vital functions

[kaberett]

Reading. The Last Colony (complete) and Zoe's Tale (in progress), both John Scalzi, both rereads for Turning Off Brain.

The Story of Pain, Joanna Bourke (in progress). I have grimly made my way through the first eight pages of the introduction, so far, and it is exactly the specific flavour of Humanities Writing I get very rapidly very impatient with. It also commits the sin of claiming to deal with, specifically, the last three centuries, And Then: Descartes (though this is slightly ameliorated by her being less wrong about Descartes than is usual for the genre). A sample: "But, for the historian sitting down to write a history of pain, assuming that pain has a definitive, ontological presence is to confuse presentations of sensation with linguistic representations."

The Mousehole Cat, Antonia Barber & Nicola Bayley. I was nominated to perform the Ritual of the Bedtime Story, and instructed to make my own choice of book from the pile, so obviously I picked this one. It turns out that I had completely forgotten the vast majority of the detail, and I had to work very hard to not just dissolve into floods of tears partway through. (I have now also poked at the history and it appears to be slightly more attested and slightly less totally apocryphal than I'd assumed, though the Annual Festival described apparently isn't recorded at any point before the 1950s...)

Pain: A Very Short Introduction, Rob Boddice (in progress). Thus far he gets Several demerits for "Yet it is perhaps better to think in the vernacular, rather than in the specialized terminology of medicine or philosophy" followed by half a paragraph on English followed immediately by TWO PAGES on Ancient Greek and Latin, but then gains several back by appearing to be genuinely not wrong about Descartes ("... And although this account will begin with the French philosopher René Descartes (1596--1650), the blame should probably not be laid at his feet (or, at least, not directly)." Tragically for him this will probably not be enough to redeem the book in my eyes, for reasons I may or may not expand upon later.

Hurts So Good: the science & culture of pain on purpose, Leigh Cowart (in progress). This is my reward for getting through The Philosophy (so much Philosophy) -- I'd been deliberately saving it as My Last (Potentially Significant) Book -- but I appear to have tripped and fallen and started it now. We'll see if I can at least finish the Very Short Introduction before getting too stuck into it -- but five pages in it is a breath of fresh air my goodness. Vivid and delightful (and also, as a heads-up, very very explicit). I am looking forward to settling in with it Really Quite A Lot (but will probably not be taking it with me as my light reading on various family visits upcoming, given it's hardcopy and the dust jacket is... unambiguous).

Writing. I have a document that contains the outline and extensive transcribed quotations for the Descartes apologia! ... it's already over 5000 words long! And that's before I even get into the argument about Against New Dualism! I think. It is going to wind up needing to be split into two essays. One of which is the quotations about How People Summarise Descartes + What Descartes Actually Said, and the second of which will then be the polemic about how you don't get to rail against mind-body dualism if you then replicate it unfailingly with commitment to the absolute separation of central sensitisation and peripheral nociception. With the former as non-essential background reading for the latter...

Watching. Encanto, courtesy of The Child. I had retained approximately none of the plot from the Encanto-flavoured Baby Yoga we did together recently, happily, and also I Did A Cry. (I am also genuinely impressed that "fish is in terrible bowl" was an indication of where things were going...)

Listening. The Instructions For Getting To The Child, while cycling, via the bone-conduction headphones. V pleased.

Playing. The Little Orchard avec Child! Using some definite House Rules. Also being Someone With Long Arms for various self-directed play. I continue to be told Many Numberblocks Facts. :)

Eating. I put in an order with Cocoa Loco, maker of My Favourite Chocolate For A While Now, for the purposes of A Convenient Present; I also acquired, because Why Not, a single brownie portion and the cocoa nibs & hazelnut bar. I'm not sure I think the cocoa nibs particularly enhance the experience but I do like the Good Dark Chocolate With Hazelnuts of it all; I think I prefer My Default Brownie Recipe to their brownie BUT I also think that having a bag-safe well-wrappped calorie-dense food was extremely valuable in the context of some of this week's more questionable adventures, and I did enjoy it a great deal while I was, you know, inhaling it.

Exploring. BIG HECKIN BIKE RIDE. Many fewer birds along the canal than last time I did that route (on an unseasonably warm day in April); extremely excited to confirm that Walthamstow Wetlands is Within Scope for a trip At Some Point, though possibly not until it's warmer again.

And then today I learned of the existence of and attended an event at the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre, just across the bridge from Blackfriars, which they blurb as "The London LGBTQ+ Community Centre is a sober, intersectional community centre and café where all LGBTQ+ people are welcome, supported, can build connections and can flourish." They have comfy sofas and a permanent clothes swap and a wee library and a very large bookshelf full of boardgames, and a whole bunch of structured social groups as well as walk-ins. I am charmed, I am pleased with my purchases (including MORE BULLSHIT CERAMICS), and I... am contemplating maybe actually getting myself out to some more of their events, not just when I have a friend visiting from abroad who suggested Attending A Market.

Comments

[dancesontrains]

That community centre sounds delightful.

[oracne]

I love the results of your exploring!

[cesy]

Had I not told you about the community centre already? Oops, sorry. enigel and alexwlchan and I have all been to different events there. They have good stuff. Enigel has tried many of their events and can tell you pros and cons of each if you want.

[kaberett]

<3!

[enigel]

Audible gasp! I feel like I've let down The Community that you haven't found out about the Centre from me, since I (and I quote one of the Centre managers) "practically haunt the place"!

But, well, now you know, maybe I'll see you there :D And yes, Cesy is right, feel free to ask about any "what is it like" details about the regular meetups.