strange darling

— पांच हजार सात सौ बावन — Last night was Action Movie Night at the Braeburn Condos theater. Shobhit had a call to India he had to make later so he did not stay for the movie, but he did come for the pre-movie food and drink. He also made the pasta sauce for the shelled pasta we made and brought, which was done and ready before I even got home. All I had to do was heat the shelled pasta noodles, reheat the pasta sauce still in its deep skillet, and grate some cheese. It was all very easy. Counting Shobhit, our number went down a bit this week: to nine. In the theater it was down to eight because Shobhit didn't watch the movie. Not even Jake made it this week, which is very rare. But, the ones who did make it included Tony, Ryan, Ben, Chris G, Chris B, Daniel, the long-red-haired guy whose name I never remember, Shobhit, and myself. A couple other people who have become more regular recently were not there this time, which suited me fine as one of them consistently chatters too much during the movie. The movie itself was an interesting, and I only learned later divisive choice, largely along gender lines—and this group is made up only of guys. It was Strange Darling, which I considered seeing in 2023 but never did because I just don't want to see too many horror or thriller movies (this one is much more in the latter vein). It very much flips serial killer tropes on their head, but also kind of takes some pot shots at some of its female characters. Ben, who loves to joke offensively "ironically," said as we filed out of the theater: "That movie definitely hates women, but I enjoyed it!" I think it's more nuanced than that, but also makes it easy for guys to love the movie for the wrong reasons, which is a tricky thing to navigate. I found the movie to be almost thrillingly clever in its narrative construction, with six "chapters" (plus an "epilogue") shown out of order. I even gave it four stars on Letterboxd. Then I read several of the few user reviews by women, which pretty much exclusively hated the movie, and I began to think: maybe I was wrong? The men arguing with these women in comments sections were all clear dipshits. But, then I checked MetaCritic: 23 reviews aggregated there, with a kind of stunning overall rating of 80. Only four reviews were given a value of 60 or below—all by women. Another six women, however, reviewed the movie well (above 60), with ratings between 80 and 100. The other 13 reviews were by men who all liked it. So this was fascinating to me, as I trust professional reviews far more than I do user reviews, and the women among the reviewers were a bit more mixed on the movie, but some also really loved it. For now, I guess I'll stand by my four star (out of five) review. — पांच हजार सात सौ बावन — — पांच हजार सात सौ बावन — Snow update! More snow was expected this morning, and indeed there was. There was a definite difference, though, from yesterday morning, when the snow was dryer and snow was no longer falling. When I woke up this morning, and even while I walked from home and then through Cal Anderson Park to the Light Rail station, snow was still falling—and, the snow on the ground was much wetter, and thus a lot slushier. The thing that was the same between the two mornings was the difference between accululated snow on Capitol Hill versus virtually nothing downtown. Once again, I got off Light Rail at Westlake Station and then transferred to a bus going up 3rd Avenue—this time I managed to nab a #24 within seconds at 3rd and Pine; I didn't have to walk a block south to Pike as usual. I wore the leather boots again, but they are not very comfortable, the one on the right is too tight (this is the case in another pair of shoes as well, and I'm beginning to wonder if something weird is happening to my right foot to make it wider?), and they make a lot of noise when I walk on linoleum. I did a smart thing today though, and packed my sandals in my backpack so I could change into them while at the office. I've done this in the past when wearing rain boots (which I still need to get another pair of). I can just bring the sandals home again when the weather starts getting warmer; I won't be traveling to anyplace warm between now and then. Anyway. The forecast high today is warmer than yesterday: 39°. It did not take long today for all the snow to melt. I was going to say the snow is now gone from the forecast, except now my weather app is showing snow on Thursday through Saturday next week, with lows in the mid-twenties and highs of only 35° or 36°! That's plenty of time for the forecast to change, but if that holds, it'll be even more prime condition for snow and we could get even more than the cumulative couple of inchese we got this week. — पांच हजार सात सौ बावन — [posted 12:34pm]