Weekly Briefing from the North Texas Apocalypse Bunker, 10/16/23
October Rubicon Edition
You might have heard a low, sotto voce breathy hum as you stepped outside this morning. That was the state of Texas sighing in unison, as we took in the effects of the Second False Fall by way of temperatures in the mid-forties to mid-fifties, and highs in the low to mid-eighties. At this rate, we’ll have decent weather just in time for Thanksgiving.
Update from the Agency of Health and Wellness
My previously-reported-on condition, wherein I described how I was ejecting dark, sulfurous foulness much like an octopus trying to evade a predator—or rather like how the Imperial Fleet dumps their garbage before they go into hyperspace—I got a million of ‘em, folks—lasted 17 days. Long story short: I’m no longer taking Rybelsus, and won’t ever take it again. I don’t have Type 2 Diabetes and don’t intend to start. Hovering over a toilet and navigating by charting out public restrooms is no way to go through life. Or to put it another way: I’d rather eat cauliflower.
October is a lawnmower-to-the-face month for me anyways, and despite my best efforts to take the season back, little thoughts creep in. Reminders. Stray thoughts. We’re past the 15th now—the halfway mark, and it’s mostly downhill from here. Getting the Bullet Journal back together has helped, and I’m taking some extra care of myself; little things, mostly, but they add up. Like grooming, for instance. I buy a lot of Duke Cannon products, and use them nearly completely exclusively now (mustache wax is all that they lack). In my Bullet Journal I have a list of things to do when I’m feeling depressed, and as stupid as some of them are, they work.
Update from the Division of K-9 Maintenance
Ordinarily no news would be good news, but I don’t have any at the moment. Sonya seems to have picked up the diarrhea that I dropped and oh, there’s nothing finer than cleaning THAT up, let me tell you. We’ve changed out some of her meds, and put her on oral steroids. She’s also taking charcoal tablets (under duress), and we’ve changed her food up again, so she’s back on the probiotic food specially formulated for dogs with G/I problems.
Here she is. Sweet as ever. She’s just old. Really old now. She’s got life in her eyes, but her body is failing her. Real talk now. I need her to hang on. I need her to make it out of October (see above). I hope the changes we’ve made buy her and us a little time.
October Progress Report from the N.T.A.B. Division of Media Review - as of 10/16/23
We are pleased to report that the new entries for the Top 5 Horror Movie Lists have been written and will continue to drop on Mondays. As of this writing, three have appeared on the blog:
Top 5 When Insects Attack movies
And set to drop in the coming weeks:
Top 5 Folk Horror Movies
Top 5 Christopher Lee Movies
In addition to the above, we have altered/updated Top 5 Movies of the 1930s to reflect changes in the lists due to previously unavailable films being re-released on DVD and/or Blu Ray. We are also going back through older entries and adding new material to the reviews, such as a synopsis teaser paragraph at the beginning of the entry. These will be uploaded as they are completed.
Finally, we hope to link to the list all of the live reviews for ease of navigation. That’s a lot of linking and redundancies, but we think you’re worth it, and also, we don’t like answering the same questions over and over again. “What about this movie” or “No love for that movie” nearly always has the same answer: It’s On Another List.
If the Admin has his way, the lists will be collected and assembled into a guide book in time to coincide with Halloween next year. We’re trying to talk him out of it, as the number of movies he’s written about is creeping up around 225 entries, and if he crowdfunds the printing, there may be more lists included for stretch goals, along with some stand-alone essays, and who knows what else. He just can’t stop touching things when they are done.
He’s also kicking around the idea of doing another set of lists for Action movies. “There’s a lot of different westerns,” he tried to tell me. “And what about crime movies? A heist isn’t a mob movie, and vice versa. I’m just trying to help people out.”
We told him first he’s got to finish his extant role-playing game projects before we’ll help him with another one. We figure that’ll give us at least a year to get back to our regular duties. He tends to over-commit.
One last thing: Administration keeps bugging us about making stickers out of one or more of the Top 5 Logos. We think it’s rather jaunty, but we’re not sure if anyone else would want one to affix to their Trapper Keeper.
If you have a strong opinion either way, please leave us a comment so we can better take the temperature of our core audience.
My name is Kevin, and I too, have no glasses game.
What's the deal with these Duke Cannon products? My kids went to Target, and now I have a bathroom full of 'em.
Glad to hear you're feeling a little better- or at least as well as anyone can while eating cauliflower, and hope Sonya is too! Love that smiling face.
P.S. I would love NTAB stickers! Got some room left on my laptop for one.
All the best to both you and Sonya