The Cheese Stands Alone

 Fr 10/16/26- Credit Card Fraud Knotts Berry 825am (GB: 5/ Green Crack). 930am (3-B: Maui Wowie). 130pm (GB: 5/ Green Crack). 535pm (GB: 5/ Green Crack). 825pm (GB: 4/ Maui Wowie).  Up 730am: Cloudy and blustery with 20 mph winds and temps only to mid 50's. A slight chance of afternoon showers. Fall Is Here.  Watched 'THE SECRET AGENT' (Kanopy- 4 tickets; 2 hrs. 40").  Most of the film is set in 1977 and deals with the head of a research facility who tries to stop a corrupt takeover of his facility and is murdered by a team of very scruffy assassins. The film is dramatically different from a 'spy thriller' and although there are some horrific scenes violence, its aim is more to demonstrate how memory (and reality) can be manipulated by authoritarian rulers. The man is driving his VW Bug to Recife, Brazil which is a coastal city in the northeastern part of the country. "91" Metascore and nothing lower than a "78" and I'd leave it at a sol...

 Th 10/15/26 830am (6-B: Green Crack). 920am (5-B: Green Crack). 1155am (GB: 5/ Maui Wowie). 430pm (GB: 5/ Maui Wowie). 530pm (GB: 5/ Green Crack). 830pm (GB: 5/ Maui Wowie).  Up 730am: A light drizzle/mist through noon with the threat of storms all day with temps to mid 70's. {Very little actual rain}  Windows Update: A while back the painter next door removed the windows along the front of the house and for the past week he's been painstakingly repainting the horizontal and vertical strips of wood. Unless he's working for free, it would be much cheaper to replace the windows....wouldn't it? Watched 'THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM' (Netflix). About what you'd expect and Bourne is still trying to uncover his true identity and the nature of his mission. And, of course, he runs into a hot & capable young woman to point the way. The clandestine government agencies chase him while he outwits them with many vehicle chases and violent hand to hand fisticuffs to hold you...

 We 10/14/26- gummy 745am {1/4 VIIA 'Day Drift' 100 mg: 25 mg total}. 815am (GB: 4/ Green Crack). 845am {1/4 VIIA 'Day Drift' 100 mg: 50 mg total for the day; spaced an hour apart}. 1pm (GB: 5/ Maui Wowie). 535pm (GB: 5/ Green Crack). 825pm (GB: 5/ Green Crack).  Up 715am: Very light showers early, then cloudy with temps to mid 70's.  I threw out a random stack of books that sat on the living room mantle; thinning the herd.  Watched 'THE CRITIC' (Hoopla). The film is set in London's theater district during the mid 1930's and very slowly morphs into a pretty grim & gruesome tale. A notorious, old & gay theater critic plots crimes that lead to blackmail, suicide, and murder. The protagonist is a gay man who flaunts his sexuality in an era that treated homosexuality as an imprisonable offense; with Ian McKellen, Mark Strong. "54" Metascore and I would go to "84". From Collider: "A film filled with intensity, this is a wo...

 Tu 10/13/26 750am (GB: 5/ Green Crack). 1225pm (GB: 5/ Maui Wowie). 535pm (GB: 5/ Green Crack). 825pm (GB: 5/ Maui Wowie).  Up 645am: Bright & sunny with temps to 90, but temps drop 40 degrees tomorrow. Yesterday was the warmest 10/12 since 1962 and it marked the latest point in the calendar year that the city has ever recorded a 90 degree temp since official record keeping began in the late 1800's. Today might shred that record. I didn't need the AC yesterday, but it's 'ON' today.  Paid Card Watched 'SIRAT' (Kanopy). In Arabic the title means 'the path' or 'the way'. This is a kind of metaphor for 'heaven and hell, hope and hopelessness, and destruction and renewal'. You think you've seen it all after the young boy and his puppy fall off the side of a mountain, but it really becomes a nightmare when the crew are tripping their brains out and learn that they are in a minefield. Like nothing else. Nominated for 2 Oscars; 50 wi...

 Mo 10/12/26 825am (GB: 5/ Green Crack). 915am {I took 1/4- VIIA 'Day Drift' 100 mg: 25 total}. 105pm (GB: 5/ Green Crack). 430pm (GB: 5/ Maui Wowie). 530pm (GB: 4/ Maui Wowie). 825pm (GB: 5/ Maui Wowie).  Up 730am: Partly sunny with record high temps almost to 90.  Watched 'HERETIC' (Kanopy). This is the kind of movie that will spark many philosophical conversations and more 'droll' than 'horror', but a very fun ride. Two Mormon teenage girls knock on the door of a man who seems interested, hospitable, and very knowledgeable about 'The Church of The Latter Day Saints'. He is not at all what he seems to be. Fun Theme: 'Simulation Hypothesis'- the concept that our physical world is an artificial, simulated construct rather than the absolute, fundamental reality. Maybe something along the lines of 'The Matrix' is the latest iteration of what is commonly believed to be 'Religion'. "71" Metascore and I would go to ...

 Su 10/11/26 850am (GB: Maui Wowie). 940am (4-B: Green Crack). 1250pm (GB: 5 Green Crack). 240pm (4-B: Maui Wowie). 435pm (GB: 5/ Maui Wowie). 530pm (GB: 5/ Green Crack). 835pm (GB: 5/ Maui Wowie).  Up 730am: Sunny and warm with temps to low 80's. Weekly Cleaning Watched 'REPORTING LIVE' (Netflix).  A bridge collapses and a bus load of children drown in the river. Excessive sand dredging hollowed out the area beneath the riverbed and the supporting structure collapsed. A TV journalist and her cameraman uncover the illegal sand mining operation and the authorities try to suppress the story.  'Woodward & Bernstein' this ain't. The action takes place in the Nandurbar district of Maharashtra which is in the upper northwestern part of the country; approximately 250 miles north of Mumbai.   More 'THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE' (Netflix). I Finished episode #2 and will continue the series tonight.   Tried to delete AI Mode History, and I did it, but not...

 Sa 10/10/26 805am (GB: 5/ Maui Wowie). 9am (4-B: Green Crack). 1205pm (GB: 5/ Green Crack). 535pm (GB: 5/ Maui Wowie). 830pm (GB: 5/ Green Crack).  Up 710am: Mostly cloudy with temps to about 80. Watched 'THREE' (Netflix). An anthology of three horror shorts from different Asian directors: Memories by Kim Jee-woon, The Wheel by Nonzee Nimibutr, and Going Home by Peter Chan. 1) A husband's wife has disappeared and he 'thinks something bad' has happened to her. Few words of dialogue, but some of the grisliest murder scenes I've ever seen. A difficult piece of filmmaking, but worth the effort.  2) 'Thai Puppets' vs. 'Masked Dancers'; total cultural immersion with backgrounds of jungles, rivers, and rural traditional stages in very rural Thailand.  3) A man and his three year old son stay in a desolate apartment building that is slated to be leveled. The man next door has strangled his wife who was dying of cancer. He " killed her so that he co...