October 2021 Update: BusyBusyBusy
Nov. 11th, 2021 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kylaraingressThe time got away from me, as you'll read about in November's update. Part if it was the last week of October was wrapped up with a work conference and my first press red carpet in over two years, so.... More under the cut.
Personal:
Early October was Kate's birthday. I got her a Lego bonsai tree, as she notoriously killed the one live one we tried to have back in Kansas City. She had to work that day, but the next week we had a couple of adventures to celebrate. First, I took her to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I had gone there when I came to Long Beach for a work conference back in 2008, and wanted to take her ever since. We loved it, although in the gift shop, we were asked if we were there for Seniors Day, so... The next day, we went to the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit. It was gorgeous, and I took lots of photos that will be added to my Flickr soon (you can see some of the photos on my Instagram, but not all of them).
On health news, not much new to report, thankfully. The only major appointment was getting Neko to the dentist. She's definitely not a fan of going to the vet, and we have medication we have to give her prior to any appointment that helps calm her down. Despite that, she has officially been declared "feisty" – which, you know, only made us proud.
Also not much to report on the work front. My job is still doing okay: as mentioned, I had a work conference in Huntington Beach the last week/weekend of October I had to attend, which was uncomfortable to say the least. But I got to bond with one of the other staff members and she and I are friends now.
On the 'non-paid' side of work, I continued to have issues with both my websites (my personal as well as the one for Geeky Los Angeles) that was just an ouroboros of tech issues from both my webhost and the company in charge of my security. I finally got it fixed, just in time
I was invited to be on the red carpet for this year's Writers and Illustrators of the Future Awards. I've covered them in the past, and of course they got cancelled last year due to the pandemic. Because I typically do them in podcast form, this prompted me to finally edit an interview I did with Jody Lynn Nye in 2000 for my podcast, and will be posting another about this year's hopefully soon.
Finally, I ended up cancelling our Netflix subscription due to the whole Dave Chapelle debacle, and decided to use the money to get HBO Max instead. Our first thing watched? The 2021 Mortal Kombat.
Media I've Been Consuming:
On the gaming front, I purchased the mobile version of the Oatmeal's Exploding Kittens game. It's fun, and I may have to buy the actual card game version some time.
I also got ready for the Animal Crossing: New Horizons update (feel free to comment if you want my friend code).
Outside of reading slash on AO3, I actually read some printed slash as I finally got around to reading The Queer Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from Carnation Press. I highly enjoyed it.
I finally finished Orphan Black, and am still contemplating what I think of it. I mean, Tatiana Maslany is excellent in it, playing all these clones like they are separate characters, but the theme and plot of the last few seasons had me a little grumbly.
We also binged Midnight Mass. I am now officially a fan of Rahul Kohli, as Owen was my favorite character in The Haunting of Bly Manor and he was great in this. I was mostly whelmed by the show as a whole, but it wasn't bad.
Other TV included the second half of Leverage: Redemption, which had its good side (LeVar Burton – making a Star Trek joke!) as well as its bad (I was really hoping they'd just 'go' with the idea of Elliot, Hardison, and Parker being a threesome as was hinted in the season finale).
We also binged the second season of The Baby-Sitter's Club, which continues to delight me despite that the only reason I got into it was because of Marc Evan Jackson.
Kate was super excited about the special Muppets Haunted Mansion, and was happy with all the in-jokes to the ride it had.
On the movie front, we caught Venom 2 in theatres (my one sentence review: "we don't need no stinking metaphor"). At home, we finally got around to Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher's special from 2010 based on her book. I highly recommend it.
Melissa McCarthy also continues to grow on me like a fungus as I watched her and Chris O'Dowd (stealing the movie, honestly) in The Starling. It's not a happy movie by any means, but is a great portrayal of grief and mental health issues around it.
My love of Michael Sheen had me give Dolittle a try, and I actually ... sort of enjoyed it? Outside of whatever that accent RDJ is doing, I found it a fun little romp, and Sheen obviously enjoyed playing The Bad Guy (tm).
Finally, I decided to splurge and rent a theatre to do a private screening for Dune, Part 1. I ended up using the event as an unofficial first event for Geeky Los Angeles, and invited friends (you were required to be vaccinated to attend): charging whatever they felt they could afford, with a suggested fee of $10. The movie itself was fun: I enjoyed it. It was also – for the most part – a fun event.
And that's October. We're already halfway through November, almost, and I've had some adventures that will be a part of next month's update. In the meantime, hope you're all going well!
Personal:
Early October was Kate's birthday. I got her a Lego bonsai tree, as she notoriously killed the one live one we tried to have back in Kansas City. She had to work that day, but the next week we had a couple of adventures to celebrate. First, I took her to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I had gone there when I came to Long Beach for a work conference back in 2008, and wanted to take her ever since. We loved it, although in the gift shop, we were asked if we were there for Seniors Day, so... The next day, we went to the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit. It was gorgeous, and I took lots of photos that will be added to my Flickr soon (you can see some of the photos on my Instagram, but not all of them).
On health news, not much new to report, thankfully. The only major appointment was getting Neko to the dentist. She's definitely not a fan of going to the vet, and we have medication we have to give her prior to any appointment that helps calm her down. Despite that, she has officially been declared "feisty" – which, you know, only made us proud.
Also not much to report on the work front. My job is still doing okay: as mentioned, I had a work conference in Huntington Beach the last week/weekend of October I had to attend, which was uncomfortable to say the least. But I got to bond with one of the other staff members and she and I are friends now.
On the 'non-paid' side of work, I continued to have issues with both my websites (my personal as well as the one for Geeky Los Angeles) that was just an ouroboros of tech issues from both my webhost and the company in charge of my security. I finally got it fixed, just in time
I was invited to be on the red carpet for this year's Writers and Illustrators of the Future Awards. I've covered them in the past, and of course they got cancelled last year due to the pandemic. Because I typically do them in podcast form, this prompted me to finally edit an interview I did with Jody Lynn Nye in 2000 for my podcast, and will be posting another about this year's hopefully soon.
Finally, I ended up cancelling our Netflix subscription due to the whole Dave Chapelle debacle, and decided to use the money to get HBO Max instead. Our first thing watched? The 2021 Mortal Kombat.
Media I've Been Consuming:
On the gaming front, I purchased the mobile version of the Oatmeal's Exploding Kittens game. It's fun, and I may have to buy the actual card game version some time.
I also got ready for the Animal Crossing: New Horizons update (feel free to comment if you want my friend code).
Outside of reading slash on AO3, I actually read some printed slash as I finally got around to reading The Queer Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from Carnation Press. I highly enjoyed it.
I finally finished Orphan Black, and am still contemplating what I think of it. I mean, Tatiana Maslany is excellent in it, playing all these clones like they are separate characters, but the theme and plot of the last few seasons had me a little grumbly.
We also binged Midnight Mass. I am now officially a fan of Rahul Kohli, as Owen was my favorite character in The Haunting of Bly Manor and he was great in this. I was mostly whelmed by the show as a whole, but it wasn't bad.
Other TV included the second half of Leverage: Redemption, which had its good side (LeVar Burton – making a Star Trek joke!) as well as its bad (I was really hoping they'd just 'go' with the idea of Elliot, Hardison, and Parker being a threesome as was hinted in the season finale).
We also binged the second season of The Baby-Sitter's Club, which continues to delight me despite that the only reason I got into it was because of Marc Evan Jackson.
Kate was super excited about the special Muppets Haunted Mansion, and was happy with all the in-jokes to the ride it had.
On the movie front, we caught Venom 2 in theatres (my one sentence review: "we don't need no stinking metaphor"). At home, we finally got around to Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher's special from 2010 based on her book. I highly recommend it.
Melissa McCarthy also continues to grow on me like a fungus as I watched her and Chris O'Dowd (stealing the movie, honestly) in The Starling. It's not a happy movie by any means, but is a great portrayal of grief and mental health issues around it.
My love of Michael Sheen had me give Dolittle a try, and I actually ... sort of enjoyed it? Outside of whatever that accent RDJ is doing, I found it a fun little romp, and Sheen obviously enjoyed playing The Bad Guy (tm).
Finally, I decided to splurge and rent a theatre to do a private screening for Dune, Part 1. I ended up using the event as an unofficial first event for Geeky Los Angeles, and invited friends (you were required to be vaccinated to attend): charging whatever they felt they could afford, with a suggested fee of $10. The movie itself was fun: I enjoyed it. It was also – for the most part – a fun event.
And that's October. We're already halfway through November, almost, and I've had some adventures that will be a part of next month's update. In the meantime, hope you're all going well!
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no subject
Date: 2021-11-12 06:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-13 06:53 pm (UTC)Additionally, red carpets are a slog for me. It's more about networking than actually writing up anything, and as such it drains me.
But yeah - when the pandemic started, my desire to write and do my podcast went out the window. Thankfully, over the past few weeks, for some reason I've started seeing my energy and interest returning. So...
BTW: on my list of things to do is go over your website per your entry. Hope to do that this upcoming week.
Thanks!