Subfolders
Latest "Uncategorized" files
Uncategorized

Panic Button (2011)

High-concept, sub-par execution thriller is basically "Saw" on an airplane with a social media morality play spin. Four people are put on a private jet, ostensibly because they won a contest on social media, but really because they treated others horribly online online, and forced to play a "game" which consists of an unseen voice who seems to know every detail of their lives exposing their darkest secrets, then making them torture and kill each other under threat of their loved ones being killed as they watch by remote feed.

The production values were actually not terrible, but the story is just stupid and 100% unbelievable. I don't know how anybody thought this screenplay would make a good movie. "Saw" was much, much better.

Uncategorized

The Capture (2017)

Disappointing sci-fi aims for the bleachers and then bunts. Scientists find a way to bring a person back from the afterlife, spend the entire movie arguing about ethics because the process requires euthanizing terminally ill patients and prevents the newly dead from leaving the earthly plane, and then the movie ends in the middle of the story, without a resolution.

Uncategorized

The Barge People

A new setting for a clichéd setup: a captivity/pursuit flick set in part in the long barges that travel the canals that criss-cross the English countryside. The villains are a family that seems to be comprised of 50/50 small-town English folk and cannibalistic creature-from-the-black-lagoon-type rubber-mask creatures that live under the water. Anyway, they kill and eat people.

Yawn. It's pretty well-made, actually, but that's about the only good thing I have to say about any of it.

I feel like Ti West somehow had something to do with this.

Uncategorized

Hell’s Caretaker

Unlikeable douchebags gaver at a remote cabin in Vermont—with, get this, no cell service!—and the affable-seeming caretaker turns out to be a psycho and begins picking them off.

Actually, for a movie with that setup, it's slightly better than you'd probably expect. The caretaker is a colorful Dennis Hopper sort and basically makes (what there is of) the movie. And there's a dog, who has been taken on the trip as a farewell before being put down, and basically is the "final girl" of the movie, which is a nice turn. And the way things unfold to murderous is, eh, not as shallow and unbelievable as I've seen, the escalation is somewhat more realistic than just "caretaker is crazy and wants to murder, because, movie" like most films like this do it.

But that's the best I can say for it. It might even almost be watchable if the vacationers…

Uncategorized

C.L.E.A.N.

Tough to follow the plot of this one but five people arrive at some sort of institute in the Croatian countryside and are tormented in this highly mannered, extremely Europeans film that somehow feels equal parts Giallo and Hammer Horror.

I don't know whether I wasn't paying enough attention or it's tough to follow. I did like the mood of it but I'm not sure what was going on.

Uncategorized

Jack Goes Home

An impossible=to-understand movie in which Another Culkin plays an asshole—you can tell because everybody calls him "asshole"—goes back to his childhood home following the death of his father and Culkins around the house while his mother, played by Lin Shaye, Lin Shayes around. A twin brother killed as an infant may or may not have existed appears and disappears as a plot element, a predatory gay neighbor tries to predatorily gay him, everybody is an assholes to everybody else, which escalates to violence as mysterious tapes from the past appear, demons or some supernatural claptrap happens, and finally the entire endeavor faces the ultimate misfortune: an overly familiar, cliched plot twist that still somehow manages not to make sense.

Another Culkin sure does Culkin, though. Boy, if you want to make a movie about someone Culkining around the house, you couldn't ask for much better, if that's the right word.…

Uncategorized

Prey (2019)

In one of a million movies named "Prey", a young man on a survival retreat on a deserted island funs afoul of mysterious georgeous women apparently living there nad some sort of supernatural beast. Kristine Froseth, if it matters.

Uncategorized

The Legend Of Lake Hollow

Paint-by-numbers supernatural thriller about a group of friends who rent a secluded cabin and something seems to want them off the land. Weird people appear, voices, you know the drill.

Uncategorized

Destination Marfa

Poor-to-middling "Twilight Zone"-esque take of four travelers trapped in Marfa, Texas. Not badly produced by kind of clumsy... odd editing choices, weird occasionally voiceovers out of nowhere, etc. Meh.

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Advice & Life Lessons

Forgive Yourself For Your Misadventures

Someone said this to me a while ago, I wish I could remember who, but it’s helped me deal with a lot of adverse circumstances.

A lot of us are going through hard times right now, and I’m sure a lot of people, like me, are feeling helpless. But there is one thing you can do for yourself pretty easily, even when you can’t seem to change your situation:

You’ve got to forgive yourself for your misadventures.

That one piece of advice has helped me a lot. Because even when you can’t change a negative circumstance, it’s all too easy to internalize it: blame yourself, think you somehow deserve it, Identify with it as if it’s a part of you.

This advice has often helped me reframe things so I don’t take them personally, making it easier to carry on. Something really bad happens? It’s not “me“. It’s…

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » AI

AI Doesn’t Innovate

2024nov25 — I was really struck by this tagline on Canva's new 2025 design report, saying "motion elements, dreamy textures, and AI innovation" would shape new design possibilities.

As an AI skeptic—which is to say, I'm extremely optimistic about the things AI has proven it does very well, and the things it's given strong indications it's moving towards really doing well, but deeply impatient with all the hype about speculative functionality outside of those—this really put a fine point to me on part of the problem. Not with AI, but with what people expect of it, what they spend money expecting it to do.

AI DOESN'T INNOVATE. AI is specifically engineered NOT to innovate. It specifically attempts to create something that matches what it previously ingested. If it deviates from that, innovates, we call that "hallucination", and it makes AI less useful, not more. This is because AI is…

Uncategorized

Excess Flesh

Captivity flick that, if that's not bad enough, goes on about twice as long as it should and tries to turn into an art flick, eventually descending into complete incomprehensibility. A slightly pudgy woman takes out her food issues on her skinny, vapid party-girl roommate. Seems like it wants to be some kind of statement on standards of beauty or the fashion industry but simply alluding to issues isn't a statement about them, no matter how many weird slow-motion shots of people stuffing their faces with cake you put in.

Uncategorized

Bitter Feast

Slightly better-than-average captivity flick, somewhat well made, and with some character development and decent acting, almost like they were trying to make a real movie instead of just brutality as entertainment. But, still a captivity flick. Chef captures and tortures critic who gave him a bad review. Actually much better than that setup sounds, but still, a captivity flick.

Uncategorized » These Are The People In My Neighborhood

My Laconic Roommate Jim

My laconic roommate Jim was the quickest wit in the west. I lived with the guy for about 10 years, and he never said much, but when he did, it always counted.

I got my first taste of this when I came to interview for the room and meet the roommates. We were all musicians, so the subject came up. I mentioned I was a Jethro Tull fan, talked about a few of the concerts. Jim, who hadn't said much during the interview so far, said, "I always pictured a Jethro Tull concert as being something like a cross between a Dead show and the Renaissance Faire." Which wasn't much, but it was astute, and I noticed it.

Jim just turned 39. The day before his birthday, a friend of his asked him what he planned to do for it.

"Well, my favorite bartender gets on at 4…

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Techno-Sociology

Kupietz’s Law Of Infoavailability

Where technology is concerned: "Information needs expand to fill available bandwidth."

Where we used to have to fill in a one-page form, when automation arrived to make it quicker for us to fill in that form, very soon a ten-page form was required.

Reference: AI’s False Time-Saving Promise. Or Why AI Is Like The Vacuum CleanerBy Martin Gutmann, forbes.com, Nov 11, 2024. An article about how new "time-saving" technologies, such as vacuum cleaners, then computers, email, and now AI, increased workloads rather than reducing them.

Also tangentially related is Jevons Paradox, in which technology that increases efficiency creates an overall increase in resource consumption, rather than a decrease.

Uncategorized

Mike Kupietz, A Man and His Latest Posts

This Mike Kupietz's profile page, author information, and list of most recent posts laid out in Wordpress's clunky, old 1990's style post list. You'd probably enjoy seeing the same links laid out in a more visually scintillating interactive grid on the home page.
ImportedFromAP » Free Scripts & Algos Even Though You Probably Don't Deserve It

AP VWWMA/Volume-Adjusted Price lines 5.4.2 shared alpha



var tradingview_embed_options = {}; tradingview_embed_options.width = '640'; tradingview_embed_options.height = '400'; tradingview_embed_options.chart = 'Hgjz7wXW'; new TradingView.chart(tradingview_embed_options);

AP VWWMA/Volume-Adjusted Price lines 5.4.2 shared alpha on TradingView.com

TradingView Script. Free TradingView account required to use. Direct link: https://www.tradingview.com/script/Hgjz7wXW-AP-VWWMA-Volume-Adjusted-Price-lines-5-4-2-shared-alpha/

Initial alpha release, just for you to play with. No warranty, guarantee, support.

-----

This is an alpha of one of my most frequently-used custom indicators, provided without support or guarantees, for anyone to experiment with: the Volume Double-Weighted Moving Average and Volume-Adjusted Price Lines.

WHAT TH' HECK ARE ALL THESE LINES?

Yellow/reddish line: VWWMA. Essentially a VWMA , but built on a WMA rather than an SMA . A very frequent target for brief mean reversions.

Blue line: WMA . If you look at movements of the VWWMA compared to movements of the WMA , it will tell you how much of an effect volume…

ImportedFromAP » Free Scripts & Algos Even Though You Probably Don't Deserve It

Range Strategy demo



var tradingview_embed_options = {}; tradingview_embed_options.width = '640'; tradingview_embed_options.height = '400'; tradingview_embed_options.chart = 'vQmYyTp5'; new TradingView.chart(tradingview_embed_options);

AP Range Strategy on TradingView.com

TradingView Script. Free TradingView account required to use. Direct link: https://www.tradingview.com/script/vQmYyTp5-ApopheniaPays-Range-Strategy

A very simple demo, made by request, to allow a user to set simple buy and sell levels and see how profit changes as you mover them.

ImportedFromAP » Free Scripts & Algos Even Though You Probably Don't Deserve It

Demonstration of how chart history length affects current EMA values



var tradingview_embed_options = {}; tradingview_embed_options.width = '640'; tradingview_embed_options.height = '400'; tradingview_embed_options.chart = 'NwvUwIQ3'; new TradingView.chart(tradingview_embed_options);

Demonstration of how history length affects all EMA values on TradingView.com

TradingView Script. Free TradingView account required to use. Direct link: https://www.tradingview.com/script/NwvUwIQ3-Demonstration-of-how-history-length-affects-all-EMA-values/

I saw some discussion of this so I whipped up an example to prove the that effect of history length on EMA values is pronounced, even for bars much further than the EMA length away from the first candle of the chart.

This chart has two 89-bar EMAs of the close: a green one and a red one. However, for the red one, the first 89 bars of the graph are considered to have a close of "0", which is exactly whatTradingView's EMA calculation uses for bars before the start of the graph.

This is because unlike other moving averages, which reference the price…

ImportedFromAP » Free Scripts & Algos Even Though You Probably Don't Deserve It

Reminder Message (w/ color picker demo)



var tradingview_embed_options = {}; tradingview_embed_options.width = '640'; tradingview_embed_options.height = '400'; tradingview_embed_options.chart = 'KLNJvOaF'; new TradingView.chart(tradingview_embed_options);

Reminder Message (with color picker) - ApopheniaPays on TradingView.com

TradingView Script. Free TradingView account required to use. Direct link: https://www.tradingview.com/script/KLNJvOaF-Reminder-Message-with-color-picker-ApopheniaPays/

This is a very simple script. It displays a message above the latest price. I coded it because I need a constant reminder to keep me from overtrading.

You can customize several options:
- The message text
- How high above the latest price the message is displayed
- How often it is displayed. 1=display constantly, 2=only show it during every other period, 3=only show it every 3rd new period, etc. So, for example, if you are on the 15 minute chart, and set a frequency of 3, it will show it for the first 15 minutes out of every 45.
-…

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Persuasion, Manipulation & Propaganda

You’ll love this entry.

I've finally nailed what bothers me so much about those Upworthy headlines. It's that they they tell you what to think about about the video, instead of telling you what it's about.

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Language, Grammar, & Vocabulary

The most suggestive term in telecommunications

The 90 days after the creation of a new area code in which either the old or the new code may be used to dial that area is called the permissive dialing period.

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Futurism & Prognostication

In Heaven, Everything Is Fine

I have an idea about what happens after you die. I think when you go to heaven, St. Peter lets you in, they show you to a room. You take a sauna, somebody brings you a plate of cookies or a slice of cake. Then you take a nap.

Later on, when you're ready, they take you to a huge room, and everyone you've ever met is there. And everybody gets together and tells each other exactly what was going through their fucking heads. Then you all have a good laugh about it all. I see lots of back slapping and smiling eyes.

Wouldn't that be a great thing to look forward to?

Uncategorized » These Are The People In My Neighborhood

These are the people in my neighborhood: Allison

Fly Bar, Alamo Square
[My eccentric neighbor Allison walked into a bar where my friend Brent and I were sitting at a table near the door and I called out to her.]

Me: [to Brent and Allison] Do you guys know each other? You both live in the neighborhood.
Brendan: No.
Allison: I don't think so. You might have seen me around the neighborhood. I always walk around with a little dog. [pause.] ...I used to walk around with a little dog. He died three days ago.
Me: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.
Allison: Yeah, he was sick for a while. A few days ago I could tell, it was the day, so I put him out in the backyard and he curled up in the grass... I went out for a while, and when I got back... ...
Me: I'm really sorry.

Uncategorized » These Are The People In My Neighborhood

These are the people in my neighborhood: Allison II

Front stoop of my apartment, day after Thanksgiving, 11/25/05
As I was arriving home, my eccentric neighbor Allison was just leaving her building.

Allison: [waves at me]
Me: Oh, hey, how ya doing?
Allison: Good. How 'bout you?
Me: Good!
Allison & me: [awkward pause while I hunt for something else to say.]
Allison: Thank you!
Me: [pause] uh... you're welcome!
Allison: Thanksgiving, and all.

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » Language, Grammar, & Vocabulary

Vocabulary: That Vu That Yu Du So Well

Déjà vu: a false sense that something new has been seen before
Jamais vu: a feeling or impression that something familiar is unfamiliar or is being seen for the first time, like when you repeat a word so many times that it suddenly loses meaning and sounds alien
Presque vu: the illusory sense of having something on the tip of your tongue, or that a mental epiphany or breakthrough is about to occur

I wonder if the French have a word for the strange feeling that something wonderful has just happened, but you don't have any idea what?

Uncategorized » In Brief: Topical Short Takes » The Human Experience

Like Butter

You know, it's funny... the other day I just plugged in a backup hard drive that I haven't used in about 4 years. I looked at all the stuff was working on again, none of which I have thought about since and most of which I hadn't even remembered, and realized, "Wow, that was a really long time ago."

So I think the frequently-noted sensation of time seeming to pass more quickly as you get older has more to do with how often we think of something. The more often you think of something, the more recent it seems; but be reminded of something actually relatively recent but which you haven't thought back on even once since it happened, and the full weight comes to bear of just how long it's been, just how much time has passed since things that were even far more recent than long-ago things that…