On this day and a few days before I watched the latest episode of
Survivor where the editors again tried to pretend that Carolyn was in
danger while also including points where Yam Yam and Carson where
alone and saying they have to stay together with Carolyn. Also there
were bits included that felt like a setup for why Carolyn is going to
win this season. Of course as expected the natural target, Jamie, was
the one to leave the show.

Locke and Key S01e02 Trapper Keeper

The young boy finds another key but it doesn't open any doors.
However he sees a keyhole open up in a shop keeper's neck but
doesn't get to try the key. He does manage to get a number of other
keys for his trap to try and catch the 'woman' that stole the
anywhere key.

Meanwhile the mom discovers that what her husband told her about
his child hood wasn't completely accurate. Instead of being a loner
he had a group of friends until some of them died in some sort of
drowning accident. Also the woman from the well returns and threatens
the young child unless he finds more keys for her.

I also watched FBI where we didn't get Maggie being extra 'woke' this
episode, but we did get an episode questioning how an Agent can be
faithful to their religion while undercover with a newish Muslim Agent
working undercover to shut down a gang involved in money laundering
and possibly drug dealing.

I'll cover it separately but I also got to the first (or first two
depending on what you watch) episodes of Ascension. The series about
mankind's first mission to another planet from back in the 60s.

On 2023-05-18 04:43:15 +0000, shawn said:

> On this day and a few days before I watched the latest episode of
> Survivor where the editors again tried to pretend that Carolyn was in
> danger while also including points where Yam Yam and Carson where
> alone and saying they have to stay together with Carolyn. Also there
> were bits included that felt like a setup for why Carolyn is going to
> win this season. Of course as expected the natural target, Jamie, was
> the one to leave the show.
>
>
> Locke and Key S01e02 Trapper Keeper
> [snip]
>
> I'll cover it separately but I also got to the first (or first two
> depending on what you watch) episodes of Ascension. The series about
> mankind's first mission to another planet from back in the 60s.

Uh, you mean the *2014* miniseries *set* in the 1960s, right?! ;p

And!

You forgot to ask!! :p

> What did you watch?!

:)

--
"Who would ever do this to him!?" - HottCiara on DOOL (04-27-2020), asking
who would stab Victor Kirakis... How about ANYONE WHO'S EVER MET HIM??!!

On Wed, 17 May 2023 22:01:24 -0700, Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid>
wrote:

>On 2023-05-18 04:43:15 +0000, shawn said:
>
>> On this day and a few days before I watched the latest episode of
>> Survivor where the editors again tried to pretend that Carolyn was in
>> danger while also including points where Yam Yam and Carson where
>> alone and saying they have to stay together with Carolyn. Also there
>> were bits included that felt like a setup for why Carolyn is going to
>> win this season. Of course as expected the natural target, Jamie, was
>> the one to leave the show.
>>
>>
>> Locke and Key S01e02 Trapper Keeper
>> [snip]
>>
>> I'll cover it separately but I also got to the first (or first two
>> depending on what you watch) episodes of Ascension. The series about
>> mankind's first mission to another planet from back in the 60s.
>
>Uh, you mean the *2014* miniseries *set* in the 1960s, right?! ;p

Yes.

>And!
>
>You forgot to ask!! :p
>
>> What did you watch?!
>
>:)
I did but you didn't tell me. Though the question is right there in
the Subject for everyone to see. "What Did You Watch?"

shawn <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com> wrote:
>
> I also watched FBI where we didn't get Maggie being extra 'woke' this
> episode, but we did get an episode questioning how an Agent can be
> faithful to their religion while undercover with a newish Muslim Agent
> working undercover to shut down a gang involved in money laundering
> and possibly drug dealing.

Brand new agents also aren't put into deep cover assignments like that. He
said it was his first time which was ridiculous. You start with limited UC
roles in one-time buy-busts and the like and work your way toward a
long-term deep cover assignment. Despite the Hollywood 'drama' of it, no
one goes full Donnie Brasco right out of the academy.

As for him refusing to take a drink, that would absolutely have been
addressed long before he went undercover. If you can't do something as
ubiquitous in American society as have a drink-- for whatever reason, be it
religion, recovering alcoholic, medical, etc.-- then you don't get to be a
UC. Simple as that. There are a million other jobs you can do in the FBI
and not everyone is cut out for UC work, either physically or
psychologically. I never did it myself because I just never felt
comfortable in that kind of situation. A Muslim who's so religiously rigid
that he can't drink or who has to stop right in the middle of partying with
his Albanian mob targets to pray in the middle of the afternoon would
simply not be eligible for UC work from the get-go.

The scene where everyone gave him shit for hesitating to shoot the crime
boss was also silly. I wouldn't have shot, either. The boss was running
away at that point. You can't shoot a fleeing suspect in the back. That's
what is generally called murder.

One thing I've noticed on all these FBI shows is that not only do the
various hero teams treat local cops and even other federal agents (DEA,
ICE, etc.) with distrust, but they don't even seem to much trust other FBI
agents, either. It's as if they all think they're the only FBI agents worth
a damn and everyone else has to prove themselves worthy.

On Thu, 18 May 2023 08:12:04 +0000, BTR1701 <no_email@invalid.invalid>
wrote:

>shawn <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com> wrote:
>>
>> I also watched FBI where we didn't get Maggie being extra 'woke' this
>> episode, but we did get an episode questioning how an Agent can be
>> faithful to their religion while undercover with a newish Muslim Agent
>> working undercover to shut down a gang involved in money laundering
>> and possibly drug dealing.
>
>Brand new agents also aren't put into deep cover assignments like that. He
>said it was his first time which was ridiculous. You start with limited UC
>roles in one-time buy-busts and the like and work your way toward a
>long-term deep cover assignment. Despite the Hollywood 'drama' of it, no
>one goes full Donnie Brasco right out of the academy.

What do you mean that an agent fresh out of the academy won't be put
into a deep cover assignment? I thought that was common which was how
we got the occasional agent pulled out before they finish their
training to go into a special assignment.

>As for him refusing to take a drink, that would absolutely have been
>addressed long before he went undercover. If you can't do something as
>ubiquitous in American society as have a drink-- for whatever reason, be it
>religion, recovering alcoholic, medical, etc.-- then you don't get to be a
>UC. Simple as that. There are a million other jobs you can do in the FBI
>and not everyone is cut out for UC work, either physically or
>psychologically.

Yeah, that was my immediate thought when he was first having his talk
with Omar about the difficulties he was having. It's not like everyone
in the FBI has to work undercover and yet he was treating as either he
does the UC work and compromises his beliefs or he is out of the FBI.
The idea that he hadn't given a thought to his being asked to have a
drink before and how to address it didn't make sense to me. There are
legitimate answers he could have given as to why he didn't want to
drink that don't get into his being a Muslim, but he should have been
prepared for that ahead of time.

>I never did it myself because I just never felt
>comfortable in that kind of situation. A Muslim who's so religiously rigid
>that he can't drink or who has to stop right in the middle of partying with
>his Albanian mob targets to pray in the middle of the afternoon would
>simply not be eligible for UC work from the get-go.

I think the not drinking could be worked around (maybe a drunken set
of parents that turned him off the stuff or something like that) but
the need to pray on a schedule would be a problem in every case except
if he were infiltrating a mosque. There's just no way to work around
that issue.

>The scene where everyone gave him shit for hesitating to shoot the crime
>boss was also silly. I wouldn't have shot, either. The boss was running
>away at that point. You can't shoot a fleeing suspect in the back. That's
>what is generally called murder.
>
>One thing I've noticed on all these FBI shows is that not only do the
>various hero teams treat local cops and even other federal agents (DEA,
>ICE, etc.) with distrust, but they don't even seem to much trust other FBI
>agents, either. It's as if they all think they're the only FBI agents worth
>a damn and everyone else has to prove themselves worthy.

That's certainly true. Which I guess is the writer(s) wanting to think
of themselves as being the only people worthy so that's what the
characters they create become.

On gaming night, I watched:

Nothing.

What did you watch?

--
Let's go Brandon!

On 2023-05-18 05:01:24 +0000, Ian J. Ball said:

> On 2023-05-18 04:43:15 +0000, shawn said:
>
>> On this day and a few days before I watched the latest episode of
>> Survivor where the editors again tried to pretend that Carolyn was in
>> danger while also including points where Yam Yam and Carson where
>> alone and saying they have to stay together with Carolyn. Also there
>> were bits included that felt like a setup for why Carolyn is going to
>> win this season. Of course as expected the natural target, Jamie, was
>> the one to leave the show.
>>
>>
>> Locke and Key S01e02 Trapper Keeper
>> [snip]
>>
>> I'll cover it separately but I also got to the first (or first two
>> depending on what you watch) episodes of Ascension. The series about
>> mankind's first mission to another planet from back in the 60s.
>
> Uh, you mean the *2014* miniseries *set* in the 1960s, right?! ;p
>
> And!
>
> You forgot to ask!! :p
>
>> What did you watch?!

Well, thank you for asking!! :p

I originally planned for Wednesday to be a "free day" for me, but I
ended up sacrificing it to get more grading done, so my grading for the
year can just be *done*. In that respect, yesterday was successful as I
got through a lot of my remaining grading stack. But I didn't get to
watch anything, not even the HBO Max stuff in "UHDTV" (which I am
running out of time on!!).

It is now looking like Friday and Saturday will be completely, or
nearly completely, "free days" for me.

So, yesterday, as has been the recent pattern while grading, I only got
through soaps:

soaps: DOOL - Wed's ep. Sloan gets all indignant, and lies! when Eric
suggests that maybe her EVOL!!1! brother is targetting Paulina and
Chanel. The EVOL!!1! brother and EVOL! Talia change locations, one step
ahead of Rafe and Jada. Rafe figures out to look in Scotland Yard
records for the EVOL!!1! dude's rap sheet. Silly DA Melinda Trask wants
Abe to fire Rafe, and replace him with... Paulina! but Abe refuses.
Chloe is about 5 seconds away from jumping Xander!
GH - Tues' eo. For once, in a Nina-Carly face-off, I didn't think
Carly was being the unreasonable one. Diane Miller and Holly Sutton
have a heart-to-heart chat over Robert Scorpio! With Cody's secret
help, Sasha thrwarts the EVOL!!1! home shopping network host played by
Morgan Fairchild(!!) - the host is later threatened legally, by Lucy
Coe, and physically, by Cody! Selina Wu seeks to leverage dumb Gladys
somehow (to steal from Sasha?!). But Sasha wants to end the
conservatorship.

Recorded for later: Just GH.

--
"Who would ever do this to him!?" - HottCiara on DOOL (04-27-2020), asking
who would stab Victor Kirakis... How about ANYONE WHO'S EVER MET HIM??!!

Stargate SG-1, S5E03 'Ascension' (DVD)
"SG-1 finds a weapon on planet 616. As Carter is inspecting it, a spirit
alien interacts with her. But Carter passes out. So the alien follows
them back through the Stargate. Hammond believes there may be something
wrong with Carter and sends her home. The alien takes the form of a man
and calls himself Orlin. He lives with Carter for a while and the rest
of SG-1 think she's going crazy. In time Orlin and Carter fall in love.
But the pentagon finds out about the alien and surround Carter's house."

This Q's first visit to SGC. ;)

Major Samantha Carter: You made it?
Orlin: You wouldn't believe the things that you can make from the
common, simple items lying around your planet. Which reminds me, you're
going to need a new microwave.

Dr. Daniel Jackson: I agree with Sam. We don't know enough about what
happened on that planet, yet.
Colonel Frank Simmons: Need I remind you, Dr. Jackson, of the dangers
that we're trying to defend Earth against?
Dr. Daniel Jackson: [sarcastic] Oh, uh, could you? I mean, go slow.

Major Samantha Carter: There is nothing wrong with me.
Dr. Janet Fraiser: At least consider what you've been through the last
few years. You've had a Tok'ra symbiote die in your brain, your memory
has been stamped, and your entire consciousness has been transferred out
of your body and into a computer and then back again and that is just
for starters. Eventually it has to take its toll.

Goof/Revealing Mistake: Sean Patrick Flannery's hairpiece is obvious
throughout the series. If Orlen is an Ascended being, he really
shouldn't have to wear a toupee.

Commentary by Martin Wood (director), Amanda Tapping and James Tichenor
(FX supervisor). Part of the impetus behind this episode was the fans
on the internet asking for more about the characters' personal lives and
homes. Some of the furnishings in Carter's house were items fans had
sent to Tapping and Tapping's family photos.

-----------------

What Did You Watch?

On 5/17/2023 10:13 PM, shawn wrote:
> On Wed, 17 May 2023 22:01:24 -0700, Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid>
> wrote:
>
>> On 2023-05-18 04:43:15 +0000, shawn said:
>>
>>> On this day and a few days before I watched the latest episode of
>>> Survivor where the editors again tried to pretend that Carolyn was in
>>> danger while also including points where Yam Yam and Carson where
>>> alone and saying they have to stay together with Carolyn. Also there
>>> were bits included that felt like a setup for why Carolyn is going to
>>> win this season. Of course as expected the natural target, Jamie, was
>>> the one to leave the show.
>>>
>>>
>>> Locke and Key S01e02 Trapper Keeper
>>> [snip]
>>>
>>> I'll cover it separately but I also got to the first (or first two
>>> depending on what you watch) episodes of Ascension. The series about
>>> mankind's first mission to another planet from back in the 60s.
>>
>> Uh, you mean the *2014* miniseries *set* in the 1960s, right?! ;p
>
> Yes.
>
>> And!
>>
>> You forgot to ask!! :p
>>
>>> What did you watch?!
>>
>> :)
> I did but you didn't tell me. Though the question is right there in
> the Subject for everyone to see. "What Did You Watch?"

I've told him the exact same thing!!

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

In article <30ob6ill49sekc2do2tru906mr8icjprul@4ax.com>,
shawn <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 18 May 2023 08:12:04 +0000, BTR1701 <no_email@invalid.invalid>
> wrote:
>
> >shawn <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> I also watched FBI where we didn't get Maggie being extra 'woke' this
> >> episode, but we did get an episode questioning how an Agent can be
> >> faithful to their religion while undercover with a newish Muslim Agent
> >> working undercover to shut down a gang involved in money laundering
> >> and possibly drug dealing.
> >
> >Brand new agents also aren't put into deep cover assignments like that. He
> >said it was his first time which was ridiculous. You start with limited UC
> >roles in one-time buy-busts and the like and work your way toward a
> >long-term deep cover assignment. Despite the Hollywood 'drama' of it, no
> >one goes full Donnie Brasco right out of the academy.
>
> What do you mean that an agent fresh out of the academy won't be put
> into a deep cover assignment? I thought that was common which was how
> we got the occasional agent pulled out before they finish their
> training to go into a special assignment.

Yeah, those amazing agents who are always "top of their class in the
academy" despite their being no class rankings with federal law
enforcement recruits. It's all pass/fail. There's no valedictorian.

> >As for him refusing to take a drink, that would absolutely have been
> >addressed long before he went undercover. If you can't do something as
> >ubiquitous in American society as have a drink-- for whatever reason, be it
> >religion, recovering alcoholic, medical, etc.-- then you don't get to be a
> >UC. Simple as that. There are a million other jobs you can do in the FBI
> >and not everyone is cut out for UC work, either physically or
> >psychologically.
>
> Yeah, that was my immediate thought when he was first having his talk
> with Omar about the difficulties he was having. It's not like everyone
> in the FBI has to work undercover and yet he was treating as either he
> does the UC work and compromises his beliefs or he is out of the FBI.
> The idea that he hadn't given a thought to his being asked to have a
> drink before and how to address it didn't make sense to me. There are
> legitimate answers he could have given as to why he didn't want to
> drink that don't get into his being a Muslim, but he should have been
> prepared for that ahead of time.
>
>
> >I never did it myself because I just never felt
> >comfortable in that kind of situation. A Muslim who's so religiously rigid
> >that he can't drink or who has to stop right in the middle of partying with
> >his Albanian mob targets to pray in the middle of the afternoon would
> >simply not be eligible for UC work from the get-go.
>
> I think the not drinking could be worked around (maybe a drunken set
> of parents that turned him off the stuff or something like that) but
> the need to pray on a schedule would be a problem in every case except
> if he were infiltrating a mosque. There's just no way to work around
> that issue.
>
>
> >The scene where everyone gave him shit for hesitating to shoot the crime
> >boss was also silly. I wouldn't have shot, either. The boss was running
> >away at that point. You can't shoot a fleeing suspect in the back. That's
> >what is generally called murder.
> >
> >One thing I've noticed on all these FBI shows is that not only do the
> >various hero teams treat local cops and even other federal agents (DEA,
> >ICE, etc.) with distrust, but they don't even seem to much trust other FBI
> >agents, either. It's as if they all think they're the only FBI agents worth
> >a damn and everyone else has to prove themselves worthy.
>
> That's certainly true. Which I guess is the writer(s) wanting to think
> of themselves as being the only people worthy so that's what the
> characters they create become.

On 5/17/2023 10:13 PM, shawn wrote:
> On Wed, 17 May 2023 22:01:24 -0700, Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid>
> wrote:
>
>> On 2023-05-18 04:43:15 +0000, shawn said:
>>
>>> On this day and a few days before I watched the latest episode of
>>> Survivor where the editors again tried to pretend that
snip.
I haven't finished watching Survivor yet. :-)

>>>
>>>
>>> Locke and Key S01e02 Trapper Keeper
>>> [snip]
>>>
>>> I'll cover it separately but I also got to the first (or first two
>>> depending on what you watch) episodes of Ascension. The series about
>>> mankind's first mission to another planet from back in the 60s.
>>
>> Uh, you mean the *2014* miniseries *set* in the 1960s, right?! ;p
>
> Yes.
>

The first time I read this I thought you were summarizing the plot of
"Locke and Key" and was thinking that's all wrong.

>> And!
>>
>> You forgot to ask!! :p
>>
>>> What did you watch?!
>>
>> :)
> I did but you didn't tell me. Though the question is right there in
> the Subject for everyone to see. "What Did You Watch?"

I'll do a multi-day catch up of what I can remember watching. I watched:

The Flash - "A New World, Part Three" - Penultimate episode. I don't
think they are even trying to be coherent!

Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens - Catching up on this before I fall too
far behind. I watched the two episodes from a couple of weeks ago.
"Too Hot to Survive" - Nora enters a "Survivor" style reality show with
some seriously unexpected twists. Wackiness ensues.

"Love & Order" - I forgot most of what happened in this episode, at
least as far as what Nora was doing (but I think it was funny). I do
recall a subplot that her dad lost his job and wound up working at a
music store. The episode ended with him doing a jam session with
several recognizable cameos and I'm assuming the faces I didn't
recognize were famous too.

Gotham Knights - "Belly of the Beast" - The Knights infiltrate a Court
of Owls party. This episode wasn't that bad.

Ghosts - "Whodunnit" - Episode from a couple of weeks ago. They finally
solve Alberta's murder. Meanwhile the ghosts receive an email from a
Nigerian Prince and decide to help.

Dave - "Rebirthday" - Episode from last week. Mostly background noise.

Class of 09 (Hulu) - "Part of Something" and "The Fitness Test" - I
watched the first two episodes. Not sure what to make of it. As far as
I can tell the big bad seems to be an AI in the future. Not sure what's
up with the past and present day plots. I'll stick with it for now and
see where it goes.

In article <u460ss$c6eb$1@dont-email.me>,
Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

> Class of 09 (Hulu) - "Part of Something" and "The Fitness Test" - I
> watched the first two episodes. Not sure what to make of it. As far as
> I can tell the big bad seems to be an AI in the future. Not sure what's
> up with the past and present day plots. I'll stick with it for now and
> see where it goes.

I forgot to mention in my previous snark the scene where the class takes
an oath to the FBI Academy on their first day.

Not an oath to America, or the Constitution, or even the FBI as a whole.
An oath to the FBI Academy. <rolls eyes> Nope, that's not how this works.

You take one oath in your career-- the day you graduate and are handed
your badge and gun-- and that oath is to the Constitution. (Not "to
protect and serve" as so many in the public seem to believe.)

On Thu, 18 May 2023 10:27:52 -0700, Arthur Lipscomb
<arthur@alum.calberkeley.org> wrote:

>On 5/17/2023 10:13 PM, shawn wrote:
>> On Wed, 17 May 2023 22:01:24 -0700, Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 2023-05-18 04:43:15 +0000, shawn said:
>>>
>>>> On this day and a few days before I watched the latest episode of
>>>> Survivor where the editors again tried to pretend that
>snip.
>I haven't finished watching Survivor yet. :-)
>
>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Locke and Key S01e02 Trapper Keeper
>>>> [snip]
>>>>
>>>> I'll cover it separately but I also got to the first (or first two
>>>> depending on what you watch) episodes of Ascension. The series about
>>>> mankind's first mission to another planet from back in the 60s.
>>>
>>> Uh, you mean the *2014* miniseries *set* in the 1960s, right?! ;p
>>
>> Yes.
>>
>
>The first time I read this I thought you were summarizing the plot of
>"Locke and Key" and was thinking that's all wrong.

LOL. I suppose I could have done a better job of separating those two
items

>>> And!
>>>
>>> You forgot to ask!! :p
>>>
>>>> What did you watch?!
>>>
>>> :)
>> I did but you didn't tell me. Though the question is right there in
>> the Subject for everyone to see. "What Did You Watch?"
>
>
>I'll do a multi-day catch up of what I can remember watching. I watched:
>
>
>The Flash - "A New World, Part Three" - Penultimate episode. I don't
>think they are even trying to be coherent!
>
>

>
>
>Gotham Knights - "Belly of the Beast" - The Knights infiltrate a Court
>of Owls party. This episode wasn't that bad.

We had a long discussion about this in a previous post because there
were a number of things that shouldn't have happened.

>Class of 09 (Hulu) - "Part of Something" and "The Fitness Test" - I
>watched the first two episodes. Not sure what to make of it. As far as
>I can tell the big bad seems to be an AI in the future. Not sure what's
>up with the past and present day plots. I'll stick with it for now and
>see where it goes.

I've got a long post about the second episode that I'll post in a
separate post. Definitely feels like the AI is misbehaving but Tayo
(the head of the FBI) trust the AI completely. I think the
past/present plots help to explain why Tayo trusts the AI more than
his fellow FBI agents.

In article <u460ss$c6eb$1@dont-email.me>, arthur@alum.calberkeley.org wrote:

>"Love & Order" - I forgot most of what happened in this episode, at
>least as far as what Nora was doing (but I think it was funny). I do
>recall a subplot that her dad lost his job and wound up working at a
>music store. The episode ended with him doing a jam session with
>several recognizable cameos and I'm assuming the faces I didn't
>recognize were famous too.

Is this a new show?

>Ghosts - "Whodunnit" - Episode from a couple of weeks ago. They finally
>solve Alberta's murder.

Did Alberta get "sucked off"?

>Meanwhile the ghosts receive an email from a Nigerian Prince and decide
>to help.

Based on the time I watched this show, I assume WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS
handled the plot in a better and much funnier manner.

--
Let's go Brandon!