What I Watched:  Any number of videos on how to do a blunt cut on long hair. I ended up having Keitel put painter’s tape across my back and cut above the line. I had inserted a photo here for proof, but removed it because it just felt too weird.
It worked fine (that is a real fine, not a passive-aggressive fine). But why do this? Well, I only go to the salon three times a year, for a blunt cut and for a fun color to be added underneath my hair, for a bit of peek-a-boo. By the time it is time for my appointment, I am a shaggy dog. Instructions to do a blunt cut the right way
Last month, my young stylist (36 years old) was diagnosed with testicular cancer (three separate spots). The surgery was successful, but he isn’t back at work yet. He has insurance for his wife and child but none for himself. They both work in the service economy, so health insurance isn’t a benefit. And there is no way, when he will eventually need the business, that I will go elsewhere. The GoFundMe set up by the salon was a success but is still a drop in the bucket of his continually rising medical bills. If I try to speak about the ludicrous state of health care in the USA, I just end up sputtering. Their dreams of home ownership are dashed, their savings gone, and their main income lost.
Anyway, dear gentlemen of DeadSplinter, here is a link on how to check for testicular cancer. Men should do this monthly, just as women should do breast self-examination.
What I Read: A bunch of series continuations that were okay but not great. These are especially disappointing because I really like the original series that Verity Lark and The Living Oracle are spun from (the Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries and the Last Oracle). I wont overload you with links, you know where to buy books if you are invested in these series.
- A Lark’s Conceit: A Verity Lark Mystery (Verity Lark Mysteries Book 3) by Lynn Messina
- Ground Training (Immortal Outcasts Series Book 5) by Mandy M. Roth
- Hidden Enemy: The Living Oracle Book Two by Melissa McShane
What I Listened To: Bored Again by Déyyess; Trust by Devansh; and Waiting by Benjamin Amaru:
From Waiting: Does anybody know where these dreams come from? Does anybody know where I belong? Does anybody know how I fight these thoughts? Does anybody know how to move on?
And here’s one more from my new fave, Radium Dolls (from Australia) a bit of classic punk ‘n roll: I Think Your Boyfriend Likes Me More Than You Do!
Thank you for playing Brain Drain! How are you, dearest ones? Darling DeadSplinterites, what’s going on? Please do share with us!
I read Pride and Prejudice and Peril which is a cozy murder mystery. It was fun but also just so so. Not enough tension between her and her potential love interests. The follow up is worse.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57359649-pride-prejudice-and-peril
Right you are. The follow-ups can be very disappointing. As with those mental above.
I read the latest Murderbot installment. I liked it, although it got bogged down for a bit before it took off again. I have a vague feeling where Wells may be headed in the future based on something that happened again in this book. A lot of characters in this universe won’t like it.
I have the latest Murderbot but haven’t gotten around to reading it. I’ve been reading disappointing books, instead.
…how latest is the latest, by the way?
…burned through the block of them a few weeks back but if there’s one popped up since “system collapse” that’d be a nice surprise?
Ah, probably not news. System Collapse (book 7) was November 2023 and I acquired Compulsory in August. @SplinterRIP
…they were a fun re-read…& system collapse was the only one I think I hadn’t got to before I went back to the beginning…so probably a bit soon to pick those up again
…held up better on the second run through than some series I could mention…the sequels to altered carbon (or really any of that guy’s other books except maybe for the one where contracts are decided by the proxy victor of high-end demolition-derby/you-might-die street-races…which is just a fun premise to wind up & see go even if the ride isn’t all it could be)
…if someone hasn’t got an option on that lot either in production or in some circle of development hell…there’s money being left on a table somewhere?
[ETA: …never mind my under-caffeinated witterings…apple tv has that money in its pocket…I…think maybe I even knew that before I typed that remark…but it’s been that sort of a week, frankly)
Watching Oppenheimer (prime) It’s a bit confusing at first because of the time jumps between his youth and the hearings that costed him his top secret security clearance. GOPers back then weren’t all that fucking bright either (and Dems cowering in fear against charges being friendly to the Commies.)
Started the “Cold War” miniseries (Netflix). It’s engaging and sad at times. The McCarthy hearings showed what a bunch of ignorant dumbfucks can do to fuck things up and change the course of history. /glares at rightwingers/
Yeah, I found Oppenheimer really hard to follow. I’ve watched a lot of movies that do the back-and-forth thing, but holy shit that movie did not do it well at all. The only thing for me that made the movie was the off-the-charts acting by most of the cast. Except Matt Damon. Don’t get me wrong, I like Matt’s work, but he had no business being cast as Leslie Groves.
Everything old is new again.
Did “Cold War” feature Sen. McCarthy’s lead co-counsels, Roy Cohn and a young Communist witch hunt-leading Robert F. Kennedy?
It talks about Roy not so much RFK
No, of course not, that era has to be swept under the rug to preserve “Camelot.”
i uhh….had another week of work….and not much else..
but here?
I like this a lot! Also fun video. #Farscythe for the win. Added to playlist.
Oh God. I think I’ve seen EVERY ONE of those musicals. It’s what comes of growing up in the 1970s with a very limited choice of TV channels. On the weekends, after the cartoons were over, it was either movie musicals or bowling competitions.
Great stuff. Here’s some crazy dumb trivia.
The first shot in that video is Lisa Loring, the first actress to play Wednesday Addams back in 1964..
The very next shot is of course Charlie Chaplin, who starred in movies like The Kid.
That’s not the crazy part, though.
It’s that it’s the same actor on the right in both photos – Jackie Coogan when he was 50 and when he was 6.
That’s wild. I had no idea that was the same actor.
He had a wild career. He has a little dance number with his then-wife Betty Grable in this clip:
According to IMDB he played three different characters over the years on Hawaii Five O
That was awesome! Made me think of the old line about how Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels. Betty could MOVE in those skyscrapers!
Watched:Â Ant Man and The Wasp: Quantummania. WTF was that? I think the writers were all tripping balls on acid when they wrote that film. And I used to trip balls on acid so I know what I’m talking about.
Always appreciate expert opinions!
*snort chuckles*
…speaking as a card-carrying comicbook geek who with a gun to my head would admit I could probably go chapter & verse on the answer to that question with a full spread of footnotes & citations
…this is hands-down my favorite (& frankly best in very nearly every conceivable way) review of that film I have thus far come across
…by a country mile
…bravo
I am willing to accept a lot of dumb plot for comic book scifi plots.
However, the fact that Michelle Pfeifer came out of the Quantum Realm after tons of years there with her trusty mascara and full face of “natural” makeup on? Fuck right off with that one. She should have come out wearing no makeup at all. Michael Douglas is 15 years older than her and looked decent enough for an old dude but come on, she’s still way out of his league.
I started watching Will Trent. And almost stopped. The plot in the pilot episode made very little sense, and I’ve tried to find explanations of what happened online without any degree of success. I’m still not clear on who killed whom and more importantly, why.
However, I pressed onward and the show got better. I’m still not thinking that mystery plotting is really the writing staff’s strong point, but the character interactions are worth it.
Did you start with season one? I really liked it, although the relationship angst bogged it down a bit mid-season. Also, I am team Chihuahua. @Bryanlsplinter
Yep, started with the very first episode. I’d outline my issues but I don’t want to drop any spoilers. But judging from what I saw online, I’m not the only one who was scratching my head. Plus my wife had the exact same questions.
I think they’re in a bit of a corner. They position Will as a super-detective, but that requires some really careful plotting to establish cases that a) require his expertise and b) hold together solidly. The B plots with the other detective team are more straightforward police work, and they work very well.
In some ways it reminds me of my all-time favorite cop show, NYPD Blue. But the super-detective angle wasn’t an issue there, so it was police work + interpersonal relationships.
…not really sure how exactly but events seemed to conspire this week so that anytime I tried to watch anything either my plans got usurped by unsolicited interruptions…or I drifted off while still trying to decide what I felt like putting on & then concluded I’d be better off doing that with a book I’d already read while lying in bed
…so…err
…nothing to report…or at least nothing to write home about?
@SplinterRIP I am always team book.
I think tonight we start the 3 Body Problem series. Maybe.
I’m currently reading COSMIC SCHOLAR: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HARRY SMITH. It’s really great. I highly recommend it.
…damn it
…if I’d remembered that was out I might have been able to get it playing before my eyelids started to droop instead of sitting there thinking “I swear there was something I meant to check out…”
[ETA: that book also sounds like it would have been a better choice than the amount of time I spent scrolling through streaming options while not paying enough attention until I admitted I couldn’t honestly claim to be “awake”, really…I know you didn’t necessarily mean to put me to shame but my cheeks might be feeling a little warm?]
Sleep is more important than watch.
Sleep, or sheep? I picked up a new pair of progressive glasses today so I have to keep raising and lowering my head to see near/far/wherever you are.
…man, oh man…the materials science in an innocent looking set of lenses in this day & age is a marvel
…last time I went to the opticians they made a charming effort to break it to me gently that I might need to add extra elements to the transparent swiss army knife on top of the various polarizing layers or refractive coatings or nano-pearlescent sub-atomic x-rays or whatever…that they wanted to stress were neither bi-focals nor vari-focals…despite, frankly, sounding exactly like vari-focals
…while trying not to laugh I explained that I’d had noticeable quantities of grey hair since my early-to-mid teens & being thought of as an old person or approached in a way that suggested I might be older than I am had long ago ceased to appear on my things-that-upset-me list so they didn’t have to call them my-first-vari-focal just to spare my feelings & I got to talking about all the options & what the numbers & abbreviations meant on the form the lady was filling in & since she was the actual lady who knew all science/engineering stuff not the one who can tell you all about the pretty frames it was pretty fascinating to someone who can remember when polarized sunglasses were the snazzy new thing on the slopes
…don’t know who made the ones you’re breaking in…but where most things are concerned after a week or so I either stopped noticing the need for that maneuver or my brain had re-written the way it fills in stuff it assumes is there to the point that I no longer had to…with occasional exceptions…like…I met some friends for a drink & something about the angles & dimensions of the place we were in meant that standing at the bar & trying to read the labels of the beers on the low shelves of the fridge behind the bartenders’ legs was unusually tricky when I first got there rather than shortly before chucking out time?
Adds to reading list, thank you!
I have been delving into the strange world of comical dog grooming videos. This woman is a champ:
That Girl With the Dogs is so fun to watch for some weird reason! Bestie and I will watch her videos for ages while we work on our projects at her place.
Some huskies are not as nice…
Hi! *waves*
I cut my own hair, too, @elliecoo . My usual method is to flip my hair over and trim until it’s relatively even and then have O-H tidy up any really egregious mistakes. I do hope your stylist will be alright… Husband had testicular cancer a few years back and had to have both surgery and chemo before it was gone completely.
Reading – and I’m just hitting some highlights, here, because if I list them all, we’ll be here all day –
Rick Riordan’s Trials of Apollo series. Kids books? Yes. Damned enjoyable even as an adult? Also, yes.
A Lady Awakened, A Gentleman Undone, A Woman Entangled, and A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong, all by Cecilia Grant. Historical romances, but they’ve each got a bit of a different twist to them. I wish she’d written more books, but there’s just these 4. I definitely recommend these.
The Mead Mishaps series by Kimberly Lemming. Hilarious… I actually lol’d multiple times while reading… and hot. They kind of read like a sexy D&D campaign, in the best sort of way.
Watching –
O-H and I have been watching Murder, She Wrote on Prime. We both remember watching them as kids, but it’s basically all new to both of us because it’s been so long (and, y’know, we were kids). Delightfully 80’s.
I’ve been watching X-Files, Charmed (original), and Northern Exposure on my own.
Listening to –
Shinedown and System of a Down. Also, 90’s country. Yes, it’s an odd mix. Shinedown is so melodramatic, but so much fun to sing along with (well, except a couple of scream-y songs), especially 45. It’s such a dramatic-high-schooler sort of song, but I love the chance to really let my voice out!
I cut my hair yesterday too, but expectations for guys are so much lower. I just go with a short guide on the clippers for the sides and back and longer guide for the top. I’ve started running again and keeping things fairly close to the scalp is a lot more practical than worrying about a special cut.
The Mead Mishaps sounds exactly like what need right now. Thanks! 😊
Enjoy! 😉
Hello @HoneySmacks! 👋 excellent to hear from you! Also, I may try your method as opposed to the painter tape method. The Cecilia Grant books and the Mead Mishaps are now on the list. I’m glad to hear that your husband has recovered. Happy weekend to you!
I hope you enjoy them all as much as I did!
Husband has been cancer-free for 6 years 🙂
Someone here recommended Bottoms & I had to watch it since I love Marshawn! He was great but the movie was pretty silly & I have never wanted to punch someone as much as I wanted to punch the QB. Silly fun I guess? Now, trying to watch March Madness as wife tries to figure out which grout goes where to fill in the holes I left when I butted the flooring up to the tile. Please stop raining so I can get her outside!
Listened to the new Eels song which is very touching…