Tag Archives: meditations on life

just a post

Not a Bad Week

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As some of my posts have shown, there was some pretty good shit happening this week:

  • Twin Peaks coming back in 2016
  • I got my PMP
  • Gay marriage legal in over half the country now
  • Some intriguing job prospects out there (hoping next week to nail some of those down some more)
  • Sugarfish for dinner tonight!
  • Scandal party last night where I made some bomb-ass chocolate chip cookies from my favorite recipe

So yeah, not too bad a week.  I’d really like to get some of that job traction in place though. Really really would.

on life, pop culture

The End of “How I Met Your Mother”

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This show, How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM), premiered in 2005 when I was still living in Las Vegas.  It’s now ending 9 years later and it’s really really bittersweet, as while of course this is one of my favorite shows and a lot of emotional beats and closure were hit in tonight’s series finale, it’s also very hard to process that this show was basically an accompaniment to my life, especially the late 20s to mid-to-late 30s part of it.

Thinking about 9 years ago is a harsh thing to do.  2005?!  I’m still in the Air Force, I’m at Nellis/Las Vegas, and I’m fucking miserable at my job.  That was 9 years ago?  YEESH.  Follow that time with Colorado Springs and Cheyenne Mountain, and while I loved the people I ended up working with and meeting, again miserable at the job.  Get out of the military, looking for something better, and the chance to actually live my life out.  What better place to do that than in NYC?  So there I go for 3.5 years, after which I have met the love of my life and we move out to Los Angeles together.   And now it’s been another 3.5 years….and during all that time, HIMYM has been on and cracking me up while also telling a wonderful story in an always clever and sometimes poignant manner.

These last 9 years have been an insane ride, and I mean that in all the best ways.  I wouldn’t be who I am now without all those experiences, people, and places in my life, and that seemed to be a through-line in the story told by the show too.  So much of where we end up is determined by how we make that journey.

HIMYM_MyTimeline

So I’m sad that this particular show is over, as it seems to signal that a certain chapter in my life is closing.  I have a strong inkling I know what the next chapter will be about – and I’m ready for it.  But I still have to mourn a bit for a piece of pop culture that really entertained me and which is now over.  And having said that, HERE BE SPOILERS ABOUT THE END OF HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I just have to talk about some of the stuff that happened!

  • So the theories about the mother (whose name was Tracy!) were true….it was heartbreaking to get that brief moment of seeing the mother sick and then getting confirmation that she did die.  I was reading a few articles and comments about the finale before writing this, and while I can understand people’s frustrations with that, especially the coda to it all, I still liked it and understood that it still was an ending I’m on board with
  • Aunt Robin looks to become Stepmom Robin.  I always liked Robin and Ted together, and I think with there now being 20 years or so since they were together and with life and maturity hitting them, they’ll probably be a good pair.
  • Barney and Robin’s divorce was sad.  Not totally unexpected, but still sad.  It felt so quick, but of course it did take place 3 years into the future after their wedding, but for us the viewers, it felt abrupt.
  • Barney’s reaction to having a baby with #31 (that really felt wrong to not have some kind of person assigned to that – I was hoping it would be Quinn) was really emotional, although after that point and at Ted and Tracy’s wedding, we don’t see much more of Barney.  I guess we assume all goes well?
  • I liked that there was a scene with the kids that was clearly filmed at what must have been some time around the 1st or 2nd season, seemingly locking the Robin story in a long time ago.  It’s possible and likely other scenarios were filmed but honestly, I’m good with this being the way it went.
  • Lily and Robin’s goodbye at the Apartment Farewell had me bawling.  That felt so true about that point in your life when your friends all move on with their lives.   There is a point where “the gang” is no longer the gang.

So that’s the end of How I Met Your Mother.  I couldn’t bear to watch the new show premiering after it as it just looked fucking terrible.  So it’s a night of listening to music and writing.  I’m good with that.  I’m excited about the next chapter.

just a post, on life

Janet’s janet.

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I had to reload my iPhone the other day as I connected it to my work computer to play music from the phone and in so doing, that made the iPhone think I had dumped my home computer and latch onto the work computer as its master.  Well, if you’ve done that before, you know that iPhones only  have one master.  So I connected it to my home laptop and was confronted with this ugly message that “this iPhone is synced to another library.  If you want to erase this iPhone and connect to this library, click OK”.  UGH.  Thus I had to restore and reload all my music.  In the ensuing hours later, I was scrolling through my library for albums to bring over and saw Janet Jackson’s janet. album there.  Love that album, so I brought it over.

Cut to this morning’s drive in to work.  I consult the cornucopia of music in my phone and remember uploading janet. into it, and decide it’s time to enter the time machine back to 1993.  Wow.  I know it’s going to be funny for most anyone else besides me, but this album really REALLY defines 1993 for me.  That year was when I really became great friends with Veronica Andersen as well as her family.  We would tool around Los Angeles all the time during that year and the next, and it was when I really got to know LA beyond just the San Gabriel Valley life I knew.  It’s strange to realize that before these excursions, I had very vague perceptions of what Los Angeles had to offer.  I had traveled some, mostly to visit my Dad wherever he was living, but my perception of LA was really just the mall in Arcadia, my elementary school in Pasadena, and then what I knew of Monrovia.  Life was all about what me and my friends were doing at MHS as well as school.  A social scene outside of that?  Huh?  That’s for the movies.

Through my time spent with Roni and her family, I got to see the world of LA you do see in the movies, mainly that being Hollywood, the Sunset Strip, Zuma Beach, and probably most importantly, UCLA.  During all these fun travels, especially in 1993, the soundtrack we lived by was janet.  Oh man, was that album such a blast to listen to.  That’s the Way Love Goes, If, Again, ….and all the Marcia Brady-esque songs meshed up with some of the more sexxxy tunes she eventually devolved into full time (I definitely mean devolved – after Velvet Rope, her albums became sad sad lovemaking records….where did the fun go, Miss Janet???).

While driving this morning listening to the album play, my mind was immediately immersed back in 1993.  I could remember that sense of discovery of seeing the world of Los Angeles for the first time in a more adult, more open-minded way.  The fun times I had with Roni.  The fun with her family, much to her chagrin.  And that led to me thinking about how much is different now.  And then in a melodramatic turn, I started thinking about all the family and friends that died during the 90s that I miss so so so much to this day.  I teared up in the car and I’m even tearing up now writing this thinking about my grandparents, my good friends Tom & Jean….  yeah, it feels like an eternity ago thinking about how in many ways the world was so different for me back in 1993.  No kidding, right?  It was nearly 2 DECADES ago at this point.

I could try to go on a diatribe about all the paths my life has taken since that point of when I was just a 16 year-old kid.  But that would probably be interesting to only me at this point, yet in a way, I think one day I will write all about that.  As while maybe it is just interesting to me, no one else is going to write my biography except me and I think there are some interesting stories to tell, even if it’s just for preservation’s sake.

just a post, on life

Picture Time (MM)

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I think I’m going to let the pictures in the MY PICS section speak for what’s happened the past few weeks.  Additional news includes the fact that while I had a fun Saturday being unable to swallow food or water and had to take a trip to the ER, it does seem that what the problem is is fairly mundane and can be treated. Yay for Schatzki rings.  Work has also been mighty stressful, as all but one of the people that works for me has quit.  Not really because of me, actually, not at all because of me, but still, life is much harder to say the least.  I just have to keep my eye on the prize, which is hopefully a West Coast position with NBCU.  Although it’s tempting to try to find something else too.  But if I can make it through this situation at work, hell, I can do anything.  ;-p  Okay, maybe that’s a bit hyperbolic.  While out at Universal Studios at the beginning of the month, I did get to see Mom & Harv for dinner.  And dinner was on the company dime no less too.  Yeehaw for expense accounts!!!  Alright, hopefully the summer will be fun.  It’ll be my last true NYC summer, as far as I can tell, so it’s time to make it a good one.  Trips to Boston and Maryland are in the cards for sure.  Not sure what else, but we’ll see how it goes.

And oh yeah, I got an Apple iPad too.  That damn thing is the bees’ knees.

geek stuff, on life, pop culture

The Snowpocalypse May Finally Be Hitting NYC

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I’m baaacck!  Let’s catch you up on some stuff:

  • I’m taking guitar lessons from the NYC Guitar School.  My first lesson was last Thursday night and it was really cool.  As of now, I only know the D and the G chords.  I even can somewhat transition between the two without taking a minute to do so.  But other than that, not much knowledge yet.  I anticipate getting better.  I WILL get better.  And yes, I will learn to play “Smoke on the Water”, and I will post a YouTube video of it for all of you to see and bow to its glory.  Hahahahahahahahaha!
  • I am working on porting over my previous incarnation of hobiebarnes.com onto this new server – you can find a link to it in the THE OLD SITE link at the top menu bar there.  Go ahead, click.  So far, only 2008 is up and available.  Got all of 2001-2007 to do still.  Yowza!
  • RuPaul’s Drag Race is like the best show ever.  RuPaul is so freakin’ hilarious and these drag queens are reDONKULOUS.  This week’s episode had the press-on claws out in all their dragalicious glory.  I would cry after spending an hour amongst them as the cattiness makes even ME weep.  I know.  But RuPaul is so damn fierce.  And when these guys are in all their LadyGlory and working their shit, it is amazing.  You can’t look away. So glad Logo is an available network on Time Warner now!
  • LOST is back!  The last and sixth season has been amazing so far, and it’s only been three hours of episodes so far.  Claire! NotClaire! Locke!  NotLocke! So many great stories and characters.  So sad its going to end in a few months.
  • The 2010 Winter Olympics are almost here.  That means it’s back to weird support schedules.  But that’s okay.  At least for these Olympics, since they’re not taking place 12 hours away, we don’t have to worry about providing 24/7 support and only have to make sure that we’re around between 9am through 2am.  Yay!
  • Valentine’s Day – and I have an awesome guy to spend it with.  At least the day portion of it. I have to work that night.  🙁
  • Alright, I’m signing off for now – I’ll probably come back with some pictures from our buried aliveness.