Queens of Mystery – seasons 1-2

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

Queens of Mystery is a British comedy-drama murder-mystery series …

Matilda Stone is a young detective who has been assigned to the constabulary in her fictional hometown village of Wildemarsh, England, where she is reunited with her three crime-writing aunts …

“very tongue-in-cheek and cartoonish” …

It’s something of a parody.

I like the odd and interesting cinematography, as well.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I enjoyed season 2, as well. Perhaps not quite as much.

A few of the ongoing stories were resolved.

But Matilda has yet to find out why her mother disappeared. We’ll have to wait on season 3.

HERE AND GONE by Haylen Beck

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Wow.

This is intense.

Audra just wants to reach California. She’s finally found the strength to flee her abusive husband and make a fresh start for her two children.

With little Sean and Louise in tow, she has carefully made her way across the country, taking back roads and avoiding attention. 
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So when an unsettling local sheriff pulls her over in the middle of the Arizona desert, Audra works to hide her nerves and keep calm. She has to. But then he pulls a bag of drugs she’s never seen before out of her trunk, and nervousness turns into panic. She thinks the worst has happened. …

haylenbeck.com

It gets worse. Much worse.

Should I get the Vaccine?

On By Rick McIn health & fitnessLeave a comment

The Shingles vaccine.

Two zoster vaccines have been approved for use in people over 50 years old.

Shingrix (GSK) is a recombinant subunit vaccine which has been used in many countries since 2017.

Zostavax (Merck) is an attenuated vaccine which consists of a larger-than-normal dose of chickenpox vaccine. …

Shingrix is 2 shots at least 2 month apart. Zostavax only one.

In Canada the cost of Shingrix is about CA$300 for the two doses.

I’ll ask my doctor before making a final decision.

Why Travel?

On By Rick McIn education, happiness, human rights, philosophy, travelLeave a comment

I took a gap year between High School and University.

SUPER happy I did.

It opened my eyes to the bigger world. Other cultures. Other ways of thinking.

Niklas Christl didn’t know what to do when he graduated High School. Here he documents what happened on his gap year — and how it changed his life.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Mystery Road – seasons 1&2

On By Rick McIn TV1 Comment

Acorn bills Mystery Road as “Australia’s answer to True Detective,” but if anything, the multiple-award-winning series is even closer in spirit to Bosch …

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That review was enough to get me to click over.

Cinematography is fantastic. I need to get back Down Under.

Mystery Road is an Australian television neo-Western–crime mystery series …

Indigenous Australian detective Jay Swan, played by Aaron Pedersen is the main character … assigned to investigate the mysterious disappearance of two young farmhands on an outback cattle station, one a local Indigenous football hero and the other a white backpacker. …

I’ll be continuing to season 2.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I continued with season 2, but it wasn’t nearly as good.

Cinematography is equally magnificent. The new actors very good. BUT the story!? 😕

Fire the writers.

Season 3 will be a prequel.

To Cut a Long Story Short by Jeffrey Archer

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

To Cut a Long Story Short is a 2000 short story collection.

… 14 riveting tales of elaborate confidence tricks, political chicanery, immoral behavior, and dangerously illicit affairs …

I don’t read many short stories. BUT Archer is so good at making an entertaining story easy to follow, that I enjoyed this one very much.

My Sony X85J 4k monitor/TV

On By Rick McIn Apple, TV, videoLeave a comment

I finally own a 4K monitor. It was discounted everywhere over holidays 2021 for CAD $750. On the other hand, it took a couple of weeks to make delivery. I ended up getting it from Costco.

I shoot video mostly in 4k. Edit it down to 1080p for export to YouTube.

Someday I’ll be exporting 4k.

Based mainly on reviews from RTings.com I decided on the X85J:

  • great response time
  • Native Refresh Rate 120 Hz
  • variable refresh rate support
  • Google TV operating system
  • voice control
  • Sony’s cheapest TV with HDMI 2.1 (4k @ 120Hz SHOULD work — but one review said it fails)

Some customizations

If you want to make HDR content brighter and don’t mind losing image accuracy, change to the ‘Vivid’ Picture Mode, and set Contrast to ‘Max’. These settings result in a much brighter image …

We measured the HDR brightness in the ‘Custom’ Picture Mode, before calibrating the TV, with Brightness at max, Contrast at ’90’, and Color Tone set to ‘Expert 2’.

I’ll mainly be using it as a second monitor for my laptop — when in Parksville.

And use it as a TV, as well. The voice command is limited, but useful.

The Forgotten by David Baldacci

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

The Forgotten (2012) by David Baldacci is the second instalment to feature John Puller, a former Army Ranger who served at Iraq and Afghanistan and now works for the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigations Division.

I like the character John Puller.

The plot is over-the-top excessive, as usual for Baldacci, but I do recommend the series.

A picture-perfect town on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Paradise thrives on the wealthy tourists and retirees drawn to its gorgeous weather and beaches.

The local police have ruled his aunt’s death an unfortunate, tragic accident. But just before she died, she mailed a letter to Puller’s father, telling him that beneath its beautiful veneer, Paradise is not all it seems to be.

davidbaldacci.com

Homeland – season 8

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

The most important TV series of all time is ended.

And — though I got sick of Carrie Mathison fairly quickly — season 8 is excellent.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 85% …

YES it started as a “critical darling, then a punching bag, then somehow an underrated show …”

It’s a fictional alternative ending to the USA FINALLY leaving Afghanistan after wasting $2.261 trillion on that endless war.

Saul Berenson, the National Security Advisor for newly inaugurated President Ralph Warner, is assigned to negotiate peace with the Taliban in Afghanistan …

Then it all went wrong.

It’s very difficult to end anything successfully. But Homeland season 8 did that very, very well.

#respect

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.