As the usher brings forth the Ice cream and snacks, we wait for the main feature to resume
Baby Yoda’s Umbrella
I’ve tried to write this a few times but it has been difficult because as you will read all over this site BAFTD is a positive space, it’s where I like to write things away from the daily stresses of life. It however is difficult to keep that mantra considering the world events over the past 8 months.
This is a strange intermission for several reasons, one reason is I normally release them on the first Monday of the month, next it’s the first I have done for several months and lastly I’m not in the frame of mind I usually am due to many external reasons. I will try and not make this a continuation of my recent update, but I hope you’ll pop over and have a look at that to.
I want to try and keep with this sites mantra and tell you some of the things I’ve discovered recently. I’m struggling to get back into the groove of things, both my writing and Art have taken a step back, but I really want to get back to them in a meaningful way. Writing about the things I love is a therapy, as I always say it doesn’t matter how many (if any) read it but the act of writing is what I enjoy. Writing and reading little details about a film or book I love is another creative outlet I enjoy, it also satisfies my obsessive nature. In the same way spending hours drawing or painting can help take me away to other places, just like watching films can do.
BAFTD is about pushing away the pressures of everyday life and focus on things you love. It’s too easy to get wrapped up in things and forget what makes you happy.
Even though I, like many people have struggled over the past months what I love has helped me. I have discovered new exciting things as well as revisited old favourites. Television wise I finally got around to seeing The Madalorian and that was impressive. I’m not sure why I wasn’t expecting to like it but I loved everything about it from the story to the Production design and its always wonderful to see Werner Hertzog in anything. I’ve even pre-ordered the Art book for the first season of The Madalorian as a late birthday present, as it’s currently due out on the 1st of December.
We also had a big surprise when we watched the Umbrella Academy. I knew nothing about the source material but the series (well both of them) was a huge and pleasant surprise that is thought provoking and intelligent with a little bit of fun. I have also been catching up with The Last Kingdom which is something else I wish I had gotten into earlier.
My lovely Wife wanted to revisit the Battlestar Galactica reboot so we had fun with that to. I am looking forward to showing her the original which she has never seen. I also want to re-watch Caprica, I was by the sounds of it one of the few who really loved the prequel series. The problem is I don’t own a copy, it seems to have been released in two parts on DVD, Part 1 is easy to get hold of but Part 2 is a lot harder and being sold at a price point I really am not willing to pay. The only Blu Ray release seems to be in France but I can’t seem to find a copy. As always with physical media you sometimes have to be patient and just keep watching as it will eventually turn up.
Away from the television, I had a friend gift me his entire collection of Raymond E Feist books around 30 books, a mixture of hardback and paperback. I have only ever read Magician and Silverthorn so I am looking forward to setting some time aside to work my way through them.
I will leave you this month with something I am really late to, I have discovered Plex. I am all about Physical media however I do have digital copies of some Films and TV series that are either rare or not on Blu Ray/DVD. I also have a lot of audiobooks, my Wife has a disability which means she cannot go and put things into a CD player (and change disc etc). As good as Audible is we do have books that do not exist on their platform. For years I have wanted to create a server to have easier access to this media and now I finally have. I remember 10 years (and even longer) ago looking into it, it was going to involve lots of playing with Linux distro’s. This is a thing I could do (and have done) but I haven’t the time or inclination so I just wanted something that works. The problem I have found with any form of Linux I have used is that they take a lot of upkeep and I just want something that is easy to use and manage.
For years I have seen Plex around and not really looked into it and what it does. I always assumed I’d need a pretty powerful computer to use as a server, however in lockdown I finally sat down and did some reading and found out I had a Laptop that would work. It would be an ideal way to stream our audiobooks as well as other media we own. The old laptop I am using is probably 10 years+ and it works perfectly as a server and it can now stream those films and audiobooks that we have (as I have uploaded them to our server). It integrates into ALEXA so enables my wife to easily access what she wants to listen to, and is also accessible via a mobile app and bluetooth so plenty of ways to access it. I am going to write a full article on the ins and outs and what I did but I wish I had looked into it earlier, so if this sounds of interest to you I can highly recommend checking it out.
I will leave you with that and hopefully next month’s Intermission will be on it’s usual first Monday of the month. I am hoping to be releasing one article a week for the next few weeks whilst I get back into the groove then it will (Zombie apocalypse pending) go back to it’s normal schedule.
Stay well
