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New York public school system makes all their students learn the recorder because they're secretly looking for the one kid that will solve their rat problem

I'm back!

Ok by popular demand (of one person) I have decided to restart my netflix reviews. I stopped doing them in the summer of 2020 because I thought pandemic was ending, but now it is 2022 and pandemic is not ending, it is not.

Anyway, I watched a bunch of long shows that year, and I'm not reviewing them because the thing about really long shows is they change over time and idk if I want to delve into all that.

SO here's my super quick impressions of the longer shows I watched:

13 Reasons Why - SUCH a bummer. Why.

Call the Midwife - Cute, not a ton going on but a lot of likable characters

The Crown - I watched this whole thing and still don't get the point of a royal family

Weeds - Pretty much all her problems were her own fault

Nurse Jackie - I was rooting for her! But I guess that's the point

Outlander - Crazy dramatic. I'd be so mad if I got thrown back in time.

Grace and Frankie - So, so funny. Strong recommend.

How to Get Away With Murder - At first I'm like oh shit, this is so good, but after a while I was like really? They're still trying to get away with murder?

Supernatural - I watched this because of the chokehold it had on the site like 10 years ago. I was like, are you guys ok? Anyway, no one is ok and the ending sucked. Probably fun to watch casually though.

Downton Abbey - Overall a good show, even though Edith did that one farmer so dirty and I will not forget it.

Kim's Convenience - Fun and cute show. Love Appa.

30 Rock - Funny, I enjoyed it

Glee - These children need to get a hold of themselves. They can sing, though. I liked Kurt.

Seinfeld - Funny but not so iconic people should care about it decades later.

Ozark - Very good show! I still have to see the newest season

Snack night!

Tonight we eat a bunch of snacks from H-mart and review them!

1. White Rabbit Creamy Candy

Neil: (lactose intolerant) I’m not going to eat that because I don’t feel like shitting all night, 0/10.

Liz: It’s like a white chocolate tootsie roll that's hard to chew. [chews] It actually tastes pretty good now. 7/10.

Mom: I don't like it. There's no taste yet. It's like saltwater taffies. Just like that. Oh it's a bubble gum? (It isn’t) I give it 3/10. I'm very judgmental right?

2. Moon Cakes - Date

Neil: I hate this, it tastes burnt. 1.5/10.

Liz: It was definitely edible, like a 3/10.

Mom: it's not burnt. It just sort of... doesn't taste good. 3/10.

3. Moon Cakes - Red Bean Neil: 6/10. Liz: I'm expecting this to be like cakey. It's not cakey. Still a 3/10. Mom: Hm. Red bean is better than the date one. So maybe I'll give it a 4/10.

4. Moon Cakes - Lotus and Pine Nut Neil: oh this is great! 8/10. Liz: 6/10. Mom: It's ok. I'll give it a 3. Are these the best ones?

5. Salt and Lemon KitKat

Neil: This is great! 10/10! Liz: I don't really like the lemon. 4/10. Mom: I am dreading this actually. Because I think this might be artificial too. [eats] I don't like it. I don't like lemon. I will give it a 3/10.

6. Shrimp Chips Neil (the vegetarian) and Liz (the Jew): I’m not eating that. Mom: It's pretty good. I'll give it a 8/10. 7. Cheese Rings

Neil: Like a 2.5/10. Why is it stale? Liz: It's like a terrible cheese puff. 1.5/10.

8. Sunflower Seeds - Spiced

Neil: It tastes normal. 9/10. Actually 7/10, too difficult to eat. Liz: It's too hard to access the actual food. It actually tastes pretty good. 5/10. Mom: It's alright, but it's a pain in the butt to eat. Probably 5/10.

9. Sunflower Seeds - Caramel

Neil: I don't think I know how to eat these properly, 3.5/10. [Grace explains how to eat these properly] Actually Grace it helped. It still doesn't taste good. But I can eat it. Liz: I don't like that. 2/10. Mom: Ok. It's a pain in the butt again. So... no. Probably 3/10.

10. Cheetos

Neil: 1.5/10, too stale. Liz: I actually don't mind this one. It actually tastes like a cheeto. 8/10 11. Seaweed Tempura

Neil: 9/10, this is lovely. Liz: Like an 8/10. 12. Ramen Snack - Chicken flavor

Neil: Ew, you guys eat this stuff on purpose? I don't like that meaty flavor. 1.5/10. Liz: It's like a bad potato chip, 2/10. Mom: I'll give it a 6/10. I don't taste any chicken or anything in it. It's more like potato. 13. Honey Butter Chips

Neil: Oh my god, ew. 3/10, I've had worse today. Liz: I don't want my potato chips to taste like butterscotch. 1/10. Mom: They look like chips. [Eats] This is not good. Honey butter chips, no. Sorry. Probably 2/10.

14. Bubble Tea Cake

Neil: It doesn't taste like anything. I don't like this. 4/10. Liz: It tastes like a Fig Newton. I didn't mind it, 6/10. Mom: Ohhh, more of that kind. Red bean! .... It's ok. No, it is quite tasteless. Maybe the flavoring is there, but it's nothing. 1/10. 15. Hot Kid Ball Cake

Neil: I don't like the texture. 2/10. Liz: That's a no from me. I don't like the taste. 2/10 Mom: It's like little pebbles. It's like pokey (Pocky) sticks, but without the chocolate, and rounded. It's not a bad snack, not too sweet, not too salty. Maybe 8/10. 16. Want Want Senbei Neil: This is fine. 8/10.

Liz: 8/10. They're like very weird animal crackers.

Mom: They're like rice cakes. Same thing, like tasteless. It's not bad. This is also 8.5/10.

Dad: 5/10. Too bland. 17. Egg Yolk Pastry

Neil: Oh this this good, this is good, 7/10. 8.5/10, it just gets better. I love eggs. So yummy, 9.5/10.

Liz: I hate egg yolks. I’m not eating that. Mom: Yeah, inside it's good, but not so much the outside. 7/10. Dad: 7. (Why?) 8. (Why?) It's pretty good.

18. Strawberry KitKat

Liz: It's too strawberry. There's no strawberries in this. 6/10. Neil: I don't like it. 2/10. It tastes really fake. Mom: It's 7/10. Ok. I felt it didn't go well together. 19. Mochi Cookies

Neil: Oh, I hate this. I hate this so much. 0/10. Not... no.

Liz: I really liked it. 9/10. Mom: No. It's like... It's not good. 2/10.

20. Koala March - Mango Neil: This is average, 5/10. Liz: No. Nono. No. I don't like it/10. Mom: It looks like dog biscuits a little bit. I like it. Probably 8.5/10. 21. Koala March - Cocoa

Neil: EW! 0. [gags violently for an extended period] Liz: I like them. I think 8/10. Mom: Probably I'll give it a 8/10.

22. Cookies’n’Cream KitKat

Neil: Great. 10/10. Mmm, the other one’s better, 9.5/10. Liz: I don’t know what I was expecting. 9.5/10. Mom: I don't mind this. Maybe 8/10

23. Popin’Cookin’ Tanoshii Waffle

Step 1: Liz making it

“I'm stupid.”

“I hate this.”

“This too way too long. I'm so close to like, doing something.”

“I finally did it. I'm just trying to make it fit.”

“It kind of worked.”

“I'm doing very poorly, if anyone was wondering.”

“This is for the half moon festival.”

“Oh, they're supposed to look like blueberries. I'm an idiot.”

“I made everything, with the help of Neil as a pourer.”

Step 2: Eating

Liz: Too much effort for... nothing. I would rather not invest the effort and eat a SpongeBob Krabby Patty gummy. It's too hard/10

Neil: Ew! What is THIS? The watermelon by itself tastes great. Together, not at all. 1/10. I like the watermelon, I like the little pieces of whatever. I love artificial watermelon. Mom: The waffle thing is sort of spongy. It's like a syrup. The sprinkles are ok. Can you go below 1?

Final takeaway: Neil: Salt lemon big fan. I love Salt, I love lemon. I think I'm an old man,I didn't like any of the chocolate flavors. I think chewy foods, I have a problem with chewy foods, but maybe if I ate more chewy foods, I would like them. (Seaweed) favorite salty snack. I think I might buy it

Liz: I like American candy. I'm very Americanized. Some of them were too sweet, some of them didn't taste good.

Mom: Quite a few of those sweets and snacks were good but.... how do you put it nicely? I didn't like quite a few of them. If you want really good desserts, sweets, maybe you can go for American desserts. But if you want something lighter and less sweet, you can have Chinese sweets. These Chinese don't have too many sweets, that's why they're so slim and nice. So you can decide which way you want to go.

Me:

24. Akki roti?

Neil: 10/10, best thing we had today.

yesterdaysprint

The Warren Evening Times, Pennsylvania, October 31, 1918

hi?

I can submit things to your blog? how does that work?

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dukeofbookingham-deactivated202

Oh hey I haven’t yelled about voting in a while

dancinbutterfly

Reposting this because some of y’all need a reminding.

prismatic-bell

Another reminder:

VOTE YOUR WHOLE BALLOT.

A Democratic President does nothing if Congress is controlled by Republicans. Your local elections are important, too. (It took us 20 years, but you notice we don’t have issues with our sheriff out here in Phoenix now we’ve voted out Joe Arpaio.)

Don’t skip any. Look up names on your phone while you’re in the ballot booth if you have to. VOTE YOUR WHOLE BALLOT.

dinosaurrainbowstarfish

A PSA because a lot of people don’t know this: You CAN take your phone into the ballot booth, no one will stop you. You CAN google names from inside the ballot booth, no one will stop you. The only time you can get in trouble is, in some states, if you take a photo of your ballot. You CAN also take a long time voting. There are lots of booths usually, don’t worry about the line if you need to think about anything. Voting is not a high school exam. You’re allowed to bring your phone. Please do that in case there’s something on the ballot you don’t understand!

elliesgaymachete

You can also register to vote by mail! That means you can use google and take all the time you need to fill out your ballot! I don’t know how it works in other states but California specifically has made voting by mail extremely easy and hassle free and most people I know vote by mail.

crutchie-with-a-y

VOTE GUYS PLEASE GOD

gabbydearest

Also some places have sample ballots!

I recieved one in the mail last time (i’m in FL) and i took my time at home researching everything and then filled out the answers on the sample ballot, which i then brought into the voting booth with me to copy the answers down, i’ve also brought notebook paper with “answers” into the booth. No one ever batted an eye at me!!!

the-bookworm-chronicles

It has been 0 days since I have last been worked up about voting

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[19/22] → MOVIES TO WATCH DURING QUARANTINE

Anyone can cook aloo gobi, but who can bend a ball like Beckham?

Bend It Like Beckham (2002) dir. Gurinder Chadha

scishow

In 1940, German Nazis were seizing items of value from anyone who opposed them and two physicists were desperate to hide their solid gold Nobel Prizes. A chemist helped them hide the gold in plain sight using a very clever solution.

Games I Recommend

One night: Ultimate Werewolf

This is a simple and fast party game, good for a large group of people who need a quick learning curve. Players have different roles that occur at "night" (while everyone else's eyes are closed) before the group tries to guess who the werewolf is. Similar to mafia if you've ever played that. Also, the game you purchase mainly includes player cards and tokens, easy to make out of paper. A main part of the game is the announcer on the app, which is free actually

Apples to apples

Another party game, but more subjective. Every round has an adjective card and players submit what they think it describes, to be judged by the leader that round. It gets very funny. Cards Against Humanity is the adult themed version of this

Telestrations

This may be more of an activity than a game, because technically, there's no winner, but it's a lot of fun. Like a game of telephone, the message is passed from person to person, except in drawing and guessing form. At the end you go around to each person and see if anyone's final guess corresponded with the original drawing

Scattergories

This is also easy to learn, fast, and fun for large groups. Basically, you're given a list of categories and a random letter, and you have to try and name items in each category starting with that letter before time runs out

Boggle

This is a vocabulary based game, but way faster than Scrabble, and you can play with as many people as can see the board. There's a grid of letter dice which you shake up to randomize, and then you have to search as many connected words as you can within the limited time

Bananagrams

Also a word game, it uses Scrabble tiles but is much more fast-paced. Players try to be the first to make a contiguous crossword, while hoping to avoid the difficult rare letters

Settlers of Catan

This is a more long-form game for up to 4 players. You try to win points by doing different activities that require different resources on the board, which you have to mine or trade for. As you move beyond the beginner stage, the game board and set up will be different every time you play

If you like Catan you might like Carcassonne, which involves trying to build and control, roads, fields and forts while also blocking your opponents from taking your fields

Ticket to Ride

Another long-form strategy game, this one based on accumulating train lines to get to specific destinations, while also blocking your opponents from getting the lines they need

Codenames

This is a communication game where you have to think of related code words that will allow your teammates to guess certain words on the board, but also you have to prevent them from helping the opposite team by guessing their words. Since the board is made of cards you put down, it changes each time

Pandemic

This is a cooperative game in which a disease breaks out in some parts of the world, and the players have to work together to contain it.

Although it's incredibly long and has a lot of rules, I also love Harry Potter: Battle of Hogwarts, the cooperative deck-building games

Encore

This is a fun game based on ability to recall songs, but it's not like a singing competition or anything. I really like it because your can be creative and move ahead just by knowing 8 words of a song, which is about the maximum number of words I know

Jackbox Trivia Murder Party

This is my MOST FAVORITE Jackbox game! I could play it over and over (and I do!) Technically not a board game, but more of a fun party game that everyone can play with their phones using a shared screen. It combines trivia with strategy and murder!

Chocolates:

Against all odds, I’ve actually gotten up to date on my movie reviews. Also, quarantine is apparently over? (Although everyone seems to think that’s a bad idea). I’ll probably try to still keep track of movies I watch, but as a fun change, today I will be reviewing the chocolates I bought at Wawa!

Cookies ‘n’ Cream Twix - I know cookies ‘n’ cream can be kind of rich, but honestly I still love it and I love Twix, so this was my favorite, as well as being pretty unique compared to the usual chocolate I eat.

Reese’s Take 5 - Regular Take 5’s are already so good, the addition of Reese’s couldn’t make it much better for me. You could definitely taste it though, so maybe a Reese’s lover would prefer this greatly, but I love either version of the Take 5.

Fudge M&M’s - So my favorite M&M’s are the crispy kind, but these were a close second, with excellent insides.

Bueno - This was a fun chocolate I had never heard of. The crispy outside was great, but I would have preferred a greater ratio of crispiness to the filling, like a Kitkat. This makes it my last place choice among a truly competitive group of chocolates.

From the BLM list

See You Yesterday - I think this is basically my ideal genre. It’s like a young adult sci-fi current events type thing about time travel, and I 100% can’t believe I didn’t hear about it when it was released. I feel so bad for the main girl because I see her thought process in what she’s doing, but everything goes so wildly off the rails and IT’S NOT HER FAULT or maybe it is? There’s a lot to think about! But I love CJ the MOST.

The Longshots - This movie is a little predictable, but Keke Palmer is my fave, and pretty much all the characters are so wholesome and likeable, especially Ice Cube. This is a very nice family movie.

First Match - This is a little similar to the previous movie in premise, but definitely has a darker vibe. Omari is a great friend to Mo, but Lucila was the best! She deserves everything she wants in the world for dealing with so much bullshit and not being a bitch about it even ONCE!

Roxanne Roxanne - I’m on the fence about Shante’s mother–she obviously cared enough about her kids to save up for them and try to keep them in school, but she was so mean when she was drinking. Shante herself is a really compelling character, and I honestly really respected her hustle even when she was being rude and kind of dumb, but besides that, the pacing was pretty slow honestly. I feel bad that she has such a sad story, and her dude was utmost trash. But I love her.

Juwanna Mann - So I thought this would be like Tootsie but less white. Overall, they’re similar in the things that I disliked, but I found this one a lot more watchable, maybe because the jokes are better? (“This is blackmail.” “No, this is black FEMALE”) Don’t get me wrong–the bad things are still bad: the main dude is dishonest and predatory, the trans cop is a joke, and for some reason no one is doing a physical examination of a pro athlete? Also, WHO was doing Juwanna’s perfect, immovable makeup? Beyond the many unbelievable things–I draw the line at her eyeshadow. My favorite moment is Puff Smokey Smoke learning his true desires in the middle of a basketball game, and my favorite character is Jamal’s Aunt Ruby.

Malcolm X - This movie is LONG. The middle-to-end part was pretty interesting, where he turns his life around, and I think the movie did a good job of showing all the personal flaws he had and not idealizing them, but if I hadn’t been watching with someone I just don’t think it would have held my interest for the entire time.

These are hard to rank because they’re all so different (obviously I didn’t limit t any one cohesive theme or genre), but I would definitely recommend the first 3, with STRONG bias to See You Yesterday, just because of the main character.

Crimes and Punishments

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile - If there’s one thing we learned from High School Musical, it’s that Troy Bolton is definitely going to grow up and kill a bunch of women because he’s Ted Bundy– you think those initials are coincidence? Anyway, this movie is less violent than the other two because it focuses on his relationship with a girl and not the whole murdering thing.

Road to Perdition - I really like Michael Jr.; he truly was doing his best. I’ll admit at the beginning it took me a minute to figure out who was who and doing what and why, but once the journey started I got into the swing of things. At the end I was like omg! So I think this was a good movie to watch.

Kill Bill (1&2) - This is a good movie (or 2 movies), and it’s pretty satisfying that the Bride decided what she was going to do, made a list, and then did it! O-Ren was my favorite; I really liked her backstory scene. Also I am soo confused what Bill’s deal actually was. Like he tried to kill her, but she stayed alive and he even tells her kid about her, and he somehow believes she’s gonna be cool with him??

Public Enemies - John Dillinger is sleazy and the worst possible boyfriend, what the fuck is that girl dating him for. This movie was pretty regular for a cop chasing a criminal story, but I liked the music, especially during robberies. Everyone looks great in their suits. It definitely felt too long.

fluffygif

Capybara Hydrochoerus

Documentaries

Miss Americana - This is a cute movie for fans to gain some insight into TSwift, but I honestly didn’t feel like I learned any crazy new information aside from what she already sort of makes clear on social media. She just talked in a more in-depth way about how her experiences shaped her. Also, obviously the soundtrack was excellent.

Becoming - This movie isn’t inherently interesting, but Michelle Obama is just SO funny and likeable and charismatic that she carries the whole thing (Which makes sense–it’s about her after all). Now I want to meet her even more than I already did.

Knock Down the House - This was the most interesting to watch, in my opinion, because it doesn’t specifically follow only AOC. There is a whole range of characters (people running for office) who you probably haven’t heard of, so the first part of the movie holds a lot of suspense as you wait for election results. It’s wild seeing AOC just killing it before anyone knew she was killing it, to a nearly empty auditorium.

not-all-the-prayers

Josh Lyman + tumblr text posts (?/?) (feat Donna Moss)

Will Smith movies

Bad Boys - This is a fun movie, although the whole premise of WHY they need to switch identities still doesn’t make a ton of sense to me? Like why not explain the confusion to people? But who cares, it’s a fun movie and a good song.

Hancock - I like this movie a lot and I really feel for Hancock! Like usually the movies glorify superpowers and being a hero, but it actually would suck in practice and be so much effort for really not a lot of payoff and the public is so FICKLE. Anyway, Ray is shockingly cool about his whole situation, poor guy, and he deserves to have his good ending.

Clearing Their Names

The Lovebirds - This is a really fun rom-com + murder, kind of like Murder Mystery except I care way more about Kumail Najiani and Issa Rae. All the hijinks were good, but I guess my main complaint would probably be the glass-breaking technique using the date shoes–OBVIOUSLY you’re supposed to take your other heel off when you engage in B&E. Also, who in their right mind thinks severe burns are better than being kicked by a horse? Issa Rae I guess. Anyway, the movie was funny and good.

The Lincoln Lawyer - This movie is more serious, and I thought Matthew McConaughey was charming and smart. I’m a little unclear on how he got the info to that one unreliable witness, but I’m pretty sure it’s very illegal. Also, how does that help his other client who was in rehab? Legally, I have a decent amount of confusion on this one, although I was able to enjoy the movie anyway.

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