Appreciator

Hi all,

Being a critic is important, and necessary, I just don't have it in me.  I like most things, and things I don't like, I find it difficult to say why.

I like talking about things that I like, praise where praise is due, and all that.  Most of my praise belongs with my better half, but here are some other things that I like - I did a series about each individual thing, which I may resurrect, but here is a list of stuff I like, with a brief blurb:

Media - I had a previous post about media box, which is true, I spent a lot of mental resources on maintaining a media box.  Through my entire life, I have spent a huge fraction of my resources on the obtaining, planning of obtaining, and consuming,

Board games - Still awesome.  I agree with some of these points (Board Games criticisms), but overall they're great. My favourites are space games, but I like them all.  Even when I think I won't like the game because the theme is silly (I'm looking at you Viticulture), I end up loving the game.

Parenting - my family is awesome, and I think that this is 80% due to their own brand of awesomeness individually, and 20% parenting (15% Heather and 5% me). I love spending time with them, and my pride of them knows no bounds.

There's more things that I love, many more, but I'm interested - what do you love?

Things that were recommended to me that I'm now recommending to you - Podcasts

 Hi all,

I know that Podcasts aren't new - they are quite old, but my enjoyment of them is new.

For years, I've been listening to Audiobooks - I love them when I'm driving, and I still listen to them always while driving.  My tastes have changed a bit, I still like authors reading, but my favourite now, is an autobiographical book.  I don't mind the sci-fi genre, I love it, but maybe I did too much of a good thing, and now it's taken a back seat to auto-biographical.  I thought I could do biographies, but I found myself thinking "Would they say the same thing" a lot. It took me out of the story.

A similar disassociation is something that happens while driving (because the priority is safety), and I'm cool with it.  When my friends brought up Podcasts, I wasn't on board, but I should have been.

Smartless - This was recommended to me several times by an awesome family, and I don't remember their initial pitches, but I remember the latest (more than a year ago) pitch, giving me the synopsis of how awesome it was, and they were right.  It's awesome.  The elevator pitch is there are 3 hosts (Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett), and they are all friends. One of them brings a surprise guest to their conversation, but the other two don't know who the guest will be, so there's no time to prepare.  They talk about stuff for a while, each episode is about an hour.   The highlight is the friend love between these three - yes they tease, they bicker, they annoy each other, but you can tell they love each other, and they SAY they love each other, and express real emotions.  They started during lockdown when they just wanted to be connected to each other, and they're continuing to this day (this week's episode was the awesome Kate MacKinnon.

 

Dice Tower Podcast - I would spend many waking moments watching Dice Tower's videos (My favourite were their top 10s), and their podcast allows me to listen while doing other things!  LOVE!

Handsome - My wife was listening to the handsome pod, and said how funny it was, and how awesome it was, but I was clueless and let it slide for too long.  She recommended that I start listening, and it's been amazing.  Thank you so much!  The 3 hosts are Tig Notaro, Mae Martin, and Fortune Feimster (I always have to look up how to spell Fortune's last name) they love each other's company so much, the premise really doesn't matter, but it occurs.  A famous person is asked to ask the pod a question, and they are supposed to answer it also. The format has evolved so much (for the better) including questions from listeners.  Their banter about gender politics, and everything, is so refreshing and hopeful. I enjoy it a lot, and thank Heather for showing me how awesome it was.

Good Hang - Amy Poehler is a delight. I've listened to her auto-biography Yes, Please 3 times, and each time is emotional and awesome.  While listening to Smartless, I often would think about Will and Amy's relationship, and that I didn't know much about it.  I knew that they were married, and had 2 kids, and then they weren't married.  I assumed that Will did something bad, and Amy said in her auto-bio that she didn't want to talk about it, because it was sad. I read some stuff, and have come to the conclusion that I still don't know much about it. Amy's podcast is awesome. It started recently-ish, so I was able to get caught up pretty quickly.  A synopsis is that she has a guest, and before the guest comes on, she has someone (or plural someones) close to the guest "speak well behind their back", and propose a question that Amy ask during the main interview.  There has been a giant slant towards Parks and Rec people and topics, but I'm not mad about that, as I love Parks and Rec (I'm on my third watch of it now).

I know I'm way behind, as Podcasts have been great for a long time, and I'm just enjoying them now, but I'm still enjoying them - better late than never!

Are there any I have missed?

Diminish

 Hi all,

I highly anticipate that more will come soon, but now I want to replace my birthday with something else, as it's no longer my birthday.

Love,

Me

Today is my birthday

 Hi all,

I'm all for celebrating milestones, I think that's cool.

When it comes to my birthday, I think my Mom should be celebrated for giving birth, and my parents, friends, and family, should be celebrated for putting up with me.

That's it.

Stereotypically, people don't want to celebrate their birthday because it reminds them that they're getting old.  I think getting old is cool, and I have a reminder of that everytime I look in a mirror.

I have to do math everytime I get asked how old I am - I know I'm older than the ultimate question (42) and younger than 50, but for some reason, I don't remember anymore how old I am (47 on Sept. 15th 2025). My goal this year is to remember that for the whole year. 

I'll let you know how I did.

Love to all!

Know Better - Do Better

Hi all,

 

I have many regrets, but I'm letting myself off the hook.  I apolgize if my actions hurt you, and urge you, even though it's not your job to make me better, to know that I didn't mean to do you or your loved ones any harm, and you can tell me if you want to

I play a particular incident in my head over and over, where I was an unthinking person and said something that I shouldn't have.  That was something I knew about, and knew I was saying wrong.  Imagine all those times I am not aware of - I think there's countless occassions.

What's something that you did that you knew better later?

Gratitude

 Hi all,

My month is full of a lot of travel, which left me recently thinking about sharing some stuff in my head.

It has been a challenging few years, and the future is looking also challenging and rewarding.

I wanted to call out some people and things that I'm grateful for - in no particular order (except they are absolutely in an order that I thought about meticulously, but couldn't decide what was the best answer):

My Wife - She is awesome, she is a force of nature.  She has supported me through so many things, and I have full confidence that she will support me through so much more, and she has supported many other people through things as well - she is inspirational and awesome. I love her so much, and I am happy to get to be around her being awesome.

My Family - I previously advised that my wife is awesome, and that's absolutely true.  Because of her awesomeness, our kids are awesome too.  Our parents (4) are awesome, our extended family is awesome.

My Job - I travel a lot, and have to do things that are frustrating, but overall, I'm happy I'm helping people do what they do, and make it easier and better.  That's awesome.

My Friends - I know I've said that a lot of people are awesome, and I was telling the truth, but my friends are awesome also.  I'm very lucky that people hang around with me and put up with me.

Technology - This one is occupying a lot of space in my head, and it's mostly negative, but overall, it's super positive, and I think it's awesome, and I hope that we all agree, it's awesome.  Granted that misuse of anything can be a bad thing, and everything is better in moderation, but overall - hope is awesome, and I hope that people are using technology for awesomeness, and I think they are.  For example: using technology to cure diseases, using technology to create innovation to help us be less awful to ourselves, and others around us, is a great thing.

I think me starting this again is good for me, and I hope that it's entertaining for you - what people and things do you think are awesome, and you're grateful for?

Love