07:36 – Things aren’t going very well with Barbara’s dad.
The phone rang at 2:30 this morning. It was Barbara’s dad calling from the hospital, saying that he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for two days and demanding that she come and get him and take him home. Barbara told him that it was 2:30 in the morning and that she’d visited him yesterday afternoon and he’d eaten dinner then. She then called the nurses’ station. The nurse on duty told her that her dad had been acting that way since she came on shift at 19:00.
Just to make things a little worse, it looks as though Barbara’s mom may have pneumonia. Barbara is taking her to the doctor today, and possibly for a chest X-ray. Then she’ll head over to the hospital to pick up her dad and take him home.
At least Barbara got a chance to relax a bit yesterday evening. We were about to start watching the next episode of World Without End on Netflix streaming when I mentioned all of the horrible reviews it had gotten. Barbara said she thought I liked it. I told her that I thought it was terrible. So did she. She was watching it because she thought I liked it, and I was watching it because I thought she liked it. So we bagged it, rated it one star, and removed it from our Netflix queue. We instead watched the first episode of Rough Diamond, starring David Jason from Frost.
Heh. We’ve done that several times. It’s true what the marriage counselors say about communication being important. With bad communication, you may end up watching a lot of bad TV.
I try to be careful about criticizing programs because Barbara already thinks I’m hypercritical. As a writer, I have zero tolerance for bad writing, from dialog to plotting to technical howlers. I don’t mind cheesy sets or bad production values if the writing is top-notch. If the writing is bad, as it is for World Without End, I don’t care if there’s an excellent cast and superb cinematography. As someone commented on Rough Diamond last night, “You can’t polish a turd”.
That’s why when I come across a top-notch series like Buffy/Firefly, Heartland, or Rescue Me, I tend to watch it over and over. Incidentally, speaking of Rescue Me, which I’m on the first pass through, Dennis Leary is a genius on the same level as Joss Whedon. Leary created, writes, stars in, produces, and (IIRC) sometimes directs episodes.
Hm, I and a young woman who once boarded at my house were giving each other the silent treatment one day. After a while we got talking about what was wrong. The answer: nothing.
She was being quiet so I thought I’d upset her. I was being quiet so she thought she’d upset me. It turned out to be a misunderstanding.
I try to be diplomatic when discussing what I don’t like. I’d hate to say to someone “I’d hate to be a nurse” (which is true) and then find out that they were are nurse.
I also have no objections to crummy special effects if I like a movie or series. The British SF series Blakes 7 is a prime example. The effects were awful but to me that was just endearing. Same with the Daleks.
I am down to the last episode of “World Without End,” just got sucked into watching the wholes series, if for no other reason than to hopefully see the Cynthia Nixon character and the primary Christian character receive earthly justice. Naturally the main Christian (they were all Roman Catholics then) is a liar, hypocrite, murderer and thief. Another Christian, a monk, is a shaky, ignorant butcher, and the women are all wise and wonderful and rational. Naturally when the smoke has cleared from one or another battle or plague outbreak it is the gay crippled soldier and the bisexual nun who restore order and calm. Just like it would happen today in northern New Jersey or Kalifornia. With perfect teeth, clean clothes of many colors, chicks who look like models, and interior dining room floors you could eat off, ha, ha.
Anyway, I got sucked into watching the whole thing, mainly to see more hangings and beheadings of the right suspects, and for the cinematography. I will give it one star for a more or less cohesive story arc, for the photography, and for showing some nice female breasts. Another star in the probably wan hope that maybe someone somewhere will thereby generate an interest in history in general and medieval times in particular. I also give it two stars because I know full well there are worse flicks and series out there, and I’m mainly referring to the Netflix offerings.
I recommend the “Rescue Me” series as highly entertaining and concur that Leary did a great job with it, and I was dismayed to see it end. I note also that Leary is among a host of Hollyweird celeb types who is anti-gun rights, and has apparently forgotten where he came from somewhat, a very rough Woostuh, MA ‘hood that OFD patrolled long, long ago.
You can’t polish a turd
Actually you can. Mythbusters was able to do so. Of course a lot depends on the type of turd you start with for the polishing process.
I didn’t see that episode. You could probably polish some coprolites, given that they’re fossilized, but good luck with the softer modern variety.
good luck with the softer modern variety
Use a food stylist’s trick: spray it with glycerin. It will make it shiny and glisten.
My deepest understanding what you and particularly Barbara and her Mom are going through (followed the link and read journal entry).
Relating well to my Dad’s final weeks, I hope Barbara and her Mom have a serious talk with the doctor about Hospice care. They can really help.
I didn’t see that episode.
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/polishing-a-turd-minimyth.htm
This board is so great! One minute it’s high-falutin’ film criticism; another minute it’s how hangings are supposed to work; yet again we’re polishing turds.
You can’t find this sort of thing just anywhere, ya know.
January Thaw in northern Vermont continues, 42 here now and supposed to hit 50 by Sunday. Then we will slide back into normal winter, I hope. We wanna get out and do some x-c skiing and learn snowshoeing. Ice fishermen were out briefly a while back on the Lake but have since wisely given it up. And Mrs. OFD due back Sunday morning from San Francisco, where it’s been in the 50s all week anyway. Next month: Orlando, Florider.
And here at the work Plantation we’re getting some new racks soon full of RHEL 6.x servers, finally, and we will be playing with Xcat to run the clusters, finally. OFD moves into the Cloud! Awesome! Not. But nevertheless sorta interesting considering how OFD started out with a PDP-11 running RSX and VAX/VMS 3.5 on a MicroVAX machine.
You know, I was just thinking back to that time that you, Mary, Barbara, and I all took that Asperger’s test and all of us ended up borderline Aspie. It doesn’t seem that any of us should have a problem communicating pretty directly. Thinking back over the last ten years, I don’t recall too many incidents of any of us failing to make our thoughts known, sometimes talking over each other.
If anything, I thought this series downplayed just how evil, venal, and close-minded typical monks were, and priors in particular. I though Godwyn was about average for what a real prior in the 14th century would have been. As to the butcher/doctor monk, that struck me as pretty realistic. No one back then knew shit about medicine or surgery, and the RCC did everything in its power to keep it that way. The really unrealistic part was the supposed medical/surgical knowledge of Mattie and Caris, which more accurately reflected 19th century medicine than 14th century. I mean, at the turn of the 20th century there were still plenty of surgeons and physicians who didn’t believe it was important to wash their hands before operating or delivering a baby.
As far as period shows go, I thought “Cadfael” was good, although I recall their teeth were too good as well, and women were more forthright. Thoughts, if you’ve seen it?
@Bob: You know this stuff, and I know it, but the audience to which the series is pitched probably does not. So they get the Cartoon History of Medieval England, where, this year the prior is evil and the prioress is Goodness and Saintliness. Forty years ago these characterizations may well have been reversed, and also forty years hence. There were no gray areas among the characters, one of its major faults. I just had to laugh; it’s the PC version of 2013.
@greg in Oz: I’ve seen a few of the Cadfael series episodes, but wasn’t enthralled, particularly; the books are better.
Actually, there ain’t much out there that is accurate but also tells a good yarn, no matter the historical period or geographical area; PC has crept in everywhere and much is dumbed down. I am trying to think of something worthwhile done on medieval England and am coming up blank.
Well, it’s late medieval England, but the best and most historically accurate series I’ve seen is the first series of Blackadder. The theme sums up the series:
The sound of hoof beats ‘cross the glade!
Good folk, lock up your son and daughter.
Beware the deadly flashing blade
unless you want to end up shorter.
Black Adder, Black Adder!
He rides a pitch black steed.
Black Adder, Black Adder!
He’s very bad indeed.
Black: his gloves of finest mole.
Black: his codpiece made of metal.
His horse is blacker than a hole;
his pot is blacker than a kettle.
Black Adder, Black Adder,
with many a cunning plan.
Black Adder, Black Adder,
you horrid little man.
Actually, the fourth series, set in WWI, is the best of the bunch. It’s one of the finest anti-war pieces ever done.
“Blackadder,” seriously? I’ve never seen any of them. Will look into it tonight after the last dismal episode of “World Without End.”
This, from the Wiki entry on its perpetrator, Mr. Ken Follett, ironically:
“…Barred from watching movies and television by his Plymouth Brethren parents…”
Wiki again:
“The Plymouth Brethren are generally dispensational, pre-tribulational, premillennial in their theology and have much in common with other conservative evangelical Christian groups.”
I also note that Mr. Follett has been an activist supporter of Tony Blair and Ed Balls over there with our English cousins, both loathsome librul cretins.
Yeah, seriously. There are four series, each of 6 episodes that run just under to just over 30 minutes. There are also various specials. Netflix streaming has all four series and I think some or all of the specials.
My pick for the best episode is the final episode of series 4, where they go over the top. But my favorite episode (S3E5) has the delightful Miss Miranda Richardson (whom you’re watching now) as Amy Harding, who’s secretly a highwaywoman. (The sound the squirrel makes every time she fires into the air is just precious.) I also like the third series generally, mainly because it presents British royalty realistically. The Prince Regent is literally a moron, if not an imbecile.
Oh, yeah. One of the reasons you’ll like Blackadder is that you know UK history. For someone who doesn’t, it’s just silly comedy. Someone who does will appreciate all the subtle comments and references.
Excellent, sir; I will look forward to it.
And of course, as a kid, and to this day, I’ve been intrigued by highwaymen and pirates, though if living back in those days I would have cheerfully hanged the lot. The last highwayman in Maffachufetts, late 18th and early 19th was a “Captain Lightfoot,” who had an associate, “Captain Thunderbolt.” Then of course there was the movie “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,” with Clint, Jeff Bridges and the great George Kennedy.
Well now, perhaps I will finish out “World…” and move on to “Blackadder” tonight, while leaving my self-scheduled scut and grunge work until tomorrow’s daylight; hey it’s Friday!
Hmmm….that’s odd; just noticed the time stamp for my post and oh dear, later than I thought; but no. It’s an hour behind.
Blackadder is amazing. Hilarious, and it darts so unpredictably between highbrow humour and slapstick.
Well alrighty then! You guys have me sold! Just let me get through this last episode of this other thing in the hopes that the right people will be chopped or hanged or burned. And maybe some more breasts.
I
Breasts? BlackAdder I definitely…
Henry Tulip?!
Don’t wanna spoil the ending of “World Without End” other than to note the total implausibility. Oh, and the guy who plays Eddy III always looks astonished, as though he’d just arrived from another planet or something. In real life he was a real piece of work, as was his son, the Black Prince.
I have Blackadder I on deck…
RBT wrote:
“You know, I was just thinking back to that time that you, Mary, Barbara, and I all took that Asperger’s test and all of us ended up borderline Aspie.”
You were only borderline Aspie?
Yeah. IIRC, the average score was something like 16 for men and 14 for women. Anything 30 or higher was strongly suggestive of Aspergers. IIRC, Barbara scored something like 24, Paul and I scored 28 or 29, and Mary was 31 or something like that. Of course, if you gave that test to a random group of scientists and engineers, they’d almost certainly get similar scores.
Ah, here’s the test:
http://www.ttgnet.com/daynotes/2010/2010-34.html#Thu
I’ve just spent a very pleasant hour reading old posts from 2010.
I got 42 today and 36 back in 2010.
Hmmm. I just retook the test and got a 38.
My first time taking that test and I scored a 30.
““We silenced British cannon fire in 1776 and we don’t want to hear it again in Central Park,” the NYPD said in a statement.”
Well, not really; their cannon fire went on for a few more years, homes.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/01/11/exclusive-loaded-revolutionary-war-era-cannon-found-in-central-park/
29 here, and can’t recall what I did back then, which also proves I’m likely not an Aspie, I guess.
Speaking of Aspies, have you guys seen “Mary and Max”? Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Max, a 44 yr old obese Aspie living in NYC, with Toni Collette playing Mary, a lonely 8 yr old girl with an alcoholic mother who decides to get a pen pal, and picks one at random from the NYC phone book at the Melbourne library. While it’s an animated movie, this is NOT a kid’s movie, but “Clay Noir”
You got 32 in 2010, so you’re mellowing Bill.
Score = 34; and I can see how it would have been a lot higher when I was younger.
Guess it points up how I could lose some office political wars before I even knew they’d been declared; but did fine when the bosses were looking for results rather than kisses or worship.
28 here. Mainly I answer “strongly disagree” to anything like enjoying chit-chat or liking social situations. Give me a couple of people to go off into the hills and play hermit with, that’s the ticket.
I suppose I would have scored higher when I was younger. I’m no longer intimidated by socializing or unexpected situations, I just don’t enjoy them. Heck, I don’t even have any particular problem with public speaking, which I once found terrifying.
Oh Lordy, OFD loathes and despises office political wars, hates them with a passion. Low-level warfare goes on where I am now but it is low-key/low-level due to being nearly all-male and IT-oriented. And our bosses are mostly remote and rarely encountered in person. When I was back in state gummint eleven-plus years ago that was all many people did all day, to the exclusion of much else. Good riddance.
Greg wrote: “You got 32 in 2010, so you’re mellowing Bill.”
I think the need to go and look up my old score is why you scored so high compared to me. I didn’t bother. 29-32 is pretty consistent, I ‘d say!
I note that greg in Oz has a very high score and getting higher, apparently. We possibly need to stage an intervention and wean him off those all-night WOW or whatever games. Also the constant web searches for images of Sandra Bullock.
Brad wrote:
“Mainly I answer “strongly disagree” to anything like enjoying chit-chat or liking social situations.”
I quite like social chit chat with friends, so long as I’m not doing something else like running for the bus. What bugs me is chit chat initiated by people I don’t know and whom I’ll probably never see again. That’s really annoying.
“Give me a couple of people to go off into the hills and play hermit with, that’s the ticket.”
Same here. But it’s a really small group of people I would pick from; it’s always taken me a lot longer to get to know someone and count them as a friend, and at this stage of my life, they have all mostly fallen away; I’m not in soldiers or cops anymore, so those guys are either gone off somewhere to their own lives or they’re dead. I had nobody like that in academia, that’s for sure; and in the IT world it’s just basically been colleagues over the years who’ve kept in touch and we try to help each other out with job-related stuff but that’s about it.
So right now, no friends, really, as we would normally understand the term. If I went off to be a hermit somewhere I could get along quite nicely with any of my three brothers, Mrs. OFD, or my stepson. That’s about it. Five people in the whole world. And if even one of them checks out before I do, I will be fucking devastated.
Oh my, I see the edit thing just popped up, first time I’ve seen it; one hour to change or fix something. I’ll probably have to fix typos left and right; hope it ain’t too cumbersome.
OFD wrote:
“I note that greg in Oz has a very high score and getting higher, apparently. We possibly need to stage an intervention and wean him off those all-night WOW or whatever games. Also the constant web searches for images of Sandra Bullock.”
/rant on
Part of my problem is that I hate my job. From 1985-1990 I would have done it for free if I didn’t need the dough. It was that good. The employer let us just do our stuff without watching over our shoulders all the time. The boss liked his job too. He had glandular fever at one stage and spent a month or more off work in the resort city of Cairns in far north Queensland. Did he spend his time on the beach sunning himself and watching the birdlife? No. He wrote a utility in Pascal and PP Compass for the office mainframe. Another time he had an idea at home on the weekend and was so keen to test it that he drove in to work on Sunday to try it out. Only 15 km each way, but it was a day off and he wasn’t being paid.
Now, as of two years ago, I’m not supposed to enter my workplace after hours. I can, but I need a security guard to open the bomb resistant security barrier, summon a lift for me, put me on a timer for all I know. And I might be asked to explain to him or my boss why I’d come in. And the work is complete shit too. A low level clerk could do a lot of it. I am so looking forward to retiring in a few months.
/rant off
I’m actually getting a lot more sleep now than just a few years ago. Since City of Heroes was shut down by NCSoft (curses be upon them) I haven’t let WoW take over. I don’t enjoy it that much and only average an hour a day, rather than 4-6 for CoH.
And I don’t scour the Web for pictures of the goddess Sandra. I just have some memories of her in Speed etched in my memory. I can’t believe she married that motorcycle mechanic jerk, and that he was unfaithful to her. Some guys are just dopes.
That’s interesting. I haven’t seen that for weeks!
And it works!
Thanks for putting it back, Bob!
Amen brother! I can hardly wait to make a mistake so I can go edit it.
Hey, I didn’t want to take it away in the first place. WordPress upgraded itself without asking me, and the new version of WP crashed with the then-latest version of the comment editor.