<yawns> o/

hi Steph!

Good morning!

Dang - obviously I'm too tired to type...

And it's past 9am already >.<

So how are you?

Any news?

Nothin

I'm watching TV, so no Dragon.

Confession: For the next two weeks I have enlisted my Mom to help out here. I polished up my CV and thanks to hubby and a few iterations am pretty content with the result.

Will be sending out lots of applications in the next few days or weeks.

Exciting! :)

And one extra perk: I get to buy new clothes... From mommy-chic to business attire. So glad I lost a few (ok, more than a few) pounds and the effects of Zumba are starting to show as well.

And shoes...

I'm really looking forward to going back to work.

nice

I envy you. Tear 'em up!

(And I'll probably back here to whine about unfair interviews and such.)

of course! We're good for that.

Completely different story:

Last night was pretty uncomfortable - with minor 1 sharing the bed with us. He's five foot now.

An idiot (aka classmate) sent a scary .gif via the classes Whatsapp group.

Wow. They grow like weeds!

My completely innocent and naive kiddo opened what looked like a baroque painting of a young girl. Which then morphed into a buned skull that jumped at the observer with a horrible shriek.

Classic scare, but gave him the fright of a lifetime, having never expected anything like that.

Results: Tears, nightmare and a long talk about how creating fear and horror effects works.

I remember my little brother making me crazy by making my mom and me leave Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Awwwww... What a pity. Which bit did he find scary? The grand finale?

It was early in the movie. He was just too young for even spoof violence not in cartoons.

I was 7 years older and not pleased.

And why would his mom take him in the first place? That's just stupid.

(I'm probably not telling you anything new here.)

hello girls

Eh, I don't remember exactly how old Kevin was. Hold on, I'll be able to tell...

@ElendilTheTall helloooooooooooo nurse.

So he was seven, I was fourteen.

@JourneymanGeek it's time for Aaaaaaaaanimaniacs

Hi @ElendilTheTall!

I probably pushed for it, and we were with Sherri, who didn't really know us.

Hi Tall, Hi Geek

hi

I just watched a trailer for a movie I never heard of. New Years Eve. It apparently came out in 2011.

ugh

the worst kind of schlock

oooh... Have you seen The Tudors?

nope

I don't watch much of that kind of thing

Vikings is good, on Amazon Prime

not unlike GoT, just no fantasy element and a bit smaller in scale

Netflix has it... Apparently a miniseries. I'm kind of burnt out right now on House of Cards.

I don't have Amazon Prime.

Right now it's Netflix or nothing.

Nope, it's not a miniseries. It has four seasons so far, and is quite highly rated.

> All the scandal of 16th century royal court comes to life in this series that follows notorious Tudor monarch, Henry VIII.

aye, I've heard of it

Showtime original

I'll check it out

Breaking Bad is another other one I've only seen little of

And Walking Dead

Breaking Bad bored the life out of me

it's widely regarded as the best thing ever

but it's so slow

I watched just enough of it to both get into it, and be bored by it.

Walking Dead varies by season

I have not watched any of that.

It gets lots of questions on SFF.

I've watched late-night talk shows all week. I think for the next three weeks, it's all going to be about poking Trump with sharp sticks hoping for another ludicrous reaction.

Really funny for Game of Thrones fans who have seen through the end of season six:

@Jolenealaska on Netflix, watch Orphan Black and Sensate

quite far removed from GoT, more of a modern take on scifi, with mystery thrown in. Both have great characters.

Can't get Orphan Black, but I have Sense8

Great reviews

never heard of it

they are not well known, because they are netflix productions, never went on TV

I wonder why you can|t get Orphan black, I thought that all of their own productions are available in all locales

It says I can get it through Netflix DVD, but not streaming.

I can get the first season of Sense8 streaming.

They are making sounds of wanting to open all content to everybody, and the producers being the bad guys who only sell rights by geography

there are no other seasons of sense8 yet

(I think)

That's what it looks like here

I'm sure they will be making more, because the story is nowhere near resolved

but it only came out last year or so

haha

you sweet summer child

that's the last reason they'd make more

I have the very very lowest tier of Netflix membership. It doesn't allow me to watch anything HD. I bet that's it, that Orphan Black is only available in HD.

@ElendilTheTall Let's word it in a different way: whoever wrote the story obviously anticipated making more episodes.

If they don't, it would be a Firefly-like phenomenon.

Hmm, I don't even remember which tier I have, but I thought it's not high.

@rumtscho no shit

again, that's the last thing determining whether they'll make more

Oh, you are right, I have the middle tier.

Mine is eight dollars per month.

The middle tier is 10/monthly. I don't even remember how I got to this one, probably subscribed for a limited time promo and forgot to place back to lower. Or maybe it happened when they restructured prices (I seem to remember only one tier when I signed up, that was very soon after they started in Germany)

I would never have realized that the lower tier means nonavailability of some material

My ISP just suddenly almost doubled both my speed and my allowable data per month, without raising the price. It is for all practical purposes unlimited now.

congratulations on that

@rumtscho it hadn't occurred to me either until this conversation, but it seems that would explain it.

@rumtscho that means I can have HBO Now for next GoT season!

Being hooked on Orphan Black as I am, I would find its presence alone worth the extra 2 Euros. But of course it is a different calculation for you, as you don't know the show yet.

@Jolenealaska ah, nice.

I am still considering getting back into the books at some point.

I gave up on the books.

I read the first two and listened to most of the third.

what made the show better for you?

@rumtscho Well first, GoT was the first version I fell in love with.

I only read the first book after seeing the first season of Game of Thrones, and while I was jonesing for season two.

Then I read the second book just ahead of the story of season two.

By that time the two stories had diverged enough that it was really kind of necessary to give up one to fully enjoy the other.

Oh, I wasn't aware of such large differences

The first season is pretty close to the first book.

I read the first 3-4 books 15 years ago, but forgot all of the content

After that, there are big differences.

I know that back then, I found it fascinating

I think if I had discovered the books way back when, I would've loved them.

but also I'm a bit afraid to try getting back into it, because I know that my taste has changed a lot in the meantime, mostly away from this type of text

If you want book advice, try the Malazan empire series

never made it into the big media, so thoroughly underappreciated

and massive

and dark

I read a lot of Heinlein back then, and I look back at it now and wonder why.

it is actually not so easy to get into, somewhat incomprehensible throughout the first book even

@rumtscho what about The Way of Kings :)

@ElendilTheTall yes, also a good one. And yes, I remember you were the one to suggest it to me :)

@Jolenealaska Hmm, Heinlein is something I can still enjoy. Although his still also varies a lot across books.

What's the name of the standalone story of the rich man who has his brain transplanted into the body of a beautiful young woman?

That was my favorite

What I used to read and cannot stand now are the likes of Diana Gabaldon.

this is going to make me sound like Donald Trump, but I don't think I've ever read a book by a female author that I've enjoyed

Also, I only read Ken Follet in the middle of the "transition" period, which was a weird experience

they focus on different things

boring things

I couldn't put down the book, I had to read it in one go, because it was so captivating

and at the same time I found it a mediocre book and didn't want to read it and waste my time on it

Pillars of the earth?

yes

I loved that book.

I was hooked on getting to know what happens next while hating the process of getting to know what happens next.

And the sequel which wasn't as well received

@rumtscho it was weird that way. So damn long, but lyrical.

@ElendilTheTall too much frou-frou, heartache or (alternatively) madness?

@Stephie pretty much

too much yap

:D

Thought so.

I've never been one for literature

But accept that some of these are the low-cal alternative to a box of chocolates on a bleak day.

I read for escapism or knowledge

Total non sequitur, but has anybody here read Memoirs of a Geisha?

not i

@ElendilTheTall well, that's a problem of having an easily bored mind

you get bored by a large number of good books

It was bizarre reading Memoirs of a Geisha realizing as I was reading that it was written by a man.

@Jolenealaska yes. In German, though.

@Jolenealaska no, I haven't. Is it worth reading?

@rumtscho it was for me at the time I read it

I'm not sure if I would enjoy it as much if I picked it up right now.

Tall mentioning that he has not really enjoyed female authors made me think of it.

I can't tell you how many times it struck me that it was shocking to me that these words were being written by a man.

I wonder if that sense translates well to German.

If not explicitly thinking about it, it easily passes as "from a female point of view". But it's been a while since I read it.

<wonders in which obscure box that book might be hidden>

It's not on my shelf, so I can't check.

In English, at least for me, the "female point of view" was a sledgehammer.

Good morning all!

Hi @Cindy!

It was a long time ago for me too. I don't have the book in front of me either, but it was very evocative of a powerful sense of using femininity towards ends.

It almost felt like the author knew things he shouldn't.

Hi @Cindy!

o/

@ElendilTheTall What's for lunch?

cous-cous, chicken

sriracha

Sounds good. I'm thinking of trying an Indian buffet today. Right across from where I'll be working and I have a $2 off coupon.

Watch day or cheese day?

Cheese day. :)

Light food here - minor one still suffering from an upset stomach.

Minor 2 is happy, I wrack my brain how to spice up my serving.

Upset tummies are no fun.

Yeah. Like when he "returned" plain pasta the other day.

0_0

But he's getting better.

@Stephie cumin is good for upset tummies

@JourneymanGeek you picked a "good" time to show up ;-)

Hm. I guess today it will be Basmati and a steamed lean fillet of Tall doesn't like it. Plus some kind of hot/spicy sauce for me.

Lol!

Not "perfect" but still yummy.

I'm off in search of an after-lunch Espresso for a bit ;-)

I have found a new (to me) fascinating blog:

scotusblog.com