Friday Thoughts 10
While figuring out what I could do for a breakfast smoothie with ingredients on hand this morning, I learned of a neat trick for hulling strawberries: using a straw. It's very simple. Insert a straw into the base of the strawberry and poke it up to remove that little white stem thing. Makes for less waste when you're preparing them for just about anything. Awesome!
(The smoothie turned out okay! It was skyr yogurt, skim milk, strawberries, blueberries, and ice.)
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I figured out how I'm going to use my two audio devices (Android & iPod). The iPod will be my "on-the-go" device, something I can bring to the office for listening and while out walking. The Android device will be for when I'm in a more "dedicated" space, like connecting to my stereo, where size of the device is not a consideration.
I'm sure everyone was wondering what I was going to do with my device after I wrote about it.
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2026 has been a heck of a year for playoff sports in Ottawa for us. I think we attended at least 3 playoff hockey games (67s, Charge), and this will now be my 2nd Titans playoff game I've gone to this year, tonight. It's the finals tonight and the Titans have a chance to take a 2-1 series lead. I don't think I'm keeping score tonight but haven't decided; either way will be bringing my Titans pen.
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My pocket notebook system is working well. I think it will be better when I switch back to a bullet journal next year, but it's been handy so far. Will also be bringing that to tonight's game.
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I bought Brigitte Calls Me Baby's latest album, Irreversible, from Bandcamp last night. There were the usual three options: digital only; vinyl LP; or CD. The physical options weren't appealing, since I would have to pay for the item AND shipping in USD. I changed gears, deciding to try to find the LP in store in the city and then buy the digital copy. The total cost would work out to be a little less than paying for the LP + shipping in USD on Bandcamp, and I'd be supporting the band twice.
Unfortunately I could not find the album in either vinyl OR CD format at the record store I stopped at1 so I opted to buy the CD from Bandcamp. The CD & digital copy was only $2 more than digital-only, and with shipping I estimate I spent about the same amount that I would have if I went with my original plan of in-store Vinyl + digital.
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The weather is finally turning cold and I'm here for it. As much as it is "freeing" to wear shorts, sandals, etc. I also love wearing sweaters and keeping warm. It's a lot easier to layer-up than it is to stay cool.
I think Fall is my favourite time of year. There are still days when it's comfortable to go out without multiple layers (our wedding 4 years ago was one of the warmest days in September, despite it being rainy and windy the day before), but the evenings cool down and you can leave the windows open and keep the air conditioners off.
I also think I have more options for dressing nicely at work, because it's easier to stay at a comfortable temperature. My Fall & Winter clothes look nicer in general.
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I haven't written any posts for these but here are some things I watched recently:
The Prisoner: "Arrival" I've known about this show for a long time, and intended to watch it, but never got around to it. I recently heard a podcast where Wil Wheaton talked with John Moe about the show, and it rekindled my interest in watching it. It's available on Tubi in Canada so I jumped on it.
My gosh, what a trippy episode. The editing is very weird and I'm 100% certain it's meant to disorient the viewer. After all, Number 6 is disoriented himself and doesn't understand The Village and what he's doing there. My main experience with The Prisoner is via the ReBoot season 3 episode, "Number One", which is a direct parody of The Prisoner. It's so neat to see how much was pulled from this episode alone. I enjoyed it but it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea.
I started episode two ("The Chimes of Big Ben") but haven't finished. I made the mistake of starting it later at night when I was very tired.
There are a lot of things clearly inspired by The Prisoner. The Truman Show draws a lot from it in my eyes (the control room), but unexpectedly The Village reminds me of The Good Place.
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I also watched X-Files three-part episode arc that starts with S2E25 "Anasazi" and continues with S3E1 & E2, "The Blessing Way" and "Paper Clip". If you watch each episode individually they don't hold up very well, but as a "trilogy" it's very well-constructed. I particularly enjoyed how "The Blessing Way" ended with Scully & Skinner facing off against each other at gun point. The direction and editing of that scene was very well done.
After those three episodes I went to "D.P.O.", a monster-of-the-week episode that is very much a standalone episode (with a passing reference to the previous 3 episodes). This one was OK but I was mostly surprised by an appearance by Jack Black. That was neat.
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Last thought: Check out Brandon's review of Family Matters Halloween episodes. I admittedly skip a lot of his Halloween entries because a lot of them are about horror movies, and that's not my bag, but Halloween sitcom specials always grab my attention. I didn't realize that A) there were so few Family Matters Halloween episodes, and B) they did a Dog Day Afternoon parody as their first one.
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I could have gone searching other stores, but I didn't really want to spend that kind of energy. I also could have waited until another time to purchase a physical copy, but I didn't want to do that either.↩