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1. After a harried day trying to do errands, and briefly getting stuck in an elevator, I decided to chill today and attempt to get some writing done.

It's a cold gloomy day anyhow. Last night texted niece and bro, apparently my brother was stuck in an elevator in an empty building once for two hours. He relaxed and waited, figuring physics would eventually make it go to the bottom and let him out.

In his case the door wasn't half-way open and he wasn't stuck between floors.

I'm also sleepy today for some reason. I blame the radiators. And I keep flirting with sneaker all weather resistant boots on Ryka.

2. Dolly Parton refuses to get political, she'd rather heal the divide.

I'm slowly changing my mind about Parton. For while there I didn't like her all that much, more the fault of some of her die-hard fans than Dolly herself. Then I watched the Country Music documentary, and that went a long way to changing my mind about Parton and her music. (Note bashing another artist to build up my own, will often cost that artist I happen to love fans. It's true of characters, stories, anything really -- hate attracts hate. If I want someone to love my favorite character? Find a way of loving theirs first, then show things about mine that I think they can relate to. Meet them on their level, not my level.)

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I can sort of identify -- throughout my life half the people I've known have been Democrats, half Republicans. My parents had the same situation. It's true of extended family as well.

3. Disney + has Power and a Plan -- sounds like an advertisement for Battlestar Galatica Reboot.

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Yep, the back catalogue is pretty huge. Consider that Disney doesn't only have 100 years of content on its end, it has a 100 years work of 20th Century Fox content as well. We basically have:

* Marvel
* Pixar
* Disney
* ABC shows
* Fox Movie Franchises
* Star Wars
* Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse, Firefly ...
* National Geographic

It's a lot of content. An overwhelming amount of content. And 85% of it is G rated or PG. So..a lot of family centric content.

My younger, cable-free, co-workers couldn't wait to sign up.

My brother like my co-workers doesn't understand why I still have a cable subscription.

Me: NY1
My brother: You can get that on streaming.
Me: Really not. It's Spectrum, and only available on either Spectrum or Cable.
Brother: I don't know about that -
Me: I do, I checked.

It won't last forever. I'm getting annoyed by commercials. I'm on the fence about Disney, it's not expensive -- but, I don't time for it. Also, HBO Max looks more interesting and a touch more adult.


4. Throat Hurts? Brain Hurts? The Secret Life of Audiobook Stars

Sort of makes me rethink any plans to take up a second career as an audio book reader. (Not that I can listen to audio books, they tend to put me to sleep. I find it really hard to focus on, in part because I am visual not audio -- and I flip sounds and mishear words. Also this may well be genetic -- no one in my immediate family likes to listen to audio books. We also don't like puns. It's very odd.)

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5. Apparently Smiling is as effective on mood as eating 2000 chocolate Bars...also no barfing afterwards (The headline is mine, the article obviously has a different headline.)

6. Will over 20 Hours on a Plane Drive Someone Insane -- Quantas the Longest Plane Flight

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[I'm glad I visited Australia when I was still living in Kansas City. Also had a brief layover in Hawaii. There's no way I'd do it now. I'd like to visit New Zealand, but the long plane trip is giving me second thoughts, so too are any planes to go to Hawaii. I don't like traveling by plane, I don't like airports, I don't like the whole ordeal. I find it anxiety inducing. The idea of checking my bag gives me a panic attack. (I've had some nasty experiences regarding checked bags.) This 20 hour plane flight sounds like a nightmare.]

Rocketman Review

Well, now, I get all the noise over Taron Egerton. (The Robin Hood movie is horrible, but he blew me away as Elton John in Rocketman). Actually Rocketman surprised me -- I rented it on "On Demand". As you all most likely know by now, I am not a fan of the bio-pic. They tend to be overly self-indulgent and meander. But this one was interesting and done in a rather innovative manner.

Elton John executive produced it -- and insisted that it focus on his troubles with sex, drugs and rock and roll -- or the early life in the 1970s, as opposed to his entire life. Also, unlike others -- John is still alive and gets a say. Most bio-pics are done years after the individual is long dead.

So, I wasn't sure about it.

It's done as a musical -- but in a rather interesting manner or through a series of flashbacks, as told by Elton John in rehab center to his group therapy. He strides into the group therapy session at the beginning, in full devil angel attire, red horns on his head, feathered wings, and sparkles. Sits down and announces to the group that he is Elton John, alcoholic, sex addict, shopaholic, and addicted to prescription drugs among other things.
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1. Well, after watching Rocketman -- I went online and discovered that the bio-pic much like all bio-pic's is far from an accurate representation of John's life. It's mainly a fantasy focusing on drug addiction, the reasons behind it, the music, and depicting Reid and the addiction as the villains. But leaving out important tid-bits like the fact that John had friends outside of Bernie (who are never shown and rather famous, such as Freddie Mercury and Rod Stewart), and worked for years with John Baldrey -- who helped him embrace his sexuality. Also the movie sort of skirts over John's bisexuality, making him out to be gay solely. (Although John did come out recently as solely gay.) It leaves out his half-brother by his mother as well. I'm guessing these people didn't want to be in the movie and John made sure they weren't depicted?

Much like the Mercury movie -- it places a lot of emphasis on drug addiction, sobriety, and lack of any friends -- which isn't quite true -- as the cause.

Discovering this -- makes me realize something, we are unreliable story-tellers about our own histories and pasts. We embellish the items we wish, and skip over the bits we don't want. Often making ourselves out to be more tragic or more saintly or more crazy than we are.

It's not necessarily intentional lying...just, well, you can't trust someone to tell a story or a history without embellishment of some kind. Which puts in question, if you think about it, all histories and stories told. It's my difficulty with biographies, history, memoirs and non-fiction in general. Fiction seems to be more honest, somehow. At least the story-teller is admitting they are making things up.

2. A Very Old Man For a Wolf

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3. The Good Place is continuing to disappoint me this season -- although I do have hope for a good send off. The next episode appears to be philosophy and Chidi centric. Most of this season has lasped into Michael Schurr Office humor territory.
And it's not my sense of humor. Also, while I enjoy the father/daughter dynamic of Michael and Eleanor, there's been far too much focus on it this season and it's become repetitive.

That said, the last episode did have a few clever bits interspersed in there --( Read more... )

4. The new biometric clock system at work is stressing me out. It's stressing and irritating everyone.

5. Why We Fell for Clean Eating?

As an aside -- I've struggled with diets my entire life due to severe IBS issues and an auto-immune disease - ceiliac. There's no cure.

And have had to give up all grains, but I'm also now under a Doctor's Care, so being careful on it. I did actually feel great when I was more restrictive, but it's almost impossible to maintain -- and unlike the woman in the article? I continued to eat meat, fish, and poultry. Unless you can digest beans, soy, and various glutens, don't become a vegan or vegetarian. I can't digest glutens, beans, or much soy, and I have to stay away from rice and corn, and diary (so no cheese or milk). Which means if I don't get fish, poultry or meat -- I don't have protein.

And when I went off all grains, I had issues. I've allowed myself clean oatmeal.

I do not recommend the gluten free diet unless you are gluten resistent, gluten intolerant or ceiliac. I also don't recommend vegan or vegetarianism unless you can digest lentils, beans, chickpeas, and various sources of plant protein. Not everyone's body is the same.

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Again, what the article is ignoring is that a lot of people chose to do this because they were ill and suffering. It wasn't something that they just did for trendy reasons. And it has helped some people. We have a tendency to think everyone should have the same diet we do, this is not true. It's why I don't like nutritionists -- they think they can design a diet for you in an hour and they don't listen. The three that I've seen were horrible for the same reason -- they all wanted to put me on the same diet they were on and all their patients were on.