Christmas, Christmas Time is Here

© by Gerald So | 2:30 AM

The past week has been hectic, a cardiologist checkup for my mother on Tuesday and a dental checkup for me Thursday. Since my mother's pneumonia last year, doctors have been watching her heart as well as her lungs. Recently she redeveloped some shortness of breath, and Tuesday's echo showed another valve had worsened from mild to moderate leaking. The cardiologist adjusted her meds, which seems to be helping. She has a pulmonologist checkup early next year. I know her survival is a gift, and I hope it keeps giving.

My dental checkup went fine. About three months ago I doubled my home care routine after watching Teeth Talk Girl videos, buying a Sulcabrush, an end-tuft brush, and some TePes. Next I'm trying curved soft picks.

It's another Christmas keeping gatherings small, trying to avoid illness, in the words of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," muddling through. Peace and goodwill today and every day.

REACHER Season 2 Halftime Report

Posted 8:30 AM by Gerald So

REACHER Season 2 premiered last Friday and I caught up to Episode 4 this week. Season 2 is based on the eleventh book, BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE, about an unknown enemy killing members of Reacher's former Army unit, the Special Investigators.

I was most impressed with Season 1's supporting cast and remarked that I'd judge future seasons on the chosen story and supporting characters. My issue with Season 2 is said allies are all super-competent at something, similar to Reacher himself. They don't set themselves apart as well as Season 1's cast did. Bigger, badder, better is a common sequel tactic after all.

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I've Finally Seen: INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

Posted 11:30 PM by Gerald So

After some debate, I pre-ordered DIAL OF DESTINY on 4K Blu-ray,

In 1969 New York, retired professor Jones is drinking alone at a bar when his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) finds him and convinces him to look for an artifact that dropped from a train thirty years earlier while Indy and her father Basil Shaw were fighting Nazis.

I expected worse from this movie after its mixed reviews and box office disappointment. I ended up preferring it to CRYSTAL SKULL, but none of the original trilogy. I realize that's not saying much, but then, CRYSTAL SKULL had a important character, John Hurt's Harold Oxley, speak jibberish almost the entire time.

Critics blasted Helena Shaw as as unlikable, but come on. We're not supposed to like her for much of the movie. I'll remember this one for the unrealistic expectations Disney placed on it because they badly needed a post-pandemic blockbuster. Story-wise, it's fine, an adventure of older Indy.

Everyone says this will be the finale. That's what they said about CRYSTAL SKULL...

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