Month: December 2018

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Don't Laugh. I'm Sure It's Been Discussed…

At some point in the future:

Me: Picks up my phone to call a longtime friend. Punches in the number and presses the call button.

Popup on Phone: We're sorry. It seems Michael Xavier at 555-1212 is not an Apple customer and not in our database. Would you like to allow us to add him?

Me: WTF? Presses NO.

Popup on Phone: We're sorry. We cannot complete the call as dialed. Please check the number or allow Apple to add Michael to our customer database before proceeding.

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Our Dogs' Circadian Rhythms

Our dogs have always been relatively early risers, but over the last year or so it's gotten ridiculous. It started last summer when the older of the two dogs needed to go out much earlier than he had been needing. I guess that's the burden of a geriatric bladder.

In any case, their internal alarm clocks have slowly inched earlier from around 6 am (which coincided to my usual wake up time) to 5:30. I was thinking it was because it was getting light so much earlier, and hoped that things would return to normal as we headed back into the winter months.

Well, not only did that not happen, but their wake up time now averages 5 am. That's not a bad thing since I'm working again and need to be at work at 7:30. This morning (and a handful of times over the past few weeks) he was making it known that he needed to go out at 4:30. This is unacceptable, but since I didn't want him to pee on the bed (he can't jump down on his own to pee on one of the training mats), I reluctantly cast off the blanket, put on my socks, and let the both of them outside to do their business.

Unlike weekdays when they're up at 5, I did not immediately feed them breakfast when they came back in. Instead we all went back to bed and slept to a much more reasonable 8:30 am.

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Want!

When I finally get my first full paycheck (which is going to be a while because of the multitude of unpaid holidays I have to endure this time of year as a contractor) and have a bit of wiggle room, this is going to be my first splurge.

I have The Man Machine on black vinyl; in fact, it's one of the few recordings from my original collection to have survived the purge in the late 80s and remains in pristine condition, but damn…that red version is so sexy. I originally spotted it on Instagram, which in turn led me to Discogs. The pressings aren't that rare even though they seem to have been limited to distribution in France, but they aren't cheap, either.

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50 Years Ago Today

"The vast loneliness up here of the Moon is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth. The Earth from here is a grand oasis to the big vastness of space." — Apollo 8 astronaut Jim Lovell

From NASA: Fifty years ago today, this iconic "Earthrise" photo was taken aboard Apollo 8 by Bill Anders. Before humanity ventured to the Moon, our view of our home planet consisted of what we could see from horizon to horizon. It was not until this stunning photo (along with many others) came back to Earth with the three Apollo 8 astronauts in December 1968 that we saw Earth as a vibrant, delicate, blue and white globe framed by the velvety blackness of space. This iconic picture shows Earth peeking out from beyond the lunar surface as the first crewed spacecraft circumnavigated the Moon.

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Shower Thoughts

There's most likely a dimension where Freddie Mercury never died and went on to make even more amazing Queen hits that we'll never get to hear.

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Counterpart

Counterpart is a show I stumbled upon last year and immediately fell in love with. Set primarily in Berlin, this modern day (sci-fi?) spy thriller tells the story of what happens when a door opens between parallel dimensions and it's existence is kept secret from everyone except for a very select group. For every person on one side, there exists a doppelgänger on the other.

It's not one of those shows you can have on as background noise while you're doing something else or whiling away your evening online. It demands your full attention or you'll soon be lost.

Last year, coming in from the beginning it was relatively easy to follow along. Determining which side of the doorway you were on was a simple matter. The wife of the main character was hospitalized in a coma after being struck by a car on our side, but perfectly healthy and active in the other. The two Berlins were similar, although some very funky architecture existed on the other side that was easily recognizable even for someone who knew nothing about the city. The other side had tech we lack, but for some reason never developed cell phones.

It's been a while since Season One ended, so my memory is a little hazy on the espionage aspect and interwoven storylines, but that being said, I'm two episodes in this year and I'm totally lost. The wife who was hospitalized is now back home and the main character and his double both find themselves trapped on the wrong side the portal after a terror attack shut down diplomatic relations between the two worlds and closed the crossing.

European architecture has become so outré lately that city skylines alone no longer tell me which side the story is happening on.

I hope at some point the writers explain the who what when why how of the crossing. There's nothing special-effects heavy about it; it resembles an underground brick-walled corridor. You go in one end on our side and emerge on the other in their world.

I was drawn into Counterpoint because of its more than passing passing similarity to Fringe, a favorite series from years gone by.

At this point I'm so frustrated I'm thinking I need to go back and binge Season One this weekend just to get reoriented…