It shows various mainframe structures.
Friday, May 6th 2023 • 05/06/23
Nori spent the weekend before last stalking birds with the camera. He did not get the shot he was hoping for. I thought Nori would be out again on Monday taking photos, but he said he was too tired and decided to join us at Fandango instead. He then showed me his friend’s photos taken earlier that morning. The shot was of a white egret and a blue heron, both spreading their wings for each other. He admitted he was jealous. He sighed if only he didn’t have children who needed to be taken to school. Stan showed off his new selfie stick that also works as a tripod. This is the same one Nori, and I have. I liked Nori’s so much that I bought one. Stan’s is black with blue highlights, and mine is red with blue highlights. Nori has three, one with blue highlights, one with red highlights, and one black with black highlights. He’s also lost an entire unit to the waters of Puget Sound and mislaid the remote to another. Stan said I should live stream KitKat Roulette at Freelance Fandango, so I did. It will be up for 30 days. One of the servers at the Red Elm CafĂ© told us that she made stickers and gave us her latest design. It showed a girl holding a large potted cactus over her crotch. I think Stan and I both blushed. We promised to give her some of our stickers in return. Stan also said he would not put it on his bag, which is seen publicly. I joked about the sticker and asked if he would put it on something “private?” That earned me a look.
I had a routine colonoscopy this week. With the limited fasting and purge before the procedure, I was down to 195 lbs. But consuming nothing but water for two days builds an appetite. This morning I weighed in at 197.4 lbs. The next time Krista tells me I’m full of it, I can give her an exact measurement.
We lost two musical legends this week: Harry Belafonte and Gordon Lightfoot. Both were staples for Krista and me. And while we never got a chance to see either in concert, we listen to their songs every year. It got me thinking, just who was the last Gladiator whose death caused his fans to murmur and grieve? Hearing of the death of an entertainer who’s brought you so much enjoyment over the years is like losing a friend. I guess this was true centuries ago and will remain true centuries from now.
About a month ago, the weather warmed enough that I stopped wearing flannel-lined pants. Last week I stopped wearing my long underwear. As I mentioned before, our house does not have a central heating system. I’m still wearing a housecoat and throwing a blanket over my legs while watching television. I just wanted to write this down so I could look back into my journal and see when we stopped feeling cold.
Alley New
I have not seen my neighbors Don and Jeri since they return from a cruise to Jamacia and the Caribbean. They reported that they had a great time. A couple of days ago, Don saw a couple of men carrying a large doorway trellis to the curb. He pulled over his truck and asked the men, “Are you tossing that away?” They confirmed they were. Don told them, “Just load it in the back.” Don had a doorway trellis that his grandson made ten years ago for his wedding to Jerri. But it was starting to rot. This one he picked up from the men looks brand new like it was made from an expensive kit. So he dismantled the old one and put the new one in its place. The new one is much lighter. Don and Jerri nearly took each other out, moving the old one into the alley for deconstruction.
The starter battery to my lawn mower went bad. The clerk at the battery store told me the way to keep the battery good was to charge it every two weeks or at least once a month when I wasn’t using it in the winter. This would keep the battery from falling so low that it becomes a danger if recharged. Such are the dangers of a lithium battery. It was a detail of which I was unaware. The store did not carry the battery, so I ordered it from the lawnmower manufacturer. It will be at least another week before it arrives.
My neighbor Pat came over to help me with the lawn. He mowed about half of it with his mower, which he wouldn’t take off its lowest setting. So it was slow going for him. It was also slow going for me as I did the other half of the lawn with the weed whacker. My back was a little sore afterward. But thanks to all the exercise stretches I do in the morning, it held up and was fine the next day.
April 25
#IDreamt I was learning the art of metallurgy from a blacksmith. Is silver truly a by-product of smelting gold? Or was that something I dreamed up? Note: It turns out that silver can be a byproduct of smelting gold.
April 26
#IDreamt you were legally obligated to do community service to the religious organization sponsoring the app on your phone that would immediately read the defending incarceration against a demon manifestation.
April 27
#IDreamt I was found an apartment where my share of the rent was $300, but I was sharing with five other people.
April 28
#IDreamt that when our world summoned back Merlin, he arrived as a monosyllabic teenager filled with angst. This was hidden from the world via shrewd marketing and carefully edited videos that were “leaked.”
April 30
#IDreamt my brother and I went into a store to fill in a job application, but it was only a raffle for a free pie. The owner rented my brother a shirt.
May 1
#IDreamt I floated out over the edge of a cliff to over the ocean. After making some loops in the air, I dove into the water. When I surfaced, it was dark. I could see lights on the shoreline. As I swam, I found a false shore of a floating island.
May 2
#IDreamt I was scrubbing beakers in a laboratory. There were these stubborn groves on the inside that ate Mr. Clean erasers. But that was the only thing that got the job done.
May 3
#IDreamt of a strange place that might have been Limbo. It was an endless meadow with rolling hills. There was a herd of cattle, the Brooklyn Bridge, a hundred-foot-tall giant Polar Bear, and an apple tree three times as big as the bridge.
May 5
#IDreamt I was eating a pizza that had SPAM and eggs on it, with Christopher Walken.
I woke up with two songs in my head:
“Echo Valley 2-689” by the Partridge Family
“O Fortuna” by Carl Orff,
“The Tra La La Song” The Banana Splits Theme song.
“Wake Up Little Suzie” by the Everly Brothers
I listened to a couple of books this week:
“Everything’s Eventual” by Stephen King
“Magic Bites” by Liona Andrews
“Nest Egg” by Josi Avari
Movies I watched this week:
44. April 24
Pirahna 3DD (2022) Rating: 4
This film does not take itself at all seriously. Taking a cue from the Piranha remake that decided T&A was low humor with its exposed backbone caving to “fan” pandering, this movie goes full frontal crass. It’s not rocket science to make a movie for adolescent boys, nor is there a reason to set the bar higher when you’re doing it just for shooting fish-in-barrel laughs. Actors from the original film return to have fun and cash a paycheck. Also on the payroll for bloody irreverent fun is the Hoff. I watched this film on HBO Max.
45. April 25
High Sierra (2041) Rating: 7
I could have sworn I’d seen this movie before on television. But I can’t confirm that with licensing dates. But since WB has been creating its own television shows since 1972, I’m going to assume it has been aired at some time. This noir is the film that shot Humphrey Bogart to stardom. I give this film a point for Bogart and another point for the dog that plays a crucial role in the story. I give the dog another point because it was actually Bogart’s dog. However, I’m removing a point for the stereotypical portrayal of a black man. Willie Best was a great comedian and actor, and while the times he lived in didn’t offer roles outside of stereotypes, he was well-known for his talent. Perhaps that’s why, even with those limitations, he had a long career in movies and television. I watched this film on a Netflix DVD.
46. April 29
Jung_E (2023) Rating: 5
Rock ’em, sock ’em, robots, with a mother-daughter relationship as one of the themes. The Ship of Theseus is another theme. An extra point for having robots. I watched this film on Netflix.
47. April 30
Snakes on a Plane (2006) Rating: 7
Why did I wait so long to watch this movie? Several elements to this film carry well over a decade later. There is a lot more empathy for the purell-sanitizer-using celebrity now than there was before. An extra point for having a dog with a name. Loads of stupid fun. I watched this film on Amazon Prime.
48. April 30
Morbius (2022) Rating: 4
While I liked the idea of vampire superhero, I always had a hard time enjoying the comic book because I was constantly wondering about all of the problem mixing the fake science with the fake mythology. It’s not to surprising that my reservations carried over onto the movie. But, historically, vampires in comics have always been all over the map. The cgi face morphing kept me thinking about another creature feature “Sleepwalkers.” My wife and I watched this film on Disney+.
49. May 5th
The Land of the Pharaohs (1955) Rating: 6
Watching this as a kid, I was intrigued by the secret burial plans of the Pharaoh. That’s what I wanted to see, those security measures in action. As an adult, I kept thinking, “Boy, he sure employed a lot of extras. There must be thousands of them.” The actual story functioned but didn’t have the muscle to make it truly memorable. I think most of the actors involved were happy to let their brownface performances be forgotten. I kept thinking, “Joan Collins when your skin is that dark, that shade of lipstick does not suit you.” And when I saw the ending as an adult, the memories of the tomb sealing up didn’t match the ones in my head. I think my kid’s imagination added detail.
50. May 5
Rumor has it… (2005) Rating: 5
Krista and I watched this film on HBO Max. This is a perfectly decent film. Just a hint of scandal, a scoop of emotional conflict, a couple of cute quips, and some emotional buttons get pushed. It is a fine example of an average movie.
More next week,
Mark
