LadyCrimson

Since it was in my watchlist - rom-dramedy Destined With You/Netflix. After the first couple of episodes or so there were a few episodes of hilarity re: believed love potion hijinks, then it went for centuries ago past life/destiny with a dash of crazy stalker/killer. I'm pretty over the whole past-life hook in k-drama's so overall it was only mildly ok for me. It did however, kinda make me want to rewatch Goblin again.

Oh - yeah, that's kind of the point of the series. Which is why I mentioned shounen. Which I know can encompass various and broader friendship related themes vs. actual fights (like sports teams) but WH seems more akin to a schoolyard bully Bleach (especially the 2nd season) in terms of pacing. Fighting/confrontation every several chapters/pages, the end of every episode, or whatnot, working up to some big conflict denouement, with the general "friendship/hoohaaa/survival/conquer/victory". The episodes aren't that long 40min avg. vs. 50-60+) so it kinda feels a bit condensed in that way too. But yeah I would've liked a couple more episodes per season to flesh it out just a little more. eg, the friendships seem to happen overnight. I think WH2 is loosely based on a webtoon (unread by me), although my impression is that a lot of WH1 isn't actually in the webtoon itself - or maybe the webtoon had a lot of "backhistory" chapters and TV creators turned most of those into elaborated S1 backstory 1st season. Unsure. WH1 = "trauma", WH2 = PTSD/"recovery."

Mercy For None - Netflix (7 episodes) Hm. The 1st 4 episodes were decent in that revenge John Wick/Nobody/The Professional kind of way. Y'know, who cares about the story really, just a near mythical ex-mob fighter going for bloody revenge after his brother is killed. The end of the 4th episode would've been fine as a conclusion. But then the last 3 episodes brought in a bigger "oh but wait, that wasn't really who/why" bigger/conspiracy plot and it kinda falls apart. Even some of the fight sequences became less interesting (more fast cut editing vs. wider frame). I watched because I love So Ji-sub and he's great playing that kind of character. But imo one would be better off watching the 4 episodes and deciding that's the end of the series. 1st 4 - 7/10 (8/10 for the fights). Last 3 - 5.5/10 (7/10 for fights). I think that's enough beat 'em up shows for me this week. Time to find another rom-com. And yes I've been watching way too much TV the past couple weeks. Heh. >.>

I watched 16 minutes or so of that War of the Worlds on Prime, while elliptical-ing. I can safely report that yes, it is "worse than you think." Can't even blame the trailer-maker for making a terrible trailer. It's just that bad. lol Edit: that guy who played ... agent Coulson? in the Ironman/other movies has a role. Rumor has it this was filmed around Covid - perhaps they were all filming in their living rooms?

Oh, finally (I wish listed it almost 2 years ago). Early access tho, not the "full game" available, totally "unoptimized" etc. But it doesn't look bad, and most importantly, zero MT and no "online required." It's 20% off this week ($24), supposedly will be $50 on non-EA release. I'm 98% sure I'd buy it at release anyway, so despite early access, I'm going to buy it now, play it a bit, then uninstall it and wait for it to be finished in a year or three. I think my biggest concern (outside of performance demand/issues) is whether the later added Masteries would be one's I like, since that would affect replayability a lot.

There hasn't been an actual decent film adaptation of the novel ever, imo. I mean I have fondish memories of seeing the 1953 film on TV as a kid, but it doesn't age that well. I mostly see the novel as one of the major influences re: sci fi and invasion/first contact themes in film/media. I don't mind the lack of pathogen immunity angle. But I can see a point where something else could be used because "everyone" knows that's how the story ends, so something new would be more interesting.

I totally binge-watched Weak Hero (2-3 years old) and Weak Hero 2 (less then a year ago) - Netflix. I enjoyed them both enough to remain glued to the screen. They are short seasons (8 ep. each). I probably enjoyed #2 slightly better, because it was a tad less darkly intense. But #1 may hit harder emotionally re: plot/friendships, and it had the fair better chr/story pacing. 2nd season felt a bit rushed like it could've used an extra episode or two to flesh out some of the newer chrs. history/relationships more (re: emotional impact). Action choreography/camerawork and editing was very good, from the small fisticuffs to larger group. Mostly a cast I'm not familiar with, with one notable cameo exception. I'd give both 8.75/10. Notes/Advisory: A lot of the modern-style S. Korea school and gang bullying/violence, mostly fists and makeshift weapons, very much a male-centric cast. Adults/parents are almost non-existent, although they pop up occasionally when "needed." I'd say it's kinda similar to the shonen genre (maybe?) but not sports/fantasy/powers.

Is this a real trailer? (apparently it's a "Prime Video" release movie) "DATA IS THEIR FOOD" "IT'S WORSE THAN YOU THINK." YT comment: "The budget for this film was the price of an ice cube"

So, Tainted Grail did release "mod kit" - although they have limited "official" access to Discord app members, which irked me (and a few others) to no end. I found it uploaded on GitHub however. **** dev's and their Discord exclusivity these days. But it appears there is no actual .exe type editor function. It's just the asset bundles/directories that one is allowed to alter. I assume one needs an asset tool. I believe it's Unity. Is there a current (free) Unity tool for this kind of situation, that most would use? A perfunctory tutorial says stuff like "In Unity, on the top toolbar, select Window/Asset Management/Addressables/Groups to open Addressables Groups window" - what does "In Unity" mean? Would one need more than a Unity asset access/recompile tool? Bah humbug. Edit: I know there was something called UABE/A that ppl used but it hasn't been updated in almost a year. Many asset extractors but most of those supposedly cannot repackage. Perhaps now one simply has to make a Unity account and download the free version of Unity itself, which seems like a lot of trouble just to make small game mods. Double pfft.

Rather fascinating to watch him make it, plus maybe I found a new hobby. Of course, I'd have to figure out what they're using. Some kind of liquid plastic? Would you have to do one layer, wait for it to harden, do another layer etc? No clue. Bah, I'd probably be terrible at it. I want my own Derpy lamp, tho.

I don't think this option is available if watching without being logged into a YT account. Which is what I'm doing 99% of the time, even when I had an account. YT search also sucks these days, that's all I have to say on that. YT-Home page is for when I'm just in brainless mode and don't mind the random, mostly when I'm on the tablet. I like mini-docs/essays (on crime, books, media, history, culture etc). eg, yesterday I watched a couple on the (US culture) station wagon's history and why/when it's (mostly) disappeared. Game/film reviews/news/trailers, the occasional geek project rambler (not reviewer), sketch humor. And cats, ofc. Occasionally news clips but then I get depressed and go back to cats and video essays. And while I used to make fun of them (well, I still make fun of them) there are a select few tv/film "reactors" that I like quite a bit because I consistently enjoy their personalities, like CineBinge and Badd Medicine.

*watches some more Youtube videos* Dear guys and gals: please stop using the word "bro" as a general exclamation every 5 seconds, and/or as the start or end of every single utterance. I get it, catchphrases/words catch on/become habits at times. But good lord. Time for something else now? Please?

Trigger - eh, another kdrama that falls off at the end. No great story conclusion/sense of satisfaction, just a lot of "what if/would you" ruminations with a small side of hope. Towards the end they were presenting both the anti-gun and sort of NRA-like stances via various methods - there were a few great quotes for both sides in there - along with some "humanity is not logical ...." type stuff. One of its problems was that (I think) it wants to have a heavy anti-gun message, but the format (action/crime thriller) and its showcasing of "people pushed to breaking points" so we can sympathize with a situation that could lead to violence, plus a kind of likable but almost comic-genre super-villain chr, almost glorified guns instead. So it doesn't work for me as some social message. At the least, it's too perfunctory. Be a serious topical drama, or be a fun/exciting crime thriller, pick one and stick to it, that kind of thing. Acting and action good, first few episodes pretty good, show as a whole kinda "meh." Oh and I probably should've mentioned that if anyone is very sensitive to the school violence/shooting issue, one of the side plots, the resolution episode is probably going to be heavily triggering. On the more humorous side, there was one small scene late in the series between two gangsters and their protracted, eventually OTP pistol showdown that was utterly (intentionally) hilarious.

First 5 episodes of Trigger (Netflix) are pretty decent. Not *great*, but decent. Action stuff is fun, plot is a little more interesting than I thought it would be - although some aspects fall a little flat imo. Kim Nam-gil is great as always and Kim Young-kwang's chr. is fun. guess I've been in the mood for kdrama again, recently, watching/catching up on a lot of them. >.> And a new Disney+ trailer for a KBS2 series. Looks fantasy cheesy as heck, but that cast. It's the signs of Zodiac vs villain. Dangit, looks like I definitely will be giving disney a tiny bit of money for august/Sept to binge watch/check out a few things.

Last night I saw a lot of lightning for several hours, but heard no thunder. (no local rain) Tonight it's a lot of thunder with no visible lightning. (no local rain)

Was wondering if Sandman/2 was worth watching. I might try it soon. Kdrama - Castaway Diva ---image and description made me think light silly rom-com. the first extra-long episode was a melodrama tearjerker re: the setting up the young teen (14-16?) past of two characters. The rest followed predictable melodrama+comedy but was overall decent for the kdrama genre, even with the typical last few episode fall off kdramas tend to have. But that first episode was a showcase for the two young actors playing the adults-as-children roles. Lee Re and especially Moon Woo-jin - gonna have to see where they are/what they're doing in 5+ years. I've become slightly "annoyed" (since it further fractures access to k-content and I don't want to sub to disney+, heh) that Disney seems to be trying to attract kdrama audiences now (I guess the sub service started in S. Korea a few years ago?). A couple of their Disney+ exclusive series I might be interested in. Moon Woo-jin plays a villain in one of them (Unmasked, maybe he's in one episode, dunno) and I'm super curious to see if he does as well with another role - reviews indicate he does. Plus it has a couple other main cast people that I like a lot. *grits teeth* Maybe I will finally do the sub for one month thing just to watch them.

^ We are fuddy duddies who think it's reasonable to just want "more TNG" or whatever is one's thing, but studios don't see any profit in folks like us. Although they are willing to use nostalgia-bait to lure some of us in briefly. I'm "wise" to that now - not falling for it again. ======== After reading a bit about the making of Kpop Demon Hunters, interviews with the creators and some of their goals etc, I gave it another watching, paying more attention to some things and I enjoyed it a little more the 2nd time. To be honest, in some ways I did like it better than the few Pixar offerings I've seen the past decade (didn't see TS-4 tho). So I will upgrade my ranking from 6.5 to 7.2. It's still not fully for my old cranky brain, but they don't make films like that for people like me. Apparently that Your Idol song was #1 on Spotify for a while, with another song from the film being #2 as well as being a big views hit for netflix. I'm becoming steadily more convinced that Netflix is going to become K-flix before long.

The cpanel has been updated/altered several times. That's about all I know. 3-4 years ago I did email him with a quick question, and got the usual almost instant reply. But to be fair I haven't done anything with webhosting besides the email addy's (which is re: sign-ins, I don't "social email" at all now) and game screenshots so really haven't kept up/cared to investigate closely. Recently deleted a lot of extraneous software installs too. I've considered eradicating all of it and moving to another webhost just for email access because I like having control over that (never going to use gmail or similar), but honestly, while I'm sure I'll be surfing the net in some lurker form or another until I die, I care less and less about having any actual presence. I'm going to keep paying for my actual domain names until death tho - if I let them lapse for even one second, someone would take them. crimsonkeep-2104826-1278 doesn't have the same ring. Crazy how easy it was for me to get certain randomish names back then vs. now, in anything. There was a time when I could even get "CatLady" at most every registration page I signed up for. Try that now.

I still use my own webhost re: email addresses. I sometimes wonder what will happen if the owner of the severs dies - will I even know outside of it all suddenly not working one day. I have no idea how old he is and it was years and years ago I found him, back when personal webhosting wasn't everywhere/EZ-fied and super cheap. I have this feeling, outside of his 'real job' clients, if he still has those (public webhosting was a small side for him), that I and maybe a few others might be the only ones using/remaining on his no-longer advertised webhost servers at this point.

KPop Demon Hunters (netflix) -- Netflix kept tossing this into my face, but it looked like an Americanized culture musical aimed at young teens, which didn't appeal to me on paper. I was bored tonight and went "eh, why not." First 15 minutes or so was kind of a snooze/didn't like the first song, but once the story got going I found a lot of humor in it, re: kpop band and fangroup tropes. The "big inspiring" finale song was rather typical teen musical fare - eg, most of such films have similar sounding songs - but I did really like the finale demon song. Mostly because it seemed to be taking stabs at the super-fan culture. Plus, Grim Reaper costume animation - good stuff. Anyway, it's a cute film, not super my thing but it made me chuckle and was well made, so I give it a 6.5/10. Oh, also, it wasn't on-screen much, but this Korean painting art influenced tiger/magpie duo was great/hilarious.

Doctor told hubby he can either go for (quite invasive/long recovery) spine disk fusion/rods and metal, that is like a random crapshoot re: actual patient satisfaction/results, or try this less invasive thing where they remove/deaden nerves around the affected vertebrae, to at least reduce/eliminate the pain. The latter is only being done by a single Kaiser (insurance) doc in California, apparently - in San Fran. Which, while we're farther from SF than we used to be, at least it's not in, say, Los Angeles. So now gotta wait for him to call re: referral. Hopefully it won't be a year.

Maybe the plug connector is dirty/oxidized/loose or something akin to that, so if you plug into the PC case itself, say, replacing that piece is all you'd have to hopefully do. Assuming it's not welded on. I get something similar but opposite re: phone/tablet charger cables where they work great for a while but eventually the plug part of the cable gets too "loose" and stops connecting well enough re: "fast charging" ability, so I have to keep jiggling/plugging it in and out. And any motion of the tablet may make the plug lose solid connection again (so charging would take days). Sometimes I crimp the cable plug a little with pliers and it works better for a bit. Or I buy a new charger wire and repeat. >.>

Guys, I might've find my new ideal sim game!* * Kidding. I just often wonder these days how the thought process works re: "hey this would make a good game" some ppl seem to have. I mean, this feels like a joke. That said, if it's a decent game in the end (maybe it's supposed to be funny?) more power to them.

Yesterday, while leaving CostCo and putting our stuff in our car: ---A woman nearly as tall as hubby and about our age approaches, says "don't worry I don't want money" then looks mostly at hubby and proceeds to say she has a bad back plus still recovering from recent surgery or something - could we help her get a giant watermelon/other heavy items out of her cart and into her car. ---I said "Sure, I'll do it" -- and pointed at hubby -- "He has a bad back too." and walked over to her car. --Watermelon was maybe 15+ pounds but easy. Stuff like that is hard on hubby/others because bending/pulling up out of an extra tall/deep cart is stressful - she kept asking if I was sure/was I ok etc - remember I'm super short and not 20 anymore either etc - I made the usual "I'm the strong one now" jokes. ---She and hubby then had a long convo re: backs, surgery/options/doctors as I unloaded our own full cart into our car. It was all rather amusing, from my point of view. Plus hubby was pleased to find someone else in near the same position as him to bounce off of.

Not that anyone here cares but it's what I'm listening to (too much) lately, so I'm gonna yap about it for a minute. Hadn't listened to Stray Kids in quite a while so I caught up. I guess they've become fairly popular - especially internationally perhaps - the past few years. Three of them write most of their lyrics/music. Two are actually Australian/fully bi-lingual, which probably adds to their international appeal. They lost one member so they are now 8 instead of 9. They call this members lines the "Felix Effect" Catches a lot of ppl's attention initially. Which I can relate to since that's what I noticed in their early Victory Song video. The several hits I like best (most of their music is too "noisy" for me, outside of these) I've listened to on repeat so often now that I can now mostly distinguish the member's voices apart, which I usually have no ability to do re: these bands. Their dance choreo videos are great re: hard energy dances - although sometimes with near seizure inducing zoom camera editing >.> - but I pick this one because it's less studio-polished, they aren't doing a mega dance, and seem like they're just having low-pressure fun on stage. (song starts at 1:40)