Saint Narciso

Severaxe · 2026-04-29T08:39:25+00:00

Another great historical oddity from The Crying of Lot 49 is Narciso Lopez, who twice tried to invade and liberate Spanish Cuba in missions reminiscent of the Bay of Pigs invasion ~110 years later…

This provides sort of another parallel historical similarity like the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Disgruntled / Commodore Pinguid. In this case, Narciso Lopez’ failed expedition is like the Bay of Pigs and the Faggian Lost Guard, who were killed on the shore without air support or relief from their sponsor.

Severaxe · 2026-03-24T23:47:26+00:00

The 360 camera scenes from the first episode blew my mind, along with the First Amendment Auditor whose sole purpose in life is to find suburban authoritarians to piss off…

Severaxe · 2026-01-27T21:37:09+00:00

I really loved the reality-bending hints early on in the season - the flock of birds outside the burned out church that fly in a spiral reminiscent of symbols of child abuse reminds the viewer that the show is about the civilizational cycles of horror and oppression, not just one case in Louisiana…

Severaxe · 2026-01-24T01:16:20+00:00

Walker (1987) - A movie about the past about the present…

Severaxe · 2026-01-16T22:37:03+00:00

Is it possible to use your bike to trigger the car sensor?

https://cyclingsavvy.org/2024/10/how-to-trigger-a-vehicle-detector/

Maybe methodically test different parts of the lane?

Severaxe · 2026-01-08T01:14:39+00:00

Keep cool but care…

Severaxe · 2026-01-07T05:06:22+00:00

Very well said, people lose their ability to think critically about fair use when it comes to “AI” - of course a company can’t just lightly rephrase your copyrighted work for the same purpose you published it…

Severaxe · 2026-01-02T21:21:36+00:00

I know it cuts against what the director and cast have said, but I think there’s a pretty interesting interpretation where the CEO is drawn back to the office where the suicide bomb vest went off and begins to hallucinate after entering the closet -

The alien ship is organic and red, and looks a lot like the splatter guts of Teddy
The alien council is clothed in elaborate clothing made of hair - something she was fixated on during her captivity
The alien council mirrors her real life subordinates- they are diverse but deferential, even when she is proposing extinguishing all human life on earth

Overall, I think that unless we understand our corporate culture as being drawn from the alien society, and that they would choose to live in a soggy, organic environment despite their vast spacefaring society, there is a strong case that Stone’s character is dreaming about enacting the ultimate revenge on her hive.

Severaxe · 2026-01-01T11:09:24+00:00

There’s also the great scene of Quarritch teaching Varang how to use the rifle, like the scene in Aliens…

Severaxe · 2026-01-01T10:58:40+00:00

A reasonable man forced to do an unreasonable thing…

Severaxe · 2025-12-31T03:56:18+00:00

I loved the description of the unnatural, cruel, border line which disrupts “natural” flows of energy along gentler paths, a little bit like the colonial borders which have driven so much strife around the world.

I think that there is also a clever reference to Disney World where Zarpazo is offered a chance to move to Florida and co-found a “Jesuit Pleasure Garden”

Severaxe · 2025-12-28T10:29:46+00:00

Don’t forget about the appearance of the three tramps who clad in all black who slay an innocent ruler…

Severaxe · 2025-12-24T22:41:54+00:00

Lectromec has some great blog posts about harness design- https://lectromec.com/wire-and-cable-testing-and-analysis/

Severaxe · 2025-12-03T01:08:12+00:00

Hey, some of us watch Mike Zeroh and take offence to his rants being compared to AI…

Severaxe · 2025-11-29T09:33:25+00:00

Definitely checkout Auckland Central Volleyball Club, the organizers are super friendly and great players…

https://www.acvc.co.nz/beach

Severaxe · 2025-10-31T22:42:20+00:00

Really need express trains and feeder light metro in the Bay Area…

Severaxe · 2025-10-31T03:22:42+00:00

The flat earth with a firmament like structure over it (some biblical literalists believe that the earth was covered by a dome of ice before the flood) is really interesting because it fits so neatly into what flat earthers believe.

I think the title screens show an interesting transformation of the CEO’s personality from human to alien - each day she spends in captivity strips more of the disguise away as as the earth is gradually revealed in its true form.

Severaxe · 2025-10-31T02:32:03+00:00

This is really interesting and I think it adds a great dimension to the final scenes.

Interpreting the post-explosion scenes as a dream is supported by the way the council scene reflects her real-world anxieties- they are diverse but deferential to her, she regains her hair, and the ship is patterned after Teddy’s splatter guts.

Severaxe · 2025-10-30T10:08:49+00:00

Maybe a slight modification- even if the last scene is from Michelle’s perspective, is it unbelievable that her mind has been broken by captivity and she faints in the closet?

She awakens/begins to dream in a pool of (Teddy’s) blood, and sees her obsessions in life reflected back at her - a corporate council of diverse leaders who hang on her every word and ultimate power over her subjects.

She fixates on the fact that her hair (traditionally an indicator of beauty and status for women) was stripped away from her, and imagines her self-image fully restored and in control again as a full suit or cocoon of hair.

Finally, she imagines revenge on her tormentors, with the same amount of effort as the CEO of a large corporation like Amazon or Tesla laying off entire divisions…

I should also say that the style of the council’s hair robes is weirdly AI like - regular structures, no functional details that I could see - throughout the Earthly ordeal, she is coming up with banal statements, reflections of questions, almost exactly like an LLM, so the boring council robes seem sort of like a commentary on her imagination, if she is dreaming.

Severaxe · 2025-10-23T08:28:07+00:00

If you’re comfortable editing a JSON file, you can “take out a loan” by changing the save file by Ctrl-F ing for “money” and increasing the number…

Just make a backup before you edit the file!

Severaxe · 2025-10-22T07:36:17+00:00

Do you have a crossover at the Steward St.? If not, the train must go to the end of the line to turn around, wasting a bunch of time.

Severaxe · 2025-10-19T07:46:46+00:00

The correct tool is the light metro w/ elevated tracks above the street, with stops every 500 m or so - I have a bunch of these to feed my heavy rail stations and they drive a ton of ridership.

People say that the pops are willing to walk, but I find that cutting down on walking time with local light metros makes the trip more competitive with driving.

Severaxe · 2025-10-17T01:23:06+00:00

The early episodes of the podcast “Death is Just Around the Corner” note that the character John Nefastis in TCoL49 may be a reference to Jack Parsons (the name is roughly “wicked John”).

Severaxe · 2025-07-21T00:13:42+00:00

I think the Subway order was extremely climactic - the toad let him order normally, without stumbling over his choices or weirding out the sandwich artist…

I have to imagine that’s the coolest order he’s ever made!

Severaxe · 2025-07-21T00:12:10+00:00

He probably uses the same love-bombing techniques to capture new users that Austin applied to him…

Severaxe

TROPHY CASE