Game of Thrones!!!

So they had to end season five of Game of Thrones just like the book!!!
I guess there was no other way to end it if they were to stick to the book. And yet this whole season the television show went in a direction with story lines that weren't in the books.

It's very obvious to me the television show went in a direction that will be revealed to us in book six.
The big question is whether we get book six before season six. I'm betting on season six.
Firstly, Stanus invades and loses.

Second, Brianne moves to kill Stanus. I say moves to kill because we don't see her do it.
In the book, Brianne is long dead.
In the book,  Sansa is not at Winterfell, but heck, she could be on her way.
In the book, Jon is stabbed lots by his Night's Watch men and is left to die.

This is tortuous.

Game of Thrones season five

The television show is moving away from the books in some subtle ways or my memory of what happened in the books is full of holes. Either could be true.

I don't remember Aria being turned away from the black/white cult. I remember her being accepted and having to endure multiple trials, blindness, etc. in her training as an assassin. I also don't remember the man (can't remember his name) who gave her the coin returning. I know the assassins have many faces, and I remember him changing his when he left her, but I don't remember him returning to the island of Brazos.

 

Second, Jamie didn't team up with Bronn and go to Dorne to rescue Marcella.




Third, Brienne never found Sansa.

Fourth, Daenerys didn't have an adviser executed, although she had unrest in her kingdom because of her dragons and the revolt by the former slave owners. I loved the hissing and rock throwing scene.

 

Five, Tyron and the unic didn't stay together. I'm glad they seem to be straying away from Tyron as a circus act because that was just too horrendous. Yet there is still time.

 


I loved last night's episode. I'm very pleased they are moving away from the books because then I feel like we have two great sources of entertainment.

Catching up with fans

It's been so long. I've been teaching a journalism course at the local community college and that's been sucking up all of my time.
Oh the stories I could write.

On to more important discussions, the second half of season five of The Walking Dead was just amazing. It took me a couple of weeks to watch the last two episodes on my DVR in part because I was afraid of a massacre and Rick was making me nervous.

The Walking Dead is partly an examination of the human mind and spirit when faced with dire circumstances. It's a dog eat dog world, literally.  (Animal lovers who were upset by that scene, well, how bout this, I rarely brake for cats and dogs, especially if it's going to cause an accident.)

It's also clear that everyone has evil in them. Although I do wonder why it seems mostly the evil survived? I think in real life there are 1 million in prison, but 300 million who aren't!!!

More later. I'm eating dinner.

Walking Dead Keeps Getting Better

This has been one of the best season's of the Walking Dead, if not the best.
I've been thinking over the last few seasons and I'm just blown away at how they've maintain a great show into season 5. By comparison season 4 looks really weak.
That being said, I did have to grit my teeth to get through the "dumb ass" moments of season 1 and 2. Does anyone else remember putting Glenn in the well? Enough said.

Unfortunately in the mid-season finale we lost Beth. Waaaaaa. It was a great performance and I was so shocked I couldn't figure out who shot Beth. I had to rewind a few times until I realized Dawn reflexively shot her after getting stabbed in the shoulder with small scissors.
The show had a great start, middle and (gasp) end.

Like millions of fans, I've also become hooked on Talking Dead, although it's not quite the conspiracy relief I'm seeking. I do like when they discuss the comics because I haven't read them.
On Sunday's Talking Dead, Emily Kinney (Beth) cried and got choked up several times when she talked about leaving the Walking Dead family. Robert Kirkman, Walking Dead comics creator, looked very uncomfortable at her emotional outbursts.

I'm really looking forward to February and am dying to see what will happen. I think that's how the writers wanted it to end.

Canadian Border guard keeps Ebola from spreading

Went to Canada yesterday and Nexus lane border guard grilled me extensively. I don't see how her questions were relevant, especially considering I am a "trusted" traveler. But alas we all have to put up with useless government bureaucracy.

Was grilled in Nexus lane into Canada & asked if I had contact with anyone with Ebola. Is that the way to keep #Ebola out?
— Monica Wolfson (@mjwolfs) November 15, 2014

Subscribe to Strange fiction by Email

Donate to fight Ebola in West Africa

When I booted up my computer today the black bar across my Google home page discretely urged me to donate to fight Ebola in West Africa. For every $1 I donate, Google is matching it by $2.

TIME MAGAZINE REPORT:

Google Launches Donation Campaign to Fight Ebola

Nov. 10, 2014

For every $1 you donate, Google will donate $2

Google has joined the fight against Ebola and pledged to give $2 for every dollar donated through its site, its CEO announced on Monday.
Larry Page wrote in a blog post that Google will also immediately donate $10 million to support nonprofits “doing remarkable work in very difficult circumstances,” including Medicins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders), International Rescue Committee and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Page also said the family foundation would give $15 million in a separate donation.
Google’s public-giving campaign follows a similar initiative by Facebook, which recently placed banners at the top of News Feeds that asked users to donate to similar nonprofits. While the Google campaign distinguishes itself with the company’s double-matched

So I've written here twice about the Ebola hysteria in the U.S. and I decided to donate to the cause for several reasons despite being unemployed.

1. Ebola is a real problem in West Africa.
2. West Africa doesn't have the resources to fight Ebola well and is reliant on Western medical professionals to help combat the illness.
3. Getting rid of Ebola in West Africa makes the U.S. safer.

Please note I said combating the disease in West Africa makes the U.S. safer. Not shutting our borders or isolating harmless nurses in tents in hospital parking lots. Getting rid of Ebola at its source is the best way to make everyone worldwide safer.

So please don't get sucked into the political wrangling and propaganda. Donate to this cause because it makes everyone safer.

Subscribe to Strange fiction by Email

Is that my child?

There are days, when I wonder if my child, is my child. Halloween was such a day.
I know the world is much more different than when I was a kid:

• They sell Halloween/snack sized junk year-round.
• You can buy decent Halloween costumes in a store.
• Halloween celebrations go on for weeks rather than just one night.
• I don't carve a pumpkin on Halloween Eve.

Chloe has worn her Halloween costume at least three times this year before Halloween. That was unheard of when I was a kid. My mom made our costumes and we wore them once.


As my friend Karen said, no one bought costumes in stores because they were all made of plastic and fell apart soon after they were put on.


But that's not my point. Chloe is just so different than I was as a child.

She wore this costume to school yesterday and was discouraged when some girl told her she looked like a baby. She got in the car and asked if she could have another costume. I'm not sure if I would have been so discouraged right away. I grew up telling myself that other people's opinions of me didn't matter.

I have to admit I'm pissed. Some lame 5-year-old ruined her day and she won't  tell me who it was. The opinions of others seem to matter to her, which is sad because at her age, the kids are very self absorbed and they are either nice or rude, there's no in between.

But that's not why I'm writing this.

Last night when we headed out trick or treating - on a blustery, cold, wet and horribly windy night - we'd gone to three houses when Chloe wanted to stop. She wanted to hand out candy instead of getting any from the neighbors. Of course she didn't word it like that. She and I had a standoff on the sidewalk with Chloe saying, she wanted others to say trick or treat to her.

I told her that's not how it worked and it went downhill from there.

I would never have done that.

I worshiped candy and would never have sacrificed a Halloween night. I left Chloe and Martin, who never trick or treated in that deprived country England and didn't think it was a big deal, to hand out candy.

I came downstairs shortly before 7 p.m. and asked Chloe if she wanted to at least show off her costume to any of her friends who live in the houses around us. (She had changed to last year's princess costume.)

She and Martin scuttled off and left me to hand out candy. They only went to about seven homes and then came home.

I really have a great kid, especially considering she is not as obsessed with treats as I was. That's a good thing.

But she's also such a different person than me. She's a homebody. She loves being with her parents and doing simple things. She's super special and I feel very lucky that she has so far turned out so well.