LadyCrimson

Technically I have phones (hand me downs, didn't buy them) which I just use as home wi-fi mini-tablets (along with the actual tablet). I just have no phone service subs. Total waste of money for me, I have utterly no need for a mobile phone #/service. I rarely go anywhere for more than an hour and when I do I have no desire to be call-able or text-able. Even paying just for talk-minutes, I'd never use them. The few family and friends can email or call the landline. Pffft.

Apparently you can't buy a Sleep Number bed (from a walk-in store) without giving them your mobile phone number (which means I alone couldn't buy one since I have no mobile #). And they were really insistent on connecting to your phone and this app for delivery messages. Claimed it would shorten doorstep delivery time or something. But not the delivery date, which ended up being 3 weeks from day of purchase. >.> The only reason hubby wanted one is because they have that 100 day period where you can return it for full refund if you hate it. I guess the way the world is going, if hubby dies before I do, I'll have to get my own mobile #. So hubby, don't die before me. Thanks.

Ah. I thought they'd just done a really good job at recreating that stiff face movement of those elf-like people (sorry, forget the race name). Ha. Wouldn't surprise me if they at least did some CGI post-work enhancement, on either the puppets or just to create uber-perfect lighting. There is often just that kind of ... over-polished look. Not that it matters either way. I like the quote in the article re: CGI Yoda and his movement. Too true, and not just on Yoda.

Tried watching the first episode of the Netflix Dark Crystal. I barely remember the movie, tbh, except for the muppet factor and I recall liking it at the time. I'm assuming it's all CGI now, no puppets? It feels odd to me that they sorta kept the awkwardness of the puppet walking and face movement - it's not a bad thing, just took me a bit to get used to I guess. Visuals are quite nice overall. I may give it a longer shot if my attention span can keep up with it. I could've done without the one Crystal keeper and her constant goopy nose problem tho. 😑

When I buy a visual novel and initially think it's promising. Seems possibly intriguing (serial killers, clan feuds, witch legends), user reviews said any romance is very low-key/subtle (what I want). But then I noticed something ... I'm not sure I can take things like plot/dialogue seriously when everyone keeps making this open-mouthed face for surprise/shock. (lower r-corner - you can turn off protag. portraitI think, but it also shows up on main story window chrs. just as often so no escaping it) I mean I'll keep going but it's kind of ruining my "immersion" because I keep laughing.

Still binging The King's Avatar. It's (I think?) 40 episodes and Netflix puts up 10 each Friday. After the first 15 or so I started ffwd-ing through 70% of the live-human/dialogue sections and mostly watch the game/competition/training scenes. Eng. subtitles on Netflix are pretty terrible, which doesn't help (usually they're at least adequate, but this show it's rather bad). Although there is one character that's hilarious (to me) every time he's playing the game, since he's one of those really fast talkers. I guess he'd either irritate or make one laugh - I'm the latter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbOcvOZae5c I think there's an anime version too, I'll have to check that out. At any rate, for some reason I'm still having great fun watching the "game" sequences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WwP6OaynQM Edit: bah, forum isn't showing the video links embedded in-post again. So flaky for me. Whatever. They're both 2 minutes or less.

First time in a few months I turned the game on. I was bored and noticed someone made matching beachwear for them. You need tans, to the beach with you! Ignis: "I'm quite sure this is not swimwear." Me: "No no, it's the latest beach fashion from, uh, somewhere. Just put it on."

My caterpillar has stopped eating and just sits there. Maybe it's time to turn into a butterfly, but it's taking its sweet time doing the chrysalis part. I gently prodded it onto a stick vs. just on the plastic container floor unsure if it'd prefer that. It's remained there all evening. We shall see. If it hatches into a butterfly, where am I going to release it. Last time I tried to release a hatched moth into the backyard, 2 seconds later a bird swooped in and ate it. Been feeling kind of drumpy. Close-ish to my birthday - maybe it's just that. Feeling "old" and useless again. I need more soapy K-drama binging.

It kind of feels like some of the writers don't know what to do with the 8-10 episode format. Either they don't have enough story and end up with too much filler or they go plot-overboard and too much ends up on the cutting floor. Wu has a couple spots where it literally seemed to me that a fight scene or two was cut out (at least it would've made a lot more sense if there had been even partial fight scenes in those instances) as well as the chrs. that have to be there (there had to be 5 Wu's and 5 good guys) but are given no time to make impression.

Tried to watch Aquaman during the weekend. I got about half an hour in then turned it off. It's what you'd expect from such a film now but nothing you haven't seen already re: superhero origin stories and my eyes started to roll too often. The whole time I kept thinking this Aquaman sure looks like he could be a long lost sibling to Thor. I was also distracted the whole time with contemplating how much work it must be to CGI in all that underwater flowing hair. :P

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.