Blackmoor Vituperative

We watched “Incredible Hulk” (2008) and “Avengers” (2012) last night, as part of our attempt to watch all of the recent(ish) Marvel movies in the chronological order of the events in the movies. The Hulk movie was slightly out of order, because it took me a while to track it down — it’s not on Disney+, for some reason.

I enjoyed both movies. Hulk is an incredibly straightforward plot: Army general psychopath finds Hulk, attacks, people get hurt. Army general psychopath finds Hulk again, attacks, people get hurt. Army general psychopath finds Hulk a third time, attacks, people get hurt. I think professional wrestling has more complicated plots than that.

Avengers went the complete opposite direction. I think they based the plot on a quote from the philosopher Didactylos: “Things just happen. What the hell.” It did have a couple of scenes I love, where Black Widow uses people’s vanity and arrogance against them (and let’s face it — people that vain and arrogant are men almost all of the time), and gets them to start monologuing. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

It also has one of my favourite scenes of ordinary people defying power. (You have seen it, even if you’ve never seen the movie — it’s a meme. “There are always men like you.”)

And it has perhaps the most painful description of humanity I’ve ever heard. “They are unruly, and therefore cannot be ruled.” Because “unruly” is a two-edged sword.

“Unruly” means standing up to fascists, sure. But it also means storming the capitol building because you believe the lies of fascists. It means refusing to wear a mask or get vaccinated because of ridiculous conspiracy theories. It means ignoring the effects that human activity has on the planet, while the world slowly burns.

I think we could afford to be a bit less unruly.

Oh, and “Captain Marvel” (2019) is better than I remember. I still think Brie Larson was hilariously mis-cast. Her acting style is incredibly subtle — and they cast her in a superhero movie. But it’s a pretty decent movie, and the supporting cast is great, even the kid. I think my expectations were just too high the first time I saw it.

We really enjoyed the “Falcon And The Winter Soldier” miniseries (or as we like to call it, “The Falcon And The Snowman”). I think this measures up to the best of the Marvel movies, and is far better than any of the previous Marvel TV shows and/or miniseries (although “Agent Carter” was pretty decent).

And now, apparently, we are watching all of the Marvel movies we have already seen (which is all of them), but in the chronological order of the events portrayed in them. Fortunately for us, someone has already figured out what that order is.

So first up is “Captain America”, and then “Captain Marvel”. Which reminds me of what a disappointment “Captain Marvel” was. It could have been another “Wonder Woman”, if they had cast someone better to carry the movie. Samara Weaving, for example. Such a missed opportunity. I mean, sure, it made over 6x its budget at the box office (over a billion dollars), but it could have been GREAT, as good as “Captain America”, with just one change.

Ah, well.

“Captain America”, on the other hand, is truly a great movie. Not just a great superhero movie — a great movie, of any kind. Perfectly cast. Perfectly executed.

After several years of consideration (seriously — I started looking into this a little over five years ago), I have decided to exclude Ecuador as a possible retirement destination. It has its appeals, and for the sake of the people who live there, I hope it always will, but for me, the disadvantages are more than I am willing to bear.

Areas of interest

• Cuenca, Olon, Manta
• What is life actually like?
  • https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2019/05/05/retired-expats-in-ecuador-what-lifes-really-like-for-them/?sh=42a36d74150f

Pros for Ecuador

• Low cost of living (minimum budget for 2 adults at something close to $2,400 – $2,600 per month)
  • https://www.netcredit.com/blog/cost-comfortable-retirement-around-world/
  • https://mls-ecuador.com/en/real-estate/beach-houses-for-sale
  • https://vivatropical.com/ecuador/manta-ecuador/
• • Warm weather (too warm?)
  • https://weatherspark.com/compare/y/20225~18307/Comparison-of-the-Average-Weather-in-Charlottesville-and-Manta
  • https://weatherspark.com/compare/y/20225~19348/Comparison-of-the-Average-Weather-in-Charlottesville-and-Cuenca
  • https://weatherspark.com/compare/y/20225~18290/Comparison-of-the-Average-Weather-in-Charlottesville-and-Salinas
• • Beaches, mountains
• • No taxation of income from outside Ecuador
  • https://internationalliving.com/countries/ecuador/taxes/

Cons for Ecuador

• Spanish is the primary language
• Crime (mainly petty crime, like pickpockets) is a thing
  • https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Ecuador.html
• Taking anti-parasite medication every 6 months
  • https://storyteller.travel/antiparasite-amoeba-treatment/
  • https://melibeeglobal.com/blog/2015/07/real-talk-parasites-while-traveling-abroad/
• Lack of clean water
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_Ecuador
  • https://storyteller.travel/how-to-drink-the-tap-water-in-cuenca-ecuador/

More information

• https://immiguides.com/immigration-guides/ecuador/
• https://www.ecuadorexplorer.com/html/about_ecuador/immigration-visas.html
• https://www.internations.org/go/moving-to-ecuador/
• https://www.internations.org/go/moving-to-ecuador/working

Here is a formula for rounding a number to a specified number of significant digits.

=if(A1=0,0,round(10^(floor(B1-LOG(abs(A1))))*A1)/(10^(FLOOR(B1-log(abs(A1))))))

In this formula, A1 is the cell with the number, and B1 is the cell with the number of significant digits.

It is bad for people to be obeyed too readily. It is corrosive to good manners and a healthy relationship with those around them. When you resist someone with authority, you are looking out for the well being and sanity of that person.