LadyCrimson

Finished Wu Assassin. At best I'd give it maybe 3 stars out of 5, so average. --Fight scenes were great, and it's nice to see ones where you can see more of the action choreography vs. just a stuntman's head, foot, flash of a fist. --Episode 9 ... "Summer Glau! Awesome!" ... Episode 10: "What a waste of use of Summer Glau." --Beyond the 1st episode, it takes itself a bit too seriously to be wacky and the writing of the plot threads is pretty bad. Things happen out of nowhere, too many chrs. leading to too many side bits that throw any rhythm or storytelling pacing off. --Uncle Six and the main antagonist were the best things. Plus the guy playing the Earth Wu, can't recall his name, but recognizable face. --Lead actor never grew on me, outside of the fact he can TV fight really well. Edit: I also tried to watch HBO's "Ballers" the other day. It has comic moments but the whole sports theme - not for me.

Wu Assassin - ok, the first episode is pretty bad. The actors delivery of dialogue, cheesy setups, overused Asian cliches. Still, it's kind of more the bad it's entertaing then just plain bad. I stuck it out a bit and by episode 3 it improves a fair bit. The actors no longer feel as stilted (maybe the director/s improved, or maybe it's because they start talking a tad less...), the chr. Uncle Six is rather interesting, and the fight sequences are at least fun. So far the biggest weakness to me is the bits with the lady in white (the Wu Assassin advisor if you will) in the "magical no space and time" zone. They're largely for exposition and the actress isn't up to it imo, and the sets for those scenes are the cheapest. Also, the lead actor isn't the most impressive yet. Anyway, once past that 1st episode it's not too bad. Nothing special, but kind of entertaining regardless.

Ok, I bought (six, overkill is my name) batteries for the old DLSR which means the camera works. My ability to take hand-held macros, through plastic with the built-in flash, is still iffy tho. Didn't want to disturb him, he was chowing like a fiend. :lol: ... he's probably too busy eating to be much of a threat.

I haven't watched it yet, but I just noticed Clint Eastwood's "The Mule" is on HBO, a film I don't remember ever knowing it existed. I watched the trailer. My first thought was "he was old when he did that Grand Torino movie, but now he's REALLY old." He's still super awesome however (dunno if the movie is any good or not, just saying Clint is awesome) and I'm glad he never truly retires. I'll watch it with the hubster this weekend. When he finally passes, I'm going to do an Eastwood movie watching mega-marathon (there may be crying), some of which I haven't seen in 15-20 years.

First it was hornworms (tomatoes). Hubby checks once or twice a week and picks off baby hornworm caterpillars from his tomatoes to this day. Not tons, but several per season show up at least. But now he's been growing dill and the yellowish swallowtails have zeroed in on that. They fly around our yard all the time, but we've never had dill (or celery, or carrots, or anything similar) before. From a gardener's perspective, they're pests. From MY perspective, they're awesome. The little orange thingies that pop out over its head for a second when it's disturbed are too cute. Sidenote: looking at the old hornworm pic attachment makes me miss my DLSR. It's the macro photos I miss, I've never been a landscape/portrait/photo-art type person. But I'm simply too lazy to pull it out of the closest anymore, let alone convert RAW + any editing. Also needs new rechargeable batteries, they stop holding a good charge too fast. I wonder if they still cost $20 each. I remember when I'd put one (or two?) of those large watch-type batteries in my 35mm camera (all it needed) and it'd last 2+ years. Rechargeable ... pfft. EditEdit: I have no cat, so I'm now a hubby's garden blogger. Ha.

"Terminator Dark Fate" - 1st film of a planned trilogy, produced by Cameron (who now owns the rights to the franchise again I guess) ...wait, wait. How did I not hear about this earlier? *watches trailer from a few months ago* ...that was fairly lackluster and doesn't feel like a fresh new take, just yet another dull plot retread. Some of the effects in the trailer looked terrible, too. I could say more but I'll refrain. ...I predict large curiosity box office opening weekend then a very sharp drop-off after that. One never knows for sure, but the trailer didn't convince me that, even with Cameron's help, the franchise could be jumpstarted again. ...it did make me want to watch T2 again. *pulls out her bluray disc*

Semi-excited: a 2nd season of Mindhunter! *gets to watching posthaste* I'm sure there will be some jokey moments or the "sorta funny chr" ala 3PO. I just meant it wouldn't be at all the emphasis. As to Disney channel/sub....eh, I have nothing against Disney per se anymore than I do with CBS, but to me those aren't TV-subs that can fulfill a generalist role like Netflix ("I'm bored, I'll surf Netflix for something mindless") or Amazon or even HBO (general films vs. only their own series). Disney and CBS etc are specific company products. So I may be willing to sub to something like Viki because otherwise I'd have far far less access to ANY Asian TV series, but I'm less inclined to sub to something that only showcases one company's products. If Netflix/Amazon ever became nothing but their own branded shows I'd be a lot less interested in retaining them, too. It may happen one day. Btw, Netflix seems to be using Asian dramas (and some others here and there) as platforms for not releasing all episodes at once. Like My First First Love was split into two seasons with a few months between, when it's really just the typical kdrama 16 eps. season/arc, and some that are "new episodes weekly" even tho they've already been filmed/aired in Asia months ago. The latter could just be part of their deals to have access to those shows (or maybe in some cases they haven't actually quite finished airing in Asia so airing weekly/being a few months behind is how they can get such series in a more timely manner vs. waiting a year or two). It wouldn't surprise me if eventually they do more and more of the "weekly episodes" style or split things into two or three chunks with a month or three apart to fight that "sub and cancel next week" habit some have.

More oddball ent. period nostalgia over funny:

(Edit: Mandalorian looks like a cross between SW and Firefly, only without the humor. Well made trailer, certainly makes one curious) --------- Breaking Bad Netflix movie in early Oct. Written and directed by Vince Gilligan. I'm a little iffy re: whether a Pinkman coda is enough story to be riveting drama, but since it's Netflix and I can watch it right away, I'll tune in. Here's hoping it's at least good. (trailer doesn't show much, it's more of a teaser) https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/24/arts/television/breaking-bad-movie-starring-aaron-paul-coming-to-netflix-in-october.html

Hunter in the suburbs: The neighbors behind us have kept small laying hens (and occasionally a rooster) in their backyard for a long time. They're the brown skinny type of hens. Lately it seems they just keep buying small chicks whenever they need replacements. They sometimes get in our yard via the tree and then can't figure out how to get back over the fence for a long time, ha. They've put chicken wire around a corner of their yard to semi-enclose them but ... ... lately this small hawk has discovered their presence and terrible sounds occasionally happen. Neighbors chase it off if they notice but, heh. They're going to need a real/secure chicken coop, since now that the hawk knows about them, it's going to come back every single day. I feel sorta bad for the chicks but not my yard. Pfft. :P Slightly closer look, crop: (hubby took on phone, no zoom, fuzzy etc)

I've been binging the King's Avatar via Netflix. Mostly because of Yang Yang, who was in another (also gaming related/themed) series I sorta liked ... eg, name recognition mostly. This one seems to be gaming plot centered vs. romance plotted (zero romance in 7 episodes so far, which is fine/refreshing actually), about pro gamer players and arena/team competitions. It's not all that good, but for some reason I keep watching for the "game" fighting scenes. It's not the best animation/CGI mind, but it looks like a game only with more souped up avatar faces, camera angles and action edits and oddly I find those bits entertaining.

I was doing my once every 3-6month brief browse of GoG and realized at some point they'd added Hellfire to Diablo1. I still have that on original disc but I never liked it all that much and have never tried to install it on Win7 (or Win10). Still, you know I had to download it, since ez-Gog version (and since I already bought D1 from there, it was "free"). Might be good for winter boredom.

I hope my ancient '98 Subaru Legacy wagon doesn't konk out from 20+ year old parts breaking down, any time soon. it won't be from high mileage since I hardly drive anymore. Can I make it last 40 years? Might have to replace more hoses... I really don't want to have to buy a new/used car with all the computer tech in it. Or with the way they design windows now (which makes me feel like I can't see anything, especially side/back windows). Blech. Maybe by then I'll be able to get some revamped classic car (which by then will be from the 80's....) or something. Edit: sadly most 50's/60's/70's "classic" cars don't fit me well and not many people revamp early 80's Toyotas. Ha.

Yeah, I read about this elsewhere and shook my head. I admit to being mildly curious what excuses they'll come up with to explain/get past the way the 3rd film ended, but not enough to be all that interested in watching it. Maybe when I'm stuck in bed with a cold someday. But whatever. Maybe it'll surprise us.

It does look decent and I recognize some faces. It's funny, I watch a lot of the Korean drama series, but I don't watch very many films. Although this is in part because TV series get all the website attention and it's often hard for me to even have access to Korean/Asian films. If it's not on Netflix, Viki, or Amazon rentals I won't ever see it and there have been Korean films I wanted to see because of the people starring in them. Occasionally they probably show up in "arthouse"/smaller theaters in the big cities but I'm not driving to San Fran. or SJ just to see one. I'm lazy.

Perhaps it's because we're in California, but that hasn't been the case for us at all. Hubby bought seedlings at the hardware store and just tossed them in the ground and hasn't touched them outside of watering. They're not very large plants but they produce a lot of peppers/seem hardy. Tomatoes were troublesome tho. For some reason at this house they kept getting that stem-rot disease, where the top of the tomato starts to rot late in the game (brown circle where the stem connects). Hubby started them from seeds this time (vs. buying storebought seedlings), just tossing seeds in the ground, among other minor changes, and no stem-rot or other major issues, but still seem not quite right to me.

One of those times where the flowers end up making a double-fruit. The tomatoes themselves are maybe 1.5 to 2 inches wide. Larger than cherry in stores, but still pretty small. They grow this way. Apparently a lot of peppers do, but it's the first time I've seen one. I laughed pretty hard when I first saw it. Not sure of the variety name. I kept asking hubby but then I forget so I stopped asking. There are three hot pepper plants. The oldest one survived a winter and has barely any leaves ( a few on top) but determinedly keeps producing tons of large peppers anyway. Hubby tried pickling some in mostly a salt brine or something. They stunk and I didn't touch them. I'll stick to the store bought pickled jalapenos until/unless he does something similar. He grew up with relatives who did lots of canning/jarring so he wants to try it I guess. There's baby cucumbers growing too. He's just experimenting at this point, mostly. But a year or two from now I expect him to till up and take over half the lawn space or something. Hah.

Still one of my fave action-y movies and just about the only Tom Cruise movie where I really liked Cruise. He should play baddies more often. I did like Minority Report a fair bit too although I can't really say why. Just the bleakness of it perhaps. Feeling like Disney has taken over a huge part of the film market doesn't help re: "kiddie" movies. I also feel like the PG-13 rating, over many years, has not helped at all in terms of production of interesting films for adults. Edit: remember when NC-17 was introduced? It almost feels like R has become that, now, at least in terms of the studio head's minds.

I tried watching the Westworld series. I was so bored I turned it off before the first episode ended. I did love (the first) Matrix tho. I think I liked the original Tron but mostly because it was so different at the time. The more recent remake of Tron was ok but meh. I'm (sort of) waiting for Netflix's 2nd season of their Lost in Space. Mostly because I'm curious where they're taking Ms. Smith and if I'll end up liking her any better. And for the robot.

At some point, the Summer Blockbuster became not just for Summer anymore. Also, just like with gaming, it becomes more and more about spectacle vs. substance. That said, I remember plenty of mediocre to terrible films from every decade vs. those few that I worshipped every year. One of the differences perhaps is that there are just so many movies being made per year these days - the (total) releases per year has gone up a lot, since it's a lot easier to make a basic movie (not talking about finances, just the tech). Heck you can make a decent looking digital movie on your DLSR if you wanted to and try to get it released as an indie/festival film or whatnot. But not even counting those (or direct to dvd/streaming), while the major studios (the "big 6", I think) hasn't really increased per-year releases, the total is massively higher (6 or 7 times since the 80's, I think, for wider or middling theater releases). It's the same with TV. Nostalgia has us remembering a better percentage of TV shows, but you had like 3 channels and little choice (numbers wise) to have to sift through to find something interesting - now we have hundreds of choices and all of them are trying to make shows but that doesn't mean there is really a higher percentage of quality. it just means we all have to sift through ever more choices in order to find something that maybe might fit our personal tastes. I hardly bother anymore, too much effort. Edit: Also, the film/video industry has become too obsessed with reaction-shots vs. dialogue. It's like the joke that the Twilight series running time is made up of 1/3 reaction shots of the couple staring at each other. I sometimes try to watch something and feel like nothing is happening because the characters spend a whole lot of time just staring/reacting.

Gary Oldman in a stuck on a boat in the ocean horror/whatever movie? I'm so there.

I have played about six casual hours of Dragon Quest: Builders2, so far. I say casual hours because I wasn't trying very hard to speed through it. I had forgotten how this game/series likes to make you either read or click-through exhaustive tutorial/story texts for the first few major missions, in order to gain basic tools, recipes, etc. which goes on forever and ever. "We need a way to protect the fields, build a scarecrow." "We need a place to sleep, make us a small bedroom." "Building/farming is forbidden! Wait, what tree is that, let it grow, here's a bunch of new missions to help that along." So one might spend 4-8 hours before feeling like one has any freedom at all. I find that annoying but once you get past that it's largely fine, albeit the quests continue but it's not restrictive. Anyway, I do like the graphical changes (nothing super special but looks better than the first game), and (mostly) the constant companion warrior dude, who as you go along breaking/harvesting materials will auto-help out. That said, if you're into micro-managing appearance and what you want to dig up, he might annoy a bit in that sense. Not entirely decided on that yet. But seems just as good as the first one, with some gameplay improvements like not having to start all over each island. I like how the island you wash up on is the actual "sandbox" island this time around, vs. sandbox mode being locked away for a long time, and with the idea being you go to other islands to gather resources and townsfolk to go back and turn/terraform that bare island into whatever you want, so to speak.

Was in the yard the other day and was amused to notice the hubster had placed "hay" underneath all the low lying, developing cantaloupe melons. He's a caring soul. Also, a couple of the tomatoes. Most of them grew to over six feet. They are all different varieties, from large cherry sized to average/normal color to those dark green/rust colored types that have become popular in stores lately. Always nice to go out and pick one for a sandwich or a salad. There are also (in other garden beds) long green beans (like the Chinese restaurant dishes variety), cilantro/coriander, dill, jalapeno's (three varieties), and, uh ... a few other things, I forget. He sorta went whole hog and experimented a lot this year. The dried grass/hay seems to help with reducing some types of ground pests. The yard sorta looks like we have multiple swingsets from the quickie/temp metal pole/bar supports he erected to help support some of them. He needs to come up with something a bit less fugly next time.

Well, they did say "magically." That said, if that's the case, you could just pick anything for poll choices so it is rather pointless as a poll. But if I were to vote, I'd personally pick guns, because while I do believe in the right to have general items of self-defense (whether a gun, a bludgeon, a big knife/sword, etc), owning a gun would personally offer me zero entertainment or emotional attachment value and there are other weapons for self-defense, even if they aren't as "easy" to utilize. In this magical what-if scenario, I'd also pick books, the internet, recliner chairs, pencils, and pizza over guns. Just me tho. *shrug*

I was going to come in here and make a usual flippant/unimportant bloggity post but yeah, wow. I don't know what to say, except that's a horrific situation and can't imagine having to go through it, and I will join you in hoping he gets that long prison sentence.