tracker7 | Entries tagged with television

My last uncle on Dad's side died last week. Garland had a long history of heart problems and I guess it was just one beat too many and that was it. Dad's taking it about as well as can be expected; he and Garland were close. I'm concerned about my aunt - she's been dealing with Parkinson's for some time and it's the type that causes strong hallucinations in addition to the tremors. She's got plenty of kids and grandkids to help care for her, but there's going to have to be some kind of professional care involved.

FX's Alien: Earth has been fantastic. It's managed to introduce additional non-terrestrial critters that are plenty icky without taking away any of the menace of the good ol' Xenomorphs. Timothy Olyphant continues to be an absolute treasure.

Jesus, April was a heck of a year.

Finished watching Daredevil: Born Again this week. Mostly satisfying, and Vincent D'Onofrio was just amazing as the Kingpin, but it didn't stick the landing. It felt like more of a mid-season soft cliffhanger than a real finale, and I guess that's appropriate since there are another nine episodes coming next year.

I'm rewatching the first season of Andor before diving into the second, and damn, this is still some terrific work. If I can pull a quarter of this tension in my games for Slur I'll be pretty happy.

Exhausting day. Went in a little early to work on some applications, and a client came to the center out of the blue. Since I was there, bosslady asked me to see what was going on. Client had left her home and slept on the sidewalk in front of the center. She's been hard to locate, and isn't taking her medications, and there's a lot of family drama - her daughter is her legal guardian - and it's just been a LOT to deal with. I managed to get her in a decent state of mind, and into a shelter for the evening. I talked with her daughter off and on during the day, and daughter swore out a MIW with the hope that client can be admitted to a longer-term stay following the mandatory evaluations.

The afternoon was better. Bolstered by a double cheeseburger at Culver's and some WFH time. Then the good ol' GT7 workout and some episodes of The Crown.

I almost feel like I accomplished something today.

Our DCC GM is in the process of moving, so the game's on hold for a couple of weeks. So, this past weekend, after Friday night's get-together, I had no demands on my time. That felt really good. I slept late Saturday, spent most of the day on the couch listening to music and reading. It was glorious.

Got up Sunday morning for an early showing of Alien: Romulus, which I didn't like very much. It's gorgeous, has the proper cassette futurism look that I love, but the movie just didn't work for me.

Fallout's pretty good, though, two episodes in.

Not much of an entry. Nothing really on my mind, nothing worth recording, at least.

I ran through the final season of Star Trek: Picard. Not bad, but it was a heavy nostalgia trip. Most of the TNG regulars got screen time, but one notable recurring guest showed up in one episode only to die, and I wasn't in love with that decision.

Netflix's Beverly Hills Cop movie was enjoyable enough. There's a chase scene that doesn't quite work for me, but the rest is fun. A few years ago, I rewatched the first movie, and was surprised that, wow, that was a genuinely good movie.

Less than six weeks until I can start looking for another position within the agency. I've been watching the postings off and on, and there are some good options. There are parts of my job that I do like, but they're heavily outweighed by the parts that I very much don't.

It sure is July 4. Every doofus around is setting off the fireworks they bought at whatever tent set up in whatever parking lot. I figure there'll be a few rounds of that hit new guessing game Fireworks or Gunshots tonight, and the news tomorrow morning should be good for a few uncomfortable chuckles.

Charcon's coming up. Still waiting for the GM discount code to arrive. I'm comfortable enough with the adventures I schedule, and should be more so after the test session Tuesday evening. I'm looking forward to this trip - looking forward to seeing some people and getting some breakfast at Tudor's.

I gotta wonder how things are going to be when I read this entry in a year. I figure that things are going to go pear-shaped and that orange bastard will get re-elected and ... the republic ends.

2024 is halfway over. I'm not processing this, more ignoring it than anything else. Time does fly.

This weekend was the Hex retreat, held at Kentucky Dam State Park this time. A lengthy drive to the western end of the state, same as a couple of months ago. I gave myself a little time off after my class Friday afternoon and got to Calvert City around 6PM local time. Met with the others and headed out for dinner. Huge delicious pizza at Mama D's. Games and cooking and eating on Saturday. Breakfast and catching up. A heck of a good time, and plans made to do it again in October, rather than waiting until next year.

I wound up with a free month of Paramount+ right about the time my Apple+ subscription wound down. I've been watching Trek, mostly, and checking out some of the movie offerings here and there. Anson Mount and a couple other Strange New Worlds cast members are going to be at a show here in town next month, so, hey, lots of good optimistic SF in the air.

Friday wore me out, and driving to Liberty after work was taxing. Brought my bags into the house and planted myself in the recliner and I was asleep in a few minutes. Woke up when Dad got in, chatted with him, and went to bed. Didn't sleep as well as I wanted. Breakfast at the Bread of Life cafe, testing the Lacrosse, and visits to Mom's and Mamaw and Papaw's graves.

Some weather was threatening, so I headed back to Louisville early in the afternoon. This Buick likes to run just as much as the newer version I drove for a couple of months. It has a couple of issues to get taken care of next month, and I want to get the keyless entry and alarm sorted, but I'm pretty happy with it.

Weather went from threatening to dangerous yesterday around noon. Weather stations in lively Shively measured straight-line wind speed at 80MPH when the front came through that part of town. We got a lot of wind and rain and lightning over here, and the power went out around 12:30. I took the opportunity to nap a little while. Kaiju had power, so Slur Your Role was on. Drove over there, ran a short DCC game, went home. Saw lights on around the property and a couple of utility trucks, and power came back on in my unit a couple of minutes after l sat down. I caught some of an evening NASCAR race - and then the second stronger wave of storms starting coming in. We had the whole party for a while - severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings all throughout the area. At least two tornadoes hit the state, one about 45 miles SSW of me, the other further out in the western end of the state. Five deaths, and LG&E currently lists about 1800 outages and better than 50K customers without power right now.

Today has been quiet and very pretty and I have slept through much of it. If I wasn't asleep, I was watching The Crown on Netflix or Masters of the Air or Liaison on Apple+. Hadn't heard of the latter until it was mentioned on the Spybrary FB group, and an espionage series with Eva Green? Of course I'm watching this. Two episodes (out of six) in, and I'm hooked.

I would like to have a drink. A mid-shelf bourbon, preferably, on the rocks or mixed with Coke. If not bourbon, something with rum would do nicely.

Unremarkable week, followed by a good weekend. I caught up on some reading - no, I read some - on Saturday before heading down to Shepherdsville to play DCC. Sunday, slept in, read, watched a NASCAR race, then got it in my head to try painting another mini. This one had a lot more little fiddly details than the last one I painted, requiring as much time doing touchups as it did on the main work. The orc came out pretty well, I think, and I have enough confidence to try my hand at painting a mini of my Dragonbane character later on this evening.

For All Mankind S4 ended on a satisfactory note, and a fifth season is on the way - plus a spinoff series set behind the Iron Curtain of the show's alternate history. This pushes my Cold War kid Soviet-phile buttons! I'm following FAM up with another AppleTV series, Silo. It's alright, a good premise, but the execution hasn't quite come together for me.

The store down in Somerset that was such a haven for me during my exile had to close. Some kind of tax issue that couldn't get resolved. I hated to hear it - it was a good store and community, and I had some good times at its game tables.

Two days of offsite training this week. Two days not going out into the community. 112 days until I can apply for internal transfer.

I'm lighting out for Paducah this weekend. An out-of-state buddy and his girlfriend are in town for a quilters convention, and that's reason enough to head west and hang out with him and some friends who live there. It'll make for a long Sunday, as I'm scheduled to run a game that evening at SYR.

Lexicon is coming up this weekend. I'm scheduled to GM three Coriolis sessions, and as of right now, I have players for two of them. Got some friends I want to see, both at the con and outside it. Should be a good weekend.

At some point, I'll spend the weekend in the new apartment.

Easter weekend was nice enough. Spent most of it in Liberty. Watched the UFL opening games on Saturday. Nice lunch with the family on Sunday. Got back to Louisville Sunday evening, very tired. Watched the first episode of season four of For All Mankind.

So, that's a nice if unintentional perk of the job - company phones are iPhones, so I have to have an app store account with the work e-mail account. And Apple likes to give away trial memberships of their various services, and I'm not too proud to accept three free months of Apple+. Put the reminder to cancel the subscription in my calendar already, of course.

Mess of an entry. I'm still getting my feet back under me.

I am trying to keep my hopes managed, but yesterday's dual-position interview felt good. I feel like I pitched myself well. I think that the panel liked me - I was told that if I passed the first round of interviewing, they would ask for references on Monday ... and the email asking for them hit my inbox this morning, with a follow-up request late this afternoon.

So, I threw out a request for reference on my socials, to use the parlance of our time, and got so many offers. An embarrassment of riches. Narrowed it down to a grad school friend who's now at the NIH, a good friend from my time at the paper, and my practicum mentor. Sent those in a couple of hours ago. Let's see what happens.

I'm feeling better about tomorrow's interview - also interviewing for two positions at the same time. I sure wouldn't turn down what I sat for yesterday, but if I'm being honest, tomorrow is what I really want. Better money, more inline with my education and interests.

I'm getting hopeful about this, no matter how much I'm trying not to. I'm telling myself that some of this is clearing books at the end of the calendar year. But then I think about the call asking if I was interested in a job that I hadn't actually applied for, and then there was the impromptu phone interview leading to an in-person appointment next week and ... well, here's hoping.

What else is going on. Started reading Lash-Up, a technothriller by Larry Bond. So far, it's heavy on the tech and slowly building up the thrills. Finished watching Hunters on Prime, and started Citadel. I'm dropping Prime after the last Thursday night NFL game of the season - not even watching tonight's Patriots-Steelers game - so, trying to get in as much of that service's viewing as I can before reupping Apple+.

I bailed on one OSE game and quickly found myself recruited into another. First session is this coming Wednesday. Fingers crossed.

This hasn't been a great week. No progress on anything. Did get to have dinner at Ramsey's when I took Dad to Lexington, so there was something positive. And Delta Green provided a high point, even if the current operation is suffering from having too much stuff shoved into it.

This weekend is the county's big fall festival, and I have succeeded in avoiding just about every bit of it. Dad's doing a bunch of stuff with some fundraising group and with a singing group he rejoined, and that's great, but I got tired of the constant nagging about going to the festival and ... just being there, I don't know. I go to GenCon, and that's enough time spent around thousands of people that don't know how to behave in public for one year, thanks. There will be a nice fireworks show to close things out later tonight, and I could probably find somewhere to watch it, but I think Svengoolie and an old monster movie will win out.

I need to make myself do something tonight, even if it's just replying to some messages. I got in around 12:15AM, read for a couple of hours, and slept until nearly noon. I'm rested, mostly, but time is wasting, and I have less and less of it to use in any fashion.

My fair commonwealth recently legalized gambling on live sports. State constitutional offices are up for election this year. Know what that means? We are in an absolute hell of dreadful television commercials. Our useless trumpian attorney-general is running for governor, and his campaign says very little about what he'll do for Kentucky, instead putting forward half-truths or outright lies. On the gambling side, we're treated to Kevin Hart's little-dude-yelling shtick, and that was old long before Draft Kings or whatever hired him to be their spokesman. Bleah.

Today was the NFL's first full day of the 2023 season. The Bengals got manhandled by the Browns, and the Ravens got an opening week win. There was an Indycar race at Laguna Seca, too, and that was a joy to watch. Laguna Seca's one of my favorite tracks in Gran Turismo, and it's just a beautiful facility. Scott Dixon won, after an early penalty and a lot of cautions.

Jesus Christ, NBC still uses the country-pop person for their Sunday night game intro. I love you, television remote mute button. Looks like we're going to be spared any kind of WTC attack commemoration - since the game is at New York - well, East Rutherford, New Jersey - I figured we'd get that. Again.

Gods, I'm just a ray of sunshine this evening.

Had a couple of good game sessions over the weekend - Delta Green on Friday and Old School Essentials on Sunday. The little community in the Somerset store is becoming a good group of friends, and they're helping me handle this self-imposed exile.

Sadly, that's about all I remember of the weekend. Well, watched a little pre-season football with Dad. I wasn't drunk or anything, I just didn't do anything, and wasn't very happy with myself. I guess I read some, wrote a tiny bit, watched hurricane forecasts. Not much else.

The storm, Idalia, hit Florida pretty hard between Tampa and the panhandle, then shot across southeastern Georgia and into South Carolina. I have a few people down that way, and as far as I know, everyone's okay. I'll still keep an eye on reports for a day or two.

The third episode of Ahsoka was heavy on action, but it felt like half of an episode.

I need to get a haircut, and that'll probably happen tomorrow morning. Right now, that's what's passing for excitement of any kind.

Dad asked if I was okay this morning, concerned, I guess, that I wasn't as talkative as I sometimes am. I just told him that I didn't have anything to talk about, and that's true enough. Alongside that, I didn't want to talk, because I don't know if I'd be able to shut up before I said something that would, I don't know, go too far or reveal too much or lead to more questions or something.

I had a good, quiet weekend at the farm. Got there around 1PM Friday, chatted with Dad for a good long while. He wasn't feeling his best, so didn't go out Friday evening. We got up around sunrise Saturday morning and went to the Bread of Life for breakfast and good grief did I eat way too much.

An aside: Some day, I will remember this. While my diet isn't perfect, it is much less unhealthy than it was a few years ago - very little fried food, for example. So, when I have something greasy, boy-howdy does my stomach hurt. Stopped in Danville Friday for some fish. A few hours later, I was miserable.

Dad did go out for NYE. I did not. Stayed home. Watched movies - though not Strange Days - and went to bed around 9PM.

Drove back to Louisville this morning. Heavy fog for about half the drive. The Danville Speedway has/had a stock of real sugar Dew, and I bought way too much of it. Home now, watching The Handmaid's Tale before some football.

The Repubs are going to get the House, but we're keeping the Senate. Georgia's going to have a runoff election between Raphael Warnock and some dude who played football several years ago. A Warnock win would be tremendous, as that would mean there are enough votes to advance legislation without having to bow to Manchin or Sinema. Word is, Kevin McCarthy will seek the Speaker of the House position, and I think he'll get it if he does; I've read here and there that he doesn't have the chops to wrangle his fellow Representatives, though - made some enemies along the way. Still, Democrats fall in love while Republicans fall in line.

The orange bastard announced his candidacy for 2024 yesterday. See above - some of his allure is probably gone after 2020 and his chosen candidates' losses in the midterms, but, there's that benighted cult.

After a hojillion delays, NASA got the Artemis 1 mission underway this morning. The SLS is a mighty rocket, and the launch was spectacular. The Orion is already on its way out of Earth orbit and towards Luna. Still a long-ass way from a crewed mission, but it's a forward step at last.

On the returns side of the scoreboard, one USAF's X-37Bs quietly (well, without much fanfare, anyway) landed at KSC a few days ago after 900+ days in orbit. I know those things are up to no good, but it is a nifty little craft, and I would have loved to have seen another version of the X-37 enter service.

Andor continues to be darned good Star Wars. This week's episode got some spaceship fighting in, so there's some SFX action to back up the vary darn good storytelling, personal drama, and everything else.

Thanksgiving's next week. Looking forward to seeing Dad and the Doberman, not looking forward to the time on the road.

For All Mankind's third season was really good. I think that the story has progressed enough that some of the first-season characters will have realistically aged out of further stories, and some of them have already met their ends in one fashion or another.

I'm keeping the AppleTV subscription for a little longer. There are a few originals I want to check out before moving on to other services. Right now, I'm a couple of episodes into Foundation. It's not bad, but at the same time, it's not setting my world on fire. I'm sure that I've read at least part of the novel series, way back when. Thing is, I don't have a great appreciation for Asimov's writing. His ideas, sure, but very much not his prose. A friend was more than a little critical of the TV series, and okay cool; he has a much deeper attachment to classic SF lit than I do.

Far from a classic, but darned enjoyable is my current read - Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir. It's not quite as engaging as Gideon or Harrow, but it really seems to be moving towards something big, and it's filling some of the history of the Locked Tomb.

It's already been a long week. Big-time maintenance work on Saturday evening, blocked for 12 hours. It went very smoothly, hooray, and I went home after eight hours. 12 hours last night, though. I'm refusing any non-emergency time this coming weekend - this is two in a row, and I need some time for myself. Plus, there's the DCC game Friday evening (my third as a Road Crew member), and some goings on at TLGS Saturday that I'd like to check out. And maybe I'd just like to lie on the couch and recharge.

This morning is darn near my ideal seasonal weather. A little under 50F, cloudy, gentle breeze. It's very quiet, the drive home didn't make me want to blow the bridges and mine the Ohio. It won't last, but right now, what a lovely time.

I'm watching a couple of TV shows about going to Mars. On AppleTV+, there's For All Mankind, and I just love it. This is the third season, there's a three-way race to the Red Planet - well, it becomes a two-way race when one faction overclocks its ship and badly damages it and another faction brings the survivors on board its ship. The cast and characters and writing and production - all of it just rocks my socks. And I have a monster celebrity crush on Shantel VanSanten.

On Netflix, there's Away. It's okay so far. The drama's more overwrought - multinational mission, so the obligatory conflicts around national and political lines. I like the bigger names in the cast - Hilary Swank and Alessandro Juliani - and I think they're going to be enough to carry me through the ten episodes.

I'm a sucker for good Mars stories. ERB's sword-and-planet tales. Ray Bradbury. Kim Stanley Robinson, Ben Bova. Andy Weir's The Martian. I follow real-world Mars exploration missions reasonably closely, and have a faint hope that I'll see a crewed mission to Mars before I die. I'm still plinking away at a Mars sourcebook for Shadow of the Beanstalk, and would love to run a Mars exploration game someday.

I am enjoying Netflix's Cyberpunk: Edgerunners series to a surprising degree. The music, the characters, the attitude - it's hitting on all cylinders for me. My gods, there is just so much good stuff to watch now.

We only got a half-dozen or so sessions in, but our Cyberpunk Red game was going so well. I miss it. I want to spend time in Night City every now and then. I've seen postings for online games, but ... work schedule. Sigh. I've got to get into a better place.

Archon's coming up. Two weeks! I have to reprint some character sheets and make better versions of some handouts, but that side of prep is otherwise complete. I have no plans aside from hanging out with people I don't see enough and hitting up some panels here and there. I'm too old for abusing myself with tours of room parties, so that's out. Whatever. Except for the drive across the verdant desolation of southern Indiana and Illinois, it's going to be a good weekend.

The Dodgers are 99-44, won the division a couple of nights ago. Getting the season's hundredth win tonight would be nice, since that would start off a stand at San Francisco. There's a real chance of beating last season's 106-win mark.

Disney+ offered a month for $2, so, what the heck, I reupped for a couple of months. First thing I watched was Thor: Love & Thunder. My expectations were pretty low, and I really didn't enjoy it all that much. Tessa Thompson was great, and I liked Natalie Portman; the narration was unnecessary and distracting, just the director inserting further into the movie. Liked the soundtrack.

Now I'm watching Ms. Marvel. I only watched the first episode back in the early summer. Found it okay, but it didn't hook me enough to keep the subscription going. Second episode is much the same. It's good work, I mean; I guess superhero fatigue has hit.

Over on AppleTV+, I'm enjoying the heck out of For All Mankind and Tehran.

The front door lock stuck last night. Housemate spent several minutes standing out on the porch turning his key over and over again, expecting a different result somehow. I dove into locksmith YouTube this morning, found something relevant, and I think I managed to repair the lock! Let's see how things look in a couple of days.

The Dodgers are 95-43 this morning, comfortably leading the NL West. Best record in the Majors. Feels pretty good, with the acknowledgment that the postseason is very much its own thing. It would sure be good to see 'em win another World Series for Vin Scully.

NFL's regular season starts this afternoon. Still on the Ravens wagon, and I think I can catch part of their game before bedtime this afternoon. One more thing to dislike about the job - can't watch Sunday games. Or Thursday night games.

A year ago today, I spoke with my mom for the last time. I have no idea what we talked about - probably just a chat, a few minutes talking about our respective days. I do know that the last thing we said to each other was a mutual "I love you."

Goddammit, I miss her.

I've joined two publishers' demo teams - Free League and Goodman Games. I can't really make a regular game for now, so I'm going to promote stuff and get little rewards now and then.

I let the Paramount subscription expire, replacing it with AppleTV+. For All Mankind and Tehran and whatever else catches my eye.

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Roadside Picnic

Bright Ideas, Dark Futures

Always on my MInd

Catch These Fists

Bite the Hand

Birds of a Feather

You Wanted More

Chemical Sunset

What About the Children

If I Should Fall Behind

Chaos Angel

Come on Heartache

Light my Fire

Take the Journey

The Baddest Man Alive

Fall at Your Feet

Across the Lines

Dream Girl Evil

Steer Your Way

Danny's All-Star Joint

Crushed

Every Little Thing

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January 2026

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