Random updates
Ironically, this isn't intended to be a "filler" post, but more of a fill-you-in post, as I've actually decided to stop trying to do "100 Days to Offload" this year.
I still technically have enough time left in the year to do it, but then I'd just be slamming the pipeline with content, and that's not really good for either of us. I've had enough major life events this year to make trying to fulfil an arbitrary number kind of meaningless, but I will try to pursue something meaningful for this year's WritingMonth, instead. I'm trying to decide between writing some short stories, or just journaling on paper.
Some minor interesting things that have happened in the last month:
- I bought The Good Place on Bluray, which turned out to be a fantastic decision, because it frees me up from buying into yet another streaming service (netflix), and the Bluray (1080p) content is both higher quality than the streaming options, and has more content (the episodes are actually a little longer).
- I wiped (factory-resetted) my Roku TV. I had logged into a family member's roku account (ironically to start watching The Good Place again), but all of the streaming platforms slowly blocked my device, as I wasn't in the same location as them. So, the streaming services all cut me off, except for the couple that I already had logged into my own name. So for now, my Roku TV is just a "dumb" TV. Glorious.
- I got my old Wii set up again. I'm beyond disappointed in Nintendo, but I won't waste time here kvetching about it. I'm hoping to spot some good deals for Wii and maybe GameCube games here and there and enjoy those platforms, rather than spending an arm and a leg on the new stuff. No sense in rewarding profiteering gigacorporations.
- I canceled my Amazon Prime Video ad-free subscription. It was only 2.99 USD per month, but I no longer watch anything on there, and I'm kind of done with streaming services.
- I said goodbye to Star Wars and Disney altogether. It's obvious to me that Disney is incompatible with a free world, and I will no longer be giving them money to further their fascistic goals. It will be sad to not be able to watch Rebels, Ahsoka, or upcoming Mandalorian episodes, but these are a small price to pay for the integrity of our democracy and our world. I'll keep an eye out for used blurays, though. ;)
More updates to come... organically. ;)
Where to now?
I debated whether or not this should be a "toot" (status update), or a proper blog post.
Like one time before, I am going to allow it to be something in-between. An off-the-cuff blog post, not quite as structured and agonized over as a proper blog post/article, but more …
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Just a quick note...
...to let you all know why I haven't been blogging for the past couple weeks.
After many years of fighting with illness, and multiple organ failures, my mother passed away peacefully last Tuesday night.
I'm doing ok, overall, but haven't had much motivation to write. Everything is still very surreal …
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Why Do We Blog?
A few days ago, I was reading someone's blog (I don't remember who)* that was talking about the art and the "why" of blogging (or it might've been in a chat conversation, I'm not sure). I had been thinking of posting something about it, because when I told someone IRL …
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Why I Love the Command Line
I was going to post a much more serious blog post about anhedonia yesterday, but I didn't get to do so, as I was feeling... anhedonic!
One thing I do when I'm struggling to feel... anything (because I've spent way too much time feeling way too much, but that's a …
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Songs to Improve Your Mental Health
Background
I'd be fooling myself to think that I could be the first person on the earth to note music's incredible ability to heal and salve the tormented human soul. My own journey with music is, well, unsurprisingly, about as old as I am. Most everyone on one side of …
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Speedrunning life with a Rube Goldberg brain
There's a scene in The King's Speech at the end where he's finally giving his big, inspiring speech, and while you hear is the speech, what you see is the scribbled crib notes and the incredible mental gymnastics he has to go through to get each word and phrase out …
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The Scenes that Made Me: Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
Lars looking on wistfully while ingesting his sister-in-law's retort to his rant
Video clip
Content warning: this post unavoidably and briefly touches on some "mature" topics
If you had told me six months ago that one of my favorite movies of all time would be a bout a man who …
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The Scenes that Made Me: Star Wars
Luke looking wistfully out at the dual sunset on Tatooine as The Force Theme plays hauntingly in the background, beckoning him to his grand adventure
Having grown up in the 1980s, one thing random friends would often ask me (actually what family friends would ask my mom) was: "Has he …
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The Scenes that Made Me: Star Trek
I'm starting a new series where I recount the TV show and movies that were formative in my life. Not only in my childhood (although that will be heavily emphasized), but even recent days.
As I mentioned in a recent post, there were some scenes in Star Trek that deeply …
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