Shenanigans

 

Blogger just gets suckier and suckier. Did I tell you about something that started like six months ago: When I first log in and start a new post, and try to upload a pic--it ALWAYS says that I must accept cookies to do so. (even though I've accepted them 1000 times)

Next screen always says that I can't accept cookies and do I want to learn more? I have to repeat this cycle a couple times before, inexplicably, I can suddenly upload a picture.

ANNOYING

Anyway, today I was like--hey, haven't checked Bellware's blog in a while, cuz he'd been sporadic about updating, and lo and behold, there are posts. I read the first--sorta looks like it's his birthday. So I type a reply and hit POST.

 This is what I get:

 

Over and over again. Can't post, no reason why. I don't see a captcha, even when I maximize the post window. Who knows, but there's what I was gonna say...

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Started watching a show I'd heard of for a while, Euphoria. I'd heard The Sween was in it, and got naked, so obviously that's interesting to me. 

But it's a pretty dark, dark show. Like the TV version of the movie Kids, if you remember that. It makes me think, "If this is what kids are like nowadays, yeah, no wonder this country is fucked."

Well written, I'll say that. I finished season one, but am not in a giant hurry to dive into season two yet.

Might have to rewatch Ted Lasso again or something, just to counteract the other show's negativity lol.

Also, doesn't seem like my little adult-warning did anything to the views--they look about the same...

 

 

 

 

Let's See What This Does

 

I'm seriously considering taking this blog private. As I've mentioned before, I'm not sure who's reading it any more and it's averaging like 400-900 views a day.

I never really wanted this thing to go widespread. It's mostly just for me, and a couple of my friends who might be interested to see what's up with me.

And I'm not sure whether google's settings even work, because there's a check mark for making it so that search engines can find your blog, and that's been turned off for years. Yet, if you do a search for this blog under its name, you'll find it.

So I can make it private, in which case you'd have to submit your email to read it. (just the once, then you'd be able to read it every day as usual)

But what I did, for now, is to make the site Adult Only, so that anyone wanting to read it has to check a box and be logged in in order to see it. 

Guess we'll see if that does anything to bring those numbers down. If not, get ready for it to go private. 

Saw the FF movie. It was okay. Certainly didn't love it like everybody else did. Couple of things that bugged me--and don't read this if you haven't seen the movie, though I don't think there's any BIG spoilers in there.

1) Cool shot of Silver Surfer first arriving with like thousands of asteroids flying down toward Earth that...disappear? Did they land? Not as far as I know... 

2) They go invisible in their jet to enter Galactus' ship but the Silver Surfer has no problem finding them and entering their jet. But later when they escape, they use invisibility to get away from her? Huh?

3) Galactus' ship clearly can move very fast. Yet it blasts super fast into our galaxy, but then conveniently goes VERY slow past all the planets in our galaxy to give time for movie suspense...

4) Why did Galactus get out of his ship to come to Earth? Didn't do it for the other planets. Was never shown how he knew Franklin would be in a crib in that plaza--sort of expected Reed to send him a message to offer it or something. There were a couple of other little moments that I didn't buy, but those stuck out. (Oh, and yeah, what's with the ending of Thunderbolts where the FF ship is coming to that universe? That predates this movie, but the FF don't leave their universe at the end of this...?)

 

Stewie's favorite comic below:

 

 

 

Pain Has A Face...Allow Me To Show It To You...

 

Just kidding--nobody wants to see my face on here.

The back still hurts, but at least I'm semi-mobile now. It very much limits what I can do though.

Been rewatching the original Supes movies. I have fond memories of part one, but I remember not loving it when I saw it. A little too boring, not enough Superman. Still a big fan of Miss Tessmacher though.

Also, 4K is not the friend of these movies. The effects at times look pretty bad...

Part 2 is still a lot of fun, but again the 4K issue. I got about halfway through part 3 before I had to go bed. It probably still has the best flying scenes of any of them. Either they got new harnesses or they finally got used to flying, but it's very cool to see Superman run and get lifted in the air, and as much as I looked--even in 4K--cannot see a single wire going up to the crane that's off screen.

Continuing to work on that little microbudget filmmaker book. I cannot find a log for when I shot Bounty. Me--and Zig--seem to remember me doing one, but I have searched a bunch of hard drives AND my old laptop, and it's just not there.

I moved ahead to the GOH section, because I definitely have that. 

I'm over 200 pages on it...

Not really looking forward to the FF movie, but my kid wants to see it. He and my wife haven't been home in like a month, but they're coming back for two days. We'll watch the flick Thursday night if I can find a not-too-busy showing, and then they're back to the beach Friday morning.

Must be nice lol. But this is a vacation for me too, since I do enjoy solitude...

 

 

Agony Of Being Old

 

Once again, was on the hunt for a new office chair. I just can't find a super comfortable one that lasts, but this one had high reviews and was on sale so I bought it.

It's this one, if you want to see:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLJLP7FM

I put it together, which took a while. Then I leaned over to pick up my old chair and move it, and BAM--PAIN. 

I couldn't move without my back annihilating my senses. Most pain I've been in in a long time. I can't remember throwing out my back this bad unless I go back to just out of high school.

Now, my lower back has been hurting for the past week. Not sure why, other than how ancient I am now.

The chair's ok, but definitely not the most comfortable. I thought this webbing would be sort of stretchy and comfortable, but it's not. The chair also doesn't recline like the other chair.

As in, if I lean back, the chair leans but if I don't, then it sits straight. This new chair CAN recline if you hit a button, but it goes nearly horizontal. There's no way to continuously lean, is what I'm saying. Either you recline to a set amount, or you don't recline at all.

I will say the lumbar support is nice. But once again, bought another office chair that's not great.

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Saw the new Supes movie. My kid was still at the beach, so I had my brother go pick him up and bring him back so he could see it with us. Also, weirdly, turns out my sisters were in town but hadn't told most of the family.

They ended up showing up for the movie also. I liked it but didn't love it. There's a lot of good stuff in there but just wasn't blown away by it for the most part. 

Then the next day I drove the kid back to the beach. Traffic was terrible. It took almost 3 hours, which is double what it usually takes. I stayed the night, and we hit all the food spots I like.

Definitely gotta go on a diet again soon. The big one, since I'm going to Cancun in a few months, and don't wanna be fat for the beach.

 

 

4th Over

Another low-key 4th of July.

Hadn't planned to do anything, really. I knew that I had to shoot a video the next day for the auction company, so wouldn't be out very late.

Then my mom asked me if I wanted to just come over for burgers, because my aunt and uncle from TN were in town, and I haven't seen them in like 10 years.

Now, I've never been the biggest fan of my uncle's. He was the one who, when I was young, took my Styx eight-track from me because it was the devil's music. He was super hardcore religious.

Past couple of years though, he'd mellowed quite a bit. He's still religious, but he's either learned not to try to push it, or he's just too old and tired to do so anymore. Either way, works out. I don't dislike him any more.

So I went over there. My older brother was there with his family. Had a decent time, and as a bonus I went by the store down near her that carries the best crab pretzels, and got a pack of two to eat for lunch the next couple of days.

I continued to work on that microbudget filmmaking book. It's kind surreal to look back at that stuff and realize so much of it was more than twenty years ago...

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Next day, went to shoot this video, which the lady promised would be short.

It was not.

Short is 30 minutes. Average is 45. She went for around 95 minutes. The auction is on the 20th. 

As usual, she cuts my edit time short and makes me work on holiday weekends, I jack up the rates. Not like she can do anything; I've been looking to NOT do them for a long time, so best case scenario is she decides to try to find someone else to do them.

Though having the cash is always nice.

I'm still editing it, by the way. Hoping to be done by tomorrow.

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Saw the new Jurassic. It was okay. Certainly way better than the last two of them, but I wouldn't put it anywhere near the original three.

But it's the perfect movie for summer, for me. Dinosaurs on rampage are my shit, man.

 

 

 

Back From The Con

 

Back from the con. I'm not gonna go into a lot of details.

Had fun in general, but the hotel was hot garbage. They'd been doing construction last year at this hotel, and it was supposed to be done, but we find out that there's no bar/restaurant in the hotel cuz it's under construction.

Like, wtf? They've created a tiny bar space, and sort of a mocked up restaurant but I never saw anyone in the place. If you walked by, there was never anyone looking to seat you, so you never even knew if it was open.

The bar, the one time I walked near it, was mobbed, and not by convention goers. There was some young girl's soccer team or something in the hotel, so all the parents went into that bar with its one bartender.

Wasn't overly crowded, which I like but that can't be good for the show...not sure whether they'll do another one or not. Was cool meeting Mick Garris--super chill dude who loves to talk to people.

I had ants in my room, so that was fun. Luckily, they don't bother me all that much as long as they don't get in the bed.

The highlight, as always when going to the PA shows, was hitting Fuddruckers on Sunday. So good. So pissed there isn't one around me here anymore.

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Finished Coscarelli's book about his life in making movies, and it inspired me. I don't have his fan base, but I suddenly thought that maybe I should put together my book. Hell, I have logs already from nearly every movie I shot.

I could expand those. I could also go into some of the more sordid details I've kept hidden for a long time. 

I started working on that, and it's over 100 Word pages and I'm not even done the first FOC movie...

It is fun reading back through the adventures we had making movies...

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And speaking of fans...one who I am friends on FB with reached out to me and said, "saw this message on a FB group and tagged you but you're not in the group". This was the message, on a group dedicated to asking what something is and perhaps getting an answer:

Hmmm, I think I may know the answer lol. I responded that to this friend to tell the asker that the movie is on tubi if they want to watch it, and they copied the response--I've blurred the names so there's no shaming them:

So that's pretty cool--always great to hear from twisted people who like my flicks...