You know, for a guy who is currently unemployed, I sure seem to be keeping myself busy, and for the most part, that’s been a good thing. Don’t get me wrong, my first priorities is the job hunt and I applied for several jobs this past week. (Fingers crossed that I hear something back next week which would make Christmas a little merrier.)
Mom and I headed into London this past Monday where I visited the headquarters of Shelf Life Magazine. In addition to visiting with Shelf Life’s editor and publisher, Paul Sutter, I picked up the latest issues and several new books to read and review. I went to work with updating the Shelf Life Magazine website. You can pick up the December 2025/January 2026 issue at the usual locations (including the Thamesford library) and can read excerpts from the issue on the website.
However, I’ve also had the opportunity to help my Mom go for groceries, and even stopped in at the Salvation Army Thrift Store – where I snagged a cool Bristol Raceway t-shirt, kind of a surprise). As much as I didn’t like the whole “Working From Home” thing during COVID, I’m tempted to start exploring that as an option in my job hunt going forward.
It hasn’t been all work and no play, (that makes Johnny a dull…some might argue, duller…boy). I finished up season four of Shoresy, prepping for the premiere of Season 5 on Christmas Day.
I’ve been watching a lot of stuff off the WWE Vault while I’ve been at my desk doing the job hunt and assorted tasks. I watched Clash of the Champions #15 (from 1991), a Saturday Night’s Main Event from the summer of 1989, the 1987 Survivor Series and, even now, am making my way through the four-and-a-half hour broadcast of the 1987 Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Tag Team Tournament. If this keeps up, I may have to start creating content for the Milner Mat Report page. (I know, I’ve just bored 90% of the people who were brave enough to read this far but sometimes I like to write for the final 10%.)
I decided to take a break from things and snuggled up in bed this morning. No phone, no internet until mid-afternoon and read one of the books I will be reviewing from Shelf Life, Twisted by Colum McCann. It’s an interesting story and ironically references Apocalypse Now which was based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness because there are elements of Twisted that reminds one of Conrad’s book. Definitely worth a read. (I will of course write significantly more than those few sentences when I do my review.)
As I said in a previous installment of this blog, it was good to disconnect for a few hours, not be hit with the boring, repetitive simmering pile of boring, repetitive, divisive BS that is social media in 2025. It was great to just dive head-first into a novel and forget anything else that’s going on in the world. I’ve been more and more tempted to use this blog not just as an update (although that will continue) but also as a platform to write about things not NASCAR or pro wrestling related. (I bet you can tell what my first such installment might be about. I guess you can all stay tuned for that.
As always, if you want to discuss anything covered above (or below), chat me up on Facebook Messenger – either by text or voice message – or via email.
johnmilner.ca 