lunabee34

1. Warnock has been elected our Senator! What a victory, and I'm very happy to have been part of it.

2. I have finished grading, turned in grades, and put the semester to bed. I also had a book review to turn in at the same time, so I was writing that simultaneously with grading (which was actually kinda nice; just as soon as I got disgusted with grading, I could switch gears to writing). I got the review finished and got good feedback from the editor and started making headway on my classes for the spring semester. I think I am now going to do nothing for a few days. LOL

3. Josh and I watched Everything Everwhere All at Once, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I have not watched many TV shows or movies since the pandemic, even ones I am interested in watching, so when I tell you that this is must-see, the praise is high. This movie really touched me emotionally. I spent the last third of it in tears. The acting is so good. The writing is so good. The message is so good. ( brief spoilers )

4. My endocrinologist has upped my thyroid meds, so crossing my fingers that will make a difference in my energy levels.

5. The Victorian Popular Fiction Association's Third Sex Reading Group read Night Brother this month, and it was a very interesting read. I enjoyed the book when I was reading it, but certain aspects of the novel fall apart on close analysis. None of us in the reading group could quite decide what Garland is trying to say about gender/sexuality.

The Night Brother by Rosie Garland

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really enjoyed this. It's such an intriguing premise--that Edie and Gnome share one body and fluidly shift from male to female. Add in the Edwardian setting, and I'm hooked.



View all my reviews

( spoilers )

Highly recommend.

I feel like a bajillion things have happened since my last update.

1. We had an internet outage last week; there was some kind of major accident, and a utility pole came down. Naturally, this happened two days before summer classes started, and Josh wasn't finished putting his class online. He was given permission to go on campus and work, but it was so stressful. The internet was only out for a day, and I am so grateful to the workers who got it back up; it finally came back on at 10:30 that night which means they were out there working in the dark and the rain to fix it. Such a sobering realization how dependent our livelihood is on our internet working right now, though.

2. We got the utilities to come out and mark so we can know where they are for digging and planting purposes; still waiting on the water. They were supposed to come out by the 26th and didn't; we essentially know where that line is, but still. We also had the septic tank emptied today; the guy also replaced the filter, and it was less expensive than I thought it would be. Glad to have those things checked off the list.

3. My birthday is coming up, and I already got my first present! A friend sent me a bulletin board I had on my Amazon wish list, and I'm just waiting for Josh's next grocery run (command strips) to put it up over the second desk in the study. I'm excited about having a place to display the kids' artwork and awards. Josh ordered me some pretty pushpins for it, and I'm getting myself a perfume sample present from Surrender to Chance: Lavender Sampler (Caldey Island, Serge Lutens Gris Clair, Jo Malone Amber and Lavender), Tom Ford Grey Vetiver, Jo Malone Wood Sage and Salt, Byredo Black Saffron, and Comme de Garcons Radish x Vetiver.

4. We finished the animated Trollhunters of Arcadia series. I highly recommend it. It is a deeply satisfying show. At the end they dedicate the show to Anton Yelchin. He was such a good actor; I'm so sad that we lost him so long before his time.

5. Fiona is probably going to do gifted testing at some point this summer, and I'm glad. She was supposed to do it in April, but the school closures disrupted that. I have been wondering how/when they were going to do the testing, especially since the gifted students are all enrolled in the same class(es). They're going to test a limited number at a time, and do the deep cleaning between tests, etc.

6. Josh and I have been rewatching the Alien franchise with Emma who's watching it for the first time and is really digging it. Man, I love these movies (we just finished #2). First off, they still look fantastic, especially that first movie, and I think it's because the set is real and not CGI. They feel incredibly modern and not like they were made forty years ago. Second, I absolutely love that Ripley is not objectified. I mean, for about five minutes at the end of the first one, she's in a tank top and the absolute most ridiculous pair of underwear of all time (seriously, what is up with that underwear? it's nuts; it's barely hanging on to her body); she's also in a tank top and much better pair of undies for about five minutes at the end of the second one. But for the majority of both movies, she's fully clothed in like a mechanic's outfit; she's not wearing a lycra superhero costume with a boob window or a short skirt. She's dressed like a crew member on a spaceship. Mostly, the unclothed bodies we see in the movies are male. That is very refreshing. I know that the third one has the attempted rape scene, and I don't remember enough about the fourth one to comment on how that works there, but the first two movies at least do not treat her like a sexual object.

her name isn't John.

( spoilers for Dark Fate )

Expectations exceeded, my friends. Go see this movie in the theaters! Give it money! I want the world to see that an action movie starring a grandmother (and a grandfather!) is just as badass as something starring younger protagonists and can be just as successful.

*loves*

We've been watching the Terminator movies, and we finished T3 and T4. ( spoilers )

1. We watched Hotel Artemis which I enjoyed. I am firmly convinced that it takes place in the same world as John Wick and am very disappoint there are no fics for the show at all on AO3. It's got a great cast (really nice to see Jenny Slate playing a serious character). I especially appreciate Jodi Foster's physical acting in this; she has a way of walking and moving that communicates Older Woman Whose Feet Really Hurt that works well for the character.

2. We watched the first episode of Carnival Row last night and enjoyed it. I see it's gotten poor reviews, but I don't get why based on the first episode.

Legolas has gotten hotter with age IMHO. He looks really, really good.

( spoilers )

Really looking forward to more of this.

3. Inside Jokes by misbegotten
Big Bang Theory
Penny/Sheldon
Ficlet which employs "Soft Kitty" to delightful effect. :)

4. archersangel sent me a couple of Trek memes that look like fun, so I think I'm going to start doing a mixture of Trek shitpollsting based on those memes and meta posts about Trek. Stay tuned!

1. We saw Solo. I was extremely skeptical but ended up very pleasantly surprised by how good the movie is. ( SPOILERS )

2. Emma and I watched The Hitman's Bodyguard last night. So much fun, y'all. It's like an AU Fury and AU Deadpool go on a road trip. It's really violent but very, very funny. If you like Deadpool, you'll like this one.

3. watch them rolling back by napricot; Infinity Wars Spoilers; Bucky/Steve

“The journey to reach Thanos will take some time. We will spend that time getting in touch with our feelings and loving each other and our beloved lost comrades. We will share and communicate! We will build a bifrost of love and thus reach our beloved dead even across the voids between planes! In this way, we will make sure they remain connected to us.”

“Gross,” mutters Nebula.

“And then! We will murder Thanos with our bare hands!! Is that understood?!” finishes Thor, roaring by now, a bright, crazed grin fixed on his face. Sparks of lightning are crackling off of him. Steve inches his chair back from him, just in case.

We've been watching bad movies! The Great Wall was surprisingly entertaining and visually stunning. Kong: Skull Island fits that same bill and had the bonus effect of finally allowing me to find Hiddleston attractive. Loki just does not do it for me at all, but wash that hair and shave it off and Aragorn him up with some scruff? Yes, please. Also surprising is how little I enjoyed the Guy Ritchie King Arthur movie. I think I had too high expectations, but it just fell flat for me. It had all the cinematography hallmarks of a Ritchie film but very little of the humor. I think if it had been funny, I'd have been all over it.

What have you watched over the Christmas holidays?

The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I'm really digging this series. Watching Apollo develop a mortal perspective and feel shame for his past misdeeds as well as the ability to truly be a friend and put someone else's welfare before his own is really satisfying. I love that we're meeting new characters while checking in with some beloved characters from last series.

I am so glad that Riordan has gone all in on depicting queer characters in his latest books. Apollo is very upfront about having relationships with men and women and a lesbian couple feature prominently in this book. It means a lot to me that Emma can pick up a series of books intended for her demographic and find people in it she can relate to. She's mentioned more than once how comforting she finds that.

I'm wondering if at the end of this thing, Apollo is going to decide to stay mortal, at least for awhile. IDK, but I just have a hunch that he might.



View all my reviews

1. Watching movies with Fiona is really funny. She's got the attention span to sit through Charlotte's Web or Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast, but something like Ratatouille has too much talking in it and she loses interest before the end.

We've been trying to get her to watch new movies (on the weekend, we go to the playground and watch movies) because she always wants to watch either Spongebob SquarePants Movie or what she calls Willburd (Charlotte's Web). So this past weekend, we watched Lilo and Stitch, which I'd never seen before. OMG, why did nobody tell me how hard this movie was going to tap dance on my emotions? Emma and I sat there with tears streaming down our faces pretty much the whole movie. It was so good and so sweet, and I felt so badly for how hard Nani was trying and still failing to meet the appropriate standards for keeping Lilo with her. AND THEN EMMA AND I BOTH JUMPED TO THE SPECTER OF EMMA HAVING TO TAKE CARE OF HER BABY SISTER AND THEN WE ALL CRIED SOME MORE AND FIONA THOUGHT WE WERE STUPID.

2. Josh and I watched Storks, which turned out to be awesome. Highly recommended. We just had the TV on in the background and then got sucked in because it was so cute and funny.

3. We saw Wonder Woman today and really liked it. ( SPOILERS )

1. First an update on Josh. He's had another attack this week; he couldn't work yesterday or today. The gastroenterologist couldn't move up his appointment, so he'll be going tomorrow. I'm starting to get really worried that something is seriously wrong. I'm also concerned about how he's going to manage work until the doctors can figure out what's wrong with him and address that. We all know how long that process can take. :(

2. I thought the last episode of Lucifer was completely fantastic. ( SPOILERS )

3. Gotham remains a delight, and I can't wait until it comes back. Baby!Bruce is legit the best Batman of all time. I love watching him develop his Batman ethos. ( SPOILERS )

4. Finally, we watched Batman Versus Superman last night, and I will say this outside the cut so that you know what you're getting into ahead of time: this was a good movie. Like surprisingly, really good. ( SPOILERS )

I didn't expect to like this so well. I think it even makes me like the Superman movie, which I already liked just fine, even more because it deals with the fallout from the events in that movie.