October Media
Kind of an odd media month. There was some baseball early, but not much after the Royals were eliminated. A lot of reading The Lord of the Rings. A fall break vacation. But not much long-form stuff. That should shift in November. And there was a changing of the hobbies, a switch that is reflected below with a new section.…
Friday Playlist
“Afterlife” – Sharon Van Etten New SVE music! We won’t get the album until February, making it the first 2025 album on my New Music list. For the first time, she collaborated with her band on writing songs rather than bringing songs to them to join her on. None of her magic gets lost in the process, at least on…
Sports (Mostly Hoops) Notes
A few sports thoughts, mostly about basketball. KU Hoops Much better performance Tuesday in the second exhibition contest against Washburn. Of course, they better have looked better against a D2 team. Hitting shots is always a good thing, and KU actually seems to have multiple shooters this year. They ran a little more of what you expect to see on…
On Government, Politics, and The Election
Sometimes it is hard to articulate why you believe the things you believe, especially long held views. They become a part of who you are and the inflection points that led you to adopt those stances can be difficult to recall. Take politics, for example. People our age have likely held the same views, or some version of a core…
Reader’s Notebook, 10/29/24
The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King – J.R.R. Tolkien I’ve thought about re-reading The Lord of the Rings for several years and finally pulled the trigger. Which was dumb. Given how focused I am on nostalgia, memories, and anniversaries, I really should have tackled it last year, the 40th anniversary of…
Weekend Notes
These summaries are usually heavy on the sports. After a weekend like the one just passed, that is problematic. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, good happened for teams I follow over the past three days. Just a reminder that sports are terrible and I’m dumb for letting them hold such large sway over my life and mood. You people who…
Friday Playlist
“Halloween I & II” – Cloud Nothings Happy Halloween! “Dance Now” – Girl and Girl If I had gone into a coma in 1983 or 1984, woken up this week, and this was the first song I heard, I bet I wouldn’t have realized I just slept through 40-ish years. All kinds of Eighties goodness in here. Another great Aussie…
Pacers Thoughts
The new NBA season kicked off last night and the Pacers begin play tonight. When we last saw them, the Pacers were making a surprise, fun-as-hell run to the Eastern Conference finals. They could have easily won three of the first four games against the eventual champion Celtics, but were instead swept aside. Their run was fueled as much by…
D’s Notes
A few other notes from last week/the weekend plus life in general. Health I’ve had a couple longer spells of irregular heart beats lately, so the week before we went to Denver I wore an event monitor again. Just like the first two times I wore one, I had zero issues, so it wasn’t really helpful. Plus it made it…
Fall Break 2024: Colorado
To celebrate the glories of CHS fall break, we took the girls (well, C and L) to Denver to stay with S’s sister and her family for a few days.[1] We hadn’t been to Colorado since Christmas 2017, although we were scheduled to spend spring break there in 2020 until, well, you know… We flew out Wednesday evening, returned Sunday…