Thread: And now deep thoughts by Starwind55

I wasn't sure if I should have a journal since I lead a pretty boring life. However, I see quite a few members have one here so I figured that I'll be a filthy conformist and have one of my own. I don't intend on this to be strictly a journal but use this to post thoughts, rants, words of wisdom or whatever I have on my mind at the moment. I want to do this mainly to strike up some conversations so you folks can either chime in with your views or you can also tell me that I'm full of shit if you want. I don't know how often I'll post on this but I'll just say that this will be updated on a "whenever I feel like it" basis.

So I guess the big news at the moment for me is I'm about to become an uncle. My brother is going to have his first child with his girlfriend and they are expecting the child sometime this fall. I'm somewhat nervous since I'm going to be part of this child's life and I'm not sure how good of an influence I'll be on kid, not that I'm going to be the one doing the raising. I also feel a bit of a pressure since I see some of my old friends getting kids and now my brother is getting one. On one had, I feel like I'm being left in the dust on this but on the other hand I don't know if I have the patience or the attention span to be a good father, not to mention my job is good for living on my own but hardly one to use for supporting a family. Right now, I'm just focusing on getting by. Never say never though. I'm sure some folks out there didn't set out to be a father and they end up being good fathers in the end. Who knows? Time will tell at this point.

I also have an 11 day weekend coming up. I had a lot of PTO saved up so I used that for the July 4th week going well into the week after. This is going to be something I look forward to since work has been stressing me out as of late. Normally, the summer months are pretty relaxed but for some reason this season has been quite hectic with little downtime. Normally, I manage to cope with it but this time for some reason the stress has been putting me in a sour mood and, with some of the people I deal with on the phone, I tend to feel an urge to punch something. The little vacation coming up should be of help. I just want to use it to relax, have some fun and now deal with the crap going down at work. Beyond that, not much plan for July 4th itself. My friend and I are going to a concert on July 3rd. I'm looking forward to hanging out with my friends but not so much the band. It's a small time band that specializes in covering songs popular in the 80s. For some reason, my town's music scene consists of either these cover bands or hipster bullshit. We never really get any solid bands that come our way unless it's some has been band that hasn't been popular in ages. Still, it'll be something to do and I'm sure the booze that I'm bound to drink will make it tolerable.

So that is that at the moment. If you want to leave your thoughts, than you are certainly more than welcome to!

I swear last year was a baby rush on my Facebook feed. Luckily, my close friends aren't part of that list lol. I think it's great that you want to present yourself properly for your nephew's life. Shows you care and stuff. Hope you get out that stress that you got going

I hear ya there. I know a few good friends from high school who are now fathers. It's kind of nuts to be honest. I feel that I should be at least presentable to the nephew/niece. I don't know how good I'll be at it but I have no choice but to give it a shot.

One more day and my 11 day vacation begins. This week hasn't been that bad for the most part. Still, I really need this just so that way I can recharge a bit and enjoy some free time.

Oh, and I just want to go on a slight rant here. So I got Outlaw Star on Blu Ray and got through the first four episodes. It's fantastic and the picture quality is excellent. But it suffers from a problem that I've seen from other DVD or Blu Ray movie...you can't skip the friggin previews. You can't fast forward and you can't skip. You have to sit there and watch a trailer for an anime that was released by Funimation a long ass time ago. To be fair, it's just one trailer but it's still annoying as shit. Hey Funimation, if we want to watch a trailer for an anime, then we'll go on youtube or go into the bonus feature on the Blu Ray and watch your damn trailers. Don't force us to sit there and make us watch it. We buy physical copies so we can get away from that shit. I hear folks, especially voice actors who do stuff for Funimation, who say that you shouldn't pirate anime and all that. You want to know why they pirate anime? That's one of the fucking reasons why so cut that shit out.

All you really need to be a good uncle is love. Kids know when someone has a good heart. Wait until you see that sweet little face and hold that baby for the first time. You'll melt, and you'll be in instant uncle mode.

Wow, an eleven day weekend sounds too good. I wouldn't know what to do with that much time with no demands being made on me. Holy crap. I hope you enjoy every minute of it and get your battery recharged. Wait, that almost sounded .. off color, but you know what I mean, ha ha. Enjoy!

Got the blu ray? That's great! It's definitely on my list. My issue is that I can't watch dvds on my PS4. So annoying. So I use my brother's PS3 to watch my outlaw star box set lol.

Well I've enjoyed reading it. My life is equivalent to watching paint dry, so I'm more than happy to see another thread on this sub-forum! You're overthinking the whole uncle thing in my opinion. I became an uncle when I was ten. It felt kinda awkward holding babies at that kind of age. But really, it won't seem so bad and you'll get used to it sooner than you think. Enjoy being an uncle. Personally I plan on being child-free and enjoying the freedom that comes with it. Being an uncle is like being a very part-time parent.

I hope you're enjoying the vacation. The Outlaw Star problem sounds frustrating as hell. I don't have the problem with my Xbox One. You might be having this issue with other films/TV simply because of your Blu-ray player. Which one is it?

Gamesha:

I don't know. Little babies tend to annoy me a bit. It's grating sometimes when you're out in public and some kid is crying and the parent doesn't do a damn thing to get him/her to settle down. Still, I intend to do my best whenever I get with the kid. I'm sure I can figure something out that would calm him down if he acts up.

Lightfreed:

Strange to hear that your PS4 can't read DVDs. You consider taking it to a shop to have it looked at? Then again, that's probably a lot more money than it's worth. At least you have alternatives to watch your movies on so that's good.

Mantis:

I'm glad to hear that you enjoy reading my post. I honestly didn't know how interested people on here would be reading it but if folks are responding then I must be doing something right. I think you're right about being an uncle. It's not like I'm the one raising the kid. Still, I guess it's just about making a good impression on the kid and making sure that I'm not a bad influence. I have a flippant attitude that I'm not sure my brother would want to have the baby being around. On the other hand, I've had friends whose parents were...shall we say eccentric and they turned out fine for the most part.

I use my PS4 as my blu-ray player. I don't think this is a technical problem. I have other blu-ray/dvd movies where I can skip to the main menu just fine. It's just that some companies really REALLY want you to see their trailers. I've had other dvd and blu-ray movies that pulled this on me, though some of them I can just fast forward through. Still, it's annoying as hell and it makes me sympathetic to folks who pirate movies and anime.

Well, it's been a decent 4th of July. I did my Independence Day celebration back on the 3rd with a friend of mine As I mentioned in my first post, we went to a concert that was an 80s tribute band. The music is exactly what you expect from a cover band. The lead singer would dress as the various lead singers for each of bands that they covered which is tacky to say the least. They weren't horrible but I would rather listen to a band who makes their own material. My friend and I debated over this. He said that these guys is the closest you get at seeing the original bands in concert since a good portion of those bands don't tour anymore. Thing is, if I wanted to listen to Twisted Sister, I'd listen to Twisted Sister not a bunch of nobodies who just cover songs without doing anything interesting. I'm sounding negative but it was still a good time since I got to hang out with my friend. I'm glad I had a few drinks before coming because holy shit, the lines for the beer tents there were outrageous. There were only two of them and the lines would go on forever. You were lucky to wait 20 minutes before you were even able to order your drink. I had to get two drinks just so I didn't have to go back.

Afterwards, me and my friend did some bar hopping. We stopped at a few bars, one of which was usually hipster douchebag central. We only went there because the bar we were going to was closed at the time. It was actually a cool experience this time since it had some pretty sweet techno music playing there. After that, we headed back to my place to sober up by watching High School D (My friend is a sucker for hot anime girls with rocking tits). A fun evening all around.

So for July 4th itself, I was originally planning on playing some video games but it was so gorgeous out that I didn't want to be cooped up in my apartment all day. Normally, I'd go to the park downtown but I wanted to avoid the crowd since it's party central for the July 4th Shenanigans. I decided to go on the nature trail that was nearby where I lived. I love going down there as the place is very calming and just allows me to think about things. I would love to walk down it on a moonlit night but I was told it was a bad idea since it supposedly attract some rather unsavory folks. I think the place will be just as beautiful come this autumn when the leaves turn color. I was able to snag some pics of my little adventure to share with you. This first one right here turned out rather nicely.



There was a nearby creek that I thought was worth some pics as well.







After I was done at the trail, I headed out east a bit to look over Lake Superior. It's beautiful to look over. I usually walk the lake walk and stop to look out into it just to admire the scenery. I figured I took some pics of these too.



Also figured I'd get a pic of the duluth bridge but this one didn't turn out so good.



So that was my little 4th of July adventure tale for you. Hope you enjoyed reading it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch some more Outlaw Star.

Nice pictures! Looks real peaceful

So originally it was going to be a night with the boys, but he had to bail as he was broke at the time. I was thinking about hanging out at home but it was such a gorgeous evening that I didn't want to be cooped up in my apartment so I figured I'd go out for a few drinks. I tried drinking alone before but I gave up on it since I found myself getting bored and depressed but I figured a couple of drinks wouldn't hurt in this instance. One of the bars had a blues band that played it's own material. What a shocker considering this town is obsessed with cover bands! Beyond that, nothing too eventful. Just headed home after that and then watched Bravo's 100 scariest movie moments on youtube. A decent evening all around.

Beyond that, I also finally got back to work earlier this week and getting back into the swing of things went smoothly...well, except for this one dipshit on the phone who was constantly interrupting me and being belligerent with me while going over dates and times but aside from that it was a smooth transition.

We can all drink together during an anime viewing haha. Sounds like a nice night to be out and about. Music and booze and all.