Fear is Back… Unfortunately

Fear the Walking Dead’s eighth and final season kicked off last night. I’m watching the episode now as I close my exercise ring on this Monday morning.

Why, oh why do I keep doing this to myself?

Why is being a TV show completist even a thing? Why am I compelled to watch what is clearly the worst show on television, and quite possibly the worst show in the history of television? This show hasn’t been anything other than awful since the second half of season four. This is the start of season eight and I am still torturing myself.

Why?

Ten minutes into the season premier and it was clear that all of the things that made seasons five, six, and seven unbearably terrible are still in play. After three seasons of shit, we’re still introducing new characters in the opening segments, they are still somehow… I don’t even know. It’s just stupidity, left and right. I still have five minutes to go and the walkie-talkie count is up to about nine, I think. Fear the Walkie-Talkie.

This show couldn’t possibly suck more, and yet here I am watching. What a fucking idiot.

Brunch

I wanted to make sure we did something nice for Jen today so I made breakfast. It’s the least I could do. Harry is here this week and he’s a night owl so we planned breakfast for 10:00. I made scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage. Pretty much the only breakfast foods I know how to make. Everything came out okay. Nothing was spectacular or anything. I did my best but it should have been better. My step kids’ mother deserves the best every day, but especially today.

We are planning on a visit to the cemetery to visit my mother today. I know it doesn’t really mean anything but I think it will make me feel a little better. I hope so at least.

Unrelated note: Star Wars The Clone Wars episodes eight and 12 have Jar Jar. That’s two too many. I was hoping that would be it for the first season. Then I got to episodes 17 and 18. Jar Jar is in both of them. Oh, come on. Four out of the first 18 episodes? I am seriously wanting to stop watching. It’s just not worth it.

Scratch That

I’m not going sunrise chasing tomorrow. I’m way too tired.

Unrelated note: Earlier today I bitched that my Clone Wars binge watch was nearly brought to a crashing halt by season one episode eight focusing on Jar Jar Binks. I made it to season one episode 12 and… it was another Jar Jar.

Fuck.

Meeces to Pieces

It’s time for our two new cats to prove their worth to the household. Yesterday we started seeing clear signs that they were stalking something. The hunt was on. Last night Harry got a brief glimpse: a mouse. Later, Jen and I also saw it hiding in a tiny space between a cabinet and a wall. I tried getting it with a broom but failed miserably.

The cats were hyper vigilant throughout the night but haven’t had any success yet. There was a moment this morning where I heard them attacking from the next room, and also heard their prey squeaking in terror. I felt kinda bad, but that’s the price you pay for invading our home.

The cats have two responsibilities in this house. One is to be adorable and let us pet them and snuggle them. The other is to eliminate small furry invaders. It’s time to hold up your end of the bargain, Robin and Lily. I have full confidence in your mousing abilities. Make Daddy proud, girls.

No problems last night as far as stomach pain goes. I was a little nervous before bed. I was a little queasy. Not bad, but just aware that I wasn’t at 100%. I was also so thoroughly exhausted that I couldn’t really think straight. I turned in at about 11:00 but I forgot to clean out my CPAP mask so I went to sleep without it. I woke up at about 3:30. My first thought was, here we go again. Then I realized what woke me up. It wasn’t in my stomach, it was on my stomach. Miss Lily had jumped on me and was very insistent about showing me some affection. I gave her what she wanted. She doesn’t really show me any attention like that, so I wasn’t about to say no.

Once she had her fill I tried going back to sleep, but I was pretty much awake. I just sort of laid there for a while, then I got up and got a new CPAP mask out of my closet. I had to deal with Miss Robin who ran inside while I had the door open and wouldn’t come out. I swapped out the drool’d in mask for the new, clean one and went back to bed. I got to listen to an attack on the mouse before I fell asleep. My alarm was set for 7:00am but I snoozed it until a little before 8:00. So the good news is, no stomach issues or anything health related. The bad news is I didn’t sleep through the night the way I was hoping. The lesser good news is that I did snag about seven hours of sleep that I very much needed, though I am still feeling really tired this morning.

Here’s hoping tonight continues to show improvement.

I was afraid of this. I have fully committed myself to binge watching all of Star Wars The Clone Wars. There are 133 episodes. It’s going to take a while. I know I tried doing this once before but fell off the wagon very early. Why? What stopped me?

During this morning’s faux jog (pronounced, yog) I found out. Season one, episode eight… the entire episode focuses on Jar Jar and it is just as insufferably awful as you would expect. I made it through without vomiting but it did sap my re-watching enthusiasm by about 65%. Oh well. Maybe I’ll go back to the X-Files for a couple of days.

If I don’t get a haircut today I am going to go insane. Just warning you. Ya know, in case I start posting things that are more insane than normal. If I do, you’ll know why.

Boy, Am I Sleepy

Yup, two nights of weirdness in a row leads to ol’ Robbie being one sleepy red head.

Hey, I had a couple of packs of guitar strings from amazon delivered today. Will that inspire me to do some actual guitar playing this weekend? I sure hope so.

What else is on the agenda for this weekend? A haircut. My hair hasn’t been this long since the early days of the pandemic. It’s starting to look like 1993 around here. Is that why I have listened to Nirvana more or less around the clock for the last 2+ days? I made a playlist of just the expanded editions of the three Nirvana albums this morning (Apple music has expanded editions of Bleach and In Utero, and two expanded editions of Nevermind) and I have been steam rolling through them as I work today. I’m on the last track from the first of the two Neverminds.

Hey, speaking of Nirvana and the glory days of the 1990’s, I had a pop culture worlds colliding moment this morning. I managed to sneak in this week’s episode of Yellowjackets before work (barely). After a couple of days immersed in the atomic explosion that is Nirvana, wouldn’t you know it the episode’s creepy opening was accompanied by Something in the Way playing on the soundtrack? How cool is that. It’s like they knew where my brain was right now and fed right into it.

I need a nap… and a haircut… and to do some dishes before we make dinner… and to listen to all the live tracks on the 30th anniversary edition of Nevermind.

Two hours and 36 minutes left in the work day. You can do it, Robbie.

I was incorrect. Apple Music does not have one expanded edition of In Utero, it has two. One Bleach, two Nevermind, and two In Utero (one of which includes the unofficial first Foo Fighters song, Marigold [which is next in my iTunes queue]).

Binge Watchin’ Fool

My X-Files rewatch is in season three. Deep Space Nine is still in season two. Strange New Worlds is almost done. Before all of this started I rewatched The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. I recently rewatched Rebels. Over the last week I rewatched Andor (best Star Wars Disney+ show by miles and miles) and two nights ago I started rewatching Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I don’t want to stop with the two non-Star Wars shows, but I am really feeling the ol’ Galaxy Far Far Away vibes right now. Three more episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi and I’ll be out of live action shows on Disney+. Does this mean I am going to have to watch The Clone Wars from start to finish? That would include both seasons of The Bad Batch as that is really just The Clone Wars part two, right? Clone Wars has episodes with Jar Jar though… do I really want to go through that again? On the other hand, it would be a good prep for Ahsoka, which comes out in August.

On an unrelated note, I restarted another thing from last year this morning. The Great Spider Hunt of 2023 is on like Donkey Kong. While running in place this morning (yogging) I saw a HUGE sucker crawling up the wall behind my desk. I removed him/her from the equation with extreme prejudice. I expect there to be hundreds more to follow over the next couple of seasons.

On another unrelated note I haven’t played my guitar yet this month. I have a bunch of little song ideas, mostly just riffs, in progress, but I only have one song form sketched out and I haven’t plugged the guitar in at all. I still haven’t played through the King of Tone pedal after 5+ years on the wait list. Sigh of frustration. I’ll figure it out.

Okay. Time to go shower and get ready for work. Happy Tuesday, said the ancient 52 year old.

I’m an Emotional Mess Today

This week has been rough. I didn’t expect it, but three days of window project turning the house upside down has messed me up in a big way. Being sick on Tuesday didn’t help. Waking up at 2:00am with a stomach ache today and not being able to get to sleep until around 4:00am certainly hasn’t helped either. After eight ounces of water and a protein bar this morning I feel a little better, but the stomach ache is still there, just milder than it was.

It got to Jen too, and both of us being on edge lead to pointless, stupid arguments and I hated it. Hate hate hate it. I can’t apologize enough for being an ass. Then today, after very little sleep last night and very little sleep every night this week and being broken in general for days, I watched the series finale of Star Trek Picard and let’s just say… I’ve been following these characters through TV shows and movies since 1987 when I was 16 years old and watched Encounter at Farpoint with my father… I’m not ashamed to admit it… but I balled my eyes out a few times. I am just an emotional train wreck right now.

Season three of The Mandalorian ended yesterday and it was wonderful. Season three of Picard ended today and it was wonderful times 10. I am just a sucker for story lines about parents loving their children that are designed to violently yank at your heartstrings and I am fine with that.

Then on top of all the other shit going on, both home improvement wise and science fiction wise, I went to punch in to work just now and realized I forgot my friggin’ laptop charger in the office yesterday. FFFFFUUUUUUUUU! Jen bailed me out with a sweet USB C charger so I can get through the day. I just hope when I go to the office after work tonight the charger is still on the desk I sat in yesterday. Cross your fingers, kids. I don’t want to have to buy another charger.

Okay. I am punched in to work now. Everything is well. I’m being added to meetings left and right so it’s starting to look like a busy day. Busy is good. Busy is better than too quiet… sometimes. I guess it depends on what kind of busyness it is, you know?

Right. Work. Post this drivel and get to work, Robert.

Last Day Before Windows

The window replacement team is coming tomorrow. Today is the last day to get the house ready for them. Can I get it all done?

You bet your sweet ass I can.

The kitchen, dining room, and living room are all set. The entire exterior of the house is all set too. Today I’ll handle the bathroom, the bedroom, and Jen’s office. Beyond that, all I need to do is go to the pet store and pick up a huge bag of cat food, and maybe go somewhere to replace Jen’s coffee maker. Before I do anything I’ll need to finish breakfast (one serving of Brown and Serve frozen sausages. Yummy. Also, I need to finish watching the final episode of Star Wars Rebels. 19 minutes to go. I am a little embarrassed by how quickly I burned through this four season rewatch. Like… it’s alarming how nerdy I am.

One small change to the music project plan that I hope to work on over the next couple of days. I was going to use my Keeley Super Phat Mod overdrive pedal (which is a clone of a modified Boss Blues Driver) but I was just looking at the little pile of gear next to my desk and I saw my Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini pedal sitting there and I decided to use that puppy instead. I think I am going to use the Gibson SG for all of this too. SG->Tube Screamer->Vox MV50. That’s a signal chain that’s made up of all things that aren’t usual go to’s. Next month will be Les Paul->King of Tone->Deluxe Reverb and that signal chain could be worthy of gigs. We’ll see.

Right. The Rebels finale has reached the Deus Ex Machina moment. I know I’ve watched this before but I have zero memory of it. Weird. It’s almost time to get to work. The bedroom and the office are going to suck, but I’ll get it done.

Windows tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to all of this being finished.

Taxi

Last week’s episode of The Mandalorian included a cameo from Christopher Lloyd. Everyone online made a reference to Doc Brown from Back to the Future being in Star Wars. I didn’t go there. I went to Jim Ignatowski from Taxi.

Then today while driving to Dad’s and back to give him his morning dose of meds I saw five, count ’em, five taxies on the highway.

Five taxies? In the age of Uber and Lyft?

There has to be a connection, right?

Ahsoka Trailer

This show is gonna be awesome… I hope. I read the Heir to the Empire books decades ago and while they were okay at the time, I don’t think they hold up against both the prequels and the sequels. I mean, the prequels showed us that the Jedi weren’t cloned in the clone wars, and that there can only be two Sith at any given time. That sort of removes the plot line of a cloned Sith surviving the Clone War to be Thrawn’s helper, right? I absolutely do not want to see Heir to the Empire brought into cannon. Lets just have a brand spanking new story where Thrawn is a bad ass bad guy and a bad ass ex-Jedi takes him down. I could go for that.

The immediate impact of this trailer is that I have to put my X-Files and Deep Space Nine rewatches on hold while I rewatch Star Wars Rebels. Ezra, Sabine, Hera, Thrawn, and that annoying friggin droid are all making the jump from the animated series to live action. This new show is starting to look like a live action Rebels Season Five. There are 75, 22 minute episodes. I should be through them all in a few days, right?