Author: robertjames1971

I'm wicked tall.

Jimmy Agreed

I’ve only seen Jimmy Page live once. He was one of the guys who made me need to learn to play guitar. Led Zeppelin was very important to me as a young musician, but as I got older they sort of became less relevant. Every now and then I can put on a record and feel much of what I used to feel when I was a kid, but they don’t persist for me the way Cream or Jeff Beck do. Of the three ex-Yardbirds, Page became the least import to me.

He did a tour in 1988 and I was a little nervous. His guitar playing through the 80’s seemed like a mere shadow of what it was in the 70’s. Was he losing it? Maybe. There was no way I was passing on the chance to see him when his band came to the Centrum In Worcester though.

I was really surprised by not only how good the band was, but by how good his playing was. He was outstanding. It was so good that the cynical part of me wondered if I had just gotten caught up in the moment and it wasn’t as good as I thought.

Jimmy Page posted this on Instagram. Maybe the cynical part of me should just shut the hell up, right?

Brian Blessed

So I am watching Doctor Who. Season 23, Serial two, Episodes five through eight. There’s this guy playing a sort of barbarian king type thing. He’s very loud. He’s very operatic. His acting is WAY over the top.

He seemed familiar. I couldn’t place him. It was driving me a little nuts. Then as I was watching episode seven it came to me. He yelled something that brought it all back to me.

Hawk Men! Diiiiiiiiiive!!!!

His name is Brian Blessed and IMDB confirmed for me that he was in a Doctor Who serial in 1986. That’s the guy. I knew it would come to me.

IMDB also told me that he was the voice of the Gungan Boss in Star Wars Episode One. Oh… well that’s too bad, I think. He was Epically Epic in Flash Gordon, so he’s got that going for him forever.

Is “Favorite” the Right Word?

Three days in a row without the daily writing prompt being pulled into the daily writing prompt reply post. Come on, folks. Can we fix this bug please?

What is your favorite form of physical exercise?

I answer this question with a question: Is favorite the proper word to use to describe exercise? Shouldn’t we say something more like, “what is your least hated and awful and depressing and intolerable form or physical exercise?” Something more like that?

I woke up with a ton of back pain eight days ago and decided to help the healing process by not doing my daily exercise for a week. I marked Monday October 30th as the day I would start back up again. Then on the 29th we get this question? I sense a conspiracy here. They’re guilting me into exercising again, aren’t they. Jerks.

Okay, so my actual answer to the question is probably going for walks outside. That would be the “favorite” form of physical exercise. Walking outside in the woods, maybe… or at a Disney World theme park… just me and the Mrs, spending a little time together.

The most common, and therefore probably most effective and least intolerably awful form of exercise I’ve practiced since having the gastric bypass surgery is the silly little faux jogging (pronounced “yogging” with a soft “j” a la Anchorman). I go down into the cellar first thing in the morning and just run in place for half an hour or so. My heart rate goes up and I work up a little sweat and I feel like I am starting the day off right. I don’t know if it’s having any great effect on me physically, but I probably have a couple of super strong ankles now. I just have to get back to it tomorrow.

I also need to something about my very flabby looking arms. The post-gastric bypass surgery loose skin issue is definitely a thing for me. I need to do more exercise to deal with it in places that folks can see it. My arms are the main point. Also, I used to be able to fling heavy things around like nothing, but after losing all the weight I am noticeably weaker than I used to be. I have weights in the cellar that I can use to work on that issue but I don’t, even though I need to. The doctor recommended it and for some reason I can’t figure out how to work it into my daily routine. I will try to do something about it when I start yogging again tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow… back on the wagon tomorrow. Until then…

Kid’s Room Redesign

When Harry moved into his own apartment he took almost all of his bedroom furniture with him. Slowly but surely we’re putting it back together. We now have a day bed and a rug. Ignore the heavy things holding down the corners of said rug.

Don’t ignore the cat though