ess emm arr

Just a home on the web where I write whatever comes to mind. Like we all used to do back in the day before The Algos came and destroyed everything good about the internet.

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BEEP BEEP FUCK YOU

You know what needs to go away? Among many, MANY other things that I'm not gonna get into here, may I humbly suggest: the reverse-beep on construction vehicles. How many lives a year were we losing to backing-up construction vehicles before that fucking infernal beep was added to them? 3? 5? (and yes, I've spent a minute or two trying to find that number, and it DOES NOT FUCKING EXIST). FUCK 'EM. I live across the street from what is currently a construction site. I also work from home. All day, all summer, I have heard that beep for >70%...

August 27th, 2025 hellworld

Federalize My Ass, Shithead

So, one of the DOGE dickheads get tuned up by the locals and immediately Trump wants to federally take over DC, a benighted city already stripped of representations every other American takes for granted. Where is this heightened call to action to do the same to, say, that small southern town in MAGA country where the locals were selling their own kids in a fuck bunker for ages with the cops kinda knowing about it and just not giving much of a shit? I know, being surprised by any of this (I'm not) is a mook's game. Expecting anyone on...

August 7th, 2025 hellworld

I Will Allow the Algos to do ONE Thing

i'm known for my hatred of the algos, but I will begrudgingly acknowledge that, when someone famous I like dies, they really deliver. do i want to watch The Offspring do a live cover of Crazy Train that's shittier than any version I've ever personally played live myself? hell fuckin' yeah I do oh, eddie van halen's weirdo kid, whose own music slides off of my ears like red sauce off a noodle, is covering Mama I'm Coming Home live? feed it to me. oh, he sounds like somebody who can't really sing pretending to be freddie mercury covering ozzy...

July 25th, 2025 hellworld

Having Accounts Anywhere Sucks Now

I use Yelp very sparingly these days, so it's been a while since I used it. That said, my account has existed for (jesus fucking christ shoot me) 17 years, so I'm a known quantity. I wanted to look up a new nearby place for some reviews today, so I decided to use Yelp since that is it's putative purpose. The process went like this: • open new browser tab • type in "yelp.com", hit ENTER • my password manager recognizes site, enters valid username and password for Yelp THIS SHOULD BE IT. THE STORY SHOULD END HERE WITH ME...

July 23rd, 2025 hellworld

Grave Empire (The Great Silence, #1) by Richard Swan

I feel like Swan spends more time on the luscious maps at the front of his books and in whiteboarding all of the politics and descriptions of each minute province than he does on the story, and I am okay with that. It’s some in-depth, hard world-building and it really makes the various races and polities, human and otherwise, stick in the brain while reading. And the plot itself is pretty interesting, too, don’t get me wrong. This is the first book in a sequel series to his prior Empire of the Wolf trilogy, set a few hundred years later...

July 1st, 2025 book reviews