Tag: the bad batch

Suddenly Best Friends

This morning they were chasing each other around like maniacs, each trying desperately to kick the other’s ass.

Now?

In unrelated news, I mentioned earlier that I finished Star Wars: The Bad Batch this morning. Last night I finished Penny Dreadful. The night before I finished Snowpiercer. I’m halfway through season eight of The X-Files. Last night I started season two of Extraordinary. New episodes of Star Trek Discovery come out on Thursdays so there will be a new one tomorrow. I started watching Baby Reindeer on Netflix because I heard it was excellent. I’m halfway through and I think it’s good… maybe? It’s really tough to watch though. By design, I think. I also started re-watching The Last of Us and speaking of tough to watch. It is fantastic but gut wrenching even on the second view.

I feel like I am running out of shows to obsess over. Star Wars: Tales of the Empire comes out on Saturday. The new season of Doctor Who kicks off one week later. Maybe I should get back to Torchwood and Pennyworth again. I don’t know why I stopped watching those shows, but it has been a while. I guess I’ll just have to poke around Netflix and Hulu and find a couple more shows. This is the golden age of television, after all.

The Bad Batch is Over

This morning, while doing my usual morning exercise, I watched the new episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch that was released today. Not only is it a new episode, it’s the last new episode. Ever. The series finale wrapped everything up nicely.

Well… nicely may not apply to everything it wrapped up. No spoilers, but some of the stories didn’t so much wrap up as just end. It was a good episode and it closed out a very good season. The first two seasons were a little on the hit or miss side, though more hits than misses, but season three was a banger from start to finish.

There was a lot of speculation on spin offs and it does open the door to something, but not any of the things people were guessing. Those things could still happen as there is a lot of ground to cover. I’m still hoping for a Ventris/Omega buddy cop show, but today’s episode didn’t hint at anything in that direction.

There were a couple of dark moments, but nothing even remotely close to what I had predicted. When the first episode of the first season premiered, I made a prediction on how I thought the show should end. I expected it to answer the question, why are there no clones around in the original movies? The reason, of course, being that George Lucas hadn’t come up with the idea of a clone army yet. He mentioned The Clone Wars in the original movie but never gave any details at all. It wasn’t until the second of the prequel movies that we learned what that name meant. Back in the 70’s and 80’s? Ol’ George didn’t have a clue.

That’s the real reason why there are no clone troopers in episodes 4 through 6, but what is the retconned story reason? My prediction, after watching season one episode one of The Bad Batch, was that the ending to the series would include The Emperor giving an order along the lines of Order 66 which would result in all of the clones just dropping dead. Poof, all gone. Dead clones everywhere. No muss, no fuss, no clones around for A New Hope. That would have been dark. Really dark. Alas I was wrong with my prediction (big surprise there, right?) and as the series ended there are still clones all over the place.

Maybe if there is a spin off my predicted Order 67 (or whatever) might come to pass. We’ll have to see, my fellow Star Wars fanboys and fangirls. We’ll have to see.

How Did I Miss a Star Wars?

Season three of Star Wars: The Bad Batch was released today. Disney+ put out the first three episodes at once.

I knew it was coming… but somehow I forgot all about it. This morning when I did my exercise I watched an episode and a half of The X-Files when I should have watched at least the first two episodes of The Bad Batch.

My Star Wars fanboy status is suddenly being questioned. What is wrong with me? I’ve been completely obsessed with Star Wars since the spring of 1977 when six year old me saw the original movie in the cinema. I should have watched the new episodes and then spent the work day listening to recap podcasts… like a good fanboy.

It’s okay. I’ll get caught up tonight. Maybe first thing tomorrow, but possibly tonight. I’ll get my credibility back, folks.

Imminent Star Wars Problem

I’m going to have a problem on Wednesday and I don’t know what to do.

Wednesday is our day to work in the office. I would greatly prefer that we were 100% remote work, but we’re not. Fortunately our nod to hybrid work is just one day a week. I can live with that.

Wednesday is also important for nerds as it is the day Disney+ releases new episodes of Star Wars shows. Currently there are two shows streaming new episodes each week. The Mandalorian, season three, and The Bad Batch, season two. Fortunately for me, my current morning routine involves waking up ridiculously early so I can get my daily exercise in has allowed me to watch the new episodes of both shows before getting ready for work and hitting the road with enough time to drive through 40 miles of gridlock and get to my desk by 9:00am.

This week though… the day after tomorrow to be precise… it’s going to be tough. It’s the season finale of The Bad Batch and they are releasing two episodes to wrap things up. That means there are three new episodes coming out Wednesday, one Mandalorian and two Bad Batch, and I don’t think I’ll have enough time to get through all three before work. Maybe if I get out of bed at 4:30am or so. That might work. Unfortunately, I have enough of a struggle getting up at 5:00 and getting up earlier than that is going to be next to impossible.

So how do I handle this? I will absolutely watch The Mandalorian episode first. The Bad Batch is a decent enough show, but it’s not even in the same stadium as The Mandalorian. That show would be appointment viewing if it aired at a specific time. The question is, do I watch the first of the two Bad Batch episodes and leave myself hanging through the work day, or do I punt on both of them until I get home from work. I honestly don’t know yet. I may not know until the actual moment arrives.

Talk about your 21st century nerd problem, right? Six year old me sitting in the theater watching Star Wars in 1977 had no clue how good things were going to get in the future. No clue at all.

Doctor’s Appointment and More Stomach Fun

Nothing much came of the doctors appointment. I have to make a couple of follow ups and I’ll be getting an MRI at some point. I’ve been crazy busy at work so I haven’t had a chance to make any of the calls I need to make.

I got home with a few minutes to spare before punching into work, but as soon as I did things got crazy busy. I tried to sneak in some lunch and I ate too fast and my stomach rebelled in a big way. It took two hours to calm down but I did get through my lunch. Granted, lunch stretched out almost all the way to dinner time but what can you do.

I’m drastically behind on both my water and protein goals right now. I’ll make it for both today, but I’m annoyed with myself, especially after I had such a good start this morning before going to see the doctor.

Change of subject: I need to do car music. We’re running out of days in March and I have to finish Record Every Month. I have three songs in the pipeline but I’ll probably only get to two. I am planning to do another album in a month this spring, but it depends on guitar gear. I’ve mentioned that I am about to come to the end of the Analog Man King of Tone waiting list. The first full month after I get my mitts on one of those suckers I will do an album in a month using it on every guitar track. That’s the plan at least. Will it be April? Will it be May? Kinda hope it will be April, but that seems highly unlikely.

What else… Star Trek Picard was good today. The whole gang is back on the show. All we need now is Tasha. Good stuff. The show has been fantastic this season. I really need it to keep up the good work and stick the landing. On the other side of the Trek/Wars coin, I started re-watching The Bad Batch over the weekend. I’m still not sure why, but I will finish the first season tonight (I think) and the second season is going to end next Wednesday, I think. Am I right about that? There are two episodes left but they will both be released next week? I head that somewhere.

I’m tired. I’ve had such a stressful week health wise. Between multiple stomach issues and yet another migraine… I need a nap. A long, comfy nap.

Six minutes left until quittin’ time. I’ll make dinner after I finish work, but I will probably be too full from lunch to eat it right away. We’ll see. 16 ounces of liquid left to go. A whopping 37 grams of protein left to go. I’ll make it to both goals, and then some. It’s just going to take some extra time tonight, I think.

Okay. Signing off. I’ll likely post again later. Yesterday was the lowest page view day I’ve had on this page in over four years. I blame the migraines, but I’ll try to write something interesting that will bring the folks by… or not. Probably not.

Good TV

Yesterday’s episode of The Mandalorian was one that we will someday look back on as one of the best from the series. It was fantastic. Literally everything about it worked perfectly.

Today’s new episode of Star Trek Picard? Same thing. We’re going to look back at this one as a highlight not only of this show, but of Next Generation Star Trek in general. It was so good that I was sad when it ended.

It’s a good time to be a television viewer and a science fiction/fantasy/action adventure fan.

Leaving space behind, temporarily, the season one finale of Poker Face is out today too. I am really happy with that show. I’ve enjoyed every episode, and there are a couple of A+’s in there too (looking at you, episode nine and the one with the mom from Who’s the Boss, and episode one). I’m trying to get back into Extraordinary as well as I started watching that with Jen but she said she wasn’t interested anymore and let me finish it on my own. I still have 3-4 more episodes to go, but it’s a good show… just maybe not quite as good as Poker Face. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget that a new episode of The Bad Batch came out yesterday too and while that show has been hit or miss in season two, the two most recent episodes are both major hits. Yesterday’s was great.

In closing, let’s not forget that as I am listing off excellent TV shows that are currently airing that the single best show that’s out right now is going to wrap up it’s first season on Sunday. I’m talking about The Last of Us, of course. As good as all of these other shows are, and they absolutely are, The Last of Us leaves them all in the dust. It’s gut wrenching and emotional and exciting and terrifying and pretty much perfect and Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey deserve all of the awards. All of them.

A Hiccup in the Plans

Hello and welcome to March 1st, everyone. The RPM Challenge is over. Well… technically working on March 1st is allowed, but I don’t.

Last time I posted here I said I had two songs to mix and then I’d be done with everything that I wanted to have done. I managed to mix one of them and then, around 7:30 last night, it went bad. I had one of those episodes where my vision went blurry and I started getting a headache. I went to bed, turned off all of the lights, buried my head under the blankets, and called it a day. I had just finished dinner when it started, but I was still seven grams of protein away from my daily goal. I missed it for the day, but not by much. I’m not that worried about it.

I slept from 7:45 to 3:30. I woke up, put my watch on the charger (it was at 33%), filled up the tank on my CPAP machine, stepped on the scale for the Wednesday weigh in (more on that later), and went back to sleep until about 5:20. Then I got up, got dressed, filled up my water bottle, updated my food tracking spreadsheet and my weight tracking spreadsheet, jogged in place for 40 minutes or so (pronounced yogged, with a soft “j”), watched the new episodes of The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch, packed up my laptop, and started my day.

Wednesdays are in the office days now so I have to get a move on so I can get out onto the road about 50 minutes from now. I have to prep a lunch and a breakfast, refill the water bottle, shower, get dressed, clean off the car, bring in the trash barrel (assuming the city picked up the trash during the snow yesterday, not sure if they did or not), and get going.

My headache is still there, a little bit, but it’s better after hydrating myself some. My eye sight is normal again too. I just have to watch out for crap like that. It’s not fun at all.

Okay, let’s get a move on.

YouTube is Helpful

I’ve watched at least 10 videos on YouTube that walk through Nikon Z5 settings and menus. There was one question I had that none of them answered. How do you set the camera so that you can use the little joystick to set your focus point. While doing today’s faux-jog (pronounced faux-yog, with a soft “J”) I watched this one, which I think answered the question. I’ll check once my legs start working again.

Ever since the camera obsession was reborn back in June, YouTube has been a huge help to me, a source of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (what is this medium format of which you speak?), and it’s more or less replaced my constant television streaming. 95% of what I’ve watched is film related, but there are a bunch of digital folks that I have obsessed over too.

Of course January will bring us a new Star Wars show (The Bad Batch season two) and a new HBO show that I can already tell is going to be appointment viewing (The Last of Us), and there is more Star Wars and Marvel (I think?) and Walking Dead not too far behind that. TV will take back a lot of my time during faux-jog (pronounced faux-yog, with a soft “J”), but I think photography YouTube might be here to stay for a while.

For now though, let’s go see if the autofocus joy stick thingie can be switched on via the back display screen.

ADDENDUM: Okay, so I can’t embed the video. Sigh. You get the idea anyway, right? Here’s a link.

Friday Morning

It’s Friday morning, everyone! You’ve almost made it to the weekend. Hang in there, it’s almost over.

Ready for your morning update to the saga of my personal pain?

Last night was okay. I don’t control the TV remote anymore so I stuck my AirPods Max with their transparency mode onto my noodle and surfed the web. I decided to watch The Orville. We had started it once before but only got a few episodes in. I’m going to give it another go. I also did some music and bitched about local news. Mom’s pain level was manageable. Dad was fine.

This morning though.

I woke up about 5:30. Dad was asleep but mom was up. She was in a lot of pain and she was very confused. She told me she was lost. She said she was in the new school and didn’t know her way around. She was opening doors and peering inside trying to figure out what was up. She asked me what each room was. She asked me if we were on the second floor. I kept telling her she was home and safe but it wasn’t getting through. Eventually she found her bedroom. She called it “a” bedroom, not “her” bedroom though. She sat on the bed for a little while and seemed to slowly come back to herself.

So that was fun, right?

Dad is still asleep, but mom is having breakfast. The complaining about pain and the feeling lost both seem to be gone. I’m pretty thankful for that.

I need to get my workspace ready for the work day, check on the doors, and try to sneak in the new episode of The Bad Batch. The home health folks aren’t coming until 9:00 so I had a little extra time to get ready. I had gotten into the habit of keeping all of my stuff on dad’s hospital bed in the living room but I can’t do that anymore. I think my CPAP machine and my laundry and stuff will go out to the car this morning so they won’t be in anyone’s way.

I have a really bad feeling about today. I shouldn’t but I do. I also had to switch some days around this month. My brother and sister and I all have stuff we need to do in our own lives outside of our parents’ lives so the calendar was monkeyed with. It works to my benefit later in the month, but in the immediate future I have some tough times. I will go home tonight around dinner time, but instead of having a day off before I come back, I come back tomorrow night at dinner. That’s still better than the 48 hour shift I have next week. That’s going to be a shit burger.

Okay. Let’s get this Friday rolling, shall we? Happy thoughts, everyone. Happy thoughts.

Last Night

Last night was only really bad for about an hour. After that it was just a matter of waiting. Once the pain let up I had to wait for her to go to sleep for the night before I could relax. It took a long time. At least it seemed like a long time. I’m not sure when she actually conked out, but it was probably around 11:30. Definitely before midnight.

Today she slept until 8:00am. I was just bringing her morning meds to her, thinking I was going to have to wake her up, when she came out of her room on her own. That was good timing. She has a new problem today but I don’t think it’s anything too concerning. Some days she tries to talk on the phone to my father and if the phone is at her right ear she can’t hear him. I’m 99.999% sure it’s just wax build up. Today she has it in both ears. Here’s hoping it clears up a little.

In the interest of distracting me from everything, there’s a new episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch today. I have just enough time to sneak it in before work… assuming the rest of the world leaves me alone for half an hour.