Pew!

It's very stinky voggy here. Vog is sulfuric volcanic smog. It is not doing my heart condition much good. It's raining in a dreary way, not our usual trades but a storm coming from the other direction, from the Northwest.

However things are going well, over-all. The meds are working; my blood pressure has come down and my pulse is not skipping so much, although it's still bumpy. I had a nice nap this afternoon with the cat on my chest, which was very comforting.

And I got that League of Women Voters newsletter done, a task that had been worrying me. Next time it will be easier. Gathering material, formatting, making up the e-mail list, printing out and mailing a copy to the holdout who will not use the Internet, even though all she would have to do is go to the library and open up an e-mail account...

I have seen so many of these newsletters, and they don't pass the readability test, so that is what I concentrated on. There were short bios of members, an obituary and reminiscences about one of our most honored members, Helene Hale, news from National, along with the meat and potatoes stuff. I'm trying to get across the notion of a group of members connected by relationships and common interests, instead of constantly exhorting people to be more noble than they obviously already are, or just putting in boring stuff that no one really cares about!`

And, since running around is not an option, and Wolf Hall was bogging me down, I have been reading a rather good young adult novel, Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell.  It would have comforted me a lot to have had literature like this available when I was young. It got a positive review in the NY Times. I did like the characters very much. And the atmosphere was  familiar to me, because I lived in the kind of situation depicted in this novel in my teen years. Not as dire, perhaps, but it felt the same. It's tough not to be popular. Not to have nice clothes. To be living under a family tyranny. It seems that some things never change.

And I enjoyed Daughters of Fire by Tom Peek, too. It's a real treat to read, especially if you live here or if you have a special interest in the Big Island of Hawaii. A lot of local places and people are mentioned in a fictionalized way, but it it easy to figure them out. The action is set in the near future. I wouldn't want to spoil the ending by telling what happens, but it's exciting, above all for volcano lovers!

And we are watching a lot of Monk episodes. We just enjoyed an episode about Monks' aversion to male bonding around sports. He hates being touched, so full body hugs from other guys really send him over the edge. Also, I had never seen the original 1990 House of Cards, the BBC mini-series. Which is better: the new series on Netflix starring Kevin Spacey or the original series (also available on Netflix download)? Some might say that you can't improve on perfection, so why bother with a remake? In the words of Francis Urquhart, "You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment." But I'll comment anyway. I thought the original evoked exactly a certain kind of British horridness (Is that a word?). It's very Shakespearean. Americans are never like that. The smiler with the shiv, a modern Iago. A fabulous monster. I love it!!

Comments

[Brandon]

"...horridness (Is that a word?)"

Yes.

[wisewebwoman]

Oh that vog sounds wretched and poor old lungs must be hard to process it.

I watched a few seasons of Monk in the past. Quite interesting but like a lot of these series it jumped the shark season 3? 4? House did the same thing.

I am completely swept away by Breaking Bad and have watched 4 seasons now and the character development has to be the best I've ever seen.

XO
WWW

[Maria]

There are two things about the British system which still confuse me: their education system and their political system. A lot of the education confusion is around the terminology (sixth form, A-levels, etc.). On the politics, I don't understand how they "call" elections, how they share the government based on those elections, and why they catcall at each other in parliament. I have watched so much BBC tv, I should have it figured out by now, but I don't.

Anyway, the point is, a lot of the Byzantine maneuverings in the original Brit House of Cards went over my head. I loved the first half of the American series, but the last half was over the top.

[TheQueen]

We watched the American HofC pilot so far. I might have seen the british one in the 90s: but the only thing I remember is the last scene, when the poilitician writes "VOTE" in the steam on his bathroom window. If that's not how it ends then I have no idea what I watched.

[Cop Car]

Most TV series eventually lose me because they become so predictable. If they are predictable, why watch? For that reason, I haven't watched Monk in some time - and I stopped watching the modern-day version of Sherlock (I can't recall its title just now) after three or four episodes. As the little girl says to the presenters at the Ignobel Prize award ceremonies: Please stop. I'm bored!

[Hattie]

WWW: Monk was never the same after Sharona left. But there are occasional good episodes. And I do like Stottlemeyer. He's like the grumpy verson of "Coach."
I will watch Breaking Bad, because my husband's chemist cousin points out that you had better watch it when chemists go bad!
Maria: It's a bunch of old boy networks, I think. I'm just fascinated with Urquhart. You could say he was like Cheney, but Cheney can't fake being decent: he can't smile and smile and be a villain.
Queen: I watched the first few minutes of the pilot and decided it was too violent. Even though I like Kevin Spacey.
Cop Car: We go through phases. Sometimes we watch a lot of these things, and sometimes we go for days and weeks without watching any of this stuff at all.

[Toni]

While sitting here in San Diego waiting for the RV to get its tune up i watched the entire 14 episodes of Firefly plus the movie, 'Serenity' on Netflix. i am not a sci-fi follower but I sure enjoyed this--a combination of space ships and cowboys with lots of humor tossed into the mix. I especially enjoyed the treatment of the women in it--Joss Whedon is a professed feminist and he created some very nice heroines here. I was planning on 'House of Cards' next. And I am a 'Breaking Bad' fanatic and can hardly wait for the last episodes to get here. The character studies in that series would make a whole college course. I do worry about the Vog--I know it bothers my sister, also.

[Hattie]

I loved Firefly! As did my daughter. Since everyone raves about Breaking Bad I'll give it another try. I was too worried about what those people were up to and how out of control they were. But its just TV, right?