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Ramblings of an EdMan

Edmund Charles Davis-Quinn

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The Ecq Review

BrainDead ****

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There is a wonderful, crazy, insane, hilarious comedy about politics that just ended its first season on Sunday on CBS, “BrainDead.”

I would never have heard of it, but CBS had a deal with Amazon to show new episodes on the Thursday after they aired.

It honestly had terrible ratings at Sunday at 10pm. But an incredible 4 1/2 star Amazon.com rating right now. This also has a link to all the shows.

Basically I think it is much more made for streaming than broadcast.

And I really hope season 2 gets picked up on Amazon.

It’s totally ridiculous but somehow makes a whole lot more sense than Donald Trump.

Wonderful, acting, writing and even great synopses by Jonathan Coulton.

Seriously check it out and see it, the whole thing is on Amazon Prime now.

****

The Whore of Akron ****

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Amazing, crazy, profane book.

This goes into being Jewish, from Cleveland, addiction, madness and the odd loyalty of being a die hard sports fan.

I am a Philadelphia sports fan, and the Phillies winning a World Series made me happy, but I am happy that I am not this connected to sports.

It would just be so exhausting. Wonderful, crazy gonzo writing that isn’t everyone with lots of sexual references.

And the Decision really was one of the most bizarre and ridiculous sports shows ever.

I’m glad LeBron came back to Cleveland in 2004 and finally got the city a championship in 2016 from a 3-1 comeback.

I also highly recommend the ESPN #30For30 documentary “Believeland” which does include Scott Raab. The city really desperately needed a championship after all that heartbreak.

Watching Tennis on My Phone

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Ironically written on my computer, which I am using less than my phone these days honestly. The phone usually works better, blogged about that yesterday.

But, the computer was on because I tried to watch the match on usopen.org and was unsuccessful.

Luckily, yesterday I hit the watch live button on the US Open app and it worked for the Women’s final which was great tennis and for a phenomenal men’s final today.

I think tennis is a very underrated spectator sport. It’s player versus player for sometimes 4 hours like Wawrinka’s win over Djokovic tonight.

And I was totally compelled even on the very small Samsung Galaxy S4 screen.

And I wonder if tennis and golf would be better without all the shushing. It seems like you should be able to serve or drive or putt with noise. Might make everything more interesting. I bet it would change who was great at the game, especially in golf.

And I don’t feel like I am writing any more since I am on my computer, although maybe the words come out a little faster.

Sleep is Not the Enemy

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I’m reading a novel about someone who left everything while manic “Too Bright to Hear, Too Loud to See” by Juliann Garey. It’s very good and the last chapter I read involved being hospitalized in Kenya. After not sleeping for weeks jabbing his hand with a shrimp fork to stop the buzzing.

I have had major mania but in never went that far.

One major mania I had, and the one that wasn’t hospitalized was in my last MBA class at the Oxford Trade Program.

Geneva was great but when I came back to Oxford it got weird especially at a company visit to Birmingham. I do wish though I took the bus to London with the class. It was in August, 2001 and I planned to travel around Europe after.

That didn’t work out. I was pushed out of Oxford to London which thought was an incredibly strange decision. I should have just been hospitalized in Oxford. It was a far more approachable city than being completely alone at Imperial College in the middle of London.

I bought too much stuff, made some odd decisions, lost some stuff at a hostel, it would have been a good time for a private room. And I missed a flight to Edinburgh.

And I didn’t fly out of Rome in early October, I flew back I think to Los Angeles but maybe Newark. I honestly don’t remember.

I do wish I kept my space in Claremont though. It would have been a great place to transition. It’s one of the best places I have ever lived.

I think the mania went down across the ocean, but I don’t really remember. It was fifteen years ago. I do know I was depressed for a very long time. And I slept a lot the next year and didn’t do much. I think it has affected my career since but who knows.

I will say I am very happy I had no new incidents until my dad died in April, 2013 which was also a huge mania where I was hospitalized and have talked more about on the blog in the past.

I also had a smaller mania in April, 2015 that also involved hospitalization. A small mania in December, 1992, I think looking back. And one after graduating college in December, 1997 that was surreal and involved hospitalization.

Maybe I take less risks because I do have major mania. I am happy though I had structure and was able to heal.

Luring Pokemon

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I’ve been trying to figure out how to turn on the lure at a Pokestop for a few days.

I didn’t know it’s the space above the Pokestop when you spin it around.

I finally did it today at the Ansonia armory.

I got some very good catches. And I went from level 12 to level 13 today.

On the walk over I got a CP 117 Zubat (meh), and a pretty big cp 326 Bellsprout.

And then I dropped the lure and got a bunch. CP 178 Pollwag (new), CP 297 Bellsprout, CP 70 Psyduck, CP 295 Slowpoke (New), CP 310 Pollwhirl (new), CP 231 Seel, CP 182 Staryu (new), CP 232 Oddish, a CP 244 male Nidoran from an egg (disappointing), CP 188 Pollwag, CP 193 Goldeen, CP 93 Goldeen, CP 96 male Nidoran. Excellent hunting with 4 new Pokemon which gets me up to 51 in the Pokedex.

I also had a Pidgey run away, on the way home I got a CP 71 Weedle (woo), a CP 120ish Weedle that ran away after being captured like seven times, I guess there are time to let me go, a CP 10 Horsea, and a CP 61 Pidgey.

I’m really enjoying my Pokewalks, and I do have a another lure to drop at some point. Maybe I will at Musikfest or like Bryant Park on Tuesday. I definitely need to bring a 2nd battery, luckily my wife upgraded her phone so I can steal the battery from her when needed. Definitely going to be bringing it next week.

I’m up to level 13 and 78905 XP and got the fun name WhoaDudeMan, 33.3 km so far, 224 total Pokemon caught (Weedles and Pidgeys are the most, best good one in the Naugatuck Valley is an Eevee, I have already down all 3 evolutions, 19 evolutions so far, 12 eggs hatched, 206 Pokestops…

I’m sure a lot of you have many more.

My biggest guys so far are a CP 769 Vaporeon, a CP 628 Flareon, a CP 546 Pidgeot (just evolved), a CP 419 Weepinbull, CP 384 Beedrill, CP 370 Tauros, CP 326 Ponyta, and a CP 326 Bellsprout, a CP 310 Pollwhirl, a CP 307 Clefairy, and a CP 302 Oddish.

I am enjoying the game and it gets me out of the house in the evening. It’s a very good thing.

Pokefantastical!

Pokewords

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Pokemon Go is taking the world by storm.

I am seeing people playing it everywhere. Especially where there are some Pokestops to get near things.

So I thought I would do so some silliness with Pokemon words.

PekaK — Walking a kilometer playing Pokemon Go. Also how you incubate eggs.

PokeGo — Pokemon Go

Pokestop — when people say when you talk about Pokemon

PokeDrain — How fast keeping a game opening using GPS drains your battery

PokePlaces — Places with lots of pokestops where you can hang out and play and there is a lot of Pokemon. A great example of this is the Shelton Riverside Park. Also a lovely place to see the Housatonic River in Shelton, CT.

PokeOutside — People who are outside because of playing Pokemon Go

PokeCareful — What you should be when playing Pokemon Go, you can just hold the phone in your hand with vibrate on and pay attentoin when it vibrates

PokeCandy — What you use to upgrade and what you do with a lot of duplicate Pokemon

PokeSweat – What happens when you walk around on a hot day.

PokeMuscles — When you muscles wake up from walking more

PokeSurprise — If you don’t have a lot of data and see your bill

PokeUpgrade — Getting unlimited data so you don’t have to worry about Pokesurprises.

PokeSilly — This post.

The Obscene Becomes Normal

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I only heard in passing this morning about the terrible shooting of 50 people having a good time in Orlando yesterday at a gay bar.

I can only take so much.

It’s becoming so normal to have a shooting somewhere.

For people to snap.

We are all taught to fear each other from an early age now. “Stranger Danger”. Kids aren’t running around town. Instead of the police being there to help you in need, you fear them giving you a ticket. Even if you really aren’t doing anything wrong.

Instead of getting to know our neighbors we close our doors.

Instead of kids running around the neighborhood and like in many culture knowing they can ask someone for help and often get it, children are taught to fear.

We lock our doors. We fear going for medical attention even if we have insurance. Worried about the bill.

We fear the calls on the phone. Whether we can’t afford student loans, medical expenses, credit cards, payday loans or anything else. And there are debt predators everywhere trying to make a buck. It’s terrible.

We are in a nation of greed where money is worshipped. And an absolute shyster becomes a major party’s nominee for President.

Where we fear the other. Other religions, other races, our nations, even our neighbors. There is often suspicion.

I really can’t deal with it. After work I did look at Facebook briefly and I did look at a New York Times summary of events. I Googled “Orlando shooting.”

It’s being called the worst shooting in American history. That’s not true. It’s not a major war, it’s not bombings, drone strikes, Civil Wars, trench warfare.

It’s not Antietam, Petersburg, France, the Battle of the Bulge, the Indian Wars, the Trail of Tears. It’s extremely sad.

It’s someone who felt hate and had an assault weapon shooting up people looking to have a good time. It’s something that makes us very afraid.

It’s becoming all too normal.

As for me I have been playing games. Mainly against myself, although there was some Hearthstone online. Magic: The Gathering (Landfall R/G, Naya W/R/G, and Goblins Red), Splendor. If I lived in Portland, I might be at a place like Arcadia right now. I would so much rather be making decisions and cards and chits then thinking about tragedy.

Be kind to yourself, turn off the news if you need to, watch a favorite movie, go for a walk, pet the dog, pet the cat, take a nap.

I wish it would say it isn’t going to happen again but it probably is.

I just think we need to learn to love each other again. Stop the insane security state, stop American Empire. Realize no one needs AR-15s, and that includes the military. So many people have been terrorized with similar weapons like AK-47s around the world.

We all just want to fart around. To eat, to laugh, to have a home, find work, get by. It shouldn’t be this difficult.

With love,

edmund

Mixed Nuts ****

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We need more therapists like Rick Cormier. Giving, humorous, and always trying to help their patients anyway they can.

I also gave it to my friend who is a new LCSW and a therapist and she was very impressed.

I love how grounded and relatable the stories are. Like the person with two clocks with rotating minutes who had to stop between the first and second clock every minute. Simple solution? Take one clock out of the room. Or using practicing deep breathing and lists to help people with panic attacks. Or that hypnosis can help people with their fears.

I will admit I have bipolar disorder and I haven’t found many therapists or psychiatrists I would like. Some are just their for diagnosis. A lot of therapists fall into the “well what do you think?” trap. I think I would like Rick Cormier.

Outstanding book.

I did get the chance to beta this and it blew me away then too. I did write an earlier blogpost about it a couple months ago.

And it would be great to live in a world where we could afford therapy too. It’s often a huge expense for those who could use it.

A Year of Good Things

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I started doing Three Good Things ago a year ago today. I wonder if I started it in a journal. Since I was probably at Rites of Spring.

It’s an excellent practice just like 6 months or so of this blog now.

I usually do more than 10 things a day so my “three” good things has probably been 4000-5000 things with a lot of repeats.

Some themes are common though, reading, playing music, good food, my cats, my wife Lanna, listening to music.

Walking, nature and the outdoors.

It almost always flows very easily and I have heard a ton of feedback.

Of course, the “three” thing isn’t exactly true.

And I expect to keep doing it. I will probably journal them since I won’t have internet access. Maybe I will add them to my blogposts to save them in draft form.

Here was my Three Good Things Day 365 today:

Three Good Things Day 365:
1. A year of these
2. Kitty time
3. Lanna Lee Maheux
4. Friends
5. My guitars
6. Packing the car up for Rites of Spring in a few minutes
7. Seeing friends for lunch like Ayla Battistoni today
8. Having enough
9. Starting to pay more on the student loans
10. Forbearance, although it has it’s consequences
11. Traveling
12. The woods
13. Silence
14. Having the phone not work
15. Hearing the noise of cars gone and hearing the wind, the water and kids playing.
16. Meditation
17. Learning
18. Having around 4000-5000 Good Things over the year.
19. Likes
20. Blogging every day
21. Reading
22. Music
23. Libraries
24. Bakeries
25. Good food.

Not Finishing Books

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My goal on Goodreads is 52 books this year. Or a book a week. Of course that only counts new books so I have read like 5 more than the 15 of 52 books I have read so far in the reading challenge on Goodreads.

But, there are so, so many more I start.

My friend at work who just found a new job, said she used to read 8 books a week. I don’t think I have ever come close to that.

And right now there are two I really want to finish. “The Brothers Vonnegut: Science and Fiction in the House of Magic” by Ginger Strand about Kurt Vonnegut and his brother Bernard Vonnegut at General Electric in Schenectady in the 1940s and 1950s. I really didn’t start it until it was almost due and got through about two thirds of it, but last week since I went to Portland, Maine has been much, much more about gaming. I have about 90 pages left from page 122-212. I started in the beginning and didn’t get going and then read starting with Chapter 10 and really enjoyed it. I guess I have read the ending but I am so close. It’s now 2 weeks late to the library and I am going into the woods so it’s going back to the library tomorrow. I also borrowed in through Biblio CT, so it’s a book from the Plumb Memorial Library in Shelton, CT a couple towns away. That makes me want to finish it more.

The other one I think I can really, really easily get back to. Bill Bryson’s “The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain.” I am on page 285 of 376, and I can just go back 5 pages to the beginning of Chapter 20 Wales. It’s a rambling travelogue. Although, it could be well argued much, much more about England than Britain. It’s a definite pleasure to read, but back it goes I think. I really don’t want to take library books to Rites of Spring. I bring so, so much stuff as it is.

And there are so many I just start bits and pieces off. Poetry is especially easy to just read a few poems at random. Sometimes there is a lot of joy in that.

A couple weeks ago when I had a nice bump of reading including these two books I wrote a post with 6 books I was reading outside. I really often do what more than one book. It gets silly when I am trudging along 2 hardcovers through Portland, Maine and I really don’t open either of them. Sometimes, I think I should realize I always have reading material on the Kindle and my cell phone. The Kindle especially has saved many backs. It has also decreased a lot of bibliophiles having a ridiculous amount of books on hand.

Both books are also new so will probably both circulate quite well when I bring them back tomorrow.

Anyone else someone who often stops reading books? The library can be a cause, but I do it with plenty of books I own too.