Odds and Ends: 4/27

Some of the disordered jumble of threads I am following, and an ask.

As we race to the end of April 2024, I have some notes.

Streaming Thoughts

I listen to my music mostly via a streaming service, and the one I am using now is Youtube Music. I will say that the older Google Play music service sucked. It was in last place performance wise when I was commuting by train every day¹, and ironically the buffering and performance of Amazon Music was da’ bomb circa 2018.

Since then the Play service got shitcanned, and it is now “Youtube Music”, and all the quirky deficiencies of the Play music service are gone.

But that isn’t what I wanted to talk about. Instead, I want to talk about the titles of the curated playlists, like this one:

That title is interesting. In my youth, we called this the pejorative “cock-rock”, targeted at teen and twenty-something men, high testosterone, few inhibitions, and feeling like the top of the world.

Calling it “Trans-Am Rock”, a nod to the Pontiac muscle car made famous in the Smokey and the Bandit franchise, and countless bro-coms of the 70’s.

Look, I get that “Cock Rock” is no longer acceptable, but this is a very thinly veiled misdirect. It is almost like they are winking at us.

Littered with songs by Led Zep, ZZ-Top, Motley Crue, AC/DC, and Aerosmith, it also has some timeless classics like Dr. John’s “Right Place Wrong Time”, and The Hollies “Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)”.

Way to class it up YT!

Yeah, I am listening to it as I type this, lol.

A Favor

Look, all you who read me are awesome. But you know who is more awesome than me? Friend of the ‘Stack, Susan Niemann, who writes the “Susan Speaks” Stack:

If you are not reading her, go to that page and poke around. Subscribe, and if you have a few bucks, buy her a coffee (or beer), or better yet, upgrade to paid.

She is a long-time advertisement professional, on the freelance train, and the recent advent of ChatGPT is causing a lot of middle marketing managers who used to outsource ad copy to people like Susan above are now using ChatGPT to write the dreck that they are turning out. They will figure out that AI is shit, but for now, if you can at least help her grow her audience, that will help this all level out.

Not only is she fun to read, she is a killer photographer with a keen eye. You will not be disappointed.

The Politics of Abortion

I have long been a pro-choice advocate, mainly because I am not a fucking homunculi like the esteemed Justice Samuel Alito.

This sack of shit with feet makes it his life’s goal to fuck the women of this country over, and when combined with the other 5 conservative nut-sacks (ok 4, if you discount Barrett) have well and truly kicked the hornets nest.

Anyhow, in the last week(s) two things have happened that are worth noting. First, Arizona’s retromingent² Supreme Court dusted off their man purses and resurrected an atrocious law from the territory days that banned abortion - period.

Second, the SCOTUS heard arguments on the EMTALA³ challenge by Idaho’s AG, Raul Labrador (R-fuckface).

And the finger-wagging fuckface above was all in the shit about how this 1986 FEDERAL law is really inconvenient to these poor widdle state lawmakers who are jacking their partially flaccid cocks as they try to really fuck the best half of the human race.

This is not to mention the tongue washing of the orange-tinged baboon’s balls as they chin stroke on how they can actually grant the office of the president unfettered immunity. Jesus Christ on a crouton level bullshit from the supremes.

I read that Raul’s fee-fees were hurt by the questioning Justice Sotomayor unleashed on him. And they think the Liberals are snowflakes?

Look, we all gotta get to the polls in November and vote these fuckers out. It is that simple.

Personal News

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that my role was changing drastically. Basically, I was an overpaid intern (that is the sort of job I was doing) that had shitloads of free time. My old boss dumped me into that role for a couple reasons, one official, and one that I sussed out later. But it was because this (relatively minor) program had gotten some undesirable Executive attention (code word for "fucking shitshow”) the idea was to put a seasoned pro in the reins to bring order.

And it was easy. I did what I normally do, and built trust, identified and curated key stakeholders, created an internal Sharepoint⁴ site to capture the key items, and make it all run smoothly.

But, If I was being honest, it was about 5-7 hours a week of work, at most. That was great for listening to podcasts and writing here.

Alas, my old boss retired unexpectedly, and the new director asked why the fuck was the best product manager we had by far relegated to the tech equivalent of KP Duty.

I have sloughed off the “easy” job, and now I am the leader of Product Management (for our content team) managing three other fine people, as well as carrying a bag, the most important bag in our cart.

This seriously cuts down on my time to draft and poop out these posts. I am still able to steal some cycles, because I would explode if I didn’t get some of my thoughts out, but the luxury my editorial calendar had is now shit.

So, once again, expect fewer posts, but hopefully I will be able to still do quick hits, and musical highlights, as that is in my DNA.

That’s enough for now, if you are still reading this, thank you for being amazing. This morning I crossed over 300 subscribers. This is successful beyond my wildest dreams, and I owe it to the kick-ass folks who have taken the time to subscribe.

1. there are some dead spots in cell coverage as you traverse downtown San Jose on the light rail, whoda thunk that cell coverage in the heart of Silicon Valley

2. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retromingent

3. https://www.verywellhealth.com/emtala-the-emergency-medical-treatment-and-labor-act-2615167

4. In the early 2010’s I worked at a document management software company, and internally we referred to Microsoft’s “SharePoint” as a Document Coffin, where documents go to die. I still think that whenever I hit a SP page.

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