Random TV Thoughts – Spooks (MI-5 in the US)
Posted on
Jul 6, 2024

Random TV Thoughts – Spooks (MI-5 in the US)

This was one of my favorite action series back when it first aired, but it got much less compelling around series 8 and I quit watching at some point round there. I’ve now re-watched the entire series as well as the movie that followed it Spooks: The Greater Good. Here are some thoughts!

– I still LOVE the opening credits theme music!
– the first series aired in 2002, and all the computer and technical stuff is so primitive! LOL
– I much preferred the Grid in the first half of the series: it felt unique and distinctive. As the series progressed, somewhere after series 5 maybe, the Grid got very boring and it looks like a million other offices now.
– This was the first role I saw Rupert Penry-Jones in, and after this he was in The Strain where I was very happy with his performance as well.
– This was the second role I saw Matthew Macfadyen in, and had at first terrible trouble seeing him as a spy/action man. But I really became to like his character as the series went on, even though most of his personal storylines were bad.
– All in all, I think writing for characters was better in the early series. They all felt more like real people, each with their motives, strengths and weaknesses, desires and needs. Later on, the characters, with the exception of Sir Harry Pearce, became more one note and not as real feeling to me.
– I also liked that in the early series, the characters almost never had guns on them. Although often that felt unbelievable, though, but I’m not sure whether that’s because I’m used to all fictional spies/action heroes/law enforcers being armed to the teeth at all times. On the other hand, they never seemed to wear bulletproof vests even when knowingly going into a situation that likely would end in gunfire. Continue reading Random TV Thoughts – Spooks (MI-5 in the US)

Posted on
Jul 5, 2024

Friday 5 for July 4: No intersection

Today’s questions over at f.riday5.com

 

1. When did you last read a physical issue of a magazine?

It’s a toss up between a newspaper in the library two weeks ago or the customer magazine my local grocery chain releases every month. One or the other.

2. If someone were going through your wardrobe, which item or items would give the person a good idea of your age?

No idea. My clothes are all pretty much timeless and general because I don’t follow trends or styles or anything. And I don’t care about clothing or fashion to guess what might tell what other people about my age – my likes and dislikes, yes, but not my age. I also think it depends on that other person’s interest in clothing and fashion as well!

3. What is your favorite song released in 2024?

I… don’t know if I’ve even heard a single song released this year! I certainly don’t know the release years of the songs I listen to… mostly I just remember “this is from my childhood, this is from around 2010 and I it heard in The Vampire Diaries first, The Piano movies was made in early/mid-90s. this singer was active in the 1970s…

What I can do is give you my favorite song from all the ones I’ve discovered this year: Night Of The Dancing Flame by Róisin Murphy. I discovered that one last week from Evil episode 4×06 How to Dance in Three Easy Steps and I LOVE it.

Also saw this on YouTube and loved it:

4. What non-food item did you last put in a zippered plastic bag?

Non-food… I can’t think of one. I don’t use zippered plastic bags (I don’t think they’re a thing here) but freezer bags and such are closed with a knot or a clip. Either way, I don’t remember! I use them a lot for food items, but it’s been too long to remember what the last non-food item was!

5. You may know that in Japan there are cafes where you can play with bunnies, cats, hedgehogs, reptiles, owls, and many other kinds of animals. Assuming one hundred percent good faith, which would mean the animals’ safety and mental health are completely assured and the animals are rescues, making it unsafe for them to be released back into the wild, which animal cafe (whether it exists now or not) would you most like to spend time in?

Dog cafe, definitely! I like dogs a lot, and if I could look after a dog the way they should be taken care of, I would have one! So I’d definitely go to a dog cafe.

But I’d also like to go to a bunny or a cat cafe, just because I’ve never have interactions with them in real life… no one I’ve ever known has had a bunny, and a few had cats but cats disappeared whenever there were visitors around, so I never got to interact with one.

So I’d check out a bunny and a cat cafe, too!

I’ve heard that there are at least one or two cat cafes in Finland, but whenever I hear one mentioned, it’s always in a bad way – abuse, breeding etc. Just a week or two there was a minor scandal about a cat cafe chain where lots of outright abuse and just bad habitat situation took place.

Posted on
Jul 1, 2024

House of the Dragon 2.03 The Burning Mill 4K Screencaps

Finished uploading the caps several hours ago! Had some problems with the file (colors) and haven’t seen the episode yet because my apartment’s bathroom renovation started today at 7am (I don’t want to watch the episode until the work day is done because of the noise so I can properly enjoy the episode) so can’t really say how much brighter if any would be good. The colors of the video file seem quite dark to me, I’ll re-cap if I can find a better source color wise.

EDIT 12 hours later: I did end up re-capping from a different source. I deleted the old caps from 2×03 and just finished uploading the better ones!

Below are samples of the old ones for comparison:

 

The Friday Five for 28 June 2024
Posted on
Jun 28, 2024

The Friday Five for 28 June 2024

Answers to today’s questions at thefridayfive@dreamwidth

1. Have you gotten everything done that you had hoped to do during the first half of 2024?

Most of it, but there’s one thing still unresolved. Namely the I’m-one-of-my-biological-father’s-heirs-but-shouldn’t-be-because-my-adoption-as-a-baby-in-1975-was-supposed-cut-all-legal-and-otherwise-ties-to-my-biological-family-completely-but-law-was-changed-5-years-later-and-we-didn’t-know-until-he-died thing. It’s still unresolved, and there’s a question mark about whether my bio siblings have done the death bureaucracy things they said they have and are required by law. Although I can’t imagine they haven’t, because they too will face consequences down the line if the things required by law aren’t done. But I can’t trust what my bio sister the executor says – she’s promised to deliver the appropriate papers after claiming she has delivered them to the tax office, but so far hasn’t delivered to me and has gone silent. And the tax office says there’s no perunkirja in existence. So it’s all unclear and I’m still having to work on this fucking thing, made difficult because it’s a rare situation so finding pertinent information is hard and I have zero money to hire a lawyer or something. These bio family are all people I have never met, I have no idea of what if anything my bio father left behind if anything (was told he was a drunkard and had debts), and I’m not taking their word any more.

I haven’t seen any papers or signed anything, and I don’t know what my legal status regarding this fucking thing is. I have to talk to the tax office to see if there was an error in the way I worded my information request, and maybe apply to free legal aid just to find out what the current situation is and then go on from there. I did talk to a free lawyer advice meeting, but that’s only for quick things that take about 15 minutes and she guided me to contact the tax office to get a copy of perunkirja (which tax office said doesn’t exist when I did). And she said that while extensions are given to create the perunkirja, 1,5 years is too long and unlikely to happen. 

This is the one thing I hoped in general to be done with at least a year back now and certainly by now.

2. Did anything exciting or unexpected happen to you during the first half of 2024?

Nothing unexpected. But participating in AKSE in April and May was exciting, and we formulated in collaboration the next steps in regards to my chronic illnesses re: unemployment and general functional ability.

3. What big plans do you have for the second half of 2024?

Because of AKSE, there are now options and directions that I can try and take steps towards. Something good may or may not come out of them, but at least I’m not hanging in limbo and waiting for nothing right now. It’s been years of that! There’s something to look forward to after a long while, a possibility of more clarity. Probably will take until late fall or even later to start on most of them because I may have a hysterectomy surgery coming up (at least I very much hope so!), depending on what the university hospital doctors think about my gynekological bleeding and dropping ferritin and hemoglobin. I myself I’m completely ready for it – I’m so fed up with problem periods and bleeding and iron infusions and iron tablets. But in any case, lots of medical and rehabilitative things that will hopefully improve my basic functional ability are planned for my near(ish) future. But really does depend on that possible surgery or whether the doctors figure out the gynecological bleeding thing as well as how quickly I can get all the needed doctor appointments, how quickly KELA will process the applications after the things they need from me and my doctor(s), and when a suitable rehab would start.

The rest of the year is looking interesting, all in all!

4. Have you taken, or are you planning, a vacation this year?

Nope, and nope. I don’t work or study so I’m “free” all the time. And I have no money to make a vacation of any sort. I’ll just enjoy fresh strawberries, ice cream and new potatoes as much as I can!

5. Have you ever wanted to be one of the people writing and posting these questions?

The thought has occurred to me once or twice.