vital functions
Sep. 28th, 2025 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettReading. We continue reading Solutions and Other Problems (Allie Brosh) a snippet at a time, as a Shared Activity, and going "oh no CHILD" about a lot of it. A lot.
Cherries & Mulberries: Growing & Cooking, Jane McMorland Hunter & Sally Hughes. Acquired from Oxfam for EYB indexing purposes, on the grounds that I'm definitely interested in mulberries and I have a cherry tree (the fruits of which A is invested in); I am Outraged that the various sections on cherries go on to blithely include pretty much anything with "cherry" in the name, including Physalis. These are not useful growing instructions!!! So between my indignation over that and my lack of interest in the recipes, this one can go back to a charity shop. (First pass complete; need to do the proofreading pass.)
The Challenge of Pain, Ronald Melzack & Patrick D. Wall. Now officially over halfway through it, and moving much faster now I'm back out of the physiology (very much not familiar territory to me) and on into theories of pain. Mildly indignant that having been very clear it was "theories of pain that have evolved during the past century" (publication date: 1982) we went immediately into......... THE OBLIGATORY PAGE AND A HALF ON DESCARTES (1596-1650). Deeply indignant that having circa page 88 got sufficiently confused about what they even meant that I dug out and read Dallenbach (1927) (The Temperature Spots and End-Organs) they... go on to explain it themselves circa page 152. But hey, on the upside that does mean I read Dallenbach's glorious footnote
Lack of space forbids that I list all who sin in this respect, and fairness forbids that I single out any group. Instances, however, are so numerous that citations are unnecessary!
... along with, much earlier in the paper, in reference to the many many refinements they had to make to their methodology,
Ease and convenience are poor guides in the selection of an experimental tissue.
I've got another 30 pages on "gate-control and other mechanisms", and then we're into the treatments section. At this point: it is definitely in many respects dated, and it's harder to parse than it needs to be, but yeah nah a bunch of this is in fact really useful not just in terms of filling in gaps in my knowledge but in terms of understanding the shape of the field as a whole now, still, nearly fifty years later. Really glad to be reading this. Have acquired Wall's 1999 popular monograph on the same topic (Pain: the science of suffering). For, you know, completeness.
Dreamwidth! Down to two and a half months behind.
Writing. So many e-mails about objects. So many.
Watching. Farscape S02E06, Picture if You Will. The discussion about which of the Highly Specific Fetish Big Bads it was who was resurrecting in this particular context was entertaining in terms of highlighting the, you know, motifs. Of the work.
Playing. We have just managed some Fluxx. <3
Cooking. Batch of puff pastry for the sake of making two (of the three) things in East that call for it (because I could not quite bring myself to buy pre-made). Pleased with how the puff came out; mildly dubious about both the tomato, pistachio + saffron tart and the banana tarte tatin, but on the level of "I am unlikely to make these again", not "I regret making them".
Eating. On Tuesday we hit the point of Make The Internet Bring Us Pizza. The Pizza was very welcome.
Yesterday, Saturday, we went to say goodbye to Ruby Violet, i.e. we had cake for breakfast, along with hot chocolate. The flavours were all ones I was familiar with but I'm still pleased to have had them. (It is not impossible I will decide I want to make another trip by myself, though, especially given that they currently have the malted milk on...)
As mentioned we then also availed ourselves of an Ethiopian-and-Eritrean Veggie Combo and a piece of Japanese Curry Bread, both of which I am pleased to have experienced.
Exploring. St Pancras Waterpoint! Brief turn through Camley Street Natural Park.
Growing. Spinach that I thought was unlikely to still be viable turns out to in fact still be Extremely Viable! Spinach is go! And the lambs' lettuce has self-seeded nicely (so in fact I also had some of that plus some allotment rocket accompanying the tomato tart). Tomatoes continue to produce tomatoes. Peppers various looked very happy last time I went to see them so now I want to overwinter them all. At home, the pineapple continues to grow and the lemongrass isn't obviously dead yet (and I'm doing something right with at least the larger of the two orchids...)
Observing. BAT, extremely obliging with the aerobatics. Good sunsets. Cyclamen various. Moon.
listen, I have a pathological need for jokes like this...
Date: 2025-09-29 12:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-29 10:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-29 03:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-29 04:10 pm (UTC)Those are lovely quotes from Dallenbach.