The bugs. My room is being infested by these teeny-tiny bugs that are harmless enough in themselves, but they appear and swarm and move psychotically hither-thither and higgledy-piggledy really, really fast on the floor and various surface areas, and it's all I can do to smush them under a fingertip. They're really no more than specks of life with the residue of their deaths not much worth even a swipe of a tissue. *sigh* Not killing other living beings is ideal under mindfulness practice, and here I am massacring what I hope is an entire population, genocide I hope. Not the best item to have on one's karmic resumé, but let's keep things in perspective. In fewer numbers I'd leave them alone. They'll show up in a particular area and I can easily kill a dozen or more in a go. They're easy to spot despite their size (and my degraded eyesight) and easy to kill with a jabbing fingertip. They're fast but they're too tiny to be tactical (even if they make it to cover, they'll just run out into the open in a few seconds), and being fast just means it's amazing they covered those centimeters so quickly. They're fast enough that sometimes it takes a few jabs to get them, but they're going nowhere fast and still basically sitting ducks. I just had an image of ducks sitting in meditation.
The heat. Not only is this a hell-hot summer, but very possibly the hottest, helliest hell-hot summer since I coined "hell-hot summer" as distinct from regular merely blazing hot Taipei summers. I swear I recently experienced the absolute hottest day in my time here in Taipei. I'm putting strict limits on how far away I'll go on bike lest I risk a heat-related crisis. My instinct for self-preservation (or not feeling like crap, rather) is strong enough to recognize when I need to get into an air-conditioned space now, but sometimes just getting around on bike will be such that I'm feeling the effects long after getting into air-conditioning and hydrating.
"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story". HBO finally got this years after release, and I didn't expect anything of it. I've never been huge on the Star Wars thing after the original first two movies "Star Wars" (none of that "episode IV" or "New Hope" bullshit) and "The Empire Strikes Back", which were so good that even people over age 16 don't seem to realize how bad "Return of the Jedi", rounding out the original trilogy, is. Curiosity had me peeking at the three prequels: the first was terrible, annoying and boring (not necessarily in that order), the second was worse and unwatchable, the third was also unwatchable but at least hilarious in the bits that I did see (you couldn't re-make it as a comedy and have it be funnier (sadly)). "The Force Awakens" I initially held in favor, but after re-watching ultimately gave it a thumbs down. Not terrible, watchable, just not very good.
"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story": excellent! I have nothing to say about it that might be at all relevant, except that I was impressed and amazed at how fresh it was and how cleverly it wove in elements of the chronologically subsequent "Star Wars" that are recognizable without being pandering or corny. Aside from C-3PO and R2-D2, who having just a single gratuitous shot at the rebel base qualifies as pandering and corny. If they included them at all, they should have gone at least a little more into how they ended up in the battle and on Leia's blockade runner in "Star Wars", otherwise just leave them out. For that matter, why Leia was sent into a battle that looked like a suicide mission should've been addressed more than it was, but that might risk requiring more screen time for a character being rendered youthful by CGI (RIP Carrie Fisher).
I mistakenly thought the entire movie was based on a single line in "Star Wars", something on the lines of a rebel general grimly saying during the briefing before the attack on the Death Star, "Many people died to get us this information", but a web search indicates that line is actually from "Return of the Jedi" (It was apparently a Manny "Both Hands" (intergalactic gangster?) who died to get the information on the Death Star, mk. II (because once your first Death Star is destroyed, of course, the logical, albeit unoriginal, course of action is to build another)). But it would've been incredible if that line was in "Star Wars" because it's such a cliché, throwaway line. "Rogue One" would've affirmed it was not a throwaway line at all, but hard-hitting testament and recognition to the sacrifice and courage of those characters. People re-watching "Star Wars" later would get to that line and know he's referring to the events of "Rogue One" and start bawling. Or not. In "Return of the Jedi" it's just a cliché, throwaway line.
