August 5, 2015

 Yesterday I watched an episode of Serious Jibber-Jabber with Conan O'Brien, a “show” where he has a guest on and they talk for about an hour. I'm a fan of it and the latest episode was with Erik Larson, the author of The Devil in the White City and other books. I want to read all of his books but have yet to read any. Someday. Anyway, Conan asked him what his process was like and he said that every day he wakes up early and writes a single page. Even if he gets to the end of the page and he is in the middle of a paragraph or the middle of a sentence or the middle of a thought, he stops. That way when he comes back the next day he will be able to start of being productive because he has to finish what he left unfinished the day before. If he had a moment of inspiration and wrote it all down at once, he would come back the next day and not have anything to write. I think I do that with things. I'll be really productive but I tap myself out and then get into a funk and feel like crap because I can't make myself do anything else. I like the single page a day approach.

I got full night of sleep last night, for the first time in awhile it seems, and it was great. The only reason I got out of bed was because the plumbers were coming and I had to babysit the dogs. Hopefully this is the last time the plumbers have to come. The bubbles in my toilet had them completely stumped. All previous attempts have failed and today they even walked around the backyard and on the roof trying to figure things out. Eventually they shoved a camera down the pipe and when they got out to the city pipe they found a blockage. The guess is that when the house was still being built one of the workers used the bathroom but because there was no other water being used in the house it didn't make it all the way to the city line. Nice. My fingers are crossed that the problem is solved now. It is interesting that in this process it was discovered that there was a pipe missing, even if it didn't necessarily have anything to do with the problem. We also learned that when the plumbing was first done for my toilet they didn't have the right blue prints so they ran the pipes to the opposite wall because that is where they thought the toilet would be. There are a couple cracked tiles between where they toilet is now and where the plumbers thought it was going to be and the leading theory is that the cracks are above where the floor was patched after the plumbers moved their pipes. And all of this is coming to light because someone used the toilet before they should have.

Tonight was Chipotle night and my burrito was really freaking good. It felt like it had been forever since I had eaten a burrito, even though it was only a week ago. I'm really looking forward to the second half tomorrow.

I didn't really accomplish much today but I did watch things. Starting with Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast. Since getting Netflix I will admit that the Tinker Bell movies have become a guilty pleasure. I generally go with the idea that if something makes you happy you shouldn't feel guilty about it but I don't know that I would go around advertising the fact that I have seen all of the Tinker Bell movies. But I have and I like them. And that includes the latest one, which made me happy up until the end because they it turns into a bit of a tear-jerker. I would have liked a happier ending.

I watched Wing Commander with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard, a movie that I don't think I even knew existed. It would probably have been okay if things had stayed that way because it was a pretty bad movie. I think even if I had seen it back when it originally came out I would have thought it was ridiculous. There are some movies that I saw when I was younger and I can now see that they are ridiculous, but I still like them because I can remember how good I thought they were when I was younger. That would not have been the case with this movie. It was just bad.

Next I watched War with Jet Li and Jason Statham. I have avoided watching it before because for some reason I thought I had already seen it. I think I may have seen a part here and there but I don't think I ever saw the whole thing. Maybe it was one I peeked in on at the theater. I don't know, but I liked it. There is a twist that I did not see coming and it was a good one. Not something ridiculous that feels like it was just added because the writer needed an excuse for something crazy happening.

I ended the night with the first two episodes of The Flash. I like it. It is a nice change from Arrow because there is more humor and at least so far it hasn't gotten too dark or soap opera-like. There are definitely underlying mysteries and potential drama because it is based on a comic book, but those haven't overwhelmed the show yet thankfully.

Tomorrow I want to start working on the basement. I've still got a lot of stuff from the move that I need to find a place for. It would be cool if I could get that done before work and school start again. I don't I will but making a dent in it would at least make me feel better.