to me. Through dance I wanted to express that girls can do what boys can in the 1st half, similarly to general meaning of the word “Tomboy”. Then switch it up for the 2nd half by doing heels to show we can do both. Regardless of gender however, you should feel free to dance and express yourself however you want.
Oh, and if you wonder what impact it would have for a fairly unknown artist to get her song picked for a dance clip like this, then it is massive, if the dancer is Lisa
Destiny Rogers’ “Tomboy” was up 1939% in streams on today’s Spotify update following BLACKPINK Lisa’s dance movie to it. pic.twitter.com/7KddPUSGcx
— Pop Base (@PopBase) February 13, 2021
Judging from Destiny Rogers’ twitter stream, she wasn’t aware that her song was going to be used, so this must have been a mind-blowing experience.
I am not a particular big fan of Justin Timberlake, to put it mildly. His music is frequently misogynist, and his career has to some degree been at the cost of career of women, such as Janet Jackson.
Now, the documentary Framing Britney Spears has led to a backlash against him, and he has come out and apologized for some of his past behavior.
Justin Timberlake Apologizes to Britney Spears, Janet Jackson: ‘I Know I Failed’
The apology has been long in coming, and seems to be mostly caused by him actually getting some push-back, rather than him reaching the need for apologizing on his own. Having said that, his apology is quite good:
“I’ve seen the messages, tags, comments, and concerns and I want to respond. I am deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right,” Timberlake wrote in his Instagram statement. “I understand that I fell short in these moments and in many others and benefited from a system that condones misogyny and racism.”
Unlike many non-pologies, this is actually a clear admission of guilt – both for actions and inaction. A lot people could learn from this. Still, even the apology is pretty good, the timing shows that it was forced out by the reaction to the documentary about Britney Spears which obviously makes it seem less genuine.
Goodreads allows you to set a reading goal for the year. I have done so since 2011, with varying degrees of success.
Of course, I am going to do it this year as well. For now, I have set my goal at 26 books, which is one every two weeks. It is definitely on the low side, and if I manage to take a long vacation, I will upgrade my challenge to reflect that I have more time.
Me taking a long vacation obviously depends on when it is possible to get a vaccination and when the borders open up again, allowing traveling.
I have a huge to-read pile, but I am always up for book suggestions related to science, skepticism, science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, and history.