April 2020 – Ryan Benbow's Blog

“Westside”

April 22, 2020
by Ryan

Last Wednesday, I posted my first song parody, “Where’s the Toilet Paper Gone?” Today, here’s my second (and perhaps final) song parody. Perhaps I’ll think of more to put on here, but no guarantees. This one came to me after listening to the 2018 pop hit Eastside on the radio.

The same caveats apply to this song parody as on the first one. There’s no music video of the parody song here – just the lyrics. Perhaps there will be a music video to this later on, performed by someone much more qualified than myself, but no promises there either. Dibs on the rights to it though. In the meantime, the lyric video to the original song is at the bottom, in case you need a frame of reference.

TV Shows

The Office Basketball Game

April 19, 2020
by Ryan

April 19, 2005. Scranton, Pennsylvania. One of the most legendary basketball games in history took place fifteen years ago today. No, it wasn’t an NBA game, or college, or high school, or even a real-life game. I am, of course, referring to the Season 1 episode of The Office titled Basketball.

To commemorate the 15-year anniversary of the date this episode aired, I wanted to take a look back on this game between Dunder Mifflin Sales and Dunder Mifflin Warehouse in one of the classic episodes of one of the best TV sitcoms of all time. If you’re like me and you enjoy both basketball and The Office, this is definitely for you. Even if you enjoy only one or the other, you should hopefully get some entertainment out of this as well. Since this weekend would have normally been the start of the NBA playoffs, we all need a little basketball to help tide us over until it comes back.

Song Parodies

“Where’s the Toilet Paper Gone?”

April 15, 2020April 18, 2020
by Ryan

In our current era of the coronavirus pandemic, one of the most bewildering things in our America culture has been the sudden shortage of toilet paper in stores. With that in mind, a friend recently suggested to me that we had to have a parody song of Paula Cole’s 1996 hit, “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?” titled, “Where’s the Toilet Paper Gone?” I took that idea and ran with it.

Better Than Facebook

Easter

April 12, 2020
by Ryan

Happy Easter! Welcome to my second blog post! Now I’m an old pro at this thing. I’m still working on a few ideas for some future posts, but since today is Easter, I’m dedicating this one to Easter.

This year, Easter might have a different feel to it, due to our current social distancing guidelines. If you are used to attending Easter church services, I’m guessing that’s not happening for you this year, at least not in the traditional sense. Other events may be cancelled as well, like family gatherings or Easter egg hunts. You may have questions on your mind, like how you are going to celebrate this Easter and how this year will compare to previous years. I’m sure we all have other questions in our minds as well, like when we can live our lives normally again and how much toilet paper we have left. But a big question I know is on everyone’s mind is this: Why does the date of Easter fluctuate so much from year to year?

Better Than Facebook

My First Blog Post

April 5, 2020May 4, 2020
by Ryan

Hi everybody!

First of all, I hope you read the above greeting with the voice of Dr. Nick from the Simpsons in your head. Secondly, I’m Ryan, and I’d like to welcome you to my very first blog post! I hope this finds you well.

I’d like to introduce what this is all about. Due to recent events (or non-events, if you prefer, due to current social distancing), I have recently been inspired to start a blog. Some people might think that a bit odd, considering my relative lack of social media presence, as well as the fact that I’m an introvert who is not at all a public person by nature. I’m not even a writer – my degree is in math, not English. But for some reason, I have felt a desire to get some thoughts out there. Maybe it’s to get my creative juices flowing. Maybe it’s because this is simply something to do during this time while everyone is staying indoors. Perhaps this has some deeper meaning, so that something I write will help inspire, encourage, and bless others, especially during a difficult time for many people right now. Or perhaps it will at least serve the purpose of entertaining and amusing people for a few minutes. Perhaps this will get billions of views and change the world. (I don’t expect that to happen, but you never know.) Or perhaps nobody reads this and I’m just doing this for my own personal amusement. Even if that’s the case, I understand that there’s at least something to be said for putting your thoughts to pen and paper (or the modern technological version of pen and paper anyway), so I will give this a go.