I will not go to Reno!
Internet round-up for the week of January 30, 2023
IT’S RAINING AGAIN. I live in California!! This should be illegal!!!
I’ve been trying to take some time off this week and just chill for a little bit, since I spent most of last week frantically scribbling out my feelings into satire pieces (and this newsletter). It has gone…okay?
Yesterday I took myself out to Bell’s Books in Palo Alto, which is this very quaint little used bookstore that’s crammed floor to ceiling with books. I love browsing in bookstores, so I thought it’d be a nice little respite.
And I did enjoy it, until I overheard the cashier and a customer start debating whether or not AI was used to evaluate laid off tech employees. 😑 I really would just like to do a thing where I don’t need to think about layoffs for 5 minutes, please. PLS.
Is this my fault for trying to chill in the Bay Area? I guess layoffs are the hot topic around here. How far do I have to go to escape the tech company radius? Can I drive there in a day?
Don’t you dare suggest Reno*. No.
Honestly, my Animal Crossing island is probably in the clear. Might spend some time there this afternoon. I stg though if one animal chastises me about not visiting them for over a year I’m gonna lose it. I’ve been BUSY, Beardo!! 😤
On the positive side, I did manage to fully binge The Afterparty last night. It’s fun! I love the way they told the story from everyone’s perspective, and the way each episode had it’s own theme (action, musical, cartoon, etc.). Very silly, and full of great actors. I just discovered last night that a second season is coming in April, so I’m interested to see where they go next. Also, feels very weird for any show to be getting a second season these days?? (Looking at you, HBO & Netflix.)
This week we also watched Physical:100, which is awesome. It feels like a mashup of American Gladiator and Squid Game. When we started it we didn’t realize it hadn’t all been released, so now we’re just impatiently waiting until Tuesday to see how Jang Eun-sil’s team fared in the last challenge (Fingers crossed for her! We love an underdog!).
So…maybe I’ll do better at relaxing next week? Anyone have any tips on how to do nothing for more than 5 minutes at a time? I literally bought a book called How to Do Nothing. I haven’t started reading it yet, so maybe it’s working. Also if you use that link to buy the book I will get like 9 cents. I’m an influencer, baby!
Anyway, onto the online jazz from this week!
Who Approved This Product?
So there’s this new hot trend where a company does something really dumb, alienating their customers (and/or employees), and then another company thinks, “Wow, how stupid! I should also do this,” and it’s going great.
Exhibit A: Elon Musk shittily laying off thousands of Twitter employees by locking them out of their company accounts in the dead of night, and then other companies (cough, cough, Google) conducting their layoffs the same way.
Exhibit B: Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro and their OGL (Open-Gaming License), and now Netflix.
If you want to read up on the WOTC OGL drama, check out this article. The TL;DR here is: WOTC, owned by Hasbro, decided to change their licensing agreement with third-party creators to try to make more money. A “leaked” (read: very much a final version; we’re talking Final_Final_FORREALTHISTIME.doc) draft caused massive uproar among the community, and eventually, they decided to roll the whole thing back and give up.
This week, Netflix released streaming rules in an attempt to stop password sharing, so they could make more money. The ideas they had in place to lock down accounts were so outrageous, including requiring all devices to check in on a “home network” within 30 days, passcodes that had to be entered within 15 minutes, requiring users to re-log in more often…just all the things that would make someone think, “hmm, this is probably not worth it for me.” Also…hypocritical much?
So uh, yeah. People did not take kindly to this.
And…it worked! Netflix was like “oh uh, this was just a ‘draft’ of something, not for you guys, especially not for you to see. KTHXBYE.” Lol lol lol.
Great decisions, companies! No notes.
Nostalgia Corner
What happened to clear gadgets?!?!! I remember in Jr. High when my friend got a clear purple pager, and it was probably the coolest thing I’d ever seen in my entire life.
Everything from the 90s is coming back again. I demand clear phones. A clear computer would be extremely cool, too.
Although…I don’t want to see how much dust gets in there, because I know it’s a lot. And also not being able to like, clean it would probably drive me insane.
But now that I think about it, seeing a computer full of roaches, cleaning soy sauce off someone’s battery, and digging cheeto dust out of a trackpad when I worked at the Apple Store…maybe letting people see just how disgusting they are is a good thing.
Okay, I’ve now come to a conclusion. Clear tech for everyone!
The YA series Animorphs has been in the discourse this week too, which always makes me happy.
I went ahead and linked this tweet here so you can read the (very long) thread. I was soooo obsessed with Animorphs in like…5th or 6th grade? I think? And boy I’d forgotten just how wild it was.
I never fully finished the series because my favorite character (Rachel) died toward the end and I just put the book down and walked TF away. I was 12! I was done! Luckily I eventually learned to get over characters dying otherwise I’d have never finished A Song of Ice and Fire.
Wholesome Fun
Man. So sorry to Bobbert Franklin David the second. Or er, Billy Frederick Duncan. Or…Beau Finn Douglas.
The phrasing of “It’s also his initials”|“DENIED” is just *chef’s kiss*.
Randomly Selected Animal Cutie
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I NEED A RACCOON TO DO TASTE TESTS IN MY KITCHEN WINDOW!!
Are there raccoons in Reno? It might be worth it.
Okay, that’s it from me this week! Hope y’all all have a great weekend. Stay dry (if it’s raining) and consider only talking about layoffs in the comfort of your own home bc there are some sensitive babies (not me!) out here! ❤️
K
*Maybe Reno is safe. Jeremy Renner lives there (This man is an actor. He has many dollars. HE CHOSE RENO.), perhaps because it was free from the judgmental eyes of tech bros after the failure of the Jeremy Renner app. Don’t worry, that’s a gifted NYT link. I wouldn’t let you waste one of your monthly free articles on a piece about the Jeremy Renner app.)
Omg clear devices, yes!!! Would totally buy a clear iPhone