(no subject)

Mother, as expected, ferreted out how my cousin died. (Mother would have made a good investigative journalist.)
( how my cousin died and how mother ferreted it out. )

***

Life is unfair. At times, from my limited perspective of it, it seems incredibly random and whatever I do...meaningless. Like I'm some little being, a spec really, batted about by the elements.

I've been thinking about that a lot lately. How some people seem to live ...easy lives, and others don't. Without much rhyme or reason involved. And the bombardment of information we get on a daily basis on how strangers live.

I realized this today - while watching part of a Netflix documentary on the Great National Parks, narrated and produced by Barack Obama and his media company. ( Read more... )

***

Audio books are lovely things. See, I can change my mind about stuff. This is a huge 180 for me. Because five-six years ago, the appeal was completely lost on me. I didn't like them at all. Then the pandemic happened, I hit a huge reading slump - where I just couldn't get myself to focus on reading for pleasure any longer - which was annoying, because I like reading for pleasure. And voila - I discovered audio books. Listening to someone read to me, was a lovely and comforting thing.

So I'm almost three quarters through Project Hail Mary now - due to, you guessed it, audiobooks. I got it on both the kindle and an audio book (for dirt cheap), and of the two - I'm adoring the audio book. Rocky is hilarious - they even have a musical sound effect for him. [Note not all audio books are created equal. Will Wheaton's read of the John Scalzi latest, was abysmal. He can't do voices at all. Hmmm, I wonder if Seth McFarland has done any audio books? At any rate whomever is reading Project Hail Mary is awesome! Barack Obama is good at it, Michelle isn't. Hillary sucks - and hired someone to help her. Alec Baldwin isn't bad. Maurice Bernard isn't bad. Michael Caine is quite good. Kathleen Turner is good.
The cast novels are also awesome. It's best to get a good voice actor - and voice acting is really hard to do well. I wonder if Mark Hamil has done any? Mark Hamil and Seth McFarland are two of the best vocal actors out there. They are better vocal actors than physical actors.

I'm loving the science in Project Hail Mary, also the character development is spot on. We have a very reluctant hero in the narrator/lead protagonist. (He just discovered he was a reluctant hero, he wasn't sure for a bit due to retrograde amnesia. The book has a rather dark and dry wit to it, that I appreciate.) And I'm loving his wacky alien roommate, Rocky. It kind of feels like Red Dwarf meets The Martian to be honest.

Anyhow, it's a comforting book to be reading when...life is throwing black clouds your way.

***

House of Dragon

I watched episode 7 now. The infamous episode that they filmed mostly at night for reasons. (Honestly I think the Game of Throne directors/writers just like doing night scenes. I watched it with all the lights out, and was able to make out what was happening, including the sex scene between the uncle and niece.)

This is a hard show to watch. Outside of the darkly lit scenes (not just dark, but darkly lit), the characters, for the most part, aren't exactly likable. The ones I like have a tendency to get killed off. While the ones I can't stand, seem to be untouchable? This is far too much like our current political situation - I need my television shows to be far more cathartic than that.
( spoilers )

So why am I continuing? Curiosity? It's the same reason I watch horror movies that I'd be far better off avoiding. I'm a curious soul. My co-workers have made me curious about it. (I am admittedly beginning to wonder about my co-workers cultural tastes...I mean they loved Squid Game, Severance, got into Dahlmer, and now House of Dragon...)

***

On a final note? Netflix has a gadawful amount of content that I'm skeptical or wary of watching. (Is this worth my time - I'm no so sure.)

I tried "The Bad Guys" and went to sleep during it. I think I'm the wrong demographic anyhow.

Because I tried the Bad Guys, and tried various horror flicks last weekend, I'm getting recs for well animation directed at kids, and horror films/television series. Also, because I tried Great British Bake-Off S10, I'm getting a lot of bad reality show contests. School of Good and Evil - lots of bad teen paranormal and romantic movies.

Anyone have good rec's for Netflix? Because Netflix is doing an abysmal job of it.