1,004 thoughts on “One Eye for a Thousand”

  4. Morning Pan
    tomorrow is a stat holiday. Because the husband and I believe in the cause, we will spend at least a little bit of time watching some of the ceremonies on tv, and not just goof off the whole day.

  9. So for no apparent reason the catch up player for the main commercial terrestrial tv channel has recently dropped a load of 60s and 70s British sci-fi/fantasy shows.

    So slowly going through Sapphire and Steel, a show I only ever caught the odd episode of when it originally aired. It’s a very low budget and creepy sci-fi show from the 70s. Bloody great it is too.

  20. If you haven’t already watch it, there is a little documentary on Netflix about the filming of The Queen’s Gambit, well worth 15 minutes of your time.

  26. Ok, I’m watching the latest House of the Dragon episode and wondering if it will ever be explained why the King is ageing much faster than his brother.

  27. Tue elder daughter was down to go see Zeal & Ardor tonight. She had a blast. It was great to see her cut loose and have fun.

    Oh, and the show was great too. This is a band that I thought were going to take over the world – – but here they were in a tiny club. But they were amazing.

    They’re about as heavy as I get.

  29. I put in my first, “independent” quote yesterday. It was part of a bidding contract so I don’t actually expect anything to come of it but still, it was a strange feeling.

  30. Even though the mornings start chilly, we’ve been getting above average days, weather wise. Normally we’d turn on the fireplace by now but it’s too hot to even have the pilot light going.
    I can’t decide if I like this or not.

  31. So just watched the season finale of Kevin Can F**k Himself. I loved S1 of the show, S2 was was the last and boy did they stick the ending..just great.

  34. Not trying to vaguepost, but I don’t think it’s my news to share in detail.

    I’ve just learned that the wife of an east coast podcast power couple is at the end with her cancer battle. They’ve been off Facebook for awhile, so I had no idea. Absolutely gutted by this news.

    I will share more as it becomes appropriate.

  36. Walgreens is apparently employing an existentialist AI as I just received the following message
    “we are calling to inform you that you have prescriptions that are ready to be picked up or have been delayed.”

    I now know exactly the same amount of information I knew before I received their phone call.

  37. Well, we have tix for the little one to see Disney on Ice show with her BFF tomorrow, but now she’s sick and will probably miss out.
    Murphy’s Law appears to be the constant here.

    Big events planned or no, I hate these days.

      • Birds of Prey was fantastic. The Suicide Squad (shut up Jack) was great.

        WW is maybe the most overrated film of all time. People wanted to love it desperately. That 3rd act is woof.

      • I think there is a definite impact from setting expectations for a film. From a psychology aspect it’s a framing issue. If you set your expectations really high, you are likely to be let down because the film won’t match those expectations. If you set them really low you might really like a movie far better. My best examples are Dude, Where’s My Car? and Grandma’s Boy. Neither was an insanely fantastic movie. But my expectations were so low for each of these that when they turned out to actually be really good movies, they became favorites for me.

        Long story short… too late. Always set your expectations low for a movie. Go out and find a reason to set them low. Work at it. It will pay off in the long run.

        The other side of this, from a psychology perspective, is to not overhype a movie when recommending it to a friend. It can have negative repercussions of setting their expectations too high.

    • Just saw him get photographed with the cast of the new Hellraiser adaption and I did not recognise him from when he was getting interview for the first Hellraiser film,

  40. Hubbiless tonight. I guess that means life is back to normal in school since it’s back to in person parent-teacher interviews.

    • Agreed. However I have a lot of issues with a lot of the takes on it. No spoils here, but I have loved nearly every episode. It’s HER show after all.

    • That shot of the u-boat coming up out of the water at the very beginning looks like someone did an extreme closeup shot of one of those toys that you would get in a box of cereal. The little sub that you would put baking soda in and it would alternately dive and come back up out of the water (and that never actually worked like it was supposed to).

    • Will get mine next week.
      Got my flu shot yesterday.

      First place I scheduled was a complete and total cluster. 40 minutes after my appt time they had still not even processed me in so I got on my phone and scheduled at a CVS pharmacy down the road. The CVS was polite, efficient and everything the other place wasn’t. I had a 4pm appt there and they had me out of there by 4:04

      • Yeah mine was a bit of a palaver. Went to the first place, got told to go to another place, stood in the queue for half an hour and then was told to go back to the first place

  50. Time for a rant!
    I think I need a new dentist. Every time an appointment is made lately, they ask for it to be rescheduled. Today, they called a half hour before my actual appointment. I’m very lucky I can change my schedule with a drop of a hat, not everybody has that privilege.
    Although, I don’t think they care at this point, just gave them over $4k to get work done. They have my money, who care about anything else

      • Yeah, the only reason I hadn’t moved already is because I still don’t have the new bridge I’ve paid an ungodly amount for. It theory it was supposed to go in this morning. Now, maybe Tuesday

  52. Last night I randomly watched an episode of “Atlanta“. I’ve just never managed to catch an episode of it.
    I actually really liked it.
    It had kind of a twilight zone feel to it.

  60. Ok at I’m a sucker for a certain type of story when it comes to monsters, Werewolf by Night did not disappoint. Worth 50 minutes of your time.

  68. So Sonos released a firmware update for the Arc soundbar that completely buggered up using Sub woofer with the Arc. No fix yet released but a work around is to turn off Trueplay. So did this and yesterday watching a documentary with one of my sisters:

    S: What’s that noise?

    Me: Just the sun woofer kicking in

    S: oh…

  69. I don’t have time to re-watch shows like some folks do. Hell I barely have time to watch new shit. But I’d like to thank the disparaging comments about the Sopranos to make me wonder if I was just living thru nostalgia. I have started a re-watch of the Sopranos with a current eye and, yes, it’s still fucking brilliant.

    • I’m almost done with season 1. A lot more comedy than I’d expected.

      It’s well-written, well-acted, and I’m invested in the characters.

  71. We watched the Hellraiser reboot and followed with the original the following day. The original was as dated as I expected it to be, but I still find the story interesting. The new reboot was fun and it was nice to see what a modern take would look like. Ultimately these are B films, so they were never going to win any Oscars, but they are fun horror stories.

    • I’m curious to see this, but… Hulu ads…..

      I’ll probably watch Interview with the Vampire first.

      My real challenge, aside from my own limited free time is coordinating viewing times with Tiffany, who works nights.

    • My sympathies, Jack. Get well soon.
      T Cat caught covid last week from some of our friends. I’m still testing negative, but it hasn’t been a fun week.

      • Oh no. Best wishes to everyone in the ditto/T-cat household. 🙁 My only advice: rest. Rest rest rest rest rest.

        We’ve only had negative tests here, so it seems to be just a bad funk.

  81. Ok, after finishing The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis, I will now cry BULLSHIT to the ‘different medium’ excuse for poor book adaptions.

  84. I just finished a bunch of work on spec. A friend of mine mentors U of C writing students, as well as works as a writer in residence at a couple of libraries. I helped him redo some of his writer’s guides in the theory he’ll recommend me to some of the people he works with. Let’s see if it pans out.

  85. Crap joke for the day:

    Old priest wants to duck out to the pub for a schooner and a punt instead of hearing confession on Saturday afternoon.

    So he tells the new priest that he will have to cover confession. New priest objects, and says, “It’s my first day.. I don’t know what to do.”

    The old priest says “it’s easy … in the confessional there is the big book of sins: say someone comes in and confesses that they have missed mass on Sunday … look it up in the book and the penance is three hail Mary’s.”

    It all goes well with a few old ladies coming in and confessing to the usual minor infractions.

    But a good looking young girl comes in a confesses to a few minor sins, um’s and ahh’s a few times, and finally blurts out “I gave my boyfriend a head job.”

    Well, the young priest thumbed through the book of sins, but the important sins were in Latin. So he did not know that the penance for head jobs was under fellatio.

    In panic, he looked out of the curtain of the confessional and saw an alter boy.

    “Hey son, what does Father give for a head job.”

    “Two mars bars and a packet of chips!”

    • I’m falling really behind on the new shows. I blame that I’ve decided I’m going to once and for all make it through the book Silmarillion. And I have a nearly aphasia-like inability to remember names. I’m having to listen to a chapter, read a really long primer on the chapter (https://www.tor.com/series/the-silmarillion-primer/) and then listen to the chapter again. It’s really overwhelming my life.

      • We only just started this yesterday. Since we only watch an hour or so of TV a night, it takes us a while to get to things. Too many shows, too little time.

      • Same. Staying current on House of the Dragon and Rings of Power. Will probably catch up on Andor in a few weeks as both of those other shows are about to wrap their first seasons.

        What a time to be alive!

    • I feel skewered by so much of this.

      “candidate refuses to be available on WhatsApp, Snapchat, Viber, KIK, IMO, Line, or WeChat until such time as the candidate’s children make it impossible to ignore emerging communication methods.”

    • Much as I love the first one. . . It’s not like these movies are sacred texts.

      That said, how much more can really be done with the Airplane! 50-jokes-per-minute format?

      • I don’t really see a fresh take on this. I loved the first one, and even though I found the second one enjoyable, it already felt like they were pushing it.

        • On the other hand “Liam Neeson” is a similar name to “Leslie Nelson” so maybe most Americans will think the original actor is in it.

    • I love Airplane!, The Naked Gun, and Police Squad. But honestly, if it isn’t written by the Zucker, Abrams, Zucker team (and it won’t be) it simply won’t be those things that I love. It’s just one more remake/reivisioning/reimagining that I hate so very very much.

    • Much like “Blazing Saddles” I doubt seriously movies like Naked Gun and Airplane could get made today.

      I’m not optimistic as to what such a result would be.

      • Although there were definitely specific jokes (e.g., a 9 year old girl saying she likes her coffee like she likes her men). I think most of the types of jokes (e.g., stop calling me Shirley, it’s a big building with patients but that’s not important right now, nearly anything Johnny says, visual humor like the guy walking out of the mirror, etc.) would be just fine.

        As you brought up Mel Brooks, he is supposed to be working on a History of the World Part II series (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15715052/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2) so I guess we’ll actually get to test whether or not his humor will hold up. I am intrigued as I really don’t see Mel Brooks altering his style of humor for anyone or anything.

  105. I’ve never played any of the Dead Space games, but I’ve always wanted to. Now there is a remake of the first game. Maybe my procrastination has paid off?

  111. On the topic of films that couldn’t/ shouldn’t be made these days-
    I was flipping channels last night and came across “Weird Science” as it was just starting. I watched it and I will have to say that even with all of it’s many MANY faults (bad script, bad acting, disjointed ideas/plot devices to name a few)
    It still had a lot of stupid funny moments.

  112. So, we got tribbles as swag from the local Con last month. The little one was fascinated, so I got a DVD from the library to show her the original TOS episode. That disc was a “best of,” which had “The Trouble with Tribbles” and also “City on the Edge of Forever,” “Amok Time,” and “Balance of Terror.”
    She enjoyed “Tribbles” and was curious for more. I figured “City” was too odd and maybe a little grim and deep for a 4-year-old. (“Well they had to let the nice lady die because…”)
    Long story short: we watched Amok Time. I think she enjoyed it, but I also think she was baffled by it.

    I wish the dvd had had “The Doomsday Machine.”

  113. I just watched the 2nd episode of “the Irregulars”.
    I really want to like it. The premise is fun but So far it fails to live up to what it could be.
    The level of writing makes it seem like it’s aimed at a Middle School audience. I mean kids talking like modern American kids but with English accents in Sherlock Holmes’ London?
    It’s distracting and just feels lazy.

    • If it is for a “movie” and not a documentary, I have no problem with certain categories of “dramatic liscense”.
      Combining secondary charactures, condensing time periods… I’ll even allow the addition of fictional love interests so long as none of the historical even is attributed to them.

      I do have a problem with changing a main player’s motivations or inventing a plot point that never happened.

    • I wonder if the author of that article is aware that there was a 20th Century. . . .

      I do recall the cheesy “based on real events” horror movie, “The Stepfather” just took the story of Westfield, NJ, murderer, John List (Westfield again!) and speculated about what might have happened next.
      This was before he was found in his new life in Colorado.

      • I get disappointed when a film fires up the urge to find out more and then you find a lot of it was just made up. The Imitation Game took too many liberties with the truth and I never want to watch it again.

  123. My grandmother has been at the hospital for the past few days, most likely dying. At 105, it’s not overly surprising. Frankly, we all expected her to go sooner.
    What is strange is, my mother keeps sending me pics of her in distress. They are actually more and more mortifying each time. I know it’s her way of coping, but I still find it very weird.

    • 105 is pretty impressive.
      Sorry about the weirdness. My father in law just went through this and one of his kids insisted on posting pictures like that. It made the Siblings furious because their dad had told him for years that going this way (helpless and confused about who he was) would be his worst nightmare for how to go.
      It was not how he wanted anyone to remember him.

      Family is weird.

  124. So saw the new adaption of All Quiet on the Western Front today at the arty cinema.

    Well worth a watch, coming to Netflix on the 28th October.

  125. So we made it through ep 3 of She-hulk. My favorite parts of this show have been the little digs at toxic fake fan incel boys.

    My least favorite parts have been the painfully unfunny bits and fucking dumb, dumb sitcom moments.

    I like what this show is, I just wish it wasn’t so frequently dumb. Will we finish the season? Probably.

    • That’s sort of my take. If Marvel was going to make a show like Ally McBeal, aim it at a slightly younger audience, and make constant potshots at incels, it would be She-Hulk. I feel, at times the whole premise of the show is to troll incels and expectations in general. I still enjoyed it, although the constant fourth wall breaking takes a lot of the drama out of the guess characters. I wonder if it would have worked better as an animated series.

        • I guess I chalk that up to me not being familiar with She-Hulk in the comics. I understand that there was some fourth wall breaking there. I think of the emotional sacrifices of the Avengers in Infinity War and those same character actions are modified by fourth wall fiat seems to pull the curtain back a little too much for me. In Deadpool, everyone thinks his fourth wall breaking is a symptom of his insanity. I like that What-If is animated as it gives me a good separation between the different narratives. I’m not saying my take is the “correct” one, just relaying how I experience it. I will say that Tatiana Maslany elevates everything she is in.

      • Personally, I find the fourth wall breaking rather charming. I’ve not read the comic, but I’ve read that fourth wall breaking in the comics is kind of her thing.

        Never seen Deadpool

        • Tis, sir. She predates Deadpool in that and in the comics she even threw the head writer off a cliff. Simply delightful.

          Also have we really reached the point (not specified at you Ed Im just streaming here) that we are upset that a show goes after trolls? I don’t care if this shoes whole point (its not) is to go after misogynistic bully boys. I would watch 9, 30 min episodes, of Tatiana Maslany simply telling off trolls. “Uh derp this show’s whole point is to go after toxic fans”. Good.

          • I was saying that the toxic boy troll mockery is a good thing. The best thing. That never gets old.

            Dumbass 80s-90s slapstick sitcom jokes are what’s unfunny. Forced comedy is the worst.

            I liked some of She-Hulk’s 4th asides. They’re sometimes awkward, but they’re not the problem.

            I will finish the series before I really weigh in.

    • The V1 & V2 are exactly what these reminded me of.
      I also wondered why the media latched onto “Kamikaze drone”. In reality, these are nothing more then slow moving, extremely less expensive versions of a cruise missile.

      Sadly … given Putin’s now widespread use of these, the rest of us should brace ourselves for domestic terrorists utilizing their own improvised versions of these.

  129. I’m looking for supplies to go as Dr. Venture for Halloween (because I LOVE having no one who actually lives in my immediate vicinity know who they hell I am for Halloween). Found a listing for spirit gum on Amazon to attach the bald cap. The very first customer question is: “will it work to attach my baby to my chest so we can go as Kuato from “Total Recall”?” I want this person to be my new best friend

    https://www.amazon.com/Rubies-Costume-Spirit-Remover-Transparent/dp/B000IDCZXY/ref=sr_1_9?crid=O29KSRO6V6GS&keywords=bald%2Bcap%2Bkit&qid=1666183764&qu=eyJxc2MiOiI0LjE5IiwicXNhIjoiNC4yNSIsInFzcCI6IjQuMTgifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=bald%2Bcap%2Caps%2C305&sr=8-9&th=1

  130. So watched episodes 3 and 4 of Julia today, it’s a lovely show and even if cooking is not your thing (/raises hand) it’s enjoyingbto watch how she became a famous chef on tv.

  132. Ok peeps. I’m looking for a graphic novel to read. Preferably one that has come to a conclusion so I can read the whole thing. I will be reading them digitally if that makes a difference. I know there are readers in this group. Suggestions?

    • Sherriff of Baghdad
      Vision
      My Favorite Thing is Monsters
      Asterios Polyp

      And I just read the full “Paper Girls” series, which was really good. Brian K. Vaughan can do no wrong, it would seem. (No idea how they could have pulled this off as a CGI live action TV show)

      • I can’t find Sheriff of Baghdad. Do we mean Sheriff of Babylon?

        I’ve added the others to my want to read list and picked up Paper Girls. Right now, I’m doing this thing where I read a book then read a graphic novel, so I’m always on the lookout for GNs to read.

          • I’ll also recommend “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters” but there is a long overdue volume 2 that is supposed to conclude it.

            “Asterios Polyp” is good but trippy.

            A bunch of stuff I’ve been reading are still ongoing, so I won’t recommend them.

            If you don’t mind manga, “A Silent Voice” is 7 volumes and very well worth reading.

            “Sentient” by Jeff Lemire is good, as is “Sara” by Garth Ennis.

            “They Called Us Enemy” by George Takei is great. And I also loved “I Kill Giants” by Joe Kelly.

            The sex comedy “Menage a 3” by Gisele Lagace is a lot of fun, and there are 10 volumes so there’s plenty to read.

            I’ll stop here for now. 😀

          • Jack. It’s just because. I find it’s a good palate cleanser between books

            ditto: I’ve added all of them to my want to read list. Manga is actually good. If I get it in the original Japanese, it’s a good excuse to practice

          • Always happy to pass on comics, graphic novel, and manga recommendations. I still read quite a few of those. And I’m happy to take recommendations too. 😀

          • Same!

            And ditto, while you’re at it, can you please create the next ComiXology? Amazon is pretty clearly never going to restore it.

    • I’ve only read a handful of GN, I imagine you have heard of them all.

      Watchmen (duh)
      Kingdom Come
      The Killing Joke
      Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
      Y

      I’ve started reading Paper Girls. I would recommend anything by Brian K Vaughan.

    • My favorites (that are common enough they have probably been read) are:

      Locke & Key
      Chew
      Black Science
      Johnny The Homicidal Maniac (Same guy who later went on to do Invader Zim)

      • +1 for Locke & Key
        There’s also Sandman, of course, if you haven’t read it.
        I also really enjoyed Kieron Gillen’s Darth Vader series.
        And (just one more) There was an excellent recent graphic novel version of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.

        • I’m up to about issue 32 of Sandman, so way past the first graphic novel. I was doing a lot of current stuff that came out monthly so I wasn’t really thinking about them as graphic novels. Gillen’s vader series was one of them. Low was also really good, and Scooby Apocalypse held me for a while. I’ll have to check out the Slaughethouse Five. One of my all-time favorite books.

    • Ok, not a big GN reader but ones I’ve liked in the past are:

      Fray (set in the same universe as Buffy the Vampire slayer but in the future)

      Strong Female Protagonist, a web comic series which has been collected into two volumes. Technically not finished but the writer and artist have went on to paid jobs so I doubt it will get finished, you can still read the webcomic at:

      https://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-1/page-0/

      Watchman

      Alex + Ada (Alex gets sent a sex Android by his grandma and things get complicated when Ada is hacked to free her AI) The run consisted of 15 issues but it’s been collected into one volume.

      Bandette – a very cute series about a young art thief in Paris, been collected into several volumes.

  138. You know it’s a particularly nasty custody battle when the dad gives the principal the “I know where everybody lives so let me see my kid” speech (he doesn’t)

    Hubby’s having a rough time at work right now

  142. Crap joke for the day:

    A blonde was driving home one night and got caught in a severe hailstorm. Her car was badly dented, so the next day she took it to a repair shop.

    The shop owner saw that she was a blonde, so he decided to have some fun. He told her to go home and blow into the tail pipe really hard, and all the dents would pop out.

    So the blonde went home, got down on her hands and knees & started blowing into her tailpipe. Nothing happened. She blew a little harder, and still nothing happened.

    Her blonde roommate saw her and asked, ‘What are you doing?’ The first blonde told her how the repairman had instructed her to blow into the tail pipe in order to get all the dents to pop out.

    The roommate rolled her eyes and said, “Uh, like hello!

    “You need to roll up the windows first.”

  145. OK finally…. the wedding episode was less bad, and the one after that with Man-Bull was actually quite good.

    The episode was about much more than Man-Bull, but that’s a non-spoiler way to reference it.

    • This particular story line “grumpy old person needs re-socializing by younger person(s)” has been done a zillion times.

      So I think this is the sort of film you go to see for a particular actors performance.
      Kind of like seeing a remake of an Agatha Christie tale because of the new films cast.

  148. Tolkien narrating the ride of the Rohirrim against the orcs at Pelenor

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWxnHuVEwUg

    I found this in the comments utterly fascinating:
    There’s an interesting fact about this recorded narration.

    Tolkien made it before The Lord of the Rings had found a publisher. He was rather disillusioned, even despairing about its prospects, and had lost faith in his ability as a writer. He was visiting the house of a friend (I can’t recall who), and this friend had bought a fairly newfangled device: a tape recorder.

    After mucking about with it a bit, recording The Lord’s Prayer (to exorcise any evil spirits in it, for Tolkien was a bit suspicious of new tech), his friend suggested that he record his favourite passage from his new book. Tolkien did so, and on replaying it, the friend said, ‘Surely you know that’s really good?’ Tolkien said, ‘Yes… This machine has made me believe in it again.’

    It’s a sobering reminder that even the very greatest are plagued by self-doubt.

  150. Crap joke for the evening:

    A weary traveler knocks on a farmer’s door late one night and the farmer opens the door. The traveler asks if he can sleep in the barn as he is wet, hungry & tired. The farmer welcomes him in and feeds him and lets him sleep in the spare bedroom overnight. In the morning the traveler offers to a days work for free, to repay the farmer. The farmer refuses the offer and says it is not necessary. The traveler says he is an animal whisperer, so the farmer agrees. Three hours later the traveler returns and explains what he had heard. I spoke to your horse and he says you have changed his bit from a round on to a triangular one and it hurts. OK, I will change the bit says the farmer. I spoke to your cows and they don’t like the automatic milking machine, it hurts. O.K I will return to hand milking says the farmer. The traveler then says he spoke to the sheep but the farmer quickly interrupts the traveler and says” Stop” they are ALL f’king liars!

  151. It’s a shame that it took this long to give Jodie material to shine. But this was a good send of for her doctor. And a bit of a surprise at the end, though I had seen something a while ago that let me know this was happening.

  155. So after Gregory House fakes his own death and spends the remaining months with his terminal best friend, Wilson, he forges a new identity as a psychologist in San Francisco. Or at least that is what I tell myself when watching the Hulu series, “Chance.”

  165. So watching the first two episodes of the Guillermo del Toro’s CABINET OF CURIOSITIES.

    Reminds me of the horror anthology films that were popular in the 60s and 70s.

    The second story is based on a Henry Kuttner short story..FFS could he not come with a story from a more modern writer!

  166. So watching the first two episodes of the Guillermo del Toro’s CABINET OF CURIOSITIES.

    Reminds me of the horror anthology films that were popular in the 60s and 70s.

    The second story is based on a Henry Kuttner short story..FFS could he not come with a story from a more modern writer!

    I mean I like Henry Kuttner short stories but for a show in 2022 it’s taking the piss.

  170. Ten years ago Rhettro said: “Windows 8 isn’t wowing me over its feature set, but given its relative cheap upgrade cost ($40) I will at least upgrade one of my two XP machines. The 64bit version of Windows 7 is doing fine on my laptop and I don’t plan on upgrading it.”

    Narrator voice: “He never did buy Windows 8 and instead held out for a free copy of Windows 10.”

  172. Snow tires on the husband’s car this morning. Yesterday they messed up and brought out the wrong tires. Had to wait while they got the right tires from their storage facility. On the upside, at least I know for sure the right tires are there

    • As a newish rider, I don’t really care if you wear a helmet or not. If you are aware of the risks and choose to take them and the consequences, it doesn’t affect me. I, however, will always wear a full-faced helmet and glove minimum. I know an acquaintance that had an old lady pull out in front of him and he smashed his face on her bumper (open-faced helmet). He had several years of reconstructive facial surgery. I think of that whenever the helmet feels a little hot.

  176. In other news, I received my pallet of fake mail-in voting ballets for Maricopa County. They are made of bamboo and are watermarked with an image of Deng Xiaoping. Even though I really wanted to vote for Kari Lake, I won’t get paid unless I put Hunter Biden in as a write-in for governor. Just got email confirmation my ballet was excepted.

  178. Finished Judgment on PC. Say anything you want about RGG studios, between this and the Yakuza games, they know how to tell a story. Next up, Lost Judgment.

  181. Andor is exactly what Star Wars has needed.
    So many great, memorable characters, so much tension around every one of the mains. So many nuanced details about daily life under the Empire. I find the “boring” complaint a little strange.

    It’ll be hard to accept any more Stephen J. Cannell product like Book of Boba Fett after this.

    • Rankin and Bass were a crazy talented team. Very high on my list of favorite animators. One of my latest tattoos is a wraparound at the elbow of Smaug from the Rankin/Bass version of The Hobbit.

  188. What a night!

    Halloween party at the littlest one’s Karate Dojo, where she won the “Cutest Costume” contest.

    Then off to a downtown theater for devil music with Kreator and Mercyful Fate. Not there as press, just a regular slob.

  194. Watching Paws of Fury tonight. I guess this answers the age old question of whether Blazing Saddles could be made in modern times. The answer is most definitely yes. All you have to do is 1) substitute species (e.g., dog in a world full of cats) for race and 2) use a garbage load of really obvious and lazily written jokes.

      • I didn’t see it in the theater. But if you cut out the ending, I could see it as a passable B movie. For the worst I’ve seen at the cinema it’s a toss-up between “Raw Deal” and “The Fourth Kind.”

          • Tired brain. . . . I didn’t see the Beastmaster in theaters, and I have fond memories of seeing it (Tanya Roberts) on cable.

            I meant to type The Dungeon Master, featuring Richard Moll as the villain.

          • Avatar: The Last Airbender was the worst movie I ever saw in theaters. I loved Beastmaster (and Tanya Roberts), Judge Dredd was meh at best, I saw Battlefield Earth on cable and fell asleep a few minutes in. Best nap ever. Don’t think I’ve seen Dungeon Master and can’t say as I remember anything about Alien Resurrection.

  207. Now it’s all Hallow’s Eve! Have a happy one, everyone. I hope you enjoy the day and the trick-or-treating, however you experience it.

      • For the first time in a couple of years, we are giving out candy again. Not sure what the numbers will be since we’re suppose to get snow in the next couple of hours.

        • I did a last minute decoration flurry in a surge of optimism but the early hour just past with narry a costumed toddler.
          They were our mainstay in the pre- Covid years

        • For once we predicted things just right. Gave out the last of the candy at 8:59 with a goal of shutting down at 9pm. Kids are pretty much done by 9pm in this area.

  210. Bought a new Wi-Fi Mesh Network that arrived today.

    Of course now I have to install it and get all the other Wi-Fi devices to work with it.

    Can’t be arsed tonight it will have to wait till morning.

    Oh and Tales of the Jedi on Disney+ was good.

  211. We decided to watch the remastered version of the 1979 movie Phantasm. It turns out, this was not a very good movie at all.

  212. Spent the evening out with my son’s 4H group at a community “trick or treat trail” event. Great weather and a lot of kids and families came out. So, a Happy Halloween indeed.

  213. As for the movie topic, that’s a bit of a tough one as I’ve always been pretty selective about what I put money down on to see in a theater. Pretty sure we saw The Last Airbender in the theater and it sadly did not live up to it’s potential. I remember also being pretty disappointed in Event Horizon as it went from being a pretty promising sci-fi concept to a pretty schlocky horror flick.

    Oh, god….I saw Prometheus in the theater. I had managed to forget that until you bastards triggered that repressed memory. So, thanks for that.

    • We have at least one devout Prometheus fan around here. Not me, but that probably isn’t even in my bottom 20 for worst theater movies. I paid money to go see Van Damme’s Cyborg, for chrissakes.

          • Our new neighborhood was really busy. Lots of trick-or-treaters – – including us! Leeloo pulled in a big candy haul.

            Also – – is it just our new locale, or have the Nightmare Before Christmas decorations taken over? I’ve never seen so many inflatable Jack Skellingtons.

          • We have an inflatable Jack Skellington, if that is any indication. LOL Cali is a big fan of “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, so that’s why we have it.

  216. Not only did the vampires take my blood, they gave me my flu shot too. Now chillaxing in the waiting room while the prerequisites fifteen minutes pass

  231. John Petrucci tonight! With Mike Portnoy and Dave LaRue. I’ll probably promote it in the morning.

    This is the strongest power trio working today. I wish they’d do more.

  239. Until today, I didn’t know there was a Wayne Gretzky whiskey. I was a very cheap whiskey so I picked it up and will try it tonight. Given the price, I don’t expect it to be very good, but I still need to try it

  240. It’s getting too late in the day for me to make a hockey joke that is top-shelf, so I’ll make a general whiskey comment instead. For the longest time Teresa and I have enjoyed the excellent, but mostly affordable, Canadian Whiskey “Forty Creek”. But unfortunately, we were exposed to the pricy Irish whiskey “Writer’s Tears”. It’s our favorite now.

    • Ballantine’s is a decent cheap whiskey. They also make a higher end version that’s quite good, but for a budget, their blend is nice

      • OMG!!!!
        I found another Ballentine’s fan!!!!
        I ran across this brand back in the 90’s and bought it because it was cheep and I had no money.
        In the 2000’s it suddenly got “en vogue” and became really expensive. Then because it was popular it became hard to find. Because it was hard to find people stopped buying it and by the 2010s the price of it dropped back down… If you could find it!
        Now it is reasonable but I have not been able to find any in a year!

        It’s a cheep scotch but I like what I like and I am tickled to find some one else who likes it!

        • You can’t find Ballentine’s Joe? Here, the cheap stuff is in every liquor store. The higher end 17 year old can only be found in one place in Airdrie, but the other is pretty much everywhere.

          • I still struggle with this stuff. I have a giant Costco jug of Crown – – I have occasionally tapped into it, but have never found a way to make it enjoyable.

      • Van, price depends upon what you’re looking at. The inexpensive Ballentine’s I mentioned is only about $30 CDN. The 17 year old is closer to $100. We very rarely have the expensive one. The Wayne Gretzky bottle was also on sale for about $30. Unfortunately, it tasted like a $30 CDN whiskey. It’s ok, but, as I said, is a bit harsh.
        Since the two of us only buy a bottle on the weekends and are dry during the week, we’re ok with $30. Every now and then though, we splurge and go for something higher end.

  241. Visited two distilleries in Orkney when I was travelling with a friend. On one of the tours the guide came up-to me and asked if I liked whisky and was bemused when I said no, but I can force it down at a pinch.

    Felt like an atheist in a church..

    • I felt much the same way when my wife and I toured Scotland a few years ago. I avoided all the whisky places. Unfortunately, I found out literally on my way out of the country (in the Edinburgh airport duty free shop) that Gin has actually been on a huge rise in Scotland and I could have been sampling Gin at nearly all those whisky places I avoided. Maybe next time.

  242. Here is another thing I will add on this topic…
    I like Bourbon but I can’t drink it because it gives me a headache. Sometimes the headache will start before I’ve even finished the whole glass! A friend of mine, hearing the story, ask if I had ever tried rye. I hadn’t but since then I have and for some weird reason I can drink rye but not straight bourbon.
    Go figure.

    • I’ve had some similar problems with Bourbon for some reason. Have you tried Templeton Rye? It isn’t as sweet as other ryes and is a nice in-betwen rye and bourbon.

  243. Anyone up on the latest laptops? I’m trying to figure out the right balance between performance and price. I see massive performing systems like the MSI GF65. But, as a gaming machine, these do things like get really hot and may be much more than I really need. I don’t really do PC gaming, but if I want to pair my Quest 2 with a laptops I have to have a reasonable graphics card present. I don’t need powerhouse memory and processor speed, but if I cheap out on these things, then doing things that I’m want to do (such as have 20+ tabs open at a time in Chrome) will rapidly overwhelm my system. Any thoughts on whether I really need 12th gen i7 hex processor with 128GB or RAM or if I’m just throwing my money away at that point. I’m actually doing pretty well right now with my older Asus touchscreen with 8th gen i7 quad core and 16 gb RAM. But when I get a new system I don’t want to find myself getting stuck as new tech comes out.

  244. 128GB is overkill, if I were buying new I’d go for 64. For VR, graphics memory is more important. I don’t what is common for laptops these days, but 12 GB of graphics memory would be fairly future-proof, although I’d imagine 8 would be more available. CPU-wise, a fairly current i7 would work well. Current-gen AMD processors have been getting a lot of buzz for their power-to-price ratio.

    • Good to know about AMD. Back when I was paying attention to such things, they weren’t something you would want in a descent system. For me, the challenge has been finding the drive space that I need. I have a 2TB drive and it’s pretty full now. I’ve gone the route of the small SSD with a large alternative drive. It can be OK, but makes things like iTunes a massive pain when it simply can’t figure out what to do when your music isn’t where it expects it to be.

  250. Hubby is principal of a k-4 elementary school this year. He thought it would be nice to start a beginning chess club for the younglings. He put out notice there would be twenty spots in this club, not sure if even that would be filled. He got 72 kids asking to sign up. He’s happy there was such interest. He’s also sad because he can’t accept them all. He has no idea how he’s going to choose twenty of of all those kids

  253. FWIW
    This week I had two differrent, high ranked NASA people mention to me (in different social situations) concerns about the parallels between Howard Hughs and Elon Musk.
    Amoungst themselves there is growing concern at administration level, about Elon going off the rails and what that would mean to the space program, given how many of their eggs are currently in his basket.

  256. Busy weekend of activities.
    The Scottsdale waterfront’s high-tech art convergence was basically Cyberpunk, just without the embedded fingernail blades. Pics will surely be posted.

  259. Has anybody here tried Mastodon? I have a few friends who have moved over to that from twitter but, since I’m not really a twitter person, I haven’t decided what to do. Also, I’m not sure what “server” I should be on. I’m assuming mastodon.world, being a generic one but…

  260. My credit card came up for renewal. Now I have the exhausting task of going through and updating everything that comes off it. I’m already tired

    • I saw this mentioned in an article once as a great time to cul out those monthly subscriptions that you really aren’t using.

      It is especially useful with those companies that make it really difficult to cancel your subscription. Since they only have the old credit card number.

  262. Here’s a thing I just discovered.

    I saw that this 1st round of student loan forgiveness involved 16 million people. So I did some research and the Median student monthly loan payment is $222
    Doing the math shows that the forgiveness of 16 million loans could put 3.5 BILLION dollars back into the economy
    … EVERY MONTH!!!!

    That extra “discretionary income” has got to be good for local small businesses.

  264. We’re going out for our fourth Covid shot today. It’s currently -17C (-25 with wind chill). I really don’t want to go outside

  269. So according to twitter scuttlebutt, the Disney money for Doctor Who will mean the first season with the new Doctor with haves a budget of 10 million pounds per episode.

    I fear the thing that will finally finish off DW is Disney funding.

  271. Today is shaping up to be an historic day. For all the worst reasons. Let’s hope
    – – the early polls were inaccurate
    – – for no violence

    I don’t plan to track anything. My vote was mailed 2 weeks ago.

    • I will be voting a little later today but I won’t be following it either. With all of the pre-voting, I suspect it will be a day or maybe more before everything is counted.

      I am not optimistic for Democracy.
      I am afraid that the fix is already in. Too many authoritarians have been appointed to the positions that accept the votes and to the courts that will hear their lawsuits.

  275. Rewatching Werewolf by Night and noticing the little flickering rings that were used in the old days to indicate to the projectionist to change the reel.

  280. We’ve completed episode 3 of Rings of Power. I have gripes, but overall, I’m enjoying it.

    As a lifelong Tolkien fan but never a scholar, so I can’t call out any deviations from the Silmarillion. And I think we knew from the start that differences were to be expected? These are variations on the legends?

  285. I’ve been doing a full catalog listen of all 16 Iron Maiden studio albums, in chronological order of release. On day 6, with only one album left to go. Not as a journalist, just as a fan, so I’m not taking notes or shutting out everything else to focus on the music.

    It’s kinda tiring, but fun. I will definitely do this again with other artists. I recommend it! Pick an artist with a fairly extensive discography and go!

    • I’m currently halfway through Powerslave, so lots to go. I’ll share some thoughts once completed. I would recommend listening to Bruce Dickinson’s “Accent of Birth” and “Chemical Wedding” and then immediately follow with Blaze Bayley’s “Silicon Messiah,” once you are done with the Maiden studio albums.

      • Okay, I lied. I have a few comments. There is no denying the musical talent of Maiden, but I did notice the improvement in timing and precision by the fourth studio album. As great as the first two albums are, the songs sound better live after 30 years of practice.

        • That is a really good point. They’re absolutely a tighter, more mature songwriting and performing unit by the time the mid-80s rolled around.

          The solo albums are another rabbit hole! There’s hours and hours of stuff from Bruce, Paul Di’Anno, Blaze, Adrian Smith, and even Steve Harris’s side project, British Lion. That could be a great future adventure, though.

          • You’re right, I will need to march through those other albums eventually. In regards to the Maiden journey, I think the two solo Bruce albums show what he wanted to do and couldn’t at that stage in Maiden. Likewise, there was the critique that Blaze didn’t get his chance to really shine in Maiden because the songs weren’t written for his vocal range. If you listen to “Silicon Messiah” I think you would find there is some merit in that notion.

          • Yeah, I like the idea of checking out Blaze Bayley’s solo albums. He’s a capable vocalist, but was unable to do much with the material on X-Factor or Virtual XI. I blame the lackluster songwriting, not him.

            How well do you know those 90s Maiden albums?

          • I think I got Virtual XI and Accident of Birth through the Columbia tape club. LOL Accident got a lot more play. There’s a gap between 7th Son and Brave New World which I look forward to revisiting.

  288. Gave my little one a few new-to-her choices for movie night and she chose Pinocchio. I was going to go with the 2022 version, but it got pretty universally panned by IMDB reviewers, so we watched the original. We should have watched the new one.
    I haven’t seen this since I was a really young kid. I guess it’s fine for what it is, but I think the newer one would have resonated better. Eh, she liked it, so I guess that’s what matters.

  302. Recently watched Netflix films-
    Tom Cruise ScFi “Oblivion”
    Nothing “award winning” here, just a solid sci-fi/action adventure film.
    Biggest Suprise was that it is nearly 10 years old and I’d never heard of it.
    https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=oblivion+movie&fr=iphone&.tsrc=apple

    “Uncharted”
    National Treasure or Raiders type film. Fun but had that sort of “low budget, trying to seem big budget, made for a streaming service” kind of feel to it.
    Even the actors seemed to be kind of board with the material.
    Oblivion was the more engaging of the two.
    https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=uncharted+movie&fr=iphone&.tsrc=apple