Tag: community

Grow Up

Daily writing prompt
Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?
View all responses

I don’t think this is a terribly interesting question, but I do think it’s a good writing prompt. Why? Because I would never ask myself this question. Does that make sense? Okay, that is the end of my philosophical discussion on writing prompts. Now let us answer the dumb sucker.

When I was a kid I used to play with Star Wars toys, virtually around the clock. I was probably 10 or 11 years old when I outgrew that activity.

I used to play baseball as much as humanly possible. If I wasn’t playing Little League I was playing wiffle ball with the other kids in the neighborhood. If I wasn’t playing wiffle ball I was just hanging out in the back yard hitting the wiffle ball out of my hand and then chasing it down. Sometimes I even used one of those pitch back things that let you play catch with yourself by throwing a ball off of it and then instead of catching it, I would hit it. I spent a lot of time tracking down wiffle balls or tennis balls in the back yard. I was done with all of that when I aged out of the town Little League when I was 15 years old. 

On my 15th birthday my Uncle Johnny gave me a guitar. I have yet to outgrow that one.

Those are the first two kid-level activities that I can think of that were incredibly important to the little guy version of me that, as I grew up, stopped being important.

Hey Google Bard (it’s not Bard anymore, apparently it is Gemini now… okay, whatever) generate an image of a Jedi Knight playing baseball…

Binge Watch Troubles

Years ago we watched a show on Netflix called The IT Crowd. It was really funny. Years later I saw an episode of Community with one of the IT Crowd cast members and thought it was really funny. Then I started watching What We Do in the Shadows with that same IT Crowd actor in it and that show is fucking riotous. The actor’s name is Matt Berry and I started wondering if maybe he was the funniest person on Earth. Could be. I’m not sure. I heard about a BBC show he co-wrote and starred in called Toast of London that is on Netflix. I started watching, for research of course. It’s funny. Not nearly as funny as the other shows though. It’s very English. Like… IT Crowd was super English, but Toast of London is Englisher. At least English in the way that a douche bag from the US like me would think is English.

Whatever, it’s funny even if it isn’t as funny as The IT Crowd. The reason I’m writing about it is that there are three seasons on Netflix. One has seven episodes, two and three have six each. I finished the first season today and then found out that Netflix is dropping the show on the 31st. Muthapussbucket! Can I rage through the second and third seasons (12 episodes) before the 31st?

Challenge accepted. Though the answer is no, I am not going to finish before Netflix pulls it.

SundaySundaySunday

We’re going to see Bellana for a bit today. It’s like Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, back in December when Covid-19 ruined the traditional extended family Christmas we talked about having a Christmas party in July. Literally Christmas in July. I don’t know if that’s going to happen as we planned it, but I’m still game if everyone else is.

HoHoHo in the sunshine and all that? It could work. We can look back on it as a test drive if we ever find ourselves spending Christmas in Australia.

It could happen, right?

Harry’s not getting the standard graduation party, but we are going to take him back to Disney at some point. We have a date in mind which means we also have a date when we can actually buy tickets for the dates we want to go. There is an entry on our family calendar right now that marks the date when we can first book the dates we want to go… I want to find a way to celebrate that date as a sort of screw you to Covid-19. The ‘Rona messed up Harry’s last two school years and we need to go as overboard as humanly possible on the corrective overreacting. If that means celebrating the day we buy tickets then let’s do it!

I’m trying to write this while watching an episode of Community and my concentration is all over the place. Can you tell or does this post read like it was written by someone with Changnesia?

Prep for a Binge Watch

I’m Nana sitting at my parents’ house tonight. I just gave her dinner and her evening pills and we had a quick phone call with my dad. Dad seems okay tonight but Mom is having a rough day. I left my house at a couple of minutes past 6:00 tonight and I will be here until around dinner time tomorrow night. I’m trying to think of what I am going to do with my time while I’m here. The Red Sox are on right now and they just coughed up a lead to the Rangers in the third inning.

I’m thinking about some May music ideas. I’m doing the RPM Challenge record one song each month thing. In March I started five or six songs and then waited until the last minute to finish anything and as a result I only finished one. I have four more ready to mix but I haven’t gotten around to them. In April I started one song early in the month and then waited until the last week to do anything. I started a second song and that’s the only one of the two I finished. In May I am thinking of getting back onto the album-in-a-month bandwagon and seeing if I can crank out 10. No promises, but here we are on May 1st and I’ve already got one underway.

I could work on music while I’m here, but let’s be realistic. I’m probably going to watch TV on my iPad. I have one episode of The Flash to watch but I’ll wait on that one and watch it with Harry, if he wants. There are a couple of Supergirls to watch but I’m kinda not feeling it. (note: The Red Sox just tied the game at three in the top of the fourth inning) The fourth season of The Handmaid’s Tale just started on Hulu and they released a few episodes on the first day, I need to watch those. I’m into the third season of a rewatch of Community so I could try some of those. There’s one other idea that popped into my head earlier today.

Harry was humming the theme from the second episode of WandaVision. Hmm… If I’m going to be here all day tomorrow, and the chances of me sleeping much tonight are somewhere between slim and none… might I be able to watch the entire season of WandaVision in one extended sitting? Nine episodes, roughly 30 minutes each… I might do it. If for no other reason then to hear the Agatha All Along song in context one more time.

It might happen.

Television Mistake

I’ve been putting it off for a long time, but I just did something insane in terms of television viewing and personal mental health.

The Handmaids Tale on Hulu. I read the book. I saw the original movie. I didn’t watch the new show though. Why? Because knowing the story and living in a country with trump in the white house was just too much to deal with. The dystopian story hit a little too close to home.

Well the fascist is gone so I decided to give it a go. I watched the first episode. It is still too close to home. Holy shit is that an ugly story. It’s terrifying and I am still only one episode in. Crap.

I started rewatching Community too in an attempt to lighten the mood. We started binging that show with the kids ages ago but they sort of left me in the dust. I’m on episode five and I already don’t remember ever seeing this one… so there you go. As a graduate of a community college allow me to state publicly that they got everything exactly correct. Like… exactly correct.