My birth year is the same as the title of a dystopian future novel by George Orwell.

The US owns a bunch of Caribbean "territories" that they still won't make into US states. Their citizens are US citizens, but can't vote.

EDIT: The current US itself was carved out of territories owned by Mexico, France, and England (which took them from Native American tribes). Back in the day, we conquered and stole a bunch of land, both from natives and from other invading countries.

But we've been more interested in foreign politics since WWII and less about expanding our own land. Besides, why own a bunch of foreign soil when we can just set up outposts around the globe and have a military frontline anywhere? I served in the US military and we have so many bases scattered around every region of the globe. We can literally involve ourselves in any global conflict we want to within a day or two. Meanwhile, our actual homeland is isolated on the other side of the planet, where it's difficult for foreign invaders to touch us.

There was a big deal about Ubisoft removing Assassin's Creed 1 and 2 last year, and I remember it because I was in the middle of a replay of the first game, and I quit as soon as they announced they were pulling it. Honestly, I haven't checked to see if they actually removed them; they may have reneged on that decision over the backlash. I'll try to reinstall it tonight and see if I can still access it.

But that announcement was when people really started to hate on Ubisoft for their poor business practices, which led to the comment mentioned in this meme. It started because they talked about removing access to paid-for games.

Ubisoft removed Assassin's Creed 1 and 2 from their online game library, claiming some BS like they want to focus their attention on newer games. The original games had no online services; it shouldn't take any effort to provide access to them online.

Everyone who owns them through Steam or Ubisoft Connect can't play them anymore, unless they still have a physical disc for the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 consoles. If you bought a digital copy, you paid for a game that you can no longer play.

THAT is why this quote is especially evil. Not because of some choice of subscription vs. buying, but because Ubisoft has the ability to make our fully-paid for games unplayable.

Oh fuck you're gonna make me come... visit your apartment.

I remember watching the Beetlejuice cartoon when I was a kid. I thought it was fun and exciting! Lydia and Beetlejuice went on adventures every day, fighting villains and having gothic horror fun. Then I saw the original movie and was surprised to find out Beetlejuice was actually the villain. And super creepy toward Lydia too. Huh.

For the younger folks who missed it, the text is an Airplane! (1980) reference, which itself was a parody of Zero Hour! (1957).

I love Keanu Reeves, but I'm apprehensive about him playing Shadow. In the brief clip we heard him speak in the trailer, I wasn't convinced it was a good voice fit. But then again, I thought Idris Elba wouldn't do Knuckles justice and I thoroughly enjoyed Knuckles in the Sonic 2 film. So I'm going to reserve judgement for the final film.

I'm not expecting Sonic 3 to be a great parallel to the Sonic Adventure 2 game. I mean, the Sonic 2 film was basically Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles and they barely touched on elements from those games. But as long as they do Shadow's backstory justice, I'll be happy.

Gerald Robotnik was a serious, angry man, so I'm a bit nervous about Jim Carrey playing him. From his one scene in the trailer, it looked like he was Jim-Carreyifying the character; he seemed more like a lovable goofball than the dangerous man locked up by GUN. I hope he at least gets some serious scenes. Jim Carrey loves drama acting and he can be a pretty good serious person when he wants to be. But... this is also a family film, so I think they're more likely to go the goofy route.

I said this about Sonic 2, but I really hope they introduce Amy Rose in this film. Or Metal Sonic. I'd love to see either one in the live action films. But I wouldn't be surprised if they hold onto them for a future release. Can't play all your cards up front.

I also hope Jim Carrey stays with the franchise. He doesn't like doing sequels because, once he's nailed a character, he feels like doing them again in another film is just parodying his own creation. But he's been excited to come back as Robotnik because he claims there are more ways he can grow and develop the character over time. It's not just repeating the same character; we get to watch his slow descent into madness, from the prim and proper intellectual to the fat, bald, lunatic genius.

I'm also worried about Jim Carrey leaving because Sonic doesn't really have any other villains (excluding the comic series). It's always been Robotnik/Eggman at the heart of every story. So if we lose Jim Carrey, the live action film franchise will kinda die out. He's been talking about retiring from acting for a while now, so it will be sad to see him go while the live action Sonic films are doing so well. Hopefully his kids will convince him to stay on and make a few more Sonic films. He's said he only took the role initially because his kids begged him to.

I LOVED books as a kid. I was reading at a high school level by the time I started kindergarten, and I just absorbed every book I could get my hands on. I would bring a 100-200 page book to school every day and would finish it before I got home in the afternoon.

I also enjoyed writing and would write my own stories. I was part of an organization in elementary school called Young Authors that encouraged kids to write, and I wrote 3 books through that group. It was my dream to be an author one day.

Then the Internet became a thing.

Suddenly, I didn't need to spend hours in a library reading through dozens of books to find information I needed. I could just do a quick search on Infoseek, or Excite, or AskJeeves, and have a repository of knowledge at my fingertips. It was life-changing!

As the Internet evolved and more data got dumped on it, I started spending more time perusing its depths and less time reading physical books. I ended up getting a job in IT because computers fascinated me so much. Eventually, I realized I hadn't picked up a book in years. Everything I wanted to read, I could find online.

Now here I am at 40 years old and my dream of being an author is gone. In our modern age, most people don't read physical books anymore and authors don't make enough to survive, unless they make it on a best-seller list or something. Even Stephen King is more well known today for his political commentary on Twitter/X. I haven't heard much about any books he's been writing in a long time.

I once wanted a library room in my dream home. I still kind of do, for the aesthetic. But I don't really read physical books anymore, and I could only fill maybe a single wall with the books I currently own; mostly treasured classics from my childhood that have been stored away in boxes for years. I'd be better off having a PC gaming/theater room in my dream home, as that's more where my modern interests lie.

I love the Internet age. It revolutionized my childhood and brought us into a wonderful age of information. But I can't help but think about how completely different my life would've been if it hadn't been invented. I sometimes wonder if I would've been more happy and/or successful in a world without the Internet.

I knew a guy when I served in the US military who got caught cheating in a semi-related way. He got assigned to a base in a new state and his wife refused to relocate their whole family for the few years he'd be assigned there, so he went by himself, leaving his wife and kids in his home state.

Turns out, he was sexting one of his younger subordinates at work. One of his daughters found out when she tried to use an old tablet and found out his account was still synced to it. She saw all his texts updating in real time.

He was ultra-conservative and didn't believe in divorce, so he was doing everything he could to save his marriage. His wife forced him to install security cameras in every room of his apartment and banned him from going anywhere after work. She knew his schedule and expected him home immediately after work ended. He was basically on house arrest until his job was done and he could move home.

The last I heard, he told his wife the landlord needed to paint the walls, so he removed all the cameras, dunked them in the bathtub, then played dumb when none of them would work when he set them back up again. He was seen inviting young women over to his apartment after that. So, you know... he didn't learn his lesson.

She serves as a distraction, so other Republicans can get away with things that seem tame compared to the drama she's stirring up. It's just misdirection; otherwise, Republicans would've ousted her themselves for hurting their party.

Remember when Mitch McConnell was in the news constantly for deliberately halting progress to serve his party's goals? We don't even hear about him anymore; not since Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert took center stage in the shitshow.

When I lived in Germany for a while, my wife and I took a train across the country one winter to Munich for the Christmas markets. We stayed in a hostel and walked the streets, enjoying the various stalls. I'd never heard of Glüwein before (hot, mulled, spiced red wine), but it was fantastic! It was an amazing experience and we didn't have to worry about parking lots or figuring out public transportation. Everything was within walking distance and we ended up touring all of Munich on foot.

I wish the US would get off its ass and get some high speed trains set up. We just need to keep oil and auto dealers out of the discussion because they keep shutting it down. Like Musk's "Hyperloop" project, which he proposed to stop legislation from approving high speed trains, but then intentionally did nothing with, so we just don't develop trains to replace his Tesla cars.