Friday, May 31, 2013

AD season 4

I've watched all of season 4 on Netflix and am only partly through a rewatch now. I have missed many details, I'm sure, and am still trying to figure out the intricate timeline of events. But I just have to gush about Gob's plot. SPOILERS below.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Star Trek 2

I've always thought "Into Darkness" was a stupid title since I first heard it, and I still think it's bad. Anyway I saw the film this weekend. It was okay, though I didn't remember much about the previous movie and found it hard to recall stuff about the characters, like Scotty's alien friend. Or why "transwarp" beaming technology looked weird and got stolen from Scotty. Might have to do a rewatch.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Iron Man 3

As for movies, I just saw No Place on Earth, about several Jewish families in the Ukraine who hid out in caves to avoid the Nazis. It was very good, though I had slight trouble understanding one of the relatives when he was speaking.

On Sunday I voted, then went to see Iron Man 3. I liked it better than Iron Man 2, but not as much as The Avengers. MAJOR SPOILERS below:

Renewals and Cancellations

Well the TV news seems to be rolling out quickly, ahead of the upfronts. I'm glad Nikita got renewed, but am rather surprised that Go On didn't survive at NBC. As I said before, I'm fine with The New Normal being done.

I'm also seeing news about the pilots, and am sad that Murder in Manhattan didn't make it at ABC. I really wanted to see Bridget Regan again. I guess I just have more time next season to watch Netflix and DVDs.

BTW, I watched Elementary with its resurrection of Irene Adler, but I'll reserve judgment until she actually talks and starts revealing why and how she survived. I really don't want her turning into a criminal and backstabbing evil minion. I did like that she has a profession as a painter, instead of anything solely about sex, blackmail, and crap like that. We'll see how the finale goes.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Nook updated

To my surprise, Barnes & Noble added Google Play to its Nook tablets, so my Nook HD got an update without me doing anything. I've started to check it out and download some apps, but I'm not sure I'm liking the Chrome browser. I may start using Firefox there instead. My Nook seems to be overheating lately, and I'm a little worried. Maybe I need to figure out how to turn off location services and stuff I don't want. It's getting cluttered, and I don't even do Twitter or Facebook.

Anyway lately I've been reading the books of American author Anna Katherine Green. A pioneer mystery writer, she predated the Sherlock Holmes stories, and was praised for clever plots. However, I don't think I like her novels that much. (I've read The Leavenworth Case and Agatha Webb.) I find the Victorian sexual and moral politics of the characters hard to understand. In the Leavenworth Case, for example, two female cousins are suspected of killing their wealthy uncle who is their guardian, and the narrator Everett Raymond (a gentlemanly lawyer) is forever tediously protesting that such beautiful women can't possibly be guilty, and that he doesn't want either of them to be arrested. He talks about how once a woman's reputation is stained, she's ruined for life. Even the police detective Ebeneezer Gryce delays making any arrests for weeks, despite considerable circumstantial evidence. In a modern novel, I'd be fine with having either woman arrested so as to prompt the guilty party to make a confession to save her, but the detectives seem to regard even an arrest as too horrible and ungentlemanly to commit.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Hope at Last?

Well apparently I still have to go to UK news to hear this, because I haven't seen it anywhere else. Obama promises again to close Guantanamo. I hope he can really do it. The ACLU guy at the end says that Obama doesn't have to ask Congress for approval; he can get the secretary of defense to start transferring the detainees who have already been cleared for release. If that's true, then I hope he'll do it before this hunger strike gets any worse.

Update: Please sign this petition to close Guantanamo.