Tales Of Bill The Bard

When I first undertook writing this blog... well, for one thing, I had no real idea I'd still be at it five years later. For another thing, it was mostly just a way to vent my frustrations with girls. And to be honest, though my posts have become increasingly veiled and cryptic... it's still pretty much that. I mean really, what better way to simultaneously vent and compose your thoughts into something cohesive than a blog that no one really reads? On a psychological level it's brilliant, because you know that it's possible that someone could A) unearth the blog and read an entry and B) pick apart all the references and allusions to figure out what you're actually saying, so the notion that you could be heard is somewhat exhilarating, but at the same time you know it's incredibly unlikely that anyone will check without prompting, and thus no one will criticize you for feeling the way you do. It's so delightfully secure for something as exposed as a webpage.

Of course no one would ever actually post anything they REALLY didn't want read on a blog. That's the beauty of it. If any of this was so sensitive that I couldn't handle someone knowing it, I'd put it in a notebook or something, somewhere I knew no one could see it. And for that reason, none of this is truly private information. This is where I bury the stuff that I know the people who really care about me could find if they were inclined to go looking. And suddenly, we have a title for the post. I was wondering what the heck I was gonna call this.

So now that the meta portion of the post is out of the way, I have a few things to discuss, none of them particularly grave or serious. The first thing on my mind, as it usually is on Mondays around this time, is How I Met Your Mother. That show has got its groove back in a big way. The last three (possibly four, I don't remember) episodes have been fantastic, and it's starting to seem like they front-loaded the filler episodes into the beginning of the season. That doesn't seem like a great way to maintain ratings, but I guess that doesn't really matter too much considering this is the final season. The moral of the story here is if you gave up on the show at the beginning of this season (or in any prior seasons) you're really doing yourself a disservice, because it has gotten so good lately. Hopefully they can keep the momentum up until the end of the series; they've only got about half a season left to go.

Second, Harry Potter. The books were amazing. Well, let me clarify; books four through seven were amazing. The first one was solid, the second one was honestly pretty boring, and the third one was simply pretty good. But once Goblet of Fire came around, it really took off, and the last book (when they're not walking to a volcano, so to speak) is probably among my all time favorites. The ending was perfect, right up there with Breaking Bad and The Office. I've heard the movie is also really good, and I'm quite looking forward to it, especially considering how generally bad the first three movies were. The first was stupid and kiddie, the second was reasonably interesting, and the third was long and boring. The fourth was NONSTOP ACTION GOGOGO and was quite entertaining, even if some of the scenes (particularly in the graveyard at the end) weren't reconstructed terribly well. By and large though, they cut out the chaff and kept the pace brisk, and I applaud them for that, even if Voldemort didn't come across as quite as sinister as I had imagined.

Third, it finally genuinely feels like Christmas around here. I remember feeling the same way around this time last year (roughly a week before Christmas), that the Christmas season had finally officially kicked off. We've got the tree up, the lights on it, lights strung up in the hallway, candles burning, and the living room is more tidy than it has been in ages, probably since the Super Bowl party last year. I have a new computer on which to play League in glorious 1080p 22" widescreen, I'm connected to the network via ethernet so I don't ever have bad ping and I can even stream while I play (which I've been doing quite prolifically), and I just started playing Bioshock Infinite yesterday, because everyone knows Bioshock games are meant to be played around Christmas time, either just before or just after. I've gotten almost all of my Christmas shopping done already, and since I've been so efficient with it, it hasn't been nearly as stressful as it was either of the last two years. I suppose that can also partially be attributed to the fact that I actually have a car this year and can go when I need to.

In any case, I'm feeling pretty jolly right now. I just finished the most recent episode of HIMYM along with some cheddar cheese ramen, cherry Pepsi, and a holiday pie from McDonald's, I won both games of League tonight (the 3v3 custom matches on Summoner's Rift are usually terribly one-sided but fun if you're on the winning team), AND, following last week's miraculous fantasy football playoff victory against Jenkins, I somehow managed to beat Danny Latin this week, which means that I'll be making a return appearance in the Super Bowl this year, this time against Crutchfield. Life is right in the solid-to-good range, so I'm just gonna cross my fingers for next week's fantasy game, relax and enjoy the holidays, and then... see how things play out once the new year begins.

Now that I think about it, I probably could also have called this post "Heisenblog," keeping with the theme of the first paragraph because it's hiding in plain sight. That would have been good too, I guess.