Rillington Place

     I watched Rillington Place on Kanopy with Tim Roth. I'd never heard of the serial killer, John Christie before. I googled his name and read some of the references. The film I found rather boring. I checked there is a move called 10 Rillington Place with Richard Attenborough (Christie) and John Hurt (Timothy Evans) from 1971. It is a movie I added to my watch list on for Plex.

The shows are both titled after the titular terraced house where the murders took place. Timothy Evans was John Christies upstairs neighbor. Christie murdered 8 women in the house and stuck them in the walls or in the floor. 

Evans was accused and tried for the murder of his wife Beryl and their little girl Geraldine. Evans originally confessed to the murders to protect Christie who performed Beryl's abortion.

John Christie murders occurred at the same time as Truman Capote was detailing the horrific crime that occured on the Clutter Family Farm in 1959 which shocked the nation.

Too Big To Fail

 I watched The a Big Short and Too Big to Fail on MAX both are exploring the Housing bubble of 2008 and the subsequent Real Estate Market collapse. Neither explains that the Government banking deregulations in the 90's caused banks to change loan requirements from the traditional 20% down 20 or 30 year mortgages to the risky exotic balloon payments 0% down extremely low monthly payments until several years down the road the monthly mortgage ballooned to an astronomical amount the borrowers couldn’t pay. The theory was the borrowers would refinance before the balloon payments were due into a traditional mortgage they didn’t and unable to pay their debt borrowers were either evicted or walked away from their mortgage. 

The banks sold the mortgage to another bank and all these bad mortgages were bundled together with other bad mortgages and sold as real estate bonds as CDOs (Collateralized debt obligations), the theory was the good mortgages would bring up the value of the bad loans and the home owners would refinance into a more traditional 20/30 year mortgage as the house would have appreciated by then and the borrower would have collateral in the house before the balloon payments were due.

CDOs Collateralized debt obligations  are still being sold on Wall Street, again, which lead to the real estate crash of 2008.

Reconnecting with My Platoon - Platoon 195

 I've been thinking of reconnecting with My Platoon - Parris Island Platoon 195.

I thought I would just make a general post in Facebook to see if any friends on Facebook knew any fellow Marines who graduated from Parris Island on November 21st, 1972 in Platoon 195.  I found a Facebook group called: Parris Island Alumni I joined the group on the 4th of July and was made an active member of the group.  I posted my Platoon Graduation Picture July 4th at 12:01 PM I received a reply much sooner than I expected. We reconnected and it has been wonderful. His memories are better than mine. I remember events but not names so well.

Parris Island Alumni 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ParrisIslandMarines

(23.5K Members)

Marines Reconnect

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1769015983124238

(79.2K Members)

Marines - Find Your Platoon

https://www.facebook.com/groups/165361857502718

(11.7K Members)

Bruce Willis Movies Listed by Streaming Service they are available on

 I decided this week to watch Bruce Willis Movies online in honor of his career ending with his recently released movie. 

I watched 12 Monkeys on Tuesday Night and enjoyed it. He is a time traveller in this dystopian movie sent back to learn the name of the people who caused a global pandemic so they can be prevented from carrying out their evil plan. Putting aside the science in time travel, at the end his adult self is in the same space as his 10 year old self which wouldn't be possible even if time travel existed.  I enjoyed the movie though.

Wednesday Night I watched Looper another time traveller movie with Joseph Gordon Levitt, Emily Blunt and Bruce Willis. He is also a time traveller in this dystopian movie sent back to his younger self to kill his adult self. Criminals are the only people in the future able to send people back in time to be killed and disposed of. Putting aside the science in time travel, throughout the movie his 25  year old self  is in the same space as his 55 year old self which wouldn't be possible even if time travel existed.  I enjoyed the movie though.

Here is a listing of Bruce Willis Movies Listed by the streaming service they are on. Some are subject to be removed from Tubi TV in 2 days time. That is why I watched 12 Monkeys and Looper this week and am planning on watching 'The Siege' later today.

Bruce Willis Movies on Tubi TV
Detective Knight Independence                                          
Detective Knight Redemption                                             
Detective Knight Rogue                                             
Wire Room                                               
Corrective Measures                                                  
Survive the game                                                              
Survive the night                                             
Once upona a time in venice                                                              
The prince                                                              
Fire with fire                                                              
Looper                                                              
LuckyNumberslevin                                                                     
The Seige                                              
12  Monkeys   

                                             
Bruce Willis Movies on Hulu
Die Hard with a vengeance                                                           
Die Hard                                                                   
Vice                                                                   
American Siege                                                                   
Death in Texas                                                       
Paradise City                                                  
Vendetta                                                  
White Elephant                                                  
Gasoline Alley                                         
A Day to Die                                                       
Wrong Place                                                       
Out of Death 

                                                                  
Bruce Willis Movies on MAX
Red2                                                                  
Cold Light of Day                                              
Precious Cargo 
Live Free or Die Hard                                                               
Unbreakable                                                              
Armageddon                                                       
Sin City                                                               

Bruce Willis Movies on Netflix
Over the Hedge                                                              
Survive the Night                                              
Cosmic Sin                                                              
10 Minutes Gone                                                                   
Hard Kill                                              
Tears of the Sun 

                                                              
Bruce Willis Movies on Prime
Breach                                                  
Trauma Center                                                              
Vice 

                                                              
Bruce Willis Movies on Peacock
Marauders                                                              
Midnight in the Switchgrass                                                                    
Assassination of a High School President 

                                                              
Bruce Willis Movies on Kanopy
In Country                                                      
A Day to Die                                                        
Sin City                                                              
Marauders                                                                
Vendetta                                                       
Wrong Place         

                     
Bruce Willis Movies Free on Plex
Lucky#Slevin                                                             
FirewithFire                                                               
Catch                                                                     
Assassination of a High School President                                                              
Acts of Violence                                                              
First Kill                                                              

I Can See Clearly Now

 

I went for an I exam yesterday (Monday March 27th, 2023) at Lenscrafters.

The optometrist told me, my prescription has not changed much. I could get glasses as I would need trifocals now for reading on the computer. I currently have my old pair of glass I can see clearly on my computer and my current glass which I use for watching TV and reading which are trifocals.

She told me that as I am farsighted usually farsighted can see clearly until about 40 then they need reading glasses and eyesight deteriorates from there. She also told me I have cataracts which are yellowing of the cornea. She said we will watch that for now I do not need to do anything. Later she said I may need to have my cataracts removed and a new lense inserted to correct my farsighted ness and nearsightedness. I asked if Medicare pays for this surgery? They pay for the surgery to implant the farsighted lens but not the nearsightedness that is considered elective surgery. So I can pay for the additional cost or have the surgery to correct the nearsightedness too or have the surgery medicare pays for and buy glasses for reading.

I asked the sales person for glasses which will fit in my budget with Medicare. She pointed me to Armani, Polo and Ray Ban glass frames which start at 179.00 not including the lenses and additional charges like scratch resistant or trifocals. My wife says if you don't have insurance the point you to lower cost frames so that if you have insurance you wind up paying the same as the person without insurance. The sales person started  helping someone else while I was looking at frames. I left the store. I told her I was going to look online for glasses. I decided not to buy glasses this year as my prescription has not really changed.

I went to Kroger and bought a BBQ chicken. We had that for supper with an organic spinach salad. 

I will cut the leftover chicken up to make chicken curry tonight. Jen said she likes the leftover chicken curry better than the chicken dinners. I like BBQ chickens as it makes for two nights meals and I can also get a chicken sandwich for lunch on the 2nd day. I boiled potatoes and carrots for the curry and cut up some collard greens for the vegetable. I am trying to make more leafy green vegetables as Jen told me it helps prevent dementia. 

Using Amazon Photo with Echo Show

I setup my Amazon Photo account today so I could change my Echo Show to displaying a photo slide show of my favorite photos. 

I Installed the Desktop and phone apps to upload photos. From www.Amazon.com\Photos.

The Android app you can scan the QR Code to download and install the phone app.

1. Log Into your Amazon Prime Account.

2. Create Albums and upload photos from your Phone or Desktop.

3. The Android up upload all my photos automatically.

4. Manually upload folders with pictures through the Desktop App.

5. Configure Amazon Photo to not upload duplicate photos.

How to setup Amazon Echo Show 5 to display photos:

1. Swipe down from the Top

2. Select Settings

3. Select Home & Clock Settings

4. Select Clock & Photo Display to Customize your photo display appearance

5. Select Photo Display

6. Select Amazon Photos

7. Select Amazon Photo Album or Favorites to Display

New Years Day Holiday

 

Monday January 2nd 2023 is the actual holiday for those who work.  This week has been odd as Christmas and New Years Day both fell on a Sunday.  We went to Callaway Gardens for Christmas Weekend while their we visited the Butterfly House, Bug Discovery and the Fantasy in Lights show.  It was very cold last weekend colder than I could remember it ever being in Georgia. The Cottage we stayed in did not have any heat vents in the kitchen/living room in the center only in the two bedrooms so the bedrooms were hot but the Livingroom was freezing. We kept turning up the thermostat in the Livingroom and it never got warm. We learned the Livingroom thermostat controls the heat in the first bedroom only. They had a fireplace in the Livingroom, however, Jen did not want to use the fireplace as you have to keep one of the bedroom doors open when you have a fire burning. I brought my Roku Stick and plugged it into the HDMI connection on the Livingroom TV so we listened to Christmas songs on YouTube Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.