Dune: Part Two

I rewatched Dune (or Dune: Part One) yesterday in anticipation of watching Dune: Part Two today.  And as much as I liked Part One, I maybe liked Part Two even better.  And I'm sure that I'm going to rewatch Part Two before I watch Dune: Part Three in a few years time, since it seems inevitable that we need a third film.  And although the whole worm-riding thing is kind of ridiculous, the cinematography in Part Two is amazing.  This is movie-making at it's finest - every aspect of this film screams of quality.  The desert planet of Arrakis, where most of the film takes place, is stunningly realistic.  And what was already a stacked cast added even more big names to the mix (I had no idea Christopher Walken was in this film!).  This is up there as one of the best science fiction films ever - and Denis Villeneuve should be more widely recognized as one of the best directors out there.  4 out of 5.     

US Olympics TV Coverage

The perfect example of why the Olympics coverage on US TV absolutely blows.  In the hope of watching some athletics today, this is what I tuned into:

Yep, that is some multiple gold-medal winning US swimmer making a cringeworthy appearance on Sesame Street.  And this was on during the live show.  It's the kind of thing that I would expect during the absolutely awful and bloated primetime highlights show every evening - where only the US athletes, and only the US medal-winning athletes at that, get featured.  And in a LOT of detail.  Good luck seeing highlights of any non-US winners.

YouTube Ads

It seems like every other advert on YouTube is one for Kamala Harris.  It's beyond annoying, almost enough to make me want her to lose the election.  Almost. 

More Olympics Thoughts

I see that the golf and tennis Olympic medals were decided this weekend.  I can't say I care for including sports in the Olympics where the athletes competing and winning the medals already earn millions of dollars/pounds in money.  I know that we are a long way from only having amateurs compete in the Olympics, but this takes the biscuit.  These sports and competitors don't need their profiles raised, and unduly take attention away from the sports and athletes that better deserve it.  So I don't care for golf, tennis, basketball and football as Olympic sports - at least in their current form.  For example in much the same way that Rugby sevens is an Olympic sport, why don't we have five-a-side football instead?  

Insects

I hate insects.  At some point in the last few days, I have got absolutely ravaged by insect bites.  I've got them on my feet, my legs, and even my chest.  It only takes one insect to do all this damage, so I suspect one was in my bedroom when I slept on top of my duvet the other night.  And obviously my diabetic blood is like crack to insects with it's high sugar level.  To make it worse, I can't stop scratching the bites - making them even more inflamed.  I hate hot weather.     

Seafair

It's Seafair this weekend in Seattle, which meant spending most of my afternoon on the roof deck of my office watching Blue Angels and other jets flying around.  Though the best views are over Lake Washington, we still get to see some of the action for free from our office.  Though there didn't seem to be as much action as in year's past.  Perhaps they've adjusted their flight paths, or perhaps someone has finally realized that Seafair is an inordinate waste of time and money (I've never tried to brave the traffic and lack of parking to go to one of the lakeside viewing spots, or spent an inordinate amount of money for a reserved seat or boat cruise to view the show).  Indeed, a quick Google search indicates that they've moved the show further SE on the lake, which is a real shame.  I wasn't alert enough to get any good photos.

More Trail Cam

A few more photos from my trail camera from last week.  Excuse the strange angle - I noticed yesterday that one of my camera "legs" has somehow snapped off, continuing a theme of things of mine breaking for no discernible reason, so I've got to improvise a fix.