Category: Television

Week 41 Weigh In

I am pleasantly surprised and rather pleased. I mentioned before that I have been eating a lot more than usual. I’ve been eating things that aren’t necessarily good for me too. I’ve been handling it all okay for the most part, though the couple of ounces of peanuts I tried to eat last night gave me the worst bought of nausea I’ve experienced since the start of this whole thing.

I expected minimal weight loss at best, and realistically with all the stress eating and difficulties of the last week I expected to gain a little weight. I did not. I lost 1.8 pounds, which under the circumstances feels like a ton. I now weight 222 even. My BMI dropped 0.2 points to 27 even. I’m inching closer to that mythical, magical 25 mark. My weight loss since the surgery is now at 209.4, and my weight loss since the first check in moved the 10’s column and reached 230.4.

At the wake Monday night I lost track of the number of times someone came through the receiving line and didn’t recognize me. While it was life affirming every single time, I also got a little tired of it. I get it, I am thinner. Can we focus on the topic at hand please? I don’t know. I felt guilty about feeling good about my health while my mother was 10 feet away in a casket.

On an unrelated note, I am watching the last few minutes of The Mandalorian season two, episode six. I just watched Boba Fett kick the crap out of a drop ship full of stormtroopers. If only the Book of Boba Fett season had followed suit. Oh well. I think I am going to include that show in my Mandalorian pre-season three prep binge anyway. It was good, it just wasn’t great. Except for the episodes with Mando and Baby Yoda, of course. Those episodes were stellar.

On another unrelated note, I took today off to recover from the wake and the funeral. It might be the best move I’ve ever made, career wise. I need a decompression day. Jen is working though so I am not going to play guitar through an amp all day. I am going to play guitar through an amp sim though. I have eight songs to put rhythm guitars on before I sleep tonight. I will get The RPM Challenge on track today, even if it kills me.

Rewatch Bonanza

I had a tough day today. It’s going to be tough the next couple of days but that’s not relevant to this post. The tough day resulted in a lot of time in the living room vegging in front of the television. That means I was able to finish my Star Trek Picard two season rewatch with tons of time to spare before the third season premiere on Thursday.

It also means I was able to start the two-plus season rewatch of The Mandalorian with oodles of time before the third season premiere on March 1st. Hell, I may even throw in the full season of The Book of Boba Fett rather than just the three episodes with Mando and/or Grogu. We will see.

Picard Rewatch

I got shit done on the RPM Challenge today, but on the plus side we got this week’s episode of The Last of Us two days early and it was freaking incredible.

Also, I just finished season one of Star Trek Picard, and I’m 7.5 minutes into season two. Will I finish before season three starts on Thursday? We’ll see.

Once the Picard rewatch is done I need to rewatch The Mandalorian before season three launches on March 1st. There is also new South Park, and each episode of The Last of Us requires multiple viewings (the show is that good) and I’ve got a couple of seasons (I think) of Star Trek Discovery still to go, as well as the last season of The Orville, and The Flash just kicked off it’s final season.

As far as TV is concerned, there’s a lot of good stuff to take in. The 10 episodes of Picard season two come first though.

Getting Through the Prep Work

My brother and sister and I met last night to work on the planning for the funeral. We picked music and readings and started asking cousins to play the various parts. We have one reader but still need one more. We have three pall bearers but still need three more. We have offers out for the remaining parts and are just waiting to hear back.

Jen and I were a little late getting out of the house. I called my father to let him know we’d be late for the planned suit fitting and he said he was tired and asked if we could reschedule to tomorrow, which is now today. I put in for a couple of hours at the end of the day so that we can head over earlier. Jen is off today so it should all work out. That still gives us the weekend to replace anything we bought that doesn’t fit him. We’re still in good shape.

I’ve been really hungry the last couple of days. My meals have gotten significantly larger and I’ve had more between meal snacks. I have to assume it’s an emotional thing. The good news is that yesterday I had actual food with every meal. I had protein supplements along with each meal, but that was just to make sure I hit my goal. Eggs for breakfast and chicken for lunch and dinner. I also had peanuts as snacks instead of protein bars. It wasn’t a lot of snack-level protein intake, but it felt pretty good to do it that way.

No music last night. Not sure if tonight will be any different. I am 2/5 of the way through Star Trek Picard season 1 episode 6 though. I’m more than 25% of the way through the two season rewatch with season three kicking off in six days. Probably not going to make it unless I do an alarmingly intense binge over the weekend. Of course The Mandalorian season three kicks off on March 1st. Can I follow the two season Picard rewatch with a 2+ season Mandalorian rewatch by 3/1? (2+ seasons due to the two episodes where The Mandalorian hijacked The Book of Boba Fett, right?)

Right then. Time to start getting ready for work. Talk to you later. Parents, tell your kids you love them. Kids, tell your parents you love them.

Picard Season 3

Star Trek Picard season three will kick off in eight days. I really enjoyed season one. Season two was okay but not nearly as good. The trailer for season three looks outstanding. Is it a fake out? Who knows.

I have decided to prep for the new season by rewatching the first two. I’m up to the opening credits of s1e1. Think I’ll finish before the 16th?

Back to Reality

Oh boy, is this a bummer.

It’s Monday. Vacation is over. It is time to get back to the week day routine. Crud.

I tried very hard to close all three of my activity rings over the course of the vacation. Unfortunately, on Thursday, our last park day, I hit a level of exhaustion that I don’t think I’ve ever hit before. I lost the ability to focus my eyes. It was scary. My stand and exercise rings were closed, but my activity (calorie) ring had quite a ways to go. It couldn’t be helped. I was thinking I was at the start of another migraine so I got into bed, buried my eyes under the pillow, and went to sleep with my third ring still open.

My success streak had come to an end, and over the next two days we were going to be in the car all day. I made the choice to just not worry about it until we got home. Then when we got home I was so out of sorts that I decided to take the weekend off too. Well, the weekend is over. It’s 6:48am and my exercise ring is closed. I jogged (pronounced “yog”, with a soft “J”) in place for 31.5 minutes which closed the exercise ring and 64% of the move ring. I plan to start lifting the hand weights a little again today too. I fell off that wagon months ago and it’s time to start that up again.

A couple of other points on this random Monday morning. Last night I watched the first episode of The Last of Us and HOLY CRAP was that good. So good. I am absolutely riveted. I never played the game so all I know of the story is from the trailer, but that was enough to know that the first half hour of the show was leading us directly to something gut wrenching and boy did it ever. I am so psyched for episode two next week. I am going to find every podcast covering the show that I can and queue them all up today. I am 100% on board with the hype.

I placed an order with the film lab I’ve been using, Old School Photo Lab in Dover, NH, on Saturday but I haven’t had a chance to drop the film in the mail yet. I was thinking of doing it this morning, but we got a little snow last night and I just don’t want to deal with it. Tomorrow will probably see me starting my work day super early, so maybe at lunch time tomorrow? Maybe at lunch today if the ice from last night melts a little. I haven’t checked the forecast yet. We’ll see. I have six rolls from Disney World and I want to see how they came out. I also have two rolls of black and white from around christmas that are going too. Once all of that is back I am going to slow down on the film for a while. I have a roll in progress in Dad’s camera that I would like to finish, and a roll in my camera that I haven’t taken the first shot with. That roll is going to sit there for a few months, I think. Once Dad’s roll is done I will take a couple of months off again.

Okay, it’s almost 7:00am. Time to go upstairs and start the day for real. My two week vacation is over. Pity me.

New Years Eve Visit

The kids just left. They got here about 1:00 and stayed for four hours. That’s more than I expected. I’m very pleased. I got to visit my mother and my father today too. That was tough, but I’m glad I was able to do it.

A nice big chunk of the packing has already happened. Well… our packing. The kids… not so much. That’s okay. They are coming over around 1:00ish on Monday with their bags. I’ll load them into the car and then load all of our bags, including all of the stuff that’s only there for the car trips.

As for the rest of New Years Eve? I had a less than good nights sleep last night and I was crashing hard around 3:00 this afternoon. I made our late lunch/early dinner a little after that and it fueled me up a bit. I’d say that staying up until midnight is a 50/50 call right now, but I’d still like to do it. Over the last month or two I’ve been setting an alarm for 5:00am so that I can get my exercise for the day done before anyone else wakes up. I might push that to 6:00 tomorrow… or maybe 7:00… we’ll see.

On an unrelated note, Jen and I have started watching the new Quantum Leap. It’s not a reboot. It’s more like a sequel with a redesign. We’re only three episodes in (or is it four?) but so far we’re liking it. The time traveling dude has yet to say, “oh boy” though, so it doesn’t feel quite the same.

Five hours and 21 minutes until 2023.

Oh boy.

YouTube is Helpful

I’ve watched at least 10 videos on YouTube that walk through Nikon Z5 settings and menus. There was one question I had that none of them answered. How do you set the camera so that you can use the little joystick to set your focus point. While doing today’s faux-jog (pronounced faux-yog, with a soft “J”) I watched this one, which I think answered the question. I’ll check once my legs start working again.

Ever since the camera obsession was reborn back in June, YouTube has been a huge help to me, a source of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (what is this medium format of which you speak?), and it’s more or less replaced my constant television streaming. 95% of what I’ve watched is film related, but there are a bunch of digital folks that I have obsessed over too.

Of course January will bring us a new Star Wars show (The Bad Batch season two) and a new HBO show that I can already tell is going to be appointment viewing (The Last of Us), and there is more Star Wars and Marvel (I think?) and Walking Dead not too far behind that. TV will take back a lot of my time during faux-jog (pronounced faux-yog, with a soft “J”), but I think photography YouTube might be here to stay for a while.

For now though, let’s go see if the autofocus joy stick thingie can be switched on via the back display screen.

ADDENDUM: Okay, so I can’t embed the video. Sigh. You get the idea anyway, right? Here’s a link.

New Xmas Tradition

Today I have birthed a new official christmas tradition…

Ready?

While wrapping gifts, watch Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Yes, MST3K is traditionally more of a Thanksgiving thing, what with the old Turkey Day Marathons, but I feel it is a wonderful addition to your Xmas gift wrapping experience.

You’re welcome.