I don’t know if I’m late to the party but I just recently finished watching the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit”
I was tempted to start watching by myself but decided to include hubby in my tv watching decision. I must say that we both loved it and consumed the episodes at great speed.
Netflix poster for The Queen’s Gambit
So what is The Queen’s Gambit About?
The show is based on Walter Trevis’s 1983 novel called, The Queen’s Gambit.
It is about a girl called, Beth Harmon who gets orphaned after a car accident kills her mum. The show starts in the 1950s and progresses through the 1960s.
After Beth is orphaned she is taken to an orphanage for girls. She is then introduced to chess from the building custodian, Mr Shaibel. While at the orphanage she is exposed to taking daily tranquillizers as this is a way the home keeps the children under control. Due to taking these pills daily, Beth grew to rely on them.
Mr Shaibel teaching a young Beth Harmon to play chess
Beth sneaks downstairs to have secret chess lessons from Mr Shaibel and it is slowly revealed that she is a chess prodigy. Mr Shaibel introduces Beth to a contact at the local high school that has a chess group so that Beth can learn more and be exposed with other fellow chess players.
Beth enters chess tournaments and gets better and better. It is interesting to watch how Beth grows up as a young woman and becomes her own person rather than relying on a mother figure or another adult.
Also, I was taken with the 1960’s fashion and furnishings. Just loved this part of the show too.
I loved this show, it was fun, griping and a good drama.
Many of my friends have raved about this series and I thought I will get to it one day. If you have heard good things about this show I would urge you to give it a go.
We have loved having Netflix and it has been godsent with lockdowns and not being able to travel or go anywhere in 2020 and also in 2021.
Send some more suggestions for more shows that I can binge watch.
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Kids can build a Piper Computer Kit – Great STEM Project
I’ve watched about a million hours of Rusty Rivets and Paw Patrol, and there is one thing that these shows have in common; they have kids that build or have state of the art technology, equipment, and space to have a large HQ (Head Quarters)
This also applies to PJ Masks as well. Three kids about 8-9 years old at the most, and they save the world or at the very least their town from Romeo, Luna Girl and Night Ninja. Greg, Connor, and Amaya become Gecko, Cat Boy and Owlette, they work at night to save the day. However, when an emergency or evil event occurs it is always in the day time and most times they are in a park or at school. Then they do there tagline about saving the day and pow they are all in their costumes and it is night time.
Doesn’t anyone notice that these kids are suddenly doing their superhero moves at school and during the day time? Does anyone wonder how these three kids have a HUGE HQ, Cars and other amazing equipment?
The kids that are in these shows are about 10 years old (or sometimes younger) and how do they have access to the following:
Mobile Lab with all the technology you need
Heaps and heaps of space for the recycled workshop to build any robotic creation you wish
Boats, submarine, fancy HQ that is all run by kids and no adults
Money to do all of the above
So it got me thinking??? Who pays for all this stuff?
Does Rusty and Ruby from Rusty Rivets have investors? Do they have parents that secretly fund their creations? It is hard to know as this information is never told to the audience.
So just in case, you have no idea what these shows are all about here’s a breakdown for you. Rusty Rivets – A boy called Rusty Rivest and his friend Ruby Ramirez who build and create a state of the art creations from recycled items. They have a robot called Botassuar and other robots called the bits.
When Rusty customizes or changes an item he says, “modify, customize, Rustify” and when Ruby customizes or creates something she says, “Rubify”
They end up out in the middle of nowhere nearly every episode and have their mobile lab which seems to have everything you would ever need to do anything. If they need something extra they use their iPad/tablet to call for the bits (their small robots) to come and help or bring them something that they urgently need.
How do these kids fix all these things and build such technical and huge creations???? I keep on wondering… Do you or is it just me?
Paw Patrol – Ryder and his pups save the town of Adventure Bay and any person when they get stuck, hurt, need help and everything in between. Ryder has a huge HQ that sits on the beach of Adventure Bay and they have boats, subs, vehicles and all sorts of amazing technology and equipment for the pups and Ryder too. How do they afford all this, again Ryder is probably just 10 years old and seems to be in charge of everything. No adult comes and helps, all the adults call Ryder and the pups to save them.
Who pays for all this? How does it get built? Is Ryder a secret adult? Is he independently wealthy? Maybe?
PJ Masks – Is about three kids that fight evil in their town and to save the world. Connor, Amaya and Greg are Cat Boy, Oweltte and Gecko. They are the PJ Masks, they do all their superhero work in the night time and apparently are in the third grade.
These 3rd graders have a massive and state of the art HQ, cars, technology and anything you could want and no one seems to know anything about it. This HQ looks like it lives in the city and in a local park from the many shows that I’ve seen.
Again how do three kids who are about 8-9 years old do all of this? Did they build and pay for everything themselves.
Or maybe there is a silent investor that pays for all of these kid organizations?
These tech-savvy kids could have approached venture capital firms for funding, I don’t know if they invest in this type of business as it doesn’t seem to have a return that I’m aware of, however, it could help keep the peace and in turn allow business to thrive, so maybe a good investment.
Do you know how these kids fund their enterprises and activities? One suggestion is that they have a secret illegal business that generates heaps of cash. I know this is not in keeping of the superhero way but it could explain how they can afford all these amazing items for their adventures.
Let me know if you have any other ideas.
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As you all might know we have a new TV and now we have fixed the issue of not getting free to air television. For a long time we have not been able to watch shows like the news, or say the ABC. It has been very annoying indeed. A couple of weekends ago I was out and hubby organised some people to come and look at the antenna to determine what the issue was.
The aerial was okay, the transmitter was okay however the cable connecting it all was not. The cockatoos had eaten through the cable and it all had to be replaced. Once the new cable was installed, we got free to air television. At last, a connection with the world. News, shows, and all sorts of things! Yippee!
Now I can bore the kids with the news when they don’t want to go to bed.
Watching cartoons
The twins have now figured out how to put the TV on, and they know how to put the station onto ABC3. I asked what about ABC2 but they told me that is for babies mummy!
Now this is one clue that they are growing up. The cartoons and content on ABC3 is a little bit more grown up but still for kids. ABC2 is for a younger audience. Although they still watch some shows on ABC2 , they are now totally obsessed with ABC3. They don’t want to watch anything else, unless it is the end of children’s programming and they might watch or do something else.
What has your child or children done or said that made you think gosh they are growing up? Let us know.
Today we are staying home. I do like staying home, especially in school holidays. However when you need to stay home to wait for a delivery it can get quite frustrating. Frustrating due to not knowing when your delivery will arrive.
The delivery driver called earlier to say they will be here in the afternoon, so I have an idea. I just hope that they get here before 4pm so I can go to an appointment. Yes I had to make an appointment this afternoon as I could not get in any other time. Annoying really.
Why is it that due to having to be home all day you can think of a million and one things you would rather be doing, and they are of course not at home or waiting for my delivery!
I hear you ask, “What am I waiting for?” Well it is a much needed clothes dryer.
No more waiting for sunshine. A dryer will mean I can dry my clothes when it is wet and stormy! Cannot wait.
Mine decided to die and I have been making do with hanging clothes everywhere inside the house and on the line. However this falls down when you have days and days of non-stop rain! As you can imagine living in the Blue Mountains having a dryer is a necessity not a want or item that you can say no to. Without one most of the clothes generally don’t dry due to wet and very cold days.
I am very excited to be getting a new dryer and happy that I can finally have items dried when I want them to be. I am getting sick of living in a house that looks more like a laundry or a very messy clothes shop!
My new dryer is smart. It can sense how long to dry clothes for, and will not run for hours and hours if it is just a pair of jeans, or some towels that need to be dry. How clever is this! Keen to try out this fab feature.
So I am very happy that my dryer is on its way, but I hate waiting nearly all day to get it. Do you have days like this? Waiting for a delivery. I must say it is not all bad. I am doing some housework, responding to emails, and kids are happy playing outside as it is finally sunny again.
Now that I finally get a replacement dryer I bet that the weather will be super sunny and no more rain. What do you think?
Today might not be the only day waiting to get a replacement item. Our television has also died and we are using a computer screen monitor in place of a large screen TV. The twins were rather shocked as it is very small compared to the BIG Plasma screen we previously had. Hubby and I explained that this is not bad and it was the same size that we had before the big screens. This was met with dismay and annoyance from the kids (I see you are shocked at this – it did make us laugh). The twins have never known a small T.V. and have only had the large flat screens. It was interesting seeing their reaction to this change.
Oh and I forgot to mention that our toaster also decided it did not want to work anymore and the kettle fell to bits! I think the white-goods and electrical items at our house are giving up! Maybe they are on strike! Should I hold a meeting and see if I can negotiate a better deal so they keep working and we don’t have to spend money on replacements? I wonder?
It has been four items in quick succession that have stopped working or had a failure:
Television
Dryer
Toaster
Kettle (this just fell to bits. The handle and the wiring just perished) We noticed this one last, but the first 3 were right after each other.
While we ponder what television to purchase next we will use our computer monitor as it is serving the purpose for now.
Are you going through a stage where your white goods are on their way out? Have you had a string of things die and need to be replaced? Let us know.
Let us know your thoughts. Why not continue the discussion on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
Do you watch Helix? It is a new tv show and is very addictive.
So what is Helix about?
There is a bioresearch station in the Artic that has a viral outbreak. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) travel to the station to investigate the outbreak. During their short stay they realise that the disease has implications for the whole of mankind and find themselves fighting to find a cure while dealing with the people who are infected by the disease.
The infected are very much like zombies and they attack the people who are not yet infected. It is not a show for kids so if you are interested you need to watch late at night so that your little ones don’t get upset.
The CDC don’t get the complete picture from Dr. Hiroshi Hatake and you get the feeling that this character is not who he says he is. I also think that he is a lot older than he lets on. There have been clues throughout the episodes that hint that he was in WWII, although he looks in his 40′s so that is not possible, well unless you live forever!
The CDC are doing their best to uncover answers and work on a vaccine but there are mysterious things going on with the infected people and also the organisation who set up the bioresearch station.
Do you find out anything?
Helix is like another Lost. You tune into see if something might be solved or answered only to discover that there are more questions than answers with every episode.
During the episodes there are pull throughs that say:
“Do you know what the hell is happening in Helix?”
My answer, “No I don’t know what is happening with Helix”
I don’t know what is happening, that is why I tuned into watch! I know it is a way to drum up interest and get people talking about it, and yes I am doing just that. However it made hubby and I laugh! If you don’t know what is happening, and I don’t, then I am not sure what will be happening next. Maybe they don’t either?
Is it just me that have a giggle with these pull throughs? Maybe it was the apple cider/wine or the late night the reason we had a massive giggle attack at this.
Another thought is if all viewers wrote in with their thoughts on what is happening, does this help with the next script? Do the script writers look at the ideas and think, “Geez this is a great idea! We have to do that for the next story line”
Well you never know right?
I cannot wait to see what happens next on Helix and to see if I ever find out who Dr. Hiroshi Hatake really is and why they have glowing sliver eyes. I don’t want to spoil things for you if you have not watched it yet, and like River Song I don’t want to give away spoilers sweetie.
Let me know if you are watching Helix. Do you think it is like Lost but a Sci Fi version?
