I Ended All My Streaming Services Except One

I don’t know if it’s because it’s winter and everything is dark and dull (not true, I live in Florida but you get the point!), but earlier this month I ended almost all of my streaming services. The only one I kept was Spotify. You’d think I’d be adding services on account of being cooped up inside, right? I guess I’m contrarian like that.

For TV stuff, I scroll through YouTube movies and the Roku Channel. So far, I haven’t been suffering from withdrawal as much as I’d predicted. Did you know most libraries have DVDs for free checkout? I will try to find new movies (if they’re on DVD at all) and watch them that way, downside is there is a waiting line sometimes. I’ve also become slightly obsessed with reading. Right now my favorite author is Frieda McFadden. If you haven’t read “The Housemaid” yet, turn your computer off immediately, go to your library, and reserve it. You won’t be disappointed. OK, you might be but that’s a reflection of you not the book! Wow, sorry, I got a little hostile there.

Maybe this part of the year can be called the pruning season… cutting things out of my life and daily schedule that I can probably do without, at least for a few months. Kind of like winter. Wow, deep stuff. If I keep getting along OK I might not ever add services back although I miss the Elvis Channel and it’ll be fun to catch up on shows I like, “Tracker” for instance.

Have you done any cleaning up on your subscriptions? What did you cut out? What did you keep?

-Out of the Wilderness

The Duathlon Race is 9 Days Away

There are a few areas in my life where I have anxiety. Triathlons (and duathlons) is generally the good kind of anxiety. There’s a duathlon (run/bike/run) coming up next weekend and while I’m not sure I’ve trained properly, it’s short enough that I hope I can get by on the exercises I’ve been doing in the last couple of cold months. By the by, this winter season more than any other, I’ve decided running and cycling in cold weather is part of the training I’m going to actively avoid in the future. Why? Because it’s cold and I like being… not cold!

The upcoming race is two 2-mile runs with a 12-mile bike sandwiched in the middle. The cycling part does make a little nervous after my epically goofy accident in my last race (read about that here). I’m usually not accident-prone but boy was that a doozy! I’ve ridden my bike enough since then to calm most of my concerns, but I haven’t done a race yet. Just… don’t have so many cones on the course, OK!?

Of course one of my goals is to be faster than last year. Actually, that’s my only goal. Well, that, and don’t flip over my bike again… which is a goal that should go without saying. Although it did turn into two of my favorite (most expensive) photos.

-Out of the Wilderness

Of course it’s Kansas City and the Elgles 🥴

Another year… another Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl appearance. Do I think the referees are in on it? Everything I see says “yes” but I can’t really figure out how that would be possible given the amount of people who’d have to go along with it… from other NFL teams, team owners, staff, etc. But at the very least it’s suss, as the kids say. Very… very… suss.

It would have been more entertaining and less annoying to watch the Buffalo Bills play against the Eagles (or is it the Elgses?).

Of course, the NFL tried Super Bowls with the Bills in the 90s and those experiments never really panned out so I get it. Bring in Mahomes. Bring in Kelce. Bring in Taylor. Cash rules everything around the NFL. It’s in the entertainment business, after all.

-Out of the Wilderness

Upbeat Cycling Playlist

I went out for a bike workout recently and lately I’ve been bringing along my headphones. It helps on long rides, let me tell ya. I don’t actually mind a quiet ride but when it gets to 45 minute, hour, hour plus rides, a little music goes a long way. For this ride, the night before I had planned on going through the entire new album from Judah and the Lion but the morning of the ride I was in a different mood. Not a talk radio mood, I’ve tried that on bike rides and it just doesn’t work for me. So I queued up the songs from my Run Music 2 playlist and yesterday during my ride, it was perfect. Spoiler alert: It’s a lot of NF, Connor Price, and Muse. Songs like “Spinnin” and “Trendsetter” from Connor, “Clouds” and “Hope” from NF, and “Survival” and “Madness” from Muse. If those don’t help keep your heart rate up, I don’t know what will! Now if I could just get my speed up too, wouldn’t that be nice?

Here’s a link to the playlist.

It depends on the day, I guess, but I like listening to things that make me feel *insert emotion here*. Sometimes I want to feel like a conquerer. That’s usually when I go with the playlist above. Other times I need to feel deep conviction while I workout… so I’d go with a worship playlist. Slow songs but overflowing with emotion and that can get me going. Then there’s the angry workouts. I don’t need music for those, actually… my thoughts can be enough fuel. But those are few and far between, thank God!

Do you have any suggestions? What’s on your hype playlist for running or cycling?

-Out of the Wilderness

Does anyone care about Super Bowl commercials anymore?

I know the ads still cost millions and I’m sure there’s research to justify a brand spending that kind of dough on a 30-second commercial, but as a normal citizen I have to ask… does anyone really care about Super Bowl commercials anymore?

A better question might be to ask if Super Bowl commercials still carry the same weight and prestige that they did 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. I can go ahead and answer that one… no. No, they don’t.

I know that each year, I am more disappointed than the year prior when it comes to the entertainment factor. I think it all started when basically every commercial was a dot com company commercial. Do you remember that? It was the year 2000 and there were more than enough new companies presenting their online presence. And then some year after that most of the commercials were movie trailers. Lame!

I hope Super Bowl LIX (or “licks” as Gronk likes to call it) has better commercials and by better, I mean memorable, humorous, and thoughtful. On top of that, I hope the Eagles fly! #AnyteambuttheChiefs

-Out of the Wilderness