somniloquence

A lot has happened since the last time I posted. None of it especially great. I will start with the better stuff, though. I have been watching a lot of things on TV because I have HBO, Showtime, and Paramount Plus for a short time, so have been catching up on the buzzy HBO shows and the Trek shows on P+, most of which I've been a bit meh about, but am close to finishing Picard to get ready for its third season. Recently I watched Station Eleven to go along with my other post-apocalypse show, The Last of Us. If you'd told me I was going to get into a fucking zombie show based on a fucking video game (I hate video games) and then fall head over heels for a Nick Offerman character, I would have sneered at you, but here we are. I started watching TLOU for Pedro Pascal, found out there was bonus Anna Torv, and then the third episode wrecked me so much and I loved it so much and I just...well, as I said, here we are.

( The Last of Us episode 3 and other show spoilers )

Anyway, there's not a lot of zombie crap in the episode and if you're worried about watching it, and jump scares, etc., I would happily tell you when to FF or look away if you are curious to watch it. If for nothing else, the line "Not today, you New World Order jackboot fucks" is worth it alone. Ugh, Bill + Frank 4ever

And then there was Station Eleven, ( A different kind of apocalypse )

Anyway, it's been nice to have stuff to watch, because life is pretty scary right now.
( Bad health stuff )

None of which is helped by that fact that I have fast-growing cataracts and I can't see anything! ( cut for vision stuff )

All of this feels way too flaily. I suppose that's why I'm so caught up in gay middle-age men romancing each other in the zombie apocalypse.

A few years ago, I noticed my plasma TV was going bad: it had a pink splotch at the bottom that showed up whenever there was white on the screen, and then it started interfering with closed captions or subtitles, making them pink. Then it got bigger and bigger, and then there was this cyan blue bloom toward the top third that showed up whenever there was bright white on the screen, which, if you enjoy home improvement shows like I do, was definitely a problem. I didn't really have the funds to replace it, and besides, LCD TVs don't do blacks very well and I am super fussy about that, as well as being able to see things from many angles. The television I wanted was an OLED, which had the best blacks and best color settings, but they never come down in price enough and never below $1,500 and I just couldn't spend that much on a TV, much as I wanted to.

Fortunately, Mister minim_calibre was also fussy about blacks and color settings and did all the research for me and discovered the TCL series 6, which is also a set that offers the Roku built in to it. In December, Costco had finally started carrying it (I"d put off buying it even as my plasma continued to die, because I hate Best Buy so much), and they had a super low price, so I bit the bullet and got one. I've really liked my Roku device all these years, and once I got over the annoying hurdle of figuring out logins for all the other apps I had on my old Roku, get everything set up and can now watch 4k things through it, which is really nice.

The blacks are definitely good, and the color settings are pretty decent, though I still hate the soap opera effect of smart TVs with the white-hot fury of a thousand burning suns and even with the motion smoothing turned off, many shows that are slightly sped up or on certain channels will still show up with that godawful flat video tape look. The other thing I still haven't learned to accept is that if you're not within a certain angle of the screen, it gets washed out--you can't view these from the side like a plasma, and it's annoying because my work recliney chair is off to the side of the room.

But if you're looking for a good 4k TV with streaming capabilities and smart settings, I'd definitely recommend the TCL series 6. The other thing I noticed, when it was super hot the other day, is that I can have the TV on almost all day and it never heats up the room--plasmas were notorious energy hogs that got super hot, and when it was warm out, boy did I notice that, since my work chair is so close to the TV cabinet. And I'm also super grateful to have a working TV now that I'm stuck at home without being able to, as the subject line mentions, see anyone's face at my door.

Anyways, that leads me to this: Now I have a freestanding Roku 3 (4200x) device for sale, if anyone here is interested, before I throw it up online. It's this one here and comes with everything except the box--hdmi cable, power cord, purple headphones that plug into the remote (never used), remote wrist strap, and booklet. The remote has some surface scratches from use, but works great, and the device has been factory reset but has the latest firmware. If you're interested, let me know--I'm thinking about $25 plus postage.

There's a bun living in my backyard! I thought the first time I saw it, it was just random chance, and then I saw it again, darting out of the same spot, and then today, Blues and I were enjoying the hot weather (well, I should say breeze in the hot weather) and pulling some weeds, and he chased it out of the daylilies again. So it's pretty clear that it's decided my overgrown jungle that is a huge embarrassment to me is perfect for a dosh. It's so tiny and cute, I'm going to try to get a pic of it if I can, but I haven't been able to purposely find it when I've looked.

Not much happening other than terrible things, so I thought I'd write about stuff I've been watching.

( Gentleman Jack )

( Chernobyl )

( Deadwood: The Movie )

( Good Omens )

( Project Runway )

( Schitt's Creek )

I keep meaning to post about all the stuff I've been watching or seeing in theatres, but then I start to forget stuff or get lazy. This is by no means an exhaustive list, because I can't recall everything, but I'm trying to get back in the habit of posting.

Movies:
I never ended up posting anything much about Avengers: Infinity War because honestly, it was a disappointment and just like Civil War, the more I thought about it, the more upset I got. I've seen it three times, and I keep meaning to go again, because there's a lot visually happening that I miss each time, but it just depresses me so much. It's not the deaths that will be undone, although I hate them, I hate this Marvel-tries-to-out-edgelord-DCU brodude bullshit, it's more the length of time we spend on grape Joss Whedon and his scrotum chin and his stupid bullshit fascist rhetoric that goes completely unchallenged in the film, and the needless deaths of characters like Heimdall, Gamora, and yeah, even Loki. The fact that they gave Peter Parker a five-minute Snapture death scene but Sam had to get dusted alone, shit like that. There are still parts I like (especially Strange dragging Tony) and there are some great lines and Bucky has goats and cows (!!!), but even though I expected a tire fire, I at least wanted a fun tire fire. I took a friend the third time and he was utterly devastated, he's still depressed from it, especially because he loves Spider-Man, and I'm sure a little of that colored my feelings and growing dissatisfaction about it. Oh well. At least there's ten seconds of more vidding material.

Incredibles 2 was a lot of fun, but man, you can sure see how the intervening 14 years and the rise of superhero culture have changed movies. This is absolutely frenetic to the point of being almost irritating, there were times when I just really, really longed for a little breathing room, but it doesn't give you much of that, not the way the first film did. The culture today wants that, and then there's the goddamn script formula that all incipient blockbusters have to adhere to. I will definitely get this on dvd, but that will at least allow me to pause it and take that breath. It's hilarious, though, and god I love that midcentury modern look, and there were absolutely stellar jokes. Incidentally, I don't even have photosensitivity or seizure disorders, and I could barely watch that scene with the flashing light--I'd heard that after an uproar, theatres were posting notices about the scene, but there were none at my theatre and it was absolutely packed, and I some people having to leave. Pixar really dropped the ball on that one.

Bombshell, The Story of Hedy Lamarr has made its way to Netflix and I highly recommend it if you're at all interested in her. I was really bummed that this didn't come out when I needed it most last year while I was writing her and Steve Rogers having a fling, because it's actually pretty hard to get information on her that isn't solely focused on her looks or on her invention of frequency hopping. They did exhaustive research, and of course there's the obligatory interview with the old white man who claims she just stole it from her husband, the arms dealer to Nazis. The really interesting thing is the interview she did with a journalist from Forbes before her death, one of the only surviving interviews with her (by phone, because she'd become a recluse due to years of bad plastic surgery), and interviews with her kids.

Justice League: Wow, what a piece of crap. I mean, that's not really a surprise, but still. The CGI is abysmal, the story is so absurd and boring, and that whole thing with erasing Henry Cavill's mustache just makes his scenes painful to watch. They should all be fired for the whole thing but especially the mustache. (It's weird--I thought he was hot in The Tudors, but since then I find him incredibly unhot, and here all you can do is stare at his uncanny valley upper lip.) And fucking Joss, man, just…die in a fire already and give us a rest from your intolerable need to use women as boob trampolines for male characters, especially your goddamn self-inserts. I don't even like Jason Momoa, but he and Ezra Miller (and of course Gal Gadot) were the only really tolerable things in this. I'm still infuriated by the Amazons' bare-belly costumes.

The Mountain Between Us was something I'd wanted to get out and see in the theatre but it vanished, like, instantly. I've been waiting for it to show up somewhere so was excited when I saw it on HBO, but my god what an awful waste of Idris Elba and Kate Winslet (and an adorable yellow lab). I'd had the mistaken impression it was based on a true story, but it was actually just a novel but I could tell immediately it wasn't true, anyway, by the implausibilities piling on and on within the first couple minutes. I wondered if the author had done any research at all--there are mountain lions way the fuck up past the treelines in January, where there'd be no food for them, bear traps during the season when bears, you know, hibernate (though I suppose they could have just been forgotten when the season changed), Idris is conveniently a doctor so that all the terrible injuries Kate gets can be treated, small-plane pilots who don't file flight plans because it's just a short trip and they're not going high even though there's a goddamn storm, and it just…man, it was bad. I really wanted to enjoy him being a romantic lead, but I could not roll my eyes hard enough. Still, if you're looking for a ridiculous snowy survival movie with sexy Idris (or Kate!), you can watch it secure in the knowledge that the dog does not die, in fact, he's probably the most sensible creature in this.

I've seen a few other smaller things, but I need to get out and see Ocean's 8 and Ant-Man and the Wasp.I'm actually not all that interested in Ocean's, all of the trailers left me totally cold, but I want to support women-centric projects.

Television

The new season of GLOW just dropped but I'm saving it to watch with someone. I'm hoping it won't take too long for The Expanse to show up streaming. I hate SyFY's app, since it won't keep an entire season of a show.

I haven't finished Killing Eve yet but will soon. I don't really know what I think about it. I love a lot of it, especially Sandra Oh as Eve, she's just flamazing and I love her to death, and her husband, and the kid she works with. I especially adore Fiona Shaw's character--I mean, it's a great character, period, but Shaw is one of my fave actors anyway, and she's knocking it out of the park here. I'm more troubled by Villanelle--I don't like killers, especially psychopaths, and I also have this fundamental issue with human characters who have a superhuman ability to kill and get away from threats and always survive things they shouldn't. It was one of the things that ruined the Baldwin character in Counterpart for me, and it started to grate on my nerves here by the third episode. I just don't respond well to how utterly cruel and psycho she is, it's not my thing at all, so it starts to wear on me. ( there's also this spoiler/warning for animal suffering ) But the rest of it is amazing, except the part where as soon as a character announced he was gay I knew he'd be killed. There's a lot of queerness in the show, so I don't know if it's a kill your gays thing, but it's marring what is otherwise an absolutely amazing show.

I caught the first episode of Sharp Objects on HBO as well. I've never read the book, but I love Amy Adams and even if I'm tired of the damaged, dark woman with secrets genre, it's very well done (it's by the same director who did Big Little Lies and shares some of the stylistic touches). I'm intrigued and disturbed enough to keep watching the rest of it, see how it unfolds, but I'm mostly here for Adams, Patricia Clarkson, and that guy who was in that thing and I can't recall his name now but he's playing the detective. Chris Messina--Damages! I don't know why I can never recall his name. I think he was on the Mindy Project, but I didn't watch that.

I've now watched all of Queer Eye. I didn't think I'd like it--I was super invested in the original series, had icons and everything! And I just didn't get why they were updating it. But now that I've seen it, I get it. It's just so positive and heartwarming and I can see why so many people cry over it. I think one of the things I like most, that distinguishes it so much from the original, is it's as much about the guys learning things and opening themselves up and sharing themselves as it is helping people whose lives are a little messy. I don't know why but I was really touched by the episode with the tech guy who had isolated himself so much with his dog, didn't really go out, lived like a slobby hermit, had just pushed people away and given up. They're all touching, but that one really hit home with me, seeing him come out of his depression.

I've been watching the Saturday night lineup on Animal Planet and getting very emotional. It all started when I stumbled on Dr. Jeff, Rocky Mountain Vet a while ago, and then I thought I'd give the Dodo Heroes show a try, even though I don't normally watch animal shows because I'm too soft a heart and I can't stand any suffering of any kind, and most animal shows have lots of that. And it's true, it does have some suffering, but the focus is on the stories of these amazing people, one story per episode, who are making a difference around the world in the lives of animals. And it's followed by Vet Gone Wild, with a handsomely photogenic Aussie vet called Dr. Chris, who travels the world to treat exotic wildlife and bring to light issues with endangered animals. So basically every Saturday night I end up in tears over these stories and wish to hell I had money so I could donate to all these incredible wildlife rescues and sanctuaries. And yeah, I get sad, but more than anything I'm uplifted by what these amazing people are willing to do in the name of changing how animals are treated.

It's one of the things that's made it hard to watch Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown now that it's on Netflix. I wanted to catch up with it, especially to take comfort after his death, but every episode will have some brutal horrible torurous animal death for food and it's hard to work around. Some of them have been so horribly upsetting, and you never really know when it's going to happen. I love the show, but when you put that together with his death, it's been really challenging to watch.

Whew! You'd think from this all I do is watch TV and go to movies. No

Oh, I totally forgot to mention in my last post--you remember a while ago when someone had asked me about translating my Groundhog Day/time loop fic I can't remember how this started (but I can tell you exactly how it ends) into Russian, only they had to remove the comment in order to get help translating it through some kind of fest? And I thought it was so strange but it turned out to be some kind of fandom battle where teams compete against each other, so everything had to be anonymous? Well, the translation was posted the other day (or at least, I think it's still the same person involved, though the poster had a different user name, but I can't imagine who else would have been interested in translating it), so if you were ever inclined to read that fic in Russian, you can now! Не могу вспомнить, как это началось (но расскажу, как закончится) is here on AO3.

I also forgot to mention some of the TV I've been watching during recovery. There were some shows everyone told me required absolute attention, which is not often how I watch TV these days, so I kept saving them for when I'd have time to really watch.

The Expanse was the first one, and I can see why people like it (I've only seen the first season since it's free streaming on Amazon; I'm not gonna pay 20 bucks for the second season, though), but it suffered from the same thing that pretty much all SF and fantasy suffers from that I really, really hate: it's still largely a show about men, with one or two roles for "strong" women, who are stuck representing all of our gender. One woman on a spaceship with all guys, one woman in politics surrounded by all guys…I'm just so fucking weary. And the small supporting female roles are all defined by their relationships to men--the police captain or whatever she was, the other woman, both defined by their relationships to creepy skeevy Thomas Jane, Juliette Mao by defying her father, by the men she's dealt with in the past. Maybe the second season is better, I have to hope so. I like the worldbuilding, but this hundreds of years in the future and women are still barely in the story; I have no more patience for stories where we're writing alternate worlds that suffer from the exact same myopic shit we have now.

belmanoir watched GLOW with me, I think we saw the first three, maybe four, episodes? I liked it, but I have to agree with a lot of what I saw in complaints about the show--Ruth is a terribly unlikeable person to hang your show on from the beginning. Not being likeable isn't inherently bad, there are great shows with horrible characters at the center, but she doesn't have a strong enough character to make you want to follow her on the path to redemption the way a lot of those stories do--when you have an unlikeable protagonist, you really have to beef up a lot of the other things to make them compelling. The other problem we both had was that they're spending way, way too much time on the men and not enough on the secondary female characters. Especially the wrestling dynasty girl, I want to see way, way more of her, and I don't give a fuck about the men. It's a huge mistake to spend so much time on the skeevy director guy or Piz the producer, especially in a story about these women. The '80s stuff is hilarious, though, and I love the soundtrack and I'm interested to watch more, I just hate knowing that they're going to keep spending so much time on the guys.

I've seen the first few episodes of Sens8, and I'm baffled by why people love this so passionately. But I'm hoping it gets better as it goes along; as it is right now, the only character I care about is the Mexican actor and his boyfriend, but that's not a lot of screen time. I mean I get that people like it because it's one of the few shows with main storylines of gay and lesbian and trans people, and I can definitely understand that, plus there's the international stories instead of it being yet another subset of white America, but…nothing's sparking with me so far and some of the stories are so over the top ridiculously unbelievable and stupid that I'm gnashing my teeth--but I'll stick it out at least through the first season to see if it gets better.

I watched all of the first season of Bojack Horseman and…wow, was that fucking depressing. It's billed as a comedy, of course, but I never laughed once, not even at all the fun it pokes at Hollywoodd or the guest voices or anything. It's just so goddamn bleak. It took me a while to get past the bizarro concept (the style of the world, with animals being partly humanistic and partly animalistic, and vice versa, is something that creeps me out beyond words), but I really wanted to embrace the show because I know a lot of people who love it so much, but I didn't expect it to make me wish I'd never woken up after surgery. I sometimes feel like that's all that's left of the future, this sort of miserable existence where you're just wasting time till you die, and the show made me feel that x1,000. So thanks, show, for making my already suicidal tendencies even more pronounced.

I'm self soothing by watching the first three series of The Great British Bake Off, which they won't show here for inexplicable reasons (on PBS and Netflix, season 1 is actually season 5, and season 2 is season 4, which just…why). It was interesting to see how the show evolved. I was kind of disturbed by one contestant because she was so clearly an abused woman, she showed every behavior I ever saw working at the shelter years ago--either abused by a husband or possibly a parent farther back, but since there was no husband in any of the home segments or the finale and her children said some really telling things, I'm betting it was an ex-husband. Good on her for participating, though, but it made me really uncomfortable many times because I kept wondering if the producers realized how it was coming across on screen. Still, it's fun to go back and see some of the things I've heard about in the show but never saw, and the show honestly, even when you're tense for the people you want to win, is so pleasant.

I'm kind of dreading tonight's Southland. After Ann Biderman left the series, it seems to have veered off into something I don't quite like as much, a "we're tough guys making a tough series for tough men to watch" or something. They've really kind of destroyed the audience-eye character, Ben Sherman, and have turned him into a complete and utter douchebag. And I admit, I'm biased, but I wanted Ben and Cooper to be together all the time, and I thought some kind of rapprochement with Cooper after the addiction storyline would have made for some really excellent drama, but no, now they seem to pretty much be done with each other for all eternity, and Ben's all judgey and shit.

But wow, Michael Cudlitz has been KNOCKING IT OUT OF THE PARK every fucking week these past few weeks. Every episode, he just leaves me with my jaw hanging open. ( Cut for discussion of episode specifics )
So my baby Blues has been a very expensive kitty lately. In his checkup last week, they found a cavity, which in kitties I guess is more of a bleeding hole in the tooth. Turned out there were two, both of the molars behind his bottom fangs, and they had to extract them in his dental cleaning -- and the plaque on his teeth was so bad it was like having a whole other tooth on top of them. He has always had bad teeth and gums, but it's getting ridiculous. And ridiculously expensive; it couldn't have come at a worse time as my credit card was really feeling the pinch with all the plans and deposits and such for my trip next month.

They gave him another one of those pain shots that last for three or four days like he got when his paw was infected; it's hysterical watching him roll around, completely stoned out of his mind, his pupils totally blown out, purring like a motorboat. I just hope he's not in much pain when it wears off.

Myself, I had the second round of dental work done yesterday, and aside from the bloody pulp in my mouth later, my jaw just mostly aches from trying to keep it open that long. I'm really tired of this. Especially coming at a time when I'm planning an expensive holiday.

Speaking of which, anyone on my flist in London? Want to meet up? I'll be there from the 14th to the 17th, then off to Cardiff for a few days, then back in London till the 22. I'd love to meet someone for drinks or lunch or something.

I finally got the book that has been hanging over my head off to the publisher late last night, which was unbelievably difficult since my laptop had stopped being able to access Airport and I realized partway through uploading that my word lists and query files had not been updated in the network storage. Boy, that was a lot of added fun on top of the already insanely high level of stress. Note to self: Never take a day off when you've got a book due to write fanfic.

Now I have to pounce on all the things that got put on the back burners while I rushed to finish this. Which is tough, since I'm going up to Vancouver for a minibreak on Thursday through Saturday and I really really didn't want to work, but tomorrow's almost a lost day for me, as I have a big conference call with the university about our program. Boy, do I have an earful for them.

I haven't been able to watch the Hollow Crown at all, and it's driving me nuts because I want to see Hiddles's faaaaace. And I love me some Prince Hal. But still. Work to do and all that.

Today I had my weigh-in and body fat percentage checkin at the fitness place. I've only lost a pound, but have lost an entire percent of body fat. I'm OK with that, even if it's a little disappointing, just because I'm not at all focused on weight since I'm pretty heavy even when I've been thin (I'm just a very big Amazonian gal, no getting around that), but of course you still hope to hear that you've lost weight. I am, however, happy about the body fat percentage -- my trainer today said that's really not common to lose that big of a percentage that quickly, so, yay for that. Maybe I will be able to zip that dress up at Vividcon after all.

I have noticed that even though none of my clothes are looser, the blubber is less prominent around my waist. Today was a tough workout just because I'm leaving for the last half of the week, so I'm cramming all my workouts into these three days, no rest in between. And today I've battled a migraine and extreme intestinal distress, but I still made it through 100 crunches and a set of around the world crunches (to the sides and center, much harder!). Not to mention the fit test on the treadmill. Go me.

There is so much to catch up on fannishly! But it's gonna have to wait. I have really gotten into Strike Back on Cinemax/Sky -- two hot guys shooting shit and blowing shit up and having lots of sex. I want to talk about that and the other things I'm watching. It's weird, but I actually am not burning to go see Dark Knight Rises. Seriously, what is wrong with me these days? But I'm just so annoyed at Nolan loading it down with his favorite white people that it's been really hard for me to muster interest. I don't know -- worth it? Tell me what you think (and no, I care not about spoilers, never have, never will).

ETA: Hawaii pics! So, this is an apparently very endangered bird that I spotted at McBryde Garden. They number in the 300s right now, and they're considered critically endangered. They're Hawaiian moorhens.

I always love the dates that are palindromes, and it's especially nice that it's Veteran's/Armistice Day. I wish my dad wasn't in such a state; I would have loved to take him to the special dinner at the VFW.

I am exhausted this morning. I took my new foster dog, Tilda, to the vet yesterday because she was supposed to have surgery for luxating patellas, but she has kennel cough, so they won't do it on her for at least a month. They gave me a shit ton of medication for her, and she also has tapeworms, so I had to give her that, on top of the other stuff and the eye drops she came with. I don't know what happened last night -- if the meds in combination did it, if one of them has this side effect, or what, but she was a nightmare and would not stop making noise and banging on her crate and whining and just generally being obnoxious. She's been really good all week about sleeping in her crate (so the kitties can move around and get used to her without being afraid), she likes to go in it, but she wouldn't stop till after 3, and then started up around 8. She may still have been whining all night, but I think I passed out from sheer exhaustion (I was at the vet -- I hate this place, but it's where the rescue group goes --for more than two and a half hours). And now, of course, she's sleeping soundly, whereas I have to work because I have two concurrent jobs going on.

I have to say, there's nothing in this world quite as gross as tapeworm in dog crap. I already hate picking up dog poo anyway, but then that... I don't know why the deworming didn't take, but it didn't, so I'm the lucky foster mom who gets to deal with it. Kennel cough is pretty bad, too -- they immediately started wiping everything and mopping everything with disinfectant, and now I feel bad because she's met a lot of dogs on our walks, and I pray she hasn't passed it on -- it's very contagious. She came to me with the undignified and demeaning name Toadette, and I said, no way, and immediately remonikered her. She answers to it just fine. And I make her sound like she's terrible, but she's actually quite lovely and completely ridiculous in the way only pugs can be. I have always loved pugs, and she's very much a pug in every possible way. There have already been quite a few applications for her, so I might be handing her off as early as tomorrow, which means I won't have had her for a full week -- this has been the case lately for all my dogs. It's rewarding, but the cats never have time to fully adjust to them, which makes it pretty stressful for them.

( Pics of miss Tilda )

Brutus got adopted today! At least, I hope so -- I'm waiting to hear how the meeting went. It was fairly unusual -- the daughter of an elderly couple up in Sequim saw him in the newspaper and sent the clipping to her folks. They fell in love and so she arranged to get him and bring him up there. They have excellent references, both the daughter and parents, and they have had rescue dogs for years, so they're familiar with some of the behavior issues. He tried to nip her, which he has never ever done, and I was kind of freaked that he flipped out so bad, but we figured out it was her white baseball cap that was causing the trouble. He has difficulty meeting strangers because of his vision problems, and that just tipped him over the edge I guess. But when they drove away, he was on her lap, and seemed quite content. He was afraid of me when he met me, too.

We're hopeful that the donations we've received so far might help fund some surgery for him, but we're going to have to see how everything goes. I miss the little dude! I got so used to him clinging to me all the time, and going for walkies. He loooooved to go for walks. I know he'll be really happy though, and he's got a wonderful life ahead of him. Thank you so much to everyone who's helped out. If he gets the surgery, it's going to be the bestest thing ever.

Class finished for the quarter on Thursday, and I feel a huge weight off my shoulders. It's funny that the last year I plan to teach it, I finally get a class who appreciates me and gives me good evals. Oh well. Now it's on to planning my all-day workshop for the program in a couple weeks. I haven't done a damn thing on it.

I broke down and decided to get HBO since there are so many programs I want to watch, but I missed the second and third Game of Thrones eps, and they are not repeating them at all. I'm so frustrated by that, and that they're not repeating the first two Tremes, either, which I got HBO too late to get. I know I can DL it, but it just doesn't look as good in avi format as it does on the TV from the satellite.
( Unpopular opinion ahoy )

Speaking of reading. I've been considering getting an e-reader, even though I hate them on general principle, because I think it would be nice to be able to carry my reference manuals around with me when I use the laptop in other places like visiting my dad, as well wondering if it would help me get back to reading more books. I don't read books at all anymore unless it's for work, and that really saddens me. I'm much more attracted to the Nook color, because it handles graphics and you can borrow books. But every single person I know here has a Kindle. Once I saw how badly that handles graphics and PDFs, I decided that wasn't for me. I would love to hear from any of you who have a Nook Color what you think, and if you feel it's worth it. One of the big things for me is being able to read outside, which is something I can't do with my laptop and I hear the iPad is terrible for. I'm getting landscaping for my backyard, so I think I'll be outside a lot more in the future and it would be great if the Nook is good for that. Would love to hear your opinions!

The season finale of Justified last night managed to maintain the whole explosiveness that they've kept up through all the episodes previously. I didn't know if they could, but damn, if they didn't bring their game again.

( Spoilers want to just lean up against the doorjamb a little )