In all seriousness, do those street cleaners do anything? Supposedly they're clearing out the gutters, but I'm not even certain they're doing that properly. Also they're supposed to be washing the road a bit, but that's barely too. After all this effort with alternate-side parking, you'd hope we have something more substantial. I used to watch the street cleaners in San Francisco because that was an affair with hoses going every single fucking direction. I think it was the only time the homeless got a shower. But here it's like... we went through all this effort just for that?

Monopolies are often said to be the scourge of capitalism: Instead of having companies compete against one another and innovate to attract customers, one large company instead spends its resources pushing lobbyists to pass laws that allow it stay on top. A good example is internet in the US; Comcast and Time Warner are complete pieces of shit, but there's no one else to turn to.

And yet monopolies can serve a useful purpose. As I sat on the highway I wondered how Google Maps knows where the heavy traffic is. I figured there are two options: Either there's a governmental agency detailing traffic info that Google is pulling the data from, or it's able to estimate from motorists using Google Maps how fast they're moving, i.e. if ten people at a certain location with Google Maps open are only going 5mph, you know there's heavy traffic. I looked it up and it turns out it's the latter. But that's interesting because it assumes there are enough drivers on the road using Google Maps. And that wouldn't be the case without a monopoly. If Apple and Mapquest actually were serious competitors, the traffic info wouldn't be sufficient since not enough people are employing the service.

OK, new rule: If you design a character, you must decide —

— what fucking side of his head the hair is going to be parted. Seriously, this shit is driving me crazy because it's switching every three panels.

Warning: Many links lead to cock.

We all know about that thin strip of line hentai artists place at the top of penises as if that's any sense of censorship, but BL artists employ other ways of hiding cock, including what is commonly referred to as "lightsaber dick." Scanlators usually left it be, but in the past year some groups were offended by this and actually would copy images from other manga and put them in with varying results because, you know, different art styles and such. Either way, I'm pretty sad they're doing this because lightsaber dicks are so fucking hilarious. It's really amazing to see people getting into the mood, acting like they're like they're some sort of sex god, and suddenly there's a beam of light coming out of his pants like he's the dude from Landmarks in Gynecology who described an erect penis as thrusting "itself forth into the Light of God as ... [an] Aspiring Member which erects itself toward Heaven." It seems like such a lost opportunity trying to make the sex sexy.

I first heard about James Comey during the Bush years. At that time he was Acting Attorney General when the current one, John Ashcroft, was undergoing surgery. Comey did not agree with certain parts of the NSA program, so Chief of Staff Andrew Card and future Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez went to the hospital Ashcroft was staying in to get him to sign onto it. Comey went to cut them off, but Ashcroft didn't need it; he told them that he's currently recovering from surgery, and Comey's in charge. Comey was prepared to resign if the Bush administration pushed the issue too far.

So that first impression of Comey did influence my thoughts since last December. He seems like a principled man and even though he's a Republican is willing to push back for those principles. I believe he put a lot of thought into revealing the FBI investigation into Clinton's emails right before Election Day, and did not try to purposefully bring about a Republican victory. From later reports coming from the FBI, he has a lot of respect for the position he held and did not want it to become involved in politics. He just genuinely believed he had to inform congress of what he was doing for legal reasons. And to be honest, I don't think that shit really affected the elections that much; if she won by over a million votes but still lost, does some emails really change shit?

But the situation with Trump is much more obfuscate. As I said before, I feel like Russia is Trump's Benghazi. Unless if someone from his team asked the Russians to hack the DNC or the Russians approached them with this information — something I really doubt — there really isn't anything terribly criminal here. But because of the political climate, people are wondering whether Comey was fired for his Russia investigation. Maybe? But knowing Trump it could simply be he didn't like the man. Comey has proven himself time and again in the past of not being a team player, and that's the opposite of what the president requires of his subordinates.

The whole Comey situation is interesting to me is it's pure politics in full force. Trump mishandled the firing and the optics, but I think the reaction came as a surprise to him. After all, didn't the Democrats hate Comey for what he did to Clinton? And it truly is hilarious watching them suddenly be pissed at Trump for his actions when just months ago they were clamoring for Comey's resignation. Now they're acting indignant about it?

To be honest, the most shocking thing about this whole episode is that Joe Lieberman — Joe fucking Lieberman! — is being seriously considered as a replacement for the FBI Director. This truly is the craziest presidency I've lived under.

Moham: You know what annoys the fuck out of me and makes me jealous?
Me: What?
Moham: I have a friend named Du Dang, and whenever he types something, he replaces the word "do" with "Du."
Moham: "I'm not sure what to Du."
Me: Son. Surely you can combat him with Moh.
Moham: Would it be apparent enough?
Me: Not as easily, but I think it's Du-able.
Moham: Not sure I can take any-Moh of this.
Me: ...Yeah, not as easily. But it can be Dun.
Moham: God dammit.
Moham: I'm so jealous.

How the fuck could I have explained this better?

Child 1: Oh, you have New Balance shoes?
Me: Yep.
Child 2: How are they new? They look the same.
Me: Oh, "New Balance" is the name of the company that made them. That's why there's an N there.
Child 2: But they seem pretty old.
Me: Yeah, they are. But "New Balance" is the name of the people who made it. That has nothing to do with whether the shoe is actually new or not.
Child 2: Oh... When did you get new shoes?
Me: I didn't. I've owned these for years.

Latest news: My cousin Rob is gonna be working for Ubisoft soon. Maybe he'll Frenchify Assassin's Creed again.

Back when we were building the house, the world was transitioning away from incandescent light bulbs. Seeing the way the winds were blowing, I told my parents repeatedly that we should get LED-compliant light fixtures around the house. For some reason my dad insisted we get CFL. It was a thing, don't get me wrong, but I knew that the standard was going to be LED. But after many fights later, dad won and got his CFL.

Years later the bulbs in the kitchen finally went out. And now that companies have discontinued making CFL bulbs, we have no fucking idea how we're going to replace them. But the part that bugs me is dad saying, "Well, we just couldn't get LED back then. It wasn't around." No! It totally fucking was! You just didn't listen to me!

There's an manhwa called Killing Stalking, a story about a gay stalker who broke into his love interest's house and discovered the dude is actually a serial killer. It's an interesting story of mental illness, Stockholm Syndrome, horror, and suspense, and understandably there's an enthusiastic fan community. But there's also a large group that bashes the series and personally attacks fans, saying those who enjoy it support abusive relationships or predators. Instead of the fandom doing what it usually does — speculating, producing fanart or fanfiction, doing their usual pairing bullshit — most of the conversation is defensive.

I feel like fifteen, twenty years ago this wouldn't've been an issue. I'm not saying fandom wars didn't exist — they sure did about the stupidest, stupidest bullshit — but instead now there has to have long conversations with social justice warriors. People produced a lot of sick shit, but usually there would be warning we'd call "squick." And you'd know to stay clear away from that unless you were into Heero having bondage sex with Doctor J. And that would be that.

Under the Bush years we would always yell about how closed-minded conservatives were as we faced fights against gay marriage, abortion, birth control, whatever. But the left is turning that way too. Unless you fit the slim litmus test of liberalness, then you're immediately a villain who needs to be attacked. There is only black and white. If you like to wear a kimono and you're not Japanese, then you're racist. If you patron sports teams but not female ones, you're sexist. If you like a fucking fictional piece of work, you actively advocate domestic violence and serial killers I guess. It's a disturbing trend I really hope ends soon because I'm just here for the porn, I don't want to read long, confrontational essays.

So one of Kindle's selling points over something like an iPad is the long battery life. There's no actual screen; it's pieces of ... metal I'm guessing? ... under the screen that only move whenever you turn a page, meaning it only consumes electricity at those times. There are other drainers like a dim back light and wifi (both of which can be turned off) but really you only need to charge it once a month. Harlan bought one for my mother because she complained about how heavy her library books were, but she can't concentrate recently so the Kindle was left to me. The battery did indeed work for that month, and afterward I charged it. Since then it hasn't even worked for a whole day, even if I never use it. I can't understand how it died so quickly. What the hell did I do?

I picked up a glass and it fucking exploded. I'm not joking. I literally picked it up, I wasn't squeezing it, and it just exploded. The shards went flying all across the room. I don't know how this happened... unless this is the first sign of my mutant powers. What could they be?

Harlan got us one of those Google Mesh wifi devices. Because it's Google, it has all these cool features like check how much data each device is using. Or connect with devices around the house to be able to turn them on remotely.

...Or have the option to post your Wifi password onto Twitter and Facebook.

Harlan's girl was trying to teach me how to cook, but it was pretty difficult to understand her: "Speak to the meat. Then you can cut it properly." "Don't make waves in the kitchen." "This is like pressing on the accelerator. You go with the flow." I came out of it not knowing what the hell I'm supposed to do.

Whoa shit, NyaaTorrents was taken down? God, I've been out of the anime scene for so long I've got no other portals besides BakaBT and that's a completely different thing.