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 My primary Writing.com blog. |
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Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics). Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places: Thanks for stopping by!  |
 Day 3929: On this day in 1997, Netflix was founded by American entrepreneurs Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. Originally a DVD-rental company, it later moved into streaming, content creation, and live programming. It's available in 190 countries. Do you watch Netflix in your home? If so, do you think they offer a good selection of programming? If you don't use Netflix, what streaming service do you use? I've been a Netflix subscriber since the direct-mail DVD days! And since the rise of the streaming era, I now subscribe to most of the streamers out there: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Peacock, Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Paramount+, HBO Max, YouTube Premium, Dropout TV, etc. Part of it is for work (I often have to check credits for other programs), but it's mostly because I enjoy watching all kinds of shows, and there's good stuff on every streamer. If anything, I think Netflix might offer too much programming. They seem to really churn things out, and have been accused of not really investing in their programs the same way that traditional broadcast television does. There's so much content, it's hard to keep track of it all... and Netflix is by far the highest volume distributor in town.  Day 2659: Who was born on August 29, 1915 and also died on August 29, 1982. This same person was involved in a scandal and reprimanded on the Senate floor. Can you name something their famous for besides the scandal? I'll admit that "being reprimanded on the Senate floor" is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Ingrid Bergman. She's one of the most celebrated actresses in cinema history. She has three Oscars (one of only four actresses to have won three times or more), two Emmys, a Tony, and four Golden Globes. She worked multiple times with famous directors like Alfred Hitchcock on commercially successful films. I'd be shocked if the "scandal" that got her reprimanded by the United States Senate is on many people's Top 5 list of things you'd associate with Ingrid Bergman. And boy, that reprimand was sure a sign of another time, huh? For those reading this that aren't familiar, Bergman began having an affair with her director (Roberto Rossellini) on the set of their film Stromboli, and Bergman became pregnant with their first son. That's it. And what happened in response? Senator Edwin Johnson accused the actress of "perpetuating an assault upon the institution of marriage" and called her "a powerful influence for evil." Art Buchwald was allowed to read her mail during the scandal, and recounted that she received over a dozen large mail bags full of mail from conservatives, calling her a a bitch, a dirty whore, etc. Funny how, in my research on this scandal, I don't think I read anything about Rossellini getting any kind of criticism for his role in the affair, even though he was also married (to his second wife) at the time. Incidentally, he then cheated on Bergman with the woman who would become his fourth wife.   Prompt: If you were to write a letter to a loved one in Heaven, who would receive it and what would it say? At this point, I'd probably be writing a letter to my mom, and filling her in on everything that's happened with my family over the past five years. She only had about a year (and a pandemic-curtailed year at that) with the kids while we were fostering them before she passed, and one of my biggest regrets is that she didn't have more time with them, and that they didn't have more time with her. My mom loved kids, and she spent as much time as she could with ours before her health took a turn. If there were a chance to write and know that she'd have a chance to read it, I'd probably go on and on about all the things I've experienced as a parent, and all the way I've watched my amazing kids grow up. |
Day 3928: What is your favorite ice cream dessert? While I usually prefer ice cream by itself, and can appreciate ice cream-based desserts like ice cream sandwiches or ice cream cakes or sundaes, if I were going to pick a dessert that incorporates ice cream but isn't comprised of a majority of ice cream, I think I'd have to go with a basic fresh-baked cookie/brownie topped with ice cream combo. There's just something about a warm, gooey chocolate brownie or cookie topped with cold ice cream that you have to rush to eat before it melts that's just so comforting and delicious. If I'm feeling really fancy, I might go for one of those chocolate lava cakes where you cut into it and molten chocolate flows out. Top that with some vanilla bean ice cream and drizzle it with chocolate sauce and maybe put a couple of raspberries or strawberries on top for garnish?  Great, now I'm hungry and want some ice cream...  Day 2647: "I haven't lived a perfect life. I have regrets. But that's from a lifetime of taking chances, making decisions, and trying not to be frozen. The only thing that I can do with my regrets is understand them." — Kevin Costner. Do you often regret things and what do you do about your feelings of regret, if you have any? When it comes to "regrets," I make a distinction between big regrets and small regrets. I consider big regrets to be life-defining regrets that will stay with you for years, perhaps even a lifetime. Regrets like, "I wish I would have spent more time with a loved one before they died." Or, "What if I had taken such-and-such a risk earlier on in my career?" Or, "What if I had asked out my high school crush instead of just pining over them for four years?" On the other hand, I consider small regrets to be the little day-to-day things that just happen in the course of living life. Regrets like, "I wish I had been more patient with my kids rather than yelling at them." Or, "If I could rewind time by fifteen minutes, this is what I would have said instead." Or, "I should have stopped and offered my leftovers to the homeless guy with a sign asking for food." Generally speaking, I don't have a lot of big regrets. I always wonder about the "what ifs" of life, but I'm also very content with the life I'm currently living, so I don't often look back at the things that have happened in it with a lot of regret. I mean, sure, there's the occasional, "I should have stayed at this job instead of going to this other job that didn't work out," and "OMG why didn't I buy a house when I had a chance even if it would have been a stretch?" kind of things, but I'm one of those people who sees value in the experiences we have, so I don't regret those decisions as much as just wonder what would have been different if I had taken that path instead of my own. When it comes to small regrets, I have those all the time. A thoughtless comment I regret making, or a poor choice that I wish I could go back and do differently. Nothing that I think would drastically change the course of world events or anything; just things that I regret not handling better in the course of the day. Prompt: What advice would you give to a new believer about developing their relationship with Christ? The advice I'd give to a new believer about developing their relationship with Christ is the same advice that I'd give to a nonbeliever who is interested in learning about Christ from outside the faith. Which would be to simply read the gospels in the Bible that detail Christ's time on Earth. The centerpiece of a Christian's faith should be his or her relationship with Christ, and in order to have a relationship with Christ, you have to know who he was and what he believed in. Unfortunately, I think that's something that a lot of longtime believers and established Christians need to do too, because many of lost sight of the foundational principles of the faith. Too many have prioritized the accumulation of wealth and influence, or sought the power to control others, or who have ignored the basic tenets of Christianity in pursuit of a sociopolitical outcome. Regardless of your stance on topics like abortion, immigration, religious freedom, etc., if you're not pursuing those objectives with love, compassion, forgiveness, and acts of service, then you're not pursuing them with a Christian perspective. I fear that a lot of reputational damage has been done to the Church (and by the Church!) by deviating from Christ's teachings. If someone is interested in developing their relationship with Christ, they should first read about what Christ was like and what he said. It all starts there; everything else is a distraction at best, and a mischaracterization at worst. |
Day 3924: I'm looking at the forum and the daily response is me, occasionally another blogger but primarily me. Neva and I take time to do the prompts. I'm trying to decide whether it's worth keeping the group active. We're pledged to help with a WDC Birthday celebration but after that who knows. I've asked before for your thoughts, I'm asking again. Why you aren't blogging? I am blogging, I'm just really bad about posting in forums to let people know that I've been blogging and responding to the prompts.  I'm also guilty of being pretty selective about the prompts I respond to. I keep tabs on a variety of blogging groups and will peruse the topics almost every day, but will only respond to the ones where I immediately think to myself, "Yeah, that's something I want to write about." That's been paired with a tendency to respond to a single blog prompt in more of a longform format (i.e., more than 500 words). I have been thinking about shifting to a more regular blogging habit where I push myself to respond to more prompts more regularly, albeit with shorter form answers. I'll give it a try for a couple of weeks and see if that's a better format.Day 3925: What is the most viewed movie of all time? Look no further than the groundbreaking 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, one of cinema's most famous efforts. Legendary for its famous scenes, memorable characters, oft-repeated quotes. The movie was actually a commercial bomb when it first came out - making less than a million dollars over its budget. Have you watched The Wizard of OZ? More than once? Who's your favorite character and why? I've seen The Wizard of Oz a number of times (most of them in film school where it was required viewing for more than one class!). More than the film itself, I think I enjoy all the behind the scenes stories about how they actually pulled off a production that advanced for its time, back when they didn't have visual effects and when even practical effects were in their infancy. It's a really impressive movie in that respect, even all these years later. In the original movie, I always thought the Wizard of Oz was the most interesting character. There was such an air of awe and mystery about him that I enjoyed that aspect of the original film. And then, of course, Wicked came along and gave audiences a whole new take on the characters of Glinda and the Wicked Witch. I really loved that musical, because it was such a unique take on this familiar story. Day 2645: On this day in 1977, American singer Elvis Presley, known as the “King of Rock and Roll,” died of a heart attack brought on largely by drug abuse. Were you an Elvis Fan? If so favorite song? How about a few trivia questions about Rock and Roll? Who was the first rock-and-roll superstar? What singer was inducted three times in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? What was the first rock song to become famous around the world? Which single was the last number one given by Elvis Presley in 1969? I'm not a huge Elvis Presley fan. I definitely appreciate his career and there are quite a few songs that I really like (particularly, "A Little Less Conversation," "Burning Love," "You're the Devil in Disguise," "Suspicious Minds," and "Can't Help Falling in Love with You"), but he's never one of those artists that I ever really intentionally decide to listen to songs from. If something comes on the radio, or if someone else is playing it (I have a friend who loves Elvis and listens to his music almost every day), I'll listen to it and enjoy it, but I can't remember the last time I put an Elvis song on one of my playlists. The one time in recent memory I got into a bit of an Elvis groove was when the ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits album was released in 2002, which included the JXL Radio Edit Remix of "A Little Less Conversation" which was a huge hit and popularized by it use in the 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven starring George Clooney, as well as (I think) the show Las Vegas. That was also the same year that the original animated Lilo & Stitch was released in theaters and it just seemed like Elvis was resurgent for about a year and a half. Like I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed that year and a half and still like his music; I just haven't really made a conscious effort to listen to Elvis more than here and there since. My guesses for the trivia: Q: Who was the first rock-and-roll superstar? A: I'm not even sure when rock and roll became popular... the 1950s? Ugh, my knowledge of "oldies" is admittedly not that great. I guess I'll go with either Chuck Berry or Bill Haley. Q: What singer was inducted three times in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? A: I'm assuming it's someone who was a member of multiple musical acts, so I'll guess Eric Clapton... or possibly Paul McCartney or Phil Collins. Q: What was the first rock song to become famous around the world? A: Same answer as the first question. I'll go with "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets or something by Chuck Berry (I think "Johnny B. Goode" was later... so maybe "Roll Over Beethoven"?). Q: Which single was the last number one given by Elvis Presley in 1969? A: I want to say "Suspicious Minds" but I'm not totally sure on that. Prompt: Who are your favorite Christian singers? What are your favorite Christian songs? I've been listening to a lot of Christian music over the past few years. The singers that I really like (i.e., not considering entire worship bands or someone's instrument playing or songwriting ability) that have really impressed me recently are: Taya, Jon Reddick, Ryan Ellis, Elyssa Smith, Tauren Wells, and Brooke Ligertwood. There are so many artists I really enjoy, but I think the vocal/singing ability of those six are phenomenal. I can't think of a bad song that any of them have done. In terms of favorite songs, that's something that changes from season to season. At the moment, my favorite songs to listen to are: "The Father's House" by Cory Asbury "Goodbye Yesteday" by Elevation Rhythm "Loved By You" by Riley Clemmons "Move Your Heart" by Maverick City Music "Open" by LO Worship "Sinking Deep" by Hillsong Young & Free "Time and Time Again" by Bethel Music & Josh Baldwin |
Prompt for Day 2639: Bored? “I’m never bored anywhere; being bored is an insult to oneself.” — Jules Renard. Do you feel bored sometimes? What bores you? Like anyone else, boredom is a thing that happens to me occasionally. Sometimes there are moments when I'm not particularly motived to do anything and find myself succumbing to boredom, but not all that often. As long as I have certain amenities — internet, someone to have a conversation with, something to read, etc. — I can keep myself occupied for long stretches of time. There are almost always several projects that I'm fiddling around with, things that I want to research or learn about, and random activities or interests that I'm eager to look into. There literally are not enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to do, so I don't often find myself bored when I have time to kill; that's just time I can be using to check off one of the many things on my to-do list! The things that do bore me are situations where I'm not particularly engaged or interested in what's going on, but can't (or shouldn't) pass the time by focusing on other interests. I often find myself bored at social functions, in meetings, during school events, etc., especially if those things are slow-moving. The bane of my existence is corporate nonsense like town halls or training modules. A lot of that stuff is just so predictable and goes so slow I find myself easily prone to boredom in those situations. It's one of the reasons why I actually really like remote work; it's so much easier to pass the time and keep myself engaged in other interests when I can have a corporate all-hands Zoom meeting up on one screen, and a couple of websites up on another. |
| To qualify for my Watch List every month, the following has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, but it can't be reruns or rewatches of something I've already seen. So if I'm including it in this list, it means this month is the first time I've watched it. I'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish. Movies  Deep Cover Eddington The Fantastic Four: First Steps Fountain of Youth G20 Heads of State Sinners SupermanLet's get the bad out of the way first: G20, Fountain of Youth, and Deep Cover were all pretty forgettable streaming titles that were fine to watch but didn't really impress all that much. Of all the streaming titles, Heads of State was probably my favorite and while not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, re-teamed John Cena with Idris Elba. Their not-so-friendly competition was the best part of 2021's The Suicide Squad, and they picked up right where they left off, this time as a President of the United States and British Prime Minister that detest one another. There was a solid amount of comedy and the action was well choreographed, which helped offset the fact that there wasn't much character development or a sophisticated plot. It was a fun way to spend two-hours if you don't think about it too much. The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Superman were both pretty good. I'm partial to the first, for obvious reasons, and I'm glad to see it doing pretty well. This one was really, really challenging to make (owing to a lot of last-minute decisions and changes), so it's always nice when something you worked really hard on is well received, as opposed to working hard on something only for it to bomb. Superman was probably the best movie out of DC Studios in a long time, but I think it kind of highlights the limits of James Gunn as a filmmaker. I think he has a high floor and a low ceiling as a director (i.e., rarely makes a truly bad movie, but doesn't have many really great ones either), and I think he sacrificed his greatest asset (his sense of humor) trying to make a more "serious" movie this time around. I think it's definitely a step in the right direction for DC Studios (it'd be hard not to improve over the more recent offerings), and I'll be curious to see how the rest of the franchise unfolds. Supergirl should be fun next summer. My highs and lows of the month were Sinners and Eddington, respectively. I thought Sinners was a really creative, fun take on vampires from Ryan Coogler who continues to impress as a filmmaker with a unique point of view, and the soundtrack was incredible. I've been listening to it a lot on its own even after finishing the movie. The performances were all great (especially Michael B. Jordan, who plays dual roles as twins), and the ending with the time jump really made the film. I'm not normally a horror movie guy other than on Halloween, but I really thought this one was great. Eddington, on the other hand, felt like a complete mess. I went to see it without knowing a whole lot about it other than that Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal play a small New Mexico town sheriff and mayor, respectively, at the height of the COVID-19, and compete against one another in the mayor's race over differing views of how to handle the pandemic (Pascal's mayor being in favor of mask mandates and other safety measures, while Phoenix's sheriff thinks the whole thing is overblown). Honestly, the first half of the film was really compelling and did a great job of capturing what a bizarre time that was in all of our lives. But the second half went completely off the rails when... spoiler alert... Joaquin Phoenix gets COVID and is humiliated to the point where snaps he kills Pedro Pascal's character (and his teenage son). And his wife joins a cult. And Antifa militants associated with the corporate interests trying to break ground on a new AI data center in town are dispatched to blow up the sheriff's deputies and run through town shooting everything up. There was literally a point during the movie where I leaned over to the friend I was watching the movie with and whispered, "Is this whole thing going to be a dream? Like, Joaquin is going to wake up on a ventilator or something and we're going to realize this is all a COVID hallucination?" But nope, that's actually how the story of the movie played out. It was so absurdist and divorced from the hard-hitting realism of the first hour that I found it jarring and completely bizarre. And maybe that was the point, but if that's the case, it wasn't a good choice for the film, in my opinion.Television Ballard (Season 1) Blindspot (Season 1) — DNF Dept Q (Season 1) Hightown (Season 1) — DNF Poker Face (Season 2) Slow Horses (Season 1) — DNFLots of DNF television this month. Blindspot definitely felt like a show from the 2010s where it has a great premise that probably would have been better as a movie because they just seemed to be dragging it out episode after episode. The actual episodic stories in the show weren't particularly interesting, and after watching a half-dozen episodes and seeing how many seasons of this show they made, it seemed pretty clear it was going to be a "let's see how long we can string this out" situation and I figured I would just read the Wikipedia plot summary rather than sit through another 100 hours of programming. The other two DNFs this month were Hightown and Slow Horses, neither of which were bad; they just weren't very compelling either. Hightown was sort of interesting (and very clearly a show where Monica Raymund was looking to do something more risque after more than a decade on a network procedural) but the characters and the storyline just didn't really grab me. And Slow Horses was good — maybe I'll even go back and finish it at some point because I like the concept of a bunch of spy agency rejects working a case — but the show was aptly named because "slow" is exactly the word to describe it. After three episodes, it seemed like the story was only just getting started with the main plot. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a slow-burn show, and this month I just wasn't. Dept Q was okay; it feels like they've remade this book series from Jussi Adler-Olsen, but every single time they start with the same book: The Keeper of Lost Causes. I haven't read any of the other books in the series, but it makes me wonder if they're any good because this is the same specific book they keep using every time they reboot the franchise. I guess we'll see what happens if they get a Season 2, now that they've used their most popular and prominent storyline for Season 1. The second season of Poker Face was a real miss, in my opinion. Twelve episodes and only two or three of them were interesting or even connected to the main narrative. The rest seemed like one-offs where a bunch of famous guest stars would show up for an episode completely unrelated to the main story. It's really a shame because the first season of this show was excellent, and it seemed like they were really coasting for this one, relying on the charm of Natasha Lyonne (who I don't find that charming) and the appeal of the sheer number of stars who would show up in episodes. If they make another season, I really hope they put as much effort into the story as they do the casting. Ballard was easily my favorite show of the month. What can I say? I'm a sucker for Michael Connelly's characters and the world he's created. This is the second spinoff of Bosch, and I'm kind of fascinated by the idea of having a world of shows that run for a handful of seasons before a "new" show starts, spinning off with a different character and main cast, while still bringing others back in for cameos from time to time. It doesn't hurt that Michael Connelly has a lot of books with great plots, so this seems like a franchise that will continue for some time. Probably three or four seasons of Ballard, and then maybe they'll spin it off with a Ballard: Legacy show, or move on to one of Connelly's other protagonists like Terry McCaleb, Rachel Walling, or Cassie Black. I'd love to see the last of those; Void Moon was one of the first Connelly books I read and still one of my favorites. TOP PICK: Sinners |
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