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 My primary Writing.com blog. |
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Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics). Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:  "The Soundtrackers Group"  "Blog Harbor" "Blogging Circle of Friends " "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" "JAFBG" "Take up Your Cross" Thanks for stopping by! 
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| To qualify for my Watch List every month, the following has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, but it can't be reruns or rewatches of something I've already seen. So if I'm including it in this list, it means this month is the first time I've watched it. I'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish. Movies  Aftermath Exterratorial Gladiator II Havoc — DNF Lilo & Stitch (2025) The Magician's Elephant Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning Sniper: The Last StandOf all the movies I watched this month, I probably liked Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning the most. It wasn't my favorite movie in the entire franchise, but I do really like these films and it was engaging, if a little long. For an "end of series" entry, I think the stunts and other action were a little lackluster, but I did find the story engaging. This was also a month where I saw two of my friends' movies, which debuted on Netflix. They were both kind of generic action movies, but I'm super excited for both of them; it's really cool to be able to turn on Netflix, see a movie a friend of yours wrote, and watch their names go by in the credits. If you like direct-to-video style action movies, you could do a lot worse than Aftermath and Sniper: The Last Stand. Television Abbott Elementary (Season 4) Andor (Season 2) Hacks (Season 4) Killer Heat (Season 2) — DNF The Rookie (Season 7) Shifting Gears (Season 1) — DNF Sirens Will Trent (Season 3) Your Friends & Neighbors (Season 1)I'm honestly surprised at how much television I watched this month. From really good new shows like Sirens and Your Friends & Neighbors to the return of older favorites like Hacks, it was a really good month for television. Pretty much the only things I didn't like were Will Trent (which my wife likes having on in the background), and Shifting Gears which is Tim Allen's new show where he basically just plays Tim Allen again, this time with a slightly different "manly" job and family situation, which he uses as a foil to criticize modernity and lament the loss of the good old days when the world was simpler and more conservative.  The standout show this month was clearly the second season of Andor. I thought the first season was really good, and this one exceeded my already lofty expectations of what a sophomore effort would look like. Knowing that they were heading into a specific result (i.e., Cassian Andor's journey leading up to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), they broke the show up into four, three-episode blocks, each tackling one year in the life of all the revolutionaries, building the nascent Rebellion into a movement that could realistically defy the Empire. It was a really well done political drama/thriller that raised a lot of questions of morality, intrigue, commitment to a cause, etc. If you like political shows, even if Star Wars isn't your favorite, it's really great. And it perfectly leads into Rogue One, which in turn leads perfectly into A New Hope. TOP PICK: Andor (Season 2) |
 PROMPT: "Note: 48-HOUR CHALLENGE : Media Prompt Deadl..." This is one of those songs that just seems to perpetually come around every few years. It was originally released in Fall 2013 as a promotional single for Magic!, which was then re-released by a major label (Sony) in Winter 2014. Over the course of 2014, the band performed it all over the place, including on both morning and late night talk shows, and the song ended up being one of the Top 10 bestselling songs of the year. It's also been covered a remixed a number of times, including by some very popular artists like Zedd and Selena Gomez. I think the last time that I listened to this song regularly was during the pandemic. While everyone was sheltering in place for COVID-19, my wife and I were stuck at home with two young children, and we spent a lot of time listening to music and watching videos. Music videos were particularly popular in our house, and there were quite a few that played on repeat because the kids liked the song and the video captured their attention. This was one of them, and I think we watched it so much that the YouTube algorithm still populates it in my personal feed of music videos whenever I put on a playlist. As with so many of the songs that I listened to during that time, there's a part of me that feels nostalgic whenever the song comes on. After all, I've heard it enough to practically memorize the lyrics and the melody is instantly recognizable. On the other hand, it's a reminder of what was a very difficult, borderline traumatizing time in all of our lives, so the memories that come flooding back with songs like this are often quite vivid. None of that changes the fact that it's a catchy, feel-good kinda song though.  |
 Prompt #43: Have you ever wanted to be the boss at a place you've worked? What aspects of being a boss are appealing? Do you think you'd actually be good at it? I actually think I'd be really good at being a boss. I know a lot of people think that they'd be a good boss, but that often comes from a place of wanting the perks of being a boss without an understanding or appreciation of what's actually involved in the job. I've actually been a boss before on a small scale, so I have a bit of an understanding of what's involved. I'm not sure I'd want to be the boss at the place I currently work (leading a massive, publicly-traded company seems like a huge headache  ), I'd definitely want to be the boss at some of the smaller places I've worked, where obligations to shareholders or public relations is less of a concern.There are three aspects of being a boss that I think I do well. First, I think I'm good at synthesizing information and making informed choices. I'll never be the guy who's a brilliant lawyer, or a finance whiz, or has all of the HR policies memorized... but I do know a little bit about all of those areas, and quite a few others. And I'm confident in my ability to see the bigger picture, so I actually think I would be really good heading up a company where I'm faced with a challenge, given input from Finance, Legal, HR, Operations, etc. and then making the best decision about how to proceed. Second, I'm a pretty good-natured person who's not afraid of making tough decisions. While I definitely want everyone to like me and while I'm generally well-liked, I also know that not every decision a boss makes is popular, but I think I'm an affable enough personality that I can make difficult decisions while still maintaining support from the company as a whole. I've never had to put that to the test on a large scale (i.e., beyond a few employees here and there), but I have a feeling I'd be able to, for example, find a way to be encouraging and shore up morale even in the face of difficult decisions like layoffs or other austerity measure. Third, kind of going along with the second one, I've been in the position of the rank-and-file worker for over twenty years now. I've worked at both good and bad companies, and have had both great and terrible bosses myself. I think, if nothing else, I would be able to approach my leadership responsibilities with the perspective of the people who work for me in mind most of the time. One of the biggest issues I see with leadership in a corporate setting these days is a real disconnection from those outside the ranks of leadership, and it would be important to me to maintain a sense of grounded perspective as I made decisions that affect the entire company. Overall, I think I would be a good boss. At least in terms of managing people and internal decision making. That said, there's a lot of other things that go into being a good leader, including things like vision, execution, crisis management, market positioning, etc. and I suppose I won't really know how I'd do with those things until I get to that bridge and have to cross it. |
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