ADVENTURES (more like updates)
Baby Update
November brings in Triple V’s postponed 4 months followup with ended up being at 4.5 months. Everything seems to be doing good. He’s definitely developed a lot this past month especially in learning things on his own. He’s figured out rolling over on both sides which helps since he likes to sleep on his side and tummy and we are at a stage that I no longer can correct it to his back. He is learning how to sit with little support and for the most part its ok. He also recently figured out how to self-soothe. What we are working on now is getting him to nap a little more efficiently without all the resistance.
2nd Booster Shot
After last month’s scare with the husband catching COVID and the whole quarantine, once things settled down on my front, I set up the appointment for the 2nd booster shot to make sure I have the necessary protection for Triple V’s sake. Surprisingly, this booster shot was the most smooth as other than massive muscle pains the night of the shot, that was the extent of my discomfort.
Visit From My Cousin
In these post-pandemic days, due to our newborn, we still live mostly cautiously as much as possible. My cousin who happened to have a baby the exact same day as Triple V also is super cautious but had something important to come into town so dropped by to see the family and it was nice. Fun times to catch up and talk about our babies.
NaNoWriMo and Podcast
Its been years since I’ve done NaNoWriMo but this year I decided about 10 days into the month to use it as a kick in the behind to get some scripting and outline done for the podcast project which I had wanted to launch this year and decided that 2023 would be a good start. I might not have gotten anywhere near 50K but I did get a full 2 episodes drafted out and after a change in strategy have the beginning of a bunch of other episodes as well. The start is the hardest for most of my stuff so getting that out of the way is already a big deal. It doesn’t really matter how many words, the goal was to have something done since this project now the same as before and even the finished stuff still has some additions to add to it. Its all part of a big plan to hopefully minimize the final editting and be more time efficient. The necessary editing work will probably still need to be done but I can at least try.
Blood in the Snow Film Festival
The final film festival of the year always goes to Blood In The Snow Film Festival. While the festival is done, I am still working on getting the reviews done as nearing the end of the festival, a technical snag happened…which I will talk about in the next part (which is also why this post is coming out late). All the reviews can be found in the Movies tab above under the subsection of BITS under Festivals.
PC Blue Screen Of Death
Yeah…My PC got the Blue Screen of Death and actually died. Its just an endless loop of bsod and restart. I am waiting for my friend to have time to help me take a look to see whether we can save it somehow. You will notice that my writing has dropped and is less fancy and such but between an outdated slow Chromebook and my phone WordPress app, its really slowing down the efficiency. I am slowly getting used to it so hopefully will get a bunch of stuff done soon.
Holidays Marathon Soon
Theres no argument that Christmas and holiday films are getting a tad thin. I am working through some of the Netflix stuff as I wait for more Christmas releases. With that said, it probably won’t get going until maybe next week or 10 days before Christmas. Its still going to happen but like last year (I believe), just a tad later.
WHAT’S UP
Books
- The Magic Is In You
- Your Favorite Seuss: A Baker’s Dozen by the One and Only Dr. Seuss
- Starry Starry Night
- The Fragrant Garden
- Good Night Moon
- Calvin and Hobbes
- Plus a bunch of kids books: Little Critters, Berenstain Bears, etc.
Its not hard to see where things are going in terms of reading. Although with the PC not working, it might be on the rise again. Its either books or games that I plan to give more time after I get all the writing stuff done (if the PC isn’t fixed yet) or simply a mix of both since there’s one more month and super behind with the Goodreads Challenge.
On the reading front, its been awesome rereading books and also reading new kids books that I have never read before so Triple V and I are discovering things together even if he doesn’t know it yet.
Movies
- Fortune Feimster: Good Fortune (2022)
- Enola Holmes 2 (2022)
- Midnight at the Magnolia (2020)
- Reclaim (一家之主, 2020 Review)
- Falling For Christmas (2022)
- Last Christmas (2021)
- Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
BITS 2022
- The Protector (2022)
- BITS 2022 Mournful Mediums Shorts Program (Review)
- BITS 2022 Emerging Screams Shorts Program (Review)
- L’Inhumain (The Inhuman, 2021)
- Residents of Arcadia (2021 Review)
- Shifted (2022 Review)
- BITS 2022: Funny Frights & Unusual Sights Shorts Program
- BITS 2022: Pre-Feature Shorts (Review)
- Cult Hero (2022 Review)
- Cryo (2022)
- The Devil Comes At Night (2022 Review)
- Dark Nature (2022 Review)
Due to the festival, its been a pretty busy movie month. My feeling about Blood in the Snow Festival was that the shorts were mostly a ton of fun and creativity where as a lot of the films were pretty slow burn bar a few that were just wild. There was a nice progression in the programming since I started with The Protector which was rather slow and ended on Cult Hero which was just a downright wild ride. There are a lot of really good premise for the films.
As for the non-festival films, its no surprise that I caught Enola Holmes 2 the first few days it landed since I probably have rewatched the first one 10 times at this point. I started watching some Christmas stuff to make some headway for the holiday marathon right around the corner and it has to do with us decorating for Christmas in mid-November usually. Finally watching Tokyo Godfathers as it was going to leave Netflix in December so took care of that the moment I realized and it was such an odd and awesome film.
TV
- Call Me By Fire 披荊斬棘 S2
- Love In Time 我的秘密室友 (2022)
- Heart Signal 心動的信號 S4
- Unsolved Mysteries: Volume 3 (2022)
- Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (2022)
- Hello Summer – Relationship 相遇的夏天S4 (2022)
- Dating in the Kitchen 我 喜歡你 (2020)
- Rock & Roast 脫口秀大會S5
- Wednesday (Season 1, 2022)
Currently binging: Our Fiery Life 我們的滾燙人生 S2, See You Again 再見愛人S2, Singing With Legends我們的歌S4, Snack Vs Chef (Season 1)
I’m kind of surprised how many shows ended the past month but it does make sense since I am now not watching as much TV either. Skipping past the Chinese variety shows, Love in Time is pretty good and its adapted from a Taiwanese series. I did start that series but my iQiyi sub ended and I am taking a break from that since its a tad pricey to have all these subs. Waiting for a deal before resubbing. My main feeling is that the Taiwanese one has better acting Love In Time has a good premise and adaptation but the main leads really leave something to desire. On the other hand, Dating in the Kitchen adapted from film This Is Not What I Expected is pretty fun and it has lots of cooking so I’m there for it.
On the Netflix front, Cabinet of Curiosities is coming up on Movies and Tea but I thought it was overall really good and highlighted some great directors. Wednesday is also a great series. I haven’t watched Addams Family since my age was in the single digits so I honestly remember nothing but I love the humor and the script.
Games
- Subnautica
- Mahjong Solitaire
- Reigns: 3 Kingdoms
All currently playing games. I had started Subnautica as it left Game Pass middle of November but really liked it a bunch so caught it on the Steam Autumn Sale on half price bundled with the Below Zero amd decided to pick it up before the PC died. Once the PC is better, I should get back to it. I have to start over since I played on different platforms but at least I know what I am doing this time around.
As for the other two games, they are both Netflix games. I had started Mahjong Solitaire probably last month but forgot to talk about it since its just my relaxing sporadic game. I am excited to play more of Reigns 3 Kingdoms since I have played most of the Reigns game and really do love the concept. This one is set in China during 3 Kingdoms time and work up to Emperor so should be fun. Literally just started so probably have a good many deaths before creating any type of tracting and impact.
Tranquil Dreams 