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Jul. 4th, 2022 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Managed to take a brief walk today - and enjoy the mild summer weather. Bright blue skies, quiet for the most part, and breezy. I have a nice view of it outside my window - rooftops, trees, birds and sky. Better than most views in the city.
My father is in the hospital again. He's hooked up to an intravenous feeding tube - since he can't swallow - due to another UTI. Seems to recognize my mother at least, but is mumbling and muttering nonsense. I asked if she wanted me or my brother to fly down - but she doesn't. She doesn't see the point. And we will abide by her wishes. I'm insanely busy at work - at the moment, got a site tour, negotiation, kick-off meeting this week, and potential one-on-one meetings with contractors the next few weeks, plus various other projects that I inherited from colleagues who resigned. My brother is less so - so he could probably fly down if need be.
Mother is planning to go to Charleston next Thursday to see Hamilton, this may need to be called off - if my father worsens. She doesn't really know what to do at this point, and feels horribly guilty. I keep telling her not to be. The painful part or most painful part is being unable to do anything. I think human beings are hard wired to "fix" things, and when we can't "fix" it - it drives us slowly nuts?
2. I can't quite decide if my hot flashes are trigged by sugar or sweets. Maybe? I may try not to have any tomorrow - and see what happens. Tried today, and had a sinus headache from hell - so gave in. After the hot flash the headache abated, although the sinus meds may have had a role in that.
3. Television shows.
Stranger Things S4 I finished watching it rather late last night (it works better at night, since it is filmed in a dark cavern with no lighting (I'm joking, it's not, but it might as well be)) and after reading selenak and conuly's reviews this morning...have decided I agree mostly with conuly.
It's okay. Better than S3, but honestly that's not hard, S3 was atrocious.
At least no one is whiny this season.
The group lead by Steve Harrington and Nancy Wheeler are by far the most entertaining, and relatable. The group lead by Jonathen Byers and Mike Wheeler are kind of annoying? And no, Surfer Boy, Byers new best friend, is not as amusing as the Duffer Brothers think he is - I found him grating, and kept wishing they'd leave him behind. But alas no. They seemed to drag them wherever they went.
The Eleven storyline - drug, as did the Joyce and Harper storyline in Russia, to the point that I found myself doing other things during them.
We do not need that many 1980s references, I think the Duffer Brothers kind of went overboard. To the point in which I was rolling my eyes at them.
* Eleven's storyline reminds me of Stephen King's Firestarter and various other 1980s sci-fi super kid stories. A popular trope in the 1980s was the government experimenting on kids and turning them into super-soliders with super powers. Actually that still is one.
For a while, I wondered if they were planning on redeeming Mathew Modine's Papa, and Dr. Paul Grazer (Raiser's doctor) characters. But apparently only Grazer got that honor, and barely. He doesn't really do much of anything here. Papa and the Military kick him to a standstill.
Although he does have one of the best lines in the series...
"You are telling me she can take down monsters, but all I'm seeing is a traumatized little girl."
Yup. I'm thinking Modine is a stand in for the allegedly feminist male writers who like the super-powered little girl trope, with a father who either made her that way, trained her, or is controlling her. Folks? That's not feminist. That's the EXACT opposite of feminism. It's a fetish.
As a result of that, not only did the Eleven story drag, it was cringe-inducing. So was the Henry/Venca storyline for that matter. I dearly hope we've seen the end of Modine's Papa, the character made my skin crawl.
* Eddie - kind of similar to Surfer Boy, but more likable. Also kind of annoying, but not to quite the same degree. Surfer Boy and Eddie feel like shout-outs to Wayne's World and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. If so, I'm guessing the Duffer's enjoyed killing off Eddie - possibly a bit too much?
Eddie was fairly realistic. I've met folks like Eddie. I've also, unfortunately met people like Surfer boy.
* At least they killed off the incredibly annoying two-dimensional Jason. (I preferred Steve Harrington in the first movie to both Jason and Billy in S3 and S4. Harrington had more layers and was better developed. Jason is worse than Billy - he's a one-dimensional twerp.)
* As an arachnophobic - I really wish they'd find something else to signify the Vecna and the Mindflayer than well "spiders". I get the metaphor, but it's a bit too on the nose, and somewhat cliche. But that's just me.
Why horror movies all have to use spiders as a metaphor for the nasty monsters, I do not know.
* Max (damn it). They killed off my favorite character - okay, I know she's not dead. Because no one really dies in this show unless they are a supporting character like Billy, Eddie or Pam (Nancy's friend). Still, I'd have preferred they didn't do that to Max. One of the boys would have been a better option - albeit not as beloved.
Also the Running to the Hill theme music really fit her character.
* The Russian rescue storyline seemed to be there mainly for comic relief?
* It's kind of hard to buy teenage romance between twenty-something actors portraying teens. That was my difficulty with the Harrington/Nancy/Jonathan love triangle - all three are 27 and older. And kind of look it. Also Eleven and Mike don't have any chemistry, while Will and Mike do.
* Will is definitely gay. I watched him - and thought, he's gay. He only has eyes for Mike and is not interested in anyone else. And I'm beginning to think his brother, Jonathan, picked up on it. While Mike is kind of clueless - plus, that actor has not aged well. He's the only actor on that series that's not aged well. Dustin somehow looks exactly the same - even around the same height - how this is possible, I don't know. While everyone else sprouted.
* David Harbour lost a lot of weight for this role. He was heavy in everything else I've seen him in, including prior seasons of this show. Joyce and I were bowled over by thin and well built he looked. I used to seeing his pudgy chest.
* This series is too dark, I couldn't see half of the action. Can someone please light up the upside down world?
Overall, it was okay. I liked it better than S3, but not as well as S2 and S1. I also think it probably should have ended with S2.
Obi Wan - have seen a few episodes now. (Disney keeps kicking me out this weekend. Tried to watch Alias and got kicked out. I don't know if its because there's too many people sharing the app, or something else. Haven't had any issues until now and I've had it for about two years now?)
I like Obi Wan better than Stranger Things. And better than Alias and Ms. Marvel. Which may be more my mood than much else. The writing is about the same. Again, I've only seen a few episodes of Obi Wan, and Ms. Marvel.
Alias - I can barely remember, except, I found that the writing kind of went off the rails around the third or fourth seasons. Also JJ Abrahms really doesn't have much to say, he just takes established tropes and regurgitates them in a new way, as opposed to subverting them. But I may go back to it - not sure. It's also very dated.
Obi Wan is directed towards a young audience or kids. It's family fare. Most of the Star Wars films are. It helps if you go in with that attitude, they were never meant to be "adult" fare. I mean if they were - they probably wouldn't be on Disney.
Anyhow, I'm enjoying it better than I expected.
***
Sigh, the day has crept past me, and I feel as if I've accomplished next to nothing this weekend, certainly not as much as I'd hoped. I've archived all of the WIRE meta/reviews, and am up to September 2011 in the archiving, with over 340 works in Ao3. Not too bad.
Also made some headway on the revising. Saw Wales and hung out. Talked to mother. Straightened. Got rid of some papers. Vaccuumed. Cleared out some stuff from fridge.
It could be worse.
My father is in the hospital again. He's hooked up to an intravenous feeding tube - since he can't swallow - due to another UTI. Seems to recognize my mother at least, but is mumbling and muttering nonsense. I asked if she wanted me or my brother to fly down - but she doesn't. She doesn't see the point. And we will abide by her wishes. I'm insanely busy at work - at the moment, got a site tour, negotiation, kick-off meeting this week, and potential one-on-one meetings with contractors the next few weeks, plus various other projects that I inherited from colleagues who resigned. My brother is less so - so he could probably fly down if need be.
Mother is planning to go to Charleston next Thursday to see Hamilton, this may need to be called off - if my father worsens. She doesn't really know what to do at this point, and feels horribly guilty. I keep telling her not to be. The painful part or most painful part is being unable to do anything. I think human beings are hard wired to "fix" things, and when we can't "fix" it - it drives us slowly nuts?
2. I can't quite decide if my hot flashes are trigged by sugar or sweets. Maybe? I may try not to have any tomorrow - and see what happens. Tried today, and had a sinus headache from hell - so gave in. After the hot flash the headache abated, although the sinus meds may have had a role in that.
3. Television shows.
Stranger Things S4 I finished watching it rather late last night (it works better at night, since it is filmed in a dark cavern with no lighting (I'm joking, it's not, but it might as well be)) and after reading selenak and conuly's reviews this morning...have decided I agree mostly with conuly.
It's okay. Better than S3, but honestly that's not hard, S3 was atrocious.
At least no one is whiny this season.
The group lead by Steve Harrington and Nancy Wheeler are by far the most entertaining, and relatable. The group lead by Jonathen Byers and Mike Wheeler are kind of annoying? And no, Surfer Boy, Byers new best friend, is not as amusing as the Duffer Brothers think he is - I found him grating, and kept wishing they'd leave him behind. But alas no. They seemed to drag them wherever they went.
The Eleven storyline - drug, as did the Joyce and Harper storyline in Russia, to the point that I found myself doing other things during them.
We do not need that many 1980s references, I think the Duffer Brothers kind of went overboard. To the point in which I was rolling my eyes at them.
* Eleven's storyline reminds me of Stephen King's Firestarter and various other 1980s sci-fi super kid stories. A popular trope in the 1980s was the government experimenting on kids and turning them into super-soliders with super powers. Actually that still is one.
For a while, I wondered if they were planning on redeeming Mathew Modine's Papa, and Dr. Paul Grazer (Raiser's doctor) characters. But apparently only Grazer got that honor, and barely. He doesn't really do much of anything here. Papa and the Military kick him to a standstill.
Although he does have one of the best lines in the series...
"You are telling me she can take down monsters, but all I'm seeing is a traumatized little girl."
Yup. I'm thinking Modine is a stand in for the allegedly feminist male writers who like the super-powered little girl trope, with a father who either made her that way, trained her, or is controlling her. Folks? That's not feminist. That's the EXACT opposite of feminism. It's a fetish.
As a result of that, not only did the Eleven story drag, it was cringe-inducing. So was the Henry/Venca storyline for that matter. I dearly hope we've seen the end of Modine's Papa, the character made my skin crawl.
* Eddie - kind of similar to Surfer Boy, but more likable. Also kind of annoying, but not to quite the same degree. Surfer Boy and Eddie feel like shout-outs to Wayne's World and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. If so, I'm guessing the Duffer's enjoyed killing off Eddie - possibly a bit too much?
Eddie was fairly realistic. I've met folks like Eddie. I've also, unfortunately met people like Surfer boy.
* At least they killed off the incredibly annoying two-dimensional Jason. (I preferred Steve Harrington in the first movie to both Jason and Billy in S3 and S4. Harrington had more layers and was better developed. Jason is worse than Billy - he's a one-dimensional twerp.)
* As an arachnophobic - I really wish they'd find something else to signify the Vecna and the Mindflayer than well "spiders". I get the metaphor, but it's a bit too on the nose, and somewhat cliche. But that's just me.
Why horror movies all have to use spiders as a metaphor for the nasty monsters, I do not know.
* Max (damn it). They killed off my favorite character - okay, I know she's not dead. Because no one really dies in this show unless they are a supporting character like Billy, Eddie or Pam (Nancy's friend). Still, I'd have preferred they didn't do that to Max. One of the boys would have been a better option - albeit not as beloved.
Also the Running to the Hill theme music really fit her character.
* The Russian rescue storyline seemed to be there mainly for comic relief?
* It's kind of hard to buy teenage romance between twenty-something actors portraying teens. That was my difficulty with the Harrington/Nancy/Jonathan love triangle - all three are 27 and older. And kind of look it. Also Eleven and Mike don't have any chemistry, while Will and Mike do.
* Will is definitely gay. I watched him - and thought, he's gay. He only has eyes for Mike and is not interested in anyone else. And I'm beginning to think his brother, Jonathan, picked up on it. While Mike is kind of clueless - plus, that actor has not aged well. He's the only actor on that series that's not aged well. Dustin somehow looks exactly the same - even around the same height - how this is possible, I don't know. While everyone else sprouted.
* David Harbour lost a lot of weight for this role. He was heavy in everything else I've seen him in, including prior seasons of this show. Joyce and I were bowled over by thin and well built he looked. I used to seeing his pudgy chest.
* This series is too dark, I couldn't see half of the action. Can someone please light up the upside down world?
Overall, it was okay. I liked it better than S3, but not as well as S2 and S1. I also think it probably should have ended with S2.
Obi Wan - have seen a few episodes now. (Disney keeps kicking me out this weekend. Tried to watch Alias and got kicked out. I don't know if its because there's too many people sharing the app, or something else. Haven't had any issues until now and I've had it for about two years now?)
I like Obi Wan better than Stranger Things. And better than Alias and Ms. Marvel. Which may be more my mood than much else. The writing is about the same. Again, I've only seen a few episodes of Obi Wan, and Ms. Marvel.
Alias - I can barely remember, except, I found that the writing kind of went off the rails around the third or fourth seasons. Also JJ Abrahms really doesn't have much to say, he just takes established tropes and regurgitates them in a new way, as opposed to subverting them. But I may go back to it - not sure. It's also very dated.
Obi Wan is directed towards a young audience or kids. It's family fare. Most of the Star Wars films are. It helps if you go in with that attitude, they were never meant to be "adult" fare. I mean if they were - they probably wouldn't be on Disney.
Anyhow, I'm enjoying it better than I expected.
***
Sigh, the day has crept past me, and I feel as if I've accomplished next to nothing this weekend, certainly not as much as I'd hoped. I've archived all of the WIRE meta/reviews, and am up to September 2011 in the archiving, with over 340 works in Ao3. Not too bad.
Also made some headway on the revising. Saw Wales and hung out. Talked to mother. Straightened. Got rid of some papers. Vaccuumed. Cleared out some stuff from fridge.
It could be worse.
no subject
Date: 2022-07-05 01:16 pm (UTC)