I think we can all agree that, amidst all this talk about Hollywood and television production and the pitching of various projects, we often lose sight of what’s truly important: fantasy football. Well, I’m pleased to report that following twelve hard-fought weeks in which I lost my #1 draft pick to season-ending injury, had to drop another four draft picks due to underperformance, picked up and dropped and instantly regretted when somebody else picked up Bills tight end Charles Clay, my Snow Monkeys secured their first playoff spot in ages. With one more week to go in the regular season, we’re sitting in 5th place with a record of 7-5, the most points scored, and poised to really make a post-season splash. I mean, look at this team –
Gurley, Kamara, Hyde and Peterson in the backfield. Brees leading the likes of Hopkins, Funchess, Adams, Davis, and Shepard. Doyle and (the oft-injured) Reed at the TE position. And a fearsome Panthers D feasting on opposing offenses. We’re unstoppable!
With the exception of weeks 1, 5, 7, 8, and 10.
Oh, in addition to managing my Snow Monkeys, I also caught two movies: Killing of a Sacred Deer and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. The first boasts a terrific premise and is well-directed with some truly unnerving scenes, but is somewhat undone by a discordant score and awkward dialogue that, at first, lends to the film’s underlying uneasiness but, after all awhile, just gets annoying and borderline comical. The movie ratchets up the suspense in increments, slowly but surely building towards a truly terrifying climax. Still, to fully appreciate this one, you need to throw logic out the window. It’s one of those movies that leaves you stunned – and then, upon further consideration, somewhat dubious. A brilliant performance by Barry Keoghan.
Speaking of brilliant performances, Three Billboards is full of them. Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell blow the doors off the Oscar bus. An incredibly compelling story with wonderful moments of humor – oh, and one unfortunate scene involving a coincidental overheard conversation. Still, highly recommended.
For the rest of the week, it’s lunch, dinner, and in-between meetings. Some sit-downs with a couple of authors. The creative gear-up for next week’s writers’ room. And a phoner with one of the Big Ten regarding a couple of proposed book-to-screen adaptations. The plot thickens…
Congrats on the Snow Monkeys!
That sounds like a busy week planned. Hope it all works out! Well, maybe not all – that sounds like it would be TOO busy!
Dearest Joey…
I have been long absent. I know you do not want to hear a crapload of empty excuses…but here it goes anyway.
A couple of years ago I got a tablet. I may have mentioned it here before…how I hated the touchscreen and the apps…but it soon became my go-to device. You see, about the same time I got the tablet, my computer (a.k.a. The Dinosaur) wasn’t working so good, running slower than an old dial-up. It only had about 500 mb of RAM, and it was still running on XP (O, how I loved XP!). Around the same time my workload changed, and I didn’t have much playtime in the office. So, I started to rely on my tablet, and just about the only thing I could tolerate (communication-wise) on the tablet was Facebook. Facebook I could do…emails…not so much on that tiny screen. Over the past year I have managed to accumulate 12,000 unopened emails…some probably from friends and family. I just gave up. I am such a loser. 😛
And then, for the past full year, I have been in the process of moving. You already know a bit about that, but lemme tell you, it’s not easy moving mom, us, the cats, and three very full houses into a new (old), completely furnished house. I still have boxes upon boxes to unpack, and if I find one more @#$%^&* tablecloth or blanket I’ma gonna throttle somebody!! (Probably my sister, as she’s the one who thought it was a brilliant idea to use tablecloths and blankets for packing material…which is all well and good except for the fact that I had already very neatly and OCD-like stowed away all the tablecloths and blankets that had been packed in boxes labeled…ya know…tablecloths and blankets!)
Now, you may be asking why my knickers are all wadded up in my heinie over this. Well, it’s because we are not a normal family. Sure, we would be a normal family like…100 years ago… but by today’s standards we are pure freaks. Pure tablecloth-loving freaks. Linen tablecloths, embroidered tablecloths, grandmother’s tablecloths, lace tablecloths, gihugic rectangle tablecloths, round tablecloths, mom’s tablecloths, floral tablecloths, my tablecloths, square tablecloths, card table tablecloths, picnic table tablecloths, every-color-in-the-rainbow tablecloths, and one cheap-ass plastic tablecloth.
And don’t get me started on blankets. 😛
I have no idea where I was going with all of that, but the bottom line is this: Life has been very distracting these last few years. Dealing with the business after dad passed away, with helping mom, with moving, with all sorts of address changes and financial changes and job changes, with renting out our house and moving in with mom, with packing and unpacking, with getting the bugs out of the new house (both figuratively and literally…damn carpenter ants… 😡 ), with getting to know the new neighbors and neighborhood, with more paperwork than I ever had to deal with when I was working…it all came before getting a new computer (THAT’S where I was going with all of this!).
But today that all changed. Today I got a new computer. Not a laptop, but a real desktop computer…the newfangled type that doesn’t have a tower. But you know what it does have?!? A REAL KEYBOARD!!!! WOO! No more hunting and pecking on a small touchscreen that auto-corrects to something one does not wish to share with polite company. Not to mention that I have yet to master the scroll. But I have mastered the mouse…and I am getting the feel of the keyboard again. (So forgive any typos – it’s been months since I have used a real keyboard and my fingers are a bit rusty…but as you can see, they are still as loquacious as ever!)
So, hopefully, I am back. But no promises…not until I find every last tablecloth and blanket and get them neatly stored away.
THEN I get to tackle the 35 sets of china…
Ugh.
das
Yay, you’re back!
You weren’t kidding about long posts now that you have a keyboard…
Welcome back!
That was funny and relatable. Congratulations on the new keyboard. I sort of did this reading of the blog backward so I said welcome back on the blog after the date of this blog.
35 sets of CHINA? Oh wow!
It is great to see you on here again Das!!
Looking forward to your adventures.
Big Ten? You doing a football project? LOL Sorry, couldn’t resist.
I try to understand the sportsball stuff, but it truly is like learning a new language. However, here’s to the unstoppable Snow Monkeys!
Three Billboards sounds intriguing. Not braving the local theater intriguing, maybe HBO intriguing at some later date.
@ das … I have a cedar wardrobe full of tablecloths and runners. I don’t even have a dining room in this house and the kitchen table is given over to painting and art projects. Sigh. I have a lovely set of Noritake I picked up in Japan in the 80s, service for 12. Still in the boxes. Hard to use gold rimmed bone china which needs to be handwashed, and cannot go in a microwave. I have one teacup out to remind me of how pretty my set is (service for 12 came with 14 teacups!).
I hope your sorting goes well, and brings pleasant memories.
I know you miss “DM” but you know what they say about life opening doors. Have fun with the process!
I’m reading “Sleeping Beauties” by Stephen/Owen King and enjoying it. One of the lines they wrote is sticking with me: Getting old means that you forget the things you want to remember and remember the things you want to forget. . That sums up my life.
Hey das! Welcome back! May I borrow a tablecloth? 😛
Congrats on the playoffs, Joe.
Those two movies both sound terrific. Even though the titles are really, really odd.
I want to come back as a snow monkey in my next life. I liked the trailer for Three Billboards. I am a bit bleary eyed from catching up with Marvel’s Runaways.
Yay. Go Snow Monkeys! Finally getting a wee bit of a chance to shine.
@das Welcome back – even if it’s only once in a while.
Its always good to hear from you.
Hope you are able to locate all your tablecloths and blankets soon. xo