Pathetic Primaries

When is the US going to get smart and stop letting Iowa and New Hampshire have caucuses and primary elections ahead of others in the country? When's the last time Iowa picked a winner? Two of the most non-diverse states in the country get to set the tone for the national elections and candidates rise and fall based on these two states and their voters. It's ridiculous. At least South Carolina (a state I hate with the fire of a thousand suns) that comes in third for its primary after New Hampshire has a more diverse population. It's time the United States changed things to allow more states to have their primaries early. Why should Iowa and New Hampshire have so much power? Ugh. 

Cold Snap

We're having a "real" winter now here in the Chicago area with temps below zero and snow. Over the long MLK weekend, I spent most of my time indoors watching movies via On Demand incluing Anatomy of a Fall, that was interesting. I can't get that steel drum version of 50 Cent's PIMP out of my mind because of that movie. Oy vey! The movie is about a married couple who has a son and the husband ends up falling out of a window and he dies. But did he commit suicide or did his wife murder him? One of the more interesting parts of the movie happened during the wife's trial and one of the attorneys tried to argue that the wife, a writer, had actually planned her husband's murder because of something similar in one of her fictional books. (Both she and her husband were writers but she had been more successful in her writing than he had, thus yet another issue in their already troubled marriage.) I would hate for someone to look at something I'd written in one of my publications and deduct that a character's behavior mirrored my own. That's a stretch. I love all of my characters, the good ones and the bad ones, but to say I'd behave in the same way as a fictional character in one of my books is ridiculous.

Over the holiday weekend, I also watched Oppenheimer. It was good and a wee bit too long, but still good. Everyone and their mother popped up in that movie: the guy who's NOT Matt Bomer from the USA Network White Collar series (Tim DeKay), Rami Malik  (from the USA Network series Mr. Robot), Casey Affleck, Tony Goldwyn in addition to Matt Damon and an unrecognizable (for me anyway at first) Robert Downey, Jr., who's getting awards and high praise (rightly so) for his role. Cilliam Murphy is great and the movie deserves all of the critical acclaim and awards it's received. 

Hello, 2024!

We're five days into 2024 and so far so good. I told a friend who asked if I had any resolutions that I didn't but one of my goals this year was to try not to lose my mind. Seriously, just staying alive and in my right mind this year would be huge accomplishments. Stressing out has done me no good and I'm really making an effort to keep my stress in check this year. It's hard to do with so much bad news in the world and idiocy in my workplace, but I'm determined not to pull my hair out over things I can't control. 

One thing I plan to do this year is drop one of my streaming services and, since Prime is about to start adding advertisements and their lineup of movies and shows isn't great, I'm kicking it to the curb this month before my renewal date comes up. I hope they ask me why I'm dropping the service so I can tell them I'm tired of lining Bezos's pockets each month to the tune of $14.99 each month. I'll continue to be an Amazon customer, but Prime can kick rocks. It's just not worth it. Netflix is aiming to be next on my list of cuts, but I haven't let go of that yet because the plan I have is so cheap that it doesn't even exist anymore and if I drop it, I'll never get it back. I was a Netflix customer back in the "old" days when they sent you DVDs in the mail. So much of their programming is garbage right now, but I'm still managing to find something to watch every few weeks, so it's staying...for now.

I had to give up on the current season of Fargo despite the fact that I'm a huge Jon Hamm fan (and I like seeing him slightly chunky in this season). But I can't deal with him being a wife-beater. Ugh. When the eighth episode came on this week, I watched the first five or ten minutes and bailed because I just found it too disturbing. I read recaps of the episode and felt I made the right decision. Nothing against the actors, but I just can't deal with that negativity and bad behavior in something that's supposed to be entertaining right now. I'm sure Jon's wife-beating character will get his comeuppance in the end, but I'm not willing to watch the rest of the episodes to see that happen.

Moving on in 2024!