We’ve now been offered Thursday nights in addition to Sunday nights for ball hockey at the school gym where we play. I think I’ll start going Thursdays because I find it much easier to get through a Friday when I’m sore and tired than a Monday.

Tonight was my first Thursday night run and I’m exhausted. It went really well, though, and for two of the three games (we play three-on-three until one team scores ten) our team didn’t have anyone to sub, leaving all three of us out the entire time. We took a fair number of breaks because damn, but still, wow. So tired.

When I started playing last fall there was no way on earth I could’ve done this, probably not even for one game, let alone two with another game with just the one shift. I’m a little proud of myself to have survived tonight, even though I was hardly running back and forth the entire night. I did more than I could have done a few months ago, though, so that’s something.

Sorry for the short post tonight, I’ll try to make it up over the weekend. But for now, I sleep.

At my wife’s request to pick up the Mass Effect collection for her, I splurged a little and also picked up a copy of the limited edition of Life Is Strange on the PS4. I already own the latter on Steam, and I’m taking my time playing through the five episodes of which it’s comprised. I think I just finished the second one and haven’t picked up from there yet.

Aside from wanting to encourage my wife’s gaming habits – I hardly touched the first Mass Effect myself even – I also wanted to get her to try Life Is Strange, I wanted to support the developers because it’s a great game, and I was a little selfish in wanting to have the limited edition materials as well. It’s a win for everyone!

I really do recommend Life Is Strange to any and everyone. It’s not your standard game at all, rather it’s more like an interactive story with tons of replayability. You play a senior high school student named Max Caulfield who discovers she has the ability to rewind time. Her life is filled with both the typical struggles of a person her age and some not-so-typical ones, and you are faced with a series of decisions and discussions that require your input. Your decisions shape the direction in which the game goes, and you can rewind or do them over in a limited fashion (typically for big decisions once you leave the immediate area it becomes set in stone).

The story is fantastic, and the hand painted visuals and indie soundtrack really add a ton of atmosphere to the experience. I’m torn between wanting to race to the finish and wanting to soak up every bit of the journey, hence my only having reached the start of the third episode. While I know I can always just start again (and I’m sure I will) the must-click-EVERYTHING attitude I have in pretty much every game ever is hard to ignore, you guys.

On the topic of gaming, I caught up some on a Diablo III podcast earlier today so I think I’m going to go work on my Season 5 character there for a bit before bed. I also picked up the second book in 5th Wave series, so I may start in on that before sleeping too.

Only two more days left until the weekend, not that I’m counting or anything.

Much like this whole blog-post-a-day thing isn’t really a resolution but kinda is, I’m also making a not-really-a-resolution to read more this year. Last year I didn’t read nearly as much as I’d like, and worse I didn’t really keep track of it at all.

My plan this year is to use my Goodreads account much more diligently than last. It even has a challenge embedded the site for reading X number of books in a calendar year. When prompted I entered a modest goal of 25 books. I believe I was somewhere in the teens for 2015, though I can’t be sure.

Tonight I finished the first book, The 5th Wave, which I’m going to review over there and will link to here once it’s done. Briefly I really enjoyed it and want to check out the others in the series, and I’ll be going to see the movie with my cousin this coming Sunday.

Next in my queue is David Mitchell’s Slade House, which I kind of have to read, yeah? I loved Cloud Atlas, even if I never did get around to seeing the movie adaptation, so I’ve got high expectations for this one. I’m enjoying it so far though admittedly I’m not that far into it.

I’ll admit, part of my desire to read more comes from this link, which I saw shared on social media somewhere recently. I’m not sure if it was on Twitter, Facebook, or elsewhere, but please feel free to let me know if you shared it and would like credit.

The post at that link attempts to give a graphical representation to various milestones and events in your life, both meaningful and mundane alike. Some of it really makes you think – especially the part of spending time with your parents and family – but I was also struck by the author’s representation regarding books.

He posited that he read five books a year, so by the estimate of living until the age of ninety he had approximately three hundred books left to read. Which sounds like a fair number of books, but when you compare that to the number of books out there, plus those yet to be written, it seems like such a small number. Seeing it represented graphically compared to something mundane, as he did with the number of dumplings he’ll eat between now and then, and it looks downright scary.

Now I’ll likely read more than five books a year, I hope, and like everyone I don’t know how much time I’ll have either, but that number startled me. I have way too many books that I’m either in the middle of reading or that I’ve bought to read and haven’t started yet, and the thought that I just might never get to them struck home harder than I thought it would.

The main takeaway from that post, I believe, was to emphasize appreciating your loved ones and spending time with them. That is certainly true and an extremely important fact of which to be aware, but it’s also important to do the things you love and want to do as well. Reading is one of those things for me and I’m hoping that 2016 will lead to a marked increase in that area along with my writing.

Some excitement in our household tonight. I sat down about two hours ago after my wife (who has an early rise) went to bed, put iTunes on shuffle, and thought about what I’d write here. Before I could get very far, however, our cat, Simon, began scratching at the basement window and crying.

I turned to see what was up and saw him swatting at the blinds, then he fell from the little ledge onto the floor. That woke up the wife, and I got up to see if he was alright (ok, we talk to our cat so I did say “are you ok buddy?” out loud, I’ll admit it). He was fine, and he continued speaking while trotting upstairs to the living room window, clearly agitated.

It turns out another cat was outside the window, and Simon came running back down, hopped up, and both of them commenced bawling in unison.

At this point my wife was back up and we sequestered Simon downstairs while going out to investigate. We didn’t know whether this other cat was hurt or something, but as it turned out it was thankfully just fine. Better than fine, actually; it started purring up a storm when we approached and was jumping up to nudge us, rubbed against our legs, very social.

It was also pretty dry according to my wife, who was the first one out. It’s snowing heavily out tonight, though thankfully it’s not very cold, and soon enough it was pretty wet. That coupled with the fact it looks very well fed, healthy, and had been fixed (the wife checked) lead us to believe it’s a local house cat. Whether it got out by accident or gets out regularly we don’t know. Neither of us have seen it around before, and there are a few others we see every now and then, but this isn’t one of them.

Eventually we let it into our porch and fed it; Simon is very picky about his food so I have a nearly full case of Whiskas pate style he won’t touch, and this cat ate not one but two full cans of it. We put out water too, which it drank, and we’d given it some treats earlier while outside.

Before letting it in, I hastily finished the little kitty hut I’d been working on but it was having none of it. It’s out there now, though, in case it or any other kitty needs a place to stay. I meant to put it out earlier but like many of my projects I got distracted, so at least this forced me to get that done and put out there.

Anyway, the cat and Simon do not get along, so we can’t keep it in the porch. The door between our porch and the kitchen, which I sometimes refer to as our airlock vis a vis keeping Simon inside, has glass panels all through it. While the newcomer was there Simon couldn’t stay away from it and they were hissing and yelling something fierce.

The plan was going to be keep the potential stray inside over night and call the police and/or the town hall in the morning (no shelters for like 50+ km from here) but that clearly wasn’t going to work, so we put out more food (which it ate) and water, plus the little aforementioned shelter, then opened the outside door again. It left of its own volition and wandered back out into the night, but it has food, water, and shelter here should it return and need it.

So yeah, that was our excitement for the evening. Sara’s trying to get some sleep but she’s got to be up at 5:30am at the latest so hopefully she’s not too tired tomorrow. I’ll be headed to bed soon myself, but first I wanted to post this and will now post some pics I took to the NL Lost Pets Facebook group, just in case.

[eta] Attempting to embed my Facebook post to the lost pets group here, let’s see if it works:

It didn’t, but adding one of the pics we took and shared with the group:

 

I remember having to be at the ready at a tape player to hit record when the song you wanted came on the radio. I honestly don’t remember a lot of what I was trying to record; the earliest memories I have of this are in the 80’s, some with my Aunt Wendy babysitting I think. I do remember Bruce Springsteen being one of the artists I wanted to capture, however.

It was probably something from Born in the USA, given its popularity in the mid-80’s and all. I didn’t really know much about The Boss then, though, and wouldn’t really look into him much at all until high school.

While I’m not certain if it was Grade 11 or 12, I do know it took place during a period of Canadian History, which was a mandatory course back in my day. We had a substitute teacher, Mr. King, and not a lot was getting done. It was probably near the end of the day, or maybe even a Friday, because I remember him jotting down song lyrics and having us try and guess what they were.

One of the songs he chose was My Hometown from Born in the USA and he told us about why he’d picked it. For some reason that stuck with me, and later that day or the next I found myself at a local second-hand store with my father. I saw a copy of Born in the USA on cassette for cheap and picked it up.

That was the start of what’s become a lifelong interest in The Boss and the denizens of E Street. This was shortly before he released Human Touch and Lucky Town at the same time, both of which I think I got through Columbia House on CD, but prior to that I worked my way backwards.

I remember being so excited discovering about and getting my hands on Greetings from Asbury Park and The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle; everyone knew about Born to Run but listening to those first two albums before he “made it” made me feel special for some reason, like I’d discovered him all on my own.

Complete and utter foolishness, I know, but I was just a teenager so sue me.

At any rate, ever since then I’ve picked up everything by him I could get my hands on, including every album up to and including Tunnel of Love on vinyl even though I don’t actually have a record player. This includes every boxed set, save for his most recent one which I will get eventually, and even greatest hits / essential collections when they’ve included material not otherwise available.

I distinctly remember borrowing money off of my buddy Brad to buy the Tracks boxed set when it came out. I was living in Burke House with him at the time and attending MUN, and I just didn’t have the money. He knew how much I wanted it and loaned it to me, which I haven’t forgotten to this day.

That boxed set still blows me away; four discs of previously unreleased material, and we’re not talking about each disc only having a half dozen versions of / variations on previously released music either. While there were some demos on them, the vast majority of it was songs he’d simply just not put out for whatever reason, all polished, produced, and ready to go. It blew my mind back then and it still does now. Especially since he’s still doing it; witness the Darkness on the Edge of Town and The River collections from the last few years and how much original stuff was on both of them.

Entwined with my fascination of Springsteen is my learning to play the guitar, which probably helped with my love of both. I’m listening right now to Wild Billy’s Circus Story and I remember trying to figure that one out back in the day. The internet was still pretty young back then and guitar tabs were not nearly as prevalent or as easy to find, but if I couldn’t find them I’d try to figure them out on my own.

In fact, I remember during the short span of time I was fortunate enough to take guitar lessons from Duane Andrews I brought him a copy of Born to Run to ask for his help in learning how to play Jungleland. He was so fascinated by the saxophone solo in it, which changes key from the main song, and I’ll never forget being able to bring him something he enjoyed hearing, as he was (and still is, see his plethora of ECMA awards) such a phenomenal musician himself.

If I could ever be in a tribute band, it would most definitely be a Springsteen one. If anyone’s looking to start one up, let me know, yeah? I should start working on a pun-ny name right now, hmm.

So yes, discovering Springsteen at that time in my life, when I was transitioning from high school to university, from living at home to being on my own (kinda, as I was in residence after all), it really hit home for me. It’s never left, either, and I highly doubt it ever will.

I’ve been fortunate enough to see him in concert just once so far, though I’d love to see them another one or twenty times. It was on his Wrecking Ball tour of 2012, March 28th, the first of two shows in Philadelphia. I actually bought a pair of tickets for both nights but I don’t think my wife was up for two, so I sold my second set on Craigslist to a man who turned out to be a police officer. Not that selling them was illegal or anything, but when I met him on the parking lot of the Rite Aid next to my wife’s then apartment building I must admit I was a little freaked out. I sold them at cost, which I would’ve done for anyone; I was honestly just so amazingly pumped to be seeing him at all, though I’ll admit I would’ve gladly gone twice. He was grateful too and it was a nice moment for me, I suppose; being a hook up for a blue collar fan of The Boss to one of his shows seems almost poetic and certainly appropriate.

Anyway, the show was amazing. I am not a religious person by any stretch, I’ll be the first to admit, and at the risk of sounding sacrilegious it truly was a religious experience for me. Which is exactly how he presents it and performs it, and he did not fail to deliver. The extra layer of reverence was unfortunately due to the passing of two members of the band, Danny Federici some years prior and Clarence Clemons not too long before, and on this tour during their performance of Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out he’d pause to have…

Ok, this bears further explanation. During each show he’d vamp for awhile and would intro each member of the band, saving The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, for last. Each tour he’d mix it up and use a different song for this, and on this tour, the first post-Big Man, that song was Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out. There’s a part in it where the fourth wall is kinda broken with lyrics of “when the changes came up town and the Big Man joined the band *cue sax riffing*”, which has a natural pause before it, so that’s where he’d stop to vamp. And he saved Clarence for last, asking the audience to cheer loud enough for him to hear us wherever he was. And I’m getting a little misty eyed thinking about it now, honestly. I went and got myself a nightcap of Talisker, partly because I want to dammit and partly because, yeah. Rest in Peace, Big Man.

So, yeah. Religious experience. Life… not life changing, that’s the wrong word, but life affirming? Reaffirming? Something along those lines, at least. It was truly the greatest concert of my life and right up there as one of the best moments period. What’s the second best you might ask? Vampire Weekend at The Orpheum in Boston, turning around to see the upper deck literally bouncing as the people in it cheered and sang along, but that’s another story for another time.

There are many other stories I could tell – signing in for my 1st year English class at CONA as Vinny ‘Mad Dog’ Lopez (an old Springsteen drummer) because I knew my prof was a huge fan too, how The Ghost of Tom Joad lead to me reading and loving The Grapes of Wrath, how I included one of his songs in a paper I wrote on law and music for my Law and Popular Culture class in law school – but I’d be here all night. While that sounds like an awesome proposition, as I’m listening to his albums as I write this (The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle is almost over now), I do have to get up early in the morning so this is as good a place to end it as any.

So I’ll leave off with the best (worst?) pun-ny name I could come up with for an NL Springsteen tribute band: Fish ‘n Bruce? Eh? Eh?

Sorry.

We watched The Martian today, which I had previously seen when I was in Saskatchewan. I saw it in a fancy theatre with motion activated chairs, but it still holds up as just as exciting and entertaining when watching it at home. I still prefer the book though, without going into too much detail for people who haven’t enjoyed one or the other as of yet.

I also decided to give Season 5 of Diablo III a shot today. It looks promising and I decided to try another Demon Hunter, which has been fun as well. That was the very first class I played way back when and I’ve levelled at least one of every other class to 70 since then, so it’s been a while since I’ve played another from scratch. That helps with keeping it interesting, along with the season challenges and the new changes in 2.4.0.

The only other things of note today were my allergies bugging me in the morning, which I solved by taking a Reactine, and my self-diagnosed misophonia bothering me more than usual. Which includes while typing this very post, because typing is one of the most annoying sounds for me, at least at times. Given how much time I spend on computers, that’s pretty weird, but it’s true.

The sounds of typing and people eating are what really set it off for me, but thankfully that’s not an all the time thing. Well, ok, the latter may be, but typing doesn’t always affect me so badly. Today though it’s been annoying, my own being the worst, maybe because I’m not wearing headphones as I usually do or the TV is lower or something, it just seems louder today for some reason.

Meh, it’ll be bedtime soon enough so it’s all good. Maybe I’ll go kill some more demons for a bit before that.

I was looking at board games today, as I found myself in St. John’s and decided to pop into one of the local gaming shops, Timemasters. This was partly inspired by listening to a podcast that mentioned Betrayal on the House on the Hill and how it’s apparently sold so many copies they’re having a hard time making more, so much so that future editions will cost more.

So of course I thought I’d try to find one and “save” money by getting it now instead of paying more for it later. Because clearly that’s how you save money, right?

At any rate, no copy was to be found, which is probably just as well. I already own a number of games that I’ve never played because there’s just no one around to play them with, at least not usually. I think the last time we tried was when my sister-in-law and her hubby stayed with us the summer before last in 2014. So no matter how awesome that game looks (seriously, check it out in action on Tabletop) I probably shouldn’t buy it.

Then I think about trying to start a game night amongst friends of ours in the city, or getting my cousin to play some of the two player games I’ve got – including this DC deck building game he gave me a few years ago – something like that could work perhaps.

I also came close to buying another D&D book but I’ve got so, so many of those that I’ve never used, including a lot of 4th edition ones (the current edition is the 5th). Instead of buying something else I probably won’t use, I may just try my hand at some world building with what I have, see what I can come up with and if anyone’s interested in giving that a shot.

That might be what I do with my Saturday. For now I’m off to give the new season of Diablo III a shot I think.

Finally finished watching Making a Murderer tonight. I have a lot of thoughts but it’s going for midnight and I kind of just want to sleep. So that means tonight’s entry is just filler, sorry.

I will enter a short list of topics that have popped into my head lately upon which I can elaborate in future posts: Springsteen, misophonia, how I started playing guitar, the Lore podcast, to name a few.

So, yes, sleep for now and I will write something more substantive over the weekend. I know, I’ll make not one but two bigger than usual entries, one each on Saturday and Sunday, there we go. Goals set.

And now I sleep!

So I think today is going to be another filler day. It’s been a long one and I’m really too tired to think of anything interesting to write about unfortunately.

What I did think about when I came home was pretty random, namely looking for a laptop skin for my MacBook Air. I think I’ve been seeing some in use on various TV shows lately and that’s why it’s on my mind, but a.) I don’t really need one, and b.) while it’s still pretty awesome this laptop’s not the newest, so who knows how long I’d be using it anyway? I’ve been looking at them to pass the time regardless though, because that’s just how I roll apparently.

I’m also browsing through the strategy guide I got yesterday for Pillars of Eternity, though I’ve yet to start playing it. I was waiting for the guide so I should start it now that it’s here, and yet. I’m as bad with games as I am with books. And movies. And TV shows. And… well, everything, I guess.

That makes me look to one of the many piles of media stacked throughout the room, especially the copy of Assassin’s Creed Unity (picked up November 2014) that I’ve yet to finish and the copy of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (picked up November 2015) that I’ve already purchased without having finished its predecessor. Whoops.

Oh hey, now I know what I can look for: Assassin’s Creed laptop skins. See? Full circle, awesome.

We explored more of Making a Murderer tonight, watching episodes four through six before Sara had to call it a night. Hopefully we’ll finish it off tomorrow night because wow. I’d read some reviews by other people that talked about yelling at their TVs and laughed, but I’ve done my fair share of that so far.

I mean, I don’t know much about American law but some of what I’ve seen so far is just universally stupefying. I don’t even know where to start, and I won’t until I finish because I know there’s going to be a lot more to see and comment on before we’re done. I also don’t want to post here without a warning or anything because I don’t want to spoil things for people, especially since I haven’t been spoiled myself (unlike with The Force Awakens sadly).

While driving today I also listened to the two latest episodes of Serial, which was interesting, the second last episode of Welcome to Night Vale, and the two recent Mike and Tom Eat Snacks episodes that just came out much to my pleasant surprise. Michael Ian Black and Tom Cavanagh are just too damn funny together, I was laughing out loud by the time I got home. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, I’m sure, but it was laughter I really needed today so I appreciated it more than usual.

Lastly, but not least, we received the end of our Christmas presents today, which for me consisted of two books from my sister-in-law and her hubby, thanks guys! One was pretty deep on the old wishlist and the other is a book in a steampunk series I’ve been enjoying. I also forgot to mention receiving season one of Black Sails from another friend lately too, thanks for that as well!

Lots to read and watch for 2016 indeed, and on top of that a strategy guide I ordered for Pillars of Eternity arrived today too, so if anyone hears me say I’m bored please feel free to kick me in the behind.