Hockey Panic

I’ve written about this before, probably a few times, but I’m doing it again so there…

Is it like this in other regions of the world? I live near Boston, Massachusetts in the good ol’ U.S.of A. Folks in Boston take their professional sports teams seriously. Very seriously. Ridiculously seriously. We’re kinda nuts. It’s the same across all of the major sports. Red Sox fans are nuts about their baseball team. Patriots fans are nuts about their football team. Celtics fans are nuts about their basketball team. Bruins fans are nuts about their hockey team. Revolution fans… are there any Revolution fans? Is pro soccer even a thing?

When I say we’re nuts about our teams, I don’t mean that in a positive way. I mean that in a clinical, potentially dangerous, bordering on mental illness kind of way. We’re insane. Our entire well being is often tied directly to our favorite team. For example, a few days ago the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in game four of their first round, best of seven playoff series. For those of us who are out of control with the craziness kinds of Bruins fans, that win put us on top of the world. Nothing could ever go wrong. Life is good. Life is grand. Go Bruins, the sun shines upon us favorably, world without end, amen. Last night, however, the Bruins lost to the Maple Leafs in game five of the series. That resulted in a spiraling depression that can never be undone. Life is unbearable. Life is intolerable. Nothing will ever go right for us again. the world is ending and we should just put it out of its misery and get it overwith.

My question, again, is… are sports fans in other cities this freakin’ insane? Are fans in other parts of the world inclined to tie their mental health and sense of well being to their sports teams in such a way that the tiniest of victories result in unimaginable bliss and any loss results in crippling depression?

I ask because after last night’s Bruins overtime loss to the Maple Leafs, the depression is pretty crippling and life doesn’t seem terribly worth living. That could all change in an instant if the Bruins win game six tomorrow. If they lose again though… there will likely be a long parade of Bruins fans lining up on the Tobin Bridge, just preparing themselves for the possibility of a game seven loss which would lead to most of them hurling themselves off of the largest bridge in Massachusetts (the previously mentioned Tobin Bridge) to escape the pain and suffering caused by yet another Bruins choke.

Are all sports fans this insane, or is it just a greater Boston area flavor of insanity? Inquiring minds need to know. I’m guessing people all over the globe are nuts like this, but Bostonians are just a little more nuttier. We could be, at least.

Do I have to say it? Do I have to add a #sarcasm to this?

Suddenly Best Friends

This morning they were chasing each other around like maniacs, each trying desperately to kick the other’s ass.

Now?

In unrelated news, I mentioned earlier that I finished Star Wars: The Bad Batch this morning. Last night I finished Penny Dreadful. The night before I finished Snowpiercer. I’m halfway through season eight of The X-Files. Last night I started season two of Extraordinary. New episodes of Star Trek Discovery come out on Thursdays so there will be a new one tomorrow. I started watching Baby Reindeer on Netflix because I heard it was excellent. I’m halfway through and I think it’s good… maybe? It’s really tough to watch though. By design, I think. I also started re-watching The Last of Us and speaking of tough to watch. It is fantastic but gut wrenching even on the second view.

I feel like I am running out of shows to obsess over. Star Wars: Tales of the Empire comes out on Saturday. The new season of Doctor Who kicks off one week later. Maybe I should get back to Torchwood and Pennyworth again. I don’t know why I stopped watching those shows, but it has been a while. I guess I’ll just have to poke around Netflix and Hulu and find a couple more shows. This is the golden age of television, after all.

Clicky

I really like using clicky mechanical keyboards like this one that is on my desk in the office. Jen gave it to me. I like it a lot, but I really miss the number pad. I find myself reaching for a number pad multiple times a day when I work at this desk. I’m thinking about looking for a new clicky mechanical keyboard that has a number pad. I don’t know. I don’t want to spend money on it though.

Mostly this is just because the work day is ending soon and I wanted to post a picture of something and I am in the office so really my keyboard is the only subject available to me. You know how it is.

The Bad Batch is Over

This morning, while doing my usual morning exercise, I watched the new episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch that was released today. Not only is it a new episode, it’s the last new episode. Ever. The series finale wrapped everything up nicely.

Well… nicely may not apply to everything it wrapped up. No spoilers, but some of the stories didn’t so much wrap up as just end. It was a good episode and it closed out a very good season. The first two seasons were a little on the hit or miss side, though more hits than misses, but season three was a banger from start to finish.

There was a lot of speculation on spin offs and it does open the door to something, but not any of the things people were guessing. Those things could still happen as there is a lot of ground to cover. I’m still hoping for a Ventris/Omega buddy cop show, but today’s episode didn’t hint at anything in that direction.

There were a couple of dark moments, but nothing even remotely close to what I had predicted. When the first episode of the first season premiered, I made a prediction on how I thought the show should end. I expected it to answer the question, why are there no clones around in the original movies? The reason, of course, being that George Lucas hadn’t come up with the idea of a clone army yet. He mentioned The Clone Wars in the original movie but never gave any details at all. It wasn’t until the second of the prequel movies that we learned what that name meant. Back in the 70’s and 80’s? Ol’ George didn’t have a clue.

That’s the real reason why there are no clone troopers in episodes 4 through 6, but what is the retconned story reason? My prediction, after watching season one episode one of The Bad Batch, was that the ending to the series would include The Emperor giving an order along the lines of Order 66 which would result in all of the clones just dropping dead. Poof, all gone. Dead clones everywhere. No muss, no fuss, no clones around for A New Hope. That would have been dark. Really dark. Alas I was wrong with my prediction (big surprise there, right?) and as the series ended there are still clones all over the place.

Maybe if there is a spin off my predicted Order 67 (or whatever) might come to pass. We’ll have to see, my fellow Star Wars fanboys and fangirls. We’ll have to see.

Quote

Daily writing prompt
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?
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I like to borrow my quote-to-live-by from the keyboard player for Spinal Tap. He said, “have a good time, all the time.”

No… sorry, I can’t back that up. I’m full of it. I don’t live my life that way. I more live my life by a quote from the drummer from Spinal Tap. He said, “the law of averages says you will survive.” Actually, Marty DiBergi said that, not the drummer. He said it to the drummer and the drummer agreed… and then shortly after the drummer exploded on stage.

So that might not be a good quote to live by either.

Google used to have a good quote and I would like to say I try to live my life by it, even if Google does not. Google said, “don’t be evil.” I would expect most of us could live by that pretty successfully without much effort, but if that is the case how does one explain the maga cult and the rise of fascism worldwide? That’s the exact opposite of don’t be evil. That’s a bunch of psychotics embracing evil and being as evil as humanly possible all day long.

Crap.

I guess I don’t really have a quote to live my life by. I love my wife and I love my kids and I love my family and I love my friends and I try to be a good employee and a good supervisor and I try to play the guitar as much as possible and I try to embrace the chaos that is the occasional run-on sentence.

Other than that… I guess… have a good time all the time.

Game Five: Tied in the Third

Game five is about seven minutes into the third period and the score is tied at one.

This isn’t a must win for the Bruins, what with their three games to one lead in the series, but after blowing the same lead to Florida in the first round last year, it sure feels like a must win to me!

Come on, Bruins. You’ve got half a period left to put Toronto away for good.

Game Five

I turned on the Bruins game just in time to see the Leafs score and take a 1-0 lead in the first period.

MuthaPussBucket!

The pain of the collapse in games five, six, and seven in the first round against Florida last year is still very fresh in my mind.

Not again, Bruins. Pretty please?

New Music

A new David Gilmour single:

A new Deep Purple single:

What do I think? The Purple song is pretty good. It’s the first release with their new guitar player, Simon McBride. I had only ever heard him on an episode of That Pedal Show, but he’s good. Really good. He’s not Ritchie Blackmore. I should not judge him based on the fact that he’s not Ritchie Blackmore. I am a Tommy Bolin fan and when Bolin replaced Blackmore in 1975 most of the Purple fandom shat on him because he isn’t Ritchie Blackmore. I would like to think I would have given him a chance were I paying attention and not four years old so in that spirit I want to give Simon McBride a chance. I gave Steve Morse a chance too, but he’s Steve Freakin’ Morse and he was already an absolute legend when he joined the band back in the 90’s. I saw the Steve Morse Purple live a few times. The guy was shockingly good. This song is okay.

Ian Gillan sounds particularly good here. I’ll wait for the full album release before I decide what I think for reals. I am not sure when it comes out, but it will be called =1, which is a name I probably would have tried to talk them out of if I were their A&R guy, or their producer, or their friend, or their neighbor who they occasionally talk to when we both happen to be outside doing yard work or something.

As for the David Gilmour song… woah. My one fear with his new record is that it sounds like it’s sort of a family band kind of thing. His wife has been his lyricist since the 90’s, but this time around his kids are playing all over the record as well. That sort of thing usually rubs me the wrong way. Other than that one irrational hang up, this song makes me really want this new album. The song is a killer. If it’s any indication of what we’re going to get with the full album then… yeah, bring it on. I want it now. Now!

Rock stars from the 60’s and 70’s who are still getting the job done in the 2020’s. Gilmour is 78 years old. Ian Gillan is 78 years old. Ian Paice is 75. Roger Glover is 78. Don Airey is 75. Simon McBride is 45 so… yeah, he’s younger than me so he doesn’t count for this discussion. Old people rocking. Who would have thought? Keep up the good work, old people. You too, young mister McBride.

Snooty Looking Cat

I took this last night just before I went to bed. I was going to post it but I forgot to.

Is it just me or does Robin look like she’s posing for a magazine add geared toward filthy rich people.

Pardon me, do you have any grey poupon?