New Book Series, and My Reactions to Streaming MLB Channel at Start of Season

 Now that I finished reading Joshua Khan's dark fantasy novel Shadow Magic and began Martinus Evan's SlowAF Run Club after updating my public library registration, I have been looking for new books to read.  D.J. MacHale is the author of the young adult Pendragon fantasy series, and I got the first installment, titled The Merchant of Death, which is now on my Chromebook.  So far I'm enjoying reading it and can somewhat relate to the personality and life circumstances of its chief protagonist Robert "Bobby" Pendragon, who is starting out at the start of high school enjoying more popularity than I could ever muster in this so-called real world.  His uncle soon intervenes and Bobby finds himself whisked away on a motorcycle, fearing that he might never return. I liked the characters and could relate to the story's modern, suburban American setting.  I'm looking forward to many more hours of enjoyable reading here.  Regarding TV, I've been watching our subscribed MLB Channel and generally enjoying the live game coverage.  It does annoy me how much the announcers tend to criticize the newly-implemented ABS challenge system that makes the umpires' balls and strikes calls more equitable.  When I first click on a game, I have to get past a little disorientation as I try to find out who's playing, who's at bat, what inning it is, how many outs are leftin the inning, who's at bat and pitching, who-if anyone- is on which base-the superimposed strike zone, and the short countdown timer that seems to rush the pitcher into quickly letting go of the ball.  Since the challenge system has become less subjective, to me it shouldn't upset a batter, manager or pitcher whenever they strike out walk a batter.  That part of the game I like. As for the teams and blackouts, in Florida "my two" cities, Tampa Bay and Miami, have all their games visually blocked, but I can hear their audio coverage.  When I signed up for comprehensive live baseball coverage on MLB Channel this spring/summer, my aim was to get to know each team in a more complete way, including who their players are and what they are like.  I think this is likely to happen the more I watch, and it is a very good sign.  I also dig "being" at the 28 assorted ball parks spread over America and Canada...it "kind of like" feels like tourism, especially when the cameras focus on the crowds.  Today, it being Thursday, the available MLB games are limited, so I'll get my schedule set and enjoy what's coming up...

Merry Christmas from Me with a Minimal Appetite

 Merry Christmas, everyone! Today we greeted this holiday and visited our good friends, who live on the western outskirts of Gainesville. The food was wonderful and so was the company.  I had a very small appetite and filled up quickly, wanting to take a nap on their couch.  We went back home and I rested, skipping the exercise routine I had planned.  Later on I watchd, while resting, a couple of NBA games and some Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime channel.  Well, time to get a decent night's sleep. Happy holidays...

My Songs of the Month for March 2025

March, by all accounts, should have been a month in which I listened a lot to music.  After all, I had my prostate cancer surgery on the 6th and, for the most part, have been taking it easy at home recovering from it.  But it's not as simple as it used to be when I was younger and we had a number of radio stations to easily tune in to for the current hits.  Let's see, back in 1973 my songs of the month for January, February and March were You're So Vain (by Carly Simon), Love and Happiness (by Al Green) and Hummingbird (by Seals and Crofts).  In this digital information era it should be easier to find good rotations of current hits...but other than Gainesville's local pop music station WYKS ("Kiss 105"), which plays a lot of (in my opinion) insipid, uninteresting music, there is no alternative rock station playing today's songs...and I'm just not attuned to country or hip-hop...although I kind of dig songs that fuse them with rock.  True, 100.5 WHHZ plays alternative rock, but they're focused more on past hits, as are other local classic rock and oldies stations.  Instead, I have been relying on channels on my Amazon Music account.  Here's my list of favorites for March '25, overlapping quite a lot with the ones from the previous two months:

1 UNDER THE RUG by Arcy Drive

2 STARBURSTER by Fontaines DC

3 ZERO SUM by the Smile

4 BESTIES by Black Country, New Road

5 EVERYONE OUT by Diiv

Under the Rug has a magnetic, old-time rock sound to it...nice to hear that hasn't completely fallen by the wayside.  But if I were to pick a "song of the year" for 2025 so far, it would have to be Starburster...

Enjoying Amazon's Music Unlimited Feature

A few weeks ago Melissa, who is infinitely more adept than me at maneuvering through the intricacies of the Internet, got our household on Amazon's Music Unlimited feature.  Since then I've enjoyed listening to various artists I've loved in the past and have been reacquainted with a lot of forgotten music.  I've also used it to listen, commercial-free, while I do my neighborhood runs.  Alexa, who seems to be everywhere, is the AI voice I speak with to make my requests...sometimes she gets them and sometimes she's off track: hey nobody's perfect!  Already an Amazon fan...as well as with Google, which provides the platform for this blog as well as its amazing YouTube...this music feature has done for me what I had hoped Amazon Kindle would have done for books but hasn't by a long shot, with so much written material still digitally unavailable.  But I'll gladly take the music, both from Alexa and from YouTube, and take a rain check on the books.  Now excuse me while I get out my headphones and ask Alexa to play some Kinks...