Sleep and Spoilers

I did something I rarely do. I let myself sleep late on a work day. Not too late, but later than usual.

The last few nights I have had the worst sleep. Barely five hours on Sunday and Monday nights. Less than five hours on Tuesday night. I was practically in a coma for much of the day yesterday. I needed sleep so badly.

Last night? Almost seven hours. Still not enough sleep, but so much more than I’ve been getting. Bliss. I usually set an alarm on my watch for 5:00am. Jen has an alarm set for a half an hour after that, but I am usually down cellar exercising before her alarm goes off.

Today? I slept until a little after 6:00. It meant I was running behind throughout my entire morning routine, but it was worth it. I’ll still probably be asleep on my feet by around 7:00pm tonight, but for now? I feel a little better.

Okay then, part two of this post is going to deal with Star Wars: The Acolyte and it is ABSOLUTELY SPOILER FILLED. If you haven’t watched the show, bail out now. I have two stupid comments that are burning a hole in my tiny little brain and I have to get them out and THEY ARE SPOILERS so you have been warned.

Seriously… if you want to watch the show and you haven’t yet, get out now.

You have been warned… again…

Last warning…

Okay. So this is the same comment made twice. Once is me being a snob, the other is me getting mine.

Before the show aired, people online were over the moon about Carrie-Anne Moss playing Jedi Master Indara. People who’ve read the High Republic books and/or comics were all excited about what a bad ass warrior Indara is and how viewers were going to be over the moon at how awesome she is. Also… it’s freakin’ Carrie-Anne Moss. People were foaming at the mouth over having such an awesome actor in the cast.

Episode one… the first scene… Carrie-Anne Moss as Jedi Master Indara in a lightsaber fight. This is it! Here it comes… oh… she’s dead… oh.

I laughed out loud knowing that the internet would be turned on its ear over that scene. People were going to be pissed and it made me happy. Screw your expectations! Take that, know it all book readers! I was just tickled.

Fast forward to episode five. The episode was awesome. They saved up a whole season’s worth of action scenes and threw them all in our face at once. Just fight after fight after fight. It was fantastic. When Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon started fighting our dark side bad guy, the action was incredible. I was watching on my laptop and I thought to myself, if they want to do a spin off show where this kid just fights everyone, I will be totally, 100% on board… oh… she’s dead… oh… I guess that’s what I get for laughing at the Indara fans… Okay… I totally got what was coming to me. Serves me right for being snobby about people being snobby. Lesson learned, Acolyte. Lesson learned.

Okay, the spoilers have ended. You may go on with the rest of your day now. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. I appreciate your patience.

Sustainability Again

Are there things you try to practice daily to live a more sustainable lifestyle?

Daily Writing Prompt

Right then, let us play this goofy game one more time.

Here is my response to this question from last year:

I’ve only been playing this daily prompt game for a few days, and since jumping on the wagon there haven’t been any questions that required any thought, or made me want to… you know… write anything. Now we have one and the theme is going to be shame.

I am going to have to turn in my hippy membership card after this one because up until recently I haven’t really lived my life in a way that could be in any way considered sustainable. The only exception being driving a car with a hybrid engine. Sometimes. Also, that’s only been a part of my life for a few years now. We have two cars in our household an one is a hybrid. The other… very much isn’t. It gets okay gas mileage but nothing to write home about. I drive a lot and when I am covering any notable distance I drive the hybrid. Other than that…

Until recently I never recycled. I produce what feels like a lot of waste. We order food for delivery more than we should and that always comes with tons of packaging that goes into the trash. Plastic, Styrofoam, the works. Fortunately for the Earth, my city sort of forced recycling upon us not long ago. They instituted automated trash pick up and issued a trash barrel and a recycling barrel to each residence. That put me onto the recycling wagon so when it comes to sustainability, I am pleased with myself for adding that to my personal list, but still disappointed with myself for making it to my 50’s before getting on that particular bus.

So I guess I am doing a couple of things to be sustainable now. I just feel like I should have been doing it a lot longer than I have. I seriously doubt I would make any difference, as my hippy self is often overpowered by my much more insistent cynical self, but as a proud bleeding heart liberal my lack of sustainable habits have always been a major source of hypocrisy.

I’m doing better now though. I will continue to do better in the future. I promise.

Link to last year

And now let’s have Google Gemini write a comment, just for goofy fun:

The writer is grappling with the theme of shame through the lens of sustainability. Here are some points to consider in your comment:

  • Relatable struggle: Many people can identify with the internal conflict between wanting to be eco-friendly and falling short due to convenience or ingrained habits.
  • Humor and self-deprecation: The use of phrases like “turn in my hippy membership card” and “bleeding heart liberal” adds a touch of humor while acknowledging the hypocrisy the writer feels.
  • Progress over perfection: Even though the writer feels they should have started sooner, they acknowledge the positive steps they’ve taken and their commitment to continuing to improve.

You could offer encouragement for their efforts or share your own experiences with sustainable living.

And finally, let’s ask Google Gemini to generate an image based on last year’s post and see what kind of monstrosity it dreams up.

Dark Matter

I just finished watching Dark Matter on AppleTV+. I really enjoyed it.

It’s weird. They ran a show called Constellation that centered on the idea of a multiverse and people swapping between parallel universes. That show was okay but it was a little confusing and they never really spelled out the hows or whys or even the whats. Apparently that show was cancelled after it’s one season.

Almost immediately after Constellation ended, Dark Matter came out. Nine episodes focusing on the idea of the multiverse and people swapping between parallel universes. The difference between the two shows? Simple. Constellation was okay. Dark Matter was excellent. At times it was riveting. Just when you thought you had your brain wrapped around it, BAM so new piece of information that turned everything upside down. It was just really good.

Will there be a season two? I don’t think so. The show was based on a book (and you can bet your sweet ass that the book is on my reading list now) and I believe the entire book was covered. They could always come up with some new issue for our main characters to deal with, but I don’t know. I think we’ve gotten all we’re getting.

If that’s the case and the show is a one and done… then it was really well done and I’m glad I watched it all the way through.

If you like science fiction and good TV, and you have an AppleTV+ subscription… check it out.

Froggie

I wrote about the karmic retribution I witnessed on the morning commute today, but I have yet to write about the other thing that happened during my drive to work.

I’ve yet to write about the frog.

On two past occasions, we have somehow found a tiny little frog hanging out in our house. Once our former cat, the late great Miss Patches, cornered a frog in the living room. Years later our current pair o’ kitties cornered a frog in the hallway between the living room and the bedrooms.

A little research lead me to believe that the frogs are a tree climbing variety of froggers who climbed a tree next to our house and then came inside via the chimney through the fireplace. Seems logical.

This morning while I was in the car stuck in traffic on route 93 South Jen called me. She was calling to let me know that the cats, Miss Robin and Miss Lily had once again cornered a frog. This time in the dining room. They had it underneath a piece of furniture where it was paralyzed with fear. It would hop a little, the cats would freak out, it would freeze. This repeated itself a couple of times.

Jen wasn’t sure what to do. I said to see if she could cover it with a bowl or a box or something. She was already thinking the same thing. She didn’t think she’d be able to do anything with it if she trapped it. She has a bad back and leaning over to scoop up a tiny amphibian would be difficult for her. I said to cover it with a bowl and leave it and I’d get rid of it when I got home.

Fast forward 11 hours and I come home to find a bowl flipped upside down on the dining room floor. I cut a piece of cardboard off of a box and slid it under the bowl and walked it outside. I flipped it over to see if I had anyone with me and sure enough there was a tiny little frog in the bowl. I let him go in the front yard. It’s very likely he will be eaten by some predator tonight, but it’s equally likely he will climb a tree and hide out and be safe. Assuming of course that he is not so traumatized by the experience that he just sits there in the grass in a state of utter shock.

However it turns out for our froggie little roommate, he was alive when I left him. Everything else that happens now is out of our hands.

Good luck, my hoppy little friend.

NHL Playoff Predictions: Wrap Up

I don’t want to write this post. I am too sad. Too hockey sad, to be specific.

Usually when I do these playoff prediction things I end being right a little bit more than 50% of the time. Not this year. This year I am sub 50% and it hurts. Oh well. What’s a Bruins fan to do?

After three rounds I had predicted the winner of seven out of 14 series. Exactly 50%. My coin flip control group/comparison was not so lucky. The coin was right on five out of 14 series. That just proved that blind guesses have miserable luck… or something along those lines.

In the Stanley Cup Final between the Panthers and the Oilers, the coin and I both picked the Oilers and we were both wrong, damn it. So my final success rate for the entire playoff season is 7/15, or about 46.7%. Awful. Miserable. The coin flip’s final success rate for the entire playoff season is 5/15, or 33%. Even more awful. Even more miserable.

Boo, I say. Boo. I just had a really bad postseason. Honestly, any postseason that doesn’t end with a big victory parade in Boston is a bad postseason, but some are more pathetic than others, you know what I mean?

The Red Sox play the Blue Jays tonight. My sports fan energy is 100% focused on baseball now. Go Red Sox.

Plant Based Diet

I mentioned the other day that I took a couple of plants from the cellar and moved them into my home office/step son’s bedroom and put them on the table with the clippings from Bellana’s plant in the hopes that I could bring them back from the brink of imminent death.

Last night when I got home from work I checked on them… and one of them had been almost entirely eaten… I think we can safely put the blame for this one at least one of two cats, if not both cats.

Sorry, cellar plant.

That Moment When…

That moment when you’re running a little late getting through your morning routine and you remember you don’t have enough gas in the car to get you to the office.

Ugh.

300/365
300/365

Fortunately the traffic was awful but normal levels of awful (unlike yesterday which was awful times two) and I got to my desk with a few minutes to spare.

I have a story from the road too. Want to hear it?

You know that old saying, there’s never a cop around when you need one?

I was stuck in a 1.5 mile long line of gridlocked traffic trying to exit route 93 South and merge onto route 128/95 South. Some jerk off in a pickup with Pennsylvania plates decided to drive up to the exit ramp in the breakdown lane. Prick. Schmuck. There’s never a state trooper around when you need one, I thought. At that very instant, an unmarked state trooper pulled into the breakdown lane behind him, put on his flashers, and pulled said prick/schmuck over.

Finally! I’ve been driving for 37 years and that is the first time I can ever remember seeing karma kick some jack ass in the teeth like that. It was glorious.

Delicious

What’s the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten?

Daily Writing Prompt

Okay, so that’s the writing prompt… here’s my response from last year.

Now how can you answer this question? This is completely subjective. The most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten? That probably changes every time I eat anything. I mean, how many magical chocolate cakes have there been? How many magnificent premium steaks at the Capital Grill or Ruths Chris have there been? How many trips to Kimball’s for ice cream?

I mean, how can a guy reasonably narrow down a lifetime of delicious food, especially when he doesn’t really have a stomach anymore and can’t eat many of the things he used to love?

And here is a really pointless comment from Google’s A.I…. because why not?

This text expresses a delightful frustration with the subjectivity of the question “most delicious thing ever eaten.” The author playfully highlights the vast amount of delicious food they’ve encountered, from fancy steaks to ice cream trips, making it nearly impossible to choose just one.

The comment also hints at a bittersweet undertone. The mention of a missing stomach and the inability to enjoy food in the same way suggests the author may be looking back on these experiences with fondness.

And finally, here’s an image generated by Google’s A.I. based on last year’s text. What fun.

Yes, Virginia, Robert is extremely bored with this crap. Time to find another way to play along. This is dumb.