![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Oct. 14th, 2016 04:39 am* Remember how after the big earthquake, the UN AID workers helpfully started a cholera epidemic in Haiti by not taking even the most basic precautions with their waste, and how devastating that was for the people of Haiti? Thanks to the hurricane and flooding, it's back.
* "Facts of Life and Death:" http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2016/10/facts-of-life-and-death.html
* I want Michelle Obama to be my president. This speech is really important. "Michelle Obama's call to conscience:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/michelle-obamas-call-conscience#break
* "Limbaugh: The left is obsessed with consent:"
( Embed: )
* Re: Women coming forward to talk about Donald Trump sexually Assaulting them. I believe the women.
* Republican woman discovers water is wet: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/151743509457/satyrday-jennytrout-nerdyblackfangirl
* Trump and his surrogates continue to insist that Trump was lying when he bragged about sexual assaulting women and ogling pageant contestants while they were changing despite a growing body of women, including Miss Teen USA contestants, corroborating his claims that he did committed these crimes.
* I keep thinking of my Mother as this Trump thing continues. ( TW Sexual Assault: )
* Now Trump is claiming an international cabal of bankers is controlling our country and if we don't rise up against Hillary Clinton she will come and destroy our national and our families in a very... Nuremburgy sounding speech. The chanting crowds terrify me.
* "What we can still learn from sexual harassment:" http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/10/10/what-can-still-learn-from-sexual-harassment/jCF5rxYbFMgE3bOKR984pI/story.html
* "Are you certain, Time Prophet?:" http://cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com/507275.html
* Fun fact: My parents met in and Anglo Saxon language class. They were language nerds. "20 Brilliant Anglo-Saxon Words:" http://mentalfloss.com/article/66533/20-brilliant-anglo-saxon-words
* "Not Just Clowning Around:"
( Embed: )
* "Evangelicals Stick with Donald Trump:"
( Embed: )
* "Outrage Court: Trigger Warnings:"
( Embed: )
* I would like to thank whichever of you sent Birthday money.
* I did finally get to watch Versailles, though it took a lot longer than I expected. I had heard the critical rumblings. My hope was that as for me the major players are real people for me, ones I read about and studied and have a genuine feel for. On paper I should adore this. It's relevant to a whole collection of my interests, and on top of that, I'm a year and a half in on an early modern kick and even read the horribly homophobic and disgustingly Freudian biography of Philippe a month or so ago that happened to be the only one we could find in English. (It was very well researched, but the analysis was embarrassingly bad, so bad it would make a great drinking game. Take a drink for each homophobic inference or Freudian reference. Take two drinks every time he makes a completely unsupported inference about motive based on Freudian theory alone. Take a shot for every time he insists that homosexuality is the mother's fault/self harm/not innate. Take two shots if he's claiming that the bisexuals are switching orientation every time they change partners. Take three shots if he's claiming that sex with the chevalier de Lorraine is humiliating, degrading, self punishment, etc., something I consider a very bold statement for a man who's never ucked him and who knows full well that he was so good in bed Louis considered recalling him a gift to his brother. *ahem*) Louis XIV is out of my period, sure, but I've been to Versailles, the Louvre, and Frontenbleu, read general histories of the period, and biographies of Louis, Montepason, et al.. I'm not an expert, but I'm certainly a reasonably well educated amateur. So my hope was, knowing the players, knowing the period, I should be fine where a general audience might struggle.
I was wrong. I had to watch the first episode twice, because I had trouble figuring out who was meant to be whom. It was easier with the men as the characters said their names often enough I could pick them up from context, but the women.... I assume the young lady the mother is trying to push at the King is Montespan from context, but I watched all three and I never noticed she and her mother being clearly identified. I did manage to make mental notes on who I guessed everyone was the second time through and it did make the next two episodes slightly more comprehensible. Unfortunately, I discovered a second problem at that point, which was that I would wander off into revery in the middle of dialog scenes and miss important details. I watched one scene early in the second episode five or six times because I kept missing a few key sentences while thinking of more interesting things. My concentration isn't what it was, but it simply isn't this bad unless there is something wrong with what I'm watching (or reading or listening to). I could not pay attention for a literal minute or two in a number of scenes. If it had been one evening, it might be attributed to tiredness or the fever that rises and falls like the Mile, but we are talking about four different days, one nearly a week before the others, I watched all of the Depardieu Cyrano today with no problem. Just saying. So something has to be wrong with the script/acting/and/or pacing. You be the judge. There were interesting bits here and there and some things I did not agree with, but mostly it simply as dull and lacking in something vital. It left me empty and unfullfilled after. I sat mulled it over doing dishes and I think it did not help that it was all loose threads and hardly any arc. People do things in it, but nothing much matters or changes except they murder a little person of African decent, an old guy in the woods, and some assassins. There were some interesting things going on racially in the third episode, but my ennui was too great to go back through a second time so I could write a proper analysis.
I just... It wasn't aweful, just mediocre, which is sad because they have all this access and ridiculous beauty and some really fascinating RL historical figures and somehow couldn't figure out how to make that riveting on my screen.
* Blood for the Blood God: http://dorktowerfeed.livejournal.com/447069.html
* ToS Rewatch:
- Balance of Terror. We can't afford mistakes "by any man aboard." What about the women aboard, Kirk? Enter the Romulans. Does flirting count as a "mistake?" And the paranoia sets in along with the racism, because this is fundamentally a cold war story. this reminds me very much of classic submarine pursuit movies with opposing commanders and stratagems. The acting is actually decent on this one, I do appreciate how well fleshed out the made the Romulan captain. It would be so much easier to make him two dimensional, but they actually did a good job writing him and his interactions allow us to infer things about their culture that really pay off two decades or so later when Spock goes to Romulus in TNG.
*****
* Hurricane Matthew has been catastrophic for the people of Haiti. 800 or more are dead and 60,000 or more displaced. Want to help? https://www.redcross.org/donate/disaster-relief?donationProdId=prod12750029&scode=RSG00000E017&gclid=COnZ5tmJys8CFRBEfgodzWoPXQ
* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
* "Facts of Life and Death:" http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2016/10/facts-of-life-and-death.html
* I want Michelle Obama to be my president. This speech is really important. "Michelle Obama's call to conscience:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/michelle-obamas-call-conscience#break
* "Limbaugh: The left is obsessed with consent:"
( Embed: )
* Re: Women coming forward to talk about Donald Trump sexually Assaulting them. I believe the women.
* Republican woman discovers water is wet: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/151743509457/satyrday-jennytrout-nerdyblackfangirl
* Trump and his surrogates continue to insist that Trump was lying when he bragged about sexual assaulting women and ogling pageant contestants while they were changing despite a growing body of women, including Miss Teen USA contestants, corroborating his claims that he did committed these crimes.
* I keep thinking of my Mother as this Trump thing continues. ( TW Sexual Assault: )
* Now Trump is claiming an international cabal of bankers is controlling our country and if we don't rise up against Hillary Clinton she will come and destroy our national and our families in a very... Nuremburgy sounding speech. The chanting crowds terrify me.
* "What we can still learn from sexual harassment:" http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/10/10/what-can-still-learn-from-sexual-harassment/jCF5rxYbFMgE3bOKR984pI/story.html
* "Are you certain, Time Prophet?:" http://cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com/507275.html
* Fun fact: My parents met in and Anglo Saxon language class. They were language nerds. "20 Brilliant Anglo-Saxon Words:" http://mentalfloss.com/article/66533/20-brilliant-anglo-saxon-words
* "Not Just Clowning Around:"
( Embed: )
* "Evangelicals Stick with Donald Trump:"
( Embed: )
* "Outrage Court: Trigger Warnings:"
( Embed: )
* I would like to thank whichever of you sent Birthday money.
* I did finally get to watch Versailles, though it took a lot longer than I expected. I had heard the critical rumblings. My hope was that as for me the major players are real people for me, ones I read about and studied and have a genuine feel for. On paper I should adore this. It's relevant to a whole collection of my interests, and on top of that, I'm a year and a half in on an early modern kick and even read the horribly homophobic and disgustingly Freudian biography of Philippe a month or so ago that happened to be the only one we could find in English. (It was very well researched, but the analysis was embarrassingly bad, so bad it would make a great drinking game. Take a drink for each homophobic inference or Freudian reference. Take two drinks every time he makes a completely unsupported inference about motive based on Freudian theory alone. Take a shot for every time he insists that homosexuality is the mother's fault/self harm/not innate. Take two shots if he's claiming that the bisexuals are switching orientation every time they change partners. Take three shots if he's claiming that sex with the chevalier de Lorraine is humiliating, degrading, self punishment, etc., something I consider a very bold statement for a man who's never ucked him and who knows full well that he was so good in bed Louis considered recalling him a gift to his brother. *ahem*) Louis XIV is out of my period, sure, but I've been to Versailles, the Louvre, and Frontenbleu, read general histories of the period, and biographies of Louis, Montepason, et al.. I'm not an expert, but I'm certainly a reasonably well educated amateur. So my hope was, knowing the players, knowing the period, I should be fine where a general audience might struggle.
I was wrong. I had to watch the first episode twice, because I had trouble figuring out who was meant to be whom. It was easier with the men as the characters said their names often enough I could pick them up from context, but the women.... I assume the young lady the mother is trying to push at the King is Montespan from context, but I watched all three and I never noticed she and her mother being clearly identified. I did manage to make mental notes on who I guessed everyone was the second time through and it did make the next two episodes slightly more comprehensible. Unfortunately, I discovered a second problem at that point, which was that I would wander off into revery in the middle of dialog scenes and miss important details. I watched one scene early in the second episode five or six times because I kept missing a few key sentences while thinking of more interesting things. My concentration isn't what it was, but it simply isn't this bad unless there is something wrong with what I'm watching (or reading or listening to). I could not pay attention for a literal minute or two in a number of scenes. If it had been one evening, it might be attributed to tiredness or the fever that rises and falls like the Mile, but we are talking about four different days, one nearly a week before the others, I watched all of the Depardieu Cyrano today with no problem. Just saying. So something has to be wrong with the script/acting/and/or pacing. You be the judge. There were interesting bits here and there and some things I did not agree with, but mostly it simply as dull and lacking in something vital. It left me empty and unfullfilled after. I sat mulled it over doing dishes and I think it did not help that it was all loose threads and hardly any arc. People do things in it, but nothing much matters or changes except they murder a little person of African decent, an old guy in the woods, and some assassins. There were some interesting things going on racially in the third episode, but my ennui was too great to go back through a second time so I could write a proper analysis.
I just... It wasn't aweful, just mediocre, which is sad because they have all this access and ridiculous beauty and some really fascinating RL historical figures and somehow couldn't figure out how to make that riveting on my screen.
* Blood for the Blood God: http://dorktowerfeed.livejournal.com/447069.html
* ToS Rewatch:
- Balance of Terror. We can't afford mistakes "by any man aboard." What about the women aboard, Kirk? Enter the Romulans. Does flirting count as a "mistake?" And the paranoia sets in along with the racism, because this is fundamentally a cold war story. this reminds me very much of classic submarine pursuit movies with opposing commanders and stratagems. The acting is actually decent on this one, I do appreciate how well fleshed out the made the Romulan captain. It would be so much easier to make him two dimensional, but they actually did a good job writing him and his interactions allow us to infer things about their culture that really pay off two decades or so later when Spock goes to Romulus in TNG.
*****
* Hurricane Matthew has been catastrophic for the people of Haiti. 800 or more are dead and 60,000 or more displaced. Want to help? https://www.redcross.org/donate/disaster-relief?donationProdId=prod12750029&scode=RSG00000E017&gclid=COnZ5tmJys8CFRBEfgodzWoPXQ
* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com
* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general
* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help
* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com