Christmas is not my holiday, but I live in the USA so it might as well be.

And, hey, I'm not complaining. The country pretty much shuts down from December 24th through January 2nd, which means I can catch up with my work without distraction! There's so much needed to be done to close out the year that I'm always grateful to have the extra time to get ahead of it.

And this year, since I had a vacation earlier in the month, I'll also appreciate having some time to CLEAN MY FILTHY HOUSE. Seriously, I never realize how much of a mess my cats make on a daily basis until I'm not here to keep on top of it. They are so messy. Cat fur... everywhere. Kitty litter... everywhere. Cat toys... everywhere. And an occasional hairball or scarf-and-barf deposit. It ain't at all pretty after more than 3 or 4 days.

I'm coming up on 21 days, and I've barely had time to touch the place.

And now snow is supposed to be coming in the next few days, which means I'll be cleaning up outside my home as well.

'Tis the season.

I believe in supporting the artists whose media I consume, so I buy the media I want to own.

For the longest time this meant VHS Tape, then LaserDisc, then DVD, then Blu-Ray, then Digital. I liked digital because I didn't have to make space for physical media in my home, and it seemed the ideal solution for being able to access the stuff I buy from wherever I'm at. Except it didn't end up working that way. Unlike when you buy a movie on DVD, when you purchase via Digital, you aren't purchasing the media. Instead you are purchasing a license to view that media... and it's a license which the studio or licensee can terminate at any time. And when a TV show I bought was removed by the studio, I swore I would never buy digital again and went back to physical media.

Physical media that I ultimately rip into a digital format as a personal backup (because physical media can deteriorate and become unusable). But all that digital media has to be stored somewhere, and that's where Network Attached Storage (NAS) comes in. This is a box of hard drives that hooks up to your network and can serve your files to wherever you allow it. Meaning that I can access my purchased media wherever I want.

When I went shopping for a NAS years ago, all I wanted was Synology hardware. But I couldn't afford it, so I went with QNAP which was supposed to be the next best thing. It was not. Multiple problems culminated with a ransomware attack that would have lost all my files if not for the fact that I maintain a backup. Between this horrific bullshit and the fact that QNAP apps are always numerous versions behind in their app store and I was done with QNAP, but still stuck with it because I couldn't afford to replace the thing. Instead I turned off all outside access, which was a bummer because I could no longer access my media away from home.

Fast-forward to May 2025 and Synology made a move towards requiring proprietary drives, something to which I said "Oh fuck no!" and scratched them off my list of NAS manufacturers I wanted to deal with. After the fiasco with WD, I buy Seagate IronWolf Pro drives. Period.

Fast-forward again to Black Friday 2025, and I ended up buying a replacement NAS from UGREEN because my QNAP NAS has gotten old with its Celeron J1900 processor, and the 8.5× to 10.5× speed jump of the Pentium Gold 8505 processor in the 4-Bay UGREEN 4800+ was too good to pass up. Even if I had to put it on a credit card to pay the $550.00 price tag.

UGREEN, which is a highly reviewed relatively new player in the NAS market, wasn't originally on my list of options. I don't have anything against a device made in China (because isn't everything?), but knowing that their government might have built a back-door into the system which may compromise my cat photos, and that was a deal-breaker.

But then I found out you can replace the OS with TrueNAS Open Source, if needed, and was like... alrighty then. Not that it much matters, because I was going to firewall it off completely, remove UGREENlink, and go with VPN-only access.

But Anyway...

I've been slowly transferring all my media to the new NAS and have been quite happy with it. The UGREEN model is freakishly faster compared to the old QNAP model I had. Usually, NAS manufacturers put old, slow CPUs in their boxes because you don't need really fast chips to perform file serving tasks. Except serving files is not all that a NAS does. In my case, the NAS also has to run apps to serve media for my laptop and my television (which I do with an app called Plex)... along with a bunch of other apps which do various tasks with my data. And having a fast CPU for those tasks is important.

One of those apps is TailScale, a secure connectivity app which allows me access to my data without having to go through QNAP or UGREEN. Kinda like a private VPN. Thus eliminating my distrust of major companies... no matter where they're located.

Overall I'm very happy with the UGREEN 4800+ NAS. If I have a gripe it's that they don't have many app packages available. For example Plex can't simply be downloaded, installed, and set-up from within the UGREEN app repository. It don't exist. Instead you have to download an abstraction layer called Docker which has all kinds of apps (including Plex and TailScale) to be run and set up as containers that are interpreted for UGREEN. It's nowhere near as easy to go this route than to have a native app, but it does work if you're willing to put in a little research, time, and effort. It took me a couple days to get Plex working correctly because the various "instruction" videos were contradictory and often glazed past critical information, but it's running just fine now.

The quality of the hardware is also very good. The housing is an aluminum alloy instead of the janky plastic housing on my QNAP, for example. I also like the trays for the hard drives, which are tool-free fr 3.5" drives. There are a variety of ports... including SD card slot, USB-C, and USB-A on the front... and HDMI, 3 USB-A, plus 2.5Gb and 10Gb ethernet ports. As if that wasn't enough, the unit arrives with upgrade tools to install an SSD cache and more memory, two CAT-7 ethernet cables, and a power adapter. Maximum capacity is a whopping 136TB over four drives (I have four 16TB drives in a RAID 6 configuration which gives me 29TB of usable space, because I like redundancy for safety).

If I have an outright complaint to offer, it has nothing to do with UGREEN. Instead it's with Plex. This is by far my favorite media serving platform (I bought a lifetime pass within a month of installing it), but it's not without its faults. For one thing, it wants to build movie "collections" even if you tell it not to by setting it to "disabled." And most all of these collections are fucking useless and stupid, so I end up deleting them all. Which takes a crazy amount of time because there are so many. But even worse is the fact that I have found no easy way of transferring all my title adjustments and poster art from my old install for all the titles I have. Which means I'm going to have to start all over again from scratch. That's hours and hours of work. Why there isn't just a folder I can copy over I have no idea. There's a "config" folder, but what I'm looking for isn't there. I guess. Because if there is, I'm not finding it. You'd think that this would be a no-brainer.

I just wish I had the free time to get my latest media purchases ripped so I could add them to my new NAS. I've been wanting to re-watch Superman, and this would be a great excuse to do that.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. Pleased do put a penny in the old man's hat. And an entry in his web browser... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Joining! I am utterly ensnared by PLUR1BUS. It's slow... but deliberate... you just know that Vince Gilligan is building things up for a payoff, because otherwise there wouldn't be a point to the show? But what form that takes for the first season when we have more seasons to go? No idea...

There's one episode left until the long wait for Season 02.

   
• Full Disclosure! I can't remember the last time I was even remotely excited for a Steven Spielberg film. I am a bit excited for this...

The film looks suitably disturbing, which is about the only way the subject like this could be interesting.

   
• Ignorance! “I don’t even know how to pronounce it, so it must be bad... and I’m too big of a dumbshit to do a Google search before cluttering social media with my ignorant bullshit, so here you go...”

We are so fucked. All the vanquished diseases are coming back, and these idiots are intent on keeping it that way.

   
• Blunder Woman! The first Wonder Woman movie was a revelation. It's one of my favorite super-hero films ever made, and definitely one of the best DC movies they've ever made. The scene where she steps out of the trench brought tears to my eyes, because it was that moment Diana is Wonder Woman. In a way we haven't seen since Lynda Carter's flawless take on the character decades ago. But the sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, was a steaming pile of crap. I was mortified by it. There was no single area where it didn't fail. I couldn't believe that Patty Jenkins would release this. And this video explains why...

I am still furious that the franchise was destroyed by this one film. I can only hope and pray that James Gunn will be sure we get a Wonder Woman film that's deserving of the character's legacy.

   
• B- B- B- Buck! I was sad to learn that Gil Gerard died this past week. Though, to be honest, I don't remember much about his work. The only show I can even think of him appearing is Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, which I only watched because Erin Gray's "Col. Wilma Deering" and Pamela Hensley's "Princess Ardala"...

The writing on the show was pretty bad, something I was able to recognize despite the fact that I was watching it at 13 years old. Though to be fair, the writers were likely under massive constraints to reign in the budget. But I do remember that Gerard dug into the corny, campy scripts with gusto, which meant that it was at least entertaining. And for that he'll be remembered.

   
• We're All Paying for AI! There it is.

I have found shockingly little use for AI, which is surprising, because I thought it would be changing everything for me. And maybe one day it will. But right now it's just so... bad.

   
• UnShock! Shocking. — I lie. This may be the least shocking story I've read in recent days...

Turns out there didn't need to ever be some kind of "deep state" conspiracy. It's all being done right out in the open.

   
And now I'm decorating the Christmas tree! Just kidding. My cats would murder it.

There is no "worst day" for me after my mom died. That was it. That was the one I get.

Which is why one of the books I'm working on is currently titled Travels with My Mother (and the five worst days of my life). It's a collection of travel stories from when I was visiting places around the world with her interspersed with me recounting the five worst days of my life. It's been fun to write... but difficult too, because it just makes me realize all over again how much I've lost with each new page.

But anyway...

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. She would have been 81 years old.

It's also the day my car tabs are due. Which is one of those unhappy coincidences that I never thought about when I had to buy a new car last December.

So I went to the bookkeeping office where I pay for the tabs, then drove home.

The road to which goes right by the cemetery where my mom is buried. Which is another one of those unhappy coincidences that I never thought about when I picked the easiest route to my home.

But anyway...

Today is Caturday, which only exists because of the two cats I got to keep my mom company and help distract her from being confused all the time. A job Jake and Jenny did exceptionally well...

Yes. I just shared this three Caturdays ago, but I didn't know it would be needed again so soon.

   
And so... happy birthday mom, one day late.

As I've mentioned an insufferable number of times, I watch more YouTube than any other media source. It's playing 90% of the time on my television while I'm working, and it runs the gamut when it comes to topics.

Here's the previous five videos which are in my watch history for you to enjoy when you can't find anything good on TV.

First is this trailer for an upcoming movie about... SHEEP DETECTIVES?!?...

A 30 second video where The Good Liars ask a very good question...

Sigourney Weaver breaks down some of her most famous roles...

Thomas Flight picked his favorite films of 2025...

And, lastly, this glorious two hour video takedown of a notorious scammer and fraudster...

You're welcome!

LOL.

Yesterday I mentioned that I had watched the latest installment of the Knives Out franchise of films. This morning I forgot who played Father Jud (Josh O'Connor) I got an interesting result returned.

Sit back and enjoy...

What's even better? They got Daniel Craig to watch it...

BEIGNET BLANC! BWAH HA HA HA HAAAAA!

And I'm dead.

I finally got around to watching the third installment of the Knives Out trilogy: Wake Up Dead Man, and really enjoyed it. I know many people are saying that it eclipsed the second film but isn't as good as the first. Probably true. Though, upon rewatching it, I've grown more and more fond of Glass Onion. I think it did a very good job of adding some depth to Benoit Blanc, and the cast was sublime. Especially Janelle Monáe, who I don't know as an actor but a musician. She was phenomenal playing a character playing a character. You wouldn't think that somebody with such little acting experience could have pulled that off so beautifully, but she did.

As with the past movies, Wake Up Dead Man has a stacked cast, all of whom are flawlessly cast and give a great performance. You already know that Daniel Craig, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, Jeffrey Wright, Jeremy Renner, and GLENN CLOSE are going to kill it... but Mila Kunis holds her own as a police chief and Josh O'Connor in the lead role as Father Jud does not falter scene after scene...

Basically... assistant priest Father Jud is suspected of murdering the charismatic head priest at an upstate New York parish. The local police chief calls in master detective Benoit Blanc to solve the mystery and an interesting case unfolds.

If you liked previous installments of Knives Out then you will probably like this one, which is a bit darker in tone. Writer/director Rian Johnson knows how to craft a good mystery (which makes the cancelation of Poker Face all the harder to take), so I hope Netflix isn't finished with the franchise just yet. This film could have used more backstory for Benoit Blanc, and I am looking forward to that possibility in future installments.

If we're lucky enough to get any.

Not sure if it's in the news where you live, but my home state of Washington is in a bit of a serious pickle. Instead of precipitation taking the form of fluffy snow like we used to always get this time of year, it's instead coming down as rain. Way too much rain.

We've got serious flooding going on, and it's been so bad that sections of a vital East/West roadway via Highway 2 over the mountains has washed away. It's pretty bad, and I don't know if they will be able to reopen it for months. Which is to say that it may not reopen until Spring, at the earliest.

And now we have one route left that's feasible... assuming you don't want to add 5+ hours to your journey by traveling South through the Columbia Basin, then West over to Portland, then North again to Puget Sound. And since I am assuming that's not time you have to waste, it's just the I-90 corridor that's viable. And heaven only knows what happens if that gets shut down.

I guess those of us East of the Cascade Mountains have to do what they did in pioneer times, and just hunker down for Winter and accept that Seattle is not accessible.

Or, you know, hop on a plane.

Something I haven't done in years and years because I was usually only doing that if I was connecting to a flight out of Seattle. But the connections have gone from bad... to worse... to abysmal, and so there's no real incentive given the additional cost.

Somebody really, really needs to invent transporters like they have on Star Trek so I'm not having to come up with worst-case scenarios so close to bedtime.

I got back home Saturday and immediately knew I was in trouble.

I was so exhausted from the preceding ten days that I knew there was no way I could recover in the half day I had before jumping back into work on Sunday. So I didn't. Instead I jumped back into work Saturday afternoon... spent Sunday morning doing nothing... then finished up with the work I had due today on Sunday evening.

What a stupid plan that was.

I felt completely wiped all day today and wish that I had given myself a bit of a break last night. But there's nothing I can do about it now.

Except head to bed early and see if I can make it up to myself.

Your Disney adventure with me is not over just yet... because a very special, all new, all Disney Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Remy 2D! One of the attractions I was sure to ride was Remy's Ratatouille Adventure at the France Pavilion in Epcot. I've always liked it as a clever and fun ride that finally gave World Showcase an E-Ticket ride. Recently they took out the need for 3D glasses, and I wanted to see if it's as good. It isn't. The 3D immersion was very well done. It wasn't a gimmick, it really added to the attraction's experience. Now it's just looking at a flatter, less interesting visual on screens. Not only that, but it's more blurry... especially at the beginning. I wish they hadn't downgraded it, but I can see how it would be better for people who are missing an eye or have very poor eyesight since they won't need to wear 3D glasses over their regular glasses. I just wish that the ride was in 3D most of the time, but had a few 2D showings for people who need that.

   
• Track 3! Another attraction which got downgraded? Test Track. They tore out a lot of the ride to "update" them, but it's just not as fun and doesn't really make much sense now. On top of that, the very end has been completely redone where you drive through a very large domed screen showing the future of automobiles, which feels like an abrupt end to a ride that's been gutted. It's a bizarre choice, and kinda undercuts what made the attraction such a classic.

   
• Together! Not really an upgrade or a downgrade, the new Zootopia: Better Together ride which replaced A Bug's Life: It's Tough to Be a Bug in Animal Kingdom feels like a sidegrade. It seems like they just re-skinned the bugs into Zootopia characters and called it a day. Even though I really like both Zootopia movies, I'd probably give the edge to It's Tough to Be a Bug because it was an original instead of a re-theme and wasn't aging poorly at all. I suppose Disney probably did it do to the popularity of the newer films more than anything else.

   
• RoboLincoln! I haven't been to Disneyland since they installed the Walt Disney animatronic. Which is to say that I haven't seen it in person, only in photos. And every time I'm thinking two things... 1) This does not look like Walt Disney... and 2) I wonder what he looks like with all his skin removed? Because I've seen photos of other animatronics, and they always look so clunky. I was reminded of this when I saw Abe Lincoln while at Disney World...

And it's like... does a modern animatronic look like this underneath? I sure hope not. This is totally giving FemBot vibes...

Remember in The Bionic Woman where they suspected Oscar Goldman was a fembot so they dropped that pencil and Oscar stepped on it and crushed it and you were like "ZOMFG! OSCAR GOLDMAN IS A FEMBOT!!!" and your mind was blown because you thought fembots could only be lady robots and here we are with a man robot?? Yeah. Good times. I don't know why they can't successfully reboot The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. Such a great concept.

   
• Immersive! There's a lot of tossing around of the word "immersive" when it comes to theme parks. Disney used to be the absolute master of this. But that hasn't been true in a minute. Probably since Animal Kingdom opened. That was the last time that there was a coherent vision behind a project that wasn't just shitting out IP everywhere, even when it makes no sense. For example... just look at this sign for bathrooms that Animal Kingdom has...

It's brilliant. Everything from how they say it to how they write it (you can still see the guides they drew before painting the words!) looks like it belongs in an authentic setting. They could have just put up a regular "bathrooms" sign, but they wanted to maintain an illusion, so they did something to make that happen. Now-a-days Disney just slaps one of their characters on a sign and calls it good. No effort to build a narrative or show any imagination... just put Mickey on it and you're done. It's really sad.

   
• Hamm! To end this post, I want to point out that the Toy Story section of Disney Hollywood Studios puts out a giant Hamm frosted sugar cookie for decoration for the holidays...

This is so cute that they really should have many, many more characters as sugar-cookies for the holidays!

   
And, just like that, your Disney adventure is over just like mine!