Jen and I are sitting in the living room watching 9/11 documentaries.
Why?
I don’t know. It’s like misery porn. Why are we subjecting ourselves to this?
Sure, never forget and all but this is like self abuse. Not that we are shutting it off or anything. Not that we can even look away.
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.
After one period of play in Game Two of the Stanley Cup Final, the Oilers have a 1-0 lead over the Panthers.
Finally.
There is zero chance that this game ends 1-0. Come now, Edmonton. Let’s pad that lead in the second period.
I’m not watching the game, as I don’t have cable anymore and don’t know how to stream ABC. Instead I’m following the gamecast in a browser window while starting to re-watch season one of House of the Dragon because season two starts on Sunday. Gots to get ready for some Game of Thrones Prequel style carnage, am I right?
Let’s go Oilers!
The Great X-Files Rewatch Adventure has reached an important moment. Season nine episode 19. The first half of what was expected to be the series finale. Let’s ignore for the moment that they made a second movie a few years later, and then added two new seasons many years later. This was supposed to be it. A two part series finale.
And it was not good.
I mean, I remember it being okay but not nearly good enough. They had a chance to end it with a bang but instead they just failed to stick the landing. They failed to give the show the send off it deserved.
Now, in 2024, let’s see if it was as meh as I remember it. After that, I’ll watch the second movie for the first time since Jen and I saw it in the theater in 2008 (I think).
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:
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!
It’s always a good day when there is new Star Wars content to devour. Am I right, or am I right?
Being sick in the springtime absolutely sucks, and last night I went from feeling like I might be getting better to feeling like I was definitely getting worse. I was exhausted after a long and stressful afternoon at work and when I tried to watch the two new episodes of the new show I found myself nodding off. That is not a review of the quality of the episodes, but a comment on the poor quality of my brain last night.
I made it through the first episode and about half of the second when I gave up and went to sleep. This morning while doing my morning exercise silliness I started over and watched both episodes all the way through.
My spoiler free review is that I am intrigued. I like it so far. I am looking forward to seeing what comes next. Is the dude with the red lightsaber a Sith or is he something else? Who is he? We haven’t even seen his face yet (and we saw him in the trailer so his existence is not a spoiler). Also, what did the victims of the crimes being investigated do to earn what they’ve gotten? What’s the back story? They gave us a tiny bit of motivation but there has to be a lot more.
I’m really looking forward to seeing more of this show. I needs to know what’s going on, and I needs to see some lightsaber fighting. Use the Force, folks!
I like that we’re seeing a period in Star Wars history that we’ve never touched on before. We saw the Jedi and the Republic in the prequels, but the wheels were already coming off the wagon by the time those stories start. This new show takes place about a century earlier, when the Jedi were at the top of their game and the Republic wasn’t a political mess yet. I want to see more.
Okay this part is going to get a little spoilery, so if you are being cautious about such things and haven’t watched the first two episodes yet you might want to stop reading now.
I will be as vague as I can, but there will be spoilers after this point.
You have been warned.
My one issue is not with the show, it’s with the fandom. I have watched some youtube videos and listened to some podcasts in prep for this. There is a book series and some comics and some other extended universe things dealing with the High Republic period, and many of the preview things I read/saw/listened to reference those stories extensively. One common thread was how the Jedi were different than they were in the prequels, and many referenced characters that we knew were crossing from books to the show.
One frequent comment from one youtube source kept harping on how the Jedi aren’t as hung up on attachments being bad during this period. Then in the first episode there were 3-4 moments when one Jedi says to another, what’s up with you being so attached to this person/place/thing. Don’t you know that’s bad and will lead to problems? Heh. I guess they are has hung up on attachments after all, eh? Another talked about how one character was this amazing warrior and how we were all going to love getting to see that character do some kick ass Jedi-Fu and how awesome it would be… then six minutes into episode one that character is gone. HA! I guess we won’t be getting much excitement watching that particular Jedi kick ass, eh?
My point being is that expectations are silly. It’s a new show, a new time period, and I don’t care how many novels or comics you’ve read, it’s a new setting and new characters. Unfortunately there will now be a significant chunk of what is already a super toxic, asshole fanbase who are going to HATE this show because it isn’t exactly what they expected after reading the books. That sucks, but we all know it’s going to happen. My hope is that I can avoid such negativity and just enjoy the show for what it is. Something 100% brand spanking new.
Can’t wait to get episode three next week. Bring it on, Disney+.
Hey, remember that post from earlier today when I said we were planning the next two vacations already?
We’ve already scrapped one of them. California in the fall has been eliminated. We might do a staycation at that time, or maybe something short that’s close to home. The reason? The second planned trip, Florida early in the new year, is morphing into a major deal. We’re going to take the budget for Cali in the fall and roll it in to Florida in the winter. We have buy in from one of the kids. The other one will still be in school but might be able to come along for part of the time. That would be awesome. Awesome, I tells ya!
In other news that is also related to that same post from earlier today, I feel sick! My head cold was much better yesterday, then a little worse throughout the day today but not too bad. Around the time I sat down to dinner it decided to kick me in the balls and it got so much worse. I can’t breath through my nose anymore. It feels like my nasal passages have been completely bricked up. This sucks. Even worse, dinner went bad on me tonight… twice. Twice? WTF, bypassed stomach? Two bouts of the foamies complete with portions of dinner coming back for a return visit? (TMI, I know) All while being unable to breath through my nose? WTF, body?
The good news is, the first episode (or is it episodes?) of the brand new Star Wars show The Acolyte was supposed to be released on Disney+ about 23 minutes ago. I’m off to get my Jedi Knight fix on, kids! May the Force Be With Us, and our vacation plans, and my nose! Ah-Choo!
What am I doing? I don’t know. I feel like the universe is in a weird place right now (yes, I know that mathematically that sentence does not make sense). I don’t know.
I had the opportunity to play my guitar tonight and I sat on my ass on the couch watching TV. I watched an episode of Torchwood. I’m trying to get back into that. While I was on the AppleTV app formerly known as HBO Max I figured I’d maybe start watching The Leftovers again. I watched the first episode. I’ll go to my grave saying that the second season of that show is television perfection. The first and third seasons are great too. The first season is just so soul crushingly depressing though. It is tough to get through and I suspect that watching one episode is part of the reason why I feel like I am in a screwy state of mind right now.
The point of all of this though is that I could have played guitar tonight and I did not. Ugh.
I had two slices of a small pizza for dinner tonight. The second one came back for another view. Oh yeah, TMI Alert here. Yeah. It went down, but it didn’t stay down. Shit. I ate too much too fast and paid the price.
I’m on the youtubes right now watching a photography channel. It’s a pro photographer telling me I should use Aperture Priority instead of Manual Mode. But what if I want to use Manual Mode? I use Aperture Priority a lot with one of my film cameras. The term Aperture Priority wasn’t invented yet when the camera was built, it’s called Auto on the camera, but it’s the same thing.. I use it because the light meter inside the view finder is often hard to read. I like using Manual though. It makes me feel like I know what I am doing even though I don’t really know what I’m doing. The video also says to keep the aperture away from the extremes. Don’t use f2.0 or f16, use f5.6 or f8. You don’t get the blurry background as much as you do with f2, but you get some which is more than f16 gives. The video says the images will be clearer in the middle ground apertures. I think I had figured that one out on my own and was starting to come around to this way of thinking. Then again… I really dig all that blurry background.
Miss Robin Sparkles says hello.
It’s Monday night, just about bed time. Almost 10:00pm. At this time four days from now we’ll be about seven hours into our road trip to Florida. That’s the main reason why I am in such a weird headspace tonight. I just want to go. I want to leave now. I don’t want to worry about work or anything outside of travel. I just want to go. I have a shit load of stuff to do before we go, but I just want to go.
Ugh… I should just go to bed.
Looking ahead to tomorrow. There is likely going to be an NHL predictions post for the third round. I am hoping the Edmonton Oilers will win their game seven tonight against Vancouver. If that happens there will be exactly one team that I kinda like in the Conference Finals. If they lose, there will be three teams I hate one one team I don’t care about. My heart is officially no longer in the NHL playoffs at all.
Also, expect lots of posts where I talk about how I just want to jump in the car with Jen, my wife, and head out on our trip. I have vacation-itis right now. Big time.
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?”
We’re about five minutes into the second period and The Bruins trail the Panthers 1-0. We’re going on the power play though, so let’s be optimistic.
Jen and I watched The Offer on Paramount+ this week. It’s actually the second time we watched it. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s the story of the making of The Godfather. Now that we’re finished with the show we’re watching the movie. Clemenza just left the gun but took the cannoli’s.
The Godfather is on the living room TV. The Bruins are on my iPhone via the streaming app formerly known as HBO Max. I’m trying to multitask over here, but it’s tough when the movie is so legendary and the iPhone screen is so teeny tiny. Even if it is an iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The Bruins did not score on the power play. Crud.
Inside the Red Head's Head 