vital functions

Celebrating. A Labour government.

Reading. An Immense World, Ed Yong, which I am adoring to the point that when I got to the end of the first chapter I went back to the beginning of the introduction and went through it again, taking notes this time. I have already enthused about entertaining footnotes and have now also cackled at Plausibly Deniable Dick Jokes as well as taking, as I say, copious notes. It goes back to the library tomorrow and then there will be a wait to get back to the top of the hold queue. I'm going to buy a copy. (I am slightly mourning the fact that there does not yet appear to be a lavishly illustrated coffee table dead tree edition.)

Watching. Dead Boy Detectives, the first episode thereof! I am pretty sure I'd have got much less out of it if I hadn't been going in thoroughly spoiled (by some very enthusiastic close reading), but I was and I did and I am looking forward to More (for all that I have totally failed to get my act together to watch more this weekend).

Two videos on stationery:

• SBRE Brown's Fountain Pen Shootout Kyuseido Kakari VS Conid Kingsize. If you do not have a burning desire to hear someone's thoughts on comparing two £1000 fountain pens, do not watch this. Even if you do I... am not convinced this is worthwhile? I think this is the second thing of SBRE Brown's I've psyched myself up to watch and I really do not get His Position In The Fountain Pen Hobby. (lolsob, though, at the Kakari's lack of roll stop... being fixable with a Kaweco add-on clip.)
• HOW TO SHARPEN PENCILS (9:28; no captions, audio more important than video). This one I do highly recommend. I watched it because I expressed to A my amazement and outrage that people will apparently spend over five hundred dollars on pencil sharpeners. It SURE WAS AN EXPERIENCE that I have now inflicted on several other people, along with the person's website Artisanal Pencil Sharpening. ( Read more... )

Playing. We have finished the storyline of Ori and the Blind Forest and have something like 4% completionism left to go?

Cooking. Two new recipes: Ottolenghi's one-pot chickpeas with carrots, dates, and marinated feta, and Meera Sodha's ben ben noodles. The chickpeas are going into our general rotation; the noodles are not (and once again had about twice the noodle or half the veg it needed for our preferences) but I get to tick off another recipe from her book!

Eating. We got nearly a kilo of blueberries for remarkably little money on Monday, and I have been inhaling them ever since.

Growing. The persimmon's feet had started escaping out of the bottom of its container, so today I potted it up. I do not actually expect the new pot to be Adequate for its purposes for very long, but it has at least a bit more room!

Also potted up a few other bits and pieces, and continued intermittently tidying the patio.

Did not manage to make it to plot. Very bored of the agoraphobia.

Observing. BAT.