457 thoughts on “Take my time

  1. “This is for the ones who stood their ground
    For Tommy and Gina who never backed down
    Tomorrow’s getting harder make no mistake
    Luck ain’t even lucky
    Got to make your own breaks”

  2. Technically spring break starts next week. Hubby fully expects to put in some hours. He is bringing home his work computer though, hoping most of what needs to be done can be done from home.

  3. Well since I cannot go to the cinema for at least a month I splashed on Disney+

    Hopefully the animated Aladdin can be the first film I get to watch on the service.

  4. So here I am.
    I can report that in the Destin, Florida area, they would seem to have clamped down on the madness by closing the beaches.
    So far it seems to be pretty effective.
    I can see for a mile or so up and down the beach and I count about 20 people. Largest group I see is 4, most are couples or singles walking.
    Really easy to social distance on an empty beach.
    Of course it is a cool overcast morning, so that might change.

    I guess I will spend the day trying to get my inbox to zero.

      • They are shutting down roads that lead to the beaches in some cases. Although I’m not sure how that would work in a case like Cocoa Beach where the road is a main street chock full of businesses. Florida Governor also just ordered all restaurants closed except for take out and all gyms closed.

      • Yeh. So the drive up and down the beach and the story is you have to be out of the water and off any “wet” sand as that is public area and closed by the county sheriff’s department.

        That was today at least.

        Most food can still be purchased at grocery stores … no TP, moist wipes or tissue paper to be found.

  5. Crap joke for the day:

    Well I finally lost it!!!!
    I was just in CVS and saw a guy whose cart was FULL to the brim with hand sanitizers, baby wipes, soap, toilet paper, everything people need right now!! I called him selfish and a few other names and gave him the low down about the elderly, moms, and everyone else who need these things. I told him he should be ashamed of himself! He said: “Are you done? I really need to get back to restocking the shelves!!”

  6. So we’re a bunch of episodes into season 1 of the Clone Wars TV series.

    A little childish sometimes, but definitely action-packed, and it’s loaded with wonderful Star Wars moments. The youngest seems intrigued, the teenager was a little resistant, but she’s being won over (I think).

    My biggest struggle with it: the battledroids “comic relief” moments are always always always painful. And speaking of painful comic relief, the next episode is called “Bombad Jedi.” I have a bad feeling about this.

  7. Crossposting here and in the Facebook group:

    Several of us in the Dog Days of Podcasting challenge community have decided to do a sort of “bonus round” of the 30-day podcasting challenge to keep ourselves sane during this time. Subscribe to the master feed at dogdaysofpodcasting.com (it’s also on podcast directories), or just my episodes at my website (my name is a link to it; my personal master feed and the one just for Amy Talks About Stuff still aren’t on any directories, mostly because I’ve been too lazy to get art done for them).

  8. Speaking of. . . this situation has got the trump trolls very amped up. As I said, I felt compelled to comment on a FB post of Tiffany’s – – not to argue with anyone, just to assert some sanity against “he’s still your president” stupidity.

    An other troll attempted (unsuccessfully) to goad me for my Nazi Germany correlation on this DOJ news item.

    I was told offline by another person (who I do like) that this is all just the CDC blowing things out of proportion because no one listens to them anymore.

  9. Went grocery shopping today. I was confused by some of the items that were sold out. Like margarine. Seriously, why do we need to stock up on that?
    But, on the up side, there were mushrooms available this week, unlike last.

  10. JW – Only Yesterday

    Another Studio Ghibli film watched, one I had not seen before.

    A 27 year old woman takes a trip out to the country on a working holiday and reflects on her childhood. A film best described as pleasant.

  11. Hubby just set up our D&D group to be on line so we can still play in two weeks but be the good people and not be physically together.
    The funny thing is it uses the Grabatar so my bloody bunny is also my personal avatar. (not my character avatar which uses a pic of my Tiefling)

  12. Crap joke for the day:

    “What do you do for a living?”

    Me. “I’m a spy”

    “Why are you dressed as a shepherd?”

    Me. “I’m a shepherd spy”

  13. Crap joke for the day:

    **TAXI DRIVER** ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    An old couple is in a taxi in America.
    The taxi driver says “So which part of England are you folks from?”
    The old man replies “From Yorkshire”
    The old lady says “What did he say?”
    The old man says “He asked which part of England we are from and I said Yorkshire”
    The taxi driver says “I’ve been to Yorkshire once. I stayed with an old couple. The woman was horrible, a right bitch, it put me off going to England forever.”
    The old lady says “What did he say?”
    The old man says “I think the driver knows you!”

        • I post this here because you filthy animals will keep the discourse civil. I wouldn’t post it within shouting distance of any MAGA cultists. I admit ignorance about the particulars of the Senate relief bill, but here’s Robert Reich’s take:

          “The disastrous Senate GOP bill:

          — Creates a $500,000,000,000 slush fund for corporations that *only* Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has control over
          — Doesn’t require reporting of recipients for six months
          — Provides no guarantee that Trump’s own businesses won’t benefit
          — Has no worker protections and only one weak restriction on executive bonuses
          — Provides only a one-time $1200 check and just $600 for those who need it most”

          Is he misrepresenting facts or leaving anything out?

          • He goes on to say:
            “Instead of a $500 billion blank check to corporations, here’s what should be in the Senate bill:

            — $2000 every two weeks to every adult for at least two months
            — Universal unemployment insurance, with checks sent to *everyone* as early as next week
            — Subsidize the states so they can get the unemployment checks out immediately
            — Expanded Medicaid so that anybody who needs to go to the hospital is covered
            — Money to help hospitals buy masks, ICUs, and ventilators

            Don’t believe anybody who says this is complicated. Bail out people, not corporations.”

          • There is simply no reason to believe that a large percentage of that money wouldn’t end up in trump’s pockets.
            Why wouldn’t it? He has been laughing in the face of every regulation and law that says the President can’t profit off his office … now there will be a giant pile of cash with NO laws governing how it gets spent and NO public accounting. trump of 4 years ago would have publicly stated you’d have to be stupid not to take advantage of that.

            Add that to HIS DOJ quietly asking for the power to have THEIR federal judges order anyone they choose, locked up indefinitely without a trail … this is all quickly coming to an end. One way or another, something is about to end.

  14. I was going to work on that inbox issue … but instead, I read that comic book movie list.
    Researched some of the films.
    Got lost down some rabbit holes and am now having some lunch.

  15. Today I started American Horror Story. Until recently, we haven’t been able to get it. I think I have a bajillion seasons to catch up on.

  16. Venom isn’t any better on the 2nd viewing. But it’s still awesomely goofy B-movie schlock. I still recommend you make yourself sit through it at least once.

  17. Darn, our website hosting service seems to be down. Doesn’t affect the website, I just can’t go in and make changes this morning.

    • I’ve watched a ton of Star Wars stuff, but never got into Clone Wars (other than the quick set of episodes done by Genndy Tartokovsky). People that tell me they like it tend to be watching it with their kids. I’m curious if it’s something I should check out with no kids around to watch it with. Is it descent for adults well? The quick bits I’ve seen seem more aimed at kids than the movies.

  18. Last nights film was “Scott Pilgram vs The World.”
    My first viewing.

    It is the sort of quirky film I really like …but I just couldn’t warm to it. Don’t know why. Could be that the lead guy just bugs me too much. He’s just not good.

  19. JW: Stargirl

    Coming of age teen drama that left me disappointed that they explained her gmail of knowing things.

    Oh and that she wasn’t an alien.

    You can tell I wasn’t the target audience can’t you?

    Still I enjoyed it.

    This is the movie on Disney+ and not the CW tv series.

  20. So The Black Hole is on Disney+ and I love that they included the overture that played before the film started in the cinema back in 1979.

    I mean there was a second I thought my TV was broke as I could only hear the audio…

    • This week I’ve mostly been playing the remastered Second Spyro game and Shadow of Colossus.

      In the latter game I’m destroying a colossus a day to stretch the game out.

  21. Times are hitting the daughter the hardest in the family. Not only is prom cancelled as is most likely graduation, but the national drum corps she was awarded a position in and was going to tour the country with in June has also been cancelled. While im the grand scheme of life this is not the worst that could ever happen, understand your teens. Get where they are coming from. “Oh it’s no big deal” isn’t appropriate to tell them. Because it is a big deal.

    • Agreed x10000%

      Teens are dealing with a hell of a lot right now. Sometimes we can’t actually get where they’re coming from, so we need to just acknowledge that this is really, really hard for them to accept. Parents need to just be there and supportive.

      I certainly hope no one is telling your teen that kind of bullshit.

    • LoPan- which drum corp?! What exciting news for her to be accepted. I am so sorry about all of the important milestones that she is missing. 🙁

    • We are going thru similar here.
      Just found out yesterday that the rest of the year will be all teleclassroom.
      No Sr. Prom. No graduation ceremony. No Band awards dinner with its Sr. Skit, no any of the stuff your life has been leading up to at this point. Today mine will probably learn that her very long shot hope of getting into the very hard to get into college she really really wants, has been crushed. Tough under normal circumstances.

      I saw the notice yesterday about the Drum Corps summer tour being canceled. That really sucks for your daughter but tell her you have friends that will ALWAYS be impressed that she made a corps! I know Pixie is a big fan as well.

  22. https://www.montreuxjazzfestival.com/en/50-concerts-to-stream/

    Apparently you can get free access for a limited time to a bunch of concert recordings from over the years.

    “Montreux Jazz Festival would like to bring a little magic into your home! We have made over 50 Festival concerts available to stream for free, including performances by Ray Charles, Wu-Tang Clan, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Deep Purple, Carlos Santana, and more. We hope that a little music and soul will brighten up your day!”

  23. Morning Pan
    I think hubby is going a little stir crazy. He’s not use to being home so much. We went and did a tiny bit of grocery shopping just so he could get out of the house.

  24. Last nights movie was “Shutter Island”.
    What were we thinking?

    It had Good performances, sure but not exactly up lifting.

    • This could have been faked. I’m still not convinced that he truly exists. 😉

      – – – Oh, and Van’s testimony is dubious, at best. His word also isn’t proof.

      • Well that person on the right looked like the person I saw unless he was a replicant..

        I’m always bemused by fans of Liverpool FC who live so far away geographically from the UK that they have very little chance of going to an actual match.

    • Well, I wish he didnt use the term, “sterile technique.” His sterile technique was mediocre. She shouldve not used the clorox-soaked poer towel over and over again.

      I appreciate the message he was saying. I had not yet heard about the new cdc info, saying that coronavirus was found on surfaces 17 days later. Hard to say if that is true or not, without a control study.

      We all just need to do the best we can.

    • I marvel at the wonder and splendor of the microscopic world, while being vehemently opposed to the underlying concept of the film in “exploring the tight link between the microscopic world and immensity of the universe”. The concept that what we visually see in the microscopic world is linked to the what we see in photographs of the vastness of the cosmos comes off childish and lacking in scientific perspective. But, again, the video is awesome in and of itself.

  25. Watched the first episode of Vagrant Queen (new space opera from SyFy). The first episode didn’t hook me, not sure if I will watch any more episodes.

  26. How the fuck does Netflix have The Two fucking Towers and Return of the fucking King but not the fucking Fellowship of the fucking Ring??

  27. So this pause in the world has resulted in me having now read two books in 4 days.
    Novels really and one was just frothy “beach pulp”. Found them in the place I am staying.
    Embarrassing to admit … but while I listen to quite a bit of short fiction, audio …I probably haven’t read a book in two years.

      • Probably not.
        Something called “Seven Up” by Janet Evanovich – story about a hard talking, not so tough woman working as a bail bondsmen in her New Jersey community. Hit pretty much every “Jersey Mob” cliche’ available. More humor than drama.

        And “UnNatural Acts” by Stuart Woods.
        Not sure what genre to put this one in. Follow multiple characters and their own plots in NYC until they resolve at the end. Financial advisors, computer startup genus, lawyers, cops, cops turned detectives, Sexy FBI agent turned serial killer, sociopathic trust fund kid … and and it seems like everyone is a millionaire except for the billionaire with the drug dealing son at Yale.

        Just stuff to read when you don’t want to think too much.

  28. Man: ”Bartender Quick give me a drink before the fight”

    Man: “quick, another before the fight starts”

    Bartender: “ok ok… wait… What fight?”

    Man: “The fight between you and me. I can’t afford to pay you for these drinks”

  29. Mangan TV update:

    We finished ST: Disco season 2. Excellent. As soon as Spock appeared, it improved drastically.

    Still doing 1 ep of Clone Wars per night.

    We started Watchmen tonight. First ep was strong. They need to explain Nite Oel’s ship.

        • It won’t mean the show is bad if they never explain why Nite Owl’s ship was there in episode 1. . . . It would just bug me if they dropped in a major vehicle if for no other reason than to say “Look, it’s Watchmen!”

          • It’s a slightly better explanation than that, though there are other things not explained. I didn’t mind much since the story that was told was fantastic.

            TBH, I had a lot of trepidation going into this because of Lindelof connection to Lost. I think the writer’s room kept him on a good path.

          • Ditto, did you join our Leftovers discussion a few months back?

            That show was also Lindelof. It was plenty bonkers, but brilliant.

    • Wow is that a tiny list. Out of our 286 games (including expansions) there are very few you can’t play with just two players.

  30. Lost in the haze of all the Covid-19 news, there is a good chance that the comet Atlas may be a more dramatic appearance that Hale-Bopp sometime in late April, early May.

    • Well, he stayed up until 6am, slept until a bit after noon, then played games online with his friends – so, best. birthday. ever.

      Since we’re on “home school” without specific class times, we made him a deal that he worked ahead some over the weekend so he could “skip” school for his birthday.

      My son was pretty much born to be quarantined 🙂

  31. So watched Thor last night, Chris Hemsworth looks so young.

    After the lows of Ironman 2 this was a definite step up in quality.

  32. Well, looks like I won’t be working this week. If you didn’t see my Facebook post, I’m out of a day job, as of today.

    I will not talk shit on Facebook, but since this page is relatively private, I will say: it was always a shit company. I was very unhappy there last year. They’d moved me to a decent team in January, so I was OK with my situation, but even then – – one of my co-workers had called it “moving the deck chairs on the Titanic.” I knew that I would eventually move on from this company, but I’d intended to do it on my own terms. This is crap.

  33. Watched the first episode of ‘Tales from the Loop’
    On Amazon Prime.

    Not too bad, don’t think we are are going to much answers with this tv series, but thoughtful sci-fi is a rare beast so I will watch more episodes.

    • The company I work for is asking for a government bailout so maybe in that situation very soon if that doesn’t happen.

      • Hubby had the opposite. Because he works in education, the government is cutting funding on all staff that aren’t a direct part of the new on line learning program. That means secretaries, ESL, Librarians, etc.

  34. The first season of Clone Wars has been enjoyable so far. Well, except for Bombad Jedi. That was every bit as horrible as I expected.

    • We’re not quite finished with the season, but yeah, there are a few Gungan appearances. Every moment they’re onscreen is terrible. And TBH, the battle-droids are almost as painful with their “comic relief.”

      Those 2 complaints aside, there are many wonderful Star Wars moments. I’m also digging it.

    • Oh, it will get swept under the rug, just like the rest of the atrocities against children, LGBTQ citizens, the media, science. . . .
      We’re too goddamn complacent and pacified.
      That includes me, btw.

  35. CW: The Spaceman and King Arthur on Disney +

    The last time I saw this film was in the 70s.

    It’s not called that on Disney+ though, it known by the silly US name which I cannot Bring myself to state.

      • King Arthur is played by Kenneth More, an actress who my Dad knew claimed he was a bit too hands on with young women actors.

    • And here I’d thought you were talking about “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.”

      I’m not familiar with “Unidentified Flying Oddball” (ugh, you’re right about that title), which is surprising, because we watched “World of Disney” on ABC every Sunday night without fail, back in the late 70s/early 80s.

  36. Merlin is evil and played By Ron Moody of Fagan fame and also the from the Indy rip off tv series with the actor who played Decker in ST:TMP

  37. Hubby decided he was doing the grocery shopping this morning. It will be interesting to see what he comes home with, despite the list I gave him

    • I try to never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever click articles from The National Review. I’m not anti-Conservative – – not by a long shot, but they *almost* make foxnews look fair and balanced.

      No offense, Van. I know you were just posting an interesting take on “Foundations.”

  38. So apparently, if you tell Alexa to “Play Dungeon Adventure,” it runs a RPG-type game.

    I don’t know the mechanics or if it’s any good, because after setting up the scenario, when Alexa said, “Do you want to save the village?” elder daughter said, “No.”

  39. So Halo: The Master Chief Collection was on sale on Steam so I bought it.

    So far only the first game and Reach have been released (other games in the series coming out later).

    But man, that first game is still a class act, looking forward to playing through it all over again.

    • HALO never really hooked me the way Half-Life did. I’m sure part of the reason was I was playing HALO on consoles and the mouse/keyboard combination is superior on the PC for first-person shooters.

      • I actually prefer the Xbox controller for playing FPS on a PC and will be playing Halo that way.

        Much as I love the Half Life games, throwing grenades was always a pain in the ass compared to Halo.

  40. Morning Pan
    I have a question for work. It may seem silly but, who is your favourite Hollywood Chris (or Kris)?
    It can be male or female, living or dead. I have a list of some of them if you want, but I don’t want to limit your choices.

  41. Crap joke for the day:

    A blonde teenager, wanting to earn some extra money for the summer, decided to hire herself out as a “handy-woman”

    She started canvassing a nearby well-to-do neighborhood. She went to the front door of the first house, and asked the owner if he had any odd jobs for her to do.

    “Well, I guess I could use somebody to paint my porch,” he said, “How much will you charge me?”

    Delighted, the girl quickly responded, “How about $50?”

    The man agreed and told her that the paint brushes and everything she would need was in the garage.

    The man’s wife, hearing the conversation said to her husband, “Does she realize that our porch goes ALL the way around the house?”

    He responded, “That’s a bit cynical, isn’t it?”

    The wife replied, “You’re right. I guess I’m starting to believe all those dumb blonde jokes we’ve been getting by email lately.”

    Later that day, the blonde teenager came to the door to collect her money.
    “You’re finished already?” the startled husband asked.

    “Yes, she replied, and I even had paint left over, so I gave it two coats.”

    Impressed, the man reached into his pocket for the $50.00 and handed it to her along with a $10.00 tip.

    “And, by the way,” the teenager added, “it’s not a Porch, it’s a Lexus.”

  42. The times are crazy.
    Hubby isn’t feeling right, (not covid-19, more like he’s getting old), so he called to make an appointment with the doctor. The doctor will call him today and do a telephone consultation and then determine if hubby should come in. That’s never happen before.

    On a hubby is silly note, when he left for work today, he kissed me on the cheek instead of a normal kiss. I told him he was silly because what he has I can’t get. He just shrugged.

    • I rewatched it in the last 12 months and found I had a better appreciation for it’s “all over the place, gonzo appocolypse-ness”

  43. … and,
    Just received an automated, robotic message from the high school that said in essence, “Congratulations, your student has met the requirements for graduation. So long.”
    12 years of working hard to get all A’s and top marks in AP courses and it ends in a robo call.

    Nobody likes those “hours long” graduation ceremonies … so why does this feel so heart breaking? 🙁

    • Cultural differences, didn’t do graduation ceremonies when I was at school. It was goodbye and you’ll get your exam results in the post.

      • That sucks Joe. My own teen is disappointed that she can wear the dress she bought specifically for prom this year. Although I am hopeful that her high school graduation ceremony will happen next year. Teens have had it pretty rough. 🙁

    • I enjoyed Dickinson, The Servant and For All Mankind.

      Was nice to see ED portrayed as a young person although don’t expect historical accuracy.

      The Servant was really creepy, a slow build up to the conclusion.

      I’m a sucker for an alternative history space program and For All Mankind was great. Seeing how the different timeline plays out, the women getting into the space program and NASA having a moonbase..all good.

    • Along these lines – – It’s bizarre that the late Lemmy Kilmeister (of Motorhead and giant face moles) used to love to wear Nazi SS uniforms. When people would say “WTF!?” he’d reply, “I know the Nazis were terrible. They’re the just the sharpest. If the Israeli army had the sharpest uniforms, I’d wear theirs.” I never understood why he got a pass about that, but he absolutely did.

      It’s just weird. Not many people could get away with such insensitivity, yet still be so widely loved and revered. I guess people just went, “Ahhh, that’s just Lemmy.”

  44. I do have an exciting new unpaid writing gig. I’ll announce more details this upcoming week.

    It’s only tangentially related to Am I Evil? – – which is also gonna be mad busy for me this week.

  45. Happy Yuri Day to you all.

    Watch Lilo and Stitch yesterday after a blow up on Twitter about someone hating the film.

    Enjoyed it.

  46. Btw, we watched The Dark Knight Rises this evening, completing the Christian Bale Batman’s. A much better movie than I’d remembered.

    Tom Hardy and the film really make Bane into a great villain. And that Marion Cotillard is nice to look at.

  47. Morning Pan
    Watched the new Cats. Live last night. It was interesting. It wasn’t bad, but it was definitely … off. I don’t think it was (just) the CGI. I actually thought the ears were quite cute. The added music as ok. The Added McCavity storyline was, ok. But combined, it didn’t work in some … intangible way.

    I still have this version on DVD, which I quite enjoy so I may have to watch it again to see if I can figure out what made the new one wrong.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0173714/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

  48. Speaking of anthropomorphized fuzzy creatures, it was a low-key but happy visit from the Easter Bunny. We – – I mean he – – had to hide more eggs after the first egg hunt was done.

  49. I stumbled across “Love, Death and Robots” on Netflix. A bunch of animated shorts.
    I like it. Some stories more than others but over all I like it.

      • If you’re looking for a NetFlix show to binge, we also liked Better Than Us when it came out. It wasn’t what you’d expect from a Russian show

        • I’ll have to give it a look.
          I am also finally watching the 2nd season of Altered Carbon. Pretty much more of the same the first season gave us. Which is ok by me because I liked the first season.

          Also, continuing to work my way through “The Expanse”.

          • The Expanse = great TV.

            I liked a bunch of the Love, Death, and Robots episodes quite a bit. My main complaint was that it got very juvenile. As in, teenagers ramping up the animated boobies, cursing, and gore to ridiculous levels.

  50. Pandemic life:

    Last night I spent three hours guiding Wander around the world of Shadow of the Colossus praying at every shrine just so I could earn a trophy for completing that.

    • Right now I’m going to spend hours killing people that I think shouldn’t really be killed because, I feel, my character is in the wrong, even if he’s suppose to be the good guy

      CP: Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order

  51. JW: From Up On Poppy Hill

    A Studio Ghibli film I had not seen before. No genre elements but the story was slight but charming.

  52. Work day is done!
    I’m afraid of how much has piled up and what I will need to do once I can actually get physical paperwork from my boss

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