Let’s start with what you came for since I woke up this morning and decided to still do this post. I wasn’t going to.

The shows I watched: Dark Matter (Apple), East Of Eden (Netflix), Ride Or Die (Amazon), The Traitors New blood (Peacock), The comeback (HBo MAX), Have I Got News for You (BHo MAX), and Line of Fire (Peacock)

Woke up mainly because the audio description to Ride or Die: S1E8, has errors, which is unusual for Media Access Group. In this episode, it incorrectly labels characters. In the furnace sequence, Anna is clearly with Judith, but the audio description says she pushes Debbie into the furnace, who isn’t at the same location, making it physically impossible. There was also a scene later I’m fairly certain was another mix up, in the car later, Judith and Debbie are switching places so Debbie, who is not injured, can reach into the backseat for guns. Judith slides over to take the wheel. the AD says that Judith reaches and opens the compartment, but she also just took ove driving the car so Debbie could do that. I have a feeling, since the Ad was wrong once, it was probably wrong a second time. Highly unusual for the company providing this.

Everything else was great. I’m really happy The Comeback has real audio description now, instead of whatever that was in the first two seasons. East of Eden and Dark Matter are very well done.

I find it hard to write when I’m down and out. I can’t get my brain to focus on anything. I don’t want to do anything. i don’t want to do this, and I’ve mentioned before the cautionary tale of turning your hobby into a job, means you stop and just do nothing, maybe take a nap, instead. This is just too hard. We shouldn’t have to fight this hard all the fucking time.

Among the myriad of reasons I’m down is that the director of a film I reviewed recently asked me to pull my negative review, which just meant that was a waste of my time. I’ve never been asked to fully pull it, in the interim, while he seeks audio description. I gave the film Funny Money a not great, but leaning positive review, and the director thanked me for giving his film coverage. But the minute a disabled film critic has a hard time giving a film a fresh score based purely on the presence of authentic casting, and suddenly I’m killing his films vibe. He also gave me notes on things I didn’t like, and explained why I should have liked them. My response was that I interpreted fairly as best I could based on how I perceived the film, as I always do. so, apparently, I must give fresh reviews to everything with disability representation, whether I actually think it is good or not.

And Ring can positively fuck themselves. Their tech support is atrocious, and you can’t even troll them online. They use a lot of AI chatbots, and their humans have no idea what they’re talking about, so they put you on hold forever while they do some heavy reading. I had to wait over a month for Amazon to deliver me a camera to put above my garage door, so people would stop fucking with the keypad. It lost WiFi after about a day, and the recommended solution was to buy a WiFi extender. I technically bought two. Ring Chime pro which supposedly can work as a WiFi extender, and an actual WiFi extender. After dropping 80 bucks, I needed to reconnect the camera, and the only way to do this is to press the button on top of the camera. Which is above my garage. It is a Spotlight cam. Spotlights are put up high. They shine down. you think maybe perhaps the intention for these cameras is to put them up high? Maybe? Maybe a design flaw?

On top of that, my rechargeable battery, which 8 days ago when I paid someone to install it, was full, and was at 9%. It also has a solar attachment. Could the tech give any answers as to why the battery depleted so fast, when they are supposed to last 6-12 months, and longer if you add the solar attachment? Nope. So I needed to get a ladder I don’t have (a step ladder would never get me up there) to hit the button on the top, not the bottom. It’s not even like I could find a stick and a sighted person to press the button. The fucking top.

I already am depressed on some level every day of my life, but those things, plus a few dozen other papercuts made for a pretty shitty weekend. And every film I saw was awful. So other than being able to put my frustrations out there, for which I’m never really looking for a flood of “hope you’re OK” emails and texts, but I have no other outlet. if I just stopped posting with no context, someone would probably notice.

I posted a list yesterday rife with spelling errors. I don’t care. The app started having problems with as much as I was typing, and it took too long, and my RSI came back, so my hands started hurting again, and I just powered through with a fuck it mentality in case I never posted another review.

happy Indigenous Peoples Day. Fuck Columbus. He never discovered America. it is utterly bizarre we have a day celebrated to a man who by all accounts never set foot on this country. We know he was all up in the Caribbean, but not here. Italians need to find a better hero than “that guy who didn’t make it to America”. There should be nothing more offensive to Italians than to continue to celebrate a man who actually fucked up, didn’t make it where he intended, and didn’t even land on the country they live in and celebrate his day. is there literally no one else? When I was in high school in the 90’s, we were already being taught to push back against Columbus Day. You’ve had 30 years to come up with a better name for today, a better representation of Italian Americans. Absurd.

And while I’m at it, i hope the team at Neon specifically responsible for deciding whether a title has audio description gets explosive diarrhea. Not the typical kind either,but the life changing bowel movement that makes you reconsider your food choices. Why did you have to have Chipotle, and why did you have to pick the hot salsa? It burns. That is what I wish for neon. That flaming hot kind. I’ll also extend that likely to Netflix as La bola Negra is unlikely to drop with audio description. And, Tubi for ignoring their new Pumpkinhead sequel. Also, to the guy at HBO MAX who just fucking refuses to upload the track for Evil Dead Burn. A pox upon all.

And a pox to YouTube, for making me reconsider my entire worth in life. For the past month, for cratering my entire mood stability. There’s a particular kind of fuck you that comes along with someone qualifying for monetization and telling them no, because you don’t like their content. it seems too repetitive. Of course it is. it’s a movie review channel. I review movies. Commentary used to be a big part of YouTube, and I see other channels sailing through, but not me. I got the Golden ticket and I’m at the gate, and Wonka is taking all the other kids in but me, and telling me to go fuck myself. Cool. So this ticket is bullshit then. Achieving statistics means nothing. got it.

While I’m at it, most know I also work in education. I also happen to work in the arts. So, while I do have a job, the current administration, which has been awful to disabled people, is also trying to blow up education. There’s a mandate rolling out where financial aid will stop paying for programs whose graduates aren’t earning more than those with a high school diploma within 4 years of graduation. So,if you can’t make 42K within 4 years, your programs get axed. Naturally, the arts struggle to meet that threshold, as do some other programs like education. There’s also a site that shows which schools and their majors, and how much each schools specific graduates make from each degree, meaning one school might be safe, while another is not. So, while I’ve never really asked for money for any of this before, i did kind of want YouTube in my back pocket,just in case the assholes in charge sunset my program in the next year or two. Goodbye to the arts.

Andi have a doctors appointment on Wednesday in preparation for cataract surgery. Good times. Will I post tomorrow? I have no idea. I literally have tried to bring other writers on here to get more blind talent to write about audio description in film and television, and every time, nothing. This is why we lose. I feel like I’m swimming upstream, which is also somehow going up a hill, while trying to avoid being eaten by sharks.