Ah extroverts, spending their lives walking all over introverts and in their sublime self-satisfaction never even noticing.

In movies and TV shows when someone is kidnapped and tied up for hours and days they never seem to need to go to the bathroom.


How realistic is that?

This morning when I was getting ready to go out I was trying to match a sweater to the shirt I was wearing and it occurred to me that if you have light coloured shirts it helps to have dark coloured sweaters.  It just simplifies the whole process.


Why has it taken me so long to clue in to this?

Lately I've come to really hate food preparation and cooking.


I spent quite a bit of time today looking online for simple easy healthy recipes for one person.


I don't know how these people define "easy" or "simple" but nothing anyone has produced on a website matches my definition by a long shot.


I try to avoid prepared frozen entrees because they tend to be full of salt and fat and they also, even the "healthy" ones, invariably include things like peppers and onions and garlic and unspecified "spices" all of which tear apart my digestive tract.

If you're frustrated because there's no solution:


become part of the problem.

Movie: The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

I just rewatched this film.


Every time I do that I'm impressed all over again with just how good it is.

As I age I come to believe more and more that being conservative politically (Conservative in Canada,  Republican in the USA,  Conservative in the UK,  etc) is actually a form of mental illness.

Sometimes you just want a jelly doughnut.

Movie: Grabbers

A horror/comedy from Ireland.

Not bad at all, good effects.

Russel Tovey, although not the lead, pretty much steals the film.

So many things in my life have been spoiled by other people interfering or sometimes merely being present.

Often,

when I have to decide between eating this unhealthy thing or that unhealthy thing,

I choose

both.

I thought that

when I retired,

I would have time.

But the days pass

in a flash,

and I accomplish

a fraction

of what I intended.

Looking back over my fashion choices years ago it's very easy to feel rather embarrassed.  Especially since at the time I thought I was parading around in the height of fashion.


I generally can dismiss it with the perennial, "I was young and didn't know any better."


But it is one reason, of many, (and a relatively minor one), that I find the whole fashion industry so loathsome. 

Google removed the "Next Blog" button.


Why would they do that?


How will I find new blogs to read?

In my life I've learned that if you "lend" something to someone you need to expect to never get it back.

I usually try to avoid using self-checkout machines in grocery and drug stores because I'd rather help keep human jobs going.


My first choice of cashier is always an older woman because they're the most pleasant and the most efficient.


I will go to a male cashier of any age as a second choice.


What I always try to avoid are young women/girls.  They so often have such an attitude of surliness and behave as though it is asking the world to expect them to lift up an item and scan it.  It's like they feel that it is totally unfair that not only do they have to work but that they actually have to do something besides stand around looking bored.

Movie: Rough Night

So maybe it's just because I'm old but I found this movie crude, vulgar, unfunny and derivative (wasn't there a male version (plus sequel) a few years ago?).

When did it become acceptable to portray cocaine use as "fun" thing to do at a bachelorette party attended by "professional" women?

I don't think this type of film shows woman as being liberated as much as it shows them sinking to the level of adolescent frat culture.

Everyone involved should be ashamed.

Surely Scarlett Johansson is worthy of better material than this.

Generally in my life,

when I've been given an ultimatum in the form,

"If you don't, then...",

I've gone with the "then...".

I really would prefer to have fewer options for things like toothpaste, shampoo, food items etc but be able to be sure that the particular one you like is not going to be sold out.

One thing I've learned about handling personal finance is that it doesn't take very many "onlys" to add up to a lot of money spent.

Reading

I've just re-read a short story called Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell.

This is so well written.

It's on my personal list of exceptional short stories.

(This was originally a play by the same author.)

Movie: Four Moons (Mexico) (2014)

Everything about this movie is good.

Wallander

I've watched three TV series of Wallander.  Two Swedish versions and the British version (which was filmed in Sweden).


They're all good.  They're very different from each other.  I liked them all.


If this were a high school project I would no doubt be writing an essay to "compare and contrast" the three. 


And the books, which I have not yet read.   They're on my long long list of books I want to read.


I thought when I retired I would have so much time for reading, and I spend a lot of my time reading, but the days just fly by.

Sometimes a low budget film can contain hidden treasures.


I'm watching The Sound of Horror, a Spanish horror film from 1966.  There are moments when the background music is just wonderful.


Another example, from a regular budget film, is during the closing credits of Frequency (2000) where the music takes quite an amazing beautiful turn for a few seconds.

Musical instruments I dislike:


saxophone

accordion

electric guitar

After my watch broke I did without one for weeks but finally gave in recently and bought a new one.


Why have men's watches become so huge?


It's like wearing a clock on your wrist.

I have read and enjoyed science fiction since I was 11 or 12 years old. 

The first sci-fi book I remember reading was Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles which I loved then and still loved the last time I re-read it.

In those years of growing up sci-fi taught me a great deal about life, ethics, philosophy, meaning, values... 

But now I just can't seem to find the same interest.  I try reading sci-fi books but I don't seem to connect.  I often return them to the library unfinished.

Perhaps it's just that moving into old age I don't look toward the future in the same way.  I'm probably more centered on the present.

Mysteries are what interest me the most now.

I have a new prescription and I just ordered new glasses - frames and lenses came to almost one thousand dollars!

For me that is a lot of money.

I feel rather sick to my stomach.

Go look at movies/TV shows from the 1960's or before.

Notice how slim everyone is.

Back then our current version of a "thin" person would have been thought of as "heavy'.

I don't think this is just because I'm old.


Current movie stars tend to look like boys.


Old-time movie stars looked like men.

So when I got home from holiday travels my computer would not boot.
Several hours with support.

New computer.
Would not setup.
Several hours with support, new plug-in keyboard and it's up and running - more or less.
Still can't get the wireless keyboard to connect.
Still can't get it to use my external HD for backup.

I'm losing faith in the reliability (and security) of computers.
I'm back to using paper and pencil for keeping track of bank accounts and credit cards.
I use the computer to produce text (letters etc) but I print out a paper backup and file it.

I regret the entertainment material I've purchased for online use.  I trust DVD's and CD's much more.

I really only use my computer now for the internet and storing photos (which I back up carefully onto memory sticks.


(The computer support people were great, but it still means hours and hours of my time used up.)

One thing I have learned in life:


Never buy a piece of clothing because you like the way it looks on someone else.