Author: Greg

In no particular order:

• The Beverly Hills Cop movies are still enjoyable.
• That hot sauce challenge was a stupid idea.
• Revisiting some classics was a good idea.
• Next up: John McTiernan movies. For some reason, I feel the urge to revisit Medicine Man. Don’t ask me why. Or maybe I’ll finish Tony Scott’s oeuvre first.
• I can handle the hot sauce.
• None of my students is going to do any of those holiday assignments our department prepared today.
• Now I have the Axel F. theme stuck in my head.
• I have to conduct a proper exam with my students over the computer. That’s going to be fun. Actually, I might have figured that one out—I’m getting the hang of forms.
• That was such a stupid idea.

See you tomorrow!

Contrary to popular belief, I haven’t been watching movies all the time—I just haven’t been in the mood. I usually watch one movie each night, but most of the time, I end up falling asleep after a hard day at the office. (Yes, the days in the office are hard.)

I’m trying to change that now. Recently, I re-watched Mad Max: Fury Road and Gladiator, and I’ve decided to go back and revisit some old classics while filling a few gaps in my watchlist. For some reason, I’m in the mood for stupid action movies, so I’ll probably start with some 80s or 90s favorites. I’ve already started compiling a list of suitable candidates.

So, if I suddenly start using cheesy movie one-liners, now you know why. Thank goodness streaming services are full of silly old action movies. Don’t expect any detailed write-ups, though—I’m just trying to kill some time and have fun while doing it. Who knows? I might even get some inspiration to finally finish Alaska.

Tonight’s movie of choice: Beverly Hills Cop.

This blog entry was brought to you by “dictation.”

The weekend was quite uneventful. As I mentioned last week, my friends and I got together to play some Dungeons & Dragons online. The first half hour felt a little strange, but once everyone got used to the new setup, we actually had a good time.

Player interaction obviously isn’t as engaging as it is around a physical table, but it’s much better than not playing at all. I’m already looking forward to the next session. I think I can seriously reduce my prep time this time around. I’m also introducing some of my students to the game over the Easter holidays, so I’ll be prepping that game as well.

I’m kind of dreading the Easter break a little bit. The last few weeks have been weird but strangely structured, and I know I need to maintain that structure, even if I adjust it slightly. Instead of doing schoolwork every day, I plan to get some writing done daily. I’m not sure if I should set any strict goals, but it would be great to aim for at least two pages each day. My main focus will be Alaska, but I’ll see where creativity takes me.

One thing I’ve noticed—something that might make things a bit more interesting, and I hope you hadn’t noticed until now—is that I used the dictation feature to write this blog post. It required only minimal editing. It’s not that I’m faster than usual, but it’s interesting to use my voice instead of my fingers to create text.

I’m not entirely sure how feasible it would be to write a screenplay like this, but sometimes you have to mix it up. I have to admit I’m quite enjoying it—partly because it works so seamlessly. I’ll have to try German later, but UK English works really well.

That’s it for today. Stay healthy!

Had a light school day today. Most of my classes are hard at work, and there’s still some correcting to do, but I’ll probably handle that next week. I can’t believe another week has flown by. It’s so strange—on one hand, the days go by so quickly, yet on the other, it feels like ages since we had proper school.

I spent most of the day getting ready for a Dungeons & Dragons session tomorrow—our first time playing online. I’m curious to see how it will go. We’re using Roll20, and it looks like it will get the job done, but I feel like something will be missing compared to playing in person. Then again, who knows? Maybe we’ll enjoy it just as much. Prepping was a bit odd, though. I have no idea how fast we’ll progress, and I’m not sure if I’ve prepared enough encounters. I obviously want to have enough, but I don’t want to over-prepare since online play is different from live sessions.

I’ll keep you posted, but you’ll have to wait until Monday—I’m taking another weekend break. I’m actually quite happy with how my blogging and schoolwork are going, and you probably already know how proud I am of my videos.

One thing I do need to work on, though, is writing. I haven’t written a single page since this whole thing started. The plan is to focus on that during the Easter break when schoolwork winds down.

Okay, time to wind down for now. Stay healthy!

Let’s do a quick & dirty one:

• I baked a bread today. Turned out great—mighty proud.
• Started work on the script for Episode Two.
• Recorded new “band” cut-ins.
• Brought my bike to the shop.
• Did some correcting.
• Designed some new tasks.
• Went for a walk.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow!

Back from a little blog break. I had a relatively quiet weekend ¹. I uploaded an old video essay of mine—damn you, YouTube content filter—and then I uploaded an edited version again. ²

I’m already working on another video essay, and I think I’ve got a decent plan for this week’s episode of “Mr. Vogt Explains.” The plan is to write it on Wednesday, record some new band inserts, and then, like last week, shoot and edit the episode on Thursday. At least, that’s the plan.

I spent most of the day correcting assignments. As long as my students hand in their work like they’re supposed to, the workflow is pretty smooth. I use my iPad for corrections, so I can write with “a pen” without needing to print or scan anything. When it works, it feels like magic… unless… well, let’s not go there.

Time to grab some dinner, then it’s back to more correcting before heading to bed early to get rid of this jet lag—damn you, daylight savings time.