The Good Place

This is the Manhattan Financial District - in front of my workplace, the Bowling Green subway station and park.

Snow was cleared from most of the streets, just not the lesser used side streets, and sidewalks in front of houses. Apartment complexes, yes. Small businesses and houses not so much. Also all the parked cars were snowed in.

( images of a snow bound Brooklyn and Manhattan Financial District beneath the cut )

Super called while I was talking to my mother (on the phone - mother lives over 13 hours away). Apparently there was a lot of snow on the roof and some leaks - the tenant on the fifth floor filed a potential leak complaint. ( Read more... )

And I found out what was causing the insane vibrating humming sound over the weekend, which was so bad on Sunday - I used noise cancelling headphones to block it out? ( Read more... )

Everyone is having issues with the snow. Also public transportation is a mess. The NY Ferries aren't running or with severe delays, because the Hudson and East River have frozen, and there are ice junks - making it difficult for them to navigate. Also I think the bay leading out to the Atlantic - which is around Liberty Island and Staten Island has frozen in places.

The Long Island Rail Road was having switch problems and issues with snow on the tracks. The buses are having issues navigating snow drifts as are their passengers. NJ Transit and Path trains were running with delays, due to snow removal. The subways had delays. The airports were struggling to re-open. And there were road closures due to stalled vehicles and accidents.

The Federal Government offered to send help, and the Governor of New York and Mayor of New York City said nope, we're fine. Go away. Shoo. New Jersey more or less said the same thing - we're fine, thanks, go away.

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The internet is giving me writer's block? ( Read more... )

Not been sleeping well - last night was a combination of digestive issues and a weird vibrating noise. The apartment complex next door - from as well as I can figure - had turned on some sort of ice melt machine or generator that was generating a high pitched vibrating hum. At first I thought it was my window air conditioning unit - it wasn't. Took me a while to figure it out - the Super's wife coming outside into the courtyard in her winter coat, cloves and boots - shouting at the folks in the complex next door went a long ways towards explaining it. (This was at midnight. And they had the light on for a bit.) It didn't stop. So, I put on my noise cancelling headphones and some music, and that helped for a while. Finally around 6 or 7 am, I think, it stopped. It had been going on since 8pm last night. Was making me crazy and from the Super's response, not to mention the lit windows across the way - I'm guessing I wasn't the only one? The noise cancelling headphones were the only thing that helped. Earplugs weren't enough. The multitude of things people do on a daily or hourly basis to benefit themselves that unwittingly injure or hurt others is mind blowing.
Anyhow, I'm grateful for the noise cancelling headphones - they aren't cheap but worth every penny. I have to update every three or four years.

Took a personal day or snow day - today. And since I slept abysmally due to the above, I'm grateful for it. Accomplished a few items - I did laundry, including a comforter sitting at the foot of my bed (and no one was down there until I'd finished my last load - the comforter). Also got the blood sugar doctor's visit out of the way. Wants to see me again in May - via video chat. We spend five to six minutes chatting - so it really makes no sense not to do it virtually.

Came home - watched more Buffy S7 and Angel S4, and even with lowered expectations, Buffy S7 is so much better than Angel S4. (It's the Cordelia arc - the actress isn't selling it. ( Read more... )

Buffy S7 works better when the potential slayers aren't on screen. I think it suffered from the same issues that S6, and to a degree S3 did. Too many characters, and group scenes. S4 also had that problem. Some television writers/directors can do group scenes well - the Mutant Enemy writers weren't among them. And S7 had the same problem with extraneous characters that S6 does, which is they aren't well developed, with a few possible exceptions. The potential slayers - I don't care about, with the exception of Kennedy. They are more annoying than interesting. S7 has one too many annoying characters for its own good. And at this point? I'm about ready to send Dawn, Andrew, and Anya off together with the potentials.

I did notice something this time around that I hadn't previously - which is that Giles actually does touch things. ( Read more... )

With lowered expectations and anticipation - the series is more enjoyable. (Also helps if you are no longer invested in any of the romantic entanglements and just enjoying them while they last and how they further the story-thread. This is not a good show to become invested in romantic relationships - the writers are kind of brutal to them?) The difficulty with becoming overly obsessed with a television series - to the extent of writing essays, meta, or fanfic about it - is wanting it to play out the way it is in your head? Or have high expectations regarding it. Or getting to caught up in minor details. And forgetting at the end of the day, it's a television serial with a limited budget, produced/acted/and written in an abbreviated amount of time, and writers who may have a different story in mind. After all, it's their story not ours? They are just sharing it with us.

That said? The Killer in Me, Buffy S7 - is a really interesting and good episode. Much better than I remembered. And I actually really like the Kennedy/Willow pairing (better actually than her previous pairings, just because it feels like the characters are on equal footing, and Kennedy isn't judging Willow) and I like Kennedy, who is the only potential who has a personality and has been rounded out as a character. (I think the fandom hated the character because they were too invested in the Oz/Willow and Willow/Tara pairings - again this is not a good show to get invested in romantic pairings.) ( thoughts on Killer in Me )

Another takeaway from this episode and the season? The writers go out of their way to make it clear that Willow is "Gay" not "bisexual". ( Read more... )

***

Also watched Supersymmetry through Awakening. There's some good episodes in Angel S4. ( Read more... )


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Question a Day Meme

24. Have you ever knitted a garment or had one knitted for you?

Yes. My mother knitted me a vest once - it was ugly. But I wore it for a while anyhow. I've also knitted hats (poorly), scarves (okay) and two blankets (expensive).

25. It’s Burn’s Night – a night to celebrate Robert Burns and all things Scottish. Do you like Scotch whisky or do you prefer Irish Whiskey?

No. I don't drink or like Whiskey. It plays havoc with my body. I'm gluten intolerant/ceiliac - and can't drink anything made with wheat, rye, or barely, apparently the glutens are still a problem - even if they are fermented.

26. It’s Australia Day! What do you think of when you think of Australia?

I love Australia. I visited Australia for about a month around Christmas and New Years in 1990. ( Read more... )

I've been hibernating this weekend - nesting and watching television. It's either snowing or sleeting at the moment, per my phone sleeting. Did make brownies - probably shouldn't have made brownies (gluten-free obviously), and Skinny Popcorn. Which caused my blood sugar to sky rocket. Lovely. It does appear to have stablized and is coming down. So there's that.

Didn't sleep well at all last night. Due mainly to stomach/digestive issue, and muscle cramping. I'm thinking of taking a hot shower before bed tonight, in the hopes that it will calm down the muscles.

It got cold in my bedroom last night - around 65. So I took out the window fan and put another cover on the window A/C and put window coverings on both. Now, it's about 70 in there, and 74 degrees in the living room, so not as cold as last night - no wind. It's always the wind. This week is going to be brutal though - with record low temperatures and bad wind chills. I prefer the snow, personally, to the bitter cold.

Been side-eyeing the news via social media all weekend. Minnesota for folks who don't live in North America and Canada - is about the same distance from New York City as Spain is from London. ( Read more... )

The Nation lists corporations that you can boycott - to defund ICE (Some are easier than others?)

How US Citzens Can Protect the Immigrant Community from the Deportation Force

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Buffy S7 and Angel S4 Rewatch.

I feel a little sorry for Angel? ( Read more... )

The Lilah/Wes romance has some of the same dialogue as the Spike/Buffy romance, which is interesting. ( Read more... )

Over on Buffy, it's becoming abundantly clear to me that Buffy fell for Spike at the end of S5, but didn't want to. And didn't want him to love her. Nor did she want to be loved in S6. Her difficulty was she couldn't completely trust him or for that matter, herself at that point. She was overwhelmed with guilt. ( Read more... )

The writers do make it confusing though.

The high today was 18°F (degree Fahrenheit)/ -7.778°C (degree Celsius), most of the day it was 10 F/-12.2222 C, so I spent most it napping, snacking, and watching television, also did knee exercises. [Next week will be fun - since I'll have to venture out at 8-10 F/ -15-12 C, and get home at 22 F. But maybe it will be warmer? At least most of the time is spent inside the trains and stations. No outdoor stations any longer.]

Train Dreams - available exclusively on Netflix at the moment, and nominated for Best Picture, Cinematography, and song (by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) for the Oscars. Nothing against Nick Cave (who I actually love) but I don't remember the song. I think they rolled it over the end credits - and being on Netflix, I didn't watch the end credits.

Train Dreams by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner (the video is a nice trailer for the film).

It's a beautiful film - kind of dreamy, and weirdly comforting. Felt a bit like a hug on a cold winter night, which I sort of needed today as the radiators hiss to life in the background. The cinematography and the score by Nick Cave is dreamy and lovely all on its own.

The film is about the life and experiences of a logger in the Pacific Northwest, around the turn of the last century (19th to the 20th). It has strong themes about being interconnected, and the ebb and flow of life. Also grief.

Watching it felt a bit like curling up with a good book in front of a fire place, drinking hot coco on a cold winter's day.

Prior to that, I fell asleep watching Grey's Anatomy, which yes, has been on too long. It is on it's 23rd season, it is the longest running prime time medical serial on television. It beat both ER and MASH.

***

"I caught the [60s Batman] TV show in reruns after school every weekday. There’d be a great block of shows that I’d run home for: Star Trek, The Monkees, Twilight Zone, etc. There was a lot of cool stuff that hit stores from Batman-mania that Dad and Mom would get for us, so it was always I source of excitement and great joy. When I was asked to do an issue of DC Solo I immediately got together with my big brother, Lee to do our Batman love letter, BATMAN A Go-Go." - Mike Allred"

Apparently I had the same childhood viewing habits as comic book writer Mike Allred in the 1970s? Just add The Brady Bunch to the docket, and a lot of Godzilla movies. Also, quite a few Elvis Presley films - he died in the 70s, so the Afternoon Movie decided to show every single film he'd ever done. And Presley did a lot of films. None of which were any good.

We used to have The After-School Special (basically a made for television flick with a moral message or lesson), the Afternoon Movie (an afternoon film - usually from the 1950s or 60s that was rated G, they tended to steer clear of the 1970s films which kind of sneered at G ratings, unless they were done by Disney), the Western Film on Saturdays, and Wonderful World of Disney, Masterpiece Theater or Masterpiece Mystery on Sundays. We also watched Star Trek and Space:1999 and Battlestar Galatica, and any other sci-fi show that my parents could find. They liked science fiction, mysteries, noir, and Westerns.

[This was in the 1970s and early 80s. Everything changed somewhere in the 1990s.]

***

Apparently She-Rah is leaving Netflix in a month. Which means if you are like me and probably still need to finish watching the series or watching it at all - you might want to get on that nowhish? I'm guessing they are getting rid of it to make room for the new Star Search? I don't know if anyone else remembers Star Search? It was basically American Idol or Everybody's Got Talent for the kiddie set (or anyone under the age of 18). Brittany Spears and Beyonce were discovered on it. Sarah Michelle Gellar auditioned for it - but didn't make the cut. (I can see why - Gellar can't dance or sing to save her life (note it was Spike who saved Buffy's life singing not Buffy). And juggling ...unless it's death defying, isn't that interesting. This isn't really geared towards actors, it's a talent show for everyone else.) I watched it off and on when I was a kid in the 1970s-80s, but not often.

Tried it today - and lasted all of five minutes before I jumped away to something else. ( Read more... )