We make our own myth, we don’t wait for the oracle

listening

listening to bond soundtracks while i do my little transcription project pages in the national archives jfk assassination files is only funny to me but it's keeping me going through a real slog of a week at work so whatever works yanno

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reading (article)

Specifically, the FDA traced contaminated formula and milk powder back to eight whole milk lot powders that came from 33 fluid milk lots from Organic West, according to an incident summary. Still, the FDA could not determine where in the production chain the bacteria entered or how. “Even though there are several hypotheses, investigational findings could not identify the source or root cause of contamination of the powdered infant formula,” the agency concluded.

very easy to say "i feel like this wouldn't be happening under trump" bc unethical food manufacturers are eternal, but i do feel with a more stable government and bureaucracy this would be better understood at least

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reading (book)

let's grab some context from wiki

What Happened to the Corbetts (US title: Ordeal) is a novel by Nevil Shute, a fictional depiction of the effect of aerial bombing on the British city of Southampton, a major maritime centre. It was written in 1938, and published in April 1939 by William Heinemann Ltd, when the outbreak of World War II was already a very likely development. The novel addresses the issues of the aftermath of bombing, such as the spread of disease from lack of clean water, and what may be done to relieve the distress of those affected by it although the author concedes he "overlooked the importance of fire" as a consequence of bombing raids.[1] On the initial day of publication, a thousand copies of the novel were distributed free of charge to members of the Air Raid Precautions team to inform them of what they might expect.[2]

this is a pretty worn ex-library book with the binding really not thrilled to be alive, particularly at each signature and the endpapers. someone who seems to have been eating spaghetti with their hands has read it before me. an eleventh printing from 1964, it has a barcode so was probably circulating at the miami public library for a good long time.

i don’t know that i will reread this, since it’s less apocalyptic than shute's other books and very concerned with childcare. but less in a “how do we shelter our very small children from the horrors of war” and more “we need some fucking milk for our baby”.

as in other shute books i have read, it is brutally simple and straightforward. you know what the problem is and you are staring it down the entire time. also in shute fashion, the girlchild baby is never named and Joan Corbett, wife and mother of three, is often referred to as “girl” by the narrative.

it was a tense read for two hours at work, but i'm trying not to hang onto books i know i won't reread UNLESS they are significant to me in some way. i don’t want to contribute to the problem of only-has-one-more-read-left-in-it copies of books at the free bookstore (the founder and i have very different ideas of readability) so i think this will go in my friend’s recycling bin. bc my apartment complex does not offer recycling.

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watching

thank god i scammed a man into paying for my ticket. hated this. HAAAAAAATED this. there are better episodes of the mandalorian TV show, a TV show that is already not very good.

in the process of trying to find a quote from favreau about his directing philosophy and his plans for like. the story he wants to tell (none and none. he's just throwing shit up there with no plans for a larger connected story). i have discovered that s4 of the mandalorian and a bunch of potential tie-in shit has been cancelled bc this movie flopped so hard. lol. lmao.

my big problem is that this movie did not put much of its $165M budget on the screen. star wars is visually fun to look at most of the time. it loves a cluttered set with a lot of shit to look at. everything is greebled and beat to hell. not so here. remarkably empty sets, both of props and people. we are simply in new york under an elevated train at once point. were it not for the signs in aurebesh i would assume we were simply in new york. while in space new york, we go to a very boring craft bar without any shit on the walls. i cannot express how much this portion of the movie looks like a cosplayer causing massive property damage in our real-life world. and they weren't even good fight scenes. the number of rapid cuts was such that i actually got nauseous, a thing that has not happened to me since fucking Bohemian Rhapsody.

and on top of that it was a fucking boring quest with nothing interesting changing or growing by the end. for example. i am not a Legends purist. there was a lot of shit in there that wasn't good and didn't make any sense. however, the decision to change Nal Hutta, the Hutts' homeworld, from a stripmined trash planet that's the seedy cybernoir headquarters of all outer rim crime, bc the Hutts' greed is poisoning their home system, to a generic swamp planet is VERY boring. it serves no purpose in the story to be in a swamp that's boring to look at. the exact same sequence of events could have taken place in a sewer and been far more interesting both visually and thematically. the most obvious double cross in the world happens and then we have to kill everything. that's the movie. the movie sets him up with some real hot girl shit regarding bounty hunter skills and then when he gets double crossed like that he looks like the world’s most naive fool. it doesn’t make SENSE. also the show builds up a helmet removal to such significance that it spends Multiple episodes (the only time this happens in the show) dealing with the semi-religious aftermath of this moment, and then the same thing happens in this movie without much impact. bc he simply kills everyone with deus ex X-wing. like i said, there are better episodes of this very mediocre TV show.

the only "huh that's neat" moment i had was the dejarik match, a sudden-death exhibition fight where they have to fight off all the creatures from the dejarik game (the little holomonster chess game played in A New Hope). however, this is a real trivia-brained way to engage with anything. it is a way of engaging with this specific fandom that i hate, bc star wars fans who are very focused on trivia and "well actually-ing" are really fucking pedantic and annoying.

the guy i went to see this movie with is NOT a star wars sicko like me and has not seen all of dave filoni's eleventy billion star wars shows (one thing about dave filoni and his stupid fucking leather cowboy hat. he showed up three separate times in this movie. go HOME DAVE!!! YOU'RE NOT A GOOD SHOWRUNNER!!! GET YOUR GRUBBY LITTLE HANDS OFF THIS!!!!). anyway. the only fun i had seeing this movie was elbowing him and whispering "i know that guy" whenever a guy i knew showed up on screen. which again is the most shallow trivia-brained-ass way to engage with anything. but it was the only way to engage with this movie bc it was giving me NOTHING!!!

why did i have higher expectations for this than for a James Bond, a series that only exists to sell cars and watches and fountain pens and steelbooks to your divorced dad? bond does put the money on the screen. you are going to see bond solve a mildly interesting problem that causes some peril by blowing up some very expensive cars and doing some bonkers stunt work and trick shots. while in a variety of beautiful locations with a variety of beautiful women. i don't think there are are particularly interesting stunts or fights or really anything memorable in this movie. glad pascal got paid, i really wish they gave him more interesting things to do.

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playing

finished the big genshin story update. pretty lackluster except for the end when i went OHHHHH. ohhhhh. oh that's not good (positive).

fellas?

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making