[best of 2014]

Movies

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Theory Of Everything

TV

Hannibal(obviously!)

True Detective

Selfie

Fargo

The Knick

Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce

Books(My top 5)

The Poisoned Pilgrim, Oliver Potzsch

Any of the Tim Dorsey books I read(they're set in Florida-imagine of Carl Hiaasen and Hunter S. Thompson had a baby..that'd be the Tim Dorsey books.)

Garlic and Sapphires,Ruth Reichl

The Midnight Queen, Sylvia Izzo Hunter

A Tale For The Time Being, Ruth Ozeki

[armageddon it?]

I watched the first part of Revelation:End Of Days on the History channel. History Channel..who aren't sure what they want to be or what they're going for with this.

Before I go on,I think it's probably a good idea to state two things:If you have absolute  opinions about religion, quit reading.

Secondly,I was raised in a church that doesn't really go for the fire and brimstone stuff so much except for a few times a year,though I did get the heaven and hell stuff in CCD.

So I always view anything having to do with "The Rapture" and "End Of Days" with a bit of skepticism. That being said, I have read a few of the Left Behind books.. meh.In the later books in the series they get into some questionable theology.

You start to get into questions of "Is the Bible literal?" or are the things in there metaphors or something else?

One thing that I like is that they are honest about the fact that they use clips from YouTube  at the start of it when they're hearing the noises. However, I could do without all of the shaky cam.Not only are they trying to present this is as a "End of the world" scenario-but it's not believable-as a matter of fact, I think that it veers into bad horror movie-ville-there were a lot of horror movie homages-I quit  counting after a certain point-there was one scene I was almost positive was a shout-out to The Road.

The smartest people are the ones you want to root for(and are unlikely)-the prepper fristance.He's the one the cops think has kidnapped the kids(which turns out not to be the case-more about that in a minute!)The cop doesn't believe the prepper at first but by the end of the first episode he's a believer.Literally. And you can tell(and it's hinted at in the previews for tonight's episode) that it's going to be "us against them"-the believers and the non-believers.

It's rather convenient that one of the groups is is Israel when the shit hits the fan.

The cop(who is the father of one of the missing kids,later to be revealed to be raptured, is slow to believe but by the end of the first episode he believes.

There's a second wave of raptures(not sure that that's biblical..I think that the British scholar cited a bible verse;can't remember which one it is r/n.)

Strangely, when the second wave of raptures happens as they're trying to get the hell out of Dodge Jerusalem, their driver is raptured which is kinda random.

Got a pretty good sense of who is going to come out of this alive(though I saw at least one of the deaths coming a mile off.)

[weekend report,December 26th-28th]

Friday: I hung out at Barnes &Noble and spent one of the gift cards that I got.Then we went to a holiday party at friends of my parents-they have a condo that is literally thisclose to the beach.

Saturday:Just had an easy day and later on we picked my aunt up at the airport.

Sunday:My mom, dad, aunt and I had breakfast at one of my favourite places in Oceanside(Beach Break), and more relaxing, which I needed(this holiday season has been a lot more hectic than usual)

[five things]

*I am kinda glad the holidays are over.. things were.. hectic at my parents' house so I'm glad to have a couple of days at my house before I go to my parents' house for New Year's(going to go there NY Eve and come home New Year's night.)

*We are having a COLD snap. Not all that unusual here, but this is a especially cold cold snap(just to give you some idea:I'm wearing thermal pajamas.

*Watched the Call The Midwife Christmas special-now we have like 3 months until the new season..almost as bad as waiting for the new season of Hannibal if I'm being honest!)

*There is a bit of a learning curve to cell phones;my dad got my old cell phone, and he's trying to figure it it out. I'm doing pretty well learning how to do everything on my iPhone-I was able to set up my email on  which I thought was a big deal(well, for me anyhow!)

*United Airlines continues to suck. They have no perception of what "customer service" is-and they just have employees responding to issues with robo-replies. They have NO intention of dealing with issues. And have I mentioned the trolls, who are paid to shout down anyone who posts about bad service.

It used to be that  customer service(and trolls) were SOP at airline Facebook pages for a long time. Luckily, most of them have listened to the complaints from customers and they don't tolerate the trolls and they try to help people out when they can. Remember last year when we had a terrible winter and flights were delayed, etc especially at Christmastime.All of the airlines rose to the challenge quite well..except for United.

United has some chronic problems(losing luggage is one of their issues, as is wayward crews..apparently they have a lot of issues with crews "timing out"-when they're supposed to be joining a flight as crew, they can't, because they have worked the maximum amount of hours allowed by law and now they have to have to take a break.I'm not sure if this is just the trolls bullshitting, but if  this is  something that is REALLY that much of an issue,then United needs to look into it. Not that they will, mind you.I mean, they've let the trolls overrun their Facebook pages..I seriously doubt if they're going to get  their shit together...EVER.

I think it's going to take something really bad happening(which the Facebook trolls will defend) for United to wake up and smell the coffee.At which point they will  say that they are going out of buisness before they hurt anyone else.

[there are limits]

I think maybe the moderator on the Cruise Critic Holland America boards has finally had his fill of T.

She said she was going to make some sort of announcement on the smoking thread but when I checked it a bunch of posts had been removed-because T. was off topic.

Which is ironic since T. is the queen of going off topic.And the moderator just looks the other way at it.But I think that SO many people complained that he finally had to do something.

At a guess? T. was trying to take over the thread and make it all about herself.Not the first or last time that *that* has happened, TBH. She was trying to create drama(and drum up sympathy for herself) related to the multitude of health problems that she has(to the point where I am *amazed* that she still travels)

T. isn't happy unless *she* is right, and she and her husband/traveling companion outright ignore anyone who calls them out on things they say that are obviously wrong. And(up until now) it's been tolerated.

[news post!]

I have been wanting to do a newsy post for a while so here we go:

1)Joe Anderson replaced Michael Pitt as Mason Verger. I haven't really seen anything he's done, but since he's  going to be hidden under a bunch of makeup, it doesn't really matter all that much anyhow.

2)Hugh, Laurence,Gillian and Mads were filming in Florence.Lots of really good candids from that. A few people were upset because Hugh was "rude" to them. To be fair, they didn't really say "hey, Hugh,over here!" I can somewhat understand him "blowing them off" because the day that it happened was his son Cyrus' birthday.

There were pictures from  when they were filming one day, with Hugh and Mads all bloodied up. I am now very curious to see what the story behind those pictures is! Then, there was another with Laurence Fishburne holding an urn. I can hazard a few bets as to what's going on there.. :)

3) No airdate for Season 3 yet(and I suspect that we won't have one for some time).

4)Hannibal has been on a TON of "best of" lists for the year. Which isn't really that much of a surprise :)

[very very merry merry]

I got a lot of great stuff for Christmas,including:

*A gold iPhone 6(and a case)

*a little plate with a deer on it

*A tea towel with a reindeer on it(I'm sensing a theme here!)

*Thermometer

*2 pairs of pajama pants(Cookie Monster and Hello Kitty)

*a Life Is Good t-shirt

*$100 worth of iTunes cards

*How To Cook Everything(a cookbook),Mark Bittman

*several gift cards(two Barnes &Noble gift cards,two Starbucks cards and a gift card for Edwards/Regal movie  theaters(which is good because they just opened a new Regal movie theater close to where I live;I haven't been yet but I hear it's nice;they have recliner seats!)

*several sets of salt and pepper shakers(I collect salt and pepper shakers!)

[not winning any points for customer service]

Judging by their Facebook page, customer service is not one of United airlines' strong points.

And you know what?I get it, things can get backed up, etc. this time of year, because of any number of factors. But this is a long-standing issue with United. Sometimes other airlines have issues, but they're able to deal with them and do a minimum of damage to their reputation.

I had an issue with a flight a year ago, and  I have to say that Southwest dealt with it quite well. But I felt like someone else ought to be  aware of that fact. But what did I get? ripped a new ones by trolls that hang out at various airlines' Facebook pages(including Southwest's) is what. Eventually the other airline Facebook pages, which *had* been tolerating them, weren't. There are still the occasional trolly posts at Southwest, et al's Facebook pages but they get deleted pretty quickly,thank god.

The one exception to the rule is United. But I think United  has issues that go WAY beyond having a problem with trolls. The United employees' response to any sort of issue is  a robo-response. Add to that the trolls being allowed to run riot and give all sorts of erroneous information to people looking for answers.

The most common problem seems to be missing/lost luggage, closely followed by missing crew(for those that don't know, airline  crew are only allowed to work a certain amount of hours before they time out. If this is really such a problem for United, it really is something they need to look at.,because if you ask me, that's really bad.

[everyone knows i'm a foodie..]

I went out to a dinner with some friends of ours- a Thai restaraunt near where the friends live. We were actually late because the traffic was really bad.

Anyways,the food was really good-we had two soups to start with-a sweet and sour soup and a won ton soup which was really good.

I had Pad See Ew. Now, there's a story behind my ordering that:A online friend of mine has been raving about how good Pad See Ew is for some time. I'm a creature of habit when it comes to restaraunts,and I tend to order what I like.

This time though,I branched out(and I am glad that I did!) Pad See ew is noodled, big thick wide noodles, eggs,carrots,broccoli,and soy sauce(oh and a protein(chicken, beef, shrimp, etc.) of your choice . I had the shrimp and I really liked it(but I like shrimp anyways-always have!) I would definitely order it again.

We got an interesting lesson in how spicy to order our food-several people had a spice level that was 3 or 4-which  was plenty spicy enough for them but not so much that they couldn't eat it. But I think it varies wildly-you could go somewhere else and order a green curry that is a 2 and it's quite spicy. I remember going to a Thai restaraunt in the Gaslamp downtown where my mom ordered a papaya salad and it was too spicy for her(I, on the other hand would have loved it. I have a high tolerance for spice!)

weekend report,december 19-21]

Friday:I went down to UTC(University Town Centre) one of my favourite malls. Later on, my 16-year old nephew came over with Mexican food-and the news that he had taken(and passed!) his driver's test. Proud auntie alert!

Saturday:Finally finished my Christmas shopping. Got my haircut(it was getting long, so it was time..).It was cooler and cold and my mom had made Navy bean soup earlier in the day-it hit the spot!

Sunday: We celebrated my niece's 10th birthday(her birthday was Saturday but she had a party that we didn't go to.) Also,I got to meet my niece Remi's boyfriend.She's been dating him a while, but this was my first time meeting him, if you can believe that!)

[organisation:it's a lifesaver]

This time of year, I like to do as many things ahead of time as I can. This has always been a strong suit of mine, but this year it seems like there have been a lot more things done on the fly(not just around the holidays,either!) The holidays can be stressful, but I have found ways of dealing with it pretty well.  This is something I'd like to expand on a bit:

Earlier this year, I started going to therapy again. I was going through a number of rough patches this year. Having someone to  talk about things with is a HUGE help. It's given me perspective.

Like for instance: I do not like to go out when the weather is bad, and I let myself get scared by the local weather men(and women.) However, the last couple of times the weather has been supposed to be "bad" I go out in it. The weather isn't even that bad(just very overcast and maybe I get rained on a little bit which is not such a big deal.)

Now, I don't think I'd think twice about going out in bad weather. And that, for me, is a BIG win. I eventually want to be able to be at a point where I have mostly conquered most of my fears.

Anyhow, I think that making time for myself, and doing things ahead of time are a big help for me-and I can go  to my therapist in January and say "I had a really good Christmas".Funnily, enough, sometimes I think that I won't have anything to talk to him about, but I always do!

[ok I lied]

T. from last week's entry,was upset because A.N. Other cruise line's ship, going a bit slower than usual headed to their own private island, made them late to Half Moon Cay, Holland America's private island. She goes on about how it made her late to "Our" island. A few things:

1)It's not "your" island.It belongs to Carnival Corp. which owns Holland America, Carnival and a few other cruise lines.

2)Even in perfect weather,there was probably a reason that they were going slower.More than likely,because Princess' island,like Holland America's, requires tender boats to take you from the ship to the island. Being able to dock or get close to the island/shore can be dicey on the best of days, and this is true of some ports more than others.

Only T. would make a federal case out of a "inferior" cruise line making her late to Half Moon Cay.

On a related(sorta) note:I am going on a cruise! I'd rather not say for a while, but I will just tease you with this: It is NOT on Holland America.

Personally,I'm excited to be branching out and trying something new.Maybe if we really like this other cruise line we'll go on another cruise with them.I feel like you shouldn't feel as if you only have to go on one cruise and never try anything else.

I think a lot of people on the Cruise Critic Holland America boards would like to try out other cruise lines, but there's so much pressure from some on the HAL(Holland America) boards not to "cheat" on Holland America.That is ridiculous.

Add to that the(admittedly small) minority of posters on the HAL boards that want to turn every cruise formal night-indeed the whole cruise-into a recreation of Titanic. I've said it once and I'll say it again: It's 2014(almost 2015) not 1904.

[S2 Ep 5: Mukozuke]

And I apologise..another random Hannibal post next week..things are going to be crazy busy)

*Jack and Hanni have breakfast-so does Will-love the contrast between Hannibal's elegant breakfast and Will's institutional slop. Jack: "You're a great friend, Hannibal". LO-freakin' L

*Freddie goes to the creepy observatory,sees Beverly,takes a picture, *then* calls the police.

*Poor Jack..Love the scene with him finding out about Beverly, seeing her body,and then telling Tean Sassy Science, and Will. JFC.

*Will wants to help out so he goes to the observatory.Well, at this point, the jury is still somewhat out on Will.

*Will's recreation of Bev's death is heartbreaking, and also, along with  Elise Nichol's  death, one of the most disturbing recreations.

*Freezing her and cutting her?That's cold.(sorry.Had to.)

*"She(Bev) found something." No shit.

*Will said that Beverly's kidney's were not  her own, and sure enough(and love the juxaposition of Hannibal cutting up said kidneys. Real subtle. Not.)

*Will talks to Gideon, and later on when Hannibal finds out what is going on, he has to be having a moment of "oh shit!". Gideon: "He(Will) is not a very good advertisement for your abilities, Dr. Lecter".

*Really surprised that Freddie is still alive..Hannibal has had several times when he could have turned Freddie into dinner but didn't.

*Freddie and Will are master baiters.

*Matthew Brown is smart.And he undid all of Chilton's work(recording devices and the like)

*Will wants  Brown to kill Hannibal.And Gideon heard every word of it.

*Will has antlers coming out of his back(when we saw a picture of this without context,we had a lot of fun with it(as you do.)

*Will pretty much tells Alana some bad shit is about to go down but doesn't get into specifics.

*The pool scene with the blue Speedos of dooooooooooooooooom. Hannibal gets knocked out with a dart.

*Alana and Jack go to Hannibal's but he's not there. They're able to figure out where he is-he's being crucified by Matthew Brown.And he knows who Brown is doing his bidding for.

*Matthew Brown kicks the bucket out from under Hannibal but Jack is able to get him down in time.

*Will's sink is having a heavy flow month. LOL

Quotable:

Abel Gideon: He is the Devil, Mr. Graham. He is smoke.

Abel Gideon:I'm a cutter not a pisser.

Matthew Brown:You and me, we are hawks, Mr. Graham.

[i've got holiday spirit,how 'bout you?]

*I love Christmas music. I have a Christmas playlist on iTunes, and I don't just listen to it around Christmas!

*Best Christmas present:Probably Legos. Worst:Sweaters. I live in Southern California, FFS!

*Christmas is all about family for me-some years we have my brother and his wife and kids here, other years it's just me and my parents and my aunt, uncle and cousin.

*My mom likes to put their Christmas tree up as soon after Thanksgiving as possible,along with lots of ornaments. She still has ornaments that I made when I was in 3rd grade.And some of them are on the tree every year.

*The rule when I was a kid(which is still in place now) that we were not allowed to go anywhere near the living room until 7 a.m. on Christmas morning. Though I remember one time I woke up and I was the only person awake for quite a while.

[at a loss for words]

I usually have a lot to say.. But there have been a few times that I have been at a loss for words. The primary one is when Obama won the election in 2008. I literally could not speak for 5 minutes. Then I called my parents and told them that Obama had won(They were watching a movie and not coverage of the election-can't say I blame them, especially  that particular election and the run-up to it.).

It was a "Wow" moment for me,because I supported Obama bigtime(didn't vote for him the second time..times change) and for my parents, who also supported Obama. Consider too,that was  a big deal to my parents, who lived through the civil rights era and remember what it was like.

The day after Obama was elected the first time, I remember that I was so excited.The subject line for the blog entry I wrote the next  day was "So it's real?I didn't dream it?" This was when I was at Vox, a couple of blogs ago :P

[five things]

1)An update on the Rengos, who had their kids taken away by CPS: the kids have been returned to their parents.However, there are some wrinkles in this:

a)The Rengos have to follow rules set by CPS which they will probably not follow, leading to them having their kids taken away(again) and eliciting a false "outrage"

b)According to  Erica's mother,Cleve Rengo is extremely controlling. She also revealed that one of the Rengo twins is blind and deaf because of the circumstances of their birth(unassisted, at home..I don't have a problem with home birth..I wouldn't choose it..to each his own..Erica had NO prenatal care and didn't even know she was having twins, FFS.

c)Erica, Cleve and the twins and their older child are living in a one-bedroom apartment with Cleve's father, who is bipolar and frequently off his meds. This has the potential to end VERY badly.

2)Shirtpunch had Hannibal shirts again-with a Christmas theme.Of course I bought one. They're such a good deal- $10 :)

3)There is a new Regal movie theater at the mall near my house. Haven't been yet, but hope to seen. They have recliner seats.

4)The trailer for the Rock's movie San Andreas looks *awful*-I've seen it before, when it was called 2012.

5) My new addiction:The Investigation Discovery channel.

[weekend report, december 12-14]

Friday:It rained. It rained a LOT. It wasn't  the EPIC! rainstorm we were expecting,and it wasn't a drought-buster(we're in a drought) but it was a lot.

Saturday:I took advantage of the nice weather and Got Stuff.Done. Went to the grocery store.

Sunday:Went to the gym.Went to Trader Joe's to get makings for dinner(French bread pizza). Did a lot of laundry.

[1000% done]

..With Cruise Critic posts.Why?

A certain Cruise Critic poster(we'll call him L., not his real first initial) mentioned that they were talking about their "Least  favourite Cruise Critic posters" on the cruise he's on with his spouse(who is also a Cruise Critic poster).

L. was called out.Unfortunately, since he and his wife, who we'll call  T.(also not her first initial) "elite"-both on Cruise Critic and onboard Holland America ships,the people who call him out are the ones that get their posts deleted.It's pretty obvious that  he(and his spouse) are protected by the moderator,who plays favourites.

L. and his spouse exploit their friendships with the  crew on Holland America ships, as well as their friends at Holland America HQ in Seattle.They get all sorts of freebies and perks and were even able to get a(semi) private seating in the Pinnacle Grill, the fancy restaraunt on HAL ships, and bragged about it afterwards. Bragging about such things is pretty much standard operating procedure for them anyways..

Someone said that if L.'s nasty post about talking about other posters was allowed to stand,that he should have to own those comments. I agree. Unfortunately,that is not going to happen.

[meme]

1)Chinese food: I love Chinese food, but we have to drive quite a ways to get good Chinese food(and I don't rate Panda Express-most of the time when I eat at Panda Express I get an upset stomach..IOW I would rather eat *good* Chinese food!

2)Favourite historical period:Roman times. Or the Tudor Era. Or World War II England.

3)How do you take your coffee? Lots of cream and sugar,well, Splenda.

4)Public Transport:I take the bus, so yes, I rely on public transport. Most of the time I'm OK with it but it has its moments.

5)What was your first fandom, and how did you get into online fandoms? I guess I would say that when I was a Duranie, that would have been my first  fandom..as for online fandoms, I was into TV shows and when I first got on the net I would try to find other fans of the show I liked.

6)Seasonal music:I love Christmas music.

7)If you were to create a new series,what would it be and who would you cast? I would  create a spinoff with Team Sassy Science from Hannibal, Jimmy Price(Scott Thompson) Brian Zeller(Aaron Abrams) and Beverly Katz(Hettiene Park-this is a AU in which Beverly is still alive!)

[hannithoughts:the hannithoughtening]

Before we begin: Nothing here is vegetarian this is my 100th blog entry on my current blog!

*I wish that there was more Hannibal merch-sure, there are the Shirtpunch shirts(which are great and a amazing deal at that!) and the Funko Pop figures, but I wish there was more. There is a Hannibal boook coming out next year,so there *is* that(I am surprised that someone hasn't written an (un)official guide yet.

*Bryan Fuller  tweeted a picture of a giant soap bubble in front of red lights-it is going to be used as a close-up of a droplet of blood.Proof that you don't have to  have a huge budget and  CGI for special effects.

*I've been following some of the Hannibal writers on the off chance of a spoiler or two but not too much so far.Also, it seems like they're on a much tighter schedule-Mads was not able to go to his daughter's debutante ball,but it is what it is.

Hugh and Claire seem to make it work-she's in South Africa, and filming all day, *and* she has an almost 2-year-old!

Mads' kids are older;but being away from his kids is still a hardship-as much as it is for Hugh-to say nothing of the crew.It is not unusual for the cast and crew to pull all-nighters-and in horrendous weather?Especially last winter, with the Polar Vortex going on.

[blog housekeeping]

Some upcoming topics on this here blog:

*Random topics(I take a random topic and blog about it)

*San Diego(my hometown!)

*Travel

*Controversial topics(writing about a "controversial" topic-say, religion or politics, neither of which are mentioned on this blog very often, as you've probably noticed :P)

Tomorrow's Hannibal post will be another random Hannithoughts post, as I wasn't able to  watch an episode and review it this week..but it'll be back next week, I promise!

[this rang so true it hurts]

Buzzfeed had a  article "21 signs you spent the 80's worshipping Duran Duran". There were a couple that I could relate to.

1)You and your friends embraced the "Duranie" label. Well, *I* did. Nobody I knew liked Duran Duran.

2)At least one of your bedroom walls was covered with Duran Duran posters In my case it was my closet doors.And they were.

3)You thought you looked good in a fedora Because John Taylor, Duran Duran's bass player wore one. I did -like once or twice-and got goofed on for it so I stopped.

4)Anything you wore was covered in buttons Yep. I remember getting into an argument with one of my teachers about having too many buttons on my shirt. I also had a denim jacket(which every Duranie had-don't ask me why- and yes, one whole side of my denim jacket was covered with buttons-I had *that* many buttons!

And I knew all of the band members' birthdays and their astrological signs,parents' names, their childhood pets' names, siblings' names, *everything*.

Ditto knowing the lyrics to every song(I really did, too-and if a Duran Duran song comes on wherever I am, I usually sing along.

[what i'm reading]

Just finished reading The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter-really good-a sort of AU(alternate universe) book set in a proto Regency England(the comparison that I would make is to The Golden Compass  by Philip Pullman-it's very similar.) It took me a while to read, and that's even with me reading every chance I get(waiting for the bus, on the bus, at my favourite coffee house.)

I'm just starting my 51st book for the year(so I made it to 50-the 50 Book Challenge goes from January 1st to December 31st..and I've finished it with 3 weeks to spare. I'm starting Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I haven't read a lot of his stuff, but I LOVED what I read of his(American Gods)

One  trend that I would love to see end:Dystopic books, especially the YA(Young Adult) ones. There are *way* too many of them right now. It amazes me that the whole mashup genre(classics-Little Women And Werewolves was a particularly barrel scraping moment)lasted as long as it did.

And now everyone wants to be the next George R.R. Martin.. with varying degrees of success, I might add.

[weekend report, december 5-7]

Friday: I went to UTC(University Town Center) -my favorite shopping centre.

Saturday:I went to Barnes And Noble. Wrapped gifts(well, more like I threw them in gift bags. I don't do wrapping. )We went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner.I ordered chicken fettuccini  which was pretty ho-hum.

Sunday:We went to IKEA so my mom could get a Christmas present, then to Coronado to see the Hotel Del Christmas tree. We drove along the Strand which ends at the border between the U.S. and Mexico. You also  go right by the Navy SEAL training centre on that drive. They don't advertise that  it's there, but it's a known thing. Coronado, or North Island,is home to a large Navy base.) Then we went to Miguel's which is right across the street from the Hotel Del.

One of the reasons I love going to Coronado(apart from the  Hotel Del tree and the Del itself and Miguel's) is Bay Books which is a great indie bookstore. It's the sort of place which has employee recomendations written on notecards. Looking around, and reading the cards, I have to say that I agree with their taste in books :)

[five things]

1)I  went out of my comfort zone-twice!Normally, I don't like to go out in bad weather, but I did-twice!

2)There is a chance we might go on a cruise-a shorter one this time,and on a different cruise line but I'm OK with that.

3)We got a lot of rain last week. Not enough to make any sort of dent in our drought, but it probably helped a little!

4)I'm waiting to hear some more info before I get too excited about Bond 24-well, Spectre, to give it its proper title-I am a member of the Bond fandom-I gotta post about that at some point!

5)So this couple Erica and Cleve Rengo got their kids taken away from them. There was a lot of outrage about it.

Why?

Because they had an unassisted childbirth-of twins-at home.And they breastfeed their kids. neither of those things should get your kids taken away-and that wasn't why.

You have to understand that home birth is a selective thing. Personally, I wouldn't do it. But there are  quite a few in the home birth community that get defensive and assume that that was why the kids got taken away(it wasn't, despite authorities saying it wasn't on more than one occasion.)

There  is a lot to this story: first of all, their oldest son is only 10 months older than the twins.Yes, you read that right. And their parents decided they wanted to be together after only knowing each other a few hours. There's some dispute, but word is that both Cleve and Erica have records(for petty things mostly, but also domestic violence which *is* concerning.)

It's not just that, either. Apparently there was some question about the twins being born at home- without a doctor-a paramedic was called not long after they were born but Erica refused to go to the hospital. They only called the hospital to shut up a concerned family member(possibly-probably-the same family member who called CPS which led to the kids being removed from the house.)

Did I mention that Erica escaped with one of the kids when CPS showed up at her house?She did.Which didn't help her situation(that's putting it mildly!)

The Rengos are choosing to live a "holistic" lifestyle, which means exclusively using natural remedies . This is an issue: one of the kids had eczma which got infected and needed a doctor's care. Clearly, they weren't doing something right; I read a lot of "well, natural remedies work, you just have to give them time" sort of comments. No.Sorry. The treatment they were giving the 10 month old wasn't working, and he had pneumonia(which Erica and Cleve claim he got when he was in foster care.)

Erica and Cleve distrust doctors *that* much... that is worrying. Erica's mother is the one who called CPS..To hear her tell it,Cleve is "controlling" and makes all of the decisions in the relationship. Of course, Cleve and Erica's supporters are calling her "turncoat"..and worse.

The kids *have* been reunited with their parents, but with lots of conditions-including regular doctors' checkups.Which given the kids' health issues, is probably a good idea.

Some may say that CPS overstepped their bounds..and maybe they did,but from what I read, they had quite a few reasons to remove the kids from their house. Maybe they'll look at  what happened as a wake-up call to  not be so..searches for a word and settles on"insular".

[do something well-not half assed-or don't do it at all]

There is a radio show that I listen to-Let's Talk TV-which is-I am not going to mince words here-troubled. First of all, there's the matter of the trouble the people doing the show -Barbara Barnett and a few of her friends- have with their equipment. It seems like the show stops and starts while it's on and there are drops and halting,or isn't on at all, and the reason given is that they are having some sort of technical trouble. And this has happened more than once.It happened  just last week, actually.

Or they just randomly quit having shows, as was what happened earlier this year. Without warning, no shows-for several months, and no word on when it might be on again-but when it did, it was after ComiCon-and even that was rescheduled a couple of times. On the face of it, it seems Barbara Barnett has some problems with being flakey(that's putting it mildly..)

She's  flakey,but also she's a very fair weather fan-she was in the House fandom but..didn't drop out exactly..she made her feelings about some of the storylines on the show,and was very forceful about them,and they became popular opinion in the fandom(never mind that there were a lot of people that disagreed with her..it didn't matter.)

Then, she  wrote about(and talked about on her radio show) Once Upon A Time for  quite a while but again, as with House,she didn't like certain storylines and said she wasn't going to talk about it on her show/review episodes.

Like I said in another post about this, I wouldn't be at all surprised if  she moves on to another show if the showrunners do something that she doesn't like. She can't get away with what she did in the House fandom-people are on to her-and I think some fandoms are less tolerant of drama bullshit than others.

And I get it-she writes about  pop culture for a living-but sometimes I think that she is completely unobjective about certain things-TV shows being one of them.

[more random hannithoughts]

*The interaction of Will with Pazzi is one of many things that I'm looking forwards to in S3.I've seen a few of Fortunato Cerulino(the actor playing Pazzi)'s tweets and..I like him.

I think he's quite well cast for Pazzi-he certainly has the right look!

*Episode 4 is the Kill Bill episode-we find out what happened after "The Red Dinner".Bryan has said that the people at the "Red Dinner"(and by extension the Vergers) are going to be dealing with the scars that Hannibal gave them.A lot of people are going to want a piece of Hannibal when he finally gets caught.

Initially, I can see Will getting a lot of resistance from Kade Purnell, but eventually I think she is going to come  under a lot of scrutiny for letting what happened happen.

*Bryan has said that the first few episodes of S3 function as a pilot for a show about Hannibal and Bedelia's relationship, and I am OK with that.Because there was so much that was left unsaid at  the end of S2-we certainly could speculate about whether Bedelia was brainwashed or not.

Also, is Bedelia going to come to her senses and be one of the people that helps get Hannibal caught? If he really *has* brainwashed her, that's easier said than done. On the other hand, she *did* tell Will that she believed him, so maybe she is conning him the way that Will did? who knows.

*The second half of the season is going to be Red Dragon and I'm excited for that(it also means that we REALLY need to get  S4 so we can see the whole Red Dragon storyline-and(if they get the rights) Silence Of The Lambs.

Seeing as how we're getting a year time jump between seasons(though as I mentioned earlier we're getting a flashback). With the Red Dragon storyline, it's possible that they could have Molly(the woman who becomes his wife) meet Will somewhere during the hunt for Hannibal-it doesn't make sense for them to have another time jump to signify the start of another storyline but YMMV.

Another reason we need  S4 is to finish out the Red Dragon  storyline(and also:It's anyones guess if Bryan will go with the book ending.Given how S2 ended, it would seem..searches for a word and settles on "derivative". However, given the fact that Bryan wants Will to stick around for a while, I rather doubt it(if you've read the book you know what I'm talking about!)

*NBC has a lot of faith in Hannibal..their faith in Hannibal bothers the fans of shows who feel "their" show hasn't gotten a fair shake.

But continuing to complain about  their show being cancelled 6 months later seems like sour grapes.There.I said it.

Granted,  some of these shows have gotten(marginally) better ratings than Hannibal.

Look,I'm not disputing that some of those shows get better ratings than Hannibal.I'm not. But Hannibal is working for NBC in ways that those other shows aren't.

[holiday traditions]

*I love going to the Hotel Del Coronado at Christmastime to check out the Christmas tree and the outdoor skating rink(we have two outdoor skating rinks around Christmastime-the Hotel Del's and there is also one at Horton Plaza;the proceeds from both go to charity which is really cool.We go in for that here-I think it's because we have a lot of people from other parts of the country,because of the military(Navy and Marine) presence in San Diego.

Balboa Park gets decorated too-except they can't call it "Christmas in the park"-political correctness *sigh* and also the Old Globe puts on  How The Grinch Stole Christmas. I've never been, but I heard it's a LOT of fun.

*Since I'm a foodie, this is one of my favourite times of year. I love to be in the kitchen at Christmastime. I kick everyone out of the kitchen when I cook,though, because it can get too crowded for my liking.

*My mom loves to decorate the house;she always  puts their Christmas tree up right after Christmas. I like seeing how people decorate their houses..We go to this restaraunt-Casa De Bandini-that  decorates the whole restaraunt for the holidays.It's really something to see.

[movies i'm looking forwards to]

Exodus Gods And Kings

Annie(though this is what,the second or third remake?)

Big Eyes

Mr. Turner

The Babadook

Unbroken

[honesty is the best policy]

One unintended side effect of going to counseling is that I am more honest.I was talking to my dad about this and he said "I think you think you worry about hurting our feelings"(which is certainly true!) but I dunno, I feel like I can speak my mind.

I really needed to go to counseling-I have,in the past, and it was a huge help for me.Unfortunately, my boss at the time didn't think so, so I had to give it up,which I hated.

My current psychologist I have been seeing for quite a while.At the  time I started seeing him I had a lot of stuff that I wanted to talk to him about..I was definitely at a point where I needed to see someone-it was getting to a-crisis isn't quite the word, but I needed to talk to someone. He's made me examine the way that I do things, in a big way.

Take today, frinstance:I REALLY did not want to go to my psychologist's appointment because the weather was supposed to be very rainy.But I  told myself  "You know what?I am going to go out of my comfort zone and go out in this weather and if it rains on me, that's OK".

And I told him that when I saw him, and he was very impressed. It's also a sign of just how far I've come since I started seeing him. That's not to say that I don't still have moments where I..for lack of a word..have bad days. But it's something that I am working on.

For a while I was doing Morning Pages(3 pages of writing-about anything) and that combined with counseling was doing wonders for me. I think I have to start doing Morning Pages again.

[weekend report,november 28-30]

Friday: My dad and I stopped by T Mobile on the way back to my house. Worst kept secret like, ever but..I'm getting an iPhone from Santa. Went to Walmart Marketside  and did a bit of grocery shopping.

Saturday: Took a new(ish) to me bus route to Walmart and back.And it's great because on the way back, it drops me off within walking distance of my house!

Sunday: Went to Barnes &Noble for coffee and then went to my gym.Had a really good workout.

[five things]

1)My Thanksgiving was a lot of  fun..My mom and dad  and I did Meals On Wheels. We had Thanksgiving dinner at a hotel near their house.It was really good-I'd never had stuffing with chorizo-but I am now a fan-see also:The bread pudding, which had butterscotch chips on top of it. Mind you, I hate butterscotch-and bread pudding-but *that* I liked! Then we went to see The Theory Of Everything, the movie about Stephen Hawking.

2)My new favourite thing is the Jag ads with Nicholas Hoult. Hard to believe that's the kid from About A Boy.

3)What can I say about Ferguson that hasn't already been said?I found it upsetting.I'll just leave it at that.

4)I LOVED the trailer for the new Star Wars  movie. I decided that I am going to go to a midnight showing the day it comes out.Which is something I would NOT normally do..but that is  how excited I am about it.

5)I am a technologically savvy person..to a point..but trying to figure out the pluses and minuses of certain things(like makes and brands of cell phones)that makes my head hurt.

[who let the dog(s) out?]

Apparently there has been a problem with a service dog on the Niew Amsterdam.The problem?It's not a real service dog.And it's very badly behaved.

The dog's owner is on an extended(world?) cruise.Just think of all the logistical issues involved with having a "service dog" on an extended cruise.I mean, it's not like there's an area you can take the dog to, like you can at, say, an airport. It's really surprising that this dog hasn't been making more of a mess. But, as I said, it's become a bit of a major issue for other passengers. Plus, the matter of the dog not being a real service dog, too.

Thanks to the ADA act, bus drivers and the like can't give people trouble about whether their dog is or isn't a real service dog. They can get sued.Which sucks. Not only that,there is a whole black market for  fake certification and vests and the like.It is illegal, but it goes on all the time.

According to the thread about this on Cruise Critic,the wonder is stressed by the situation. But the crew are bearing some of the brunt too(and probably are stressed themselves) as they have been enlisted to watch the dog whilst the owner and her husband go on shore excursions.

*I can't remember what thread it was on(I thought it was on the service dog thread but it's not) about knowing when to quit cruising.

Now, this is something I have  seen before-people talking about how they travel with a disabled family member, or a family member with health issues.There was a woman who was saying that they would not be cruising anymore because it was too much stress for her and other family members. Well, it's probably stressful to the disabled family members as well-they're having to be flexible about timing of everything, etc and it's not always easy.

So I wonder why they always choose a cruise as their vacation. They would be much better served finding something that would be more appropriate.

[the review posts will return..they're just taking a bit of a break for now!]

There has been quite a bit of talk about whether Hannibal could come back earlier than expected since the show that is in its time slot(Constantine) is not getting any additional episodes.

This means that Hannibal has the potential to come back as early as late February or March.The problem is that Hannibal has only been in production since October 20th.Presumably they're taking time off for Christmas. Mads is not going to his daughter's debutante ball(which is in Paris), which leads me to think that they are working really hard to get things together in case Hannibal gets a time slot for next year.

Hopefully, there isn't *too much* rushing to get things done-Filming moves to Italy next week.

Again, this is just a guess, but I have a feeling that a decision about Constantine was made pretty early on. Its ratings have improved..but not by much. Mind you, Hannibal's ratings are pretty marginal but here we are,on the verge(r) of Season 3.Supposedly NBC is supposed to announce their mid-season lineup soon, so maybe we'll find out something  then?

Last time, they announced an air date out of the blue in mid-December(to say that it was unexpected would be putting it mildly!)

Pretty much the only problem that I could see with it is that there will be a several week break between episodes. But then again, seeing as how Bryan Fuller has said that S3 will be split into two chapters-the hunting for Hannibal chapters and then the start of the Red Dragon arc, maybe that is actually a *good* thing?

I like to tell myself that the lack of spoilers/on set pictures is because they have been SO busy putting together an *amazing* S3 for us Fannibals. We do love our  spoilery pictures and have fun figuring out what they mean(see also:The promos, both  U.S. and international, for S2) and also also a picture of Will with antlers sticking out of his back.That was taken so out of context it's not even funny!

[meme]

*If you could  do one thing to change the past,would you do it? Yes,I would. I know *exactly* what part of my past I would change, too.

*What's the first thing on your bucket list and why? Believe it or not, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

*Talk about green. When I think of green, I think of the color. Of grass(I love the smell of freshly mowed grass)

*If you could have any five actors/characters for dinner, who would they be? Hugh Dancy,Michael Fassbender ,Harrison Ford,Ian McKellen and Sean Connery.

*What has been your favourite trip?I really liked our family trip to Alaska a few years ago,so I'll say that!

*Sleepwear: This time of year, whatever shirt I wore during the day, and pajama pants.Or a nightshirt and pajama pants.

[blog housekeeping]

*Because of..circumstances I will not be posting my Hannibal review this Friday..but it will be back next week.

*You may have noticed a new weekly(providing I can come up with enough things) post-Five Things. I did Five Things a few times back at the old blog.

*Finally, at the end of the year,I will be posting a list of the books I read/liked this year.

[fair weather fans]

This is something I've noticed in several fandoms-including Hannibal, though I'm going to start with other  fandoms and wrap up this post by talking about Hannibal

I'll start with House  and Once Upon a Time.

There is a writer, Barbara Barnett who is/was part of several fandoms.She writes about TV and pop culture for a living, so her opinion is out there,in a big way.

Well, some of her (very strong)opinions about House started to filter to others fans.And her opinion-that she didn't like the way the show runners were doing things-became the majority opinion in the House fandom.When a favourite character of Barnett's was written out of the show she made her opinions *quite* known.Because of that,there are certain House fans who, 3 years later, feel very strongly, and have been known to harass former show runners and writers on Twitter. Even now. And Barbara Barnett is *entirely* to blame for that.

I get that Barnett is in the buisness of writing about TV but when you can  get dissent in the ranks of  a fandom by writing your opinion and stating it as how *everyone* feels, that is a conflict of interest.

BTW, the 10th anniversary of House was the other day and the producer David Shore(one of the people involved with the show that she dislikes intensely) was one of the few people that acknowleged that fact on Twitter. Of course,I pointed that out to her and.. *crickets.* Yeah, she really dislikes him THAT much.

Fast forward to 2014.She's doing the same thing same thing with the Once Upon A Time fandom. A show she's watched for several years but now no longer reviews because(once again) she doesn't like the direction that the show runners are going in.

Yes, it is all a matter of opinion but a lot of the things that she had to say came off like nitpicking.For all the people  that agreed with her reviews, there were plenty of people who DISagreed with  her.Especially on IMDB.For all the smack that I talk about the IMDB boards(and I do) they know what's what on that score.

Now, she's moved on to The Walking Dead fandom, and I'm sure they'll be annoyed with her before too horribly long.It seems  like fandoms have become a little less innured to..outside opinion since House.

I'm waiting for The Walking Dead's show runner to do something wrong..at which point she will move on to another show.Probably. And it'll start all over again.

And finally, Hannibal: I have been hearing that some Mads fans have been feeling like Mads is getting short shrift from the official Tumblr and the like, and that the show is called Hannibal and that  Hannibal is the main character and other characters(Will, Jack, etc.) are minor characters. Yes, really.Luckily,that(unlike with House) is a small minority of the fandom. And there's plenty of people to call bullshit on it-that they love Mads/Hugh Hannibal/Will equally.

[weekend report, Nov. 21-23]

Friday: I went to Encinitas and hung out there for a few hours.

Saturday:Was Mads Mikkelsen's birthday(I have to mention that!) I went down to Point Loma, to Liberty Station(the old Navy training station here in San Diego  which is now a bunch of shops, galleries and the like. It's amazing.)

My parents had a dinner party Saturday night but I wasn't part of that. :)

Sunday: I went to the Farmer's Market near my parents' house.Later on, my brother and his wife and kids came over  for dinner.

[five things]

1)They put new streetlights on my street.They  are LED I think..they're very bright..and  energy saving, too.

2)My hometown,Oceanside, was on an episode of Storage Wars. I didn't see anyplace I recognised, though.

3)Thursday will be our second Thursday in a row doing Meals On Wheels.We  are also doing  Meals On Wheels the first Thursday of December and then not for 2 weeks.

4)I just started reading my 50th book for the year-and now that I'm on book #50..I plan to keep reading!

5)Facebook mystifies me..I mean, it's how I keep in touch with family out of state..but how certain companies(like airlines') Facebook pages mystify me. First of all, anyone wanting to report issues basically gets a robo response. It's much better to actually try to deal with it at the time(at the airport)than deal with someone on their social media site.

Not only that, the trolls.The trolls who post nasty replies to anyone who has a legit complaint. Like I said:Better to just deal with it at the airport at the time it happens.

[the drama is getting, well, dramatic again]

*Someone pointed out that "cheerleader" posts on Cruise Critic was coined to describe people that think HAL(Holland America Line) can do no wrong.True,there *are* people who think HAL can do no wrong.I know this,I've seen it with my own eyes.

But it's the blowing off of major issues(non-working a/c, non-flushing toilets)that gets me.Basically "You have to be lying".Again:I have seen people with legit complaints called "trolls"-and worse.It's allowed to go on until the red triangle(reporting button for obnoxious posts) gets pushed so many times that they can't ignore it.

It scares people off-they ask a question that longtime posters might think is "dumb" or "obvious". and respond in their own way. Well, the original poster gets that response and..they don't want to come back.And who can blame them?More than a few people have said that they felt unwelcome when they first started posting on the Cruise Critic boards.I was reading an old thread where  an established poster said that they were suspicious of posters with low post counts. And see that is exactly the posrt of thing I've been talking about for a while.

Someone..defended isn't quite the right word but it fits..the cheerleading by saying that "it isn't putting people down, it's showing that it's not the norm". Doesn't matter. It's still rude.Posters take the blame because they're made to feel that it's their problem or that they have an attitude, which is wrong.

The timing of this thread is interesting, I think, because I haven't seen so much of the  ganging up on  cheerleaders.To me, it seems like shit-stirring.

It went a couple of different directions, including the usual complaints about  how some posters on the Cruise Critic boards are stereotype. I have to disagree. I think that there are a few people on the cruise Critic Holland America  boards that revel in living up to the stereotype of wanting to go back to  the "old days" of cruising.It gets into self parody.

On the other hand, some of the most extreme posters have left(unfortunately, some equally obnoxious people have replaced them.)

[S2, Ep 4:Takiwase]

*The whole thing with naming the bait for someone you know.. *sob*-and Will names his Abigail. Staaahp.

*Beverly visits Will-this episode does NOT end well for her :(

*The human beehive .....*shudder* strangely- that put me off of honey but the mushroom people from S1-didn't bother me at all. Go figure.

*Chilton is unethical-and Will sees right through it.Even throws Chilton's comment about Will being a  topic of conversation in psychiatric circles back at him. You go, Will! Will has a very low tolerance for Chilton.

*Bella is actively making a cry for help, and it's emotional(especially given what happens later on in the episode..)

*Price is a expert on bee sex(I learned way more than I ever wanted to know about bees from this episode!)

*Chilton is  doing therapy on Will. Oh shit. Oh shit because a) it's Chilton doing it and b) Will remembers what Hannibal was doing to him-inducing the seizures and the blackouts.And we see Wills POV with Hannibal's face looking all screwed up(that's putting it mildly!) Chilton's not sure what to believe, but he blocks Hannibal from seeing Will, telling him that he(Chilton) is in charge of Will's therapy now.

*Bella smokes pit-and Jack joins her  out of solidarity. Jeez, I'd be worried about toking if I worked at someplace like the FBI where you *know* they do regular drug testing. It's the sort of thing I can picture Kade Purnell going off on him about if  his test turned up positive for pot.

*The human beehive, and the acupuncturist from this episode have put me off of both of those things.And Salisbury steak. The acupuncturist is like "Yeah, I did it. and I'd do it again!"

*The guy who was doing the mural had his kidney removed(which comes into play in the next episode.)

*Bella OD's, and Hannibal has to make the decision to save her life or not(which he does) only to get slapped by Bella. Bella wants to die on her own terms and not(as she has said several times) to be a burden to jack, which couldn't be further from the truth!

*Beverly is going to go to Hannibal's without backup.

So, the first time I watched the episode I seriously was yelling at my TV, I couldn't believe that she went there by herself.. and then.. shit got real. Funny how we never heard anything about the bullet that went from the basement into Hannibal's dining room(maybe in S3?)

Quotable:

Bev:Don't say Hannibal Lecter.

Will: I'm saying Hannibal Lecter.

[staying healthy]

And it's ironic that I am writing this post just now..because I am having a minor health issue(not anything big, but I had to  go to the  doctor today;I am so grateful to the doctors at Scripps-they are  frickin' rock stars-I was not able to get in to see my usual doctor,but there are other doctors that are associates of his that I can see, and they're always super cool. I've seen several different  doctors for various issues(once I saw a doctor for a sore throat which was so bad I felt like I needed to have it checked out..just to be sure. Turned out that it was bacterial, so I couldn't take anything for it which sucked because it was *painful* and nothing would work on it.

That's part of it; I really have been trying to make an effort to go to the gym more; I worked out for the first time in quite a while the other day and I realised *just* how much I need to get there. Like,I have a doctor's appointment next week kind of close to where my gym is;I'm thinking that maybe I'll get a workout in before I go to my appointment.And then, of course, I'm  planning on  working out on Thanksgiving(I wonder if they'll be busy-is everyone else going to have the same idea-work out before a huge meal? Most of the time my gym isn't  even close to crowded-we'll see if Thanksgiving is different!)

I've been lucky as far as my diabetes goes;I've always heard that people with diabetes have lowered immunes systems. I dunno; I've been lucky *knocks wood* apart from this current health issue and a few other things, I've been lucky that way. But I  do everything I should, like get flu shots.

[already thinking ahead]

Since we're going out to dinner for Thanksgiving,I don't have to worry about cooking..but now it's got me thinking about what I want to make for Christmas dinner. I usually contribute something(or a couple of somethings) to Christmas dinner.

Our holiday dinners usually go this way: a HUGE Christmas Eve dinner(with at least one dessert) and then Christmas dinner is  a roast(one year my uncle sent smoked pork chops that were REALLY good), sides, and several pies, including Chocolate Peppermint Pie which is a sort of chocolate mousse pie which has been a staple of our Christmas dinners for a LONG time.

This year, I'd like to try something different,maybe make a side that I've never made before-or revisit one that I haven't made for a while. It kinda depends what we're having for Christmas dinner-when I know that, maybe I can kinda think about what I should make.

[creative writing]

Today's prompt is: Write about a habit you find hard to break.

Not sure if this counts, but..I tend to be a creature of habit when I go to my favourite restaraunts. If I find something that I really like,that's what I'll order. I  have been going to Anthony's, a seafood restaraunt here in San Diego since I was small and I always order the same thing:Fish and Chips.

There are a few places in town(the place that is within walking distance of my house starts making my lunch as soon as they see me-no word of a lie-I have a standard order-tuna melt-there, too!)that know me very well.

[weekend report nov. 14-16]

Friday: Headed down to my parents' house. Had navy bean soup for dinner(it was cooler and cloudy that night so it hit the spot) and garlic bread.) My mom was setting up for her holiday boutique which was Saturday, so I just got  everything ready so it was no stress for her.

Saturday:My mom's Holiday Boutique was today. My parents belong to the Civic and Historical Society for the town they live in. The boutique is their annual fundraiser.They always have a lot of great stuff there(and make a ton of money which they definitely did this year!) My aunt and one of my cousins were there for the day-They hung out at the bazaar for a while and then the 3 of us went to lunch at one of my favourite Mexican food restaraunts. They wanted to do some  shopping so we did that.

Then, my brother and his wife and kids came over to my parents' house and my dad went and got pizza. I went back home that night.

Sunday: Went to Barnes and Noble and had my coffee then walked over to my gym(which is within walking distance) and worked out for the first time in quite a while(my muscles were letting me know they were not happy with me later but as my dad says "it's a good kind of sore".

No Hannibal Rewatch  yesterday-I spent a long time at the bookstore,then I wanted to spend plenty of time working out,but not so much I was really feeling it, then I went to Trader Joe's and did a little grocery shopping.

[making obligatory "I'm thankful I'm not cooking Thanksgiving dinner" joke]

Not only that, my parents and I are delivering Meals On Wheels  on Thanksgiving. Supposedly we shouldn't have a lot of people on our route because of that, and even if we did, it wouldn't be a big deal(we pick  up out meals at a certain spot around 11 a.m. and it takes about an hour or so depending on how busy we are)

Also, I am going to go to the gym before that. Usually, I have to take two buses to get there, but the bus that  doesn't go over there except on Sundays and holidays. Thanksgiving is one of those holidays so I figure I might as well take advantage of it before we have our Thanksgiving dinner!

My mom made reservations at a local hotel.. I was able to find their menu online and I liked what I saw :) There are no shortage of places to go out for dinner-even Buca Di Beppo does a Thanksgiving dinner. I wouldn't mind having a holiday dinner there-I have to wonder, is it Thanksgiving with a Italian twist?

There are the more pricey places like the Hotel Del Coronado(*super* pricey, but it's popular-they also have a buffet on the weekend that is $80 a pop but there's always a wait to get in-go figure!)

About this time of year there are ads in the Reader(our local free paper) and in the Night &Day section of the newspaper  for all of the hotels and restaraunts that offer Thanksgiving dinner,  and a lot of them will  tell you what they're serving. I like the ones who have the real typical Thanksgiving dinner(turkey, stuffing,mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie)

[it'd be an excuse to go to europe!]

So Holland America has a mini-site for their new ship, the Konigsdam. There isn't a whole lot on there yet but I really like what I see.

First of all,they have renderings of the new cabins(all of them-and supposedly there are going to be less suites-one or two on this ship compared to the other ships in the fleet which have a lot.) I think they have realised that the suites are not as big of a sell as they think..true, reading Cruise Critic, you would think that is the only way to go but it's not the truth. I much prefer inside cabins..and I love what they've done with the inside cabins on the Konigsdam-they're sparse-very plain and white, but I think the floor plane is a lot more thought out-mind you, you don't spend all that much time in the cabins, but you want someplace that is going to be conducive to a good night's sleep.

The MDR(Main Dining Room) is AMAZEBALLS. It's open and light,Holland America are moving away from their "Old World Charm" tact and going with something that's much more 21st Century. Again, Holland America have been doing their due dilligence  and Holland America passengers want something that was much more modern...Cruise Critic is such a small percentage of the cruising public yet you would think that they represent this HUGE majority of the cruising public but it simply isn't the case.

The Konigsdam is going to be based(primarily) in Europe *points to subject line* I haven't gotten to travel nearly as much as I would like and a cruise would be a great way to see Europe!

[S2 Ep3: Hassun]

*Will(in a suit) dreaming about being executed.

*Will(and Hannibal) getting ready for court  at the same time.

*Will looks so uncomfortable in his suit :(

*The prosecutor is obnoxious(I wonder if we could see her again at some point..)

*Going on and on about how Will killed people(except he didn't..)

*Kade Purnell is hurting things, NOT helping(I'm rather vocal about my dislike of her :P)

*We get a callback to the Evil Minds Museum mentioned in the pilot.

*Jack is-in one sense-trying to help-but in other ways, not so much.

*It was a big deal when the character of Will's lawyer, Leonard Braver was announced, but we only saw him in  this episode.

*Brauer gets an ear (Brauer(to Will) "I think I opened your mail".

*Bella doesn't want to turn the Crawfords' bedroom into a sickroom, but I'm wondering if that might be some foreshadowing-it's not Bella who is sick, it's Jack-he's at home recovering(or in a coma?) instead of being in the hospital-where it's more comfortable. Just a guess.

*Team Sassy Science break down what's going on for Jack-and still they doubt.

*Hannibal all but admits to being the killer, and yet nobody goes "wait, backthefrickup?" Seriously.

*Freddie Lounds will never be viewed as a credible witness(in court, anyways) after this episode. Hoping she is part of the hunt for Hannibal in S3.

*Braver is majorly jerky  when he's going over what is going to happen in court  with Alana and Will.

*The FBI has the worst guarded evidence room-someone was able to go in there and sneak evidence out and try to frame someone with it? WTF, man!

*Chilton is obnoxious in court.

* "See?" and "What Do You See?" are recurring themes, both in Season 1 and Season 2.

*Will imagines the crime scene-he body slams the guard onto the antlers.

*Hannibal takes the stand;really,the bible he put his hand on should have burst into flames as soon as he touched it, LOL

*The judge gets put on display("It's a elegant if not unorthodox solution""-you don't say!)

*Kade is SO convinced of Will's guilt-I would even call her feelings about him a vendetta.

*The stool sample line "we should have taken a stool sample" "Yes we should have" is the textbook definition of TMI.

*Kade Purnell is just at her..searches for a word and settles on "worst" in this episode.

*Will goes to his happy place-fishing-whilst he is in court. Can't really blame him, though.

*Will dreams he is walking out of his cell-he follows the ravenstag and there's..Hannibal.Unsubtle and unsettling.

Quotable:

There is not yet a name for whatever Will Graham is-Chilton

He is merely the ink from which flows my poem-Will

[blog housekeeping/what's coming up on the blog]

*There will be a wrap-up of the books I've read this year.

*In lieu of anything interesting at Cruise Critic I'll be talking about the  Konigsdam, Holland America's new ship(they have a mini site with renderings of what the ship is going to look like but more about that Saturday!)

*Other things I want to write about..tech-related things..I am in the market for a cell phone so I'll be talking about that..

*Holiday/food posts(they go together!)

*Creativity(for a while I was regularly doing creative writing prompts from this really cool website that I have bookmarked!) and fanfic.

*I will(as is my custom) post my New Year's resolutions on January 1st.

*Hannibal posts will be weekly..after I finish reviewing/watching S2(and finish watching the few episodes of S1 I have left to watch.. that should take me through January and February...) then there will be some various Hannibal-related things..if there is any bighuge news  I'll do a whole separate post for that. And, of course, I will be doing reviews when S3 starts(whenever that is..I have a feeling we may know something about *that* pretty soon!)

[what i've been reading]

I am starting my 48th book for the year(hope to get to 50 by New Year's Eve..a pretty safe bet that is going to happen, don't you think? ;)  )

I just finished Prince Lestat by Anne Rice. It was the first book of hers that I have ever read, and I think you could read this without reading any of the other Vampire Chronicles books. In fact, she has a TL:DR(Too long, didn't read) summary of characters and the books. For those of us that don't want to read all of the books(though admittedly Prince Lestat has piqued my interest in her Vampire Chronicles books so imma try to read at least one of them, I think..)

 Anyways, I enjoyed it, and it was a quick read-it went everywhere with me-I take whatever I'm reading with me and read at the bus stop, on the bus, you name it.

Right now, I'm going through jags of reading certain authors-I've read several of Kathy Reichs' Bones books(which I like a lot better than the TV show-the books are *quite* a bit different than the TV show!)

[i love costco]

My dad and I went to Costco the other day-I LOVE Costco-and it has nothing to do with the free samples (and the hot dogs, pizza, etc at the food court. (though those are a bonus that is for sure!)).

No, it's the selection they have at their stores(admittedly, I couldn't find what I was looking for the other day;I was able to find a serviceable replacement). I also  found some  corn chowder(in small 2-serving cartons though one carton is dinner for me!) that I really like.

Another thing I like about Costco is their selection of books and of DVD's. It seems to  vary wildly from  store to store. If I was looking to get a book in hardcover, I would look at Costco first(or Target, though it's less likely they would have them there since they only have a few new hardcover titles there when they're new;however the price is hard to beat..and anyone who knows me knows I like a good deal!)

I have a Keurig coffee maker, and when I got it(from Costco by coincidence!) it came with a ton of K Cups, so you can kinda make up your mind about what coffees you like.

They actually carry a bunch of different coffees, including a Kirkland(Costco brand) K Cup which is really good. Though  I noticed when I was there the other day that they sell a multi-pack  with a bunch of different types of coffee(I would buy that if I wasn't trying to switch from coffee to tea, because there are a couple of types of coffee that I've tried in the past that I really liked.

[weekend report, nov. 7-9]

Friday: I went to UTC(University Town Center). Made chicken salad with rotisserie chicken from Costco for dinner.

Saturday:Went to watch my nephew's soccer game. Went to Costco. Watched a terrible movie(Paranormal Activity:The Marked Ones) I got out of the library.

Sunday:Hannibal  rewatch.

[tv randomness tbh]

*Bones has had record low ratings this season and there is talk that this will be their last season(though the producers/show runners have said that's not the case but the not-so-great ratings may force their hand just a bit. I think it may be for the best, if we're being honest. At least House ended at the right time(some people may disagree, I know. And I don't acknowedge the Season 9 finale that someone wrote. That was just bad fanfic.

Granted,Hannibal gets less than stellar ratings, and it's only had 2 seasons,with S3 filming right now..Bones has had 10 seasons and it is definitely played out at this point. Grimm has the same issue(with less than great ratings)


One of the big issues with Grimm is that they have 2 or three episodes right in a row, and then they aren't on for a month or more.

*On a TV-related note: My parents now get a bunch of pay channels(Starz, Showtime, and a couple of others. )Gonna LOVE being able to watch Homeland, etc. or see if there's a good movie on. They also get Movie Channel and there are a lot of good movies on there at any given time.

*I listen to a TV-related internet radio show which has a focus on Once Upon A Time but they do talk about other shows(including Hannibal) but they are *always* having trouble with technical issues.

[i wish i was making this up!]

There was a thread on Cruise Critic asking what the waiters in the MDR(Main Dining Room) are wearing on formal night because he doesn't want to clash with them. Yes, really.

Lots of "you're joking, right?" -type comments..and a few  are offended by some of the more..how shall we say..jokey reactions. He also went after a poster on his thread because he noticed, from their signature-a list of ships that they had been on- that they had been of a few non-Holland America ships and that their opinion was invalid.

And see there is that attitude of "HAL is superior to every other cruise line out there" attitude  that is so prevalent among people at Cruise Critic.

I can't remember if it was R.(her actual first initial) or someone else that said it but she said "I do not dress to Emily Post standards". R. used to be a real thorn in my side when I posted there with any frequency,but now she's frequently the voice of reason on threads that tend to get a little..searches for a word and settles on "ridiculous".

She also was the  voice of reason on a thread where someone got snotty because the OP and a few other posters were asking for comparisons of HAL(Holland America) to other cruise lines.

[S2 Ep 2: Sakizuke]

*Mural guy escapes-OUCH. And he *almost* makes it but..not quite.

*Alana and Hannibal visit Will-Alana is still deluded-as they all are. Hannibal wants Will to trust him.Hey Hannibal...how about NO? Not only that, Will can do the fake tear thing too.In fact, he does it better than you do, if we're being honest. :P Go Will!

*Bedelia  breaks up with Hannibal(and is nowhere to be seen when Hannibal shows up later in his murder onesie,presumably to  kill her, she's nowhere to be found. I like to think she sent him a  text that said "Bye Felicia". LOL

Bedelia also goes to see Jack and basically tells him "don't call, don't text, don't email". She wants to get as far away from Hannibal as she can and who can blame her?

On some level, Bedelia must know/deduce that Will is playing Hannibal.

*Beverly says too much in front of Jack, and he knows that she's been to see Will(and he isn't happy..that's putting it mildly.) Helping a brother out is what gets her killed, ultimately.

*Meanwhile, Jack has to have a psych eval, and he is NOT happy about it. But maybe he should have thought about that before he pushed Will so hard. Seriously, there's a lot of people at the BAU that could stand to have a psych eval, but I think Jack is right at the top of the list.

*Hannibal deduces that the bodies were near a cornfield and we get Hannibal at a crime scene, ala Will.

*We see the human mural in all its glory, and Hannibal telling the mural killer "I love your work!"(I lol at that.Every.Time.) How convenient is it that Hannibal just happens to(presumably) be close to the crime scene when he gets a call from the BAU asking  for his help.

*There is a lot of talk of God, and of existential crises;We get a call back to "Killing must feel good to God too".

*Hannibal makes osso buco with the mural maker's leg.  I don't like Osso Buco and that doesn't help matters much.

*Will quotes Sesame Street when he tries to recreate the mural tableau "One of these things is not like the other, one of these things doesn't belong". 

*Kade claims she's  got  Will's best interest at heart. Riiight. Will has heard that before, so he's right to side eye anyone who says shit like that.

*Bedelia goes to visit Will  and tells Will that she believes him..she also gets close to Will as she dares.

Quotable:

Will: I am the unreliable narrator of my own story

Bedelia: The conclusion I've drawn is that you are dangerous

[there's no point in being mad at cancer for being cancer]

Timothy Spall was on Graham Norton's show talking about how back in 1996, doctors gave him 3 days to live. With all due respect, if doctors told me that I had 3 days to live, I would say "I'd like a second opinion". Turns out that he had leukaemia. 3 days went by and he was still around.

He said that it made him very philosophical, which I think happens a LOT when you're faced with a life-threatening illness. It struck a chord with me, because I am a 12-year cancer survivor. I probably had a lot less challenges than some, but in other ways(certain parts of my recovery were less than perfect),I really did. With hindsight, you realise that those were life experiences  were important.

With me,(at first)I didn't like the constant doctor's visits, having to get poked and prodded to find out what was going on.But after a few times of it,I was-for lack of a better word-blase about it. Which came in handy when I found out I was diabetic-that also involved a lot of doctor's visits and poking and prodding.

Anyways, when I hear stories like Timothy Spall's, I can relate, for sure. The subject line for this entry is from an episode of Hannibal where a character is talking about having cancer. It's so damn true that it hurts. Later on in the episode Hannibal says "You will feel fine,up until the precise moment you don't". With me, I had some symptoms, but felt fine otherwise. Fortunately,my cancer was caught early, I got surgery, and that was the end of it.

We're so much more fortunate now, I think. Early detection and going to the doctor are what saved my life.

 Cancers that used to kill a lot of people get caught earlier because of screenings and awareness.I know that was the case recently, with a family member.

[too much competition]

The Ralph's/ Kroger near my house is closing this weekend. I honestly am not all that surprised. The reason given that the store is closing is that it's a "underperforming" store. I suspect that there are other factors in play.

TBH, it's a big store crammed into a small one. Plus, it's cluttered! They put big displays in the middle of-and blocking-aisles.

I hope some of the people  who work at Ralph's are able to get jobs elsewhere-there's Frazier Farms, Smart and Final and Fresh And Easy(the competition of the subject line)
Ralph's is far from the only game around-but it is going to eliminate options for people in the area who only walk or take the bus.

Fortunately, I have a backup-I can go to the Vons on El Camino Real-slightly further from my house but they do have a good selection there so there's that. There are some things that I will miss about Ralph's though-their bakery was really good-their bread specifically.

If I don't want to take the bus, I can walk to the Walmart Marketside(a smaller footprint version of a Walmart store with  just groceries and the like). It's only a 10 minute walk from my house and I like to walk there, especially when the weather is nice(today would have been a perfect day to do it but I didn't)

[times(and things) change]

This should just be part of the Cruise Critic post Saturday but I decided to do it earlier.

Lovedamships, and its "sister" website, Lovedamships Review and-by extension Cruise Critic- are-more or less-dead. Lovedamships isn't updated regularly anymore, and Lovedamships  Review hasn't been updated for 2 plus years.

I think a lot of it has to do with the people at Lovedamships and Lovedamships Review realising that they were-at times-mean-spirited. I know I said some not-so-nice things on my Cruise Critic posts(boy did I ever!) but I've turned over a new leaf. I try not to name names if I can help it.

Unless Lovedamships starts going again, I see Lovedamships Review staying dead.

I want to point out some of the shit that goes on, but as I said,I 'm not naming names anymore.But if someone from Cruise Critic  saw something they had written quoted(but without their name)they would know it was them.

The reason that Lovedamships Review was so weird is it was people criticising things that were(IMO) petty.

Not everyone knows this, so here's some backstory:There is definitely a hierarchy at Cruise Critic.A sort of "speak when you're spoken to" sort of thing, you know? That sort of mentality is what has scared people off of cruising with Holland America.Add to that, all of the usual sticking points(dress code, smoking, etc.) and it's a tinderbox. If you dare to deviate and ask what they think is a stupid question.. gone.

Well, I mean you could stay-it's not  as if the people posting are in charge of who gets banned or not-but after having your ass handed to you, you won't want to stick around, trust me!

[weekend report]

Friday: Went to Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf. That was about the extent of my day. It was cooler and cloudy-appropriate weather for the day, I must say! I got a TON of trick-or-treaters-get this:I had 3 big bags of Costco candy and I got rid of all of it.

Saturday:The weather was inclement(rained on and off all day) so I stayed indoors for the most part.I did a couple of loads of laundry though.

Sunday: I went to the Laurence Welk Theater in Escondido with my mom and dad and my niece and nephews and saw a production of Oklahoma! It was really good-long-2 plus hours-but I loved it. Then we had a early dinner at In &Out Burger(the perfect end to the perfect day!)

[tastes great!]

I had a cup of French Roast coffee from Whole Foods recently-it had a lot of flavour going on:cocoa-ey, but with a sort of smoky finish. I wondered if that had anything to do with the fact I put agave(which I'd never tried before!) in it..it drew out the flavour, maybe?

Then, when I was visiting my brother we went to a restaraunt that served fried chicken with honey on top of it, and cheese grits. It was an amazingly delicious combo!

Also, Canes' chicken..their Canes sauce is *addictive*. And all it is is Mayo, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. My sister in law was worried I wouldn't like it, but I totally did!

Hoisin sauce is another favourite condiment of mine. It's a standard at Vietnamese restaraunts..I like to put it in Pho..gives it a pop of  flavour along with the wedge of lime. I love the salty/sweet  thing that Hoisin's got going!

I  have tried Ethiopian berbere spice a couple of times.. I love spicy food, but that..it just keeps going and going.

[how about..no]

I could do without the "those ugly(non-Holland America) ships are blocking our view"-type posts on the sailaway threads.People are entitled to their opinion but it just comes off as..searches for a word and settles on "bitchy".

See also: the  "Eat in your cabin or the Lido if you're not going to dress up for formal night" comments that always crop up in EVERY dress code thread.It's become *such* a thing that someone on a dress code thread basically said "and don't say "eat in your cabin".

If you ask me,it's demeaning.And more than a little offensive, too.

[S2 Ep1: Kaiseki]

*The first part of S2 is the textbook definition of "it got worse".

*The showdown in the kitchen is balls.to.the.wall.

*Murasaki reference!

*Will's memory palace-fly fishing--of course. But that damn Nightmare Stag shows up!

*Will is trying to block out Chilton(can't say I blame him-if I were Will,I would too! :P)There was a really good fic where Chilton was doing all sorts of unethical shit to Will.

*Will wants to talk to Hannibal..how about.. NO. Actually, how about HELL NO.

*Kade Purnell(Ugh..hoping that she gets called out bigtime in S3)

*The people soup-guh-ross!(right up there with the mushroom people, TBH)

*Hannidelia- their relationship is so interesting to me.She tells Hannibal "You are obsessed with Will Graham". No.Shit.

*Will sees Hanni's shadow as a deer's leg/hoof. Unsubtle and unsettling. And Will's inner voice sounds like Hannibal's. That damn gaslighting.And he does it to Will whilst he's in the mental hospital.Lovely.

*Hannibal at the BAU is the proverbial fox in the henhouse-at this point they don't suspect him. Hannibal gaslights Team Sassy Science, too.

*Alana takes Will's dogs back to his house-which I'm glad to see-they need to have that normalcy..but Winston goes back there on his own..He's  very sensitive..on a level with his owner.

*Alana hypnotises Will-Chilton listens in. Alana hypnotises Will-the light bar thing that Alana has is supposed to evoke the light beam Will sees when he recreates crimes. Alana turns into inky!Alana- freaky!

*Roland Umber gets abducted-that's a well-used trope but Hannibal manages to do it quite well.

*Bev goes to visit Will(without telling Jack first, who would *definitely* yell at her if she told him what she was going to do) and Will figures out that the people represent a colour palette.

*Will is eating salisbury steak(gotta love institutional food) when he remembers what happened to him. That is one of the hardest scenes to watch.Like ever.And this is Hannibal we're talking about!

*Will is in his happy place but gets interrupted by Jack. GDI jack, can't you let Will have his happy place? JFC.

*The mural victim is very..attached.(sorry, not sorry. Us Fannibals LOVE our puns.)

Quotable:

Will: I'm going to remember, Dr. Lecter. And when I do,there will be a reckoning.

Beverly:You're not a suspect. You're the new Will Graham

Will: You may not believe me now.. but you will.

[every day is halloween]

I've used that subject line every year. It's become something of a tradition, if you will.I love Halloween. It's so much different than when I was a kid, though.We'd go out for a long time and in a not very well lit area. I doubt my parents(if I was a kid now) would let me do that,

Looking at pictures of me as a kid, I can tell what year it was because of the costumes-my brother is Darth Vader? it's 1977.

My favourite Halloween candy(in no particular order)

Reese's peanut butter cups

Peanut M&M's

Milky Way

Twix

3 Musketeers

[sad, but a must-see at the same time]

I wanted to do a separate post just about  this..whilst I was in Oklahoma City I went to the Bombing Memorial museum. A very sad part of history, but one well worth seeing if you are ever in Oklahoma City.

You go to the top floor and it shows how it was just a normal day, almost 20 years ago(April 19th 1995). Then you walk into a room which represents a similar room where a meeting was going on right across the street from the Murrah building. You hear the recording of the meeting, then all of a sudden there's an explosion and they flash up pictures of all of the victims.

Then you go  to the second floor and it takes you through the minutes, hours, and days after the bombing,the investigation and the arrest of Timothy VcVeigh and Terry Nichols.

What's jarring is the effects-glasses,purses and the like-recovered from the rubble. They have a clock that is permanently frozen at 9:02, the exact moment of the bombing.

There's a lookout point where you can stand and look at the memorial-a chair for each person who died.

[meme time]

What's in your pocket? Right now? nothing.Usually change.Or my keys.

What's the best thing about summer? NGL:Lemonade and iced tea.

Have you ever felt completely lost?Oh yes.

Do you shower daily?I prefer baths.

Do you have any siblings?Two brothers, both older.

What's your favourite drink? Flavoured sparkling water.

How do you like your eggs?Scrambled.With lots of Tabasco and corn tortillas.

Do you own a digital camera?Yes.

What's your favourite season?Fall.

Is anyone's birthday coming up?My nephew Eddie's. He turns 14 on November 11th.

How many armchairs are in your house?3. 2 in the living room and one in my computer room.

Are you something of a perfectionist? In a word, yes.LOL.

Do you like sour candy?Yes!

Which one do you go on more?Myspace,Facebook or Twitter? Twitter. I have so many issues with Facebook it's not even funny.

Why do you go on that one more?Because it's just a personal preference.I'll leave it at that.

Which are better?Sweaters or hoodies?Hoodies.

What was your least favourite year of life so far? 7th Grade.

Is there anything your absolutely have to have in your wardrobe? Hoodies.T-shirts. Pajama pants.I only wear those at home, as comfy as some of the ones I own are!

Do you feel you can really get a good idea of someone's personality just by their survey answers? Yeah.

[one silkwood shower, please]

I had notes for this, but this is the sort of thing that I do better when I sort of do it off the top of my head, and for that reason, it's going to be a bit all over the place.I'm so sorry.

The TL:DR version of the story is this:Emily Rose, who is part of the Supernatural fandom, got kicked out of a con(convention). Her crime?A tweet of hers that was a pop culture reference. Said tweet was taken to the bodyguard of two of the show's actor's. It was perceived as a threat,

To be fair, the bodyguard was just doing his job(and I agree with the people that say we shouldn't send him hate). But the fact that they didn't do their due dillegence before acting in the manner they did is disturbing.

However, the back story behind this(that it was some fellow fans who have a beef with Emily that did this) I find disturbing. The bodyguard(and the organisers of the con) just assumed that she was a threat-and she wasn't! The convention organisers have claimed that they are "looking into it" and that they will make some sort of statement eventually. They know they're guilty, and don't want to admit it..they're trying to stall whilst they think of some way to spin this that doesn't make them look like douchebags. I want to hear the bodyguard's side of the story.

Oh and another thing? This *isn't* the first(or the last) time that the Supernatural fandom has gone a bit 'splodey(and probably won't be the last, either.)

Emily has some unorthodox opinions about ships, which has made her a lot of enemies.I don't mind shippers(hell,I'm a Hannigram shipper, but I don't make a big deal about it.

The time when it becomes a problem is when it starts affecting the show(House had Huddy shippers, who made it impossible to enjoy the show at a certain point. If you didn't like Huddy, it was like GTFO of the fandom. Really. And when the writers of the show ended that ship,it was like a cyber- angry mob with pitchforks. And they're still upset about it 3 years later. I can understand it when it initially happened, but holding a grudge? for that long?However, that's just my opinion/take on it and your mileage may vary.

[weekend report(with added thursday content)]

Thursday: I flew to Oklahoma City. Can i just say that the TSA pre-screening(where you don't have to take your shoes off, etc.) is the best thing ever? I got to Oklahoma City, hung out with him and my sister-in-law and bonded with her Frenchie Clarence.

Then we went over to my sister-in-law's parents' house so my brother could open his birthday gifts(it was his birthday). For dinner we went to a place called The Ranch which was a very high-end steak house.

Friday: My brother and I went to Panera. Then we went to the mall so I could pick out a Christmas present at Pandora(the charm store) I hung out at the mall for a few hours then came home. Dinner was at Kevin Durant(a basketball player for the OKC Thunder)'s restaraunt. It was really nice-they have menus that light up when you open them. I ordered honey chicken which came with cheese grits which were delicious. And since we were in the neighbourhood we had to hit up Bass Pro Shops.

Saturday:Panera(again), and Sam's Club. Later on(since I'd never been there and wanted to go to a museum) we checked out the Oklahoma City Bombing museum. It's a must-see.
My sister-in-law tried her hand at making pretzels which turned out really good. Dinner was home-cooked(chops). Then we watched 3 episodes of Hannibal which they really liked.

Sunday:Church, and Tex Mex food afterwards. Tex Mex food is so good but it's quite a bit different than Mexican food in California. I wanted to find a Christmas gift for Clarence so we went to Petsmart(and took him with us-I think he was a little overwhelmed!)

After dinner, we watched 3 more episodes of Hannibal :)

[volunteering for health work in countries with ebola..]

Should come with a caveat. You *will* be quarantined. If you don't like it, tough. It's a matter of public health/safety. Not only that, you, health workers, should know  better than to complain about this. You really freaking should.

Thankfully everyone(save for Thomas Duncan) got help early enough that they recovered/are recovering.

Luckily,we're getting a better understanding of how this thing works(and getting better treatments for  it and, hopefully, by next year, a vaccine.)

One of the reasons that we've been able to keep this under control is because we have excellent medical care here. We could definitely use some improvements when it comes to quarantining people with Ebola,but we're doing better. This is going to be a way of life for a while so we need to just get used to it.

Seriously, I was so freaked out  at one point that I did not want to go on the plane. But you know what? I thought "why get freaked out about this?"

[things and cruise critic stuff]

*HAL(Holland America) is contemplating going to  all anytime dining-and people are not happy.There are a lot of people who prefer to do things the "old school"..I won't be surprised if they do so-they want to be in the 21st century, and this is a time when a lot of cruise lines are doing away with the MDR(main dining room) and offering only restaraunts of various sorts on their ships. I kinda like that idea.

Too many people have this image of cruising as being something out of Titanic. Is that a generalisation? probably, but imma say it anyways.

*We get it: Pajama pants(and hats, though there are legit reasons to be wearing a hat in the MDR) are a no-no.

*Putting your feet up on the spot in between slot machines is rude.-I'll agree, it is,but I can see why some people do it-it's a comfort thing.

Several people admitted they do it-which doesn't surprise me all that much(see also: taking  an elevator to go up one flight of stairs.) We all know what happens when you assume, LOL.

It just goes to show just how tightly wound some people at Cruise Critic are about certain things.They just don't think before they post.

[S1 Ep 13 Savoureux]

*Will out in the woods hunting,with the bullroarer sound effect(which crops up again later on in the episode) is truly scary.And I don't get scared easily. Then we realize that it's a dream sequence, with the camera distorting slightly..and Will goes into the kitchen and throws up an ear.

*Of course, he calls Hannibal, who is Mr. Helpful(NOT!!)

*The Ravenstag/Wendigo imagery has been prominent,in case it wasn't clear that the Ravenstag/Wendigo represents Hannibal.


*Poor Will. They cart him off and Winston is so confused. Winstooooooon!

*Jack is such a jerk, and it doesn't get better 'till most of the way through S2. He pushed Will. Yes, he did.Alana has every right to go off on him. The scene where she loses her shit in her car is masterful. She's the one who takes care of Will's dogs whilst he's in the mental hospital(and adopts one of her own-I would have loved to have heard the backstory behind her adopting Applesauce(her dog's name).

*Beverly is skeptical(though she *is* the one who goes to bat for Will and well...

*Will looks so unsurprised when Alana asks him to draw a clock.

*Hannibal's fake ass tears  when he talks about Will with Bedelia.. *seethes* Hannibal has Bedelia wrapped around his little finger..

*Hannibal is the world's best frame up artist with the lures(and yet they don't find any of Hannibal's DNA from when he stuck himself? WTF.

*Will gets Mirandized. Oh Will. Oh honey.

*After the end of S2 there should be no doubt about what Hannibal is.In this episode  though, they're drinking Hannibal's Kool-Aid.

*The look Hannibal gets on his face when Alana mentions encephalitis.. if looks could kill..

*Will escapes and hangs out at Hannibal's. He's starting to put things together. He and Hannibal go back to Minnesota and that's where  the showdown happens. Again, we get the bullroarer(with very creepy effect, again) and Will gets shot we get a callback to the pilot with Will in the same spot Garrett Jacob Hobbs was killed saying " See? See?" and he sees Hannibal as the wendigo. We get another callback to the pilot with Hannibal and Jack sitting on either side of Will's hospital bed just like Will and Hannibal did with Abigail.

*Bedelia knows Hannibal.She knows him very well.She probably-no, definitely-knows what she's eating is people.

*That final scene where Hannibal visits Will... Say it with me: "Hannibal, you ASSHOLE!!"

Quotable:
Will: I stared at Hobbs; and the space opposite  me assumed the shape of a man filled with dark swarming flies.Then I scattered them.