4/27 Half-Week In Review

4/24

Guess I have to start over with these (not that I was particularly thrilled about writing them the first time).

About a year back, a bunch of a-holes on TikTok came up with this viral game where you were hot shit if you went into a store and yanked the head off the LeBron James SPACE JAM 2 toy, filming it with your phone.  After a while, though, they moved on to the next big thing.

But here we are, the end of April, and the remedial class of TikTok uploaders are still doing it.  Exhibit A at the local Target, Your Honor:

Exhibit B:

My nephew bought one of those Hoverboard machines today, and brought it out, then all of us were afraid to get on it (the eleven year old eventually got on and made it go back and forth, rather slowly, but better than the rest of us).  Finally, they got the idea to hook a seat to it (along with a third wheel) and turn it into a scooter, that way no one could get thrown violently off of it.

The fourteen year old zoomed down the road so impressively, making it look both safe and easy, that I said, "Okay, I'll try it."  I sat on it, started it moving forward, and only then said, "Wait, how do you brake and how do you accelera--"  At which point, the thing sped forward and stopped abruptly, throwing me violently off of it.  My knees hit the pavement, then both my palms, and I was once again reminded of my age and lifelong lack of coordination.  The funny thing is, I sat in the street for a full minute, because I just couldn't get my legs to lift me up, and my eleven year old nephew came over and helped me to stand.

Don't ever get old, kids.  Check out in your twenties.

4/25

My knee was particularly sore today from my spill on the hoverboard yesterday.  But nobody MADE me get on it, you know? I'm at 32,893 words on "Balms & Sears," but that includes the middle part where I wrote out which scenes I hadn't gotten to yet (only one of which I subsequently have).  I've decided that what I have is what I've got, so everything I've not incorporated from my earlier writing will have to be re-written.  It's not optimal, but it gives me an idea of what I'm up against.

In entertainment news, I'm back to as heavy as I've ever been, due (in part) to eating ice cream late at night while I watch TV.  I'm not exactly proud of this, but it does taste good.  As far as television goes, "Better Call Saul" started up again, for its final season.  It's a show that I really, really admire, even though every episode has a twenty-five minute story stretched to an hour, paced like the famed TV cut of 1978's SUPERMAN.

So, that picture I posted of the disgusting toilet yesterday was actually just when I emptied the wet vacuum tank into the toilet, after having sucked up a bunch of dirt and sand from the carpet.  Still, it looked pretty revolting, which are what the TikTok toy head thieves are.  Yeah, I said it.  See you in Hell.

 4/26

My knee still hurts, but stairs are easier, which is nice because the library has an awful lot of stairs.

Huh.  This blogging program suddenly started suggesting words to me today (for example, when I typed "for ex" it suggested "example"), and I hate it.  If anything, it's making me slower at blogging, and enjoying it less.

I feel like I failed today, at least as far as being productive.  I got work done, took my mom to the grocery store, took the four year old to watch the big machine break up the neighbor's driveway (it was a piledriver-type machine that shook the ground each time it came down), played a video game for about ninety minutes, and now I'm at the library to get some work done.  SOME.

I did push-ups this morning, which is nice, I suppose.

Now I'm going to get some writing done ("Balms & Sears" stands at 33,417 words).*

To my surprise, the Audible guys (or gals) seemed to have rushed out the release of my audio collection, because hey, it's available for purchase.  That's almost TOO soon, guys.

4/27

I finished another Rish Outcast episode edit, and began another one.  Taking a break, I started editing "Hatchling" audio files again.  It's been long enough I've started to feel like somebody else wrote it, and I'm surprised by how dumb I wrote Rick to be.  He's so utterly unlike me in practically every way (athletic, popular, blindly ignorant of the people around him, smooth with the ladies without lifting a finger) that I imagine that twenty years ago, I'll wonder if somebody else wrote this book.

Don't get me wrong, I like that about "Hatchling" (about the only thing I do like, amirite, folks?), but he's pretty slow on the uptake, no wonder he scores with lots of chicks.

I know I'm way behind the curve, but last night, I finally saw EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE.  I'd heard great things about it, but nobody had warned me how weird it was.

I've seen a lot of movies, but let's say I've seen a thousand.  Of the thousand movies I've watched, I'd say it was the number 1 weirdest movie I've ever seen.  I almost want to sit down and watch it again before it leaves theaters, so I can better understand it.

I highly suspect the dude I was sitting next to (who had seen it before and was bringing a friend of his to watch it with him) had gotten high right before seeing it, as a, you know, enhancement or something.

Anyway, I don't usually want to watch a movie again right after seeing it.  But this one seems to be one I would appreciate more a second time.  No weed necessary.

"Balms & Sears" is at 34,063 words now.

My buddy Big Anklevich is absolutely obsessed with buying toys right now.  I sound like I'm criticizing him, but I'm not.  It's just an interesting little phase he's in, kind of like when I was obsessed with exercising and writing every single day, as stupid as that makes me look in 2022.  But he keeps finding stuff and buying it, even though he probably shouldn't, and he knows his wife frowns on it.  But I think it fills a need, and both he and his wife work full-time, plus he's got two fewer mouths to feed at home, so I think he can afford it.

I saw an action figure of the Lon Chaney Jr. Wolf Man today, and nearly followed Big down that path.

But I didn't.  I just couldn't justify it.  It was too expensive, and I wouldn't even dare open the figure.

But I'll let you in on a little secret: if Big had bought that same Wolf Man last week, I would have bought it too.  So, who's the bigger fool, as old Ben Kenobi asked?

*I said "some," I didn't say "a great deal."