LadyCrimson

Tried to watch Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio on Netflix. The animation is impressive and sometimes very beautiful. I actively disliked the first musical song bits. After about 40-50 minutes I was feeling a little bored/not feeling it and turned it off. I suspect maybe I'd be in the minority there (kinda like with Everything Everywhere etc). Just not for me/doesn't give me feels or whatever. But that animation was very nice.

Some of y'all must be either 100% sure the spouses don't ever visit this forum, or don't do the whole secret presents thing. ...I can't believe it's Dec. already again. I mean I can, but I can't at the same time. Pfft.

From what I've seen, one would need to have a 4080 to play Portal with RTX/max settings and be at or above 50fps. At 1080, resolution, native. ...oh sure, with some tweaking and use of DLSS at Balanced or Performance, one could run it at 1080 (maybe even 1440) at 30-45fps with some lower rtx gpu's, but it's still funny. I still wonder how much RTX/ray tracing in particular are going to catch on/stick. I think it's going to be a long while before it feels - if it ever does - worth the performance cost to most, which may cause dev's to stop caring about putting it in. Who knows. Edit: I do think RT has some interesting potential uses for scene lighting and shadowing, based on Metro, but whether it becomes mainstream enough to feel "worth it" in video games ... I'm doubtful.

WeMod. Hahaha. ...sorry, had to joke.

Troll, a recent Norwegian film on Netflix. I liked the director's (Roar Uthaug) The Wave quite a bit so I thought I'd give it a shot. I guess it's pretty much like a Godzilla or King Kong etc. movie except it's a mythical Troll. Actors all do fine/serviceable, scenery is pretty. A bit slower of a pace than you might expect. But I dunno...for the genre I suppose it's ok but maybe all the overly cliched chr. and plot points for such a film are too predictable at this point and there's nothing about this one to make it stand out. But it's a somewhat decent effort if you're in the mood for such a film. Although hubby thought it was utterly terrible (he saw dubbed, I did subs), so YMMV.

I think in the long run the only Indy movie I truly (still) like is the first one. The others have their moments, as usual, but overall I have no desire to rewatch them. I did love Sean Connery as his father tho. At the time it seemed perfect casting and I recall being pumped to go see it in the theater because of that. Side note, the actress who played Elsa is the British gov's "evil" wife in RRR. It was a trip. Ray Stevenson is the gov - I've seen people refer to him as they guy from some more recent roles, but he'll always be Pullo from Rome to me. Their brief performances/line delivery in RRR was cartoonishly bad - really bad - I know at least Ray is capable of better so I figured it was totally on purpose.

Low sodium chicken broth, a chunk of pork shoulder roast (I slow-cook a couple of those each week), diced tomatoes (yes, canned ones, I don't drain them), jalapeno/spices and the below into a big pot: I've basically been eating it once, sometimes twice a day for some weeks now. It's winter-warm/spicy and isn't a rabbit salad. I keep making bigger and bigger batches because hubby keeps "stealing" it so it doesn't last long.

We're working on a second swimming pool.

I find visual spoiling even more annoying nowadays. I mean I know they're relying on the idea that one doesn't have any context during a trailer, and thinking "but we're not spoiling the story" - but if they're going to sell a movie largely for its visual "wow" and action snazziness, I don't want to see half of those big epic visual moments, however briefly, in the trailer. Especially from the final fight scenes or something. Edit: I've largely stopped watching even trailers unless it's a movie title I know I'm already "meh" about anyway.

For me the best things re: GotG were Rocket and the music and the little comedy moments. 1 was almost perfect. 2 was ... well it had moments, not the worst thing in the world but I didn't walk out super wanting a third. That trailer has a few seconds of world/space-environment (when they're in the colorful spacesuits) where I was somewhat reminded of the start of that GotG video game I tried to play. I wonder if there's any minuscule lore connection. Probably not.

Y'know, I'm still a basic-box/function over aesthetics type of case person, but I must admit cases like that are very room-pretty.

Seeing Pentiment in a few posts I finally actually looked it up. Didn't realize it was an Obsidian/Sawyer game. Looks intriguing. Guess I shall wishlist it now, for whenever I feel like playing some games again.

bloggityblogmoodswingsbloggityblogchocolatebloggityblogsatisfaction bloggityblogwinterbloggityblogagingbloggityblogwarmsnuggles ...and that's all I have to say about that.

I keep slowly going through Alchemy of Souls, I think I'm around eps. 13 now. I like it a bit more than early episodes but it hasn't created a serious binge-fest feeling. It does however, have a notable distinction (for me) re: a k-drama where I enjoy the many older/mentor chr. stories/hijinks more than the main couple. The series has a large ensemble cast, where they may have wanted to give the famous older actors more to do (or get their money's worth) and sometimes the actual leads do get a little lost/disappear between them all. But I kinda like that, for this show.

By the time they figure out a solution to the point where buying that gpu from a store would actually have the solution already included in the box (if they ever do), the 50xx series will be out. This 40xx launch does not breed over confidence for 50xx tho. Edit: maybe they should all start a new cycle of letting 4 years elapse between each "series" of cards so there's a little less rushing. Not that they will.

"You can't put a dog (or cat, or marmot, or...) into a game, but not let me pet it."

Scorsese is one of those director's where I can understand the long-term respect but his themes or style apparently doesn't resonate or entertain me much. Departed was probably the one I liked the most of the ones I've seen. Everything else, despite often high caliber casts, ranges from "passed the time" to "it's ok, some pretty good scenes here and there." His name as director doesn't motivate me to see a film at all. As to The Color of Money - I saw that in the theater largely because of Paul Newman. I suppose it was all right, but I liked The Hustler a ton better. Plus I've never liked Tom Cruise in more dramatic roles (vs. adrenaline/action) *The Scorsese films I've seen, listed in release year order: --After Hours, The Color of Money, Last Temptation of Christ, Cape Fear, Casino, Gangs of NY, The Departed, Shutter Island (last three were home-watched, not in a theater). (I also am not generally into The Mob or general USA period organized gangster type of movies)

If you're in the mood for a pretty/relaxing animal/nature short documentary series, (Island of the) Sea Wolves on Netflix is a nice one. It's not the science/informative type of nature doc, but good background or for showcasing great visuals, with enough awww and relatable "animal family" moments.

Gedonia has had a few patches to fix bugs, improve a few things ... haven't tested/played it tho. I've had my eyeballs on Kingdoms Reborn, which looks like an interesting variation of city manager/planner+RTS that may have partially solved the "gets boring once you learn efficiency and reach a certain city size" (via map goals that drastically change how one plans/builds and skills up, making working methods in one not workable in another, I guess, so more mission oriented per map ... plus factions or something). But it's Early Access again and I'm still too fed up with e-a games that end up drastically different by release to want to be an early adopter, so ... still, one to keep an eye on.

Trying to make my way through k-drama Alchemy of Souls, a period fantasy/drama (magic, mages, soul-shifters). It's by the Hong sisters, who created one of my fave older k-dramas (2013 Master's Sun) and a couple other at least digestible ones. They tend to focus on some early comedy, romance, and then flip to a whole lot of tragedy. Thought AoS was finished (with 20 episodes) but then realized there were still more upcoming when I scrolled down the list. Apparently a 10 episode part 2/conclusion is planned/starts airing in Dec. >.> 7 episodes in and the series is ... I'm not sure. It feels like a show I ought to like but it's not really fully capturing me yet. Visually grand at times, some of the usual tropes/cliches, fun mentor and villain chrs, etc. I think the bits that are supposed to be all emotional aren't striking a chord or are too familiar. I miss those early-mid 2000's k-dramas I started with. They were cheesy, trope-y, melodramatic and all of that etc, but in a way they had more heart. They're starting to get too "polished" now. Oh well.

Oh, that. In my inexpert and "I don't actually know her from Adam" opinion, at some point (a while ago) she had injected fillers in her upper lip and maybe her cheeks. Eventually that stuff starts shifting, and if you keep trying to re-do/correct it maybe it won't look so great eventually. Such seems pretty common these days (along with botox ofc) - thus they can claim they've never had any surgery, but ....

Also watched Bullet Train. I found it entertaining enough, mostly for the humor aspects. I found the plot and storytelling a little lacking, but it's probably a style type thing. re: Sandra - I think it's largely the different (well, to me) thicker eyebrow styling, hairstyle (covers more of her forehead) and that (again, to me) aging dark racoon eye make up. Just cosmetics that aren't really flattering to her.

*randomly reading about various you-own-nothing in this digital age stuff* Pretty soon you probably won't be able to flush your toilet without a registered account and subscription to the toilet-maker company to unlock the software that permits the flushing "feature" to function.

Hehe. Yeah it's not anime of the year or even decade or anything. It just gets decently more chr engaging after a few vs. all otp comedy. I ended up liking the female lead a lot.