Day #279...

The sun was playing peek-a-boo during my walk around the cemetery today. The snow is slowly melting and with the rain predicted on Thursday, will most likely be gone by the weekend, if not before.

Yesterday's walk resulted in two blisters, so this round - I went back to wearing a more comfortable pair of booties. They aren't really boots - booties is a far better description.

I'm feeling kind of...blah. Or sluggish. I wouldn't say I'm depressed exactly, just...blah. Kind of like the sky outside my window, with the sun playing a game of peek-a-boo. Saw a little sign today on my walk, I'd seen it before of course - "come inside my home, rainbow".

Mother: Maybe you're just lonely?
Me: Is that what this is? It doesn't feel right? Perhaps so..
Mother: a lot people are feeling the same way. It's hard. You're being told to isolate, and yet at the same time
Me: Not.

I see people congregating in small ways. Last night I watched a video of people from church, about fifteen people all congregated in a small little garden in front of the church and on the street - during a winter solistice celebration. Everyone wore masks. It seemed relatively harmless, but made me cringe all the same. Yet, I see it all the time. Five women walked out of my apartment complex together - the other day, with their dog, then came back lugging something large. One said it was the first time she'd been outside in days.

The gal on FB who was whinging about not seeing her significant other - father sent her cousin over with traditional cakes. I told my mother about this.

Mother: And you thought, poor baby -
Me: No. I thought -
Mother: Wanted someone to bring you stuff?
ME: No, I've got stuff. I wanted someone to visit me.
Mother: No one can.
ME: I don't know - I saw a delivery person today who delivered a food order. I wished her a merry christmas and happy new year. (I'm becoming starved for human contact. I've become a recluse in a city, it's bizarre.)

I live in a city - I see people. It's kind of impossible not to. I also listen to sirens whenever I venture outside. There's a hospital near the cemetery - hence the sirens. Whenever I venture outside my apartment, I hear Christmas Mall acoustical music (the songs are "I Wish You a Merry Christmas, Jingle Bells, First Noel, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing on repeat...and something else, I think).



Mother: Well I've something that may make you laugh.
Me: Okay...
Mother: Your father had issues using the bathroom last night because of all the cats that were in it.
Me: Cats?
( Read more... )

I suppose I should be grateful that I'm not down there with them watching all of this unfold?



Biden came on television today - to tell everyone that darker days lie ahead. Then the news commentators felt the need to analyze what he said for fifteen to twenty minutes. I don't know why they feel the need to do that.
Job security?

Church is busy fighting a high rise development going up across from the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens - which would block sun into the Gardens, and cause problems with planting, etc. The Mayor's Office was in support of the project - allegedly - to bring in more revenue and affordable housing.
But that was "pre-COVID", now... news has come out that the developer is an unsavory MAGA maskless wonder, and the design called for high-rise not low rise as the Mayor originally thought...so Church may win, along with Brooklyn Botanical and stop the development in its tracks.

The mayor’s office says the mayor was “confused” when he said he supported building last February. He thought they were low-rise. He now understands that high rise would be bad for Garden. Report says his opposition effectively kills the project. - per church member's email.

I was amused by the Mayor's confusion. Nice cover DeBlasio. I think he's back-pedaling on a few things. This crisis has really caused him to do an about face. A year ago, at this time - he was running for President. Now, he's just trying to keep the city afloat and get as many New Yorkers as he can vaccinated. What a huge difference a year makes.



Anyhow, hanging in there for the most part. I just feel tired a lot of the time...like I'm running a very long marathon and I just want to take a break from it for a bit.

Day #39 of the 50 Day Book Meme

The prompt is name a graphic novel.

Persepolis- the story of a childhood by Marjane Satrapi .

It's a semi-autobiographical coming of age tale about the author's childhood in Iran and subsequent flee to the West.

Movie adaptation can be found below:

Watch on YouTube

(no subject)

1. Finally figured out how to access HBO Max - which I get with my HBO subscription via Amazon at no additional cost. If you have an HBO subscription, you automatically get HBO Max.

So sampled The Great Pottery Throwdown brought to you by the producers of The Great British Bakeoff. Love Productions and BBC. So it's basically Brits doing pottery. I like the judges better than on Bake-off.
They are nicer and a bit more cuddly.

Also I know more about pottery than baking - I've actually done pottery at different points in my lifetime. I'm not very good at it - it requires a lot more practice and time and devotion than I really have available to me. Also access to a kilm, glazes, and a wheel. And it helps to not be highly allergic to dust and mold. (I'm allergic to the dried clay.)

But I know enough about it - to really appreciate how difficult it is to do well. Watched the first episode - which is both mesmerizing and weirdly comforting. It's a kind competition.

Also sampled Titans - which is a series based on Teen Titans, but with more adult versions of the heroes. It's produced by the same people behind Arrow, Flash, etc - and has the same overall feel.

It's kind of oddly put together. The team isn't pre-set, but slowly finding each other. Grayson's character is interesting - but the actor is very young and very slight - he reminds me a little of the actor who plays the Flash.
However - I do like Kory Anders, who is POC and is a bit of a mystery at the moment.

I figured it out just in time to catch some recent releases - Wonder Woman 1984 over Christmas, Tell Me About It, and The Witches.

The other night I watched Last Christmas - a heartwarming British Christmas Movie that appears on the surface to be a romance, but isn't really. And focuses on the relationships of a young Yugoslavian immigrant with her employer, friends, family and a young man she meets who introduces her to another way of living her life.

Also started His Dark Materials S2 - which is as compelling as S1, but also suffers from info dump - which at times slows everything down. The books had a similar problem. There's a lot of scientific detail in the books. That said, it features one of my favorite female heroines - and the actress playing the role is astonishingly good in it. The point of view is mainly hers, with others playing more of a secondary role.

2. Reading...or rather listening to and reading?


* Promised Land by Barack OBama - on audio. I'm listening to Barack read his book to me. So it sounds kind of like a podcast.

It's rather good. ( Read more... )

* X-Factor - the Marvel Digital Comics. I was surprised by the reboot of this comic. It's good. And it's not a superhero comic at all. If anything it's a combo of speculative science-fiction/fantasy and noir mystery. They've formed a detective agency in which they investigate missing person cases - or mutants who have gone missing - to determine if they are really dead and should be resurrected. The twist in these comics - is the writers decided to fully embrace the whole come back from the dead whenever it is convenient or no one really stays trope that rather popular in action science and soap operas. Not only did they embrace the whole trope, they are commenting on the ethics surrounding resurrecting characters, what it means to never fully die, how that changes your view of life and power, including process involved. Also how it affects those who resurrect the characters - without the characters fully earning it.

The whole thing feels like a meta-narrative on the comic book format. It also has a lot of world-building and character development. It is however shorter on plot - not that plot is all that - considering if you go long enough, you've pretty much done all the plots. Let's face it serial comic book readers like serial soap opera watchers don't care that much about plot - we're not reading/watching for that. (I watch and read other things for plot.)

Add to this - the leader of the group is Northstar (the first LGBTA or homosexual superhero in comics. He also may be the first with a wedding issue). Add to that Northstar is a complicated character, hot, and cranky. The book also features Dakken Ahirkiu - Wolverine's kid, who is bisexual. And Prestige (Rachel Summers) who is also bisexual. The X-men comics - have a lot of characters who are either homosexual or bisexual at the moment, including old-standbys who recent came out. It's the most diverse series of action comics I've read.

* S.W.O.R.D #1 - is another welcome surprise. It's a book about a space exploration team, and it goes into the details and logistics on how they can explore space, as well as the inherent risks involved. Also we get one of my all-time favorite female comic book characters back in the game - Abigail Brand. Also, each character is described and summarized in an intriguing manner. A well written ensemble book - that decides to make the lead player Abigail Brand and not Cable, as I'd thought.

* A romance novel that I keep forgetting the name of...but it is about a woman investigating a mystery and a fencing master, who is teaching her to use a daggar in Regency Scotland.


[It's time to go to bed, and my right arm itches and I've no clue why. Am I allergic to something? I don't know. Maybe a mosquito bite?]

Oh according to mother, niece attempted to read Proust, and gave up - because it was too misogynistic. Yeah, that's pretty much why I gave up on Proust. He writes beautifully, but he's such a miserable piece of shit, you kind of think to yourself after a bit, who cares and why am I putting myself through this - life is too short? I felt the same way about Hemingway and Hawthorn.