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.

Random Lunchtime Thoughts

Just some random things going through my tiny little brain right now.

I don’t get hungry anymore. In this post-gastric bypass universe I go from feeling comfortably satisfied, skip right past normal hungry feelings, and catapult straight to oh my god I am so hungry it hurts why does my stomach hurt so much?

Normally that isn’t a big deal. I have something to eat and I feel better. Some days though, like the last couple of days, it gets a bit annoying. Some days I just can’t get out in front of the problem. I eat something, then an hour or so later I feel the hunger pains coming back. Normally I can go about three hours without any issues. Sometimes, like when I was visiting my father in the hospital and had other things on my mind, I could go twice that without my stomach perking up at all.

Today I finished breakfast at around 8:00am. I started feeling it at a little before 11:00am. I was drinking water at the time and had to pause for 15 minutes before I could eat again so I didn’t get any food into my empty stomach until 11:20. I had a quick snack. I was done at 11:26. The hunger pains were back in full force by 12:11pm. What the hell, bro? I went on lunch at 1:00pm so I made myself wait to eat anything more. I didn’t want to fill my new little stomach pouch before lunch and then throw off my schedule even more. I was able to sneak in a little water which helped a little but come on, stomach… you have to do better than 45 minutes, right?


Change of subject. Television shows that are currently being worked through.

  • Mindhunter on Netflix. I’m about 3/4 of the way through the first of two seasons. It’s creeping me out. Good stuff.
  • Only Murders in the Building on Hulu. I think I am an episode behind. The new season is good. I was nervous when I heard it was moving to Los Angeles, but so far it’s firmly grounded in New York where it belongs. It is also nice to have Paul Rudd back again.
  • Agatha All Along on Disney+. Episode three is out today, I think. I’ll watch it tonight. I’m enjoying it so far.
  • Rings of Power on Amazon Prime. The last couple of episodes feel like a small step back in terms of quality. Word on the street is the next two (the last two episodes of season two) are going to be spectacular. I’m all in.
  • Dark on Netflix. I liked the first season. I’m halfway through the second season and it is struggling to hold my attention.
  • The Orville on Hulu. Season three is a bit of a slog. The episodes are WAY too long and not good enough to justify the time commitment. It’s not bad, it’s just not that good.
  • Futurama on Hulu. Gold. Absolute gold.
  • Exploding Kittens on Netflix. It’s not bad, but I’m having a hard time staying invested in it.
  • Coming Soon: Penguin on Max. The first couple of episodes are out but I haven’t watched them yet. I’ll get to them soon.
  • Coming Soon: Daryl Dixon season two on AMC. The new season kicks off this coming Sunday. I’ll be there.

Dude… that’s a shit load of TV. I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten a couple of shows too.


I have some linens that I took from my father’s apartment. The plan is to donate them somewhere. My sister suggested the MSPCA at Nevins Farm in Methuen. It’s right around the corner from my house. I wasn’t sure if that was something they’d take so I Googled it today. Sure enough, they take bedding. They don’t take pillows or knitted blankets though. If I have any of those I’ll have to bring them somewhere else.

I also took a combination turn table, AM/FM radio, CD player, cassette player from his apartment. I haven’t found a home for it yet. I am thinking that tomorrow I’ll plug it in next to my desk and listen to old Rush records on vinyl while I work. That sounds like a good plan to me.


Okay then. Here’s hoping the hunger pains are taken care of for a few hours at least. I’m crossing my fingers… and symbolically crossing my bypassed digestive system too… whatever that means.

I Feel Let Down

I just signed up for ChatGPT. I wanted to have it write a blog post for me. I asked it to write something about the Bruins clinching a playoff spot yesterday. It wrote one, but all the facts were wrong. I feel like AI let me down in a big way. Well… by
“big way” I really mean “totally insignificant way.”

The Bruins clinched a playoff spot yesterday with a month still to go in the season. They are so far ahead of the pack that it’s unprecedented. Unfortunately this level of insane regular season success often doesn’t translate to playoff success. We can’t get overly confident this year.

I was hoping ChatGPT would write this up for me but of course it didn’t. Stupid artificial intelligence.

Change of subject.

We had all sorts of problems with our Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions yesterday. Our passwords suddenly didn’t work. We changed them all and then they didn’t work again. It was annoying. Jen straightened it out this morning so I am celebrating by watching Star Wars TV shows. I started by rewatching Wednesday’s Mandalorian episode, which then inspired me to find a list of Bo Katan episodes across all of the various shows. I’m up to the end of the final season of The Clone Wars now. So I am basically now watching the alternate view of Episode III.

Okay, for now I’m going to watch another episode, then I am going to make some lunch. I might make some for Harry too, if he wants.

Go Bruins.

Wordle Stats

The first time I got the Wordle word in three tries I got all proud and stuff and posted it to Twitter. The first time I got it in two tries I got super proud and stuff and posted it to Twitter and Facebook. A workflow patter was thus created. That was during a brief period where I was feeling okay about going to Facebook again, entirely due to the weight loss surgery support groups. Now I am feeling down on the whole thing again so I need a new Wordle workflow.

Wordle 474 2/6

🟩⬜🟨⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

That’s right, boys and girls. Now when I get it in two tries, like I did today, it’s going to Twitter and The Blog. Enjoy!

In the immortal words of Barnie Stinson, “this is so going in my blog!”


Last night I was put in command of the television remote control and managed to get caught up on every show I’m currently following. There were three shows that I was one episode behind. I watched ’em all. Andor, Rick and Morty, and The Handmaids Tale. Andor has been my main focus, but after the cliff hanger in Handmaid I might be watching the next episode of that show first.


The plan for tonight is to do something with dinner that I haven’t done since the surgery. We’re going to have some spaghetti. I’ve made spaghetti since the surgery, for Jen and Harry, but I haven’t eaten any of it. Pasta, bread, rice, and rice-like things were the last items to come off of my do-not-eat-these list. Well, sugar is eternally on that list but as of now it’s the only thing left.

Pasta has been off of the do-not-eat list for over a month, I just haven’t felt confident enough in the universe and my tiny, rebuilt, mangled stomach to give it a go. I haven’t had bread or rice or quinoa either. I can if I want, I just haven’t. Tonight I am going to have a tiny little serving of spaghetti. Cross your fingers that it doesn’t make me sick. I expect it is going to be friggin’ epically delicious. I hope so, at least.

Week 22

Hello and welcome to week 22! The week where I did not weigh in. I weighed in yesterday. I was thinking of doing it today, but if I don’t then we’ll get an extra day when I weigh in next week and maybe that will give me a more impressive number. Or not. Who knows. As long as I keep moving in the right direction I really don’t care how fast it goes. Though in this case bigger is, if not better, more fun.

I think we may have weathered a storm at work. Fingers crossed, right?

I watched half of last week’s That Pedal Show while doing this morning’s exercise. I should have watched The Handmaid’s Tale. A new episode is out but for some reason I keep thinking new episodes come out on Thursdays, like Andor. Wait… is Andor out on Wednesdays too? Shit, is there an Andor that I haven’t seen? I gotta start writing this shit down. Ugh! Lunch is going to be an hour late today. Maybe I’ll be able to watch something during lunch, but I usually try to avoid TV during work hours.

Crap. I just checked Disney+. There is a new Andor today. Grrrrrr.

Anyway, my walking is done. I still need to do the weights and the elastic. I didn’t do them yesterday because I was too busy, but I’ll do them today.

22 weeks and 140 pounds since surgery. I still can’t believe it. It’s starting to feel like a fairy tale. Some kind of make believe. It’s almost too good to be true. My next check in at the clinic is October 18th. I wonder how much I’ll weigh when that day comes around.

Snow Ruins Everything

I got my fat ass out of bed early this morning so that I could do some singing in the car for RPM and it’s effin’ snowing out. Not a lot, a couple of inches of fluffy crap, but it’s ruined my morning plans. I could still go out do something, but every parking lot in the city is going to have plows all over it. I can’t have a magical, perfect, pristine vocal take ruined by the sound of a plow in the background. Gross. Now that I think of it though, magical, perfect, and pristine never happen so maybe the sound of a plow in the background will be in improvement. No. Even I’m not that desperate.

Looks like the plan for today is to write more lyrics, write more melodies, add more guitar parts where needed, and maybe try to start a new song or two.

On a different note, Jen and I watched the first two episodes of Only Murders in the Building on Hulu and I think I might be a little bit hooked. I must admit there was a tiny bit of culture shock watching two of the Three Amigos be less than cordial to each other. Also there was a bit of culture shock hearing the kid from Wizards of Waverley Place dropping f-bombs. I mean, talk about being out of touch, right?

Back to the weather, we may still go out today. We might possibly brave the snow to do a curbside pickup at a store (gasp in Covid horror). I think I might be ready to start working up the courage to go into stores and businesses again. I have to do it for work and I have to do it for doctors appointments. Any time I start feeling Covid-confident, which is almost never, my mind wanders over to the band. We had a chat going last night and we know it will be a month and a half before we can start thinking about getting together (one band member has major work commitments right now) so maybe… Maybe sometime in March we’ll play again? I should buy a new amp and a new guitar to celebrate.

Okay, Robert. Get to work on that RPM thing. Get some stuff done, you lazy asshole!

How I Spent My Day Off

Here’s what I did on my day off:

  • Car music
  • Sat at my computer watching Futurama on Hulu.
  • Ended today’s fast 90 minutes early
  • Played some guitar
  • Sat at my computer watching Futurama on Hulu.
  • Mixed a song.
  • Cooked dinner.

This list is accurate but it fails to emphasize just how much Futurama was watched.

I mean… I watched a shit-load of Futurama today.

Awake

Still awake. I wanted to go to sleep early but it wasn’t happening. Oh well, I’ll keep trying.

I just watched the first episode of Y the Last Man on Hulu. Color me hooked so far.

I wish Major League Baseball had booked game one of the ALCS for tomorrow instead of Friday. I have all this built up hype and no where to put it.

I still don’t know why the NHL season opened on the 12th but the Bruins don’t play until the 16th. Is it a TV rights thing? The NHL is back with ESPN for the first time in something like 300 years. Figures. NBCsn streams to an iOS app. ESPN only streams to subscribers. Jerks.

I mentioned we are going up to Vermont on Saturday. We are bringing cold weather clothing to Bellana (and bringing warm weather clothes back home with us) and we are meeting Harry for lunch. I can’t wait. Weekly FaceTime calls are great, but I’m looking forward to actual face time.

Okay, I’m going to put some music on and see if I can sleep. Talk to you all tomorrow.

Stuff Going On

We made an appointment with an air conditioning maintenance company a few months ago as part of the still unshared cellar disaster story. They had to cancel the first appointment and today is the day they rescheduled too. They didn’t give us a window of time until early this morning. At 6:30 I was still in bed and Jen let me know the window was opening at 7:00. Yikes! It’s 7:30 and they aren’t here yet. Now I am just hoping that they don’t ring the doorbell while both Jen and I are in meetings. That would suck. Also, there’s an AC built into the bedroom wall. I am going to get kicked out of my bedroom/office for a while. That hasn’t happened in about a year.

I have a few short meetings today and it’s possible one might line up with the visit. I was thinking, I have mentioned things at work a couple of times recently and I think I am going to stop doing that. Like the cellar shit show, work should be exempt from the oversharing. Good.

There’s a new Loki today. Episode one was kind of a clip show but it did a great job of setting up the story. It was excellent. I am really interested to see where it goes. We need to figure out how we’re going to get everyone into the same room to watch it. There’s also the season finale of The Handmaids Tale. This show is so good it’s hard to explain. I haven’t a clue how they are going to wrap it up without having our hero just take a machine gun and go all Mikey Corleone on all of her enemies. We’ll see.

It’s 7:45. Still no sign of the AC folks. I’ve got my mask at the ready for whenever they get here.

Sleepless

Trouble sleeping again tonight. I tried watching a couple of shows on Hulu and I started messing with a simple new song idea.

I’m guessing the sleep issues stem from the combination of soul crushing guilt and too much caffeine during the work day trying to compensate for the previous night’s lack of sleep.

It’s midnight and the alarm is set for 6:00am. If I sleep now I can get a solid six hours. That’s usually a good night for me, but 7-8 hours is better.

Okay, I’m going to lay down and try again, though the cat is meowing up a storm. Wish me luck, dear readers.

Lights out. Sweet dreams.