Category: General

Stranger Things – Finishing Up The Upside Down

(This comes with Upside Down Marshmallows, so did you really expect me to pass it up?)

Stranger Things Season 5 – its final season – is a triple-date release. Four episodes will be released on November 26, three more on December 25, and the series finale on December 31st. I am more than frustrated the Netflix brass and those Duffer Brothers apparently have collective egos so massive they decided to not only stretch out the final season in this three-way manner, but they took direct aim at America’s beloved holidays. The resulting Stranger Things Fear Of Missing Out will disrupt seasonal plans, sending family members dashing to their screens, all as spoilers race across social media. It’s downright sacrilegious if you ask me…as if the Upside Down infected Netflix.

Runtimes for the first four episodes of Season 5 were announced recently:

Episode 1 – One hour, eight minutes.

Episode 2 – Fifty-four minutes.

Episode 3 – One hour, six minutes.

Episode 4 – One hour, twenty-three minutes. (Mid-season “break”)

These are thankfully more in line with the first three seasons. Runtimes are of interest to me. Do they influence you when making a decision on whether to see a new film you might be unsure of, or do you ponder episode lengths… or even the number of episodes when you are considering giving a new show a chance? I know when I am proposing to go see a film she hasn’t heard of before, the first thing Mrs. B asks after who is in it…how long is it? I sometimes will look up how many episodes a show has or will have, as well as how long its episodes are or expected to be. Sometimes, I weigh that potential investment of time if I’m on the fence about viewing.

The Season 4 finale of Stranger Things was two hours, nineteen minutes long. That’s a movie to me, folks. And to be sure, Season 5 is having money lavished on it like its eight episodes will all resemble movies if only in their appearance. The reported budget those Duffer twins have been working with since production on Season 5 began back in January is $50-60 million per EPISODE.

Executive Producer and frequent ST Director Shawn Levy was quoted by Time Magazine recently on the scope of this final season:

“The sets were no less ambitious than the ones I used with Marvel.”

“It happens to be a television series, but it’s epic storytelling by any metric.”

It is.

(They have red filling in them…!)

The first season of Season 1 was released in its entirety back on July 15, 2016, but Mrs. B and I came to visit Hawkins, Indiana much later.  It was the summer of 2020 when we decided to start watching it…after the first three seasons of the show had already been released. I can’t really explain why we ignored it until that time…but I recall having discussions it just didn’t sound like we’d be a good match for it. We were wrong…and I respectfully submit if you have never watched Stranger Things because it just didn’t sound like your kind of show, you’re probably wrong as well.

Interestingly enough, each night that summer we alternated watching Stranger Things from its beginning with another series that had just completed its third season…Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina. Sabrina was a show we had a better heads-up on in terms of style and storytelling as it was from the same creator who was responsible for The CW’s Riverdale, a show we were already watching.

(If you want some more things stranger, we recommend Sabrina. It is funny, edgy, sexy, and dark. It ain’t always easy being a teenage witch, and trying to juggle being on the good side of darkness with staying on the good side of your friends does not always end in your favor. Kiernan Shipka – Sally Draper on Mad Men – portrays the transition of Sabrina Spellman to young adult perfectly)

We love Stranger Things pretty much for the same reasons others do…the 80’s culture and nostalgia, the different genres it touches upon, fully-developed characters, and a deeply-talented cast. It looks good, it sounds good, and it tells epic good stories. I think for the most part the series moved along at a decent clip, but more lengthy run times in Season 4 had me noticing moments and scenes alike that should have been more tightly edited in my opinion. Bigger is not always better.

Time also mentioned the process the Duffer Brothers use to write the show…seated across from each other with headphones on…working and editing the same Google document. It is referred to as their “hive mind.” Fans of Stranger Things can certainly identify with that description of their creative mentality.

Here’s hoping that process leads to Season 5 being tightly-edited, fast-paced, and loaded with more meaningful, memorable moments as the kids and adults of Hawkins try to shut down the Upside Down…once and for all.

itsy bitsy baddie

i have an increased desire for finding more amusement these days. the reason is as simple as in a world gone completely mad, it is really nice on occasion to find something surprising that also makes me smile.

i am fortunate enough to be able to spend some of my money on coffee, and equally as fortunate to live near both a dunkin’ and starbucks location. my drink of choice at either is most often cold brew (even in winter) because it tastes good (with the appropriate number of flavor shots, of course), and because it “sits” with me much better than regularly-brewed coffee.

i tend to bounce back and forth between the two establishments, but a couple of years ago dunkin’ started producing a spider donut for halloween, and this year they appear to have taken the promotion to another level.

enter itsy bitsy baddie…

when I purchased my two dunkin’ spider donuts on day 1 of their promo, little did I know i would be earning a dunkin’ badge for doing so (the badge is just for show…no dough).

itsy bitsy baddie made me smile. not just because of its unexpected appearance and very cute name, but because it communicates in itsy bitsy lowercase…all of which combined to produce an uppercase SMILE for me.

thanks, itsy!

pictures courtesy dunkin’

The Grass Is Not Always Green

We have lived at our residence for twenty years. In that time, the yard has seen anything and everything weather in the Northeast US can provide. Thirty inches of snow and ice at once. Eight inches of rain in an hour. Two months with 90 degree temperatures and no rain. Numerous demented squirrels.

You can find great advice on the Internet about taking care of your lawn and in many cases it is contradictory. The only foolproof advice I have ever gotten for lawn care actually came from my wife. It was the year I accidentally grabbed the nonselective herbicide RoundUp instead of the selective herbicide Ortho Weed Clear and sprayed several dandelions in the front yard with it.

After we examined all the deceased grass in the wake of making that unfortunate substitution, Mrs. B’s sage advice was if I ever did that again, she would round up my sports memorabilia and spray RoundUp on it.

One of the things I obsess over is when to execute the very last mow of the year, trying to guess when grass-growing will slow to a crawl, as well as how high to leave the lawn for the off-season. Ten years ago, there was a particularly snowy and icy period one Fall before the yard had a chance to freeze, and with the grass sitting higher than I’d usually let it go, we had a resulting touch of what I learned later was snow mold. Snow mold does not do any permanent damage, but it was weird seeing parts of the lawn a shade of pink. At least we were fortunate enough to get the more colorful version, as the other shade of snow mold is apparently a very dull gray. However, you might not be shocked a partially pink yard isn’t that visually appealing either, so the goal since that incident is to keep any snow mold from happening so the lawn has a quieter transition into and out of dormancy.

I am admittedly a bit melancholy when the last mow of the year takes place. While the front yard here is for the most part level, the lawn on both sides of the house slope down severely through the backyard until it reaches the invisible property line shared with the home behind us. Push-mowing our yard provides good exercise, and when not mowing for a few months, I do try to incorporate other activities to replace it. Snowfall removal certainly gets the blood pumping, but that activity is sporadic as we don’t get quite as much snow as we used to. In any event, it is a good thing I am a “winter person” to begin with, as I do like to get outside no matter what the weather. I’ve been known to go to the basketball courts in the park and shoot hoops in snow flurries.

I’ve also been known to mow the lawn in snow flurries. I’m actually a bit of a celebrity in that regard. One of my neighbors told me after one late-year mow several years ago, I had been a source of great amusement for both her and her husband.

“Hey honey, come look. Bruce is mowing in the snow.”

Maybe I try a little too hard to coordinate and calculate the end of the growing season, getting the length of the grass just right. For those who enjoy lawncare analytics (no one), looking back over the last ten years my final mow of the year has occurred as follows:

2015 – 10/31

2016 – 11/19

2017 – 11/20

2018 – 11/8

2019 – 11/1

2020 – 11/20

2021 – 11/10

2022 – 11/10

2023 – 11/8

2024 – 10/15

(The irony is not lost on me the fact I have these dates may very well be a sign I take this too seriously….)

In any event, I am monitoring all the weather forecasts, examining the length of the blades of grass, and trying to time that final mow perfectly to ensure the yard has the best chance of staying greenish instead of pinkish. Or grayish. I know if it changes colors again, the lawn will eventually be fine, but I don’t want the yard to be stressed.

I could hire a lawn service to keep myself from being stressed, but could I ever put my yard in the hands of others, even if they appear to be as competent as I am?

Pictures Courtesy Advanced Turf/Great Lakes Landcare/Universal Studios

Fine Print Of The Apocalypse

It has been great reconnecting with the WordPress community. One thing I’ve always wondered about over twenty years of my dipping in and out of WP is how many blogs bloggers attempt to follow regularly. Since I try to read and comment as much as I can, I always have tried to keep my number manageable. Inevitably, I find new blogs which entertain…and that number creeps higher. Right now, I’m back up to 72. In a prior WordPress life, I was once over 100. I don’t know if you find those counts conservative, copacetic, or crazy.

Of course, bloggers blog at different rates, post lengths, etc. so the number of blogs one follows doesn’t begin to tell the whole story. I have seen bloggers in the past apologizing for not making the rounds on blogs they follow. I get that. I have felt I was letting down bloggers if I was super-late to their posts. Sometimes in the past, I wound up doing all following and no writing, especially when life sped up a bit or my creative juices completely stopped flowing. The recurring issue is if I’m not writing at least some of the time, I personally don’t feel like a “real” member of the blogging community, and prior frustration in not posting more has eventually resulted in my departing WordPress completely.

I recently happened across the phrase “plants figure it out.” I think this is a neat way of representing that whatever environment they find themselves in, plants make every attempt to adapt, pivot, and survive. It is what humans are also tasked to do when finding ourselves in new and/or challenging circumstances…figure it out.

So…it made perfect sense when I was hesitating a bit (a lot) about what to start off posting after creating this new (another) blog, I consulted with whom I felt could best help me figure it out.

Ficus was a house-warming gift from Mrs. B’s mother twenty years ago (grainy Year 7 Ficus @ Christmas picture above). It has resided in a sun-splashed corner of an upstairs room long ago christened as “office space,” adjacent to my desk…always watching over me.

At the top of this post we find Ficus present-day, obviously having figured things out over the years while hanging out in its little corner of the world. It has been trimmed back several times, yet always roars back with renewed enthusiasm for expanding its reach further. Therefore, there was little doubt in my mind a conversation with Ficus would help resolve how to best start growing this little corner of WordPress.

Ficus: So, what do you wanna talk about? Is it that blog I watched you start up the other day?

Me: Yup. How did you know?

Ficus: So far, I noticed you have only been reading and commenting on other sites…not writing anything new. From watching you in the past, that kind of behavior leads to your feeling like you are not a real blogger yourself. Over time, you start to get frustrated not finding time to make new content when life gets a bit more busy, and soon afterward you literally delete blogging from your life.

Me: Guilty as charged.

Ficus: So, how can I help?

Me: Well, I am now ruminating a bit about some of my posts no longer being on WordPress. I want to put them back online. They were my posts that represented a “slice of life.” I definitely want to have them available for any new readers who might find them someday. I do want to post more frequently going forward about my “go-to” subjects like current entertainment and sports. I love writing about them, and I’m gonna make those posts happen. It’s just a bit of a crazy time right now. Maybe my return could have been better timed to the realities of current life. I haven’t really gotten anything together yet.

Ficus: So, why don’t you start out on the new site publishing a couple of those prior life-y posts, and then blend in new stuff as it comes to you. That will get you back more quickly into that cycle I know you like to find yourself in. Reading, commenting…and posting.

Me: Makes sense, but I also understand there is a blogging courtesy where you give readers a heads-up when posts might be ones they have already encountered. I want to be able to bring this writing back without suggesting that. I’m sure I will be tweaking and refreshing the posts anyway, but since this new site is supposed to be my “forever” site, I would like all the posts there to look and feel exclusive. It’s not like I have them published anywhere else…except maybe The Wayback Machine. Is this being selfish…a bit picky…or bordering on the obsessive?

Ficus: Look, if those posts were well received, your followers are not gonna mind if they happen to find familiarity on occasion. I think they would agree with me you should do what makes you happy. These things giving you pause here are champagne problems for sure, pal. And to be perfectly honest with you, your readers probably don’t remember reading any of your posts anyway – no offense, of course.

Me: None taken. You’re right. It really is mind-boggling how fast the world spins these days for everyone.

Ficus: Sure. Let’s go with that. Anyway…it is your site. You get to decide if any fine print is required. Look, if you still want to acknowledge that blogging protocol, just let your readers know before you start out what your plan is. Good communication builds even stronger relationships.

Me: Wise beyond your branches…I am very happy we had this talk, my friend for all seasons. Thanks, Ficus.

Ficus: Anytime. I always figure it out.

I am confident Ficus has already started to once more figure it out that daylight hours are slowly decreasing, with its daily rations of light again approaching from different angles.

From the Autumn Equinox to the Spring Equinox, we have entered my favorite time of year. I am sure aside from my love for Fall and Winter weather in the Northeast US, the primary reason is because of the traditional holidays that fall within the first half of that time frame. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s.

Retail and commercial “seasonal creep” has certainly become challenging to ignore as many companies continually try to tear at the fabric of the natural order of holiday traditions. As my love for Halloween has grown in recent years, I continue to be amazed at just how far Christmas has backed up the calendar smack-dab into Halloween. I love Christmas. I even love it more than Halloween. I just think it could be patient until Halloween ends.

I am pretty sure Halloween is pretty pissed Christmas is coming for it so hard (Thanksgiving is used to being overrun by Christmas, but it eats so well I don’t think Thanksgiving cares…). There are a number of entities I could call out for celebrating Christmas in mid-October, but I’ll just aim for one here. It pains me to do so…because in November or December I am all for watching a Hallmark Christmas movie.

Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas starts this year on October 17th.

No. Just. No.

I think it is high time to push back this time. Countdown to Christmas should start on November 1st at the earliest. Make that adjustment to your calendar for next year, Hallmark. Thank you.

More importantly…Halloween thanks you.

Pictures Courtesy City of Salisbury MD/iStock

 

My Sketchy WordPress Past

Hello, there.

I am happy to be returning to the WordPress universe. I disappeared without much of a heads-up, but readers familiar with my WP history have seen this act before.

Lather, rinse, repeat. I have been treating WordPress like an Etch A Sketch over the last couple of decades and after a couple of years or so, I just wipe the content away and start anew.

(I probably dated myself a bit with that Etch A Sketch reference…)

I have always missed communicating with bloggers during time away from WP, but due to a couple of recent developments I acquired a much greater appreciation for how very rare this community is. WordPress readers and commenters have provided me most of my favorite interactions over the last couple of decades. You folks have regularly been more interesting and knowledgeable than those whose paths I intersect with in-person. (No worries…none of them read blogs…)

Kudos to Mrs. B for helping me realize WordPress is a hobby I want to enjoy for the long haul, and she also advised if I ever demonstrate the slightest indication I want to leave WP again, she will covertly make herself the administrator of this space to ensure its safety…and then ensure I’m still checking in on my favorite bloggers even if I’m not actively posting.

While I write infrequently, I pride myself on being a frequent reader and commenter. I look forward to catching up on some of your older posts, as well as connecting and engaging on all new and future ones.

Thank you for stopping by. I look forward to reconnecting with my WordPress pals…and hopefully making new ones as well.

Pictures Courtesy Pixar Wiki, iStock