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Day #285
Some good news?
Mother: Trump signed the stimulus bill last night.
Me: He did??
Mother: yep. Apparently the Republican Senators shamed him into it.
Me: All those golf games with Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell paid off.
Mother: yep.
Me: Thank god.
Mother: Just before everyone would lose their benefits... Oh, and the New York Post posted on its front page an editorial that Trump needs to give up the insanity, the he lost and should deal with it -
ME: The New York Post?? The New York Post??? Really?
Mother: yep, his favorite paper.
Me: Yeah, it's a conservative tabloid. I'm amazed.
Mother: Put it on the front page and everything.
Anyhow, at least the idiot finally signed the $900 billion stimulus bill - which means my job and countless others (think the millions) is now safe.
It also means the government keeps on running. [Note from the Governor of NY State's perspective this is just a drop in the bucket. It leaves 14.6 billion deficit as opposed to a 15 billion dollar deficit. ]
New York vs. the Corona Virus
Apparently New York went up to 8% today, but they aren't taking it seriously, since there weren't that many people tested, and most of the people getting tested knew there was a problem. (In short, all the people who went to urgent care and were sick.)
New York is withholding pay increases for all State-Wide Elected and Appointed Officials as a cost savings measure. No one is getting a raise this year - well except for those who work for private consulting firms and companies and that we contract out to - unfortunately. I am going to really cut into those increases from now on.
* Apparently some idiotic health care provider fraudulently obtained the vaccine and distributed it to the public. The provider is claiming it was the State Department's fault. Except they fraudulently filled out the form, and stated that they were qualified and legitimate to obtain it. Falsified business records.
As we continue to distribute the vaccine throughout New York, we've come across a new issue—possible fraud by a health care provider. The State Department of Health was made aware of reports that an Orange County health provider may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccines and diverted them to members of the public, contrary to the state's guidance to administer the vaccine first to frontline health care workers, as well as nursing home residents and staff. The State Department of Health is assisting the State Police in a criminal investigation into this matter.
Today I signed an Executive Order that states that a provider can be fined up to $1 million and lose all State licenses if they are found to have committed fraud or intentionally administered a vaccine to a person who is not eligible. We are very serious about this and we will not tolerate any fraud in the vaccination process. Those who do engage in fraud will be held accountable.
It's going to be a problem - because people are selfish assholes. Sigh.
The rest from the newsletter...
Approximately 140,000 New Yorkers to date have received one COVID-19 vaccine dose. New York expects to receive an additional 259,000 doses this week, with 139,400 coming from Pfizer and 119,600 coming from Moderna.
2. The State is expanding the priority groups of individuals eligible to receive a vaccine. The expanded group includes urgent care center employees, individuals administering COVID-19 vaccines (including local health department staff) and residents of NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) facilities. Next week, the state expects to further expand the group eligible for vaccination to ambulatory care workers and public-facing public health workers.
3. Total hospitalizations rose to 7,559. Of the 124,866 tests reported yesterday, 10,407, or 8.33 percent, were positive. There were 1,222 patients in ICU yesterday, up 35 from the previous day. Of them, 717 are intubated. Sadly, we lost 114 New Yorkers to the virus.
4. Western NY now has the fourth-lowest positive infection rate in the state. The region had the highest positivity rate in the state and I commend Western New York residents for getting ahead of the infection rate.
5. I am signing an Executive Order that extends the housing eviction moratorium. I will be working with the New York State Legislature this week to extend the moratorium to May 1st. No New Yorker should be evicted due to hardship related to this pandemic.
Enuf of that.
Below is a photo of a sunset on the beach at Dolphin Head, Hilton Head Island, SC - that I took during Christmas 2018.
I've realized I'm very good at being lazy. Just laying about watching television, fiddling with a new story, and took a walk to buy some groceries at the Coop. That was my major accomplishment today, putting on a mask, and walking about a mile and a half to get groceries. Also involved weight lifting - the groceries weren't light, and it felt like I was carrying twenty pounds the twenty or thirty blocks homewards. (I'm probably exaggerating.) Well that, and paying bills.
My new favorite comfort television series is The Great Pottery Throwdown. It's very relaxing. Today I watched the potters create toilets by handbuilding them out out clay and decorating them. Here's the winning Pot on Twitter. However, they keep changing the set-up. The female judge and host changed in the third season, with no explanation. Also there seems to be more potters in each group?
The other one is Bridgerton, which in some respects is more ground-breaking and radical than Downton Abbey, also more entertaining. (I liked Downton Abbey, but had issues with it.)
Mother: Your brother tasked your niece with saying "damn-it" every time she says the word "like".
Me: Why?
Mother: He hates the word "like" in casual speech - so he challenged her to be more aware of it...as a result, he tells me that she sounds like she has Touretts Syndrome - she's cursing all the time. [No offense intended to anyone who actually has this syndrom.]
We'd been discussing the film "Let Them Talk" which continues to bother me.
Wonder Woman 1984 redux
Over on FB, former roommate, who also loves Superhero films - told me that I should write a movie review blog. (Then I'd have to watch more movies. And I don't want to. There's a lot of movies out there that I don't want to see or feel like seeing. I'd rather watch The Great Pottery Throwdown. The life of a movie critic is not one that I want or desire any longer. Maybe I've matured, I don't know. I think it's more that I've met a lot of movie critics and followed a lot of them - and it no longer sounds appealing. It's hard being a professional critic in the information age. Everyone and their mother is reviewing movies, writing essays on them, etc.]
She liked my take on WW 84, which she also had issues with. Some people loved Wonder Woman 1984. One loved it so much, he watched it twice. Which I find mind-boggling, but then I didn't feel the need to re-watch the first one. It didn't work for me, but mileage it varies. People respond to different things - it has a lot to do with which story tropes appeal to you and what you find relatable. I found Doctor Minerva grating and cringe inducing, not relatable at all - but someone else found her to be very relatable and loved the character.
Also 1980s retro doesn't work for me - any more than 1970s retro really does. It may be because I remember the 80s a bit clearer than they did? I was older by about four-five years. So I notice the missteps in the film. It's a much more vivid decade to me. I graduated from high school in 1985, 1984 - I was 16, and had gone to France, experienced my first kiss, etc. I remember the world of the 1980s. I don't think Patty Jenkins or the people who liked the film remember it the same. They wouldn't, they were much younger.
I think this is the problem with critiquing and reviewing things - you have no idea if people will see it the same way you did. Or if they will like it or not. One guy stated that he didn't like the Big Combat sequence in the first film - which I had mixed feelings about - althoughh in comparison to the combat in the second, I found it preferable, while he may feel the opposite. Also, when we read reviews - does this change how we view a film?
It does and it doesn't for me - I'm not quite as stubborn in my opinions as I pretend to be. I've been known to change my mind after reading someone else's review of something. But here's the thing - should my mind be changed? I've a co-worker who steadfastedly refuses to read reviews or go by them, he might read them to see what the film is about, but he'll ignore them for the most part. And one of my friends - never reads reviews of books, she finds them either spoilery or ranty, and not worth reading. She'd rather make up her own mind.
I admittedly have stopped reading movie reviews of late. I didn't read any of the reviews of Soul or WW 84 prior to seeing them, nor did I read the reviews of Let Them Talk. I want to make up my own mind and see the film blind - without any preconceptions coloring my opinion. I also know that depending on my mood and where I am in time - will have a lot to do with how I relate to the film or how I enjoy it. It's very subjective. No two people see a film the same way.
Spoke with parents at noon..
Father: I like the hat you gave me. And this lady keeps showing up to check if I am actually wearing it.
ME: Mom is checking to see if you are wearing the hat? I'm guessing it's Mom, since I'm here.
Mother: No, he means you. You don't understand, you and your brother are clearly time travelers and keep popping up at various times.
Me: Do we ever pop up at the same time?
Mother: occasionally, he mentions that we have to wait on the kids.
Me: How about the cats are they still there?
Mother: well, they are around, at any rate - all Siamese - I think he's remembering the cats we once owned.
Me: In multiple?
Mother: yes..they've been cloned.
Ah, well...life is always interesting when people are involved, isn't it?
no subject
no subject
Whenever I write a review - I try to give just enough information for someone who has taste that differs from mine to see if they'd like it, but I don't always succeed. And a lot of reviewers don't bother. So it's hard to know.
I've not read really any reviews of the films I've recently seen. While I did read reviews of both Bridgerton and Queen's Gambit - prior to watching. I've read more television reviews than film reviews of late. And both have been rec'd to me by others.