2015, all wrapped up

Yes, there are still 6 more days left in the year, and who knows what those will bring, but this will be the last blog post I make in the year known as 2015.

Back at the start of this year, I made some "resolutions." Now that 300-some-odd days have passed, let's check in, shall we?

Blog more. (Accomplished already!)

Yup, this one was a success. I decided to blog every 15 days, and, with this blog entry... mission accomplished!  (we'll overlook the one time I forgot, and the one time that Silas blogged for me, and the numerous times I had absolutely nothing to blog about...).

I also said that I wanted to:

Write at least 2015 words every month on a fictional story. I don't need to finish the story, I don't need to start it - it could just be outlining or working on a particular scene, and it doesn't have to be the same story each month. Just need to write something fiction, and have put in at least two thousand and fifteen words into it. (I realize this seems like setting the bar pretty low, since the total word count for the year would only be 24,180 - which is not even half of what the Nanowrimo goal is, but considering my writing output lately, I think it is a rather achievable target.)

I did write some fiction. However, I just did a word count on my super-secret blog, and, well, it's only up to 17.874. That's despite writing every Wednesday. There IS another Wednesday coming up, so if I can manage 6300 more words....
Next!

Watch as many movies as possible.

68 done. (I'll throw the list up at the end of this. I kept track of all my books & movies consumed this year, along with notes...) If I manage to watch any more films or finish any more novels, I'll add them to the list(s).

 Work on the Project (yes, the very same project I was mentioning on this blog back in [sigh] 2007.)

I did! It was ONE weekend out of the whole year, and for only about twenty minutes, but ...that counts, right?

Ex...er....cise?

Half-way win. For the first three months, I did a bunch of pushups, situps and jumping jacks daily. (Actually, 15 of each each day in January, 30 of each each day in February, 45 of each each day in March.) I would have kept going, but near the end of March it just got...exhausting. And after slipping three days in a row, I simply gave up. 2016 is right around the corner though, so maybe I'll start up again. (Without the "this many this month" gimmick.)

 Read at least half the amount of books that Stephanie reads this year. I'm pretty sure that she is shooting for a goal of 60. I think I can manage to read 30 books in 365 days. I always give my star-rating on Goodreads.com, but I might start jotting down quick notes/thoughts about the books too.

 I hit 40. (And I'm nearly done with one more) I don't know how many Stephanie read. 40's pretty good, though.
And since that's everything, I'm now just going to end with the list of movies and books that I saw this year.
See ya'll in 2016!

Movies seen in 2015: (mostly spoiler free, but proceed with caution)

1. Guardians of the Galaxy – best movie I’ve seen all year. ☺ It was a little jarring at first with all the different aliens and locations trying to keep track of exactly what was supposed to be going on, but once it got rolling, the fun was just nonstop. Rocket and Groot, were, of course, standouts, but Drax and Peter “Star-Lord” Quill also brought the fun.  Even Gamora had hints of backstory and depth. Overall, a great ride.
2. Tusk – horror/comedy movie that started off pretty great – the villain was genuinely creepy and engaging (the “protagonist” was a bit of an a-hole, though, and hard to root for, although even he didn’t really deserve his fate) . And then Johnny Depp showed up as ‘comedic relief’, but forgot to bring the comedy, and made the last half of the movie a chore to get thru.
3. The Equalizer – Denzel Washington kicking ass.
4. Noah – There aren’t that many movies made nowadays that are based on Biblical stories. This film kinda shows why.  It was interesting that they made Noah a jerkass who only followed God’s word (which came to him in visions).  But, it took me five tries to watch this without falling asleep, and in the end wasn’t worth having done so.
5. Coherence – low budget sci-fi (with Nicholas “Xander” Brendan, who has definitely aged since his Buffy days) about a group of middle-aged friends who experience a …kind of fracturing of the multiverse during the passing of a comet. Wasn’t bad at all, but it really did end right as it was starting to pick up and get good.  
6. Wish I Was Here – Zach Braff stars in this amazingly good drama (that he also directed and co-wrote with his brother) Just a nicely done movie about a Jewish family dealing with the father dying. Nothing really groundbreaking, but the performances and humor really made it a great journey.
7. The Interview – if not for the brouhaha around this, I doubt I would’ve seen it. Wasn’t great, I think I laughed once or twice, but whatever. Completely forgettable.
8. Lucy – meh. Was just an excuse for Scarlett Johansen to look cool and take out mafia goons.
9. Parallels – this was decent enough (nothing really new or original – just a parallel earth story), but it ended on kind of a cliffhanger, which seemed odd for a movie. Doing a little research, it appears that this was actually a pilot for a television series, which makes a LOT more sense. If the series got picked up – and had a set # of seasons to tell its story – I’d probably watch it.
10. Cinderella – the live-action version. Enjoyable!
11. Big Hero 6 – this was pretty great. Kind of a kid-friendly Avengers, but set in some alternate universe where San Francisco & Tokyo combined into a mega city, and robots are commonplace.
12. You’re Next – typical slasher film that had a twist in that one of the intended victims fought back and kicked some ass. Could’ve been better.
13. Dumb and Dumber To – unnecessary sequel.  I went in with extremely low expectations. They were not met.
14. Gone Girl – David Fincher makes pretty great movies.
15. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part  1 –I don’t really remember ANYTHING from the book (except that I was disappointed, overall)  so …I guess the movie was better, because I did enjoy this, although it did seem like a whole lot of “set up”.  Which is the inherent problem with splitting a movie into two parts as has become the trend. Maybe I’ll just stop watching part 1s of these sorts of movies.
16. Divergent – Started out fairly interesting (despite the super silly concept of separating society based on one singular trait), but this movie really was about 30 minutes too long. (And it’s the first of a trilogy! With, of course, the third part being split into two.)
17. Interstellar – Honest Trailers called this “Christopher Nolan’s Contact”, which is hilarious and accurate.
18. Annie –why??????
19. Predestination – it’s turtles Ethan Hawkes all the way down.
20. The Babadook – Australian horror movie that was pretty damn terrifying because mental illness can truly be scary. Amelia lives with her six year old son, Sam. Sam’s father, Oskar, was killed in a car wreck while driving Amelia to the hospital. Ameila is not dealing with the grief very well, and Sam is becoming more and more of a problem child as a result. When a strange picture book called “Mister Babadook” arrives in their house, things get worse. There are parts of this that were really tough to watch – great acting from both the mother and child – but overall, this was one of the best horror movies I’ve seen in a quite a while.
21. Psycho – There’s a reason this is a classic. I was surprised at how little was actual Horror, and how overall it was a lot more of a mystery or suspense.  Anthony Perkins was pretty incredible. I actually liked Norman, despite knowing that he was a killer.
22. Horrible Bosses 2 – nothing really to say about this one. It was about what I expected, and it wasn’t awful. I’d say it was about on par with the  first one, actually.
23. The Voices – this was depressing.
24. Killer Joe – sex, violence, swearing, murder, and fried chicken legs.
25. Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) – meh. The acting was fine, the gimmick of having it appear as (mostly) one continuous shot was fine, the meta aspects were fine, but, somehow, overall,  it just …didn’t work for me.
26. Nightcrawler – wow. Jake  Gyllenhaal plays Louis Bloom, who is a complete monster that doesn’t have a shred of humanity in him. Once Louis finds out about “nightcrawling” – filming crime scenes and selling the videos to the local news stations – he becomes obsessed with a) getting the best footage, and first, and b) with the news director Nina. He’s morally grey (well, light black, maybe) at that point – and then he decides to go a step further and start really breaking laws with a total disregard for anyone around. Only his footage matters. Extremely creepy performance and yet immensely watchable.
27. Honeymoon – low budget horror flick about a young couple, Paul & Bea, on their honeymoon in a cabin in the woods.  Bea starts acting really strange after one night. Turns out it was alien abduction. A couple of really gross moments, and some creepiness, but with so much of the mystery not explained, it felt kinda frustrating – like, why? What’s the point of this? I felt like this came pretty close to being a great little gem, but fell short.
28. The Maze Runner – decent adaptation of a decent YA novel. The book was more compelling than the movie (the movie was irritating in a “why don’t they just EXPLAIN things to him” sort of way – the book may have had elements of that, too, but I don’t remember.) Definitely a downer ending, though.
29. Chappie – Short Circuit for the 21st century, I guess.  This certainly had potential, but it didn’t live up to it, sadly.
30. Zombeavers – I don’t know, man. It was there. It was dumb. (Not that I was expecting otherwise). About the best I can say for this is that it was short.
31. The Fault in our Stars – this was really good. Although there was a lot of dust in the room when we watched… Anyway, yes, Pretty People With Cancer was a pretty entertaining flick (although the indie-song soundtrack got to be a *little* much near the end), and I may read the book, just ‘cuz.
32. Fermat’s Room – Spanish film about four mathematicians who get invited to “solve the world’s greatest enigma” by a mysterious stranger identifying him (or her)self as “Fermat”. Once there, they get locked in the room, and begin to receive math & logic puzzles that they have one minute to solve before the room starts to press together.  Not great, but not horrible.
33. The Captive – Ryan Reynolds stars as a dad whose 8 year old daughter gets abducted, and spends 8 years looking for her. The acting in this was decent enough, the story wasn’t super-original, but it could have been a good movie overall, except that it was presented in a non-linear fashion. The jumps back and forth in time were EXTREMELY distracting and disorienting, and it was difficult to know what was happening. And there really was no reason for them to tell the story that way, as far as I could tell.
34. Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever – Silas had this review: “I really enjoyed that! Well, the parts with Grumpy Cat were really funny, but the parts where they were just talking was kind of boring.” Spot on.
35. Home Sweet Hell – a ‘dark comedy’ that didn’t have any laughs, sadly. The trailer made it look a lot more interesting than it turned out to be.
36. It Follows – an extremely overhyped horror movie. This definitely had moments of creepiness, and the concept was intriguing (though flawed), and I enjoyed it, for the most part, but I wish I hadn’t had it built up to be “the best horror movie in over a decade”, since it…um..wasn’t. It was good, but not great.
37. Taken 3 – ridiculous as hell, but still somehow watchable.
38. Boyhood – This was almost like a documentary …of just your average kid. The director filmed the same boy (Mason, in the movie, but his real name is Ellar Coltrane) for TWELVE YEARS, from the age of 6 to 18. So we follow Mason and his family as he grows up more or less right before our eyes. Which is pretty incredible. There wasn’t much *story*, because it was just kind of …life. Which can be boring. And amazing. And …life. I’d actually be interested in seeing one of these types of films done focusing on other parts of the world. What is it like for a boy growing up in the Middle East, for example.
39. Kung Fu Hustle – Roger Ebert described this film as “Jackie Chan and Buster Keaton meet Quentin Tarantino and Bugs Bunny.” Pretty much, yup. Wacky martial arts and physics defying stunts abound. Very enjoyable.
40. What We Do In The Shadows – a mockumentary about 4 vampires living in modern day New Zealand, and dealing with everyday life. It was amusing throughout, and had a couple laugh out loud moments (most of the stuff with the werewolves, the “dark bidding” joke, pretty much anything with Petyr).
41. Maggie – Very slow paced drama/thriller about a father and daughter dealing with the fact that the daughter has been bitten by a zombie, and her days are numbered.
42. The Lazarus Effect – blah. If you are going to make a horror movie about someone being brought back from the dead and being brought back  wrong… you really shouldn’t make it so damn boring.
43. Reclaim
44. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure – classic.
45. Soaked in Bleach – documentary made mostly by the Private Investigator that Courtney Love hired days before Kurt Cobain’s body was discovered.  Definitely makes Kurt’s suicide look a lot more questionable.  And absolutely does not paint Courtney Love in a good light at all.
46. Jupiter Ascending – it looked pretty.
47. Ex Machina – this was good. That ending, though… It wasn’t a bad ending, I just felt like there should have been more indicating that it might go that way.
48. Insurgent – AKA The Divergent Series: Insurgent. I liked the first, but this one didn’t have enough going for it. The action scenes near the beginning were decent, but overall it just felt like “Dystopia By The Numbers”. Or maybe I’m just too old for these types of movies anymore.
49. Hellraiser – To quote Saren (who watched this with me) after this was over: “Well, now I’ve seen that movie.”
50. God bless America – It’s like Bobcat Goldthwait decided to combine Natural Born Killers and Falling Down, but amped up the bitterness.
51. Time Lapse – pretty solid indie flick about a group of twenty-somethings that discover a camera that takes pictures of the future. It raised some questions about fate and pre-determinism, but then never really answered them. Which  is both cool, because it leaves it to the viewer to decide, and also frustrating because it leaves it to the viewer to decide.
52. Drag Me To Hell – lots of jump scares. Lots of grossness. Not much else, really.
53. Kingsman: The Secret Service – stylish and action packed and silly and cartoony (which makes sense, since it was based on a  graphic novel from Mark Millar). It was entertaining, but not great, and there was a “joke” near the end (see what I did there?)  that I found bothersome enough to sour the film.
54. Run All Night – Liam Neeson as a retired hitman, Ed Harris as a mob boss. Corrupt cops and lots of chases, but this just didn’t click with me.
55. Avengers: Age of Ultron – Epic comic book goodness. There was a LOT going on (too much, maybe? It did feel rushed in a lot of places) but this was an awesome popcorn movie that more than lived up to its job of entertaining me.
56. Spy – Very, very funny.
57. Cop Car – two ten year old boys run away from home, and stumble across an abandoned cop car. They take it for a joyride. The owner of said cop car is a corrupt sheriff played by Kevin Bacon. It’s absurd and intense and stupid and awesome.  
58. Mad Max: Fury Road – This was a hell of a movie.  Just insane over the top action.  And characters that you cared about.
59. Cut Bank  - sort of a Fargo Lite. Dwayne wants to get out of the little town of Cut Bank, Montana. After he films the murder of a postal worker, he plans on using the reward money (from turning in the film) to move. Things don’t go that easily, though, once the sheriff starts investigating. Not a bad little flick.
60. Tomorrowland –Had some fun moments, but overall it sorta fell flat. Also, don’t know if this counts entirely, since I fell asleep during the last twenty minutes.
61. Robot Overlords – Ben Kingsley and Gillian Anderson in a sci-fi movie about, well, robot overlords? Sign me up! …except, no. This was complete dreck.
62. The Guest – Thriller (slash parody? – it got really ridiculous in the final twenty minutes, and I think it meant to) about a stranger who claims to have served in the military with the dead son of our hapless Everyfamily. There’s more – much more – to his guy than meets the eye, of course. DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN!  This was cheesy in a lot of ways, but sometimes cheese hits the spot.
63. These Final Hours – solid flick about a meteor hitting the earth, wiping out all of humanity,  and the final hours in Perth.  
64. Inside Out – Pure Joy.
65. Beyond The Reach – pretty sparse thriller with Michael Douglas as a rich guy who accidentally kills someone while on a hunting trip out in the desert. He then attempts to murder his guide. The film was okay – nothing great, but I’ve definitely seen worse – and then they had the last ten minutes, which were just…dumb. Oh well.
66. Get Santa – Santa goes to jail, and a father recently released from jail takes his son across the countryside trying to break him out and save Christmas. Sorta odd, but also somewhat charming.
67. Terminator: Genisys – Well, obviously, I’m going to see any Terminator movie. I saw Salvation, after all, and while at the time I said that it was better than Rise of the Machines…it kinda wasn’t.  Anyway. This new one decides to pretty much ignore 3 and 4. And…then says that 1 and 2 didn’t really happen, either.  I mean, yeah, you can argue that it’s simply different timelines, and that means they all happened, but that makes things messy.  Anyway.  Things I did NOT like: a) This was convoluted and incoherent due to all the timey-wimey stuff going on (and too much of it was ‘explained’ by Ah-nuld…which doesn’t make sense, why would an infiltration ‘bot know so much about time travel?... of course, we never find out who SENT “Pops”, either, so having that mystery unexplained is the writer’s go-to ‘answer’ for any sort of problem that arises. Gives ‘em stuff to figure out in the sequels, right?)

2. Jai Courtney. Oh. My. God.  Please, if there are sequels coming, get someone  else -ANYONE else- to play Cardboard Reese. I mean Kyle Reese.
3. John Connor. I don’t know who was playing him this go around (and I do appreciate that they have kept up with the constantly changing actor for that role thing) but …ugh. He just didn’t have the right ‘feel’ for John Connor.
4. Of course, they then flat out terminated his character, anyway, by turning him into the main villain.  And by not having Cardboard  & Sarah ‘mate’, John doesn’t exist anymore… right? That kinda saddens me, actually. So humanity doesn’t have a savior in the future?

All that being said, there were things I did like:

1. Most of the action scenes were pretty well done.
2. J.K. Simmons was awesome
3. The callbacks/recreating of T1 in the first third of the movie were well done (although if you’re gonna digitalize young Arnold, why not digitalize young Bill Paxton, too??)
4. They still kept the Terminator music.
5. They left it open for future movies.

One thing that I would have liked to have seen  (and maybe explored in the future?) – 1973. Pops and young Sarah seems like it would be interesting to see. How did he explain everything to a terrified orphaned little girl? And what was her childhood like after that? Also, it was unclear as to whether the terminator that Pops saved her from in ’73 was the T1000 that was also in ’84? That was my understanding. So they were eluding that Terminator for 11 years, until Cardboard shows up, and that’s when they killed it? [shrug] I did enjoy it overall, just felt it could have been better (for one thing, all Terminator movies should be rated R) but I’m hopeful for any future installments.

68. Jurassic World – Chris Pratt, dinosaur chaos, velociraptor motorcycle gang…what more could you want? (less one dimensional characters and less sexism would be nice.)
    
    
    
    
    AND books...
    
    
    A word about the sentence in parenthesis after each. A long time ago Harper used to ask me about every book I read, "What was the last word?" So, for each of these books, I wrote down the final SENTENCE of the book. I'll put the entire thing in spoiler tags - except for the last word. 
    If the final sentence of the book was just a single word (it happens, you know), then I'll spoil-tag the entire word.  Onward!
    Books read in 2015:
    1. Revival by Stephen King –I enjoyed this, but felt that it probably would’ve been better as a short story, or maybe a novella. It’s a pretty short (for King) novel anyway, but after it was over (and the ending was absolutely the most memorable part – it’s stuck with me for weeks) I felt like a lot of the leadup to it was …unnecessary, maybe?  (I will come to Mother) 
    
    
    2. Yes Please by Amy Poehler – part memoir, part book of essays. Mostly good stuff, although a lot of the name-dropping famous part was kinda just bleh. Greatly enjoyed her essays & early life stuff. (Yes Please Thank you Sharita) 
    
    
    3. The Walking Dead volume 22: A New Beginning  by Robert Kirkman – the latest in the graphic novel series that just keeps on going. This one had a time-jump after the last one, and while not a lot happened, it definitely set up a lot of new plotlines, and also gave the writers the opportunity to do flashbacks to stuff that was skipped (Michonne? Where art thou??). I’m still holding out hope that Rick is somehow the key to the whole zombie plague, but I doubt they’ll end up going there. Still, it’s interesting to have them more or less reboot the whole series at this point. (Don’t move.) 
    
    
    4. Mort(e) by Robert Repino – This was crazy. In a good way. Ants – or rather, one insane Queen Ant – decides to eradicate humanity, and genetically mutates all the lesser animals in order to help be her warriors. Mort(e), a housecat formerly known as Sebastian, becomes a war-hero (to the animals – humans have a reason to fear this killing machine) whose sole purpose is tracking down his best friend, Sheba, a dog he knew before the Change. The novel wasn’t perfect (I would’ve liked more pre-change Sebastian, and more of his time in the war) but it was unique enough that I will absolutely look for more from this author. (Sheba trotted beside him.) 
    
    
    5. Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film by Patton Oswalt – short quick read about how Patton OSwalt spent the last half of the 90s addicted to seeing movies in the theater.  (We’ll see.) 
    
    
    6. Holy Cow: A Modern-Day Dairy Tale by David Duchovny – This was a quick breezy read that, to be honest, if hadn’t been written by Fox Mulder probably wouldn’t have been published to begin with. It most certainly wouldn’t have gotten the attention it’s getting. I liked Elsie. Her compatriots not nearly as much. Also, the ending really felt like David just ran out of steam. This seemed almost like a children’s book (and was mentioned in-story that it probably would be) but there were bits that were completely out of place as such (all of the  Israel bits , and some of the parts about animal slaughter).  It was simply okay, but I don’t know if I’d recommend it. (Moo) 
    
    
    7. The Martian by Andy Weir – Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids. In fact, it’s cold as hell. And there’s no one there to raise them if you didn’t. And all this science, I don’t understand. It’s just my job five days a week. Can’t wait for the movie. (This is the happiest day of my life.) 
    
    
    8. Wizzywig: Portrait of a Serial Hacker by Ed Piskor – Graphic novel that told the story (kinda hobbled together of real-life stories of multiple individuals) of Kevin “Boingthump” Phenicle, a kid who has perfect pitch, a knack for logic & computers, and a very out of whack moral compass. Very interesting, and compelling read, the ending felt…incomplete, though. (Whoa!!) 
    
    
    9. Life or Death by Michael Robotham – Audie Palmer breaks out of prison the day before he was going to be released, and therefore goes on the run. He’s been imprisoned for the past decade for being involved with a botched armored truck robbery, wherein several people (including most of the gang) died, and Audie’s brother got away with 7 million dollars. This started out really great, but sort of dragged near the middle, and I was actually bored by the end.  (Live like there’s no tomorrow.) 
    
    
    10. Touch by Claire North – Great premise, and there were absolutely stunning sections of this, but overall the book just didn’t gel for me.  This was about a group of people who live among us known as “ghosts” – who have the ability to transfer their consciousness into any body that they touch. If they “wear” you, then YOUR consciousness simply blacks out until the jump out. There are people who know about the existence of these ghosts, and are hunting them in an attempt to kill them all. This would most likely make an amazing movie (in the right hands) and perhaps if the novel were tightened up some (it was just over 400 pages, it could’ve easily been knocked down a hundred or so), it would have been spectacular, but as it stands it was really good, but not as excellent as her other work, “The First 15 Lives of Harry August”. (I am you.) 
    
    
    11. Saga (volume 4) by Brian K. Vaughn – this was just average – for Saga. Which is miles ahead of most everything else.  (Sir, we need your help finding our families.) 
    
    
    12. Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the truth beyond Blackfish by John Hargrove with Howard Chua-Eoan – John Hargrove was an employee of SeaWorld for 15 years, and worked with the orcas that they have there, so he’s seen the effects that being in captivity has had on these highly intelligent, highly social animals. He’s also seen firsthand the soullessness of SeaWorld corporation. A great companion piece to the Blackfish documentary. (Like Takara and her mother and the other orcas.) 
    
    
    13. The Deep by Nick Cutter – A mysterious plague has started affecting the world. Nicknamed “the ‘Gets”, it’s a sort of rampant Alzheimer’s – at first you start forgetting little things – where you left the keys, the last digit of a phone number – but as it progresses you forget more vital stuff – like eating. Or why you shouldn’t touch fire. Eventually you forget to breathe.  A possible cure (called Ambrosia) has been discovered at the bottom of the ocean, and a high-tech deep sea lab has been set up to mine the stuff. But the Ambrosia is not all that it seems…  This was terrifying, at least at first. It did get a little much, eventually. If it had been trimmed by 100ish pages (or perhaps a better resolution to the mystery of the Ambrosia), it would have been perfect.   (What shambled forth was unspeakable.) 
    
    
    14. The Last American Vampire by Seth Grahame-Smith – sequel to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. This was a sort of Forrest Gump with vampires, which sounds ridiculous, and it was, but it was also really enjoyable. I actually enjoyed it a little more than the first one, since this covered more of America’s history.  We find out the true fate of the Roanoke Colony!  And how and why the Hindenburg exploded. And meet some famous vampires along the way too. Interesting, though, that Henry laid low for a good portion of RECENT history. Perhaps leaving room for another sequel? I’d be game. (It was Alexei Romanov’s card.) 
    
    
    15. Creep by Jennifer Hillier – this read like a novel written during NaNoWriMo. Fast-paced, but ultimately fluff.   (Looking up, she caught a glimpse of tight jeans on a Triumph before it sped away.) 
    
    
    16. The Planetary Omnibus by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday – this epic doorstopper (over 800 pages!!) collects all 27 issues of the Planetary comic along with three crossover issues (with “Authority”, “JLA” and “Batman”). I enjoyed the main series quite a bit. It was about a group of “archeologists” who discover all sorts of strange secrets from the 20th century, and also have powers themselves. (The Drummer can talk to machines, Jakita Wagner is super strong & super fast, Elijah Snow can freeze things). They started out as stand-alones, but once the conspiracy of The Four and Elijah’s idea of extracting revenge on them kicked into action, it really got good. Then, there were the crossovers at the end --The Authority crossover bored me (I tried to read the Authority series a while  back and couldn’t get into it). The JLA crossover was interesting, although a bit jarring since it sorta turned Planetary on it’s head – Bruce Wayne colored them as villains. Heh. And the Batman crossover was just silliness and dumb. I really kinda wish that the collection had just ended with the main series.If it had, it would have been this: (It’s taken a long time to get here, but you and me and her and him – we’re just getting started.) Since it ended with the Batman crossover, the ending was this: (This town is insane.) 
    
    
    17. The Lords of Salem by Rob Zombie with B.K. Evenson – Rob needs to stick to music.  And movies? I actually haven’t seen any of his films. But definitely no more novels. The sad thing is, this seemed like it *could* have been good. The idea of there having been actual witches in Salem, Massachusetts back in the day, and they perform a curse that goes into effect 300 years later could be a really cool story.  This was not. Oh well. The final word was END. Not even THE END, just END. The final sentence – (Soon they were dancing.) 
    
    
    18. Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne – a young adult end of the world tale. After a volcano erupts on the other side of the world causes a massive earthquake and hail storm in Monument, Colorado, a group of children (ranging from some 1st graders up thru some high school seniors) have to survive trapped in a giant box warehouse store.  This was definitely a quick read, and it had enough drama to keep me intrigued to the end, but, man, the writing could have been so much better.  There’s another two in the series, but I don’t think I’ll pick ‘em out. (We were five.) 
    
    
    19. Finders Keepers by Stephen King – This was the second in the planned trilogy of Retired Detective (Ret-Det) Bill Hodges. (The first was last year’s Mr. Mercedes). I enjoyed Mr. Mercedes, but didn’t see how it could be a trilogy. I shouldn’t have worried. This installment was, in my opinion, even better than the first. The book had a different “case” (mostly) than Mr. Mercedes. (Although the actions of Brady have an impact on everyone in this story too….and it looks like the 3rd book should as well.) This one was about Morris Bellamy, who was a supremely deranged fan of author John Rothenstein’s works. In 1978, Bellamy murders Rothstein (and his two accomplices), and steals some unpublished books and about $20,000. Then he hides it all in a trunk in the woods, and gets arrested for a different crime.  Flash forward 30 years, and the books and money are found by Peter Saubers, whose family is going thru some rough times, in part due to the fact that Peter’s father was one of the victims (that lived) from Brady’s joyride in Mr. Mercedes. Pete uses the cash to help his family, and holds on to the novels. Then Bellamy gets out of prison, and comes looking for the trunk.  King sows some seeds for the  third novel as well, which is due out next year, and I’m pretty excited about that one. (Clack.) 
    
    
    20. The Walking Dead volume  23: Whispers Into Screams by Robert Kirkman – the most Rick-less collection to date, the focus of this volume moved on to Carl, which is fine, since I find the generation of kids growing up in this world to be sorta fascinating. I don’t know how the Whisperers’ plot line is going to resolve,  but I’m in for the long haul with this series.  (Yes, Alpha.) 
    
    
    21. Resident Alien volume 1: Welcome to Earth!  By Steve Parkhouse and Peter Hogan – an alien crash lands on earth, and while waiting to be rescued by his home planet, he blends into a small town by masquerading as their doctor, and solving murders. This was a quick read, and largely introductory – not a lot of story happens, and there’s not much conflict or suspense that he’ll be discovered. But it did seem like it may payoff in later volumes. I just don’t know if I’m interested enough to check them out. (It’s beautiful, wherever it is… and everything else can wait.) 
    
    
    22. Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines – How this hasn’t been turned into a summer blockbuster yet is beyond me. It’s a typical zombie apocalypse, with superpowered humans thrown into the mix. This story focused on survivors in the Hollywood area who take on a gang whose leader has the power to control the zombies. It was fun. There are, evidently, at least three more books in the series. But I may just let it rest with one. Sometimes less is more. I could see getting burned out on the idea. (We have work to do.) 
    
    
    23. Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson – The first collection of a comic strip called “Phoebe and Her Unicorn” that is absolutely the spiritual successor of Calvin and Hobbes. Phoebe meets a unicorn (Marigold Heavenly Nostrils) when she skips a rock across a pond and bams Marigold in the face (thus stopping Marigold from staring at her reflection and dying ala Narcissus). One wish for a ‘best friend’ later, and Phoebe and Marigold’s adventures begin.  This book was charming, colorful, and very funny (I laughed out loud at least four or five times). Without a doubt, a great find.  (Purrrrrr.) 
    
    
    24. Chew Vol. 9: Chicken Tenders by John Layman – IT could be argued that this issue was doing a lot of placeholding until the very end, and while that may be true, it was still highly entertaining placeholding. The ending though! Oh. My. I have a theory, however. One which I’m going to Rot13 so that  anyone who hasn’t caught up, but wants to (and, really, Chew is a fantastic read, you should all read it!) won’t be spoiled by this issues twists. So. Znlor V’z whfg va qravny, ohg V qba’g oryvrir gung Pbyol xvyyrq Cblb. Gurer jrer gjb vafgnaprf jurer jr ner gbyq “gung vfa’g Cblb. Vg’f n qbhoyr.” – juvpu …zrnaf znlor ur qvqa’g ernyyl xvyy uvz?  Ohg… abj gung V guvax nobhg vg, jul jbhyq Pbyol qb gung? V svther gung ur vf cynaavat ba srrqvat Cblb gb Gbal…fbzrubj. Ohg vg frrzf yvxr gung pbhyq unir orra qbar zhpu zber jvyyvatyl. Creuncf ur’f tbvat gb srrq uvz gb gur Pbyyrpgbe sbe fbzr ernfba? V qba’g xabj.. I guess I’ll just have to wait until volume 10 to find out. (Crack) 
    
    
    25. Disclaimer by Renee Knight – One of those popcorn thriller novels that compelled me to finish, despite it not being very well written, or, in post-reveal scrutiny makes a lot of sense. I’m sure it’ll be made into a movie at some point, and, depending on how well it’s done, will make millions. When I first started reading it, I was going to recommend it to Steph, but as I got closer to the end, I realized that I couldn’t.  Oh well. For posterity’s sake, here’s the basic plot: Catherine starts reading a book she does’nt remember ordering, and discovers that the book is about a secret she’s been keeping for 20 years. We find out that the book was written (and delivered to her home) by Stephen Brigstone - the parent of someone that Catherine met 2 decades prior. Stephen is a genuinely creepy nutcase, and a lot of what was compelling to me were his chapters (it cuts back and forth between him and Catherine’s POV). Anyway, lots of twists, and lots AND lots of characters reacting to things that they don’t know the entire story to. Catherine’s husband is an extreme case. Really, dude? You’ve been married for nearly thirty years and you’re not going to even TALK to your wife about these things?? Sigh. (He allowed her to stroke his back and hold his head, and she was overcome with gratitude for the chance he was giving her to get to know him at last.) 
    
    
    26. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – Like a lighthearted Otherland. With tons and tons and TONS of 80s references.  This was just overall a fun read. (It occurred to me then that for the first time in as long as I could remember, I had absolutely no desire to log back into the OASIS.) 
    
    
    27. Rover Red Charlie by Garth Ennis – Graphic novel from the creator of Preacher,  The Boys, and Crossed (among others). This was a pretty short tale – told the story of an apocalypse –but through the eyes of three dogs. Rover, Red, and Charlie. Humanity for whatever reason (the dogs, of course, never find out the “why” or the “how” – and it doesn’t really matter) start killing themselves and each other. (Which, I suppose, could mean this was a crossover with the Crossed comics – but the humans didn’t have the scars from that book, so I doubt it’s meant to be) Anyway, Rover & Red & Charlie find themselves in a world without “feeders” (the Dog word for their human caretakers). Other dogs tell them about possible feeders still living out by “the Bigger Splash”, so they therefore decide to make their way out of New York City and cross the country. Only 6 issues, so it was easy to read this in an afternoon, and it was pretty good. (I’m a dog.) 
    
    
    28. The Dark Half by Stephen King – I’d read this years ago, figured it was time to reread it. I remember really having enjoyed it back when I first read it in ’90 or ’91, and it was enjoyable this time around, but not as great as I had thought it was. Stark – whatever he was -  was simply too cartoony (he starts as an unstoppable killing machine terminator type (who somehow managed to get the upperhand on at least 4 different police officers!) and winds up …just a joke). The intriguing parts about how much of Stark Thad had in him, and how this whole thing would impact his relationship with his wife were teased at near the end, but …that was the end. I’d almost like to have a sequel to THIS rather than to The Shining, because it would be interesting to read about the fallout from all of the Dark Half’s events.  (He stood there like that for a long time.) 
    
    
    29. The New World by Chris Adrian & Eli Horowitz – This was a strange little book. Only 200 pages long, and some beautiful and witty musings about life and love and marriage, but, man, the final half of the book was ambiguous. The novel was about Jim and Jane, a married couple. Jim dies, Jane goes to the hospital to ID his body, and discovers that unknown to her, Jim has signed up with a cryogenic corporation called Polaris, and Polaris has removed Jim’s head. We then alternate chapters for a bit between Jane in the present, and Jim waking up in the future and having to adjust to the new world. This was the beginning half of the book, and it was pretty great. Jane focuses her grief and anger toward Polaris and wanting to get her husband’s head back, while Jim is told he has to forget about his past life in order to move on to his new one. The two storylines actually intertwine, and then the last half of the book is… flashbacks? Alternate realities? I don’t even know.  Certainly an interesting book, but I don’t know if it was “good”. (I’ll love you every moment of this life, but everything will change, even beyond death, and nothing will be different, never apart, and everything will change, every moment of this life, and nothing will  change, even beyond death, and everything will be different, always together, and nothing will be different, even beyond death, and everything will change, every moment of this life, and nothing will change, never apart, and everything will be different, always together, and nothing will be different, even beyond death, and everything will change, every moment of this life, and nothing, absolutely nothing, will ever change.) 
    
    
    30. The Flicker Men by Ted Kosmatka – This was great. A sci-fi thriller about a science experiment with world-changing ramifications. Eric Argus is a brilliant, but deeply troubled, quantum physicist. He conducts an experiment that eventually winds up proving that humans have souls. (Or, at least, that’s one way of interpreting his experiment’s results) This alone would have some pretty major impact on the world (and the novel touches on it, some), but things get really bad for Eric when he and his team discover that not ALL humans have souls… This book had the perfect mixture of action and thought-provoking ideas about the nature of the universe and reality. Good stuff. (I began to write.) 
    
    
    31. Unicorn on a Roll by Dana Simpson – second collection of the Phoebe & her Unicorn comics. This was maybe just a smidge less special than the first collection, but still extremely delightful and enjoyable. (Please say we won’t be doing this until September.) 
    
    
    32. The Flight of the Silvers by Daniel Price -  Holy cow. This was AWESOME. 600 pages of timey wimey goodness. A pair of mysterious time travelers give 9 strangers silver bracelets that protect them from the end of our world. The “Silvers”, as they are dubbed, then find themselves in a parallel world that is similar to ours, but also vastly different. This all takes place in the first 50 pages or so. The rest of the book deals with the Silvers learning about their new home, and realizing that not everyone is happy to have them there. This book could probably be used as a ‘how-to’ guide on world building.  And foreshadowing. Oh, man. SO MUCH foreshadowing. In fact, I’d say it was more like fiveshadowing. (ha ha! It’s funnier if you’ve read the book). This was the first in a planned trilogy, which is both good and bad. I would’ve liked to have it resolve more, but at the same time, if the epicness can continue, I’m fine with two more novels set in Altamerica. (She had time.) 
    
    
    33. Alive by Scott Sigler – Disappointing. Sigler has written some amazing stuff – the Infected trilogy was creepy, well written, and enjoyable. Nocturnal had some issues, but overall was good, too. Now Scott has written the first in a trilogy that is being pushed as a YA series….and the writing is subpar, and there are lots of YA clichés thrown in. I’ll still (probably) end up reading book 2 and 3, because I know that Sigler can do better, and this series has potential, I just wish that this book had been as good as his other stuff. (We fly.) 
    
    
    34. You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day – Felicia Day is a national treasure. Super breezy (and highly funny!) memoir that was an absolute joy to read. (Good talk, OXXO Felicia) 
    
    
    35. A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay – Impressive. Disturbing. Heartbreaking. Great characters. Definitely recommended. The story is about the Barretts, an average American family of mom, dad (recently unemployed) and daughters Marjorie (14) and Merry (8). Marjorie begins to display signs of mental illness – when psychiatrists don’t seem to be helping, dad turns to a local priest. The priest convinces the father that Marjorie is being possessed by a demon, and is in need of an exorcism. That’s bad idea #1. Bad idea #2 is bringing in a film crew to document it as a reality show. It sounds cheesy when I’m writing it out, but it doesn’t play that way at all. This one is gonna stick with me for a while. (After an awkward silence, and after Rachel and I say our good-byes again, it’s cold enough that my breath is a visible mist.) 
    36. The Last Policeman by Ben H Winters – A comet is on it’s way to collide with the earth, and wipe out most everyone on it. With the end of the world looming, humanity is reacting in the typically expected ways – suicides galore, crimes skyrocketing, mass orgies… but what about the cops that choose to keep doing their jobs? Detective Hank Palace investigates a suicide that his spider-sense is telling him is actually a murder. This was a pretty good read, although very heavily melancholy, given the setting. It’s the first in a trilogy, I’ll probably read the other two.(I close the door.) 
    37. 14 by Peter Clines – Started out intriguing – average Joe moves into a new apartment in LA, starts discovering weirdness in the building, but was overlong. The big reveal of what the apartment was for was neat, but I was ready to check out of the story much sooner. (He turned the knob and opened the door to his new apartment.) 
    38. The Walking Dead volume 24: Life and Death by Robert Kirkman – somehow, every single character is unlikable.  I used to care about Rick and company, but this volume did it’s best to remedy that. The cliffhanger it ended on was pretty drastic, but I hope that my attitude toward the protagonists improves. (Rick…what do we do now?) 
    39. Fair Coin by E.C. Meyers – Young Adult novel about sixteen year old Ephraim finding a magic quarter that seems to grant wishes – with consequences, of course. I wanted to like this more than I did. The premise was intriguing (especially once the plot really got going, and certain secrets of the coin were revealed) but it just didn’t quite connect with me. I don’t know if I’ll read the sequel – this was self-contained and wrapped things up enough.  (“Heads.”) 
    40. Countdown City (The Last Policeman Book II) by Ben H Winters – further advenures of Hank Palace as the comet looms nearer. This had a little bit of ‘middle book’ syndrome going on, where the ‘case’ that Hank was working (locating a man that has gone missing) dragged a bit, but overall this series is pretty great. The world-building (of, um, the world ending.) is outstanding, in a heartbreaking sort of way, and I just find Hank a great character to spend time with. I’m looking forward to (and simultaneously dreading) the final book in the series. (What if?)

Oh!!

I also kept all the spare change I found on the ground through out the entire year. Grand total?
8 quarters
18 dimes
8 nickels
115 and a half pennies
for a total of five dollars and 35 and a half cents. Not too shabby!

penultimate 2015

weird to think that this year is, for the most part, over.

And even weirder to think that, yet again, I don't really have much to blog about on my chosen day. Planning ain't a key strength, apparently.

Anyway. Last Friday I got a load of toad, which was super entertaining. Today, Steph and Irina are going. (Harper is in the Rainbow Company, a youth theater group, and the play that they are putting on last weekend and this is "A Year With Frog and Toad". Las Friday I took Silas and Saren to see it - Irina and Steph were both under the weather and had to stay home, but are going to view it onight.)
Right now, I'm going to play a Mario Maker level that ASilas made for me, then watch Terminator :Typo.
Good times.
I'dtype more, but the laptop I'm on is not

thnx

highlights from today (won't recap everything because it has been a pretty long day, and I just don't have it in me to write a ton) include:

apple pie
cranberry sauce
playing Fluxx
playing Quelf
nice weather (during the day, it's gotten somewhat chilly now that it's night)
being #7 on Silas's list of Ten Things he is thankful for.
pepsi
emptyish roads
deliciously cooked turkey
being able to sleep in until 8 (after having gotten up at 2 to feed the cats)
listening to some of Downward Spiral from Nine Inch Nail (aka "Christmas music")
watching old videos of Silas as a tiny baby, and Irina singing when she was very young
hearing some great "kid" jokes ("Why do monkeys eat bananas?" "Because bananas are not afraid.", "What do you call a tiger with glasses?" "A scientist tiger.", "What do you call a dog that can walk?" "A human.")
blogging

all in all, it's been a pretty good day.

so it goes

I should (re)read some Vonnegut. It's been a while.

Maintaining a schedule is difficult

It's very late, and I have to wake up early tomorrow morning, and I (yet again) have nothing planned to blog about, so I am (yet again) going to go rando mode and just see what emerges.

Artists that I have heard only one or two songs from, but I liked:

Sir Sly
Hasley
Brick + Mortar
Silent Comedy

I need more shirts for work. I have plenty of t-shirts, but not enough 'work' shirts. I suppose a better solution would be if I could just wear t-shirts to work instead, but I doubt that policy will be implemented soon.

My asthma has been kicking up again lately. Boo-urns to that.

Steph made Silas's costume today. He's going as a Creeper (from Minecraft), and it looks pretty cool. Stephanie is awesome.

I've been catching up on season 5 of The Walking Dead on Netflix, and while the show has always been uneven, overall I enjoy it. Last night I saw episode 5.13, and somehow, a speech about cookies managed to be far more terrifying than ANY of the zombies they've ever had.

Okay, so Donald Trump is a robot, right?

Tomorrow, I need to remember to ask around at work about obtaining free tickets to: Muse, Bo Burnham, and Twenty One Pilots. I'd be ecstatic with all 3, but will settle for even 1.

Of course, if I don't get some sleep now, I'm not even going to be able to function tomrorow, so I'll just hit publish post, and call it a day.

if I used Twitter

number sign, butnowthatI'vepostedtheseIdon'tneedtomakeaTwitteraccount,doI? pound key, paradox.

• You know what you never see any more? Canadian pennies. Did they all get deported?
• You know what you never hear anymore? Prophecies. They were all made hundreds or thousands of yrs ago. Where r the prophecies for 3015??
• Hey, Weird Al - "UHF 2: URL". You know it must happen.
• "Strawberry isn't spelled with an F." #ruinedpunchlines
• Police Academy. Harry & the Hendersons. Weird Science #timeforaremake #darkandgritty #callmehollywood 
• What if we eliminated all borders altogether? Then we wouldn't have any immigration "problems". Risk would be a lot more difficult to play, though.
• Did we ever figure out who let the dogs out?
• If we are going to have Christmas in July, we absolutely must have Halloween in May.
• I wonder what Chewbacca is doing right now.
• I bet the Pope loves donuts. (Cuz they're holy.)
• In the pantheon of TV theme songs, "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" ranks pretty high. #yohomessmellyalater

how far can you get in a blank world

(title borrowed (stolen?) from a youtube video that Silas started watching while I started to blog, and since I'm blanking on what to write about, it seemed very apt.)

just gonna blah de blah, since I don't have a topic in mind, and have nothing specific to blog about:

got another 2 rats added to the household today. Harper is taking care of these.

There's a blood moon eclipse tonight, but the cloud cover we're currently experiencing means we probably won't be able to see much of it.

we're days away from October, so... adios, 2015!

story idea for the taking - magic exists, but can only be done by people who are drunk. (the more intoxicated, the more powerful spells that could be done)

Hey, Mr DJ, I thought you said we had a deal

can we take a minute to complain about the current state of internet-radio? Cuz it's pretty horrible. (For me, at least.)

My much beloved Jelli has shut down (it's been over a year, actually. Still bummed.). (If I ever have millions of spare dollars, I'm totally going to revive it, because it truly was a genius concept)

So, after that shut down, I made the switch over to grooveshark.com, which, while never 100% legal or moral (from the limited research I've done, it seems to have topped out around 10% for both?), it DID have a massive music library, and a pretty decent interface. But, then earlier this year, grooveshark shut down, too.

I moved on to juqster.com, but it never functioned properly on my work computer (it often crashes our home computer too, so ...I dunno about that site.)

Spotify is firewalled.

Harper pointed me to 8tracks.com, which is ...okay.

So now at work I listen to the online stream of 107.5, so I hear "Exes and Ohs" 40 times a day. When I tire of that, I switch over to a random Orlando alternative station I found that heavily focuses on 90s alternative.
Which is all okay, but I really want a station/website that plays a mixture of EVERYTHING. Why is that so hard to find? (and have it stay online permanently?)

2 days from today, Saren will be 18 years old.

That's just. Wow.
How did that happen? I mean, she was just a baby. And then a toddler. And then a tiny little girl, and now, she's this adultish age, and I'm still the same age, so there must be something unusual going on with the way that time is flowing.

It's cliche, of course, but I'm saying it anyway - it goes too fast.

I have very little desire to blog right now.

In fact, "none" would be more accurate. Extremely bad headache, not conducive to writing, and I  just don't have any thing I want to talk about. Fortunately, this counts, and I'm now clear until next time, when things will be vastly better.

Wang Chung

"I'll drive a million miles, to be with you tonight."
~Everybody Have Fun Tonight, Wang Chung

Dude.

First of all, the circumference of the earth is only 24,900 miles. Which means driving a MILLION would mean going around the world 40 times.
And you are going to do that to be with them tonight? Which means you'd have to accomplish your million-mile-trek in under 24 hours. (We'll be fair and give them 24 hours, but that would mean, really, that Wang Chung is stating their declaration of being with us tonight at midnight. But seriously, they probably said it around like, 2 in the afternoon, which means they'd have even less time to get to us "tonight" than I'm thinking...)
Anyway, in order to drive 1,000,000 miles in 24 hours, you'd need to drive at a constant 42,000 mph.
There are a number of problems with this.
First, the top land-speed record for a vehicle (on earth) is only 760 mph (thanks, Wikipedia!). Heck, 42,000 mph is even faster than New Horizons (wooo! Pluto!!), so, unless you have some ultra-futuristic car in your possession...

Second, think of all the gas and oil changes you'd need to go through during this drive.

And you don't EVEN want to contemplate how much a speeding ticket would cost.

And going back a bit, a million miles is defintely over-kill. Where is the person you want to be with? (maybe they're trying to reach the Plimsouls?)  As long as they're somewhere on the planet, you're not going to need to drive that much to get to them. (Unless they're trying to avoid you, in which case, maybe you should take a hint) In fact, if you drove a million miles, you'd undoubtedly end up PASSING them, at least one time.

So, I think we've learned something about Wang Chung. They were obviously space-traveling aliens with no concept of the safety of others (seriously, how many accidents are gonna happen if you're traveling that fast?). Besides, if you really do need to get to someone a million miles from where you are, you can take a page from the Grass Roots and just walk it.

there are days, like today, where work was frustrating and overwhelming, and I've been awake for 19 hours, and hashtag notgreatburgerfordinner, but I got to play with my son for a good three hours at the park, and watch Irina and Si run around at Bounce U, and I saw a text from Harper that said she'd been writing, and Saren was here listening to awesome Zelda music when we got home, and I've got my wife waiting in a bed to sleep next to.
So it's not all good, but...it's all good.

Life begins

So, I'm 40 now.

That truly does seem weird to type.

But, really, other than the fact that I've been around for four entire decades, today doesn't feel much different than yesterday.  I suppose some of that may be due to us not having done anything extraordinary to celebrate, or it could just be that once you get to a certain point, birthdays more or less become just another day. And while 40 is a 'milestone', this one was an 'under the radar' one, I guess.

Anyway, I think to fill this blog post out a bit (I was going to say 'make it more interesting', but....), I'll do one of those lists that were popular in the blogosphere back when people still said the word 'blogosphere' (you know, like 15 years ago)

So, here are 40 things that you may or may not know about me:

1) The very first concert I ever went to was The Black Crowes.
2) I've had backstage passes for (and thus got to meet): Oingo Boingo, Garbage, Ben Folds Five, and Jill Sobule.
3) I've dressed up in two mascot uniforms: Michigan J. Frog and The Noid
4) I went trick-or-treating every Halloween until I was 21 years old.
5) I didn't own (or want) a cell phone until I was in my 30s.
6) The first CD I remember buying was the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "What Hits?"
7) I've run out of gas three times.
8) I've never been in a fist fight.
9) I was a Boy Scout for about a year.
10) In my Freshman year of High School, I joined the wrestling team. I dropped out several weeks before our first match.
11) I made a promise to myself when I was 36 that I would have completed a novel by the time I was 40.
12) Nope.
13) I'm more or less okay with that.
14) I realize that I've kind of cheated for these past few #s. I'm more or less okay with that, too.
15) It took me three times to pass my drivers test when I was a teen. Parallel parking is just stupid.
16) I've had mono.
17) Before the television station I work for got bought by the corporation that owns it now, I composed and printed two issues of a station newsletter.
18) During my Senior year of High School, my breakfast nearly daily was a can of Coke and a Twinkie.
19) It was after high school that I switched over to drinking Pepsi.
20) The last time I threw up was... 17 years ago? I think that's right. Saren was just a baby, so that's got to be about right. It was a bad burger from Wendy's that caused it.
21) Ugh, we're only halfway? I did not think this plan through at all.
22) There's a certain 5-letter word that whenever I hear it, I automatically have a phrase I respond with. (I'm being deliberately vague, because I don't want the power of that word to fall into the wrong hands.)
23) Growing up, we had a cat named Rascal. I stole him from someone's driveway.
24) Years later, we lost Rascal when we took him for a ride to go get pizza. (I don't know why we took him in the car with us when we were going out to get dinner. It was just a thing we did. But, we left the car unlocked, and while we were inside picking up the food - someone opened our car door and took him. Or he ran out. Honestly, the whole memory is pretty vague in my mind, and seems somewhat unreal. Maybe I dreamt it? But, yeah, the karma thing is pretty evident now.)
25) I've been told that I snore.
26) I've shaved the following body parts: Head, face, armpits, legs.
27) While shaving my legs (the one and only time) - I cut my right shin pretty badly, and still have the scar.
28) Between the ages of 17 and 21, I often went commando.
29) I've been homeless.
30) I took one year of Latin, one year of German, and two years of Spanish in high school. None of it really stuck.
31) I'm allergic to shellfish.
32) I've never broken any bones.
33) Lots of kids make up languages. I created the Denixian language AND an alphabet (mostly so I could write notes in 'code'.)
34) I don't like Ranch Dressing, and sometimes think I'm the only person on the planet who doesn't.
35) I also don't like guacamole or avocado.
36) I do like to pronounce avocado as "ah-voc-ah-doe"
37) I consider my eyes to be my best physical feature. (My awesome wit is overall my best attribute.)
38) When Stephanie and I met, my hair was dyed jet-black. I used to dye it (often different colors) pretty frequently.
39) I was going to make the last # a joke saying "I don't know how to end this list." But now I'm at #40 and I don't want to do that because it seems to predictable. I do that a lot. Don't go with something because it seems to predictable. Which, it is, because *I* already know it's going to happen. So I often feel like I need to surprise *myself*, which is a pretty tough job. But, really, I don't know how I'm going to end this list.
40) thought of an ending. Whenever I'm going to bed, I always say to Steph, "See you in the year 2000". (Yes, the year two-thousand is now fifteen years ago. But that only makes the saying more awesome.)
So, to anyone reading this out there - see you in the year 2000.

and other stuff

You'd think I'd be more prepared for these blogging days, and have pre-planned topics.  You'd think wrong, though.

So, an update blog post it is:

we got a dog. I'm sure that when Stephanie blogs omorrow, there will be pics, and she may even write about the whole sitch, so I won't go into major details, but, yeah, we are now dog owners. Her name is Ori (short for Orianna) and she's a chihuahua/something mix (my best guess is Jack Russell Terrier, but we don't really know) and she's about three years old. She's very sweet.

Silas turned six, which is just amazing. Low-key birthday, as that was all he wanted. Found out that Silas and Minecraft share a birthday, a fact that is highly amusing to me.

My asthma returned pretty hard core, and for a few nights I had to use my inhaler multiple times throughout the day/night. It's gone back into hibernation mode, recently, which is a huge relief.

um....

that's probably gonna do it.

never odd or even

Wasn't sure what to blog about today, but then, Oh ho!!,  I remembered - today is 5/15/15.

wow!

Then then, I remembered that other than pointing out the coolness factor of that, I don't really have anything to say about it. But, it is cool.

(And, yes, the palindromic dates have been happening all this week, and continue for the next four days, but you have to admit that out of them, TODAY is the best.)

To celebrate today's date, here are two appropriate (and wonderful!) music videos:

Coming attractions

Lots of movies coming up – Some look great, some..not so much.

A small sampling:

The Avengers: Age of Ultron

Opens – May 1^st (tomorrow!!)

Synopsis – The Marvel Movie Making Machine Marches on, making more money. (mmm.)

Would I see it in the theater? – Somewhat surprisingly, no. I’m sure it’ll be a great movie, but I waited for DVD (or Netflix? I can’t remember now) for the first Avengers, I can wait for this one, too.

Maggie

Opens  - May 8^th

Synopsis - Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a father of a daughter (Abigail Breslin) who is turning into a zombie.

Would I see it in the theater? – If I had free passes, sure.  I’ve sat thru most of Arnold’s flicks (yep, even Last Stand) so I’m intrigued at his take on a more dramatic role.

Tomorrowland

Opens – May 22nd

Synopsis – George Clooney takes some kids on a rocketing adventure into a futuristic alternative world. Or something.

Would I see it in the theater? – Sure would! I’m surprised this hasn’t generated more buzz/excitement, really. Of course, anything Disney-related gets a lot of goodwill, so even if the movie is horrible, I’ll still see it eventually.

Love & Mercy

(June 5^th)

Synopsis - Biopic of Brian Wilson.

Would I see it in the theater? - Yeah, this gave me good vibrations. (heh) But I'll happily watch this when it hits DVD/Netflix.

Jurassic World

Opens June 12th

Synopsis – Chris Pratt on a motorcycle. With Velociraptors.

Would I see it in the theater?  - Um. Does a T-rex crap in the woods? This looks like so much fun. I remember seeing the original Jurassic Park in the theaters for my 18^th birthday, it would be kinda cool to see this one for my 40^th.

Inside Out

Opens June 19^th

Synopsis – Pixar’s Herman’s Head.

Would I see it in the theater? – I’d like to.  Pixar rarely does anything wrong (ignoring Cars and it’s sequels/spinoffs) and this looks like another classic.

Terminator: typo Genisys

Opens July 3^rd

Synopsis – IN the future, an AI program called  Skynet somehow develops the ability to time travel, and figures that’s the best way to kill what it deems its biggest threat – people named Sarah and John Connor.

Would I see it in the theater?  - I sure as hell plan on it. I’ve seen all of the other Terminator films there (barring the first, cuz I was just a wee lad when that happened), so I intend on keeping the tradition alive. I was also at some point this year planning on making a blog post about the Terminator series, but all I really wanted to say in it was that it thrills me to no end that thus far, EVERY single iteration of the series has had a different actor playing John Connor.

I know that this is supposed to be the start of a new trilogy, and I can't control how Hollywood casts its films, but it would please me to no end if in the next two movies, John Connor was played by different actors each time.
I mean, dude. The whole PREMISE of the series is tinkering with the timeline. It only makes sense that one of the key figures would be effected by that. (Plus, it would explain why in T2 after they "stopped" Judgment Day, John didn't just disappear. Because, seriously. If there was just one timeline, and Judgment Day never happened, there would be no reason for T1 to have happened, which means John wouldn't exist. Unless there is ALWAYS a John Connor, of some sort.) You know what I mean?

Anyway. Yes, despite the misspellings, and that the last two installments were... not as spectacular as the first two, I am way excited about seeing this movie.

Minions
(July 10)
Synopsis - Remember Despicable Me? Here's a prequel to that.


Would I see it in the theater? - Unlikely.

Ant-Man 
(July 17)
Synopsis - I think Marvel has a big ol dartboard filled with all the comics from their history, and someone landed on this one by mistake, but they were like, "Well, we HAVE to make it. The dartboard said so."

Would I see it in theaters? - Mmm....nope. This is purely a DVD-er.

Pan 
(Also July 17)
Synopsis - Hook meets The Dark Knight.

Would I see it in the theater? - Tough call, but it doesn't quite make me want to go out and see it.

Pixels 
(July 24)
Synopsis - Aliens invade earth using video game references.

Would I see it in theaters - Nope. Adam F'ing Sandler is one of the stars, for one thing. Which is a HUGE strike against it.
THat being said, it does look like a fun, stupide movie to turn off my brain to.

Poltergeist 
(Also July 24 - July is busy!! -also, the trailer for some reason says May 22nd, but imdb says July 24th, so [shrug])
Synopsis - That's fine, Hollywood. You can remake all the 80s movies you want, so long as you remember that Back to the Future and Clue are OFF LIMITS.


Theater worthy? - not really.

Fantastic Four
 (August 7th)
Synopsis - 4 scientists get super-powered up, fight some super villain, cause lots of collateral damage.

Maaaaybe DVD-worthy. This just seems really boring. Or like it would need to be about 8 hours long in order to get everything in. Plus, you know none of the 4 are going to die, so there's no real "threat" to any of them. Yawn.

Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens 
(Dec 18)
Synopsis - Dude. Really.

Would I see it in the theater? - Oh. Hell. Yes.

Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice
 (March 25th, 2016)
Synopsis - two of DC's biggest heroes clash, because reasons. Or, because money. ha ha.

Theater? - Absolutely. Amazing trailer.

I went with this one instead.

I was trying to think of what to blog about, and additionally, what to title this blog post.
Titles I considered:

Major Malfunction
Anti-social media
I'm like Shania Twain

Major Malfunction would've been talking about a dream I had 26ish (!!) years ago.

Anti-social media was going to be complaining about facebook twitter and the like. (I'm old!!)

I'm like Shania Twain would have been me talking about how unimpressed with many of my recent entertainment choices (movies, books, and music) and asking for suggestions.

In some other universe, maybe, those other blog posts were written.

We got this one instead.

poop

it's a nice place to visit...

(warning - work related blog post)

One of the unspoken portions of the new years resolution that I made to blog more was to blog about work LESS. So far, pretty good, but today I'm blogging about work, although I do have other things that I'll mention so it's not exclusively about the jorb.

Back in November our company acquired another station (the local NBC affiliate). Lots of changes have come about as a result of this, weighing, I suppose, on the positive side. (I'm still employed, the station's prestige has improved....um.)

The NBC station, of course, had it's own facilities that it was broadcasting out of, and for a while, we were splitting the duties in two buildings. That (mostly) changed this past Friday, when the higher-ups decided to move all of the sales and traffic staff (that would include me) over to the NBC-building. (The master control, promotions and production staff are staying behind at our old building until the new one can be renovated to fit them all.)

Moving, as I have often said, sucks. Even (especially??) when it's your place of employment.

The NBC building is located in a highly industrialized, very ugly part of town. It's about one block away from the homeless shelter, and directly across the street from a cemetery. "At least our neighbors are quiet."

It's not all cons, though. The new location is (slightly) closer to our house (approximately 29 minute drive rather than 35 or 36), and the inside of the building is nice, in areas. The main breakroom (there are two, possibly even three) is an actual break room  - tables, chairs, several refrigerators, vending machines, a working sink... and there are picnic tables and gazebos to eat outside if you want (I might do that tomorrow - several other coworkers did today, and this is the time of the year when it's actually nice enough to do that). All of us that came over to the building received an office (although they are all inside with no windows, and they look like doctor's offices from the 1980s...), and we also now have security badges in order to get in to the facilities.

Today was our first day in the new place.
Highlights included:
Passing the parking lot on the way in, and having to circle back around. (I have no sense of direction)
Hearing the news-copter take off and land. (it's loud)
Momentarily worrying when the high school that is right down the road got evacuated by the Hazmat team because a student brought some chemicals to class (nothign wound up happening, other than the email from management alerting us to the possibility of needign to evacuate).
NOT HAVING PRINTERS ALL DAY. (this was a huge deal, as about 90% of my job involves printing emails out) the IT department was working on it all day, but when i left this afternoon, it still hadn't been resolved. We'll see what tomorrow holds.
Not having phones for 50% of the day. (not as big a deal, but annoying)
Missing my window.
Dreading the eventual bus ride(s) in, especially since I will now need to transfer, and also walk somewhat to get to the station, and walking involves going through the previously mentioned not-so-great neighborhoods.

So, that's that. I'm sure I'll adapt and get used to this new situation/location, but for now the newness is still fresh and I'm all prickly about it.

In other news, we bought the board game King of Tokyo yeseterday, and did a family run thru last night (Harper won - her strategy was to not go into Tokyo at all. hahaha), and today Silas & I played it some more (I won one game, he won the other) Pretty simple game, especially once you get into it, and it's fun, too. I really do enjoy playing our board games, want to do that more often.

vacation recap

I've been on vacation this past week, and it's been pretty enjoyable overall. Some of the highlights (note that Stephanie's blog already covered this, and with photographic accompaniment):

Last Sunday (February 22nd) was when we made the drive out to California (the main portion of my week off was to be spent in Anaheim). We left Las Vegas around 4pm, but due to the amount of traffic also making that drive at that time, and the insane rain storm that accompanied us along the way, we didn't make it to our hotel room until almost 1am. Super stressful drive. The battery light in the van came on twice, and a semi drifted into our lane, and even with the windsheild wipers on high, the rain was so thick that visibility was near zero.
We ate dinner at a Denny's in Baker, where the waiter ignored us for probably 20 minutes longer than he should have, and then after we left I confused a fake owl on the roof of the building for a real live one.  (It was funny if you were there. Or if you were me, I suppose)

Monday was a better day, as the majority of that day we were in Disney's California Adventure. Highlights from there:
Getting a fast pass for the Cars Racer ride (I forget the real name, and am too lazy to look it up either on google or on Steph's blog entry).
Riding the Cars Racer ride (I see why the line typically gets up to 2 hrs. It's a fun ride. But the fast pass TOTALLY worth it)
The Tower of Terror. It was my second time riding it, so I at least knew what to expect, so it wasn't AS frightening as the first time I rode it with Harper two years ago. But this time I went alone, so all in all, I guess the terror level balanced out to about the same. Still a great ride.
Also watched one of the parades.
And we bought an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit antenna topper for the van. (We finally got around to putting that on the antenna today.)

Tuesday the 24th was the 17th anniversary for Stephanie and I. We used the magic morning feature of our tickets, meaning we got to go into the park an hour before most of the rest of the world. Of course, since Disneyland is EXTREMELY crowded,  and many other people also have Magic morning passes, we really only got about 15 minutes of Magic Morning. But it was a good day. I rode the teacups (and even got in the purple cup, which according to internet lore, is the fastest of the teacups), rode Space Mountain (only Steph and I - the kids didn't want to), had a new Star Tours experience (C-3PO was our pilot!)and had super expensive food all day long.

Wednesday was our final day in Disneyland, and we used it to hit ToonTown and re-ride faves from the previous day (Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain (Silas finally decided to go with us), Pirates) We also bought a stroller for that day, because carrying Silas around for two days in a row was wrecking havoc on my muscles.

Thursday we checked out of our hotel and drove thru LA, where we didn't meet Rhett & Link (from Good Mythical Morning), but after Steph mentioned the idea, it was all I could think about while driving. We arrived in San Luis Obispo late afternoonish and spent the evening walking around downtown and hitting the usual spots (Boo Boo Records, the bookstore next to it, the bench outside of BBR) At Boo Boo we picked up the new Guster CD (not bad), the new Decemberists CD (I liked this a lot), a rarities CD from Ben Folds  Five called "Naked Baby Photos" (mostly pretty good, but has a number of highly skippable tracks), and the Frozen soundtrack. There was also a farmers market going on, and we checked that out, buying a package of awesome strawberries and some organic raw milk. That night, though,after dinner (awesome burger from Margie's Diner), my throat was starting to get sore. Uh-oh.

Thursday night into Friday morning I didn't sleep AT ALL. Or, it seemed that way. I know I must have slept some, because I had some dreams about plants that were used by politicians in San Luis Obispo to manipulate time and reality. The dreams became increasingly complex in plot, and would probably make a pretty good story. So, at least that good came out of it. But I was feverish and my throat got worse as the night progressed.

Friday mornng I was defintiely feeling sick, but the only thing on the agenda was to visit the beach, and i was well enough to not call that off. It was a little chilly (especially when the wind blew) but it was till a prtty good day at the ocean. sand castles were built and ruined, and I did force myself to completly submerge myself into the Pacific. (We forgot towels, so once i was finished playing in the ocean, I spent hte next 30 minutes waiting for the sun to dry me off)
We began the drive home around 3 (I think?) and with dinner and carsickness stops, we managed to get home a little bit before midnight. (Highway 58 is much less crowded than the freeways, but it's like that wanted to make that road as windy as possible. Mission accomplished, roadwork crews!)

Yesterday I didn't have to go anywhere (Stephanie had some cookie booths to attend, though) so I spent the day trying to recoup from this sickness.
Today I've been doing mostly the same (still have a cough and my throat is still a teeny bit sore), and now in just a few minutes we are all heading otu to do more Girl Scout Cookie booth selling. (Um, that's selling of Girl Scout Cookies, not selling the booths.)
Amazingly, I haven't checked my work email at all. I'm afraid to look, honestly. But, I figure it'll be there when I get back to it tomroorw. All in all, a good vacation.