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Post by doctorz on Dec 11, 2009 13:42:14 GMT -5
I guess what bugs me about most casual conversation among acquaintances is that it's about nothing. I honestly think I've been spoiled by graduate school where you can have a fascinating conversation with anyone just by asking them what they've been reading. I don't know what happens. It seems that as you get older your life becomes more and more repetitive. You settle into a routine. Once in a while you do something out of the ordinary but not that often. I have some friends who haven't taken a vacation that doesn't involve visiting out of town family in years! They just don't take any risks at all. If your life is like that I guess you can only talk about your golf game, your kids and mundane stuff like that because that's all there is. If it doesn't bother you so much the better. I know me and my wife are considered by many of our friends to be pretty exotic and unusual because we often vacation out of the country. I don't think it's unusual but I guess I was educated the time we took a couple to England with us on one of our trips. For the first couple of days they were terrified and never let us out of their sight. England, for God's sake. It is a foreign country but you can speak the language..sort of. Anyway they settled down and told us they had cocktail chatter for a year afterwards.
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Post by doctorz on Dec 28, 2009 15:19:36 GMT -5
Had a very good Christmas vacation. We ate and drank too much and it was pretty intense all the way round. I did manage to watch my favorite MST3k episodes and the new releases from Rifftax and Cinematic Titanic in between all the family madness. As usual I went to bed way early on Christmas night. I did the four mile walk, made Irish coffee for Lee, passed around my mulled wine, opened presents, talked with everyone. did the dishes after turkey dinner and finally collapsed about 8:30pm. I never make it much past 9 but it was the good kind of tired. I will certainly do it again next year.
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Post by doctorz on Jan 25, 2010 15:59:42 GMT -5
Another birthday has come and gone. I had a nice party Saturday and I had a lot of my friends attend. I roasted oysters for everyone and drank a lot of Polish beer. The scary thing is that in less than a year I will turn 60. I try not to let it upset me, but it does. Now there is no more denying that the rapid downward slide to oblivion will start in earnest. I am not going to rage against the fading of the light. I'm not that kind of person. I will quietly fade out because that is what I'm most comfortable with. The morning of my birthday I threw out the last of my grade school through college memorabilia. There is now nothing left of that past. Some people may think that was an awful thing to do, but I don't think so. I hold to a very general opinion that you either have to be a president or kill a president to be truly immortal or famous. for 99.9995% of humanity there is really nothing all that special about us. I think I heard somewhere that when you die the relative that you saddled your estate with generally hires a specialist to come in and take care of things. A few keepsakes are taken home, but mostly all our houses are so full of our own junk that there isn't much room for anything more. What I found most remarkable is that the people who clean out your estate spend most of their time throwing away the vast accumulation of papers, pictures, newspaper clippings and scrap books that nobody wants. A couple of weeks ago I threw out 24 boxes (liquor store size) of books, papers, pictures, old computer junk, comics and other accumulations of matter that were not worth a cent and I hadn't touched in 15 or 20 years. I also made two trips to the dump with the back of my car full of junk the trash man wouldn't take. For some people what I did was unthinkable, but I believe that stuff owns you, not the other way around. What I have left I use and if possible I will not accumulate more.
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Post by Mighty Jack on Jan 26, 2010 1:38:49 GMT -5
I'm sorry to read about the 60s causing upset, but I empathize and get what your talking about.
I'm approaching 50 and all the 'stuff' that used to be important, is pretty much meaningless today. When I moved briefly to Portland, I just took what I could pack in the car and put the rest in storage.
I still have the storage unit.
My Uncle helped me get a bed out of storage when I moved back and I told him how I didn't miss much of anything else in there. I was fine with my essentials, clothes etc. And If have my movies I rewatch, my music, some books... I'm good.
When I get the energy I'm going to go through it, grab the things I think others might like to have (books mostly) then load of it up and haul it to the dump.
At one time that would have been unthinkable, but at this point in my life.... hell I can't take it with me.
Good luck Doc, and happy belated birthday.
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Post by doctorz on Feb 2, 2010 10:56:44 GMT -5
Thanks. Actually I feel better now. Sure 60 will freak me out for a while, but I'll get used to the idea and go on. Last Saturday was the last trip to the dump. I have some stuff that I've reserved for the yard sale we are going to have in March. Stuff like old watches, exercise equipment, my father's golf clubs a canoe motor (?!) a rope bed, a phony claymore sword and a marquee tent will be put up for sale and that will be the end of it. It's like a weight off your back and it feels great.
This month (February) is going to be a quiet one. The holidays and my birthday are over for this year and nobody's coming to visit and no social obligations have to be filled. I am looking forward to getting to the "B-24" project. My father flew these in WWII and I've slowly been accumulating 1/72 model kits new and old. I just bought a new airbrush and so I'm ready to build some kits. The wonderful thing about being older is you can go back to some of the hobbies you had as a kid and nobody thinks the less of you for it.
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Post by doctorz on Feb 25, 2010 10:53:08 GMT -5
Late February - Early March.
Ah, diets. About the middle of February I weighed in at 287lbs. That became completely unacceptable. I have been fat for two decades now and I'm finally fed up with it. I am NOT going on a formal diet. I have decided to cut out all snacking and sugar sodas. Mostly I eat healthy meals and exercise five days a week so I think the problem really is between meal snacking and sugar drinks. I started this week and have given my wife full reign to nag and police my eating at home (I asked her to help me.) So far I have lost 10 pounds and am down to 277. I'd like to lose 80 to 90 pounds more. I'll be at this awhile.
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Post by caucasoididiot on Feb 26, 2010 19:58:05 GMT -5
Hang in there with cutting out the snacks, Doc. I remember how tough it was to break my smoking habit.
Your thought on your stuff coming to own you is really rather Zen. I wish I could bring myself to do the same, at least weeding out the obvious junk. But then I think maybe I can corner the market on antique coffee cans or something.
So, where did your dad fly?
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Post by doctorz on Mar 9, 2010 9:42:27 GMT -5
Getting rid of cable - Comcast finally added the straw that broke the camel's back this week. They took away the History channel and added it to their "digital package." Ever since they assumed a monopoly for cable here in St. Augustine the basic TV service has been getting steadily worse. When they took over from Warner Cable the basic package immediately lost National Geographic, The Travel Channel and Turner Classic Movies, three of my favorites. I fussed, but my wife told me to deal with it. Over the years the picture on many of the channels has gotten progressively grainier and the programing has gotten worse. I hate reality TV. I mean, if I want to be entertained by disfunctional food tubes all I have to do is go down to the nearest Mega-Mart and watch. I don't have to pay to watch foul mouthed morons scream at each other. That's all around us every day and for real. Anyway we will be getting hooked up with satellite and the channels we have missed for years for less than what we are pay now for cable. The only thing I'm worried about is losing my high speed cable modem. I hope we can keep that, but we may not.
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Post by doctorz on Apr 17, 2010 18:55:27 GMT -5
April, 16th 2010 - Princeton NJ - Cinematic Titanic's show My wife and I flew into Newark airport about 1:00pm and met up with her mother. We immediately had stuff to do and I had little time to get my bearings before we were off the Princeton to get a meal and see the show. My wife loves Indian food. Me? Not so much. I can have a great meal or, usually, I'll get something that doesn't agree with me. Guess which one this time! That and my mother in law will not spend more than $10 for a bottle of wine so what I drank was some cheap Spanish red. The combination made me bloated and somewhat ill. Such was my condition when I entered the theater. There were twice as many people as the Austin Show last year. It was a much bigger venue. I had the feeling that most of the audience was not from Princeton. Some of Gruber's jokes didn't go over very well. I had the feeling that most people there came from Philadelphia and outlying communities as well as some New Yorkers who had conflicts for their show. The place was packed and ready. The warm up show hasn't changed a whole lot from last year. J.Elvis did his attention deficit radio routine and Frank did "Convoluted Man." Joel came out and introduced the cast and they quickly settled down to do the show. The movie was A Japanese Sci Fi epic named "Genocide." I'd never heard of it and as we got into the show I could see why. This movie must have caused the Titans immense pain in repeated watchings, because it was sure killing me to watch it just once. God, it was bad! The audience was laughing uproariously all though the performance. I was sick. About three quarters of the way through I was like Kevin Murphy wanting to shout, END! END! This had nothing to do with the performance of the Titans and everything to do with the churning kettle of cheap Spanish plunk and Indian Curry that was my stomach. After it was all over, my mother in law showed us a quick way out of the theater so I made my exit without seeing the Titans at all. I didn't want to kill them with a foul gaseous emission from any of my exits after they had given their all and such pleasure to their audience. I didn't meet up with father-mushroom and I didn't see RAD. I had what fun I was capable of having so I am grateful for that. My glass was at least half full. Next time, NO INDIAN FOOD!
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Post by doctorz on Oct 19, 2010 10:58:02 GMT -5
A fond farewell.
It's been months since I've posted anything and the reason is I've moved on.
The worst of it is that the unmistakable truth hit me in the middle of Cinematic Titanic's April Princeton show. There I was in the midst of a whole auditorium of fans just like in Austin last year and in the middle of the show I started looking at my watch and was wondering when it would be over. Me, my wife and mother in law left by a side exit after the last bow and I've never looked back.
This is not to say the show wasn't good or funny or the mads weren't on their game that night. Something changed in me. I'm no longer an excited fan.
I still download the occasional Rifftrax short and a movie riff if the movie is watchable but I don't think I've watched a MST3K episode in 6 months. I haven't really had anything constructive or interesting to say about the show for years. Another problem is I am just not funny and so Sloan is a waste for me as well.
I've enjoyed the time I've spent here and it certainly helped me through the time between the end of the show on air and the new Riffing projects started up by the old cast members. Some of you are hilarious and have helped me though some dark days for which I am grateful. But, over is over so best of luck to you all and as R.E.Lee said to the Army of Northern Virginia, I bid you all an affectionate farewell.
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Post by Ratso on Oct 19, 2010 11:13:14 GMT -5
I've enjoyed the time I've spent here and it certainly helped me through the time between the end of the show on air and the new Riffing projects started up by the old cast members. Some of you are hilarious and have helped me though some dark days for which I am grateful. But, over is over so best of luck to you all and as R.E.Lee said to the Army of Northern Virginia, I bid you all an affectionate farewell.
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Post by Captain Hygiene on Oct 20, 2010 17:59:11 GMT -5
Aw, boo. Sorry to hear it, but wish you well in your post-board life.
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Post by Phantom Engineer on Oct 20, 2010 18:02:16 GMT -5
Farewell Doc, we hardly knew ye.
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Post by solgroupie on Oct 20, 2010 19:48:28 GMT -5
Another problem is I am just not funny and so Sloan is a waste for me as well. i don't see what funny and sloane have to do with each other, but i wish you well, doc. i'll think of you every time i spend time with the green fairy.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Oct 20, 2010 21:58:47 GMT -5
Well that sucks. I just noticed this. DAMN YOU, DR. Z! DAMN YOU ALL TO HECK!
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