This and that
Hello, all! Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. I have been busy this week. Stayed on track at work, except that I had to take one day off to go help my great-nephew with some paperwork related to my sister Helen's pension, and then to meet my sister Margie to collect Helen's ashes. They're currently sitting in a box in my closet as we await both spring and a family consensus as to where their final resting place will be.
So I mentioned before that I got Netflix. So many good things on there! Why did no one insist that I get this before? I should be angry at each and every one of you. Aaaaanyway, I started out with Army of the Dead because hello, do you know me? Zach's Snyder's 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead is one of my favourite zombie movies, held off from near perfection only by the inclusion of a zombie baby. Because I MEAN. So I went eagerly into his latest zombie creation.
Can I first just say how much I hate hate HATE thinking zombies and evolving zombies and zombies who are anything more than relentless non-stop shuffling corpses who want to eat you? (Okay, I will accept fast zombies, but then I draw the line.) And the whole point of this movie is thinking, evolving zombies. Which. Is. Stupid.
There were also so many similarities between the Dawn of the Dead and this one. I don't know if Snyder meant them as a deliberate callback to his first movie or if he just thought that enough time had gone by that no one would remember that he'd already used these things before.
Both movies use:
* a Richard Cheese song over a montage
* survivors escaping near death in an elevator that is then playing muzak
* a girl running stupidly off on her own so someone has to go rescue her (to go after Gita in this movie, to go after a dog in Dawn. I understand it more for the dog.
* and yes, they both have a zombie baby. *sigh*
That's just off the top of my head.
I just wonder what inspired Snyder to make particular movie. I would have paid good money to see the movie that is only summarized in the opening montage! That seems like a much better movie than this one. Still, I'm glad I watched it. I do like Dave Bautista a lot.
Next, I had to check out The Umbrella Academy, which let me tell you is FANTASTIC. It's a bit like The Boys (babies who inexplicably have superpowers) and a bit like the X-Men (I've never seen a full X-Men movie, but I *think* it's about Patrick Stewart taking in a bunch of superpowered kids and raising them to be superheroes, and this is that, except is Patrick Stewart were a cruel kid-hating asshole.)
And how much do I love KLAUS??? Let me count the ways. He uses his humour as a defense but he is also genuinely funny and truly individual and quirky in the REAL quirky way, not in the "I am Zooey Deschenal look at me being quirky" way. And the whole thing with DAVE. MY HEART CANNOT TAKE THIS. I want them to find a way to bring Dave into our time because THEY HAVE TO. I also love Klaus's love and friendship with Ben. I'm worried what Season Three is going to bring!
I've got a list now of potential Netflix watches that I know very little about but look intriguing.
* Black Summer - zombie show with 2 seasons
* Locke & Key - based on a graphic comic by Joe Hill
* Stranger Things - I only know one of the great kids from It and Shazam is in this
* The Witcher - I know nothing except that it's based on books and ashphaltcowgrrl loves it
* V Wars - about vampires. Possibly with Ian Somerhalder?
* Marvel Defenders - I like Marvel. Know nothing about this
* The Punisher - I love Jon Bernthal!
* Peaky Blinders - I know the critics love it
If anybody has any thoughts on these, let me know! But please don't spoil me! :)
I haven't even started my list of movies yet!
And not on Netflix, but I found Call The Midwife on CBC Gem! I can't remember who on my flist loves this but now that I know where to find it I'm going to give it a try. (They have 8 seasons of the 10 currently produced, so that's not bad. By the time I am able to watch all this stuff they'll probably have the next two seasons up. Heh.)
So yeah, it looks like I will have a lot to fill my time. Just need to stay on track and I will HAVE the time!
Oh. And finished my most recent book,
77. The Book of Night with Moon by Diane Duane
Cat wizards work to keep world-spanning portals functioning. The source of that power is a land populated by the descendants of the dinosaurs. I mean, with this premise I expected whimsy. I expected humour and action and fun. But this is a pretty darned serious book. I found my eyes glazing over at some of the long myth-like history lessons and the elder wizards teaching and explaining things to a young nearly-kitten recruit. There are little flashes of moments where I saw what the book could have been -- a dog saying, "Lemme at 'em! I can take 'em!" and trying to get at a dinosaur comes to mind. Oh, dogs. These cats seem to think their lives are a slog, so the book was, too.
2/5 stars
LJ Hallowe'en Book Bingo 03 - black cat on cover
464 pages
That means I'm finished my LJ Book Bingo Hallowe'en Card. Woot Woot!
Books Read: 77/85
Popsugar Challenge: 45/50
LJ Book Bingo Hallowe'en Challenge: 09/09
Goodreads Challenge: 52/52
LJ Book Bingo Jan-March: 12/12
LJ Book Bingo April-June 20: 9/9
LJ Book Bingo June 20-August 31: 9/9
Goodreads Summer Challenge: 12/12
Total Page Count: 23939 pages
And finally, a 101 Things in 1001 Days update!
Weeks 13 to 15 - October 03 to October 23, 2021
In Progress
22. Complete 9 jigsaw puzzles (3/9)
* completed my 7th puzzle overall and the 3rd for this goal. This is the same CATS series from Buffalo Games as the previous one of the cat on the bookshelf. I love this brand and this series.
26. Work on something creative monthly (4/33)
* the puzzle!
56. Set up book journal each year. (1/3)
My journal for 2022 is all set. I plan on two year-long book challenges (the Goodreads ATY one that I've done for a few years now, and a Tarot Card one) and then one monthly challenge (ie. one book a month, but I don't plan on spacing them out.) Then there will be whatever ljbookbingo comes up with and possibly another bingo comm. I've done a bunch of planning for what I want to read and for prompt-fitting and I'm feeling great about all the (hopefully) good stuff I've got on deck to read next year.
66. Purchase one HEEFS item on top of regular donation 2x/year. (2/6)
* HEEFS was doing a clearance sale so I bought 3 items. I also donated the cost of a pumpkin so that I can watch the live Pumpkin Smash on Hallowe'en.
92. Donate 500,000 grains of rice at freerice.com (77,000/500,000)
* Donated 1,000 grains of rice. I need to get back on track of doing this daily.
Update
12. Watch 5 new series (0/5)
* I decided it wasn't right to include series that were incomplete. So I took Survivor Australia off the list. Then I watched two seasons of Ghosts UK (which is GREAT, btw) but I can't add that here either because I just found out that a third season came out in the UK this past summer, though it's not available here in Canada yet. So, this goal has gone back to zero.
*whew* I really need to get back to posting more regularly. :D
.
So I mentioned before that I got Netflix. So many good things on there! Why did no one insist that I get this before? I should be angry at each and every one of you. Aaaaanyway, I started out with Army of the Dead because hello, do you know me? Zach's Snyder's 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead is one of my favourite zombie movies, held off from near perfection only by the inclusion of a zombie baby. Because I MEAN. So I went eagerly into his latest zombie creation.
Can I first just say how much I hate hate HATE thinking zombies and evolving zombies and zombies who are anything more than relentless non-stop shuffling corpses who want to eat you? (Okay, I will accept fast zombies, but then I draw the line.) And the whole point of this movie is thinking, evolving zombies. Which. Is. Stupid.
There were also so many similarities between the Dawn of the Dead and this one. I don't know if Snyder meant them as a deliberate callback to his first movie or if he just thought that enough time had gone by that no one would remember that he'd already used these things before.
Both movies use:
* a Richard Cheese song over a montage
* survivors escaping near death in an elevator that is then playing muzak
* a girl running stupidly off on her own so someone has to go rescue her (to go after Gita in this movie, to go after a dog in Dawn. I understand it more for the dog.
* and yes, they both have a zombie baby. *sigh*
That's just off the top of my head.
I just wonder what inspired Snyder to make particular movie. I would have paid good money to see the movie that is only summarized in the opening montage! That seems like a much better movie than this one. Still, I'm glad I watched it. I do like Dave Bautista a lot.
Next, I had to check out The Umbrella Academy, which let me tell you is FANTASTIC. It's a bit like The Boys (babies who inexplicably have superpowers) and a bit like the X-Men (I've never seen a full X-Men movie, but I *think* it's about Patrick Stewart taking in a bunch of superpowered kids and raising them to be superheroes, and this is that, except is Patrick Stewart were a cruel kid-hating asshole.)
And how much do I love KLAUS??? Let me count the ways. He uses his humour as a defense but he is also genuinely funny and truly individual and quirky in the REAL quirky way, not in the "I am Zooey Deschenal look at me being quirky" way. And the whole thing with DAVE. MY HEART CANNOT TAKE THIS. I want them to find a way to bring Dave into our time because THEY HAVE TO. I also love Klaus's love and friendship with Ben. I'm worried what Season Three is going to bring!
I've got a list now of potential Netflix watches that I know very little about but look intriguing.
* Black Summer - zombie show with 2 seasons
* Locke & Key - based on a graphic comic by Joe Hill
* Stranger Things - I only know one of the great kids from It and Shazam is in this
* The Witcher - I know nothing except that it's based on books and ashphaltcowgrrl loves it
* V Wars - about vampires. Possibly with Ian Somerhalder?
* Marvel Defenders - I like Marvel. Know nothing about this
* The Punisher - I love Jon Bernthal!
* Peaky Blinders - I know the critics love it
If anybody has any thoughts on these, let me know! But please don't spoil me! :)
I haven't even started my list of movies yet!
And not on Netflix, but I found Call The Midwife on CBC Gem! I can't remember who on my flist loves this but now that I know where to find it I'm going to give it a try. (They have 8 seasons of the 10 currently produced, so that's not bad. By the time I am able to watch all this stuff they'll probably have the next two seasons up. Heh.)
So yeah, it looks like I will have a lot to fill my time. Just need to stay on track and I will HAVE the time!
Oh. And finished my most recent book,
77. The Book of Night with Moon by Diane Duane
Cat wizards work to keep world-spanning portals functioning. The source of that power is a land populated by the descendants of the dinosaurs. I mean, with this premise I expected whimsy. I expected humour and action and fun. But this is a pretty darned serious book. I found my eyes glazing over at some of the long myth-like history lessons and the elder wizards teaching and explaining things to a young nearly-kitten recruit. There are little flashes of moments where I saw what the book could have been -- a dog saying, "Lemme at 'em! I can take 'em!" and trying to get at a dinosaur comes to mind. Oh, dogs. These cats seem to think their lives are a slog, so the book was, too.
2/5 stars
LJ Hallowe'en Book Bingo 03 - black cat on cover
464 pages
That means I'm finished my LJ Book Bingo Hallowe'en Card. Woot Woot!
Books Read: 77/85
Popsugar Challenge: 45/50
LJ Book Bingo Hallowe'en Challenge: 09/09
Goodreads Challenge: 52/52
LJ Book Bingo Jan-March: 12/12
LJ Book Bingo April-June 20: 9/9
LJ Book Bingo June 20-August 31: 9/9
Goodreads Summer Challenge: 12/12
Total Page Count: 23939 pages
And finally, a 101 Things in 1001 Days update!
Weeks 13 to 15 - October 03 to October 23, 2021
In Progress
22. Complete 9 jigsaw puzzles (3/9)
* completed my 7th puzzle overall and the 3rd for this goal. This is the same CATS series from Buffalo Games as the previous one of the cat on the bookshelf. I love this brand and this series.
26. Work on something creative monthly (4/33)
* the puzzle!
56. Set up book journal each year. (1/3)
My journal for 2022 is all set. I plan on two year-long book challenges (the Goodreads ATY one that I've done for a few years now, and a Tarot Card one) and then one monthly challenge (ie. one book a month, but I don't plan on spacing them out.) Then there will be whatever ljbookbingo comes up with and possibly another bingo comm. I've done a bunch of planning for what I want to read and for prompt-fitting and I'm feeling great about all the (hopefully) good stuff I've got on deck to read next year.
66. Purchase one HEEFS item on top of regular donation 2x/year. (2/6)
* HEEFS was doing a clearance sale so I bought 3 items. I also donated the cost of a pumpkin so that I can watch the live Pumpkin Smash on Hallowe'en.
92. Donate 500,000 grains of rice at freerice.com (77,000/500,000)
* Donated 1,000 grains of rice. I need to get back on track of doing this daily.
Update
12. Watch 5 new series (0/5)
* I decided it wasn't right to include series that were incomplete. So I took Survivor Australia off the list. Then I watched two seasons of Ghosts UK (which is GREAT, btw) but I can't add that here either because I just found out that a third season came out in the UK this past summer, though it's not available here in Canada yet. So, this goal has gone back to zero.
*whew* I really need to get back to posting more regularly. :D
.