@madbodger.bsky.social
I enjoy books, making things, cats, silliness, weird electronics, and vacuum tubes. I'm some flavor of queer, but I'm never quite sure exactly what.
When we were in Iceland, I saw Fingies in the store, they're even AIRFRYER FRIENDLY. We already had plenty of food so I didn't get a chance to try them. And apparently they're not available in the United States (they come from Denmark).
January 26, 2026 at 4:07 PM
When we were in Iceland, I saw Fingies in the store, they're even AIRFRYER FRIENDLY. We already had plenty of food so I didn't get a chance to try them. And apparently they're not available in the United States (they come from Denmark).
"The gas pump keeps shutting off while I'm filling my car."
"You need an $800 evaporative emissions filter."
"The gas pump still keeps shutting off."
"Your car is just like that."
"You could have TOLD me before I shelled out $800!"
"You need an $800 evaporative emissions filter."
"The gas pump still keeps shutting off."
"Your car is just like that."
"You could have TOLD me before I shelled out $800!"
January 24, 2026 at 8:44 PM
"The gas pump keeps shutting off while I'm filling my car."
"You need an $800 evaporative emissions filter."
"The gas pump still keeps shutting off."
"Your car is just like that."
"You could have TOLD me before I shelled out $800!"
"You need an $800 evaporative emissions filter."
"The gas pump still keeps shutting off."
"Your car is just like that."
"You could have TOLD me before I shelled out $800!"
ONOZ! It's a ketchup volcano! Or Tómatsósa eldfjall, if you will. Run away (or toward, depending on how your tastes are)!
January 20, 2026 at 3:03 PM
ONOZ! It's a ketchup volcano! Or Tómatsósa eldfjall, if you will. Run away (or toward, depending on how your tastes are)!
I had a teacher who gave a creative writing assignment of "I stepped into my TV set and...". I figured I'd mess with the assignment and just list the damage to the TV and the parts that would be needed to repair it. To my surprise, the teacher liked it and said it was very creative.
January 19, 2026 at 6:47 PM
I had a teacher who gave a creative writing assignment of "I stepped into my TV set and...". I figured I'd mess with the assignment and just list the damage to the TV and the parts that would be needed to repair it. To my surprise, the teacher liked it and said it was very creative.
So, skystates.us, you make an illegal phone call to a number on the DNC list, and your pitch is I give you $3000, do unpaid work for you "as training" for 4 months, THEN you start jobhunting for me? Hard pass.
Sky States Online Education | Learn Real-World Skills in the USA
Sky States provides world-class online education in the USA with expert instructors, practical training, and industry-relevant skills.
skystates.us
January 17, 2026 at 11:40 PM
So, skystates.us, you make an illegal phone call to a number on the DNC list, and your pitch is I give you $3000, do unpaid work for you "as training" for 4 months, THEN you start jobhunting for me? Hard pass.
Aside from threats of legal action, words designed to attract the attention of NSA, and descriptions of grievous bodily harm, one of things I like to throw to robocallers is "grackle borgward" (one of Goulash's weird lines from Bored of the Rings). Weirdly, the last results in the fastest hangups.
January 16, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Aside from threats of legal action, words designed to attract the attention of NSA, and descriptions of grievous bodily harm, one of things I like to throw to robocallers is "grackle borgward" (one of Goulash's weird lines from Bored of the Rings). Weirdly, the last results in the fastest hangups.
Looking at old Artomatic photos, found one I liked of Barry S. Schmetter's exhibit. I got curious as to what he was up to these days, only to find out he'd died in 2023. That hit me harder than I expected, we didn't know each other, I'd just seen his art a few times.
January 16, 2026 at 3:00 AM
Looking at old Artomatic photos, found one I liked of Barry S. Schmetter's exhibit. I got curious as to what he was up to these days, only to find out he'd died in 2023. That hit me harder than I expected, we didn't know each other, I'd just seen his art a few times.
If you post a link to an article that's paywalled, you don't get to complain to me about responding to the headline without reading the article.
January 13, 2026 at 2:05 PM
If you post a link to an article that's paywalled, you don't get to complain to me about responding to the headline without reading the article.
Reading Mary Roach's new book "Replaceable You" [2025, W. W. Norton], there's a description of how human tears form layers, aided by a "brush-like scaffold that extends into the tear film", known as a glycocalyx. Curious, I looked for a picture of this, the first one I found was bemusing.
January 12, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Reading Mary Roach's new book "Replaceable You" [2025, W. W. Norton], there's a description of how human tears form layers, aided by a "brush-like scaffold that extends into the tear film", known as a glycocalyx. Curious, I looked for a picture of this, the first one I found was bemusing.
"What are those little brown things in my rice?"
"Those are seeds, they're for flavor."
"I don't want seeds in my rice!"
I've got some bad news for you...
"Those are seeds, they're for flavor."
"I don't want seeds in my rice!"
I've got some bad news for you...
January 11, 2026 at 4:08 PM
"What are those little brown things in my rice?"
"Those are seeds, they're for flavor."
"I don't want seeds in my rice!"
I've got some bad news for you...
"Those are seeds, they're for flavor."
"I don't want seeds in my rice!"
I've got some bad news for you...
My sweetie and I were playing Wordle and noticed our patterns were the same, so we looked at the actual words we had played, which turned to also be identical. People say we think alike, and this would be evidence of that.
January 10, 2026 at 5:37 PM
My sweetie and I were playing Wordle and noticed our patterns were the same, so we looked at the actual words we had played, which turned to also be identical. People say we think alike, and this would be evidence of that.
I was working on one project involving bus routes, and would get these periodic dumps of bus schedules in very messy CSV. I wrestled with it for a while, but then discovered I could fetch the structured data in General Transit Feed Specification format via an API. I wish I had known that earlier!
January 10, 2026 at 3:06 AM
I was working on one project involving bus routes, and would get these periodic dumps of bus schedules in very messy CSV. I wrestled with it for a while, but then discovered I could fetch the structured data in General Transit Feed Specification format via an API. I wish I had known that earlier!
I'm not likely to download your stupid money funnel game anyway, but if you can't even get a simple word spelled correctly in your ad? Public mockery.
January 8, 2026 at 9:46 PM
I'm not likely to download your stupid money funnel game anyway, but if you can't even get a simple word spelled correctly in your ad? Public mockery.
Sending me unwanted texts begging for money is bad enough, but flooding me with over sixty texts at once? Instablock, and I'm blackballing your entire campaign.
January 7, 2026 at 1:05 PM
Sending me unwanted texts begging for money is bad enough, but flooding me with over sixty texts at once? Instablock, and I'm blackballing your entire campaign.
On a data recovery project, customer wanted a count of unique files recovered, as quickly as possible. Instead of worrying about efficiency, a couple of shell commands and a few minutes was enough.
find . -type f -exec sum {} \; > sums
sed -e "s/ \..*//g" < sums | sort | uniq | wc -l
find . -type f -exec sum {} \; > sums
sed -e "s/ \..*//g" < sums | sort | uniq | wc -l
January 5, 2026 at 5:02 PM
On a data recovery project, customer wanted a count of unique files recovered, as quickly as possible. Instead of worrying about efficiency, a couple of shell commands and a few minutes was enough.
find . -type f -exec sum {} \; > sums
sed -e "s/ \..*//g" < sums | sort | uniq | wc -l
find . -type f -exec sum {} \; > sums
sed -e "s/ \..*//g" < sums | sort | uniq | wc -l
For decades, I thought Abba‘s song “Take a Chance on Me” included the lyrics “If you‘re all alone, well I‘m pretty versatile”. But while watching The Muppet Show with captions, I found out they‘re really singing “If you‘re all alone when the pretty birds have flown”. Huh.
January 4, 2026 at 4:37 PM
For decades, I thought Abba‘s song “Take a Chance on Me” included the lyrics “If you‘re all alone, well I‘m pretty versatile”. But while watching The Muppet Show with captions, I found out they‘re really singing “If you‘re all alone when the pretty birds have flown”. Huh.
We're enjoying the show "Reginald the Vampire", starring the ever-appealing Jacob Batalon, and saw it's based on a "Fat Vampire" book. While travelling, we find a "Fat Vampire" book, autographed by the author! The story and characters are different, turns out there are two books with that title.
January 3, 2026 at 3:22 PM
We're enjoying the show "Reginald the Vampire", starring the ever-appealing Jacob Batalon, and saw it's based on a "Fat Vampire" book. While travelling, we find a "Fat Vampire" book, autographed by the author! The story and characters are different, turns out there are two books with that title.
I was today years old when I realized "Palmolive" is palm + olive, two popular oils for making soap products.
January 3, 2026 at 1:45 AM
I was today years old when I realized "Palmolive" is palm + olive, two popular oils for making soap products.
I don't get drug ads in general, and in particular the ones that don't even give any indication of what condition the product is intended to treat. While I can glean that it's a monoclonal antibody by the -mab in "guselkumab", that's not much use.
December 31, 2025 at 2:17 PM
I don't get drug ads in general, and in particular the ones that don't even give any indication of what condition the product is intended to treat. While I can glean that it's a monoclonal antibody by the -mab in "guselkumab", that's not much use.
I tried playing some 2D games with a graphics tablet. For some "hammer the bad guys" type games (for example, the "Whack a Zombie" minigame in Plants vs Zombies) that take a lot of precision clicking in a hurry, it utterly rules.
December 30, 2025 at 2:02 PM
I tried playing some 2D games with a graphics tablet. For some "hammer the bad guys" type games (for example, the "Whack a Zombie" minigame in Plants vs Zombies) that take a lot of precision clicking in a hurry, it utterly rules.
I don't understand these game ads. They show a freezing woman and child in a room with a broken window and no heat, and give you a choice of helping them by either painting the walls or picking up the trash.
December 29, 2025 at 7:25 PM
I don't understand these game ads. They show a freezing woman and child in a room with a broken window and no heat, and give you a choice of helping them by either painting the walls or picking up the trash.
A phototherapy lamp company closed their doors a while back and I bought some of their stock in bulk. Now what am I going to do with what's essentially a bunch of oddly-colored fluorescent lamps?
December 28, 2025 at 6:09 PM
A phototherapy lamp company closed their doors a while back and I bought some of their stock in bulk. Now what am I going to do with what's essentially a bunch of oddly-colored fluorescent lamps?
Watching a Technology Connections segment on humidifiers, I was distracted by a pile of boxes of miniature light bulbs. I wondered why he has so many bulbs. Then another shot revealed a pinball machine, which explains that neatly.
December 27, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Watching a Technology Connections segment on humidifiers, I was distracted by a pile of boxes of miniature light bulbs. I wondered why he has so many bulbs. Then another shot revealed a pinball machine, which explains that neatly.
I bought a broken tunable helium-neon laser on eBay many moons ago. A few weeks ago, I coaxed the first laser light out of it (orange, interestingly enough). Soon I was able to get two reds and an orange out of it, but no more. On Christmas, it began lasing yellow!
December 27, 2025 at 12:42 AM
I bought a broken tunable helium-neon laser on eBay many moons ago. A few weeks ago, I coaxed the first laser light out of it (orange, interestingly enough). Soon I was able to get two reds and an orange out of it, but no more. On Christmas, it began lasing yellow!
