So my body is being distinctly uncooperative, oh you know, the usual Chronic Suckage, including but not limited to: Fibromyalgia and all its joys (heavy sarcasm), Migraines (several types, quite exciting, note more sarcasm), Titeze’s Syndrome, muscle spasms in my back, and of course, the falling and almost falling (I do my own stunts, I think I could do Tiktok videos of me trying not to fall, it sort of resembles dancing, er, maybe Elaine from “Seinfeld” dancing, but still). And yes, I’ve moved again, the joys of renting versus owning. Though this time, love moves us. We’ve moved to be closer to family. And now I’m working on finding my way around a new city…with varying degrees of success.
So in between and sometimes at the same time as packing, unpacking, repacking, calling hydro, gas (got a $797 bill, it was wrong, but with the direction Canada is taking, not completely out of the question; so a couple of small heart attacks and many communications later, more like $57. Best part? The customer service agent asked if I wanted to do auto pay…ummm, no with a definite emphasis on never no), also various other thingies as well as filling out forms online, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and watching TV.
A few highlights (some books, some shows, some movies – or a combination thereof): “Where The Crawdads Sing”: “The Cook of Castamar” (obsessed by this); “Marcella”; “Bonfire of Destiny”; “Foyle’s War”; “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart” (hmmm, I’ll rename it The Lost Hours of Donna Parker”, where does the time go?)”…
“La Revolution” (what if the French Revolution, but with zombies, hey, history has been rewritten so many times, who knows what really happened? After all, Daryl Dixon is now in Paris, hmmm); “Wednesday”; “Women at War”; “The Barrier”; “1899” (my brain is still trying to recover from that one); “Vikings: Valhalla” (I think all Vikings series should simply be titled, “Pretty People Pillaging”); “Des” (can’t get enough of David Tennant; can’t wait for his return in “Doctor Who”);
“Top Gun: Maverick”; “What We Do In the Shadows”; “Ten Percent”; “The Handmaid’s Tale”; “The Whale” (get your tissues ready, Brendan Fraser is amazing and for me, the message, damaged people damage others whether they mean to or not resonates); “Castlevania”; “Good Omens 2” (hey, adding Jon Hamm and Peter Davison, you can never go wrong); “Rick and Morty” and a bunch more (I do wish I could sleep more, I’d give up all I watch for more sleep). I’ve been watching so much international TV I think I’m learning some other languages…
I tried out the new Netflix “Lite” plan (in Canada slightly cheaper still paying a lot of tons of ads/restrictions). Pros: The price difference obvs. Cons: Ads. Enough to be annoyed that I’d still be shelling out $$$ to see ads; when I watch ads on TUBI, XUMOPlay, Filmrise, PLUTO, GEM, YOUTUBE, etc. well, they’re free so ads who cares, free. I like free. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2022/01/21/cant-buy-me-love/
I wait for sales on Netflix gift cards (and other gift cards), buy them and use them to pay, so I usually get anywhere from 10%-25% off. Another con? Lower resolution: 720p, not 1080p, but most “modern” TVs upscale and I grew up in Northern Ontario, with TVs with rabbit ears; needless to say sometimes there was more snow on our TV than on the ground!
Here’s the kicker: locked content. You’ll notice a little lock on the thumbnails for certain shows, licensing issues or some such nonsense. Some stuff locked, “Vikings”; “Murdoch Mysteries”, “The Walking Dead”; etc.
Most can be found on other streaming services for free, at your local library, and/or on a free trial, etc. but I found a deal breaker, “Waterworld” is locked, I’m sorry, there are some obstacles you can’t overcome.
So I jumped up a tier. Everything is tiered now, here a tier, there a tier, everywhere a tier, tier, streaming services need to calm down, e i e i o blah blah blah. Jeez, even Netflix is a class struggle. One price for all! Cut the crap about people sharing passwords, yes, it’s probably wrong, but your prices are way too high. Want people to subscribe without sharing, it’s not rocket science, make your prices reasonable.
I got Crave/HBO free for a month with a deal from Pizza Pizza (I crave pizza and then my chronic suckage tortures me, but then its siren song calls again, so evil). I’ve cancelled now, so I saw about 6 episodes of “The Last of Us” which I really enjoyed, so far. Pedro Pascal once again proves he can play anyone, anywhere, anyhow and supposedly he’s a fun guy (fungi?). Can’t wait until the MCU is smart enough to scoop him up. Also great in “The Mandalorian“ where he’s also escorting a “child” to safety. Hmmm. Bella Ramsey (“Game of Thrones“, hmm, who else was in GoT, oh yeah, Pascal). Maybe I’ll catch up with more later if there’s another deal or if the apocalypse is delayed…I never trusted mushrooms.
Enjoyed some of Bryan Cranston in everything and in this case, “Your Honor” (make good choices!!!). “Yellowjackets” was delicious (nudge nudge know what I mean?) but looks like I’ll miss the second serving, er season, for now.
I had Sundance Now for a free one month trial and really got my money’s worth (ba dum tss, I’ll be here all week, wow, tough crowd, are you an audience or an oil painting?). Highlight was “River” (Stellan Skarsgård, Nicola Walker, Adeel Akhtar, Lesley Manville and more make this so watchable). Ear worm alert: “I Love To Love (But My Baby Just Love to Dance)” by Tina Charles in my head, begone ear worm, forget it, I guess I’ll just have to dance, I’ll have to dance, I’ll have to dance…
Cancelled Disney+ (it came free for a year with my internet deal). Yet another streaming service whose prices keep on creeping, creeping, creeping. Again, if they want people to subscribe and subscribe without sharing, easy peasy lemon squeezy, lower your prices; it’s not that magical…
My brain and I aren’t getting along. Brain is all like, here’s some brain fog, ha ha, fight your way through that with the added stress of moving, etc. So I hung out with: Margaret Atwood. Agatha Christie, Gena Showalter, Holly Ringland, Colleen Wachob, Julia Quinn, Nicola Cornick, Anne O’Brien, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, and a few others…kinda helped.
Many days I’m just too tired to focus, or even hold my head up, so e-audiobooks and TV are ever so helpful. So the 90-day AppleTV+ subscription I got from PC Optimum is fun. Watched “Invasion”, honestly, with the state of Canada/the world I’m not sure these alien shows and movies are as scary as they used to be. Could aliens be worse than the leaders (and use the term loosely) than we have? We should give them a chance. Change we need. I’ve always wanted to believe.
Heck, the zombie apocalypse is starting to look good right about now, at least there would be a better supply of housing and it would be affordable, well, you know, once you clean the place up, board it up, and defend it. I was thinking treadmills all around the place, then the zombies could supply me with power. They are The Walking Dead…
“Silo” was ok if a bit predictable, spoilers, it takes place in a silo (shocker). “Foundation” is a little disappointing, too loosely based on the “Foundation” series of stories by Isaac Asimov; why do people think they can improve on Asimov? It’s like rewriting Roald Dahl to make it more politically correct, knock it off, grrrr.
I had to use up a movie theater gift card I was given before the pandemic (this theater chain isn’t in the city we’ve moved to) so I saw “Cocaine Bear” which was just as fantastic as the title implies. Can’t wait for some sequels, maybe “Cocaine Snakes on a Plane”, “Purple Cocaine Rain”, “Meth Giraffe”, “Cocaine Care Bears”, “Weed Woofer”, “Ecstasy Elephant”…I think the options are endless.
Then here at Galaxy Cinemas we saw “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (a-maz-zing!!!!) and “Across The Spiderverse” (soooooo good!). I couldn’t be bothered to see “Barbie” in theaters, I don’t own any pink clothes.
We’re renting in a new build so there’s construction which surprisingly is not as loud as the people who feel they should share their playlist from their cars, hint hint, I can do my own playlist, you can keep yours. And if you need to have a convo with someone at 2am, go inside the house. Oh and exciting but in a bad way, our “neighbour” got arrested about 90 days after we moved in, er, um, don’t wanna know.
But I love being closer to family. I’ve been to the beaches many times, haven’t spotted Kempenfelt Kelly yet, but I know he’s out there, I think we’ll be friends, for sure; a baseball game with my brother (go Baycats!); found some thrift stores; made myself known at the local library; fell in hearty like with our local weatherman, K.C. Colby, who makes me smile https://twitter.com/KCColbyCTV;
grown my hair into a proper bob; made perogies with the fam; tried to knit again, what can I say, knit happens; bought Taylor Swift tickets (just wanted to see if you were paying attention); ate no chocolate *bahaha, clearly untrue;
Kempenfest (it put me in bed for 3 days but sadly that’s not unusual, again, chronic suckage https://yadadarcyyada.com/2019/11/22/99-problems-and-fibromyalgia-is-all-of-them/) and look, blogging again. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/02/02/theres-no-crying-in-blogging/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/10/im-hooked-on-a-feeling/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/27/message-in-a-bottle/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/09/26/the-phantom-of-the-blogging-tips/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/16/you-cant-handle-the-blogging-truth/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2020/welcome/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2019/09/18/head-over-heels/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/11/07/can-you-feel-the-blog-love-tonight/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/06/09/to-blog-or-not-to-blog/
Amazon jumped the price on Amazon Prime again, so I cancelled. I keep trying to get away but they keep pulling me back in, with my arch nemesis, a deal.
Sigh. Being broke and obscure kinda sucks. Maybe I’ll win a lottery, or a long-long-long-long lost relative will leave me a juicy inheritance…or something even more unbelievable, the Liberal government will actually, after 1100+ days (with another 2 years to go), pass the Canada Disability Benefit. To paraphrase Queen, All we hear is government ga ga, government goo goo, disabled Canadians are just background noise to you Justin Trudeau. Hmmm, the lottery seems like better odds.
Sorry I’ve been away so long, I know I keep saying that and I do sincerely mean it each time. But I’m settled now, who knows for how long, the life of a renter is so unstable, especially these days thanks to decades and decades of poor housing policies and many other poor choices, you know, give me the country (the world?) for a few years, I’ll straighten it out.
I’m an Autumn person and being further up North so many of the leaves have already gifted us with their colourful joy…sigh, delightful. Time for hot chocolate, sweaters, “Hocus Pocus”, “Halloweentown”, Thanksgiving (Happy Thansgiving to all in Canada), apple cider, the new “Haunted Mansion” and more. I was born for the Fall, except for pumpkin spice, that I don’t get, but respect for those who do. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/09/you-may-say-im-a-dreamer/
I’m ready, Great Pumpkin, I’ve found the most sincere pumpkin patch.
This book has young people, yet the themes, feelings, fears, hopes, and
Snort (we all make that sound when we laugh sometimes, er, don’t we?) Stories, The Glowing Pigs. I fell in love with pigs reading Charlotte’s Web a zillion (true story, a zillion) times,
It’s a complex story that could be hard-to-follow, perhaps because it’s such a unique fusion of the natural and supernatural, but instead this tactile and celestially charged story has wings that fly in a metaphysical rush through love, hope, honour, action, and mostly, redemption. It was one of those, I’ll-just-read-a-little-more-maybe-a-few-more-pages-just-one-more-chapter-until-I’d-devoured-the-whole-book-and-had-to-write-this-book-review-or-my-version-thereof type things. Heart-thumping, in more ways than one. I can clearly picture The Contract as a movie, or a Netflix series (hint hint Netflix, get this before Hulu, Amazon Prime, Playstation Vue, HBO, or someone else gets it).
also, Abigail Spencer, Clayne Crawford, Linds Edwards, J.D. Evermore, J. Smith-Cameron, Nathan Darrow, Caitlin FitzGerald, Adelaide Clemens, Luke Kirby, as well as an impressive amount of Deadwood and The Walking Dead (idea for a new show, The Walking Deadwood? ) alumni. This is a compelling cautionary tale of how our carelessness with people can start chain reactions of brokenness. That despite unspeakable (but needs to be spoken of, long and loud) cruelty and injustice, you can find hope, kindness, justice, and even, redemption, sometimes in the most unlikely places. If this doesn’t fix in your mind how easily life can come undone and redone, I surely don’t know what would.
yadadarcyyada 