[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.