So I’m finishing up the last of my podcasts for the foreseeable future before going on an extended hiatus, but I was glad to get this one in. This one was a little different (and, frankly, a lot more fun) in that we chatted less about accomplishments and more about the frustrations and challenges of working in this industry…
On today’s SCREAMING INTO THE HOLLYWOOD ABYSS, we have TV writer, producer and showrunner Joseph Mallozzi (STARGATE, DARK MATTER), who candidly shares both the highlights and lowlights of a career that spans dozens of shows and 100s of episodes of TV. https://t.co/x3WpPjaacR pic.twitter.com/XqDlNYzpaM
— Noah Evslin (@nevslin) August 19, 2021
Shout out to Irena and the gang at Stargate Europe for keeping the flame alive.. Go give ’em a follow!
Thank you for joining us on our daily campaign to celebrate Brad Wright's Stargate!
We've finished Season 1 of #SG1!
Feel free to continue to share what you liked about the 'episode of the day' using the hashtags #WeWantStargate & #365DaysofStargate. pic.twitter.com/9AkWM0I79k
— Stargate Now Europe (@StargateNow_EU) August 18, 2021
Today’s Yes/No…
Kentucky Fried Ramen? Yes/No
KFC Japan releases official Kentucky Fried ramen recipe, other Japanese-inspired cooking ideas https://t.co/yYndK2Mc6q via @RocketNews24En— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) August 20, 2021
So, how is everyone doing in their part of the world? Feeling comfortable going out? Indoor dining? Hitting the gym? Is your life slowly returning to its pre-pandemic normalcy or is there a new normal you’ve settled into and are reluctant to disrupt? What do you miss and what do you NOT miss? How do you foresee your life one year from now?
Nowadays, it’s hard to predict or plan anything too far in advance. Frustrating and tired.
I haven’t commented here in ages. Life during the pandemic hasn’t changed much for me. We’re considered essential workers at my job, so we continue to work. We wore masks part time there before. Now it’s full time. I admit I kinda liked it at the beginning when everyone else stayed home. Don’t like crowds, although it was eerie out there with the nearly deserted streets.
It’s been a sad and stressful year for me and my cats. Since July of 2020 my girl George got pancreatitis, Riley’s stomatitis flared up, Cola had cystitis in January and in April she fell and concussed herself, was diagnosed with cancer and had to be euthanized about 9 hours after that devastating diagnosis, because she got very sick very quickly. 🙁 George got cystitis the end of June and Riley was diagnosed with kidney disease three weeks ago. Now I’m keeping an eye on Charlie. His blood tests last week came back all good and I thought I finally had at least one healthy cat. He’s since been drinking more water than normal. Waiting to see if this continues as I might have to take him back for one more blood test, and then perhaps after that an ultrasound. I need to get a second job to pay for all of this, but would like to spend as much time with my gang as possible. They are all geriatric. George is 14 and the boys are 13. I really hate this.
Everything not cat-related is a messy blur and I can’t think a year ahead.
I hope you get to do that Dark Matters mini-series.
Oh, I didn’t realize there wouldn’t be any more Stargate Mondays on Orville Nation.
Been going out for things like shopping and Free Comic Book Day, but masked. My exercise stuff is in my house anyway. Got a new editing job the other day for a client I’ve worked for before. My broken foot is still healing nicely. Attending a get-together with my parents and my Dad’s university colleagues tomorrow. Outside, of course. I miss being able to have friends over indoors and going to theatres (missed Black Widow), but it could be worse. Hopefully, in a year we’ll have a vaccine for the new variant too, but who knows? It’s looking 50/50 like I’ll have to cancel going to World Fantasy Convention this year to be on the safe side even if they are holding it, what with the travel, the hotel and the convention itself.
Been enjoying For All Mankind on Apple TV+ (which came for free for a year with a new smartphone), and I’ll watch the Season Two finale tomorrow. Amazing Stories was good, too. Not sure what to watch next on the service, after the WolfWalkers movie of course. Ted Lasso, Mythic Quest, Home Before Dark, Ghostwriter. I caught a little of the original Ghostwriter when I was a kid (and some Amazing Stories, as well as Ray Bradbury Theater, which I apparently blended together in my memory).
2012 : Brain Tumour : Housebound, etc.
The Lockdown didn’t really impact me in the slightest, if I’m honest. Carried on much as I always do, sitting in the house, typing away.
Would LOVE to get out more, but stumbling and balance and motion sickness. They make it hard to do much of anything outdoors. Sucks, etc. Manageable, but occasionally makes you feel really rotten.
Dining out of the house, haven’t done since 2012. Nausea levels increase as I move about, so heading out to a restaurant, then trying to sit and eat whilst feeling queasy.. Nope.. Not happening.
Hitting the Gym, again with the nausea. I bought a treadmill, thinking that might help my energy levels a bit, but.. no.. the steady motion that a treadmill brings, ends up causing wave after wave in my head. Rah.. Waste of bloomin’ money, that was!
The worst thing, the thing I miss most, is people. I used to work in a convenience store, and most of the village tended to frequent it for their booze and cigs and snacks and lottery and whatnot.
I went from seeing hundreds a day, to .. nothing.. overnight.
Sure, it was a typical shop-boy job, rubbish wages and the lot, but .. It got me out, got me socialising, and it was something to do!
Now all I have is my keyboard.
A year from now, I’ll probably be converting all my assets into survival supplies.
As for Korean, I’ve been able to read it phonetically since I was a teen, learning it from something I biked to the library to pick up. I had a friend in high school (25 years ago) who cut me a cassette of what must have been a predecessor to K-pop. It had ballads with an occasional cut-in of English-language rap-pish bits. Without video, can you really say it’s K-pop though? I understood then, from demographic trends alone, a country’s population profile by age, that Korea would be a cultural leader in a generation, since the U.S. and Japan later became cultural leaders when they had the same profile.
I had just a tiny bit of exposure to Korean in taekwondo as my instructor was not Korean.
More recently, I wanted to pick it up again because surely the Tizen documentation needed to develop for Samsung devices would be more accurate in Korean. I feel too rigid to pick it up from K-dramas on Netflix. You really need shows with kids in them to pick up a language. A show about day-trading won’t cut it. I have managed to pick up on running jokes that didn’t translate into the subtitles, but only when kid characters were involved.
My biggest hurdle is that I’m too anti-authoritarian to ever submit to Korean grammar.
KFC ramen? Sure, why not?
I still mask although I am vaccinated. Having no transportation, my friend takes me around, and we mask often. Jiffy lube, at least people kept their distance, but the employees were unmasked. DMV, we masked the whole time, and a few other older people did, but no masks overall. We did dine in at Pig and a Jelly Jar, small place, but they do have the tables spaced out. Everyone masked unless seated. Groceries, most of the time I use Instacart deliveries. I am going to a Burlesque show tonight, and I will mask. I went to Seattle, masked the whole journey, and most of the time in the hotel. I forgot my mask a couple times headed down to the pool. I did eat in restaurants, but there was a lot of social distancing. The museums had reduced capacity and timed tickets for entry, masks required. The Chihuly Glass Museum was especially strict. Nice.
A year? Not much will be different for me. Maybe trips to Mexico or Canada.
Miss Sunday lunch with the family in local gastro pub, out with sons for general lunch, out with mates for a beer and / or lunch / dinner, road trips, shopping NOT for essentials. Still masked up even though law no longer requires it.. many establishments still do, so hey ho pip and dandy, I continue to use a mask. And not just for hold ups ( joke! ) .
Not ultra keen on back to the gym, nor large gatherings.
Still, it will hopefully change going forward.
“So, how is everyone doing in their part of the world?”
Hanging in here.
“Feeling comfortable going out?”
I’m in Texas. That is a big no even though when I do I’m masked up and vaccinated.
“Indoor dining?”
Haven’t been back yet but we never did eat out a lot.
“Hitting the gym?:
We have enough gym-like equipment here at the house.
“Is your life slowly returning to its pre-pandemic normalcy or is there a new normal you’ve settled into and are reluctant to disrupt?”
We’re still in the same damn mess here.
“What do you miss and what do you NOT miss?”
I miss going to the stores to shop more than I do (when I have no choice). I miss not being able to go visit my best friend in New York. I miss going to church in person. I miss civility. There isn’t anything I can think of that I “do NOT miss.”
“How do you foresee your life one year from now?”
I foresee my life about the same here. As new variants come it will be the same old same old with a new name other than delta.
Even everyone in our family being fully vaccinated has not changed our behaviour at all. This Delta variant has put a spanner in the works as far as going out. The only slight change in VERY occasionally going into a store, but that’s it.