Newsreel
Congestion pricing went the way of most progress.
The meme stock replay’s almost at the last part.
EU elections inched towards jackboots.
AI’s better at drug testing than counting fingers.
The U.N. passed a resolution against windmills.
O2? Passe. CO2? Hot.
Today's Mood
War Journal
We’ve beamed so much entertainment into space. When do we get some back? We should be whining about the Klingon Game of Thrones by now.
Good relationships are about parity. And I’m sure we’re distinguished by our short attention span. Dangling the right keys in front of humanity today can ensure galactic peace tomorrow.
On that note: Romulan readers, how am I doing? I know I tend to leave your glorious conquests out of the Newsreel, but I think the sense of focus helps. I can only cover one imploding empire at a time. The comments are open to all worlds.
It’s nice to play Devil’s Advocate with yourself. Not useful, but entertaining.
For various arbitrary reasons, I don’t want kids. I say “arbitrary” since I’m average. Most of our motives are simple, and that’s fine. They don’t need to be deep, and pushback should be rarer, but that’s a different ramble.
My one seed of a doubt: fearing I wouldn’t be able to write about the topic as well. Which is a dead end reason to take a dance class, let alone create life. People can barely cope with being accidents. Imagine finding out you were research. Or that the book stunk.
My lost cause? Pacific Rim deserved to conquer the world. The strain of pluck it captured was lacking during the plague, and remains sorely needed now.
The Present
Insanity, I choose you! [1900HOTDOG]
Waste magical quantities of time. [1900HOTDOG]
I'm guessing chocolate cereals won't have a cocoa slave mascot anytime soon. [1900HOTDOG]
I fell off a ramp today, so karma is real. [1900HOTDOG]
Everything Abridged makes reading magic. [My Book]
The Past
The Future
I’ve sat on a bunker-buster column for about a year, and I’ve tumbled into deadline hell again. It might be time to let it out.
Not Brought to You By
Starbucks is swatting customers and employees in the face again, so let’s check in on their branding. Maybe it’ll grate less.
The caption reads “Matteo’s Coffee. Einstein’s Creative Universe.” It grates.
The caption reads “Florence’s Coffee. Kahlo’s Creative Universe.” It continues to grate.
A stale angle is a bit like getting jumped: seeing it coming doesn’t make it hurt less. And the stakes are high at Starbucks. All they do is camp real estate and wring gym towels into paper cups. You need to come correct to improve that flavor.
Creativity: F+
Persuasion: D-
Sanity: C
One Sentence Reviews
Oshi no Ko (Manga): A strong rendition of a sphere I have zero attention span for. (4/5)
I Hate Fairyland (Vol. 5): Takes every complaint I had about progression head-on. (3.5/5)
I Hate Fairyland (Vol. 6): Reverts. (2.5/5)
Pacific Rim: It’s made for me. (5/5)
X-Men ‘97: Something has to be very, very good for me to let nostalgia win. (5/5)
Open Question
Signing off
Thanks for reading Extra Evil, the newsletter that should stretch more. Share it to do a bridge.
The twist is that the Vulcans watch us as a reality show. They claim it's research for when we finally invent warp drive, but secretly they just dig the drama.
I totally don't get the Starbucks ads. If you're Florence and you drink Starbucks you become like Frida Kahlo? Is that it? Maybe I should take the F+ as assurance that its logic is too convoluted by half.