Joe Trela
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alert74.bsky.social
Joe Trela
@alert74.bsky.social
440 followers 620 following 3K posts
That guy who was on that show. Learned League trivia ronin sasquatch, amateur numismatist, flagrant vexillologist, occasional blue hair w/pronouns. Sanguis in auribus, stultusque in speculo.
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alert74.bsky.social
And only one car - and a couple of minor Earth elementals - can stop him!
A shot from the opening credits of the 1967 live action film The Gnome-Mobile, showing a 1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom II driving through a forest.
December 2, 2025 at 10:23 AM
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"It's seamless! Just like rubber vomit!"
Some quartz crystals to cleanse one's mind from the text.
December 1, 2025 at 4:11 PM
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Big Kevin Mitchell energy
San Francisco Giants outfielder Kevin Mitchell making a bare-handed catch of a fly ball hit by Ozzie Smith at Busch Stadium on April 26th, 1989
November 30, 2025 at 8:39 PM
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Big quantum foam vibes.
An illustration of quantum foam, the theoretical sea of virtual particles that constantly pop in and out of existence as a consequence of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Probably tastes spicier than whatever that noodle nightmare was.
November 29, 2025 at 7:13 PM
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The C-suite suite is probably full of sweets.
A basket full of candy.
November 29, 2025 at 7:03 PM
alert74.bsky.social
Technically that's a modern "blackletter" font; many versions were used in Europe starting in the 12th century, and the Nazis couldn't even settle on a "true German" font (see "Antiqua-Fraktur dispute").

I imagine the DOGE reject who shat that out:
1) didn't know any better.
2) was going for vibes.
Poster for the 2007 film There Will Be Blood, featuring a glowering Daniel Day Lewis as the malevolent protagonist, Daniel Plainview. The title of the film is prominently featured in blackletter font. Fun fact: that same font was used for the "In God We Trust" inscription found on Morgan silver dollars minted from 1878 to 1904 (roughly the same timeframe as the movie).
November 29, 2025 at 6:33 PM
alert74.bsky.social
Burying the lede here:

POOR SOURCE OF PRASEODYMIUM
A close up of a frozen pizza box: 100% REAL CHEESE EXCELLENT SOURCE OF PROTEIN GOOD SOURCE OF CALCIUM SERVING SUGGESTION KEEP FROZEN, COOK AS DIRECTED
November 29, 2025 at 5:20 AM
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They hang out at my work. (Concord, CA)
November 27, 2025 at 9:43 PM
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Post something random or you'll have an awful December.
The "Smoking Snakes" patch of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force from World War II. The expression "when snakes smoke" used to refer to something extremely unlikely (such as Brazil joining the Allies). When that did in fact happen, the idiom was adopted as their symbol. Now, "smoking snakes" means something that's a dead lock to occur. Btw, although relatively small (just under 26000 total personnel), the BEF punched well above its weight fighting the Germans in Italy and providing air support to the Allies.
November 27, 2025 at 9:01 PM
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"We call him Bad Miracle."
The shoe standing on end after Gordy's rampage in Nope.
November 27, 2025 at 6:50 AM
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Introduce yourself in four spaceships.
Nell, from 1980's Battle Beyond the Stars. And yes, James Cameron designed it to look like a uterus. And yes, it was THAT James Cameron. One of the decks from the crashed spaceship in the AD&D module Expedition to he Barrier Peaks, where sword and sorcery meets high technology. The Baton Rouge class starship from the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology, a tie-in to the 1979 movie that detailed the history of spaceflight prior to TOS. This is supposed to be one of the immediate predecessors of the Constitution-class ships. It was designed by Rick Sternbach, who obviously carried some of its features forward to the NCC-1701-D Project Daedalus, the fruit of a 1970s study (see a trend?) by the British Interplanetary Society to design an interstellar craft with then-plausible technology (so no hyperdrives). Fueled by helium-3 mined from Jupiter's atmosphere, the unscrewed two-stage craft would accelerate to 0.12c and fly by Barnard's Star in 50 years.
November 27, 2025 at 6:43 AM
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I have this vision of that Looney Tunes cartoon where Daffy is desperately trying to escape "the little man from the draft board", only instead of induction papers he's registering you as a coatimundi or something.
A scene from the 1945 Looney Tunes cartoon "Draftee Daffy". Daffy is recoiling in horror from "The Little Man From The Draft Board", a short, meek-looking bald man wearing large spectacles and an ill-fitting green suit and bowler hat.
November 27, 2025 at 4:40 AM
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See, now I feel like I've made it.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission liked a post. Senpai noticed!
November 26, 2025 at 3:31 PM
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Czechs out.
A contemporary illustration of the (third) Defenestration of Prague, where two Catholic lords and their secretary were thrown out a third-story window in 1618 by Protestant officials for having convinced the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II to withdraw some of the privileges granted to them (they survived). This was one of the major events leading to the Thirty Years War.
November 25, 2025 at 7:18 AM
alert74.bsky.social
That's not a massive lift.
A scene from Superman III where a scientist warns Big Blue "That's concentrated beltric acid", which turns incredibly volatile when heated to 180 degrees (not sure if C or F, probably not K). Still less scary than Charged Lemonade.
November 25, 2025 at 5:37 AM
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If you see this, post your getaway vehicle.
A 1960 proposal from Douglas Aircraft to use the one-person Mercury capsule as a space utility vehicle. The seat has been modified so the pilot's head is sticking out and gives him a view of the front, while the parachute at the capsule's nose has been replaced with a large cylindrical module with four spidery robotic arms.
November 25, 2025 at 5:28 AM
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Video game - Klingon Academy, or "Star Trek 25th Anniversary" (yes that was the title).

Tabletop - these two, if only because the "Robin Hood Planet" scenario in Star Trek III includes cardboard chits of Kirk, Spock, etc. with little pointy Robin Hood hats (formally known as bycockets).
The ends of two tabletop Star Trek games - "Star Trek: The Adventure Game" and "Star Trek III". Both were published by West End Games in 1985 and were designed in part by Paranoia creator Greg Costikysn (iykyk). Note: "Star Trek III" had little to do with the movie of the same name. It came with three solitaire games - the aforementioned Robin Hood Planet scenario "The Sherwood Syndrome", a version of the Kobiyashi Maru test, and "Free Enterpri$e", where you have to convince a merchant-dominated species to ally with the Federation instead of the Klingons by making the the biggest profit.
November 24, 2025 at 11:03 PM
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Apparently a post I made several months ago went a little viral, so howdy to any visitors! I've got some board games, and the pizzas should be here soon. I need to run to the storage area to get some more chairs though. Won't be a sec.
A couple of shelves full of tabletop games, most of them classics from the 60s-80s.
November 24, 2025 at 10:15 AM
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S-Video tier post
Two ends of an S-Video ("separate video") cable, used from 1987 on to provide improved standard definition video signals. Each end has a gold metal circle surrounding four metal pins and a black rectangular "key". Unlike coaxial or RCA video cables that carry the whole video signal down one conductor, S-Video splits the signal into "chroma" (color) and "luma" (brightness) values and carries them through two sets of two pins (each signal pin has its own ground pin). The rectangular "key" is only there to make sure the right type of cable is used, as other connector formats like IBM's PS/2 connector have the same form factor). A separate cable would still be needed for audio.
November 24, 2025 at 10:10 AM
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Meanwhile, far away in his arctic stronghold just north of Uppsala, Professor Lingon plots and plots...
A late 19th century B&W drawing showing a man in a long black coat and top hat. He's sitting in a chair, stroking a black cat with one hand and holding a cigarette on the other. He's blowing out smoke while gazing into the distance, no doubt mentally composing his next diabolical scheme.
November 22, 2025 at 8:31 PM
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MAGIK ALFABET
Presumably the artist's signature, which resembles something from one of the various "magical alphabets" floating around in occult circles. Examples include the Enochian alphabet, "Theban", and various demonic sigils found in the Lesser Key of Solomon.
November 22, 2025 at 6:46 PM
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Easily done, but my Great Pyr won't come in. He's okay in there, but it's...a bad look. Any suggestions?

(not actually mine)
A big, fluffy Great Pyrenees (not mine) reclining on a snowbank and looking watchful.
November 22, 2025 at 4:55 PM
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I'm sorry, I'm not really up for Cards Against Humanity right now...can we play something else? Your pick.
Two shelves full of a variety of games - Trivial Pursuit, Terraforming Mars, some Avalon Hill and 3M bookcase wargames, even an Art Fleming era Jeopardy board game from the 60s. There's also a tabletop catapult kit there for some reason. I would personally recommend Star Trek: The Adventure Game or Star Trek III, both from West End Games. Released in the mid-1980s just before the breakout of computer games to the mass market, they can both be played solo and are quite engaging.
November 22, 2025 at 5:22 AM
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"Your two nickels, ma'am."
Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb, source of the meme that is reshaping the meaning of "If I had two nickels..." in front of our eyes.
November 18, 2025 at 3:15 PM
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(reluctantly nods, then hurriedly changes the subject to Kessler syndrome or something)
A map from Wikipedia showing most of the large pieces of space debris surrounding the Earth. Although there's a scattering of dots in all directions, the highest concentrations are a ring at the level of geosynchronous orbit (about 22,300 miles/35800 km), and a thick layer surrounding the Earth in low orbit (under 1200 miles/2000 km). Kessler syndrome (aka collisional cascade) is a catastrophic scenario proposed by NASA scientists Donald J. Kessler and Burton G. Cour-Palais in 1978 where the density of uncontrolled or derelict objects becomes high enough to cause a chain reaction (much like those found in nuclear physics) that renders the near-Earth environment unusable for long (decades or even centuries) periods of time.
November 16, 2025 at 11:39 PM