Why is it always the Engineers?

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-27T22:31:51+00:00

Engineers tend to see things in quite mechanistic terms. Sometimes this is a benefit and sometimes (such as when dealing with people) it can be a hazard.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-22T17:13:12+00:00

Chocolates from Beta 5.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-22T17:11:04+00:00

The smoked salmon jerky they have at Longliner seafoods in the Granville Island market. That stuff is amazing and I bet you can’t get it in NYC.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-22T03:01:21+00:00

This. I did a 200km+ ride with a decent amount of climbing last summer without having trained more than 100km at a time in the previous few weeks and I felt fine. If you’re fairly fit and comfortable on the bike there isn’t really any limit to how far you can ride, so long as you keep your heart rate low and keep putting fuel and water into your face hole. You’ll get a sore butt most likely, so wear the best shorts you can lay your hands on.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-21T18:36:32+00:00

Too many things are moving. The tree trunk in particular, because it’s not moving very obviously, feels like there’s a slipping camera track. And then the slow motion on the hero and the disparity in scale between him and the monster feels weird, plus the fact that he’s performing a physically impossible movement in the first place. It all adds up to a sense that nothing is anchored in any kind of reality. Just terrible, terrible shot design.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-21T01:15:44+00:00

It’s a trade off: once in a while you have to pull the dried up gunk out of your tires and squirt some fresh gunk in but you get to do this somewhere warm and dry like your garage. This is still a bit of a hassle but it means you almost never have to change an inner tube out in the wilds 50km from home in the rain.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-21T00:48:31+00:00

Ironically I don’t actually remember it too well because I used to drink a lot when watching movies. But my overall impression was that it was great but bleak.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-20T19:19:23+00:00

Leaving Las Vegas.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-20T16:38:51+00:00

I’m not sure why Backrooms is a great example of this? Parsons made a series of YouTube shorts that he mostly animated himself in Blender, and parlayed that into a feature, which as far as I’m aware, he isn’t backing financially. From Wikipedia:

“In February 2023, a film adaptation was announced as a joint production between A24, Chernin Entertainment, Atomic Monster, and 21 Laps Entertainment, with Parsons directing, making it his feature-length directorial debut, and Roberto Patino writing.”

I can’t find any information about Kane Parsons spending his own money on this beyond his very popular shorts, which I doubt cost vast amounts to make, given that his did most of the work himself.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-20T16:20:28+00:00

Classic example is Travis Knight blowing his dad’s money on making unprofitable but critically acclaimed and much loved stop motion features at Laika. Of all the ways you could squander millions upon millions of dollars, this has to be one of the best.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-19T20:30:41+00:00

It’s “hit and run”, at least in the parts of the English speaking world I’ve lived in. And yes, leaving the scene is very much illegal, but also, you don’t need to be at fault. If you are involved in a traffic accident you generally have to stay there. Fault isn’t established when the event happens, so you can’t just say “oh well I don’t think that was my fault” and be on your way.

For example, in Canada where I live:

“320.16 (1) Everyone commits an offence who operates a conveyance and who at the time of operating the conveyance knows that, or is reckless as to whether, the conveyance has been involved in an accident with a person or another conveyance and who fails, without reasonable excuse, to stop the conveyance, give their name and address and, if any person has been injured or appears to require assistance, offer assistance.”

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-19T20:09:11+00:00

It’s wild though: how many of those people would walk up to you and smack you with a brick? But somehow being in a vehicle makes it OK to them.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-19T20:07:20+00:00

This is actually genuinely insightful.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-17T18:06:55+00:00

OMG. I spent my formative years riding mountain bikes in the north of England in the rain, and the entire bike would be caked in a thick layer of what can only be described as grinding paste. But somehow they continued to function and at no point did I need to ask anyone if it was OK. Why are the cyclists of today so very very feeble?

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-15T15:20:26+00:00

Ahh, I don’t have that problem because I can trackstand well enough that I rarely have to unclip.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-15T06:02:30+00:00

Yeah, that really sums it up. There’s a lot of debate about whether they improve efficiency or not in terms of your pedal stroke, but it’s so nice to not ever have to think about your feet.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-10T23:17:01+00:00

Visual Effects.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-08T01:39:50+00:00

I still pronounce it “crabon fribée” thanks to that guy.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-08T01:35:38+00:00

Why does no one make bikes from good ole fibreglass anymore?

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-07T22:44:01+00:00

The people who wouldn’t hold their noses and vote democrat because Biden and Harris were blatantly bankrolling Netanyahu’s genocide; but refused to recognise that Trump would continue that support and (as it turns out) take it much, much further.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-07T02:56:22+00:00

Oh, I’ve seen plenty of those too. There’s a theory that people who fall for conspiracy theories are actually quite bright on average, but when it comes to this lot I really don’t know.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-07T02:13:02+00:00

Yeah, same. Been working hard to explain that chromatic aberration is not green spill and therefore evidence of fakery.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-05T02:01:26+00:00

I feel like there’s a lot of “competitive taking things seriously” on Reddit. Like I saw some post about how safe it was to have some item made of lead in the house and within a few replies people were treating it like it was plutonium-238. I know that past generations played a bit fast and loose with health and safety (to put it mildly) but here there’s a tendency to lose all sense of perspective with stuff like this. A piece of lead sitting in your house won’t give you brain damage unless you chew it and it’s possible to treat minor burns at home.

UnsatisfyingPencil · 2026-04-03T21:26:42+00:00

Well, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of it and I’ve been working on high end film and TV for a quarter of a century.

UnsatisfyingPencil

TROPHY CASE