LadyCrimson

Making a chunky chicken/veggie/spinach soup - put some cubed wheel gouda cheese in it to melt for flavor, and a small amount of ham bits. Change of pace from my more typical flavors. Might've put in too much onion (well, for hubby's tastes) but spoon-tastes say I'll still like it just fine. Soup on a cold evening, then maybe another movie. Then maybe a couple hours of game in the wee hours. I do like my quiet life. Hope everyone (if applicable for your area) had a nice thankful holiday.

Train Dreams (film, via Netflix) A meaning/purpose of life (one man's life) film? There's no plot per se, shifts from scene to scene, moment to moment, not tons of dialogue, contemplative. I'd say the ending is slightly unsatisfying - or too abrupt perhaps. But it was beautiful in many parts. Although, if one cannot stand film narration ever, it has a lot of it (Will Patton as narrator). I have no big love for narration but it didn't bother me much here, with the way the film is structured. It's kind of an Oscar-bait film I suppose. Anyway - Joel Edgerton does some of his best work I think, and William H Macy (in a very small role) added a lot. Not a best ever, for me, but for the film type, maybe a 7.5 or 8 out of 10.

Tried watching a few episodes of the modern Quantum Leap show. It was ok, but had little of the charm of the original, at least in those early episodes. Not that I was a huge Quantum Leap fan but I like the original's first season or two. Netflix recently acquired (or reacquired) several of my fave k-romedies from 10-15 (more or less) years ago, trucks of doom, amnesia, life in danger and other old tropes and for a couple of the older ones, cheap cinematography/extra soapy feeling, included. Which is awesome because I can nostalgia rewatch/skim through them this winter. Sidenote: kdrama "huge forehead covering" male haircuts back then were hilarious, sometimes.

Every time I see "news" re: PC parts/prices "panics" etc, I pat my PC and compliment it, to encourage it keep running for, oh, say, 5 more years. It's not even the money, for me - it's becoming principle/disgruntlement. Also, my old tablet is still going like a champ, hope it works for another 8 years. I seriously use it more than the desktop for browsing/youtube etc. Makes me happy I'm no longer generally interested in any of the big name new titles. I'll also be keeping an eye on where that Steam machine goes. Could be a decent solution for ppl like me, in another generation or three. Wouldn't be my ideal solution but I'd probably like it a lot more than a PS/Xbox, the way things are going. Also - it's cloudy and cool and I'm just going to stay in bed all afternoon. Also also - current hubby back treatments did zip.

Always loved this story-song. When I was really little, it even made me sad. Poor Big Bad John. : / But I never knew there was a "sequel song." I don't like it nearly as much, but hey, I don't have to mourn for Big John anymore.

Ah. Well, I didn't read all their announcements or dev blogs or any such. I just knew it was being made/probably saw some "upcoming" videos, quick read the store page, and bought it on ea-release. I still think it's a weird thing to utilize early-access for. I know "everyone" raises the price on full release, ofc.

Karate Kid Legends - in a review of The Long Walk, the young Asian actor in that was mentioned re: this movie. Which made me go "There's yet another KK movie?" ----certainly can't hold a candle to the original film (RIP, Pat), but there was enough scattered nostalgia-bait to make me smile. I liked the middle section with the father chr. the most, it had the best chr. moments imo - the bully vs underdog aspects didn't work for me here because it seemed to take backstage, thus "don't care". I liked it a fair bit better than Will Smith's son version - although since - outside of J. Chan - I actively disliked that one, not sure if that's a glowing endorsement. Last Samurai Standing - battle royale, short series, in the after-Edo period. Desperate ex-samurai get into a thing - with over-dramatic political/rich conspiracy in the background. ----I wasn't super feeling it until the 3rd episode. 3rd episode was a corker imo and convinced me. Once the number of people is whittled down a bit, series starts to come together better. ----action sequences, mostly awesome. Camera work, choreography. ----No magic/superpowers, but some of that anime speed/strength, especially a couple chrs. ----you'll hear "it's like Squid Game" a lot perhaps in reviews. But outside of the rich politicians making bets (which IS very squid game feeling), the rest isn't. ----mostly action, some humanistic elements, good cast, I ended up liking it. Action stuff: 8.5/10, overall: 6,5/10

They pointed out a camera on one of the halftracks (tanks) early in the walk, IIRC. But that was about the extent of it in the film. Also, IIRC, the novel had 100+ walkers, they would walk through towns/larger areas more often, with lots of side-fans/watchers, cameras, adding to the audience spectacle/sport-event of it. The decision to only have that slightly at the end wasn't a great one, imo. I wish they'd kept the watermelon-tossing man in there. Edit: also, Stebbin's chr. was given short shrift in the film. He was really important/influential in novel.

Teddy's Haven (a fantasy shop simulator type game) - early access, single person dev, asset pack flip use I assume. Dev does small updates very frequently, like adding a new shop item, performance tweaks, other things. Recently he placed a giant new door into a rockface, purpose unknown. They've set it up where updates shouldn't require a new start, which is great. Haven't really played a "shop simulator" game before. They all mostly looked kinda boring/static, plus I don't care about being a mechanic or power wash or lawn care business. This one caught my attention because of the smallish "outside/world map" aspect, and cats and stuff. It has one of those (over time) repetitive loops (get resources to make stuff to sell/expand shop), and as you unlock/purchase more upgrades/crafting the loop becomes more interesting/fun. So it's charming, a bit funny, the fact you're not locked into a shop/can explore the small world is initially rewarding, and it's possibly the coziest of no pressure coziest. No time pressure, no combat, etc. There's no real challenge or boundaries (this is on purpose), it's a vibe, a design/deco shop layout, busy work. So it's been perfect for my current zone-out brain. Would I recommend it to the regulars of this forum? Nah. I mean, if such is your thing, it's a pretty good time waster. And it's cute. And has cats. And penguins, goats, giraffes occasionally show up to buy your wares, because I guess animals occasionally need a good dagger or two - which is funny. And you can buy this tiny Oreling, feed it excess stone, and it'll grow, and grow, and grow.....I'm still wondering if it has a size limit.

Apparently, Titans Quest 2 has decided, since they released Act2, that it warranted an Early Access price hike - from $29.99 to $34.99. Makes me guess when Act3 is added, it'll go up to $39.99. Does that mean at full release it'll be $49.99? I'm glad I bought it first thing, because while I'm interested to find out what it ends up as, I'm not that interested. Price hikes in the middle of early access feels odd to me, but the times, I guess. I haven't even played the early-access versions yet, outside of checking to see if it would run "ok" (it did).

Rented The Long Walk I think it's about as good as you're going to get (S. King (shorter) novel adaptation). It actually wasn't too bad. Even as someone who's read the novel countless times (one of my fave King bits), the changes they made to characters/ending were ok, because in some sense the ending and chrs. are rather interchangeable anyway, although I liked the more ambiguous ending of book better (kinda like The Mist in that sense). The actors were pretty good, with one or two standouts. But it was all kind of dull. Not surprising - without inner monologue of a novel, it's just a bunch of dudes walking and walking, occasionally talking/bonding, with moments of sudden (and pretty graphic) violence. I didn't get the huge sense of bond/loss from the film like I did with the book. Again, not unexpected. If one hasn't read the novel tho, it might be more affecting. Anyway - for a book adaptation (and a King one at that, haha), maybe a 6/10.

--Mood: crabby, pessimistic, avoidant yet paradoxically also confrontational --Physical state: ok/adequate but maybe typical aging, post-menopausal and other such woes, 57, and oh hey am I finally starting to get slight eye bags and slightly droopy cheeks? Bummer. --Mental state: rut, exhausted, withering --Hubby's health (physical and mental): nothing super dramatic, but not great either. I think a lot about "what if's" lately. --Reason for writing/sharing: not sure. Just felt a brief need. That is all. I will aim for happy thoughts this week. And I will be replacing the awful kitchen faucet the house came with tomorrow. It'll be the 1st time trying it on my own - watched hubby twice over the years, and he can advise. Something small but mentally satisfying/productive, at least. Maybe I'll try fixing part of the shower's tile grout, too. Wish me luck.

Task - HBO, 3 episodes (hubby continued to watch another couple, but I wandered off) Not bad. I thought there would be a little more, y'know, detective-ing and crime-ing, but it's well acted and mostly well written and spends a lot of time developing characters. A lot of family-drama vibes on top of the crime-drama. Definitely worth a shot if that's a genre one likes. If I don't get around to watching more of it, that's more about me and my attention span/lack of daily interest in watching TV etc. Those first few episodes were certainly interesting enough.

Oh, come on, I never said I was "against" upscaling, at least not in any black and white way. I've used DLSS-Quality plenty of times by now and I've said it's improved enough that Quality or sometimes, maybe, Balanced, is acceptable image wise. That's useful for extending life of a system. But going to extremes with upscaling just to play a game, losing tons of image quality, the ability for the image to look good on a larger screen, and all the artifacting/input delay/other stuff if you have to take upscaling/other too far = no. I'm just not that desperate to play those kind of titles on release. And I'm aware re: 2080ti. Never tried to imply my gpu is some total potato? Why do you think I haven't upgraded it yet? It still works for most titles/things. As to "surviving" AAA/UE5. lol. Having to build a new rig/system periodically is the way it is. Been doing that for decades now, of course. You're making it sound like I'm saying I never want to upgrade ever ever again. That's not it. I don't want to upgrade right now when it's obvious even current hardware won't last long/isn't enough for these games (even WITH upscaling), for the ridiculous prices of said hardware. The dev's will get better at using UE5 (and/or UE5 will improve, or another engine will take over in a few years, or), hardware will improve a little (probably not tons), and so on, if I wait. Or one can play some such games at 900p/30+fps on a 570 (saw a video with that, heh). That's not my style anymore tho - because I like bigger screens, not because I'm some mega-resolution or fps nut. If 1080 still looked great (to me) on a 55", I'd use it. But it doesn't. And if I had to upscale on top of that, even worse. Such is up to users preferences.