It's a fire-through-a-bunch-of-topics type of night. So, let's get to it.
- Tuesday was election day at various places around the country, and it was kinda nice to see our democracy isn't completely kaput just yet. Dems won gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia by larger than expected margins. The last one is particularly nice to see, as, living in DC, it hits close to home. To be honest, however, I'm mostly just glad I won't be inundated with political ads while watching sports for another year or so.
- Speaking of ads I've seen too many times, it's time to pull the one of the guy running on a treadmill to Collective Soul in his daughter's old room out of rotation. It was kinda funny the first time I watched it (I like the little flourishes the dad does while running), much less so the past eight hundred. Also, note to Liberty Mutual: Your ad campaigns -- both Limu Emu and the quirky ones that are always on a pier for some reason -- are doing the exact opposite of what they're supposed to do for me. I'm so tired of watching these commercials that if I ever need to switch insurance companies, I will intentionally look elsewhere first.
- Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral race in New York, so good for him, I guess. He's not really my cup of tea. He strikes me as a politician rich people think poor people want. (In fact, I heard on a podcast today that he did better in the affluent areas of NYC than he did in the working class areas.) However, given that the other options were a disgraced retread, who already lost in the primary, and a kooky right-winger in a beret, I might have voted for Mamdani were I a Knickerbocker. I am, however, very skeptical that any of his initiatives will lead to any real improvements in the lives of New Yorkers. But who knows? It will be interesting to watch from afar, at least.
- I watched this YouTube video called "Plot Hole or Not Hole," in which Ben Lindbergh (a podcaster I like) interviews Vince Gilligan about a potential plot hole in one of the last episodes of Breaking Bad. I really enjoyed hearing Gilligan indulge Lindbergh as he broke it all down. I love when artists love getting into the weeds about their past work. Nothing is worse than the grumpy artiste who acts too cool for school about this type of thing. It's super pretentious, and it's makes you feel like a loser for caring about something so much more than the person who actually made it.
- Typically I'm not that bothered by plot holes because I rarely notice them. I'm not a big plot person in general. I want great characters, first and foremost. Then I care about other things--drama, comedy, tension, release, music, mood, etc.--before I care about plot. With that said, I do have two big plot holes that come to mind every time plot holes are mentioned...
- One, in Raiders of the Lost Ark, how did Indiana and Marion get back to DC after witnessing (or not, since their eyes were closed) the opening of the ark? They were alone on some remote island in the middle of the Aegean Sea that they arrived on via submarine. Presumably, neither of them knows how to operate a German U-boat and navigate back to the US with a crew of two. And did they or somebody else come back for the ark, or did they take it with them? Seems like it would have to be the former, but then what did they do with the ark--this magical artifact of unthinkable power that could destroy humanity if it fell into the wrong hands--while they were traveling the thousands of miles (in 1936) back to the US? Just leave it there?
- Two, in KPop Demon Hunters, what's the resolution when the biggest boy band on the planet just up and disappears one day? Boy bands break up all the time, but they only figuratively disappear. In actuality, they go on to host reality TV shows or something like that. I mean, what would have happened if, in 1997, every one of the Backstreet Boys simultaneously vanished off the face of the Earth? Would we have all just shrugged our shoulders and turned up the Spice Girls, as the public does with Huntr/x in KPDH?
- I mentioned in a previous entry that I was experiencing some internal inflammation. Turns out it was nothing, and I was pretty sure it was nothing when it was happening, but I got some testing done anyway, because I don't want to be that guy who dies of a treatable ailment because he couldn't be bothered to take the two hours out of his day to get the warning signs diagnosed. I went in on Friday, and the technician who carried out the test told me "off-the-record" that it was unremarkable, so I felt even more assured there was nothing to worry about. I got the official report from my doctor's office today, and it says the results are "unmarketable." Damn! I was hoping to put them up on eBay. There goes that idea! (The NP who wrote the report also examined me, and it's clear that English is not her first language, which likely explains the erroneous word choice.)
- I stopped doing intermittent fasting. No real reason why--I just got tired of it and caved to my appetitive desires. As those in the body positivity camp will tell you, most diets don't stick forever. I agree with this. However, I disagree that this means that "dieting doesn't work," which is something else you will hear from the BP folks. Diets do work while you're doing them, and they often work very well. When I'm on my 16-8 plan, I eat better, I feel better, and I look better. Those are all good things. If I could diet like this consistently, instead of only, like, half the time, it would be even better. But let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the half-decent. I don't understand why dieting off-and-on is considered to "not work," when it's significantly better than eating unhealthily all the time. If you are yo-yo dieting and losing and gaining and losing and gaining massive amounts of weight in short periods of time then, yeah, that's probably unhealthy. But that's not what I do, and I don't think that's what most other people do either. I eat how I want, and then I get to the point where my jeans are noticeable tighter than they were before, and then I diet, and it works, and my jeans fit comfortably again, and then I stop because dieting is hard, and I'm only human, and so I slowly gain back the weight I lost, until my jeans are tight again, and the loop continues. It's not ideal, but it works okay for me, and I don't think I'm special in this regard.
Alright, time to wrap this up. Until next time...
