I’m ready for this Mayan practical joke to be over. This has been a pretty terrible year, by far. It was only just starting to get better when more bad news dropped. One of my favorite bands just called it quits. I saw them twice and they were both wonderful shows. I’m sure Dan Boeckner will continue making music, but the husband/wife duo of the Handsome Furs had a certain awesomeness to it.
Anyway, if you are unfamiliar:
What We Had
Memories of the Future
So I guess I graduated from college last week. It’s weird, because it feels good, but at the same time I feel like it’s just a piece of paper. I mean, I learned a lot and I’ve enjoyed my time in college. It’s certainly been better than all my crappy jobs that went nowhere. Will my special piece of paper give me better employment opportunities? That’s the plan, but it’s no guarantee. And just because I learned some specific things, doesn’t mean that’s what I’m going to end up doing. It’s just a matter of grabbing the good opportunities as they come my way.
There was this guy in one of my classes who said: “A jack of all trades is a master of none.”
I like to think of myself as a master of all trades and a jack off of none.
Yeah. That sounds about right.
Things have a way of coming back around. Sometimes it’s obvious, but mostly you don’t notice.
When I worked at a large retail store many moons ago, I remember selling a shit ton of video games. N64, Dreamcast, GameBoy, PlayStation 2, etc. Those were the days. I remember how the little kiddos were so enthused about Pokémon. It was all the rage and when the new games Gold and Silver came out, they flew off the shelves. It was a generational norm to play those games as a kid and you weren’t cool if you didn’t.
Flash forward to the present. Occasionally, as a college student, I get asked what my favorite Pokémon character is. I usually just say I don’t have one and receive odd looks. Sometimes I say, “I don’t know, I kinda just… you know, like them all” in a very Michael Bolton from Office Space way.
Then it dawned on me. These are all the kids to whom I sold those games. They are grown up now and in college and they think I’m younger than I am, even though my hair says otherwise.
It’s odd to think that the Pokémon generation used to visit me in my crappy retail job and now they visit me as classmates. Soon, I’m sure they will be my bosses. I guess I better start learning about Pokémon.
So there’s this comedian dude who’s got probably the best life ever. All he’s going to do for a month is watch Netflix streaming movies with the goal of 250 flicks watched. He’s already about a week into it and has watched 60 movies. As I’ve been following his choices and lists of choices, I got to thinking. Why doesn’t Netflix have a playlist function? This seems so simple, it’s a no-brainer.
Yes, they have the queue, which is old and antiquated and worthless if you want to have more than 500 movies stashed away for later viewing. It’s also hard to keep organized.
What I’m proposing is something like a playlist in iTunes. You could have a playlist with a bunch of shows you want to watch. Say, an episode of Miami Vice, one from The A-Team, maybe a Pawn Stars one thrown in. Then you could start the playlist and not have to do anything at all. You could do a playlist of every episode of Lost for a marathon, or do an 80s comedy list. Or even have playlists for each member of your household. It would be like a sub-queue or something.
Not that I give a shit, but this would be extremely helpful for parents who suck at parenting. Setup a playlist of kid-friendly movies and TV shows then start it up for little Robby and Sally and never interact with them again.
This would solve my issue with there not being a “Play All” button for TV serieses. This would fix big families having to fight over a single queue. It would add a layer of convenience and ingenuity, which is why it will never happen.
We started watching this newish show called The Killing, which is a remake of a Danish show. The first season is on Netflix and the second season just started airing on AMC. It’s a murder mystery set in Seattle. When I first heard about it, it sounded a bit like Twin Peaks. After watching the first few episodes, it’s not at all like Twin Peaks. It does seem to have some bits that remind me of Seven, though. Minor things like the depressing setting, the main character being pulled into the “last case” before leaving, and the partner dynamic between the two main detectives.
The acting is well done for relatively unknown actors. I especially like the male lead’s no-nonsense style. I just read that he’s going to be the new Robocop for the reboot coming out next year. I’m thoroughly pumped for that now.
