OLYMPICS PARIS 2024

**Blogger won't let me upload pictures ..... don't know why**

As I sit here watching the closing ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Olympics …. I admit ……. I’m exhausted. Getting up at 3 every morning … sometimes 4 to catch events as they happened was both necessary cause I need to see stuff live but also made for very long days at work. As with Tokyo …. I got a little insane during these 17 days (July 26^th – Aug. 11^th) and if I wasn’t watching the games live, or repeats of events at night, I was looking at athlete social media and thinking about what I’d be watching next.

I found a fantastic app that allowed me to add games to my calendar…. I didn’t realize it was adding it to my work calendar but I wasn’t mad at that either. That ap has now been flipped over to the Paralympic games which are as inspiring and special to me as these games. The drama the stories, the athletes, watching them do the impossible and make it look so simple is just an extension of these games.

Thank goodness for Peacock. I really hope they keep the momentum going for the Paralympic games cause their coverage was fantastic. Being able to click live events as they were happening or search by a specific day or search by a specific sport in order to plan your day.  I also loved that the times on Peacock were for my specific time zone which was instrumental in my planning process.

So what did I watch ……

Gymnastics, all kinds … Artistic, Rhythmic, Trampoline …. I love the drama of it. The athleticism and how there is very little to no room for error, you go up, do your routine and there is no do over. The Women blew me away as I expected them to and the Men had a rough start but a strong finish and finally got back to the podium.  Volleyball is my other love and to watch it on an Olympic stage is just the best. While Beach Volleyball ended up breaking my heart it was a fun ride while it lasted and the rally’s these teams played on the beach in the sand that was burning their feet, in the heat, and sometimes at night with the Eiffel Tower glittering in the background was just a spectacle to be seen. Well played Paris .. well played. Diving …. From all heights … the US struggled hard but it was still fun to watch… another sport that is one and done … like one bad dive and it’s kind of over cause at that point you are counting on another to have a bad dive. These are the best in the world and bad days rarely happen at that level. Artistic Swimming – AKA Synchronized Swimming – which finally got some TV love this year due to the US having a team that made it to the podium. Indoor Volleyball ended up being satisfying after watching all the other Volleyball teams fall early. The power and speed that this sport is played at gives me chills. Literal chills. 3X3 Basketball – it feels like backyard ball and I’m here for it every single time. Archery – it’s sooooooo dramatic for very little reason …. Like that dramatic pause I guess to steady themselves before letting it rip is important but is it really ? Asking for a friend .. who is me. Now this sport with the Paralympians … that deserves all the drama but they just let it rip. Badminton – I mean …. Who hasn’t played this sport with family in the backyard or at a BBQ and thought they could do this until they watch and are like wait did the shuttlecock even move before the point ends? Basketball – I watched this one more cause of my nephew he loves this sport and it gives us something to talk about plus it was fun to see the new version of the “dream team” take the court and play as a unit. They almost fumbled hard but they pulled it off. The women however never lost control of it and just sailed to that Gold medal.  Breaking - I still have no idea what was going on or how it was scored and yall I tried. I’ve read more about this “sport” that I’ve ever read about any other sport and I just can’t figure it out…. I don’t know if it will stay in the Olympics or not but it was interesting it just wasn’t explained very well for those of us that had not participated in a competition before. The announcers were …. Well I’m gonna be nice but I think they were making that shit up as they went along. Cycling … BMX … Track …. All fascinate me too cause the speed that they move and the closeness of each of the participants makes you think they are gonna die. I liken it to Snowboarding during the Winter Games it’s fun to watch but like Breaking I don’t quite know what’s going on but can at least tell a good run vs a not so good run. In breaking I couldn’t even attempt it. Routines that I thought were good and entertaining got no points … routines I thought were lousy got all the points. Like what the hell … but I digress. Equestrian …. I watched more of these events than I’ve likely watched in previous years…but I can’t really tell you why. Football … aka … Soccer … mostly cause my boss is obsessed with it and it gives us something to talk about. Rugby – this sport fascinates me but the Paralympic version of it, known as Murder Ball makes it look tame. Swimming ….. I mean how do you not watch it’s on for like 6 days straight and they have like 5,203,476,304,967 events each night. Table Tennis – see previous note about Badminton.  Tennis – I mean … we said goodbye to Nadal who left it all on the court, got to see Djokovic not shock anyone by taking the tournament by storm. The real championship was between Nadal and Djokovic, after that it was all downhill from there. I’m gonna give the ladies a break cause well that was kind of painful to watch. Water Polo - which fascinates me, cause like how do they jump like that without touching the bottom of the pool? Weightlifting - cause I wanna be watching when they throw down those weights and destroy the floor..it’s gonna happen …. You just wait.  I even got into some of the Track and Field events which I usually watch but with like one eyeball while I look for something else to watch.

I do admit there were sports that I didn’t get to watch … not as a boycott but more cause I just didn’t get to it or there just weren’t enough hours in the day …. Canoe Sprint (which I usually watch but didn’t this year for some reason), Fencing, Golf, Handball, Field Hockey (that blue field just was too much), Judo, Marathon Swimming, Modern Pentathlon (tho I did watch some of the events that make it up just not enough to say I watched it), Rowing, Sailing, Shooting (I mean honestly who came up with that?), Skateboarding, Sport Climbing (cause why really … what is the point ?), Surfing (again I saw pieces of it but not enough to say I watched it), Taekwondo, and wrestling.

Yall at one point my phone gave me a middle finger and said no more please …. It shut down and I was like oh goodness I guess we are done for the day. Like I couldn’t get it to come back on…. Couldn’t get it to charge… I really thought I was going to need a new phone but I guess it overheated or something cause she seems good now. Which is good cause like is said there is a rest then the Paralympic games get going. I will be watching but I will also be at Dragon Con so I’m gonna have to divide my two loves and catch what I can when I can. So Phone you are going to have to get it together and cause it’s going to be a long week again.

As I watch the Closing Ceremonies I’m struck by how colorful and exciting the Opening Ceremonies was vs this darker less celebratory version of a send off to these games. 

 Medal Count ... cause that's all anyone cares about (which is sad) ends with US on top of the pike for MOST MEDALS at 126 .... GOLD   40   SILVER 44    BRONZE 42 .... so we had a good O    Olympics for sure. China was behind us with 91 total (also 40 Gold), Japan with 45 total, Australia with 53 adn France rounding out the top 5 with 64 total medals as they hosted the biggest sporting party of all time. In 4 years we get to do this again on US soil once again. I’ve really given a lot of thought to Los Angels … but I know me I’ll talk myself out of it. However …. It’s always a possibility … I have 4 years to make up my mind after all.

Marcy @beaslma

This is Halloween ......

       EDIT : Due to my awesomeness the powers that be have decided to air the Great Pumpkin on PBS Oct. 24th at 7:30 Eastern which is of course when most families are sitting down to watch TV not rushing home or preparing dinner. Sigh ... anyway you will have the opportunity to watch this beloved special but don't always count on that ..... 

  

n    Now back to our originally scheduled shenanigans! 

       Attention fellow lovers of Halloween TV fun …….let’s get some unpleasant business out of the way first … In case you missed it last year, Peanuts anything has moved exclusively to Apple TV + and thus you won’t find our beloved Great Pumpkin on this year’s calendar, or I guess any future calendars. For the record I believe I’ve been predicting this for over a decade so I’m not going to say I told you so but ……… I mean I totes did. I was really hoping the powers that be would come to their senses and realize what a missed opportunity this was but well if they had any senses we’d have less “reboots” or “remakes” than we do flavors of Oreo’s. I was going to bore you with my reboot rant but I’m going to spare you … this time! However can we talk about how they will show say Friday the 13^th part 3, 4, 2, and then 1 ? Like that’s so messed up …. Or they will show Halloween 4 but not Halloween. What’s up with that?!

 

       That being said I’m kind of super excited about the new Child Play SERIES “Chucky’ that will be on Syfy this year starting October 12^th. However, since that’s a series and not a special it’s not on this calendar but should be, cause it looks AWESOME! …wait …where was I … oh yeah, the move of Peanuts to Apple TV+ … If you have it log on…..pull it up and enjoy … the rest of us will just grab our DVDs while we still can. For you old schoolers your VHS might need to be dusted off before you insert it but should still be good to go too. God love ya if like me you are still rocking the old school VHS machine. I myself got me a little VHS/DVD combo, when my former VCR died a horrible, horrible death after eating my copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a super sad day for sure. Dad still says was a waste of money. Who is laughing now Dad ?! well….me….I guess ….. just me, but I stand by my decision that day at the Best Buy to pay a little extra for the luxury of being able to choose my format when watching goodness on my TV instead of upgrading to that Blu-Ray fad.  

 
So now that that’s taken care of ……. I present to you the 2021 Halloween Calendar. It’s back guys! I’m going to keep it going until the universe says we’ve had enough.  Or until you guys stop asking about it … in August.
 
A few items of note ….
FreeForm is doing 31 nights of Halloween – this is the place that your littles will need to land but note that just cause it’s on this channel this time of year does not mean it’s “Halloween” fun and what’s with their new alignment with Fox that allows them to show not only the Simpsons but now Family Guy as well? I do admit that at some point FreeForm tried to take over the calendar but I think I held them at bay … somewhat but good try FreeForm.

SYFY is also doing 31 days of Halloween – That’s the place to go for some fun, gory, good times!

AMC Fear Fest begins October 1^st – Classics are all over the place here with some walking dead sprinkled around for flavor. Tune in to see Pet Sematary, The Shining, Scream, all the Final Destinations, and of course the OG …. Michael Meyers in Halloween.

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XXXII airs on FOX on Oct. 10^th. It’s Must See TV. This year’s special will be 5 segments instead of the usual three.

TCM is trying to get back on my calendars by throwing a Halloween Marathon starting October 29^th at 7 through October 31^st. That’s 32 classic movies guys ….  Spooky, creepy, horrifying, and humorous over the course of 48 hours. This includes movies starring the likes of Vincent Price, Linda Blair, and even Mel Books in Young Frankenstein, a MUST see if you haven’t seen it. 

Food Network is still in the corner cause like last year they started most of their programing in the middle of September (cause that’s when I want to get my Halloween Wars on of course). They slightly redeem themselves by bringing back “Outrageous Pumpkins” with Alyson Hannigan starting Oct. 3^rd and airing every Sunday at 9 and Kids Baking Championship “Oh My Gourd!” (Seriously get in the corner Food Network and likely make a nest you are going to be there for a while). KBC OMG (which is truly what they are calling it btw) will air Monday at 7 starting Oct. 18^th. I’m not even going to rant about the fact that Halloween Wars removed the “pumpkin” aspect of the show and how the host is only appearing via prerecorded videos .. I mean just cancel the damn thing already and put it out of its misery.

There is also exciting news on the “streaming” front …… Disney+ will have a new “Lego Star Wars” called “Terrifying Tales” or something like that but the real exciting news is that they will be debuting the “Muppets Haunted Mansion” on Oct 8th. Peacock will be showing the brand-new Halloween Movie “Halloween Kills” starting Oct. 15^th will Jamie finally kill him or nah … my guess is nah but I’m thankful for Universal and Peacock for making this happen. Peacock will also air a “Snoop and Martha’s Very Tasty Halloween” starting Oct. 14^th and if that’s not worth getting Peacock well nothing is. Peacock is free yall …. Go get it ! Hulu is having a Huluween (seriously can’t make this stuff up) with a special Halloween section featuring both classic movies and “Halloween episodes” of favorite shows. ! Netflix has some new “specials” as well such as Sharkdog’s Fintastic Halloween, Escape the Undertaker, Scaredy Cats, and Nightbooks. All kinds of good stuff on Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Disney+, Peacock and *cough* AppleTV+ this year … plus some amazing classics so check em out. 

Hallmark – Hallmark is doing some “Fall Harvest” thing with some “new” movies so I threw them on the calendar if only cause Freeform was taking over. Might be a good fall alternative to gruesome and scary, or a mind-numbing bore to fall asleep to after a stressful workday.  

As this is the 12th (give or take) year of doing this …. I’m not going to bore you with the rules …. Just know ….. If your kid is easily skittish and couldn’t sleep after watching say Texas Chainsaw Massacre don’t blame me … as some have done in the past, it’s not my problem. I’m in the Central time zone, if you aren’t then adjust accordingly. Check your own listings as yes sometimes I make mistakes and conversion from Eastern Time Zone is hard yall.
 
The intention of this calendar is to get your family to pause and spend some time together making memories. Maybe carve a pumpkin while watching, create some fantastic Halloween Treats from your various Social Media sites, or work on your costume – don’t forget the props - and RELAX with your family, friends and loved ones (sometimes those overlap). This years must see special will be next year’s Peanuts only available via streaming if we aren’t careful ….. so, let’s not let that happen again. 

       **NOTE ** if you save the image below it will not be cut off, but if I share it as "normal" it makes it really small and basically unreadable. 

 
So, sit back, scare yourself, and have a GREAT Halloween! It’s fall people enjoy it!
 
Marcy