Category: Television

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – Spoiler Free Review

The first season of Daryl Dixon just wrapped up. My spoiler free review is this:

On the whole, I enjoyed the entire season, though there’s a lot of French dialog so you can’t get distracted by your phone or you’ll miss all of the subtitles and you’ll have to rewind to find out what you missed while clearing off the notifications on your wordpress.com blog, or your instagram, or whatever.

Apart from that, I will say that the entire six episode series is worth it just for the tag scene at the end of the last episode. I won’t give you more than that, but the bad assery that you’ve come to love through 11 seasons of The Walking Dead is alive and well.

Enjoy, zombie fans.

IKEA Explosion

I had one job today. Put together the day bed we got from IKEA.

It came to us in four boxes. None of them seemed terribly large but once I had all of the boxes open and the pieces separated it sure felt like a lot. The instruction book was only 2436612457 pages long. I think I am a little more than half way through it all but I am toast and will finish it after I sleep a lot and recover.

My stomach has been okay today outside of another one of those 3+ hour stomach aches. I finished lunch at 2:30 and at about 5:30 my stomach was hurting. Jen made a wonderful chicken and quinoa dish for dinner and it solved my problem. I have a long way to go to hit my 80 grams of protein goal though so I think I am going to go have a protein bar or something.

The season finale of Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is on tonight. I need to brush up on my French. Wish me luck.

Owen Wilson Night

We didn’t plan on making it Owen Wilson Night in our house tonight, but that’s the way it turned out.

First we watched the new episode of Loki. Season two, episode one came out yesterday. Jen and I watched it together. Owen Wilson plays Mobius and he might be the best part of the series.

A few hours later we were sitting down to dinner in the living room and Jen was hunting around looking for something to watch. Disney+ has The Haunted Mansion. Rottentomatoes.com has a high score for viewer reviews and a really low score for critic reviews. The cast does include Owen Wilson though… so…

We are hoping it will partially make up for our missing our Magic Kingdom day last month. It won’t, but maybe. Right?

Things to Do Tomorrow

I talked it over with my boss and I am not going into the office this week. For the second week in a row Covid is making me work from home for the full week. Even if I test negative I am still working from home this week. Wednesday is the in the office day, and the rest of my staff (with the exception of the guy who is on vacation) is going in, but I am staying home. We’re all in agreement that it’s just not worth the risk and we’re all more comfortable with me staying away, even though the CDC tells me I am not contagious.

So that’s good.

What about music? I’m feeling better so I should get back to that, right? The 50 songs in 90 days challenge ended on October 1st, two days ago, and I was very far from finished. I have a bunch of unfinished songs in the works that I plan on finishing, but I am sort of thinking that 50/90 should become 66/121 this year and I should just keep going through October. Either that or I will just add a 10 songs or 35 minutes of music album in a month on top of finishing off what’s still in the works from 50/90. Something like that. I just watched a bunch of Mahavishnu Orchestra concert videos on YouTube and watching John McLaughlin tear a 12-string guitar a new asshole (figuratively speaking) is making me want to put the focus on any October songs onto my acoustic 12-string… which really would be as far removed from anything McLaughlin did on his electric 12-string as humanly possible, but really the idea of me and John McLaughlin being mentioned in the same paragraph is utterly absurd given that he is possibly the most talented guitarist in history and I am a complete and utter hack. Whatever.

I’m on season 16 of the original Doctor Who. That binge watch continues at a break neck pace. There is also a concurrent binge watch of Good Omens 2, Futurama, Archer, Daryl Dixon, and Ahsoka (which is going to be over before I sleep tonight) with binges of Severance, Silo, and Foundation all being finished within the last few days. There is so much TV out there that needs to be watched. Also, Jen and I are about to finish 90210, which is amazing given how many thousands of episodes of that show there are. Unfortunately, Amazon Prime Video’s license of the show is dreadfully incomplete and nearly half of the episodes of the last few seasons, including the series finale, are missing. Something to do with not being able to secure the music rights? I don’t know. All I know for sure is that the writers and actors strikes are going to push all new shows back for a long time which means we have to enjoy what we have while we have it. Oh yeah, and Loki season 2 kicks off later this week, so that’s yet another show to add to the list. There is so much TV!

Okay, time to hit publish and watch the last episode of Ahsoka. I bet I am going to love it. How can I not love an episode of a Star Wars show?

Right then, see you tomorrow while I work from home and dig my 12-string out of the cellar closet. Good night, friends and neighbors and kind readers.

What Comes Next

I was really hoping that Covid would be behind me by today. Nope. I’m still dealing with it. I do feel a lot better though. I feel well enough that I can start thinking of what comes next.

I haven’t exercised in over a week. I haven’t closed my calorie ring on the activity app once in over a week. Do I start tomorrow? I am planning to work a full day so maybe I should skip the exercising in the morning for a few more days. I don’t want to wear myself out before the work day even starts. That’s not ideal, but it is safe.

What about music? There are six days left in the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. There is no way I will finish 50 songs, but I could get myself a whole lot closer than I am. I was looking at my Trello board and I think I could get into the low 40s without killing myself. Do I want to record some guitar parts in the morning? I could probably manage that. I don’t want to do a car vocals until I test negative. I know I wouldn’t run into any human creatures, but why risk it? I will stay home until I test negative and then after that I will mask up if I do anything out of the house. That also means no photography fun outside of the house for at least a few more days.

As for tonight, my water goal is done, my vitamins are done, my protein goal is… almost done. Five grams or so still to go. I can get that easily. I am a bit full now but in 30 minutes or so I’ll be ready to finish that off. I am hoping I will catch the new episode of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon tonight before I go to sleep. If I can sneak in a little more Doctor Who before I sleep that would be nice too. I think I’ve blown through more than three seasons (or was it four?) during my quarantine. So very much Who.

Next weekend the plan is to clean the house from top to bottom. I want the house to be covid-residue free before we invite anyone over. Safety first, right? After that I want to push to travel again. Maybe just a road trip, or possibly an overnight somewhere. I don’t want us to lose our covid nerve. We’ve fallen off the horse and I want to make sure we get back on as soon as possible. Does that make sense? We locked down so hard that feeling up to leaving the house took a lot of effort. Then to have us catch the plague for the first time during a vacation? I don’t want us to be afraid to travel again. I want us to go somewhere as soon as possible. It’s Fall now, so maybe in a few weeks it will be time for leaf peeping. Maybe an overnight to Manhattan would be a good destination too. I also want us to rebook our long weekend in Disney World. The trip that went bust on us was an experiment to see if it was worth it to fly all the way there for a 3-4 day visit. The answer to that question is still up in the air and we definitely have to do the research. The question is, when? Maybe around Christmas? We’ll have to look into the options.

So there are a few things I am thinking about for the near future. The real question is, do I set my alarm clock for 5:00am tomorrow, or 6:00am. I won’t have an answer until I actually lay down to sleep. Until then…

Caution: This Post is Going to be Ultra Nerdy

Spoiler alert: This post is about to be as nerdy as I can possibly get. Ultra nerdy. Uber nerdy. The zenith of nerdy.

I started my Doctor Who journey with the current series because that’s the one my step kids have watched. I didn’t know it at the time but they actually both skipped the three most resent season due to reviews that state the quality of the writing took quite a dip after season 10. The reviews were accurate, but I still really enjoyed the last three seasons.

My decision to start watching the original show too was based on a laugh. I thought it would be funny if I watched the old show and the kids watched the new show and then we could debate which was better. That was before I knew that the old show was 26 seasons and a TV movie, and that the first bunch of seasons were 40+ episodes each. There are so many seasons and so very many episodes. Suddenly the idea of watching the whole show felt very intimidating.

When I was a kid, the PBS network used to air Doctor Who reruns. Every now and then, when there was nothing else on, I would try to watch an episode. I never got terribly far. I just didn’t know what was going on and I didn’t care to do the background work to figure it out. There was no internet then so I couldn’t go to wikipedia and get the info. I’d just have to piece it together an episode at a time. No, that was too much work for me. My friend Mike was a fan and he encouraged me to try, but I never did.

The actor who played The Doctor on those PBS reruns was Tom Baker. I didn’t know it then, but he was the 4th Doctor. From my point of view he was the only Doctor. None of the other actors were known to me. It was Tom Baker or nothing. When I started my original series binge watch I thought about only watching his episodes and just skipping everyone else. In the end I decided against that, partially because I am a completist, but also because I am an idiot. No, I started with season one, episode one and just put my head down and powered through.

Last night I watched the last episode of season 11. At the very end of that one, Doctor #3, Jon Pertwee, dies and is regenerated into Doctor , Tom Baker. At last, I have arrived. I have now seen every episode (that still exists) with Doctors through 3, and 9 through 13. I have now watched the first eight episodes (two four episode serials) of season 12. The first two serials with the 4th Doctor. Maybe it’s a weird sense of misplaced nostalgia talking, but in those few episodes Tom Baker has catapulted to the top of the list of my favorite Doctors. There’s something about the attitude he brought to the roll. It’s the way he faces the end of universe with a smile and a laugh. He seems like he’s having a blast trying to keep everything around him from falling into chaos. It’s just fun to watch the guy having fun.

So if I had to rank the doctors I’ve seen so far from favorite to least favorite, the list would look something like this:

  • Tom Baker
  • #10 David Tennant
  • #11 Matt Smith
    • Note, second and third place are a dead heat. They could easily be swapped. I enjoyed both of them equally
  • #2 Patrick Troughton
  • Peter Capaldi
  • #3 Jon Pertwee
  • #13 Jodie Whittaker
  • #9 Christopher Eccleston
  • William Hartnell

This doesn’t imply that I did not enjoy the performances of the actors at the bottom of the list. It just means I enjoyed the other folks a little more. If you like your science fiction on the cheesier, campier, budgetarily-challenged side then I would recommend each and every one of these Doctors. They are all worth a try.

Just for completeness sake, I still have the following Doctors left to see. #5 Peter Davison, #6 Colin Baker (no relation), #7 Sylvester McCoy, #8 Paul McGann, #14 David Tennant (again), and #15 Ncuti Gatwa. Doctors #14 and 15 haven’t aired yet so I will have to wait for them. 14 will get three episodes starting in November and 15 will get season 14 starting sometime next year.

So there you have it, the nerdiest post in wordpress.com history. May Tom Baker continue to be the best Doctor for the next 6+ seasons, and may the Doctors I haven’t seen yet live up to the expectations. Nerd.

Doctor Robin

Robin (Hipsta-Kitty) is trying to watch Doctor Who with me. I’m on the last serial in season nine. The next thing on the series list is the 10th anniversary celebration where they brought back the first two actors who played The Doctor. Fitting as we’re getting the 60th anniversary episode in a couple of months, and the last episode I watched from the current series had a bunch of past Doctor actors come back as well. It’s like a small world or something.

One More to Go

My epic binge watch of the new Doctor Who show ends tonight. One episode to go and then I’ll be caught up until new episodes air in November.

I still have 7355427846428 episodes of the original series left though.

Less Than Nine Hours to Go

It’s just after 8:30am on the Friday before Labor Day weekend and I haven’t punched in to work yet. I had a few things to do first. I went with Harry to the garage to drop off his rental car and pick up his car. It’s all set and it looks as good as new. He just left to go back to Burlington. He’s going to miss his first class this morning, but that’s about the only downside to this visit. All is well again.

I’m less than nine hours away from a three day weekend. I just finished season 11 of the new Doctor Who. I have 20 episodes over two seasons left to go and then I’ll be all caught up. I’m on episode 17 of season seven of the original show. Eight episodes left in this season and something like 2346123472572 episodes left in the full series. I don’t expect to finish either series this weekend, but I can pretty much guarantee I’ll be done with the new show in a week or so which means I will be 100% caught up before the next episode airs in November.

What about the music project? I have 27 songs finished and 39 total in progress. I have four more songs ready to mix and I hope to crank them all out tonight. I have 30 days left, including today, and a ton of work still to go, but I think I am more or less on pace to finish on time. I’ll have a few days at Disney World where it will be tough to make progress, but I think I will be okay. I should note that even though I took over two weeks off in August, I still managed to finish an RPM Challenge Rules album in a month as I started and finished 12 songs within the calendar month. I started and finished 10 in July too. In order to hit 50 songs over all I will need to start and finish 11 songs in September. Three album in a months in a row isn’t a bad place to be. I think once this project is finished I will try to get back into the last re-recording project which has been left hanging for a little more than a year now.

I mentioned in the last post that my stomach has been a little less than 100% this morning. I had some trouble with water early on and had to deal with a minor bout of The Foamies after taking my vitamins. I only got eight ounces of water in during my exercise, but afterwards I was okay for breakfast and I am feeling much better now. I’ve managed another eight ounces since I came home from Harry’s auto shop. I think we’re back on track today. I might have a hamburger on the grill for lunch today. We’ll see how it goes.

Okay, it’s 8:50am now and I have to be punched into work by 9:00. I think I’ll hit publish on this masterpiece of an update and get my work day started. Lots to do today, lots to do. Eight hours and 40 minutes to go until the long weekend.

You can do it, Robbie! You can do it!