LadyCrimson

Hubby and I joke whenever one of us leaves the house - miss ya already, can't wait to ignore you when you get back. So this afternoon, I can once again ignore my husband, and I will be very happy.

Ok fine, maybe it's the taste of iron I don't like. Or myoglobin whatever that consists of. No clue. Whatever it is, if the meat looks half raw/very red and there is "blood" bleeding all over my plate, since it tastes similar to what I suck out of my finger when it gets stabbed with a needle or sliced with a knife, I won't like it. Edit: I also don't like the smell of "blood" all that much. It doesn't make me ill or anything, I just don't like it. And yes that includes when I'm prepping meat, at times. Smell is the main reason I dislike almost all common/popular seafood and refuse to step inside a major or pier/wharf fish market where it's overpowering (which does make me utterly nauseous). That said, not saying some cooked or fried or steeped in a casserole seafood doesn't taste all right. But I've tried many times over the years to try and like seafood enough to eat it more regularly, but I fail every time. EditEdit: I feel like I should emphasize I'm not trying to put down seafood per se. It's just hard to enjoy something if you don't like the smell of it, even when cooked, most of the time.

^ I always used a controller, which felt fine/worked well. I don't imagine I would have liked using a keyboard. There's one minor boss fight (the one just before you have to travel to another map section thru snow) in the game that after struggling to even escape it a couple times I realized I could avoid completely by just ... running over some rocks in the opposite direction then the game makes you think you have to go because it'll despawn after a certain distance. So I did, and again when replaying. Technically I have not defeated that thing, lol. Repair Sprays are completely unnecessary to protect cargo from Timefall itself - so long as you don't fall down a mountain or get swept away by those ghosties, haha. Even with fully repaired cargo containers, a major fall etc. could damage the cargo pretty extensively, even to the point of mission fail, sometimes. I stopped carrying them at all about halfway through the game. Timefall did reduce most gear over time but I was a packrat as usual and always had a certain number of things. I mostly used the blood grenades the entire time so I had piles and piles of blood bags and not much else. Interesting re: roads or structures disappearing, never had that happen on the console, all the online structures stayed forever - unless I manually deleted them myself - as long as I repaired them a little occasionally. Sounds like a bug.

Last of Us, first episode Hm. Builds dread and tension pretty well, helped by audio design and music. Good production values. Some visual shots definitely made me think of the game. Pedro Pascal is going to be a great Joel. The young lady playing Ellie I'm a little less sure about, but we don't see much of her in 1st episode. Anyway, very promising start, would definitely watch more. But didn't make me want to impatiently must-watch every week ala Breaking Bad. I'll still wait for completion first.

Lets see if the forum will let me post something in this thread this time: For me meat is often just this flavor I like combined with other flavors. I rarely eat it if it's not in some sauced sitr fry, soup, sliced marinated small pieces, jerky Edit-or smoked/sausage meats. I do like a steak once in a while - and ribeyes are good yes - but even then I tend to marinate mine in something first. Or I'm the plebe that would drown each forkfull in A1 or teriyaki sauce on the side, whatever. I don't like too much direct blood taste, so no bloody plates for me, but the cooked flavor of meat in combo with salt, marinades, veggies, etc is what I like, and each meat goes with different things. Edit: and yet the forum still will not let me post about the simple lowish carb yogurt dessert I've been making. Go Figure.

The Menu, via HBOMax I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, but once it gets going it I liked it quite a bit. Social satire, high brow horror, perhaps. A lot of barbs thrown at how almost cult-like fancy restaurant, foodie, and chef culture can be. Social issue wise, it's nothing other movies haven't commented on, but still fairly effective and lol funny here and there. A lot of good cast, although most aren't given a ton to do. But the primaries were excellent. I might give it something like 3 out of 4 stars.

First episode of Last of Us is getting good reviews from lots that I've seen, making me more interested in it. HBOMax page just says tonight, not sure what time that means. I'll watch the first then let the rest pile up to watch the whole if I like it.

Today I tried to post in the food thread but the forum would not let me, despite repeated attempts to figure out what new, for me, typing character might be the problem, since I used no quotations or other such. Good times! Let's see if this posts. Edit: well it did. Weird. Hand-toss.

^ Yeah I liked Hudsucker Proxy too. Not on a mega level but it's fairly entertaining oddball comedy. Buster Scruggs I liked the title segment and the one with Liam Neeson in it (but yes it was a downer), but the rest were nothing special. Barton Fink was ... weird. True Grit was all right for a straight Western (one of the least "Coen" of their films perhaps), if a little ponderous. A friend of mine really loved Blood Simple but I never got around to it, because I was already tired of neo-noir paranoia or however one would describe it.

Just to say: Exercise is just an excuse to stay in bed the rest of the day.

I liked No Country for Old Men fairly well, but mostly in terms of the performances (T.L. Jones, Bardem and Harrelson in his small role) and certain stylistic directions, rather than the movie/story itself, if that makes any sense. I don't think I've seen very many Cohen films - five or six maybe? - tbh, at least not in full. They are typically creators where I might like specific short scenes a lot but their overall style doesn't fully engage or resonate with me. Or the subject matter just doesn't interest me film-wise to begin with (Miller's Crossing).

^ I'm not a particular fan of the Coen brother's films, but Fargo is one of my favorite films. I bought the screenplay back then ... all those "yahs" and "real good thens" etc that the chrs's use were fully scripted. Those scenes where the girls in the bar and the man outside describe Steve Buscemi's chr. as "kinda funny looking" I crack up every time. It's also where I first really took notice of William H. Macy - loved him ever since. ...wait, 1996, it's 27 years old or something? Dangit...

I have a tablet. But the exercise gets in the way of really focusing on the media or the media distracts me mentally from exercising and I end up not really focused on either. I mean it kinda works sometimes but other times I just stare at the wall. That's how I'd describe it. I love being out in stormy weather. Not that I can't get sick of the wet and humidity of rain around home, but when outdoors and everything's wild, I love it. I wouldn't be on a storm chaser level or anything haha but it's exhilarating. ============== ...looks like hubby won't be back until Tues afternoon. And he has my car. Pffft. Too bad that Hogwart's game isn't out yet, I could use something new.

Noah's Forecast: rain with gusty wind, then some more rain, more wind, and then more rain. Oh, wait, 7 days from now it might only be partly cloudy. Since hubby took my car for a few days (his van developed a windshield leak) I can't go drive in the rain. But I'm currently about to toss on a hooded rainjacket, to go for a puddle-walk around the neighborhood. Because even if I'm not eight anymore, it's still fun/refreshing. Plus I'm bored of staring at a wall while using the elliptical.

Looks like they updated Hogwart's Legacy PC specs the last day or two. The game's website is more thorough w/added 1440/4k "Ultra" specs given, but the min. GPU Steam was edited (960/4gb vs. 1070) to match and that "upscaling" line has disappeared. https://www.hogwartslegacy.com/en-us/pc-specs

Pfft. I just need a short handled wisk broom.

I'm pleased that RRR won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song (Naatu Naatu). It's not my favorite of the film's original songs but it's a fun one. If the two stars + others were to do an Oscars stage performance of that dance, I might watch (part of) the Oscars for the first time in years and years (and years). But I won't hold my breath for the Oscars to do something that fun.

Re: Hogwarts Legacy I noticed under Additional Notes on the Steam requirements for this game, it says: ---(Min) 1080p/60 fps, Low Quality Settings, *Upscale -Performance- Setting* --(Rec) 1080p/60 fps, High Quality Settings, *Upscale -Quality- Setting* So, are they saying these requirements are taking into consideration that you must be running non-native upscaling for them? That seems disingenuous. I guess I can understand for Minimum, since that would be part of the ... minimum. But Recommended should always be for native resolution, imo. >.>

I have only just now learned of Hogwart's Legacy. I am not a Potter fan (did see all the movies, eventually, they were ok, only tried to read one of the books, not for me) so don't care about that aspect. But --I like that it's single-player only --I still enjoy the occasional open world and virtual tourism, if it's done well --I like that it's all wand and spells combat (no melee/swords etc) --Ever since Drakan: Order of the Flame and WoW, I like flying mounts, and the ones in this game look fantastic. --Taming pets/mounts in a personal yard or something? --I think eventually school friends can join as party members so not 100% a solo chr. game? --No micro transactions ... except that the extra stuff in the Deluxe version supposedly will be sold separately as a DLC? Not clear. Anyway...if it's too much like Skyrim type open world game, I would likely find it dull. But maybe it'll be a new openworld, virtual tourism, action-rpg that I could sink time into...or it'll be another hype-before-release that ends up as suck. hmm.

Re: natural water features: I don't like the slimy-toes or not seeing where I'm stepping either, but don't mind floating or paddling around in a lazy and muddy looking river, as long as the feet don't have to touch ground for more than 5 seconds at a time. That said as I think I've said before I'm not a huge fan of being in big open water etc, - boats are fine - so mostly I like to look at them, or to watch wildlife interact with them. I like/enjoy river/stream swimming holes and/or small waterfalls a lot more than giant lakes or oceans. Having one of these in an extended backyard would be nice.

Thought: I suppose it's also possible that they've just reduced the video compression quality so much that it's become very noticeable on big screens but not on smaller ones. All I know is the icons used to be there - even if they were lying, so to speak, and they've now corrected it - and that it used to look a ton better on the big TV's hence my assumption. Edit: well that and an article I read during covid, which I cannot seem to find now/again. >.>

No, no extension. Hm. It is possible that while the 4k icons were there, that it was only playing in 1080 and I just didn't think about it back then. All I know is the visual quality suddenly dropped (re: 50-55" TV's anyway, it still looks decent/good at 27"). I checked Prime on PC again (haven't in a while) and now the 4k/UHD icons are there again, but it tosses up a "because you're not on a supported device, only Standard Definition for you!" message that I never got/saw before. Supposedly this is mostly about DRM concerns and they consider Firefox not good enough for that. There was a time when there was some command while playing Netflix that let you see the tech stats/bandwidth etc. info but I think it no longer works, or it's changed and I know not what it is. If it's actually 720, not even 1080, that's even worse/would explain why it's so much more drastically softer/compressed on the TV's now.

No, 4k did work on Firefox initially, at least for me where I am. Both on Prime and Netflix. I remember suddenly noticing (at some point after Covid started) on both services that all the little 4k icon's on titles were suddenly nowhere to be found, as well as noticing the drop in video quality on the big TV's. Edit: I wouldn't have gotten the 4k level sub. if it hadn't. Edit: at any rate, thanks for checking for me. : ) PS4 still streams in 4k for services, it's the only reason I'm still paying Netflix that tier.

Well, this time all the rain and the oversaturated higher section of the yard decided to pool up ground water that overflowed over and down the higher wall/walkway behind the pool, so all this dirty water rivered into the pool. The pool is now all cloudy. Which doesn't bother me at all but hubby was worrying whether the pool filter would clean it out effectively, eventually. Not saying it's not nice to have one I suppose, but the extra work, care and cost (replacing pool filter parts or the auto-pool vacuum if you have one can get expensive...) is one reason why I've never cared about having one and it wouldn't be on my "must haves" when home buying. Hubby wants it, he takes care of it. If I was really into swimming for daily exercise (hubby isn't...), I'd rather build a room to house one of those small inifini pools where water pressure keeps you swimming in place or something to that effect. Or just go to the YMCA or something else cheap/similar. Edit: I know California needs the rain (when does it not, technically) but it would be nice if there were more breaks inbetween. Crazy weather this year all over.

So does anyone here that uses Firefox get Netflix and Prime to offer/play 4k titles thru it, at this point? I remember reading they stopped partly because of Covid/bandwidth concerns - and also maybe other concerns - and it hasn't returned yet for me. So wondering if this is still the normal for Firefox, or if it's maybe because, say, I haven't updated Win10 or the browser for a little while.