That was the view off my deck a few evenings ago. It doesn’t get much prettier than that, in my opinion. I will take a winter sunset to a summer sunset any day of the week.
It’s the middle of December and so far Old Man Winter has been fairly kind to us. Any time it gets above 45 degrees with some sunshine, I take that as good weather. Winter is only a state of mind.
The usual yard animals have been able to pick and choose where they eat. The birds seem to be dining elsewhere. I guess they aren’t desperate enough to eat oil sunflower seeds. I won’t put that other stuff out. It makes weeds in the yard come spring. I like the volunteer sunflowers that come up.
I did set out some peanuts for the bushy tailed rats that visit us. Those got gobbled up. Does anyone have chipmunks? I don’t think I have ever seen one in my yard.
And at the risk of being a blowhard, not for the first time, here is my best of TV list for 2014 :
1. Silicon Valley (HBO) – a perfect creation, in and of its times. Best sitcom format show, ever.
2. Through the Wormhole (Science) – consistently interesting and frequently mind-blowing; best science show ever.
3. True Detective (HBO) – Masterfully directed, creepy and compelling and centered around great performances by McConoghey and Harrelson.
4. Mad Men (AMC) – Continues to illustrate interesting perspectives in its own unique way, a great surreal soap opera.
5. Halt and Catch Fire (AMC) – “Mad Men” in 1980’s Texas; a really compelling and energetic show.
6. Breaking Bad (AMC) – A great show, that slowly moved towards an entirely logical conclusion.
7. Cosmos (FOX) – quite nice update on the old show.
8. Orange is the New Black (Netflix) – dripping with great female characters.
9. Girls (HBO) – slowing down, but still worth watching.
10. The Walking Dead (AMC) – stayed fresh and interesting. RIP Beth.
11. Bojack Horseman (Netflix) – smart, funny adult animated show that is hard to categorize, but easy to enjoy.
12. Derek (BBC/Netflix) – Ricky Gervais does it again, makes a strange heartfelt show full of humanity and pathos, disguised as bad taste comedy.
13. Boardwalk Empire (HBO) – it wasn’t always great, but it always looked fantastic and it did end with poignancy.
14. The Colbert Report (Comedy Central) – set the new depth record for “deep satire”. Sketches rarely made sense if you came in halfway, after the cue to what aspect of American culture he was satirizing. Never dumbed things down and never stopped going for the gusto. It wasn’t funny every night, but 10% of the time it was funnier than anything else on earth.
Hmmmm….I watched Boardwalk Empire beginning to end. No to Newsroom? That was one of my favorites. I also really liked Masters of Sex.
Oh, and I forgot “Top 5” which is in theaters is worth seeing too, if you don’t mind something freaky. Chris Rock finally wrote a movie that is funny and interesting.
“Will you explain to me how to do this. What service do you use?”
Google Play. What i did was, on my Roku I installed the Google Play “channel”, it gave me a code and then i went to my computer to a URL the Roku pointed me to. There I entered a code in Google Play’s web pages that the Roku app/channel gave me. That set Google Play up with my Roku. Then I gave Google Play a credit card number to charge to, and that was pretty much it.
In general, beyond this movie, I think the best streaming On Demand service is Amazon.
To use any of these with your TV (as opposed to your computer) you have two choices. If you have a “smart TV” that has apps, you can use Netflix or Amazon instant or Google Play through those apps. If not, you can buy a Roku for $99 and hook that up to your TV. If you have wifi in your house, the Roku can communicate with your wireless router and stream content to your TV. If you don’t have wireless in your house you would need to connect an internet-connected cable to your Roku, or to your smart TV.
And actually if you have a PS3 (or I assume PS4 or XBox) conected to your TV you don’t need a Roku … those have apps (or whatever they call them) that take you to Netflix, Amazon, Google and let you use the game system to handle streaming content.
Bottom line if you either have wireless internet in your home, or have the ability to connect your TV to the Internet with a wire, then you need either a “Smart TV” which has apps, or a Roku or PS3 (or maybe XBox or PS4). With those things in place you can stream any account or content you have on Netflix, Amazon, Google Play into your TV.
I will show this to my tech support. I have a blueray player that has Netflix and a bunch of other things and a roku I don’t use. My TV isn’t smart.
So can I get movies that are in the theater? how are you watching “The Interview?” Where does it come from? That’s the part that stumps me. Who am I paying?
“a roku I don’t use”
If you plug that in, you have the equivalent of a Smart TV. “Smart TV” means, to a consumer, that the unit can access the Internet through a wireless connection, and provides some kind of “app” or “channel” that bridges the gap to netlix, or Amazon Instant, or Hulu, or Google Play, or something else. People get streamed content into TVs either through “smart apps”, or “Roku channels”, or Playstation (and maybe XBoxs).
I don’t use mine because I have a blue ray that serves the same purpose. /why both? I had one that wasn’t amazon prime compliant. It died. I got a new blue ray and it covered everything that roku did.
Saw “Big Eyes”. It’s an okay movie. Amy Adams is particularly good in it – I think she’s a tremendous actress. The movie is a little slow in places. It suffers by comparison to “Mad men”, which happens in the same time frame, and also deals with women’s options being limited and the weird dances they did to get by, but never drags. B-.
Saw “Unbroken”. That was a great film in terms of visuals, the way it recreates the past and the way that it uses flashy scenes in service of the story. (Spielberg-esque). And, it tells exactly the story it wants to. Angelina Jolie is quite gifted at directing. But, I’m not sure this is really a great story to make a movie out of. there’s no dimension of dramatic tension where we wonder what’s going to happen next. I give it a B.
Moon, they put “The Interview” online at Google Play and some Youtube service, for $5.99 a pop, that’s how I watched it. They put it there on the 24th, with little notice.
(Smart TV = a built-in device that can use wireless internet. Non-Smart TVs don’t have this little 30 dollar, 50 dollar, whatever it’s worth gizmo built-in. Smart ones do. And then they have some “apps” the TV can run that uses that wireless connection to talk to Netflix, Amazon, etc.)
(Roku = ability to use wireless internet, plus to use its “channels” to see that content on the TV).
Nine Virginia Children Died this Year in Unregulated Day Care
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/nine-va-children-died-in-unregulated-day-care-in-2014-the-deadliest-year-in-a-decade/2014/12/30/bf302040-8161-11e4-81fd-8c4814dfa9d7_story.html?hpid=z2
This is utterly outrageous and obscene. Every Virginian should be ashamed of this appalling statistic.
Religious exemptions?
I have a question- why aren’t ALL day care operations subject to the same requirements in Virginia? Regulated centers have 364,000 children, unregulated about 200,000, but in the last 10 years, 51 children have died in the unregulated and 18 in regulated.
Child care facilities run by religious institutions are exempt from licensing and regulation- why?
They should not be exempt. If the objective is to protect children, all day care should be observing the same rules.
We live in a state and nation where the roads are full of drivers without licenses – one hit me this year out on I-66, actually. If we can’t collectively agree to enforce that law, good luck enforcing any law about who can leave their children with who while they go to work.
“Rule of law” has broken in America, over illegal immigration. In that context, to pretend that the state could actually control where kids get dropped off at is silly.
Actually the state has rigorous inspections. I think Elena’s mom used to do that.
On the day care issue, I found one line in the article odd:
McAuliffe told Virginia lawmakers two weeks ago that he will introduce legislation to regulate the 1,920 unlicensed providers that receive state subsidies.
Who came up with the bright idea to give state subsidies to unlicensed day care centers? It’s like getting a refund from the IRS even though I didn’t file my taxes.
I would hope everyone can agree that if your day care center is getting subsidies from the state, it should be properly licensed. Don’t want to go through the licensing hoops? Don’t take taxpayer subsidies.
Totally agree, Furby.
I will go a step further and insist that they all be properly licensed. I don’t see what someone’s religion has to do with it at all.
My understanding is that the daycare facilities run by religious institutions are exempt from licensing and regulation. That likely means that they are tax exempt, receive subsidies, AND don’t have to play by the same rules as the private facilities. Sweet deal!
Happy New Year!
Wishing Lafayette a speedy recovery.
Thinking I should come wheel her out to smoke.
cnn.com looks like crap now. They took a perfectly good website and targeted it for phones. Hopefully they’ll undo this soon.
Bob Marshal’s meeting with Dominion power over the new power line – tonight at Battlefield Highschool. A personal observation is that 3/4 of the people who do not want this 5 miles of wire DO want 1,179 miles of a pipeline.
Amazon datacenter – 50 long term jobs.
Keystone pipeline – 35 long term jobs.
Area schools made poor decisions to remain open today. The roads were horrible all over Virginia.
Va. attorney general says state authorities don’t have to hold migrants for U.S. agency
RICHMOND — Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) has issued an opinion giving Virginia law enforcement officials cover to release suspected undocumented immigrants before federal officials can assume custody.
The move thrusts Herring back into the spotlight as a defender of liberal causes — a reputation supported by his refusal to defend the state’s ban on same-sex marriage and his declaration that some illegal immigrants who were brought to this country as children can qualify for in-state college tuition under existing law.
Herring’s nonbinding opinion says that if prisoners are otherwise eligible for release, sheriff’s and jail officials can defy requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain them because of their immigration status.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/va-attorney-general-says-state-authorities-dont-have-to-hold-migrants-for-us-agency/2015/01/06/6840e092-95d1-11e4-aabd-d0b93ff613d5_story.html
I think I need to know more about this issue before I form an opinion.
I wonder why states don’t have to obey immigration laws when they provide sanctuary or they release them….but can’t enforce immigration law by detaining them?
Some great quotes there from Elena Schlossberg, Director, Coalition to Protect Prince William County 🙂
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/digger/wp/2015/01/07/proposed-prince-william-data-center-prompts-protest-letter-to-jeff-bezos/?hpid=z18
Wow! Elena, Bob Marshall, and Dick Black on the same team!
Yea,who would have thunk it. Sometimes even Bob and Dick get it right. Sort of like broken clocks.
So….according to Drudge….ol’ Mittens is thinking of entering the presidential race.
So….let’s see.
Romney
Bush
Paul
Huckabee
Walker
vs
Clinton
Webb?
Warren?
Biden?
There are others…but they haven’t said anything nor do they have supporters saying anything.
Don’t forget Rick Perry. Which of these fine examples of political talent would you vote for?