RhaenysBee

Have fun and lots of Cuba Libre, @Bittersweet Distractor ! Ah my vacation is over and I’ll be back at work tomorrow. Boring boring boring. Well I will try to get in by 8am so I can evade the south Asian heat in the morning at least. (Currently we have 28C and 90% humidity and that’s basically what next week is going to be) in other boring news, this new based formula the technician used on my nails last time totally murdered my nails. Will ask her to get back to the previous formula next time. I’m watching Jessica Jones, the new season is so so boring it’s basically become a background show. And I have accomplished essentially nothing from my private to do list. I will attempt to take pictures of my sofa tomorrow morning to put it up for sale again because over half a year into the new sofa project I’m fed up and I’m totally ordering my new sofa next week. Same goes for my coffee table which I grew to absolutely hate. What else is new? Can’t think of anything.

That sounds so so so lovely! Hope you have a great time, Scotland must be absolutely beautiful. I feel you, I have not yet worn summer/spring shoes this season that didn’t cripple me for two days.

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Indeed. I don’t know how your city manages during a heat wave but here everything gets super disgusting. That’s a huge part of why I dislike summer. At least In the countryside one just has to struggle with the temperature and one’s own lack of comfort. That sounds very nice! Sister and I had plans to go to Northern Ireland, but there was an incident today and she completely lost her shit so now I don’t know if we’ll get back to this plan at all. I hope we will, she probably just needs a couple days to cool off. Also, this day is just killing my soul. It’s 9pm and still above 30C, it’s completely impossible to get oxygen, even if you strategically stay up/wake yourself at 2am to open the windows and wake yourself at 6:30 max to close them. That’s the small window when the temperature is allegedly below 25C so there’s some chance to air the indoors. Also the handle of my mop broke in the middle of mopping the floor. So annoying. I also have to take photos of my sofa and my coffee table to put them on sale and I have to screw some extra storage baskets on my hallway closet. And also pick up chalk paint and pimp it up a little. And also a ton of other stuff for the flat that I’ve been procrastinating on for months. Bleh this day.

Literature is greeeeeat! Almost as great as history. Sister’s history final totally rekindled my burning adoration for history. She allegedly did well on the exam, btw. I see I see. We have a similar but slightly different system. Then again, I’m 100% sure that if the world will even exist in its current form in 40 years, the institute of retirement sure won’t, so I’m not counting on getting any pension or anything. Indeed. I’m back in the city now, it’s scorching so I live on iced drinks, rum based cocktails, sunscreen and marvel movies. I should totally stay home next week to. It’s not like I have literally anything to do at work. Also hello @ab aeterno! Frozen huh? Frozen should take a timeout in the corner and feel very ashamed for bullying its way into London Theater ahead of Anastasia Musical. That shall never be forgiven.

Just out of curiosity, what is your PhD in? Huh, interesting. Are there any jobs from which you can retire early over there? We have a general retirement age for all jobs excluding life threatening ones (police, firefighting, etc), how is that in Slovenia? Well 19-year-olds are a mood. Or maybe just sister. So good luck with having older students at the dorm too. I’m sure there are a couple master students too, or other foreign students who might be closer to you in age. Anytime I’m not working this week, because I’m so done with my job and I need a break. Also I don’t have any projects to there wouldn’t be anything to do for me either. Just sit and chat with the colleagues and do boring and irrelevant things. Instead, I’m on the back porch at my parents house and it’s so nice and warm and breezy. The dogs are kinda sleepy, the neighbor’s kids are, I assume, at school/kindergarten because it’s weirdly quiet today. Sister is still asleep and I’m kinda torn between just sitting here and reading a book or trying to accomplish two week’s hard work in one day to normalize the garden shed and the cellar situation and front garden situation. But since I would only be able to tackle 5% of the work alone in one day, I might as well let that go.

Ah I see. Well it’s still not the best manners. I can see why you would feel that way, but I agree with Sidious. You’re investing in your knowledge and expertise that’s always an investment that’ll return on the long term. And even though we live in an aggressively capitalist world, wisdom and knowledge holds great value as it adds to the sophistication of the world. Are their no foreign student programs you can attend in the evenings or something? And you’re welcome to visit me anytime too Good luck with the accommodation.

Ah I’m sorry, it’s so very annoying when you can’t sleep from partying younglings. Also sorry that you feel sad and lonely. Will your semester abroad make you feel happier? You did enjoy Vienna a lot.

Oh I feel you. I absolutely feel you. I can and I do, I agree that’s important. The issue here was something else (boring details described below). Also, for some reason I feel like I forgot to say congrats to your semester abroad. If that feeling is correct: Congrats!

I have too many work problems to count and they stress me out too much. I am supposed to have a week of vacation from this afternoon, but I am still working. (This isn’t one of my work problems, those are far more serious and long-term and doing overtime.) I’m so so so so so done and I’m so refreshing my cv and applying for jobs.

Well that in itself says a lot congrats to your happy news, I won’t say my guess, you’ll tell us when you are ready.

As this documentary was released almost as an extension episode of the series, I feel like it deserves its own thread. Has anybody watched it? How did it make you feel? What are your thoughts?

Well well well Chernobyl - Part 2 I did touch on the structure, what remains to be said about the storytelling is the dialogue and the emotional ride. Though I did extensively express my thoughts about the latter already. The dialogue was mostly first class. Not much to say about that other than hats off to the writer and side eye to Game of Thrones. The emotional ride was again graciously handled for the most part. The only overkill for me was the puppy dog subplot and a couple character-related issues that I will get into later. The tension was beautifully portrayed and acted and nuanced, though - as I said before - established by the historical event. Still it’s delivery was masterful. Characters, finally! Shcherbina and Legasov were the perfectly imperfect, perfectly real and human and grey characters of the show. The acting was first class in both cases, Stellan Skarsgard was phenomenal, and Jared Harris did a truly masterful job as well. And then... Khomyuk completed the pleasant trio but she was too perfect as her own person. Not one mistake or moral stain. In contrast, not one attempt was made to humanize Dyatlov or Bryukhanov or Fomin. Though I feel like Bryukhanov made one mention of his wife? Anyway, I would have liked to see all of them, at least Dyatlov who spent significantly more time on screen than the other two to show a human side. These were actual people, yet Dyatlov was an egoistic arse from before the explosion through dying in hospital to his trial. Not one moment of vulnerability, not one sign of remorse, not one human trait. I would have liked to see them worry about their families, feel remorse or be pressured by their superiors (this will bring us to the one plot hole the creators didn’t remember to fill) or KGB or the party. Also Dyatlov’s behavior in the control room was waaaaaay overdone in my view. Lyudmila was the one who bugged me the most though because she was even inconsistent. She started off as the one rational and not completely stupid person who didn’t go to the bridge and raised several safety concerns, and then... my goodness. In spite of being pregnant, in spite of repeated, explicit and serious warnings from the hospital staff, in spite of her own knowledge of the dangers, she sat there with Ignatenko and placed his decaying hand on her belly. That last part was possibly the worst overkill. And all this so that Khomyuk could see it through the blur of a window and a sheet of plastic and immediately identify that she is like 3 months pregnant. Just stop this HBO behavior, HBO. It was not good. The miner boss was a pleasant yet simple character, very well acted. Gorbachev was amazingly acted and the actor made his limited role and screentime count. Will get back to this portrayal later. The KGB boss was slightly stereotypical but it didn’t bother me too much and it was rather sweet to see Roose Bolton as the soviet prosecutor. Akimov and Toptunov were both all right. In fact my favorite scene involved Toptunov. Will get back to this too. Visuals and music were top notch. Not much to say about that. Set design and costume was marvelously real, so so so very USSR, from Legasov’s kitchen gear, through the glasses and the suits, to the vehicles and the hospital. The hospital was just too perfectly depicted to not highlight. The whole thing looked and felt Soviet, beautiful job on the research and the presentation. The one plot hole: no scene explained why Bryukhanov and Fomin insisted on carrying out the safety test even though they had a false document saying it was done. This also undermined the scene in which Fomin promises promotions once the safety test is carried out. If the ministry believes it is already carried out why would it result in promotions? Lastly some conceptual notes: For the first 4 episodes, I really really really respected the show for not going down the Soviet hating rabbit hole. We saw people, human stupidity, human error, human failures, human character faults, human struggles. All humans can be stupid, make bad decisions, have bad character traits, have struggles, go against the grain, have ideological differences, disagree with their government, etc. They had a human focus and not a look what the corrupt and incompetent Soviets did focus. That kinda went under the rug in episode 5 in which the focal point was the errors and corruptions of the system. Anyway, still props for not overdosing on the big bad ussr image and having a human oriented angel on the story. The same goes for Gorbachev’s portrayal. I was rather surprised that radiation related birth defects were not referenced. The show was disturbing and gory enough as it is to not shy away from such, yet the only related half sentence we got was Lyudmilla’s child’s death. Not that my soul needed visuals of such, but I found it slightly odd that they decided not to touch on this topic when childbirth was so consistently present (with the first historical scene of the mothers in labour, with Lyudmilla’s pregnancy, with the new baby of her neighbors, etc). I did no research on this and have limited knowledge, but I don’t think that being taken away in black chaikas was a thing in the late 1980s. Most certainly not here. Might have been different in the Russian SSR. Then again, my mother spent a whole year there as a student in the 1980s and so the students were either too sheltered to realize this or the show exaggerated on it a little. If anybody has more accurate knowledge of this, do correct me, please. And I suppose that concludes all my thoughts. Nope, not quite. I forgot to say that my favorite scene was Toptunov’s being teased in the changing room. In my understanding this scene was meant to underline his youth and thus lack of authority and status even though he was, on paper, senior engineer. This is of course in strong contrast with the strict, authority and hierarchy based structure and functioning of the USSR and so a highlight of the dissonances of the system. What made me love this scene so much is the probably unintentional added layer through a modern day comparison. A modern western style corporation does aim for the very culture represented in the scene: the system is flexible, the hierarchy is loose and you are totally free to be familiar with your senior engineer in the changing room especially in the generation Toptunov represents, which is again a total contrast to the USSR’s way of functioning. This complexity was so interesting to me I couldn’t not have a special place in my heart for this scene.

Well well well, Chernobyl... Please bear with me because I have so many feelings. A bit of unnecessary context: A few people recommended this show to me, but I was rather reluctant to commit to something so quickly when I was still waddling in the disastrous Game of Thrones experience. Then the memes reached my social media feeds. And more people recommended it. And then it was a whole internet phenomenon, so my curiosity was sparked too much to not give it a go. That’s how I got on this bandwagon. I watched the first 4 episodes in one go. The 1st one upset me. A lot. To the point I considered not watching the rest of the show. I have a gentle heart, I don’t do well with such under the skin psycho horror productions. It’s too recent history, it’s too modern day relevant, it’s too real. I also have some sort of historical issue with nuclear disasters, I remember having nuclear disaster nightmares after studying about them back in school. It was simply too much. But then after a some text message venting and emotional support, I did decide to go on because I was still curious. Onto episode 2. It was an even more draining and soul wrecking emotional experience. I was done, I went to take a shower, I watched makeup tutorials on YouTube, I swore to only watch Disney for two weeks. But the masochist that I am, I put on episode 3, because the curiosity in me refused to die down. I will get back to this later. Well, I watched that episode from between my two hands just so I could cover my eyes every time someone entered a hospital room. Again, too real, too close, even though I generally have a rather strong stomach for television. Pff. Okay, at this point it was about 1:30am, but I’m a millennial so I put on episode 4. That’s as an okay way to sign out and actually get sleep afterwards. That was a hell of a lot of unnecessary information. A couple days later I watched it all again, this time I wasn’t an emotional wreck and thus able to see Chernobyl as a television series rather than a “livestream” of a horrifying man-made disaster. Now this enhanced the reverse psychology I was experiencing during the first watch when I wasn’t busy with being shaken to the core. There is no doubt that’s Chernobyl is an amazing production with first class acting and beautiful, powerful dialogues that drive the plot and shape the characters (wink, wink, Dan and Dave). But. Is it the best series of the year, is it as good as to blow up the internet, is it really 10/10? I think it is close to impossible to tell, but I’m leaning toward no. (Having said that, the show is easily 8.5-9/10 so I’m arguing away only 10% of the hype it gets) My general problem with these types of series and films is this: the emotional impact (and boy Chernobyl has one, see above) and the story does not come from filmmaking genius. It comes from history. Chernobyl didn’t shake me to the core because it’s filmmaking genius, but because I knew that all of this actually happened. The soul wrenching story that you want to follow through no matter how painful does not come from writing genius. It comes from history. Now I don’t mean that a film or show that recounts real modern history events cant be ingeniously put together and shot and written and directed. It absolutely can. But the story, the drama and the emotional impact is ready made for the creators. They didn’t need to create that. And this, more often than not, switches on my reverse psychology button and which then starts actively looking for everything wrong with the film or show because it’s annoyed that history did the work for this piece of motion picture and all it really does is ride the actual event’s emotional impact. This didn’t happen too much with Chernobyl - because of how well it was made and how much it added to the actual historical event instead of just riding its emotional impact - but did seep into my mind from time to time. Another part of my issue with these motion pictures is that - because of the emotional impact of the real event - the audience watches it with their hearts and souls rather than their eyes and minds, thus the potential for overrating and overhyping an otherwise “just okay” film or show is huge. Isn’t it also absolutely insane that I’ve been typing for 20 minutes and I haven’t yet said a word about Chernobyl itself? I’m ridiculous. Before I get into that, I feel like I should include a disclaimer: I have limited knowledge of the actual historical event and the particular era of the USSR in which it took place. I also have - thank god - no direct personal experience with the event. And like all human beings, I am naturally biased for my own beliefs, views and convictions. Well then. I found the structure and the pacing of the show reasonable and satisfying though not as smooth and blended as I would expect a 10/10 or best show of the year to be. It all worked perfectly for the first two and a half episodes. I feel like episode 3 was supposed to be the peek of horrors after which the show quieted down. This second part was done a little wonkily, in my opinion. I couldn’t exactly decide if the purpose of episode 4 was to placate the audience and focus the attention on the containment in a calmer, solution-oriented manner after the tension of the disaster, the casualties and the frantic damage control, or if its purpose was to give last kick to the audience who is already down and emotionally burnt out. Maybe the intention was a mix, either way, I didn’t think it worked as well as it could have. The clearing of the roof and the ordeal with the robots was the perfectly told story of how much struggle and how inhumane even the containment was. And then there was that weird and badly acted subplot of the animal hunters. Firstly, the roof cleaning established that soldiers as young as 18 were involved in the containment process. Secondly, we never saw any of the three characters again. Thirdly, maybe I’m heartless, but those puppy dogs did nothing for me. Not one episode after watching the decaying bodies of Toptunov and Ignatenko, not with the main characters exposing themselves to the radiation to save millions, not after having seen massive amount of human casualties in the previous episodes. That dog business, as difficult as it must have been in real life, was the point where I felt like they were overdoing the emotional ride. Well, the pace was definitely slower, the tension less intense and we could basically see the light at the end of the tunnel. And then episode 5 came along and we just abandoned the whole containment process, we didn’t cut back to the people involved, we didn’t follow up on characters we’ve met along the way, we just jumped right into the trial. That didn’t work well. The conclusive subtitles and real life endings made up for it a little but, but I would have made room in the screen time for a quick check on the miner boss and Lyudmilla instead of the endless puppy dog scenes. For this reason and the new location, I felt like we were also completed detached from previous episodes with the only link being the main characters and Legasov’s flat. But all in all I understood what the route we were taking and why in terms of structure and storytelling so there isn’t too much to complain about. I feel like I should move this monologue into second post.

It’s a little more pleasant today, nice 25C with sufficient amount of breeze and oxygen. I’m sure my AC is still broken and I won’t even have it fixed because it would mean opening the wall and replacing the piping. That’s not the kind of money I’m willing to spend at the moment. I’m sure they do. Also, kids need discipline at school so I’m sure you’re also a very efficient teacher. Do you want to share it? I

I think the ending was received poorly because of the how and not the what. At least that’s how I feel. I have no problem with any of the ending points where we left off the characters. What I have an issue with is how we were led to that point and how it was portrayed. That’s the very inbetween D&D were left in charge of. In my understanding, it was the frustration and anger at GRRM for not keeping his end of the bargain and their being pushed into something they never signed up for that led to their massive loss of motivation and commitment. I have no illusion that this order of the world could be changed and I never said it was something that necessarily needed changing. Yes I used financial compensation as a parallel basis of comparison beside their commitment to the story and their characters, and maybe that was needless, as my only goal was to point out the difference I personally saw and felt in their attitude. If I want a financial comparison I should probably look at the head makeup lady or the facility manager lady, because it was definitely a job for them and a terribly hard one too. But that’s not the point, as I said, I was trying to highlight the difference I felt in their commitment. Okay, I understand that you like Sansa as a character and Sophie as an actress. I don’t like Sansa as a character and I never found Sophie relatable or likable based on her presence online and in select interviews in which I have seen her. I have seen her in X-Men, Got and the twin ghost movie, while I’ve seen Emilia in Me before you, Star Wars and GoT. Based on these, I do not believe Sophie is one bit better an actress than Emilia, I would say they are both mediocre. I do find Emilia a much more likable person. This is okay, each to their own, I don’t see the point in trying to convince one another about our personal preferences regarding characters and personal connection to the filtered imagine we see of the actors online and in press presence. I also agree it was a great way to put things in perspective. The documentary doesn’t change my opinion about season 8 story and character building but it makes me admire and respect the work behind production. I feel like this was their goal and for that the Last Watch was the perfect, sweetest, most heartwarming solution.

That sounds rather pleasant! I’m dreading the AC season, but it’ll be here in another week. Short sleeved top and trousers already feel like an oven, so I’m switching to skirts/dresses tomorrow. Are you so strict with your students too?

But why? You can keep the summer weather. Can’t I have a nice normal 20C?

So we went from daytime max 13C to daytime max 30C in exactly 3 days. Gotta love global warming. I want my November weather back

I’m watching Good Girls season 2 and I kinda enjoy it.

Yeah, totally agree. I hope that with time, people will come out and tell their stories about honest experiences with thrones and Dan and Dave.

That was truly symbolic. i also liked the snow parts. It’s so insane to think that a person was actually responsible for strategically placing the snow on the set

Yeah it’s quite funny that it was technically summer and you kinda still had to dress for October. Well it’s 26C now here so summer arrived. Oh well, I guess I’m just immune to noticing it as I’m negative too? That sounds nice, what do you like to do together? I remember I used to love talking to my grandma or doing some simply chores together.

not at all I did have to go back and edit that after I pressed post and saw that you started already.

My thoughts: It was very interesting to get an insight into movie production. This is certainly something I know very little about so the documentary was informative and educational from many aspects. For this reason, it also made a strong statement: there was an unimaginably immense amount of labour in the production of season 8. I think it was a great and necessary message to convey and the audience did need this reminder to respect the show, if nothing else, for the amount of work it took to produce. Having said this, the Last Watch felt more like tribute to the workers and a spoonful of the atmosphere of production rather than an actual documentary. The reason why I felt this is that the information I received wasn’t structured in any way and didn’t make a system. It was random pieces of insight linked together by feelings. Therefore, I often found myself adding context to certain things in my mind or judging just snapshots of something I’m not even sure was going on and jumping to conclusions without much basis really. I understand the conscious decision to make this documentary a heartfelt goodbye rather than a cold-hard-facts presentation of the production process, yet I think that this was a rather dangerous dance around a rabbit hole. Before I actually jump into that rabbit hole, let’s get back to feelings. It says a lot about the story of season 8 that the documentary was a worthier goodbye to the show than the actual final season. I could feel Game of Thrones on my skin as the extras spoke or Emilia Clarke froze her behind off in all the exterior scenes or the lorries parked in the rain. I could smell the wee toasties in the snack cart and The sweat of hundreds of people working harder than I thought it was possible. I could hear the nerves snapping in the producers head as they looked at the spreadsheet schedules. It was so real and so emotional like Game of Thrones the story hasn’t been for years. It made me feel so grateful and so bittersweet. And also... so so so so very sad. Sad because hundreds of people poured 16-8 hours of work a day for months and months into producing something they hoped would make history. And then it didn’t. Because no matter how much labour and time and effort and care and love you pour into bringing the set or the costumes of the makeup to life, it can never ever ever substitute the beating heart of a show: the story. It made me so very sad to think that if the writing had been done with just half as much labour, time, effort, care and love as the production, Game of Thrones and all the cast and crew would have been recognized for the worthy, history-making ending they all deserved, even without a heartfelt documentary. And you know, my little Eastern European post communist heart is also terribly sad to see the makeup artists doing 18 hour shifts every day for two months of night shoots for pennies compared to what Dan and Dave got out of this. And that long time extra, Andy, he showed more love, understanding, respect and knowledge about his “character” and the world of Game of Thrones in his 10 minutes in the documentary than I have ever seen Sophie Turner show in years of interviews and panels. And bet the daily wage he made was less money than half a pair Sophie’s shoes (and this is just an example I could say a lot of other actors who made me feel this way). And there were these little things that bugged me so much and made it so hard to not go down the judgment rabbit hole and jump to all the conclusions. Like the director who had US letter paper shipped over for his notes? What was even that... and the time they shot Kit and Emilia’s kissing scene. Emilia move your head to the right, okay we got it, let’s pack up? That was it? No wonder those kissing scenes were so terrible, did nobody had an urge to have a few takes and make it in any way believable? Or that time Dan and Dave went to check the zombie makeup. Miranda Priestly vibes much? Well, the whole production is basically a corporate setup with the same hierarchy structure and project and people management issues and whatnot, so it’s really not something to be bothered by. Especially that I based all these feelings on so little information. Back to the positive side. All I have is respect and love for Emilia and Kit who were really the only actors involved in the documentary. Emilia’s last wig fitting or Kit talking about the jacket with Andy the extra made me want to cry. All in all, it seemed like such a grand and magnificent experience for everybody involved that I don’t think they felt any of the sadness or nitpicks that I did watching the documentary. I just hope they remember their truly admirable part in producing game of thrones fondly and will tell about their experiences to their grandchildren. And I’m just so grateful I got this insight to their work so I can appreciate and thank all the labour and care the put into the show. Wow, I’m emotional. I blame this on Chernobyl that basically destroyed my nerve system last night.