Tag: comparison

Who didn’t see this coming with AI?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

A few years ago when I went to Adobe MAX, little did I realize that this would be the year in which the whole event would basically be this gargantuan circle jerk over the advancements of AI.  I mean, fuck me for thinking that I’d be able to go attend some panels and workshops and perhaps maybe learn a few things or tricks about the software I use on a regular basis, and not just listen to all these pitches about how AI is going to impact them all, feeling like one of the only clear-thinking attendees that saw that most everything was being developed with the intention to ultimately usurp all of our jobs in the near to distant future.

However, as big of moonshot ideas existed over the capabilities of AI, I knew what was more likely to occur first – a whole lot of fucking nonsense.  Like, a metric containership fleet load of fucking nonsense, especially once most AI tools, apps and functions were made available to the general public.  And it was going to be a matter of time before AI-generated content was going to permeate and eventually run rampant across the internet, mainly throughout social media, and then even more so than originally, absolutely nothing would be seen as genuine or authentic, and even more everything would be forced to be put in question on its authenticity.

I mean, we’ve crossed that bridge quite some time ago now, but it hasn’t been until more recently that it bubbled up in my mind to be worth throwing up some words onto the brog to spit my two cents out about the topic.

It’s like, most everyone probably has a story about a person(s) they’ve known in their lives that were the people who always latched onto a joke or a meme a little harder than everyone else, and well after the general heat of a joke has simmered down, they’re the ones still spamming it, referencing it, and inadvertently assisting the killing of it for others.

Yeah, if you’re reading this, you probably know what I mean.  And it’s okay to say if you’ve been that person before, lord knows that I’ve definitely been that person multiple times in my life.

What I’m getting at is that AI has made it easier for people to become those people, who overuse and help kill jokes and memes faster, and frankly it’s doing a disservice to the virality and general heat of a good joke or a meme, when looking back at something, and the sheer amount of bullshit surrounding them drowns out the original material from the onset.

For example, the Phillies Karen saga, when it first started, that shit was nuclear hot.  A perfect example of a story gone viral, with it absolutely exploding.  Video clips, internet witch hunting, just about every news outlet and op-ed in the world throwing their two cents into the well.  But then about 2-3 days later, the memes began, first through just bad photoshops, but then came the AI-generated images, where the first few were clever and fist bumps for those who jumped on the horse early, but then shit rolls downhill real fast when every would-be comic on the internet that knows how to write an AI prompt wants to try and get their jokes in for whatever attention-seeking reasons.

Ghibli-fied images.  Deep-fake videos.  AI-generated scenarios of Phillies Karen in various other movies, shows or stories demanding to be given possession of X.  Like, it’s funny for the first two seconds, but as the heat cools off, the constant stream of bad AI-generated content ultimately makes people like me wish that the original source of the meme never happened, so that I wouldn’t have to be subject to such bad abuse of AI tools to make up for the lack of creative talent that exists out there.

This is just one example of how AI is hurting the internet.  Who cares about how easy it makes students cheat in school, and how it’s acting like a miracle writer for people to lazy to do it themselves.  Who cares about how it’s able to take redundant, menial tasks and complete them in seconds, and who cares about the maybe 2-3 good things that AI has managed to accomplish.  It’s fucking with good memes and news and jokes, and this bullshit is the real lifeblood of the internet that perpetually bored scrollers and surfers need to get us through each day.

And because every motherfucker in the world has access to AI tools now, the amount of bad and lame bullshit content constantly overtakes anything real in a matter of time, and like I said, it gets to a point where you see so much turrible shit that you eventually wish the source of it never existed in the first place, regardless of how good it might be, in order to spare everyone from seeing lame shit.

As far as my opinion is concerned, the jury’s still out on if AI is still going to really be worth it in the long run.  I’m inclined to lean no, since I see it more than likely impacting my career adversely before I prosper from its existence, but one thing I do know about it now is that it’s polluting the internet with a lot of bullshit, which is pretty profound considering just how already full of nonsense it was before AI was made available to everyone.

Phillies Karen: has to be the 2025 MLB Meme of the Year, right?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Countless: Nuclear viral moment captured when ‘Phillies Karen’ goes ballistic on a father over a caught home run baseball at a Phillies-Marlins game

When I first heard about this story, it was late in the evening and I didn’t really have the stamina to sit down and write about it, no matter how enticing of a topic it seemed like; hey, I’m wiped out by the evenings, I’m an old parent, tf off my nuts.  The following morning when I started to see it had caught fire and went viral, my kids were up, so I couldn’t really take the time to spout out my thoughts on the whole thing, and I’d occasionally check social media sporadically throughout the day only to see more and more coverage and development over the whole thing.

And by the time the kids were down and I had some time to write again, it had blown up so much, with so much traction and coverage on the whole thing, it became one of those scenarios where it’s like a hungry lion who leaps into a crowd of gazelle, but is unable to focus on any one of them, and instead scrambles around futilely, the gazelle all get away, and the lion is left hungry and overstimulated.

There’s so much to unpack about this whole thing that it’s difficult to really triangulate on any one aspect about it, and I don’t want to summarize the entire thing because it would take forever, and this has gotten so much coverage that there are likely way more efficient and better written takes about this whole thing than I could provide on a brog that nobody but me reads.

Like, I’m 100% in agreement with the dad who forfeited the ball pretty quickly, just to get out of the confrontation, no matter how much I’m sure I’d be able to argue it if I wanted to, but it’s one of those things that I’d rather not do in front of my entire family.  Real good on the Marlins’ PR and customer relations rep who showed up to give the dad’s kid a gift package, and I agree with lots of people on social media that more should be made about the staffer who came through for the family. 

And as much as I’m generally predisposed to root against the Phillies or any Philadelphia sports team for that matter, real-real good on the Phillies and Harrison Bader for reacting quickly to the story, and bringing the dad, his son, and the entire family into the personnel area for an impromptu meet and greet, and farm up positive karma and press.

But no matter all the good that came from this whole debacle, I don’t think at this point any ironic story is going to top the saga of Phillies Karen, as being the MLB Meme of the Year.  When the day is over, the bipartisan internet doesn’t gravitate towards the good of a story as much as they crave a tantalizing jerk for everyone to collectively point their crosshairs onto, which is precisely what happened with the internet going off on a massive witch hunt to try and identify and expose Phillies Karen for, basically being an asshole Karen caught on camera.

There’s been so much traction and movement in this story that it got to a point of not knowing what to believe is happening in the fallout.  Some claims that the person was identified and that they’ve already lost their job, some stories where the victim of mistaken identity has to defend herself, and naturally in this very recent day and age, a lot of AI, so much fucking AI, as far as fake photos and videos and all sorts of memes to already come into existence of everyone trying to get their slice of the internet attention in regards to a nuclear hot viral meme.

But the point is, this isn’t so obviously just the MLB Meme of the Year, this definitely has enough footing to be one of the most memorable memes of the year, just in general.  The Coldplay HR CEO guy meme people are probably breathing a sigh of relief at Phillies Karen taking the heat of getting caught on camera being an asshole, from him and his HR mistress.  Same goes for that Polish CEO who snatched the tennis player’s hat away from kid at the US Open, probably feeling real relieved that Phillies Karen has taken the heat away from him, especially after his cringeworthy ChatGPT-generated apology.

I mean the internet is all about what have you done for me recently, and any good meme is only as good until the next one emerges, but seeing as what has resulted from a singular action of some entitled old lady screaming at a dad over a $15 baseball, people out in public might just be a little more careful on how they act, especially when there’s the potential for television cameras to be recording everything, not to mention the hordes of randos who will whip out their phones and start recording at a moment’s notice at the slightest whiff of a potential confrontation.

But as much as I am enjoying the entertainment of a good meme come to life, what I’m really looking forward to is when the Phillies ultimately get bounced from the playoffs, there’s going to be all sorts of new and fresh memes and lots of fingers being pointed to this very specific moment of the baseball season, and the shit will just start all over again.

It’s funny too, because my general attitude towards Philadelphia and their sports culture had been softening over the last few years, but due to the emergence of Phillies Karen, it just gives me something to re-ignite the inevitable smug satisfaction of Philadelphia getting owned, and there being a very tangible totem or symbol of their future failures, that I look forward to others utilizing and spamming whenever it does happen.

I would like to have a DragonZord tail too pls

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Apparently this is news from six years ago which goes to show just how out of touch I can get with the rest of the world, but supposedly Japan has developed robotic tails for the elderly to equip in order to help them with balance.  For whatever reason, this just started popping up in my socials recently, leading me to get that spark of inspiration because when I saw the, what I’m guessing were AI-generated images, all I could think of was how much they looked like DragonZord’s tail from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

And how I too would really like to have a DragonZord tail too; not just for something to help me maintain my own balance, but the obvious desire to be able to rear back and whip the sparks out of any motherfuckers who cross me, or try to take over the Earth on my watch.

I mean, anyone who’s ever watched as much Power Rangers as I did probably knows that despite how cool it looked or the idea of the DragonZord tail whip is, the fact of the matter is that it was really often times portrayed as an extremely ineffective attack.  It’s like short of the debut of DragonZord, where it would whip the shit out of Tyrannosaurus or MegaZord when it was being controlled by Evil Tommy, once on the side of good, DragonZord and its tail whip were nerfed into oblivion.  Either Goldar or bad guy of the day would duck it easily, or they would just tank the hit for no damage; and so often times was the case, an opp would just grab the tail and use it to pick up DragonZord and swing it into a nearby building or mountain range.

But I don’t care, if a DragonZord tail were made available to the people, I for one would still like to have one.  I’m sure as I continue to age, my balance will worsen, as I’m seeing is the case with my own dad, and it wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world to get ahead of the degradation and go ahead and start equipping my own DragonZord tail.  Being able to whip motherfuckers with it would only be a bonus, and if it would be possible to get a drill-tip upgrade like DragonZord, I think it goes without saying that I’d have to have it, because you just never know when you really could use the ability to drill a hole into something, in a clean fashion, and not have to resort to some makeshift spike or some unsymmetrical blade in order to do so.

Anyway, for all the nonsensical and useless shit Japan makes to solve even the most first world of first world problem minutiae, I will concede that creating DragonZord tails definitely sounds like a real W of an invention, and I would very much like to have one pls.

If this man is 12, then I’m 35

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

AP: Taiwan wins the Little League World Series, riding the arm of their 5’8 wunder pitcher, who throws 82 mph

Being the consummate sports fan, news of the Little League World Series always pops up for me on whatever feeds peruse on the regular.  I was cognizant of the fact that Taiwan was in the tournament, and I had heard that they had an alleged 12-year old who was 5’8 and was hurling fireballs at 82 mph, which is the MLB equivalent of being able to throw around 107 mph, and my first thought when I heard about this kid was, a Danny Almonte.

Frankly, the Little League World Series is no stranger to parents who lie about their kids’ ages to get them in for whatever selfish reasons, but Danny Almonte was one of the most famous cases, since he was actually 14 years old, throwing 80 mph, leading his team from the Bronx deep into the tournament.  He was eventually found out, and unfortunately became the poster child for age cheating, despite the fact that it was his parents and his team that orchestrated the whole ruse.

Anyway, when I saw a picture of Taiwan’s flamethrower, my red flat went up immediately – there’s no way this kid is 12 years old.  The little man has the pizza face of that of a 15-16 year old, and at 5’8 is nearly a full head taller than most of his teammates and opposition.  And I feel like the Taiwanese were banking on the fact that people in the west can’t tell Asians apart much less be able to deduce age based on appearance, and snuck him into the tournament with the added cushion of racial sensitivity.

But yeah, there’s no way this man is 12 years old.  As the title of this post says, if he’s really 12 years old, then I’m 35 years old, it’s that egregious of a claim.  Obviously it was pretty easy for Taiwan to win the tournament, when they’re trotting out a grown-ass man to play against actual children, and it sucks for all these kids who get obliterated by a ringer, who might then start to give up on baseball and get all jaded from the experience.

All I’m saying is that if it emerges at a later date that this kid turned out to obviously not be 12 years old, don’t be surprised.  I’d like to make the joke about how you heard it here first, but one I don’t have any readers, and two I know that I’m far from the first person to be making this claim. 

#GGLLWS

Dad Brog (#154): It kills me to see kids practicing shooter lockdown drills

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I remember watching this episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America, and getting a good chuckle out of the clowning on America’s obsession with firearms to the point where we should start arming our children as early as possible.  But mostly I always love how no matter how much people in Washington have been aware of Sacha Baron Cohen, known bureaucrats still keep falling into his traps of showing up on his shows and conducting rigged interviews, seemingly somehow oblivious to the fact that they are being made fun of for being, well, white guys.

The other night I was looking through some of the photos that #2’s pre-K posts to a private Facebook group for the parents, and there was a picture of the class huddled in a corner of the room, head down, knees up, tucked as tightly as they could.  All families know that the school does conduct routine fire, safety and lockdown drills, but this was the first time that I’ve actually seen any photo evidence of what was obviously the active shooter lockdown drill, and let me tell you how much it kills my soul to see a bunch of 4-5 year olds having to practice defending their lives.

In one hand, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and to have a modicum of idea of what to do in the event that such a scenario were to come to fruition, but in the other hand, it’s depressing and sad to think that kids have to practice this in the first place, because guns are more available than Nintendo Switch 2’s, and school shootings have now achieved a frequency in which it’s long past being not an if, but when, the next one is going to occur.

Regardless, it all amounts to all schools, of children of all ages, now having to spend a chunk of time periodically simulating what they would do in the event of a real active shooter situation, as if, if one were ever to occur, most people wouldn’t just flat out panic and fall back onto running and hiding as best to protect themselves above anyone else over some protocol.

And seeing a photo of #2’s class all huddled in a corner, as far away from the windows as they can be, set me off.  They’re a bunch of pre-K kids aged 4-5 – yes, jokes aside about how they can be obnoxious brats at times, it would take the sickest of fucks to be going after kids this young and still mostly so innocent to the world.

It just fills me with piss and bile at society that this is even a thing and being a parent it’s a hopeless feeling of having no real power beyond just hoping that your kids don’t ever become the unlucky winners any of the next school shooting sweepstakes.

Cracker Barrel’s rebrand: the question stands

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

USA Today: Cracker Barrel unveils a new logo; the internet is unsurprisingly not impressed

When the day is over, I have no skin in the game of the existence of Cracker Barrel.  Full disclosure, I haven’t been to a Cracker Barrel since I lived on the south side of the city, when they opened a brand new Cracker Barrel not far (relatively) from my old place, and upon going there, all the big wigs and managers and trainers were there, so everyone was on their best behavior and it was actually a decent experience.

But no matter if people hate the new logo or people love it, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it one way or the other, and can only really share opinions and thoughts based on the creative direction of it, as well as relish in some of the less tasteful jokes that the internet is particularly known for generating about anything and everything in existence.

But my first blush impression and my knee-jerk reaction upon seeing the new Cracker Barrel logo was that of unsurprise at the fact that they removed both the man and the barrel, and have homogenized it down to an uninspired shape.  However, I am surprised at the fact that they did manage to keep the general wordmark of the text mostly intact, instead of just typing out “cracker barrel” in a variation of Helvetica Neue or Myriad, like so many companies inevitably do, as if they’re determined to not pay anyone for a font, and are completely at peace with just writing it out in system default fonts.

So it’s kind of a push in the sense that they did murder all the character and uniqueness of the logo by removing both the man and the barrel, as well as the unsymmetrical shape in which the wordmark was housed, but still managed to preserve some sense of character, familiarity and recognition by at least keeping the wordmark mostly the same.

A hexagon with rounded corners isn’t a vanilla rhombus or oval like so many brands have boiled down to in this modern business space, and at least they appear to have kept their primary color intact; however, it appears they’ve cheapened up by swapping out their brown for a black, thus making future production simplified in that they technically only need one additional color outside of black and white.

Honestly, the container looks a little too large for the wordmark, and in the event like creating signage and advertising materials, the general proportion of it compared to the Cracker Barrel name is might end up looking comical, or lead to some comically large signs in order to compensate.

But like I said, when the day is over, I do not care one iota about this rebrand, beyond the obvious joke that was made in the shown screen grab – why DID they get rid of both the cracker and the barrel??  Considering the brand is kind of synonymous for being a white people eatery, not entirely sure why they’d go to the lengths of alienating them by removing paw-paw from the logo, but whatever.  As far a corporate rebrands go, this one is far from the worst, and it’s not going to suddenly make me want to deal with the shitty parking situations enough to want to actually go to a Cracker Barrel again any time soon.

Phelps County probably smells delicious right now

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

The Hill: tractor trailer carrying 40,000 lbs. of ribeye steaks catches fire on I-74 in Missouri

Normally, I don’t bother writing about trucks full of food stuffs catching fire or overturning unless they happen in Georgia, but every now and then there are a few examples that pique my interest to the point where I can turn the clock back and write about truck carnage at the expense of delicious foods.

But headlines talking about a truck full of steaks catching fire got my attention, and specifically the fact that they weren’t just any old run of the mill steaks, but forty thousand pounds of ribeye steaks specifically that caught my attention.

The devil is in the details.

Sure, there is a time and place for every cut of steak, and sometimes I’ve just been in the mood for a good New York strip, sometimes a big ass porterhouse.  Sometimes just the filet is sufficient, if I want to luxuriate in all the other sides and courses.  But for the most part, there’s seldom a time when a good ribeye isn’t a viable option for a steak, and learning of this truck disaster where several tons of ribeye steaks went up in flames definitely got my big back attention.

Naturally, I’m long past the first person to probably make the joke about how delicious I-74 in Missouri must smell at the idea of all this succulent beef going up in flames, but it’s probably not wrong.  The whole region with a multiple mile radius probably smells like an incredible barbecue is going on, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Missouri is that the state knows how to barbecue, apparently even on the physical highways itself.

However, I do have to question the quality of the steaks, if they’re in a parcel of 40,000 lbs of other ribeyes.  I have to imagine that they were probably of the frozen variety to begin with, and probably nowhere near high-end restaurant quality cuts that most people fantasize about when they’re thinking about a good steak.  As I said, the devil is in the details, and I’d be curious to know if these were like Dollar General hockey puck steaks, or if they were closer to like Outback Steakhouse steaks.  That’s the intel that separates a ho-hum run of the mill truck disaster from one that people talk about for years to come.

Either way, congrats to Missouri for having a truck catastrophe that sounded so grand and probably smelled so good, to where it warranted words to be spouted on my little slice of the internet.