(no subject)

Cooked an Udi's frozen thin crust gluten-free margherita style pizza. Lunch was the rest of last night's baked salmon with squash and greens. Breakfast scrambled eggs and mushrooms. Snack, cheese, duck liver pate, gluten free crackers, and cookies.

Blood sugar appears to be within range. Been edgy and irritable today - blame the weather, it's in the 40s, dreary and raining. Supposed to drop to the thirties tonight, snow most of tomorrow afternoon and dip into the twenties and teens again by Monday. So, I'll go from having the A/C on in the apartment and fans, to freezing and putting on a space heater? Lovely.
NYC apartments are fun. Also possibly medication and diet, not certain.

I'd taken a brief walk earlier - but didn't make it past Met Fresh - since it was raining, and kind of dreary.

Been watching S18 Project Runway - and damn, I was wrong, it's not gotten more congenial. It still creates a villain - and edits it to emphasize that. Also, there's a lot of sniping. The people aren't that nice to each other. I have gone back to the GBBS Celebrity Bake Off - which is nicer. (No one is winning prize money, so there's that.)

Am flirting with a few things:

Tanith Lee- a female British sci-fantasy novelist, who specialized in gothic horror. Specifically the Night Master and Lords of Darkness. But they appear to be more loosely connected short fiction collections.

Lady Jane Grey - series on Prime, I think, that's a historical fantasy romance.

**

Currently watching the psychological survivalist horror flick - Fall, about two twenty-something women who climb a radio tower that's 2000 feet tall in the middle of the desert, only to get stuck up there after the ladder they used crumbles beneath them. And it goes downhill from there.

It's on Hulu. The filming is minimalist. Although I agree with reviewers that you do have to suspend your disbelief - there's no way anyone could climb that - and at 2000 feet, you don't have a lot of oxygen. Plus it would be really cold. The filmmakers chose to film it on a man made hundred foot platform at the top of a mountain - so it look likes thousands of feet when in reality it was only a hundred. And the actresses did their own stunts.

Reviews and yes, animals can be as nasty as we are

Finished watching the psychological survivalist film Fall on Hulu. It has stunning cinematography and is a worth a watch for that alone. It's more of a roller coaster ride than scary per se. Although it does have horrific moments. It's about a young climber whose husband died in a fall while they were climbing with their best bud, Hunter. About a year lady, Hunter, a bit of a danger junkie convinces Becky who is still mourning her husband and sunk into a depression to do a dangerous new climb - she's found this old abandoned radio tower in the middle of the Arizona desert, which is the fourth tallest man-made landmark in the United States. It stands at 2000 feet.

Rusted, and long abandoned, with only vultures for company, the two venture out to climb it. They have to park their car a ways from the tower to do so. Upon finally reaching the top - they celebrate, then venture to climb down - and that's when things go awry. The structure was slowly coming apart during their climb and as they attempt to go down - it crumbles beneath their feet and they are both stranded at the top of it - with no water, food or abilty to get down. Also Becky has to pee.

I found it well acted and for the most part compelling. There are some stunning visuals, and the minimalist direction really works. Apparently instead of using green screens, the filmmakers built a 100 foot structure on top of a mountain, and the two actresses agreed to do their own stunts.

***

Also finished Skeleton Crew - which I enjoyed for the most part, and it has some good episodes in it - but the last one wasn't among them, unfortunately. It ended weakly - which I've begun to see a pattern with most of the Star Wars mini-s. I would have ended it with six episodes and done a second season, but that's just me. I am however glad they wrapped it up, even if I felt it was a touch clumsily done?

Jude Law is quite good at playing the Star Wars version of Long John Silver. And I enjoyed the droid. The kids, with the exception of KB and Fern, got on my nerves for the most part. And the parents, as appears to be true of most kid-centric series and films, were written as clueless morons.

But overall it was fun - kind of the Goonies meets Treasure Island in Space by way of Star Wars.

***

Still working my way through Rules of Redemption - Firebird 1 by TA White, and I'm kind of bored with it. The world building is disappointing and falls into cliche, and kind of flat. I feel like I've read it before? Also there's a forced romance that has a trope that doesn't quite work for me. A much older, wiser, man who takes a tortured young woman under his wing - uh no.

I'm frustrated with the execution. It had potential but the writer makes choices that don't work for me, and I kind of with the writer had gone left instead of right. Not sure I'll finish it.

Reading slump continues. I may start reading the Tale of the Genji.

I'm craving a certain type of story but I can't find it.

***

Of the Twitterish social media sites - I like Threads the best. It's the least self-righteous and whiny.

There's a rather good Thread on Threads about how easy it is to get duped by people.

In it - the poster states that the whole Neil Gaiman story reminded her of something...Anne Rule. Way back in the 20th Century - ages ago, Ann Rule was the Queen of the True Crime novel. She investigated true crimes and wrote about them. At one point, a young, highly attractive male attorney just out of law school volunteered to assist her on a case. Helping her interview people. She was quite charmed by him. He turned out to be Ted Bundy. But he seemed like such a nice man...so, the poster stated, don't beat yourself up about not seeing beneath the mask, the mask is often hard to see behind and we all get fooled.

It reminded me of a discussion I had over the phone with my mother earlier today...in that people are more than one thing. We want to label them monsters and put them on a shelf. Or label them as kind gentle writers. Or brilliant writers. Or feminists. Or bad people. Or good. But it's not possible - they slip out of those categories. One day we could be best friends, the next mortal enemies. It can change on a dime. And then back again.

Another post I saw was a stray comment by a British musician who asked..."do animals hunt their own kind, steal from them, and kill them?"

ME: yes, have you not watched any nature documentaries? Or for that matter watched domestic household pets? Nature is not nice.