Tag: Daily

Yet another perfect thing.

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Pushing Daises was one year, nine months and ten days old but would be no older (If I’ve done my whisky soaked math right). The show follows a ridiculously good looking pie maker (Prime Lee Pace) who has the power to wake the dead with only a touch. This magic is complicated by two caveats, if he touches the reawakened again they die and this time he can’t bring them back and that if they stay re-alive for longer than 1 minute something else has to die.

In the pilot episode we find out that the Pie Maker has been working with A PI named Emerson Cod to solve mysteries as a sort of side hustle but when his childhood sweetheart is murdered, he brings her back and is unable to return her to death (causing the death of the corrupt funeral home director in the process). It is a whimsical mystery show that reminds me a lot of the Series of Unfortunate Events film. I have been rewatching it for the first time since childhood and I love it still. My favorite part of the show is the narrator, Jim Dale (who also narrated the Harry Potter Audiobooks in the United States which he does an excellent job of). He does that thing where he comments on the story as it happens á la Arrested Development.

For example;

Electric Absalom: “I think this writing is going well.”

Narrator: “He lied.”

This has always been one of my favorite tropes and one I don’t see often enough to get tired of.

If I had to classify this show I would call it soft goth but thats only because I have been drinking and need to go to bead and am planning on recommending it to a high schooler I work with who is goth.

Whatever, watch the show.

Show Your Work Pt. 3

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“The orc droned on. Vlad had stopped listening about the third time “Inexcusable” had been spat at him but what he gathered was that the customer had purchased one of Gunther’s Bargain Enchanted Swords (Now Just 10 GP!) the remnants of which now lay before Vlad on the long slab of oak which served as Gunther’s counter. With many a blood oath the customer swore he’d have his refund or his revenge. The line behind the orc was becoming aware that something was happening at the front and a tense silence descended on the shop as everyone waited, for what they did not know. Perhaps there would be a fight, perhaps someone would die, maybe they would get discounts if someone died and they got blood on their clothes, some places did that.

Some Perfect Things

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I am planning on doing a much longer write up on this perfect thing because it is both perfect and under appreciated (I don’t often use that word since the internet broke it). The youtube show Retry is something that brings me so much joy. Tonight I had a long day at work and my girlfriend fell asleep before I got home. Lonely and with only frozen pizza and beer to look forward to I miserably turned on the tv while I waited for the oven to preheat. Then I remembered there was a new episode of Retry to watch. Now my night is great, thanks boys!

Show Your Work Pt.2

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This is part two of my series where I am rewriting the same paragraph everyday to see if it gets better.

“The orc customer droned on. Vlad had stopped listening about the time the orc had said, “This is inexcusable!” but from what was forced upon his brain by his ears he gathered that the customer had purchased on of Gunther’s Bargain Enchanted Swords (Now Just 10 GP!), the remnants of which now laid before Vlad on the long slab of oak which served as Gunther’s counter. With many a blood oath, as was orcish custom, the customer swore he would have his refund or his revenge. He could not believe that a big time adventurer such as himself was being treated this way. How would the town magistrate (a close personal friend!) react when he found out that the hero who had saved the town from the curly werewolf was being treated in such a shameful way? Vlad seemed to recall the curly werewolf had been Hilda von Dildha’s imported pet poodle which meant the customer was probably the orc being sued that Vlad had heard about in all the local tavern songs but even if he had been Lothar Big-Hand himself it would not have changed the young man’s response. Gunther’s store policy was no refunds and Gunther’s policy was backed by Gunther’s Guarantee, which was the name of the war hammer strapped to his bosses back.”

I am not sure this is better but since I am in the early stage of rewriting I think it is ok for it to be worse.

Show your work pt.1

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Ok, after missing last night I think I have figured out a way to keep updating during my coming fifty hour work week. I am going to write a paragraph below, just whatever pops into my head. Tomorrow I will revise it and the next day and the next until my day off on Wednesday.

Here goes;

“The orc customer droned on. Vlad was pretty sure he would never get out of this conversation let alone this village. It seemed the issue was that the orc, who assured Vlad he was a big time adventurer with lots of contacts in the industry, had purchased one of Gunther’s bargain enchanted swords, the remnants of which now laid before Vlad on the long slab of oak which served as Gunther’s counter. In truth Vlad was barely listening. He had already decided that this orc was no big time adventurer because, A: he had purchased one of Gunther’s bargain enchanted swords and B: Vlad had never heard of him and Vlad had heard of everybody. Even if he had been Lothar Big-Hand himself it would not have mattered much to Vlad beyond effecting his hopes of getting an autograph. Its not like he could change the rules Gunther’s policy was “No refunds” and Gunther’s policy was enforced by Gunther’s Warhammer which required no bargain enchantment.”

I had started a story similar to this last year but never finished it. I’ve always liked the beginning of a journey when the story is still full of possibilities. Similarly I like when a story starts with a character stuck in a very boring place in their life, when the world is gray and overcast with no hope of change. I have a soft spot for characters who are timid and anxious at the start and grow in confidence as the story progresses and as the skies darken into a storm and they realize thats what they’ve been missing.

Friends

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My girlfriend’s sister is our roommate and just had a baby with her fiancé. One of her cold comforts as they stay up at all hours with the babe is watching and rewatching friends. I confess that despite my father’s love of good television that he passed onto me, or perhaps because of it, I had never seen Friends. A distinct distaste for laugh tracks on any show post Seinfeld was a big part of it as was a general smugness from being the kid who watch Arrested Development before the Netflix revival and who started watching Community with it’s premiere.

I don’t profess to be helping much with the rearing of the babe but I am quite often in the room while they take care of her and have thus absorbed a few episodes of friends and I must say, I was pretty much right all along. Like, Friends is not as bad as I thought, people who say it is the prototypical show that you like the more you get to know the characters are exactly right. One thing I was not prepared for was the sheer amount of episodes that involve one of the gang getting a pet and then needing to find a new home for it. Since I refuse to look anything up for this post I have no idea how many times this happens and maybe I have seen every episode that it occurs in but by my count it has happened at least four different times; a duck, a chick, a dog and a monkey all have to be rehoused at some point in the series and I seriously doubt they got to go to insanely large New York apartments this time.

Anyway I don’t really have a point, I just wanted to write my daily thing a little earlier than normal since I am off today and have been watching a lot of friends.

A small perfect thing.

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A small perfect thing for a small entry. I have a mid century salt-and-pepper shaker that my great-grandfather used while he was helping construct the Alaska pipeline. It is a cylinder about an inch and a half long with two separate chambers that screw together. One for salt and the other for pepper. I was given it years ago as a child when a salt-and-pepper shaker is about the most boring thing to you could imagine getting from a WW2 vet but now I keep it in my bag (another entry) and it brings me great joy and sodium.

Another Quick Entry

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For the next few days all posts will be extremely short. I have been working ten hour days and will be for the near future and on top of that I have to cover a coworkers schedule while he is on vacation so I won’t have my normal days off. I am still going to post on here everyday but don’t expect much until things settle down.