Logocentric (adj).Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Blogocentric (adj).A portmanteau of "blog" and "logocentric" devised by a word nerd with way too much time on his hands.
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, mostly scavenged from the following:
@Annette - I doubt I'll track where I watched something by default, but I'm always happy to tell anyone who asks. We Own This City is on HBO Max. Or Max. Or HBO Now. Or whatever Warner Bros. calls its streaming service currently before Paramount buys them and changes it again.
Steal and Vox Machina and Leverage: Redemption are on Amazon Prime, and "Memory of a Killer" is on Hulu.
One suggestion for these entries: could you put a little add on where you watched the shows? I know Lincoln Lawyer is on Netflix. I've watched the previous three seasons and will likely watch the fourth one also. Thank you for writing about it without spoiling anything. I would be interested in watching "We Own this City" if it's on a service that I have.
I'm not able to play the video. Could you tell me the band and the song so I can find it on my own. thanks. Don't know why it does this. Sometimes the link works and sometimes it tells you to Watch Video On YouTube as an error. Odd.
The intro deal was something like 6 cassettes (and later, CDs) for a penny each. That was how they got you, because to get the deal you had to enroll in their subscription plan where the regular price of the albums was seriously jacked up (to like $20-$25) and if you didn't make a selection every month, they'd bill you and send you a featured one every month. Most people signed up for the freebies, then ended up canceling just as soon as they could get out of their one or two year long contracts. But hey, when you're a teenager and building your music collection? The first batch of albums is practically free.
And I remember those days of calling into a radio station, requesting a song, then trying to record it off the radio when they played it. Yeah, you'd always miss part of the song, or the recording quality would be terrible because most people just put a tape recorder in front of the speaker to record it and you'd get ambient noise or interruptions all the time. I don't want to admit how much time and money my teenage self invested in a stereo system designed to optimize recording songs off the radio.
You could buy an album for one cent? Dang, I got ripped off growing up in Germany.
I had to buy empty cassette tapes and record off my radio, always missing out on the last ten seconds of each song because the radio host was talking.
January 28, 2026: What is your favorite version of the Bible and why?
The version of the Bible I've read the most - owing to the fact that my last three churches all use it - is the New International Version (NIV). However, I also went on a bit of a compare-and-contrast kick for a few years and have also read the vast majority of the Bible in the English Standard Version (ESV) and New Living Translation (NLT), as well as sizeable chunks of it using the New King James Version (NKJV) and The Message (MSG). My wife and I started attending a second church with friends from time to time, and they use the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), so I've been thinking about picking up a copy and continuing my compare-and-contrast efforts.
Ultimately, I think the NIV is fine. I appreciate its attempt at modern readability and the fact that it's written to be globally accessible (it's often the English translation that non-native English speakers are most familiar with). So that's probably my go-to version of the Bible for everyday use. I like the ESV for Bible study, and the NLT is great for casual reading and general comprehension.
That said, some of the language in the KJV and NKJV is absolutely beautiful and poetic, and I often find myself looking up particular passages in those translations just to see how the Word is crafted.
Ultimately, I suppose my "favorite" version of the Bible depends on the task at hand. I have a different "favorite" translation for casual reading than I do for intense study than I do for church attendance to follow along with.
Day 4072: Are you planning on watching the Winter Olympics ? If so what's your favorite sporting event?
If not, what are you watching on television these days?
I always try to watch the Olympics whenever they're taking place. For the Winter Olympics, I enjoy watching Figure Skating and Speed Skating, Luge, Ski Jumping, and Snowboarding. Biathlon is the event I always think I'd be interested to watch and turns out to be pretty boring, and Curling is the event I always think will be pretty boring and ends up being pretty interesting.
The Olympics (both Summer and Winter) are up there in terms of sporting events that I really enjoy watching. Along with the World Cup, I think it's the scarcity of the event (only once every four years) that makes me want to prioritize tuning in and watching. In terms of regular sporting events, though, I'm currently really into Formula 1 racing, after having watched several seasons of Drive to Survive on Netflix, then following the 2025 season very closely. Initial testing and work is being done for the 2026 season now, so I've been enjoying following along with all the news and details of the Barcelona shakedown, and the upcoming testing in Bahrain in February.
I will occasionally still tune into tennis every now and then, but I don't follow it nearly as closely as I did 10-15 years ago when Federer and Nadal were at the height of their professional competitiveness.
For other television watching habits, check out some of my recently monthly watch lists, where I detail all of the things I watch in both theaters and at home on TV:
Prompt #20: Where is your favorite place in the whole world?
My favorite place in the whole world, geographically speaking, is either Crystal Cove (a stretch of beach along the Newport Coast in Orange County, between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach) or the Puget Sound/San Juan Islands area of the Pacific Northwest. There are a lot of places that I've never been to that could easily become favorites, but those are the two places I keep coming back to when I think of places I enjoy visiting.
Water in general (and rivers and the ocean specifically) have always been one of my favorite features of the natural world, so it's not surprising that my favorite places would be right on the water. And Crystal Cove is only about a 20-minute drive from where I live, so it's nice to be able to visit whenever I want. Sometimes I'll just drive along the coast on that section of the Pacific Coast Highway and enjoy the view and the breeze, and other times I'll stop at the Shake Shack. Not to be confused with Shake Shack the upscale burger chain, this is a little diner window with an attached deck for outdoor seating built right on top of the cliffside. You can sit there with a burger and a milkshake and enjoy incredible views of Crystal Cove and the Pacific Ocean beyond.
If you travel down a steep flight of stairs to the beach itself, you'll find another great restaurant called the Beachcomber, which is built right on the sand. You can have a meal and walk fifty yards and be in the ocean surf. Visit at sunset when the sky is vibrant orange and pink and purple and the sun is setting over the ocean and it might be the most perfect place in the world.
This one's a little harder for me because I like a lot of things, but possessions aren't generally super important to me. Even things that are particularly sentimental like our wedding photo album; at the end of the day, they're just things. Challenges like, "What are the three things you'd grab on your way out the door in the event of a fire" are always tough to answer because stuff doesn't really enter my head. I always think about those questions practically. Like, I'd probably grab the fireproof safe with all of our personal documents (passports, birth certificates, social security cards, etc.) because replacing those would be a pain. Or my computer so we can easily make all the arrangements we need for whatever the next steps are.
When I think about favorite possessions, I suppose I'd pick something sentimental. I have an Avengers: Infinity War poster on my wall that's signed by most of the cast, which Marvel gave to me as a "thank you" years ago. I have a framed photo of the first writing paycheck I ever received. And I have a signed copy of a book from Bruce Campbell with a really nice inscription from this one time I worked a book signing he was attending. Items like that are the things I think of fondly when it comes to personal possessions. I'm not sure I have a favorite so much as a collection of things I'm fond of, and would probably miss from time to time if they were suddenly gone.
January 21, 2026: What do you think is the hardest part of being a Christian?
I have two responses to the question of what the hardest thing is about being a Christian: a theological response and a more practical response.
From a theological standpoint, the hardest part about being a Christian is clearly living up to the example that Christ set, and the example he wants us to set for others. The tenets of Christianity are well known and oft repeated, but there are precious few people who can actually live up to turning the other cheek, extending mercy and radical forgiveness, and loving one's enemies. Most of us struggle with even the simple edicts of the religion, like setting aside ourselves and following Jesus with all our hearts.
The core theology of Christianity is incredibly countercultural, and nearly impossible to achieve even under ideal circumstances, to say nothing of the broken, sinful world we actually live in. It's quite literally impossible to live a sinless life like Jesus did, but the pursuit of and striving for that unattainable objective is the central thesis of the religion. So to the question of what the hardest part of the Christian religion is, it's ... *gestures at all of it*
From a practical standpoint, I think the hardest part about being a Christian in today's context - at least from my perspective as a nondenominational Christian in the Western world - is seeing others misrepresent Christianity to others, and seeing the damage it causes. Christianity has been co-opted by special interests who would use it as a justification (or excuse) for their own ends, and I include a lot of church organizations themselves in that accusation. Evangelical Christianity has become a political project for some, and a means of achieving wealth and status for others. And I've seen firsthand the kind of damage that has been done to people, especially the marginalized and downtrodden - you know, the type of people that Jesus was kind of famous for actually helping - in His name.
Whenever I see Christians identifying with the conservative right of the political spectrum, or the anti-LGBTQ+ movement, or even taking advantage of their tax exempt status for the purposes of financially benefiting their clergy, it makes me sad because I just know that it's reinforcing the worst stereotypes about Christians being insular hypocrites who want to behave badly while telling everyone else how to live their lives. And it worries me because it furthers the narrative that Christians are just like everyone else: seeking influence and wealth, and defining their success by how much power they can wield against their perceived enemies.
Christianity has always functioned most effectively when it's the underdog. When it's the response to a terrible status quo and offers a different, better way to live. Once Christianity becomes the default, once it becomes the status quo, it starts exerting power like the status quo and trying to protect that power. When you look at it like that, maybe I'm wrong about the practical response to this question. From a practical standpoint, maybe the hardest thing about being a Christian is continuing to live out the tenets of your Christian faith once you've attained the influence and power that you've been seeking.
I'm a little late posting this, but it's time for my annual accounting of all the reading and listening I've done over the course of 2025. Here's how this past year broke down in terms of titles and numbers:
According to Goodreads, my stats were: 14,880 pages read (down 3,728 words from last year), 292 average pages per book (down 40 pages from last year), the shortest book I read was 38 pages (up 8 pages from last year), and the longest book I read was 560 pages (down 285 pages from last year)
BOOKS
Fiction
3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years by John Scalzi Artificial Condition by Martha Wells Bad Date by Ellery Lloyd City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky A Court of Thorn and Roses by Sarah J. Maas Daggerheart Core Rulebook by Darrington Press D&D Monster Manual (2024) by Wizards of the Coast Eberron: Rising from the Last War by Wizards of the Coast Eerie Basin by Ivy Pochoda A Farewell to Arms by John Steinbeck Fog & Fury by Rachel Howzell Hall Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King Gemini Blue by Kara Cavalli Heir to Atlantis by Chris Fox Hero of Metalhaven by G J Ogden I'll Follow You by Charlene Wang The Kidnapping of Alice Ingold by Cate Holahan The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis The Magitech Chronicles Roleplaying Game by Chris Fox Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes One by One by Ruth Ware Only Way Out by Tod Goldberg The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne Something Under the Bed is Drooling by Bill Watterson The Starless Crown by James Rollins Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide by Wizards of the Coast Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn by Matthew Mercer The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco by Diego Boneta Voice Like a Hyacinth by Mallory Pearson What Happened to Lucy Vale by Lauren Oliver While the Dark Remains by Joanna Ruth Meyer Without Fail by Lee Child
Nonfiction
The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication by Robert C. Maxwell Abundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson American Black Widow by Gregg Olsen The Artful Edit by Susan Bell Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer, et al Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You) by The McElroys Finding Your Voice as a Writer by C.A. Mason For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming & James Bond by Ben Macintyre The Game Master's Book of Astonishing Random Tables by Ben Egloff The Game Master's Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying by Jonah Fishel How to Be a Rockstar Screenwriter by David Silverman & Rogena Schuyler How to Read Nonfiction Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster How to Sell 1,000 Books a Month by Susan U. Neal How to Write a Screenplay That Doesn't Suck & Will Actually Sell by Michael Rogan Open by Andre Agassi Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide (Expanded Genres Edition) by James D'Amato The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Guide by James D'Amato The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Worldbuilding Guide by James D'Amato
PODCASTS
Adventuring Academy — 22 episodes Ask NT Wright Anything — 53 episodes Dead Pilots Society — 13 episodes The Economics of Everyday Things — 48 episodes Explain It To Me — 48 episodes The Ezra Klein Show — 71 episodes Freakonomics — 49 episodes The Gray Area — 30 episodes How Did This Get Made? — 9 episodes How I Built This — 3 episodes Imaginary Worlds — 21 episodes Interesting Times (f.k.a. Matter of Opinion) — 37 episodes Not Another D&D Podcast — 11 episodes Offline with Jon Favreau — 50 episodes Pod Save America — 138 episodes Pod Save the World — 54 episodes Politix — 51 episodes Q&A — 17 episodes The Rewatchables — 25 episodes Runaway Country — 10 episodes Scriptnotes — 24 episodes The Slate Political Gabfest — 60 episodes Slow Burn — 14 episodes Strict Scrutiny — 15 episodes TED Radio Hour — 17 episodes Untitled Female Driven Podcast — 5 episodes What A Day — 224 episodes Worlds Beyond Number — 14 episodes Write On — 12 episodes Writer's Panel — 8 episodes
COMICS
Alien Paradiso — 4 issues Alien Romulus — 1 issue Aliens vs. Avengers — 1 issue All-New Venom — 4 issues Alligator Loki — 1 issue Amazing Spider-Man — 18 issues Avengers — 7 issues Avengers Assemble — 4 issues Blade — 4 issues Bloodhunters — 3 issues Cable: Love & Chrome — 3 issues Captain America — 5 issues Chasm: Curse of Kaine — 3 issues Conquest 2099 — 5 issues Crypt of Shadows — 1 issue Dazzler — 3 issues Daredevil — 7 issues Daredevil: Unleash Hell — 3 issues Daredevil: Woman Without Fear — 2 issues Deadpool — 9 issues Deadpool & Wolverine — 3 issues Eddie Brock: Carnage — 2 issues Exceptional X-Men — 6 issues Fantastic Four — 7 issues Fantastic Four: The Dinosaur Fantastic Four — 1 issue Get Fury — 1 issue Giant-Sized X-Men — 1 issue Hellhunters — 4 issues Hellverine — 4 issues Holiday Tales to Astonish — 1 issue Hulk — 1 issue Immortal Thor — 6 issues Incredible Hulk — 5 issues Insurgent Iron Man — 1 issues Infinity Watch — 2 issues Iron Man — 5 issues Kahhori — 1 issue Kid Venom — 2 issues Kidpool & Spider-Boy — 1 issue Laura Kinney: Wolverine — 3 issues Magik — 3 issues Marvel Must-Haves — 1 issue Marvel Mutts — 1 issue Marvel Zombies: Dawn of Decay — 3 issues Miles Morales: Spider-Man — 7 issues Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu — 6 issues Mystique — 5 issues Namor — 6 issues Negasonic Teenage Warhead — 1 issue New Champions — 3 issues Nick Fury vs. Fin Fang Foom — 1 issue Nyx — 7 issues One World Under Doom — 11 issues Petpool: Pool Party — 1 issue Phases of the Moon Knight — 3 issues Phoenix — 7 issues Power Man: Timeless — 2 issues Predator vs. Black Panther — 3 issues Psylocke — 5 issues Robbie Reyes: Ghost Rider — 1 issues Rogue: Savage Land — 2 issues Sabretooth: The Dead Don't Talk — 4 issues Sam Wilson: Captain America — 3 issues Scarlet Witch — 6 issues Secret Wars — 2 issues Sentinels — 5 issues Spectacular Spider-Men — 6 issues Spider-Boy — 6 issues Spider-Gwen — 7 issues Spider-Man — 6 issues Spider Society — 2 issues Spidey and his Amazing Friends — 2 issues Spirits of Vengeance — 5 issues Star Wars — 30 issues Storm — 6 issues Timeslide — 1 issue TVA — 4 issues Ultimate Black Panther — 6 issues Ultimate Spider-Man — 6 issues Ultimate Wolverine — 2 issues Ultimate Universe — 1 issue Ultimate X-Men — 5 issues The Ultimates — 6 issues Ultraman x Avengers — 3 issues Uncanny X-Men — 13 issues Venom — 2 issues Venom War — 20 issues Web of Spider-Verse — 2 issues Werewolf by Night — 7 issues West Coast Avengers — 5 issues What If...? — 7 issues Wolverine — 13 issues Women of Marvel: She-Devils — 1 issue X-Factor — 4 issues X-Force — 7 issues X-Men — 10 issues Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man — 3 issues
SCRIPTS
THE 14TH FLOOR by Amy Reed & Brennan Scannell RICH DAN POOR DAN by John Enbom BUFFALO TENS (Episode 1 and 2) by Riki Lindhome & Natasha Leggero CAMP FRIENDS by Lauren Herstik LETTERS TO BEYONCE by Austen Earl HOW TO GET OVER BRYAN BYERS by Ilana Pena & Anne Sundell BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVORED by Chris Marcil & Sam Johnson HERE SHE LIES by Gracie Glassmeyer CHEAP SEATS by David S. Rosenthal HUMANS OF THE AMERICAS by Jim Brandon & Brian Singleton DREAM by Lisa Muse Bryant GUY TEXT by Aaron Brownstein & Simon Ganz
To qualify for my Watch List every month, a title has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, but it can't be reruns or rewatches of something I've already seen. If I'm including it in this list, it means this month is the first time I've watched it. I'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish. If I'm watching an ongoing season of a series across multiple months, I'll only list it once.
Movies
Anaconda (2025) Avatar: Fire and Ash The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday The Boss Baby: Christmas Bonus Eternity Hamnet The Housemaid Marty Supreme The Night Before Wake up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Wicked: For Good
The movies that I didn't think were that great and I don't have much more to say about were Boss Baby: Christmas Bonus and The Night Before.
The movies that I thought were just okay or pretty good and I don't have much more to say about were Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday, Wicked: For Good, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Marty Supreme, and Hamnet.
Going down the list of others, Anaconda was a surprisingly good spoof/remake of the franchise. Jack Black, Paul Rudd, and Steve Zahn are all hilarious, and there are just enough twists and references to the old franchise to keep it fun and interesting. It was probably my favorite movie of December from a pure enjoyment perspective; everyone in the theater was cracking up as we watched it.
Avatar: Fire and Ash was much better than the last installment, IMO, even if it felt repetitive from a storytelling perspective (oh no, the humans are converging all of their watercraft into one place where they'll have a climactic air and sea battle!). But Varang and her fire tribe were great antagonists, and the pacing of this one was much better.
Eternity was a great premise for a romantic movie (which I don't want to spoil), which felt a little slow to start, but got much better as it went on and the tension ratcheted up.
The Housemaid was a decent adaptation of the bestselling book. I thought Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried played really well off each other, and the film did a good job preserving the twists in the book. It was an entertaining domestic thriller.
Television
Black Rabbit The Franchise (Season 1) Industry (Season 2) Law & Order (Season 25) Law & Order SVU (Season 27) Only Murders in the Building (Season 4) Owning Manhattan (Season 2) St. Denis Medical (Season 1)
I don't have much to say about Law & Order and Law & Order SVU, and the second season of Industry was pretty dull expect for a few episodes toward the end. Same with the third season of Only Murders in the Building, which feels like it's getting further and further away from the magic of the first season.
The Franchise was pretty terrible, with the sole exception of Richard E. Grant's performance... I definitely understand why it was canceled after one season.
The second season of the reality series Owning Manhattan was pretty good; I like the fact that this season focused more on the challenges of growing his business rather than the drama of fame-hungry real estate agents. Ryan Serhant is an interesting guy and it's definitely entertaining reality television to watch him try to build his own brokerage into one that competes with the giants in the space.
The two shows that I really enjoyed this month were Black Rabbit and St. Denis Medical. The first is a Netflix limited series starring Jude Law and Jason Bateman as brothers who own a restaurant and get in over their head with debts that they owe, and the latter is a broadcast sitcom from the guy who created Superstore, which could probably best be described as "Superstore, but this time at a regional hospital." But the formula works and they got a great cast, so who am I to complain?
Comment • View 5 comments 
