Made it through another total lockdown weekend unscathed, unbowed, and unbroken. Yesterday I just embraced the suck with various amounts of boredom, gluttony, and laziness. What else is there?
Back when I had originally retired and moved home to the states in 2011, I began watching Game of Thrones on HBO. I guess I got through Season 4 before moving back to Korea fulltime and losing easy access to the show. I managed, for the most part, to avoid reading spoilers about the Season 8 finale, although I heard many fans of the show were disappointed. Anyway, given the amount of time that has passed I decided to rewatch the series from the beginning. I’ve successfully managed to download the first three seasons now and transfer them to a USB that I’ve plugged into my “smart” TV where I can enjoy the story in the relative comfort of my living room.
I got through nine episodes of the first season in a binge-watching marathon. I did consume a half-gallon of ice cream to fuel that effort. I was pleasantly surprised at just how much of the story I’d forgotten. Yeah, the big stuff like Ned Stark losing his head wasn’t a surprise but some of the details leading up to that event were “new” to my beer-sodden memory. I’d also forgotten how much T&A the show features, no complaints seeing that again!
Being stuck at home with decent entertainment is my only available option so you just accept it and enjoy as best you can. Still, it is good to be reminded that my inconvenience is a small sacrifice to make for the greater good of the community. Oh, wait a minute. Fifty days under “enhanced community quarantine” now, and a total of nine confirmed cases in Olongapo City. WTF?
Oh well. I posted this on Facebook yesterday:
And it resulted in this today:
Speaking of Scott, he captured me the other day in my “Candyman” role:
Oh, and I’m still cooking at home (like I have a choice these days). This pot roast may have been my best effort since the move to the Philippines. The meat was both tender and flavorful.
So, there’s the latest update on my so-called life. I know it could be worse and I know it will get better one of these days.
Pot roast looks awesome!
I’ll be morbidly curious to read your opinion of Season 8. For myself, all I can say is that I consider the TV series to be an interesting interlude while I wait for the next book to come out. At this rate, I’ll be dead before the final novel gets finished.
Yeah, Martin is not my favorite author these days.
If you haven’t watched it yet and if you can get it, Breaking Bad is another good series.
Odd that I’ve never read any of the books. With Lord of the Rings, I’d read them several times (including out loud to my future wife #3) before the movies were even made. Pat Conroy became one of my favorite authors AFTER I saw The Prince of Tides in the movie theatre. I wanted to see how close the movie adhered to the book and I was really surprised how much had been left out of the story on the big screen. So yeah, I can imagine you guys are really growing impatient waiting for Martin to finish his story his way!
I saw a lot of Breaking Bad but not how it ended. A friend here is watching Better Call Saul now and says that’s good too.
I gotta tell you, John, I had to restart the first of Martin’s novels several times before I finally got beyond the first chapter. I found that chapter boring as hell. It was a horrible way to start the world-building. However, once I got over that hump, I found the ASOIAF books (A Song of Ice and Fire, the name of the entire series) utterly compelling reading.
I came upon Martin way too late in life for his books to occupy a central place in my heart when it comes to fantasy novels (the eternal occupant of that throne is Stephen R. Donaldson), but I’ve come to see him as an amazing storyteller who had somehow topped JK Rowling when it comes to weaving intricate narratives composed of multiple subplots. So, like Frank, I can’t call Martin my favorite, but he’s up there, and he has my respect. I just wish he would stop getting distracted by all his damn side projects.