1. I remember when my dad and I took my nephews to see the movie Avatar my dad said that he had read a short story very similar to the story entitled Call Me Joe. I looked it up when I got home, and sure enough the novellete by Poul Anderson, published in 1957, told the story of a disabled man controlling a remote being on the planet Jupiter. Evidently there was no lawsuit filed for copyright infringement, but James Cameron did rip off other sources for the story of Terminator and had to award a settlement. 

Just the other day I was with my dad and just asked him out of the blue how in the hell he remembered reading that story and connected it to Avatar when he only read Call Me Joe once around fifty years ago. He can just do that. He is always telling me stories from way back in time with an insane memory for detail.

2. I'm watching a six part documentary called I'll Be Gone In the Dark on HBO about a woman trying to solve the case of a murderer/rapist in the Bay Area from the 1980's who raped fifty people, killed 10, and was never caught. She was actually married to comedian Patton Oswalt, so he is in the film too. The details of these home invasions are so vivid, descriptive, and terrifying that I actually paused it to check that all of the doors were locked. 

3. Every day is pretty much the same in terms of the three things I try to get done: Work on my continuing education program online, work out, and write a blog. Today I completed 2 out of 3. The work out didn't really happen unless you count the shared bike ride/walk home from the mechanic and then again to go pick up the car when it was done. Also I spent over $400 on the car and made $0, so that's not a good pattern for the summer. 

Hope everyone is doing super. Drop me a comment about something you're doing to stay productive, a show you're watching, or a new thing you're doing during quarantine.