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Jul. 6th, 2015 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Bought a new smartphone, mainly because the old one was on its last legs - it's screen was cracked. I don't know how. And it had issues charging. So, I bought a the i-phone 6, which I'm paying off in monthly installments.
It doesn't have Siri, is it supposed to have "Siri"? Do I care? No, not really. The Android had a Siri component, and it drove me bonkers. So actually prefer no SIRI. And I get to sync a portion of my music from the ipod into it. Not all of it - there's not enough space for all of it.
As an aside, there's a lot of French folks in Brooklyn. Not sure why they are in Brooklyn exactly. I passed a bunch of school children this morning on the way to the T-Mobile store, they were walking in a line holding on to each other and their leader via a blue and yellow ribbon and speaking in French. I know it was French, because it is the only other language besides English that I half-way understand. And yesterday on the way to church, I passed a huge group of people, also all speaking in French. This has happened on multiple Sundays. So, rich French people have invaded Brooklyn. Why Brooklyn and not, I don't know Miami?
2. Scrolling through my flist, and stumbled upon smartbitches.com promoting that gad-awful book Me Before You by Jo Jo Moyes. I hate that book. Talked to a friend about it recently, who was interested in reading it because it admittedly has an intriguing premise. I explained it wasn't the premise that I had issues with, it was the execution or how the writer wrote it. The style. The set-up. The characters. It just felt false on all counts.
I think we all, unfortunately, from time to time, stumble across books or tv shows or music that doesn't work for us on multiple levels. Today standing in the T-Mobile store we were all whinging about the electronica music playing in the background, which was one of the employees playlists - albeit no one in the store's. The woman helping me said she preferred music that actually had lyrics, that she could sing too -- not noise.
One person's melody is another's white noise.
Or with television shows...I know various people who just don't understand the appeal of science fiction or fantasy shows. Or musicals. Or serial dramas. They prefer procedurals, the more episodic the better. Or situation comedies. They won't watch anything else. While sitcoms and procedurals put me to sleep - my interest is rarely held by them. Also, I truly despise the Bachelor and Bachlorette, but know people, friends of mine, who love them - one woman explained that she loved it because it made her feel better about herself. At least she wasn't as crazy and nasty as those people were.
Taste is a funny thing. There's a handful of books that other people adore, that are rampant best-sellers, that just don't make sense to me. Me Before You by Jo Jo Moyes,
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (which almost killed a book club that I was in),
anything by Nicholas Sparks or Danielle Steel, and the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. I do understand Fifty Shades of Grey - it reminds me of fanfic that lightly satirizes the source material and adds erotica to the mix. So that I get. Also it didn't offend me - while Me Before You and American Psycho did offend me on a certain level.
Of course raging at books or tv shows that annoy me or offend me is pointless. A bit like throwing jello at a brick wall.
Oh, I can't control other people's tastes. Heck, most of the time, I can barely understand them. I've read the reviews of Me Before You and it makes no sense to me why people like this book. Anymore than it made sense to me that people liked the episodes Storyteller and Superstar on Buffy, although actually that made more sense - so I take that back. Any more than it made sense to me that people liked Three's Company or the Bachelor. And you can't judge people on what they like -- it's not like there's a discernible pattern to it. I know there isn't in regards to my tastes. I like weird shit. And a wide variety of it. Also, I'm moody, what I like one month may be different the next.
All you can do is shrug and focus on what you like and pretend what you don't doesn't exist.
3. Humans - the new series on AMC, which co-stars William Hurt and Colin Morgan.
It appears to be a British series - since it takes place in London, and outside of William Hurt, everyone in it is British. This bodes well for my enjoyment of the series, lately I've been enjoying the Brits version of sci-fantasy better than the American's, which feels a touch stale.
It's not quite what I expected. We're in the future. Synthetics or personal AI's are pretty much the norm. So much so that any family can get one. They do all the menial tasks we don't want to. You can even get one that can, ahem, provide sexual gratification. Colin Morgan's character has rounded up a group of Synthetics that are not just machines, they actually think and feel. Someone steals them from him, and he's trying to get them back. Meanwhile a frustrated stay-at-home Dad purchases one of them from a warehouse - at a discount. And not too far away, William Hurt, who is suffering the beginning affects of alztheimers - is struggling to maintain his old model synthetic, Ken, who he's become attached to and treats like a son.
It held my attention at any rate. Airs on AMC, of all places, at 9pm on Sundays - Mad Men's old spot.
[Wish I could see Sense8 - but I don't have netflix streaming yet.]
It doesn't have Siri, is it supposed to have "Siri"? Do I care? No, not really. The Android had a Siri component, and it drove me bonkers. So actually prefer no SIRI. And I get to sync a portion of my music from the ipod into it. Not all of it - there's not enough space for all of it.
As an aside, there's a lot of French folks in Brooklyn. Not sure why they are in Brooklyn exactly. I passed a bunch of school children this morning on the way to the T-Mobile store, they were walking in a line holding on to each other and their leader via a blue and yellow ribbon and speaking in French. I know it was French, because it is the only other language besides English that I half-way understand. And yesterday on the way to church, I passed a huge group of people, also all speaking in French. This has happened on multiple Sundays. So, rich French people have invaded Brooklyn. Why Brooklyn and not, I don't know Miami?
2. Scrolling through my flist, and stumbled upon smartbitches.com promoting that gad-awful book Me Before You by Jo Jo Moyes. I hate that book. Talked to a friend about it recently, who was interested in reading it because it admittedly has an intriguing premise. I explained it wasn't the premise that I had issues with, it was the execution or how the writer wrote it. The style. The set-up. The characters. It just felt false on all counts.
I think we all, unfortunately, from time to time, stumble across books or tv shows or music that doesn't work for us on multiple levels. Today standing in the T-Mobile store we were all whinging about the electronica music playing in the background, which was one of the employees playlists - albeit no one in the store's. The woman helping me said she preferred music that actually had lyrics, that she could sing too -- not noise.
One person's melody is another's white noise.
Or with television shows...I know various people who just don't understand the appeal of science fiction or fantasy shows. Or musicals. Or serial dramas. They prefer procedurals, the more episodic the better. Or situation comedies. They won't watch anything else. While sitcoms and procedurals put me to sleep - my interest is rarely held by them. Also, I truly despise the Bachelor and Bachlorette, but know people, friends of mine, who love them - one woman explained that she loved it because it made her feel better about herself. At least she wasn't as crazy and nasty as those people were.
Taste is a funny thing. There's a handful of books that other people adore, that are rampant best-sellers, that just don't make sense to me. Me Before You by Jo Jo Moyes,
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (which almost killed a book club that I was in),
anything by Nicholas Sparks or Danielle Steel, and the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. I do understand Fifty Shades of Grey - it reminds me of fanfic that lightly satirizes the source material and adds erotica to the mix. So that I get. Also it didn't offend me - while Me Before You and American Psycho did offend me on a certain level.
Of course raging at books or tv shows that annoy me or offend me is pointless. A bit like throwing jello at a brick wall.
Oh, I can't control other people's tastes. Heck, most of the time, I can barely understand them. I've read the reviews of Me Before You and it makes no sense to me why people like this book. Anymore than it made sense to me that people liked the episodes Storyteller and Superstar on Buffy, although actually that made more sense - so I take that back. Any more than it made sense to me that people liked Three's Company or the Bachelor. And you can't judge people on what they like -- it's not like there's a discernible pattern to it. I know there isn't in regards to my tastes. I like weird shit. And a wide variety of it. Also, I'm moody, what I like one month may be different the next.
All you can do is shrug and focus on what you like and pretend what you don't doesn't exist.
3. Humans - the new series on AMC, which co-stars William Hurt and Colin Morgan.
It appears to be a British series - since it takes place in London, and outside of William Hurt, everyone in it is British. This bodes well for my enjoyment of the series, lately I've been enjoying the Brits version of sci-fantasy better than the American's, which feels a touch stale.
It's not quite what I expected. We're in the future. Synthetics or personal AI's are pretty much the norm. So much so that any family can get one. They do all the menial tasks we don't want to. You can even get one that can, ahem, provide sexual gratification. Colin Morgan's character has rounded up a group of Synthetics that are not just machines, they actually think and feel. Someone steals them from him, and he's trying to get them back. Meanwhile a frustrated stay-at-home Dad purchases one of them from a warehouse - at a discount. And not too far away, William Hurt, who is suffering the beginning affects of alztheimers - is struggling to maintain his old model synthetic, Ken, who he's become attached to and treats like a son.
It held my attention at any rate. Airs on AMC, of all places, at 9pm on Sundays - Mad Men's old spot.
[Wish I could see Sense8 - but I don't have netflix streaming yet.]