Mandaris

I have to admit it this version of the Jane Austen classic is pretty good. I normally avoid watching period pieces because I look at all the wealth that some of these people have and how their only concern is that they have the most fashionable clothes of the season.

I feel that this version got me because I was actually paying attention. Mr. Darcy is lonely in that his money and status has isolated him in such a way that it’s hard for him to trust. I’ve had friends who have only wanted something from me and I get where he’s coming from with his distrust.

Other than that, the rest of the cast is doing a great job and I don’t feel that I would hate it if my daughter wanted to make me watch it again.

Overview

Set in England in the early 19th century, Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Mr and Mrs Bennet's five unmarried daughters after the rich and eligible Mr Bingley and his status-conscious friend, Mr Darcy, have moved into their neighbourhood. While Bingley takes an immediate liking to the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane, Darcy has difficulty adapting to local society and repeatedly clashes with the second-eldest Bennet daughter, Elizabeth.

Still working on how I want to format these reviews… Any feedback is welcome.

We’re getting to the end of the season and there are still a lot of questions to be answered. It can be really hard to stick the landing. This episode is there to build up some tension and get us ready for those last two episodes.

Unfortunately, it feels like you could sum it up in 2-3 minutes but sometimes you need to let things sit and set up.

Oh man! Episode 4 and 5 are amazing together!

If you wanted to see something different from Star Wars than this has something for you. It’s not perfect but I really like having new ideas and new possibilities given to me.

I saw this on the flight after watching the Thriller documentary and I’m pretty happy that I did. I think it’s a good example of how you could have all the talent in the world around a project and still have things go wrong. I also feel that this is where the business of making things can also hurt the creative practice as well.

One of the interesting things about this is that they don’t have a lot of direct footage from the actors of the Holiday special, but footage of them talking about it on other shows. It also uses a video of a tap player to show that some of the interviews are recorded phone calls.

Me? Have I seen it?

No, thank you.

I’ve never seen the Holiday Special and I don’t have a desire to at this point in my life.

But I think that’s really part of the excitement about it.

Overview

In 1978, CBS aired the "Star Wars Holiday Special" the week before Thanksgiving to an audience of 13 million people. Considered one of the worst shows in television history, it aired only once. George Lucas tried to bury it and an infamous camp legend was born. This documentary unravels the mysteries behind the most bizarre Star Wars spin-offs of all time.

Here is a link to the trailer on YouTube.

I’m a big fan of Michael Jackson. I’ve been that way since I was kid. His music is timeless and has a global impact. I feel that every fan of music can get some enjoyment of this movie that tells the story of the biggest album of all time.

What I enjoyed the most about this was how they talked about how things led to the creation of the album and its composition of different songs. As well as a couple minutes of the business/politics of how a music label works with its artists.

Another takeaway, never trust Don King. He finds his way to be around successful people, but it feels like it doesn’t go well afterwards.

But back to the movie.

I really liked it, it’s well produced and now I’m going to take a break from the computer and listen to the album.

Forty years after the release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the best-selling album of all-time, director Nelson George takes fans back in time to the making of a pop masterpiece, featuring never-before-seen footage and candid interviews.

Here is a link to the trailer on YouTube.

I’ll have to mark this off for next year.

Tau Day is a celebration of the circle constant 𝜏=𝐶/𝑟= 6.283185… Founded in 2010 with the publication of [_The Tau Manifesto_](https://tauday.com/tau-manifesto) by [Michael Hartl](https://www.michaelhartl.com/), Tau Day takes place annually on June 28 (6/28 in the American calendar system).

Found via Spaf on Mastodon.

I had to go back to my rating system to make sure that I was evaluating this properly.

It’s got a reputation for being bad, but the masochist in me kept chanting How bad can it be? and I had a 5 hour flight that I felt that I wouldn’t mind it if this thing put me to sleep.

I’m not going to make a video or post about this is what’s wrong with superhero movies. The failings of this movie are not related to the genre. I feel this movie falls down because I honestly do not care about the main character(s).

It feels like the movie is in such a rush to show you the next thing that the viewer might find cool, that it flashes over the parts on why we should really care about the characters.

Listen, I care that there are people who are incarcerated unjustly. I care about people who are just living their lives when bad things happen to them. I care about the world not being terraformed into a climate I can’t live in¹.

But it’s hard to care about Barry(s).

I thought about why I didn’t care. In other movies where you know that the hero is going to win, you still get a sense of danger and excitement as they eventually get to the conclusion. I’m happy when I see James Bond tart his enemies. I’m shouting with excitement when I see the Toretto Family show how fast and furious they can be.

But this, I just don’t know what it was.

Description

When his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, Barry Allen becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod has returned and there are no Super Heroes to turn to. In order to save the world that he is in and return to the future that he knows, Barry's only hope is to race for his life. But will making the ultimate sacrifice be enough to reset the universe?

Here is the trailer on YouTube.

Template uses lantern by Robb Knight.

I’ve been enjoying this new series of Star Wars TV recently.

It’s got a mix of different Star Wars troupes and other concepts you normally don’t talk about in regards to space wizards with laser swords.

It’s not a perfect show, but I don’t need that.

Talking about WWDC 2024, Rick and Morty Season 7, The Boys, and the latest with Labarum.

00:00:00: Chapter 1 - Beginning
00:00:35: WWDC 2024 Reflection
00:06:23: Media Review: Rick And Morty Season 7
00:08:01: Upcoming Media: The Boys Season 4
00:08:45: Labarum Update

The last time didn’t post.

I started working on my theme for Micro.blog in the hopes that it was accessible and could be parsed using schema and microformats. It was spurred by the feeling that I wanted my posts to be shared to as many people as possible. I’m not saying that I’m a literary genius or have something deep or profound to say, but I do have some really cool pictures of my dog as well.

Now years have gone by and I’ve refined and enhanced what I made initially. Post can show previews in bluesky, mastodon, and discord without me constantly worrying about formats. This technical project has been completed (for the most part).

And now, I’m faced with another technical itch.

Corporations are now crawling the World Wide Web in order to get data that they could use to train LLMs. That’s not to say they value the writings of a 40+ year old man from California whose average post size is around 45 words per post more than the thousands of artists and writers available, but having perfectly structured data¹ would be nice. In the grand scheme of things, I’m not significant and not singular as far as data points go. I regularly see people who walk, talk, and dress like. I listen to at least two podcasts that not only have the same views that I have but talk in similar vocal range and cadence².

But what should I do?

I’ve seen articles about editing the robots.txt file that your website serves up to tell the various bots not to use the site for data. This feels like a whack-a-mole solution, and I came across a message that it only stops the companies that have standards. At this point in development, there feels to be a “better to ask for forgiveness, than permission” strategy in place for these corporations to pursue the collection of data. Unless you are rich and/or famous, the information is taken with a middle finger pointed at the EULA.

The summaries of my articles are already distributed/federated to services that I have no control over. This was understood when I set the different systems up and I’m still ok with that to a degree.

But, seriously, what am I going to do?

At the moment, I’m not including any changes to robots.txt, I feel that some of my writing might be important enough to include in the data set for our new robot overlords protectors.

I talk about mental health.

I talk about media.

I talk about inconsequential items and sometimes important things.

And, yes, I do post about my dog as well.

All in the hope that -maybe- someone out there gets it.