merryjuan

[merryjuan]

Roughly 7 grams here. Eraser for scale

[merryjuan]

Im not a generous person but I’ll always donate to Wikipedia when they ask.

[merryjuan]

Elon Musk is a genius for putting the cybertruck in fortnite

Putting this car in a video game is a good way to market this car to potential buyers. And if anything it helps get his car brand out into the public in a great way, Fortnite is a massive video game. And not only that at this moment it is the only real life car in the game but I’m sure it won’t be long now until other car makers get their cars into the game.

This was the first one I ever seen in real life, in an unlikely place too. I will say that this car may not be as rugged as it looks, but damn it looks amazing. Last note this car does scream “rich flex” to me. The price range of a cybertruck is 80k-100k and if your looking to buy a car in that range I think there’s lots of cars that are out right better in just about every way. So the car is just saying I have a lot of money, I like art/design, or electric cars. I personally get excited whenever I see one but don’t see myself ever buying one but would love to rent or drive one one day, maybe that would change my opinion but until then I think it’s a car that can be in a museum and should win some design awards but other than that doesn’t really make much sense as a car.

[merryjuan]

Anaylsis of $SNAP

Full disclaimer I’ve lost twice betting on $SNAP but this recent loss will be the last as I have sold off my position. I believe the glory days of $SNAP may be behind them but they still have some relevance at the moment.

In this post I will discuss some of thier biggest set backs and thier biggest wins. And what I predict will happen to snapchat.

Snapchat is a social media app with over 750 million monthly active users making it 9th place for total social media apps and sites. And the app is reporting growth consistently over the last four quarters as well. That said I don’t see the appeal to it. The main reason people use snap chat is to send messages to each other. People may not remember this but iMessage group chat was not really good and Snapchat was a much better option for group chats, plus the filters were also a huge as no one else was doing that and some of the filters were actually quite advanced for the time.

As you can see the TikTok filter does a better job at showing old age than the Snapchat filter. I will say the Instagram filter for old age was really bad I didn’t even include it. Facebook/Meta offered to buy Snapchat for 3 billion in 2013 by was rejected. Since then they have put a lot of what Snapchat does on Instagram. Stories, and reels (which admittedly copies TikTok more but alas) were Snapchat ideas that Instagram copied and improved on. I do understand that Snapchat is still very popular with some users but for me it is a dying social media and I predict a slow tapering off into irrelevance as other apps gain popularity and functionality.

Baltimore did not cover the spread but neither does $SNAP. I would not recommend this stock at any price.

[merryjuan]

Review of the chicken Big Mac

I’m not gonna say much other than it was bad and I regret buying it.

No doubt the worst menu item at McDonalds right now. If you want chicken get the nuggets or mccrispy don’t bother with this, reminds me of the chicken sandwich they had at my highschool cafeteria. Also doesn’t have onion like the classic Big Mac does.

[merryjuan]

Wanted to make a profile picture for my goodreads account. Inspired by the name of the account “reading rainboy” which was inspired by the show reading rainbow, really should’ve put a butterfly in this. Might update it to have one.

Love this book. Read this book. It’s great and you’ll feel great reading it. It’s the story of Siddhartha, a training monk. He gets to a point where he says I don’t want to be taught anything I want to experience it so he goes out and lives his life like a normal person would. Dealing with the good and bad aspects of life and his reactions to it. The book ends in a way that beautifully encapuslates the sense that everything in life has a purpose.

You can’t get enlightenment from teaching or experience you can only get it from understanding.

Tags: Spitual journey, non-fiction, enlightenment

[merryjuan]

New comic published

I just thought I’d share. I’m really happy that I can do this as an aspect of my job. I’ve been really thinking of getting into drawing/design more and I’ll have a long post about that coming the 18th if things go well.

This is my fourth comic and every time I think I’m out of ideas my brain digs a little deeper to find something new. While I admit I’m still very hard on my drawing abilities I’ve actually been practicing a lot which you’ll see in the long post. stay tuned and hope you had a good week.

[merryjuan]

Book Review - The Conquest of Bread

McCarthy was right. I grew up hating communism as a default of having cuban grandparents who constantly complained at the destruction and terror this political philosphy had on their home country. But never ventured to understand it, until I read this book. I considered starting with marx but chose this instead. I do think there were some good ideas in this book and do think some aspects of communism can be applied to america’s crony capitalism that would lead to general improvement to quality of life, however my biggest issue with this book was some of the assumptions it makes. True 500 men working a field for a year can make enough food to feed hundreds of thousands, i.e their output of work creates a surplus in production, however it makes a lot of assumptions of everyone working at the same quality and that’s not realisitc, anyone who’s ever done a group project in school can cetainly understand. To me this book is further proof on my previous idea that Communism is a political/economic assumes a lot about people, it’s utopian and unrealistic and always leads to suffering and dispair for many while serving and bolstering the ultra rich, which is idealisitically in contrast to what it claims to do. I’m glad I read this to have a better understanding of communism even if it made my blood boil at points.

[merryjuan]

I remember when I first got this Hong Kong coin. Someone’s dad brought it in for career day, I forgot what his job was but he had a bag of foreign coins and each kid got to grab a coin from the bag and keep it. I grabbed the Hong Kong coin and felt like I missed out on some of the bigger options. I was struck but its shape as a kid, and still am now. I became a pseudo-coin collector that day. I still take some money home from any country I visit. I look at the Hong Coin coin now and I’m more stricken by the appearance of Queen Elizabeth on Hong Kong money. She also appears in Canada and Australian money much less surprisingly.

Anyway this is kinda a shit post but I haven’t posted in a bit and was sorting coins today and it felt good. Boy did my hands stink after this by the way.

[merryjuan]

Peach Jam recipie and peach review

One of the special things about Colorado is the palisade peach. Grown in Palisade, Colorado and slightly smaller than the standard Georgia peach. The palisade peach season is late July to mid September. I recently have been making peanut butter sandwiches for my lunch and got inspired to make my own jam for my next sandwich.

I purchased about 16 peaches but used 12 peaches for the recipe (10 standard, 1 Saturn white, and one palisade) I have not tried the last two peach variety’s so I did a little taste test before making the jam. And truly I was not the biggest fan of peaches but this was an eye opening experience and peaches have definitely climbed on my fruit tier list.

The palisade peach was a small peach with big flavor. Saturn white was a huge disappointment as aesthetically it is the best looking in my opinion but not the best tasting. I will be buying some palisade peaches to enjoy as a snack before the season ends.

The recipe is simple.

Ingredients: 12 peaches, 4.5 cups of sugar, and 2 Oz of fruit pectin.

Add peaches to large pan begin crushing peaches and cook on low for 20 minutes.

Potato or peach masher??

After 20 minutes crank the heat up to medium and watch until jam begins to boil. Once boiling add sugar and fruit pectin and stir for at least 3 minutes then take off heat. To test if your jam will jam you can take a spoonful of the jam onto a frozen plate and check after a minute to see the consistency. If it is still runny after the plate test boil for a few more minutes.

Once cooked take of heat and put in jars and enjoy your pb&js

Almost ran out of jars, this is a quick and fun recipe that will certainly elevate my toast and pb&j sandwiches. I do regret not peeling the peaches as the potato masher mashed the fruit but left layers of skin in the jam. This is a minor inconvenience and I actually think it looks nice with the skin in the jam but it did make it a bit harder to eat, so I think next time I’ll take the peels off.

This is my first time making jam but I’m sure this recipe can be applied to any type of fruit. So go out there and make a jam today.

[merryjuan]

Book Review - You can't win

You Cant Win is an autobiography, Jack Black the author was a hobo in the dying era of the American wild west. Jack Had grown up idolizing Jesse James and other famous cowboys of that era and soon enough ends up a legend becoming quite a notorious criminal him self, having comitting crimes that ending up in prison 5 times and twice busting out. The book provides an interesting first hand account of a gambling hop addicit criminal and a look into the world of the hobo/criminal underground such as madame houses, opium dens, and illegal casinos. The book ends on a postive note on prision reform which I thought was actually still a good and fresh prespective. Jack Black was flogged in addition to two years time as punishment in Canada. While reading the book I wondered if Jack Black would see American prisions today as better or worse. After Jacks final stint in prision in which he was giving the improbale doubt of a kind judge to turn his 25 year sentence into a 2 year sentence, Jack is inspired by this so much he decides to live a more honest life and believes the justice system should show more mercy in general. Overall I found the book to be an interesting read of a not so historically covered but important era of the death of the cowboy and the turning of the tables for law enforcement, and crime in the country.

Themes: hobo culture, freight hopping, criminal underground, various crimes, autibiography, american history, prision reform, gambling, addiction, honest thief, anti-hero.

[merryjuan]

Psyched out Saturday

A while ago I had taken some chocolate mushrooms with a friend I had made out of a chocolate mold. We did not consume the whole bar and I left it in my fridge and had neglected it for a while until one day, while looking for a sweet treat one Saturday morning while distracted thought that a few bites of chocolate would do the trick. Thought nothing of it until about 30 minutes and I started to feel weird. This would be nothing to be concerned about if I knew the chocolate was laced with potent psychedelic mushrooms but I had not realized it at this point and was wondering if I was getting sick. Nausea is a common symptom of mushroom ingestion and I was definitely starting to feel it. Later on I connected the dots and enjoyed myself but for a minute there I felt like I’d been food poisoned or was feeling ill, but instead was about to embark on an unexpected trip.

What followed was a wild rollercoaster of emotions and sensations. My living room started to transform into a new landscape as the walls started to pulse, sounds became more impressive and clear. My thoughts wandered deeply and rapidly into memories I hadn’t considered in years and into ideas that I may have never explored.

This was a wicked surprise. And as the effects began to wear off I just had to say thanks to God for surviving this unexpected journey and for the wisdom he imparted to me during it. The initial nausea had long passed and now I was feeling a sensations of euphoria and inner peace. Gaining a new perspective on the mundane aspects of life.

Life can be unexpected, and while I wouldn’t suggest taking any drug unknowingly, sometimes the best adventures are the ones we least expect.

[merryjuan]

Book Review - The consumer society by Jean Baudrillard

The consumer society by Jean Baudrillard is an examination of consumer culture and mordern society. Even if it was published in 1970 it is still relevant today. Baudrillard argues that consumerism is not just the buying and selling of products but has transformed into a system of beliefs and values that have shaped out social and cultural landscape, becoming so immersed in the consumer culture we have lost touch with our own authenic desires and aspirations. Even suggesting our relationships with others are mediated by objects rather than social interaction. While I enjoy some of the ideas and points made in the book I am giving it a 2/5 simply because I found the writing to be exteremely dense and I did not enjoy the content as much as I had hoped

[merryjuan]

Everytime I see a rider like this on the street, especially these mini stunt bikes I must admit the part of me that is envious starts to creep in. It always seems like a fun thing, I even like seeing them do wheelies, I really want to be a motorcycle rider but its hard for me to make the descion to actually buy one despite my longing for it because of the associated risks.

Idea of the ramp and bike I had (mines had begs on both sides so I could bring up to 3 people around with me, or grind rails)

I loved riding bikes as a kid and would even do some pretty extreme stunts, my parents even bought me a ramp one year for christmas and that thing got a lot of jumps from me, my cousins and even the neighborhood kids.

Best photo I could find of the hill in question online (left side)

One year when I was in middle school I went to a hill in my city, the hill has two sides a really steep side and a much less steeper side, all my life I had only done the less steep side. I had seen others do the steep side before so I knew it was possible so today I decided it was my turn to try. I was not ready and actually had a bad accident. To be fair to my self I actually had managed to make it all the way down safely, where I got injured is when I was trying to stop for some runners at the bottom of the hill that I didn’t see (and I’m pretty sure didn’t see me, this is why you should have spotters when attempting stunts like this, could have avoided the whole thing). Anyway I pretty much immediatly blacked out and although never offically diagnosed I likely gave my self a concusion that day and scracthed up my face pretty hard on the pavement, Thankfully I was wearing a helmet or else this could have been worse. In fact the following weeks in school I had been given the nickname scar face. I did end up going back to conquer that hill by the way but my love for danger and adrenaline had taken a major hit that day and jumps that I used to do on the bike no problem became more scary for me.

My love for bikes didn’t end there and neither did my accidents. My summer before highschool (and a other highschool summer) I did bike deliverys for jimmy john’s and had one very minor accident with a distracted driver leaving a parking garage while I was on the sidewalk, I did get bumped off my bike, but nothing broken or bruised just a bit spooked. With my jimmy johns money that summer I had bought a used moped for about $200. And by the time summer came around I had gotten into an accident in it, this time I was not wearing my helmet but it was a solo accident. I was on the moped getting home from somewhere when it had started to rain HARD. I was dying to get home and dry so when I had pulled up on my house I had decided to cut through the yard instead of the driveway (saving me maybe 10 seconds) well I hit a bump in the yard that I did not expect and flew up and off the bike. Hit the ground and tumbled pretty hard, I was in some pain my arm and ribs were sore but miracualsly not broken. The scene must have looked pretty dramatic as one of the neighbors had seen it and in the pouring rain had gone outside to check up on me. I assured them I was fine and they went back inside, at the moment saying “im fine” was a bit of a white lie but ultimatly I was.

I say all that to tell you this. I love bikes but I also know that they are dangerous thru my own personal experience. But data backs this up too.

According to this data, motorcycles are at least 30x as fatal as driving a car.

So despite how fun I think it would be to do a wheelie on a grom, or go really fast in something more open to the world around me than a convertible, or even run from police. I think my mind is rightfully telling me to not buy a motorcyle in interest of my own life and longevity, but man I really would like to.

[merryjuan]

New comic and a bit of insight on my creative process

This was about all the prep work I had done before doing it for real. I wish i had done a bit more but I find it is imperative to actually draw what I’m picturing first at least a couple times to get a better understanding for the shape I’m after and to have a better finished product. I also added a bit of artistic flare with the column work, really trying to show my knowledge of architecture a bit as well. I wonder if anyone will pick up on it, I’ll certainly be impressed if they do. I do think this is my best one yet and hope to continue producing qualtity comics in this same vein.

[merryjuan]

Book Review - The Art of War - Sun Tzu

This book was written by an ancient chinese general., Sun Tzu and has over time been translated by many differnet people in many different languages. I read the Samuel Griffin translation which I think was good and offers a massive introduction to full understand the historical context of the writing and the life of the writer, and also offers different translations of verses. The book is no doubt an attempt to make a science of war, and lays out a manual for a succesful military operation. My biggest complaint about the book is how military focused it is, but along the way you will still find some great morsels that can be applied to various other aspects of life like taking the path of least resistance or to be like water, just as water has no constant form their are no constant conditions in life or in war

[merryjuan]

Am I in love with it? No Is it good? Yes

Today I did something I haven’t done since about 2019.

I walked into a barber shop and got a haircut. 2019 was the pandemic and I needed a haircut but barbershops were closed so I order wahl clippers on Amazon for 49$ and never looked back. They definitely paid off and I even got decent at cutting my own hair. But it was nice to get pampered. They did the shampoo and hot towel treatment and everything. It was nice, and damn she made it look so simple. Even after about 50? haircuts since 2019 I always had struggles getting an even haircut and especially struggled on the back of my head. Holding a handheld mirror at an angle in one hand to reflect off my bathroom mirror with the clippers in the other hand was never easy. I will say this if you are considering giving yourself a haircut, short and simple is best. It gets complicated when you try to style it. When is cut my hair I’d either do a crew cut or buzz cut. Simpler is better.

I don’t understand why I didn’t start going to barbers after the shutdown ended as I’ve given myself some bad haircuts but still think my worst haircut ever was in the hands of a barber. But that could be because it was free and that I not look at myself as critically as I do others.

Anyway it seems that the days of self hair cuts are out, and I think this is a sign of maturity. It also feels nice to be in a place financially (probably for the first time since 2019) to feel okay not only to get a hair cut but to get a hair wash also.

My last self haircut (March 2024)

And the aftermath