Essays and Bad Ideas

The Daily Dad — Sep 27, 2024

The Schwan’s truck was once as welcome a sight as the ice cream man
  • Minnesota-based company Yelloh, once better known as Schwan’s, announces November closure
    ❝ Once the operator of the largest fleet of freezer trucks in the U.S., Yelloh announced Monday it will wrap up operations in November. Until recently it was known as Schwan’s Home Delivery, famed for its iconic yellow trucks.
    💬 Ouch. I used to love Schwan’s stuff… their frozen oatmeal raisin dough made the best cookies this side of homemade, and I remember enjoying their bratwurst too.
  • The biggest news from Meta Connect 2024
    ❝ Meta revealed its Quest 3S VR headset and updated styles for the Ran-Ban smart glasses. Meta AI gets updated voices, and the new Orion AR glasses preview the future.
    💬 The Quest 3S is a great alternative to a Quest 2, but I’d probably recommend that anyone with $600 buy a full Quest 3 instead.
My favorite MOD from the early 90s. And no, it’s not THAT Moby.
  • Furnace is a multi-platform chiptune tracker
    ❝ We’ve come a long way since Soundtracker on the Commodore Amiga! Furnace is a new tracker—a highly-technical music-making app remiscent of player piano rolls sliding through The Matrix…
    💬 Back in my late teens and early 20s, I spent many hours collecting music to play inside any number of weird-looking, hopelessly complicated tracker apps. Despite that —and despite owning an Atari ST with built-in MIDI ports— I didn’t try my hand at actually creating music until I scored a free copy of ACID on Windows.
  • Rapper Fatman Scoop died of heart disease, medical examiner says
    ❝ The Connecticut state medical examiner’s office has determined that hip-hop artist Fatman Scoop died of heart disease
    💬 When “fat” is part of your brand, “died of heart disease” is something approaching an inevitability.
  • Brad Pitt Imposters Arrested for Scamming Women Out of Money
    ❝ Five people in Spain have been arrested for posing as Brad Pitt online and scamming two women out of $350,000.
  • Satellite images suggest test of Russian “super weapon” failed spectacularly
    ❝ All that’s left of the Russian missile silo is a big hole in the ground.
    💬 Americans truly have no idea how much our government achieves because of the vast wealth at its disposal and the “overbearing” regulations we apply… but all you have to do is look at Russia’s long history of techno-mishaps and engineering failures to see that trying to save a buck while not giving a shit about consequences will usually lead to failure or utter disaster.
The electronic hobby kits from the 1985 Radio Shack catalog
My first-gen Gameboy was essentially a Tetris machine
CONTROVERSIAL OPINION: Bunheads was better than Gilmore Girls. Sorry, it’s true.