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Cutting Cable: Olympic Follow-up

08 Feb 2018 by KRAG

curling_stones_on_rink_with_visible_pebbleA year ago, I posted about our decision to dump our cable provider in favor of a completely streaming profile.

Overall, this has been a great success. We’ve saved money (over two grand a year). We’ve found that there is a ton of terrific content out there that is available either for binge-fests or weekly installment viewing. We’ve been able to tailor or subscriptions to match more closely our TV and movie predelictions.

All has not been rosy, though. Some networks (cough cough cbs cough) think they’re all that and a bag of chips, and worthy of a subscription all on their own (they’re not). Many others have apps and services, but require a cable or satellite provider to view content, even though they broadcast free over the airwaves.

And then there is the world of sports.

I’m not a sports junkie, but sometimes I feel compelled to watch a Seahawks or Mariners game. For this, I have to put a digital antenna in the window to pick up local broadcasts. Reception is spotty, but the occasional signal breakup is only a minor annoyance so, for me, the lack of sports coverage wasn’t a big deal.

Cue the Olympics. Continue Reading »

Posted in Television | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Old Man (Board) Gamer: Gloomhaven

01 Feb 2018 by KRAG

Last year I got a small bonus, and I used it to buy a couple of board games in the “luxury” class (e.g., priced at $100 or more).

The first purchase, Mansions of Madness, was a huge disappointment, as the replayability and the number of supplied scenarios didn’t justify the higher price.

Unfortunately, I was unable to review my second purchase, Gloomhaven, as the release date was repeatedly extended. I ordered it back in March 2017, but the release was pushed out to August, September, November, and then December, but finally it shipped in early January of this year.

It was worth the wait.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Culture, Gaming | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Sarah Made Me Do It

25 Jan 2018 by KRAG

Hard to believe, but after almost six years of posting here on this blog, last week I got my first official troll.

I feel so . . . edgy.

It happened over on my Facebook author page, where I echo this blog, and it was in response to last week’s post about my encounter with a young woman who was being harassed on the bus. As it was one of my social commentary posts, I decided to boost it, so that it would be seen by a larger audience. And that part worked quite well.

One particular member of this larger audience definitely did not see my actions as satisfactory. In short, he considered me a coward for not challenging the woman’s harasser and didn’t think I worthy of being called a man.

I don’t bring this up to knock him down or deride him. I bring it up to discuss my reaction. Continue Reading »

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments »

Heroes Need Not Apply

18 Jan 2018 by KRAG

Yesterday, as I was leaving work, it was raining. Correction: it was pissing down. La Niña, you know. Brings us wet winters here in Seattle. Sometimes snowy ones. Yesterday was definitely wet.

I started down the stairs at the bus station, saw the 41 waiting, and quick-stepped the last flight to the platform. The doors on the bus closed, so I kicked it into high gear, running alongside. The kindly driver spotted me in his side view, held off, opened the doors, and let me in. I paid my fare with a smile and a thank you, and decided to stand near the door for the trip up to the park-and-ride.

I held onto one of the vertical handholds and looked outside as we swayed onto the freeway and then sashayed northward. The streets were grey. The sky was grey. Beyond the filmy windscreen, the cars cruising past also wore shades of rainy grey. But the sounds, the shushing of tires, the spatter of rain on speeding glass, the grunting scrape of wiper blades as they smeared the rain around rather than really squeegeeing it off, I found it all rather relaxing. Cocoon-like. The world outside was cold and wet, but in the coach we were all warm and dry.

Halfway to our off-ramp, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned. Continue Reading »

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment »

News of the World

11 Jan 2018 by KRAG

The problem with good books is that they show me how much I still must improve, to elevate my writing from “good” to “great.”

News of the World, by Paulette Jiles, is one such book. Damn.

An aging veteran travels the backroads in post-Civil War Texas, reading newspaper articles to townsfolk who either can’t read or don’t have access to papers from the big cities. He’s asked to take with him a young girl, captured by the Kiowa when she was six, and bring her back to her relatives near San Antonio. Continue Reading »

Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments »

Old Dog New Tricks: Cooking Edition

02 Jan 2018 by KRAG

Most everyone knows that I hate single-taskers in the kitchen . . . those items in your utensil drawer or the cupboard that only do one thing. If your kitchen is anything like mine (i.e., galley style layout), you know that I have limited storage space and even greater limits on counter space. So, if I’m going to allow a single-tasker into my kitchen, it has to do an amazing job and it has to take up minimal space. (Example: the Norpro bean slicer; small in size, but an absolute champ at slicing haricot vert lengthwise.)

With that in mind, many of my friends were surprised to hear that, for a holiday present, I had purchased a sous vide cooker. “Sous vide” (pronounced “soo veed,” meaning “under vacuum”) is a cooking technique, long used by professionals, that is now enjoying a resurgence among foodies. Continue Reading »

Posted in Food, Hi Tech | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments »

G’bye 2017

29 Dec 2017 by KRAG

About this time last year, I was going Full Dark Gothic on ringing (or, more accurately, “wringing”) out the old year. 2016 was a tough year for us here at Chez G, filled with deaths and troubles and disappointments galore, and though we survived it, we didn’t always manage to do it with style.

2017 has been difficult, too, with the wholesale breakdown of norms on both personal and global stages, but while difficult—incredibly so, at times—it wasn’t as painful as 2016. So, while I don’t feel particularly hopeful about what’s coming after 2017, I don’t feel as bloodied as I did coming into it. As a result, this holiday season has been, for us, pretty good.

For all of you, I hope your holidays have been peaceful, fun, and filled with love.

In the new year, let’s try to be grateful for the little things that brighten our days, like that new pair of warm winter socks or that bowl of homemade soup or the sound of rain or the smell of a loved one’s hair or the way your dog greets you when you come home.

Let’s try to remember that the person on the other side of the argument is not a demon, but a person like us in many ways, with many of the same concerns and challenges, and strive to discover that common ground that we know lies between us.

Let’s try to counter the chaos with kindness, the anger with empathy, the fear with understanding, the pain with love.

Let’s try to be good, to ourselves, and to each other.

Thank you all for taking time out of your busy lives to read my words, this past year. I hope you all stick around for what’s next.

Best,

k

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments »

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