Passing Time

 That seems to be what I have been up to since mid winter. That is also about the time that my over the air signals for TV start to cut out. I don't know what is more annoying-pixels or the former static of a poor analog signal. 

I realized I could use the savings from subscription TV and some birthday money and buy DVDs.

I started with Avatar the Way of Water, which was good, but left me wishing I had seen it on the big screen.

Then I binge watched the Avengers franchise. I think the Ironman movies were my fave, ironic since those are the only separate videos I had already owned. 

Next up was "The Last Kingdom" a series which follows the adventures of Uhtred (fictional character the real one comes well after King Alfred). I enjoyed that so much I turned around and watched it again. It's pretty gorey and the battles are pretty realistic.

After that, "The 100", a series about Earth after nuclear Armageddon. Humans that have survived for generations on a space station a that is running low on life support, so they toss 100 young people on the planet to see if it is livable. The first few episodes were a lot of "Ya right" and a bit too teen ish for me, but once I let go and accepted the ya right's as fictional license and the characters started to grow on me, it got better. There are various conflicts the main characters face throughout, and they get kind of out there as the seasons progress, but as long as you get your mind around accepting the improbabilities it is a fun ride.

Next up was the John WIck series, and here I got ebay burned as the 2nd one kept cutting the audio and popping up that it was an unauthorized copy. WHAT?! I got a refund, and a few weeks later I thought I would see if #'s 3 and 4 worked, and they did- But on the whole it was like watching a shoot em up video game with real people. It's just annihilation, with some plot, but c'mon "The Table?" Couldn't come up with a better name for Illuminati?

Next up was the series "the White Queen" which was ok, England during the time of the War of the Roses. I selected both this and The Last Kingdom because the family genealogy book shows a line of Royal descent which includes King Alfred and some of the characters in the White Queen  Funny the ones to which I am distantly related are rather obnoxious characters on the screen. :))

King Alfred in the Last Kingdom- boy is he a royal prick. But there is a redenption scene in the series that left me bawling-I thought very highly of this series and have been tempted to rewatch it a third time! Especially since I have been waiting weeks for the sequel to the White Queen (came from China, apparently), The White Princess. This picks up where the White Queen let off, but I think most of the characters are different actors which was disappointing. I watched the first three episodes yesterday and they weren't too riveting. 

I had to take a break to watch PBS' The Indian Doctor. Last night was the second episode and I have been really enjoying that. It's about an Indian doctor and his wife going to Wales to serve a rural community. Love the characters and acting.

Books haven't been ignored, either. There is sort of a free library at the transfer station, so I grab a couple handfuls and try and remember to bring some back. I have A LOT of books here. Downstairs the two floor to ceiling cases are full to overflowing, the stand under the TV has a quadruple stack, the shelf under this desk randomly spits books on the floor. Oh yes, the floor. Under the couch is a favorite stash point, and that is so full I can't jam my slippers under there anymore. Don't forget all the books upstairs, either.

My most recent two reads-yesterday, "The Irishman's Daughter" by VS Alexander, based during in Ireland during the Irish Potato famine. Before that, "Strongbow" The Story of Richard and Aoife, by Morgan llywelyn. This one I ordered because when I was looking at the family's line of Royal descent, I discovered we are descendants of Richard and Aoife through their daughter Isabel. I was really excited because I have always felt bereft that as far as I knew we had no Irish in our background.

The Firebird and his GF recently went on a trip to Ireland (she is Irish) and I discouraged him from flouting his last name because it is very English. Then I came across this descended from Irish High king thing and was very excited. Except, Aoife's father (an Irish King) is actually considered a traitor to Ireland because he literally brought the English Army into Ireland to reclaim his seat. That is where "Strongbow" comes in-  So I am not sure that gives us any Irish bragging rights-

In books or in movies, apparently my ancestors were not well loved. 

Somewhere in this stretch I decided to re watch "A History of Violence" starring Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello, directed by David Cronenburg. When I watched it years ago, I was aghast at the violence, and never had the stomach to re watch it. After watching GOT twice through, and The Last Kingdom,(and the John Wick movies -#2) I found the violence in the History of Violence to be rather tame. I guess it was tame compared to some of the horror movies at the time, but I don't watch those. Because I spend most of them hiding my eyes. :P

And yes, I still do that in some scenes especially head splitting and eye gouging.