SAN ANTONIO, TX — For the health and safety of the team's players, the San Antonio Spurs will be stationing EMTs near its bench at all future games to prevent choking.

LOS ANGELES, CA — With several World Cup matches scheduled to be played at SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles officials warned FIFA that it could take several weeks to tally up the goals for each match.

A follow-up point from my post yesterday linking to Nick Heer’s blockbuster “The Metaverse Fever Dream”. In particular, the connection Heer draws between the rise of “metaverse” hype and the pandemic.

I always sort of knew that metaverse hype roughly coincided with the Covid lockdown and our collective period of isolation and loneliness, a year-plus stretch when we relied mostly on computer platforms for nearly all socializing. But here in 2026 it’s now clear that metaverse hype and lockdown-induced isolation coincided precisely. They didn’t roughly overlap; they exactly overlapped. So much so that I’m now wondering if any of the “metaverse” hype would have happened if Covid hadn’t happened. Facebook still likely would’ve renamed itself, because they’d so poisoned the “Facebook” brand itself, but maybe to something other than “Meta”.

We allowed the necessary initial emergency lockdown to extend indefinitely because it seemed like maybe we could get by for a long stretch using technology. The extended lockdown never would have happened if the Covid pandemic had broken out 20 or more years earlier. In 2020 and 2021, we could squint and say, sure, maybe kids can “go to school” via Zoom. We never would have kept all kids home for an entire year pre-Zoom. But the truth is Zoom “school” wasn’t much better than no school at all. Same for Zoom “work collaboration”, and Zoom “friend gatherings”. It was an illusion that today’s technology is even close to a sufficient substitute for being in each others’ physical presence. The siren call of “the metaverse” was exactly what we craved — technology that would be a sufficient substitute for real-world experiences and socializing. The best audience for snake oil are people with actual ailments. And during Covid, we were all ailing socially.

Link: daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever…

A few weeks ago I posted about a new tool I created – the Tile Layout Planner. I’ve received a lot of feedback about it! Most of it positive, except for that one guy – we’ll call him John Putzerooski.
That may or may not be a made up name.
His email is JP@Putz.com.
That may or may not be a made up email.

Anyway, the one thing that most people asked for was the ability to see more patterns. The initial planner included the basics – straight stacked, 1/3 and 1/2 offset. The three that comprise probably 80% of regular tile installations. So this one is for the other 20%.

This planner includes advanced patterns: diagonal, herringbone, basketweave, and windmill. Keep in mind that utilizing these patterns on your shower walls will require quite a bit of extra time, planning, cussing, and adult beverages. The result is normally worth it, if your heart is set on one of these patterns, just ensure you’re aware of what an absolute pain in the ass it can be to install them on vertical surfaces.

If you wish to utilize one of the patterns on a floor it is MUCH easier than trying to do it on a shower wall. Gravity works with you rather than against you. There is a dropdown box next to ‘mode’ at the top, you can choose a single rectangle (default) or a shower wall. You can see what it would look on your floor or shower.

The diagonal (on-point) pattern was, by far, the most requested. Go play around with it, you won’t break anything, and it may just give you some inspiration. The layouts specifics are by no means required – if you want to shift your actual installation one way or another to make it look the way you think it should – do it! This is just here to give you a visualization of what it may look like when completed. It will give you a solid starting point.

And if you see that John Putzerooski guy you tell him I hope rabbits chew up his entire garden.

If you are on your phone or a table, it may layout better by viewing it here: FloorElf Tools.
You will also be able to see all the other handy little tools I’ve created to try and make your life easier.

If you have any questions at all, as always, just drop it below. I answer them all.

The default tile size is 12×12. Other than the diagonal pattern, the patterns require rectangular tile, not square. So if you just change the pattern and wonder why it doesn’t look like a pattern, it’s because you didn’t change the tile size.