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Sep. 10th, 2018 03:05 pm1. Received the latest Entertainment Weekly...and the only thing that really appealed to me was Captain Marvel - the MCU's version of Wonder Woman. Actually I like MCU's take better, because she's not a goddess, and takes on traditional male roles. Carol Davers is a pilot in the military, who due to an accident, DNA is split between human and alien Kree, so as a result has super-powers.
The film version is skipping over the whole DNA split origin tale, and starting off with Davers being a member of Starforce, an elite alien military peace-keeping squad, going after the Skrulls. It takes place in the 1990s, long before the events of the Avengers. And features a young Nick Fury, Gregg Coulson, and has a great cast: Brie Larson (Danvers), Jude Law, Ben Mendelson, Lee Pace, Samuel L Jackson..
Bel Canto starring Julianne Moore could be interesting, although she's not who I pictured in that role. At least they have Renee Fleming singing it, because I think Anne Prachette envisioned Renee Fleming or Maria Callas in the role.
I'm trying You which premiered last night on Lifetime (I didn't know about it until today so am taping a re-airing on 10 pm tonight). This is about being stalked on social media. It's target audience is really twenty-somethings (like most television shows). But it's on EW's Must List, so am curious. So too is Bel Canto (I read the book back in the 1990s.) I'm curious about "Small Fry" -- the memoir written by Steve Jobs daughter -- who reclaims her story.
And the "Broken Earth" fantasy series by the Hugo winning writer, N.K. Jemsin may be worth a look.
2. Parents have been told that they have to evacuate. Another mandatory evacuation. The entire coastline from Maryland to Georgia is under a mandatory evacuation order. This is annoying, because I think the hurricane is going north of them, and they are more likely to run into it in Charlotte, than in Hilton Head. And they don't have a choice where they get to evacuate, since their retirement community handles their evacuation and sets it up months in advance. You'd think they would set up an alternate place -- in case the hurricane goes north.
Mother tells me not to worry, they'll be fine. Most they will get is rain up there. And possible power outage.
3. Niece is becoming quite the little academic at the ripe old age of 14. She read The Scarlett Letter at 13 in order to get the vocabulary for the SSAT tests. Jeeze. I never read books to prepare for a vocabulary test. I read for the book. She said it's really interesting.
Me: I never could make it through Hawthorne or the Scarlett Letter. Let alone read it twice.
Mother: Me neither. I couldn't read his essays.
Me: I can't stand his writing style. It's flowery. And his tone makes me want to smack him.
Mother: Laughs.
Niece is also learning how to drive at 14.
Brother: Teaching C to drive.
Me: At 14??
Brother: Sure. Early start.
I avoided it as long as possible. But living in Kansas, had to do it at 17 -- since everyone else was driving at 14 and there is no public transportation in Kansas.
She's studying linguistics and phonetics, algebra 1 and geometry, and taking some course on comparative genre. I got excited and thought it was about "actual genre" but no, it's the academic main genre categories: non-fiction, fiction, poetry and drama. Basically an excuse to study all of them instead of focusing just on fiction. In short a standard "English" course with a fancy description. (sigh. East Coast Prep Schools. sigh). As opposed to a study of true sub-genres in non-fiction, poetry, drama, and fiction. Such as the letter-writing style in Bram Stoker's Dracula and how the horror genre was furthered by Stoker. But she is only 14, I guess they have to start with the basics.
My overall opinion of the United States educational system has not improved. It's still far too centered on standardized testing, and mainstream white people curriculum. I'm rather disappointed. Her most innovative course is linguistics. This kid is brighter than the folks teaching her. I hope she doesn't get bored. My brother and I got bored, we tested horribly and disliked school. I adored learning, but school unfortunately got in the way of that. My brother and I ended up teaching ourselves.
That said? My niece loves her new school and feels a bit overwhelmed with the increased work load.
4. It's raining here. Remanents of Tropical Storm Gordon, soon to be followed by Florence and the weather system coming out of Detroit, which I flew over on Sat and provided lots of turbulence. The other two hurricanes, that are following Florence, will not come in and stay out to sea.
I wish it would stop raining, I wanted to get a few more things down at the Coop which is in Ditmas, a fifteen-twenty minute walk away. But not worth trudging through the rain to do it.
Tomorrow I go back to work, hundreds of emails, and lots of work. I had nightmare about work last night. So it's definitely on the brain. But slept better than the previous two nights.
The film version is skipping over the whole DNA split origin tale, and starting off with Davers being a member of Starforce, an elite alien military peace-keeping squad, going after the Skrulls. It takes place in the 1990s, long before the events of the Avengers. And features a young Nick Fury, Gregg Coulson, and has a great cast: Brie Larson (Danvers), Jude Law, Ben Mendelson, Lee Pace, Samuel L Jackson..
Bel Canto starring Julianne Moore could be interesting, although she's not who I pictured in that role. At least they have Renee Fleming singing it, because I think Anne Prachette envisioned Renee Fleming or Maria Callas in the role.
I'm trying You which premiered last night on Lifetime (I didn't know about it until today so am taping a re-airing on 10 pm tonight). This is about being stalked on social media. It's target audience is really twenty-somethings (like most television shows). But it's on EW's Must List, so am curious. So too is Bel Canto (I read the book back in the 1990s.) I'm curious about "Small Fry" -- the memoir written by Steve Jobs daughter -- who reclaims her story.
And the "Broken Earth" fantasy series by the Hugo winning writer, N.K. Jemsin may be worth a look.
2. Parents have been told that they have to evacuate. Another mandatory evacuation. The entire coastline from Maryland to Georgia is under a mandatory evacuation order. This is annoying, because I think the hurricane is going north of them, and they are more likely to run into it in Charlotte, than in Hilton Head. And they don't have a choice where they get to evacuate, since their retirement community handles their evacuation and sets it up months in advance. You'd think they would set up an alternate place -- in case the hurricane goes north.
Mother tells me not to worry, they'll be fine. Most they will get is rain up there. And possible power outage.
3. Niece is becoming quite the little academic at the ripe old age of 14. She read The Scarlett Letter at 13 in order to get the vocabulary for the SSAT tests. Jeeze. I never read books to prepare for a vocabulary test. I read for the book. She said it's really interesting.
Me: I never could make it through Hawthorne or the Scarlett Letter. Let alone read it twice.
Mother: Me neither. I couldn't read his essays.
Me: I can't stand his writing style. It's flowery. And his tone makes me want to smack him.
Mother: Laughs.
Niece is also learning how to drive at 14.
Brother: Teaching C to drive.
Me: At 14??
Brother: Sure. Early start.
I avoided it as long as possible. But living in Kansas, had to do it at 17 -- since everyone else was driving at 14 and there is no public transportation in Kansas.
She's studying linguistics and phonetics, algebra 1 and geometry, and taking some course on comparative genre. I got excited and thought it was about "actual genre" but no, it's the academic main genre categories: non-fiction, fiction, poetry and drama. Basically an excuse to study all of them instead of focusing just on fiction. In short a standard "English" course with a fancy description. (sigh. East Coast Prep Schools. sigh). As opposed to a study of true sub-genres in non-fiction, poetry, drama, and fiction. Such as the letter-writing style in Bram Stoker's Dracula and how the horror genre was furthered by Stoker. But she is only 14, I guess they have to start with the basics.
My overall opinion of the United States educational system has not improved. It's still far too centered on standardized testing, and mainstream white people curriculum. I'm rather disappointed. Her most innovative course is linguistics. This kid is brighter than the folks teaching her. I hope she doesn't get bored. My brother and I got bored, we tested horribly and disliked school. I adored learning, but school unfortunately got in the way of that. My brother and I ended up teaching ourselves.
That said? My niece loves her new school and feels a bit overwhelmed with the increased work load.
4. It's raining here. Remanents of Tropical Storm Gordon, soon to be followed by Florence and the weather system coming out of Detroit, which I flew over on Sat and provided lots of turbulence. The other two hurricanes, that are following Florence, will not come in and stay out to sea.
I wish it would stop raining, I wanted to get a few more things down at the Coop which is in Ditmas, a fifteen-twenty minute walk away. But not worth trudging through the rain to do it.
Tomorrow I go back to work, hundreds of emails, and lots of work. I had nightmare about work last night. So it's definitely on the brain. But slept better than the previous two nights.