(no subject)

2023 is becoming an interesting year in ahem, commuting mis-adventures? To date, I've been trapped in a subway and a long island railroad commuter train, albeit briefly. Now I just need to add Amtrak for overall completeness.
( misadventures in commuting )

***

Television

The day floated away from me. Partly because I slept horribly last night.
And the dang robot vacuums have to be charged to work - and for some reason they didn't since I last used them. It's okay the apartment isn't that messy or dusty.

I finished watching Peaky Blinders which was wonderful. I love character centric dramas, and it is such an excellent character piece, with excellent actors at the center of it. I adored it. Plus the characters arcs, every single one, was actualized. Supporting and lead characters were well-developed and had full arcs. Few series take the time to fully explore the side characters. It's crucial to a good series.

I highly recommend. Also kind of miss it. Have to find something to follow it with. For now, watching S2 Bake Squad - so far, four episodes in, season 1 was better. S2 is kind of boring. The set up is four professional desert specialists compete against each other to make a show-stopping desert for a guest customer. People apply, and ask the chefs to create a pastry/desert for their big event. It can be a wedding, anniversary, birthday, party, whatever - that requires a big desert for a lot of people.
Then these professional experts, one in chocolate, one in sugar creations/pastry, one flavor/pies, and one in cakes - make competing show-stopping the deserts. The one the customer chooses - gets to be the show-stopper at the event, and on the wall.

The first season was better - because the events were things like "surviving cancer," or "reward for helping lots of people", or "off-beat weddings". The second season is basically 10 year anniversary (the first was fifty year anniversary), a batmitzah for a kid who watches video games and is into himself, and a baby reveal. The current episode is the best of the bunch - it's for a charitable event with a 1980s theme.

So we have a Rubick's cube cake, a chocolate boom box and cassette tapes, and something with a pet rock. Also dress cake, and tye dye pants cake. The fun of this show - is the emphasis is on what it looks like not how it tastes. Of course it tastes good - they are professional chefs.

After this palate cleanser...I'll go back to Lockwood & Company, then jump over to Picard on Paramount Plus, along with another episode of Wolf Pack.

***

Spoke to Wales.

We were talking about fantasy and science fiction.
( Read more... )

***

I'm getting bored of the most recent book that I'm reading. I wanted the gothic horror, it's leaning too hard on the YA romance, which is boring me. We'll see if I continue or give up and just read a horror novel.

(no subject)

Any fans of Cillian Murphy? I'm trying to figure out which movie of his to try next. He's done a lot of them. I've narrowed it done to "Red Lights", "Anna", "Sunshine", "Anthrodite", and "The Wind that Shakes the Barely."

Forgot to talk about "food bullies". I had a long chat with the lawyer, who is a sweetheart, at work. (The weird thing about my workplace - is I prefer the legal team of new nutty agency, but I preferred the management team of old nutty agency. Actually, wait a minute, I really can't say which management team I preferred - they both had their issues. I'm wondering if it is possible to be in management and not bully people? Either that, or I attract them like flies or they are more prevalent than I thought? ) At any rate, we are talking about food allergies. She's allergic to nightshades, and in her culture - people prepare food with a lot of night shades. (Night shades are vegetables that tend to grow at night - and various folks including myself are sensitive to them. Some more so than others. They include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes...and cause inflammation.) In her culture - they use a lot of peppers and potatoes in food. And a spice, native to latin America - Annatto - and her friends and many family members, outside of her sister, can't figure out how to cook without it.

Then I read on Twitter about a woman who was whinging that a fashion designer came to her house for dinner, and brought their own food. Even though her husband, who is a chef, prepared an excellent meal - this individual who stated they were on a restricted diet for "health reasons" had to bring their own food. She was pissed off and felt the individual was rude. The idiot should have asked their guests if they had any food allergies or restrictions, and if they needed to bring their own food ahead of time. It's not hard. It takes two minutes to be mindful of others. Feeding others should be an act of love, not an act of vanity or pride.

My poor co-worker prepares and brings her own food all the time, as does my Aunt. I make my own lunches every day and never go out to eat for lunch any longer - it's akin to playing Russian Roulett. I struggled with my church and for a bit brought my own thing to various dinner parties - and potlucks. Did this with book clubs too.

But alas, as I told my co-worker, "People like to bully you with food."

There was a time that I had this conversation...pretty much daily:

Co-worker or boss: so have a cupcake, it won't kill you.
Me: Kind of will.
Co-worker or boss: Really? How? What happens?
Me: Do you really want to know?
Co-worker or boss (looks at me blankly).
ME: I'd get really sick.
Co-worker or boss: Oh. Then what can you eat?
ME: Anything without flour or barely in it.
Co-worker or boss: what's that?
ME: Meat, vegetables, fruit, yogurt...
Co-worker: can you eat potatoes?
ME: Yes. But I don't that often, and they don't tend to agree either.
Co-worker: what can you eat?
ME: Do you mean to tell me that you only eat bread? Potatoes? Pasta? And grains? Really?
Co-worker: Well, no...

I wonder about people sometimes.

***

Finished Lockwood and Company - which ended on a cliff-hanger of sorts.

It was well-done. Had the best world-building that I've seen to date. And by far the best execution of exposition - it was laid cleverly within the credits sequence, and spliced within the story, without weighing it down.
That's hard to do effectively.

Despite what Stephen King thinks - world-building is important to novels that take place in fantasy or science fiction universes. Otherwise the audience or reader gets lost.

We need to know where we are. And it helps if the rules are consistent.

I felt Lockwood and Co. succeeded here, where a lot of similar shows don't. Also, it was heavily grounded in YA or PG-14. It's not really an adult series, but I wouldn't say it's a kids show either exactly. It's too scary for anyone under 14, also the violence is PG-14.

**

Flirted with the Legend of Vox Machina again on Amazon. The art isn't bad. On the fence about it. I like a few of the characters though, the gunslinger, Percy, is different, and the twins. Everyone else is kind of a fantasy staple. But I've not seen a gunslinger in a fantasy series before, and the leader appears to be female.