Saturday Night at Home

There’s George the cat stretching on the Istanbul camel hair rug. He enjoys the heat of the electric fireplace. Gilbert, the blind cockapoo has been playing fetch. Well, not just fetch. His own adaptation. I fetch it then he plays ‘seek’.  It takes a lot longer for the ball to return. I love his little wagging tail.  He gives me a break every once in awhile stopping to chow down on kibbles from his bowl.
I’ve just watched Interstellar. Second time round. Better this time I think.  I’m watching re runs more often older and enjoying them.  I’ve been reading Dan Brown’s “Origen” and very much enjoying that.  Since I first read Da Vinci Code before the movie I’ve read all of Dan Brown’s books. I’m glad for the new one. Like the Star Trek Discovery.  I’d pretty much settled into a rut of NCIS, Big Bang Theory, Hawaii 5.0 and Blue Bloods until that new Star Trek appeared. I look forward to Sunday night for each episode. The other TV just seems to be on when I’m eating or bored.
I swam yesterday. I’ve been walking Gilbert 2 sometimes 4 times a day. He comes a long with me most places but in addition we walk some.  The rest is work. Work seems to take more time during the week with the hour long commutes.
I”m grateful. I’ve been praying thankfully a lot but soul tired.  `The Fake News and News are tedious.  Some days I feel at ground zero for WW3.  The Communists and Fascists joined forces before the last war.  Now they seem to be doing the same.  Archaic legal political systems with cutting edge science.  I’d be happier if we were doing more to get to Mars. I’d hoped to visit in my life time.  Instead of ‘watching ‘ safe’ Survivor series we might instead be in the action of actual expansion and colonization.  The day will come.
I’m struggling with suicide and the microcosm macrocosm of life and death wishes.  Are they wishes or simply competing forces.  I do wonder about death and after life. The rise in aetheism, materialism’s and consumerism go against the spiritual and transcendent. I am an idea and love. This entity of self is what I know.  I feel contained and constrained in an artificial limition of self with the capacity to go so much beyond this sometimes prison.
I love watching the Camille Paulia and Christina Hoff Summers dialogue. There were a number of good presentations I came across that gave me hope.
I had thought to go out tonight to an event or a meeting. I could be with others but it’s been a fairly busy day, shopping, doing chores.  Tomorrow there’s church and we’re having a party for friends leaving. Laura is with her niece whose leaving too. I think of sailing a lot.  I long to face the Atlantic.  Then there’s this fifth wheel. I’ve the enorsement tests to do.  I barely did the phone calls and paper work this week, there was just so much of it. The toxic workplace is frightening. The new politics of ‘induced paranoia’.  We talk among ourselves about everyone being offended. The shock troops of the dying nation.  I worry about every nuance of speech, fear speaking, feel scripted, inauthentic.  I have been told that I am at work to do the least.  Here take this pill.  How are your bowels?  I worry I won’t be able to be minimalist.  I worry that will offend.  I’m utterly exhausted at the end of the day, watching my back, looking over my shoulder, seeking approval of the authorities, attempting desperately to not offend. I worry too that this is my future, people like I’m trying to be, caring for me.  It’s twisted but I don’t know what to do.  Carrying on.  Euthanasia on the horizon.
I thought what I did was ‘service’. I volunteered for the toughest assignments. Did the decades and some of education and more.  Did more education.  Did more service.  But to them it’s just a job.  I’ve taken life all too seriously.  I wonder at the metaphors that others live by.  These new aetheists, communists and activists.  They talk so much of power and so little of truth.  I spent my life trying to understand and healing. I did my best to do good.  I’ve danced with the devil over and over again and walked so many miles in others shoes. And it just comes down to they’ve got the guns, prisons, asylums and money and how alone I feel at times.
Then I turn to God and promises.  I really am blessed.  Grace is good to me.  God is Good. Life is good.  I am so thankful for my dog, for the cat, for this place with indoor plumbing, heat, and a refrigerator with food. I cooked a venison chilli with the deer I shot last year. I froze it all and took some out last night to microwave.  It was delicious.  What a wonder to eat a living creature I’ve shared with untouched by other hands, respected, blessed, touched, a mystical gift. Then add to that cans of tomato and beans and fresh celery , carrots, zucchini, garlic and onion.  I bought the vegetables from a little market near here where big trucks bring fresh produce daily.  I’ve been enjoying local apples too.  I left the propane stove on low simmer till it was tasty, a little under done so that the microwaving would finish the process.   I’m thankful to have the means to do this, the training, skills , the eperience.
I’ve met others with skills while I see so many addicts who have spent their lives in search of pleasure.  A false pleasure.  This time now brings me joy.  I’ve a cat rubbing against me.  He was asleep and now is awake. The dog is sleeping with a ball at his nose.
It’s been raining. I’m yawning and looking forward to my warm and comfortable bed.  The critters often join me initially but prefer to sleep on the floor once they’re comfortable I’m not leaving the bed.  These are idyllic times.  I hear Crosby Stills Nash and Young singing “our house’ in the distance.  Thank you.  I enjoyed seeing friends on face book, their activities, gatherings, interests and birthdays. I like the animal stories too.  The politics isn’t as vapid and loud.  This may be the lull before the storm.  But it’s just as likely things will muddle along as they do.
I’m thankful.  Thank you.

Netflix TV

I've just watched the first season of Jericho on Netflix tv. I've been sick so I've had time lying about and enjoyed immensely the ability to program my entertainment with this brilliant series.  No commercials.  Easy download. I love Netflix.  Cheap at $8 a month.  I've loved tv series I bought in DVD but the cost of $40 or more a season was relatively prohibitive.  That said, Sons of Anarchy was well worth the price when we got it at Sturges North and watched it in the RV rainy nights after a Harley run.
When I first got Netflix a few years back the selection of movies was limitted and I only watched a couple before dropping out.   I've seen a lot of movies over the years being somewhat of a movie buff.  Tuesday 1/2 price movie at the theatre was a regular event some years.  Now it's only the movie that's a must see big screen event like the recent Men in Black that gets me out to the theatre. Some movies are cultural events and seeing them early in the first week at the theatre allowed one to be able to talk about them. Woody Allen films were like that a few years back.  Then there's Kidman's Australia which really needs a truly big screen to appreciate it.  Australia is that big a country.  Otherwise we like to stay at home with the dog and watch DVD.
I'd watched an episode of Jericho on tv and never watched it again. The commercials disrupted the 'flow'.  However, watching the series over a week has been like reading a great book .  The characterization, the sub plots and sub stories have all been so alive this way.  I realized too that commercials have caused television story telling to have to be 'dumbed down'.  Jericho has alot more happening than alot of the mainstream tv. Ironically lack of commercials can kill a tv series but equally commercials can kill a great tv show.
Thanks to netflix I'm reviewing tv series I've not 'caught on' too because without the commercials complex character stories like Jericho are really extremely intriguing. The fast pace thriller aspect is maintained without the interruption too.
I'm hoping that tv series and movie series find a better way to 'make money' to make the money they deserve.  The acting and writing of these has never been better.  Other venues seems to have sorted this out.  I don't mind paying the monthly rent for this sort of quality. I imagine however all manner of things that could of gone the 'commercial' route like 'educational lectures' at Univeristy interrupted every 5 to 10 minutes by a jingo.  Maybe with the health care crisis surgery can interrupted for a 'word from the sponsor'.  I recently had the experience of a video commercial board over a urinal and thought while I missed the opportunity for my own thoughts I preferred commercial in the washroom to commercials in my livingroom.
Just as Frank Lloyd Wright asked that architecture consider the environment it was in  an ahead of his time ecological consideration,  high quality marketting really needs to get on board with better ways of selling without abusing the potential 'customer' the way commercial disruptions of entertainment have.
Netflix  is a  great antidote.
I don't have much time in my schedule for tv or movies as is.  I suspect though I watch at least a couple of hours a day of some sort of entertainment making me one of those roughly 20 hour a week sorts.  Perhaps that's a lot by some standards, less by others.  Whenever I'm sick though or recovering from an injury or overworked tv series and movies are a favourite distraction and entertainment.
Thanks to Netflix though I can better program the content - indeed I could watch more 'discovery' channel easily if I was so enclined. Frankly I do watch a lot of history and science material but nothing beats a good tv series for 'comfort food enjoyment'.  Jericho did that like Friends and Tudors did it, like some of the HBO mini series have too.
Probably having watched so much Jericho this last week I'm a little post apocalyptic and more attentive to the BBC news about world terrorism.  Certainly Sons of Anarchy didn't affect my desire to do crime, if anything it made me more against it, but it did affect my desire to ride my Harley.  Just seeing the bikes on the open road was invigorating. "Friends" always takes me back to medical school days,  nostalgia of student friendships that is always enjoyable. I appreciate the friends I have today more as a result of the relationships depicted in the Friends series and in Seinfeld too.
Netflix lets me choose the tv I want to view.  I confess, if I'm eating alone at home, I prefer to watch tv , a half hour, rather than watching a movie which can have me infront of the screen for an hour and a half limitting the available choices for the evening after that.
I like that it's on my laptop too.  My Mac Air is just fine for viewing.  The Apple cube and tv seemed over priced and didn't have what Netflix has in comparison.

The Mentalist

I enjoy this show. Takes me back to my certification with the American Society of Hypnosis. Milton Erickson,MD was the father of American Hypnosis. He had the skills Patrick Jane is purported as having. Dr. Jay Haley documented Erickson's work. Neurolistic Programming derived from this. The Ericksonian Foundation continues to hold amazing conferences in Arizona. The"Book of Tells" went far beyond the "Naked Ape". So I like the basis of the show in fact. Also I like the light touch that makes the show so enjoyable.