DONATE TO HELP

I wish had an abundance of anti-tank and anti-air equipment to give to the Armed Forces of Ukraine but I don’t, so instead I donated to the Canadian Red Cross’ campaign to assist with the growing humanitarian crisis in and around Ukraine. Untold thousands of people have now been displaced and have faced or will face arduous journeys to get to safety. Most of these people are women, children, and seniors.

This is by no means the only method of helping. In fact, you can send money directly to the Armed Forces Of Ukraine here. This is the first time I’ve seen a modern military accepting donations from basically anyone during an active conflict but I these are extremely grave circumstances, so I understand.

On the topic of money, I cannot comprehend how much money will be required to facilitate this war and for the recovery that comes after it (oh dear, I hope there will be a recovery). It will likely be in the trillions.

UGH

I did not envision a future where I’d be living through a global pandemic and a war in Europe at the same time. May good fortune visit the people of Ukraine now and forever.

REMOTE

Last summer I had the good fortune to purchase a new TV, the LG C1, in the 55″ model. At the time, everything about the TV was so impressive and I guess I was easy to impress, given that my previous TV was over ten years old at that point. The one thing that did bother me was the remote.

The “down” button of the directional pad was “sticky”. You had to press it just right for the TV to register the input. It worked just well enough that I put up with it, even though there was clearly something wrong with that button. As you might imagine, with a modern smart TV, one needs to navigate a plethora of menus and moving the cursor “down” is one of the most common inputs you send to the TV. Over the last few months, I have fruitlessly tried to move many cursors down without the TV registering the input.

My one-year warranty for parts and labour is coming to an end in a few months and I decided it was silly to just put up with a wonky remote. The warranty is there for a reason and I should take advantage of it. A few days ago I contacted LG support to describe the situation to them. Their first response was to visit a website and purchase a new remote. This was not a good first impression as my support request clearly included the serial number of my TV (which is registered with them) and they easily could have seen it was still within the warranty period.

I had to contact them again, this time by phone and explain it to them that I wasn’t going to pay out of pocket for a new remote that is still covered by a warranty. Thankfully the phone support person was much easier to deal with and understood I was still under warranty.

It’ll take a few weeks but I’m getting a new remote shipped out to me. Thank you LG!

GLORIOUS

I have been off from work since end of day Wednesday. I don’t even remember what I was doing last week or even what my job function is anymore. During the last five days I did a ton of things, some fun and some grown-up things.

One evening, I decided to give the tiles in my bathroom and kitchen a thorough scrubbing. Like I got on my hands and knees and used brushes and scrubbed the tiles. Every square millimeter got a cleansing. It was a lot of work and it took a bit of time but it was worth it.

I binged a bunch of series on streaming and one series I recommend in general is “Murderville“. Yes, it is yet another American series which is based off a British series that came first, but it’s still entertaining.

I also managed to cook a new recipe for dinner. I made a braised chicken dish with bok choy, sausages, onions, and potatoes, served with rice. It’s a modified recipe based on this original one. I substituted the cabbage with bok choy because it’s bok choy is leafier and greener. I also went with sausages instead of bacon because I thought the bacon might be too fatty and oily for this dish.

I was able to also get outside on two different days and enjoy the sun. I just did two long walks to get some fresh air and not be stuck inside for all five days.

Finally, I was did my taxes. I just have one more receipt to enter but it’s basically done. It was not the result I was expecting, which I’ll detail in a separate post later.

I really don’t want to go back to work tomorrow.

WASHY

I used my dishwasher two nights in a row and I can’t remember the last time that happened. Last night I used it because I had accumulated so many dirty dishes, bowls, and utensils that it just made sense to let the machine clean it for me.

This evening I made pasta for dinner, including the noodles themselves. This endeavour, while also labour intensive, also had me using a plethora of bowls, plates, spoons, cutting boards, colanders, and strainers. It was just a mess. It was also a no-brainer to let the machine do the cleaning tonight.

Will it be a third night of machine cleaning tomorrow? Who knows?!?!?!!

11.22.63

Six years ago, I started watching the mini-series 11.22.63, which is based on the Stephen King novel 11/22/63. I got about half-way through before I stopped watching it. I’m not sure why. I love the book. I really enjoyed the episodes I watched up until that point.

Maybe I got busy and wasn’t able to get back into it. Sometimes you get interrupted while doing something and if you don’t get back into it right away, it can be tough to get started again. Or maybe I was afraid the mini-series would end the same way the book did, bittersweet and quite sad.

Nevertheless, for whatever reason, I pushed through and watch the remaining episodes last week. They were really good. The last scene of the last episode is basically lifted straight from the last page of the book, which meant it was again bittersweet and quite sad. It made me shed a few tears but that was ok.

I would recommend the book to anyone, with a follow-up recommendation for the show.

ANNOUNCEMENT

I was in line at A&W for a coffee this afternoon and a guy behind me thought I was a bus driver. I think he mistook my dark blue jacket and comfy shoes as a bus driving outfit. He heard me order a coffee and then said, “buses run on coffee!”. I turned around and he then realized I wasn’t a bus driver. I felt bad for him at that moment. It was kinda awkward but at least we exchanged numbers.

THE SEQUELS SUCK

There have been nine movies made in the Star Wars universe that deal with the space opera saga that is the Skywalker family. The last three movies, dubbed the sequel trilogy, are terrible. They came very close to ruining Star Wars for me, which given how important those movies were to my childhood, would have made little me very sad.

The last three movies were soulless, empty shells that were superficially movies in that they had dialogue, characters, and visual effects but it amounted to pretty much nothing. They were forgettable. I’ve never really had the elegance to put into words how bad they were but the video essay above does a better job that I could ever have.

CONAN ON DAVE

A young and jeans-clad Conan O’Brien visits Dave just weeks after the Canucks lost game seven in the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals. Conan and Dave have nothing to do with that, I just wanted to give some personal context. I was probably still pretty sad at the time.