Physical Comics Read: 20 (91/127)
Digital Comics Read: 0 (435/435)
Books Read: 3 (86/100)
Trades/Graphic Novels Read: 0 (4/12)
Movies Watched: 4 (181/200)
TV Shows Watched: 1 (44/45)
TV Seasons Watched: 1 (77/78)
Podcast Episodes to Listen to: 77

Y’all need to start recording shorter podcast episodes. That way, I can get through more each month.

Anyway, I’m actually posting this on time for once. It’s probably because today’s my first official day of summer break and that means I’m not sitting in a classroom getting ready for first block.

Okay, I’ll cut the bullshit. I’m not sitting in the classroom watching crap on YouTube when I should be getting ready for first block.

May started slow but picked up once some of the “obligatory” stuff was off my plate and my workload decreased. Plus, I started burning out on certain types of entertainment and went for other stuff. That happens a lot with podcasts and music. There will be weeks where I don’t listen to a single podcast episode and instead shuffle through my music collection or Spotify. Then, I’ll not have anything I’d want to listen to and will decide to binge podcast episodes. I’m very streaky in that way.

It happens with books, too. Right now, I have two books going. One is The Odyssey, which I’ve been reading at about a book a day (though that may increase starting this week) and the other is Liz Phair’s memoir, which is taking way too long for me to read (especially since I think it’s due back to the library soon). Meanwhile, I just wanna read the comics I’ve got piled up.

These are the dumbest dilemmas, I know.

On the decluttering front, I was happy to get rid of some bigger stuff on bluk trash day. The basement’s a little full right now with all of my kid’s college stuff, but that’ll be temporary. I’ve been ordering bags from Retold Recycling to take care of the clothes that are too ripped or stained to donate to Goodwill and that I don’t want in the house (I already have enough rags, trust me). And I’ve been piling up those grocery bags with clothes and books. Plus, I’m getting some packages together to mail. The end of this month will be a recalibration of my lists (since it’s the end of a quarter).

And so it goes.

To close, here’s two things that were some of the “best” of this month.

Heavyweight. I’d listened to this podcast years ago and my wife had mentioned it again a few weeks ago, so I decided to see if it was still around. I figured that even if it had finished but was still up, I could listen to the backlog of episodes. The premise of the show is that Jonathan Goldstein reaches out to people and hears them tell their story, then often helps them find some sort of resolution or closure. The show had been gone for a few years but came back fairly recently and what they are doing now is posting updates to past episodes. So each current episode is the original from back in the show’s first run followed by a “what happened/where are they now” segment. The stories are great and often hit me in the feels; the updates are the type of stuff I live for (don’t tell me you haven’t done searches for people who were on MTV’s True Life in the 2000s). Goldstein does have NPR voice, but he’s got a good, self-deprecating sense of humor and really connects with the people he works with. Each episode runs about 45 minutes to an hour and since every episode is self-contained, there’s no need to worry about skipping something because there’s no continuity.

The Crash. A very recent entry in the Netflix documentary library, this is the story of a high-speed crash in the suburbs of Cleveland where two recent high school graduates and a third–the driver–was not. Investigators try to piece together what happened for a Toyota to go 97 miles an hour down a street and then slam into a building. What comes out of it are conflicting stories of a relationship, defensive and grieving parents, and a murder trial. My wife and I watched it and are still talking about it.