Friday Update

Yesterday I watched WandaVision with Jack.  We watched all the four available episodes together. That was special for me, because we very rarely watch things together anymore.

If the show didn't look interesting enough to me or Jack had already started watching episodes upstairs, the show might have been added to my certain category of shows...a category I haven't named yet.  Sometimes I think of calling it watch-by-proxy.  But I'm not sure the name would fit what I'm about to describe.

What it is are shows that Tim (and very occasionally Jack) watch in the kitchen/den. I hear and see the show in the background as I do other things. Every so often, something will catch my attention.

Some of the shows seem appealing enough to me that I'll add it to my watchlist, OR I already have it on my watchlist.

The one show that got my attention enough to put it in a request that Tim stop using it as a solo show and change it to a together-show was Cobra Kai. 

I think I watched a little bit here and there but then with the final episode of season 1, I sat down and watched it for real. Then I asked Tim if we could watch season 2 together.

Anyway, back to WandaVision.....

The 1950's style of the first episode immediately got my attention. When Jack told me that each episode was going to take place in a different decade, I was immediately sold.

The nostalgic feelings I got from watching fake-1950's, 1960's, and 1970's shows make me wonder if I should add more old shows to my to-watch list. But then again, maybe I prefer the setting of those time periods with the mindsets and values of the 21st century.

I don't know.

I did enjoy watching old The Twilight Zone episodes recently.

The most recent episode of WandaVision takes place in modern times....or future times?  I was less interested in that episode and did some of my computer stuff while watching. I was surprised that this episode had the highest IMDb rating. I later asked Tim and Jack which episodes they prefer, and they agreed with me. We all like the TV show episodes better.

Wait. Back up a bit.

So before I joined in watching with Jack, he suggested that I first watch the last Avengers movie, so I could understand what's going on. Originally, my plan was to not watch with Jack as he watched and instead watch with Tim.  I think this was because I wrongly assumed Jack had already started the show, and I wanted to start at the beginning. 

But Jack was starting at the beginning, AND...later I learned that Tim had already watched the first four episodes...I'm guessing in his Man Cave. Although there is the slight possibility that he watched it in the kitchen/den, and I wasn't around or so absorbed in whatever I was doing that I didn't notice.

A few weeks ago, my sister promoted the show Ted Lasso to the family. I planned on watching it with Tim. Then when I mentioned it to him, he told me he already watched it and told me I had been in the room while watching it.  After he said that, I had vague memories of seeing it on the TV.  

Oops. I'm totally off on a tangent here.

So...anyway....I wasn't too excited about watching The Avengers. I loved the first movie but didn't like the second. Then I missed the third and fourth.

I wondered if I really needed the backstory of WandaVision. Could I not just enjoy the show on a more surface level?

Also, even if there is some valuable backstory, I managed to enjoy The Black Panther and the new Spiderman movies without having the full Avengers story downloaded in my brain.

What I ended up doing is watching the beginning of the first episode of WandaVision while reading a background article about the whole thing. 

I'm trying to find the article I read. I think this is it. I kind of skipped over all the comic history and just read the movie stuff. 

It was helpful. 

I'm sure I could have enjoyed some of the jokes and definitely the settings and costumes of WandaVision without knowing the backstory. But having the backstory, I think, made me feel much more emotionally involved.

It's very sad and romantic.

Today the fifth episode is coming out.

Jack told me he's probably going to watch the rest of the series upstairs. I asked Tim if we could watch the rest of the show together. We have one last episode of season 2 of Broadchurch, so we'll probably watch episode 5 of WandaVision tomorrow. Then we'll start on season 3 of Broadchurch.

Other stuff....

I'm not liking The Fosters too much. It's getting on my nerves. But...that happens to me sometimes when I first start watching a show or getting back to a show.  I can be cold towards it; then slowly warm up.

Right now with The Fosters, it's just a bit too woke. 

And I consider myself a woke person. I'm pretty far-left. 

There's nothing on the show that goes against my political or ideological beliefs. 

It's just a bit too heavy-handed.

Then again, Coronation Street can get heavy-handed, and I love that show.

Maybe it's not about being woke or heavy-handed. Maybe it's just....

Who knows?

The writing? Directing? Acting?

There's a lot of whining on The Fosters. That might be part of the issue. 

Anyway...while I was writing this post, Jack came down. And I guess he changed his mind about watching the next episode of WandaVision upstairs. We watched episode 5 together. That was very nice.

This episode was much darker...less silly and happy.

In other news....

The Congress voting tracker website has been heavily updated. The last time I checked, I think they were on vote 20 of the Senate. Now they're up to vote 50!  And they also have the House vote that kicked Marjorie Taylor Greene off of the committees. 

I did know that the Senate was very busy yesterday...and through the night. (Thanks to...The Washington Post). I guess I just didn't expect the voting tracking website to update so quickly. Oh and also...I guess I didn't expect there to be THAT many votes. Though the article did mention that a lot of stuff was voted on.  So...sometimes things surprise me when they really shouldn't.

I'm seeing that my Representative, Kay Granger, voted in support of a woman who goes around telling victims of school shootings that their tragedies never happened. 

Wait. I had it wrong. It was House vote 20 that I left off on.

Yeah. Okay. The Senate Bill had been only at 13.I think?  

There's a lot of stuff here.

I'm going to go pee, and then I'll be back to try to make sense of it.  

All right. I'm back.

So...what I'm starting to realize is that the House and Senate don't just vote on motions, bills, etc. They vote on whether to vote. I think?

Yesterday, at 2:23, they voted on whether to vote on whether Marjorie Taylor Greene should be kicked off committees. All Democrats voted yes and all Republicans voted no. 

At 3:22, there was yet another vote about all of this. All Democrats voted yes. All Republicans voted no. I'm not sure what the difference is between the 2:23 vote and 3:22 one. 

At 6:48, they did the voting on the actual issue. Although no Republicans wanted to have a vote on the issue, once the vote on the issue actually happened, 11 Republicans voted Yea.  

So, we can say the scorning of Marjorie Taylor Greene was bipartisan. But the act of deciding whether or not to scorn was partisan.

Meanwhile in the Senate....

Their first vote yesterday happened at 2:35 and the last vote was at 4:23 this morning.  Or at least the last vote recorded on the website.

People who say Congress doesn't work hard should pay attention to this website sometimes.

Congress might not do the work we want them to do, but I think that's more about differing opinions...and some people having the hearts and minds of comic book villains. I do NOT think it is about laziness.  

Then again, these all-nighters might be rare.

Now I'm trying to understand all these Senate votes. I'm struggling. The website is good for understanding who voted for what but less helpful in terms of what the hell the vote was about.

I know it has something to do with the budget and the Covid relief stuff. But I'm not sure which bill means what. I mean for all I know, some might be votes about whether or not they should order in some pizza.  

I can see that some votes were very bipartisan and others that were partisan. 

12 votes were totally partisan.

12 votes were slightly bipartisan.

12  were very bipartisan with a few of those being unanimous.

Did they make it perfectly even like that on purpose?

Maybe I miscounted.

Well...it the numbers could have changed if I classified things differently between very and slightly bipartisan. I put any difference higher than 40/60 as being very bipartisan.  

For example, at 3:42 am, 50 Republicans and 20 Democrats voted yes on something. I would count that as being very Bipartisan.  I wish I understood what so many of them said yes to. 

Well...I mean I wish up to the point that I wish the website gave me an easy answer. My wish isn't strong enough to seek out the answer elsewhere.  

Read my novel: The Dead are Online