THE WEISS CHRONICLES

At the Blood Bank

It was plasma and platelet donation day today. I had a low 104/75 blood pressure (which is I think good - as the Red Cross guy said, 'you have the blood pressure of a 13 year old girl). My pulse was elevated (100) as I took the stairs on the way to the center.

I watched a documentary of sorts of the 1994 Eagles Hell Freezes Over tour (image is from that tour).

One of the songs was "The Heart of Matter" which Don Henley says (at the performance) 'it took 42 years to write'. I didn't understand this. The song is about someone whose wife or finance or lover leaves him and Henley had, apparently broken up with his fiance in 1988 . just before writing the song, in 1989 (performed solo). However, I don't get how he could say he was writing the song when he was a baby or toddler, etc.

posted by Martin Weiss # 5:41 PM

Monday, December 26, 2016

Peak Moral Ambiguity after 20 Episodes

George and I have now watched the first two seasons of the made- for -Amazon- Prime series "The Man in the High Castle".

The image shows Chief Inspector Takeshi Kido of the Kempeitai (the Imperial Police). He is stationed in Japanese ruled San Francisco and is the most compulsive obsessive character in this alternate universe (in which the US lost WWII) where many other people are also compulsive obsessive. He is played by a hispanic actor Joel de la Fuente.

This series seems to try to pile on moral ambiguity upon moral ambiguity.

Villains save heros. Heros save villains. Heros kill other Heros Villains kill other Villians. It was enough to seriously confuse our stuffed vampire (cross posted to Stuffed Animal blog).

After 20 episodes, it results in a plateau of comparative stability with some major characters dead but a lot of possible plot lines are left to the 3rd season if there is one.

Addictive but very creepy.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:01 PM

Sunday, December 25, 2016

I Don't Get It- a movie

Ann and I saw the movie "Manchester by the Sea".

I was reluctant to go but saw that the movie was highly rated by almost every reviewer and even audiences rated it high. This, was tempered by the fact that the audiences weren't large. As of Dec 23, it had drawn $18M in box office after 36 days in theaters (per Box Office Mojo).

Ann loved it as much as any of the reviewers and even thought it inspiring.

I thought it was boring. My review of it would be, "A surly passive aggressive guy interacts with dysfunctional relatives and other similar people for about 2 hours."

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:21 PM

Friday, December 09, 2016

Still a few Flowers

We've had a few nights in the 20sF but some of the plants have held on.

In the vase are a few of the mutant daisies (white with yellow middle), some roses about to bloom (red) and some of the hybrid asters (purple with yellow centers). I left in some of the money plant from a few weeks ago.

Click a few times to enlarge.

We are going to have some nights in the below 20F range and this will make a lot of these go dormant.

The rose plant may keep putting out some flowers and I'm hoping to get a snow and roses image later in Dec. We'll see

.

posted by Martin Weiss # 2:00 PM

Wednesday, December 07, 2016

I Dreamt that I had to Give a Conference Farewell Speech

Last night I tried to fall asleep a bit early because of a long day a work today.

I had some wine (even though it was a Tuesday) and put two blankets on me and got the cat to lay in my lap. It did work.

However, I woke up about 1am after a disturbing dream. In the dream I was called on to give closing remarks at a conference. It wasn't the nightmare it could have been because most people don't really care what is said. I just bluffed my way through it thanking all the sponsors and organizations (without naming them since I didn't know who they were) that gave so generously of their time and resources... blah blah and congratulating the attendees for their contributions to the advancement of the field of knowledge (without specifying the field since I didn't know that either).

By the way, I did have a long day the next day. On duty 700am - 1000pm. Oddly enough, I got a call about 730pm from another mashgiach asking me if I could 'finish up the last two hours of his day'. Somehow, there is enough work for at least two caterers to have to work overtime.

posted by Martin Weiss # 11:50 PM