stranger things

Stranger Blog Posts

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Once again, I’m hooked.

I’m feeling nostalgic all over again and wishing it was really 1984, so I could head over to an arcade for an afternoon or maybe hit up the mall for some good tunes at an actual music store.

Season 2 has definitely got me anxious. I’m trying to figure out the good guys from the bad guys (with the bad guys tending to be authoritarian in nature for the most part). I’m also trying (and failing) to figure out how the storyline will play out.

I love wi-fi and smart phones and hi-def, but part of me would gladly give all that up to be 12-years old again with those days where I didn’t have adult responsibilities and my future had endless possibilities.

I sometimes think it’d be the coolest thing ever to have a time machine or some other means to travel back in time, if only for a day or so. I could visit with relatives who have passed away or go to my childhood home and wander around. Maybe just sit and soak it all in.

The reality is that for better or for worse, I’m stuck in 2017. Even if I could lay my hands on one of those Deloreans, I can’t go back.

But you know what? Here’s good. The present is a gift because I’m alive to open all its endless possibilities. I may have a job and bills and boring adult stuff, but that means that I survived and that I’m still here, a privilege not everyone gets.

So I’m thankful for this day, October 30, 2017. And I have three more episodes of Stranger Things Season Two to get my nostalgic kicks in and live vicariously back in 1984 again.

On a side note, I’d have a really hard time giving up Netflix to go back in time.

 

Wednesday Wisdom

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“Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God ’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Don’t assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.
But don’t, dear friend, resent God ’s discipline;
don’t sulk under his loving correction.
It’s the child he loves that God corrects;
a father’s delight is behind all this” (Proverbs 3:5-12, The Message)

It turned out to be a nostalgic kind of day for me. I had an old Bourgeois Tagg song from 1987 stuck in my head all day. Here’s the link to the song if you’re not familiar with the name of the artists. They weren’t exactly household names back in the day, but they made at least one fantastic song.

I also made the trip back in to the land of The Upside Down by revisiting Stranger Things Season 1. At least the first episode. I still get the same warm fuzzy nostalgic feeling that I did the first time. I also want to head over to the mall for Cinnabons and some CDs from Camelot music. It’s available for streaming on Netflix with a new season just around the corner.

I think I get nostalgic for the 80’s because life was much easier then (as it should be when you’re a kid). I recognize that I can’t go back, but I have to live today in the place where God has planted me.

As always, I recognize that I’m very much in need of wisdom. Yet at the same time, I seem to forget most of the time that for me to gain wisdom, all God asks of me is for me to ask for it. Not in a half-hearted, one-time prayer, but in an everyday, persistent, keep-asking-keep-knocking, as-if-my-very-life-depended-on-it kind of prayer.

Lord, grant your children wisdom to be able to navigate this life and live out the hope you promised so that others become envious of that hope we have and want to know more about it.

Amen.

My Multimedia Adventure Continues

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It’s been a while since I updated you on my latest music and Netflix intake, so here goes.

I picked up a live Bob Marley and the Wailers album from the clearance section of Target. It’s called Easy Skanking in Boston ’78 and it’s classic reggae from my favorite decade, musically speaking. The title’s a little weird, but the music’s great. It helps if you have speakers with lots of bass.

I pre-ordered the new Lindsay Buckingham/Christine McVie album from amazon.com. I’m very much intrigued by the pairing and I’m hoping for a little old-school Fleetwood Mac vibe on this one.

Right now, I’m reliving my high school glory days with The Best of Both Worlds, a Van Halen best-of compilation. It’s amazing how those songs take me back to when I first heard them. And for the record, I prefer David Lee Roth over Sammy Hagar, but I like ’em both.

I foresee some serious Allman Brothers Band marathons in my future. I do believe that southern rock is good for the soul, especially when that soul has a lengthy commute to and from work.

Currently, my Netflix mainstays are Gilmore Girls (halfway through season 6) and Bates Motel (just started season 2). Gilmore Girls still has that fantastic dialogue that reminds me a lot of the old movie His Girl Friday (with some similarities to one of my favorite John Cusack movies, Better Off Dead). I have a fairly decent idea of where Bates Motel is headed, having already seen Psycho (and Bates Motel is the backstory to that movie).

I’m always open to suggestions for what to listen to and watch next, especially when it comes to Netflix. I’d really like something that has a similar vibe to Stranger Things and The OA, but I’m pretty much open to any kind of shows or movies out there.

More to come at some later (and probably randomly picked) date. Stay tuned.

 

 

100% Original

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Everything you read tonight (or possibly tomorrow morning or afternoon) is completely original with nothing borrowed, copied, or stolen from anyone else. No quotes. No references. Nothing. Got it? Let’s proceed.

In this day and age of overblown reactions to everything and in response to all the fake news that seems to be more prevalent than actual real news, I’m loving my Netflix. Sure, none of it has any basis in fact, but that’s what makes it so great. I can invest myself in people who are completely made up.

Case in point: Gilmore Girls. I know I’m in danger of having the already shredded remains of my man card painstakingly reassembled just so that it can be immediately burned alive. But I do love this show.

I think it’s because of the witty dialogue. No one can talk this way (at least not for very long), but it’s the ideal I strive toward in every conversation.

I also find myself immersed in the strange and wonderful world of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (the current series and not the movie from 2004). I do love Jim Carr

Spring’s Here

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I gotta tell ya. I’m lovin’ this weather we’re having in Middle Tennessee. I don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the country, but right here, the weather’s just fine.

I think the temperature is supposed to be in the 70’s for the entire week. After going up and down from warm to cold like a demented yo-yo, this is a nice change of pace. I don’t know if there’s any chance of rain, but I’m fairly certain there’ll be no snow at least until next December.

My favorite of the seasons is fall, but spring’s a close second. Especially when it’s right around 75 and the sun is shining and a cool breeze is blowing. I can literally feel my cares blowing away with the wind.

I know better than to trust Tennessee weather or Tennessee weather forecasters. So nix what I said earlier about no more snow. Stranger things have happened in April and even in May.

I’m just thankful that I woke up this morning and was able to enjoy the fine Sunday spring day. I don’t take for granted that I’ll get the same privilege tomorrow. It’ll be another gift tomorrow.