Month: May 2026

The Mandalorian and Grogu is not high cinema. I never expected it to be. I never went into it hoping to move the larger Star Wars story forward or learn tiny bits of special lore or even see easter eggs (However, the Dejarik does make an appearance). What I wanted was fun with Grogu. I got what I wanted. I also think Favreau got to make a film he enjoyed. This is a fun picture. It feels like a season compressed into a few hours with no filler. I’m good with that the way I was pretty good with the original Harry Potter movie. We got enough story without needing what was removed.

I want to be able to take something away from everything I imbibe. I want a movie to leave me something worth remembering and this one did. I remember the joy of Grogu and the relationship between him and Mando. This chapter of the story is truly enjoyable and is built in a timeframe that has a ton of room to tell stories that do not have to be about major moments. The show dipped its toe in that time and again, and it was okay. Still, this way is better.

This is the way.

Some Thoughts:

1. Absolutely Bonkers Headline of the Day: “Knicks move 2 wins from the NBA Finals with a 109-93 victory over the Cavs” 1999.. that is the last time the Knicks made it to the finals. Maybe three players on the roster were out of diapers when that happened.

The people who live longest do this:

No, I’m kidding. I have no idea what fuels longevity. I know that my plan is to drop weight, eat better food, and lower my stress levels. That, for me, represents a higher quality of life. I think it follows that if you love life, you’ll hopefully live longer. So, that is what I’ve come up with in that respect. In all respects I am trying to accept what the universe offers. That means enjoying my days and nights. It means not holding on to guilt about what makes me happy. It means not letting the opinions of others impact what I find joy in.

Yes, that includes the Mandalorian movie.

It also includes spending more time outside and making my body work. I wish 10 K steps a day were enough, because I am inherently a lazy person. It isn’t and I will do more. I will get in the lab and devote time to it instead of gaming or whatever. I will put hours to the writing craft and make it a solid chunk of my day. It hasn’t been since the last novelette was finished. Time to get back to the grind.

Time to get back to a beautiful and flourishing mind and body.

Some Thoughts:

1. Absolutely Bonkers Headline of the Day: “Tennessee man jailed over Charlie Kirk post wins $835,000 settlement” Not the settlement part. No, the crazy is the fact that he was jailed for 37 days for saying negative stuff about Kirk. For what it is worth, he’s a retired ex cop. So all this stuff about protect the police was forgotten in pursuit of an idea of who they wanted Kirk to be and how they wanted to remember him and protect that story. He was arrested after posting a meme about Kirk’s death and refusing to take it down. “The meme Bushart posted that prompted his arrest read: “This seems relevant today…” and featured President Donald Trump and the words, “We have to get over it.” That quote, the meme explained, was said by Trump in 2024 after a school shooting at Iowa’s Perry High School.”
2. I think we’ve lost our way quite a bit. I don’t have a solution.
3. These posts have been short again. I don’t know where my mind wanders off to.
4. Actually, I do. Sports. And Video Games.

I’m on my Batman arc. Disappear for 90 days and come back different. How that change happens is still under construction. I have to get healthy. I have to reset my mind to a point where ideas are coming and they are good. I need that clean slate approach. It starts with a daily routine that gives me space to grow. It means less in the way of video games and more in the way of butt in chair–and even walking to a place where the but can be placed in a chair of my liking in a space of my liking.

In general, the entire enterprise is focused on walking and movement. I come from NYC, a place where people are constantly on the move. I live in a space where people are not moving. We sit all the time here and we prize that lack of movement above all else. We consider it freedom here, and when we do move it is viewed as a luxury. That does not work for me anymore.

So, I’m out. Full reset. Learn who I am. Learn who I intend to be.

Some Thoughts:

1. Absolutely Bonkers Headline of the Day: “Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday wouldn’t rule out the possibility that violent rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will be considered for payouts from a new $1.776 billion fund to compensate individuals who believe they were targeted politically.” They think we’re stupid because we are. 1776? Come on, man. The signaling is crazy.

Life is good and surprising. I feel that more and more each day as I move through it and into my own future. Not a lot to say today. Locking back in on teaching with writing to follow soon after. Until then…

Some Thoughts:

1. Absolutely Bonkers Headline of the Day: “Trump moves to dismiss $10B suit against the Internal Revenue Service over leak of tax returns” And in doing so, set up a 1.7 billion dollar fund to pay his allies who felt wronged by the fed. I mean, if this isn’t fleecing I don’t understand the definition.
2. Also… Check in on your loved ones. Emotional strain can really get at you.
3. Watching the freshman highlights from the my son’s QB this year is a reminder that my kid cooked at WR as a freshman. That highlight reel is basically his highlight reel as a WR. He gets the opportunity to make another reel allegedly this season as he expects to go both ways in his senior year. If he does, that is a great sign for this team.
4. Caitlin Clark leads the league in assists… and is #2 in turnovers. It isn’t that I dislike her. I actually like her. I find how they use her both on court and in media to be a very big lie. It bugs. I write about things that bug.

I’m feeling a bit maudlin today. Yesterday was another reminder that being a dad is always going to be a case of being ignored, disrespected, and probably largely disliked and blamed for all the wrongs in a kid’s life. Unless I make their life as easy as possible, I am the bad guy. This is mostly due to my ex being the one who makes their lives as easy as possible. Yesterday I watched my ex carrying a bag of supplies she bought for our 21 year old son to take to his first ever job while he walked beside her eating ice cream. That’s some nine year old type stuff. I will not do it and thus will always lose.

Acceptance is the hard part.

So, here I am feeling bad about myself and, to a lesser extent, about my choices. Acceptance is not happening to easily. My body is rejecting it, gathering the sadness and anger within as stress. My mind is doing the same and none of it is really working for me. What I really need to do is get some space for a while and think about what it means to be me as an individual and a husband.

Some Thoughts:

1. Absolutely Bonkers Headline of the Day: “Sen. Cassidy loses Louisiana primary after targeted as ‘disloyal’ by Trump over impeachment vote” Loyalty checks… I thought those were just for video games and bad nazi movies…
2. Also this: “Adults relive the musical camaraderie of their youth at band camps reprised for grown-ups” Yeah… just no.

Being a step dad is different than the standard dadding. It is really up to you and the kid to form that bond–especially if the birth dad is still in the picture. I feel like I’ve done a decent enough job trying to make it so these kids feel like I am a legitimate parent and someone they can turn to in moments of true need. How am I doing? I don’t really know. What I do know is that there is a graduation today. Unlike last week it is one of the step kids and I am equally excited to see it happen. This one doesn’t much go for pomp and circumstance so, arguably, I am more excited than he is for the event. That is not the point. The main point is that it is happening and I am a part of it as much as anyone else. That’s integration, folks. That is a family bonding and becoming one. I love that it is happening and love that everyone is involved.

Some Thoughts:

1. Absolutely Bonkers Headline of the Day: “How conspiracy theories about missing or dead scientists went from online forums to the White House” Stop putting stupid people in charge. Please?
2. Getting sloppy. The previous blog was left unpublished. I need to spend more time locked in and off Starfield… maybe.
3. Check my kid’s 247 portal and you’ll see NAU and Idaho as legit recruiting offers. Look at his own feed and the truth shall set you free. 8 offers. 1 P4 (Oklahoma State), 1 CFP team (Tulane), Hawaii, SDSU, NAU, UNI, Idaho, and Idaho State. Keep up, people.

New mission: Spend a while with the Lady Talis sans kids and see what kind of life we can get up to. I am excited for the challenge and the opportunity. We’ve spent a great deal of our lives with kids but never this much time without them, and that is going to be huge for us. We are definitely taking a turn towards being healthy and engaging in a schedule and habits which lead to longer and stronger lives.

Also difficult is the lack of viable televised fiction for two.

We love watching shows together and talking about that engagement, but there is nothing of value new to watch. Perhaps we will give Andor a chance, because there is nothing else worth taking a shot on. Every time we do it ends quickly… and badly. I’ve gotten to the point of realizing that there is not a show out there that hasn’t completed its season or run at this point that we both watch. I’m still watching my “boy” shows on the side, but that is just for me…

Come on, big media. Give me something! Or let me write it myself.

Some Thoughts:

1. Absolutely Bonkers Headline of the Day: “Judge declares a mistrial in Harvey Weinstein’s rape retrial after jury says it is deadlocked” The original #metoo is getting to say #notme and it is irking my soul. I don’t now anything about the alleged victim, but given this man’s history… Yeah he should not be walking around free. Crazy how powerful a certain demographic can be. I’m still shocked they caught Epstein.
2. Also this: “North America’s largest commuter rail system faces a potential shutdown” I do not understand how a country whose lore is built on railroads has become so unwilling and unable to maintain and grow that system. I don’t expect Japan, but man I expect something better than this!

The hardest part about letting a child grow is when the other parent keeps holding on too tight. Not only does it negate the work you’re trying to do, but it sabotages the relationship you are trying to build. There are a number of factors that apply here and are impacted. I want to chat about how the impacted child starts to view one parent vs the other and, perhaps consciously, perhaps otherwise, begins to pit the two against each other. Obviously, this is a personal one. I have an ex and I have a youngest child. He’s been the one most lost and most impacted by the divorce. Today he received his 6th and 7th D1 college offers. His brothers knew. Pretty sure his mom knew. I had to find out from social media. I texted him today offering congratulations and expressed a little disappointment that he hadn’t reached out. Not in a petty way, but probably a little passive aggressively. He acted like he hadn’t had his phone on, which clearly does not fit the narrative, which argues he simply did not think to text me the way he clearly shared the news with his brother (who said he’d been texting for like 30 minutes) and social media. I didn’t factor in.

I don’t factor in.

It is what it is, and it doesn’t make me love him any less, but it does remind me that the rift there is not something I created. He only reaches out when he needs something. I reach out to see how he is doing. He only speaks when spoken to at home. I initiate conversations to see how he’s doing. The relationship has gone zero dark thirty and I am not sure if we are going to move towards dawn or midnight. I don’t know that I can do anything about it, because on the other side of the parental divide, he’s being treated very differently and very much not like a growing, independent man.

Some Thoughts:

1. Absolutely Bonkers Headline of the Day: “The world’s reaction to hantavirus is tinged by echoes of something else: COVID” Yeah, this is a low-key problem. Not so much that it will turn into this, but that we are no longer trusted on the world medical stage…

I think…

I need to get back to writing better stuff. I keep saying it, but man I want to have a stronger voice. That doesn’t come back accident. It is a practice. Writing is a practice.

I think…

Politics are a very clear reflection of who can best manipulate the populace. I don’t believe people are inherently racist or evil. I think we all just want a leg up. We want that American Dream, or at least a shot at it. However, we are so often being told that other groups or other people who don’t look like us are getting better advantages and that makes us feel bad. I mean consider this: Ruby Bridges, the first black child to integrate schools did that in 1960. That’s, what 66 years ago that we had segregation? That means my mother was alive during segregation, a period in which one group clearly had a leg up. Since the Obama administration there has been this assumption that the roles are somehow reversed now. I find that disturbing. That is what politics can do.

I think…

My youngest is getting shafted in the press. We’re at the top, what 80 out of 150 FB players in the class of 2027? He hasn’t been mentioned in spite of offers from Hawaii, Tulane, Northern Arizona, Northern Iowa, and Idaho. He’s getting strong interest from Northwestern and Iowa State–both P4 schools. Yet he’s nowhere near the top of the list of players at his position? Yeah, It annoys.

I think…

A lot of things annoy me lately about the way life works out. Above all others is how some people can act like a complete idiot in public and there be no consequence for it. I find that disturbing.

Some Thoughts:

1. Absolutely Bonkers Headline of the Day: “Appeals court spares Trump from paying $83 million defamation award to E. Jean Carroll — for now” He’s claiming immunity among other things as he continues to defame. Honestly, I think he’s hoping she dies so the clock runs out. Who knows, but this entire situation is bonkers… and allegedly headed to the Supreme Court. The grift is real.

So, I have a lot to work on. It turns out that I’ve not really successfully prepared these kids for writing the long form essay. Maybe it isn’t me–maybe it is the short form short attention world in which they live, but asking someone to write a research essay should not return less than 1200 words. I mean, how much of that is even the research and the works cited material? I suppose I was particularly harsh in year-end grading. There was, for me, this disconnect between what I got and what I expected in a final research paper for a number of students. It varied from class to class, but to see barely over a thousand words is not a good look.

So, I am going to start over and try to find another way to cultivate this into a meaningful experience. What does that mean? More focus on process and more feedback on that as well. I think I have a good shell, but there is room to grow here. There are places where I can substitute different types of assignments in order to get them to engage in more meaningful ways with the content. I am, as always, a work in progress.

Some Thoughts:

1. Absolutely Bonkers Headline of the Day: “3 scientists were charged in worm smuggling scheme. Lawyers say China helped get the case dismissed” This is a real thing?