Avalanche of Home Improvement

We have one day left. One day before two, count ’em two (2) contractors come to our house to work on climate related issues. I am close to having everything ready for them. I’ll be ready, I promise.

Rush played their second show last night. I again was not in attendance but word on the street is they played ALL of 2112. When I say all I mean all of the suite on side one, not the whole album. They also apparently played The Analog Kid, a song that I often wondered if it was at least partly inspired by people like Eddie Van Halen. I picture Alex Lifeson listening to Van Halen and thinking to himself, I can do that and then hitting record and shredding like a shredding monster. Good stuff.

Did I mention that I am stressed as fuck over home improvement projects? Yup, stressed as fuck.

Why has traffic been so bad over the last two weeks. Every time I commute to the office it just gets worse than the time before. It’s a mess out there, kids.

What else… for the past 24 hours my post-gastric bypassed stomach has been weird. Queasy and achy and weird. They told me stuff like this was going to happen off and on for the rest of my life and sure enough here we are. I’ll survive.

I had a long text conversation with my step son today. Doctor Who cancelled its planned xmas episode and the show runner quit. The show runner has been saying that an xmas episode had been written and would start shooting in September and I guess now we know that was bullshit. They said nothing had been written and now the BBC is taking pitches from production compaines… meaning they have no plan in place for the future. My Doctor Who loving step son and I were both pretty pissed off by the news. He suggested Richard Ayoade should be the next Doctor. That’s a really good idea. I suggested Rupert Grint (if they insist on The Doctor being a white guy) or Jameela Jamil (if they do not insist on The Doctor being a white guy). I still stand by my suggestions, but I kinda wish I had thought of Richard Ayoade too. He’d be perfect.

Okay, my queasy stomach and I are really tired. I think we’re going to go to sleep now. G’night, Rush fans. G’night, Doctor Who fans too. Let’s all join together and try to not stress the fuck out over home improvement projects. Huzzah and shit.

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?”