Year 2 - Day #109...4th of July
Jul. 4th, 2021 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatNot a lot to say...another lazy-ass day. It's pretty though and not too hot. I went out to veggies, fruit, nuts, salad greens, eggs, cheese, yogurt and chocolate.
I should take a walk - but I'm not feeling overly motivated. To do much of anything, to be honest. Wales wasn't either. So we planned on getting together tomorrow around 11 AM, she'll come to me - mainly because my neighborhood is calmer than hers.
They asked on Twitter: "Who else is fully vaccinated and still wears masks in indoor public places?"
Me: "Raises hand." Although I do live in NYC and it is still kind of required. (I mean if the variants are coming here - they will will be in NYC, it's kind of a given.)
My mother is amused by a new phrase that I've been using all the time of late. Which no one else she knows uses, and she's never heard before.
Me: I'm admittedly irritable at the moment. I just want to smack people. There was a woman on the GH fan board, who was whinging about her favorite relationship not happening the way she wanted it too - and I just wanted to smack them.
Mother: See I've never heard that phrase before. (laughs). No one I know uses it.
ME: Well I didn't come up with it in a vacuum, picked it up somewhere - don't know where, possibly work or the internet.
Mother imitating my voice: "I'm just going to smack them."
Me: Not hard, just with a poster.
Mother: Make sure you don't smack Wales tomorrow if she irritates you.
I'm comfortable in my apartment at the moment - although the tv stand does need to be dusted.
Watched Discovery of Witches today - all caught up, well sort of - I'm caught up on the broadcast showing not the streaming one, which I don't have. I'm limiting the number of streaming services to just five - Disney, Hulu, HBO, Netflix, and Amazon. I'm having enough troubles keeping up with them.
I like Discovery of Witches. While I've seen this trope done a lot - it's done better here than most, and is more interesting than I anticipated. Helped in part by the fact that the centralized focus is not their romance.
It is a focus, but there's other things going on, and the world-building is interesting. Also if you want to travel back in time - the Elizabethan era was at least interesting and not over done, unlike the Victorian era - which I've grown tired of. And I like Mathew Goode as the vampire. He's very good at conveying an edgy sexiness without going overboard.
Covid
Niece was feeling under the weather and got tested, not COVID. She's been vaccinated, so unlikely. We think she just overdid. Also the internship that was supposed to be in the city is now going to be done at home virtually. So, unlikely I'll see her in July.
I feel like the Universe is Lucy, and I'm Charlie Brown, and it keeps yanking the football away from me the moment I'm about to kick it.
Americans are returning to their rituals for July 4 as Covid-19 cases hold steady.
New cases are at 12,000 a day, the lowest since testing became widely available. The average of fewer than 300 daily deaths is a decline of 23 percent over the past two weeks. Americans are riding a wave of optimism: Travel is expected to be up 40 percent over last year. The number of airline passengers is expected to be up 164 percent.
Well that's nice, I'm glad some people are optimistic this year. I'm not feeling overly optimistic, but it's nice to know other folks are. I was actually feeling more optimistic last year. Of course last year at this time, my parents were healthy and okay. This year - not so much.
I was scanning the NY Book Reviews - and lost track of what the writer was saying in one review. She was trying to explain why she loved a contemporary fiction novel about a woman going through menopause with a teen daughter and ailing mother...and I thought, how nice it would be if I could find a book about a woman without any kids or husband. Does this exist? It must. And do I really want to read it? Most likely not. Not that I want to read the other one either. Lately I want to escape life via books and film and television, not delve deeply and examine it under a microscope. There's two types of writers - or so it seems, the ones who feel the need to analyze their lives or the lives of those they know underneath a microscope - and those who wish to examine themes through metaphors, and escapes from their current reality. Oh there are others in there too.
The news...sigh, still kind of avoiding. I find the political stuff - difficult still, a full year later. I've determined Justice doesn't exist until they convict Trump. Although what has happened, I saw coming. I knew NY was going after him and his family on Income Tax Fraud. But so do everyone else - it wasn't exactly a secret. They talked of nothing else for the last five years - and last year were rather noisy about it.
The water is on fire, again. Gas prices are up, again. Mother sees no connection between the two - I think she's deluded. I don't care. I don't drive nor use transportation that relies on gas.
According to mother - the airports are crowded, people aren't social distancing effectively...and the roads are heavy with traffic. Apparently everyone and their poodle decided to "travel" in July. I'm waiting for the week after Labor Day, I think. July 4th is a bad weekend to travel. I was going to do it - looked at it, and went no. I try not to do the same thing everyone else is doing - actually work to do the exact opposite.
The banks are worried about cybersecurity - and cyberterrorism, lovely, now so am I. I don't know what I can do about it though.
***
Eh, on that depressing note...I've begun to listen to the book about how Kathleen Turner approaches acting, which isn't really her book, but the acting and film professor's who is interviewing and kind of gushing over her. But it's still interesting.
Apparently she does the same thing Christopher Walken does with scripts and plays, she blacks out all the stage directs with a black magic marker. That knowledge made me realize I should eliminate a lot of descriptors and adjectives from my writing. They stated that you should be able to get it from the dialogue itself, or how it is written. And both find stage directions distracting. Edward Albee was annoyed, and she told him that if he found anything wrong with how she was doing it - to pull her aside and tell her doing rehearsal.
She doesn't learn the lines right off the bat, she reads through the play or script first, figures out the characters motivation, what the point is, and why they are being said - and then they just come naturally and make sense. (It's really the only way it works. Route memorization doesn't work for me at all - I need to connect it to something.)
And, often she can tell how the dialogue is written who the character is. Is it written sharp and in small bites - so cold. Or in long-running sentences ? That generate a warmth and poetry to them.
If a script or play - has a great character, with great scenes - she will turn it down, if the script/play isn't working overall. If the writer hasn't figured out what general tone to set, or what the story should be about - etc. Often, she says, a writer won't be able to choose between comedy and pathos, and do neither - which doesn't work.
Insightful book. (Taking a break from Menopause Manifesto.)
I've been tired today for some reason or other, I keep drifting off and can't quite focus. Seeping in and out of a brain fog. It's a low energy day for me. So here's another picture.
I should take a walk - but I'm not feeling overly motivated. To do much of anything, to be honest. Wales wasn't either. So we planned on getting together tomorrow around 11 AM, she'll come to me - mainly because my neighborhood is calmer than hers.
They asked on Twitter: "Who else is fully vaccinated and still wears masks in indoor public places?"
Me: "Raises hand." Although I do live in NYC and it is still kind of required. (I mean if the variants are coming here - they will will be in NYC, it's kind of a given.)
My mother is amused by a new phrase that I've been using all the time of late. Which no one else she knows uses, and she's never heard before.
Me: I'm admittedly irritable at the moment. I just want to smack people. There was a woman on the GH fan board, who was whinging about her favorite relationship not happening the way she wanted it too - and I just wanted to smack them.
Mother: See I've never heard that phrase before. (laughs). No one I know uses it.
ME: Well I didn't come up with it in a vacuum, picked it up somewhere - don't know where, possibly work or the internet.
Mother imitating my voice: "I'm just going to smack them."
Me: Not hard, just with a poster.
Mother: Make sure you don't smack Wales tomorrow if she irritates you.
I'm comfortable in my apartment at the moment - although the tv stand does need to be dusted.
Watched Discovery of Witches today - all caught up, well sort of - I'm caught up on the broadcast showing not the streaming one, which I don't have. I'm limiting the number of streaming services to just five - Disney, Hulu, HBO, Netflix, and Amazon. I'm having enough troubles keeping up with them.
I like Discovery of Witches. While I've seen this trope done a lot - it's done better here than most, and is more interesting than I anticipated. Helped in part by the fact that the centralized focus is not their romance.
It is a focus, but there's other things going on, and the world-building is interesting. Also if you want to travel back in time - the Elizabethan era was at least interesting and not over done, unlike the Victorian era - which I've grown tired of. And I like Mathew Goode as the vampire. He's very good at conveying an edgy sexiness without going overboard.
Covid
Niece was feeling under the weather and got tested, not COVID. She's been vaccinated, so unlikely. We think she just overdid. Also the internship that was supposed to be in the city is now going to be done at home virtually. So, unlikely I'll see her in July.
I feel like the Universe is Lucy, and I'm Charlie Brown, and it keeps yanking the football away from me the moment I'm about to kick it.
Americans are returning to their rituals for July 4 as Covid-19 cases hold steady.
New cases are at 12,000 a day, the lowest since testing became widely available. The average of fewer than 300 daily deaths is a decline of 23 percent over the past two weeks. Americans are riding a wave of optimism: Travel is expected to be up 40 percent over last year. The number of airline passengers is expected to be up 164 percent.
Well that's nice, I'm glad some people are optimistic this year. I'm not feeling overly optimistic, but it's nice to know other folks are. I was actually feeling more optimistic last year. Of course last year at this time, my parents were healthy and okay. This year - not so much.
I was scanning the NY Book Reviews - and lost track of what the writer was saying in one review. She was trying to explain why she loved a contemporary fiction novel about a woman going through menopause with a teen daughter and ailing mother...and I thought, how nice it would be if I could find a book about a woman without any kids or husband. Does this exist? It must. And do I really want to read it? Most likely not. Not that I want to read the other one either. Lately I want to escape life via books and film and television, not delve deeply and examine it under a microscope. There's two types of writers - or so it seems, the ones who feel the need to analyze their lives or the lives of those they know underneath a microscope - and those who wish to examine themes through metaphors, and escapes from their current reality. Oh there are others in there too.
The news...sigh, still kind of avoiding. I find the political stuff - difficult still, a full year later. I've determined Justice doesn't exist until they convict Trump. Although what has happened, I saw coming. I knew NY was going after him and his family on Income Tax Fraud. But so do everyone else - it wasn't exactly a secret. They talked of nothing else for the last five years - and last year were rather noisy about it.
The water is on fire, again. Gas prices are up, again. Mother sees no connection between the two - I think she's deluded. I don't care. I don't drive nor use transportation that relies on gas.
According to mother - the airports are crowded, people aren't social distancing effectively...and the roads are heavy with traffic. Apparently everyone and their poodle decided to "travel" in July. I'm waiting for the week after Labor Day, I think. July 4th is a bad weekend to travel. I was going to do it - looked at it, and went no. I try not to do the same thing everyone else is doing - actually work to do the exact opposite.
The banks are worried about cybersecurity - and cyberterrorism, lovely, now so am I. I don't know what I can do about it though.
***
Eh, on that depressing note...I've begun to listen to the book about how Kathleen Turner approaches acting, which isn't really her book, but the acting and film professor's who is interviewing and kind of gushing over her. But it's still interesting.
Apparently she does the same thing Christopher Walken does with scripts and plays, she blacks out all the stage directs with a black magic marker. That knowledge made me realize I should eliminate a lot of descriptors and adjectives from my writing. They stated that you should be able to get it from the dialogue itself, or how it is written. And both find stage directions distracting. Edward Albee was annoyed, and she told him that if he found anything wrong with how she was doing it - to pull her aside and tell her doing rehearsal.
She doesn't learn the lines right off the bat, she reads through the play or script first, figures out the characters motivation, what the point is, and why they are being said - and then they just come naturally and make sense. (It's really the only way it works. Route memorization doesn't work for me at all - I need to connect it to something.)
And, often she can tell how the dialogue is written who the character is. Is it written sharp and in small bites - so cold. Or in long-running sentences ? That generate a warmth and poetry to them.
If a script or play - has a great character, with great scenes - she will turn it down, if the script/play isn't working overall. If the writer hasn't figured out what general tone to set, or what the story should be about - etc. Often, she says, a writer won't be able to choose between comedy and pathos, and do neither - which doesn't work.
Insightful book. (Taking a break from Menopause Manifesto.)
I've been tired today for some reason or other, I keep drifting off and can't quite focus. Seeping in and out of a brain fog. It's a low energy day for me. So here's another picture.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-05 12:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-05 02:22 am (UTC)