Promising Episodes and Intentional Fires

Today in my BTG Seven, I start watching the second season of Rings of Power, continue with the Umbrella Academy, get excited and wary about the Dune MMO, and worry that the fires in California are actually being set intentionally.

The Padres pulled off another win and continued their march toward the playoffs. They’re not too far behind the Dodgers, who I thought would be running away with the title after they stole Ohtani from my Angels. Western Division Champs or Wildcard, it certainly looks like the Padres are headed to the playoffs and a successful season.

I finally watched the first episode of season 2 of Rings of Power, and I have a better feeling about this season. However, I realized that there are tons of characters to keep track of. Perhaps now that Sauron is in the game and not just hiding in the shadows, the show will firm up and move in a more familiar direction. There needs to be something to hold on to that is recognizable to the general audience and not just to diehard Tolkien fans.

In other streaming media, while the squid kids (Ben and Jennifer) cause trouble for Jean and Gene and the Umbrella Academy stands up to their dad, in the end the 4th episode of the 4th season turned out to be a bit Klaustrophobic.

Sadly, fires are still raging through Southern California even though the heat is coming down, and now I hear that at least one of the fires was intentionally set. I will never understand why people want to destroy things and kill others.

Back to baseball, and look who is back on the Injured List…Anthony Rendon. Actually, it should be more of a surprise when he is not on the IL. One of these days, I will have to calculate just how many days he’s actually played for the Angels and how many he’s been dead weight. This is definitely a candidate for the worst contract ever.

In my gaming adventures, Katmai is cruising along in LOTRO, having finished off Archet and headed to Combe. I think I bumped up the landscape difficulty a bit too soon, though, since before I worked out my simple level 5 rotation, I was killed by a Diseased Bristlehide in my first quest on Fearless +1.

Finally, I’m really sad I missed out on many of the Blaugust 2024 happenings, and most importantly, I missed out on following many of the posts the participants put out. So I’m gonna try to make up with that as time goes by and highlight a few posts from Blaugustonians that I enjoyed during my rambles and such. Today, I took a look at AI MMORPG News since the subject caught my eye…a Dune MMO. All the deets for the post are over at Dune Awakening and while I am excited to see a game based on such a great IP, I am a bit wary of Funcom. They have not been the most reliable when it comes to game companies, but I hold out hope that they will put something good together that will stand the test of time.

With that, Tannhauser Gate is open for the day. I hope you all have a good day.