Happy New Year
Dec. 31st, 2023 09:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat2023 was better than the previous three years, but this wasn't hard considering all 2023 had to do - was not hurt, maim or kill any of my family members or friends or co-workers. 2020- 2022 had set a very low bar in that regard.
For 2024, I am continuing to go in with low expectations and a creeping sense of dread. This is mainly due to Crazy Workplace and our nutty politics.
Saw a lot of movies this year, mainly on streaming. I remember roughly a third of them. And got to see my niece graduate from college. Currently watching Green Day singing "American Idiot" on ABC during the Rocking New Year's Eve. (I actually like that song and Green Day, so listening to them for a bit is actually entertaining as background music. I like them better than Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodgrigo - a whole lot better - I bought their CD back in the day. This probably tells you more about my music taste that I want you to know? In that I'm not really a fan of pop. More grunge rock.)
Of the movies I've seen? Oppenheimer still leads by about a mile. Although it's probably not fair to compare them? I hate it when other people do that.
Today?
I finished White Lotus S2 - which also borrows heavily from Patricia Highsmith and Triangle of Sadness - in that it is a biting satire about the idle (and somewhat vapid) rich. My difficulty with these series is the characters feel very one note and not all that interesting. I finished it - because I wanted to know how they killed off Jennifer Coolidge and why. (It's not a spoiler - she's the body found in the first episode, although I'd forgotten it was her (two years between seeing episode 1 and episode four) and thought it was the younger blond, so was actually kind of surprised?) [Available on MAX]
Leave the World Behind was next up - starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawk, Marshala Ali, and Kevin Bacon (in a minor role), plus a couple of unknowns playing their kids. It's a psychological horror film about the end of the world. A couple rents a house out in Long Island somewhere. (Although it looked more like New Jersey, because you could see the city, and you cannot see the city from Long Island, unless you are in Brooklyn or Queens.) And a series of weird things happen...until it becomes increasingly clear that a catastrophic event happened and they are doomed.
The horror is not knowing what is going on and speculating about it, and trying to figure out how to cope or navigate what happens afterwards. Kind of similar to well 90% of the dystopian end of the world horror movies to date. The difference with this one is - that we don't really know what happened and horror is trying to get the information.
It's okay. Was adapted from the book of the same name and produced by the Obamas. Available on Netflix.
Flora and Son - a palate cleanser. It's a lovely little drama about a divorced mother trying to raise her seventeen year old son in Dublin.
And they find a way of connecting through music. There's also a subplot romance between Flora and her online guitar instructor in LA. But the film never quite goes the cliche route of having the Flora and guitar instructor Jeff, meet up in person. It's just not feasible. This falls more into the hyper-realism category than the romantic category, and it really isn't a romance. Found it kind of inspiring and moving. It also doesn't lean too heavily into the relationship between mother and son. The focus is mainly on Flora.
Available on Apple TV.
* Already posted about Doctor Who Specials 1-4 I loved them. I don't have a lot to say about them. There's just some things that I want to enjoy without any analysis whatsoever. Doctor Who falls into that category. I either enjoy it or I don't. I loved the recent specials.
***
New Year's Resolutions?
I can't remember if I made any last year. I was just happy to get out of 2022 intact, and sane.
This year was a slog. But better than last year (again not hard).
Resolutions?
* Travel somewhere that isn't visiting friends or family, where I can explore and see new things.
* Go to the Unitarian Universalist Church more often...and try to get back involved with the Art Groups.
* Do yoga and weight lifting exercises once or twice a week.
* Stop eating chocolate and sweets after dinner, or after work or during work. Cut down on the chocolate, candy, and ice cream. I've been able to cut down on carbs, it's the others I need to work on. My ACI went up to 7.1 this month, after hovering at 6.2-6.4 for most of the year. These past two months kind of did me in.
* Finish the Contemporary Romance Novel I've been revising, and start something else.
* Don't let work get to me and float. Don't give in to my temper. Take more walks. Meditate. If I'm in Manhattan - I can actually walk in a nice environment.
* Start teaching myself how to draw and paint digitally - I got a digital drawing and paint set for Christmas.
* Pull back on social media sites like Xitter, FB, Blue Sky, and Instagram.
And spend less time on all of them. Particularly this coming year. Election Years - are bad years to be on social media.
Anyhow, Happy New Year.
For 2024, I am continuing to go in with low expectations and a creeping sense of dread. This is mainly due to Crazy Workplace and our nutty politics.
Saw a lot of movies this year, mainly on streaming. I remember roughly a third of them. And got to see my niece graduate from college. Currently watching Green Day singing "American Idiot" on ABC during the Rocking New Year's Eve. (I actually like that song and Green Day, so listening to them for a bit is actually entertaining as background music. I like them better than Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodgrigo - a whole lot better - I bought their CD back in the day. This probably tells you more about my music taste that I want you to know? In that I'm not really a fan of pop. More grunge rock.)
Of the movies I've seen? Oppenheimer still leads by about a mile. Although it's probably not fair to compare them? I hate it when other people do that.
Today?
I finished White Lotus S2 - which also borrows heavily from Patricia Highsmith and Triangle of Sadness - in that it is a biting satire about the idle (and somewhat vapid) rich. My difficulty with these series is the characters feel very one note and not all that interesting. I finished it - because I wanted to know how they killed off Jennifer Coolidge and why. (It's not a spoiler - she's the body found in the first episode, although I'd forgotten it was her (two years between seeing episode 1 and episode four) and thought it was the younger blond, so was actually kind of surprised?) [Available on MAX]
Leave the World Behind was next up - starring Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawk, Marshala Ali, and Kevin Bacon (in a minor role), plus a couple of unknowns playing their kids. It's a psychological horror film about the end of the world. A couple rents a house out in Long Island somewhere. (Although it looked more like New Jersey, because you could see the city, and you cannot see the city from Long Island, unless you are in Brooklyn or Queens.) And a series of weird things happen...until it becomes increasingly clear that a catastrophic event happened and they are doomed.
The horror is not knowing what is going on and speculating about it, and trying to figure out how to cope or navigate what happens afterwards. Kind of similar to well 90% of the dystopian end of the world horror movies to date. The difference with this one is - that we don't really know what happened and horror is trying to get the information.
It's okay. Was adapted from the book of the same name and produced by the Obamas. Available on Netflix.
Flora and Son - a palate cleanser. It's a lovely little drama about a divorced mother trying to raise her seventeen year old son in Dublin.
And they find a way of connecting through music. There's also a subplot romance between Flora and her online guitar instructor in LA. But the film never quite goes the cliche route of having the Flora and guitar instructor Jeff, meet up in person. It's just not feasible. This falls more into the hyper-realism category than the romantic category, and it really isn't a romance. Found it kind of inspiring and moving. It also doesn't lean too heavily into the relationship between mother and son. The focus is mainly on Flora.
Available on Apple TV.
* Already posted about Doctor Who Specials 1-4 I loved them. I don't have a lot to say about them. There's just some things that I want to enjoy without any analysis whatsoever. Doctor Who falls into that category. I either enjoy it or I don't. I loved the recent specials.
***
New Year's Resolutions?
I can't remember if I made any last year. I was just happy to get out of 2022 intact, and sane.
This year was a slog. But better than last year (again not hard).
Resolutions?
* Travel somewhere that isn't visiting friends or family, where I can explore and see new things.
* Go to the Unitarian Universalist Church more often...and try to get back involved with the Art Groups.
* Do yoga and weight lifting exercises once or twice a week.
* Stop eating chocolate and sweets after dinner, or after work or during work. Cut down on the chocolate, candy, and ice cream. I've been able to cut down on carbs, it's the others I need to work on. My ACI went up to 7.1 this month, after hovering at 6.2-6.4 for most of the year. These past two months kind of did me in.
* Finish the Contemporary Romance Novel I've been revising, and start something else.
* Don't let work get to me and float. Don't give in to my temper. Take more walks. Meditate. If I'm in Manhattan - I can actually walk in a nice environment.
* Start teaching myself how to draw and paint digitally - I got a digital drawing and paint set for Christmas.
* Pull back on social media sites like Xitter, FB, Blue Sky, and Instagram.
And spend less time on all of them. Particularly this coming year. Election Years - are bad years to be on social media.
Anyhow, Happy New Year.