New Episodes

Hulu released three new episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale. I’m a few minutes into episode two. The best description of the first few seasons that I heard was “misery porn.” That is accurate. Painfully, crushingly accurate. The current season is not expected to tow that line. Instead it’s looking like it might be “revenge porn.” Given the state of the real world… here’s hoping.

The Handmaid’s Tale this morning, Daredevil tonight, Doctor Who on Saturday, and The Last of Us on Sunday. Hey television world, why not spread out the riches a little. Share that wealth with the rest of the calendar.

Something is up with my Flickr account. Yesterday my hit count was about 10 times what I usually see. This morning before 7:00am it’s already more than yesterday. I think some bot somewhere is crawling me. It might be time for a new backup. Just in case. I hope the bots enjoy all of the cat pictures.

Okay, I have to post this now. I can’t keep typing up brain droppings while hanging on every word of one of the best television shows Earth has ever produced. Seriously. A million years from now some alien species is going to find our remains and turn our planet into an archeological site and watch this show and think… those beings were seriously fucked up but I cannot stop watching.

A Song About a Cat

I wrote a song about our cat, Robin Sparkles, tonight. The words are pretty profound.

Some little kitties are squeakier than others,
You are the squeakiest of all.

I think it’s my best work. Robin Sparkles the Cat agrees.

Robin Sparkles’ daughter Lily Pad, however, does not agree. Not even a little bit. She thinks that I suck at songwriting.

I think she’s right.

Coming to the Close

The work day is almost over. About 10 minutes from now there will be another Monday in the books. Also, I will be 50% of the way through my 40% in the office mandate for this week. That’s nice. It’s also probably confusing if you don’t know what I am talking about but I do know what I am talking about so it is not confusing to me which is why I wrote this epic run on sentence about it.

Here is a picture of a cat that I took this morning before I left for work. She was confused and upset because I made the bed and messed up her hiding/napping spot/plans. Sorry, cat.

What else can I write about before the work day ends? A Red Sox win tonight and a Yankees loss will move the Red Sox into first place in the AL East. Yes it is only the 11th game of the season, but after the last few years of baseball futility combined with the Bruins suck fest of late, I will take a first place moment with a smile on my face. The Yankees and Tigers are playing right now. In the bottom of the eighth inning in Detroit, the Tiggers are up 6-2. Thanks, Detroit.

What else… I haven’t worked on anything musical since the RPM Challenge wrapped up at the end of February. I am a failure at musical life. Just saying.

Okay, I got distracted by something at work and now the 10 minutes have passed and it’s quitting time. Wish me luck on my evening commute home. Jen picked up something nice for dinner tonight. We have dinner together whenever humanly possible and I always love it. I love her, I can’t help it. The heart wants what the heart wants and my heart wants silly little domestic time with the woman of my dreams. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Civilization coming to a crashing, idiotic, tariffed end doesn’t change the way I feel.

Crushed

I am having a hard time focusing on anything today. I’m getting my work done, it’s just tougher than usual. I keep peeking at the internet to see how bad the markets are. I guess the numbers in the US started improving slightly before the numbnutz in chief announced a new 50% tariff against China. Fucking nazi putz.

I did see a flyer online that was interesting. I re-posted it and now I am sharing it here too. Mostly so I don’t forget about it, even though I will probably forget about it… you know how trauma fucks with your brain….

Bigger and better!!!!!!!

— Paul Dupuis (@prdvt802.bsky.social) 2025-04-07T15:23:34.058Z

Our calendar is currently clear on Saturday April 19th. It’s the anniversary of me and Jen moving in together. It was 2008 and we rented half of a duplex. I will forever refer to that day as our Duplexiversary. Maybe we can sneak into the city and yell at the nazis with a big group of people. I would have liked to have done that this past weekend, but there were other things going on that demanded my full attention (ie: the kids were home and it was awesome).

I tried listening to some podcasts in the background while I work in the hopes that it would distract me from the soul crushing current events. Nope. Didn’t work. Now I am listening to vintage prog rock (a play list of Genesis records released between 1971 and 1977). We’ll see if that makes life a little better. I doubt it.

Fucking nazis.

Weather is a Jerk

It is April so if there is one thing we can count on it is rain in New England. Today is at least the forth consecutive day with rain in my town. Forth or fifth? Something like that. It’s raining again.

Or is it? Is it more than that?

Yeah… I was driving in to the office and sure enough there was snow falling. Not a lot. Just the occasional snow flake mixed in with the drizzle. Today is April 7th and there is snow falling. Well honk my hooter, April snow. Ugh.

I tried to take a picture of Robin the Cat before I left the house. I needed to do the photo a day thing. I pointed my phone at her as she was exploring the laundry basket that I failed to put away yesterday. Just as I was about to click the shutter button she saw me and ran away and this is the photo I got…

219/365

Happy Monday, folks. It’s going to be a tough one, I think. All the signs are pointing that way.

Long Drive Recap

The drive from Methuen, MA to New Bedford, MA:

103.1 miles in one hour and 48 minutes. The GPS app (Waze) took me through a couple of weird routes, but there wasn’t any traffic at all.

The drive from New Bedford, MA to Methuen, MA:

93.8 miles in one hour and 28 minutes. The GPS took me on exactly the route I would have expected.

The total drive:

196.9 miles in three hours and 17 minutes.

In closing, here are a few toy camera app (Hipstamatic) pics from the gas station near our house that I stopped at as I was leaving on today’s drive.

218/365

I Will Do the Right Thing

As mentioned in a post last night, I have decided to do the right thing today. What’s with the cryptic shit, Rob? Oh nothing, never mind. I am going to eat some lunch and then put on a nice shirt and then drive south for an hour and a half.

The only question left is, do I start a new audiobook or do I listen to music, and if I listen to music what should I listen to? I have been listening to a lot of King’s X lately. I have a playlist that skips over the song or two from each record that I don’t like, including the occasional super christian lyric. Musically speaking, King’s X might be the best band that has ever existed. Lyrically… there are a lot of things that rub me the wrong way. Fortunately for me, I have always been a music first, lyrics a distant second kind of listener so I can deal with it.

I have also been listening to a lot of Genesis stuff lately. If I spend three hours in the car round trip, I could listen to Supper’s Ready like… eight times? Almost nine times?

I don’t know… maybe I’ll listen to the Red Sox game. They are playing a day/night doubleheader today after getting rained out yesterday.

You know what? I had a point I wanted to make when I started typing this masterpiece, but I can’t remember what it was. I know for sure that I haven’t touched the intended topic at all… what was I going to write about? I don’t know. Lunch is ready. I’m going to eat it and then go. Wish me luck.

Do the Right Thing?

I don’t want to go into details but here’s the deal.

I have something to do tomorrow and I don’t want to do it. Originally, the plan was for my wife and I to do it together. It involves driving for an hour and a half, doing something that may not take a lot of time, and then driving home for an hour and a half. As of now though, my beloved bride needs to work tomorrow so if this happens it will be me doing it alone.

So there are two options. One, I do the right thing and I go and do this task. Two, I don’t do it and I stay home and run errands for my wife and just be here with her, which is absolutely what I want to do.

Frustrated sigh… If I do this then it will help someone out and if I believed in karma (which I absolutely do not) then it would be a good thing for everyone, karmically speaking (is karmically a word?). I just selfishly do not want to do it because it is going to take up the entire afternoon and most of the evening and I really just want to spend time with my wife.

I am probably going to do it. Like I said, it’s the right thing. The other person involved has already done a similar thing for me. It’s only right and proper for me to do the same in return. I just don’t want to spend three hours in the car round trip.

Ugh… I didn’t expect this post to feel so negative. I really just thought it would be an unemotional stating of the two sides of the coin and instead I feel like this reads like I am pissed off and defeated by the situation. It’s not that big a deal. For me, it’s not that big a deal. For the other folks involved it is, but me being involved is a microscopic piece of it. Ugh… I don’t know what I am saying anymore. I’ll shut up now.

On the upside, the Boston Bruins appear to be putting an end to their 10 game losing streak by beating the shit out of the Whalers tonight. Too bad it’s WAY too late to have any meaning. Ugh. The Red Sox got rained out today so they are going to play a double header tomorrow. Maybe things will go well and we’ll get to spank St Louis twice in one Sunday. That’d be nice.