Well, that should provide enough emotional sustenance to get me through at least the first 32 weeks of February.

Hegseth: SHITTING YOURSELF IS A BATTLEFIELD STRATEGY USED BY THE MOST RUTHLESS WARFIGHTERS! *snort* LOSING A FEW POUNDS IN AN INSTANT IMPROVES YOUR POWER TO WEIGHT RATIO SO YOU CAN CHARGE HEADFIRST AT THE ENEMY WITH EXTRA SPEED! *snort* HAVING A FILTHY BUNGHOLE IS A SIGN OF NON-GAY MANLINESS

I will forever treasure these expressions as the smell hits them.

It's 1983. The Sun 'newspaper' runs a countdown of the days until Sam Fox turns 16 so they can publish topless photos of her on page 3. Those would now be illegal to own, let alone publish, yet they were in newsagents across the country. Page 3 ends in 2015. There are still people who bemoan this.

I've been asked why I'm so into locking tuners given that I always play hardtails. This is why. That's up to pitch in a quarter of a turn, and settled in under a minute with no wraps around the peg to grab and slip later. Feels a lot zingier to play too.

...they told her no, didn't they

Time to stop putting off the re-string and setup. I really like these Grover auto-locking tuners. A bit fiddlier than thumbwheels but far more elegant.

Generating a live Laughing Man feed is such a simple idea for the amount of unease it causes.

The funny thing about a certain type of angry conspiracy guy is that they’re literally being confronted with an elite paedophile ring and a tyrannical government at the same time right now, and because it isn't being done by the people they wanted it to be done by they’re all being pussies about it

Thinking about how briilliant Catherine O'Hara was in Christopher Guest's films, and the lightning in a bottle created between her and Eugene Levy. A masterclass in straight comedy, always perfectly seasoned with a pinch of pathos. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtvS...

I absolutely can't stand anything about Disney, but this - the story of a sci-fi rock band that played at Space Mountain - proved compelling. I love the idea of the band pissing off security because of breaching the 'long hair' rules :) www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0rD...

May you feel as much joy today as the bouncer in this video.

Oh, I forgot I'd ordered a new guitar pedal. Always a surprise from past me when I get the dispatch email. I thought I'd take a punt on an NU-X Huminator noise gate. Found it for just £30, and the few videos out there seem decent. I have a few extremely unruly distortion pedals that need taming.

When I find myself thinking we might be in a cursed reality where everything gets fucked up as a sort of cosmic lab test, I remind myself that The Blues Brothers exists. That wouldn't be allowed. Alternatively, we ARE in that reality but Jake & Elwood found a way in and we just need to follow them.

I'd like to say it doesn't give me any pleasure to see Mandelson limbering up to get his sorry arse dragged across the tabloids, but that'd be a lie and I can't wait.

This is worth nine and a half minutes of your time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2sV...

I'm supposed to be doing some research, but YouTube just threw up a TED Talk called 'GWAR and Regional Identity in Richmond, VA' and well dammit.

Tyre places sending me payday offer emails never fails to baffle me. 'Ooh, it's the weekend soon and I've worked hard, so I'll get all hedonistic for a moment and treat myself to a ccouple of Goodyears'

Great thread. Literally everything you might expect from a government obsessed with AI but with no idea how to use it or what it actually is. But yeah, SKILLS.

I got the idea from my good friend Michael, great guy, tiny guy, not as good at dancing as me but we had a lot in common.

Imagine having Bruce Springsteen AND Billy Bragg release songs about how much you fucking suck and how much the people fighting you rule you within the same 48 hours

FInally got hold of a copy of Radical Leicester by A. Temple Patterson for a sensible price. Groovy stuff. Been chasing this one down for a while. I work in a bit of Leicester that's got a wild history tied into all sorts of social change and activism, but it's not widely known.

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Government AI training course modules 1. Why your boss doesn't understand what you do 2. Theft: Not all bad! 2. Using AI to apply for a lower paid, less secure job 3. AI makes finding food banks easier 4. Rough sleeping is better with a warmer climate. Thanks AI! 5. Organ donation for fun & profit.

Why is nobody else here?

*2010 World Cup taps you on the shoulder*

GIving this a repeat in case anyone would like to contribute a few words to encourage young people who are sick of what they're seeing and want to sort shit out.

The first thing I said when the lord behind this appeared on the radio when he was just in the 'gathering support' phase. The Online Safety Act is a mess and VPNs are the main way people get around it. They could fix the issue or swallow a spider to catch a fly, and OH IS THAT A DIGITAL ID CARD?!

Do they have balconies in California?

I'm sure this has been around for ages, but I just heard ICE called Gravy SEALS, and I have to admit to a chuckle :)

Every new Tory defection to Reform seems to bring the average IQ of the party down by a few pegs, and it was already sitting somewhere between 'elastic shoelaces' and 'burned ear because the phone rang whilst ironing'

The bloke on the chase looks like he had his hair done by the council's grass cutting team. It's at least five different things in one, and none of them are good. Magnificent.

I've just had a long, heartfelt conversation with my pocket calculator about whether it feels appreciated for all those tricky sums it does for me, and after much reflection I've realised that it's just a fucking calculator and I need to get a grip.

Pondering all the big-balled, tooled-up, juicebro acolytes jeeering at ordinary people in Minnesota doing the exact things they always claimed they would, but have somehow consistently failed to.

Watching some of the NAMM coverage. It's interesting to see a few genuinely new ideas in the guitar world instead of just an obsession with recreating the 60s. I'm particularly impressed that Danelectro can fit P90s to a guitar for the first time and STILL have it sound twangy and gutless.

You get so used to seeing the Sesame Street puppeteers completely inhabiting their characters that's it's always a wonderful surprise when you see them shift gears for other settings. They're all amazing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=abne...

I think I'll cosplay as Kier Starmer next halloween. My plan is to send out an empty suit that smells of bacon to the parties, and hide at home pretending it'll all go my way in the end if I just don't say anything meaningful or challenging.

The Brubaker Box was such a fun little thing, awful bumpers aside. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD-t...

Burnham's standing. Well, shit. This could get interesting.

I only usually pick these up if they're real cars that have emotional resonance, like the Cooper... but it's Optimus. I mean, come on. I couldn't leave him there.

Just what I need on a weekend - an email from my permanently absent boss asking me about progress on a project I didn't agree to, that contains things in the bid that are basically impossible for the time and money on offer, and is due in the middle of a hectic period of mutiple other projects.

If any guitarists out there would appreciate a way to feel calmer through playing, because everything, get a baritone. It's hard to describe just how grounding these things feel - you slow down and sink into the lower frequencies. This is mine, and it's great. www.thomann.co.uk/harley_bento...

Advance UK were setting up a tiny stand on a corner near here as I drove past earlier, but fortunately they'd gone by the time I came back. Saved me a job of having to park up, walk over and call them a bunch of useless nazi fucks to their faces.

Watching the latest Vice Grip Garage, and wondering if the whole 'let's get this rotbox started that's been standing for (x) years' thing has kind of run its course.

When the most effective thing you can to to reduce the chances of global war is to drop the Board of Peace into a bottomless pit, you know this reality is just a test case for the final one.

This contains many things, and all of them deserve to be read.

I feel like I should be making the effort to restring and reset at least one guitar this evening. The strings on the Pacifica are starting to develop that 'garlic with a side order of copper pennies' smell.

Blasted through most of TR-49 by @inkle.co in just a couple of sittings. Absolutely mesmerising. I have a LOT of reading and re-reading to do before I piece it all together, and I'm waiting to see if the suspicion I formed a few minutes in turns out to be true :) www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEIy...

This seems like one for @theghostgeek.com to chew on, although perhaps not literally. I wonder what happens if their spores get airborne ;) www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...