LadyCrimson

Song Young-Kyu - Aug 4 - age 55 One of those S. Korean small to larger supporting-actor faces that is familiar to many who watch a lot of S. Korean shows/films. Seemingly another one of those heavy social shaming and career cancellation situations. I'm watching The Winning Try, which he had a part in (apparently much reduced/removed after a DUI) and it's just so sad. Not just him, all the similar cases over the years. RIP

You do have to be careful/aware that a lot of stuff that falls under Prime/free and fast shipping, the selling price may be higher for "prime" item versions vs buying from another named "non-Prime"/not free shipping seller. Also, prices may differ whether you're logged into Prime (more) or viewing as not-logged/maybe no stored browser cookie too (less). So absolute total may not be as much cheaper - or cheaper at all - as you might think. (edit: it's not true all the time) but I've seen it many times. Anyway, that stuff probably changes/varies a bit by regions and/or policy changes as well. My personal main reason for Prime was the generally faster delivery times without paying extra shipping. That's really what you're mostly paying for - speed - and I'm not terribly patient. For people who might buy from Amazon a few times or whatever a year, Prime for that reason alone isn't worth it.

Mild stress = too much tv as a distraction. I'd use a game but nothing interests me/not in a game mood I guess. Today was a day I wouldn't have minded just sitting in the backyard to relax, but it's one of those really hot days (104F or so), plus the neighbors are blasting music. So instead I'm looking at 3d printing pens on Amazon. They're cheaper than I thought they would be, on average. Course I'd need lots of the plastic filament rolls. And a metal heat chisel thing for smoothing. I have a feeling if I tried it, all I would make is a lot of small black cats to sit all over my desk/PC. >.>

^ I've already half-forgotten what Twinkling Watermelon was about. Watched other things, and now am trying The Winning Try. Looks like a late-highschool sports kdrama. Disgraced sports guy coaches rugy team. The coach is an actor I really liked in a kdrama called Chocolate. This coach chr is initially so different (comical vs. dramatic) I had to go back to Chocolate briefly to be sure it was the same actor, lol. Anyway, only saw 1 episode so far. Has potential, we'll see.

Hubby *did* use sunscreen if we were going to be at the beach/lake wearing almost nothing all afternoon or something, we'd always pack some for those trips, but that's the only time I recall him doing it. We did grow up during the time where most retail sunscreens were stinky, oily, sticky, or the white stuff. Negative associations. I personally tend to have high skin (and smell) reactions to some things, even so-called hyper-allergenic, and generally avoid ANYTHING on my face or hands for more than 5 minutes. Legs are ok for unscented lotions. In my older age I've been considering buying a sun parasols (more deco looking non-rain umbrella) if I decide to go outside more often one day. Could double as a walking stick. >.> I see articles talking about how they look older than their age. Although in some cases that's because of too much plastic surgery perhaps. which is a whole nother topic. Some of it all is simply changing social/age perception of what an age "should look like" too, which includes how fashion/hair affects perception as well - which is becoming warped ever more, imo, because of plastic surgery and social media/tv. Also, in terms of online - all those live app/software filters. Not just the OTP ones, but more subtle. They're crazy these days.

If they make their sole living reviewing (vs. random influencer ranting), they are generally expected to try giving the "masses" an idea if they would consider a film worth their time to watch. "So bad it's good" isn't, imo, a "masses" type of thing to view as being favorable in some quirky way. That's more niche. And what is "good" about "bad" is very hard to define. So I do understand them. --So Bad It's Good (usually viewed with some level of humorous or nostalgic affection), also just imo, is not the same as A Movie You Love to Hate ("majority" doesn't even find it humorous), although sometimes a film can certainly be seen as both/cross borders. I think WotW/2025 falls more firmly into the latter category, which is why it's getting such viscous blowback online vs. falling into almost immediate "eh, another bad movie" obscurity. The fact it's a giant Amazon/Prime ad doesn't help. I do wonder why Amazon, after having the film on the shelf for so long, decided to run it vs forever-binning. I guess they had savvy ppl who realized massive high view counts re: trainwreck-curiousity might be almost as good as high view count for artistic accolades. (more likely some legal obligation or consideration). Note: I didn't ever go back to watch past that first quarter hour. I've liked a lot of why-am-I-still-watching stuff others might think is awful, so no judgement re: likes or dislikes - but for me, definitely not worth my time to even find out. I didn't like so-bad-it's-good Sharknado or WickerMan or some others, either. Heh.

Men here - curious - do you wear sunscreen daily? Face and/or other places? I suspect more women do this a lot more, if only because a lot of beauty products include it these days. My solution for the past 30+ years has been to avoid the sun. Outside of occasional driving/errands, I'm almost never in direct sunlight. I sunbathed a lot in teens/20's. One day I looked at my legs, realized I could see the faint start of fine skin texture lines, was horrified about future "leather legs" and stopped. Been pale Asian ever since. Anyway I ask because I've noticed some stuff re: hubby's arms and skin. I've expressed my concern and he's sloughing it off, saying it's been like that for years (I would disagree). He did start wearing a hat and long sleeves if he was going to yard-work a lot, some years ago, but other than that he does nothing re: sun care, and he's the super white, skin turns red vs. tans type. He's more focused on his spine at the moment but I'm getting more concerned about his skin now, too. How do you get an old fart "they're just freckles/bumps" man to the dermatologist?

I guess streaming MAX became HBOMax again. >.> I mostly keep that around right now because of hubby. Even just the "HBO" part is lackluster these days. From my old fart perspective, Netflix is still the only one I consistently use a lot, for various reasons, including that it's still the only one that seems to know how to make a freaking decent player, and they have more consistent audio (re: "can't hear dialogue over anything else"/I don't have a mega speaker/sound setup, syndrome). Can't stand all the main menu changes they keep making tho. I suppose if they didn't have all that E. Asian content now, I wouldn't care about the rest much tho. And I'm still of the opinion that most sound mixers for films/TV shows these days (or probably more accurately, the higher ups that demand they do/force/enhance certain audio parameters) should be beaten over the heads with rotten bananas.

Got about halfway through it. 1st 2 episodes with most of the setup were typically pleasant enough. Some of the humor after initial "back in the past" was funny. For my tastes it's pretty inconsistent and the main teen ML was a tad annoying (if also funny at times) in the "is he stupid?" kind of way, for too long, lol. So I'd like scenes/parts a lot, then start to get a little bored or annoyed by something, then more scenes I liked kept me watching etc. Also, their scene structuring (a lot of chrs PoV back and forth) was kind of annoying at times. I can understand why some might like it a fair bit but for me it's ok but kind of middling. Definitely more of a general family drama-comedy. Has romance but it's more of a situational backdrop until a fair ways into the series. And yeah - the name is silly.

I was going to try Twinkling Watermelon (2023) next. Two of the 2L's from WH are in it and I've heard some good things. Guy goes back to the 90's, has to get his parents together. So heartwarming family drama/romance/comedy, maybe with a focus on music? Of the streaming I sub to, it was only on my Viki website/tablet app, dunno if it's on other services/other regions etc. Edit: think the FL is Seol In-ah. There were two common teasers I found, one more the comedy and the other maybe the family drama side.

Waiting for the back surgeon video appointment. If they (and hubby) say "yes", guess we'll be driving down to San Fran in the near future. It's "outpatient" surgery but I think still general anesthesia (likely so the patient won't move/sneeze/twitch re: delicate surgery fiddling) so would need driver after. I'm a little nervous for some reason. Just the fussy/worried spouse I guess. At least it's not the more mega/major fusion/replacement stuff.

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?