Malaphax

I think we're going to start seeing dealerships get slowly squeezed out and killed off. They might have to rebrand as "service centers" that predominantly focus on service and maintenance... which is also getting squeezed out because most EVs have dramatically lower maintenance requirements than ICE vehicles. It certainly isn't helping that right now a large contingent of vehicle sales at dealerships aren't off the lot, but customers coming in and placing orders with the manufacturer. The massive mega car dealerships we see today are probably going to seriously downsize over the coming years unless supply chains manage to get unstuck. As much as I really dislike dealerships, I'm curious if manufacturers are going to be able to smoothly transition to a direct to consumer model. I've heard anecdotally that purchasing a vehicle right now is complete garbage and that most EVs/PHEVs/Hybrids are so impacted that this entire years' production slots are sold out and there are waiting lists for 2023 production slots.

Finished: We Own This City - This is basically "The Wire - the miniseries" It's based off real life corruption in Baltimore, the gruesome realities of stats based policing and the fruitlessness of the drug war. It's well worth a watch on its own but it works even better alongside or after the wire, since there is a large number of returning actors used in the series (playing different roles). Ozark Season 4 part 2 - This was good but I felt the ending was limp. Unfortunately they fell into the trap of investing new enemies each season and then really doubled down during the last season complete with a final scene that I genuinely disliked. I still think the show is worth watching but the ending certainly wasn't great. Tokyo Vice - I'll reiterate what I sad above, it's a fantastic show, well worth the watch. It does end with a massive "tune in next time" style cliffhanger but I suspect since this is based off a book and was fairly well received we'll get a few more seasons to finish off the story. Halo - This show was hot garbage. The writing in this show was not just atrocious but I think it may have actively damaged the brand. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - I had never seen this all the way through. It's a solid film, I respect the creative decisions they made and how they handled a strong adversary as well as showing Kirk as a tactician. Sidenote - It was a bit surreal when I watched this a just a few short weeks later an episode of Star Trek: Brave New Worlds flat out copied this movie for an episode. I'm not sure I get to give them credit as making an homage, it almost felt cheap. The Northman - This was probably one of the better versions of norse mythos that I've seen. It felt like an adult fairy tale similar to 'The Green Knight' but more action oriented. It was a solid film but not outstanding. Watching: Star Trek: Brave New Worlds - This is much better than all the other new trek, but still not particularly great. I enjoyed Pike's character in Discovery and I hope they can hit their stride with a more episodic/classic style of star trek. I have to give credit that this show has a much more positive outlook than the other shows, which was sorely missed in Picard and Discovery. Under the Banner of Heaven - This is almost done but it's been great. Keep in mind they lean very heavy on the mormon stuff and do a fairly brutal job of portraying them as a cult, the murder mystery is almost secondary to the show. kuhla Garfield does a fantastic job in this, it's probably his best work. Severance - I've liked what I've seen so far. It reminds me a little of the show Devs. Obi-Wan Kenobi - This show is yet more proof that Star Wars is just another massive IP at this point and their quality is all over the place. This show in particular feels creatively bankrupt, I will continue to click through but I'm really unimpressed. Stranger Things Season 4 Part 1 - Netflix loves breaking up major seasons of shows now. This feels good so far, I think this is one of their stronger seasons.

I liked the first game, I'm looking forward to the second.

There's a good chance that not only with nothing change, but the SCOTUS might actually get off their ass and rule on a 2nd amendment case before they end their term in July. At the risk of repeating myself and being obnoxious, I always have to question when people start talking about new gun laws if the most recent shooter would have been stopped by the newly proposed legislation. Most of the time the answer is no. The Buffalo shooter had been sent for mental evaluation based on some major red flag behavior, but even with that case he was not involuntarily committed and thus was not a prohibited person - so no laws would have prevented him from purchasing a firearm. The Uvalde situation is sadly starting to look more and more like Parklad / Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting. I'm seeing more posts about how the shooter engaged with police outside the school - and the police fled the scene / hid while he then slaughtered school children. If the police stationed at schools are going to be cowards, then they're fucking useless. I know qualified immunity is a huge issue but I really hope that some sort of case regarding the duty of care could be made and these cops not only get fired but personally sued for their utter cowardice. It's probably very easy to lay blame at the shooter, the lack of mental healthcare available in this country and our lax gun laws, but the cops literally failed to deal with one of the few situations that we arm and empower them to deal with.

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Updates/Battlefield-Briefing-Development-Update-May-2022/m-p/11510768?cid=73726 New Season announced, launches next month Redoing art and voicelines (angel is going to sound super serious now 😡) Hazard zone is dead Rush is coming back as a 32 player mode They're shifting focus on conquest/breakthrough to 64 players I'll be honest, as much as this all seems good, it's going to take a minor miracle to make this game anything but mediocre. I would almost prefer they cut resources on this game, and double down on the next one, but I understand that this is a no win scenario for the devs.

Looks neat. Sounds like hunters have the ability to buff teammates with that flip and ground stab move. Titans/Warlocks got some new toys with special melees. I'm sure we're going to see some utterly ridiculous stuff come out of solar 2.0. I still need to grind a loreley's splendor, but I'm curious what other exotics might become meta this season. My bet is that hallowfire heart might get super busted combined with ability spam builds, or wormgod caress making powered melees oneshot builds.

The new season is decent, very short but decent. I feel like they had some better art styles than the last season. I don't think anything was good enough to stand out but I'm glad a series like this exists because I almost feel like it's a sizzle real for animation studios and I can appreciate that there's a ton of creativity and talent that goes into the various types of animation.

Neat design:

Tino's setup seems solid. I've heard really good stuff about Schitt. I'm currently running the follwoing: JDS Labs Element Stack - EL DAC 2 + EL Amp 2. I would have gone with the condensed element, but sadly I wanted/needed optical input. They have new versions with bluetooth that I would consider if I was in the market for audio gear. Fostex T60RP, modified to Argons (by some dude in his garage). I also have lambskin pads, which supposedly help cut some of the highs. The imaging on these are supposed to be really solid as well. I've been very pleased with the audio quality compared to my previous audio technica 900Xs. Sadly they died when the cable going from left-right failed and I've been unable to repair them completely, although I did manage to modify them with a detachable cable lol. I haven't looked too closely at the audiophile segment recently, I assume that supply chains have screwed them over just as bad as everything else. I've heard some decent stuff about some of the Drop partnership headphones. Does anyone have any test tracks they use for imaging, or just songs they like to run as a test for new headphones. I've come across these two songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vQc1ApB5Do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt5vWqSFC48 Also this test track from DMS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tezCWPLwu3Q

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1998372/ This is based on a book written about true crimes that occurred in the 1980's and delves very deep on the Mormon faith, both the more "mainstream" and fundamentalist sects. The acting is solid if a bit overly-emotional at times. They manage to nail the unsettling cult atmosphere combined with a clean facade that slowly unravels and show how this affects the detective who works the case. They also make use of some flashback with Joseph Smith, and don't hold back calling out some of the weird shit that the early Mormons got up to, and the awful persecution they faced. There's also some bits of pieces that reference how the faith struggles to deal with more independent women, sometimes directly calling out the equal rights / women's rights movement as a stumbling block that needs to be dealt with. If the premise intrigues you I'd say its well worth a watch.

I'm going to give this a solid meh. They set this up as an interstellar empire but 80% of the book is set on a single planet, in a single structure. This felt like more of a prequel then a first novel. I did start on the second book in the series just to see if they would expand the setting, and so far they're doing much more sci-fi/space opera with the second book. If it doesn't grab me I might just drop it and move on.

I believe this is a larger version of the technology that's been used on the Mandalorian. I guess this is the new jump forward from traditional blue/green screen sets with everything added in post. I guess the downside is that the CGI work needs to be done ahead of time. I also think it's going to be amusing seeing Unreal Engine and other games engines push more heavily into movies and TV, I know they've been working on that for some time.

Finished: Peaky Blinders Season 6 - I feel like this show really outgrew what it was good at. The stakes kept getting raised and the relationships didn't build enough to be interesting. Worse yet, there was a severe overuse of slow motion walking towards the camera shots that quickly became a parody. It's short enough to get through but even 6 episodes managed to overstay it's welcome. I know they're finishing this series with a movie but I have very little interest at this point. Raised by Wolves Season 2 - This is also falling off for me. This season introduced some new elements and then proceeded to completely flip the script, and then flip it again, and again. The best analogy I have is the Star Wars sequels where 'subverting expectations' just leads everyone to believe you're a fucking idiot and don't know what's going on. The show is well filmed and acted but the unexplained plot-lines and weird mystery elements have quickly run out my patience. Slow Horses - This show is certainly high quality but also classic british tv, complete with a short 6 episode season and "lower stakes." It's a nice spy romp, with a band of misfits and screw-ups that get caught up in something above their pay-grade, along with a decent mix of high-tech and low-tech spy shenanigans. It's well worth the watch, I believe they must have filmed two seasons back to back because they had a trailer for season 2 at the end of the first season. Watching: Ozark Season 4 part 2 - Seems good so far, I'll reserve judgement until I finish this. Halo - This show is simultaneously interesting and complete trash. The acting is surprisingly decent, but the plot is all over the place. They also took major liberties with any sort of Halo lore, most of which I'm ok with, but I suspect all of these changes made people on the internet real mad. The action sequences have been very underwhelming, and if this wasn't tied to a major franchise like Halo I suspect no one would be watching this. I'll finish it but, I've been skipping through the boring bits. The entire B plot is fucking trash. Tokyo Vice - This show is really good. Strong recommendation. Spy x Family - This is the darling of this season's anime. A master spy accidentally marries an assassin and adopts a psychic child while trying to go undercover for a mission. Seems very middling so far, I'll see if it picks up. Watch List: Under the Banner of Heaven - I want to check out this mini-series, true crime based on a series of murders in a heavily mormon area. Outer Range - Yellowstone + scifi - might be cool. That Dirty Black Bag - More western stuff, might be interesting if the action is decent. We Own This City - It's set in Baltimore and deals with police corruption... of course it's written by the same dude that created the wire. Could be solid.

Mazda CX-60 (CX-70 in US) PHEV https://www.caranddriver.com/mazda/cx-70 18kw battery (estimated 30mi range) Most powerful mazda (this is reminiscent of the Rav4 Prime) AWD with rear wheel bias $38k starting price (maybe) That seems like a cool option to compete with the rav4 Prime. Some people might care that's it's also going to be built in america and there are some shared toyota parts. I wish the smaller CX-50 was available with a PHEV.