Updates on several projects:

• I have started a quest to watch every movie in the Blondie Cinematic Universe at the rate of one per month, at least until I forget about it, or I have to go out of my way. I figure if I’m going to make jokes about it, I should at least watch it. I bought an ebook about the films (a bit too glib about the multiple suicides, imo) and I’m doing a little research into the comic strip. So far I’ve reviewed the first and second movies. 26 more to go!
• August 19 is probably the most deep cut my Simpsons timeline project will go. The other Simpsons’ birthdays are in the show or can be extrapolated from the show, but as far as I can tell, the only specific date ever given for Maggie’s birthday by an official source is a calendar from 1993, which dates it as August 19, 1985 (why 1985? Beats me). I discovered this from the Simpsons Archive, and I considered asking people who owned the calendar to take a picture of it for me, but decided I’d rather have a physical version of it myself. I found it on eBay, where it was being sold by my internet acquaintance Mike Sterling, which felt very serendipitous. Also, years ago August 19 was acknowledged as Maggie’s birthday by the official Simpsons Twitter account but they later claim it’s January 14, and I have no clue where the latter comes from.
• Pleased as punch that Better Call Saul has provided me with an opportunity to update my long-dormant Ask Jeeves blog.

Two things I came across whilst writing this article:

1. This is a solid gag from the new Minions movie, specifically referencing Mad #50 where one side congratulates John F. Kennedy on winning the 1960 election, and the other side congratulates Nixon.

2. There’s an inside joke in a recent-ish Mr. Burns book: his family tree includes Simpsons writer J. Stewart Burns (via)

minor updates

• let’s dance – This is an old AnimeJihad thing that never quite worked the way I wanted it to. Also your browser probably doesn’t allow autoplaying audio so you have to enable it in settings to experience the full *~artistic intent~*
• I made some minor tweaks and updated the tags on my tumblr and I’m very happy with it now
• 2021 – I hadn’t done an album collecting ephemera for 2021 so here it is. I didn’t really make much that year.

Disclaimer from the end credits of Queer Duck: The Movie

Very funny to have a gag with the Queer Eye guys in a Flash movie being released in 2006 and then be like “your 15 minutes are up”

Happy 19th anniversary to rubbercat.net… for some reason I always think it’s on the 21st. Being a webmaster has been a weird, solitary pursuit – nobody really makes sites anymore, the first question people ask is if I make money from it because the concept of doing it for fun is unfathomable (don’t get me wrong, I’m not going turn down money… here’s a link to my ko-fi page), and the phrase “webmaster” itself is considered archaic. Recently I came across the Yesterweb, a community of people who make personal websites and embrace the aesthetics and values of the old web. The sites they’ve been creating have been inspiring and I want to rededicate myself to being a webmaster. Um I don’t know how to end this post and I’m running out the door right now, so thanks for reading.

I trust you are following the vast network of rubbercat.net/simpsons social media offshoots? Here’s some updates and thoughts on those platforms:

Twitter – I’ve started constructing a timeline of sorts, partially inspired by Bully’s Today in Comics History. I like the idea that everything is happening simultaneously, it’s fun to know that theoretically Homer encounters the Mr. Burns alien two days after Whacking Day. One nitpicky observation: Bart’s canonical birthday (yes the Futurama crossover is canon, Bender’s still in the basement in later episodes) creates some glaring inconsistencies.

Pinterest – This site seems to be getting worse and worse over time. I guess there’s no way to just view stuff from the people you’re following anymore, and they removed dates and other info from pins. I think it’s still handy, but eventually I’d like to figure out some sort of solution.

Facebook – I’m bad at maintaining a consistent schedule, but I’ve been adding stuff from pinterest, plus every other week features “Meme Monday.” This site is also getting more frustrating to use over time (I know, I know…). They’ll just randomly drop features and I can never figure out if they were actually dropped or moved somewhere else because all the help pages are out of date.

Disney Dreamlight Valley:

Disney Dreamlight Valley is a hybrid between a life-sim and an adventure game rich with quests, exploration, and engaging activities featuring Disney and Pixar friends, both old and new.

Once an idyllic land, Dreamlight Valley was a place where Disney and Pixar characters lived in harmony—until the Forgetting.

All of your favorite Disney characters forgot about 9/11

I’m still posting on forums I joined 20 years ago, I’m not going to leave Twitter just because there’s a different rich crypto dipshit running things. I think I am cautiously optimistic. He’s full of shit when he talks about free speech but maybe some friends can get unbanned. Taking the company private could helpfully alleviate the need to constantly duplicate features from rivals. Remember Fleets?? Remember how there’s still an annoying icon for “Spaces” because Silicon Valley was obsessed with something called Clubhouse that I never hear about anymore? I guess my biggest worry is he’ll lean into his epic based memelord persona and occasionally force some annoying gimmick on everyone like… I don’t know… “Chaos Mode” where all the buttons are moving around. What goes on in the mind of someone who spends $40 billion to be a forum admin?

I did get a Mastodon account about a year ago that I’ve been using a bit more lately: socel.net/@robbercat. The instance is run by the webmaster of an animation blog I read, which was the only place I’d ever hear about Mastodon. It’s nice but the concept of explaining “instances” to a normal person makes my eyes roll back in my head.

From Holly Hunter:

Hunter’s likeness was used to portray Senator Finch in the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice tie-in prequel comics, released by Dr. Pepper on February 3, 2016.

I’ve got the Oscar fever… hope you’ve got it too. This is the first year I’ve managed to watch all the Best Picture nominees. Drive My Car is my personal favorite, I found it moving (no pun intended) and beautifully shot. Really enjoyed Licorice Pizza as well. Did not care for Don’t Look Up or The Power of the Dog.

Official Oscar predictions:

RIP Tom Moody. He was a net art guy who was a big presence on the dump.fm chatroom. I followed his blog for years and I’ll miss his posts regularly showing up in my feed. He was curmudgeonly a lot of the time – there used to be a tumblr blog making fun of him – but he had a discerning critical eye, possibly the only good writing on gifs and internet art, and an uncompromising distrust of big tech.

Some posts I’d bookmarked over the years:

Mallard Fillmore Watch

2/28/2022

One of the problems with working two weeks ahead is that sometimes a war breaks out