#SF48 Post Mortem

    And the last post of this years Thon, SF48, starts with a picture of Garen and team doing the wrap up prior to our last film, with thank yous to the many folks who make the Thon possible, and with a call for volunteers, as they will start planning in the next few weeks for next year’s marathon. The gang this year included a new neighbor and his friend, and a regularly attending neighbor and his first time attending friend. Word has it that all newbies enjoyed themselves, and at least one will be back and plans to bring more friends.

    I kept my exercise tracking streak, including getting enough activity to donate free meals via the Vizer app, and my over a year streak in Run Across America. How, you say, if I am sitting in a theater for 24 hours? By parking at the Alewife T station, and walking the two kilometers to Davis Square. I got there about half an hour later than I had planned, due to having to do my food shopping on the way in, and I still got to the line in about the same place I usually end up in. I didn’t have to stand there long before it started moving, which seemed early based on an 11am opening. I was reminded of one of the benefits of arriving early, besides having a better chance to get good seats, which is getting a goodie packet. Oh yeah, here’s a pic of what I got.

    Let’s talk food for a bit. I had noticed earlier in the week a hankering for some baby shrimp at the marathon, and had considered getting take out from an all you can eat buffet. I generally just stick with my usuals, as noted in previous posts, and haven’t really thought about anything else, though I have looked fondly back to the first couple times I went with my brother-in-law, and we got hamentashen. Since I had planned to take my aunt out to an all you can eat buffet on Saturday, it seemed it would be easy to grab some shrimp while there. I also thought about whether packing them in and eating them at room temp might be less enjoyable than my stomach was thinkinbg, and I had plenty at the buffet, so I dropped that idea. Also, Friday night my wife made me seafood stew, which had plenty of leftovers, so I ended up finding an old soup thermos, and packing some of the seafood stew for the Thon. And yes, by the time I got to it, it was room temp, though still yummy, and with shrimp. As I planned out my usual array of sandwiches and snacks, I got worried that I had too much bread and bagels to eat before they got moldy, and that making my own bread as I always do might not make sense. I checked with my daughter to see if she would have some of my bread, and as she said yes, I went ahead and made it. I only made two sandwiches instead of my usual three, brought a pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, and a plain sesame bagel. Naturally I also brought plain and sour cream and onion Pringles, Sun Chips, a couple apples, a couple plums, a couple nectarines, two flavors of Naked juice, Cashew sweet and salty bars, and grapes, all regulars of my Thon menu. Oh yeah, and I have made it a habit of buying the leftover pizza at my local roller skating rink when I skate there, and since I did that on Saturday, I had pizza on hand, and brought some to the Thon. As always, I had more food than I needed, and I figure that is better than being hungry. I ended up eating the pizza, half of each sandwich, most of the Pringles, three sweet and salty bars, a plum, a nectarine, water, both Naked juices, and grapes. I was disappointed that I had forgotten to pack the Pureo giant vegan oreo like cookie, as I really had a desire for just that kind of sweet thing during the Thon, and the sweet and salty bars were just not filling that gap.

    While I like live blogging the Thon, have done it for many years now, and feel like it helps me keep awake and engaged more than I might otherwise be, I think for next year I need to at least do some of the prep I have considered in the past, like starting drafts for each movie and event before hand. This was really driven home as a result of something that happened a few days after the Thon. The first movie of the Thon was Stargate, and my daughter, my wife, and I had watched the first 7 seasons of the TV series, though my wife had never seen the movie, so I suggested she should. And the three of us did, even though I had just seen it. As the opening credits start, my daughter says she thinks it starts with Ra’s ship, and I am convinced it doesn’t, as I just saw it. She is right of course, and a couple other short scenes and items seem new to me. This is when I realize that my live blogging does mean that I may miss things in movies, as I try to catch up, and sometimes struggle with the less than ideal input mechanisms I use. So next year, I need to prep my blogs before hand, and consider other ways to make it smoother, so I avoid blogging during the films.

    The renovations to the Somerville Theater are very nice, and being able to see films, many in 35mm, on a big screen, makes this more fun and meaningful than sitting at home watching on our big flat panel TV. As is always the case, there were people with sleeping bags out on the hall floor snoozing away in the wee hours, and plenty of audience engagement, including making chicken noises throughout the Thon, after the scene in Stargate where Daniel emphasizes that the lizard like animal tasks like chicken by clucking. Rice Chex / Wheat Chex vocal competitions abound, and this year ‘door / thank you’ were also favorites. As noted previously, I have my ticket for next year, and hopefully by then I will have built a whole blue ray gun from the partially functional ones I have. See you then. ^_^