Sunday, November 21, 2010

Link-o-rama or, how I survived this week of midnights

I'm finally don with my week of midnight shifts. Having to work six of them was brutal, to say the least. I know I am awake just as many hours as any other shift, if not more, but it doesn't feel like it. I seems all I do is wake up, eat and come to work, but there are many other hours in the day that I don't remember. Oh, no! Do I need to go on Jesse Ventura's conspiracy show to see where that missing time went? Or, more likely, do I need to sleep like a normal person? I don't know how people work this shift on a regular basis. You people are like superheroes, or something.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few links of things that have kept me sane this week.

We'll start with podcasts. The first one I want to mention is Extra Hot Great. It's run by David T. Cole, Tara Ariano and Joe Reid and it's a fun pop culture blog with TV, movies, games and, well, all the things that make up pop culture, duh. The only problem with listening to it at work is forgetting you are not alone and almost shouting out answers to the questions in the games. Just listen, you'll see what I mean.

I've also caught up with a few of the DVD commentaries from the Film Pigs featuring Stephen Falk, Stephen Skelton and Todd Robert Anderson. Warning, some language is not safe for work. Actually, most of it isn't. Now, technically, since they are DVD commenttaries you should listen to them while watching the movie, but it is not needed if you know the movies. Or even if you haven't since sometimes they go off on tangents that don't have a lot to do with the movie, but they are always entertaining. They also post movie reviews which are more entertaining and honest than what you will read in a newspaper.

After my first midnight shift I listened to the most recent Functional Nerds podcast as I tried to get rid of a nasty midnight shift induced headache. This particular episode was perfect for me. Patrick Hester and John Anealio talked to author Kevin J. Anderson about his Terra Icognita books and the Rosewell Six albums that go along with these books. It's an interesting idea. He writes the lyrics for the albums with his wife and they have these great musicians play on the CDs. I haven't checked out the CDs yet, but I am intrigued.

I've also vegged out with some classic episodes, as they all are now since the show is off the air, of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Nothing is better than watching an episode of MST3K when you are too tired to think and your brain is a bowl of mush.

I've also watched the first season of Frisky Dingo. I've never seen the show but I decided to check it out after hearing them talk about it on Extra Hot Great. That is one strange, fun show. I don't even know how describe it, really. Just got to iTunes and check out an episode. You won't regret it. Better yet, it looks like you can watch them on Adult Swim's website. The link above will take you there.

Lastly, I want to mention Spock's Beard. I finally bought their latest album, X, and I'm really enjoying it so far. So far I think it is their best since Neal Morse left the band. Good stuff.

I don't know if I've ever written a post with so many links. Hope you find something you like.

4 comments:

Cookie said...

Thanks for all the links!

I think it's easier to work that shift full time than occasionally because your body can adjust to the schedule. When you do it one week a month, you never get a chance to get used to it before you go back to normal office hours. Talk about hard to do.

Mike said...

Cookie: Yeah, that is true. A lot of that also depends on what you do on your days off. The people who stay on the same sleep schedule do better than those that go back to a normal sleep schedule on their days off. At least it seems that way at work.

But there really is no way to make it fun. :)

Patrick Hester said...

The @KJA interviews were a lot of fun. We talked with him more about his books over on the SF Signal podcast, but there's just something about the music chats that are so much fun. They are fast becoming my favorite episodes to edit together!

I didn't even know that the company, Prog Rock Records, existed before this chat. If you're into that music, you should definitely check out that site - tons and tons of great music and artists there.

Anyway, thanks for listening :)

~P
@atfmb

Mike said...

Patrick: Thanks for stopping by. I had heard of the record label a while back, and remember seeing the first 'Roswell Six' album but didn't know what it was about. I'll be back there again. I'm sure of it.