Promiseland

[Fetian]

Weird movie. Didn't really enjoy it, even as its own thing without comparing it to the book

[Fetian]

Director[/screenwriter] Alex Garland decided not to reread the novel "Annihilation." Instead, he decided to adapt it "like a dream of the book."

Ah

[erikavonkaiser]

I was also very disappointed in Annihilation! I liked the book a lot (the other books in the trilogy, not as much) and the movie was extremely not my jam. I'll tag for spoilers in case anyone who hasn't seen it and cares is looking --

why the cheating plotline????? or I guess I don't remember whether she thought her husband was dead/MIA, so cheating might be the wrong word, but why????? it had nothing to do with anything and felt like a cheap attempt to add discomfort or complexity to her and her husband's relationship.

Also just in general the movie was telling a different and much less interesting story

[Fetian]

The cheating was happening before the husband disappeared, so definitely cheating. And honestly was so, inconsequential to the rest of the plot that I forgot it happened before your comment. Like, I get its inclusion as part of the whole theme of loss and grief and etc, but. Do it better

And yeah, I was surprised to learn that there are sequels to the book! Kind of feel like, where do you go from where the book left off? Though the obvious answer is just, continuing to explore the area, it just feels like trying to pin down answers for a setting that clearly was set up to not give you a satisfying payoff or explanation is, weird. I've got the next one on hold and I'll give it a shot, but I don't expect VanderMeer to be very good at series. He's not great at characterisation in a single book, or short story, you know.

Anyway yeah I don't have a lot to say about the movie other than it was uninteresting and bad. Interesting visuals but without any particular impact aside from as shock value, and I get what they were doing with the story, I just don't think they did it well. And, I mean, I went into it wanting Annihilation! Not some guy's half-remembered dream about Annihilation! How do you fuck up so badly that you don't even include the Tower???

[Fetian]

Gorgeous day today, that I completely slept through. We had a high of like, 80, it dropped below 60 last night and we're on track to do it again tonight. Last night I smoked some weed and went to bed early, and then I slept forever and it was nice and comfortable and so great to not be sleeping in 110 degree weather. Tomorrow is looking to be closer to 90, and then we're in 90s for the rest of the week, but I'll take it

We're going to the fair tomorrow! I haven't been in years, it should be fun. We're aiming to get there before noon to beat as much of the heat and as much of the crowds as we can, so I need to get to sleep early again tonight.

Watched the first episode of the fourth season of dragula, pretty into most of the contestants, lukewarm on several of them, and hate one of them who unfortunately was up for elimination and then didn't go home!! So disappointed, wish I could have gotten to see more of the other up-for-elimination person's outfits.

And played some more Resident Evil -- we have reunited Lisa with her mom and we're just into the lab. Feels close to endgame!

Gonna eat some more food and then chill until bed

[Fetian]

The moon is bright orange tonight

[Fetian]

So instead of going to bed early, since I slept so much the day before, I decided I'd rather just stay up all night so we could do the fair as early as was convenient for ash. This ended up being close to eleven, and then we did fair things until about three! It was fun, we saw llamas and alpacas and camels and cows and sheep, and several fruit trees that we had to try to deduce what they were because there weren't any dingdang signs (including kiwis!), oh and some fish including sturgeon; and we walked through the shopping area, and then did several of the expos, including a "wild things" exhibit with a bunch of animals including kangaroos and capybaras and otters, an animation history exhibit, an exhibit on the in-progress california high-speed rail, the cannabis exhibit, and a couple of art exhibits. We ate lunch before the art exhibits, I had a funnel cake and ash had a gyro and some fries, and we watched a family of stilt-walkers pass by where we were eating. I also watched the monorail go by a few times, and it still looks the same as it has for years which is neat. We didn't do the midway or any rides, but aside from that I think we looked at everything at the fair (though some things we just observed as we passed by)

It was a beautiful day for it, only started getting really warm as we were leaving and it was mildly overcast so we didn't get any direct sunlight as we were outside. A Lot of walking, though, obviously, so I'm going to be horizontal for a few days at least

When we got home, ash went to go lay down for a while and I hung out in the living room and tried to watch a dragula, but kept falling asleep so I decided to go lay down myself for a while. At that point ash was up, but he wanted to play video games and I'd just continue falling asleep to that so I went ahead and took a nap for a couple hours. When I was up again, dinner was ready, but I wasn't ready to eat so I just went out and watched some youtube with ash (a couple filmcows and a few helluva bosses). Got all my plants watered and removed some morning glory vines that have been growing over my roses. And then after all that, ash went to bed and I also went to my room, with dinner to eat at some point

Definitely an early night tonight, and the heat isn't supposed to be too terrible this week so I might stick to a more normal schedule for a bit. Gonna youtube, and eat, and maybe a little video games before bed

[Fetian]

Unfinished wip is the natural state of art on the Internet. Completed works aren't cute, they only do that when they're stressed

[Fetian]

I smell like a hamster cage

[Fetian]

I was up late last night studying Japanese, including finishing the Cure Dolly book, and I woke up today at about 11, fed the cats and did some internet things, then went back to sleep at about 1 until 4, at which point I kept 'five more minutes'ing until 5. Ate some breakfast, woke up properly, then set up to record an arcadia

That went well, my coactor seemed very tired and low-energy but they didn't let that affect their acting at all, so we got the whole thing done in a couple of takes as is ash's usual ask. Tomorrow is another recording session, and then we're done with group recordings and just have independents to turn in.

Watched the rest of that dragula I didn't finish the other day -- I also looked up how long the person I dislike is going to be on the show and she gets eliminated in episode 7, so. That's. Great.

We got indian food for dinner, and it's very bland, to the extent that I got up to add more seasoning to it from our own stores, twice. Unfortunately a big issue with it is that the chicken itself is very bland, and adding seasoning to the sauce doesn't help that super much. But I added pretty generous doses of MSG, onion powder, ground mustard, smoked paprika, and red pepper, and I have eaten most of it and will finish it off in a little bit, so. Not terrible, not great.

Watched a couple more helluva boss with ash, and a breaking news, then went into my room to stardew with Dave. We're halfway through summer and, uh, are running out of things to work toward? I dunno if he'll want to keep playing after all our goals are met, maybe we'll move on to something else. But yeah, I have a cellar now and we're growing some trees to get oak resin from so we can make kegs so I can make mead, and those two were my main goal from the beginning of the game, to be able to make and age mead. We're also almost done with the bundles, we need wheat, apples, a rabbit's foot, and a pomegranate and the community center will be done.

We played for a long time tonight! Just gaming and chatting and talking about what's going on with his move and such. Glad he's found a place and glad he seems happy with it.

Yeah! Gonna watch some more youtube and eat more dinner, and then try to get to bed at a decent hour. Little bit of studying, probably. I've been keeping on track to have refreshed myself on the textbook chapters leading up to class next month, and I'm doing that at a pace that so far means I can miss days here or there and not have to stress it, but obviously if I've got the time and energy to do it I want to keep on it