Marv’s Midlife Meanderings

  Saturday January the 30th 2021 Got in from work at ten to six in the no morning, and didn’t get to bed until after seven, falling to sleep about an hour later. I woke up a couple times even with earplugs in, and woke properly up at a quarter past two pm. Then I got carried away with social network notifications before getting up to make a drink and have something to eat an hour later. No time to record my slot for Gill’s show, which I hope to do somehow later! My shift started at 5pm, and at 5:45 pm I received a message to say that my dad had gone into hospital again with heart problems. He’s apparently doing okay though. I’ll keep worrying even though I’m told not to! Life goes on... Podcast listening - Talk More Talk  - Tom, Ken M & Kit with guest Jason Kruppa discussing the career of the late Phil Spector, not his personal problems! I either didn’t know or forgot about Phil Spector’s car accident that scalped him!  Reelblend  - first discussion was when will big blockbuster fi

  Thursday the 28th of January 2021 Recorded the half hour pick-up with Dave, but then when I started the next pick-up for the show with both Dave & Gill there was no sign of Gill, so me and Dave carried on talking and we’ve ended up with three hours of footage between that and Tuesday, which we will use for each other’s shows, because Dave asked me some questions as well! Clever clogs.  Really busy shift at work.  Podcast listening - The Delta Flyers  - Garrett and Robbie talked about season one episode three of Star Trek Voyager. Comicbook Nation  - Kofi, Matt & Janell discuss all things cool in comics, film, games and wrestling, with Jim Viscardi jumping in during the talk about Godzilla Vs Godzilla, lol.    Talking about comics reminded me that I can’t get my comics at present due to Ground Zero Comics in Mansfield being closed, so that makes me sad. I’m a comic guy, which stems from childhood! At around 42 minutes Connor Casey showed up to talk wrestling, who has gotten ov

  Louise designed this great new show logo, now realised by a great graphic artist named Adam. Tuesday January the 26th 2021 I got very little sleep on purpose.    After finishing work late, I got into bed at around 9 in the morning, and then I think I woke up at about 11:30 thinking that I had a show to record at 1pm. I was wrong! What happened was that I misread my calendar, where I was looking across as opposed to down on there. That show was    1 o’clock on Wednesday after, with the show I thought was 3 on Wednesday actually on the Tuesday. Finally I was doing a one to one show with Dave from Decibolic, after some technical issues.    We got a fair bit of work done, but not everything.    We said that we would do pick-ups before our arranged group talk pick-ups with the two of us and Gill from The Mindbuzz Podcast. My show note doodling Wednesday the 27th of January 2021 I can’t remember what time we got up on the Wednesday, but I know for sure that I was up in plenty of time to pr

  Monday January the 25th 2021 Woke up once because of neighbours banging the door going out. Got back to sleep eventually, but still woke up about an hour before I had intended to get up.  I started writing ready for my part in a new magazine style show that I’m a part of, which I’ll give more details out for when I can. I also made sure that I’m ready for getting shows edited ready for the new season of Pods Like Us coming out on Monday February 1st - all four already recorded shows are in the editing software ready for me to work on, including the first bit of the Trio Of Pods show with Dave & Gill, which we’re doing more for the is Thursday afternoon. Two other recordings set up this week as well at present, which gives me six episodes in the can to edit and master! I forgot to mention that on Sunday I talked to my mum for about fifteen minutes just before I left for work, which was nice. I’ll ring her again on Tuesday. Podcast listening - Robby The Robot’s Waiting - up to date

   Sunday January the 24th 2021 I woke up too early, and couldn’t get back to sleep.  It was probably around half past six to a quarter to seven before I fell asleep, and then I woke at about nine, and then again around midday, at which point I did try to get back to sleep, but gave up after about twenty minutes. “Do you have any stress, Marv?” Who doesn’t, especially nowadays! I had stress all of the time already, and these times exacerbate that to the nth degree.  There I am as an essential key worker, out at work doing what I have to, but even people who are doing what they should are still being affected! It’s ridiculous. With the new idea of listening to longer podcasts on Saturday and Sunday, I thought I’d write a suggested listening list out.  Well I started well, but with a new episode of The Corona Diaries coming on the Monday and the beginning of Songstripper’s second season suddenly happening, that initial plan changed. Not a bad night though, with me ripping through the wor

  Saturday January the 23rd 2021 Me and Louise watched the third episode of Wandavision today, and loved it. Great nod to classic seventies sitcom The Brady Bunch in style, and really clever in it’s pacing. In the night I realised that Saturday and Sunday night shifts are the perfect time for listening to longer podcast shows, because they’re the nights when I do the longer runs in the work van, as opposed to the shorter trips on the Thursday, Friday & Monday shifts. That’s how I will very likely arrange my listening of podcasts from now on, because before now I’ve had times where I’ve listened to longer shows, and I’ve used up most of a shift, and on occasion more than one shift (say hello over three hour long special episode of The Gerry Anderson Show) to listen to one episode! Podcast listening - Phase Zero  - continued listening after I’d actually watched episode three of Wandavision... Tabletop Genesis  - short episode talking about the VHS concert release from ‘84 - The Mama

  Thursday January the 21st 2021 Got up too early for considering the shift that night, and I’ve already written about chatting with Dave & Gill over Zoom. I got through the night shift okay, with no incidents. That meant that I was able to get my work done. I did get the chance to start the ball rolling with arranging the recording of more shows for season two of Pods Like Us, while already having three episodes in the bag, albeit needing mixing, but still recorded.  I actually seem to remember saying to Ethan from Fans On The Run during recording the show with him something about doing pick-ups at some point. I’ve got some ideas there, so I’ll get to that very soon, after I start mixing it.  I recorded three shows, including that one, for season two back at the end of November/beginning of December. They all need editing and mastering, but with the Trio Of Pods chat show that gives me for shows, and at time of writing this I have two more shows set up for recording so far this co

  Tuesday January the 19th 2021 Finished work late again. Got in at around half past eight or so, maybe later.    Intended to wake up at midday, but it was more like 2 in the afternoon or so. Crikey, exercising my brain here trying to think about three days ago, especially when I normally type notes up on the days in question, and then that becomes the actual blog post! Because of that, we’ll look at it like this; Tuesday and Wednesday- During the two days off I actually got to watch the first two episodes of The Mandalorian, and I know that the good things said about it weren’t hyperbole! It really is that good. It beautifully fits into that classic Star Wars universe, but without being weighed down by the Skywalker family millstone!  I’ve just realised that I didn’t watch any episodes of Star Trek Discovery, which I need to get a crack on with! That and only just starting The Mandalorian are keeping me behind on the podcast Robby The Robot’s Waiting, because they have two episodes th

I’ll apologise for this before I even start... Sometimes I go to work and hope that something will happen.  I hope that I will arrive at a site just to do a general check, only to get smacked around the back of the head by someone hiding around a corner silently, because I’ve interrupted them with a randomly timed site check, careful not to repeat the same schedule and times as other shifts that I do. I don’t think like this all of the time, and I actually know that it’s not right to think this way! It’s just that sometimes these thoughts are there, and they are so strong!  Luckily it’s only happened once where an incident was taking place, but then I was sort of warned of it because the alarm was sounding there as I arrived.  That sort of sane part of me kicked in, although I did still stupidly just go on site on my own calling the police as I was walking around there, with the police even saying “why are you walking around there if you think people might be on there?” Back then I don

  Monday January the 18th 2021 Woke up to over 80 messages in the family Facebook thread about mum. Still worrying until a professional goes in to see how she is. Lots of discussion between me and Louise about the situation, whilst constantly responding to the continuing messenger chat. The shift was steady, although I wasn’t really feeling like it.  Podcast listening - The Gerry Anderson Podcast  - carried on with the same episode as the previous night. Chris Dale mentioned during the randomiser that the episode of Space Precinct he was watching was written by Hans Beimler, who wrote many Star Trek episodes including the fabulous Far Beyond The Stars, as well as writing for Fame, Star Trek The Next Generation, Tekwar, The Twilight Zone, The Dresden Files, and more!  Robby The Robot’s Waiting   - another episode in my catch-up. Joined this time by Tara Bennett from SFX.    They’re doing a review of 2020 in this episode. Keeping Up With The Cardassians   - a bonus news episode from Octo