April 1st

Oh shit… it’s April Fools Day. Never have I ever had less interest in playing along with this bullshit. The fascist states of america is already filled to bursting with fools and idiots and pure, unadulterated evil. Why anyone would think fake stories on the internet is entertaining during times like these… I just don’t get it.

Change of subject. The Red Sox are off today. We will be spared the slaughter and the constant strike outs. In five games thus far this season the team has struck out 123644258686134 times with about 86358629357 being Devers alone. Unfortunately, the Bruins are not off tonight. They will be annihilated by the Capitals. Times are tough in Boston sports-land these days. Why not? Times are tough everywhere.

Change of subject again. When was the original Star Trek given the Star Wars Special Edition treatment? After finally getting through Star Trek the Animated Series the other day, I decided to watch the original show all the way through. I’m through the two pilots and up to episode five now. I just watched Sulu take on the bridge with a sword while the Irish guy sings badly over the ship’s PA. I’m a little put off by most, if not all, of the exterior shots of the Enterprise being replaced by CGI. When did that happen? It doesn’t affect the episodes at all, but I still kinda don’t like it. I want my 1960’s models back. I want the pure form of the show back, even if it is less impressive and cheesy looking.

Change of subject again, again. Sticking with television, what is the deal with the month of April? We have the start of new seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale, Andor, The Last of Us, and Doctor Who. We’ll also see the last two episodes of Yellowjackets this month. This feels like collusion. This feels like the television industry conspiring to keep me from sleeping for the foreseeable future.

Again with the change of subjects again, again. I did not participate in the RPM Challenge’s Record Every Month thing. I wanted to. I was going to. I just didn’t. I’m thinking of maybe compensating for my failure by trying to do an April album in a month instead. Write and record 35 minutes worth of new music before the month ends. Will I be able to muster up the motivation? Probably not, but let’s give it a shot, eh?

Okay. Time to go and get ready for work. Welcome to April. Stay away from those damn April Fools jokes. It’s going to be a long and painful day on the ol’ internets. Good luck, everyone.

Up and Unmotivated

It’s an office day today. I’m up early to start my exercising and to get some shite* done and here I am typing in this completely useless blog post.

Motivation level = Zero.

Hey! I am trying to pick off another episode of Torchwood because I am trying to finish off the show (even though I don’t exactly love it) and here is season three episode one and Peter Capaldi is in it! Doctor Who Number 12’s actor in his second of two Doctor Who related roles from before he was actually cast as The Doctor. Fascinating.

Where was I?

Oh yeah. The morning routine. Let’s start my exercising and maybe get some shite done before I have to drive in to work.


*Back in the 1980’s I started obsessively reading the novels and short stories written by Clive Barker. Mr. Barker, in at least one of his works, used the word “shite”. I had never heard or read that word before. Mr. Barker is from Liverpool. Is shite a Liverpudlian thing? I don’t know. I do know that I am currently a little more than half way through the audio book version of Weaveworld and hearing the word shite get used again is making me feel nostalgic for the old days of language discovery and shite.

2nd Intermission

After two periods, Edmonton leads 3-0. There’s still plenty of time to blow it. Stay strong, hockey fans who hate the Panthers.

Bring us that game seven, Oilers. Hold that lead.

I just finished the season finale of Doctor Who. It was so good. It was so very good. I’m going to have to watch it again because I am really tired and I might have missed a few seconds here and there. Over all though? It was so good.

1st Intermission

The Oilers have a 1-0 lead over the Panthers after one period. They are dick teasing me. We all know that, right? Ugh.

My stomach played nicely today. Good job, surgically redesigned stomach pouch. Everything was very predictable. My hunger pains hit me right on schedule. Also, I didn’t over eat at the end of the work day and ruin dinner. Good job, Robbie’s little pouch thing.

Want to know what did ruin dinner? Just before 8:00 I had a bite of potato. The roasted potatoes we had tonight tasted AMAZING, but that last bite got stuck. Trigger the foamies. Trigger a little nausea. It’s been an hour and fifteen minutes and it doesn’t seem to have cleared yet. I still feel like that last bite of potato is stuck. I was able to cough some of it up, but clearly not all of it.

Damn it.

Okay. It’s after 9:00. I should be clear to watch the season finale of Doctor Who now. I have a little spit-up cup next to me (TMI), I have a gamecast of the hockey game from NHL.com open, and I need to do something to distract myself from my stomach pouch whatever it is. Doctor Who should do the trick.

Further updates will be provided. Come on, Oilers. Hold that lead, you sick little monkeys.

Doctor Who Fail (Spoilers Ahead)

This post might have some mild spoilers for last night’s episode of Doctor Who titled The Legend of Ruby Sunday.

You have been warned. I will try to keep things as vague as possible but you might be able to put two and two together so if you’re planning to watch the episode and want to go in without any outside influence, now is the time to leave this page.

Okay? You all right with reading this?

Last warning…

Okay.

I failed. Epically. Just… embarassingly.

I watched the episode last night after having binged the full 60 years worth of the show (except for the early episodes that don’t exist anymore. I watched recreations of those but not the actual aired episodes). I enjoyed the whole series from start to finish and thought I was prepared for any call backs or easter eggs or whatever.

Last night they finally revealed who the big bad was for the current season and it included a direct reference to a villain from a series that aired in late 1975…

…and I failed to make the connection! I didn’t remember the story AT ALL. What a loser. What a failure. I am going to have to give back my nerd membership card now, aren’t I. Ugh. I suck at being a fanboy. I just suck out loud.

Now I have to go back to season 13 and rewatch the 4th Doctor serial Pyramids of Mars, and I have to do it before next week’s season finale airs on Friday night.

Jerk. Loser. Nerd-failure.

Day Four

I wrote a post about this yesterday. I am supposed to work from the office two days each week and last week, thanks to a head cold left over from our Florida vacation, I didn’t come into the office at all. That means for the rest of the month of June I would owe two days in the office.

Well… assuming I can survive for the next 3.5 hours or so, I won’t owe any more. Today is the fourth day of the work week, and I’ve been in the office all four days.

I am exhausted.

Prior to the pandemic, four days in the office and one day at home was the norm. Thursday was my one telecommute day each week. The rest of the week I was in the office. It’s not the same office I’m in now, but that’s not important at all. Four days in, one day home. I am pretty sure this week marks the first time since Covid came to call that I will match that schedule. Well… not exactly. Friday will be my work from home day this week. That is not important either.

What is important is that I have made up the two days I missed last week. I am back on track. Next week will only have two days in the office and all will be right with the working world again.

I just can’t get over how tired I am. The commute, the noise, the stress… it’s just wearing me out, man. How did I manage this for 16 years or so before Covid? I can’t wrap my tiny little miniature brain around it.

Tomorrow I will work from home. I have to move back to the basement office because Harry is home and I won’t be able to use the desk in his room. That’s oaky with me. Who knows, maybe if the weather cooperates I might work outside for a while. Maybe I’ll give it a try at least, just to say that I’ve done it.

In other news, my House of the Dragon season one rewatch to prep for Sunday’s premier of season two continues. I’m through six out of ten episodes which is nuts given that I only thought of doing this four nights ago. I’m caught up on Star Wars: The Acolyte and loving it so far. Three episodes in and I am coming up with some crazy theories. I’m ready for part one of the two part season finale of Doctor Who which airs tomorrow night. We still don’t know who the bad guy is. I haven’t a clue. The new season of The Boys is supposed to launch today at some point. I’m not sure exactly when. There will be three episodes released at launch. I am probably going to hold off on them until I get through the last four episodes of HotD. I’m not sure though. We’ll see.

No band practice this week. No band practice next week. After that I am hopeful that we’ll be able to string together a bunch of them and start getting some of the songs back up to speed. Not to mention growing calluses on my finger tips so that playing doesn’t hurt as much. I’m really looking forward to that.

Oh good! One of the guys in my group at work submitted a bug yesterday and someone in the Dev group just picked it up off of the queue. Here’s hoping we get a quick turn around! That would be excellent. I love it when things go according to plan.

Until next time… I am so freakin’ tired!

Action Matt Smith

I started prepping for season two of House of the Dragon last night by re-watching season one. I’m watching the very end of episode three as I type this.

I am glad that I watched HotD before I watched all of Doctor Who. I think my feeble little brain would have typecast Matt Smith as a fish chips and custard eating nerd of an 11th Doctor and would therefore have had a tough time seeing him as the action star he is in HotD.

Maybe. Maybe not. I mean, maybe the guy is just really good at his job.

Having said that, I wonder if now knowing Matt Smith as The Doctor will make all the incest in HotD even more difficult to watch than it already was. Probably. If only Amy and Rory could come and save him from it all.

Spoiler Free Review of Last Night’s Doctor Who

A new episode of Doctor Who, entitled Rogue, was released last night on Disney+ (for those of us in the ol’ U.S.of.A.) and as soon as I finished watching it I posted something on Threads about it. Something like a very short spoiler free review. Allow me to share an excerpt:

…that popping sound you’re hearing? That’s the sound of homophobic brains exploding, all over the world.

heh heh heh

Sorry. I just find bigotry to be so ridiculous that I have to make fun of it when I can.

Also, Doctor Who may suffer from the most toxic fan base in the entire entertainment industry. I used to think Star Trek fans were bad, then Star Wars came back and the toxicity made Star Trek look like cute cuddly kitties. Then I started watching Doctor Who and the level of toxicity spewing from the show’s “fans” made Star Wars look like a picnic in the park on a sunny summer’s day.

I am not going to say that I am looking forward to the hate vomit that this week’s episode is sure to produce, but I am looking forward to being able to use the response to the episode to block a whole ton of scumbags on social media. That’s what I call a bright side!

New Who

Two new episodes of Doctor Who were released last night. We just watched them both.

Spoiler free mini-review:

The first of the two, Space Babies, is good. Adorable and a little dark at times. Good stuff.

The second episode, The Devil’s Chord… not so much. I found myself looking at my watch a lot and thinking, “is it over yet?”

Early Game Three Stress

The Bruins vs Panthers series comes home to Boston for game three tonight. The Bruins took game one down in Florida, then got smoked in game two. The hope is that Pastrnak’s late third period fight in game two might be enough to wake everyone up after the bad game. Maybe that, plus a little home cooking… We need a win tonight, Bruins.

I haven’t been able to actually watch any of these games yet as we no longer have a functioning cable TV account. The games have been on ESPN and I can’t stream that network at the moment. Tonight’s game is supposed to be on Max, but we’ll probably be blacked out. Maybe I can setup a VPN somewhere?

We’re still about four and a half hours away from puck drop, but my nerves are already gearing up. The playoffs stress me out, man. I tells ya.

In other viewing news, the new season of Doctor Who hits Disney+ tonight at 7:00pm Eastern. I believe we’ll get two episodes today. Dark Matter on AppleTV+ has released two episodes and I am hooked. The premise is very similar to the recently released Constellation, except (to this point at least) Dark Matter is about 123612346147134 times better… and I liked Constellation. Here’s hoping it stays good.

Another down side for tonight’s Bruins game (pardon me for steering things back onto the target topic) is that I am totally freakin’ exhausted right now. I don’t know if I am going to be able to stay awake until the end of the game. I got six hours of sleep last night, which is usually enough to get me through the next day, but I feel like I needed 16 hours last night. Whether I am watching the game or just following the play-by-play updates on NHL.com, I will very likely be out like a light before the game ends. 9:00pm bedtimes are common for both middle school kids and middle aged red heads.

Go Bruins.