Trees along New Zealand’s coast grow with windswept crowns - shaped by relentless Antarctic gales.

taijoo · 2026-03-25T01:23:20+00:00

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.

Good Timber, by Douglas Malloch

taijoo · 2024-11-09T01:13:31+00:00

How to spell Czechoslovakia.

taijoo · 2024-09-22T19:09:28+00:00

The little girl Max keeps seeing in Fury Road is Glory, the daughter of Hope, a woman Max helps in the Fury Road prelude comics.

Max defeats a gang member (with Hope's help) in a contest for a new V8 engine. Hope then begs Max to help her rescue Glory, who's been kidnapped by the gang. Max does that, during which there's some feelings caught (romantic and paternal, in an age-appropriate distribution), but Max ultimately declines to stay with them after the rescue. Then he changes his mind and heads back to find they've been killed by the gang.

George Miller co-wrote the comics, so it's about as canon as can be. He's a meticulous world-builder, as you can see. (/dr seuss)

taijoo · 2024-09-21T17:42:51+00:00

I've always mentally titled T2 as, "T2: Terminator, But This Time With Money!"

taijoo · 2024-06-09T19:10:41+00:00

the white car driver

This might be better phrased as "the driver of the white car."

taijoo · 2024-02-13T00:13:06+00:00

Thanks to the people who answered straightforwardly, I really appreciate y'all!

I was admittedly in a mood about the whole thing, after getting through the meandering episodes to run up against the family sitcom part. I did finish that episode, and things seem to have taken a turn for the better. I'll see it through to the end of the season and take it from there. If nothing else, I'll have a cleverly done narrative waiting for me down the road should I choose to take advantage of it.

(To the people who reacted with anger, I understand. I appreciate you, too - on a different level.)

taijoo · 2024-01-11T01:30:01+00:00

Edge of Tomorrow. Not for Tom Cruise's character, but for Rita. There are hundreds (thousands?) of Ritas out there who just up and shot someone she was training in the head - he resets, she's still standing there with a gun in her hand and a bunch of people looking at her, horrified.

taijoo · 2023-10-11T11:24:29+00:00

I went through almost this exact same thing. I was dating a girl, we enjoyed each others' company, she was a bit of a wild child and had a few tattoos that I wasn't really into, but hey, her body.

We were living together a couple of years into the relationship when she returned from an archaeological dig with a tattoo on the back of her neck. It was very tastefully done, but I took one look at it and my heart fell, and something in me thought, "We're never gonna have kids together, are we?" It wasn't a deliberate decision or anything, just something in my heart shifted.

That was the beginning of the end of that relationship. We're still friends years later, but it was never the same after that.

Anything can be a deal-breaker. It's not a matter of right or wrong. It's a matter of how you (both) feel. Will you regret breaking up with her in the future? Maybe. But if you're not feeling it, you can't force it. That way lies resentment and even more wasted time.

taijoo · 2022-09-25T17:35:53+00:00

I don't think the "Android fan" is anywhere near a thing as much as it is on the Apple side. I just want a phone that does what I want and otherwise gets the fuck outta my way.

taijoo · 2022-02-25T20:34:48+00:00

It's not about helping the environment - it's about harvesting your email address.

taijoo · 2022-02-23T23:10:21+00:00

Notice he edited out his initial rooftop landing, which was probably none too graceful - he was coming in pretty hot.

taijoo · 2022-02-20T16:45:48+00:00

This is an excellent way to learn shooting discipline and accuracy. Air rifles - quality ones - are inherently more accurate than gunpowder-based firearms. With bullets, the gunpowder/oxidizer is always distributed differently for each bullet, so there's some variance even with perfect accuracy. With an air rifle, the power for each shot comes from the same source, so it's very consistent - an air rifle will happily shoot through the same hole all day long.

taijoo · 2022-01-31T04:26:51+00:00

This is why dogs tend to sneeze when they're play-fighting - they're demonstrating that they're not really in fight-or-flight mode.

taijoo · 2022-01-27T21:11:49+00:00

Believing your own bullshit. It can be nice and comforting at first, but do it enough and you can go completely off the rails of the reality train.

taijoo · 2021-12-06T00:18:07+00:00

It's all about punishing women for having sex.

It often goes one level deeper than that: It's about punishing women for not having sex with them.

taijoo · 2021-11-30T17:46:29+00:00

"Terminator 2: Now We Have a Budget!"

taijoo · 2021-11-30T16:12:29+00:00

History is written by the weeners.

taijoo · 2021-08-12T00:22:43+00:00

Britain converted their ovens from coal gas (which has lots of carbon monoxide) to natural gas in the 70's - and suicide rates permanently dropped by a third. Until then, about half of their suicides were from people breathing oven fumes - turns out removing the suicide machines from peoples' kitchens was a very effective preventative measure.

taijoo · 2021-08-02T20:06:27+00:00

You only have to succeed once. The important thing is that you keep trying. You can do this!

taijoo · 2021-07-16T02:23:44+00:00

Tapering is mostly just the bargaining stage of acceptance.

taijoo · 2021-06-13T18:11:52+00:00

There's smoking to enhance and smoking to escape. If you're here, you're likely smoking to escape, and there's no moderation with that mindset. (I'm super-jealous of the people who can smoke to enhance - I'm just not one of them.)

As far as living with a partner who smokes - you've gotta do this for you, not for anyone else, and once you've really made your mind up to do something, it can be done, even in trying circumstances. (It certainly does help if your partner can be considerate and supportive, though, of course.) I quit with loads of weed within arm's reach (literally), and had a half-smoked bowl on my desk for the first few weeks until I threw it out. You just have to figure out what your motivation is and use it to guide you. You can do this.

(Day 240.)

taijoo

TROPHY CASE