Read Watch Listen - SB Hopper

Unexpected Purchase

Note: This post is a few weeks old, sitting in my drafts. What the heck, I'm posting it. I'm not thrilled about the wet, cold Seattle March. In happier times, I would be. It's about this time that I start (very low-key) dreading the summer heat and smoke without air

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CB Strike

The first season of CB Strike was very good. Season may be imprecise - I think HBO got it from BBC, so the order might differ. There was a little bit of overacting here and there, unnecessary zigs and zags. But it was fun, and it reminded me of Remington

Travel

Something in the way

You say eavesdropping, I say just part of eating at the bar. I overheard a story that I loved. Three people. One of them is trying to sell her father's waterfront home. That person was fairly quiet, but a friend filled the third person in on the details and then

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It's never entirely about the apocalypse.

I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories and shows. I have a magnet on my refrigerator that says, "Sometimes I worry about zombies." It's next to the Andre the Giant magnet from the Princess Bride - anybody want a peanut? The zombie world is multi-layered. I like all the layers. Comet

Movies

Banshees (probably a repeat)

I had to watch the end of The Banshees of Inisherin again. I couldn't remember how they left things off. It's not an easy film to watch, but it's stayed with me. Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farell turn in fantastic performances, no doubt, but I think Kerry Condon steals the

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Quick post, for momentum

Well, that was a busy January of writing. Made that deadline, but there's always another. I've got 33 minutes to make an end of month - start of month combination. I forgot to add Master and Commander to yesterday's movie list. It's a wonderful movie with a fantastic score and

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Trying to beat the clock

January 2023. No one wants a it's been a while post, so I'll skip past that in hopes of getting this written before February. A wee bit of momentum, perhaps. Hope springs eternal, right? It's 2330 in Phoenix, so I'll need to keep this short if I'm to beat the

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This is going to be interesting

I didn't feel like cooking anything tonight, and I wasn't particularly hungry, but I knew I'd want something during the obnoxious booms. I took a gamble on a Simple Truth, plant-based, spicy veggie masala. I'm a bad gambler, and I think I'm about to lose. One bright spot - it's

Blog

Out damn spot...

It turns out I did sign up for Apple+. I blame (and thank) Chuck for the Severance recommendation. I am doing my best to spread the contagion. It's a great show. Tonight I started watching The Tragedy of MacBeth. I think MacBeth and Hamlet are neck and neck for the

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Odds and Ends

The finale of Severance was intense. (No Spoilers here.) I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Our main characters had a window, of unknown length, to reflect and gain awareness about their circumstances. A window that could close at any moment. Some of their actions confused

Blog

This interview is not over

I wouldn't say I'm particularly interested in vampires. I like vampire stories, but in the same way that I like any good story. And Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire was a good story, about Vampires. I vaguely remember the film and reading the sequels. I was more interested in

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A little catch up

I'm striking out on getting a COVID booster. A perfect storm of demand, staffing shortages, and glitchy websites. I've spent a lot of time walking to local pharmacies. It's not pleasant. The pharmacy workers across the board seem exhausted and stressed. I missed my only real chance in the past

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Just for the halibut (trust me, there will be a rolling of the eyes)

I'm eating too much and exercising...let's call it infrequently. I know it's winter, and PNW winters encourage big bowls of soup and stew mopped up with bread. Mmmm, bread and soup. But this is getting out of hand. The belt buckle never lies. So it was probably a really

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Plans

I know I can be a downer sometimes. I blame some of it on the medium. I think if we were sitting down having an actual conversation, it would come across more as questioning and searching rather than the sky is falling. Even though the sky is falling. I'm going

Photography

It's been a while

Well, I sure dropped out of sight for a while. I think the pandemic and a lot of other depressing news caught up to me. I just wasn't excited about anything. The dark days and near constant rains of early November sure didn't help. Shook up the routine a bit,

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The Irish were born for leaving...

...otherwise the world would have no pubs. It's a line in the trailer for Belfast [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIrOIrt30kE], and I might have misquoted it. The movie looks fantastic, and I can't wait to see it. Black and white, incredible actors, and fantastic music. At least two

Blog

Never give your parents grief

It's a pretty solid rain right now in Seattle. We're very close to the I'm always cold season. It doesn't matter how many layers one wears...always a little cold. I'm not complaing, at least not entirely. I can't abide excessive heat, and I believe all of us will be

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An Unreliable Narrator

I have been out with friends a few times the past week or two, and inevitably portions of the discussions involved COVID. I've started describing my experience with a breakthrough case as no big deal. After all, I thought my initial negative tests put me in the clear, and I'm

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Here comes the rain again

It was a dark, windy, and rainy night. Sounds like we're going to get drenched here in the Pacific Northwest. Stay safe everyone! Let's hope it helps with western wildfires. I thought this was a pretty cool description from the National Weather Service [https://www.weather.gov]: > Given that this

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Carthage Must Be Destroyed

Carthāgō dēlenda est. ~ Cato (via Wikipedia) The sirens beckon. I am lost in the ancient world. A re-discovery of sorts. I spent the last 6 years or so not wanting to think too much about the Middle East. I'd had enough, for a lot of reasons. Looking back I think

On the Streets

Half of what you see, none of what you hear

Today was a good day, yesterday was pretty lousy. Let's start with the lousy. It started off ok. The building manager and the gas meter inspector folks were coming round. You know what that meant - stuffing everything into a closet. I'm exaggerating, a little. (TB - I always imagine

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Maybe a bad idea (I'm full of them)

Charles Mudede is a fantastic writer, economist, film-maker...how do people get so talented at so many things. He has an article in The Stranger about climate change [https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2021/09/02/60958535/floods-and-wildfires-show-that-climate-change-is-to-the-us-what-world-war-was-to-the-uk] that made a lot of sense to me, things I've been thinking

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Don't forget the good

Muddling along in the meh zone. I'm not feeling awesome, but I'm not feeling terrible, either. If things continue like this for a few more days, I'll be grateful. It helps having friends and family who check in on you. Instant morale boost. A friend dropped off sushi, miso soup,

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The White Lotus

I blazed through HBO's The White Lotus. It's a very dark comedy set in Hawaii. I enjoyed it, but it gets dark fast. I have some complaints, but I don't want to ruin anything. I thought the acting was great. If you've seen it, this may sound weird - it

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Off the Road

I've finally finished Kerouac's On the Road [https://bookshop.org/a/24136/9780140042597]. I'm glad I revisited it, and I'm glad I'm done with it. My copy is an underlined mess. I'll probably just hold onto it now until I throw it out. I think anyone else trying to read