Poker Face is a new weekly drama/ black comedy that starts off really well and continues to surprise and entertain week by week.
The premise is that the star, Charlie, has an uncanny ability to tell whenever someone is lying. So I was expecting it to be something similar to the A-Team wherein ''if no one else can help you...'' but it isn't the case.
She's driving through the beautiful USA finding odd jobs here and there and meets characters played by awesome actors.
I'm a middle-aged (ahem), happily married father of 3.
What I see happening in Ukraine makes me mad, but what can I do?
Well, a friend of mine, who runs historic tours in Eastern Europe, dropped everything and began helping instead.
** Donate to this worthy cause at the JRoots website **
Currently, they are on the ground in Poland working on helping refugees. Amongst other things, they are working on securing hotel rooms for the next month and supplying kosher food to refugees. They are working hand in hand with the Krakow JCC who will be assigning the rooms as people arrive.
They are also helping the Jewish community in Lviv, including sending them generators so that they can keep the electricity and heating on even during the regular power cuts.
They are also sending the Lviv community blankets, bedding, and sanitary products.
As my friend Zvi stated in a WhatsApp post:
Back at the refugee center in Krakow we found the team of volunteers in a giant human chain of box throwing loading a double-decker bus until there were no seats left. I loaded the top deck together with three young men who had fled Ukraine on the first day of the invasion.
They are all helping those who have escaped but are constantly worried about their families who can't get out.
Everyone you speak to here from Ukraine will tell you about their family members still there. There is no peace of mind for those who have managed to get across the border, just the constant worry about what's next and the worry about those left behind.
To make a donation to this worthy cause, please follow this link to the JRoots website.
Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases and here you can find details of the over 100 women who said they had been sexually harassed or assaulted by Weinstein. Also the 20 women he raped.
I've recently gotten back into serious exercise. For me, that means 30-45 minutes on an elliptical machine once or twice a day.
The elliptical I chose is the NordicTrack SE3i. It is surprisingly rugged and takes a beating from my 'low center of gravity' profile.
I have to find the time between work, the kids, and general life and that means that more than once I've had my supper - and then been told that it is my turn on the machine!
Each session on my elliptical is now up to 45 minutes so I'm trying to find good things to watch on Netflix. And there really is a lot of crappy TV out there!
Anyhoo, just this evening I had my simple supper and was ready to sit in front of the computer for a few hours when I was informed that it was my turn to exercise. Awesome!
Then I remembered that I had just eaten and I had flashbacks to 'vomit runs' in my past. Not good. By ten minutes in I was feeling nauseous. I slowed down my pace and then decided to watch something more interesting to take my mind off things.
Ultimate Beast Master was my savior. It is a reality series with mildly insane presenters but top-rate athletes who try and take on an ever-changing assault course.
So last time I wrote about Netflix shows to watch. Now its HBO shows that are, how do I say it? "Easy to write about"?
Landscapers
Starring Olivia Colman and David Thewlis.- need I say more? We know it is going to be amazing already. It's a dark comedy, crime, romance. with interesting twists and turns, both in the script, and in the production.
Landscapers tells a unique love story involving a seemingly ordinary British couple who are actually swept up in a fusion of love, murder, betrayal, and Gerard Depardieu.
5/5 would recommend
Will Smith’s ‘Best Shape Of My Life’
Will Smith? Love the guy. Funny, interesting, 'real', and now he is trying to get rid of his Dad bod. Awesome. In fact - ME TOO! However, I don't have unlimited resources or a trainer, psychologist, and cook on hand. I know, crazy eh?
So how is this classified as interesting? Because with all of his money and ability and pressure from society, he still fails.
Losing 20lbs in 20 weeks? Easy as pie..
Yes, I will be watching this show.
Read this article about the show too, it has some very interesting ideas about what Will could have and should have done differently.
Celebrity Substitute
This isn't a new show, but one I just found. The show is for kids with virtual learning classes who are getting bored of their teachers. Instead of their normal teacher presenting the class, it's a celebrity!
Ken Jeong explains Your Guts
Karlie Kloss Explains How Computers Work
Terry Crews appears as well, but watch it to find out why!
I've had a lot of time to watch TV recently. We don't have cable, just Netflix and other online channels.
Netflix is my favorite by a long way, they just have the better shows.
So, what to watch right now:
After Life. Ricky Gervais, the genius BUT there is an amazing supporting cast, they even outshine Ricky at many points.
It's hard to explain, but I laugh, and I cry, and then I laugh again. Watch it.
Tiger King: The Doc Antle Story.
You thought that Joe Exotic was more bonkers than a Tasmanian devil on steroids? Just you wait until you see behind the craziness that is Doc Antle.
Narcos Mexico
This isn't just another rehash of the original, Colombian-based Narcos, but the story of the fights within the Mexican cartel, as well as their downfall.
Each season has a different perspective, that interweaves, and don't be surprised when old friends from the original Narcos turn up.
Simple really. it connects me with friends and family around the world and I get to judge people from the safety of not being anywhere near them.
I recently put up a post stating that Israel recognizes same-sex marriage
It got 55 reactions - nice.
But it also got, for the first time, a 'missing context' addition.
Let me just clarify, I see (and actively seek out) much more controversial stuff on Facebook. There are friends of mine who are so Facebook naughty that they are banned more often than they're allowed on the platform - I'm looking at you, Ken and Larry.
The truth is very simple. I did not want to be a naysayer and post something like 'Israel recognizes and respects same-sex marriage, as opposed to the Palestinians who recognize and then kill the happy couple'
I didn't want to say that Hamas or the PA throw gay men off rooves, or that they drag their bodies through the streets behind motorbikes, or that officially there is a 10-year penalty for being gay (not sure how that works).
There was no mention of the fact that in the Palestinian National Authority, selling land to Jews is a crime punishable by death. That has nothing to do with LGBTQ rights, it's more about how the death penalty is still used there.
So Facebook used independent fact-checkers, which on the surface is awesome. And then I saw that it was USA Today. The last time I read that paper it was literally 8 pages. Not 8 pages on sport or on politics, just a total of 8 pages.
So Mr. Facebook, below is what I originally wanted to say. But now I'm going to state, categorically:
Palestinian security forces in the West Bank and Gaza routinely used torture and other ill-treatment with impunity - source Amnesty
Consensual same-sex sexual activity is criminalized in Gaza and the West Bank and is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment - source Amnesty
Well done Facebook, by criticizing my innocuous, flippant image, you made me more aware of just how horrific the LGBTQ community life is in Gaza and the West Bank.
The rise of antisemitism has led to me feeling very uncomfortable indeed. With hatred and fingers being turned to Israel the arguments that turn antisemitism into anti-Israel rage could/should/would be silenced now.
Here is the ending.
Let's see how much hatred spews at Israel now that their democratically elected ministers have office.
We recently moved house, a nightmare with its own 7 levels of hell, which is then plagued even further by the standard phrase 'do we really need this? Why do we still have this?'
We found wedding presents still in their original wrapping. We were married in 2006....
We found puzzles we'd slaved over, glued together and then left untouched for over a decade.
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is a children's book by Laura Numeroff. Quite simply, if you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk. When you give him the milk, he'll probably ask you for a straw, and so on and so forth.
It's a slippery slope and one that we all go down now and then. The main trick to break this downward spiral is to stop, think and wonder 'why is this process the one we use?'
Think about it, is the way we do things the best way, the easiest way or just the way we've always done it?
The 2001 Victim Compensation Find is running out of money again. 18 years later Congress has still not found a long term solution to help 9/11 first responders suffering from health issues resulting from the toxic conditions at ground zero.
It took first responders all of 5 seconds to officially start helping. Why is it taking almost 20 years to help these heroes with the same no-nonsense attitude?
When an international TV star, and a guy who has presented many times to the US Congress nearly breaks down, twice, then you know that this is serious. Watch the whole thing. It's not that long and he's really good.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". Not an exact quote, but it's the essence of the TV show Killjoys.
It's the distant future, bounty hunters are out there and, like the Strontium Dog in 2000AD or Bruce Willis' character in The Fifth Element, crazy adventures ensue.
Spotify has not only made music much more accessible, it has made it infinitely easier to find new music that you are going to like.
In the past I've raved about OKGO and Pomplamoose, and now there is a new queen of my musical heart - Elle King.
I think it's the mix of bluegrass banjo(?) int he background that really gets the toes a-tapping!
And yes, I'm not the first to like this video that was posted in August 2016. Nor am I one of the first 7,000,000 to watch it, but you know what? It's good music and I like it.
The subject matter is such a classic and yet also controversial figure that this film will really need to walk on a tightrope to get the audience behind it.
Whats not to love? Freddie Mercury's life story. A great man, a great singer and a great band. But that is just it, he means so much to so many people that just portraying him will cause many die-hard fans to have a conniption!
The Tour de France is an iconic bike race. Usually won by Lance Armstrong, the race winds up and down France on main roads and side roads, over bridges, under bridges to their destination.
Officially the total race, running from Saturday July 7th to Sunday July 29th 2018, the 105th Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,351 kilometres.
That's one heck of a sporting achievement - to be the first one through the finish line, at the end of all that!
Lance Armstrong is renowned as being a drug cheating scumbucket for this event, so I was surprised to see that he was in a mockumentary about the race.
Tour de Pharmacy, as the name suggests, is about a group of competitors in the Tour de France in the 1980's and their challenges through the different pitfalls of being a rider.
I was surprised i hadn't heard of it because it has some HUGE names appearing in it;
Andy Samberg Orlando Bloom John Cena Danny Glover Mike Tyson Jeff Goldblum Lance Armstrong Dolph Lundgren Kevin Bacon J.J. Abrams Edgar Wright
I've been caving, a lifetime ago, when all the equipment we had
was a helmet and a flashlight and a sense of adventure.
I remember wriggling and squeezing
through small crevices to get through passages, where the walls seemed
to be closing in on us and even points where the adults amongst us were told to turn back as the going ahead was only suitable for smaller people.
There are some caves that have their own ecosystem, including vegetation, streams and even unique insects that look exceptionally adapted to their dark, moist environments.
So far we can confirm that caves exist and humans are curious about them. Now we have the final piece in the puzzle. Caves are dangerous;
From what information I can gather, cave disasters occur when the rains begin. My research led me to this article, which is definitely not for the faint of heart. 10 True Horror Stories Of People Trapped In Caves
Today's astonishing news, that the Thai cave rescue has proven, so far only partially, succesful really surprised me. That 13 people could walk 4km into a cave complex and survive for 10 days with no food, just amazed me.
This map is from CNN's explanation of the partial resuce, and whilst I dislike their sensationalising in their normal coverage, they do present most of the facts as we kinow them, in this case.
The missing boys, with their coach, are seen here in a photo taken from the coach's Facebook page
Who are the crazy people who went to rescue these kids? The Thai Navy SEALs were created in the 1950's as the wars on the Asian continent were beginning to blossom. Unlike US Navy SEALS or the British equivalent, the SBS, the Thai Neavy SEALs are not secretive about their personnel or their operations.
“We’ve been waiting for this exact moment to begin the evacuation, when we’re all prepared and the survivors’ safety can be 100 per cent guaranteed,” Narongsak told reporters at the Phong Pha sub-district administration office, where the media had relocated after the Tham Luang cave area was cordoned off by authorities on Thursday night. Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/thailand-cave-rescue-as-operation-tham-luang-10509950
