Tag: Television

New Years Eve

It’s New Years Eve again. Wasn’t it just New Years Eve a few weeks ago? 2023 is ending? How the hell did that happen?

We don’t have any solid plans for today apart from picking up some take-out Chinese food. Maybe some board games? Maybe another round of Yahtzee?

I watched Rebel Moon on Netflix. I was conflicted. I wanted to watch it but I also did not want to watch it. See the conflict? My spoiler free review is to recommend that you wait until part two comes out in April. This movie feels like two hours worth of a four hour heist movie, where generally the first half of a heist movie is assembling the team. That means the movie that is out now is really just the assembling of the team. That’s why it doesn’t have a coherent story. It’s more like a bunch of mini-movies introducing all of the characters. Hopefully part two will make sense on it’s own. So if you wait for part two to come out and then watch them both together, maybe it will be a decent movie as a whole. For now though… eh.

I have to play guitar today. I have two songs in progress for this month’s Record Every Month challenge. They both need lead guitar parts. I need to record them today and then mix the two songs and then I will have my first R.E.M. win since September. It’s a must.

Speaking of guitar, I went down a rabbit hole last week that I find myself visiting once every couple of years. If you read this page you might have noticed that I have been obsessed with the band Rush since 1981. Back then there were two bands that I was obsessed with. The other was Led Zeppelin. As I got older though, the whole unending adolescence vibe that Zeppelin had sort of got tiring for me and I moved away from them. Also, Jimmy Page is one of my guitar heroes, and he is definitely one of the reasons I NEEDED to learn to play guitar when I was a kid. When I look at my own playing objectively though (if that’s even possible) I don’t hear a lot of his style in my playing. I think as I moved away from the debauchery that Zeppelin represented, I sort of moved away from Page too.

Every once in a while though, I feel the need to really dig into the catalog and try to remind myself that there is a lot of value there. That comes up once every couple of years, and it came up for me on Thursday. I put together a playlist with all of their studio records and over the course of the work day I plowed through all of it. Did the old musical feelings I used to get when I listened to Led Zeppelin as a teenager come back? Yes. Not exactly the same, as I am no longer that kid that I used to be, but it was close enough that I felt good about the whole experience. Now I can move on to other things again until the next time I feel cosmically compelled to examine the Zeppelin again. Probably some time in 2025, I think.

Okay then, it’s almost 11:00am. I have not had anything to eat for about three hours. It’s time to have a snack to keep my stomach happy. Gastric Bypass for the win!

Happy New Years Eve, everyone. HoHoHo.

Amazing Advances in Topical Creams

Yesterday’s haiku mentioned that I feel like I have a black eye. I don’t have a black eye though. It’s just swollen and sore. What’s going on?

I might have a guess. I made a doctors appointment for afterwork tonight to see if my guess is correct. If it is, then we’re going to have to keep me away from Worcestershire sauce* for a while. Fortunately there have been some amazing advances in topical creams, so I should be okay if the worst is true.

My question for the doctor… do I have… Pink Eye?

*This whole post is a reference to the first South Park Halloween episode. If you don’t get the references then I apologize for your lack of culture. That first Halloween episode is one of the finest 30 minute television time slots in broadcast/cable/streaming history. It is perfection.

Lost

The Bruins lost 4-3 in overtime.

I guess I wasn’t the jinx today. They blew this game without any help from me.

Unrelated, I’m watching my second episode of Deep Space Nine tonight. Season five episodes four and five. In both episodes a post-religious human being mentions god. Bashir sees Jake alive and says thank god. O’Brien realizes he can’t stop whatever is possessing his wife and says god help me.

These star fleet human cats are supposed to be atheists living in an atheist society that’s a few hundred years removed from religion. As a fellow atheist, though not a Federation citizen or a Star Fleet officer, I’m a little bummed out by the references. Like… hast society come up with new sayings yet? Come on, writers. Let’s get creative, shall we?

Back to the original subject, the next Bruins game is Friday. Hopefully no one will jinx them. Fingers crossed.

One Wacky Day

As weird, crazy, wacky days go… that was one.

My stomach was in and out of gastric bypass weirdness all day, including a legitimate yacking during dinner. Fun.

As mentioned in a prior post, I was also exhausted all day. I had six uninterrupted hours of sleep last night, but the way I felt through the day you’d think I was awake the whole night. Of course it’s 10:00pm now and I’m not tired at all. I’m just sitting up in bed watching Deep Space Nine ( my binge watch reached season five today) and wondering if I’ll be tired enough to sleep sometime soon.

Tomorrow is this week’s in-the-office day. The company is giving out the annual holiday gift. This year I passed on the turkey and went with the ham. When will we eat it? No clue. I offered it up to my sister and her husband for Xmas dinner but I think they are passing on it.

I have a doctor’s appointment on Thursday morning. It’s my 1.5 year check in with my gastric bypass surgeon. I’m compiling a list of questions. Today’s wacky-weirdness will lead to a few, I’m sure.

Until then… get some sleep, Trekkie-nerd-boy.

Yankee Swap

I won a cup of hot chocolate with Baby Yoda at my work’s yankee swap today. Best. Yankee swap gift. Ever!

Of course it has 30 grams of sugar and if I drink it, it will trigger dumping syndrome and I’ll feel like I’m going to die for a few hours so… I’ll save it for Jen or the kids. Maybe one of them will enjoy a beverage with Grogu.

Post Covid Vax Come Down

My wife and I both got our latest Covid-19 vaccination shots yesterday evening, and we are both feeling the effects today. The last time we did this I felt legitimately sick the next day. Today I am just tired and sore and flakey-brained. I’ve managed to check a couple of things off of my to do list, but I feel like I have punted a lot of things off until tomorrow.

I finished the laundry and made the bed and bought a gift for my work’s yankee swap on Tuesday. I ran an errand for Jen and I helped her with a home office project she’s working on. I wrapped some xmas gifts, but only about 25% of the pile. Hopefully I can pick off some more tonight. I had told Jen that I was thinking about hanging xmas lights outside but that I wasn’t promising anything. I just didn’t have it in me today. The weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow, but it could be okay early in the morning. We’ll see if I feel better then.

My stomach has been a jerk today. Lots of “hey, I’m empty so I am going to hurt you a lot” stomach aches. I wonder if that can be related to the vaccine shot. Probably not, but who knows? I’ll be fine tomorrow, I am sure.

On unrelated nerd notes, I have not watched the third and final Dr Who 60th anniversary episode yet. I got a text from my step son, Harry, asking me if I have seen it yet. I told him no but asked him if it was good. He said very, without any spoilers. I’ll get to it before I sleep tonight. I did manage to watch the 4th and final episode of Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too with Krist Novoselic from Nirvana. What a fascinating guy. I also finished season three of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The 3rd season finale is one of my favorite episodes ever. The 4th season premier is another one of my favorite episodes. I’m in a good Star Trek binge watching place right now.

Okay, time for dinner. Time to try to talk my stomach into calming the hell down. No problem!

Cartoons

Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite cartoon?
View all responses

This is another unanswerable question. There are too many favorites to narrow it down to one. I think it is time for a list, and it is probably going to be on the long side…

  • Current shows
    • Rick and Morty (though last week’s episode was the worst they’ve ever made)
    • Star Wars: The Bad Batch
    • Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi
    • South Park
    • Family Guy
    • Bob’s Burgers
  • Shows that aren’t running anymore
    • Star Wars: The Clone Wars
    • Star Wars: Rebels
    • Bugs Bunny, especially Loony Toons
    • The Super Friends
    • Scooby Doo
    • Star Blazers
    • The old Spiderman show, the one with the famous theme song
    • The Flintstones
    • The Jetsons
  • Shows my step kids watched when they were little that were good enough (ie adult enough) that I started loving them too
    • Gravity Falls
    • Phineas and Ferb
    • The Mighty B!
    • Wander Over Yonder

There are at least 100 more, but this will do for now. Here’s hoping this Sunday’s episode of Rick and Morty is better than last week’s suck burger.

ADDENDUM: How did I leave Futurama and Archer off the list? What is wrong with me?

Are Bass Players Human Too?

I just watched the first episode of Geddy Lee’s TV show, called Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too?

I freakin’ loved it!

It was about 20 minutes of Geddy and Les Claypool of Primus just hanging out. The two of them are just plain goofy and it was kinda delightful.

I’ll admit that when Geddy was reading from a script he didn’t sound particularly… professional. It’s clear that reading copy is not something that he generally does. When he and Claypool were just talking to each other it felt natural and… I’ll say it again, delightfully goofy.

There are three episodes left. One is the new guy in Metallica, one is (I think) a former member of Hole, and the third is some guy who used to be in some band called Nirvana or something.

I’m looking forward to all of them. I now need to know, are bass players human too?

November’s End

I can’t believe it’s here, but we’re just over three hours away from December. Another year, another winter, another season of me wishing it were summer again. Ugh. It was cold enough in the cellar today during the work day that I turned on the little space heater for the first time. Again… ugh.

My Star Trek Deep Space 9 rewatch has reached the first mirror universe episode. The first one is a classic. All of the 10000 that followed, including the ones in Discovery demonstrate the law of diminishing returns. They just get dumber and more boring as they go. Again, again… ugh.

Side note, I am watching DS9 on the Paramount app on my AppleTV. It’s an ad-supported plan. It’s been so long since I’ve watched commercial television that I forgot the wonder of the mute button. Thankfully the AppleTV remote has one. Every time a commercial starts, I hit mute and… sigh of relief.

Change of subject, the Bruins have lost three straight games. Tonight they look to end the losing streak in a match up with the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks are pitiful this season. This is just what we need. We are up 2-0 after two periods. Again, just what we needed.

I have had two crappy nights sleep in a row. Here’s hoping that a good DS9 episode and a Bruins win will be followed by a rare good nights sleep. Fingers crossed.