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1. Well, best laid plans go awry again...turns out I'm not doing the movie thing with Wales after all...good thing we didn't buy tickets ahead of time. (Actually that's why I don't buy the tickets ahead of time.)

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2. Reading We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix -- which I got for $1.99 during a Kindle Daily Deal. (It's current price is $12.99 for Kindle, which frankly is too high -- that's higher than most paperbacks. I'm about 20% of the way through and no, it's not worth $12.99, although I have bought and been unable to finish books that were that amount and higher, so don't go by me.)

Description below:
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The description is good. Gives you a clear picture, without losing you in wasted metaphor. The protagonist is pushing 50, about forty-seven, female, a rarity in books these days. People like writing about twenty-somethings, teens, and kids for some reason.

At any rate it's holding my attention for the most part.

3. Watched The Boys or the first episode of it on Amazon Prime last night. This is the new series written by Eric Kripke (Heroes and Supernatural), and based on the Garth Ennis graphic novels of the same name. Garth Ennis, Seth Rogan, and Kripke all write for it and developed it.

It's about an underground vigilante group called "The Boys" who seek justice for victims of superheroes. In the world of the Boys, the superheroes are a bit psychotic and overseen/managed by a big corporation (sort of like Disney) named Voight. ( Read more... )

I'm thinking of re-watching Iron Man 2 as an antidote. OR Shazam. Actually maybe Shazam.

(no subject)

1. Relaxing at home, flirting with Broadway tickets to the Oklahoma Revival. I found a few on sale or so they said -- $69.95 - 199.95, all Orchestra. (They lie. Turns out it's $89.95 (not including taxes and facility charges -- which is $102) and that's on Wed Mainteneee -- which I can't do) or $99.95 on Thursday at 7. And that's $120 with taxes, etc.

Damn. Broadway is expensive. Unless you know people, have great deals at work, or can find an app -- and go whenever.

Oh well, I might do it -- use the Equifax check. (Equifax apparently compromised my data and due to a settlement, if you are affected, you can obtain a claim for $125 or 4 years of credit checking. (I already have free credit checking.) )

Although it's not clear now...apparently the latest news release is that they won't be paying the $125 stated, and only the free credit monitoring. But I filled out the claim for $125 and it said it would give that to me. So I'm confused. Also I don't trust the New York Post -- which reported this change of pace. NY Post, Daily News, and Newsday are NY's tabloids.

2. Took some long walks. Gave in to my craving for a vanilla milkshake -- which I picked up from Carnval -- down the block. It was cheap. Six bucks.

And picked up pop-corn.

3. Rented Shazam via On Demand -- much better than expected. It's cheesy in places. Very much a kids show. But rather heartwarming, and the last twenty minutes made me cry in a good way -- restored my faith in humanity, if only for a couple of milleseconds. The perfect antidote to The Boys (which is a nihilistic take on the superhero genre, that just makes you want to hunt down spoiled rich white fan boys who created it and skewer them. I'm not sure that was the intent? I honestly don't think Eric Kripke, Seth Rogan, and Garth Ennis intended for me to want to skewer them after watching the first episode...but alas, that was my heartfelt desire.) Shazam is the perfect antidote. Made me like people. Yay.

It's about a foster boy hunting his real Mom who abandoned him at an amusement park five to six years ago. He ends up in a loving group home, run by two ex-foster kids.
And is struggling with it. Somewhere along the way -- he's given the powers of Shazam. The story is about him figuring out his powers, and his new living situation and family dynamics. The theme is about found family, and sharing power with others.

Very uplifting. Sort of sneers at the themes of The Boys and eats it for breakfast.

4. The news is depressing and I'm blatantly ignoring it.

(no subject)

1. Hmmm...

When You Are Most Likely To Catch Other Peoples Emotions

Researchers have largely assumed that people’s emotions get influenced automatically—in an unconscious, immediate response to other people’s emotions, said Goldenberg. His team’s new research challenges that perspective.

“Our emotions are not passive nor automatic,” Goldenberg said. “They are a little bit of a tool. We have the ability to use our emotions to achieve certain goals. We express certain emotions to convince other people to join our collective cause. On social media, we use emotions to signal to other people that we care about the issues of a group to make sure people know we’re a part of it.”

Further research needs to be done in order to understand the relationship between people and their emotions. One of the next topics Goldenberg says he wants to examine further is whether the desire of people to want to see and experience certain emotions lies at the core of how they choose their network of friends and other people around them.

“It seems that the best way to regulate your emotions is to start with the selection of your environment,” Goldenberg said. “If you don’t want to be angry today, one way to do that is to avoid angry people. Do some people have an ingrained preference for stronger emotions than others? That’s one of my next questions.”


Well avoiding angry people is easier said than done. What if you work in cubicles next to them or are staying with one during a vacation? Or living with someone who is angry? Or on the train with them? Meditation does help and shielding, also ignoring it. That's it. You can't just avoid people.

Interesting bit about social media and how it can fuel angry. This is why I tend to avoid Twitter -- Twitter is VERY angry. And is constantly yelling and cursing at everyone. Facebook is somewhat less angry. Instagram is just pictures -- so no not really angry. DW...it depends, but not quite as angry.

2. Just finished watching the film directed by Alex Garland and starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodgriez, Tessa Thompson, and Oscar Issacs, called Annihilation -- which I would categorize as biological and psychological horror, with alien influence. Although I didn't really find it scary, so much as weirdly horrifying and beautiful at the same time.
( vague spoilers )

I enjoyed it in an intellectual sort of way, but it never truly engaged my emotions.

The reason I watched -- was the descriptions I'd read had intrigued me and I was admittedly curious. It is different from most of the horror that I've seen to date.

Should I provide more extensive spoilers? Eh no. Everything I've provided above you learn within the first fifteen minutes of the movie -- so they aren't really spoilers.