Media Diary February 9- 15: From a Forgettable Football Game to a Childhood Show I Had Forgotten

The site still hasn't swung in the direction of delivering the promised reviews and articles because my life has become a whirlwind of CBT therapy, desperate job-seeking, adjusting to new medications, and draining energy. But I'll get it all sorted soon, and I still enjoyed a few bits of entertainment I want to share this week. 

What I Watched:

Super Bowl LIX: Or, as Everett kept calling it, 'Super Bowl Licks'. It did kind of suck. The game ended up being a blowout, and I decided to call it a night with ten minutes left. The halftime show was divisive among audiences, it seemed, but it mostly fell very flat in the Spicer house.

One Piece: Everett, who has played a few games set after this point in the series, has made me well aware we're coming close to a new crew member. Because they are still in all the modern merchandise, I assume this story arc ends with Nico Robin and Ussop happily back with Luffy. 

Tinkerbell and the Fairy Pirate: Danika declared a movie night for Family Day weekend, and this is what was served up. For a straight-to-video animated adventure, it was a fine time to spend curled up in bed with loved ones. It also firmly established the Tinkerbell series of movies is before Peter Pan, as this is an origin story for Captain Hook and longtime tormentor, Tick-Tock.

Sketchy Stuff is Happening on eBay by Ryan George: Now, I know what to do with the leftover cabbage. 

What I Read:

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within review by Roger Ebert: I listened to the video last week chronicling the failure of this movie, and it got me curious to read Ebert's thoughts. He really liked it and saw it as the future of animation and film. It is interesting because he delved into the idea of computer-generated actors being a possible future in certain types of movies, and obviously, the use of AI in movies and CGI versions of deceased actors is a widely debated issue in Hollywood right now. I'm curious where he would have landed on it or how his thoughts on the technology in this movie would have evolved. 

1440 Daily Digest: The world continues to explode, but the newsletter also has some interesting looks at history and some recent scientific studies. 

"Is Your Love Healthy?' by Mark Mason: The latest newsletter from my favourite self-help writer that explores what defines healthy and unhealthy relationships of all forms. 

The Go-Between movie review by Roger Ebert: I've never seen this 1971 movie about a British working-class family where a young boy gets a crush on his friend's older sister, but I've now read the legend's review of it, and he really liked it with three and a half stars out of four. 

Accident movie review by Roger Ebert: Another British picture that deals with romance that I've never seen and didn't really know about until reading this review. This 1968 film was written by award-winning playwright Harold Pinter, and Ebert gave it three and a half stars.

The Smark Rant for Halloween Havoc 94 - 10.23.94 by Scott Keith: Keith largely recommends the show, and it was fun reliving a period of WCW where it was transitioning kicking and screaming into the Hulk Hogan era. This is Stunning Steve Austin's final WCW PPV appearance, and Flair loses a retirement match, but since it is wrestling, he has many more WCW PPVs. 

This is What Big Tech was Trying to Do to Us at the Super Bowl by Steven Zeitchik: This article confirms that the events of The Terminator are now only a few years away. We are getting too comfortable with our robotic overlords.

BFG by Roald Dahl: I finished reading this to Danika as the filrhsome Giants have been dropped in a pit, and the BFG lives happily with Sophie. Such a classic story.

Elio Trot by Roald Dahl: Almost done reading every single Dahl book to Danika. This is a very short one about Mr. Hoppy coming up with a scheme involving a tortoise to win over Ms Silver.

What I Listened To:

ASMR Flight Attendant Sleep Care Service by ASMR Latte: Yes, I am one of those people who responds positively and gets soothed by ASMR. Latte has been the most effective for me because her soft voice really soothes and causes delightful tingles along my spine and neck. This is my favourite of all her videos (yes, I put this in the listen category since I often enjoy it with my eyes closed). 

The Cheesecake Factory - Why They're Successful by Company Man: I think I went to one when we were vacationing in Chicago. The video does not spout hyperbole when talking about the massive portions. 

The REAL Story of the Mighty Orbots& the 1984 Robot Craze by Secret Galaxy: I like listening to this show every week, no matter the subject matter, because I am a sucker for deep dives into entertainment from my childhood. I initially thought this was about a show that I had never seen, but then long-forgotten memories were triggered when it played the theme song This was definitely a show I saw a few times, even if I clearly didn't like it enough to remember it much outside of the 1980s. I do vividly remember the robot craze that was so big that Rocky IV had a robot butler. 

Night Skies: The Scariest Movie Spielberg Never Made by Matt Draper: A mini-documentary on what has to be one of the most well-known movies that was never made and still had a lasting impact on 1980s cinema. The script ended up having an influence on the creation of E.T., Poltergeist, and Gremlins. I even briefly wrote about this one, but the version that was designed to be a sequel to E.T., and I may not have known at the time the script was floating around a few years before, 

What I Played:

Super Mario Party: A very fun diversion of a video game that encourages multiple players, so the whole family joined in on the fun. It is like a board game where there are numerous turns, you roll a digital die to decide how many spaces you go, and the video game aspect has things to collect and many mini-games to earn coins. The boards are represented by several 3D colorful islands.  This is also a very popular game, so probably only one person reading this needed it explained. 

Queens: A daily kick-off to my day with a one or two-minute puzzle game where I need to put a crown in every row and colour without doubling up. 

Crossclimb: A word game on LinkedIn that takes about a minute to solve where I need to come up with several words based on the clues, arrange them by order, and then solve two final more words.

What did you enjoy this week?