Compassion Fatigue

I caught the most recent episode of Arrow yesterday.

It was the fourth part of the Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover which aired in the USA earlier this year and was the episode which seemingly killed off Oliver Queen AKA The Green Arrow.

When I first found out that Arrow was ending after eight seasons, I was gutted. It is a programme that I have watched religiously since it landed over here. I felt that I would be sad to see Oliver Queen's demise once it happened.

I didn't feel sorry to see him pass away. The reason why I think has to be attributed to everything that's going on in the real world. 

That's the only good reason I can think of because I was sure that I would feel remorse when the day came.

Another factor could be due to the fact that there are still two more episodes of Arrow to tie up loose ends. 

There's also one more part of Crisis On Infinite Earths to go. 

Maybe my subconscious is holding out hope that there's somewhat of a swerve and this will end with the hero walking off into the sunset..

Fool

I was an April Fool by my own hand yesterday.

To cut a long story short, I had entered the room with my Internet modem in and left to head back to the room I had my laptop.

When I got back to the computer, I noticed that my WiFi was out, so I went back into the room with the modem to see if the lights were on.

The light on the box is usually white, but this time it was green.

'Uh oh.' I thought.

I waited a short while, but nothing changed. I then decided to take the plug out of the socket to reboot the modem.

Once that was done, the white light was back and it was getting ready to start only to stop and go dead.

I phoned my Internet Service Provider but was told - by the automated messenger - that I would have up to an hour wait for help.

I couldn't do that, so logged onto my ISP's website from my mobile phone to try and get it to check the status of the Internet in my area and then run a diagnosis on the box.

The result: my box wasn't switched on.

I knew that!

Or did I?

After deciding to give it one more go, I pulled the plug out again. This time, I decided the wires were a bit tangled so pulled the wire out of the back of the modem and realised that the wire from the modem to the power brick had parted. I pushed it back in and I had the Internet back up and running within ten minutes.

What I suppose happened is the door had knocked it loose to start the problem and then, as I was messing around, it slipped out completely meaning there was no power at all entering the device.

Imagine how stupid I would have looked if I did get an engineer here to look at the broken modem?!

No Joke

Usually, on April 1st, I would leaf through the newspaper or visit websites to read stories with the intention of finding out if they're April Fools items or not.

It's ALWAYS a fun thing to do, but 2020 - as I am sure you know yourself - seems like the wrong time to do it.

I've looked through a couple of news sites this morning. If there is anything out there, it's lost in countless stories about the Coronavirus outbreak.

Just another thing that has gone away for the time being.  

Unless they are there and I'm being a - if you pardon the pun - fool, that is.

Aussie Soaps And Coronavirus

I had a bit of a surprise yesterday when I went to record today's episodes of Home and Away and Neighbours.

Both weren't on the schedule.

After a little look around as to the reason why (well, it's obvious why, I just wanted to know for sure), I found out that - due to the coronavirus pandemic - the airing of the two soaps has been reduced.

So, for now, the programmes will air on Channel 5 every Monday and Friday.

We're already a few months behind Home and Away, so that would leave a bit more of a gap of content.

The Neighbours situation is intriguing, though. This is because we had caught up with the series a few years ago and - as Australia hasn't adjusted its airing schedule in any way yet - we are now back to being behind those down under.

I have a feeling we'll end up catching back up with Neighbours eventually because their entire filming and broadcasting has been changed because of the money coming in from over here.

Both series' have halted filming due to the pandemic, but they film about six months ahead of their broadcast date. Still, the delay will mean they'll have to make some adjustments sooner or later.

The Book And Its Cover

The other day, I looked at the spines of books on the shelf thinking I have a good opportunity to get a lot of them started and finished now that we're being quarantined.

Creating The Mania by Jon Robinson stood out to me. 

As the title suggests - it's a book about how WrestleMania is created from the choosing of the host city right through to the day of the event.

I decided there and then that, seeing as this is WrestleMania Week, it would be an appropriate book to start with. I pulled the book down last night as I prepared some things for today. 

I bought it a few years ago, but forgot what the cover looked like. It's quite depressing to look at considering our current environment.

All those people in attendance in a packed out stadium watching the biggest night in professional wrestling's calendar.

By this time next week, I would have watched the event held in an empty gymnasium.

Manning Not Going To MNF

I read the other day that Peyton Manning turned down a $20 Million offer from ESPN to be an analyst on Monday Night Football.

That's crazy money to turn down 16 weeks of work.

It's also crazy to turn down a job I am sure Manning would have been good at. No, strike that. He would have been great at.

The guy was literally a coach on the field and was so aware of his opposition that it would have been fascinating to see how he dissected plays before and after they were executed.

With this news of Manning not taking up the job, the best analyst remains Tony Romo. He does exactly what I wrote above about dissecting plays before and after they happen.

No Escape From Reality

I know that there are far too many things going on in the world right now, but I have to say this - watching WWE during the coronavirus pandemic is not an 'escape'.

I have just finished watching yet another episode of WWE Smackdown filmed behind closed doors with no audience.

At first, it was intriguing to see the programme in this way. Now, weeks later, it has grown old fast.

What hasn't helped in today's viewing is the episode was promoting matches for WrestleMania that I know have not been filmed for next weekend.

They were pushing Goldberg versus Roman Reigns - a match that I was kind of looking forward to seeing, but it isn't going to happen as Reigns rightfully pulled out of working the match due to his recent cancer battles giving him a low immune shield from coronavirus.

There are other matches that were plugged last night that I am aware are off the table, so the 'escape' from the real world WWE is sending me is not helping when I know that I am not going to end up being given what they're trying to sell me.

Yes, a small thing when there are bigger things to worry about right now.