(no subject)

[shadowkat]

1. Conversation with my brother via text messaging:

Me: Let me know if you get the t-shirt and candle that I sent for Xmas. Also, please ask T (his wife) if she saw any ghosts at Mom and Dad's house.
Brother: No ghosts.
Me: Oh good. Although that means that our father is actually hallucinating people in the house, and not seeing ghosts. Did you see the Haunting of Hill House Netflix series - scarier than the movie and the book.
Brother: Got the candle and the T-shirt today. Thank you so much! And no, dementia does't equal a sixth sense. Also no on Hill House. Have a safe trip, and a great holiday.

Sigh.

Me to Mother: Well I've good news and bad news.
Mother: Good new?
Me: You don't have any ghosts.
Mother: Bad news?
Me: You don't have any ghosts. Apparently Dad is just hallucinating people.

2. Out of curiosity - is anyone out there NOT receiving or being bombarded with Chinese Robocalls?

[As an aside, curiosity is one of those words that I struggle spelling. I want to spell it curiousity, which is wrong according to my computer which now automatically spellchecks me. I also struggle with convenient. I want to spell it conveinent. Because that's how it sounds. Convenient makes no logical sense to me. Same with Curiousity -- Curious works, so why not Curiousity? Because, curios is also a word, and apparently curiosity -- works as a noun meaning a "curiosity" and a noun meaning feeling curious. No wonder people have issues with the English language -- I have issues with it and I'm a native speaker.]

Apparently the Russians attacked us via social media and the Chinese are trying to get at us via robocalls.

I think the Russians have been more successful. China needs to step up its game plan. According to the news this morning Russia targeted Instagram more than FB during the 2016 election and went after Minorities via faked viral videos of police brutality. (Okay. Makes me happy I wasn't on Instagram during the 2016 election -- actually I left FB during most of it...because I thought it was bad enough.)

3. Oh...and apparently Steven Universe has about FIVE NEW EPISODES coming your way? Go HERE for promo.

[No, I don't watch them, never heard of it until cjlasky wrote about it, checked it, thought the animation was a bit too reminiscent of video game animation and -- I've grown insanely picky about animation over the years...I blame comic books and anime. I'm just posting for the benefit of friends who are into it and hadn't heard. Steven Universe is this bizarre cartoon that pops up without warning, goes long periods of time without new episodes, then suddenly has new ones and the fans worry and squee over it -- because they could either be great or horrible, no way of knowing really -- and you never know when more will show up -- also they don't rerun them, apparently.All of which are very good reasons not to get into the series. But it's also apparently, really subversive and out there.]

4. The more I read about the acting profession - or entertainment profession, the happier I am that I'm not in it, and watching from afar.

Latest? Geoffrey Rush accused of Sexual Harassment..

So not surprised. This morning another allegation was lodged against Woody Allen, a woman stated at the age of 16 - she got embroiled in a long affair with Allen and had done threesomes with Mia Farrow. (Also not surprised. It's sad, ten years ago, maybe fifteen, I would have been -- now? Not so much.)

I was thinking about the stories I heard over the years about the Buffy and Angel sets...and all I could think is..ugh. Not a safe work place. But then none of them are. They are making an insane amount of money in some of these shows but...show little respect for one another.

As bad as my work places have been -- at least I haven't had to deal with some of this stuff.

Comments

[cjlasky7]

Ah, the eternal problem: how do you convince someone to jump on a train that seems to actively discourage new passengers?

Well, I know I'm not gonna convert anyone with the new episodes--way too much back story needed. But--there is one episode (from S1) that is totally self-contained, and contains everything that makes Steven Universe unique:

"Alone Together."

Try it. If you don't get into it, then you never will and that's ok. But if you love it, start from there.

[shadowkat]

I have to get past the 1970s cartoon style first. Which I'm not sure is going to happen. (Again I blame Japanese Anime for this problem. Once you see really good Japanese Animation, you are ruined for life.)

[ann1962]

When the women in small shops get their metoo, that will make me very happy. All these stories of privileged people is great that they are coming out, but mostly they have resources to cope a little bit better. When some single mom gets hers, we will know it has truly changed.

[shadowkat]

Agreed.

Also in Hollywood -- I'm waiting for the extras, or the crew members, or the actress who isn't well known.

David Boreanze was able to pay off an extra who accused him of allegations, and she just went away. But if it had been Eliza Dushku or someone bigger -- that wouldn't have happened.

Or the housekeeper cleaning the guy's hotel room. Or the fast food store clerk.
Or the secretary at the publishing house, or the personal assistant.

It's interesting because prior to Me#Too they had come forward, but no one believed them, they got ripped apart in court or paid off. Because honestly, $10,000 is a lot to a housekeeper.

[cactuswatcher]

No Chinese robocalls here. Just good old East European robocalls with recordings in broken English and an occasional one from India also with surprisingly bad English. My answering machine has never owned a computer (Microsoft License scam) or been behind in its taxes. So, it's not terribly intimidated.

[conuly]

SU is really awesome despite the fact that CN apparently hates the show and wishes it could get rid of it.

[cjlasky7]

Funny thing is, two years ago, CN had a perfect strategy for drawing in new SU viewers, then abandoned it: two hour blocs centered around a single character or theme (Garnet, Pearl, "fusion," etc.). I went in cold, and at the end of eight quick episodes, I was hooked.

C'mon, CN, maybe one of these a week for newbies (instead of six hours of (Teen Titans Go!)?

[conuly]

I legitimately think that they don't like the show. I don't know why, but they seem bound and determined to kill it off without actually doing it.

[shadowkat]

May have nothing to do with the show, but with the creators, pricing, distribution rights. We don't know what the creators are charging for distribution. Broadcast Cable series make money off of advertisers mainly, not subscribers, so don't really care how popular something is -- but whether the advertisers want to support it and put ads during it. Also, if the creators charge a lot aren't reliable, etc -- that can be an issue. Without knowing the contractual relationship between these parties, it's impossible to know. In most casts it has nothing to do with the show but the relationship with the creator. Example? WB loved the series Angel, it was doing great in the ratings --- they had problems with ME and Joss Whedon who were making them crazy. They cancelled the show. Another example? Roseanne -- top of the ratings, pulling in money, had issues with "Roseanne" - the executive producer, cancelled it and brought it back without her. I'm guessing CN has issues with the creators of SU.

[yourlibrarian]

So that's what all those calls are about. I get at least one a week and sometimes several a day and my area code is not near a major city (although we've got a lot of Chinese students who live in these parts).

[jesuswasbatman]

The Rush one has been happening for months - apparently an Australian newspaper printed a story about his harassment of an actress during a theatre production and he idiotically sued them for libel, which of course annoyed other women he'd harrassed into going public.

[jazzfish]

Huh. I'd assumed the Chinese robocalls thing was a result of living in Vancouver, nextdoor to the largest Asian population in Canada. Surprised to hear it's sweeping the states as well.

And agreed on Steven Universe. It's like they're going out of their way to make it inaccessible to new viewers.

[kerk_hiraeth]

Actually, and suddenly, what you say there about stevenuniverser makes me understand, and want to get into, the show. Go figure :-)