Spanish? Basque? Swiss? A fictional Castillian village located in Basque Country tries to become part of Switzerland in this rather funny movie The Little Switzerland. 🎬 Differences between English soundtrack and English subtitles were hilarious in their own right.

Screenshot from The Little Switzerland.

Now this is a Miss [placename] pageant I could support: > the Miss Navajo Nation pageant, in which contestants must butcher a sheep and cook over an open fire

The Deadly Loss of Navajo Women

Otherwise, a compelling read about Covid-19 and the Diné people.

The genius of genomics: The revolution that helped NZ quash Covid-19: > scientists worked late into the night to match the genetic signature of the latest case to another one.

genomics [gave] authorities the [data] to not confine more than a million people to their homes.

🦠

My Mac Control Centre showed me this photo I took in Niue on 25 August 2016. It really seemed shareworthy. Taken with my Olympus Stylus TG-870.

This was a fun Spanish movie — Netflix ☛ Holy Goalie 🎬. Their monastery is to be turned into a luxury hotel, but a few football matches could save their home. Manages to include car theft, illegal bank transfers, romance, a mob-run nightclub, and breaking a vow of silence. 😀

Holy Goalie screenshot.

Excellent! I really really enjoyed this Spanish movie. 🎬 Thi Mai, rumbo a Vietnam

Along with her two friends, a determined woman travels to Vietnam to bring home the young girl her recently deceased daughter had planned to adopt.

Vietnam: so beautiful! Great story, and funny.

Thi Mai, rumbo a Vietnam, screenshot frrom Netflix.

I enjoyed the Christmas movie Santa Girl:

When Santa’s daughter, Cassie, gets a chance to experience the real world by attending college, will she ever want to return to her North Pole destiny?

One thing I noticed: did only white folks audition?

Santa Girl screenshot.

Yay: New Zealand Government to declare a climate emergency

The Government will declare a climate emergency … Climate Change Minister James Shaw said.

We are in the midst of a climate crisis that will impact on every aspect of our lives…

Not just ‘change' but ‘emergency’!

I’ve updated my post Countries of follow on Micro.Blog. I think I follow folks from 25 different countries on Micro.Blog.

A reminder for future me: to get a list of who I’m following on Micro.Blog, given my site is hosted by MB:

  1. log in on the web
  2. visit micro.blog/Miraz/fol…

Interesting: some names on that list are very familiar; others I never see posting.

Fascinating — why vaccine trials don’t need to take years. A Clinical Trials Expert Explains Why We Should Feel Optimistic About COVID Vaccines: > as a clinical trials doctor, I am going to tell you what I do for most of those ten years – and it is not very much.

☛ Funding. 🦠

While watching Rene Ritchie: 8GB vs 16GB for M1 Mac — The TRUTH About RAM! I suddenly flashed back to those days of using Ram Doubler. Remember that?

Oshi, my little shining light this morning. 🐶

Small white dog on the bed, in a darkish room.

The sappy holiday movie My Christmas Inn was pretty anodyne. 🎬

It reminded me a lot of the much better Christmas Under Wraps where a doctor visits a charming remote Alaskan town then stays.

Still, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes. Cheerful, happy.

Screenshot of My Christmas Inn on Netflix.

You know, I really enjoyed reading an advance copy of The Case of the Lady in the Luggage by @Cheri. And it turns out I loved reading the published book all over again. 📚

Author image of book cover on device screen: The Case of the Lady in the Luggage.

I’m just loving the Crash Course Linguistics series.

It’s superbly presented, clear and includes signed languages as well as spoken languages.

In the screenshot: metathesis where sounds (or signs) are switched — ‘thrid’ became ‘third’, but ‘three’ remained.

I love language!

Screenshot from Crash Course Linguistics.

These black clouds are looking pretty darned threatening.

Very dark cloud.

Note to future me: this Kungfood Teriyaki Chicken was delicious. Also: no onion. 😀

This Japanese-inspired meal has a generous portion of flavourful, sweet & salty Teriyaki Chicken … Served with a side of Jasmine rice and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.

Kungfood Teriyaki Chicken product image.

The small victories in life are important — Thankfulness for Tiny Triumphs:

We’d be helpless in so many ways if we weren’t victorious in regularly finding doable ways to manage our changing capacities and overcome the hurdles we face daily.

🏆

Still with Christmas movies, I watched A New York Christmas Wedding. Makes a change to see lesbians finding love in a sappy seasonal movie.

a lesbian wedding, officiated over by a priest …filmed in a real NY Catholic Church. … Even the priest declares that love is love.

A New York Christmas Wedding poster.