padawanbeck84

Given what I've read on social media from people who follow these things, I think they already are trying to do so Typically insensitive and uncaring from Dump. I mean, at least allow for her funeral to have taken place first! And given how close America is to another election, surely it would make sense to see who gets in and let the next president appoint the successor. But, as we all know, Dump is not sensible. You just know he's itching to appoint some lackey who'll probably be controlled by the Christian fundamentalists. And that doesn't bear thinking about even from my side of the pond...

I didn't get to post it on Wednesday night, but I went to see the new Bill and Ted film on the first day of it's UK release. It's always a little nerve-wracking when they make belated sequels, but in this case, they've got the original writers on board and of course the same two lead actors (as well as several of the key supporting cast). And it's a brilliant film. Emotional at times, but also genuinely very funny. And well done to the casting department as they made spot-on picks to play Bill and Ted's daughters. Thoroughly enjoyed it and, while they obviously can't have predicted the current circumstances when they were making it last year, it feels like it's arrived at the perfect time to bring a bit of light and warmth and humour into our lives. And with several of the cast, writers etc being on social media, it's so cool to be able to tell them that directly Oh, and if you do go and see it, make sure you stay to the very end of the end credits. There's a lovely extra scene which brought tears to my eyes.

45, 562 - Hello @Frankaz *waves* I'm quickly adding a number before dinner

Oh, and another good thing was that we got our water fixed! My Dad tried to mend a leaking tap on Friday, but he messed it up and made it worse, so that we had to totally turn the hot water off in our house. We were having to boil water in the kettle to wash up with and couldn't have showers or even flush the loo properly But we found a local plumber this morning who was able to come and install new kitchen taps, so we're back to normal. Which is a relief

@Manohlive We have a fair amount of Covidiots round our way too, sadly. In one recent case, an elderly volunteer at a local heritage railway was physically attacked by a youth who refused to comply with the railway's mask policy. Thankfully the elderly man wasn't seriously hurt, but it made him want to stop volunteering there. Unfortunately, there are some people who will use any excuse to avoid following the rules. I'd support the university in upholding their rules. Parents may be annoyed about their kids getting kicked out, but the uni has to think about the safety of their students and staff. Those parents would be even more upset if their kids ended up in hospital with Covid. On the other hand, you get good things coming out of all this too. My sister, who lives in the same street as I do, has been having barbecues in the front garden at weekends. Just for their household, but then her next-door neighbours picked up on the idea and began doing the same in their garden. They've been able to chat and get to know each other better (and swap recipe ideas) while still keeping a safe distance *and* keeping to rules about not visiting other households As for Dump, I like to think people are finally realising that his incompetence is not only ruining America's economy, but it is literally killing people. And no sensible person wants to be associated with that. From what I gather, he's pretty much always been a fraudster and now it sounds like his donors and other supporters are finally realising he's only in it to make money for himself. I hope he loses the election by a landslide. And I am so happy that someone else knows who Juanes is. None of my friends have even heard of him And my good thing for today is that I booked my ticket to go and see the new Bill and Ted film later this week. The local cinema website worked properly too. It wasn't working a couple of weeks ago when I last tried to book tickets on there, but it was working today. Maybe it knew not to mess around with the two Great Ones

45, 560 - Counting while listening to the F1 commentary. The one good thing about Covid messing up the regular season is that we get to visit circuits that haven't hosted Formula 1 before. That should make for some fun racing. And some fans have been allowed in for this one Although judging by the photos, they're not doing very well at wearing masks in the stands - maybe only about half of them have masks on, even though they're sitting quite crowded together

45, 558 - It's so cold over here that I've had to put the heating on in the last couple of days On the good side, I bought a new video game earlier this week, so I've been enjoying that. I say new, it's second-hand, but new to me. Also, looking back at memories on FB, i realised that my 2DS is at least 5 years old now. No wonder the battery life has been a bit rubbish lately

I've watched several live-stream concerts during lockdown and really enjoyed them. In some cases, it's enabled me to watch artists that I wouldn't normally get to see live, like Juanes, a Colombian rock singer that I really like, but I think he's only ever played one or maybe two concerts in the UK. Another favourite band of mine, Powderfinger, reunited (virtually) after 10 years apart to do a special performance to raise money for music industry and mental health charities. Each one of them was recording from their own home (or a local venue in one case) and the lead singer Bernard was treating it like a proper show, encouraging us to clap along at the usual moments as if we were actually there with him rather than watching along from our homes. I think they ended up raising something like $200,000 Australian dollars for their chosen charities, which is amazing. I've also really enjoyed the BBC devoting sections of their iPlayer service to recreating music festivals that have been cancelled this year. They made over 100 Glastonbury archive performances available for us to watch and they've done the same with Reading/Leeds festival. Again, I've never been able to get to either of those, but I can explore the archive and watch performances by bands like Foo Fighters and Muse who I've not previously been able to see in person. I don't know whose idea it was to put these things on for us music nerds, but I sincerely thank them as it means *everyone* can have their own music festival this summer, customised to our own tastes

Deeply sad news this morning about Chadwick Boseman. Especially shocking as we had no idea he was ill. He made some brilliant films - including the iconic Black Panther - while going through cancer treatment. The strength and courage it must have taken to do that... proper superhero stuff. And so young - only 43 years old https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53955912

45, 556 - @peterferris8 I'm thinking the cover of Zooropa might be different to reflect the more experimental vibe of the music? Excited counting as I'm going to the cinema again tonight. Since it reopened, I've been to the cinema more in the last 6 weeks than I did in the whole of last year - and we've just found out that the UK release of the new Bill and Ted film has been brought forward by a week

45, 554 - We've got a lot of rain at the moment. I'll see if I can send some over your way We've also currently got gale-force winds that are playing havoc with garden fences and wheelie bins. I'm glad I didn't have to go anywhere today. It's a day for staying in the warm and reading a book.

45, 552 - It's good that you have photos to remember him by @caz63 I still have a photo of our old dog. He died 20 years ago now, but I still keep the photo. It's a nice one - he's curled up on the sofa with his squeaky toy. Had a busy day at the library today - nearly filled the quarantine box again. The only problem is finding space for all of these books to go back on the shelves. We would normally transfer them to other libraries, but we can't do that at the moment. It also means we can't request books in for people, which is annoying as one of our regulars has been waiting for her books since February

Awesome that you've been able to see them live. I have to admit, I only really started getting into their music late last year, so my collection of their albums is small at the moment (literally only Ten, Ten Legs and Gigaton). But it's growing and I'm wondering why the heck I hadn't really listened to them before. Probably because my local radio stations have only ever focused on chart pop, so I never got much chance to hear them until I started exploring on Spotify. I found a digital radio station during lockdown that plays all classic rock and there's lots of PJ on there. Woah, just as I'm typing that, Spotify has started to play Superblood Wolfmoon... it freaks me out slightly when it does that And for today's good thing - I received another Star Wars sketch in the post today, to add to the collection of sketches of my favourite character 😍

45, 549 - The house just doesn't feel right when you've lost a pet *hugs* @caz63 My mum lost her Labrador Jake recently. They'd had him for about 14 years, from a puppy, so he'd reached a good age and he was such a lovely, gentle dog - and a companion to my Mum as she's got a lot of health problems and had to take early retirement over a decade ago. He'd also been really healthy through his life, so it was especially distressing to see him become ill. I'm not sure Mum will have another dog - although she does have a painting that she made of Jake back in 2007, so she's got that to remember him by.

Sounds like you need to get a second keyboard to distract her with. Several writer friends have this issue (mainly with cats) and they put second (unplugged) keyboards on their desks and that seems to work. As for my good thing, I was finally able to get to my local record shop and buy some CDs (and a BluRay) in an actual shop for the first time in 6 months That felt good. And one of the CDs was a surprise find as I wasn't expecting to find it in there. They had Pearl Jam's Live on Ten Legs album and it was reduced down to only £2.99!