I cockily cheered at the final category "Flags of the World" before actually seeing the question, but did succeed in dunking on it.  

What actress shared hosting Jeopardy until Ken Jennings took over full-time?

What undrafted African-American quarterback was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006?

What name is shared by the currency of Panama, a fictional county in Veronica Mars, and #7 on AFI's list of movie heroes?

What country's flag is identical to neighboring Romania's except for a superimposed coat of arms?

Hardly the technological revolution of our time. But today I realized I was seated really far from the order status board at Starbucks. My eyes are quite good with glasses (1), but not that good. So I took a pic of it with my very midrange Pixel 8a, zoomed in, and read my name.

I remember posting a few years ago that I was looking forward to this, but cell phones were still inferior to the naked eye most of the time.

Of course, everybody could have carried opera glasses starting a century ago. But one's daily carry has limits.

I like to note these small milestones because I tend to miss how much has changed in our lifetimes. Despite how dystopian technology can be, I feel a bit cheated that we haven't gone from the Wright Brothers to the Moon. But some seriously crazy shit is going down, and cool little stuff too.

(1) People without glasses, particularly people who had vision surgery more than ten years ago, are often surprised that I can see stuff they can't. Look, I definitely remember my own "oh I don't need glasses" phase. But cheap glasses are nowhere near as dorky as they were THIRTY YEARS AGO 👻. Just grab an eye exam, under insurance if you're lucky. Make sure they write down your IPD (Intrapupillary Distance). And then just hop on Zenni. Don't be a boomer and get suckered into vision store prices.

Also there's contacts if you're vain. I get it. I'm totally vain.

Kim and i gave up our community garden plot.  We have too much going on still at home and we weren't taking care of things.  It's the first time we haven't gardened since our very early days together, other than my GBS year.

Dad and Mom came to California to visit me and Paul in December; Mom said that he was very insistent and, well, when a 92-year-old is almost desperate to see his kids, you can guess what might be going through his head.  Turns out that his health started declining soon after his return, where he couldn't keep any food down.  They found a mass in his stomach that was blocking the entrance, and we hope to have the biopsy results... today?  Welp, tomorrow, then.  Again, at 92, it seems immaterial.  He's got a feeding tube installed now, plus a catheter because he's had trouble urinating, too.  They had just pulled the trigger on a house in The Villages and now it seems unlikely that he'll move from Quito, given his health.

My department at work only got 30% of the headcount they requested, so i, sadly, remain an employee of the contracting agency and not Google.  But my contract was renewed for a full year, so it's not all bad.

This was Best Picture Weekend, courtesy of the Philadelphia Film Society. It's a great service, although it would be much improved by respecting high holy days, by which I mean not overlapping with the Super Bowl. All they had to do was screen Sunday's movies starting as early as Saturday's.

True, that would interfere with an actual holy day for some, but am I wrong in thinking that some attendees possibly missing one Sunday service is a lesser crime against inclusion?

Anyway, I've seen everything except Train Dreams now and here are my thoughts:

Marty Supreme is a helluva ride. Full of wonderful performances. Also a movie about a narcissistic asshole. But the ending arguably makes it someting more. And I saw it with someone who's been on the wrong end of several narcissistic assholes, and they loved it. Sometimes you just have to acknowledge the fun. I have a silly spoiler-tastic fan theory which I'll share later, after a cat pic.

The Secret Agent is arguably a better car movie than F1, and the camera only lingers on cars for a few minutes. But it rambles a bit, and opinion was divided in our party. I liked it, mostly for getting at the day to day absurdities of life under corrupt authoritarian rule. But it doesn't deserve Best Picture. It's certainly no I'm Still Here.

F1 is Brad Pitt's Top Gun: Maverick. There's no way it deserves to be best picture. It is a fine exemplar of the sports movie genre, and people who love cars will find themselves very well taken care of. We get two women whose story is not just about a man. There are a few lovely moments in which the director allows themselves to show us the great variety of motoring experience, both racing and non-, beyond Formula One. I wish there had been more.

I watched two-thirds of Bugonia on TV with my sister in Tacoma. I napped through part of it, but it's not fair to lay the full blame for that on the movie. Bugonia is another Yorgos Lanthimos — Emma Stone joint. Speaking as someone who loved Poor Things: Bugonia is fine, but I don't regret watching it on a TV. I enjoyed the ending.

I saw Sinners back when it was in general release. What a trip! The dual performance from Michael B. Jordon is impressive. But a certain speech on the political economics of vampirism really put it over the top for me. They cleaned up on nominations and I would not be at all displeased if it wins Best Picture. It is interesting that this movie doesn't feel the need to have any sympathetic white characters, although it does have sympathetic asian characters. I think we can take it, for once.

I also saw Frankenstein earlier in the year. Confusing the man with the monster is a tired joke, but here they blur in a new way. Strong cinematography, strong acting as well. May our creations be half as humane.

Hamnet is a beautiful, heartbreaking film. Feminist takes on Shakespeare are haunted by Virginia Woolf's riff on the topic ALMOST A CENTURY AGO 👻🤣,  and for good reason, but that space has been explored. Chloé Zhao gives him a wife who is an equal power, and his failings are those of a man ridden by a dream, not a man who takes women for granted. In the end he shows himself to have been present all along. Something in my eye dammit.

One Battle After Another is two hours and 42 minutes. And I didn't begrudge a single one of them! Like Marty Supreme it is a helluva ride, but it has more to say. I realize it's a Pynchon adaptation, and I haven't read the book, but I think Paul Thomas Anderson was also trying to will the revolution back into being and connect it with the present moment. I think I'll watch this movie again at some point.

... And that brings us to Sentimental Value. Which is basically the same movie as Hamnet. The same big idea: self-actualization itself has an empty heart, but can redeem itself by connecting art back to the personal. I was paying attention all along. I know it's painfully obvious to say it reminds me of Ibsen, just because there are Scandinavians in rooms. But there are Scandinavians in rooms, and I do enjoy that.

Who should win? I'd say... Hamnet, actually. Followed by One Battle After Another, or Sinners. No big surprises there. These are good movies. But I don't think there are any clear-cut jaw-dropping room-clearing slam-dunk never-seen-anything-like-it best goddam-movie-of-the-decades this year. Not like last year, which gave us I'm Still Here and Nickel Boys. Hell, even the deeply problematic Emilia Peréz was a fascinating watch. (It helped that I didn't know its flaws going in.)

But the prize went to Anora, because Anora was a tour de force of filmmaking itself especially given the budget available. And the Academy has a soft spot for that.

So... who will win this year?

Going by "filmmaking itself," it's a bit of a toss-up this year. Sentimental Value is clearly the most meta- when it comes to filmmaking, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the best-made film.

But going by the nominations, it seems clear One Battle After Another or Sinners will take it. And in recent years, all else being equal the expanded Academy has tended toward diversifying the pool of winners. For a change. So I'm thinking Sinners will walk away with Best Picture.

However, I must point out that I still have not seen Train Dreams. If I fail to see Train Dreams before the ceremony, it will definitely win Best Picture.

Here is a ridiculous cat picture, followed by a spoiler-tastic fan theory about Marty Supreme.

OK, ridiculous Marty Supreme fan theory:

There's a rich asshole in the movie. He is Marty's nemesis. Marty largely gets the better of him, until he doesn't.

But there's a speech at the end that's completely out of its time and place:

"I was born in 1601. I'm a vampire. I've been around forever. I've met many Marty Mausers over the centuries. Some of them crossed me, some of them weren't straight. They weren't honest. And those are the ones that are still here. You go out and win that game, you're gonna be here forever too. And you'll never be happy. You will never be happy."

Of course, Marty proves him wrong. Well... sort of. He wins the game but renounces the life of a showgirl narcissistic bullshitter.

But after the movie ended, R. looked up the guy who played the rich asshole. It's Kevin O'Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank (which I'm not really familiar with), aka a tremendously successful businessman and general winner in the lottery of life. I mean, the man has Emirati dual citizenship for business reasons. He's been accused of fabulous frauds. He and his wife are infamous for dodging responsibility for a boating accident. And speaking as a WASP... he has the WASPiest possible patriarch-at-Thanksgiving face and he knows how to use it. Ugh, this guy.

So a day later it hit me: this speech was not in the script. Kevin O'Leary was ad-libbing. He was telling the simple truth. Kevin O'Leary is a vampire, born in 1601.

It explains everything.

25 years ago, I was in a fantasy football league that had a live auction.

Each team had a $100 budget.
Bidding competition for great players drove prices up over $65 in some cases, so the guys who won those stars had to scrape together the rest of their rosters with players nobody else wanted.
It was a lot of fun because the tempatation to bid on players I really wanted on my team was strong, but the impulse to save money for the rest of the team was also strong.

The league fell apart because of drama, but the idea of a fantasy sports auction stayed with me.

Then I played fantasy baseball online, but I stopped because I would always have players on my fantasy team that played against the Phillies. Do I root for my guys? Do I root for the Phillies? Plus the statistics and scoring got too complicated, so I didn't play for a long time.

Much later, I was in a fantasy football league at work. The draft was lame, not an auction. The players on my team played against the Eagles all the time, which confused me, and my team was so bad, I was out of the running by week 3 and had no reason to follow it anymore.

January 7, 2026, while eating a Wawa hoagie, I had the idea for a website to host a free fantasy baseball service with:

• A live auction
• Phillies players only
• Scores tallied weekly

So I built it.

The rules and scoring are as simple as I could make them. There are four players on each team, one statistic for pitchers, and one statistic for hitters. That's it.

I made the "One Post Wonder Baseball League", which you can join here.

If you would like to play, click that link, then:

1. Enter your email address and a password.
2. Click "Create Account".
3. Give your team a name.
4. Click "Join league".

If you want to read the rules first, they're here.

I picked 6PM Eastern on Saturday, March 21 for our live auction because spring training will be almost over by then, and we'll have a good idea of what the opening day roster looks like. We'll do an optional Zoom call during the auction for banter and running commentary. If a different date or time would make it so you can join, let me know.

This is specifically designed for people who have never been in a fantasy sports league before, and for people who don't know anything about baseball or the Phillies.

The auction is going to be about 90% of the whole experience. After that, you just check in whenever you want to see how your four players are doing. There's no day-to-day management or anything. 

Anyone on One Post Wonder is invited to join.

I guessed the third one based on a memory of a Peanuts comic, but I can't find it online.  Has anyone seen it?

What American author set most of his novels in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County?

What English poet wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ?

What Austrian composer, known as the "Father of the Symphony" wrote 104 of them?

What last name is shared by a winner of the 1945 Nobel Prize for Medicine and a British author whose estate sponsors a prize for thriller novels ? 

I die every night in my sleep. 

Or at least when I wake up, I feel like I did. 

In reality, I just sleep like the dead.

As long as I can recall, mornings are a slooooow, groggy, slog of confusion. For about an hour or so. 

I've often stood in the middle of the kitchen, empty tea cup in hand, staring into the distance, thoroughly confused as to what I'm supposed to do with the empty vessel I'm holding.

Sometimes I'm not even sure for a moment what it is in my hand. 

Sometimes I get a little brutze. Cuz while the rest of the day, I'm the first to run headlong into danger, the first to spring to action in an emergency, and the one who keeps their shit together during a crisis, in the mornings, I have the emotional fortitude of a toddler. Who reeeeeaallllllllly needs a nap. At best.

Movement is limited, thinking is difficult, and speaking? That's just right out.

On the rare ocassion I attempt to speak, only Farmboy understands what I say. (Fortunately we've always had the ability to twinspeak with each other). 

After first breakfast, some tea, & second breakfast, a little switch goes on in the brains and I'm ready to go.

I follow this with the energy of a crackhead the rest of the day (even if lately my body hasn't been complying with my brains).

The complete and utter lack of braining ability in the morning makes me consistently surprised that I somehow manage to, most every day, wake up with a random song in my head. Complete as though I'm listening to it on headphones.

Sometimes I even wake up to my feet swaying back and forth to the beat like rolls on forks ala Benny & Joon.

Most of the time, I wake up with a Funk song playing in my head.

But lately, it's been a wild mix. Still one a day though.

Some of them have surprised me cuz they're songs I'm a little meh about...something I don't hate, but would never think to put on a jukebox.

Oddly, despite my clear lack of cognition in the morning, I can occasionally manage to write well enough to take a note or two.

Here's an incomplete list of January's songs:

• Bold As Love: John Mayer
• November Rain: GnR
• Somebody I Used to Know: Gotye
• Hey Ma - Cam'ron
• Holly Jolly Christmas - Burl Ives
• Somebody to Love - Queen
• Dog Days are Over - Florence & The Machine
• Waiting on the World to Change - John Mayer
• This is the Song That Never Ends - Lambchop
• Silver Springs - Fleetwood Mac
• Fire - Ohio Players
• Thunderstruck- AC/DC cover on bagpipes by the Tartan Terrors
• All I Want for Christmas - Mariah Carey
• The Muppet Show Theme Song - The Muppets
• Bold As Love: John Mayer (again)
• Toxic - Britney Spears
• What About Love - Heart
• The White Cliffs of Dover - Vera Lynn
• The Chicken Dance - Every terrible wedding DJ ever
• Stuck in the Middle with You - Steeler's Wheel
• L-O-V-E - it was a girl in my head...not sure who, though various artists have covered it
• Honky Cat - Elton John
• The Nutcracker - Tchaikovsky
• Bie Mier Bist du Schon - Janis Siegel rendition for the movie Swing Kids
• Can't You See - Marshall Tucker Band

We had a bit of a snow on Sunday....

Our house is nestled in a teeny valley with its own microclimate. As you drive down the road on the way to our house, you can feel a distinct drop in temperature, (a welcome reprieve in summer), as you approach our place.

Consequently, we usually get a bit more snow than those even just a few miles from us. We ended up with about 18". 

Patch's thoughts on preparation echoed my own in the days before the storm. 

Despite being relatively isolated on our little property, I could almost feel the anticipation & concern in the air. Many people I spoke to were running amok gathering supplies (and finding grocery shelves well emptied of food & water and hardware stores long out of salt).

Me? I felt a mix of both contentment & mild disappointment.

Safe in the knowledge that we'd want for nothing. Hell, if we were snowed in for months, we'd not have to alter our lifestyle or eating habits in any way. But mildly displeased that I didn't have anything I needed to do...like I was missing out on the hustle and bustle and the electric energy somehow.

My Dad was an Eagle Scout and a Navy man and as such, we were (and still are) always prepared. Not in a crazy prepper playing GI Joe 'the gubbament gonna take our stuff' or 'apocalypse is coming' sort of way. I will lonnnnng have expired while attempting to pet something I shouldn't before anything like that happens...

Just a frugal, stock up on sale, amass over time and then you have no concerns when silly things like snow happen type of way.

The great toilet paper shortage of 2020? Not us. We had a full case to share.

Any weather event or other catastrophe?

Food? Water? Generator? Gas? Way more pellets than we'd ever need in a year for the stove? A fire pit? All the bags of salt? A big 'ol ancient farm tractor with a snow plow custom altered for our steep, bumpy, rocky driveway by a brilliant mechanical genius & metalsmith Farmboy? Check. Check. Checkity check. 

Now, more than ever, I feel lucky in that. Moreso than being someone who has the funds to run out to the store last minute and buy all the milk, bread, & eggs.

There are some who aren't lucky enough to have a Dad like I do (who also happens to be an electrician who gave us his old generator!), or a Farmboy who's not only ridiculously freakin' hot, but truly gifted mechanically. Or to have the security that comes with having learned early, regardless of how broke we may have been, to build an emergency supply. 

All of that made me think about starting to write again for my old blog, The Frugal Hippie. To share the gift my Dad gave me of peace of mind. 

I started brainstorming & outlining and I think I may just do that when the inspiration strikes. I don't intend to start marketing it & turning it into another business, or let it take away from what I'm trying to build with Mountain Woman, but it'll do me good as well to get my brains out of the glass world now and then! 

Speaking of glass (I really can't ever stop thinking about it)...

The Kiln is Set Up & Had His Virgin Voyage

We're not looking for a permanent thing for the kiln to sit on til I find the right something/make something that is going to have wheels & be the most efficient use of space (my studio is tiiiiiiiiiny...the kiln is nooooot tiny).

We were about to set up the kiln on some of the gazillion cement blocks we have saved for this year's garden, but while talking about it, Farmboy and I both, at the same moment, had the same weird thought.

Why not set it on top of the turkey fryer (gas lines obviously disconnected and nowhere near)? The stand is the perfect height for my lack of height, it's meant for high heat, and it's the right size. Aaaaand we got a double burner turkey fryer at a yard sale last year so we won't miss the single one.

So, that's what we did. 

I did my first firing the night before last with just a small, boring, scrap glass butterfly. I expected the first run would be a Womp Womp. 

It was.

It didn't fuse enough so the top right wing popped right off.

Second firing went quite well last night though! I threw in the butterfly again along with several other little scrap glass things for testing. There was some devitrification on the butterfly & an aloe/sun thing. And the paint on some googley eyes bubbled. My birdie came out boring as well, but fused great.

I've discovered that while stained glass is definitely an exercise in patience, fusing may well be moreso. 

In stained glass, there are a gazillion variables. Buuuut, you can see what's getting messed up & know how to address them as you go.

With fusing, you chuck some stuff in the kiln, wait 3240920348203 bazillion years (more like 6-8 hours but it freakin' feels like eleventy billion years), and whatever happened in there, happened.

Sometimes you can fix it with another firing, sometimes into the scrap bin it goes.

Thus, I expect the whole fusing thang to be both fun and absolutely maddening to me. 

On to the next project...

Knowing and yet forgetting is the worst part of playing at trivia.  I did succeed in getting one of these right for the team.  Another was half-right, and a third was written down correctly but scratched out because I thought of a logical reason why it would be wrong.  

What ethical theory prescribes actions that  maximize happiness in total for the people affected?

What kind of animal is Major General Sir Nils Olav III, the mascot of the Norwegian King's Guard?

What highly-viscous fluid is used in the "world's longest continuously running laboratory experiment", having released only 9 "drops" in over 90 years?

What movie earned Clark Gable's only Oscar, which he gave away to demonstrate that the trophy wasn't important?

correct-horse-battery-staple is the "12345678" password for a certain class of human.