Wednesday Update

We're now halfway through season 3 of Broadchurch. I like it MUCH more than season 2. 

There was one episode of season 2 where I started to believe I was liking season 2, but that soon fizzled.

I liked season 3 from the start.

I vaguely recognized Sarah Parish who plays the best friend of Trish (Julie Hesmondhalgh). I IMDB'd her last night and was reminded that she's from Blackpool!

I was kind of obsessed with Blackpool a few years ago.  And it's kind of what brought me to Doctor Who.

From what I can remember, this is what happened. My interest in Doctor Who was first sparked a bit by a commenter on my blog. He was a fan, and I have a love for people who are passionate about a specific things. I guess, in a way, I'm a fangirl of fanboys/fangirls. 

And when it comes to popular culture, I think I often have this desire to at least try to join the fandom. 

I found two Doctor Who books at a used book thing...maybe at a New York flea market?

I read them and wasn't really impressed. Well...it didn't seem like the type of thing I could love. 

Sometime later, I was into The Walking Dead. David Morrissey led me to watching Blackpool videos on YouTube. In the comments, there was a lot of enthusiasm for David Tennant, and I think that intrigued me. Plus...maybe around the same time, Jack began talking about watching it? 

Last night I rewatched one of my favorite Blackpool videos. 

One of my favorite actors on Blackpool was Georgina Taylor from Coronation Street.

Later I'd end up watching Coronation Street. Georgina Taylor was no longer on the show but eventually she came back, and she plays one of my favorite characters.  

Speaking of Coronation Street and Doctor Who. In an episode of Coronation Street that I watched recently, two the current villains mentioned the Doctor and the TARDIS. That was fun.

Onto other things....

I'm rewarming up to The Fosters.  So much so that...when it was my self-designated time to take a break from the show and watch an episode of Lucifer, I was less excited about Lucifer than I had anticipated. I was eager to get back to The Fosters.  

The Fosters does have a lot of angst, though. And that's fine. But I think it could use a bit more comic relief.  

It's like the characters on Coronation Street have a TON of problems. I mean that street is full of disaster. But they still manage to have a lot of comedy on the show...and the same for Shameless.

I think the character that brings the most lightness The Fosters is Mariana (Cierra Ramirez). She doesn't have less problems than the other kids. But she has more of a spark. Most of the other characters seem pretty melancholy and/or angry most of the time.  

In my book news, I'm reading Leah Remini's Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology.  I'm liking that a lot and feeling that I've not hated enough on Scientology.

I've always been anti-Scientology...enough so that I become somewhat repulsed by actors when I find out they're Scientologists.  

I understood that Scientology is a manipulative cult that drives people away from their money, common sense, family, and friends.

And I heard of stories of abuse. But I often took the stance of....Well, all religions have abusers in their ranks. 

With what Remini describes, though....It's like the child abuse she experienced is baked into the actual Scientology program...rather than just being an outlier kind of thing. 

As a young teen, her family moves to a Scientology hotel or motel in Florida. Remini is made to do housekeeping work for very low wages. That's bad. But worse is that there's a daycare for the babies of overworked parents. And the babies are pretty much neglected. Remini describes babies soaked in their own urine.

Then again...maybe other Scientology centers/churches are less abusive?  Maybe I'm wrong to assume that each Scientology teen's experience matches Remini's. Maybe it would be like assuming that since a lot of kids are molested by priests, ALL Catholic kids are molested by priests.

I've been following the Impeachment trial to some extent. We were actually all watching Avengers: Endgame yesterday afternoon instead of the impeachment.  Though I found the movie enjoyable and interesting, my heart wasn't into it enough to not-multitask. So I was on Twitter and seeing very entertaining Tweets about Trump's lawyers.  I made a comment to Tim and Jack about how we should be watching the Impeachment.  Jack decided he wanted to take a break from the movie anyway.  I turned on the trial...and still stayed on Twitter, because Twitter was more entertaining than the actual trial.

I don't think I've seen such a stream of funny Tweets since the finale of True Blood.

Eventually, I gave up watching and just watched Impeachment comments and clips from Aaron Rupar

Rupar is very good at providing video highlights of various political events.

This morning I read articles and editorials  about the impeachment via The Washington Post.  Later I decided I should at least put some time into watching the actual live event. As luck had it, I tuned in right as Eric Swalwell began his speech. I watched the whole thing, because I like Swalwell.  I'm very glad he talked about how it's not just about a few random Trump Tweets encouraging people to fight and be wild. It's about months and months and Tweets upon Tweets of Trump pushing his supporters to believe the election was stolen from them.

Trump pushed the idea of the election being stolen from him before the election even began.

In other news....

I did a virtual doctor's (well Physician assistant) visit. It felt futuristic in a Horizon's kind of way.

It was also frustrating. They couldn't do it on the laptop.  I had to use my phone which hurt my vanity. I'm very ugly in phone images.

On top of that major problem, it was hard for me to show the PA what I needed her to see. Especially when she asked me to press down on my fingers. I don't think she realized I was holding my phone with my other hand.  

I did manage to prop up my phone...with some mild struggling. The nearest thing for propping was a metal fruit basket and it didn't provide the best propping.  

So what has happened is that my very dried and chapped hands evolved into swollen fingers. I had that for a few weeks. A few times, I considered making a doctor's appointment and then I'd unconsider it.

Then.... I realized the red spots appearing on my fingers didn't blanch. I've always heard that this could be a sign of major disaster, so I decided I should probably get that checked out.

The PA didn't seem too concerned about the lack of blanching. And she compared it to my past major rash which DID blanch.  I'm not sure if she didn't hear me about the not-blanching...or didn't understand.

She prescribed me antibiotics, Prednisone, and steroid cream.

I did lots of Googling and saw somewhere that this could be a valid treatment for non-blanching rash bits.  So maybe she did understand me.

I'm weary of being on the Prednisone during a pandemic. Despite the statistics in my favor, I've been believing that if Covid finds it's way into me, I'm going to die or spends months in the hospital.  Since Prednisone decreases immunity, the situation seems even more dire.  Plus, I read about how even short term Prednisone increases your chance of getting Sepsis, fractures, and DVT's.  

I think maybe I could have done without the Prednisone.  

But I am glad for the antibiotics, because I'm a little scared that I was on the path to blood poisoning.  

I'm big on the whole thing of not over-prescribing antibiotics. But in this case, I'm glad to be taking them.

The combo prescription of antibiotics and steroids kind of reminds me of that episode of House MD where the doctors were struggling to diagnose and treat a woman. They didn't know if her symptoms were caused by autoimmune or infection.  There was a worry that if they gave her steroids then she wouldn't be able to fight the infection if it was an infection issue.  Or something like that. 

I also read how steroids like Prednisone can maybe SAVE people from dying of Covid....if their body overreacts to the virus.  

It's all very confusing.

Anyway...I've decided that after the pandemic, I'm going to take the plunge and start on the path of getting diagnosed with an auto-immune problem OR ruling out an auto-immune problem. For years, I've suspected I have an auto-immune disease. I'm tired of not knowing.   

In blog reading news, I finished reading about the McGinley trip to Peru and now am reading about their 2011 trip to Denver.  I'm running low on McGinley trip reports. I need the pandemic to end, so they can start traveling again.  

In podcast news, I'm very slowly listening to the Imagineer Podcast about his family's memories of Disney. It's great. They talk about the Disney stuff at the World's Fair, favorite parks, favorite rides, memories of Belgian waffles, etc.

One of my favorite parts was where they talk about bringing the Podcaster to Disney for the first time when he was four months old. They took him on It's a Small World and he was so enthralled by the whole thing. His eyes wide and all that. I imagine most babies would be scared, bored, or asleep.  But he was so into it.  I feel like he was born to be a Disney fan.

Or maybe I'm wrong and this is a typical reaction of infants to Disney rides.

I love hearing about families who have an intergenerational love for Disney.  

I plan to listen to more of the podcasts. 

I guess I might be becoming a podcast person.

In my screenwriting news...I'm now working on revising/proofreading The Dead are Online Version C. I made a decision last night while dealing with Prednisone induced insomnia. I had planned to write a The Dead are Online version D which would be a mix of version A, B, and C.  I decided I'm going to skip that...and end my loyalty to my novel.  

After I end up my contest-entering spree, I'm going to start slowly working on stuff for versions A, B, C...maybe work on further episodes and begin doing show Bibles. Then if I see any of the versions getting traction in the contests, I'll put extra speed and effort into that particular version.

 I feel good about this decision. And it's not like I necessarily will lose characters, because I have crossover characters.  One character is in all three versions and at least three characters are in two versions.  And that's just in the pilot episode. With version A and B, there will be a lot of crossover in later episodes...if I go by what's in the novel.  Version C is much more standalone.  But I can always bring in A and B characters somehow...somewhere. For some reason.  

I also have my pilot screenplay about dreams that I'm excited about.

And I shall have to eventually take a look at my Covid-therapy screenplays I wrote.

I sometimes get ideas for new screenplays but they never take off.

I had one about a dystopian that really wasn't a dystopian. It was a dystopia in the eyes of white supremacists.  It was going to be about how us left wing people got our way, and we're living our happy left-winged fantasy life while white supremacists live together in three star hotels teaching the children about how bad things are outside.

There's one half Black woman living in the hotel who's been brainwashed to believe that she shouldn't leave the community; the message told to her being that out there they despise and discriminate against anyone with white blood.

And the reason why I haven't gone far with the screenplay is that this woman is really the only character in which I have a real storyline for.   

It was too much of me wanting to world build a left wing paradise...and not enough story or character development. But maybe someday that will change.  

I had another idea that was a supernatural parenting kind of thing, but it might be too similar to Travelers.  Or that's my excuse for not try writing it, because I'm lazy and would rather have more time for Twitter.  

My idea is a mother slowly realizes her child is possessed and has been possessed for a long time.  The catch is that it's not an evil entity that has possessed her child but an innocent lost soul; I think a ghost of a child they encounter at a touristy haunted cafe.  

The possession happens gradually. The spirit takes awhile to completely take over.  But then the mother realizes that the child she knew and loved is gone and locked away in some spirit holding room.  She wants that child back, of course but also has grown to love the other child within her child.

I think I was also influenced by some certain horror movies that I won't name, because it would be too much of a spoiler. But it's the whole thing of a child being replaced but the replacement not being evil.  Although in that movie, it's not a matter of possession.  

I had another screenplay idea yesterday...more slow Indie type. It was based on my own personal experiences and things I've witnessed. A young girl with low self-esteem gets a boost when a teen cousin showers her with adoration and attention at a summer family reunion event. But then when she returns the next summer having lost some of her youthful cuteness, she's discarded and replaced with a younger, cuter cousin.  

I sort of like the idea.  The problem is I couldn't figure out how would it work. Do you cast two actresses to play the girl...so you can get the age difference. Or do you film part of the film when the actress is young and then wait until she goes through puberty to do the rest?  What if it ends up she has delayed puberty and you're waiting for years?

Then again, she doesn't necessarily have to go through puberty. She can just lose some of her youthful cuteness.  

I think the screenplay would also explore where do you draw the line between healthy, safe relationships between children and teens/adults and psychologically abusive/exploitive ones.  

I saw a social media post recently that declared grooming should not be seen as something that LEADS to abuse but something that in itself is abusive.  That stuck in my head.  

There definitely should be room in this world for healthy good relationships between children and older people...teens, adults, elderly folks, etc.  But we should also be aware of how easy it can be to fall into toxic behaviors...either out of ignorance or because of our own psychological issues.  And these toxic behaviors can be especially damaging to children.  Then again, toxic shit can happen between kids of the same age, so.....

I really don't know. But maybe one day I'll write that screenplay and know more. Or...more likely, I'll end up even more lost and confused about the matter.  

How would our world change if we knew for sure there was life after death, and it was easy for our dearly-departed to talk to us via the Internet?   

The Dead are Online, a novel by Dina Roberts