Adventures in Hazardous Waste Disposal

I have no idea how long I was holding on to those propane canisters.

Since before the pandemic, certainly.

I haven't used them for my BBQ in years. My landlord came down hard on all residents who had BBQs on their balconies, so I moved mine into the common area. During the pandemic and the height of the fire season, some twat got on the property and decided to use my BBQ to cook up a steak during a red flag day. After I got his ass arrested, I got rid of the BBQ. I had the propane canisters stored away until I could figure out what to do with them.

In a bought of housecleaning, I recently assembled a pile of things I need to get rid of that need special treatment. Used batteries, fluorescent bulbs, an old and dead generator, an old microwave, a very old computer monitor, and, of course, those propane canisters.

So I investigated my county's options for hazardous waste disposal. There are several options, but none exactly close and convenient to where I live. So I made an appointment and set aside some time to deal with this.

So here I am, my car's trunk filled with flammable crap, driving in heavier-than-I'd-like traffic to a shitty part of a local city, following very dubious directions, to get rid of this shit.

I swear I thought that truck was going to rearend me and blow me up. The potholes in the fucking roads were like bomb craters. I got lost twice finding the goddamn place.

I've never felt so relieved to have all that shit taken out of my car's trunk. I'm pretty sure I'll need an alignment done on my car after driving those shitty roads, but it was worth it just to have that crap off my hands.

Next time, I go to a different drop-off, though.

Wow, March is almost over already?

I can't believe we're reaching the end of March already!

2023 has been a bit of a shitshow, all told. It's certainly had the side effect of having time blaze on by.

Let's see... what's going on? I'm enjoying season three of "The Mandalorian". I tried watching "Andor", but I really couldn't get into it. I'm also making my way through "Lucifer". It's enjoyable, though a bit predictable. I tried to watch "The Witcher: Blood Origin" and I might still get through it, but it's really terrible. It's not Sapkowski's work, but more like someone at Netflix wanted to do a show about their D&D campaign and had to call it a "Witcher" spin-off so as not to get into a licensing tiff with Wizards of the Coast.

Hilarious, really.

I read somewhere that the "Willow" series got canceled. Can't say that shocks me at all

Okay, yeah. All I'm doing is wingeing on about streaming shows. I could get huffy about real life - and there's lots to get huffy about - but honestly, why bother? The real world is just a hot fucking mess and that's not changing anytime soon. Easier to get snarky about trivial bullshit like entertainment shows.

... the hell did I just watch?

So I just finished the "Willow" series on Disney Plus.

I am unsure what the hell I've been watching for the last month or so.

Was this a comedy? A young adult romance thing? Was it intended to be a proper fantasy? Was it a bad music video? What the hell was this?

The series purports to be a sequel to the 1988 film. Sure, it has some of the cast but... uh... I'm really not sure anyone took time to figure out if there was supposed to be a connection. I mean sure, there's wizard guy in there, in the background, named Willow. He does magic, except when he doesn't. There's references to the movie. Kinda. In a poorly-written sort of way.

The Willow series is half-assed fan fiction of the movie as though written by some college students who did mushrooms while playing D&D and making out while high.

There's some cool villains built up in it. Fuck if I know what actually happens to most of them. I honestly think the main villains are whomever does the direction of the episodes. Good lord I've never seen such choppy scenes outside of some halfassed college productions. Disney, what the fuckity fuck were you thinking by putting this on your streaming site? And the writing... the scriptwriting is pretty much a crime against screenplays everywhere.

The series did actually a good job with the casting and the actors. I want to hate them. I really do. The writing makes the characters so unlikeable that I was hoping for an apocalyptic ending for the series, but the actors are really kinda good despite the shitacular writing and horrific direction.

There might be a sequel to this. I really sorta hope not, but if Disney dumps money into a season two for this show, I hope they immediately shitcan the directors, the writers, and whomever is in charge of the soundtrack.

Like shoot them. Not with bullets, but maybe a powerful stream of water? Piss? Something that'll stain? I dunno.

First off, do away with the rock music. It takes you out of what the hell you're watching, which given how bad that was isn't entirely a bad thing, but it doesn't help. Stick to the instrumental music, guys. Then find some scriptwriters who can stick to an actual solid theme instead of jumping all over the goddamn place. And, finally, find directors who don't mangle scenes to offer such a weird screen sausage of unsatisfying crap.

Ah, that felt good to write! Okay, after making myself watch all those episodes, I need to kill braincells...

Hello 2023

It's 2023. We've a break in the rain. The sun is shining. The birds are singing (or whatever crows call the sound they make). It's chilly, but not unpleasantly so. Places that serve booze are open.

A promising start to the year.

Farewell to 2022

Huh. It's New Year's Eve. How did that happen?

Well, I can't say I'm sorry to see 2022 go into the rear view mirror. As years go, it's certainly had its moments. Sure, it wasn't the complete shitshow dumpster fires that 2020 and 2021 were, but that's a low bar.

I hope 2023 is an improvement. The rise of yet another COVID strain, the lunatic facists in government, wars, and every other damn thing continue to worry. Could be worse, I suppose.

However it is, whatever you believe, worship, or honor, I wish you a Happy New Year and best wishes in the next.

Thoughts on the "Willow" series on Disney+

So I've really, really wanted to like the "Willow" series on Disney+. I enjoyed the movie Willow for what it was: an adventure movie that hasn't aged well visually but is very much a classic Lucasfilm offering. The movie was a trope-laden romp of two-dimensional characters fighting a classic good vs evil battle with hokey magic and contrived feel-goods thrown in.

In short, it's perfect to transition to Disney.

So I really have to wonder how Disney is fucking this up so badly.

The series, set 17 years later (yes, the alumni cast look like twice the amount of time has passed... poor souls), moves to the next generation. Sorsha, now queen of Tir Asleen, apparently married Madmartigan and had a couple of kids: a son named Arik (after Madmartigan's jackass friend) and a daughter named Kit. Madmartigan is nowhere to be seen (due to Val Kilmer's struggles with cancer) and that's used as a trope for mopey teen angst. There's also Jade, a young apprentice knight who is also the love interest for Princess Kit, Prince Grayson (who is supposed to marry Kit but seems more interested in...), and Dove/Brunhilde/Elora Danan.

Yes, Elora Danan the baby from the film. Elora's grown into a kitchen cook whose identity was hidden for reasons and... you know, I'm not getting into these details.

There's also some dude named Boorman who is the snarky badass. Oh, and Willow is in it as an afterthought.

There's a lot of commentary I've seen online about people having issue with the cast being too "woke" (whatever that means). I honestly think the cast is the strongest part of this show. I like the actors and think the do right by what they've got.

The problem with "Willow" the series lies with the direction and the writing.

The direction is, frankly, shit. I'm not sure if it's a matter of cost-cutting for effects or what, but there's weird cut-aways from moments that ought to have some kind of climactic scene, such as the abduction of Prince Arik by the sinister villains. There's a lot of choppiness that's a bit jarring to watch, such as Elora Danan in a bleak, dark forest that's suddenly a sunlight clearing for no apparent reason.

Oh and there's the writing. I mean, I get the show doesn't want to have Willow himself be too badass, but the writing seems to go out-of-its-way to minimize the titular character as much as possible, both in ability and screen time.

The story is, at best, uneven. The pacing is painful. I feel like I'm watching something that's using the initial budget for "Xena: Warrior Princess" (like early in the show budget) for something that can clearly afford better.

Stubbornness will probably have me watch the rest of the series, but I have a deep dread that it's not going to improve, and that makes me sad. Willow was a shallow film that was ripe for reimagining and improvement. Disney could have explored the backstory of the movie in great and interesting ways. Instead, they're serving up bland, dialed-in plot and chopping direction with attempts at snarky dialog that come across as banal whining. The cast have shown they have the chops to do better. I hope the show hits a point where they let the cast demonstrate it.

Wednesday - the Netflix kind

I was utterly exhausted after a crazy day at work when I decided to fire up "Wednesday", the Netflix horror-comedy-mystery series on Netflix.

I wasn't expecting much, to be honest. Damn was I surprised!

I didn't think anyone could take the mantle from Christina Ricci (who, conveniently, also stars in the show) but Jenna Ortega owns that dark crown now.

Damn. Just... damn! I can't wait to see the next season (and I'm sure there will be another).