chase_acow

Thought I might be having some sort of cardiac related unpleasantness on Friday night, so I did what any debt fearing American would do and waited until Monday morning to call my nurse practitioner for my covered yearly check-up. They managed to squeeze me in today and after talking about my symptoms, how my heart rate still hadn't regulated back down to normal, and everything going on with my job, we settled on it probably being a several days long eruption of all the anxiety and stress I've been shoving down for so long. So I went and got some beta blockers and a low dose serotonin and we'll see what happens.

I am once again applying to literally everything at my university I think I could do a remotely good job at and will keep these freeloaders in kibble and wet food.

I enjoyed the movie Ballerina a lot. The fight scene using only the grenade belt was fun.

I suffered the movie 28 Years Later. It was a trailer bait and switch.

Glen Powell's new movie dropped a trailer. I enjoyed the first Running Man, and this one somehow looks just as, if differently, unhinged. I borrowed the book from the library and hopefully this weekend will be dead at work so I can read it.

Baseball:Want to start watching baseball and not sure which team to pick? Here's how we found the Ultimate Bandwagon Team of 2025!

And I'd like to see this movie, though it looks like a total brofest, set in the 90s about one last baseball game for the fellas before their diamond gets demolished. Not for a mall or some other corporate bad guy, but for a public school that will benefit the whole community. - An eephus pitch is unnaturally slow, aiming to confuse the batter. “Stays in the air forever,” the player explains. “You get bored watching it. I get bored.” It makes the batter “lose track of time,” he concludes. “It’s pretty mean that way.” “Eephus,” a movie in which nothing really happens but many things occur nonetheless.

Watch on YouTube

Food stuff!: Better late than never: The Most Popular Super Bowl Dips in Each State According to Google So many good dips to try!

Movie: I went to see My Dead Friend Zoe staring Sonequa Martin-Green (I really like her in Star Trek Discovery and I think she's so pretty) with a little bit of Morgan Freeman (group counselor) and Ed Harris (grandpa just diagnosed with alzheimer's). I cried through like the whole thing for various reasons, laughed more than a little bit at the meet-cute, and really liked the ending. It's grief and it's super messy, and it is a tragedy based on true circumstance.

( Inspired by a true story, a U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran—thanks to the presence of her dead best friend from the Army—is at odds with her estranged Vietnam Veteran grandfather and her VA counselor. )

EMERGENCY: My town is battling fires and yesterday sustained wind gusting up to 80mph. The other side from my house - which I'm just so lucky for since I slept through when their mandatory evacuations started. I woke up at 8:45pm to a handful of messages checking to see if I was okay which was when I realized it was smoke I smelled from in my bedroom. The outside cats were super spooked and actually demanded to come inside. I told them I wasn't sure it was safer, but it wasn't like I was gonna tell them 'no'.

Went into work early at 10 to replace my boss who was finally headed home after 14hrs, the roads were super hazy and their were a bunch of damage from the wind. I figured I might as well get overtime and have more information if I was going to be stuck in a heightened anxiety loop anyway. The lake we manage, which has a decent permanent population, was under a mandatory evacuation order so the officers were going tent to camper to cabin to warn everybody (there's only one road in and it was in danger of being blocked) and a handful of people refused to leave and were told that there was not enough resources and help would not be able to come for them if they changed their mind later. It was brutal.

The wind is less now at 6:30am and it changed direction so hopefully any flying embers land back in previously burnt areas.

I'm not a big fan Will Ferrell movies or when he's doing a bit. I loved Stranger Than Fiction where he is a boringly routine IRS agent who one day starts to hear someone narrate his life and then predict his death. He falls in love with a baker, and then it gets super meta with the author trying to get over writer's block and also save the character's life.

I do, for no good reason I can recall, think he's just a good dude. So when I heard he and his friend were doing a documentary about a road trip and discussing his friend's transition to living as a woman, I was interested enough to check out the trailer. I think it looks good and is definitely going to make me cry both funny and heartfelt tears. (also everything makes me cry now - what are these getting older hormones?!?)




I got into a funk after my last post. There's a small chance I didn't know I didn't mean that I like walking without a dog. It's so weird to not have a dog. IDK. So, I've just been longing for the cool front this weekend - after working to get used to sweat, the football game is going to start at 71 degrees and now I'm worried my dad will need a jacket.


I put in my time off request for Nov 5th-7th. I figure we'll either know who won the election by then, or everyone will be tired of talking about it. Either way, I'll have the new Dragon Age game to entertain me. I hope it's good. I can't even replay Mass Effect: Andromeda anymore, it such a waste of time in a wide but shallow quest log.


However, I did get obsessed with Match Factory you match three like things to clear the board. You don't have to watch any adds, there are pretty colors, and it's both relaxing/mindless fun and a little difficult enough to engage a bit of strategy. I'm on level 1,400 or something.

After 10+ years of working public service, my student loans - original amount $56k(ish) with $62k(ish) owed last month - got forgiven. Huge weight gone, and they even refund about $1,500 I overpaid because I didn't get the process started in time.

The Razzies really disliked Chris Evans and Ghosted (I didn't bother to watch it.) but I really hope Meg 2 wins everything. That was my bitter disappointment movie last year.

How to Feel a Little Better in 2024
It’s time to let go of impossible-to-achieve health goals and just…do less.

The Meanest Time Travel Movie Ever Made, 20 Years Later. If ‘The Butterfly Effect’ is remembered for anything, it’s unrelenting cruelty. The thing is, it was almost even crueler.

We watched the Director's Cut without realizing it was a whole separate ending, and were super confused when we were talking to people who'd seen the theatrical release. I still like this movie - with either ending.

I managed to bring two of the outside cats in during the cold snap and then the rain and we were all fairly comfortable. They were given the choice to go back outside yesterday morning and I tried not to take it personally when they immediately darted out and proceeded to frolic, roll in the dirt, and make love to the driveway again. I blame the black cats, they turned into bullying buttheads as time went on.*

( Shark Bait and Dasher. They're stinkin' adorable. )

* I mean not really, cats are territorial and Shark-Bait isn't neutered yet because Operation Catnip cancelled their last two TNR clinics. They all behaved so well for the small space of my house. I still believe Shark would be someone's fantastic companion, but I also won't be sad if we don't get that cold again and I don't have to kidnap him inside again.

Nine days in a night shift streak is too many. I'm about to put a bloody hand print on a Lysol tube for some entertainment. I am really looking forward to the next seven days I get off though. I'm going to sleep at night and go to sit down restaurants during the day. You know, live the dream.

Vox's 2022 in 7 mins - was a little depressing, not gonna lie.

How Will We Eat in 2023? Here Are 10 Predictions.( NY Times, here's the spark notes. )

New fave Glen Powell was on GameDay this morning as their guest picker for Texas v Alabama. Dude has a similar football philosophy, and most importantly, picked my team.

( how does he look so good in a mullet? )

I am still very pleased by my Rooster/Hangman fic where Hangman forces everyone to watch Texas v Oklahoma.

Also, super tired of working. I go in for a ten hr shift to cover the football game tonight and it is day 11 of 12 consecutive I had to go to work days because my days off got eaten by a coworker catching covid. I only had to work 6 and 4 hrs each for my days off, but it still decreases my de-stressing time. I don't think I've caught covid yet since the beginning, I desperately don't want to get it and I am still mostly being safe about things, but a week off without using leave would be awesome.

Mackie is almost 6 months now, and he's a little 9lb bowling bowl who gallops across the house at all hours and is testing new things he can jump on. He's gonna be such a big little asshole cat, I am excited to see how his personality settles in.

( required pics! )

( I want the Bros movie like right now. I love this trailer! )

My arch nemesis the ice-cream van driver woke me up before 6 yesterday, but my sleep schedule has been so wonky I decided to go with it, get up, and try to enjoy going outside to sit with the sun for a little bit. I started taking a vitamin D supplement with this round of night shift, but I figured some of the real deal couldn't hurt anything. Today the neighbor across the street was playing music in their front yard though it was only loud enough for the bass to get to my bedroom, and it sounded enough like polka to lead to the weirdest nightmare. . .

( I've been listening to The Magnus Archives again, so it was a mash up statement with Oktoberfest )

I didn't watch a single men's ncaa basketball game, but my inner gambler/competitor couldn't help filling out a bracket. I decided first step was picking the team with more wins vs top 25 teams and then to go with my gut. I have Villanova winning it all.

( Star Trek Discovery )

I watched season 41 and the first episode of this new season of Survivor, and I love the changes. Most obviously, it's so diverse and THEY GET TO WEAR CLOTHES! There are other changes of course, it's 26 days instead of 39, so the contestants have to start playing a lot faster and it feels likes there's nowhere to hide.

60 year old Jeff Probst will no longer use 'guys' as a group pronoun and also he clearly made a deal somewhere to stop aging.

I finished reading Bird Box by Josh Malerman and it is very similar and very different than the Sandra Bullock Netflix movie (which I really liked). I enjoyed it quite a lot, and am now waiting for the sequel Malorie from the library.

( four more weeks on night shift )

Had an uneven xmas day. Started out by getting in a fight with the cat I actually like, but she popped back up when I got home and seems to have forgiven me. I mean she peed on my bed, but apparently she's the wounded party.

Dinner went great. I hauled the air fryer to work so one of the guys could hold my hand while I pushed the buttons for the first time. I did both steak and chicken for fajita rice bowls, and it was delicious! We watched the new Matrix, and I liked how meta it was. There was of course nothing going on and no one on campus.

I'd already decided to go home for my two days off, but I was glad I'd already decided when work emailed with bad covid news. I'd just seen my parents a few weeks ago in my town, but I haven't been back to their place in over two years. Is my stepmom such a bad cook that she can very nearly ruin a box of mac&cheese? Yes. Is it very boring? Yes. But I am glad to swing through and spend time with them.

( cut for sad things )

I am looking forward to nachos and football on Saturday.

Stargate SG-1 & Atlantis Cast Members To Perform AI-Driven Table Read! I can only imagine what fresh hell this AI is going to unleash. Someone should slip it some fanfic too, just to liven things up.

I'm on probation again at work! \0/ I hate them so much (but in a non-present way because I have learned not to actually stress over it). I continue to hope that the next time they're out at a fancy restaurant, they choke a little and poop themselves in front of everyone.

This year has seen an increase in bad behavior on game days at the stadium. We're open to full capacity, masks are "expected" (no one wears them), this is the third year of beer sales in the stadium, our team is a very unconvincing 5-0, and we are woefully understaffed in police and stadium people. I lost count of how many people got kicked out this last Saturday. There were two assaults on officers, several minor fan-on-fan scuffles, and a very weird domestic where dad and brother ganged up on sister and her husband. IDK, like it's not hard to not be a drunk dick in public. I'm just glad I get to stay on the other side of campus in my bunker and work the issues outside the stadium.

An eclectic 8hr mix of Halloween type music:

( covid and work stuff )

“A million years ago there had been no river here and in a million years to come there might be no river – but in a million years from now there would be, if not Man, at least a caring thing. And that was the secret of the universe, Enoch told himself – a thing that went on caring.”
― Clifford D. Simak, Way Station

I loved this book. Which makes two for two with this author. It's my favorite kind of sci-fi which is focused on the aspect of actually being human and what that means for the individual and the for the community. It has a lot of connections with nature and, what I thought, the idea of if being an Earthling equaled or had an effect on humanity. It was published in 1963 and I just like that it's so old that it's new, y'know? Like it's not full of the same tropes everyone is using now. But as far as I've been able to tell, I haven't noticed any blatant isms that would make his books unreadable.

I am now 7 books behind schedule. Good luck to my reading goal!

“As if this were a special place, one of those special places that each man must seek out for himself, and count himself as lucky if he ever found it, for there were those who sought and never found it. And worst of all, there were even those who never hunted for it.”
― Clifford D. Simak, Way Station