Age of Elon

I tried out a new recipe for Chicken A La King and the cream sauce actually held together well despite me missing some ingredients. I also used soy milk instead of whole milk, and it worked great.

Anyway, as I've been watching Agatha All Along I've also been rewatching some WandaVision episodes too. So then I got interested in Wanda's past, and some movies I skipped in the MCU with her and Vision. I even went back to Avengers: Age of Ultron, and I remembered why I hated that movie the first time and still hate it today. Tony Stark is such an arrogant egocentric asshole, and he convinces Bruce Banner to go mad scientist with him TWICE, making both Ultron and then later Vision. I mean, eventually we find out that Vision's a good guy and he's essential to Wanda's story, but why the fuck would anyone trust Tony Stark to keep going rogue? And he arrogantly talks about how he saved the world from a nuke as Iron Man, so that means he should get a free pass to do whatever he wants now without consulting the team. It's so fucking white male privilege and it reeks of the insanity that Elon Musk has revealed in recent years. Tony even openly cheats in trying to lift Thor's hammer by grabbing an Iron Man arm and having Rhodey help too. Plus, Tony's throwaway "joke" about reinstating "prima nocte" is so godawful. It reminds me of the stupid lewd remarks Tony made about Black Widow in Iron Man 2 when he thought she was just an eyecandy secretary. We let these sexist jokes pass and let Tony still be considered a hero because he's a tech genius. Fuck him and the writers thinking that shit was no big deal!

Plus the movie overall was depressing and weird what with Thor's dark visions of the future, and the endless scenes at Clint Barton's farm, and Ultron being over-the-top evil, and Captain America suddenly deciding/accepting that the Maximoff twins are good guys now just because they helped him during a bus battle against Ultron. He didn't stop to think, "Are you sure this isn't a mindtrick or a trap? Why did they betray Ultron?" He doesn't ask them for any explanation. There were more questions about whether Vision was evil or not, than about the twins changing sides. Not to mention the baffling Natasha and Bruce storyline where he just leaves her and the team without a goodbye. Just the whole movie is a piece of shit. The only good part of it was Wanda and Hawkeye having a moment in Sokovia in which he gives her a choice to hide or to come outside and be an Avenger. I'm never watching that film again even if it is the origin story of both Wanda and Vision. So glad they grew as characters beyond this stinker of a movie.

Voting in Texas

I voted today. I normally always vote early, since I cannot guarantee that my work schedule will let me vote on Election Day. I usually go during the daytime when there's no line. Today I arrived minutes after opening time and there were already 20+ people in line ahead of me. I hope that's good news that so many people were prepared and ready to go. There were a lot of local judges on the ballot, and many had Democrats running, but about a dozen were unopposed Republicans. Disappointing. I hope we can do better in future.

Anyway I read that Kamala is coming to Texas on Friday. She'll have a rally in Houston, but of course I can't go as I have to work and Houston's too far from DFW. It's very exciting, though the naysayers at Daily Kos say she's neglecting the "blue wall" and this is a sign of desperation. Hey, she and Tim Walz have been to the battleground states over a dozen times during this campaign. Why the fuck can't Texas get one visit? They're so greedy and full of doom & gloom over the polls. This is why I don't ever join Daily Kos. They're so hysterical and constantly fighting over there.

Yes I get worried too, but bringing other people down is not how to motivate them to vote. I am seeing some political ads lately, including Colin Allred's, but there have been a bunch of anonymous attack ads against "liberal judges who are soft on crime" and fearmongering about "open borders" while ignoring that the Republicans were the ones to kill the immigration bill. I find the radio ads more annoying than the TV ads, since with TV ads I can at least fast forward and see when the ad is over. I'll be glad when this is over.

Brrr!

Chilly fall temperatures have arrived in Texas. The cold woke me up at 5:30 AM.

I didn't realize that Colin Allred debated Ted Cruz last night, but he seems to have done good. I hope it makes difference in the election. Also Jasmine Crockett was on Colbert's show, and Kamala Harris just did an interview on Fox News tonight. I'm not sure I want to watch that one. I already saw her on 60 Minutes, with the interviewer framing everything in rightwing talking points.

On Disney+ I've been watching Agatha All Along but have looked away sometimes when it went too horror creepy for me. It's entertaining, though I really hated Alice dying only one episode after she conquered her family's curse. Hope things will be good now that we got Billy revealed. I miss Wanda.

Happy Indigenous People's Day

I almost forgot and thought this day was closer to Thanksgiving. I'll be working today, so it's not really a holiday for me.

Early voting in Texas starts next week, so I'll go then. This election is so nerve wracking, and I've no idea if the states wrecked by Helene and Milton will recover, especially given threats to FEMA.

Meanwhile it looks like The Wild Robot is getting a sequel due to its success.

Speaking of movies, I forgot to mention Rob Peace, the last movie I saw in August before my cruise. I think you can buy it on Youtube now, but I don't know if it will reach a streaming service in the future. Maybe it'll go to Paramount+? The film stars Jay Will, with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Mary J. Blige as Rob's separated parents.

The movie is based on a true story about a brilliant Black kid who had a bright future in biochemistry, but he got caught up in illegal schemes trying to help his imprisoned father. It's about obligation and tragedy, and it's based on a biography that his college friend wrote about him, but it goes into his childhood and the New Jersey neighborhood he grew up in. I hope more people find out about it.

Missed again

Apparently I missed the northern lights again. I don't know if it came down to Texas, but I did see people posting aurora pictures from Kansas, so that's pretty far south. I envy them, because I didn't see any aurora when I was in Alaska in August. Oh well.

Meanwhile I got out my wok again to deep fry the rest of the lumpia I had in my freezer. The first batch turned golden easily but after I took them out of the oil to cool on a rack, they looked more burnt and overdone. The second batch stubbornly looked undercooked and pale, but once I pulled them out they turned more golden and cooked. So I guess the trick is that I should deep fry them, but pull them out while they still look pale. Then while they rest on the rack, they'll finish cooking from the leftover heat.

Anyway, I guess I'll go out to the movies tonight. I did recently see the Super/Man Christopher Reeve movie, which was interesting, as I never knew about his blended family before. Apparently he was close friends with Robin Williams too.

Crossed Fingers

I'm glad that the dockworker's strike was resolved so quickly. After getting a better contract offer, the workers agreed to suspend the strike until January, while they negotiate the rest of the details. This is good for getting supplies to the regions devastated by Hurrican Helene, so they can recover. I hope that the new Milton storm won't bring further destruction.

Last week I saw a really stupid car festooned with flags and banners saying "Repent" , "Jesus Saves" and that he's coming soon, like maybe during the election. I know there are evangelical Christians around Texas but this was crazy. Apparently while I was at lunch, they even put up some "Jesus Saves" signs on a nearby fence. Wackos.

Meanwhile I've been having computer issues lately even though I upgraded the memory on my laptop. I kept getting 100% disk usage slowing everything down, but I think I finally found the Windows settings to make it work normally. Apparently next time I get a new computer I'll have to make sure I get SSD.

Autumn Already

Happy 100th birthday to Jimmy Carter! He said before that he wants to live long enough to vote this November, and I hope he does.

Wow, it's October already. Temperatures are still in the 90s in Texas though. The government is offering free Covid test kits again, so I signed up.

I went to see the movie The Wild Robot, which is very heart felt and beautifully animated. It seems to be doing good at the box office, so they may make a sequel. It's based on a book series I guess, so there should be good material. Reminds me a little of The Iron Giant, except that it's focused on animals, with no human characters on the island. The robot-building corporation is the villain, but nature itself also provides harsh conditions for survival. The film does acknowlege that death occurs but alludes to it gently so parents can deal with kids' questions rather than with their trauma.

I haven't been able to see other smaller movies that were too limited in release, like Tokyo Cowboy and Empire Waist, so I'll have to look on streaming for those. Unfortunately, with October, there's bound to be a bunch of horror movies out; there seems to be horror films year round now, but especially in October. I hate most horror, unless it's light and comic like Hocus Pocus. But I do have some Scooby-Doo DVDs to watch instead.