davetheanalyzer

Life is moving a bit fast. With my mentor, I decided to shift my focus and try out a remote job from a website. I took a training PowerPoint and am preparing for a couple exam. At least I would have my own hours and not have to divert the family’s single car to a particular location. My mentor has encouraged I call the jobs I apply to once a week to get an update on my applications. It’s just that most only now are looking through the applications and it’s hard to track down the right extension to call for some of these companies. I’m getting the hang of it but I hope the remote work works out. I’m scheduling a DMV knowledge test to begin the process of getting my learner’s permit and then driver’s license. I’m been taking the DMV app tests for over a month and I’m getting perfect or mostly perfect scores on all of them. I originally planned to do the test last Thursday but I didn’t read I had to do an online safety course and some documents had to be filled out. I completed later that day. I’ll go Tuesday and hopefully I haven’t missed anything else to do. I’m getting sick, so hopefully that won’t delay things too. It’s a slow process but I’ll take it a step at a time.

The snow was heavy this week. I helped Dad for a 50 minute shift to shovel the driveway Sunday with my mask on. I rarely shoveled with him, so I had to relearn while the snow was falling down. I was using an uncomfortable hold for the shovel with my left hand on the end grip since I’m a lefty (In more than 1 sense of the term) and my right down the blade. When I switched holds, it became much easier. By the end, I had trouble breathing and only after getting back inside did I realize my mask has become soaked from the snow downpour. I replaced it but I surmise that might be an issue waiting for me if in future snow events. The extreme amount of snow is another sign of global warming, where weather events like snow happen less often but they drop the same if not more amount of snow within a shorter time period.Fortunately, we didn’t lose power.

I watched the Legend of Ochi on HBO Max. I came across the movie while looking for speculative fiction flicks but never got around to seeing it until long after its release. It’s a simple but good movie. It’s about a fictional island in the Black Sea where intelligent primates live that the human habitants have been hunting for generations. Certain cues like songs and names indicate the people are Ukrainian or Eastern European but that’s never specified. 1 family been torn apart by the question of attacking these primates known as the Ochi. The awkwardness of the family and Yuri’s isolation is well-presented. So is the father Maxim being dogmatic about attacking the Ochi but still loving her. There are a lot of moments of silence probably to show the negative mood she was in. She finds a young Ochi wounded but swiftly heals and bonds with it. Her step-brother Petro shows he’s kinder than he presents by not initially telling their father about what she’s doing. The young Ochi warming up to Yuri and even communicating with her was sweet. Their shop lifting antics were amusing.

I kind of rolled my eyes at the hint Yuri’s mother was dead but I was pleasantly surprised that she was alive and plays a major role in fleshing out the plot about the Ochi. The Ochi are intelligent and can communicate and Yuri takes after her mother in reaching out to them. She has to flee from her father and his child hunters since he believes she was kidnapped. Maxim clearly wanted to reconcile with his ex-wife but his hatred of the Ochi makes him hostile and it’s clear that’s what made her leave him. Seeing Yuri open up and communicate with the young Ochi was good. The puppetry was very convincing, the Ochi felt like actual animals that had a presence on the set. I wouldn’t be surprised if a bit of CGI was used but the effects were nicely done on a small budget.

I also liked when near the Ochi home, Yuri went back and saved her father, which seemed to change his opinion of the Ochi. Their home was beautiful and Yuri going through the water with the young Ochi could be read as a sort of coming out. The mother coming to the rescue after the boys attempt to kill the head Ochi was nice. The young Ochi was able to return home. Even the hunter boys appear to be changing their tune with Petro’s help. There are no villains in this story, just confused people that could be turned around. If only that could be done in real life with the amount of energy used in the film. Maybe Yuri’s parents will reconcile. I do wonder with Yuri’s awakening if she’ll be able to visit the Ochi home and the island will change their relations to the primates. Maxim gets aggressive with his ex and there’s gunplay. But for those who are nostalgic for puppetry movies like Dark Crystal (I haven’t seen such films), feel free to see it.

That’s all for now. Free Palestine and end the siege on Gaza. Abolish ICE. Maybe Trump and his ilk fail utterly. Unfortunately I’m developing a cough, so my writing will have to be paused off and on. Until next time, see you!