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shadowkatContemplating taking up chair yoga at home. All I need is my chair which I bought for the peddler that I got rid of. I don't know what it is about December and the Christmas season that seems to instill me with anxiety and depression - often at the same time. I'm fighting both at the moment.
Called the optometrist to find out what the status was on my contacts, which I'd ordered way back on November 8. I left two messages.
Optometrist: We didn't order any contacts for you.
Me: Yes, you did. Either that or it was an incredibly expensive exam.
Optometrist: Let me check - oh, wait, yes, we did. (flustered). My mistake. Sorry about that. I'll look into it and get back to you.
ME: Whew. You had me worried. Considering I ordered them way back on November 8 - they should be ready by now, that was over a month ago.
Optometrist: Yes, yes, we're so sorry. We'll get back to you.
How much you want to bet that that order hadn't gone through in November or they stupidly gave it to someone else and now have to order them again? Thank god, I have enough for another two-three months.
People are stressing me out. Work is always stressful at this time of year - our fiscal year ends in December, so there's this mad rush by all the idiotic procrastinators to send work my way. (I don't procrastinate at work, elsewhere yes, but not at work.) Honestly, sometimes I wish I could take off sometime around November to some exotic island somewhere, and not return until March 30. Solves the seasonal depression issue, and the anxiety issue. I am prone to seasonal depression because I need sunlight and blue skies. Drab, gray, rainy skies make me hurt and depress me. Hence the reason I don't live further north than NYC, nor in the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, or Canada. I don't mind darkness at night? But I need sunshine.
**
Buffy S5 Rewatch ( Buffy is my mental health/comfort series, particularly the later seasons. I don't know why exactly? But something about it comforts me when I get stressed, frustrated or depressed. More than anything else. It's one of those things that you either get or you don't?)
The Replacement - Season 5, Episode 3. The first three episodes spend a lot of time setting the stage for what is coming, and setting up the characters, also depending on the previous year - placing the characters in either a good spot or a bad one. You can always tell how the season will end, based on where everyone is in the beginning of the season. If a character is isolated from everyone in the beginning of the season - they won't be at the end for example? Or if a character is happy, and in a relationship, and seemingly doing great - they won't be at the end. They also set the tone and the theme. It's pretty clear by the time we get to this episode that this season is about duality.
And yet another episode that changes the set design. Along with costume design for some characters, notably Giles (who thank heavens is no longer in the ratty sweaters) and Xander (who graduates from the Hawaiian shirts and clownish costumes - mainly in this episode). Buffy also begins to change her look a bit. Everyone else is pretty much the same.
For set design? We go from Xander's horrible basement to an apartment, which takes us through the end of the series for the most part. The first three episodes - provide new sets. Buffy's room, Dawn's room, the kitchen, living room, and house takes the place of her dorm room and Riley's frat house. Also the college campus is for the most part gone now - replaced mainly by the Magic Shop (which continues through S6). The Magic Shop for the most part takes the place of Giles flat (which is still there just not as prominent), and now, we have Xander's apartment. Also for the first time we see Anya's apartment or the place she lives in when she's not with Xander. In addition, it's made clear that Willow has moved in with Tara (although Tara is nowhere to be seen in this episode - odd that, not sure why she's not around), but we do get Tara and Willow's living quarters. (I honestly think they just refurbished OZ's room).
Buffy, by the way, had more money than Angel did. I realized this when James Marsters let it slip in a Q&A with Michael Rosenbloom on Inside podcasts. He stated that Whedon had told him that Angel didn't have nearly as much money as Buffy did, so they may not be able to pay him as much when he came over. He refused to make less than he did on Buffy (I don't blame him, I've refused jobs for the same reasons.) Kind of amazing, when you think about the level of special effects, sets etc - considering how low budget it was. George Lucas visited the sets and production - just to see how they accomplished it.
Anyhow, take-aways upon re-watch.
I like this episode better now than I had previously. It oddly dates well, unlike a lot of Xander episodes. Also Xander is far more likable and relatable now.
I kind of feel sorry for Xander? He keeps losing his male friends. First Oz takes off. And now, Riley has one foot out the door. Soon he'll be down to Spike and Giles.
This episode makes it clear how oblivious both Buffy and Anya are to Xander's situation. - ie. his highly dysfunctional family, and abusive parents. Buffy because she grew up with it and is used to it. Anya because she's a 1000 year old demon. Xander is constantly trying to hide his family from his friends, and it's not really until S3 that we get an inkling that they are a problem. In S4 it becomes abundantly more clear - particularly in his dream, where the monster in Xander's dream isn't the First Slayer, but his father, at the top of the steps. Here, it pops up again.
We're in Xander's point of view in this episode, usually it's Buffy's, but we swing out of her point of view and into Xander's. The previous episode - we were in Dawn's point of view. From Xander's perspective, Buffy is oblivious to his situation and doesn't really see him or Riley. Xander doesn't really notice or see Spike (so he's very briefly seen and at the junk dump rummaging for supplies). Xander is clearly jealous of Riley.
And of all his friends - he feels Willow knows him the best.
Riley confides in Xander at the end of the episode, and what he states - shocks Xander and well, I think the audience? He tells Xander that for him the moon rises and sets with Buffy, he's so in love with her that he can't see straight, but she doesn't love him. And I'm thinking okay, what? Why do you think that? We've been in Buffy's point of view for the most part, and I'm not picking up on the fact that she doesn't love Riley?
This reminds me of something? I don't know if you've ever had this experience while dating or in relationships? But the person you are involved with - wants something from you that you can't give them, and because of that...they either decide you don't love them or don't care or you aren't worth it? You don't know what it is that they want. Or it is just something that you can't possibly give them?
That's the problem here. And Buffy kind of tries to address it with Riley but he shrugs it off. "Are you certain you wouldn't rather have normal Buffy than Slayer Buffy?" Riley says, of course not, he loves Slayer Buffy.
But does he?
Buffy has a lot going on. She has school. She is the slayer. She has her friends. She has a sister. Her life is always upturned by mystical things outside of her control, and weird prophecies (see sister). Riley on the other hand doesn't? He is a former military guy in college, with some friends from the military days. And a family in Iowa. He's making Buffy and her friends and her mission - the center of his world, and that kind of goes against his rather chauvinistic upbringing. Keep in mind, Riley went from being the leader of a military strike team, with a secret identity, all male squad, no women, frat house as a cover, and the only woman he dealt with a psychologist and scientist, to being the boyfriend of a one woman strike team. Not only that? But he found Buffy to be peculiar and didn't really like her until Walsh told him she did.
All of that aside? It's kind of clear at this point that the writers want to get rid of Riley and have no clue what to do with the character. They really didn't know what to do with military characters. And the Buffy/Riley romance is kind of bland? It's almost too normal? And there's not a lot of friction - which is why Riley stating that Buffy doesn't really love him is a WTF moment. There's no angst. No friction. No real conflict. They don't fight that much if at all. She trusts him for the most part. I fail to see the problem, here, Riley? As does Xander.
I can't help but wonder if Dawn's introduction to the story - threw all the characters off a bit? And maybe Riley would have stayed, if Dawn hadn't showed up? Would Buffy stayed together with Riley, maybe moved to Iowa after her Mom's death, if Dawn didn't exist? Dawn's kind of a clever plot twist - or scramble to the character's journeys, if I think about it.
Xander also admits for the first time in this episode that he needs Anya, and cares for Anya. He gets the apartment not just for himself but also for Anya. Anya, also, laments how she's vulnerable and can be hurt. Last episode - she dislocated her shoulder trying to protect Dawn from vampires.
After 1000 years of being invulnerable, she's vulnerable again.
Willow shows how scarily competent and powerful she's become as a witch. While Giles mumbles and stumbles along, Willow figures out the simplicity of the spell - quickly. As the episodes progress - it becomes increasingly apparently how ineffectual Giles is - and that in many ways the characters have surpassed him. Giles also hasn't helped Willow or mentored her with her magic, even though she requested it in the first episode. Buffy pulls him back to Sunnydale in the first episode, not Willow. Willow's abilities should bother Giles, along with her increasing use of magic, but it doesn't. Tara isn't in the episode, and Willow does the spell with Giles assistance.
At any rate, I liked this episode better this round than previously. Also, I could not tell that Nick Brendan's twin Kelly Donohue was in the episode or playing him. They truly are identical twins - I couldn't tell them apart. And Brendan is an underrated actor.
Book Meme
1. Still reading "The Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem" - which is spending way too much time developing a romance between a newspaper owner and a police inspector, and not enough time on the friendship between two female journalists, investigating the murder, and well the promised mischief and mayhem. I may jump over to the Ill-Manner Ladies Guide to Utter Ruin Book 2 instead. Or Gideon The Ninth.
2. Am making more headway listening to the Paul Newman memoir - which is all the transcripts of all the audio recordings. (Newman burned the audio recordings in a fit of self-revulsion and embarrassment (he was a private man, and not comfortable talking about himself), but, alas they were all transcribed by his best friend a year or so prior to the burning and his kids found them a few years after both he and his friend died, and after much hemming and hawing, decided to publish them in a book - they also gave them to the actor and director Ethan Hawk (for reasons that I fail to completely understand) to make a documentary. This by the way proves that I'm wrong about why Hawk didn't delve into Paul's relationships with his family and siblings and the Sporting Goods Store. It wasn't because he didn't have access or was necessarily forbidden? I think it was because it was already in the memoir and already out there and didn't interest Hawk, the actor and director, all that much? Actors and Directors tend to be somewhat introspective and self-involved? And like to well talk about their own field more than dysfunctional families and Sporting Goods Stores? Hawk focused on what interested Hawk and ignored everything else.)
I started this after I finished re-listening to Graphic Audio's dramatization of the entire Kate Daniels Magic Series - which is excellent by the way. It has a full cast. Like a movie in your mind.
The Newman Memoir (it has a lengthy title that I can't remember - so I'm calling it the Newman Memoir) - contains all the things that didn't make it into the documentary and then some. Currently on his family life, his relationship with his mother and father, his childhood, etc. We get an explanation as to why he and his brother banged their heads on the walls. Also his difficulty it expressing emotion. His parents were both, according to Paul Newman, mentally ill. What makes the memoir interesting - is we get other people's takes on this. It reminds me a lot of Robert Altman's memoir in this fashion. In that, we don't just get Paul's ruminations on his life, and views, but everyone else's as well. They interviewed EVERYBODY (well everyone who was alive at any rate). His aunt discusses his parents, for example, and has a completely different take on their relationship and background than Paul's.
This is interesting. His father wanted to be a writer, and was an excellent journalist, but got talked into running a Sporting Goods Department Store with his friend. Newman & Stern Sporting Goods. It was rather successful - during the depression - because Newman's father was able to sell things on consignment. So, if you have questions not answered by the documentary? Look into the memoir.
Called the optometrist to find out what the status was on my contacts, which I'd ordered way back on November 8. I left two messages.
Optometrist: We didn't order any contacts for you.
Me: Yes, you did. Either that or it was an incredibly expensive exam.
Optometrist: Let me check - oh, wait, yes, we did. (flustered). My mistake. Sorry about that. I'll look into it and get back to you.
ME: Whew. You had me worried. Considering I ordered them way back on November 8 - they should be ready by now, that was over a month ago.
Optometrist: Yes, yes, we're so sorry. We'll get back to you.
How much you want to bet that that order hadn't gone through in November or they stupidly gave it to someone else and now have to order them again? Thank god, I have enough for another two-three months.
People are stressing me out. Work is always stressful at this time of year - our fiscal year ends in December, so there's this mad rush by all the idiotic procrastinators to send work my way. (I don't procrastinate at work, elsewhere yes, but not at work.) Honestly, sometimes I wish I could take off sometime around November to some exotic island somewhere, and not return until March 30. Solves the seasonal depression issue, and the anxiety issue. I am prone to seasonal depression because I need sunlight and blue skies. Drab, gray, rainy skies make me hurt and depress me. Hence the reason I don't live further north than NYC, nor in the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, or Canada. I don't mind darkness at night? But I need sunshine.
**
Buffy S5 Rewatch ( Buffy is my mental health/comfort series, particularly the later seasons. I don't know why exactly? But something about it comforts me when I get stressed, frustrated or depressed. More than anything else. It's one of those things that you either get or you don't?)
The Replacement - Season 5, Episode 3. The first three episodes spend a lot of time setting the stage for what is coming, and setting up the characters, also depending on the previous year - placing the characters in either a good spot or a bad one. You can always tell how the season will end, based on where everyone is in the beginning of the season. If a character is isolated from everyone in the beginning of the season - they won't be at the end for example? Or if a character is happy, and in a relationship, and seemingly doing great - they won't be at the end. They also set the tone and the theme. It's pretty clear by the time we get to this episode that this season is about duality.
And yet another episode that changes the set design. Along with costume design for some characters, notably Giles (who thank heavens is no longer in the ratty sweaters) and Xander (who graduates from the Hawaiian shirts and clownish costumes - mainly in this episode). Buffy also begins to change her look a bit. Everyone else is pretty much the same.
For set design? We go from Xander's horrible basement to an apartment, which takes us through the end of the series for the most part. The first three episodes - provide new sets. Buffy's room, Dawn's room, the kitchen, living room, and house takes the place of her dorm room and Riley's frat house. Also the college campus is for the most part gone now - replaced mainly by the Magic Shop (which continues through S6). The Magic Shop for the most part takes the place of Giles flat (which is still there just not as prominent), and now, we have Xander's apartment. Also for the first time we see Anya's apartment or the place she lives in when she's not with Xander. In addition, it's made clear that Willow has moved in with Tara (although Tara is nowhere to be seen in this episode - odd that, not sure why she's not around), but we do get Tara and Willow's living quarters. (I honestly think they just refurbished OZ's room).
Buffy, by the way, had more money than Angel did. I realized this when James Marsters let it slip in a Q&A with Michael Rosenbloom on Inside podcasts. He stated that Whedon had told him that Angel didn't have nearly as much money as Buffy did, so they may not be able to pay him as much when he came over. He refused to make less than he did on Buffy (I don't blame him, I've refused jobs for the same reasons.) Kind of amazing, when you think about the level of special effects, sets etc - considering how low budget it was. George Lucas visited the sets and production - just to see how they accomplished it.
Anyhow, take-aways upon re-watch.
I like this episode better now than I had previously. It oddly dates well, unlike a lot of Xander episodes. Also Xander is far more likable and relatable now.
I kind of feel sorry for Xander? He keeps losing his male friends. First Oz takes off. And now, Riley has one foot out the door. Soon he'll be down to Spike and Giles.
This episode makes it clear how oblivious both Buffy and Anya are to Xander's situation. - ie. his highly dysfunctional family, and abusive parents. Buffy because she grew up with it and is used to it. Anya because she's a 1000 year old demon. Xander is constantly trying to hide his family from his friends, and it's not really until S3 that we get an inkling that they are a problem. In S4 it becomes abundantly more clear - particularly in his dream, where the monster in Xander's dream isn't the First Slayer, but his father, at the top of the steps. Here, it pops up again.
We're in Xander's point of view in this episode, usually it's Buffy's, but we swing out of her point of view and into Xander's. The previous episode - we were in Dawn's point of view. From Xander's perspective, Buffy is oblivious to his situation and doesn't really see him or Riley. Xander doesn't really notice or see Spike (so he's very briefly seen and at the junk dump rummaging for supplies). Xander is clearly jealous of Riley.
And of all his friends - he feels Willow knows him the best.
Riley confides in Xander at the end of the episode, and what he states - shocks Xander and well, I think the audience? He tells Xander that for him the moon rises and sets with Buffy, he's so in love with her that he can't see straight, but she doesn't love him. And I'm thinking okay, what? Why do you think that? We've been in Buffy's point of view for the most part, and I'm not picking up on the fact that she doesn't love Riley?
This reminds me of something? I don't know if you've ever had this experience while dating or in relationships? But the person you are involved with - wants something from you that you can't give them, and because of that...they either decide you don't love them or don't care or you aren't worth it? You don't know what it is that they want. Or it is just something that you can't possibly give them?
That's the problem here. And Buffy kind of tries to address it with Riley but he shrugs it off. "Are you certain you wouldn't rather have normal Buffy than Slayer Buffy?" Riley says, of course not, he loves Slayer Buffy.
But does he?
Buffy has a lot going on. She has school. She is the slayer. She has her friends. She has a sister. Her life is always upturned by mystical things outside of her control, and weird prophecies (see sister). Riley on the other hand doesn't? He is a former military guy in college, with some friends from the military days. And a family in Iowa. He's making Buffy and her friends and her mission - the center of his world, and that kind of goes against his rather chauvinistic upbringing. Keep in mind, Riley went from being the leader of a military strike team, with a secret identity, all male squad, no women, frat house as a cover, and the only woman he dealt with a psychologist and scientist, to being the boyfriend of a one woman strike team. Not only that? But he found Buffy to be peculiar and didn't really like her until Walsh told him she did.
All of that aside? It's kind of clear at this point that the writers want to get rid of Riley and have no clue what to do with the character. They really didn't know what to do with military characters. And the Buffy/Riley romance is kind of bland? It's almost too normal? And there's not a lot of friction - which is why Riley stating that Buffy doesn't really love him is a WTF moment. There's no angst. No friction. No real conflict. They don't fight that much if at all. She trusts him for the most part. I fail to see the problem, here, Riley? As does Xander.
I can't help but wonder if Dawn's introduction to the story - threw all the characters off a bit? And maybe Riley would have stayed, if Dawn hadn't showed up? Would Buffy stayed together with Riley, maybe moved to Iowa after her Mom's death, if Dawn didn't exist? Dawn's kind of a clever plot twist - or scramble to the character's journeys, if I think about it.
Xander also admits for the first time in this episode that he needs Anya, and cares for Anya. He gets the apartment not just for himself but also for Anya. Anya, also, laments how she's vulnerable and can be hurt. Last episode - she dislocated her shoulder trying to protect Dawn from vampires.
After 1000 years of being invulnerable, she's vulnerable again.
Willow shows how scarily competent and powerful she's become as a witch. While Giles mumbles and stumbles along, Willow figures out the simplicity of the spell - quickly. As the episodes progress - it becomes increasingly apparently how ineffectual Giles is - and that in many ways the characters have surpassed him. Giles also hasn't helped Willow or mentored her with her magic, even though she requested it in the first episode. Buffy pulls him back to Sunnydale in the first episode, not Willow. Willow's abilities should bother Giles, along with her increasing use of magic, but it doesn't. Tara isn't in the episode, and Willow does the spell with Giles assistance.
At any rate, I liked this episode better this round than previously. Also, I could not tell that Nick Brendan's twin Kelly Donohue was in the episode or playing him. They truly are identical twins - I couldn't tell them apart. And Brendan is an underrated actor.
Book Meme
1. Still reading "The Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem" - which is spending way too much time developing a romance between a newspaper owner and a police inspector, and not enough time on the friendship between two female journalists, investigating the murder, and well the promised mischief and mayhem. I may jump over to the Ill-Manner Ladies Guide to Utter Ruin Book 2 instead. Or Gideon The Ninth.
2. Am making more headway listening to the Paul Newman memoir - which is all the transcripts of all the audio recordings. (Newman burned the audio recordings in a fit of self-revulsion and embarrassment (he was a private man, and not comfortable talking about himself), but, alas they were all transcribed by his best friend a year or so prior to the burning and his kids found them a few years after both he and his friend died, and after much hemming and hawing, decided to publish them in a book - they also gave them to the actor and director Ethan Hawk (for reasons that I fail to completely understand) to make a documentary. This by the way proves that I'm wrong about why Hawk didn't delve into Paul's relationships with his family and siblings and the Sporting Goods Store. It wasn't because he didn't have access or was necessarily forbidden? I think it was because it was already in the memoir and already out there and didn't interest Hawk, the actor and director, all that much? Actors and Directors tend to be somewhat introspective and self-involved? And like to well talk about their own field more than dysfunctional families and Sporting Goods Stores? Hawk focused on what interested Hawk and ignored everything else.)
I started this after I finished re-listening to Graphic Audio's dramatization of the entire Kate Daniels Magic Series - which is excellent by the way. It has a full cast. Like a movie in your mind.
The Newman Memoir (it has a lengthy title that I can't remember - so I'm calling it the Newman Memoir) - contains all the things that didn't make it into the documentary and then some. Currently on his family life, his relationship with his mother and father, his childhood, etc. We get an explanation as to why he and his brother banged their heads on the walls. Also his difficulty it expressing emotion. His parents were both, according to Paul Newman, mentally ill. What makes the memoir interesting - is we get other people's takes on this. It reminds me a lot of Robert Altman's memoir in this fashion. In that, we don't just get Paul's ruminations on his life, and views, but everyone else's as well. They interviewed EVERYBODY (well everyone who was alive at any rate). His aunt discusses his parents, for example, and has a completely different take on their relationship and background than Paul's.
This is interesting. His father wanted to be a writer, and was an excellent journalist, but got talked into running a Sporting Goods Department Store with his friend. Newman & Stern Sporting Goods. It was rather successful - during the depression - because Newman's father was able to sell things on consignment. So, if you have questions not answered by the documentary? Look into the memoir.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-05 12:52 am (UTC)Service is getting worse everywhere. I got 2 pairs of new glasses a few weeks ago, as in I had the exam and ordered the glasses. The assistant had to go back to the optometrist because she'd entered information incorrectly which became obvious when the assistant was trying to input it into the order form.
I strongly suspect it's for the glasses which are not working for me. My computer glasses need to work at a distance of 25-30 inches. Instead, they only work at about 12 inches. I tried using them for a week, thinking that my eyes were just adjusting to the new lenses but it's not that. And I know I told the optometrist quite clearly the distance that was needed.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-06 01:11 am (UTC)But I agree - customer service has been breaking down across the board, as is management practices. People are getting lazy and can't be bothered to check things, or something. I've had issues with scheduling appointments for a while now. I think it's all this new technology which is being updated rapidly - too rapidly for folks to keep up, and add AI to the mix...
My computer glasses need to work at a distance of 25-30 inches. Instead, they only work at about 12 inches. I tried using them for a week, thinking that my eyes were just adjusting to the new lenses but it's not that. And I know I told the optometrist quite clearly the distance that was needed.
Interesting. This may explain why I can see the computer with some reading/computer glasses and not others. I have about twenty pairs of cheap reading glasses that I switch back and forth. Some work at reading labels, but not for computer, and some for computer but not reading other things.