Month: January 2019

Media Diary (January 2019)

Some things I’ve enjoyed lately, in no particular order, and not necessarily only recent stuff:

They Shall Not Grow Old (Movie): Absolutely amazing to see this footage come to life

The Mystery of The Exploding Teeth (Book): Still reading this, but it’s tremendously entertaining

Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (TV): I had no idea what a media event this was at the time

Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend (Podcast): Unsurprisingly great

Fyre and Fyre Fraud (Movies): I could watch ten more of these

Corporate (TV): My wife can’t get past some of the acting, but I’m enjoying the spiral into ever-deeper darkness

Bag Man (Podcast): I had no idea how deep things went with Spiro Agnew

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (TV? Movie? Game?): Interesting experiment, and my version ended in tragedy, as I’d expect from good ol’ Black Mirror

Vice (Movie): Pretty entertaining (and horrifying), but also felt uneven

Outside the Bubble: On the Road with Alexandra Pelosi (TV): Enjoyed each of the various segments, despite weeping for America

Monster: The Zodiac Killer (Podcast): As with the Bundy documentary, I learned all sorts of crazy details

God Knows Where I Am (Movie): What a sad, sad story

True Detective (TV): Only one episode in on this new season, but I’m along for the ride

Retropod (Podcast): Super short, fascinating segments that I’ve added to my morning rotation

Fahrenheit 11/9 (Movie): Infuriating, obvs

Three Wives, One Husband (TV): I’m never one to turn down a polygamy doc

Halloween (Movie): Pretty good, though don’t tell my mother-in-law I supported a Jamie Lee project

The Innocent Man (TV): Another very interesting, very sad tale

Bird Box (Movie): It was fine, and I was able to resist driving while blindfolded

Deep Cuts: Volume One

As part of this site’s rebirth, I’ve started slowly migrating posts over from previous House of Kyle incarnations. The latest batch now in place is from my time on Tumblr (from 2009-2016). I’ve opted to still leave the short-form stuff over there, but thought I’d showcase a few flashbacks from this adorable pre-Trump era:

11/11/14: Favorite Sitcom Title Sequences

11/24/12: Kyle’s Top Ten Magic Mountain Coasters

9/10/12: My Epic James Bond Post 2: The Novels and Short Stories

9/1/12: Leaving Ning

8/5/12: Parallel Parks

8/1/12: My Animated .GIF Series (To Date)

10/6/11: Steve

8/19/11: My Epic James Bond Post

6/28/10: iPhone 4

12/30/09: Decade in Review

Stay tuned in the future as I link to archived stuff from the Blogger days (2000-2009) and beyond.

Crazy Train

I ride the train a little over four hours almost every weekday. Yeah, I know.

Over time though, I’ve come to generally enjoy the downtime, and I thought I’d share my go-to train essentials for any other interested rail riders. Note that I included a few of these in another post a while back.

Timbuk2 Backpack: My older “Blackbird” model is still getting ‘er done after all these years

AirPods: Probably the most important piece of technology in the whole list, I’d turn to dust without them

iPhone X: Still great, and I haven’t felt compelled to upgrade (I have a Kindle Paperwhite and an old iPad as well, but I rarely use them on the train)

Apple Watch: My “Series 0” launch model is still useful for glancing at info in jam-packed situations, but the newer models are definitely starting to seduce me

Soylent: Hate all you want, having a meal ready to go is a lifesaver

Warby Parker Sunglasses: Los Angeles can be pretty bright, people

Jelbows Elbow Rest: I apologize for the name in advance, but I was having horrible pain in my left elbow from the generally terrible train seats, and this really did the trick

Yeti Rambler: Keeps my coffee hot the entire commute, which continues to amaze me

Jackery Bolt Charger: Most of the time my phone’s battery is fine, but in a pinch this charger with built-in cables is epic