My grandmother is Japanese and really likes to give gifts. Often those gifts are Japanese desserts or other food, but sometimes she just slips me cash, folded up inside a tiny, beautiful envelope. But she likes to pretend she's not giving me money, so when possible, she'll hide it somewhere that I will find later.

Today I spent the afternoon with her doing chores and tech support, and she clearly felt this warranted a significant gift in return (no matter that I enjoyed myself). But she forgot to slip something into my pocket or bag before I left, so instead she rushed outside as I was starting my car, making the old-school "roll down the window" gesture. Once I complied, she was forced to acknowledge she was handing me money, but she also tried to minimize the gesture.

The result was that she said, "Thank you, dear! I just wanted you to be able to... to buy yourself a hamburger," and then handed me a darling little envelope that turned out to contain $100. And all I could think was:

C'est une banane, Michel, ça coûte combien ? Sept euros ?

I forgot to set VLC as my default video program after updating, and Microsoft Media is apparently now charging $1 a pop for codec packs

and by God, there are people paying it, aren't there

ETA: VideoLan is a nonprofit and VLC media player is totally free. It works with every file format I've ever tangled with, and immediately played back the file with no difficulty. Get dinked Microsoft

I will be posting FIVE songs from my musical on my Patreon in the next few weeks, starting TOMORROW with a solo from Mary Shelley! And you can listen to them for freeeeee because hey, you can use a free trial for a week with no commitment. Enjoy!

PS if you remain a patron then you basically help me afford to feed myself and I would very much like to buy a banana thanks

thinking about the time somebody in a local subreddit posted what was supposed to be a list of restaurants with cheap dishes and then half the list was just along the lines of “uh, this fancy restaurant has a side of green beans for $9.95!!!! :D”

Leverage S04E03 The 15 Minutes Job.

considering how overproduced the first watcher goodbye video was, i am surprised how tone deaf it was towards their fans. like that's the icing on the cake. all that production, and for what?

instead of finishing all the projects i started i have decided to draw kaiser at an amusement park with this giant banana he won

ten years from now a banana really will cost ten dollars and arrested development will be ten percent less funny

this is kinda silly but it's always so shocking to me when actors are like the polar opposites of their characters because they act SO well it's hard to believe this isn't what they are irl

I do sometimes wonder if people here think that if a billionaire dies their wealth disappears or gets redistributed, or if a ceo dies their company suffers a massive blow. But nothing happens, actually. They die and their will is executed, transferring their billions in assets to their family members. Sometimes the state gets a very small percentage in tax revenue, some of which funds services for regular people. The boards of companies find a new person to be ceo and steer the ship of exploitation. Individual rich people dying has 0 effect on anything. The systems are way bigger than that.

Aisha’s vibe is so down to earth and steady that it’s easy to forget that she is, in fact, a Rich Girl™️

Chanel suits, s/s 1983 photo by Pierre Guillaud It’s one banana, Michael