Blog Dis
Park your keister
2025-01-02
Any length of time spent is time spent well, according to those who measure the value of time, by measuring their time, and how it has been spent. I like to believe that I spend my time in meaningful ways but not all the time.
After listening to the rant of one friend, vehemently declaring that watching any TV, much less a limited series, is a total waste of time, I took exception to his comments. For me, there are some worthwhile series on specialty channels that turn my crank. For me, it's HBO series programming, specifically shows like The Gilded Age, The Last of Us, The White Lotus, to name a few, all of which are scheduled to release new seasons in 2025. I'll be there with bells on my boots, and eyeballs peeled to the unfolding drama. After all, these shows are all about drama, routed in fiction of course, and fiction is my world, well the world in which I prefer to write, more appropriately fantasy fiction, or to be even more specific Hybrid Fantasy fiction. Though, I should clarify that The Gilded Age is a period piece, based on real-life individuals from the late 19th Century, depicting an era when old money was clashing with new money.
Fiction is a means to an end, a way to escape the vicissitudes of this world, which we know is too often in your face, from the moment you rise to when you lock yourself away at night in your abode. Fiction is a good thing. You can do whatever you want in fiction and many shows accentuate this point. The familiar truism: the difference between fiction and non-fiction is fiction has to make sense - is real. Non-fiction is the preferred choice for many, and I understand where these individuals are coming from, especially those who eat up history. But when it comes to history books, few if any, to my mind, captivate my interest as does a good piece of fiction. Some history writers are compelling (Jon Meacham; American author) but honestly I find that few are enthralling, because they are more focused on wanting to prove their breadth of historical knowledge, more than they want to impart this knowledge with good storytelling; their books become an information dump of facts, and tedious for those who want to relish in a good re-telling of events. How many polemical history books can anyone count on their fingers vs the polemical fiction books that have rocked the literary world? [Lolita, 1984, Brave New World, Ulysses, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Tropic of Cancer, The Catcher in the Rye, Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Bell Jar, The Satanic Verses... and on] Just saying.
I spent the better part of my days over the holidays, having parked my keister to binge-watch some series TV, like season one of True Detective with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. If you've yet to watch a season of this marvelous series, I recommend you take time out of your compressed list of things to do, and indulge. You won't be disappointed. My fav seasons are one and two - enthralling, rolling along in their dynamic storyline like a trick-knee that suddenly pops out when least expected. They are this good that even re-watching them isn't a waste of your time.
There are those who grow sofa-pizza bums watching sports until the cows come home with empty bottles of milk, wanting refills. The Super Bowl will soon be here in early February 2025 and I can already hear the hootin' and hollerin' as two teams square off with one another. Even my sister is a fan of NFL and her team, KC, gets her worked up into a fever. One wrong call, and she morphs into a monster over the injustice at the hands of bad referees. I don't often see this version of my sister, but this isn't a surprise given that I don't watch NFL, so I've few occasions to spend time in her company. When and if I watch NFL, it'll only be bcus I happened to change it to the wrong channel, and then I'll be drawn in momentarily by the action, by those skin-tight uniforms that highlight their bottoms. Oh my lawd! I did, after all, call this post 'park your keister' so it stands to reason that I'm going to weave into my post a word about the male bottom.
This is your life. This is my life. We each have free will, if you discount the philosophical argument of cause and effect, which means none of us are fated to watch football or a TV series, but rather we choose how we want to spend our time. You may call these activities a waste of time, if you insist, but I'm a firm believer in the simple pleasures of life, to watch a sport show, or a favourite TV series, especially if it brings pleasure.
You can always metaphorically kill two birds with one stone, as I do, and read while you watch TV. And no! This isn't an impossible task, given that with regard to the NFL, there is a play-by-play call-out by the sports commentator, and if it's a TV show you've previously seen, you can still read. When it's new, I'm captivated and I won't read. And if I read, while the news is airing, my ears will pick up on the stories that are of interest, while my eyes and brain continue to digest my latest book. Striking a balance between playing sports, being active outdoors (or indoors), reading, and watching television is only challenged if there are pets to care for or if there are children in the mix, and yes elderly parents too, which is the primary reason why downtime is so important, similar to taking a walk after dinner, to burn off that feeling of being full. I never feel as though I've digested too much when it comes to an enthralling show. I'm sure many will say the same about watching NFL football - it's never too much!
Seems to me that regardless of how you spend your time, when your body needs sleep, it doesn't give a flying hoot what or who you're with, your body takes the time it needs to recharge the batteries. Sleep is time well spent, and getting a full night's sleep is vital; it matters not your age or where you live. Sleeping because you need it is just as valuable as watching a good program when your brain craves a dose of fiction or that national pastime of watching grown men in padded uniforms pound the living daylights out of each other, all for the glory of saying they "moved the ball" into the end zone.
I avoided writing about New Year's resolutions bcus this schtick is tired and old, and we lose sight of them far too quickly. But the new year has barely begun, so it's perfectly acceptable to look forward to the return of a popular series - an easy resolution to add to a list.
Share with me, if you're willing - what is your favourite limited series?
After listening to the rant of one friend, vehemently declaring that watching any TV, much less a limited series, is a total waste of time, I took exception to his comments. For me, there are some worthwhile series on specialty channels that turn my crank. For me, it's HBO series programming, specifically shows like The Gilded Age, The Last of Us, The White Lotus, to name a few, all of which are scheduled to release new seasons in 2025. I'll be there with bells on my boots, and eyeballs peeled to the unfolding drama. After all, these shows are all about drama, routed in fiction of course, and fiction is my world, well the world in which I prefer to write, more appropriately fantasy fiction, or to be even more specific Hybrid Fantasy fiction. Though, I should clarify that The Gilded Age is a period piece, based on real-life individuals from the late 19th Century, depicting an era when old money was clashing with new money.
Fiction is a means to an end, a way to escape the vicissitudes of this world, which we know is too often in your face, from the moment you rise to when you lock yourself away at night in your abode. Fiction is a good thing. You can do whatever you want in fiction and many shows accentuate this point. The familiar truism: the difference between fiction and non-fiction is fiction has to make sense - is real. Non-fiction is the preferred choice for many, and I understand where these individuals are coming from, especially those who eat up history. But when it comes to history books, few if any, to my mind, captivate my interest as does a good piece of fiction. Some history writers are compelling (Jon Meacham; American author) but honestly I find that few are enthralling, because they are more focused on wanting to prove their breadth of historical knowledge, more than they want to impart this knowledge with good storytelling; their books become an information dump of facts, and tedious for those who want to relish in a good re-telling of events. How many polemical history books can anyone count on their fingers vs the polemical fiction books that have rocked the literary world? [Lolita, 1984, Brave New World, Ulysses, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Tropic of Cancer, The Catcher in the Rye, Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Bell Jar, The Satanic Verses... and on] Just saying.
I spent the better part of my days over the holidays, having parked my keister to binge-watch some series TV, like season one of True Detective with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. If you've yet to watch a season of this marvelous series, I recommend you take time out of your compressed list of things to do, and indulge. You won't be disappointed. My fav seasons are one and two - enthralling, rolling along in their dynamic storyline like a trick-knee that suddenly pops out when least expected. They are this good that even re-watching them isn't a waste of your time.
There are those who grow sofa-pizza bums watching sports until the cows come home with empty bottles of milk, wanting refills. The Super Bowl will soon be here in early February 2025 and I can already hear the hootin' and hollerin' as two teams square off with one another. Even my sister is a fan of NFL and her team, KC, gets her worked up into a fever. One wrong call, and she morphs into a monster over the injustice at the hands of bad referees. I don't often see this version of my sister, but this isn't a surprise given that I don't watch NFL, so I've few occasions to spend time in her company. When and if I watch NFL, it'll only be bcus I happened to change it to the wrong channel, and then I'll be drawn in momentarily by the action, by those skin-tight uniforms that highlight their bottoms. Oh my lawd! I did, after all, call this post 'park your keister' so it stands to reason that I'm going to weave into my post a word about the male bottom.
This is your life. This is my life. We each have free will, if you discount the philosophical argument of cause and effect, which means none of us are fated to watch football or a TV series, but rather we choose how we want to spend our time. You may call these activities a waste of time, if you insist, but I'm a firm believer in the simple pleasures of life, to watch a sport show, or a favourite TV series, especially if it brings pleasure.
You can always metaphorically kill two birds with one stone, as I do, and read while you watch TV. And no! This isn't an impossible task, given that with regard to the NFL, there is a play-by-play call-out by the sports commentator, and if it's a TV show you've previously seen, you can still read. When it's new, I'm captivated and I won't read. And if I read, while the news is airing, my ears will pick up on the stories that are of interest, while my eyes and brain continue to digest my latest book. Striking a balance between playing sports, being active outdoors (or indoors), reading, and watching television is only challenged if there are pets to care for or if there are children in the mix, and yes elderly parents too, which is the primary reason why downtime is so important, similar to taking a walk after dinner, to burn off that feeling of being full. I never feel as though I've digested too much when it comes to an enthralling show. I'm sure many will say the same about watching NFL football - it's never too much!
Seems to me that regardless of how you spend your time, when your body needs sleep, it doesn't give a flying hoot what or who you're with, your body takes the time it needs to recharge the batteries. Sleep is time well spent, and getting a full night's sleep is vital; it matters not your age or where you live. Sleeping because you need it is just as valuable as watching a good program when your brain craves a dose of fiction or that national pastime of watching grown men in padded uniforms pound the living daylights out of each other, all for the glory of saying they "moved the ball" into the end zone.
I avoided writing about New Year's resolutions bcus this schtick is tired and old, and we lose sight of them far too quickly. But the new year has barely begun, so it's perfectly acceptable to look forward to the return of a popular series - an easy resolution to add to a list.
Share with me, if you're willing - what is your favourite limited series?
