Netflix and Chill

Television show watching has changed quite a bit with the "invention" of DVRs and OnDemand and even more so with online "television" like Netflix and Amazon Prime.  Back in the day, we waited all week (or even weeks) to find out who shot J.R. or if Ross and Rachel would get together/break up/get together again or who was voted off Survivor.   At work the next day, there was the obligatory water-cooler talk about last night's show.  It was kind of fun to gasp, laugh, or shake your head over what went down the night before.
Nowadays, there are so many ways to watch television and most of us don't actually watch it on the day/time that it first airs.  Watching TV during my work week is a challenge as I always have work I have to do after school.  I might have the TV on while I'm working, but it's more for noise. Intellectual shows that need attention are saved on the DVR until at least the weekend, but usually not watched until a school break.  By break, there are multiple shows saved so it could turn into binge watching.  Regardless, I no longer contribute to the water-cooler talk.  Water-cooler talk seems to be about other things these days as most aren't watching shows they day they air.
Even more sporadically watched seems to be the shows created by and aired on the online streaming media companies like Netflix and Amazon Prime.  They create their own shows and release an entire season at a time.  Someone coming in on a show late can catch up with an episode a day or binge watch several seasons over a weekend.  But being able to talk about these shows with others is kind of over.  Between the binge watching and the NUMBER of shows they offer, it is rare that anyone you know is watching the same thing you are.
I do have both Netflix (streaming) and Amazon Prime, which is kind of silly, as I have plenty of things to watch on the DVR and don't even have time for that.  The streaming shows aren't shows you can have in the background and just listen to.  You've got to pay attention, and I have so little time to do that.  But I've found about 20 minutes a day in the morning when I'm getting ready for work that I can set the iPad on the bathroom sink and watch something on one of these sites.  I started this in late summer because a friend of mine did the graphic work on a new Netflix series called "Mindhunter".  I wanted to watch it so carved out this little bit of time, and got through the season in about a month.  It was a FANTASTIC show, but no one else I know watched it while I was.  Since then, several people have recommended "The Crown" to me.  I was a bit hesitant to start it since it's already in Season 2, but I did start and now I'm OBSESSED with it.  There have been so many, "Oh my gosh!" moments!  Yet again, those who recommended have already watched it, so my discussion over it has been limited.
Watching TV has gotten so easy and the options are endless anymore, but the social aspect has all but disappeared.  While I like being able to watch TV when I have the time, I do miss the discussion about it the next day.

A Tense Saturday

I don't believe there's been a tenser 30+ minutes.  

Even after it was announced as a false alarm, adrenaline still pumped, hearts still raced.  It was a surreal day.

Skye Shenanigans

My friend Marcie and I just booked travel to Iceland during one week of our spring break.  It has been on my bucket list for some time so I am really looking forward to it.  I'd better hurry up with Scotland already!

So when I last left you, we were at Neist Point.  The wind was just too much for me to make it down to the lighthouse, so I was left with about an hour to get myself into trouble.  

First off, our guide told me that there were some good views of the lighthouse if I could make my way around the cliffs and get myself far enough around to see them.  I started my trek off to the right and got about 50 feet when I ran into a very muddy spot where the rain accumulated making a little stream down the hill.  I tried my hardest to find my way around it, but pretty much wherever I went I found deep muddy patches.  With all my work trying to keep out of the mud, I walked myself right into one that was so deep it covered my whole foot, up to my ankle.  It wasn't just mud either it was BLACK mucky mud. I tried to wipe the mud off my shoe by dragging it around in the grass but it didn't help.  One shoe was blue and the other was black.   It took me weeks (after getting home) to get them clean and even still one is slightly grayer than the other.   

 With not much else to do other than deal with it, I decided to leave the lighthouse behind and head off in the other direction, back on the road we had come in on.  It was a nice stable road.  We had passed quite a few sheep while driving in and I could see them on the road out.  After a ways, I looked up to the rocks above me and there was a very large sheep looking down at me.  

 I took its picture and it starting coming down the hill.

 It got closer and then started to "baaa"at me,

 And then all of a sudden, it jogged down the hill right at me.  At first I chuckled, and then  I realized it was coming after me.  The sheep chased me down the road for a bit.  Finally, it stopped, turned around and headed off in the other direction.  I've never been chased by a sheep before!

I continued on my walk for a ways.

It started to get very dark and cloudy again.

 But I managed to see some sheep that didn't want to attack me.

 This baby was just darling.

I turned around to walk back to the van and the rest of tour.  And that's when the rain started.  At first it was just big drops and within minutes it was coming down in sheets, and the wind whipped.  I was maybe 15 minutes from the group.  By the time I made it back, everyone was waiting warm and dry on the van and I was sopping wet...with a black foot.  Mike hadn't even realized I hadn't made the trek down the lighthouse.  "What happened to you?" he asked when I sat down next to  him in the van.  

We drove for a bit and stopped in Dunvegan for lunch.  We walked in to this little cafe, me looking like the creature from the black lagoon and freezing, and ordered warm soup.  While we waited I tried to ring myself out in the bathroom.  

 We found a cute bakery across the street that had the most amazing desserts.

 Mike got a chocolate cupcake

 and I got one of these truffle balls that was the size of my fist.  That made me feel better!

By the time we left, I was mostly dry and enjoyed the remainder of the day.  We continued our drive around the Island stopping for some quick photo ops every so often.

 Skye Museum of Island Life in Kilmuir - some restored, some built new to show a common township of thatched cottages.

 We also made stops at Staffin and Trotternish for some pretty views AND some sun!

 Kilt Rock in Trotternish.

 Phew, that was a whirlwind first day on Skye!

Schnell! Schnell!

Vince's post about his German language progress awhile back had me reminiscing about my foray into foreign language learning.  Like most public school kids in the US, my quest to learn a new language didn't start until my freshmen year of high school.  At that time I was given the option of taking Spanish or French, and I choose Spanish as I thought that would serve me better in Southern California.  The first semester was vocabulary building/memorizing and I did quite well, earning an A in the class.  The second trimester did not go as well, the teacher I had went out on maternity leave AND verb conjugation started both didn't bode well for my language learning performance and I ended the year with a D...and the requirement to take it over again in order for the language class to count.  I had to wait until semester 2 of my sophomore year to retake the class.  Again, I did well with the vocabulary but the verb conjugation still threw me for a loop.  I think I got by on the teachers sympathy and earned a C by the skin of my teeth.  I spent my junior year in Spanish 2 never really getting over the verb conjugation hurdle and ended the course with a C and the (wise?) decision not to continue to Spanish 3 in my senior year.
Once in college, the foreign language requirement reared its ugly head again.  Shying away from Spanish due to my previous difficulty, I registered for German 1.  Again, the first semester I had a fabulous professor, a great group of classmates, and was able to build up a large repertoire of German vocabulary.  When semester 2 came along, there was again a new professor.  The one I had was substituting for the tenured professor who had been on a leave.   And once again, we had to conjugate verbs.  That's where things fell apart.  German 1 was as far as I got in college and I left it at that, filling the requirement.
During the first semester, we learned the German word for "hurry up" - Schnell!  We spent most of that semester shouting "Schnell!  Schnell!" at each other because we found it so amusing.  That habit flowed into my life outside of the classroom and after some time, my friends found it annoying and thought for sure I was making up that silly word.  Then over winter break, we went to see the movie Shining Through, which takes place during Nazi Germany.  At one point, while running through the streets of Berlin, Melanie Griffith shouts, "Schnell!  Schnell!" to Michael Douglas.  We all looked at each other with wide eyes and giggled right there in the theater.  I showed them!
Anyhow, I started up a Spanish class again at the start of the year as it is something I'd really like to learn.  I'm just not sure languages are my "thing", but we shall see.  It's hard to speak to my students' parents in memorized vocabulary words and not-conjugated verbs.