“Gary?” Um… have you taken a breather and looked up recently?
“Look up? Surely you jest, Goodboy. I don’t have the time.”
“Same as every year….Tick, tick…the deadline is coming.”
“You’d better call your little chihuahua lady friend. At this rate, neither of us is going to be leaving in time for New Year’s Eve.”
“No, Gary. I don’t mean looking at the clock on the wall. I’m talking about looking at…
…the latest comments:
“Uh oh.”
“I know. I’m scared. What’s happening? What’s going on?”
“Oh, brother…the bots are back? I don’t understand. I’m vigilant. I’m thorough. I’ve made sure that we’re firewalled up the wazoo.
“OK. There. I’ve moved the comments to the quarantine folder for now.”
“It just got a lot worse. Have you seen the latest submission?”
“What’s the problem? Lacking the usual warmth and depth?”
“Gary, quit kidding around. This completely deranged article… the awful comments… We’ve been hacked! We have to let him know right away.”
“That’s gonna be a problem.”
“That pesky real-life job of his? SO annoying. He’s gone – off again, away to Who-Knows-Where International Airport.”
“Probably already on the plane.”
“Do you think he’d be able to help?”
“Uh, that’s a hard “no.” We’ve spent the last year trying to keep him away from messing around with the site, remember?”
“And definitely not while in the sky! He doesn’t mean to, but he always fouls up when trying to use the in-flight wi-fi.
Last month, he was playing with AI generated imaging at 40,000 feet.
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“That’s because you didn’t see the result:”
“ARRGGH! NO! MAKE IT GO AWAY!“
“Told you. NSFW for sure. And now that I think of it…
…hmm…messing around… with AI… while in the sky? That might be what happened, here.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s simple:”
“I’ll bet a ground fault on the plane’s skywave router caused a packet snarf, allowing hackers to bypass the symmetry protocols and gain unauthorized access to the site.”
“Gary? Even I know that there is no such thing as a ‘packet snarf.‘ “
“Maybe, maybe not. The important thing is that we have to act fast.”
I have an idea – We could fight fire with fire. Remember that little thing I wrote up for this year’s ‘Year In Review?‘ Let me try…”
“Well done, Goodest of Boys. You know, even in a tech-driven world, nothing beats the human – or canine – touch.”
“Couldn’t agree more, Gar. If nothing else- let’s both promise everyone in our community that we’ll keep tnocs.com a place of authenticity.”
“That’s a good plan, Goodboy. Happy New Year.”
“How about you head out? I’ll take it from here…”
“Someone is waiting for you downstairs.”
Here are just a few randomly selected highlights from the over 350 articles written by our beloved Contributing Authors in 2024.
Be sure to post your favorite article and comment-section memories in the comments below!
January
Both Grouse schooled us on some amazing new sounds...
A memorable and thoughtful debut from Shadow Rat…
Link Crawford took us down a commercial memory lane…
And we found our “inner groove” from JJ Live At Leeds.
February
Jon Deutsch delivered the laughs, introspection… and cowbell…
bcm4648 wrote a lovely piece about pop legend…
We had the debut of an amazing new series from Phylum Of Alexandria…
And a tasty sampler for all to enjoy from I Survived Pop
March
Bill Bois reminded us of the importance of a big finish…
We took a trip back to the 80s with DJ Professor Dan…
rollerboogie made us feel like super-heroes…
And Chuck Small debuted a fun new series
April
Pauly Steyreen kicked off an exciting new literature series…
Edith G reported on an international (musical) conflict…
Old friend John “Archie Leech” Burger shared his solar eclipse experience…
And in their tnocs debut, blu_cheeze helped us to consider our own musical journeys.
May
It was an awesome new series debut from chart-maven Ozmoe
Link Crawford was on the case…
Chuck Small shared a faithful point of view…
And Phylum Of Alexandria was back with a brand new debut.
June
We had seven great stories about fathers in a collaborative callout article…
Jon Deutsch once again rose to the occasion…
A cautionary tale of intrigue from Stobgopper…
And thanks to JJ Live At Leeds, we were certifiably ROTFL.
July
We had another collaborative callout, “guessing game” style…
Ozmoe delivered a big finish with his latest series finale…
DJ Professor Dan jogged our collective 1994 memories…
And rollerboogie brought “the truth!”
August
A bearly believable but totally true story from Bill Bois…
Fun stuff…
from the journal of… the inimitable… Stobgopper…
The Musical Inventors series continued from our musical historian Bill Bois…
As did FREE4ALL, from Phylum Of Alexandria
September
rollerboogie was back with an amazing ‘meeting-a-celebrity’ story…
A thoughtful piece from Chuck Small…
A book review from JJ...
And some Music League-style fun from Phylum…
October
We did our very best singing along with I Survived Pop
We saw the return of resident film critic cappiethedog…
Link Crawford delighted with his tale of landing a dream job…
And from the ever-literate Ozmoe, a reference roundup.
November
Stobgopper was back with an essay on the sweet science…
As was Chuck, to kick off a great new mini-series…
JJ kindly hosted a “guess the author” version of his ‘Singonyms…’
And Edith G provided expert reporting about a certain superstar concert…
December
Our old pal thegue returned to tell us about an amazing meetup…
rollerboogie enlightened…
Bill informed…
..And DJPD continued on his musical vison quest.
Which brings us to the end…
Or perhaps… better thought of as the beginning!
From our wonderful Contributing Authors, to our beloved Commenters, and to anyone who has ever lurked here, hoping for a little laugh, a kind exchange, or a good think: please know how much you mean to all of us. We are truly grateful for your participation.
Thanks for your loyalty and friendship, and for joining us for our weird and wonderful little journey.
Good on you all – and we’ll see you in 2025!
Thank You For Your Vote!
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If only everything in life was as reliable as TNOCS. A little haven of good cheer, regardless of whatever else is going on in the world.
Big thanks to mt for keeping the show on the road, even when he’s on the road (or maybe that should be; when he’s in the sky). And thanks to everyone else for the illuminating comments and articles.
Happy New Year all!
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So many good articles! I’m going to go back and reread a lot of them. Good work, everyone.
Side note: in July, a little black kitten showed up on our porch. He’s not little anymore and is still growing. In honor of the bear, we named him Wojtek.
Photo, please!
Shortly after he showed up.
Oops, that’s the same photo from my article. I don’t have any good recent ones but here he is up a tree, almost fully grown.
Glad to see this recap, even though I couldn’t read on time many collaborations, this site was and is still my virtual place to go.
I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to write pieces more often, but at least I could do something in the year. Sadly and regarding to my first article, I have to inform you that since months ago, the State of Sinaloa is no longer a fun and safe place, I hope this situation will change soon.
I’m grateful for having you all in my life, honorable mention to @mt58, the heart and soul of this place. I wish you all the best and great things will come for all of us.
Happy New Year everybody!
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Thanks for the recap, mt! You run a good railroad here.
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That hack Beatles article was entertaining. Maybe we could all submit articles like that, a la Onion, and make it a feature.
Happy New Year tnocs!
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Like it – a “wrong answers only” review of an artist or album / song.
Another great year on TNOCS! Happy New Year to all of you. Looking forward to 2025 (in TNOCS, not sure about everywhere else). At least there is one safe place left.
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