myschk4

I didn't sleep that well last night, allegedly got seven hours, but with a lot of intermittent wake-ups.

I listen to sleep stories at the moment, via Calm, to get to sleep - for the most part, it is working. Depends on the sleep story.

Catiching up on September - Question a Day Memage

6. What’s the last book you read – did you enjoy it/would you recommend it?

This is hard. Mainly because I'm in another reading slump, and have started and given up on a lot of books lately.

So, the last one I finished and recall? Was Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (I linked you to another person's book review - who liked the book, while I slogged through it and had issues with the narrative style and writing.)

It's about an elderly woman's friendship with an octopus - who helps her figure out what happened to her son, who went missing decades ago. The book is more focused on the quirky characters than it is on the plot, so as a result the plot is haphazard at best, and depends largely on the stupidity of its characters to move forward. And the characters are remarkably dense.
The octopus has to work overtime to help them figure things out.

I don't know - it's a popular book? I just didn't like it. Although I did finish it - which is more than I can say for the last seven books I've tried to read.

7. Is there anything you know is an extravagance, but you still pay for it regularly because you want to treat yourself?

Sigh. Most likely my television streaming subscription services, and the matcha lattes I get. Also an occasional gluten-free baked good (chocolate chip cookie, donut, muffin...brownie).

8. Can you take a nap and still sleep well that night, or are naps just for when you are unwell?

No. I only take naps when I'm sick or haven't slept the night before, and my body dozes off (so not feeling well). I'm not much of a sleeper. And if I nap, I get groggy and can't sleep at night. Everyone in my family seems to have this problem.

9. When you look outside, what do you see right now?

It's night, so the silhouettes of trees and leaves,reflections of things in the windows (pictures on my walls, easel, chair, stained glass stars hanging from window sills) and a dark sky, also for a while a spotlight. It's the week of 9/11 and they shine spotlights in the sky to remember the twin towers. It looked like the moon - so I wondered if it was, and realized, no a spotlight - the light went to the ground like a spotlight. It's gone now. Saw it last night too.

10. Are there any confectionary bars they don’t make any more that you miss (describe them)?

Okay, not sure what this is? Oh, candy bars.

I don't think there are any that I loved that they don't make any more? Ponders. No. Even saw a Whatmacallit recently. I just can't have them any longer. But that's not because they aren't being made.

After high humidity, thunderstorms through most of yesterday afternoon and well into the night, and rain this morning, it's cleared off and is actually bright and sunny and kind of cheerful outside.

Also almost six pm. A bit late to take a walk. I need to make dinner, lunch for tomorrow. Eat. And go to bed - hopefully by 9:30-9:45. I did manage to sleep 9 hours last night, which is a first.

And for some reason or other, I'm still craving chocolate chip cookies. I caved and baked three. The blood sugar eventually went up. I regretted it. Such is life. I won't cave again.

I intended to go to church this morning and do the high line in the city - but alas, it was raining. So I stayed home and watched it on FB instead. Glad I did - their bathrooms and kitchen had no water, and they were offering ice cream instead of carousel rides to the kiddies - because the picnic in Brooklyn Bridge Park had been cancelled. They ended with my favorite religious song - Harry Belafonte's Turn the World Around. My father's was Amazing Grace, mine is "Turn the World Around" - I want Turn the World Around sung at my funeral - although I don't want a funeral - I hate funeral's. I want a small happy gathering on a mountain top, around a campfire, at a river bank, and at a beach, with my ashes spread at each, and this song sung at each place.

That song just comforts me and makes me really happy. The fact that my church keeps singing it about five or six times a year - keeps pulling me back towards it like a magnet.

****

I didn't do much this weekend. My brain required a break so it took one?
I did watch a few things and re-watched a few things. It's September now, and I've always loved September. (My favorite seasons are the fall and spring, I tend to like the in-between, more then the extreme in both temperatures and growth - the waning of the light, and the renewal of it.) I feel it's a kind of renewal? Or chance at new things, and letting go of old things. It was always the start of school, new television seasons, and theater seasons - and in NYC - the start of a new cultural year. While at work - the beginning of the fall holiday season.

Television

1. K-Pop Demon Hunters - on Netflix. This is a fun little movie. I adored it. And I wouldn't consider myself a fan of K-Pop? Pop music tends to annoy me after a bit, and K-Pop is kind of an extreme form of it? Although it has great choreography. This movie also is a kind of 3D computer generated version of anime - which I am not a fan of? But? I loved this. It's adorable, it has an uplifting message, the characters are likable, and it's fun.

I didn't understand what all the hype was about - until I saw it. It's kind of a hopeful movie in difficult times?

2. K-Popped on Apple TV - this is a reality competition show that takes place in Seoul, Korea - and where they split a popular and very large girl's k-pop band into two groups, and pair each group of five or six girls with a popular Western singer. Then the girls teach the Western singer their choreography, the singer teaches the girls their song, and they K-Pop it, while sharing aspects of the Korean culture with the Western singers. They two groups compete. One wins, and it's all very nice, and not all that competitive. They are established - so there's no need to compete for money or fame. It's just a fun little competition.

The one I saw was Keisha's Savage vs. Patti La Belle's Lady Marmalade.
Personally I think Savage was better choreographed? But I prefer Lady Marmalade. I also learned or was reminded of what "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir" - meant.

It's kind of fun? I'm not a huge fan of pop or K-Pop, and watching people be interviewed, doesn't do a lot for me, but it's good background noise.

3. Rogue One and Star Wars: A New Hope - these two films work really well as a two-parter. Actually, Andor S1 and 2, followed directly with Rogue One, and finally Star Wars - is highly satisfying, tragic, and uplifting, and hopeful all at the same time. Talk about a prequel that manages to make the original film that aired over forty years prior, better? Star Wars was good without Rogue One and Andor, but both the film Rogue One and the series Andor - manage to provide a depth and gravitas to Star Wars that wasn't there prior? The stakes are higher somehow. Star Wars is a more suspenseful film after you see Rogue One and Andor, because you see how much is riding on Han, Leia, Luke, Obi-Wan, C3-PO and R2-D2's success. A lot of people died so they could take out the Death Star, and save the Rebel Base of Yavin.
( Read more... )

4. Alien: Earth - still watching. But it's creepy, and we'll see how long I stick with it. ( Read more... )

At least it was a pretty day today. Clear and sunny, until clouds moved in at the end of it threatening rain. So I took a walk along the pier at lunchtime - and on the way back picked up two gluten-free chocolate chip cookies from Insominac Cookies (they are freshly baked cookies), and an iced matcha latte from Grumpy Coffee, which is conveniently around the corner from Gregory's and Crazy Workplace. It's not perfect, but it is a workable substitute to Gregory's and cheaper. Also it has decafe coffee.
And there's also Cafe Rumi, which has gluten free muffins and lemon loaf.
I'm slowly developing a list of places that provide gluten-free items around my work place and home.

Everything is confusing me at the moment. I've decided the world (inclusive of my work place) has gone bat-shit crazy, and I want to take a sabbatical from all of it to parts unknown. But I guess I could just attempt an internet and news sabbatical over the weekend - and veg on scripted and fictional television shows, books, and writing. Plus doing watercolors, taking long walks, and maybe going to church on Sunday - along with the High Line (depending on the weather). I'm also considering taking a page from colls book and trying the 30 day yoga/meditation challenge - to help center myself. I meditate for about ten to fifteen minutes every morning before work, and thirty minutes in bed - with various sleep stories. Utilizing mostly the Calm app, I think I've burned through everything of use on the Headspace app and will unsubscribe from it soon.

I'm confused and overloaded at work. They keep changing the process and procedures on me, and I'm no longer certain if the people running the organization know what they are doing? Example? It's been five years since the merger and creation of new departmental agency and we still don't have an org chart. Also, the real estate department keeps playing a shell game with people. The folks seated behind me where moved from Brooklyn to the City, and now are being moved back, except they can't be moved back yet, because the real estate department doesn't know what to do with the people currently occupying that space, and the people they want to move into their current space - don't want to move. Everyone is confused. I was taught that government is basically organized chaos, but lately it's becoming increasing more chaos and less organized.

My brain is taking the weekend off. It's tired of keeping track of everything. It needs a break.

***

Question a Day Meme

3. Do you like trying new things? What’s the last new thing you tried (a craft, a new food, a new activity or something else)?

Yes, although within reason. I'm a curious person but also an extreemly cautious one. Lately I've been trying gluten free chocolate chip cookies, and baked items. Last week it was bread from a new gluten free bakery I discovered. I also like checking out new music, new books, new television shows, new shoes, new foods...I'm considering tofu chocolate mousse (if I can find tofu, thinking health food store or Asian market). My brain is a bit of a blank at the moment as to new things I recently tried though?

4. Peter Mark Roget was born in 1779 and wrote the ‘Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition”. Roget’s Thesaurus has never been out of print – have you ever used a thesaurus?

Yes. At one point I had an online version. Also owned them. I'm a professional wordsmith - my job involves hunting the right or precise words to use in financial and legal documents, well it's a portion of the job.

5. It’s International Day of Charity – do you regularly (or occasionally) donate to any local or National charities?

Yes. Both. ( Read more... )

And should just go to bed.

But I had keto cookie dough ice cream with chocolate and whipped cream (which kind of renders the keto portion of it null and void?) and it's keeping me awake for a bit.

From another post - I'm struggling to define "stealth anthology series" - this is going to bug me. My mind loves to torture itself with semantics debates - it's the downside of being a professional wordsmith, who has to be precise with phrasing for a living. My work bleeds into my personal life, no matter what I do to separate it.

Found a definition via AI:

"A "stealth anthology" is a series that functions as an anthology but presents itself to the audience as a traditional serial drama with continuing characters and story arcs

The anthology format is hidden, or "in stealth mode," for a portion of the show's run.

The term gained prominence in pop culture criticism to describe shows that subvert audience expectations by featuring a new story or set of characters in each episode or season, despite having a continuous element that keeps viewers engaged.

A prominent example is the television show Quantum Leap, where a time-traveler jumps into a different person's life each episode. While the time-traveler and his holographic guide are continuous characters, the central story of each episode (the person's life they inhabit) and the supporting cast are always new.

How a stealth anthology works

The framing device: A consistent character or small cast provides continuity from one story to the next.

The new cast: Each new installment features a fresh set of characters and a self-contained plot that resolves by the end of the episode or season.

The audience hook: The continuous framing device pulls the audience along, even if they aren't invested in a particular week's story, allowing the show to explore many different genres and premises.

The genre shift: By essentially doing a different show each week, a stealth anthology can seamlessly move between genres like hard-boiled detective fiction, domestic comedy, musical theater, and science fiction.

Critics Pick Their Favorite Anthology Series of All Time
Aug 20, 2019 — How are we defining “anthology,” exactly? A show that tells a new story with new characters each season? In that case, it's probably “Fargo,” even though I had ...

Hmmm.

I'd say a stealth anthology series that is by episode is most like Pokerface or Quantum Leap or maybe Murder She Wrote. I don't know about Doctor Who - it has a serial through line, as does most procedurals. The characters build new relationships. Also Doctor Who has recurring characters. Actually it may be the very definition of "stealth anthology" - since it is a serial whose characters often change entirely with each new Doctor. Fargo, True Detective, American Horror Story, and American Crime are all stealth anthologies.

Okay, my brain has figured it out now and will let it go, so I can sleep.

So, the building inspector testing the walls for lead, didn't show up. As a result, he's coming tomorrow, and the super is going to take responsibility for giving him access and protecting the apartment.

He apparently skipped over my apartment and another one - which he was supposed to do in the morning.

See? I knew that was going to happen. Hence the reason, I was aggravated.
If people did their jobs, life would be lovely.

ETA: The medication that the doctor requested from the pharmacy is out of stock - they have to order it, it should be in sometime on Thursday or next week. Sigh.

ETA2: Finished Iron Heart, and the ending doesn't quite work? Or make sense? And felt rushed? I'm not sure it's a cliff-hanger? Since it more or less tells us what happened. ( spoilers ) I didn't like the ending, nor do I think it works, and the writers didn't build up to it well. The series like most of Marvel's recent efforts is busy - with a lot of bits that aren't needed or are there to look cool but add little to the story. I don't think they know how to pull in the younger demographic so keep throwing things at a wall to see what sticks?

ETA3: And got into a frustrating and kind of pointless argument with an online fanboard about a dumb show I watch. It's always dumb television series that I get into pointless debates about. The smart, clever and critically acclaimed shows don't tend to have this problem. (Buffy kind of fell between the two, so yes, I got into dumb debates about it too. As did Game of Thrones for that matter. But usually it's the subpar cult series that run forever. This one has been running since 1963 with no end in sight. It's on its 63rd season. It's officially the longest running scripted television show in the US, I think it beats Doctor Who - since it has more episodes and no long gaps between seasons. That's not necessarily a good thing? Although similar to Doctor Who - it also brings people back from the dead and recasts characters, except without a scientific or logical explanation. Doctor Who at least tries to provide one, this one doesn't bother.)

( never debate/discuss with online soap fans on a spoiler board about a whodunnit in a soap opera - it rarely ends well )

Now that I've mocked myself and them ruthlessly for attempting this tomfoolery, I feel much better, thank you very much.

All in all a fruitful day. Tomorrow I get to go back to work and be aggravated in an even more fruitful manner, plus get paid for it.

September Question a Day Meme

1. It’s National Tofu Day – do you like Tofu?

No. Soy tends to make me ill in large quantities.

2. Festa do Vinho, the Wine Festival, this festival transforms the Island of Madeira into a vibrant showcase of its cultural heritage. Have you ever used Madeira wine in a recipe?

Yes. Not recently, but yes. Also had it.

I think in spaghetti sauce. Also in cake.

Sigh, now I want spaghetti and meatballs with Madeira sauce and I can't have it. Oh well, at least I don't have any in the house.

***

I think I'm going to have the shrimp I bought yesterday with salad. That might take the blood sugar down?

***

On Friday, I stopped by this darling little floral shop called Zuzu's Petals - which called out to me from across the street. (Only people of a certain age will get the reference, because we all saw the movie a million times by the time we reached the age of 30, but they rarely show it now - you kind of have to hunt for it? And it has competition from remake's and rip-offs. Let's face it some types of films they made better in the 20th Century, and leave it at that?)



And wandered around for a bit looking at things, including their backyard garden and floral arrangements. They had dried flowers and fresh ones, wanting to be arranged or bought individually.
( flower arrangements )
And a little backyard garden:
( backyard garden )

I bought a little paint brush holder at the shop (it's actually for air plants, but I'm using it for paint brushes):

( paint brush holder )

That was on Friday. I didn't do much today outside of a doctor's appointment, vacuuming, shower, and dropping off some meds that I can no longer take at the pharmacy.

I finally got around to seeing Thunderbolts - the Marvel flick that was released earlier this summer. I waited until it streamed on Disney + this weekend. So, depending on one's point of view? I saw it for free.

I've mixed feelings about the movie. I liked it a great deal, but like most Marvel films and television series post Endgame, it has its issues.

Thunderbolts unfortunately works better if you've already seen (and remember) Ant Man & the Wasp (I vaguely remember it), The Falcon and the Winter Solider, and Black Widow. I'm not sure if you'd be hopelessly lost if you haven't seen them? But you might be a tad confused? It took me a moment or two to remember who the heck Ghost was, and one character (who dies early on) - I had no idea about. And I've seen those films, along with nearly everything else except Captain America: Brave New World - which might have been required as well? (Not certain - haven't seen it yet. But it might explain what the Winter Solider is up to in this film.)

( the problems with superhero flicks since roughly Endgame )

Thunderbolts is among the more interesting Marvel and Superhero films in part because it is in many ways the antithesis of a superhero film. It's not like DC's Suicide Squad films which are basically a bad ass CIA director putting together a who's who of the worst and most insane villains to fix a problem that no one can fix. I thought it was going to be that? It's most definitely not. Thank god. Let's not go copying each other thank you very much. Whew.

Instead, it's about a bunch of antiheroes banding together because it's either that or die? And they kind of help people partly by chance and it seems like a good idea at the time, albeit clumsily - because you know, they are opportunistic anti-heroes. They aren't nearly as bad as DC's rogues line up. This is more of a group of misunderstood anti-heroes who fell in with the wrong crowd, not insane sociopaths. Marvel does a decent job via an intriguing flashback device of giving some of them complicated back stories and mental health issues.

The movie shines a light on mental illness as it applies to highly skilled and dangerous individuals. That's the focal point. Not a heist, not some external threat - the threat is more an internal one. And their powers, especially one of the characters, are metaphors for the dangers of untreated mental illness in our society at large - and how left untreated, it could threaten to devour us all, if the wrong folks get into positions of power or obtain power.

These seven-eight characters have to learn how to trust each other and themselves long enough to save the city and themselves and each other. And they don't trust themselves let alone anyone else.

( vague spoilers )

Overall a solid B effort from Marvel, better than the last few flicks I've seen, but that's not a high bar to navigate.