Odds & Ends // 2017.06.30 // Green Light

Like it says: odds & ends; I’ll try to post this once a week to track things I read, quick updates, thoughts, links, etc.


Previously

I found I didn’t like doing these weekly as there was too much “churn” and not enough content.
Going to experiment with monthly ones for a while and see if I like that better. 🙂

Listens

I’m on the Lorde bandwagon.

Reads

  • I read a double feature of David Mitchell: Black Swan Green and number9Dream were both engrossing reads. I could barely put them down once I started. It must be Mitchell’s writing style, too, because I wasn’t too enamored with either plot. I tried to start The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, but it was just not for me. Too bad, since it’s the first part of the Marinus Trilogy, but I’m looking forward to The Bone Clocks regardless and hoping it’s on par with Cloud Atlas, which I loved.

Scenes

  • Quest for the Stanley Cup – Episode 5
    Here’s the finale! So good. I really wonder what they’re going to do for the Championship video since they probably used a lot of content already in this and the In the Room series. 1

  • Twin Peaks: Parts 7 & 8
    Part 7 moved some of the plot lines forward 2, and Part 8 was art in the form of a direct infusion of David Lynch’s imagination. Hopefully more like it ahead.

  • American Gods Ep 8 – Season Finale
    That was too brief of a season, but ok. I think it was a little overhyped before it all aired, especially with the numerous “This is the best show on tv!” reviews. It’s good, it’s fun, it has an attitude and style, but it;’s not the best. At least not yet.

  • Into the Badlands – Remainder of Season 1
    This was an unexpected surprise. Original, fun, decent writing and acting. And the action scenes are awesome and fun, they’re like a blend of the Matrix and Highlander.

  • 11.22.63
    I forgot how much of a heartbreaker the book was. It was so painful towards the end.

Coming Up Next

Starting in July, I’ll be trying The Familiar book club. The books have been sitting on my shelves far too long because of their intimidating length, but this should have a nice, structured pace to it!


  1. Which I’ve never seen, so maybe that’ll be next for my Summer sports fix…

  2. Maybe they were… swept forward. 😎


Odds & Ends // 2017.06.16 // “I’m gonna send ya back to Arkansas”

Like it says: odds & ends; I’ll try to post this once a week to track things I read, quick updates, thoughts, links, etc.


Previously

The Penguins won the Stanley Cup!

The Pittsburgh Penguins are back-to-back champions.

Have I mentioned the Penguins won the cup?

I might be a little excited about all of this.

Back-to-Back Champs!

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Princess is ecstatic.

Fri-YAY!

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Malteses everywhere. #RaiseThePup!

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Listens

  • Natalie Imbruglia – Torn

    This popped up on the radio when I was in DC for my sister’s wedding.
    20 years makes a big difference. I’d always change the station when it came on in the 90s, this time I made sure I figured out who it was and finally got around to downloading it last night. She’s pretty good at covers.

Reads

Words

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Scenes

  • American Gods, Episode 7

    This might be my favorite episode so far.

  • Twin Peaks: The Return, Episode 6

    Definitely better than last week, although there was a suspicious lack of certain characters and storylines…

  • Into the Badlands

    I watched the first two episodes of this. It’s surprisingly cool and catchy. I’m definitely going to keep watching over Summer while there’s not much else on. 1

  • The Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup Championship Parade

    “What can we say about this group of hockey players here? I just think there isn’t a group I’ve been around that knows how to win more than these guys. … These guys are fierce competitors. They just know how to win, they just find ways to get it done. We couldn’t be more proud of them. … I said a little something last year, seeing if we could do this again. I wonder if we could repeat, or three-peat, should I say?”

    What a leader, possibly the best coach in Penguins history. There’s no reason it can’t happen again; if they could get through this season with all the injuries, anything is possible.

  • All Access: Quest for the Stanley Cup

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    I binged four episodes last night. Starts at the conference finals and episode 4 ended with Nashville taking Game 4. So tonight’s episode should be pretty good. There was a great bit in episode 4 with Sullivan and his dad playing cards in their back yard.

    Another fun fact: both Laviolette and Sullivan named their dogs Stanley.

Views

Weekend

It looks rainy for tonight and Sunday, so probably catching up on some reading. Tomorrow’s supposed to be nice; maybe some photography?


  1. Come back Mr. Robot!


Odds & Ends // 2017.06.02 // HellooooOOO

Like it says: odds & ends; I’ll try to post this once a week to track things I read, quick updates, thoughts, links, etc.


Previously

  • This week was a hectic one. Kicking it off with visits to Governors Island and Central Park was relaxing. The Penguins won games one and two of the Final, which was awesome. I helped out at Impact Hub for an event, and then bussed to Annapolis on Thursday night. Co-Piloted by BB-8.

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Listens

  • I caught up on Do By Friday through the week. The current events asides were a little alarming. I’ve been trying to just ignore the news cycles, but week after week after week being condensed into a few podcasts, that I then binged over a day or two, and it was pretty clear we’re not living in normal times.

  • Same Old Blues by Phantogram has been in heavy rotation in my recent favorites, so let’s go with that.

Reads

I really like it when something that ended on a cliffhanger or with no resolution years ago gets to come back and tie it all up. 1

I don’t think I really liked it, though. The miniseries itself, yes. I just can’t stand the heartbreaker at the end. Time-travel is made to break the rules of itself; embrace the paradox! Now I’m stuck equating Jack with Don Draper. 2

“There is a quality of spiritual pilgrimage to both series: You must make peace with the fact that you will never entirely “figure it out,” and that you will continue traveling onward without any assurance that there’s a destination waiting for you at the other end, much less that you’ll someday reach it.”

The headline alone got me to sit down and read this one.

No pull quote on this one. Just go read it. Unless you’re reading this on your phone, in which case, read it when you have time. It’s worth it. I started thinking about it when I went for a stroll and literally everyone I saw had their neck craned downwards towards a glowing screen as they walked.

h/t to Monica for that one.

One of my friends asked me about Bullet Journaling, which I’ve been trying out for the last two months. The best explanation I can give is to just point to it.

“Handwriting is more than just a form of communication. It’s part of our identity; you can always tell if something is written by you or someone else. The flourishes, how we cross our Ts and dot our Is, can be telling of our personalities. Our handwriting can change from being super neat and then chicken scrawl when we’re in a hurry.”

I think the tl;dr of this, for me, was to just slow down.

Scenes

  • It was two weeks ago, but the first four episodes of Twin Peaks. No explanation possible.

  • Season Five of House of Cards. That was fun. “My turn.”

  • Samurai Jack season five.

Drinks

Dos Caminos used to have some drink a year or so ago that used Singani as an ingredient.3 I really liked it, but then it left the menu and I haven’t found another bar that’s used it in cocktails since. Fast forward to a bunch of evenings ago; I tried a friend’s Pisco Sour and it was pretty tasty. I wondered aloud if the base liquors were similar, since they’re both from South America and were a national drink, and apparently I made a good guess: Pisco & Singani are both a pomace brandy, which I hadn’t heard of before. And that’s quite fitting, because I’ll hopefully be having one in celebration in a week or so…

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Weekend

  • Pittsburgh for some fun and celebration, both family and the Penguins.

  1. Hi there, Twin Peaks!

  2. Now I’m imagining Jon Hamm with a katana. I’d watch that movie.

  3. I think this was it: the Sour 63.