Making Things Official

I have been keeping up with my movie site for well over a year now. I decided to finally make it somewhat official.  This week I bought the domain name http://pretendcritic.com.  Everything is the same for the most part, you just don't have to type that pesky .blogspot into the name anymore.  If you haven't visited in a while make sure you go check it out.  I have added a bunch of reviews and changed the look quite a bit.

While I was on the kick of buying domain names I thought I might as well go ahead and get dericbidwell.com too.  I knew there were a bunch of people just dying to own it.  I wanted to snatch it up before it was too late.  From now on this blog will appear on dericbidwell.com.

Storytime

Remember how excited you were when the teacher announced it was time to go sit on the carpet and listen to her read a story?  I loved it, and all these years later I have been able to recapture a similar feeling.

Whether you realize it or not, you know who Stephen Tobolowsky is.  Undoubtedly, you have seen him several times in various movies and tv shows.  He may have one of the largest imdb lists ever.  Like most everybody else, I recognized him, but never really knew who he was.  This past fall he was a guest host on one of the movie podcasts that I enjoy listening to.  Shortly after that he started his own weekly podcast called the Tobolowsky Files, in which he tells stories from his life.  I was interested, so I listened to the first episode.  I was immediately a fan.  Stephen Tobolowsky tells these great stories so eloquently and personally.  When I listen I feel like I am right there with a friend; hearing him recount a story from his life to help me better understand my own.  I love listening to stories, especially when they are being told with the sincerity and personality that Mr. Tobolowsky brings to them.  This may sound really cheesy, but I kinda feel like he is a friend now.  He obviously has no clue who I am, but I feel like I know him well.  When I see him in a role I feel like understand who that person really is.

LOST: The Final Season

From the beginning of the show I felt like the writers were walking along a path and I was eagerly following behind.  I was excited for this final season to see where they would lead me in the end.  However, from the first episode of this season I have felt uneasy.  I feel like I stopped being able to just follow behind the story.  Instead the story has turned around, put me in a headlock, and forced me to go along with it.  Every once in a while it loosens its grip and allows me to breathe, but it hasn't completely released me yet.

The last few weeks have been a lot better, and I am excited to watch it this week.  It seems they had to forcefully take me off of the main path onto some side path I never would have willingly followed them to.  Now that we have reached this new path the writers are going to release me and walk on ahead, allowing me to resume following as I was before.  I will obediently follow to the final destination.  I have been critical of this final season thus far, but I am back on the wagon now.  Now I just have to see where it takes me in the end.

Even if the final episode of LOST totally stinks I will still not regret watching all seasons of the show.  It has been a really entertaining ride regardless of how they decide to end it.  Surely they won't answer all of the questions they have posed.  The first season was packed with tons of questions, most of which remain unanswered to this point. However, most of those questions seem completely irrelevant now.  They didn't answer the questions, but they somehow made the show seem so much bigger than that.  No matter how it ends, I will always be a fan and supporter of LOST.

-deric

Just Me Whining

I don't want to come across like I am complaining, although I might be a little bit. For the last month work has been insanely busy. I am not used to having that much of a workload on my plate every single day. It all got be very overwhelming. A few times I reached the point where I have so much to do, and so many people pulling me in different directions, that I start to have some sort of panic attack. I just have to stand up and walk away for a bit. Once I have relaxed I can come back and prioritize.

I feel like I have always been a pretty easy going guy. I want to perform well at my job, but I have never let work affect my mood too much. If something bad happens at work I am not going to get all pissed off and sulk about it. Lately things have been so crazy that I am in a state of panic from the moment I get to work in the morning until the moment I leave. It is really difficult to be patient and helpful when you have that much stuff to get done. At the end of the day I am so mentally exhausted that all I want to do is come home and space out.