The Office

I’m re-watching The Office (I own the Blu-rays for the entire series).

The cut scenes are all really good and could have extended any given episode quite a bit. I just hit “Play All” for the cut scenes and they are like an extra episode I haven’t seen before.

There are already multiple extra mini-episodes that were web exclusives at the time, so it sure is nice to see even more pranks on Dwight!

It is sobering, though, that this second season I’m on right now is almost twenty years old. They were still making Saturns and Pontiacs when this was on-air!

Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey have a podcast (Office Ladies) where they talk about every episode in detail, and interview their fellow cast mates and other people associated with the show. It is fun to listen to the behind-the-scenes stories.

I discovered The Office online through iTunes, back in maybe 2006 or 2007. It was three dollars to buy each episode, and I’d heard enough about it that I gave it a shot. I remember it as one solid night of “Just One More Episode”, but it was probably a few nights after work of just watching this show on my computer, which was a new thing in itself.

I did realize, though, that the episode where Ryan burned a pita in the kitchen’s toaster oven, causing a panic… I did that once (a long time ago) with some microwave popcorn. Nothing causes panic like a room full of smoke at work, rightly so. But it was funnier when it happened in The Office.

There is a new series by The Office creators called The Paper, but I have no urge to watch it until it is good and done, and hopefully hits physical media. Oscar from The Office is in it. I found all seasons of Parks and Recreation at the thrift store a few years ago, I never finished that series. Not as good as The Office, but worth watching, as I remember it. Chris Pratt when he was still an unknown actor, that should be interesting to watch again now that I know where his career took off to, I like that guy.

An Example Of Insanely Great Design

Years ago, I worked at a job where we had these Mac Pro Towers, and mine was always solid with everything. No matter what graphics we had to manipulate, my Mac Pro was always up for the job, and actually spoiled me as it was faster than my big 27″ 2009 iMac at home.

My first few jobs in the graphics industry involved getting by with as little computing power and technology as possible, so this Mac Tower was something I always appreciated every time I worked with it.

A few years ago, I was talking to a friend about this, and he happened to have a tower just like the one I used to have, and he needed to find a good home for it. I don’t have any urgent need for one as my 2018 Mini fulfills my workload just fine, but that tower was a work of art, like most Macs were to one degree or another after 1997.

I do have some upgrades in mind for this tower, maybe a few projects I can put it to work on, but at the moment, I just like having it around. Having lived through the beige plastic era of computing, the design of this Mac Tower inside and out is something nice to have on display, I have no plans to ever let this one go!

Winston Churchill’s Take On The World Wars

I’ve come across many books by Winston Churchill, who wrote a lot of volumes, but up to now I haven’t purchased many of them. Considering his involvement in both World Wars, I should have been reading his works long ago.

These aren’t the super-expensive, leather-bound Easton Press reprints (that I would prefer), but rather are the Folio Society versions that are still of a higher quality than the average new book. I’m very glad to have these, although at some point I’d like to get the leather-bound Easton Press versions.