vital functions

[kaberett]

Reading. Dark and Magical Places, Christopher Kemp. Lovely pop-science overview on the neurology of navigation. Lots of fascinating things I'd never had any previous awareness of (place cells! grid cells!), really good explanation of the ways that memory and navigation are completely interdependent, very well written and pleasant to read. There were about three things I had Raised Eyebrows about (one of which was the amount of time he spent cheerfully telling us about fMRI studies without, er, mentioning the dead salmon study...), which is a really good hit rate.

Atomic Habits, James Clear. ... well, I am glad I now have a... better understanding of what The Conversation is about, there being -- as I think I've mentioned -- a Significant overlap between Bullet Journal people and Atomic Habits people. I think the articulations I like mostly came from elsewhere and were repackaged (credit where it's due: he did credit all of the original authors); I have... questions... about quite a lot of the. rest of it. Like, for example, the idea that food-policing somehow counts as "[observation] without judgment or internal criticism". There's some fascinating insight into the guy's relationship to the world (apparently: We check reviews on Amazon or Yelp or TripAdvisor because we want to imitate the "best" buying, eating, and travel habits.); his grasp of anthropology and human history is... shaky... (The shift to a delayed-return environment likely began around the advent of agriculture ten thousand years ago when farmers began planting crops in anticipation of a harvest months later. However, it was not until recent centuries that our lives became filled with delayed-return choices: career planning, retirement planning, vacation planning, and everything else that occupies our calendars.); I don't think I'd recommend this but, hey, de gustibus.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy. A got given this a few years ago; I was vaguely aware of The Fuss; I finally got around to reading it this morning in the interest of clearing another physical book off my To Be Read stack. It's very pretty, but I was sort of baffled by the text (mostly aphorisms) until I poked the internet with a stick and discovered it had in fact started life as a series of Instagram posts, whereupon much became clear.

I have also poked tentatively at the social history of migraine, in an attempt to pick it back up and maybe even finish it before the end of the year and have at least reminded myself of where I'd got up to.

AND I caught up with my backlog of Charitable Institution Magazines such that it is no longer a horrid pile on the table (and is instead a horrid pile that is almost all in the recycling!)

Watching. Another episode of the second season of Good Omens. We continue baffled.

Cooking. Malvern pudding! Using discount supermarket custard, and apple from the pantry. V good. Made thrice; will definitely make again.

Big vat of Several Bean Chilli plus sweet potato, which we mostly ate with cornbread, but once that was done we had a day of burrito, too.

Eating. Supermarket had discount Rosary Garlic & Parsley. I Consumed And Was Joyful.

Making & mending. SEWINGS. Finished adding bits to net! Dealt With hand-sewing some repairs to a pocket on a pair of work trousers! Sought advice about fixing another problem and am steeling myself to Get Out The Sewing Machine and See What I Can Do this week coming.

Poked a bit at sashiko; decided I really needed a fabric marker; acquired a fabric marker; am going Hmm a bit but have started gridding and will attempt to continue in daylight.

Growing. ALAS I think I was Too Disorganised and all the Biquinho Red chillis I was vaguely intending to offer on Freecycle because I'd feel bad about just composting them... have been thoroughly frosted, so I'm going to wind up composting them anyway. (I shall at least give them the opportunity to be warm and dead.) Possibly if I'd done a better job of keeping the bin fed they'd still be hanging on and so might the aubergines, but "aubergines alive until December" is still a good run.

Comments

[redbird]

I just asked the library for Dark and Magical Places, and now have the ebook on hold (with one person ahead of me in line).

[kaberett]

Enjoy!

[enigel]

"Watching. Another episode of the second season of Good Omens. We continue baffled."

Good baffled, bad baffled, "it might grow on us given time" baffled?

[kaberett]

I think we are leaning toward bad-baffled, but are going to. try. to appreciate it as its own thing rather than going This Is Not Book Canon And Therefore Bad...