OK, so effectively I finish grading one of my two lecture sections
yesterday. I'm hoping to finish the other one this (Sat) morning. Then
I just have some lab odds and ends to finish over the weekend, and I
should be done for the year!!

So I am hoping the coming week is most a "holiday" week where I can
watch stuff. I'm hoping Monday (Memorial Day) is a 100% holiday day.

Yesterday, I did get through a few things:

soaps: DOOL - Fri's ep. Silliness as the DiMera family "welcomes" both
Kristen and Megan back to the fold. I was disappointed that Gabi caved,
and that Stefan was so craven, in the face of Kristen - Gabi should
punch Kristen's lights out... Eric arranges for a dinner between
himself and Sloan, and Marlena & John and Brady. Nicole and Sloan
conspire together to get DNA samples for Nicole's forthcoming paternity
test.
(Did not get to GH yesterday, which means I still have to get to
Wed's, Thur's and Fri's ep's this weekend...)

Class of '09 (Hulu) - "Not Your Girlfriend" (ep. #4). After figuring
out that I could solve the "Dolby 5.1 no sound" problem if I fed audio
through just my TV's speakers, I wacthed this episode.
This ep. is covered extensively in shawn's separate thread.
My general view is that this episode spent way too much time in the
"Past" (and not nearly enough time in the "Future"), but that it does
pick up some in the second half - in the end, we finally see what
happened during the 2023 "attack".

The Mother (Netflix) - This has some decent action sequences, but it
did feel like there was probably too much filler between then.
Gist: For contrived reasons, kick ass female op JLo (we never get
her name) is forced to give up her infant girl for adoption and go into
hiding, to protect her daughter from some "bad men" (incl. Joe
Fiennes!).
But, of course, 12 years later they track the girl down and
successfully kidnap her when JLo fails to get the job done!... Now JLo
is going to do what it takes to get the girl back!!
I did think that the daughter seemed like the whitest white girl
'tween' ever, though! (I thought she seemed familiar, but I have likely
never seen actress Lucy Paez in anything else before...)
Still, I thought the movie picks up in the second half when JLo
finally gets "control" of her daughter, and drags her to Alaska where
she tortures the poor girl by training her to be a kickass mercenary
chyck! with lessons like "how to field dress a rabbit"!! Every 12 year
old girl should be forced to take this training regimen!!
This leads to the big showdown, which goes down like you expect,
right down to the trained tween still not being kickass enough and
needing to be "rescued".

I think I forgot to mention this, but I saw Lifetime's "The Pregnancy
Promise" the other day - it was basically preposterous (but not in a
good way!).

And 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 5/27/2023 9:02 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
> OK, so effectively I finish grading one of my two lecture sections
> yesterday. I'm hoping to finish the other one this (Sat) morning. Then I
> just have some lab odds and ends to finish over the weekend, and I
> should be done for the year!!
>
> So I am hoping the coming week is most a "holiday" week where I can
> watch stuff. I'm hoping Monday (Memorial Day) is a 100% holiday day.
>

I have some movie watching plans for the holiday weekend, but I'm in the
process of changing them slightly.

> Yesterday, I did get through a few things:
>
> soaps: DOOL - Fri's ep. Silliness as the DiMera family "welcomes" both
> Kristen and Megan back to the fold. I was disappointed that Gabi caved,
> and that Stefan was so craven, in the face of Kristen - Gabi should
> punch Kristen's lights out... Eric arranges for a dinner between himself
> and Sloan, and Marlena & John and Brady. Nicole and Sloan conspire
> together to get DNA samples for Nicole's forthcoming paternity test.
>   (Did not get to GH yesterday, which means I still have to get to
> Wed's, Thur's and Fri's ep's this weekend...)
>
> Class of '09 (Hulu) -

I'll get back to this when I can.

>
> The Mother (Netflix) - This has some decent action sequences, but it did
> feel like there was probably too much filler between then.

This is on my watch list. But I'm not sure when I'll get to it.
Hopefully soon.

>
> And what did you watch?
>
>

This will be a multi day catch-up of what I was able to stream from a
hotel room.

Law & Order - "Open Wounds" - Season finale. I was half asleep and
already forgot what happened.

Law & Order: SVU - "All Pain Is One Malady" - First half of the cross
over episode which finds SVU teaming up with organized crime to take on
someone who has nothing to do with organize crime.

Law & Order: Organized Crime - "With Many Names" - Second half of the
cross over event. I liked the diner shoot out. It made no sense, but
the coolness factor made up for that. I'm not even sure which episode
the shoot out happened in. It was all a blur.

On Sat, 27 May 2023 09:02:09 -0700, Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid>
wrote:

>OK, so effectively I finish grading one of my two lecture sections
>yesterday. I'm hoping to finish the other one this (Sat) morning. Then
>I just have some lab odds and ends to finish over the weekend, and I
>should be done for the year!!
>
>So I am hoping the coming week is most a "holiday" week where I can
>watch stuff. I'm hoping Monday (Memorial Day) is a 100% holiday day.
>
>
>Class of '09 (Hulu) - "Not Your Girlfriend" (ep. #4). After figuring
>out that I could solve the "Dolby 5.1 no sound" problem if I fed audio
>through just my TV's speakers, I wacthed this episode.
> This ep. is covered extensively in shawn's separate thread.
> My general view is that this episode spent way too much time in the
>"Past" (and not nearly enough time in the "Future"), but that it does
>pick up some in the second half - in the end, we finally see what
>happened during the 2023 "attack".

As I said in the other thread it looks like we will get more time in
the Present in the next episode.

>And what did you watch?

I watched the CLASS OF '09 and TOP CHEF.
That was a particularly difficult challenge as the chefs had to make
a dish that looks like one thing but is something else. As Tom
Colichio pointed out it's the sort of thing that typically takes many
iterations to get right and the chefs only had a few hours to both
come up with a concept and make the final dish. It's great if your
someone that has played with the concept before but many chefs
don't try to surprise their customers.

On May 27, 2023 at 11:23:58 AM PDT, "shawn" <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com>
wrote:

> On Sat, 27 May 2023 09:02:09 -0700, Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid>
> wrote:
>
>> OK, so effectively I finish grading one of my two lecture sections
>> yesterday. I'm hoping to finish the other one this (Sat) morning. Then
>> I just have some lab odds and ends to finish over the weekend, and I
>> should be done for the year!!
>>
>> So I am hoping the coming week is most a "holiday" week where I can
>> watch stuff. I'm hoping Monday (Memorial Day) is a 100% holiday day.
>>
>>
>> Class of '09 (Hulu) - "Not Your Girlfriend" (ep. #4). After figuring
>> out that I could solve the "Dolby 5.1 no sound" problem if I fed audio
>> through just my TV's speakers, I wacthed this episode.
>> This ep. is covered extensively in shawn's separate thread.
>> My general view is that this episode spent way too much time in the
>> "Past" (and not nearly enough time in the "Future"), but that it does
>> pick up some in the second half - in the end, we finally see what
>> happened during the 2023 "attack".
>
>
> As I said in the other thread it looks like we will get more time in
> the Present in the next episode.
>
>
>> And what did you watch?
>
> I watched the CLASS OF '09 and TOP CHEF.
> That was a particularly difficult challenge as the chefs had to make
> a dish that looks like one thing but is something else. As Tom
> Colichio pointed out it's the sort of thing that typically takes many
> iterations to get right and the chefs only had a few hours to both
> come up with a concept and make the final dish. It's great if your
> someone that has played with the concept before but many chefs
> don't try to surprise their customers.

I like watching Colicchio's subtle facial expressions when Padma is talking.
The two supposedly don't much like each other.

On May 27, 2023 at 9:02:09 AM PDT, "Ian J. Ball" <IJBall@mac.invalid> wrote:

> The Mother (Netflix) - This has some decent action sequences, but it
> did feel like there was probably too much filler between then.
> Gist: For contrived reasons, kick ass female op JLo (we never get
> her name) is forced to give up her infant girl for adoption and go into
> hiding, to protect her daughter from some "bad men" (incl. Joe
> Fiennes!).
> But, of course, 12 years later they track the girl down and
> successfully kidnap her when JLo fails to get the job done!... Now JLo
> is going to do what it takes to get the girl back!!
> I did think that the daughter seemed like the whitest white girl
> 'tween' ever, though! (I thought she seemed familiar, but I have likely
> never seen actress Lucy Paez in anything else before...)
> Still, I thought the movie picks up in the second half when JLo
> finally gets "control" of her daughter, and drags her to Alaska where
> she tortures the poor girl by training her to be a kickass mercenary
> chyck! with lessons like "how to field dress a rabbit"!! Every 12 year
> old girl should be forced to take this training regimen!!
> This leads to the big showdown, which goes down like you expect,
> right down to the trained tween still not being kickass enough and
> needing to be "rescued".

I watched this last night, too. Nothing great, but not bad, either. (Even if
it did use the tired TV trope of a SUV coming out of nowhere and smashing into
the good guys' car-- except it was even stupider here because if it was in a
city, you could wank that buildings or vehicles blocked line of sight until
the last moment. Here, the phantom bad guys managed to smash into them in the
middle of Ohio farm country, which is flat as board and you'd easily see them
coming from a mile off.)

On Sat, 27 May 2023 18:55:41 +0000, BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

>On May 27, 2023 at 11:23:58 AM PDT, "shawn" <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com>
>wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 27 May 2023 09:02:09 -0700, Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> OK, so effectively I finish grading one of my two lecture sections
>>> yesterday. I'm hoping to finish the other one this (Sat) morning. Then
>>> I just have some lab odds and ends to finish over the weekend, and I
>>> should be done for the year!!
>>>
>>> So I am hoping the coming week is most a "holiday" week where I can
>>> watch stuff. I'm hoping Monday (Memorial Day) is a 100% holiday day.
>>>
>>>
>>> Class of '09 (Hulu) - "Not Your Girlfriend" (ep. #4). After figuring
>>> out that I could solve the "Dolby 5.1 no sound" problem if I fed audio
>>> through just my TV's speakers, I wacthed this episode.
>>> This ep. is covered extensively in shawn's separate thread.
>>> My general view is that this episode spent way too much time in the
>>> "Past" (and not nearly enough time in the "Future"), but that it does
>>> pick up some in the second half - in the end, we finally see what
>>> happened during the 2023 "attack".
>>
>>
>> As I said in the other thread it looks like we will get more time in
>> the Present in the next episode.
>>
>>
>>> And what did you watch?
>>
>> I watched the CLASS OF '09 and TOP CHEF.
>> That was a particularly difficult challenge as the chefs had to make
>> a dish that looks like one thing but is something else. As Tom
>> Colichio pointed out it's the sort of thing that typically takes many
>> iterations to get right and the chefs only had a few hours to both
>> come up with a concept and make the final dish. It's great if your
>> someone that has played with the concept before but many chefs
>> don't try to surprise their customers.
>
>I like watching Colicchio's subtle facial expressions when Padma is talking.
>The two supposedly don't much like each other.
>

Could be. I always get the feeling that Padma is too prim and proper.
Where as Gail feels like a great person to be around, much like Tom.

I was thinking about a video I watched with Brad Leone who went out to
gather muscles and clams. That means putting on some waders and
heading out into the water and mud. I could easily imagine Tom or Gail
doing it and having a good time. While Padma would either refuse to go
out there or always have a distasteful look on her face. At least
that's how I feel she would be.

On 2023-05-27 19:03:35 +0000, BTR1701 said:

> On May 27, 2023 at 9:02:09 AM PDT, "Ian J. Ball" <IJBall@mac.invalid> wrote:
>
>> The Mother (Netflix) - This has some decent action sequences, but it
>> did feel like there was probably too much filler between then.
>> Gist: For contrived reasons, kick ass female op JLo (we never get
>> her name) is forced to give up her infant girl for adoption and go into
>> hiding, to protect her daughter from some "bad men" (incl. Joe
>> Fiennes!).
>> But, of course, 12 years later they track the girl down and
>> successfully kidnap her when JLo fails to get the job done!... Now JLo
>> is going to do what it takes to get the girl back!!
>> I did think that the daughter seemed like the whitest white girl
>> 'tween' ever, though! (I thought she seemed familiar, but I have likely
>> never seen actress Lucy Paez in anything else before...)
>> Still, I thought the movie picks up in the second half when JLo
>> finally gets "control" of her daughter, and drags her to Alaska where
>> she tortures the poor girl by training her to be a kickass mercenary
>> chyck! with lessons like "how to field dress a rabbit"!! Every 12 year
>> old girl should be forced to take this training regimen!!
>> This leads to the big showdown, which goes down like you expect,
>> right down to the trained tween still not being kickass enough and
>> needing to be "rescued".
>
> I watched this last night, too. Nothing great, but not bad, either. (Even if
> it did use the tired TV trope of a SUV coming out of nowhere and smashing into
> the good guys' car-- except it was even stupider here because if it was in a
> city, you could wank that buildings or vehicles blocked line of sight until
> the last moment. Here, the phantom bad guys managed to smash into them in the
> middle of Ohio farm country, which is flat as board and you'd easily see them
> coming from a mile off.)

I also wondered about the Cuba part, but that sequence was filmed in
Spain somewhere apparently.

But this movie is for anyone who appreciates Mom teaching their 12-year
old daughter how to snipe using a long gun!!

P.S. Where did JLo get all the CD's from?!!

--
"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??!!

In article <sil47i9rhin7e1ftikhk724f735lv4et5b@4ax.com>,
shawn <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 27 May 2023 18:55:41 +0000, BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>
> >On May 27, 2023 at 11:23:58 AM PDT, "shawn" <nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com>
> >wrote:
> >
> >> On Sat, 27 May 2023 09:02:09 -0700, Ian J. Ball <IJBall@mac.invalid>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> OK, so effectively I finish grading one of my two lecture sections
> >>> yesterday. I'm hoping to finish the other one this (Sat) morning. Then
> >>> I just have some lab odds and ends to finish over the weekend, and I
> >>> should be done for the year!!
> >>>
> >>> So I am hoping the coming week is most a "holiday" week where I can
> >>> watch stuff. I'm hoping Monday (Memorial Day) is a 100% holiday day.
> >>>
> >>> Class of '09 (Hulu) - "Not Your Girlfriend" (ep. #4). After figuring
> >>> out that I could solve the "Dolby 5.1 no sound" problem if I fed audio
> >>> through just my TV's speakers, I wacthed this episode.
> >>> This ep. is covered extensively in shawn's separate thread.
> >>> My general view is that this episode spent way too much time in the
> >>> "Past" (and not nearly enough time in the "Future"), but that it does
> >>> pick up some in the second half - in the end, we finally see what
> >>> happened during the 2023 "attack".
> >>
> >> As I said in the other thread it looks like we will get more time in
> >> the Present in the next episode.
> >>
> >>> And what did you watch?
> >>
> >> I watched the CLASS OF '09 and TOP CHEF.
> >> That was a particularly difficult challenge as the chefs had to make
> >> a dish that looks like one thing but is something else. As Tom
> >> Colichio pointed out it's the sort of thing that typically takes many
> >> iterations to get right and the chefs only had a few hours to both
> >> come up with a concept and make the final dish. It's great if your
> >> someone that has played with the concept before but many chefs
> >> don't try to surprise their customers.
> >
> >I like watching Colicchio's subtle facial expressions when Padma is talking.
> >The two supposedly don't much like each other.
> >
> Could be. I always get the feeling that Padma is too prim and proper.
> Where as Gail feels like a great person to be around, much like Tom.
>
> I was thinking about a video I watched with Brad Leone who went out to
> gather muscles and clams. That means putting on some waders and
> heading out into the water and mud. I could easily imagine Tom or Gail
> doing it and having a good time. While Padma would either refuse to go
> out there or always have a distasteful look on her face. At least
> that's how I feel she would be.

I got the stink-eye from Padma once because I made her wait for a staff
escort into an Obama event. She didn't say anything overtly rude, but
she had a look in her eye that clearly communicated a "Don't you know
who I am?" vibe.

On 5/27/2023 9:02 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
>
> And what did you watch?
>
Stargate: SG-1 S5E13 'Proving Ground'
"It's SG-1's turn to start testing a quartet of Air force cadet
prodigies for SGC recruitment. After an imperfect performance by their
kids, Sam pleads their potential but Jack is most critical, especially
because cadet Lieutenant Grogan was left behind (pretending to be
wounded). A new problem arises (aliens try and take over SGC) and the
cadets are unsure whether this is staged or not. This time their CO,
Lieutenant Elliot, proves himself to be a born leader and gives
everything he has to get the job done. They almost seem to have pulled
it off until Haley pulls a "Sam-stunt" which changes the scenario for
the worse again."

Major Samantha Carter: Sir, if you don't mind, your wound is getting all
over my lab.

Major Samantha Carter: [about a group of trainees] Try to remember when
you were in their shoes.
Colonel Jack O'Neill: I wore boots.
Major Samantha Carter: Think back to when you were their age.
Colonel Jack O'Neill: I was never their age.

Major Samantha Carter: He'll make a fine addition to an SG team one day.
Colonel Jack O'Neill: He'll make a fine target. He's good at getting shot.

Colonel Jack O'Neill: There's such a thing as overthinking a situation,
Lieutenant. When you're dealing with what we deal with, you've got to
think on your feet and think fast. These and other cliches will be
available to you all for one more day of training with me.

Trivia: This episode is extremely similar to Star Trek: The Next
Generation: Lower Decks (1994), which was also written by Ronald Wilkerson.

The commentary is by Andy Makita (director) and Menard (DP) and Tichenor
(How does he get any work done doing all these commentaries?). This was
one of the commentaries focused on the technicalities of shooting and
making an episode.

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

History's Greatest Mysteries S3E07 'Malaysia Flight 370'
"One of the most chilling aviation mysteries in modern day: a Boeing
777, carrying 239 people, vanishes over the Indian Ocean; nearly a
decade later, no one knows what really happened to Malaysia Flight 370."

I've been recording way too many of these HGM repeats trying to get a
recent one about the pyramids in Egypt. I've got to start zapping the
ones I remember seeing before.

What Did You Watch?

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

On 5/27/2023 12:50 PM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 5/27/2023 9:02 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
>>
>> And what did you watch?
>>
> Stargate: SG-1 S5E13 'Proving Ground'
> "It's SG-1's turn to start testing a quartet of Air force cadet
> prodigies for SGC recruitment. After an imperfect performance by their
> kids, Sam pleads their potential but Jack is most critical, especially
> because cadet Lieutenant Grogan was left behind (pretending to be
> wounded). A new problem arises (aliens try and take over SGC) and the
> cadets are unsure whether this is staged or not. This time their CO,
> Lieutenant Elliot, proves himself to be a born leader and gives
> everything he has to get the job done. They almost seem to have pulled
> it off until Haley pulls a "Sam-stunt" which changes the scenario for
> the worse again."
>
> Major Samantha Carter: Sir, if you don't mind, your wound is getting all
> over my lab.
>
> Major Samantha Carter: [about a group of trainees] Try to remember when
> you were in their shoes.
> Colonel Jack O'Neill: I wore boots.
> Major Samantha Carter: Think back to when you were their age.
> Colonel Jack O'Neill: I was never their age.
>
> Major Samantha Carter: He'll make a fine addition to an SG team one day.
> Colonel Jack O'Neill: He'll make a fine target. He's good at getting shot.
>
> Colonel Jack O'Neill: There's such a thing as overthinking a situation,
> Lieutenant. When you're dealing with what we deal with, you've got to
> think on your feet and think fast. These and other cliches will be
> available to you all for one more day of training with me.
>
> Trivia: This episode is extremely similar to Star Trek: The Next
> Generation: Lower Decks (1994), which was also written by Ronald Wilkerson.
>

Interesting!

And like the people from Lower Decks, were these trainees never seen or
mentioned again?

On 5/27/2023 2:02 PM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:
> On 5/27/2023 12:50 PM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
>> On 5/27/2023 9:02 AM, Ian J. Ball wrote:
>>>
>>> And what did you watch?
>>>
>> Stargate: SG-1 S5E13 'Proving Ground'
>> "It's SG-1's turn to start testing a quartet of Air force cadet
>> prodigies for SGC recruitment. After an imperfect performance by their
>> kids, Sam pleads their potential but Jack is most critical, especially
>> because cadet Lieutenant Grogan was left behind (pretending to be
>> wounded). A new problem arises (aliens try and take over SGC) and the
>> cadets are unsure whether this is staged or not. This time their CO,
>> Lieutenant Elliot, proves himself to be a born leader and gives
>> everything he has to get the job done. They almost seem to have pulled
>> it off until Haley pulls a "Sam-stunt" which changes the scenario for
>> the worse again."
>>
>> Major Samantha Carter: Sir, if you don't mind, your wound is getting
>> all over my lab.
>>
>> Major Samantha Carter: [about a group of trainees] Try to remember
>> when you were in their shoes.
>> Colonel Jack O'Neill: I wore boots.
>> Major Samantha Carter: Think back to when you were their age.
>> Colonel Jack O'Neill: I was never their age.
>>
>> Major Samantha Carter: He'll make a fine addition to an SG team one day.
>> Colonel Jack O'Neill: He'll make a fine target. He's good at getting
>> shot.
>>
>> Colonel Jack O'Neill: There's such a thing as overthinking a
>> situation, Lieutenant. When you're dealing with what we deal with,
>> you've got to think on your feet and think fast. These and other
>> cliches will be available to you all for one more day of training with
>> me.
>>
>> Trivia: This episode is extremely similar to Star Trek: The Next
>> Generation: Lower Decks (1994), which was also written by Ronald
>> Wilkerson.
>>
>
> Interesting!
>
> And like the people from Lower Decks, were these trainees never seen or
> mentioned again?
>
Three of the four are, one of them was in a previous episode as well.
The Cylon on the other hand.... ;)

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

In article <u4t9i1$fgr0$1@dont-email.me>, IJBall@mac.invalid wrote:

> And what did you watch?

Still struggling with a partially-functional motel remote, I watched:

FAMILY GUY:
The network that used to be Squiggle played this all day.

THE UNXPLAINED:
""Mysteries of the Missing Link". An ep about human sub-races. Apparently
we're finding more.

What did you watch?

--
Let's go Brandon!