I have been watching a fair amount of Netflix television, the sort that comes as a single season of four to eight episodes, once referred to as a miniseries. A lot of them have been smart murder mysteries and/or political thrillers, and a lot of them have come from the UK or Australia. Mindhunter, Secret City, Bodyguard, Marcella, The Kominsky Method, Shetland, and Pine Gap. Their biggest strength has been that they are well-written. I’ve also been watching the Ken Burns’ The Vietnam War, which has been informative and made me re-think things I already knew.
Speaking of Pine Gap, Tess Haubrich. Yowzers. A tall, broad-shouldered brunette. In Pine Gap, she is presented with a fairly natural look, and an adorable bob. Looking her up, there are mostly photos of her dressed in black and wearing bright red lipstick, much of which has her in longer, more traditional hair. I have to say, I prefer her Pine Gap look, where she is striking and unique. Her Hollywood glam look seems rather run-of-the-mill by comparison. Anyway, I may need to go watch her in some other things. An Alien film I hadn’t seen? A small part in The Wolverine I’ll have to look for? Yes, please.
The Consuming Fire, the second installment in John Scalzi’s Interdependency series, was pretty good. After putting David Weber on hold for four years, I read Flag in Exile, which fairly well nailed the coffin shut for him. I love the central character, but most of his characters, particularly the villains, are terribly two-dimensional. His formula is as obvious and predictable as ever. And he doesn’t know the difference between “insure” and “ensure”.
My Kindle, the original Paperwhite, is disturbingly slow, undoubtedly because of updates installed on it. I’ve been thinking about upgrading. My options right now are a Paperwhite 4 or an Oasis 2. The Paperwhite 4 has a clearer screen, is waterproof, and is probably faster. The Oasis 2 is also waterproof and has a slightly larger screen, but the screen size is still smaller than a mass-market paperback, it actually has less battery life, and it has a goofy shape for which I can’t get a decent cover. I would have to shell out $150 or $250. Meanwhile, books for Kindle tend to cost 10-25% more than physical books, and I can’t easily lend them to anyone. I’ve already been buying paperback when it’s cheaper than electronic, partly out of protest. However, I am beginning to warm up to the idea of ditching e-books completely. It was a great idea that failed in execution, and I don’t see any reason I should continue to coddle Amazon.
Which leaves me to wonder again about local independent booksellers. There are so few around. There are a couple that I still need to try.
For Thanksgiving this year, I repeated the tradition I set out last year. The stuffing recipe was much better this year. Someday perhaps I will perfect it. I just finished baking another pumpkin pie, because once a year is just not enough for pumpkin pie.
I bought a Cricut Maker, which I have wanted to get for a little while, especially after my experience with 3D printing. I finally got it to make sign lettering as set decoration for a short film. (I made the letters, but then we ended up not using them.) I will probably use it for making binder covers and book marks, and I’m thinking about making gift tags right now.
