vital functions

[kaberett]

[... sorry about the template, I hit return in the title field and IT POSTED. details to appear shortly. :-p]

Reading. Lake of Souls, Ann Leckie: finished! More bits I had either never read before or had no recollection of, but nothing that particularly stuck with me.

They Sink and Are Vanished Away, Ann Leckie: finished. I had somehow not read this Imperial Raadch short story before and... am not at all sure what I make of it.

The Painful Truth, Monty Lyman: finished. Contained a couple of descriptions of sensory experiences I'd not previously encountered (notably Jo Cameron; some new-to-me further detail about how congenital analgesia and (separately!) the placebo effect work. Came very close to maybe realising that he is perpetuating gender disparities in access to healthcare but didn't quite make it. I have now read enough of this kind of thing in a short enough space of time (and indeed to take notes on) that I'm starting to understand and have opinions about the various ways they structure themselves, so was useful for that if nothing else. (And prompting me to look up why the chronic cancer pain exception for opioids keeps coming up! And the answer is "severe cancer pain only controllable by opioids used to be synonymous with end-of-life, and it turns out this exception is Needing To Be Revisited as we get better at prolonging--" etc etc.)

The Challenge of Pain, Ronald Melzack & Patrick D. Wall: in progress. Okay, you know what, I had been being Frightened of reading this in case I Couldn't Understand It but apparently I have chosen to pick it up at a really good moment in terms of said understanding, in that I now know enough to be able to tease apart what it's in reaction to vs what we now know it is laughably wrong about despite the fact that what I've got is the 2008 updated second edition. I'm not sure how directly useful it's going to be, but I'm definitely going to appreciate having the grounding.

Writing. ... I have actually put some more notes into The Document.

So many lost property e-mails. (And at some point I'm going to need to start replying to them, too.)

Watching. On YouTube: True Facts: Bats, The Science Of The Hunt. NSFW. Definitely... An Experience.

Cooking. ... yeah no I managed to make veg spag bol on Friday but otherwise we've mostly just been feeling faintly sorry for ourselves. Okay, no, that's not quite true, I did also achieve baked potato on Wednesday.

Eating. Misc takeaway from The Field (leftover Sunday night curry for dinner on Tuesday; leftover vegetable fried rice + Szechuan tofu for breakfast on same...). I remain mildly resentful that the Wagamama menu still does not contain any of My Favourites.

Growing. The second attempt at pineapple has NEW LEAVES. The second attempt at lemongrass is maybe Going? And other than that I have no idea because I have spectacularly failed to make it to the plot this week.

Observing. BATS. A variety of excellent dahlias and passion flowers on a Trip To Town (post office, pharmacy).

Comments

[aldabra]

Wagamama! We went yesterday. They Did Not Have The Thing. Why would they do that? We've been going for twenty years and having The Thing, and we're not sure we'll bother again.

[ewx]

> They Sink and Are Vanished Away

New to me too, thanks for the pointer.