Spontaneous Musings

1. FB, Instagram, and Youtube want me to buy a Mellow Cloud Pillow for some absurd reason. I've been pummeled with ads on it on all three. The evil marketing people have figured out how to manipulate us into buying things via social media platforms. Must resist. Otherwise they win. I do not need a Mellow ergonomic pillow - also been there done that, and they never work for me.

2. After re-watching all of Buffy and up to Angel S5 Episode 17, I've picked up on a few things that I feel compelled to share...

* For a low-budget television series done in the 1990s-early 00s, and at a fast pace, with 22 episodes per season, not to mention being on the brink of cancellation? These series are brilliant in many ways - almost flawless in acting, stunts, special effects, and dialogue. ( Read more... )

* The best character arcs are - Spike on Buffy and Wes on Angel. And they both have one thing in common - outside of the fact that they are both in the Buffyverse - Whedon had no idea what he was going to do with either character, how they fit into the story, or plot. Interestingly enough? Whedon did carefully plot out all the others - specifically Cordelia and Willow, and was proud of it. But, ironically, Cordelia and Willow have the worst character arcs - neither quite works, both are clumsy, and both rely way too much on possession by an outside source and comic book gimmickry. (ie. Whedon spent too much time obsessing over Dark Phoenix for his own good.)
( Read more... )
* Angel can't be redeemed because he's too busy fighting with himself to get anywhere. ( Read more... )

3. My soap opera is aggravating me, which is par for the course with soap operas, they tend to be that way by nature? I watch them because I get invested in various characters.

The Pitt, on the other hand, is excellent and my favorite television show at the moment. It's very comforting. Also it looks exactly like the ER's that I've been inside of in NYC. Certainly looks a lot like the one in NYU Langone. It's about problem solving in crisis mode. And shows a lot of kindness. Very nice antidote to my rising misanthropy - caused by a combination of factors, public transportation, crazy org, national news (the small scraps I get), and the soap opera. Also social media platforms (not this one - Dreamwidth is kind of an oasis in a sea of negativity and ads.).

4. A co-worker (Moscow Co-worker) sent the following article link to myself, Breaking Bad, and various other co-workers for our reading pleasure.

"For you reading pleasure (long article that spooked some people yesterday):"2028 Global Intelligence Crisis

To which Breaking Bad replied: "Way too long and technical for me."

Sigh. It is. It's also about how AI is taking away our jobs and evil tech revolution is taking away jobs ....reminds me of the industrial revolution.
No wonder it scared folks.

Actually, if you've studied history (specifically between 1870s-1980s) and have a mind for pattern recognition, you may realize how incredibly similar the two trajectories are. I'm not sure if that's comforting or not? Does kind of promote a feeling of general misanthropy and malaise. But hey, at least we know if things get worse than the height of the industrial revolution (that was the atomic bomb and WWI and II), we're all dead.

And on that happy note - I'm off to bed, hopefully to sleep and not dream overly much.

I should do my taxes but I am procrastinating. But I need to do it, so that Turbo Tax will stop nudging me to do it. I miss the days in which everyone trying to sell me something didn't have my email address.

Knee has been bugging me off and on today - I did laundry and alas, had to stand to do it. For a long while. My knees don't like it when I stand for longer than ten minutes. I stood for thirty. Suffice to say? They weren't happy campers.

Television Bits and Pieces:

David Boreanze cast as the lead in the Rockford Files Reboot by NBC

( cut )

Can we just not? I told mother, who loved the Rockford Files when it first aired.. in the mid-70s, actually, I enjoyed them in reruns and whenever I saw it at night. And my father loved it - it was among his favorite shows. For those who don't know what it is? It was a private detective series, featuring a down-on-his-luck PI. Reminded me a little of the Trevor McGee mysteries.

Me: So they are rebooting the Rockford Files, you'll never guess who they cast in the lead..
Mother: probably not.
Me: David Boreanze - the guy who played Angel.
Mother: Ugh. You've got to be kidding me? Well, that's one show I will definitely not be watching. Boreanze is all wrong for the part - he doesn't have the sense of humor that Garner had.

True. James Marsters has that same dead pan sense of humor, as does Nathan Fillion and Jensen Anckles, not David Boreanze.

Oh well, at least this means that it is highly unlikely that he'll appear in the Buffy Sequel.

But I really wish they wouldn't reboot "good" old television series. There's a list of classic television series that should NEVER be rebooted: Rockford Files, Gunsmoke, the Original Star Trek, The Prisoner, MASH, Fraiser, Hill Street Blues, Homicide Life on the Street, ER, LA Law, St. Elsewhere, Gilmore Girls, Friends, I Love Lucy, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy, Rhoda, The Mary Tyler Moor Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Supernatural... leave the classics alone folks. Come up with something original?

I don't necessarily mind sequels? Although I'm not watching Scrubs (I barely watched the original.).

***

Almost done with the Buffy S7 rewatch, yet woefully behind on the Angel S4 one. Mainly because Angel S4 kind of goes off the rails post Orpheus, and I find it hard to watch? (All the character plot holes give me a headache.) ( Read more... )

Buffy S7's problem is too many characters, while Angel's is comic book/soap plotting that kind of gets garbled in translation. I can see why the network was flirting with cancelling Angel in S4.
( Buffy S7 Empty Places to part of End of Days )

Off to make something for dinner. I don't know what, but I'll come up with something. Maybe salmon with broccoli.

Mother told me all about what my niece is up to. Apparently she has a new boyfriend - a California Forest Ranger, who she met last year. (She's also living with a guy, but he's not her boyfriend, and he's apparently writing a book for his thesis - it's not clear if it is fiction or non-fiction. I'm guessing non-fiction?) And she's come up with an idea for an investigative journalism piece on the political corruption surround fire retardation use and how forest fires are put out or not as the case may be. Her advisor is excited about it - he wants her to pursue journalism and writing. (She's an excellent writer). Statistics is causing her difficulty though - apparently no one in our immediate family has the math gene? She finds calculus and statistics boring, and it doesn't make a lot of sense. (I can relate.)

Feeling rather bored and apathetic with my own life at the moment, not helped by the bad knee, which refuses to get better and makes it difficult to do much of anything but get to and from work, and the occasional errand (including physical therapy). It still hurts. Although my physical therapist, Vishanti, appears to think it is getting stronger and better, so there's that at least. Also, it's warming up - a little outside?
It reached a rather balmy 41 degrees F today, and a low of 29 F.

After some negotiation - I finally managed to convince the Super to turn off the sparkling brand new radiator that they installed in my kitchen. It's black. It takes up more space than I'd like? But I think I can fit a small cabinet in front of it. And since it's turned off - I cancelled my purchase of the window fan. Also it's not quite as warm in the apartment at the moment as it was last night, which made it difficult to sleep. Although the radiators are blasting now - so that could always change?

Every day on my commute, I run across old homeless folks. Today, it was an old white woman, who looked a bit like a gnome. ( Read more... )

Sometimes I think - if I can just help one person in this world. Then maybe the rest won't matter? See? George Bailey moment. [If you don't get it? Look it up. We have the internet - it's easy. Hint: it's a cultural reference from a 1940s Christmas Movie starring Jimmy Stewart. ;-)].

***

Question a Day Meme

8. How often do you read fiction?

95% of the time. I also write it. And tell it in my head. And listen to it on audio-book, and read graphic novels or comics that are fictional.

I read non-fiction for work. Fiction for pleasure.

9. This year is the 40th anniversary of the release of the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – have you ever seen it? Bueller…. Bueller…. Bueller…..

Yes. I saw it in the movie theater when it first came out - admittedly with the wrong person (my mother - which ahem, not a movie to see with one's mother). And numerous times on television.

40 years? Damn. I feel old. It was, I think, a 1980s John Hughes film. John Hughes was the King of teen flicks in the 1980s, he, Francis Ford Coppola and a few others - kind of redefined teen cinema.

It grated though - because I identified a bit too much with Ferris' sister.
That said? Required back to back viewing is Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Election - where Broderick is the stumbling adult, to Reese Witherspoon's ambitious and annoying teen.

10. Have you ever owned a Tamagotchi?

I had to look it up - because I had no clue what it was. So clearly no.

Tamagotchi can be found here. Hint? It kind of reminds me of the electronic version of what they were trying to give out in the Buffy Episode Bad Eggs. If it had been electronic - Bad Eggs would have gone VERY differently.

11. Would you consider yourself superstitious?

Not really. I might flirt with it - but I am a born skeptic. I question everything. So no, not superstitious.

Not been sleeping well - last night was a combination of digestive issues and a weird vibrating noise. The apartment complex next door - from as well as I can figure - had turned on some sort of ice melt machine or generator that was generating a high pitched vibrating hum. At first I thought it was my window air conditioning unit - it wasn't. Took me a while to figure it out - the Super's wife coming outside into the courtyard in her winter coat, cloves and boots - shouting at the folks in the complex next door went a long ways towards explaining it. (This was at midnight. And they had the light on for a bit.) It didn't stop. So, I put on my noise cancelling headphones and some music, and that helped for a while. Finally around 6 or 7 am, I think, it stopped. It had been going on since 8pm last night. Was making me crazy and from the Super's response, not to mention the lit windows across the way - I'm guessing I wasn't the only one? The noise cancelling headphones were the only thing that helped. Earplugs weren't enough. The multitude of things people do on a daily or hourly basis to benefit themselves that unwittingly injure or hurt others is mind blowing.
Anyhow, I'm grateful for the noise cancelling headphones - they aren't cheap but worth every penny. I have to update every three or four years.

Took a personal day or snow day - today. And since I slept abysmally due to the above, I'm grateful for it. Accomplished a few items - I did laundry, including a comforter sitting at the foot of my bed (and no one was down there until I'd finished my last load - the comforter). Also got the blood sugar doctor's visit out of the way. Wants to see me again in May - via video chat. We spend five to six minutes chatting - so it really makes no sense not to do it virtually.

Came home - watched more Buffy S7 and Angel S4, and even with lowered expectations, Buffy S7 is so much better than Angel S4. (It's the Cordelia arc - the actress isn't selling it. ( Read more... )

Buffy S7 works better when the potential slayers aren't on screen. I think it suffered from the same issues that S6, and to a degree S3 did. Too many characters, and group scenes. S4 also had that problem. Some television writers/directors can do group scenes well - the Mutant Enemy writers weren't among them. And S7 had the same problem with extraneous characters that S6 does, which is they aren't well developed, with a few possible exceptions. The potential slayers - I don't care about, with the exception of Kennedy. They are more annoying than interesting. S7 has one too many annoying characters for its own good. And at this point? I'm about ready to send Dawn, Andrew, and Anya off together with the potentials.

I did notice something this time around that I hadn't previously - which is that Giles actually does touch things. ( Read more... )

With lowered expectations and anticipation - the series is more enjoyable. (Also helps if you are no longer invested in any of the romantic entanglements and just enjoying them while they last and how they further the story-thread. This is not a good show to become invested in romantic relationships - the writers are kind of brutal to them?) The difficulty with becoming overly obsessed with a television series - to the extent of writing essays, meta, or fanfic about it - is wanting it to play out the way it is in your head? Or have high expectations regarding it. Or getting to caught up in minor details. And forgetting at the end of the day, it's a television serial with a limited budget, produced/acted/and written in an abbreviated amount of time, and writers who may have a different story in mind. After all, it's their story not ours? They are just sharing it with us.

That said? The Killer in Me, Buffy S7 - is a really interesting and good episode. Much better than I remembered. And I actually really like the Kennedy/Willow pairing (better actually than her previous pairings, just because it feels like the characters are on equal footing, and Kennedy isn't judging Willow) and I like Kennedy, who is the only potential who has a personality and has been rounded out as a character. (I think the fandom hated the character because they were too invested in the Oz/Willow and Willow/Tara pairings - again this is not a good show to get invested in romantic pairings.) ( thoughts on Killer in Me )

Another takeaway from this episode and the season? The writers go out of their way to make it clear that Willow is "Gay" not "bisexual". ( Read more... )

***

Also watched Supersymmetry through Awakening. There's some good episodes in Angel S4. ( Read more... )


****

Question a Day Meme

24. Have you ever knitted a garment or had one knitted for you?

Yes. My mother knitted me a vest once - it was ugly. But I wore it for a while anyhow. I've also knitted hats (poorly), scarves (okay) and two blankets (expensive).

25. It’s Burn’s Night – a night to celebrate Robert Burns and all things Scottish. Do you like Scotch whisky or do you prefer Irish Whiskey?

No. I don't drink or like Whiskey. It plays havoc with my body. I'm gluten intolerant/ceiliac - and can't drink anything made with wheat, rye, or barely, apparently the glutens are still a problem - even if they are fermented.

26. It’s Australia Day! What do you think of when you think of Australia?

I love Australia. I visited Australia for about a month around Christmas and New Years in 1990. ( Read more... )

Had today off - since it's MLK's Birthday. (It's also a day of service, but alas, I'm being insanely lazy and resting my knees.)

Found out last night that my niece passed her EMT training and is a now a certified EMT. Also she may end up in Georgia at some point in May, with a course on how to prevent fires by setting them (burning off brush). My lovely niece is well on the way towards her goal of becoming a forest ranger. It's actually easier to protect trees than people. People are difficult. So, I'm glad she shifted from human rights to environmental protection and forestry.

I'm really enjoying my re-watch of Buffy and Angel. The later seasons hold up better than the earlier ones do - partly because the later seasons were done in the early 00s and not the late 1990s. So while there's still the errant - "I ran like a girl" - the other characters snort at it.

Season 7 and Season 4 Angel actually have some well-written episodes in there. Deep Down - S4 Angel, where Wes searches the ocean for Angel and rescues him, and Angel, Gunn and Fred confront Connor is a good episode. And Wes has become very interesting.

Also, the first episodes of S7 are really good. I find the series more entertaining now than I did when I initially watched it. Maybe because while I don't remember most of the details, I remember the final result, so don't have quite the same anticipation or worry that I had when I first watched it - when it aired for the first time in 1997-2003. Also, I'm not as invested in the romantic "ships"? I know they are all doomed. So, it's comforting in a way it wasn't back then. And, I'm not trying to figure out where it is going, or pulling it apart like a puzzle to figure out what will happen next. There's something to be said for not over-analyzing the plots of television shows?

Buffy S7 Takeaways?
( Lessons through Beneath ME )

And Angel S4 is more enjoyable than I remembered. It's kind of obvious though that the writers are writing out Cordelia.( Read more... )

Wes's arc is more enjoyable than Cordelia's. ( Read more... )

They brought in Gwen to chemistry test her against Angel and Gunn, as a potential replacement for Cordelia - I can tell. She got a back story and everything.

I don't remember most of this - or enjoying it nearly this much.

**

Outside of television watching - I did another watercolor. Not perfect. This is of a confrontation between a little old woman with a walker and big truck that I saw ages ago in Jamaica, but can still visualize.

Another difficult commute - I swear, me and Transit are going to have words one of these days. (Considering I currently inhabit the same building that they inhabit - it could actually happen. Possibly in an elevator or in a hallway.) The R train was running with delays and on other tracks, skipping Whitehall Street again this evening. I wish I knew before I hobbled down the eight flights of steps. Someone pulled the Emergency Break again. So, ended up taking the 4 to Borough Hall Brooklyn and walked 10 blocks to Bergen, took the G home. The 4/5 also had delays due to a passenger being hit by a train but seemed to be fine by the time I got there. And the G was running with delays due to a incident with a train being taken out of service somewhere on 21st Street in North Brooklyn. Plus they had a police officer patrolling the G train. Knee was bothering by the time I got there - so icing. Hopefully can do exercises after dinner. Did exercises at work at least.

It's hard to find the time to fit them in, with work. Also hard to do the cardiac activity necessary to lose weight. Stupid knees.

My 83 year old mother is doing fine. I'm the invalid. Turns out a sedentary desk job is tough on the knees.

Oh, digestive issues woke me last night - but, have discovered a concoction that helps a sour stomach. (Gas pains, gastric reflex, and cramping or anything stuck in the esophagus).

1 teaspoon baking soda
Lemon juice
Mixed in a glass of water

It's basically home-brewed alka seltzer, but more effective. Works like a charm - takes about five to ten minutes to work.

Had two decent and reassuring conversations with higher ups today - so I feel a little less sidelined and more valuable than I did previously. They do see me as a valuable resource. (Actually I think Breaking Bad is the one in trouble - and has been for a while now. But I'm not.) I just need to be patient, and keep doing what I've been doing. Being helpful. And keeping my charts up to date.

****

More on Angel/Buffy Rewatch

David Greenwalt in the chat with Holtz, Lindsey, and Lilah actors - stated that Whedon had asked him if he wanted to do work on an Angel spin-off and show-run it for him. It was supposed to be dark and noir - similar in tone to what Greenwalt had previously done with Profit. The actor who played Holtz - came from Profit. Greenwalt asked for Charisma Carpenter - who played Cordelia - because he felt they needed humor and some lightness to the show, which was rather dark in concept. Also apparently they went too dark for the network in the second episode's original/initial script by David Fury - which initially had Angel killing the girl and licking blood off the floor of the bathroom. The network understandably went nuts - and said no, you can't do that.

The actor who played Holtz - brought up how he didn't view his character as a villain. And Greenwalt stated that they tried not to write characters as villains. That's kind of boring. And the other actors chimed in - that you never see your character as a villain, the character doesn't. But it is more fun to play them. Christian Kane (Lindsey) said he looked at it as - you're the company you keep. Lindsey was tainted by WRH. He said having his character be a villain but not quite - made him more fun to play, than to have him be a hero. It's better to have an edge. Romanov (Lilah) agreed.

I'm beginning to understand why I still love these shows - the cast, crew, writers, and fandom are so enjoyable.

**

The characters of Dawn, Riley and Xander with a few exceptions, have the worst episodes in Buffy for some reason. I think the writers either didn't identify with them, over-identified, or didn't know what to do with them? ( Read more... )

***

Angelica Huston memoir - Watch Me, which I'm listening to via audible.
It's well written. She really disliked Ryan O'Neal, who was violent and Huston describes as a bully with no conscience. She'd been in love with him for a bit - and in a very toxic relationship. He beat her and abused her, and it took her a while to break off the relationship and go back to Jack Nicholson.

She also writes about Roman Polanski - whom she lived next door to for a bit, and was friends with. Apparently they tried to get her to testify against Polanski in the "statutory rape" case - by offering her a deal to drop cocaine charges. ( Read more... )

Off to make dinner.

1. Batman casting news...apparently Sebastain Stan has decided to be in both the MCU franchise and the DC franchise, and is the latest to appear in both to date. (Christian Bale did the same thing but in reverse - he appeared as Batman in DC's franchise, and Gor: the God Killer in the Thor films in MCU's franchise.)

Stan has been selected to portray Harvey Dent aka Half and Half in The Batman Part II (the Robert Pattinson Batman films). Actually The Batman was pretty good - in that it focused, for once, more on Batman. And it is clearly taken from Frank Miller's run on the comics - aka Batman Year 1.

Go HERE

If you know anything about the character or the comics, that's actually perfect casting. DC is doing a better job of casting their films than expected. I'm actually looking forward to seeing them.

2. I used a cold compress last night on my knee in bed - to quell the pain in the middle of the night - and it apparently tore in the night. I discovered this when I awoke - and ended up with tiny blue plastic beads on the floor and on the bed. Not too many thankfully, but enough to almost undo all the work that the cold compress had accomplished. Also I liked that cold compress - which alas is in the waste bin. So around 4:30 am, I'm cleaning up the little plastic beads from the floor. Took a while to get back to sleep - and ended up getting up around 8:30 am.

Now, icing again, after doing exercises, and robot vacuuming my apartment.

3. Angel S3 rewatch - Episode 13, Waiting in the Wings - which delves into the doomed romances of Angel. It's the companion piece to Buffy. In case you've never watched any of the Whedon series (Buffy, Angel, Firefly) - a word to the wise? Don't ship the romantic or sexual relationships on them. (Platonic, yes, romantic, no.) They won't end well. There is no such thing as a romantic HEA in a Whedon series. The writers of Buffy/Angel are NOT romance writers. I kept trying to tell people in the fandom this - but they wouldn't listen to me, and sure enough they'd get their little hearts broken. I'm a long running serial fan - happy romantic relationships seldom last on serials.
( Read more... )
All in all, the romances on Buffy work better for me - mainly because they aren't love triangles, and the obstacles are more central to the characters, and less contrived misunderstandings.

4. Reading...

* Working my way through Angelica Huston's autobiography on audible:

Finished "A Story Lately Told: Growing up in Ireland, London, and New York"

and half way into "Watch Me" - about her life in Hollywood, mainly with Jack Nicholson, who ironically discovered his mother was his sister, long after both his mother and grandmother died. (Ironic if you remember the plot of Chinatown - which Nicholson starred in.) ( Read more... )

* Also reading "The Botanist's Assistant" in paperback, but not getting that far - because I'm struggling to focus on reading books at the moment.
Don't know why. Could be the commute is too short and disruptive to read? It's only a 19-20 minute train ride, then off, steps, walk, steps, stand, five minute train ride, walk, there. That's kind of difficult to really read during? And the way my brain works - I need at least ten-fifteen minutes to get into any task, be it reading, writing, what have you.

It's good - so not the book's fault. About an ungainly tall middle-aged female research assistant working in a University botany lab, who discovers her boss's body. Refusing to accept that it was by natural causes, she begins to investigate the death. She also cared for the man, and had a serious crush on him.

Well, some good news? I misread the Bed Bugs notice on the entrance of my apartment building. Not surprising - considering it was in tiny print. ( I brought home my reading glasses from work to read it properly.) I read after I asked a neighbor if we should be worried about it - and he looked at me quizzically, and said, not really, although I'm always concerned.

Then I read it. It stated:

Units: 81
Inspected: All
Infested:0
Cleaned: 0
Number found: 0

And the date of the inspection.

No wonder I was confused. Without my reading glasses, 0's look like 8's and 9's.

I worried about this all day long, went on the internet (which of course made it worse) - and finally convinced myself to read the sign in the lobby again, but with my reading glasses this time around.

Whew. No bed bugs in the building.

***

Now, I just have to figure out the will - first things first complete it, have it reviewed by lawyer, then sent, notarized and witnessed. And try not to worry about the knees. I'm icing both now. And hobbling very slowly up and down steps. Plus side? I'm grateful I moved years ago to this apartment complex - it's highly accessible for folks with ailments. It has a ramp to the entrance, so you can avoid the two steps. Then once inside - two elevators. So I don't have to go up and down the steps. And, I can either do laundry in the basement or send it out to be down - still without having to go up and down steps. I can also order food to be delivered to me.
Not certain about pharmaceuticals (other places yes, just not sure about my pharmacy).

***

Thought about the Spike/Buffy ("Spuffy") and Angel/Cordy ("Cangel") relationships, and ( Read more... )

I liked how the writers delved in the nasty consequences of using another person to "get off" or using sex as a drug. While alcohol and other drugs - are problematic, using sex as a drug is kind of similar to vampirism - in that you are using someone, with little care to how they feel, to get yourself off. Our society tends to handwave that - or generalize and state all consensual and kinky sex is bad, ie demonize the people and the act of sex (particularly if the act varies from whatever is considered the norm). (Let's face it - our global society and culture has serious issues regarding sex and sexual behavior. Always has. They also like to generalize (no despite what people might think we all don't experience sex the same way, our bodies are very different from each other, and no two people experience or need the same thing in regards to it, everyone is different). Part of our problem is - we can't talk about it in a way that doesn't involve ribald humor or running for the hills. A lot of folks can't say the words vagina and penis. And come up with other words for these parts of their anatomy.) One of the things I loved about Buffy is how the writers satirized societal views regarding sex and the culture's relationship to sex. ( Read more... )

Getting slightly more done today. Did exercises - minimal. Made up the bed (well do that every day). Made breakfast and lunch. Cleaned the air fryer - it has a self-cleaning mechanism. Refilled the humidifier. And finished my water color - finally, knitted a lop-sided scarf, and edited a bit more of my work in progress, which may never see the light of day.

Also binged a bunch of Angel S3 and Buffy S6 episodes. I'm remembering why I gave up on Angel S3 now - oh dear god, it has some really bad episodes. Worse than S1, and that's saying something. Buffy S6 is the better of the two seasons, and I really love the beginning of this seasons - I'd forgotten how much. I find it highly relatable. It's also oddly realistic, the most realistic of all the seasons actually - in how it is shot and written.

That said, Angel S3 does have some good episodes in the mix - most of the good ones center on Angel, Cordelia or Wes. Carpe Diam - Angel S3 Episode 3 or 4, about Marcus, the old guy in the retirement home who is using a spell to jump into young male bodies, until he burns through them. It reminded me a little of Lonely Hearts, S1. ( Read more... )

They handle Buffy/Angel reunion oddly? ( Read more... )

Also they appear to be paralleling or comparing Cordy holding onto to her visions, to Angel holding onto being a vampire with a soul. Both are given at different points in the series - the opportunity to lose this gift. Both refuse, and see it as the only way they can be champions or chosen. It's not really a selfless act. Or the writers are questioning it.

The most frustrating thing in Buffy S6, actually is what makes it work the best - which is her friends inability or unwillingness to help her. I think she asked Angel for help - and he turned her down. ( Read more... )

Ah, it's 5:16pm and dark. So off to make dinner. I think.

Had another PT appointment on Monday, which...went okay, I guess? ( Read more... )

Work party and work in general made me want to walk out the door and retire today. But alas, I can't. I'm not positive, but I have a feeling Breaking Bad felt much the same way.
( Read more... )
Today was my father's birthday - which FB decided to alert me to. Annoying considering my father was never on FB and disliked it. My father, had he lived, would have turned 90. He died in 2022 at the age of 86 just short of his 87th birthday.

So feeling a bit down and out today. Not helped by the bitter cold snap plaguing New York and the East Coast at the moment. It was 18 F degrees this morning, I think that is -6 C. Tomorrow it is supposed to get up to 45 and possibly rain, practically balmy.
****

Buffy S5 Rewatch

Episode S5.4 Out of My Mind

Definitely enjoying Angel more this go-around, probably because I've watched this season one too many times? That said, the dialogue in this episode for the most part is rather good. And there are some good bits here and there.

The episode is mainly about Riley and Spike.
( Read more... )

Off to bed and other things.