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shadowkatI tried to take a walk this afternoon - but only made it around the block, the air was thick with an almost invisible orange tinted haze. It was like the sky had a slight orange tint to it - barely visible. And I found it hard to breath - as if the air was slightly dusty. (I may be more sensitive to allergens since my last bout with COVID? ) So I kept it short, and did floor exercises on the bed when I got home.
Read a bit this morning - making headway through The Rook - whose sense of humor, somewhat absurdist and witty, I appreciate. Overall I'm enjoying it. Although I edit various technical, financial and legal documentation for work, so I pick up on all of the writing and structural errors, which most people probably wouldn't pick up on. For example - it doesn't have clear transitions from one scene to the next. Also way too much reliance on italics. I kept thinking - how did this get published? And where the heck is the editor? Sleeping? I think that a lot reading traditionally published books that have been published within the last twenty years. Pre-21st Century Books seemed to be...I don't know, better edited? Smoother? There were exceptions of course - sigh best selling writers.
Talked to mother who is enjoying her stay in Seattle, with her cousin.
They hope to make it up to Mt Rainer tomorrow - mother's never been.
Catching up on memage:
25. If you plan a trip away for leisure, what would be your ideal itinerary?
[I stole slaymesoftly's because honestly, it sounded appealing at the moment, with a few tweaks]
Comfortable transportation (preferably not involving flying, but....), interesting places to see, nice weather, pleasant company. A Viking river cruise maybe or Train Expedition either across Canada or the US or in Europe if I could get to it without hours spent in airports and on crowded planes. Actually, I've been flirting with US or Canadian train travel lately, also European. I like trains - it's my favorite and preferred mode of transportation. I can sleep, eat, drink, read, and write on trains without much difficulty, and no jetlag.
26. Have you seen any good TV drama series lately? What’s the last thing you watched?
Yes. I have a lot of streaming services and widely eclectic taste. So finding something is never an issue.
Today I saw Adolescence on Netflix and it blew me away. It's a British mini-series - only four episodes long, and each an hour in length - and damn. Gotta to give the Brits credit - they know how to tell a good story in a brief space of time.
I'd read about it, but for the most part went in blind. It's very intense, and each episode is a single camera shot. There are no cuts. I highly recommend it.
All I knew was that it was story about a young boy who killed his female classmate, and how everyone deals with it. I've seen a lot of those dramas in my life time, so had been avoiding it. But it kept coming up in my feed, and it has been acclaimed as amazing - so, I checked it out? It was not what I expected. At all. I'd put it in the category of hyper-realism. People look like they would if you met them on the street or in a grocery store. The dialogue is natural, and folks talk over each other or struggle. And the story is a lot deeper and a rather biting critique of our society - specifically social media forums like Instagram and Facebook, emoticons, bullying through these platforms, educational system, and our media, also how folks react to all of it.
It's asks some hard and uncomfortable questions. Are the parents solely responsible? What about the school? The teachers? The other parents? The community? The other kids?
I found it compelling, haunting, and it left me thinking about things and pondering various bits of it long after. Also kind of made me want to delete my Twitter account. I'd gotten into a dumb fight with someone on Twitter this morning, and found myself regretting it. And this kind of made me wonder about how social media can often bring out the worst in folks? (I checked Twitter? It does.)
My niece, I remember, told me at 17 that she'd left most of social media. That she couldn't obtain a real connection off of it. And I saw the interactions, they are...superficial. Not like here. Just throwing emoticons or gifs at each other. There's no real depth. And Adolescence kind of critiques that - how kids are on Instagram, and how they are teasing and bullying one another, and spending an increasing amount of their time on it. It's not healthy.
When I go on some of these platforms - Twitter, Instagram, etc - I see people promoting themselves, and often jeering at each other. More than one celebrity, artist, politician, author, etc has had to delete their account.
The bullying is horrible. And they don't see it.
This series kind of underlines it - demonstrates the denial, how folks don't see what they've been doing or have done. They blame others, but can't take responsibility, and when they do, it's crushing. There's a beautiful scene at the very end of the last episode in the series - that just shows how the parents of the boy are handling what he's done. And their struggle over how much of it is their fault, and what could they have done differently. It haunts me, because when I started watching the series I was judging them, I was judging the boy, at the end of it, I found myself questioning that judgement, and feeling instead compassion for everyone involved. Realizing it wasn't simple. It never is. Everyone here made mistakes, out of anger, fear, worry, desire, struggling to just fit in or get along.
This series will haunt for a long time. Being a kind human in this crazy ass world is not easy.
Also weirdly, White Lotus S3 - was much better than expected, and will haunt me as well. It's also hyper-realism. And no, you don't have to see the previous seasons to understand it. It's a black comedy, but I didn't find it funny? However, it kind of moved me at times.
And... The Bear on Hulu and F/X - S4 blew me away. S1-4 are all streaming on Netflix, they aren't long seasons, just 8-10 episodes each, I think. And very character focused. I find comforting and stressful at the same time - it's about a NYC chef who returns to Chicago after his brother's death to take over the family restaurant and turn it into a premiere Chicago establishment.
Read a bit this morning - making headway through The Rook - whose sense of humor, somewhat absurdist and witty, I appreciate. Overall I'm enjoying it. Although I edit various technical, financial and legal documentation for work, so I pick up on all of the writing and structural errors, which most people probably wouldn't pick up on. For example - it doesn't have clear transitions from one scene to the next. Also way too much reliance on italics. I kept thinking - how did this get published? And where the heck is the editor? Sleeping? I think that a lot reading traditionally published books that have been published within the last twenty years. Pre-21st Century Books seemed to be...I don't know, better edited? Smoother? There were exceptions of course - sigh best selling writers.
Talked to mother who is enjoying her stay in Seattle, with her cousin.
They hope to make it up to Mt Rainer tomorrow - mother's never been.
Catching up on memage:
25. If you plan a trip away for leisure, what would be your ideal itinerary?
[I stole slaymesoftly's because honestly, it sounded appealing at the moment, with a few tweaks]
Comfortable transportation (preferably not involving flying, but....), interesting places to see, nice weather, pleasant company. A Viking river cruise maybe or Train Expedition either across Canada or the US or in Europe if I could get to it without hours spent in airports and on crowded planes. Actually, I've been flirting with US or Canadian train travel lately, also European. I like trains - it's my favorite and preferred mode of transportation. I can sleep, eat, drink, read, and write on trains without much difficulty, and no jetlag.
26. Have you seen any good TV drama series lately? What’s the last thing you watched?
Yes. I have a lot of streaming services and widely eclectic taste. So finding something is never an issue.
Today I saw Adolescence on Netflix and it blew me away. It's a British mini-series - only four episodes long, and each an hour in length - and damn. Gotta to give the Brits credit - they know how to tell a good story in a brief space of time.
I'd read about it, but for the most part went in blind. It's very intense, and each episode is a single camera shot. There are no cuts. I highly recommend it.
All I knew was that it was story about a young boy who killed his female classmate, and how everyone deals with it. I've seen a lot of those dramas in my life time, so had been avoiding it. But it kept coming up in my feed, and it has been acclaimed as amazing - so, I checked it out? It was not what I expected. At all. I'd put it in the category of hyper-realism. People look like they would if you met them on the street or in a grocery store. The dialogue is natural, and folks talk over each other or struggle. And the story is a lot deeper and a rather biting critique of our society - specifically social media forums like Instagram and Facebook, emoticons, bullying through these platforms, educational system, and our media, also how folks react to all of it.
It's asks some hard and uncomfortable questions. Are the parents solely responsible? What about the school? The teachers? The other parents? The community? The other kids?
I found it compelling, haunting, and it left me thinking about things and pondering various bits of it long after. Also kind of made me want to delete my Twitter account. I'd gotten into a dumb fight with someone on Twitter this morning, and found myself regretting it. And this kind of made me wonder about how social media can often bring out the worst in folks? (I checked Twitter? It does.)
My niece, I remember, told me at 17 that she'd left most of social media. That she couldn't obtain a real connection off of it. And I saw the interactions, they are...superficial. Not like here. Just throwing emoticons or gifs at each other. There's no real depth. And Adolescence kind of critiques that - how kids are on Instagram, and how they are teasing and bullying one another, and spending an increasing amount of their time on it. It's not healthy.
When I go on some of these platforms - Twitter, Instagram, etc - I see people promoting themselves, and often jeering at each other. More than one celebrity, artist, politician, author, etc has had to delete their account.
The bullying is horrible. And they don't see it.
This series kind of underlines it - demonstrates the denial, how folks don't see what they've been doing or have done. They blame others, but can't take responsibility, and when they do, it's crushing. There's a beautiful scene at the very end of the last episode in the series - that just shows how the parents of the boy are handling what he's done. And their struggle over how much of it is their fault, and what could they have done differently. It haunts me, because when I started watching the series I was judging them, I was judging the boy, at the end of it, I found myself questioning that judgement, and feeling instead compassion for everyone involved. Realizing it wasn't simple. It never is. Everyone here made mistakes, out of anger, fear, worry, desire, struggling to just fit in or get along.
This series will haunt for a long time. Being a kind human in this crazy ass world is not easy.
Also weirdly, White Lotus S3 - was much better than expected, and will haunt me as well. It's also hyper-realism. And no, you don't have to see the previous seasons to understand it. It's a black comedy, but I didn't find it funny? However, it kind of moved me at times.
And... The Bear on Hulu and F/X - S4 blew me away. S1-4 are all streaming on Netflix, they aren't long seasons, just 8-10 episodes each, I think. And very character focused. I find comforting and stressful at the same time - it's about a NYC chef who returns to Chicago after his brother's death to take over the family restaurant and turn it into a premiere Chicago establishment.
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Date: 2025-07-27 10:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-27 01:32 pm (UTC)