Weekly Briefing from the North Texas Apocalypse Bunker, 9/29/23
Rocking With Rybelsis Edition
This week’s update finds me hunkered over my computer at the trusty writing desk, furiously pounding the keys as if they owed me money. I’ve been operating without the structural benefits of my bullet journal for most of the year and I’m done with that. October finds me back in the book, making daily entries and lists and crossing things off and in general becoming 35% more productive almost instantaneously.
Administration is also girding its not-inconsiderable loins in preparation for the temporary absence of the entire staff in Bunker Ops. They will be making the trek to New York City, where they plan to, among other things, look at the exterior of the Empire State Building to see if they can spot the giant footprints from when the gorilla climbed it. It’s merely a weekend excursion, and I will not be unsupervised long enough to foment an insurrection or cause any lasting damage.
I’d like to remind all department heads that October is on target to be the busiest month of the year, and on top of that, there’s a Friday the 13th and a Full Moon Eclipse on Halloween weekend, This will make all of the usual chuckleheads a skosh more doofus-y and everyone should take care to engage in tomfoolery only at the level of their comfort and no further.
This will be the first year in several that Administration will be taking in the whole of the October season, with spooky movies, a trip to a famous cemetery, a Ghostbusters RPG one-shot for the inaugural game night at a local business, and the distinct possibility of one or more horror-themed boardgame nights, for which I have no shortage of kick-ass offerings. All of this is predicated on finishing up several extant projects, so please consider the newsletter and the blog updates as proof-of-life. I will try to take pictures of anything clever. For now, you will have to settle for a field excursion to the nearby Free City of Wichita Falls to take in an improv show featuring several of my friends. I’m not sure that anything can top that glorious Yellow Sign Fez picture from a couple weeks back anyway.
Yacht Rock in the N.T.A.B. Head
More Health/Bathroom Stuff. Ye be warned…
The navy refers to the toilet as “the head.” It’s how I oftentimes refer to the john: “I’mma go hit the head and then we’ll go.” It’s funny that the Navy would be invoked here, because my dalliance with Rybelsis has moved up to a new plateau. For the past two days, I’ve been experiencing diarrhea that can only be expressed in nautical terms.
That’s right; I am no longer extruding fecal topiary of various water-borne creatures like sea lions and manatees. Nope. What’s happening to me is like something from The Deadliest Catch. You know when they swing the cargo net over the side of the boat and drop an obscene amount of shrimp or Dungeness crabs onto the deck? It’s rather like that.
Part of this process involves having to take stool softeners and gentle laxatives to help move things along. Well, it’s moving now. BB’s don’t fall down rain gutters this fast or this efficiently. The effort is draining, literally. I’m in a state of perpetual dehydration, which is ironic, considering how water-logged I seem to be. Pirates on a scuttled frigate don’t have to deal with this much stray water. It’s appalling. I know I’m supposed to give it a few months, but I am fully prepared to back off the max dose or quit it altogether if the scoots don’t cease and desist, and pronto. I’m tired of whistling “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” every time I have to hit the head.
As it stands right now...I don’t recommend the pill, unless you need it to control your Diabeetus or some other damn thing. The amount of time I’ve spent on the toilet this week is equal to at least one thirty-minute walk, maybe two. Eat less and move around, whenever you can. It sure can’t hurt. And drink water. Lots of water. You won’t believe how little food you actually need to keep the engine running. It’s sure not an endless pasta bowl with a take home side dish. It’s less. A lot less. Me orienting myself to that truth was the biggest hurdle that also showed the greatest results in my wellness safari.
Bullet Points: Recent Media Consumed
I know the guys in the Division of Media Review hate it when I try to write in their style, but they are up to their eyeballs in Other Stuff, so I thought I’d mention a couple of quick things here, in case you’ve missed them.
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece: A Novel by Tom Hanks
This book was a charming read; not quite a mosaic novel, but close, as we follow an artist from childhood to the point of him creating a comic book character, and then that character being developed into a Marvel-ous style movie, and what all that might entail. I love “behind the scenes” stories and Hanks has first-hand experience here. Hanks is a clever storyteller, good with words, and he does a great job of making you like who he’s writing about without forcing your hand. If you like seeing how the sausage gets made, this is a swell read, with lots of interesting asides. Oh, and not one, not two, but three different comics about the character, Firefall, leavened into the book, along with a QR code you can shoot to download the shooting script for the movie being made in the book. How cool is that?
Reservation Dogs (on Hulu)
The third season just wrapped up, and it appears to be the final one, which is great, as it goes out on a really satisfying note. I’ve recommended this before, but I can’t recommend it strongly enough. It’s a fantastic, well-written, well-acted slice of life dramedy that takes place in Oklahoma on a Native American Reservation. It’s a mix of stories, no two alike, and the emotions they elicit are real and varied. Lots of great themes, and some really funny, recurring characters, along with a variety of spirits and ghosts that drift the show into “magical realism” many times. The whole series is short, 30 shows, 30 minutes each. You can watch two or three a night and breeze through them. Don’t be a “shitass.” Check the Rez Dogs out.
The head stuff - this too shall pass!
Bullet journal - yeah, I've been thinking of something like that for health stuff; just a list/grid where I can tick off day by day what I did/didn't.
Kong - When visiting New York 25 (!) years ago with half my class, the rest all went up the Twin Towers. I went up the Empire State. I think you know the reason.