Porthole

July 14 and 15

One of the reasons I was charmed by Paris was that I had no agenda and no expectations. I hope I remember that on my next trip.

To Beholden: "A blog has the potential of being a conversation. It has the potential of building community. I've seen it work that way at WDC. I've seen it fail.

Of course FB does that as well, except that there's less depth and Twitter even less so. No one writes a three paragraph response on either platform.

And blogging at WDC is almost passe. Nothing against good prompts when needed, but the same beige bland boring prompts lead to the same bland boring blogs... with occasional spice added.

Better to just post and respond at QOTD. Even a poetry forum like Express it in Eight works better. But... most places are General Audience rated to "attract more participants" and "not offend anyone". My opinion of that exceeds their ratings.

It very hard to share anything unpleasant or controversial when readers do not wish to listen or engage. And many folks here may be writers but they aren't communicators and/or consider blogs to be daily grade school exercises, not an opportunity to share real thoughts or their real lives.

There are issues in my life right now that I won't share IRL and don't dare share here. I no longer trust people as much as I used to. Blogging allows a person to be seen (or exposed). I'm becoming invisible again."

My tooth just broke off as I was eating cottage cheese and fruit and typing a comment to Lilli. Good riddance. It has wanted to leave for quite a while now! I tried to yank it out these past months... no luck. I was worried it would break off and I'd swallow it. So this was good in a way. I'll keep the evidence to look at later. I suspect the area will heal now that the Offender is gone.

Life is like that. Removing a splinter or a toxic relationship might hurt... but it feels so much better afterwards.

90 degrees at 2 p.m. Severe fire warnings. AQI at the moment is 60. I don't go out if it's over 100. It's not very comfortable inside but I'm used to being uncomfortable.

I told Lilli... "I watched the Thai BL "He's coming to me" because it wasn't just a 'love story'.

1. It's a whodunit. Why did Med die... it wasn't natural.
2. Supernatural because Med is a ghost who knows next-to-nothing about himself.
3. Detective as Thun&Friends look for clues everywhere as to #1 and #2. That adds some hairy suspense.
4. Yes, the 'detective' and 'victim' are slowly but surely forming feelings for one another. A cozy with complications.
5. Those ghostly complications... why can Med sometimes touch things and Thun?
6. Really... why Med and Thun specifically... that I won't give away because many people watching don't catch on [until episode 6 of 8]! Even though the clues are there from the beginning!
7. For the person watching the ending isn't certain and some people consider the 'happy' ending as coming out of nowhere... but... no... the clues are all there if you ask "why". See #6, 5, 4 ... 2.

It's marketed as a Rom-Com (BL is an Asian male-male version of that). And yes, there's humor and a wonderful score that pulls at the heart and includes a lot of 90s music (Med died in 1997 on his 22nd birthday). And because Med has been going from tomb-to-tomb-to tomb for 20 years... Thun has to explain present day Bangkok (and this is wonderful for non-Thais!) as to styles, culture, food!

So... why did I enjoy this? Because it's layered. One has to pay attention. Re-watching it for all the clues one missed is challenging. If you just care about endings... you miss all the good stuff. It's accessible to anyone who isn't Thai. The close-ups allow the watcher to know thoughts and feelings without relying on words. It shows not just tells.

Writers here should learn how to weave genres to keep their readers engaged. Most great movies and books do that."

96 degrees at 7 p.m. So... the heat is not my imagination. 84 AQI. No breeze.

JULY 15

72 degrees at midnight with 86 AQI.

I wanted to see my friends but with AQI at 155 at 10 a.m. I'm not going out.

Cubby chose "Leather [148]"  as 1st place in "Writing 4 Kids Contest " . I wrote:

My mind's muddled. Coffee. I need coffee! My first response reading "gps" before opening message: So much for sending this off to Rachel's Second Time Around... ... I mean it would've been a good entry...

So... again... thank-you for reading and choosing to give this a pretty ribbon. I'll go make coffee now.

A comment left in one of Jayne's old entries:

"I watch Thai movies (... ... yes, we know. ) with subtitles. Thankfully, most are readable. That said there are Thai subtitles when folks speak other languages or dialects. What's interesting about Thai is that words are not separated. It seems to use a space between sentences though. When spoken, words can only end with unaspirated p, t, k, m, n, ng or a vowel. One listens for that. Each language has its own grammar and it's own tricks to parse what is being said.

The problem with English is that I suspect that Anglo-Saxon was metrical and used verbs like look-for, look-at, go-in, go-out much like Norwegian. Then the French showed up with their latinate word structure like Spanish (buscar, mirar, entrar, salir) and an intonational pattern over a phrase that smooshed sounds. However, English isn't Latin at the core as Robert pointed out, even if it's love and legal language is. Latin grammar is a very poor way to learn English and should be totally abandoned imho.

Punctuation? I use it as best I can. My background is NOT English lit nor grammar. It actually stifles many writers here who try to use correct punctuation in dialog or poetry where it doesn't work.

I tend to use an emdash — to demand a pause. Many readers here consume ##books/day. That means they sight read at over 500 words/minute. Poetry is supposed to be read out loud and slower. Dialog must be paced as if it's a theatrical play. Proper reading doesn't seem to be taught or appreciated. Grammar can be a gift or a curse."

It's 2:30. I guessed 87/140. It's 87 degrees and a dangerous-to-me 139 AQI.

I got the fan in the window. I am concerned about the fit... but hoping it makes a difference tonight. In the meantime... 85 degrees at 8:30 and 126 AQI.

Ate stuffing with chili. Tonight... two hot dogs.

Possible good news. Costa Rica may be dropping it's covid insurance come August for vaccinated travelers.

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