Liralen's Adventures Through Life

We got to see Turning Red  with Jet tonight!  It was a lot of fun. As Jet put it, part of it was not a part of my experience, but it was very entertaining. The whole puberty with other girls and being so... it just wasn't a part of my growing up; but it was fun to see anyway. The part of it that was very much a part of my growing up was both... painful and connecting. The whole experience of growing up in a Chinese household as a female to a mother who was Chinese was too close to home. For those who want to avoid spoilers, you should stop here.  Just go see it if you haven't, yet. You'll understand more of me, than I might. It was the line, "I will never be good enough for her."  I never felt like I was. Even with perfect SAT scores, getting into Caltech, being one of two women in a class of 200 MSEE's, making enough money in one year to pay off two cars and most of a house, none of it was good enough. There was always MORE I should be doing better. When I re...

I saw Black Widow last night, and the thing that stuck in my head was "The bones of her origin were dreamed up by 20-something young men who had no access to ANY post-menopausal or actual women who have had a hysterectomy."  All those times that society has labeled "hormonal" are actually when we're OFF the hormones from our reproductive system. So you take all those out, and you get women who are "hormonal" ALL THE TIME, who can't sleep, who have brains that will NOT work, and who are in pain all the time (from dry eyes, dry other bits, bones that won't heal (imagine the osteoporosis on those Widows))... My brain threw its hands up that that point and said, "You just TRY to make a post-menopausal woman do what you tell her because you told her to, and you will Rue The Day." SPOILER AFTER HERE * * * * * * * Which, I guess, at the end of the movie, is what happened. xD I cheered no less.

So John left on the 12th, in order to meet up with me when I reached San Jose.  I left that evening. I finished packing up and walked myself and my suitcase over to Tonya's house, where she made me a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, which I stuffed into my bag. When Lisa showed up, we packed ourselves into Tonya's little car and headed to the airport. Both Tonya and Lisa had sons who had just gone off to college, and their homes were also a little more empty the way I had.  So we were all talking some about the changes in our lives, which helped me a lot. The Southwest flight to LA was uneventful, and easy with two other seasoned travelers. Once there, they took me under their wing and got an Uber to the Hollywood Hotel. It was the only one that Raymond would let us stay at, and he had good taste.  The room we got was spacious, had an enormous bathroom, and was handicap accessible.  Tired, thirsty, and a little punch drunk from getting out, we headed to the c...

I did a bunch of things today, most of them away from the computer, but a few of them with the new screen that I’d gotten for Christmas, with a 32-inch diagonal. I watched Moana on it, and really enjoyed it. I don’t get to see Disney movies when they first come out the way I did when my son was a lot younger, but this one was well worth watching. They did a good job respecting the Polynesian cultures being portrayed, including hiring a native for the lead role. That was nice, but it really was the story that did it for me. No romance at all involved, which was cool to see, but just friendship and working together at things, which was all good. I cried through a lot of it. That’s okay. It’s good to have good stories. When it was done, I worked on a calligraphy lesson for people that wanted an hour and a half class in the afternoon. I then ran out to get some supplies, return some library books and the movie. Yes, our local library has a bunch of the newest DVD’s available f...

It's taken a while, mostly from circumstances beyond my control, which is all right. I only have seven more weeks of being moderator, and I am actually counting the weeks. It's not a pretty reality, but it's what I've got. Thanksgiving went well. Our trip down to San Diego started in a horizontal snow storm on the way to DIA, 90 degree weather in La Jolla, lots of wonderful food adventures, and then a cooler end to the week there and a trip home to a winter wonderland of snow.

I had a crown that had a hole in it and I was NOT looking forward to replacing it. At all. But I went into the dentist this morning and they took off the old crown. There was a small cavity underneath it, which they quickly removed. They built it all up again, and then took an impression of both the inside and the outside, and then made me a temporary crown and put it on. It hurt doing it, for all the doctor did a great job of applying the novocaine, to the point where I couldn't feel my tongue or that side of my mouth; but now it hurts a lot less than I thought it would. They adjusted everything beautifully, and for all that they tore up my gums pretty good getting it in and clearing out all the old stuff, the tooth itself doesn't hurt as much as it used to or nearly as much as it did when the old, badly made crown was put in place. I suspect that the cavity was starting to affect it a little, and having it covered up well, now, makes it happier. There were a lot of small ...

I went by myself, for the first time in a long time, to a movie theater to see Edge of Tomorrow . John's mother is in town, as she's going to be traveling with us to North Carolina on Saturday, and Jet and John were working at a flood house. I'd read the original book All You Need is Kill , translated from the Japanese, and I was so haunted by the book that I actually got rid of it once. I've since bought it again, reread it, and needed to see the movie. So I went. Alone. Probably for the first time in a few decades. *laughs* But I really needed to see it, and I liked the adaptation, and it is, indeed, an adaptation. It was fascinating to see how the changes really made it an American movie instead of the genre Japanese SF book with its intricate and haunting plot. I recommend it as a fun action movie, especially for those of us who are story choice-based video game addicts, and there were a few visceral hits for me as a twitch video game addict. I'd recommend the...

I had the privilege of going to go see Jason Statham in Parker  yesterday. It was a real treat. I've been reading the Richard Stark Parker novels because of a recommendation from Carl. Richard Stark was a pen name for Donald Westlake, and got through the first three, so was completely unspoiled for the movie, which was based on the fourth book Flashfire . The movie-Parker is softer and more sympathetic than the book one, but I can see why that was so. Smart adapters. The early Stark novels went out of print pretty quickly, but the later ones, after Parker's 1990 Comeback were much more popular. There are no spoilers below, just lots of thoughts I've had along the lines of what I love most about Parker the character.