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shadowkatWell, today's accomplishments included getting my two robot vacuums to work. So, I now have a black and white robot vacuum - I got the white I-Life one - because I was having issues with the black one. But once it arrived the black one was working again. Then today, couldn't get either to work.
One apparently needed the bin to be cleaned and re-inserted. The other? I just needed to turn on. I went to youtube and discovered it had an on/off switch.
I've named Spike and Buffy. They get along pretty well considering.
Other accomplishments?
As I've been promising for the last two months, I finally set up my little art space/studio in my apartment. Basically, I converted my remote from home work station to an art/painting station, since I can't work remotely any longer. I'd actually bought the desk for artwork - so I'm happy about that. And now I have an easel set up, which can store my paints.
See picture below:
Even started on the sunflower. It's not great. But if you consider that the last time I painted or drew anything at all was approximately eight years ago? It was sometime in 2014 or 2015? I can't remember. In short, I'm a tad rusty. Drawing and painting are like any skill - practice makes perfect.
Although it is in some results a trained mental muscle.
I've always been good at art or so I've been told by various art teachers (I've taken a lot of courses on art throughout school and post school, also outside school). One in college told me that she wished she'd gotten me earlier. (I waited until my senior year to take an art course, while my freshman roommate majored in art - she became a financial advisor and has self-published three books now, one on finances, and two that are a series of historical novellas.) I'm an intuitive artist. Not a commercial artist. Freshman roommate was more of a commercial artist.
I don't like commercial art - never have. Also don't like commercial writing - tends to bore me. I don't do paint or write on demand or by numbers well. Never could color within the lines. It's not how I think. Nothing wrong with it - just not how I think is all.
The rusty bit - also a result of the fact that I couldn't get my hands to stop shaking today. I don't know why. Tremor was just worse today than usual.
The other accomplishment?
I made a low-carb/low-sugar gluten-free chocolate mousse pie. The only sweetner is a teaspoon of maple syrup, and fruit. Maybe a little sugar in the semi-sweet chocolate chips that I melted and the gluten free graham craker crust.
Ingredients:
two egg whites (beaten until peaked)
add one cup of greek yogurt (plain white yogurt)
add 1/3 cup of melted chocolate/coco mixed in with 1/3 cup of heavy cream
add 1/4 cup unsweetened coco
add 1 cup of whipped cream (unsweetened heavy whipping cream - whipped)
add teaspoon of vanilla
add teaspoon or maybe two teaspoons of cinnamon
Fold in the whipped cream and vanilla, and the coco
Then whip a little.
Then put in the pie crust.
Layer fruit on top.
See picture below:
The difficulty is that blood sugar is still higher than I'd like it to be. Been averaging between 110 (not bad, that's good actually) and 181 (not good). But considering it was at 291 on Thursday...better. I discovered I cannot have candy. Russel Stover's chocolate covered marshmallow hearts are not permitted. I'd bought four. Ate two. Blood sugar sky-rocketed to 291. Felt horrid. Threw the other two out. Also, I gave the bag of ghiradelli chocolates to Leo, to put in his desk drawer, so everyone could have them.
This eliminated my binging.
I have to rethink how I eat, fix dinner, etc. I'm bored with my food options. And don't have a lot of appetite as a result. I keep making myself omelets. Or pancakes. Or salads. Sometimes just chicken and veggies or fish and veggies.
I have Paeolo recipes that I can do - low-carb, gluten-free, no sugar. It is just a matter of getting the right ingredients and putting it together.
Or I could do a meal delivery service - but they are limiting and the one's for singles tend to be more Keto related, I can't do Keto. Keto is bad for folks with high cholesterol and diabetes. My body can't metabolize that much fat without my digestive system going bonkers. Most of my co-workers tried Keto then stopped.
***
Still watching Peaky Blinders - which evolves as the seasons progress. The characters change, as does the setting, attire, and problems.
It does a good job of getting across the time period from 1919 to 1930 in Britain. Also, focuses on the lesser known Birmingham, and Northern England. Along with the issues with Ireland, Belfast, and the IRA conflict during that period.
It is an anti-hero series. And it's violent, albeit not as violent as Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, or House of Dragon. More in lines with The Sopranoes and The Godfather. People get shot, people get beaten up.
Sexual violence is implied not shown, and there's not much of it.
I like the fact that it doesn't romanticize the anti-heroes. You know they are anti-heroes. There's no question about that.
It's well-written. I find myself re-winding a lot for the dialogue. I got the close-captioning on. Also, the acting is top notch. Not a weak link in the bunch.
I'm on S5, which is a bit bleaker than the previous seasons, possibly because it starts with the stock market crash. S4 is possibly the least bleak or the most satisfying.
***
Stumbled across an announcement that James Marsters attended the premier of Sarah Michelle Gellar's Wolf Pack in support of the actress, and walked the red carpet with her, along with her husband and co-stars.
The announcement also mentioned the toxic work environment on Buffy. I'm fascinated by stories of toxic work environments, because I've been in so many myself and am in one now. Misery loves company and all that.
From what I've been able to piece together from Gellar's interviews which all reference it now - is that Gellar doesn't much like talking about it. And kind of talks around it. Understandable - it's difficult to prove that sort of thing even when its going on. People are terrified to speak up, and the bullies have a tendency to be kind and nice to people who either aren't working directly for them, or that they like. So there's also quite a bit of gaslighting. And enabling. Go into any hostile work environment, and I guarantee you'll find folks defending the bullies, and telling you that the employee is to blame. Or it's in their head. They are also very good at finding scapegoats. Fighting these assholes is close to impossible in our society. Like it or not - we live in a society that enables and rewards bullies.
But when pressed does mention it - kind of vaguely. She's tough, and has been accused of bad behavior herself - so, that's part of the reason. What she has said is that - she felt it was important to put 100 percent of herself into it, and didn't understand why others didn't feel the same way. And discovered later that may have been a mistake - since she got burned out, early on. Also that, she got into trouble for standing up for the cast and crew - and shutting things down after 15 hours. "We promised 13, it's been 15 hours, we're done for the day. I'm going home." Having watched the out-takes, I believe that. They went way beyond what other series do in regards to takes. Most do five takes per scene, maybe ten. Buffy did thirty. I got bored watching it. I mean they literally redid each line about fifteen to twenty times. Until everything was perfect lighting, camera, etc. That's brutal. I'm surprised they got away with it. Fox, WB and UPN clearly was letting Whedon do whatever he damn well pleased.
According to the Hollywood Reporter - Gellar's husband is less vague, as is Seth Green, and others.
"She had to deal with a lot of [expletive] on that show for all seven years it was on," Prinze told The Hollywood Reporter. "The stuff they pressed upon her, without any credit or real salary, while she was often the only one doing 15-hour days … yet she was still able to get the message of that character out every single week and do it with pride and do it professionally."
Emma Caulfield stated - "It was obvious that Sarah lacked the support to be the leader she needed and wanted to be. There was a tremendous amount of resentment and animosity [toward her] from a certain someone—and I suppose now we can all guess who." that Gellar was called all sorts of names, and put down, etc for standing up for them, because someone resented her, and we now know who that person was.
And Seth Green stated:
"That show was just hard. We were working crazy hours, and a lot of things that got pushed weren't necessarily safe or under the best conditions," he said. "Sarah was always the first one to say, 'We agreed this was a 13-hour day and it's hour 15—we've got to wrap,' or, 'Hey, this shot doesn't seem safe,' when nobody else would stick up for the cast and crew."
As a result, Gellar had nasty names lobbed at her. "I saw her get called a [expletive], a diva, all these things that she's not—just because she was taking the mantle of saying and doing the right things," Green told the outlet.
For her part, Gellar said it's "almost better" to be thought of this way—but earlier on in her career, it also landed her with a "difficult" reputation. "Anyone that knows me knows it came from the fact that I always put in 100 percent," she said. "I never understand people who don't. I've mellowed a bit in [my expectations of others]—I think because I got burned out."
This does clarify a few misrepresentations in the press at the time the show was airing. During 1997-2003, Gellar was portrayed as the Diva on Buffy, and the main problem. Whedon loosely stated that he was used to it - he had to deal with Roseanne. And Hannigan had alluded to it. As had others. She was blamed for Buffy ending in S7. Whedon was praised in the fandom, and Gellar got a lot of backlash. Typical bully behavior - as a friend told me recently, when I describing bullying behavior at work - they want to control the narrative. Whedon worked hard to control the narrative.
And people tend to see and believe what they want to see and believe.
But there were always signs. There always are. If you look closely enough.
However, I like how Gellar chose to deal with it now. Which is to state, "this happened in the past. I learned from it. Dwelling on it - gains me nothing. Talking about it - solves nothing. I'm proud of the work I did, the work the cast did, and the show we created. We can be proud of that, without condoning the toxic work environment that produced it. And I've moved on, incorporating the lessons I learned from that time period and ensuring it doesn't happen again on my watch."
What's interesting, albeit not surprising, is that both Gellar and Marsters have stated separately that they can't re-watch most of S6 and S7. The latter seasons they have problems with. And when their kids asked to watch the series, they both kind of skipped over various portions of the latter seasons. There's portions of those two seasons they both have issues with still. I admit that when I re-watched the series in 2010 or thereabouts, I also had issues with S6 and S7, and skipped around a bit. They probably aren't the same episodes, but then I wasn't the one doing nude sex scenes. Having watched the outtakes (btw it's the only show that appears to have outtakes online that I've seen), I can well understand why they'd not want to re-watch that season with their kids.
(As Gellar pointed out in her interview - there was no intimacy coordinator on Buffy, they had no one advocating for them - while on Wolf Pack - she insisted on it. That there be one on set for the actors who had to do nude scenes. Also she let all the actors know they should go to her - if they are uncomfortable with any scene or anything on set. They did - apparently a crew member made them uncomfortable offering free massages. She got rid of him.)
I give her a lot of credit for all of that. (And I wouldn't call myself a fan of Gellar's by any stretch of the imagination.) But what she's doing isn't easy in that business. It means turning down certain jobs, and not getting others. Also, it's easier said than done. I will state, I'm doing the same thing - I'm incorporating the lessons learned from previous experiences. And not staying silent when bullied. And supporting others who are bullied in the work force.
***
Anyhow, off to bed. Hope your Saturday or what's left of it was uneventful and peaceful.
One apparently needed the bin to be cleaned and re-inserted. The other? I just needed to turn on. I went to youtube and discovered it had an on/off switch.
I've named Spike and Buffy. They get along pretty well considering.
Other accomplishments?
As I've been promising for the last two months, I finally set up my little art space/studio in my apartment. Basically, I converted my remote from home work station to an art/painting station, since I can't work remotely any longer. I'd actually bought the desk for artwork - so I'm happy about that. And now I have an easel set up, which can store my paints.
See picture below:
Even started on the sunflower. It's not great. But if you consider that the last time I painted or drew anything at all was approximately eight years ago? It was sometime in 2014 or 2015? I can't remember. In short, I'm a tad rusty. Drawing and painting are like any skill - practice makes perfect.
Although it is in some results a trained mental muscle.
I've always been good at art or so I've been told by various art teachers (I've taken a lot of courses on art throughout school and post school, also outside school). One in college told me that she wished she'd gotten me earlier. (I waited until my senior year to take an art course, while my freshman roommate majored in art - she became a financial advisor and has self-published three books now, one on finances, and two that are a series of historical novellas.) I'm an intuitive artist. Not a commercial artist. Freshman roommate was more of a commercial artist.
I don't like commercial art - never have. Also don't like commercial writing - tends to bore me. I don't do paint or write on demand or by numbers well. Never could color within the lines. It's not how I think. Nothing wrong with it - just not how I think is all.
The rusty bit - also a result of the fact that I couldn't get my hands to stop shaking today. I don't know why. Tremor was just worse today than usual.
The other accomplishment?
I made a low-carb/low-sugar gluten-free chocolate mousse pie. The only sweetner is a teaspoon of maple syrup, and fruit. Maybe a little sugar in the semi-sweet chocolate chips that I melted and the gluten free graham craker crust.
Ingredients:
two egg whites (beaten until peaked)
add one cup of greek yogurt (plain white yogurt)
add 1/3 cup of melted chocolate/coco mixed in with 1/3 cup of heavy cream
add 1/4 cup unsweetened coco
add 1 cup of whipped cream (unsweetened heavy whipping cream - whipped)
add teaspoon of vanilla
add teaspoon or maybe two teaspoons of cinnamon
Fold in the whipped cream and vanilla, and the coco
Then whip a little.
Then put in the pie crust.
Layer fruit on top.
See picture below:
The difficulty is that blood sugar is still higher than I'd like it to be. Been averaging between 110 (not bad, that's good actually) and 181 (not good). But considering it was at 291 on Thursday...better. I discovered I cannot have candy. Russel Stover's chocolate covered marshmallow hearts are not permitted. I'd bought four. Ate two. Blood sugar sky-rocketed to 291. Felt horrid. Threw the other two out. Also, I gave the bag of ghiradelli chocolates to Leo, to put in his desk drawer, so everyone could have them.
This eliminated my binging.
I have to rethink how I eat, fix dinner, etc. I'm bored with my food options. And don't have a lot of appetite as a result. I keep making myself omelets. Or pancakes. Or salads. Sometimes just chicken and veggies or fish and veggies.
I have Paeolo recipes that I can do - low-carb, gluten-free, no sugar. It is just a matter of getting the right ingredients and putting it together.
Or I could do a meal delivery service - but they are limiting and the one's for singles tend to be more Keto related, I can't do Keto. Keto is bad for folks with high cholesterol and diabetes. My body can't metabolize that much fat without my digestive system going bonkers. Most of my co-workers tried Keto then stopped.
***
Still watching Peaky Blinders - which evolves as the seasons progress. The characters change, as does the setting, attire, and problems.
It does a good job of getting across the time period from 1919 to 1930 in Britain. Also, focuses on the lesser known Birmingham, and Northern England. Along with the issues with Ireland, Belfast, and the IRA conflict during that period.
It is an anti-hero series. And it's violent, albeit not as violent as Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, or House of Dragon. More in lines with The Sopranoes and The Godfather. People get shot, people get beaten up.
Sexual violence is implied not shown, and there's not much of it.
I like the fact that it doesn't romanticize the anti-heroes. You know they are anti-heroes. There's no question about that.
It's well-written. I find myself re-winding a lot for the dialogue. I got the close-captioning on. Also, the acting is top notch. Not a weak link in the bunch.
I'm on S5, which is a bit bleaker than the previous seasons, possibly because it starts with the stock market crash. S4 is possibly the least bleak or the most satisfying.
***
Stumbled across an announcement that James Marsters attended the premier of Sarah Michelle Gellar's Wolf Pack in support of the actress, and walked the red carpet with her, along with her husband and co-stars.
The announcement also mentioned the toxic work environment on Buffy. I'm fascinated by stories of toxic work environments, because I've been in so many myself and am in one now. Misery loves company and all that.
From what I've been able to piece together from Gellar's interviews which all reference it now - is that Gellar doesn't much like talking about it. And kind of talks around it. Understandable - it's difficult to prove that sort of thing even when its going on. People are terrified to speak up, and the bullies have a tendency to be kind and nice to people who either aren't working directly for them, or that they like. So there's also quite a bit of gaslighting. And enabling. Go into any hostile work environment, and I guarantee you'll find folks defending the bullies, and telling you that the employee is to blame. Or it's in their head. They are also very good at finding scapegoats. Fighting these assholes is close to impossible in our society. Like it or not - we live in a society that enables and rewards bullies.
But when pressed does mention it - kind of vaguely. She's tough, and has been accused of bad behavior herself - so, that's part of the reason. What she has said is that - she felt it was important to put 100 percent of herself into it, and didn't understand why others didn't feel the same way. And discovered later that may have been a mistake - since she got burned out, early on. Also that, she got into trouble for standing up for the cast and crew - and shutting things down after 15 hours. "We promised 13, it's been 15 hours, we're done for the day. I'm going home." Having watched the out-takes, I believe that. They went way beyond what other series do in regards to takes. Most do five takes per scene, maybe ten. Buffy did thirty. I got bored watching it. I mean they literally redid each line about fifteen to twenty times. Until everything was perfect lighting, camera, etc. That's brutal. I'm surprised they got away with it. Fox, WB and UPN clearly was letting Whedon do whatever he damn well pleased.
According to the Hollywood Reporter - Gellar's husband is less vague, as is Seth Green, and others.
"She had to deal with a lot of [expletive] on that show for all seven years it was on," Prinze told The Hollywood Reporter. "The stuff they pressed upon her, without any credit or real salary, while she was often the only one doing 15-hour days … yet she was still able to get the message of that character out every single week and do it with pride and do it professionally."
Emma Caulfield stated - "It was obvious that Sarah lacked the support to be the leader she needed and wanted to be. There was a tremendous amount of resentment and animosity [toward her] from a certain someone—and I suppose now we can all guess who." that Gellar was called all sorts of names, and put down, etc for standing up for them, because someone resented her, and we now know who that person was.
And Seth Green stated:
"That show was just hard. We were working crazy hours, and a lot of things that got pushed weren't necessarily safe or under the best conditions," he said. "Sarah was always the first one to say, 'We agreed this was a 13-hour day and it's hour 15—we've got to wrap,' or, 'Hey, this shot doesn't seem safe,' when nobody else would stick up for the cast and crew."
As a result, Gellar had nasty names lobbed at her. "I saw her get called a [expletive], a diva, all these things that she's not—just because she was taking the mantle of saying and doing the right things," Green told the outlet.
For her part, Gellar said it's "almost better" to be thought of this way—but earlier on in her career, it also landed her with a "difficult" reputation. "Anyone that knows me knows it came from the fact that I always put in 100 percent," she said. "I never understand people who don't. I've mellowed a bit in [my expectations of others]—I think because I got burned out."
This does clarify a few misrepresentations in the press at the time the show was airing. During 1997-2003, Gellar was portrayed as the Diva on Buffy, and the main problem. Whedon loosely stated that he was used to it - he had to deal with Roseanne. And Hannigan had alluded to it. As had others. She was blamed for Buffy ending in S7. Whedon was praised in the fandom, and Gellar got a lot of backlash. Typical bully behavior - as a friend told me recently, when I describing bullying behavior at work - they want to control the narrative. Whedon worked hard to control the narrative.
And people tend to see and believe what they want to see and believe.
But there were always signs. There always are. If you look closely enough.
However, I like how Gellar chose to deal with it now. Which is to state, "this happened in the past. I learned from it. Dwelling on it - gains me nothing. Talking about it - solves nothing. I'm proud of the work I did, the work the cast did, and the show we created. We can be proud of that, without condoning the toxic work environment that produced it. And I've moved on, incorporating the lessons I learned from that time period and ensuring it doesn't happen again on my watch."
What's interesting, albeit not surprising, is that both Gellar and Marsters have stated separately that they can't re-watch most of S6 and S7. The latter seasons they have problems with. And when their kids asked to watch the series, they both kind of skipped over various portions of the latter seasons. There's portions of those two seasons they both have issues with still. I admit that when I re-watched the series in 2010 or thereabouts, I also had issues with S6 and S7, and skipped around a bit. They probably aren't the same episodes, but then I wasn't the one doing nude sex scenes. Having watched the outtakes (btw it's the only show that appears to have outtakes online that I've seen), I can well understand why they'd not want to re-watch that season with their kids.
(As Gellar pointed out in her interview - there was no intimacy coordinator on Buffy, they had no one advocating for them - while on Wolf Pack - she insisted on it. That there be one on set for the actors who had to do nude scenes. Also she let all the actors know they should go to her - if they are uncomfortable with any scene or anything on set. They did - apparently a crew member made them uncomfortable offering free massages. She got rid of him.)
I give her a lot of credit for all of that. (And I wouldn't call myself a fan of Gellar's by any stretch of the imagination.) But what she's doing isn't easy in that business. It means turning down certain jobs, and not getting others. Also, it's easier said than done. I will state, I'm doing the same thing - I'm incorporating the lessons learned from previous experiences. And not staying silent when bullied. And supporting others who are bullied in the work force.
***
Anyhow, off to bed. Hope your Saturday or what's left of it was uneventful and peaceful.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-22 08:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-22 02:30 pm (UTC)And she does vaguely imply that the toxic environment wasn't limited to Buffy - I honestly think it was also on All My Children (daytime soap sets are notorious for it - and in the 70s, 80s and 90s they were notoriously heavily male and toxic, with women being pitted against each other as entertainment on and off screen). And she did Swan's Crossing.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-23 07:02 pm (UTC)That's also interesting to hear about what she's done in the new show.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-24 12:50 am (UTC)I honestly think Whedon pushed it as a narrative - and had various people around him that aided him in that.
It's easy to do. It happened to me at the library reference company. And BYT tried to do it to me at crazy org. So, I know from personal experience how the bully manipulates the narrative to their advantage. Whedon tried to do it again with the NY Magazine article. He honestly didn't see himself as doing anything wrong, and saw Gellar as a diva, he also saw Chase as a diva. And he promoted that storyline, exaggerating various things both did.
Also, perfectionist, A type personality, control freak - so I have a feeling a lot of people were afraid to counter the story.
It's prevalent though in that industry.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-24 12:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-24 12:51 am (UTC)