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1. The election results, such as they are, since not all the votes have been counted -- are a mixed bag. (Seriously not all the votes have been counted. What I saw yesterday at my polling station, scared me. Scared me enough to complain to Eric Adams, President of Brooklyn on FB, who is directly addressing the problem:
Inexcusable Polling Chaos in Brooklyn
Now that the ugly is out of the way.
*The Democrats took the House, for the first time in a VERY long time, and most of New York State turned Blue (with just a few hold-outs in those hard to reach rural areas...hardly surprising. Including some MAJOR upsets, such as Matt Rosen ousting Republican Rep Donovan in Staten Island. That's right -- all of NYC turned Blue.
*Kansas also had a few major upsets...in the Governor Race and the House.
My co-worker delivered a printed off tweet of Ann Coulter exclaiming that Kansas was dead to her now, and Keith Reid's response, "Hasn't it been dead to her since it dropped that house on her sister?"
*More women entered the House of Representatives -- apparently it set a record.
So less of a blue wave and more of a female wave or pink wave.
The Republicans still hold the Senate (Dammit. We'll never get rid of the rat-bastard at this rate. The House requests impeachment, but the trial is held in the Senate.)
And there were voting problems across the country.
In other news? Jeff Sessions was finally forced to resign by the Doofus. Who has fired more people at this stage then he has actually hired. The fear is that he will fire Mueller. I hope not. But at this stage...I watch the news between my fingers or not at all.
You know there's a problem when the news is scarier than the Haunting of Hill House.
2. What I'm reading?
I finished reading Artremis by Andy Weir and sorry to say, I agree with beergoodfoamy's take on it. ( The author makes the mistake of using Mark Watney's voice from the Martian for his female Saudia Arabian smuggler protagonist..and it just doesn't work. The character is supposed to be a tough-talking, street smart, smuggler, but she talks like a chatty 15 year old male science nerd. It's jarring.)
Barely finished. Started skimming halfway through -- and the plot did not work at all. I found the characters difficult to like or believe, and the female character's voice jarred.
There's a lot of focus on world-building or setting, and science, to the point that I was going to sleep reading it. Don't get me wrong, I tend to like this stuff and it worked very effectively in the Martian, but here -- it hurt the pacing of the book, which was a heist. I felt like the writer did a lot of research and felt the need to regale me with it -- but often at the expense of plot and characterization.
As others have pointed out above, part of the problem is the narrative voice is the same as Mark Watney from the Martian. And while the chatty, scientifically nerdy voice works very well for a guy stranded by himself on Mars, it does not work for a stoic, tough as nails, street smart female smuggler on the Moon planning a heist. It is jarring and in some places downright cringe-inducing.
While a nerdy fifteen year old female scientist might talk like this, a street smart twenty-something worldly smuggler wouldn't. (At least not in my experience, and yes I've run across a few street smart, fast talking Arabic female smugglers/engineers in New York, along with nerdy fourteen year olds.)
I get what the writer is trying to do -- pull off a gender switch, a dark punkish strong female character in a typically male role. And I usually eat that stuff up like candy, but this just did not work for me. The lead character, Jazz, is grating. As others have stated, she is at times cringe-inducing and sounds like a sexually awkward fifteen year old male punk.
Also the plot didn't work for me, lots of holes, and very convoluted. The problem? The writer would stop the action dead and droll on and on about the science. Then the action would start up again. We ended up with several paragraphs on how chloroform could kill you in huge quantities and how to shut it off and all the logistics involved. This was in the middle of a major action sequence... sort of lost the momentum and killed the pacing. In the Martian, it was easier to do info-dumps and maintain momentum, because the info-dump often lead to the tension -- how am I going to get to point A? How will I survive? There were far less balls in the air for the writer to juggle, he just had to focus on getting Mark home and tell us how he was surviving and how he'd get there. Here, we had multiple balls...and several got dropped.
I considered giving this one star, but I thought the writer did a good job of designing a world, and the science seemed to work, well for the most part.
Now, I'm reading a historical romance novel. Mainly because I find them comforting. And life has been mildly painful and frustrating. So I seek comfort where I can.
3. The Gifted S2 -- is better than S1. Better character development and much more interesting plot threads. The Inner Circle, aka the Hellfire Club as the main villains this season is far more interesting than the government was last season. Mainly because two of the team has "willingly" joined them, as opposed to being held prisoner by them. Changes the dynamic a bit. Instead of being chased by the government, getting caught, escaping, hiding, getting caught, mounting rescue attempts, escaping, getting caught -- rewind and repeat at will. We have -- fiendish plotting, hunting down team members who have joined the enemy, being beaten up by said enemy and team members, discovering hidden powers, making alliances with unknown entities in an attempt to route out enemy and reclaim former team members, trying to recruit and save new people...far more interesting.
Also, the characters are growing on me. The Starks have gotten less whiny and more interesting. As have Thunderbird, Blink, and the Fire Guy. We also have a few interesting new additions here and there.
So, sticking with it for the time being. (I know, I need to get rid of a few television shows. Considering kicking Poldark to the curb again. Along with the Rookie, Legacies and Charmed.)
Inexcusable Polling Chaos in Brooklyn
Now that the ugly is out of the way.
*The Democrats took the House, for the first time in a VERY long time, and most of New York State turned Blue (with just a few hold-outs in those hard to reach rural areas...hardly surprising. Including some MAJOR upsets, such as Matt Rosen ousting Republican Rep Donovan in Staten Island. That's right -- all of NYC turned Blue.
*Kansas also had a few major upsets...in the Governor Race and the House.
My co-worker delivered a printed off tweet of Ann Coulter exclaiming that Kansas was dead to her now, and Keith Reid's response, "Hasn't it been dead to her since it dropped that house on her sister?"
*More women entered the House of Representatives -- apparently it set a record.
As of early Wednesday morning, CNN projected 98 women would win House races, with 33 women newly elected to the House and 65 female incumbents. That bests the previous record of 85 representatives, according to the Congressional Research Service. There are still two outstanding races that have two women competing against each other, which means that at least 100 women will be serving in the House next year.
So less of a blue wave and more of a female wave or pink wave.
The Republicans still hold the Senate (Dammit. We'll never get rid of the rat-bastard at this rate. The House requests impeachment, but the trial is held in the Senate.)
And there were voting problems across the country.
In other news? Jeff Sessions was finally forced to resign by the Doofus. Who has fired more people at this stage then he has actually hired. The fear is that he will fire Mueller. I hope not. But at this stage...I watch the news between my fingers or not at all.
You know there's a problem when the news is scarier than the Haunting of Hill House.
2. What I'm reading?
I finished reading Artremis by Andy Weir and sorry to say, I agree with beergoodfoamy's take on it. ( The author makes the mistake of using Mark Watney's voice from the Martian for his female Saudia Arabian smuggler protagonist..and it just doesn't work. The character is supposed to be a tough-talking, street smart, smuggler, but she talks like a chatty 15 year old male science nerd. It's jarring.)
Barely finished. Started skimming halfway through -- and the plot did not work at all. I found the characters difficult to like or believe, and the female character's voice jarred.
There's a lot of focus on world-building or setting, and science, to the point that I was going to sleep reading it. Don't get me wrong, I tend to like this stuff and it worked very effectively in the Martian, but here -- it hurt the pacing of the book, which was a heist. I felt like the writer did a lot of research and felt the need to regale me with it -- but often at the expense of plot and characterization.
As others have pointed out above, part of the problem is the narrative voice is the same as Mark Watney from the Martian. And while the chatty, scientifically nerdy voice works very well for a guy stranded by himself on Mars, it does not work for a stoic, tough as nails, street smart female smuggler on the Moon planning a heist. It is jarring and in some places downright cringe-inducing.
While a nerdy fifteen year old female scientist might talk like this, a street smart twenty-something worldly smuggler wouldn't. (At least not in my experience, and yes I've run across a few street smart, fast talking Arabic female smugglers/engineers in New York, along with nerdy fourteen year olds.)
I get what the writer is trying to do -- pull off a gender switch, a dark punkish strong female character in a typically male role. And I usually eat that stuff up like candy, but this just did not work for me. The lead character, Jazz, is grating. As others have stated, she is at times cringe-inducing and sounds like a sexually awkward fifteen year old male punk.
Also the plot didn't work for me, lots of holes, and very convoluted. The problem? The writer would stop the action dead and droll on and on about the science. Then the action would start up again. We ended up with several paragraphs on how chloroform could kill you in huge quantities and how to shut it off and all the logistics involved. This was in the middle of a major action sequence... sort of lost the momentum and killed the pacing. In the Martian, it was easier to do info-dumps and maintain momentum, because the info-dump often lead to the tension -- how am I going to get to point A? How will I survive? There were far less balls in the air for the writer to juggle, he just had to focus on getting Mark home and tell us how he was surviving and how he'd get there. Here, we had multiple balls...and several got dropped.
I considered giving this one star, but I thought the writer did a good job of designing a world, and the science seemed to work, well for the most part.
Now, I'm reading a historical romance novel. Mainly because I find them comforting. And life has been mildly painful and frustrating. So I seek comfort where I can.
3. The Gifted S2 -- is better than S1. Better character development and much more interesting plot threads. The Inner Circle, aka the Hellfire Club as the main villains this season is far more interesting than the government was last season. Mainly because two of the team has "willingly" joined them, as opposed to being held prisoner by them. Changes the dynamic a bit. Instead of being chased by the government, getting caught, escaping, hiding, getting caught, mounting rescue attempts, escaping, getting caught -- rewind and repeat at will. We have -- fiendish plotting, hunting down team members who have joined the enemy, being beaten up by said enemy and team members, discovering hidden powers, making alliances with unknown entities in an attempt to route out enemy and reclaim former team members, trying to recruit and save new people...far more interesting.
Also, the characters are growing on me. The Starks have gotten less whiny and more interesting. As have Thunderbird, Blink, and the Fire Guy. We also have a few interesting new additions here and there.
So, sticking with it for the time being. (I know, I need to get rid of a few television shows. Considering kicking Poldark to the curb again. Along with the Rookie, Legacies and Charmed.)