The Heat puts me to the test.

The difference between living in a northern state and living in the Southland is very clear to me this week. It’s been in the 90s every day with some serious humidity by anyone's standards. This is an old comparison, but there is nothing like living it down in the trenches. Here it goes. In a northern state, you hunker down inside all winter with the heat on. In the Southland, you hunker down inside for a few weeks in the summer with the AC on.

The coolest place I have been hanging out is the gym. It’s so hot that you would consider it too hot to work out. However, I find they keep the gym at about 70 degrees, which feels downright chilly. During the sizzle, I have been killing it with my training by getting my steps in and some light exercise that would kill me if I tried to do it at home.

That is all I have to say about the weather. I want to be vigilant and stick to my code that an LA resident should never stoop to talking about the weather. However, I am remiss in not having more worthy content to share. I am so ashamed.

What entertainment have I been streaming on really large Display surfaces?

We binge-watched six seasons of an Aussie nighttime soap opera, A Place to Call Home. So many trips to the city, so many sheep, not a single koala or killer critter.

Also, we are watching Alien Earth. We are four episodes into season one. Be warned for spoilers. My big takeaway is that the people are scarier than the monsters. Getting the backstory of what happened on the ship before it comes back to earth was well done. What other critters are in those containers? Who thought it was a good idea to bring the monsters back home with them? Nuke it all!

Murderbot, No Touching, It's in My Contract

While at the gym for most of August, I have been playing all the Murderbot Diary audiobooks on repeat. For me, the stories are all win-win. I love all the story lines. It's a true-life drama about coming to terms with living life that just happens to be set in a fictional reality. In this series, there is AI, spaceship Sci-Fi, who-done-it crime stories, exploration of interpersonal relationships outside of our social norms, personal rights vs. legal contracts, binge-watching content, and robots. She had me at robots, obviously. Murderbot frees himself from slavery by hacking the governor module that formally kept him compliant with his owner's wishes. In the books, Murderbot goes on missions with his contracted clients, as well as solo missions to discover more about himself and where he came from. His true calling is to watch entertainment feeds on really big display surfaces. He may have to save a few clients and kill a few bad bots to make that happen.