Know your stuff
1) Thanks a lot Iowa. All this talk in the media about the holdup being due to an app failure is only going to help attacks on voter turnout when misinformation follows trying to hoodwink people into thinking they can vote by app. Get with the 21st century and have primaries that everyone can vote in. But no, it's more important to bring money to the state and getting the state in the news than to actually help our democratic process.
2) A friend forwarded her results from being challenged by an article: You’re spending more on your subscription services than you think. The study showed people vastly underestimated their monthly spending, which was, of course, even more costly on an annual basis.
One disagreement I had is with things that we pay for on a monthly basis but which I wouldn't call discretionary. This would include things such as Internet and cell phone service. I consider those to be utilities and would no more call them subscription services than I would insurance payments, even though many people pay for those monthly. But here is my list:
Service - Monthly - Annually
AT&T - $65 - $780
PBS Passport - $5 - $60
Other TV (changes) - $10 - $120
Carbonite - 4.47 - 54 (3 year contract)
Frankly, I consider Carbonite insurance and technically I don't pay it monthly either. But I figured I'd throw it in there. But yeah, the AT&T alone blows past the $600 average, especially since it went up by $180 a year since I first subscribed. I also discovered this week that they're no longer carrying BBC America. I may have to look into YouTube after all, although for now I'm hoovering up the HBO content while we have it.
I included "other TV" as the services we use for a few months at a time, which are generally under $10 but sometimes a bit more. But otherwise nothing on the list of potential services are things I use. I don't pay for software on a monthly basis because I get a Word package through Mike's work and I have discs for the rest. However Quicken is shifting to a monthly charge and I plan to find out how badly they intend to cripple my 2017 software come April. If it's bad enough I'll have to subscribe. Otherwise I see no reason to upgrade, it works just fine.
Of course, I also divide some costs with Mike. He pays for Netflix, and if I ever wanted anything from Audible, he's the one with the account.
Here's the direct link to the list they used for the survey. Are you above or below average?
2) Already posted this at
the_good_place, but copying it over here to keep things together. My thoughts about the finale.
Mike and I were both fine with how it ended. We didn't think it ranked among very memorable finales, but it had to end somehow and it made sense the way it went. But I was expecting a little more, some final twist, and that didn't happen. Instead it was more of a "tidying up and saying goodbye" sort of finale, with various people making a return or having little cameos, and us saying farewell one by one.
I did rather like that it was Tahani who, along with Janet, continued on the longest. It made sense in both the nature of her arc and in response to developments. She had reconciled with her family, whose attitude towards her had always made her build herself up in external ways, since no one else was giving her support. Once she had it, she could truly challenge herself in other ways, being the person who does instead of who receives. I feel like we never saw as much of her arc development until this final episode, compared to the way we did with others. Perhaps that's because it would have seemed too much like Eleanor's. Because we already had Eleanor largely in charge of running a self-improvement experience as an architect, so her doing so much longer term wouldn't have gone anywhere new.
By comparison, Tahani getting coffee for demons and forever working behind the scenes rather than as the party hostess was humbling herself in a way that revealed that personal growth. (And it seemed like she was taking some time to get certified, not a short internship at all). So I liked that resolution for her even if I still feel she was shortchanged throughout the season. It does make me think, though, that this end for her was always in mind, which is why it wasn't hinted at earlier.
There were a few issues regarding how time works that stood out to me as a problem. For example, if Janet sees all of time together, does that mean she sees the future as well? Or can she only experience all of time once it becomes the past?
Secondly, how long IS a Jearimy Bearimy? Because the world that Michael ends up in sure doesn't look like the future (unless we consider junk mail as being eternal). Athens and Paris looking like our everyday ones was explained by it being recreated memories. (It had certainly seemed to me that they had filmed on location, so I was glad to hear that confirmed in the series special with Seth Myers). Yet all of this finale episode must surely have taken hundreds of years if not thousands.
I was amused by Jason being first and yet actually second, spending a considerable amount of time simply wandering around a forest! But if Janet sees all, why was this a surprise?
That Chidi would be second, and that he stayed longer for Eleanor, was a surprise mostly in that he had reached true certainty in his life! Of all decisions, one would have expected that to be the hardest. And yet Eleanor's letting him go also showed her own growth, and her overcoming the fear of being alone. I loved the Chidi calendar left for her. And it made sense that she'd want to tie up loose ends with Mindy and that it would be Michael's departure which would also make her ready to go. After Chidi, she had bonded most strongly with him and he with her.
It also made perfect sense that Michael would want to become human and experience his great plan from the reverse POV. He clearly had loved humans over time and it had been one experience always out of reach. It was special to see that of all of them, he was the one Janet had the hardest time letting go of. To some degree, Michael had been her creator, developing her potential just as he had developed the humans' as well as serving as a partner in crime.
I thought it was interesting that Jeff finally got a real frog just as Michael was off to become "a real boy."
That going back into the ocean seemed to mean becoming the good impulses living humans had in everyday life was a nice idea. That in the end, their journey towards greater perfection ended up as the seeds of goodness in the greater universe was a less rigid version of guardian angels and the angel on one's shoulder.
I think that it was Kristen Bell who said this in the post-show segment that the finale tied into the idea of life in general, where things end just a bit too soon. I definitely think there's something to that with shows and I think Good Place made the right decision to go through that door at this point. I really enjoyed the run but I think it had said what it needed to.
3) Things seen on my walk during this week's 60+ degree day.
a) 7 people have still not taken down their Christmas decorations, including one person with a full size tree on their landing. I heard this is a trend whereby trees stay up until Valentine's Day when they can be redecorated. Presumably this is for artificial trees.
b) No animals. This is remarkable because it used to be we'd spot some regularly in the past when I was walking more regularly. Of course, this may also be because along the back fence of the apartment complex, the area once covered by bushes and trees, has now been cut back so that there's no cover there at all. Part of this was due to the die-off of many trees 2 years ago after a warm week in February shifted to freezes and devastated many of the early budding trees. But part of it seems to have been deliberate. It's almost strange to look at other buildings back there.
c) More early budding trees! Quite a few trees either had buds on them or had the bumpy look that indicates buds will be coming soon. I wanted to scream at them all "Don't do it! We're going to have highs of 30 for the rest of the week!"
In fact little more than a week ago I was groaning at the frigid temperatures as Mike and I headed out to dinners for Restaurant Week. Then a few days ago it started to warm up. Today was supposed to be in the low 50s. Instead my computer told me, as I returned from my walk, that it was 63. Little wonder I was warm by then. So these trees are really rushing into things and I hope we don't have yet another bunch of them damaged.
d) A man was walking around the lake pushing a baby carriage. As far as I could tell there was no baby in it.
Also of note, as I will be traveling there next week, I noticed our temperature was 15 degrees higher than in Las Vegas. Now I really don't know what to pack.
5) Some scattered thoughts about Supernatural this season. Seeing this wonderful response to the IFDrabble challenge reminded me that I wanted to say a bit more about Becky's reappearance.
First, I like the fact that we're getting more of an acknowledgment by the show of the worth of secondary and recurring characters. Becky was, I think, the first. The fact that Chuck was shown as being so cruel to her seemed to me an acknowledgment of how badly she was treated all along.
But I also find it interesting to see how the tides have shifted. SPN began in 2005. It is now 2020. The way that fandom has been seen, generally, has changed but even more significant is how the creation of fanworks has been recognized. When SPN started the "age of fandom" had already begun. A lot of people point to the appearance of Twilight at San Diego Comic Con as a major shift, which is true enough. But I went to SDCC in 2003 and I can tell you that the shift had already begun. Yes, I was still able to wait in a short line that day to buy a day pass, but the demo of the population inside and full attendance at large panels was already there. (I remember the shrieking mob that greeted Hugh Jackman's arrival, such that I couldn't even see him from 50 feet away for all the people crowded around.)
AO3's win of the Hugo last year was another "Twilight" moment -- significant as a marker to point to, but unimportant in the larger context. Even the majority of fans still have no idea what AO3 is, and far fewer people in the entertainment industry do. Instead its win acknowledges what has already happened, which is that fanfiction specifically and fanworks more generally, have become routine as part of the fandom experience and as an audience response to canon products.
So the fact that Becky can point out to Chuck that writing is writing, regardless of their relative status to one another, is something that would never have been acknowledged back when she was first introduced to the show. It is perhaps no coincidence that in the later episode with Garth that 50 Shades is referenced. Far more people have heard of it, if not read parts of it, than have ever watched Supernatural.
Speaking of the Garth episode, how useless are the Winchesters that after all that time living in the bunker they still don't have potholders or oven mitts? Or apparently tissues? Also, why not call Garth to come pick them up instead of walking for 10 miles?
Nice bit with the twins' names and Dean's tap dance though. Clearly most of this season is going to be either fan service or actor service. The irony though, was that something happened to my DVR recording shortly after Sam realized they had pissed off God. Only about 5 minutes of the remaining episode was viewable!
I did however like the whole idea of their having unusual luck exactly because they were the heroes of the story. That explains a lot. In a way it explains why average Garth (the only redeemed "evil creature" I can recall in the show's history) can save the day. He fares better than Becky (what's another dead woman) but it's perhaps significant that she presents the most direct threat to Chuck's importance, hence the antagonism. It reminds me of how I recently saw that CW's demo is now 50/50 male and female viewers. Clearly SPN never brought in the demo they wanted. Like it or not, the series was engaged with by Beckys rather than Garths, and they're who kept it afloat.
So Cass is spelled with two s's? Am I wrong that the fandom consistently writes it as Cas? Also, they do realize that Alaska is about half the size of the continental US. Could they be more specific in their note to him? But speaking of Castiel, his reconciliation with Dean and Dean's apology to him is another case of acknowledging his importance as a character. He's long been treated as alternately a nuisance (having to write storylines for him or explain his absence) and a deus-ex-machina, and has long lost any kind of arc or even consistency in treatment. This is hardly surprising given how Sam and Dean themselves have fared and the fact that virtually every other character has been killed off (even if temporarily brought back).
Nice to see the return of the pool hustle. But if Sam and Dean's luck was so bad, how did they even make it to Alaska in the first place? That's quite a trip.
The ending seemed awfully convenient but I guess it was Fortuna's bet on them and against Chuck, for sheer principle. I think given various episodes this season that its theme (as much as they ever have one) is about the nature of heroism. In Garth's episode it's suggested that they are heroes, in part, because they not only win battles and maintain the fight, but because their sorrows and misfortunes are also major ones, rather than the pettier concerns of everyday people.
View poll: Kudos Footer-134
Comments at Dreamwidth
.
2) A friend forwarded her results from being challenged by an article: You’re spending more on your subscription services than you think. The study showed people vastly underestimated their monthly spending, which was, of course, even more costly on an annual basis.
One disagreement I had is with things that we pay for on a monthly basis but which I wouldn't call discretionary. This would include things such as Internet and cell phone service. I consider those to be utilities and would no more call them subscription services than I would insurance payments, even though many people pay for those monthly. But here is my list:
Service - Monthly - Annually
AT&T - $65 - $780
PBS Passport - $5 - $60
Other TV (changes) - $10 - $120
Carbonite - 4.47 - 54 (3 year contract)
Frankly, I consider Carbonite insurance and technically I don't pay it monthly either. But I figured I'd throw it in there. But yeah, the AT&T alone blows past the $600 average, especially since it went up by $180 a year since I first subscribed. I also discovered this week that they're no longer carrying BBC America. I may have to look into YouTube after all, although for now I'm hoovering up the HBO content while we have it.
I included "other TV" as the services we use for a few months at a time, which are generally under $10 but sometimes a bit more. But otherwise nothing on the list of potential services are things I use. I don't pay for software on a monthly basis because I get a Word package through Mike's work and I have discs for the rest. However Quicken is shifting to a monthly charge and I plan to find out how badly they intend to cripple my 2017 software come April. If it's bad enough I'll have to subscribe. Otherwise I see no reason to upgrade, it works just fine.
Of course, I also divide some costs with Mike. He pays for Netflix, and if I ever wanted anything from Audible, he's the one with the account.
Here's the direct link to the list they used for the survey. Are you above or below average?
2) Already posted this at
the_good_place, but copying it over here to keep things together. My thoughts about the finale.
Mike and I were both fine with how it ended. We didn't think it ranked among very memorable finales, but it had to end somehow and it made sense the way it went. But I was expecting a little more, some final twist, and that didn't happen. Instead it was more of a "tidying up and saying goodbye" sort of finale, with various people making a return or having little cameos, and us saying farewell one by one.
I did rather like that it was Tahani who, along with Janet, continued on the longest. It made sense in both the nature of her arc and in response to developments. She had reconciled with her family, whose attitude towards her had always made her build herself up in external ways, since no one else was giving her support. Once she had it, she could truly challenge herself in other ways, being the person who does instead of who receives. I feel like we never saw as much of her arc development until this final episode, compared to the way we did with others. Perhaps that's because it would have seemed too much like Eleanor's. Because we already had Eleanor largely in charge of running a self-improvement experience as an architect, so her doing so much longer term wouldn't have gone anywhere new.
By comparison, Tahani getting coffee for demons and forever working behind the scenes rather than as the party hostess was humbling herself in a way that revealed that personal growth. (And it seemed like she was taking some time to get certified, not a short internship at all). So I liked that resolution for her even if I still feel she was shortchanged throughout the season. It does make me think, though, that this end for her was always in mind, which is why it wasn't hinted at earlier.
There were a few issues regarding how time works that stood out to me as a problem. For example, if Janet sees all of time together, does that mean she sees the future as well? Or can she only experience all of time once it becomes the past?
Secondly, how long IS a Jearimy Bearimy? Because the world that Michael ends up in sure doesn't look like the future (unless we consider junk mail as being eternal). Athens and Paris looking like our everyday ones was explained by it being recreated memories. (It had certainly seemed to me that they had filmed on location, so I was glad to hear that confirmed in the series special with Seth Myers). Yet all of this finale episode must surely have taken hundreds of years if not thousands.
I was amused by Jason being first and yet actually second, spending a considerable amount of time simply wandering around a forest! But if Janet sees all, why was this a surprise?
That Chidi would be second, and that he stayed longer for Eleanor, was a surprise mostly in that he had reached true certainty in his life! Of all decisions, one would have expected that to be the hardest. And yet Eleanor's letting him go also showed her own growth, and her overcoming the fear of being alone. I loved the Chidi calendar left for her. And it made sense that she'd want to tie up loose ends with Mindy and that it would be Michael's departure which would also make her ready to go. After Chidi, she had bonded most strongly with him and he with her.
It also made perfect sense that Michael would want to become human and experience his great plan from the reverse POV. He clearly had loved humans over time and it had been one experience always out of reach. It was special to see that of all of them, he was the one Janet had the hardest time letting go of. To some degree, Michael had been her creator, developing her potential just as he had developed the humans' as well as serving as a partner in crime.
I thought it was interesting that Jeff finally got a real frog just as Michael was off to become "a real boy."
That going back into the ocean seemed to mean becoming the good impulses living humans had in everyday life was a nice idea. That in the end, their journey towards greater perfection ended up as the seeds of goodness in the greater universe was a less rigid version of guardian angels and the angel on one's shoulder.
I think that it was Kristen Bell who said this in the post-show segment that the finale tied into the idea of life in general, where things end just a bit too soon. I definitely think there's something to that with shows and I think Good Place made the right decision to go through that door at this point. I really enjoyed the run but I think it had said what it needed to.
3) Things seen on my walk during this week's 60+ degree day.
a) 7 people have still not taken down their Christmas decorations, including one person with a full size tree on their landing. I heard this is a trend whereby trees stay up until Valentine's Day when they can be redecorated. Presumably this is for artificial trees.
b) No animals. This is remarkable because it used to be we'd spot some regularly in the past when I was walking more regularly. Of course, this may also be because along the back fence of the apartment complex, the area once covered by bushes and trees, has now been cut back so that there's no cover there at all. Part of this was due to the die-off of many trees 2 years ago after a warm week in February shifted to freezes and devastated many of the early budding trees. But part of it seems to have been deliberate. It's almost strange to look at other buildings back there.
c) More early budding trees! Quite a few trees either had buds on them or had the bumpy look that indicates buds will be coming soon. I wanted to scream at them all "Don't do it! We're going to have highs of 30 for the rest of the week!"
In fact little more than a week ago I was groaning at the frigid temperatures as Mike and I headed out to dinners for Restaurant Week. Then a few days ago it started to warm up. Today was supposed to be in the low 50s. Instead my computer told me, as I returned from my walk, that it was 63. Little wonder I was warm by then. So these trees are really rushing into things and I hope we don't have yet another bunch of them damaged.
d) A man was walking around the lake pushing a baby carriage. As far as I could tell there was no baby in it.
Also of note, as I will be traveling there next week, I noticed our temperature was 15 degrees higher than in Las Vegas. Now I really don't know what to pack.
5) Some scattered thoughts about Supernatural this season. Seeing this wonderful response to the IFDrabble challenge reminded me that I wanted to say a bit more about Becky's reappearance.
First, I like the fact that we're getting more of an acknowledgment by the show of the worth of secondary and recurring characters. Becky was, I think, the first. The fact that Chuck was shown as being so cruel to her seemed to me an acknowledgment of how badly she was treated all along.
But I also find it interesting to see how the tides have shifted. SPN began in 2005. It is now 2020. The way that fandom has been seen, generally, has changed but even more significant is how the creation of fanworks has been recognized. When SPN started the "age of fandom" had already begun. A lot of people point to the appearance of Twilight at San Diego Comic Con as a major shift, which is true enough. But I went to SDCC in 2003 and I can tell you that the shift had already begun. Yes, I was still able to wait in a short line that day to buy a day pass, but the demo of the population inside and full attendance at large panels was already there. (I remember the shrieking mob that greeted Hugh Jackman's arrival, such that I couldn't even see him from 50 feet away for all the people crowded around.)
AO3's win of the Hugo last year was another "Twilight" moment -- significant as a marker to point to, but unimportant in the larger context. Even the majority of fans still have no idea what AO3 is, and far fewer people in the entertainment industry do. Instead its win acknowledges what has already happened, which is that fanfiction specifically and fanworks more generally, have become routine as part of the fandom experience and as an audience response to canon products.
So the fact that Becky can point out to Chuck that writing is writing, regardless of their relative status to one another, is something that would never have been acknowledged back when she was first introduced to the show. It is perhaps no coincidence that in the later episode with Garth that 50 Shades is referenced. Far more people have heard of it, if not read parts of it, than have ever watched Supernatural.
Speaking of the Garth episode, how useless are the Winchesters that after all that time living in the bunker they still don't have potholders or oven mitts? Or apparently tissues? Also, why not call Garth to come pick them up instead of walking for 10 miles?
Nice bit with the twins' names and Dean's tap dance though. Clearly most of this season is going to be either fan service or actor service. The irony though, was that something happened to my DVR recording shortly after Sam realized they had pissed off God. Only about 5 minutes of the remaining episode was viewable!
I did however like the whole idea of their having unusual luck exactly because they were the heroes of the story. That explains a lot. In a way it explains why average Garth (the only redeemed "evil creature" I can recall in the show's history) can save the day. He fares better than Becky (what's another dead woman) but it's perhaps significant that she presents the most direct threat to Chuck's importance, hence the antagonism. It reminds me of how I recently saw that CW's demo is now 50/50 male and female viewers. Clearly SPN never brought in the demo they wanted. Like it or not, the series was engaged with by Beckys rather than Garths, and they're who kept it afloat.
So Cass is spelled with two s's? Am I wrong that the fandom consistently writes it as Cas? Also, they do realize that Alaska is about half the size of the continental US. Could they be more specific in their note to him? But speaking of Castiel, his reconciliation with Dean and Dean's apology to him is another case of acknowledging his importance as a character. He's long been treated as alternately a nuisance (having to write storylines for him or explain his absence) and a deus-ex-machina, and has long lost any kind of arc or even consistency in treatment. This is hardly surprising given how Sam and Dean themselves have fared and the fact that virtually every other character has been killed off (even if temporarily brought back).
Nice to see the return of the pool hustle. But if Sam and Dean's luck was so bad, how did they even make it to Alaska in the first place? That's quite a trip.
The ending seemed awfully convenient but I guess it was Fortuna's bet on them and against Chuck, for sheer principle. I think given various episodes this season that its theme (as much as they ever have one) is about the nature of heroism. In Garth's episode it's suggested that they are heroes, in part, because they not only win battles and maintain the fight, but because their sorrows and misfortunes are also major ones, rather than the pettier concerns of everyday people.
View poll: Kudos Footer-134
Comments at Dreamwidth
.