KFC Saturday & Aneesha finds a weapon that could kill the aliens

We finally gave in.

Too blah to cook. I had to wake up early to recreate the goddamned corrupted 3D file which was easier the 2nd time around because now I knew where all the elements went in. And I used objects in actual scale which didn’t make any difference as I belived it would, but shaved off heaps of time in scaling them down to size.

But the program did become noticeably slower as I added more and more objects into the 3D space and I was thinking, if I only had the new MacBook Pro with the M1 Max chip, mmmmm ($6,054!).

So it’s episode 6 already in Apple TV + Invasion and the slowness - while it’s done really well mostly- is making me ask a lot of questions with no answers in sight. Like what happened to Sam Neil’s retired sheriff character way back in episode one?? Is he dead or not? If you remember, he was digging around the strange crop circle in a farmer’s field when the aliens somehow ‘stabbed’ him with something. The last shot is of him somewhat looking either stunned or dramatically dead with his eyes open. But judging by how a slew of soldier’s bodies were shown mangled and mutilated in episode 6, there’s still hope that Sam was merely temporarily incapacitated. But it’s strange that it’s this far into the series and that story arc has been totally abandoned.

Going back to Aneesha, she manages to go back to the house and arrives to find it barricaded against something. Her family and the couple who took their family in Patrick and Kelly, are hiding in the attic and this is expectedly where the friendly, sympathetic atmosphere evaporates as everyone panics.

Aneesha declares that they were leaving, and this is where everything goes south; the daughter falls through the attic floor and Aneesha follows to rescue her. The noise alerts the alien, and we see for the 1st time what it looks like- a sort of octopus with tentacles and bristling, camouflage-like skin. Kelly falls through the same underlay flooring, but manages to hold on- but the alien gets her as Patrick desperately tries to hoist his wife up.

Aneesha and Ahmed make it downstairs but Ahmed is attacked while trying to move the furniture they used to barricade the door. Aneesha and the kids escape through a window in the basement and try to make a run for it using Patrick and Kelly’s car. But the alien rams itself through the windshield and takes its time to eat/kill/spit at Aneesha with its multi-layered mouth. Aneesha shoots it (no use), then rams a stick-thingy into its mouth (no use), then throws what looks like a phone-book at it (no use), before finding the weird, stone-age like spear flint that Luke had found and stabs the thing with it- success!

My theory is that while conventional weapons can’t kill it, material from their world can- like the way Kryptonite affects Superman. Because why would it be a special kind of weapon?? It doesn’t look like one and was most likely a shard of something that crashed/exploded when the Malik’s neighbourhood was attacked in episode 2.

The philandering Ahmed survives the attack after all and limps out of the house. Aneesha is relieved to see him, but had he not survived, she would have moved on, but I guess when everyone you know is dying around you, it’s probably comforting to have familiar people around. At this point, whatever they’ve done to you pales in comparison to the life and death struggle you all face.

Lists! 100 Ways to Live to 100: A Definitive Guide to Longevity Fitness

How many can you personally tick off?

1. Eat fresh ingredients grown nearby

2. Eat a wide variety of vegetables

3. Eat until 80% full

4. Eat home-cooked family dinners

5. Embrace complex carbohydrates

6. Consider a plant-based diet

7. Substitute meat with fish

8. Try not to eat just before bed

9. Let yourself feel hunger

10. Eat dark chocolate

11. Make more PB&Js (peant butter & jelly)

12. Eat more beans

13. Eat more nuts

14. Cook with olive oil instead of butter

15. Put a cap on fun foods

16. Eat slowly

17. Drink more water

18. Drink red wine at 5:00 p.m.

19. Drink tea every day

20. Coffee is also a good idea

21. Try the Mediterranean Diet

22. Let food be

23. Stop drinking cow’s milk

24. Know it’s never too late

25. Stick to your dietary changes

26. Sleep more than seven hours a night

27. Practice yoga

27. Meditate for 15 minutes a day

28. Schedule an annual physical

29. Start strength training

30. Move every day

31. Optimize your workplace

32. Keep an active sex life

33. Hang from a bar for one minute a day

34. Turn the volume down

35. Breathe through your nose

36. Relax your jaw

37. Exercise in the cold

38. Get off the toilet

39. Use sunscreen

40. Take power naps

41. Pick up HIIT

42. Learn to play again

43. Worry less about weight loss

44. Screen for cancer regularly

45. Make sure to floss once a day

46. Practice sleep hygiene

47. Start running

48. Get into swimming

49. Forget the six-pack

50. Ask for help

51. Don’t ride a motorcycle

52. Don’t take up BASE jumping

53. Don’t eat processed foods

54. Don’t take hard drugs

55. Don’t ingest tobacco

56. Don’t smoke e-cigarettes

57. Don’t binge drink

58. Don’t eat hot dogs

59. Don’t have unprotected sex

60. Don’t drive under impairment

61. Don’t live in the middle of nowhere

62. Don’t blindly pop OTC pills

63. Don’t overeat

64. Don’t eat more protein than you need

65. Don’t stay in a stressful job

66. Don’t hold a grudge

67. Don’t blame your genes

68. Don’t sit around all day

69. Don’t doomscroll

70. Don’t binge-watch Netflix

71. Don’t binge on screentime

72. Don’t play American football

73. Don’t fool around in National Parks

74. Don’t mess with firearms

75. Don’t ignore air quality

76. Check your household products

77. Live with a purpose

78. Manage negative thought loops

79. Have a plan after retirement

80. Pick up “forest bathing”

81. Settle down near a body of water

82. Play board games

83. Join a team

84. Tell the truth

85. Listen to live music twice a month

86. Take colder showers

87. Read before bed

88. Keep a journal

89. Embrace behavioral activation

90. Avoid social jetlag

91. Learn a language

92. Show up to events

93. Maintain friendships

94. Make time to travel

95. Visit museums

96. Find your spiritual side

97. Change your mind

98. Have a family

99. Summon some empathy

100. Celebrate aging: Not just in the birthday cake sense. Those who approach aging with a positive outlook end up aging easier than others. Proactively acknowledge what’s to come instead of fretting about the wrinkles under your eyes. Maybe you’ll make it to 100. Maybe you won’t. But your absolute best chance comes from living your best life along the way.

(You can read the full article here)

What are you watching? Invasion, Apple TV +

In New York just after morning recess, school-children at a Manhattan school start screaming as their noses start to bleed simultaneously as if a tap had been opened.

In Japan, a rocket carrying the country’s first astronauts launches into space. Reaching the thermosphere, the astronauts see something they hadn’t seen before. Within minutes, something rips into their ship as easily as if it were made of cardboard, hurling all of them into cold, dead space.

In Oklahoma, a soon to retire small-town police chief spends his last day wishing he had a bigger legacy to leave behind until an ordinary call leads to something possibly extraordinary- a mysterious crop circle and two missing townsfolk.

In the Philippines, members of an old powerful, and corrupt political family prepare to attend their formal return to power. Thirty-five years after they were ousted in a populist bloodless coup, they have regained the presidency using the same cunning & manipulation they have always used. On the way to the inauguration, on the same stretch of highway that was the scene of their defeat three decades ago, their entire convoy of vehicles along with their military escorts is suddenly hurled into the air, as if by an invisible giant hand. The vehicles fall back to earth and onto the confused crowds of their supporters lining the highway.

Invasion is an American science fiction television series created by Simon Kinberg and David Weil. It premiered on Apple TV+ on October 22, 2021.

An Apple a day...

I have to admit that more than anything, the aspirational quality of Apple products is what’s hooked me into its ecosystem all these years. Though some of its products for me have lost that specific lustre- the iPhone for one, expensive as it is, has become so pedestrian that it’s become just another phone (among many). Though I wouldn't switch to Android in a million years- and I have tried at least twice- because the system is manically tedious.

I call myself a sort of Apple geek and yet probably don’t know half of every iPhone iteration’s functionalities or use any of its shortcuts and this is precisely why I like it because it leaves you alone. Save for the system updates which most of the time it does automatically anyway, it leaves you plenty of room to make choices if you want to use these features or not. Non-Apple users accuse you of being locked into an ecosystem without realising that this is what every other company wants (even Android).

I’ve ‘locked’ myself in and I like it- not that I have any choice at this point. I have files and photos all the way back from 2011 when iCloud was first launched; currently over 40,000 images would you believe- going through them, I had months on end where I took a photo every single day. I’ve had every iPhone that came out save for the 1st one and the minor models (the SE and the XRs).

I’ve been an Apple Watch user since it 1st came out; bought the 2nd gen when the 1st one broke, and gifted myself last Christmas with the 6th generation in stainless steel for a dressier look. It’s always on my wrist, the 1st thing I put on after showering, and the last thing I take off before I go to bed. It has kept me fit and updated on news, Covid-alerts, iMessages, because I have a confirmed case of FOMO.

I had the 1st generation iPad and currently have the (old) 2nd generation 10.5 inch iPad Pro; I’ve been obsessing with getting the M1 chip powered iPad Pros, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with my old one to justify a nearly $3,000 upgrade. These damn things never break.

I’ve ever only bought one iMac- which is now being used by Chini- and fortunate that because I use it for work (the 27-inch ones), I get to keep them after the end of the three-year upgrade cycle which means I’ve had two since.

And Macbooks…I remember my very 1st MacBook which was the 2006 matte black version. I split the cost of it with my sister Binky- her half was her gift to me- and her sister-in-law hand-carried it to the Philippines from the US. To this day, I remember and continually look for its distinct smell- this crisply sharp plasticky smell.

When I moved to New Zealand, it became a bit easier to acquire them. I knew the tech suppliers well from my 1st job for a publication company, and my next two MacBooks- 2009 and 2012 15-inchers in the iconic aluminum unibody with the lit Apple logo cut-out- were actually leases that I got from them at cost.

But as I’ve said, aspirational products can actually make you better. I learned to create new forms of content, I moved on to a new job that offered an accelerated path upwards if I was willing to go beyond what I already knew. I learned video, high-end graphics and 3D rendering. I brought it everywhere with me and my workflow was and is always melded with my personal schedule (because my idea of relaxation also meant being online or editing a photo). So when the fourth-generation MacBook Pro with the (pointless) Touch bar came out in 2016, I was able to buy it outright -didn’t even use a credit-card.

I was happy with it until Apple dropped without warning, the 16-inch model in late 2019 which I currently have. When you’re not expecting something, the impact of it on you is greater and I didn’t think twice about getting it. But the same issues are there- the battery doesn’t really last (it’s almost always plugged) and there’s still a struggle doing just baseline graphic work such as 3D renders or Adobe Premiere. These are the issues that the new MacBook Pros with the M1 Pro and Max chips are supposed to address.

But more than the technical aspects, it’s about learning new stuff! Logic Pro! XCode! Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve! I’ll probably never get to first base on some of this stuff, but the whole point of life is in trying and evolving- to aspire, remember?

Don’t ever be that basic bitch.

However, the price is not basic- prices for the 16-inch, M1 Pro chip starts at $4299 while the M1 Max version starts at (gasp) $6049.

Adele30

We were soaked. I almost peed where we sat, with my poncho as a cover- no one would have seen nor cared anyway. She was spectacular. And I’m not really a singer-music kind of person, but before the 21 album exploded, I was already listening constantly to 19 without caring who she was. Can’t remember what I was going through then (nothing dramatic really, maybe just depressed by the fact that I was living in a country that seemed so basic), but I listened to her everyday on the last iPod that I would ever own.

Video snippets below strung together- and yes, this was the year that the iPhone I had, was the 1st water-resistant one (the iPhone 7). Perfect timing!

So fuck you Covid- you’re not going to mess up Adele’s concert plans.

What are you?...

Watching?

Foundation: American science fiction drama television series created by David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman for Apple TV+, based on the Foundation series of stories by Isaac Asimov. I came across this when I was in high school but thought of it as being ‘too scholarly’, so I passed and took on Ursula Le Guin, Ray Bradbury and Margaret Atwood instead. Apple does it great justice with Apple $$$$$ (image above is of the mysterious ‘vault’; drawn on Procreate).

Reading?

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers: The last time I took a literary recommendation from Wired Magazine, was the awful vampire novel Carpathia by Matt Forbeck. But what got me hooked to giving one of their recommendations another try was the word, ‘hopepunk’ - science fiction with the feels. Instead of being described as ‘critically-praised’, her novel, is ‘much-loved’. Now, what can go wrong with that? Synopsis of the novel from Wiki:

Fleeing her old life, Rosemary Harper joins the multi-species crew of the Wayfarer as a file clerk, and follows them on their various missions throughout the galaxy. The novel concerns itself with character development rather than adventure. Each member of the crew has a story that unfolds, or a crisis to face. They encounter several alien environments on the slow path to their destination. At the end, the ship is damaged by hostile aliens, precipitating changes in the relationships between the characters, setting them on new paths.

Self-published initially via a Kickstarter campaign, the book was shortlisted for the 2016 Arthur C. Clarke Award, earned a nomination for the British Fantasy Awards' 2016, won the Sydney James Bounds Award for Best Newcomer & was the first self-published novel to be shortlisted for the Kitschies Golden Tentacle for Best Debut Novel

(Image above drawn on Sketchbook)

How to Zoom. Properly

My mother has told me this a thousand times in different ways, but the gist is, ALWAYS PUT YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD. Like always. And she practices this as well. When she would stay over for a couple of months here in New Zealand, Matt and Toni would always roll their eyes when they would ask her to go with them to the superette a few metres down the road. She would take some time to fix herself up before doing so.

And I’m the same- DON’T FUCKING GODDAMNED CARE IF I’M JUST GOING TO THE SUPERMARKET. Not going out looking like a fool because I’m not a fool. If you’re that bitch who says you don’t care about the way you look, it doesn't mean that you have strength of character for coming onto the screen in your bathrobe, hair all a mess with a sour expression to tie everything in together (people who do porn actually have the same rationale just FYI).

It just means YOU’RE UNCARING- probably of everything, and who needs a person like that? NOBODY.

A little something doesn't hurt

I moisturise anyway 24/7 so this is a given. I tried a primer once- never really used it before- and I thought, it’s too much. What looks a tad shiny in real life, looks glossy and dewy on screen. Like I’m 20 again, HA!

Lights! Camera! Action!

I work with a window in front of me but it’s too harsh and so is the glare from my 27-inch iMac. So the curtains are closed and I turn on a yellow lamp to balance out the white light and put a cloth over it for good measure to soften the lighting a bit more.

And the results are...

I look human!

Post-everything

The first mutation came from the election night viewing party at the Navy Mess.

The secretary of housing and urban development put out a press release that he was fine after being the 3rd person from the party to test positive. He was exhibiting no worrying symptoms that made it necessary for hospital confinement. He was isolating at home and his wife, results still pending, was doing the same in their other home in Long Island. At a press conference, a reporter mentioned that generally, the second week may bring more troubling symptoms but the spokesperson, a tall blonde in a tight cream pant-suit with a slight midwestern twang ignored the comment and even rolled her eyes. She wasn’t being paid enough for this bullshit. She had looked forward to this- your time to shine, her mother always told her- but she was only fronting the press because the one with a higher rank than her was unavailable, and so was the person higher than that person and going all the way up tp Miss K The Mighty One.

Miss K was safely ensconced in her 6 mil modern Tudor manse in Spring Valley. Probably touching up her hair (and face) with an army of hairdressers and stylists who were only recently asked to wear masks. She hadn't been seen in the premises the day after the election when everyone woke up to find that the other guy had clawed himself out of oblivion and was now president-elect. Nobody really believed the boss’s ranting about fraud, cheating and dead people voting. They all knew. She did too. it was all everyone could talk about weeks before the election, even if you had to be very careful about who you discussed it with. She was honestly surprised that the public didn’t even pick up on it the moment the boss started building the narrative of illegal ballots. It was all planned because they knew it was going to be close, and it was. At the end of the day, they couldn’t close the gap and all hell broke loose.

When she got the memo telling her that she might front the press because so and so was away somewhere, she initially felt euphoric and then later, deflated. There was no opportunity in this at all- just 15 minutes and mainly covering health updates regarding the election night party where three attendees including the sec of housing had tested positive. She squirmed at the thought- she almost went to the viewing party when Ms-Higher-Up-Than-Her rang & asking her to come over to discuss something. All the main players were there including the boss’s campaign manager. This was her chance to show them that there was more to her than just being a former Ms Kansas USA title-holder.

But she didn’t even get inside. Ms-Higher-Up-Than-Her was outside the closed door on her phone and when she saw her approach, held out a finger for her to stop. She babbled on for about 10 minutes. Someone inside yelled Ohio. When she was done, she motioned for her to come closer and she was instructed about what was possibly going to happen in the next 48 hours. She crinkled her nose ever so slightly- Ms-Higher-Up-Than-Her’s breath smelled of cigarettes, wine (rose??) mixed with Chanel.

‘You’ll get a memo of course, in case you forget’ Ms-Higher-Up-Than-Her said, dismissing her with a wave before taking out her phone to make a call.

When she did get a memo three days and three positive cases later, she also got a confidential email from Ms-Higher-Up-Than-Her telling her that she WASN’T (this was typed all-caps) really at the party. That she never went inside. That she waited outside the door talking to someone on the phone until she had arrived, had their discussion, made another phone-call and left for the night. Uh-okay, she thought. Whatever. She was honestly over this whole virus thing. Mexico, she thought. Somewhere really warm. Is there travel to Mexico? Of course; she remembered the Mexican president’s visit and how friendly he was to the boss.

‘Is Mr. C concerned that in most cases, the onset of more dangerous symptoms happen in the 2nd week’, some guy from the Post asked. Didn't she already sort of answer this question, that Mr. C was fine and on his way to recovery?? And she wasn’t a doctor for Christ’s sake. Someone sort of asked another question (it wasn’t for her) so she just ignored the guy from the post and said yes, putting on that dazzling veneered smile that won her the title of Ms Kansas USA. Five more minutes of this & everything was going to be just fine.

(But it wasn’t. By Wednesday, the sec of housing & urban development started to cough persistently and violently and it wouldn’t stop so he rang 911. The reports after that were not clear, swept aside by a tide of fear and panic that arrived quickly and brutally. But the pattern was the same; the patient would go into an extended bout of paroxysmal coughing triggering cardiac arrest. Then about 10 to 15 minutes later, what was presumably a non-beating heart roars back to life. But the patient is neither conscious it seems nor really alive in the true sense of the word. The condition was feral and the body’s state in the first 48 hours could only be described as hyper-human regardless of the age or condition of the body. It was also contagious, passed on by bites. The driver of the ambulance that brought the sec of housing was oblivious of what was happening in the back; by the time they arrived at Walter Reed hospital, it disgorged a gaggle of contagion that quickly enveloped the greater Washington area within 24 hours.

It didn't help that the boss’ advisers- still tiptoeing around him- thought it was another piece of ghastly news spread by the fake media and put into effect a news blackout. By the time they realised that it was real - a livestream of a far-right rally in Virginia suddenly engulfed in hordes of infected ferals was broadcast on Fox- the infection had spread to North Carolina, New Jersey & New York.

The secret service flew the president-elect to a secret bunker on the West Coast as a hastily assembled cabinet grimly worked on the urgent task to formulate a plan of attack.

The boss, by now reeling with events that seemed even stranger than his election loss, managed to finally get on a chopper with his secret service agents and ordered his staff to go to his resort in Florida against their wishes. It’s fortified like Fort Knox and big, he screamed. We’ll be safe there! What he didn’t know was that in the midst of clearing out guests and non-essential workers, the mostly Cuban-American staff hid family members in the grounds for safety; two of them would later become infected).

Would you like another glass? She was nodding on & off, feeling perfectly content. Yes, please she replied to the stewardess who handed her a flute of champagne. She looked out the window, the horizon a very pale band of yellow. She couldn’t even remember what time she’d be arriving in Puerto Vallarta; she had left in a blur. Filing for leave was easier than she thought it would be; everyone was in a state of both panic and suspension that HR approved it without much thought. She was glad to leave all of that unpleasantness behind. I need to decompress, she told herself, to find some inner peace.

She had switched off her devices and vowed not to look at the news- she was done wth the goddamned news; her plane on its 40 hour plus course had left by the time the news blackout was lifted.

A new day, she thought looking out at the sunrise & tipping the glass to her lips. The champagne was beautifully crisp & cold..ahh the life..and then something seemed to catch, like there was a tiny, sharp prick to her throat. She coughed. The prick was now a stab and taken aback, the pain searing, she clutched at the back rest in front of her. Her eyes watering, her vision swimming there was only one primal thought- she needed to get rid of whatever was clutching at the inside of her throat. She coughed and coughed and for a second, she thought she found relief. But it was only the blankness of death. The worse was yet to come, but mercifully for Miss Kansas USA, she wouldn’t know any of it really.

Day 32

The funny thing is that work-days spent at home are more satisfying than weekends when there’s really nothing to do. There’s no point waiting for the weekends to do laundry or to do chores which you can slot them in during the week. And I really hate sleeping in as it gives me a headache but it’s a struggle trying to wake up at 7:30am. I’ve been having intense dreams like everybody else and it gets harder to wake up when they go on and on.

Taking the DJI Ronin S out of the closet

I just remembered that I needed to try out if the Nikon Z6 was compatible with this gimbal

Turns out it is compatible

And while I couldn’t completely remember how to put everything together, a quick look on Youtube does the trick

There's a new Ronin in town

And it’s called the Ronin SC, and for a moment I got that familiar stupid sense of panic called, my-device-is-obsolete

But there was no cause for alarm

Apparently, the Ronin SC follows what i think to be DJI’s a shift of design into materials that are lighter and cheaper (plastic). As a result, the newer gimbal is really meant for lighter cameras which the Z6 is not especially with the hefty 24-70mm lens

All I needed were a year's worth of updates

..will be testing tomorrow

I’m a movie-fan really I am. Show me one still image and I can tell you right away what movie its from. But today, I virtually watched Rogue One all over again (without skipping the parts as I usually do with movies I’ve already seen) because for the life me, I couldn’t even remember it. But I’m sure I’ve watched it before. Anyhow, it’s sad isn’t it?. Really sad. Sadder than Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker which I watched last night, rented on Apple TV. I enjoyed it in spite of the much publicised negative reviews. But the thing is, I’m invested in how a movie entertains me on whatever level, and not on why it’s made or who made it. I won’t ever be that geek who does reaction videos on Star Wars teasers and weeps uncontrollably.

So I get Martin Scorsese’s diss of Marvel movies because I would be too if I was a film-maker of his milieu. But I’m just a popular-culture consumer who can appreciate the high-brow and the low- like Marvel movies. After watching Rogue One I just had to fast-forward through Star Wars A New Hope just because I wanted to see the Death Star destroyed. In that sequence where Luke Skywalker flies through a corridor on the Death Star being pursued by his dad Darth Vader, I thought I saw something weird. So I paused it and took a photo and lo and behold it was this: Darth Vader’s eyes. For a moment I thought that it didn’t look like James Earl Jones then remembered that he only did the voice. The actor who played Darth Vader was English bodybuilder and character actor David Prowse.

Day 19: You're allowed one 'unproductive' day

Well, not really when I’ve managed to get a head-start for tomorrow’s work schedule; read all the documents; tested the new builds in the back-end; fixed up my documentation notes. When I was younger I didn't have much of a strong study ethic because I didn't see any value in it for me, but now I do. Nothing is worse than coming up to a Monday unprepared mentally and physically.

And there’s no excuse because as an adult with adult resources at your disposal, you can be prepared- your clothes (I always wear nicer things on Monday); your face (I wind down early on Sunday so I could rest earlier than usual); your lunch (I make my best lunches on Mondays); your tasks- I check all my emails and my scheduled meetings and make a mental map of how I’m going to tackle the day ahead.

And today was no different- but other than that, I didn’t do anything else. Finally finished the Netflix show The Final Table where the eventual winner was someone who didn’t have much of a personality and because everyone worked in teams before the finals, was also someone who didn’t seem to put in the work as much as the other guy who also made it to the finals (that’s what we see anyway on screen).

And there’s a lesson there actually that I should remember - don’t be too prepared; don’t be that bitch who always makes it a point to be too extra. Life is too short- and uncalculated- for you to be always calculating when you can actually relax once in a while. Loaf around. Do nothing for a change. Just this once.

The unassuming Tim Hollingsworth won Netflix’ The Final Table, with a dish he’s cooked before, that trumped the inventiveness and audacity of his competitors. At the end of the day, even chefs who call themselves progressive stick to old habits and inevitably pick a dish that is neither inventive nor bold, but settled and perfect.

Interruptions: A whole lot of them

The thing with remote work is that it’s still what our work hours are and that we’re connected to our phone system through the duration of those hours. Though I’m pretty sure some remote workers out there may have Youtube or Netflix open, I’m not one of those, nor can even afford to be distracted anyway.

So viewing is only usually after cooking and eating dinner, and in those hours on the weekends after or in-between chores. Sadly as I have discovered, rooms and clothes don’t get cleaned magically (as they used to back home).

In reality, I don’t watch that much; but these are what’s on the menu when I am…

Westworld, HBO

Season 2 was a lot of tying up that didn’t quite work. Season 3 finally goes out of Westworld into a bigger one with heaps of possibilities. Can’t stop looking at Rachel Evan Wood’s beautiful face.

Greys Anatomy, TVNZ1

I love this show, period.

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 12, VH1

We can’t stop gagging, seriously we can’t

Orphan Black, TVNZ1

Late to the party for this one, but better late than never

Ozark, Netflix

Quietly terrifying, Jason Bateman and Laura Linney are amazing

Devs, FX on Hulu

There’s nothing I love more than creepy sci-fi tech

Day 13: Do you have 10 minutes?

If you do, that’s how long you have to watch a mystery, a comedy or catch up with the news. There are docus, true stories and Chrissy Teigen doing a Judge Judy turn. There’s LeBron, Justin Bieber, Pulso news from Telemundo. All of it clocking at just 10 minutes, and only viewable on your phone.

Welcome to Quibi.

When you sign-up, you get a free trial run for 3 months after which you’e charged a monthly subscription of $13.99. If I like it, then I won’t cancel after 3-months. This means, it joins a really crowded party where Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, Amazon, Hulu, NeonTV and TVNZ compete for my ever worsening eyesight.

Funny thing is, I struggle to finish a movie (average length: 2 hours) even if I have ensconced myself in bed with snacks. I keep getting distracted (must really be my ADHD). Today, I finished the last 10 minutes of my morning tea-break watching Sophie Turner in the Quibi survival thriller Survive. And you know what? The length was just perfect and more importantly, the show was substantial.

Apparently, the funding for this short-form mobile platform is in the billions (that’s Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman- Google them if you don’t know who they are) which translates to $100,000 per minute for its top-tier offerings. And the quality shows- question is, will I be $13.99 poorer?

Interruptions on the preekend

‘Preekend’ is defined by the Urban Dictionary as ‘the time period that starts after lunch on Friday and ends when the weekend starts. Usually in this time period it is particularly hard to focus on work tasks and it is more likely that people are chatting, shopping online and/or doing other non-work related activities.”

Which is just about right because working for only 37.5 hours a week (officially), I find that because I leave work at 2pm or earlier on Fridays, I sometimes already abbreviate my day- (I still work a lot) by doing tasks I know I’d finish by lunch and move longer, more complicated ones to Monday. And I would either work through lunch or have a shorter one so I could leave without rushing at 1 or 2pm.

I don’t mind 40-hour work weeks (or more), but to be able to get off early on Fridays means you can get stuff done you normally would apply annual leave for like doctor’s appointments, facials, shopping and other non-work related stuff because obviously, you’re off from work- welcome to the preekend!

Caught this word watching the 1st episode of the HBO show ‘Succession’ which is a family fighting control of their family empire.

The cast of HBO’s "Succession”.

We grew up hearing of families fighting over money and inheritances and my mom would point out to us that we should count ourselves lucky because we had nothing to fight over 😂.

When I think about it I could say that if we did, we would be different- that we grew up strongly instilled with the reminder that acquiring and maintaining wealth literally came with a price, and that if you wanted to pursue it, you paid that price. But maybe I’m just saying that because we grew up not really having to deal with how to divide $14 billion dollars.

Preekend dinner

Anyhow, champagne and caviar or ethically-sourced grade 12 Kobe beef dinner aside or whatever the rich eat these days, we went to the Auckland Night Markets in Papatoetoe for dinner. The last couple of months, I’ve been doing Connie’s Korean Bulgogi stand and ordering nothing but the pan-fried pork belly with noodles.

The pork is braised I think in some broth before the liquid evaporates and then it fries in its fat. The vermicelli is cooked along with it and when they serve you a portion, they ladle into it this sweet, sticky broth to finish it off.

Interruptions: Dracula, Netflix

Like any person dead-set on staying as youthful as long as possible, I find the idea of being a vampire quite attractive. But what kind of vampire though is the more important question; the eternally melancholic vamps of Anne Rice? The millennially inclined Twilight group penned by Stephenie Meyer? Or maybe the historically immersed creatures from A Discovery of Witches?

None of the above- I think I’ll pick Count Dracula from Netlix’s new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Neither brooding nor silly (like going to high-school!), this Dracula is literally like me bingeing on so-so Netflix series, skipping and fast-forwarding through the boring and predictable parts (of life). Instead of spending the next 100 years learning and practicing painting or the violin, or German and fourteen other languages, he simply drinks the blood of someone who knows these things and voila, all of these skills and talents are absorbed.

For why wait, even if you did have all the time in the world, when you can have something now???

I look at my desk and my lists- write, paint, read, design, cook, learn- and think, goddamn it- will I seriously get everything done??

Interruptions

“The great enemy of writing is interruption”

— Joyce Carol Oates

The Witcher, Netflix

I bought the book but unfortunately, when you’ve watched the 1st season, it seems pointless to read it. Henry Cavill has a perfect face, but he is so dull and his portrayal of Geralt seems like he trained with someone to bring out your standard gruff-talking, grim-faced masculinity. But there are enough interesting elements in this adaptation (including the insanely hot Anya Chalotra as the sorcerres Yennefer) to make you excited for season 2.

Lost In Space, Netflix

There is an abundance of sci-fi/dystopian stuff on Netflix but Lost in Space is a little bit more polished, a bit more interesting. Parker Posey is annoying as hell, but that’s called being really effective in your role. But the real gem of this adaptation is the mom, Mrs. Robinson who shows us that maybe, what the human race needs in its quest for a new home in space is a nurturing, compassionate, kick-ass female leader with an IQ of 180.

Watchmen, HBO

Eight words- thank-God-Jack-Snyder-did-not-make-this

Ten very Eddie Garcia Things

I like Eddie Garcia. First thing, he looks like dad. My dad was like him in so many ways except for one thing- a distrust of our very mortal bodies. This was one man who was incredibly fit and incredibly conscious of his health. If my dad had been more of the same, he would most likely be still alive today.

About fifteen years ago, I read an article about this and how he supposedly takes more than a dozen vitamins and supplements a day. I’ve done the same thing since then and never questioned the cost or the efficacy because if there’s ever a guarantee for things whose outcomes are not certain, it’s consistency.

Be consistent on maintaining a healthy lifestyle and the results would be optimal; be consistent in eating crap and sitting on your ass the whole day and well, you know how that story turns out…

Eddie Garcia is 89 years old. That's almost nine decades (and just 11 years short of 100) on this God's green earth, and, as we found out during our candid interview with the legendary actor, he's made sure to lead a disciplined but colorful life.

1. What you could do today, you should do now so you could do something else tomorrow

2. Tiime and discipline are important

3. On directing and editing: be definitive on what you want

4. Passion is important. if you can’t find passion in your job, find something else (for nearly 70 years I continuously did movies because it was a job i really liked)

5. Money earned but not spent is really not your money

6. The reason you earn is because you want to spend it

7. Women should be put on a pedestal (Ryan: and pray that they’re worth it)

8. Cheating (when you’re in a relationship) is wasting time

9. Only set goals that are realistically achievable

10. On legacies: if you’re dead, you’re dead. Who cares if nobody remembers you?

I’ve also done an Eddie Garcia on skin-care because what’s the point of living up to a very old age but look like you’re already dead and decomposing??? Again, it’s consistency; just as I never miss taking my medications, I never miss slathering something on my face before I go to bed or before I go out. Brands change, but at this point, I always have something for my eyes; for night, I have a serum, a moisturiser and a facial oil; for day, I have another serum specific for day and a sun-screen with an SPF of 50.

The future is now

I came out of a screening for Blade Runner 2049 with a profound sense of familiarity and that for me, is the weakness of a film belonging to a genre that is supposed to reposition your mindset of the future. It fails this and this is the bleakest realisation- that future is actually already here. 

1. Society is prepared for fully-conscious Artificial-intelligence because it has been treating non-conventional people as if they just only recently came to life. So if you're a replicant, a gender-fluid teen, a 65-year old transgender woman or a pugnacious Democrat, expect to be embraced, vilified, tortured, celebrated or murdered, all depending on the timing and mood.

2. Patriarchy is an old God that refuses to die. You've knocked down someone like Harvey Weinstein, but there is a long way to go (how many lifetimes will it take to get there?). It's women versus ideology, versus religion, even versus themselves.

3. Climate change is real and all you need to confirm it for some of us who have been around longer, is to believe what your gut tells you. And mine is telling me, winter is probably coming.

4. What is the opposite of dystopian? Why isn't anyone writing or making movies about that?

5. If the future is here, don't be the fool who persists in clinging to the past. Yield yes, but don't bend too much. 

“This is the first age that’s ever paid much attention to the future, which is a little ironic since we may not have one”

— Arthur C Clarke, 1976

The future is...embrace it, use it

The future is floral

Embellished jacquard blazer by Zara men

The future is a clean aesthetic

Jacket from NEED in Olive. Spread collar. Full zip front closure. Dual entry patch pockets with flap and snap button closures. Interior chest pocket. Adjustable snap button cuffs. Tonal stitching. Straight hem. Insulated fill. Lined. Relaxed, straight fit.

The future is a device with emotion

Our vision has always been to create an iPhone that is entirely screen. One so immersive the device itself disappears into the experience. And so intelligent it can respond to a tap, your voice and even a glance. With iPhone X, that vision is now a reality. Say hello to the future.

The future is tradition

Since 1915, the Moscot family has been selling eyeglasses in New York. And over 100 years later, there are still generations of Moscots waiting for you at Orchard Street when you need some new spectacles or shades (COMMON PROJECTS + MOSCOT TYPE ONE collab)

The future is science made wearable

The slim-fit Nike Sportswear Advance 15 Men's Joggers are made with soft cotton-blend fabric for lasting comfort.

The future is your health

Dealing with multiple medications can be a hassle. Pill Pack aims to make it as painless as possible. This online full-service pharmacy delivers a personalized roll of pre-sorted medications to your door each month. Each sachet of pills is labeled with the time, date, and any notes on how to take them, and is stored in a convenient dispenser. Other medications that can't be placed in packets, such as liquids or inhalers, are also included in each month's package, and an online software platform called PharmacyOS makes it easy to manage your various prescriptions, refills, and renewals.

The future is black

Oral health just got a whole lot more aesthetically pleasing. With a limited edition gloss and matte finish, the All-Black Goby Electric Toothbrush Kit is combining the benefits of an electric toothbrush and a sleek, minimalist design. The battery lasts two weeks on a single charge, keeping those unsightly cords in your drawer and off your sink. Better yet, the USB charging cable makes for easy charging, both at home and on the go. Sign up for their subscription service and they'll automatically send you a new brush head when its time to change it out. If you're still afraid of commitment, you can try it out for 60 days, no strings attached.

The future is (faux) leather

Faux leather biker jacket with metal details, zip-up front, side zip pockets, zips on the cuffs and a belt detail along the hem with metal buckles. Zara.

The future is your body

Scales are necessary for basic fitness tracking. Those a little more concerned might take monthly photos to track their progress. The ShapeScale 3D Body Scanning Scale combines these two concepts in a far more convenient, helpful manner. It has a 3D scanner mounted on an arm that rotates around your body, building a high-fidelity 3D model in under a minute. Using heatmaps, it can instantly show you where you've been gaining, and where you've been losing, as well as localized lean and fat mass numbers. It lets you keep track of your goals visually, gives precise body measurements, and, of course, keeps track of your actual weight, too.

The future is everyone watching

Live streaming is a great way to share your experiences with friends and family. Unfortunately, when you're holding your phone up recording, you're not experiencing as much as you should. The FrontRow Wearable Camera by letting taking the camera out of your hands. It's powered by Android, with a small, discrete body, built-in Wi-fi and Bluetooth, and an eight-megapixel main camera.