It’s been a while since Dan and I have happened upon good sci-fi. The world is swamped with sewage, which made this gem really stand out. Strong storytelling with callbacks to Khan and the Prime Directive, solid arguments against racism and oppression, and wit and charm through fabulous performances from the entire cast.
Author: m
Raleigh Rodeo
Ken decided he was coming to Raleigh, yay! Then he talked Matt into joining. And I convinced Erik to come. So local friends and I gathered here and there all over town to pack in quite a fun-filled weekend.
Friday: Regina left a huge bag of St. Paddy gear on my doorstep! “Hide it until tomorrow” ok! ❤️ Young Hearts Distillery then Raleigh Times for plates and drinks; Slims for loud noise and bad beer.
Saturday: Slept through St. Paddy’s parade, met at 444 for breakfast coffee chat, headed to St. Paddy’s street party at Hibernian; met Kelly and Shannen, drank much Guinness, Erik fell in love with the young singer; went to Morgan St. Food Hall and grabbed pizza etc, had our epic Epic Axe battle, Matt wins $5 off us all by ONE POINT; Watts and Ward Old Fashioned Raleigh tradition, chilled and chatted; Regina met us for amazing Brewery Bhavana dinner, she and I shared small plates, everyone enjoyed such such good good beer… we were all pretty crispy by the end!
Sunday: up, breakfast, coffee, chill… toured ArtSpace’s gallery and studios; epic ART LESSON from Matt! He was in town all day, awesome; Regina called us to The Davie to meet up with Bob and LeeAnn and her sister Lisa, such a great mashup of great people; next we planned exits, how sad… Erik ran everyone to the airport.
Can’t wait for the next one!
Last Supper
My big Mayo Clinic trip starts tomorrow, getting in good meals before I have to eat through a straw, lol. Check out the stuffed pepper. Thanks Regina for the groovy vegan boots, we will make good use of them!

9.0 Light & Magic
Kathleen Kennedy just went way up in my book for releasing this behind-the-scenes gold. The whole journey is captured, from Ray Harryhassen stop motion to the gorgeous ring volume of The Mandalorian.
Another day, another impossibly long list of entertainment options…
Raleigh is ours
Regina and I walked from her old place to her new apartment at Peace that she will be in soon. It’s perfect. A 30 minute walk through the heart of Raleigh got us there. Raleigh was hopping today, with full parks, a set of Raleigh Astronomy Club telescopes beautifully filtering the sun (one showed dark spots, another had a hydrogen alpha filter that let us see solar prominences – unreal), live bands, noisy crowds, and sadly, lots of police (ahead of Tyre Nichols protests, Regina pointed out – a sad shameful ending to the walk).
The apartment is insane, right outside the door is the glorious pool, grills, a bar, the lounge with a theater, pool table and so much more. It’s basically the world’s biggest living room. Wow.
9.0 The Offer
It’s rare to find anything with this much high quality triple layering (actors playing actors playing characters). Some complain it is from a mysoginist eta (true) better left dead. Some elitist critics (*cough Rolling Stone *cough) find it shameful. Just focus on the world class acting through the twists and turns, it’s quite a journey.
Amazing Race season 34
mike wins! -259 to -301
Here we go again!
Erik Dan and I are in!
- Pick the team you think will win, and pick the team you think will be eliminated next.
- For winners, if your winning team wins, you score a point. If they are eliminted, you lose a point and repick!
- For losers, if your losing team is eliminated, you score a point, and get to pick another. If they win, you’re a loser (of one point)!
- Contest winner is the one with the most points after the final episode!
WAIT!! WE WENT OFF THE RAILS!
See the bottom…












SCORE
Ep01 | Ep02 | Ep03 | Ep04 | Ep05 | Ep06 | Ep07 | Ep08 | Ep09 | Ep10 | Ep11 | ||
Dan | 0 | -1 | -17 | |||||||||
Mike | 0 | +1 | -35 | |||||||||
Erik | 0 | -1 |
LEGEND | |
---|---|
+1 | Winning choice won this leg of the race |
+1 | Losing choice was eliminated (pick again) |
+2 | Winning choice won, and losing choice was eliminated – PERFECT! |
-1 | Winning choice was eliminated – pick again, loser… |
-1 | Losing choice won this leg – just… sad… |
-2 | Your winner lost, and your loser won? Seriously?? Nice work. |
WIN PICKS
Ep01 | Ep02 | Ep03 | Ep04 | Ep05 | Ep06 | Ep07 | Ep08 | Ep09 | Ep10 | Ep11 | ||
Dan | – | ![]() | ![]() | |||||||||
Mike | – | ![]() | ![]() | |||||||||
Erik | ![]() | ![]() | ||||||||||
Winner | ![]() | ![]() | n/a |
LOSE PICKS
Ep01 | Ep02 | Ep03 | Ep04 | Ep05 | Ep06 | Ep07 | Ep08 | Ep09 | Ep10 | Ep11 | ||
Dan | – | ![]() | ![]() | |||||||||
Mike | – | ![]() | ![]() | |||||||||
Erik | ![]() | ![]() | ||||||||||
Loser | ![]() | ![]() | n/a | (none) | (none) |
FULL LEG RESULTS
Ep01 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Ep02 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Ep03 | |
Ep04 | |
Ep05 | |
Ep06 | |
Ep07 | |
Ep08 | |
Ep09 | |
Ep10 | |
Ep11 |
GONNA GO SPREADSHEEEEEEEET!!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SELZAWO9MSTurbX9KXseQUhvaJzs_Pd_YWe5avdYd8k/edit?usp=sharing

Avon and the art of motorcycle repair
Real sports for kiteboard watching and a wrap
Aussie food truck free.coffee
Donna yoga on the beach sunrise
Nice good old boy pulled us from sand trap bought him beer
Walked a mile to beach, nailed the Nemo, extra poles
Sat at edge of tide, let it wash into us on the top of a steeeeeep bank.
Jamaica convenience cafe man scared us when I changed my order. Saw pinball and video games and poptart slippers and beers and…
Saw the sand motel
Swam and body surfed in huge waves, dragging feet to keep from getting rolled, or floating on back, so fun
Cooked tofu and veggies, pancakes and sausage, made so much coffee
Bluetooth speaker jams
So many sand crabs on the beaches! Sand pipers, gulls, a pack of crows… On sup, saw sting ray, crabs, seaweed beds, pelicans. So many dogs too! And cat alley.
On drive and hike into triangle of state Park land, saw beautiful green snake yay! And spiders. No beach in site, lol
Got extra Nemo poles for Anderson’s
Pelican limerick, kucuberaa sits on the electric wire, tears in his eyes cause his pants are on fire.. laugh kb laugh kb, gay your life must be
Steinberger Spirit repair

Pretty obvious what the problem is here!

All better.
Watch your six, Uncle Al.
BattleBots 2021/22
It’s robot fighting betting time!
Loser buys Winner his favorite snack!
There are 32 teams in the single-elimination tournament, all ranked based on prior performance in the group stage.
RULES
For each day of competition, pick the winners of each battle.
If your bot wins, you score points!
Points Scored = (contestant rank difference) / 4 rounded to nearest integer – so root for the underdogs when it makes sense!
PLOT TWIST! If we pick the same robot to win a battle…
… if the robot loses, the point leader after the round cannot pick the winner to win in the next round.
…if the robot wins, the point leader after the round MUST pick that bot to win in the next round.
…if the point leader has conflicting rules in a battle, the rules are all invalidated.
Round of 32

Ep11 Mike Skorpios Minotaur Copperhead Glitch/WitchDoctor Hijinx P1 Huge Riptide
Ep11 Dan EndGame Bloodsport Lucky Glitch/WitchDoctor Sawblaze Hypershock Huge Riptide
Ep12 Mike Ribbot MadCatter Blip Tombstone Whiplash Yeti Rotator Tantrum
Ep12 Dan Hydra/Defender BlackDragon Blip Tombstone IceWave Cobalt CaptainShredderator Gigabyte
Dan | 2 – 2 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 4 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 8 – 8 – 8 – 15 … |
Mike | 2 – 4 – 5 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 7 – 7 – 7 – 7 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 11 … |
Round of Sixteen

Dan EndGame WitchDoctor SawBlaze UpperCut Hydra Blip Cobalt Tantrum
Mike Minotaur Copperhead SawBlaze Riptide BlackDragon Blip Cobalt Tantrum
Dan | 15 – 15 – 18 – 21 – 22 – 25 – 25 – |
Mike | 11 – 15 – 15 – 15 – 16 – 19 – 23 – |
Quarterfinals

Dan Minotaur Sawblaze Blip Cobalt
Mike Minotaur Riptide Hydra Tantrum
Dan | 25 – 26 – 26 – 26 – 26 – 26 – |
Mike | 23 – 23 – 24 – 30 – 31 – 31 – |
Semifinals
Dan WitchDoctor Hydra
Mike Sawblaze Tantrum
Finals
Dan WitchDoctor
Mike Tantrum
Dan | 26 – 26 – 31 – 31 |
Mike | 31 – 32 – 32 – 33 |