First things first, bad news.  A renowned writer passed away the other day.  Peter David is probably best known for writing numerous comics over the years and he wrote a few dozen novels.  Most of his work was in science fiction.  A number of people whose opinions I trust in the field were big fans of his.  I’m not personally familiar with most of his work but he did write a couple parts of the DC/Marvel crossover in the mid nineties.  I had gotten my hands on the trade paperback around 2000 or so.  I really enjoyed that story.  That’s where I consciously started to understand multiversal theory and how to conceptualize analogous characterization.  Skills that have clearly served me well all these years working in retail.  

     I think I’ll need to make this a short post.  I fell behind working on things around the apartment and started writing this later than I planned.  And then I started watching TV again.  I had noticed the other day that my baseline existential dread felt considerably lower than usual and then I realized that I haven’t watched through How I Met Your Mother in the last two quarters and haven’t in turn been reminded about my life dreams and ambitions so long ago ripped away from my grasp as my youth was flushed down the cosmic toilet by circumstance of my finances and stolen opportunities…have I mentioned lately how happy I am my “mother” is finally dead?  So, just so happy!  

I’ve been watching Andor again.  I started at the beginning introducing a friend to Andor and I just finished season one as I write this.  And yeah, I’m writing this late, I know.  All the same, it’s horrific how poignant this whole show is right now.  The thing I’ll never understand, these shit-clowns fucking up everything right now clearly haven’t read their oh-so-precious scriptures that they bastardize to try and support their unconstitutional “legislation” so, they obviously have never watched, let alone read anything worthwhile and yet, step for goose-step they somehow manage to play out every trope and cliché of dystopian fiction.  I’ve always said this, the single most terrifying horror film I’ve ever watched is Idiocracy.  People laughed at me like I was crazy.  I pointed out to them all the shit going on twenty years ago, things I explained to them following through to logical conclusion and here we are.  Exactly where I warned them so long ago.  And yet, STILL I’m the crazy person for not indulging in “reality” TV.  I’M the lunatic for acknowledging the over step of the mormon church usurping secular government and legislative process throughout the state of utah.  Alright, this is supposed to be fun stuff so, I’ll get back to that.

     I’m starting the first episode of season two now.  I love getting deeper into the various models of TIE ships.  And I want this on the record.  I’ve often explained to people how much I distrust that Dyson bloke.  Give me a second, this connects to the Galactic Imperial TIE craft.  Dyson makes vacuum cleaners yeah, I’m talking about that twat.  For the record, James Dyson’s company has invented a number of including robot vacuum cleaners which is a whole other conversation but for the sake of brevity, I’ll be simply focusing on just a few of their inventions.  He started with making more efficient vacuum cleaners that focuses less on designing or redesigning filters but rather, designed a mechanism that manipulates the air flow through a series of cyclonic atmospheric rotation.  This action accomplishes a few things.  It mitigates the over all size of the apparatus.  Traditional vacuum cleaners are designed for linear airflow through a series a filters, this process requires specific areas to accommodate specific volumes of air as the air passes through a number of filters. The Dyson vacuums direct the air flow into a cyclonic action which intrinsically takes up less space.  This action serves another function as the cyclone generates centrifugal motion which propels particulate matter out and away from the central atmospheric body¹ and thus collecting the particulate matter into storage container.  Now, that’s all fine and well EXCEPT that after sometime of revolutionizing home cleaning floor cleaning James Dyson started progressing his air flow technologies in an ultimately more destructive direction.  Let’s focus on these air flow manipulation technologies and then the ballbarrow, STAY WITH ME THERE IS A POINT!  Now, in 2006 Dyson redirected his attention from sucking to blowing…yeah, that’s what I mean.  The Dyson Airblade hand dryers started showing up everywhere.  He adapted his previous technology to compress and propel air in an immediate direction, similar in function to jet engines.  See?  I’m bringing it around.  This led to his developing the technology for his bladeless fans.  A process of ionically charging a shifting volume of air would simultaneously repel particulate matter from the air and propel the air into the designated direction.  Now, this is where Dyson’s vacuum cleaners intersect with TIE technology.

     If you’re not familiar, TIE in the designation of TIE Fighter is actually an acronym.  Twin Ion Engine.  The large panels on either side of the TIE Fighter’s cockpit are in fact not-so-much wings rather, the engines.  The segments of these panels are each a series of “scoops”, collecting particulate matter as it moves, ionically charging said matter, and then discharging that matter through other “scoops” or vents of some sort propelling the matter of the engine into the opposite direction which allows it to scoop more matter, and recycle the process indefinitely².  Developing the technology of his Ballbarrow, yes, that’s the name of a thing.  Dyson worked out the inherently versatile and adaptive properties of using a sphere instead of a wheel for conveyance.  Not dissimilar to the cockpit design of the TIE craft.  Also, Dyson Sphere is something else, I’ll probably cover that later at some point.  Now then, with all that experience, research, practical execution, and the British accent James Dyson is clearly at least by some generations a precursor to what we see as the Galactic Empire portrayed throughout the Star Wars franchise.  And that’s why I’ve never trusted Dyson and his vacuum cleaners.

     This is one of those things I first scoffed in passing just to shit on something that was stupidly popular for stupid reasoning and then I started to think about what I was saying and realized just how poignant my initial response was.  It Turns out that my knee-jerk snark tends to be more prophetic than funny at times and yet people seem to die nonetheless.  I don’t think there are any confirmed casualties connected to cyclonic vacuum cleaners but then again, I just haven’t done the homework yet…nah, I’m sure no one has died from them…yet.  I’m sure things are fine, though.

First thing, I was just looking for something to put on the TV while I sit here and get done some writing.  I was going to put on Archer again since I haven’t watching it yet this quarter but then in my list of ‘continue watching’ I saw Light and Magic.  I haven’t watched this series in awhile so I pull it up.  That’s when I noticed that there are new episodes!  I didn’t know they were running a second season!  I started over on that while do some writing.  Just so we’re clear, I got the e-mail with my first day at the new job and now I’m working on some writing projects instead of actively looking for a new day job.  Is that ok with you?!?!?!  Coolness.  Now, I’m writing this and there’s a writing program accepting submissions right now.  My plan is focus on that and write up the pieces I need for that before I start the new job.  I finished one piece but I’m concerned it’s a bit too dark, ya know, being about my personal experience and all.  I need to write a couple scripts over the next few days so, that’s what I’m working on now.  Well, not NOW now, obviously I’m still writing this thing right this moment.  Next thing after this post, though.  That’s what I’m doing next.

     Ok, I still haven’t caught up on Andor yet.  I got sidetracked watching through Battlestar Galactica again.  This time watching through the series was profoundly different from my previous watch-throughs.  I seemed to be more emotional watching most of the series time round.  I’d forgotten about the scenes with Starbuck and her mom.  There were a few mentions of her mom and how Apollo’s mom was less than motherly but then seeing the scenes with Starbuck and her mom hit me considerably harder.  I’ve made no secret here about my “mother” being a piece of shit but watching this interaction at this time was hard for me.  Maybe it’s because I’m here now so close, geographically, to where I experienced this abuse.  Maybe it’s just this point in time with everything that’s going on.  It’s hard to say.  But I will admit that some part of me wishes Artie got her shit together and actually tried to be better.  Fact is: she didn’t.  I still fully intend to find her grave with the sole intent to piss on it.  Is that my fault for not just forgiving her, just because?  Fuck no!  That bitch died still lying through her withered, fake teeth.  That’s on her.  And rest assured, I’m getting to the dead dad issues next.

     Obviously I kept breaking down and weeping watching the father/son scenes of Olmos and Bamber.  I didn’t get to know my dad so well before he died.  I was only twelve and most of our bonding was watching TV and eating fast food.  Surprise!  He not only died from a heart attack but it was his fourth heart attack.  He and I never really had any of those typical fights that fathers and sons get to have.  We argued about rap music and The Simpsons, that’s pretty much it.  There again, I was eleven and twelve so, it’s not as though I had a well thought out and poignant argument to offer.  Every time I see those conversations in film and TV it reminds me of just how young I really was when he died.  Invariably, the conversation finds its way to ‘children replacing their parents’.  The intended obsolescence of parents.  I figured out fairly quick after dad died just how pivotal a defining moment like that is.  A necessary detriment for personal growth.  There’s the idea that when a bone breaks it becomes stronger at the break because of the healing process undergone by the bone to repair that damage.  One could argue that losing a loved one, especially one as integral as a parent is a uniquely profound damage or break to the psyche, or soul, or whatever that a person experiencing that is altered irrevocably, instantly, in real time.  I would look at people around me, even kids my own age, and what I saw is that they were all soft.  Even my siblings being coddled by their mother, were weak.  A fact that became more and more apparent as I kept growing through this experience.  I think the worst part of that experience is that it seemed to hit me all at once.  I didn’t get to do it piece by piece.  Challenging dad on this point, or having that argument, he just died one day and then the next day, I had to explain to Artie why she was wrong about whatever.  Or I had to anticipate how something would play out logically so, I didn’t screw around as a child.  I never shoplifted.  I didn’t sneak drinks out of my friends’ parents’ liquor cabinets.  I missed out on some common childhood experiences because in certain ways, I was already an adult at thirteen.  Thing is that I lost a lot of key childhood experiences but that’s ok because now I had to be a grown up who was being beaten by my “mother” every other day.  And all that is what’s running through my mind when I see Olmos telling Bamber to ”get your fat ass off my ship.”

     Writing this just now has taken quite a bit out of me.  I think I’m going to eat these fifteen hour old chili cheese fries and get this post scheduled so I can get going on these other projects.  I’m going to watch the last few episodes of Andor and maybe watch the whole series again then possibly write my thoughts on it for Thursday.

Ok, I’m pretty well set up in the new place now.  Ideally I’ll be more consistent with all this now.  The employment situation is just about resolved so, I can stop losing money and maybe start bringing in some soon.  All-in-all, things are coming together.  I even have some of the studio put together.  The video equipment for the most part is configured and ready to go.  I need to finish connecting the mixing board and spacing out the cabling for mics so I can see how everything is going to hang.

     Here’s some less-than-timely good news.  I caught a post on reddit the other day that mentioned the complete series Battlestar Galactica(Reboot) was on sale on AppleTV for $24.99.  It took me a minute to find the link to get me into the right screen for that price point but I got it.  I’ve watching that lately.  Somewhat fitting given the current circumstance our world is in right now.  I just watched the episode where they’re holding a tribunal, a legal proceeding investigating an attack on board Galactica.  I’ve always had a problem with Commander Adama’s behavior in this instance.  While being questioned Cmnd. Adama doesn’t like where the questions went and he effectively walks out of the room.  I am of course, comparing this behavior to American constitutional law and basic perception.  He’s scoffing at the law, first of all.  That’s more perception but as a military leader, even Admiral of the Fleet, he would have no such ‘privilege’ to disregard the authority of the proceeding nor would his testimony have jeopardized security as we view the circumstance at that point in time.  He’s effectively demonstrating his belief that his military is above the law.  I suppose it’s too bad that we don’t have centuries worth of evidence in our human history showing exactly why this is terrible.  In any case, a fantastic series, executed damn near perfectly.

     On the other hand there is of course the last block of episodes of Andor.  I haven’t watched them yet, probably later tonight.  I’m thinking I may finally make my pilgrimage to my old In-N-Out tonight.  There’s a particular location that has always held a special place in my heart.  It’s the In-N-Out Burger that I always went to with my friends when we celebrated, were just hanging out, hell just had nothing to do.  My dad and I would stop there and grab milkshakes on our way home from his choir practices.  When my “mother” would refuse to feed me, I would take five dollars out of her purse and walk the two miles of Van Nuys Blvd. in the middle of the night to feed myself.  I imagine it’ll be easier to refrain from breaking down weeping since I can listen to podcasts on that walk now.  I should probably put on some pants soon so I can go and get something to eat.  Say, it’s even cool and dark enough right now that I might even be able to wear my jacket without sweltering.  See you around.

I’ve been home now for about a week.  You have no idea how great this feels!  The streets are still familiar, the buildings look different but it all still feels like home.  I’ve been setting up furniture and going through containers almost constantly for the last few days.  Today, I received and assembled my first new bed since I was six years old.  Figures this would finally happen at a time when certainly I’m never going to have sex again.  Story of my life.  At any rate, I think I’ll be spending tomorrow wrapping up the last few big things to arrange in the apartment.  Pretty much the kitchen, and the poker lounge.  After that pretty much all that’s left is the studio equipment.

     It looks like I shouldn’t have any trouble setting up the studio now.  I’ve just about worked out how to arrange and store everything to make setup and tear down fast and efficient.  I’ve even worked out a talk show configuration for the new studio.  Maybe I’ll be able to start up a new show sooner rather than later.  I’m looking forward to start recording podcasts again.  I may start hitting open mics in the next couple days, start making new friends and all.  Who knows?  MAybe as a single, middle-aged man I’ll be able to make new friends and start doing fun things again.  I guess only time will tell…

     You know how much I love the first season of Andor and I finally took the time to catch up on season two and I’m watching the new episodes right now.  I have a lot of thoughts and I’ll be reviewing it properly later this week.  In short, my concerns about how they formatted this season have been pretty accurate.  It is of course well done, my concerns were in regard to pacing and storytelling.  Again, I’ll write more on this later.

     Ok, I’m coming up on a second deadline since I started writing this so, I need to wrap it up.  Also, I have a job interview so, I should probably get in a nap or something soon.  I’ve been watching Futurama again recently.  I haven’t watched the last few seasons of this show as many times as I’ve watched the first five so I often forget just how good those seasons really are.  The attention to detail and continuity is astounding I f you haven’t watched Futurama lately, you should.  you may learn something new, or at least notice something you didn’t before.  Example Given; in the pilot, they show Nibbler’s shadow under Fry’s chair as he’s knocked into the cryogenic tube.  And then in the episode Jurassic Bark, from what I’ve been able to pull up short of rewatching the episode again right now, we again see Fry falling into the cryogenic tube but this time we see another shadow under the chair aside from Nibbler’s.  In an episode after that one, The why of Fry, we learn definitively that not only did Nibbler knock Fry into the tube but also that the second shadow is from Fry being sent back to stop Nibbler.  Like I said, astounding attention to detail.

     Well until next time.