I noticed several bloggers that I follow have re-upped on doing 100 Days to Offload. Last year, it was truly a remarkable experience. I found so many interesting blogs that I still follow to this day through that little hashtag. I got lazy in properly tagging my posts, so despite writing well over 200 posts, I don’t feel like I actually accomplished the goal of committing to that tag. I thought about starting off the new year with using the tag, but chose not to. The one thing that 100 Days to Offload did was it made me feel obligated to write a little more. I would sometimes shovel out a few posts that were probably better left unpublished or at least re-written. It’s a quality over quantity thing.
I have no doubt that my blog will evolve over the year. As interests enter my life and things change, I’m sure the layout, frequency, and topic of posts will change. I’m okay with this. I just think I may wait till later in the year when I need a bump to write more consistently to commit to 100 Days to Offload.
I am slowly working on a proper Links page for this blog to share all the great blogs that I follow on a daily basis.
Season three of Star Trek Discovery is now over and I really enjoyed the ride. I felt the first half of the season was stronger and some of the plotlines got a little muddled, but I loved the tone of this season and there were some truly great moments. The show closed out with a quote by Gene Roddenberry (creator of Star Trek):
“In a very real sense, we are all aliens on a strange planet. We spend most of our lives reaching out and trying to communicate. If during our whole lifetime, we could reach out and really communicate with just two people, we are indeed very fortunate.”
“Mr. Roddenberry makes a very good point and I am thankful I have several people in my life that I can really communicate with: my wife, Jimmy, Michael, Matt, Alex.
I’m bummed that we do not have any real dates for whatever Star Trek is next (Lower Decks season two maybe?), but a new Picard tie-in book was released last week that follows Riker and Troi’s time on the USS Titan called The Dark Veil. I’m excited to check it out once I finish some other books I’m reading.
Family Video, the last large video chain in the United States announced they are closing all locations. A mixture of COVID and a lack of new movies finally finished off the video store. I visited a Family Video about ten years ago. I was out thrift shopping when I ran across one and was shocked to find a video store open. I went inside and bought a few movies and really enjoyed the moment. For the last few years, I’ve talked about driving a few hours away to visit another Family Video but it seemed every location I wanted to visit would close down before I made it there. I planned on trying to make it last weekend, but a wintery mix came into the area that made traveling several hours a bit on the hazardous side. I may try to find some time to visit a location before they close their doors for good this upcoming weekend if I can.
For those of you who don’t know, I run a horror movie review site as well called Brandon’s Horror Review. I try to keep my blogs separate, but this week I published a post looking back at some old 90’s/early 2000’s horror sites that I found still alive on Angelfire. I have two more of these type of posts coming up in the next few months and I had a lot of fun digging into the old web to find them. I thought someone of you vintage internet fans might like to check them out.
The NFL playoffs did not go my way and I saw both the Titans and Steelers eliminated in the same day. I’m not sure how much football I’ll watch the next few weeks since I really do not have a dog in this fight.
I was out of work a few days this week while dealing with some stomach issues. I didn’t get nearly as much done as I had hoped but sometimes your body just needs a rest.
I played a little Fallout 4 and got to the point where I met the Minutemen. I remembered quickly how much I disliked Preston and decided I didn’t want to join them. So, I attempted to flee only to be attacked by a massive band of bandits and a Deathstalker. I’m not sure if the game was punishing me for not joining or what, but I attempted to weather the attack by diving in and out of a building. I survived the Bandits but somehow the Deathstalker managed to get me inside the building.
I looked up how to avoid the Minutemen and apparently it is possible, but I was a bit peeved at the cheapness death so I decided to play something else. I ended up booting up The Outer Worlds. It plays a lot like Fallout and is made by Obsidian who did Fallout New Vegas. The setting is inspired by Firefly (which I love) and I really like the storyline. What I don’t like is the confusing menus which are just not laid out in the best way. There is just too much information on too many screens. I put some effort into playing this time around and really got sucked in. I’ve managed to put in several hours and am really enjoying myself.
One of my best friends, Jimmy has started a blog titled: The Pastor Abides. He’s one of my oldest friends and an all-around great guy. Some of my favorite time blogging was back in 2008 when Jimmy and I both ran blogs at the same time. He inspired me on several occasions with his writings and I can’t wait to see what he has to say. He’s taking the laid back, write for yourself approach, which really does seem like the surefire way to enjoy blogging.
I don’t know why, but I’m excited for the reimagined Walker Texas Ranger show, Walker. It’s strange because I wasn’t a fan of the original series. I lived in Texas through some formative years in my youth and it was during that time that Walker Texas Ranger was popular. My dad watched it all the time and I would see in it passing, but I don’t know if I ever saw a complete episode. I’m intrigued by the cast, worried about the show being on the CW, and have a feeling it will turn into cheesy melodrama, but I’m excited. Next Thursday can’t come soon enough.