Daily Slow Chat

5 comments

1. The pandemic really sparked a whole bunch of biolab conspiracies and debates about ethical research. Quite a bit of the news drama has been aired over the media over the past few years.

   There’s a lot of maximum containment Bio-safety level 4 labs that have been built over the past decade, and some dude that got concerned put the known ones on a map. [map](https://www.globalbiolabs.org/map) It seems like I know quite a few people who live close to them…

2. TIL that you can draw a pretty professional-looking cartoon of a cloud on MS Paint by just drawing a ton of different-sized circles on top of each other and then erasing most of the lines where they intersect. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to find this out. It’s tipped to change my life more than finding out [you were supposed to scramble the egg in the pan slightly while making an omelette.](https://youtube.com/shorts/Ff0T8hocw4A?si=AK9-B6th7sXg_3r9)

3. Picking up on yesterday’s Reddit ads topic, I did just get an ad for Boris Johnson’s new podcast, that apparently promises to “delve into the secrets behind pivoted decisions” and share “exclusive insights on intelligence reports, strategic choices, and global challenges”. Not sure the algorythm is working properly today, fellas.

   I am *almost* curious enough to see what nonsense will be blathered, but on the other hand I’d rather send my time listening to an autobiography of Larry, Chief Mouser.

4. Yesterday I learned that Hugh Laurie is a jazz singer and pianist. He’s quite good, actually. I love multitalented people.

   Today my small cat was meowing (because some human taught him that if he whines, he gets treats) (who might that be). I told my older cat to go bite him in the ass. And the big cat went and… bit the small cat in the ass.

   I didn’t know I had this kind of power. I wonder what else I can make him do.

5. I randomly heard Madonna’s Die Another Day the other day, and after hearing it for the first time in a while I’m going to say it’s actually in my top 5 Bond songs ever. Like, it’s really fun. I only realised how good Madonna’s early 00s music actually is.

   I googled “Bond theme songs ranked”, and [this was the first result](https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/periods-genres/film-tv/james-bond-title-themes-ranked/), which ranks it dead last, lmao. The author must be on some though, saying it’s “too experimental” and that Madonna forgot to “write a chorus”. I think the vocal production on Die Another Day is super cool, it would be very fresh even if it was in today’s [experimental pop landscape](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWEosXQGG2w).

   Anyway, Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album Guts was released today, and I listened to it in the morning. While I thought it was good, it wasn’t as good as her previous album. I’m mostly amazed by the album’s critic score on Metacritic, which is currently 98. Like, what? It’s getting suspicious amounts of praise.

   I like the pop-punk thing, but the whole time I was listening to it I kept thinking I could be listening to 100 gecs or Underscores, who I think have a way more forward thinking and interesting approach to that Y2K pop-punk nostalgia sound. Olivia Rodrigo’s album sounds so safe. Good, but safe.

   That said, I really really like the lead single Vampire. Initially I didn’t, since I was put off by the chord progression (which is a cliché one I don’t really like), but once I got past that I really started to enjoy it. It’s not as good as Driver’s License was, but pretty close.

   Unrelated to that, Germany just beat USA in the FIBA World Cup semis! Serbia v. Germany final, very exciting. What an upset. People were talking about a USA v. Canada matchup, which they got, but in the bronze game.