Blogocentric Formulations (Book)

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I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.

Blogocentric Formulations

Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).

Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:

"The Soundtrackers Group"

"Blogging Circle of Friends "

"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"

"JAFBG"

"Take up Your Cross"

Thanks for stopping by!

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10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Aiva Raine

Nov 6, 2024 at 4:49pm
In response to "October Watch List"

Grin. I loved Psych! I rewatched White Collar approx a month ago. Having issues finding good new shows so I've resorted to rewatching my favorites from old.

Currently rewatching Castle, Supernatural, and Buffy/Angel.

Enjoyed The Great and Lady Jane Grey, sad they both got cancelled. The "I made a teddy bear" episode on The Great was so funny hubby and I had to rewatch that scene 4 times before we could finally stop laughing hysterically at it.

Thanks for your recaps of shows- it's given me some new items to add to our lists.

Jeff

Nov 6, 2024 at 3:20am
In response to "October Watch List"

Aiva Raine

- I've actually watched all three! PERSON OF INTEREST was a really good show, but WHITE COLLAR and BURN NOTICE (along with another great USA Network show called PSYCH) are some of my favorite television shows of all time. I actually just started rewatching WHITE COLLAR a few weeks ago!

Aiva Raine

Nov 5, 2024 at 3:08pm
In response to "October Watch List"

Wasn't aware that there was a movie for "What we do in the shadows"- thought it was just a TV show on Hulu. Thanks for sharing that tidbit- will find the movie and add it to our watch list. The TV show is quite humorous.

I also enjoyed the Lincoln Lawyer- need to watch the newest season.

Have you ever checked out Person of Interest, White Collar, or Burn Notice? If so, did you enjoy them?

1 Like

Aiva Raine

Aug 3, 2024 at 11:10pm
In response to "Man on the Moon"

Just missed seeing the moon landing by a few years and as one of those "old people", I will admit to being depressed at our lack of space progress. Sure, we've got great new telescopes that are letting us see wonderful things way out in space, but we still haven't even put a man back on the moon again after all this time. Putting someone on Mars looked promising for a while, until Elon Musk went all nutso and can't stop mucking up everything. Yeah, he's got reusable rockets, but we aren't really progressing much beyond that.

I truly hope I can live long enough to see humans do some real space exploration. Because even though I didn't see the original moon landing in person- watching it on TV after the fact still was pretty freaking cool. Although watching the Challenger blow up from our desks at school sucked. Here's hoping we get to bring the astronauts stuck in space home soon. Maybe NASA can work with someone besides Boeing for that!

Aiva Raine

Aug 3, 2024 at 11:01pm
In response to "July 2024 Watch List"

Only seen the Fall Guy and Deadpool & Wolverine. Both fell a bit flat for me. I think because the first Deadpool was just so awesome. This last one felt a bit Disneyfied. Yes, I know- tons of gore and the occasional sex joke, but it just, meh. There wasn't any real "bite" to it.

The first one had a real plot. It made you belly laugh hard. And you cared a bit about the characters. This last one, I didn't really care at all. About anyone. I laughed, but most were the "oh wow- that's so over the top it's funny" laughs, not "that's freaking hysterical and I'm still gonna be laughing about that on the way home".

Fall guy- it was more cheesy than funny or entertaining. It wasn't that memorable at all. So not memorable that I'm trying to remember anything I hated or liked about it and well, I can't. I do remember at the end going, well, not sure that was worth the 2 or so hours it took to watch.

There really hasn't been a movie lately that's wowed me. Everything seems to be trying to follow the whole Marvel action movie formula and they just don't do it for me. There's only so many explosions, fart jokes, and over the top gore scenes all done special effecty that you can do before you've completely lost me. I quit watching Marvel or Superhero movies a while ago, but went to Deadpool because- it was Deadpool and my son asked me to go for a Mom/Son outing.

I've tried watching many of the newer shows that get all the hype and they fall flat. I've gone back to watching reruns of shows I actually enjoyed- like Leverage, or White Collar. I'm on rewatch # 3 of Supernatural, rewatch 2 of Vampire Diaries, got about half-way through rewatch 2 of Originals before I gave up.

I did enjoy "The Great" and was bummed they killed it after 3 seasons. That was funny!

I loved the Bridgerton series, but this last season left me a bit unimpressed.

I'm currently rewatching Warehouse 13 with hubby who has never seen it. We watched Eureka before then. Somehow- all these older shows are much better than 99% of the newer shows and I honestly want to know why.

Why do most of the newer shows suck? Lazy writing? AI writing? What's the story? I'm really curious?

Kåre เลียม Enga

Aug 3, 2024 at 4:46pm
In response to "July 2024 Watch List"

I don't go out or have a television. I would watch more on-line but the internet has been wonky recently.

Two Thai BLs:

"1000 Year Old Vampire"

So... uneven. Some of the premise makes sense in a supernatural way. A vampire can't die even though he's bored of living. He's old... very old... and keeps meeting the same human/alien again and again. That 'love story' has some merit. The final scene is moving.

12 episodes could've been condensed to 4 or 6 (so... 160 - 240 minutes total; even a 90 minute western movie would've been better). I could take the final words "Wave goodbye, Master Yoh" and rewrite it as a prequel, having it placed in 1940 (not necessarily in Bangkok), ending in 2000... with it being 'reborn' in 2020. I like the idea, not just how it's done.

"Love Sea"

Good acting, great chemistry, edgy at times. It tackles sex-for-pay, family abuse/neglect, criminality, and the age old "what happens when we fall in love". I love a romance when there are layers of other genres and when it takes me to a time and/or place. Episode 2 is steamy and geo-restricted but it's fitting to get past the 'sex' because that's not the story.

Both main actors are top-shelf and work well together. The niece Meena is adorable. The father is chilling (evil wrapped up in normality). It hasn't finished yet. There are 10 episodes. #9 airs August 4th.

"1000YO" gets about a 6.5 rating at MyDramaList ... and that's about right imho for PG silliness. "Love Sea" is rated 8.0 and that's a tad low. The story may be a bit too 'real' for some audiences as it's 18+ and serious.

These are the opening episodes to save time looking for them! IMHO, it's getting harder to find some things on-line.

1000YO: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8sq35e
LoveSea: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9037r4

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Kåre เลียม Enga

Jul 29, 2024 at 12:01am
In response to "Hiding behind humor"

"I was just joking" can trigger my traumas and make me distrust someone. I want to respond, "I'm not laughing" ... without an apology or smile. It's too akin to bullying.

1 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Jul 28, 2024 at 11:55pm
In response to "Man on the Moon"

The original Star Trek was 1966-1969. And let's not forget the Jetsons. Both forecast new technologies... as people looked to the future.

The future seems more dystopian now. And since the Moon has little commercial value, money has gone elsewhere. NASA has a $25 billion budget; Pentagon ... $825 billion.

When there's a military base on the Moon... or when it's found to be made of gold instead of cheese... then it will become a priority.

Sumojo

Jul 16, 2024 at 2:16am
In response to "Memorable Places"

Hi, Jeff, I’m reviewing this interesting blog post as next in line for I Write in 24.

I’ll comment on each of your memorable places in turn.

Flathead Lake (Polson, Montana
I could feel the connection you had to this place, but also to the memories of your grandparents. I couldn’t quite envisage the boathouse though. To me a boathouse is a shelter for a boat! But obviously it wasn’t just that.
I could also feel the sadness when you returned there, even if it was just on line. It’s distressing really to see the new owners had messed with a place you held so dear.

Zuma Beach (Malibu, California)
Now here you showed your true romanticism. What a beautiful plan you devised to recreate the table setting of your wedding day. Your wife would have been so happy.

Gare du Nord (Paris, France).
I understand that feeling when you become the foreigner when you first land in a country whose language is not yours. I felt it when we were in Vietnam, even the street signs weren’t in English and finding one’s way around was daunting.
I believe though that the French people are willing to speak English if one makes at least an attempt at French.

Edmund D. Edelman Children's Courthouse (Los Angeles, California).

A different feeling and experience here. I was a little taken aback when I saw a courthouse as a place you had strong memories about until I read the rest of the post. Yes, a location can leave a person traumatised. Your experiences at that particular courthouse are mixed. The applications and endless paperwork involved in the process which allowed you to adopt your precious children would certainly have left you with mixed feelings of that location.

The Walt Disney Studios Lot (Burbank, California)

Now this location isn’t one where many people can put as their workplace. You certainly have an interesting job.I would have loved to hear more about your experiences in the movie business.

Overall I throughly enjoyed the blog post. Thank you so much for sharing.
Sue.

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Wordsmitty ✍️

Jul 15, 2024 at 12:12am
In response to "Memorable Places"

A nice time capsule of your life as well. Thanks for sharing.

1 Like

November 24, 2024 at 6:19pm

#1080442

Contentment and Ambition

"Take up Your Cross" | November 22, 2024 ▼

Let's write about contentment. Are you content with what you have or are you always trying to get more?

I'm not sure that I see the concepts of contentment and "always trying to get more" as mutually exclusive. Contentment, to me, is about being in a state of happiness and satisfaction, while the desire to always have more can be either positive or negative depending on how much of a premium you place on it.

For example, if ambition turns into greed or envy, and it's constantly convincing you that you don't have enough, or that you're not happy with what you have, that's definitely a problem and it jeopardizes contentment. If you spend all your time jealous about the fact that your friends and neighbors have better jobs, nicer cars, more attractive significant others, bigger houses, etc., then that's a deeply unsatisfying and disappointing life that you're going to live.

But that doesn't mean that ambition has to become those things. Ambition on its own isn't a negative; it can be what inspires us to achieve more for the Kingdom, or to grow personally in any number of ways. If your ambition leads you to greater success in business and that connects you with more people you never would have met otherwise, is that discontentment? If you aspire to have more money so that you can buy a bigger house, but your intention is to use that house to welcome in people who are in need of a stable home, is that problematic?

I think the real question is whether you can be both content and ambitious at the same time. Can you have larger aspirations or goals while at the same time being okay if you don't get those things? To me, that's the ideal place to find yourself; where your ambition spurs you to greater things, but you're secure enough to be content with what you have even if those ambitions don't ultimately come to pass.

1 Like • Comment

November 2, 2024 at 7:25pm

#1079408

October Watch List

To qualify for my Watch List every month, the following has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, but it can't be reruns or rewatches of something I've already seen. So if I'm including it in this list, it means this month is the first time I've watched it. I'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish.

Movies

The Garfield Movie
Get Out
Happy Death Day
MaXXXine
Pearl
Us
We Summon the Darkness
What We Do In The Shadows
X

Since last month was Spooky Season, I decided to watch a lot of horror movies in October (plus The Garfield Movie, with my kids). Jordan Peele's first two movies (Get Out and Us) were solid; I can definitely see why people liked them. I don't think either one is perfect by any means, but I enjoyed both for different reasons and respect the fact that he has a different perspective and point of view in his filmmaking. I also had fun watching Happy Death Day which is basically what happens when you take the premise of Groundhog Day and apply it to a horror movie, where a character wakes up at the beginning of the same day, over and over again, always ending in them getting murdered by a serial killer. There's a sequel called Happy Death Day 2 U which I'll definitely be watching soon.

We Summon the Darkness was a completely forgettable 2019 horror movie about a religious cult which goes undercover at heavy metal concerts to murder other concertgoers in order to increase "Satanic panic" and drive more people to religion. And Ti West's Maxine trilogy was just okay. X was a decent first horror movie in the series where aspiring filmmakers rent a room from a remote Texas farm to shoot a porn film and end up getting killed off one by one. Pearl was the sequel (and actually a prequel showing how the killer became a killer) and easily the worst of the three, and MaXXXine is the third and latest installment which was pretty fun, if for no other reason that it embraced a real eighties slasher vibe.

The best movie I saw by far this month, though, was What We Do In The Shadows, a mockumentary by Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement about a group of vampires who share a flat in New Zealand, and it's honestly one of the funniest horror comedies I've seen in a long time. There were so many great jokes and moments that made this an instant classic for me; definitely something I'm going to add to my annual October movie rotation.

Television

Emily in Paris (Season 4
High Potential (Season 1)
The Irrational (Season 1) - DNF
The Lincoln Lawyer (Season 2)
So Help Me Todd (Season 1) - DNF
Star Trek: Discovery (Season 1)

Getting the bad ones out of the way first, The Irrational (Jesse L. Martin plays a psychologist who helps the FBI solve crimes) and So Help Me Todd (Skylar Astin plays a private investigator who goes to work for his mom's law firm), both of which came highly recommended from different sources of both of which I watched about a half-dozen episodes of, and then didn't continue with because they weren't all that engaging. The fourth season of Emily in Paris was something I did happen to watch all of, and I kind of wished I hadn't because it's just gotten really tedious and boring.

On the plus side, the second season of The Lincoln Lawyer was pretty good (we watched it in preparation for the new season that's coming out), and High Potential is a good procedural that has an excellent cast.

The best thing I watched in television all month was the first season of Star Trek: Discovery, which just finished it's five-season run and was the first show in Alex Kurtzman's and Bryan Fuller's reboot of the Star Trek franchise. Honestly, it was really great. The first episode is pretty wild, and the rest of the season builds off of it as a narrative foundation, which is really different for a Star Trek show (which usually relies on an independent, episodic format). I decided to start watching Star Trek and figured jumping into the "reboot" of the franchise was the place to start... and I definitely wasn't disappointed. I can't wait for the second season, and the other shows beyond that.

TOP PICK:
What We Do In The Shadows
and
Star Trek: Discovery (Season 1)
(TIE)

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