LadyCrimson

There's a certain point in one's life where one occasionally feels like they're measuring their years not by birthdays, but the rapidly increasing number of celebrity deaths per year that have you actually standing up and taking more personal notice, if that makes sense. RIP to all the ones so far this year.

Yeah, I sorta agree. For a long time now streaming Netflix appeal has been more about TV shows and their "originals". And the past few years, they've been adding a lot more foreign and independent films/shows (eg, subtitles...), including Asian-Orient (which is nice to me). I've never seen Netflix as the place to watch popular US box-office hits. I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, begrudgingly added Hulu not too long ago (and end up rarely watching it). I also bought an Amazonfire thingie for the large living room TV. I dislike the UI designs of most of the "apps" but oh well. I also have subs for Dramafever and Viki, but now the big 3 S. Korea networks have created KOCOWA - supposedly because of China putting a ban or something on a lot of S. Korea entertainment. That's having an impact on DF and Viki in terms of Korean shows they can offer, but I haven't subbed to it yet. They need some work and I'll wait to see what happens with them. This is on top of us still paying for "cable TV" as well, which is largely for rental access and the premium sub. channels like HBO. In terms of Eng. speaking fare, I agree that eventually they'll all mostly suss/fight it out and there will be 2-3 biggies left standing (that'll probably cost more). Might take 20-30 years tho.

I don't know about flying per se, but the backyard neighbors (rather elegant looking) chickens love to hop onto and over our 6 foot fence all the time. They wander back and forth near the fence like they're lost for a while then next time I look out the window, they're gone again. They also hop into the bushy tree near the fence and bounce around its branches. Being a busy city suburb vs. a farm, it's cute yet annoying at the same time.

The Grand Tour (Amazon series) - seeing those three together again, running around doing silly car adventures or making crass jokes or tormenting/teasing each other, warms my heart to no end. It's not as good as the best of Top Gear (content/ideas wise) but the guys? They're still hilarious.

Technically I still have Blizzard account. I haven't logged into to it for years now. I wonder if anyone's tried to hack into it and stolen my (by now I'm sure) measly amount of D3 gold. Haha. I wonder if my Neverwinter Online chrs are all still there. I haven't updated or tried to login to those servers in ages. I should probably delete everything etc. but maybe one day I'll want to romp around on my panther/cat ride-mounts for an evening. 99.999% probably not, but isn't that what we all keep telling ourselves, in these situations, sometimes.

@Bendu Monk-space-pirate-magical 2-tail cat! I like fantasy cats. That bunny is a little scary, however.

S. Korean films: A Hard Day - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3697626/ - dark crime satire+action/thriller, and I laughed a lot, especially in the first 1/3. Ridiculous but entertaining about a cop who does a hit and run/tries to cover it up and is then tormented/hassled by someone who witnessed it. I was entertained. I also will watch almost anything that Park Sung-Woong is in (if you have Netflix you may have seen him in Man to Man), and found A Violent Prosecutor (crime, prison/courtroom, drama) and For the Emperor (action, thriller) enjoyable films.

I'm generally not into alcohol (the last bottle of rum, for rum & coke shots, I bought 1.5 yrs ago is still 1/2 full...), neither taste/smell (BLARGH) or effects. eg, it's only the first drink or two that I enjoy, rarely, and it never goes father than that. These things are great for people like me: ...small size, altho at 17% they're very heavy on the alcohol taste (again, BLARGH) but I just pour in a lot of extra cappuccino. Perfect.

That's me, as well. Time for a turkey sandwich. For me, not my cat.

I may go back and try to watch the latter half of Split later. It was on HBO so easy for me to do. But I'm 99% sure I already guessed the ending concept, since it's telegraphed (imo) so much - which is part of why I turned it off. Still, the first half was much better than Lady in the Water or The Happening. I mostly liked 6th Sense, Unbreakable (altho I found the very end to be a bit unsatisfying for some reason) and Signs (yes it's silly but I was still entertained). And while he didn't direct it, I liked Devil a fair bit. Perhaps the split-personality device has grown stale for me as well. Yeah, I probably shouldn't have said "go back to." It's just that most of the older/classic films that I like are the very long ones. I've spent three months binge watching almost nothing but 16-20 episode tv series, however, and now trying to watch most films it's as if films are way too short to feel complete/satisfying. :D

*tosses cat a few pieces of buttered popcorn* *tosses cat some cheddar cheese bits* *tosses cat small pieces of raw chicken as I'm slicing it up* *plates a mound of lightly cooked chicken for cats lunch* ...my cat is not spoiled. ...although in truth, a lot of it is extra efforts to get him to gain or at least not lose weight. His hyperthyroidism = it's hard to keep him even around 8 pounds (when he should be around 11-12pounds).

HAHAHA. That was a lot of lol's. Thanks. ....tried to watch "Split" the other day. Turned it off about half way through. It's not that it's terrible, I guess it wasn't really quite right for my personal short-attention-span syndrome. Maybe it becomes more interesting in the latter half, dunno. James McAvoy seemed to have a lot of fun hamming up those multiple personalities, and I did like seeing Betty Buckley. I seem to have lost patience for films in general - the 1.5 to 2.5 hour format I mean. Editing often feels too abrupt, story/characterization (if any) seems truncated etc. eg, I've become way way pickier about movies than I used to be. Even most of the Korean/Asian films feel too scattershot. I wish the majority movies could go back to being always 3+ or even 4 hours with a 10min. intermission or something. I know, I know, not as much daily/weekly money that way (less showtimes). Oh well.

I'm one of those few who for some reason enjoyed Torchlight 1 (original version from way way back) more than 2, but I still very occasionally play TL2 for a few hours. Sorta sad news about Runic tho. Not that it's surprising, either, this day and age.

Waking up at 11ish is from me not going to sleep until 7am. Like now, heh. The past year or so however I've definitely been "suffering" from more nights where I can't stay asleep for more than 3-4 hours at a time. Like you said, you just wake up for no reason. Which is part of the evening nap issue. All my life I've had trouble falling asleep, now 3/4 of the time I can't stay asleep no matter what time I go to bed. Hubby had a spare/unused Galaxy S5 and I've been using that to idly 'net surf on the couch (easier to carry than the laptop) but that's it. Local wi-fi, no cell account. After using it this way for a while (ignoring everything else about it/available) I've come to the conclusion that ... I still don't need a smartphone. Makes a good mini-web-surf tablet, tho. Plus, y'know, it was free. Haha.

Uh...not really a funny, but there's no "lifestyles/cats/cooking" thread so. Japanese guy who occasionally posts short how-to cooking video, with his cats always in the picture. I wish he'd do a lot more of them, because I love them. He and his (from US) wife also use their own channel with blog/Japan culture/lifestyle videos which can be cute/fun.

I haven't touched FF-XV in something like 3.5 months (?). Wasn't going to play it again until Ignis DLC is released but then ecided I'd fire up the PS4 tonight and at least download/update the console, game, whatever else. Then curiously loaded a save. --didn't take long for me to totally forget how to use the controller with the game. Finger-Fumble city --oh is that what the Dream Egg ended up amounting to. --oh that new Festival has new Assassin's themed team outfits (?), I must get those. --but still sucking at the controller after 20 minutes, maybe tomorrow... Can't wait for the Ignis DLC tho. First DLC trailer that had me half-excited vs. "ho-hum." Never did play Episode Prompto.

11am - Wakes up, caffeine drip installed. noon - Cat continues to try to kill owner (all day) by always following/staying within 4 inches of owners feet (no joke) so said owner will trip over cat constantly 1pm - House chores/exercise. 2pm - Hubby and I go grocery shopping. Grumble about prices like old geezers, per usual. 3pm - Made some tasty soup with pork, bok choy, rice, chicken broth etc. Soup on chilly days is the best! 4pm - Surf the internet/odds and ends. 5pm: "Sure is dark outside." (winter+US time change) (eats some chips/salsa) 6pm - Rent a movie/snuggle spouse. 8pm - "My eyes won't stay open." (old geezer unplanned nap) 9:30pm -Snorts awake. 12:30am - Can't sleep, ofc. PS4 or K-dramas? hmm.

Because despite what that other song says, music never dies.

Finally got around to watching Alien:Covenant. The first 40ish minutes had me mildly interested but as soon as they reached the planet I started groaning at all the horror-101 stupidity cliches. Send nearly all of your crew down. No helmets. "Trick" ending things that trick no one in the audience. They even had a shower scene for crying out loud. I had to pause the movie twice and putter in the kitchen for a few minutes each time in order to tolerate it. The aliens, visuals, music/sound effects were effective/good and Katherine Waterson at least convinced me her chr. had some common sense. Fassbender's performance, just like in Prometheus, is the main draw of this film. Did I hate the movie? No. It just wasn't good/distracting enough to be able to make me ignore the idiocy, like some movies can/do. I mean I can rewatch the original Alien and have more sympathy for every single one of those crew members than I did for anyone in Covenant. Talk about death by number. The David character kept making me think of Asimov's R. Daneel Olivaw chr. A psychotic with delusions of grandeur version, of course but...I wonder if that was a somewhat intentional influence or if it's just that such themes re: artificial/created beings have become rather universal. I'd still kill for a good mini-series or movie trilogy of one or more of the Robot Novels, and Fassbender might make a pretty good Daneel. Not sure who would play Elijah Baley tho.

*waves @ all* ... just one of my occasional speedy fly-by's. Hope all is well with you all. @Hurlshot - those costumes are awesome. I've spent the past 20 years wearing zero jewelry but recently have had an irrational hankering for a lot of metal on my fingers/wrists. Which led to the discovery that Amazon has tons of cheap silver jewelry items (I've always preferred silver). Back in the 80's/90's I used to go to local jewelry fairs a few times a year for such things but clicking the "buy" button is so much easier. I might be in shopping-addiction trouble, now. I've been contemplating taking a TEFL certification course in San Francisco, just in case I ever decide to use that sort of option for staying in S. Korea for a few months or something, before I become truly old. Which isn't to say that's a firm plan at this moment. But it's on my mind. Not sure what hubby would think of it however. eg, I doubt he'd want or be able to go with me. Also, I turned 49 this month. I'll post another selfie when I'm 59, which means I expect most/all of you to still be hanging around or dropping in, now and then, at that time, ok?

Pretty much sums up my feelings after 2 episodes as well, both overall and re: W. Ryder. She has toned down from the 1st season but something about her "acting face" in this series, as a whole, rather annoys me. Which is odd to me because way back when I liked her a fair lot. It took me a while to warm up to the 1st season as well, however. I'll keep watching, a couple episodes at a time ... it'll probably grow on me somewhat eventually. ====================================== I also tried a couple episodes of ABC's "Good Doctor." I only did so because I belatedly realized it was a US redo of the S. Korean drama series of the same name. The Kdrama version was nothing too special outside of the main lead's performance, but because I saw the Kdrama one first, watching the flashy Hollywood version made me frown a lot. It's not the worst thing ever, but yeah...I won't/can't continue to watch it. Heh.

Such a good action/suspense/romance series. Song makes me tap my toe or head-bop around the room, can't help it.

Still completely addicted to K-dramas. I've practically forgotten there is a US (or anywhere else, really) television market. I've binge-watched way too many series. So many good ones. I still love the fact most of them are self-contained single-season stories vs. series that are milked to death and never end (or are cancelled and have no end at all...). Their remake of Criminal Minds has been rather mundane to me, so far, however. The actors are all good and I don't have an issue with over-comparing it to the US version...(they're using some of the same criminal stories, like Reaper)...since I was never a huge fan of Criminal Minds beyond the first couple years. Plus the flavor feels quite different even if the chrs are based on the US chrs. Yet the K-drama version of it is lacking something. The pacing and camerawork aren't appealing, perhaps. It's only been 4 episodes however, and it is improving a tiny bit.

Re: IT the new film The trailer would have me believe the movie will have better creepy atmosphere than the mini-series (not hard to do, really). I liked the mini-series ok (the spider-IT was poorly done, tho), especially the children's sections, but I don't mind new adaptations of it either. That said, I always have reservations about King film adaptations of his long novels, simply because of length. King's short stories or novella's usually transfer to film better. Maybe if they made it a two-movie type of film thing. I'd rather wish for a new mini-series, like Netflix doing it, or HBO, or Amazon, or whoever. And for me, young Stuttering Bill will always be Jonathan Brandis (RIP). I thought he was perfect casting back when. The kid in the film trailer doesn't appeal to me at all.

Forgot to mention yesterday that I'd seen: Okja - I think you can only see this via Netflix at the moment? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3967856/ Directed by Bon Joon Ho (The Host, Snowpiercer) it's largely a film about corporations and engineering food debates/ethics, in the form of what ends up feeling a bit like a PETA campaign. The CGI creature itself is amazing, and the young actress is all right. Many of the smaller roles filled by more famous people were...very strange characters I couldn't relate to at all/were just sorta annoying vs. funny. In the end I found the film too over-bearing/shrill in its message, which meant it lost any potential emotional impact for me. It's not that it's bad - technically/music and beauty-wise it's great and the actors are of caliber - I just didn't find it very rousing, hilarious, or illuminating etc. First half was decent/ok too. Depending on your viewpoints as a parent, it may not be something very young children should watch on their own.