Month: December 2018

30 Days of Blogging: Day 8

So I’ve been re-watching Babylon 5 recently and I’ve been struck by how timely it is for what is going on in our country right now. While the main storyline of a great battle between the forces of light and dark permeates the seasons, it’s the subtext of the anti-alien sentiment from forces on Earth that really speaks to our current time. The Earth First movement is very much like what Trump is doing now with his Make America Great Again, in fact in one of the scenes I could have sworn that one of the characters talks about making Earth Great Again.

The show is also masterful at discussing the causes for why the movement gets started: loss of jobs, fear of change and the awakening of a larger place in the universe for Earth. These are all the same things that the followers of Trump are feeling. Babylon 5 also does a good job of sympathizing with and showing the evils of these emotions that the characters deal with so that it creates a very layered story and is not just one dimensional of good vs. evil.

Another storyline in Babylon 5 though that is also part of our times is the conspiracy theories keep the mystery to some of the episodes. With the Psi Corp and the various government intrigues, it seems like stories that were taken directly from our own daily news. Unfortunately, while many of today’s conspiracies are being used by Trump and his brand of conservativism to drum up support for himself and have no basis in fact, the some of the conspiracies in Babylon 5 are ultimately true.

Well, as I re-watch the show, I wonder if Babylon 5 will get a reboot like so many other shows from the ’80s and ’90s. If it does, I wonder if it will have compelling stories of racism, conspiracy and some of the other themes that are present in today’s world.

30 Days of Blogging: Day 7

Today I set up my new phone, the Mate 20 by Huawei. I know the American government has been putting pressure on carriers to not carry Huawei phones because they are a Chinese company, but they make a great phone for the money and I’m not too worried about them spying on me. I can totally understand if you worked in some capacity for the federal government, that it would probably not be a good idea to have a Chinese phone. 

Otherwise, it is very much like my old phone, the Mate 10, just with updated hardware and software. The battery life has been awesome on the Mate 10 and I’m expecting similar performance from the Mate 20.  It should also have a great camera because it is just like the Mate 10, but better. I also like that it has a fingerprint sensor on the back instead of on a button on the front. Having it on the back is so much easier than trying to get a thumb on the front. 

What I wasn’t too excited about with the Mate 10 was the way they tried to make it look like an iPhone or a Samsung. The Mate 10 had design elements that were similar to both of those kinds of phones and to be honest if I’m getting a Huawei phone, they should just create their own style. On the Mate 20, I’m a little concerned about the fact that it has removable storage but its a Nano SD card which is something new that Huawei is trying to push on everyone. I wish they had just stayed with the regular micro SD card like everyone else. I guess if it catches on then I can say that I had one of the first phones to use it, but because its not by someone like Samsung, Google or Apple, it probably won’t be something that becomes standard. The good news is that the Mate 20 comes with 128Gb of storage so I don’t really think I’ll need any extra storage for a while.

One other issue that I’ve only been having recently is that I can’t get a good cell signal from AT&T at my house. It hasn’t been a big issue, since I can make IP calls from my house so I don’t need the cell signal, but I’m a little concerned because I don’t know if its a cell tower issue or a phone issue.

Well, now I get to live with my new phone for a while and I have to fend off my boys who both want my old Mate 10.

30 Days of Blogging: Day 6

This has been the hardest day so far for my challenge. Part of the problem with today is that it is a Saturday and I typically don’t do much on a weekend except getting caught up on the household activities that I have neglected during the week. This is also why I would be worried about becoming a full-time writer if that was the only job I had. Working and running the kids around to their activities during the week helps to keep me busy and give me things to think about. Today I mostly ran errands and did some yard work.

Managing the kids is also a big task, especially on a weekend when they don’t have any structured activities. They mainly just want to watch TV or play video games and I would like them to work on some other projects to engage their creativity. So I often have to come up with things for them to do just to keep them busy. When I think back to my own childhood I wonder if my parents ever thought about these things. I remember that most of my weekends as a child were spent in front of the TV or reading. I also had Legos and puzzles. My brothers and I would go outside on occasion and play with the other kids in the neighborhood, but on rainy days we were kind of stuck in the house. I can remember some fun snow days when we would play some board games.

But I don’t remember much interaction with my parents except for going shopping or running other errands with them. I know my brother would go fishing with my Dad down at the beach which was only a couple blocks from our house, but we were not allowed to go down there by ourselves.  When we moved to Germany for a few years during my pre-teen years, we had a little more freedom to wander the fields and forests that surrounded our housing development and when we got back I was able to travel around more on my bike to see my friends who lived further away.

30 Days of Blogging: Day 5

We adopted another cat a few months ago. His name is Finn and he was an all black kitten when he came to live with us. Now that he is almost a year old, he’s still as black as night except for his yellow eyes. He has turned from a feisty little kitten into a sweet little cat with his own personality. But he also has some magic about him. There has been more than a couple of times that he has appeared out of nowhere. One minute I look and he’s not there, the next he is staring up at me as if asking “you called?” I’m not sure if it’s because he’s so black that he is like a shadow and I just don’t know he’s there. Or if he really is magical.

I’ve always liked cats since I was introduced to them during my college years. My father never could stand them, mainly because he grew up on the farm and knew mainly the farm cats that would sneak around in the barn and get underfoot. He was more of a dog person and that’s mainly what I grew up with. But when I went to college and some of my friends had cats, I got to know them better and was drawn to them. They made great pets, especially while I was living from apartment to apartment. They are very low maintenance and don’t need constant care and walking. Cats are also great because as long as you give them enough food and water, you can leave them alone for a couple of days without needing to worry about them.

There were also a lot of myths that I had heard over the years about cats and their behavior. I’ve heard that cats were sneaky and selfish and aloof, but in reality, they are very caring, loyal and affectionate. They all have their own personalities and each one is an individual. They also pull their weight around the house by keeping the bugs and mice in the house taken care of. I’ve even used them in the yard to keep the moles under control.

Cats are special and magical and they make great companions.