Viewing Mayhem - Outlander

When Outlander premiered, I didn't have a subscription to Starz. None of my friends talked about watching the show, so I didn't have pressure from them to check it out.  I knew it had a premise I was interested in. I just needed to find time to watch it.

Created by Ronald D. Moore and based on the set of novels by Diana Gabaldon, it follows Claire Randall, a WWII combat nurse, after the war, as she goes on a second honeymoon with her husband Frank Randall in Scotland. While there, she is transported 200 years into the past through magical stones and in time marries a Scottish man, Jaime Fraser, whom she comes to love with all her heart. I love the infusion of history to enhance fictional characters. I have not had a chance to read the books the show is based on, but I hope to some day since most of the time the book is better.

I tend to enjoy Moore's projects and this show has been no exception. I've been a fan of his work on Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica (BSG). BSG is where he got the composer for Outlander, Bear McCreary. I have had the honor of meeting McCreary a few times during San Diego Comic Con and have been able to see him perform BSG music live. One of my all time favorite concerts. He creates such perfect music for Outlander. Every time the theme plays at the beginning, I sing along. His music helps create more emotion than the actors in the scene portray and there are a lot of emotions in this show.

A few months ago, Starz came out with a show I just had to see, American Gods based on a book by Neil Gaiman. American Gods is the book that made me a Gaiman fan and I had watch it.  It was less expensive for me to get a subscription to Starz using my Amazon Prime, so I got it that way. After American Gods ended (I loved the show), I wasn't quite ready to cancel my Starz subscription. Season 3 of Outlander came out recently, and I finally decided to watch the first 2 seasons to catch up. The funny thing is I already had the first season on blu-ray. I picked them up both volumes during Black Friday deals, and they just sat on a shelf waiting for me to watch.

I found myself turning it on when ever I could.  Even if I had just a minute with no kids.  It was so hard for me to turn it off, but 90% of this show should not be watched around young children. Some of the dialog scenes are tame enough, but the show does not hold punches on being graphic. I managed to catch up on the entire show in just over a week.

Sex, rape, murder, gore, and war are found through out the show. Each episode is dense with drama.  There are some episodes that are very hard to stomach. The hardest episode for me to watch is Wentworth Prison. Episode 15 in season 1.  Spoilers ahead if you haven't watched the show, Black Jack Randall finally breaks Jaime. I won't go into specifics, but it is graphic and brutal.  It takes Jaime time to bury it, using hope that one day he will get his revenge and be the one to kill him. He finally does at the end of season two during the Battle of Culloden but we don't see the actually fight until Season 3 episode 1. Claire and Jaime spent season 2 trying to stop the Battle of Cullodne, but to avail. It happens just as history said it would.

We end season 2 with Jaime sending Claire back through the stones before the battle to protect her and their unborn child. Jaime believes he will die at the battle and wants his child to be raised by Claire's first husband Frank, so it will have a father. We see Claire with her daughter Briana 20 years later in 1968 coming back to Scotland. Frank Randall has also passed away by this time. They end up at the house of the reverend where Claire was taken when she returned from the past. Briana with the help of the reverend's adopted son Roger decides to do research to find out why her mom was so distant while she grew up. She finds information and accuses her mother of cheating on her father and figures out that Frank is not her father. Claire confesses everything but Briana doesn't believe her. Claire sees Geillis Duncan on a flyer. We met her in season 1 while Claire was in the past. They had been friends and were accused of witchcraft. Geillis told Claire at the trail 1968 right before she is taken away to possibly burn at the stake. Claire figured out that she was from 1968. She asks Briana about her and she tells Claire that yes she has met her, but she told them that she was leaving.  Claire believes this is the moment Geillis goes to the past and gets Roger and Briana to go with her. Geillis believed she had to sacrifice someone to go through the stones and burns her husband alive before traveling back through the stones. Claire, Briana and Roger get there in time to see her disappear and that gets Briana to believe her about traveling in time. Roger tells her about some research they had found in regards to Jaime Fraser. He did not die at the Battle of Culloden. Claire wants to go back.

Starz is 2 episodes into season 3. The show is flashing between Jaime surviving the Battle of Culloden and Claire with Frank and Briana. She is trying to be happy with Frank, but she left her heart with Jaime. I do feel sorry for Frank Randall because he is a good man, but you can't force someone to love you. I am hoping to see a reunion sooner than later between Claire and Jaime. Looking at IMDB, it looks like the reunion will occur in episode 6. Just a few more weeks.

Too Much Screen Time

Before I had kids, I would watch how friends and family were raising their children. I started making a mental list of all the things I would never do or allow my children to do based on my observations. You might make a list, or have ideas, but that all went out the window when my children arrived. One area I thought I would regulate to the extreme was going to be screen time.

I know too much of anything is never good. No one should spend the majority of their day sitting in front a screen whether to watch a program or video, or working or playing games.  I try to live my life by the Ancient Greek moto Moderation in All Things.

My two sons probably watch more television and play more video games than they should.  My 6 year old is really good at cutting himself off when he feels he's played or watched enough if we haven't cut him off by the time he decides to stop. My 2 year old has only just recently discovered the joys of watching tv and playing on a tablet. His favorite shows are SuperWhy, Little Einsteins, and this nursery rhyme called Little Baby Bum. We watch at least 1 episode of each on Netflix everyday.  He would spend a lot more time if I allowed him to, but the thing is he doesn't spend the entire time just sitting there watching and neither does my 6 year old. We do set timers for tablets, but if something happens to be on TV and they are familiar with it already or just not interested, they spend the time playing with their toys and puzzles.

Each one of us is different. We approach our life differently based on our experiences and our knowledge. I grew up an only child and frequently, I used television for company. Just to hear other voices. A lot of people use music in the background and I like to have on a movie or a TV episode. And that is one big reason it is hard for me to extremely limit my children's screen time, I have difficulty regulating myself.

Viewing Mayhem - So I'm watching Iron Fist

When Netflix first released Iron Fist, I was busy watching other television. With the reviews being so bad, I wasn't excited to watch it. But with the recent Defenders release, and my love of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage, I finally decided to venture into the world of Iron Fist.

First, it is really hard for me to dislike something. I just started episode 6 and it is definitely not my favorite Marvel project. The pacing is just off and for someone who never looses, the Iron Fist is really good at not putting up a good fight at first with opponents who should be easy.  They must have been trying to save money on special effects because so far the "Iron Fist" is barely used. The writing feels a little disjointed, and it was weird seeing the character shift between him and Ward so quickly.

Second, there are bright spots in the show. I love seeing Claire of course who I am assuming will be the character who eventually will bring all the Defenders together. Also, the character of Colleen Wing portrayed by Jessica Henwick does a superb job. 

Third, Finn Jones does an ok job as Iron Fist. The writing hasn't been his best friend. His perceived naivete annoys me at times.  I understand he has been away from civilization since he was 10, but it is like he wasn't trained to be a grown up. As someone who is supposed to be The Immortal Iron Fist, he doesn't seem very much like a master and acts more like an impulsive angry man with family issues. I hope he matures by the season's end. On a side note, I did not recognize him as Loras Tyrell from GoT. He looks so different to me here.

I have 7 episodes to go. Sadly, I am unable to marathon shows due to my boys, so I average 1 to 2 episodes a night. Season 2 won't be here until 2019, but it will have a new show runner, so hopefully, we'll have improved storytelling. I do not dislike Iron Fist, but I do not like it enough to be in my rewatch pile. I do not regret giving my time to watch the show.

The End of Almost 25 Years

On September 3rd, I was officially laid off from the job I thought I'd have until I chose to retire.  It wasn't what you'd consider a career by any means, but I enjoyed my work and didn't dread going to work on a daily basis even when it was extremely busy and stressful. 

I worked for a Corporate Charter School.  I won't divulge the name, but it has existed for a very long time. It existed when I needed help getting my diploma when I was 16 and suffering from extreme social anxiety. I began working for them 2 years after graduating. After 5 years, I quit to finish a Theatre degree at California State University, Fullerton. I could no longer balance my classes with my work schedule. 

At the time I graduated, I had just gotten married, and I made a choice not to pursue a career in Theatre due to the hours required. I tried working at a driving school because a friend worked there. It taught me that I do enjoy working with kids, but not to teach them driving. I love the mundane of paperwork and school records. I decided to try and go back to my previous employer.

It took a couple of months, but after being away for 2 years, I was back in a temporary position with them covering for someone on maternity leave. Within a couple of more months, a full time position opened and I was there for over 10 years until this recent layoff.

This layoff came about as no fault of my own, but I do blame the company on how they handled it. I will not go into specifics, but I feel like I've had a bad break up with someone I was in love with and the love of my life ghosted me.

This happened because of a change in California Charter School Law caused by a court case not involving my employer, but another charter school in Northern California.  It is known as the Shasta Decision. The decision was about the location of independent study resource centers in relation to their chartering district. 

The location I worked at could no longer legally stay open with its current chartering district, and had to close. Thankfully, our students were able to move to a location that did not have to close, and it was only a few miles from ours, so they made sure to take care of our students.

Before my layoff became official, the corporation managed to find another charter and reopen which is why I feel ghosted. 5 locations and each of them with a position I used to hold.  I had been the longest running employee in that charter in that position. HR called people to apply.  I never received a phone call that any jobs were posted.  I had been watching the job posting site too, but they didn't list them how I expected them to. I miss my job.

Not everyone agrees in the existence of Corporate Charter Schools. I personally like the educational choice. I didn't always agree on the decisions made at the Corporate level, but I saw the program working for the students. It worked for me 25 years ago, and the program only improved every year. Most of our students struggled in traditional school. Many had a hard home life, or struggled with keeping up with 6 classes starting to fall behind in credits, and a lot of our students were unable to graduate within the 4 years at a traditional high school. I miss it all. Many of the students would drive me nuts on a daily basis, but I looked forward to seeing them and my coworkers. It has been a struggle to figure out what I want to do next. 

My first main decision has been to restart this blog and vent about why I've been depressed the last couple of months. I look forward to sharing the exciting and not so exciting events that occur in my life. I hope you don't find it too boring.

Back yet again

I am going to try this again. I miss having a blog even though I didn't use it too much. I find FB has too much drama, and not everyone has FB, so back to blogger I come. Also, I can use it right on the iPad which I spend too much time on doing nothing important. I mind as well use it for a better purpose than games. 

Back on Blogger

I don't think it's possible to comment on Tumbler or I just can't figure it out and I've decided I'm going to come back to Blogger. And share what's going on with me here.

Here's to seeing how I keep up with posts LOL.

I'm trying Tumblr

I'm really bad about posting, but a friend showed me Tumblr and I'm going to try it.. I'll try to remember to link here when I post there so you know when I post. I haven't figured out how to link the two yet.

http://rellaageekchronicle.tumblr.com/