Blog 7/2 - 7/7

Ugh.  I spent quite a while blogging at the library, and once again, when I opened my blog file . . . it was empty.  I cannot get my head around that.  I mean, gmail fudgin' saves every ten seconds or so (maybe more often than that), so it should've had at least SOME of what I wrote today, even if it didn't catch the last bit before I logged off their computer.

I'm pissed enough to just publish this week's blog in the half-assest way imaginable.  But then I'll come in and paste in something for the days where I later emailed myself a note.

7/2
Writing or Exercise: Writing

7/3

I didn't mention this, but at one point, Marshal commented that my Cousin Ryan and I were always calling each other "Chima."  He referred to it as some Spanish word, but I didn't know what he was talking about.  Except that we do do it all the time.  "Chima" was the name of a Lego subline from a decade or more back, and I thought the word was delightfully ugly (and it my mind, it's crazily similar to "chalupa," even though it isn't really).  So I started calling him "Chima," and he started calling it back to me.  And when we were watching "Orphan Black," there was a character called Cossima, and my cousin started calling me that for a while.

So, things can always be worse.

Writing or Exercise: Exercise

7/4

Lots of fireworks tonight, which I was going to use as an excuse to not record anything, maybe go for a run instead.  But around midnight, the explosions died down, and I sat down and recorded Chapter 6 of "But Now I'm Found."  To my horror, it took one hour and twenty-one minutes . . . the longest I've ever spent on a chapter.

Even so, it was progress, and any amount of progress is good.

Writing or Exercise: Writing

7/5

Because Jeff is in town this week and next week has a family reunion, I've decided to forgo the cabin this week, and spend Wednesday and Thursday with him.  I imagine that one day one (or both) of us will be dead, so it's best to get in the visit while we can.

I spent a good chunk of my visit to the library tonight catching up on my blog over the last few days.*  I also, out of curiosity, did a word count on my story "The Washer Whispers," which was just over 5400 words.  It's only a third of the way through, I said at the time, but I'm cool with that, and looking forward to find out where it's going.  Well, that's still true, but any setback has the capacity to discourage me, and that's a pretty big character flaw of mine.

Not the biggest, I'm sure, but pretty big.

Writing or Exercise: Writing

7/6

Jeff had saved an obscure Eighties Slasher movie called DEADLY GAMES (1982) for us to watch.  But wow, it was really bad.  Worse than pretty much any movie the two of us have watched together in the five years he's been moved away (it starred Steve Railsback, who I've never liked, even in good films).  Because I'm upset to have lost all of last week's blog posts, I don't imagine I'll say much about this, but I think Jeff felt bad because the pick was his, and he had such high hopes for it.**

Afterward, he offered to buy us a bag of chips, and let me pick the movie we'd watch.  I said, "Well, I've always wanted to see TRAIN TO BUSAN, but was scared off by the subtitles."  

So we checked to see if it was available, and sure enough, there were three versions: English Dub, Korean Subtitle, and Spanish Dub.  We started with the English dubbed version, just because you didn't know which version you were watching until people started talking, and Jeff turned it off after about six seconds, claiming the dubbed dialogue was the worst he'd ever heard (I, however, thought it was just fine.  Heck, I might watch that version by myself sometime, just to see how it feels).  So we watched it all from the subtitled version, and aside from me not knowing any of the characters' names, it was a wholly pleasant experience.

Writing or Exercise: Writing

7/7

Jeff had gone to the library (if I know him, he had been there, outside the door, when it opened in the morning) and got an Italian Slasher movie for us to watch, probably to make up for yesterday's turd.  It was a forgotten Mario Bava flick called FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON (1970), and was absolutely terrible.  

In many ways, it was similar to DEADLY GAMES in that the filmmakers seemed to be shooting random scenes that connected to nothing, and then cutting them together in post.  But it was Italian-made, and that gave it a bit of charm, and it had Edwige Fenech in it, who we watched last year in Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (and also starred in the slightly-less-well-titled Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975).

We were able to watch the season finale of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," and wouldn't you know, they managed one more excellent episode.  By my count, that's ten for ten.  I may spend the rest of my life wondering how they could pull that off (which, of course, leaves me open to disappointment the second they put out a mediocre one).  Still, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.  Just like "Mandalorian" rekindled some fans' faith in the Star Wars franchise again, I'm so thrilled with the ten episodes of 2022 Star Trek we got, that I'll try my best not to criticize "Discovery" for the next little while.

Writing or Exercise: Writing

*Sure seems stupid now, in retrospect.

**In his defense, he had watched the trailer last year and sent me a link, asking if I wanted to check it out, and yeah, the trailer was one of those Good Parts Only edits that made me vote Aye.