(Actually) Netflix and (Actually) Chill

I’ve been watching a lot (too much) of Netflix lately. I love documentaries, and they have a good number of things I want to see. And some of the “reality” shows… Here are some things distracting me from my brain of late.

Dino Hunt–two teams of paleontologists in different locations try to get an excavation done before the rains come, the tide rises, it’s time for the students to go back to school–some deadline, whatever they can come up with. It’s narrated like it’s a competition, but really it’s just interesting. Oh, and it’s all set in Canada. And Dan Aykroyd narrates it. The episode in the Bay of Fundy is especially cool. Site of (they said, I haven’t checked) the highest tides in the world, they had ten days to get their digging done. The one guy was collecting dinosaur tracks. Footprints, from a hundred million years ago…

Reno My Reno–people buy (mostly) cottages on lakes, start renovations and one way or another get in over their heads. Dave and his team come in and save the day. I like it because it’s reminiscent of my favorite home improvement show ever, In a Fix. They send off one part of the couple (in one show it was a friend of the single mom who had been trying to help with the fixes) and keep the other to teach them how to do the work that’s needed. I like it because they’re not doing fancy stuff like a lot of home improvement reality shows (Trading Spaces, house-flipping shows, stuff like that,) they’re fixing stuff in desperate need of fixing, making the cottages liveable and also the couples are SO CUTE. Mostly older, and just awesome together.

Everyday Miracles–a materials scientist shows how a lot of common things we take for granted are made, and talks about how we learned to use them. He made nylon by pouring two chemicals together–one oil-based and one water-based. The nylon forms where the two liquids meet. Pull that out, and you can get one long fiber as more forms, and you just keep going till you run out of mixture. How cool is that?

MegaBuilders–they’re making huge things. A subway under the Bosporus Strait. A bridge over the Saigon River. It’s just fun to learn about what goes into that, and to realize that no matter what’s going on at my work, at least I don’t have to worry that someone will break the only crane capable of putting the roof on the new Olympic stadium and the clock is ticking…

Tales by Light–this one is cooool. Each episode follows a photographer and looks at what they do and why they do it and it’s just all so freakin’ fascinating. Not to mention some amazing images.

Edge of the Universe–this one is pretty cool. It’s all about astronomy and how far we can see and how we got to see as far as we can. Definitely enjoyed it.

Netflix keeps recommending The Women Who Kill Lions in an awesome fail of their preferences algorithms thingy. I do like stuff with strong women, and documentaries about animals. But NO.

Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Frozen Planet, Raising the Dinosaur Giant–David Attenborough. Toss in David Attenborough and odds are I’m in too. He’s just always talking about something interesting!

I shouldn’t be watching all these shows, of course. I should be doing a lot of other things, like editing and reading and cleaning and getting my house fixed up. But it’s a very busy time at work, and I come home exhausted. Add to that a brain that just doesn’t want to be nice to me lately, and…yeah. I’m watching documentaries. It’s an attempt, at least, to be reasonable. Get me started watching movies and I may not come up for ages. Especially dangerous are the ones with fandoms. I really REALLY don’t have time to fall into a fandom right now!

So I watch documentaries, and I promise myself after this one I’ll go do some work, and not much work is getting done but at least my brain is cooperating enough that SOME is getting done. And I’m learning a lot! Did you know they now think that Tyrannosaurus Rex hunted in packs?

Do you think you’ll check out any on this list? Do you have any I should add to the list? Let me know!

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