Bartimaeus

The actual ballerina stuff was fine. It's just that...I do not find Natalie Portman a believable or compelling actress in the slightest, and consequently almost always find her characters unlikable in whatever she appears in (a small-but-not-totally exception for her character in V for Vendetta, I guess...and she was good in Leon as well), and it kind of snowballed from there on pretty much every front because of it. Laugh-out-loud CGI stuff that's supposed to be fueled by her inner struggles which I just did not care at all about, everyone in the movie is insane (and/or a scumbag) which fuels the ludicrousness even more, unreliable narrator (which would be fine with a character you like - not so much one you already dislike to begin with, just annoys me with her even more). I've seen Perfect Blue, the movie Black Swan is heavily based off of, and while Perfect Blue had its own set of problems, I found it a waaaaaaaaaaay more enjoyable experience. I really just need to give up and accept the fact that I'm not going to like anything Natalie Portman appears in, I guess - she's pretty consistently been a movie-ruiner for me.

What Malcador said. The only place mail has been currently going on before being disposed of and my hands cleaned is my floor...but if you want to get technical, the contents could be infected before arriving as well (especially in this cold weather where the virus likely lives for a longer period of time), OR they could get infected by me removing the contents while still holding onto the packaging.

Amazon workers test positive for covid-19 at six U.S. warehouses I was already thinking of starting a like 4-tier mail system where it's like "okay, this mail is 1 day old...this mail is 2 days old, and this mail is 3 days old, and now this mail is 4 days old and safe to open". Might start implementing that now.

Black Swan (2010). it sucked lmao

Many years back when I was...a junior? in high school, I was doing a sort of silly "team-building" and trade skills-familiarizing program during the summer, and early into the program, we had a day where we did a height-climbing activity sort of for fun and sort of as a challenge to ourselves. Basically, we had to climb a 7-8 story tower while wearing a safety harness - it'd be a joke for any real climbers, but for someone totally unexperienced like myself (who's also terrified of heights), it was a daunting, Herculean task. My entire body had just about turned to jello by the time I made it all the way up (just about lost all control of my legs), and I almost passed out. Got made fun of by one of the other students for it, too - but the kicker there was that he absolutely refused to try to do it himself because "he just didn't want to" (and obviously, we all knew it was because he was a total hypocrite chicken himself). He almost got kicked out of that program for bad behavior several times, and went on to become a super senior (he was a year older than me so I still saw him around when he should've already graduated) and then later started working at a local Gold'n Plump. Felt like a bit of cosmic justice there, the rat bastard. (e): On reflection, it was probably more like 5-6 stories, not 7-8. It was really tall, but not like "this is literally impossible for someone who's not already a climber" tall.

I think the "director" of that game said he next wanted to make a movie, so uh, yeah. Of course, his "directing style" (for his games at least) has been just awkward Japanesey overacting and melodrama that will make for an equally ridiculous movie. But I guess some people like that.

Sister's fever finally broke after about 10-12 days of having it. She's a smoker and said it's been some of the worst few weeks of her life. Maybe this will finally get her to quit...probably not, . Just in case anybody didn't know...smoking is a severe comorbidity for coronavirus, young people included.

Yeah, but neither will we. (e): I think I meant to have an "and" instead of a "but" there. Whoops.

Yeah, seems like a bit of a hail mary. Arians has already retired once and probably doesn't want to deal with raising a new QB, plus the Buccaneers' roster is pretty good right now and probably won't be in a few years (if their drafting history and ability to keep players there is anything to go by, anyways). NFC South is a tough division and Brady isn't getting any younger, though, so it kind of seems like a plan made for just the next 1-2 years in hopes of getting a SB - which hey, if your team wasn't going anywhere fast to begin with may not be the worst idea.

I can only read "tugged her braid" and "smoothed her skirt" and "folded her arms beneath her breasts" (or whatever that phrase was) so many times before I lose my mind, and Nynaeve was the biggest offender for repetitive and pained writing, and it didn't help she was an otherwise unpleasant character for a number of books...and then, on top of that, she started mostly appearing alongside Elayne for a good stretch there as well, so the two started getting mentally paired for me. And Elayne is like...the epitome of the book telling me over and over how smart, strong, wise, clever, and powerful a character is, but every time I'm actually reading her parts in the books, she's just coming across as a childish and petulant dimwit. ...I also started reading these books when I was like 10 years old, so it's quite possible my sympathies, favorites, and least favorites would change with a fresh reading - though the last book didn't come out *that* long ago, the first one did, and initial impressions can last a long time (especially if you're not doing anything to fight them). @Maedhros Dang it, you're probably absolutely right about Mat. That would really suck, because he was always the "let's have a break from the 'serious' story stuff and do some lighter-hearted and fun but still plot-meaningful adventure stuff". Count me out if they flanderize Mat from the start...

None of them match what I had in my head, but that's to be expected - though Rand and Moiraine are probably the closest to doing so. My two favorite characters for most of the series were Mat and Egwene, and I especially don't like the choice for Mat upon a glance. The lady cast for Egwene seems like she might work. Nynaeve was the most horrifically annoying character not named Elayne in the actual books, so I can't say I particularly care. Maybe they'll go a totally different direction for her character and make her not an awful chore to listen to, . Think I got halfway through the series before I started skimming their parts because I couldn't take them anymore...

If you die from coronavirus, you won't be scared or depressed anymore, so there's really no need to be too upset about all of this. Probably. Happy Friday!

Sir, sir, Prime Minister! Will you be authorizing the entry of any coronavirus refugees to Absurdistan this upcoming week? The world is growing increasingly desperate and Absurdistan is literally infinitely vast...wouldn't it be morally unjustifiable to let anyone else unnecessarily die from this crisis if you can do something to prevent it?

?

He's previously stated that he's okay with murder as long as it's not someone he cares about. He's not exactly known to be high on the empathy scale. My friend at the MN hospital just said they were told today that they are to turn away any sick coming from nursing homes - i.e. let them die. Italy started implementing similar protocols a couple of weeks ago, I guess supplies are already in such critical condition that they're pre-emptively doing it. If the crisis ends up being even worse than expected, I imagine the age cut-off will start getting more and more severe. (e): And his rationalization is "lmao I got a girl I guess you must not if you have empathy for other people". Definitely not pathetic at all.

What's terrible is she's the type that can't really cook at home and loves to shop. She'll probably be okay - probably - but I wonder how many people she'll have infected from running around town every day over the past few weeks with little regard for other people's safety. Makes me wonder places like Florida with high senior populations and little to no regard for public safety yet (because it's not yet "serious enough") will turn out...my guess is "not good". I've seen some people make comparisons to the mayor who refused to close the beaches in Jaws...

Rich says he won't do Star Trek: Discovery season 3, but I'll bet he'll have forgotten that by the time it comes out.

Looks like the virus likely just hit where I lived. Have a friend at the local hospital, and it went from literally one patient last night (they've been trying to keep it empty and pre-emptively sending all but critical cases home to try to reduce the spread - hospitals have been a common vector for its spread in other countries) to all but one room filled tonight with people who are having respiratory failure. First night, and virtually already at maximum capacity... Additionally, my older sister (who lives more southern) has been sick and running a fever for like...a week now? - tested for a variety of things including influenza A and B, and all negative...but they're not allowed (or don't have the resources?) for testing for coronavirus in all but the most critical cases, so they told her to quarantine herself and act like she has it...because she probably does.

Yeah, Guard Dog posted it a couple of days ago. It won't make a huge difference unless it's sustained (which, uh, depending on how bad this gets, it might be...), but it is neat nonetheless. The fishies will grow strong while we grow weak..

Might be a tough sell right now with all that's going on...ya'd think people would welcome a distraction, but I'm just not really particularly feeling it either...

Speaking of...