Consumption

[kaberett]

Reading. Mostly Predator's Gold, the sequel to Mortal Engines, because I found it for two quid in a charity shop and I wanted to know what happened next. Spoilers beneath the cut. Unfortunately mostly what happened next is that I am so angry about Hester's shitty self-absorbed terrible no-good decision, and so angry about the narrative treating it like it's forgivable without any actual reparations, that I'm... going to finish this volume and then nope furiously out of the series, I think. I had high hopes! I... should have known better. Also: what the fuck, Tom, what the fuck is with your shitty ableism. Why are you suddenly all terrible. Augh.

TV. Slow progress with Leverage S4, encouraged by a visitcousin who's very into the show. Still pausing several times an episode to go YOU WHAT. THAT ISN'T HOW ANYTHING EVEN. (It's possible I've been spoiled by Matt Damon's Important Space Potatoes, but like, show. SHOW. That is NOT HOW POTATOES.)

Food. I had... two surprisingly faily attempts at sourdough, after a long run of Good Bread. One was in no small part because I started cooking it using the grill rather than the oven because I was Not Terribly With It (...), but both were more of a bread-puddle than they ought to have been. I eventually worked out that I'd made the starter slightly wetter than it had been previously, which meant I needed to decrease the liquid some. Nevertheless our guests this weekend (my parents; a cousin) have consumed three loaves in their entirety, and cousin will make further inroads into the fourth once I've baked it tomorrow morning, so that's all gratifying. For bonus points the cousin is in the process of setting up her own starter so I am getting to do lots of Sourdough Nerdery with her.

Tiny adventures. Yesterday we took a trip to the Giant's Causeway, because it's right there and it would have been silly not to (and also I only waited this long because my mother had put in a special request that we delay it until she could join in). It turns out that despite perfectly well knowing the relevant physics for columnar jointing and therefore what the scales involved are, I'd somehow interpreted "Giant's Causeway" to mean that the jointing itself was on a giant scale i.e. I was expecting diameters of, oooh, at least 75cm or so? Rather than... the thirty-odd we were actually getting. Which, to be fair, is still a good deal larger than my previous in-the-wild encounter: we'd plonked ourselves down in a pile of bracken in a streambed to have lunch, one day during my mapping project, and went "oooh, that's a funny-looking rock..." It turned out, on slightly closer inspection, to be a very small exposure of some really small columns (diameter ~5cm), and I was charmed and delighted. (They were SMOL.) So, yes, this was much more impressive than that, in both scale and definition, and I'm very glad to have seen it, even as I wist after being able to do the proper hike. I hadn't realised about the concave-and-convex ball-joint horizontal fractures as a result of vertical contraction because they're less spectacular so my lecturers just... didn't bother mentioning them? But they were charming, I was charmed, hurrah.

Today we visited HMS Caroline, because my mother is interested in naval history (and my father can be persuaded to be) and it spent nontrivial amounts of time stationed near HMS Essex, which my great-grandfather served on; in the most recent trip to the mouldering ancestral pile some of the things we dug out were A Lot of records pertaining to his time aboard both the Essex and, before that, on the cable-laying ships working the Atlantic. The Caroline is remarkably accessible -- they've installed three lifts, and the ramp to get on board is only unnavigably steep at high tide. I... had a bunch of feelings. me_and's favourite fact was probably that regarding the ships mascots during WWI: two cats and... a rabbit. (I'm not sure I can generate one, because feelings.)

This week coming. Hopefully actually managing to send off a draft of my paper; hopefully actually getting the final data for the final segment of it; hopefully getting to spend a good deal of time at the allotment.

Comments

[recessional]

I actually cannot watch Leverage because the show wants me to think it's competence porn while what it's showing me on-screen is actually incompetence.

It gets ESPECIALLY bad with Eliot.

And I wish it wasn't like that because in theory, characterwise, there's so much catnip! But in terms of what's ACTUALLY SHOWN ON SCREEN Sophie's accents are awful, Eliot should be dead six times over, they don't let nearly enough of Hardison's computer magic happen OFF-SCREEN and also Cold Doesn't Work Like That Guys, At All Oh My God.

(Sense8 made better choices with this one: Nomi's computer-magic is treated like the impenetrable magic it should be, and they have much better fight choreographers for Wolfgang and Will.)

[kaberett]

I WAS THINKING OF YOU DURING YESTERDAY'S PARKER-IN-MINUS-TWENTY EPISODE.

I'm honestly dithering over whether it's annoying me enough to Just Stop at the moment; the major argument for keeping going is that we're currently interspersing it with Orphan Black and we have an extremely limited amount of Orphan Black left...

(well, that and the fact that shouting about how incompetent they all are is an occasionally relaxing way to spend an evening with some misery pizza, but.)

[recessional]

Have you watched Sense8/is there something you already know about it that makes it a Not Good? because it is actually kind of nice for that stuff. I mean there's still some bobbles (there is no way you could get away with that much gun violence in Berlin, for example) but.

[kaberett]

I would apparently struggle with suspension of disbelief over the size of the Camden flat but it is in fact on the to-get-around-to list! (As is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and maybe The Good Place.)

[recessional]

Hahah fair. I sort of assume that that flat is actually also Bad in some way (shitty to no heat, or in some other way seriously undesirable and possibly illegal and being occupied via Illicit Value Trades). And yeah about that level when it comes to the level of gun-violence in Berlin: like I know there ARE gangs in Berlin! I am also absolutely sure you could not have them firing bullets in public that much without the entirety of German Law Enforcement descending on you like a plague of locusts and not stopping until you are all incarcerated!

But on the other hand Wolfgang is very pretty and he is so good at violence and he is such a good Feral Loyal Loving Person and he is so fucked up and I love him so much. (AND HE GETS A HAPPY ENDING.) So like. I forgive them. XD

[kaberett]

Yes fine good. :D (I take the rec seriously & will be mindful about Putting Discussion Under The Cut.)

It is... occasionally a relief to me that I have not learned enough about physical violence to get particularly cross about fight choreography. >_>

[recessional]

:D I'm slightly less Totally Defensive about it as it's been long enough that now my brain is much more secure about Our Take/Associations and it's not in so much danger of, like. Being somehow knocked off or complexified with Unhappy because of someone's Unfortunate Take. (Brains, man.) Also I'm happy to give answers if you can think of anything you'd need to know was going to happen/know how a plotline is going to turn out in order to make watching it okay/etc.



Unfortunately living with the BFF gave me JUST ENOUGH to be Distracted by most TV-show level stuff, re choreography. XD Ditto how helicopters work, and that No The Military Structure Doesn't Work That Way, That's Too Many Colonels, Put Some Colonels Back.

ON THE OTHER HAND, it also did allow me to appreciate the utter. fucking. glorious. beauty that was TWS's fight choreography. I don't know what went wrong AFTER that? But it was BEAUTIFUL. Ditto Atomic Blonde.

[cesy]

That's Too Many Colonels, Put Some Colonels Back
<3

[recessional]

LIMIT ONE LT COLONEL PER BATTALION. PROBABLY FEWER COLONELS. THAT IS TOO MANY COLONELS LT OR OTHERWISE PUT THEM BACK.

ALSO THAT IS NOT WHAT COLONELS ARE FOR COLONELS DO PAPERWORK AND MAKE ULCER-STRESS LEVEL DECISIONS THAT WILL OR WON'T KILL HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE AND/OR DESTROY THEIR HOLIDAY PLANS DEPENDING ON SITUATION. THEY SIT AT DESKS.

GO BACK AND START OVER.

;)

[jedusor]

I think you would like The Good Place, at least the first two seasons (the third season has some intense That Is Not How You Science Stop It STOP IT NOWWW). I failed out of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend in the first episode for bad writing and Sense8 in the first season for incoherence, though I'm assured the found family feels are worth pushing through the incoherence and have been vaguely meaning to give it another try.

[jesse_the_k]

That was a lot of social/natural interaction.

The Giants Causeway looks fabulous. sadly no lava flows in my neighborhood but I’ll keep my eyes open.

[kaberett]

SO MUCH.

<3

[skygiants]

I don't remember anything about the Mortal Engines books except that I wanted to love Hester so bad from the start and I kept waiting for her narrative to be anything that I wanted and it NEVER WAS.

[kaberett]

OKAY GOOD IT'S NOT JUST ME. And I think in that case I am going to Really Not bother with the other two; I've now finished Predators' Gold and I am So Cross about the "haha the endangering of the lives of hundreds is completely acceptable stop fussing" handwaving that it is probably for the best that I don't.

[rydra_wong]

*flappy hands*

I have CLIMBED columnar jointing!!! It was great!

There's a diagonal patch of it on Carreg Wastad in North Wales, on this route: https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/c.php?i=1721

I hadn't realised about the concave-and-convex ball-joint horizontal fractures

OH YES. Which means that some of the columns break across, but sit in place (mostly), and ... wobble. So the last pitch of this route has the best holds you could want, but a lot of them MOVE. Which adds excitement.

[kaberett]

:D

(I recommended Free Solo to my small cousin, not having yet watched it, because she has a gentleman friend who likes climbing and she likes watching films with people...)

[rydra_wong]

:D

I geek out about climbing on different rock types, because they demand such different movements and climbing styles; you learn different thing from each one. Basalt climbing at Dumbarton is very interesting, and it actually illuminates how Dave MacLeod (top climber who started out at Dumbarton and climbed there obsessively for ages) developed his particular style and strengths.

(I recommended Free Solo to my small cousin, not having yet watched it, because she has a gentleman friend who likes climbing and she likes watching films with people...)

This seems like an excellent rec! It is a really really good film about climbing, which is totally accessible to non-climbers (and being enjoyed by many many non-climbers) while not coming across to climbers as if it's over-simplifying/patronizing*. Which is a hard trick to pull off.

There's also a thing which I feel with both this and The Dawn Wall, where -- mainstream representation of climbing and climbers tends to be stuff like Cliffhanger or the soloing in Mission Impossible, which is hilariously/cringe-inducingly WRONG. As is the case for most niche interests, I suspect.

Whereas Honnold and Caldwell -- these are our dudes! This is what some of the greatest living climbers actually look like, the gangly spectrum-y dude with the unusually chill amygdala who mostly communicates in Valleyspeak, and his friend the scrawny nerdy self-described "dyslexic and clumsy late bloomer" with the considerable amount of backstory. They are excellent people! We can be proud to have them as our representatives, and delighted to see them being appreciated by the wider world!

{*Barring a couple of moments of over-simplification, which I will grudgingly allow them for narrative purposes.}

[kaberett]

Yes! My baby brother does a certain amount of semi-serious climbing (he lives in Bristol, he goes on climbing holidays, it's not his job but he is considering the merits of at some point quitting the job and opening a climbing wall), one of my exes did a bunch of similarly semi-serious climbing, so I've got a degree of appreciation from that angle that possibly isn't actually obvious to you (and also I had the kind of childhood that did involve messing around climbing walls a bit); most of my experience with How Do Different Rocks Behave For Moving Around On is very much in a context of hiking (and fieldwork) rather than in a context of climbing but is definitely a thing I nerd about. ;)

[rydra_wong]

so I've got a degree of appreciation from that angle that possibly isn't actually obvious to you (and also I had the kind of childhood that did involve messing around climbing walls a bit)

Aha, you are correct, I did not know that context.

most of my experience with How Do Different Rocks Behave For Moving Around On is very much in a context of hiking (and fieldwork) rather than in a context of climbing but is definitely a thing I nerd about. ;)

Yes! So you will understand that how different rocks behave for moving around on them vertically is very worthy of nerding about!

This is why I am part-time in the Peak District, because of the GRITSTONE, which is IMHO the most interesting rock to climb on (gritstone has a very different opinion to other rock types about what constitutes a "hold").

I have issues with limestone partly because it has actual holds on and I tend to feel that's cheating.

It was very pleasing to climb on the basalt and go OH, this is why Dave MacLeod is so good at big powerful reaches combined with very precise controlled footwork.

[davidgillon]

Ooh, HMS Caroline. Let's just say I didn't need the history section on the website!

[sebenikela]

I love leverage but yeah that episode is.... Not how anything works.

Also the one with the big ag conglomerate Parker breaks into, there's a moment where the Bad Guy lady is like "I have a PhD in Agronomy from STANFORD" and every time I have to yell STANFORD DOESN'T HAVE AN AGRONOMY DEPARTMENT because oh my god.

The wheat blight they talk about in that one is a real thing though at least.

[kaberett]

ha yes. <3

[recessional]

I want someone to redo Leverage with better Things Work Like This levels, because like I WANT to love it! So much about it is what I love! And my standards aren't IMPOSSIBLY high: I love the Oceans franchise!

But the Doylistic problems of "no. No that doesn't - no." are just beyond my ability to handle while the show insists that Everyone Is The Bestest. Sigh.

[sebenikela]

I guess I just have a pretty high "eh whatever /handwave" tolerance for most stuff? And also a pretty comprehensive LACK of knowledge about some of the more relevant things like how fights should look. So I can just go "yeah whatever" at the details and enjoy the found family goodness and etc. The commentaries on the DVDs are pretty interesting in part because the writers straight up say "oh yeah, we bullshitted that part" for some stuff.

[recessional]

Which is totally fair! In case that wasn't clear. I am actually lamenting, because it is clear there is so much that could give joy, and even that could give ME joy, except that I keep being distracted by no Eliot he just shot you what are you doing ELIOT WHY DID YOU LEAVE COVER WHY WOU - omg writers please stahp.

It's actually kind of a PITA. (I'd also rather they made the LEOs less Cartoonishly Incompetent - like you can actually keep real-world incompetence involved! but that kind doesn't work like THAT.)

Which is why I lament over it. And make elaborate crossovers like where Simon and River Tam are adopted by the Leverage Crew before they ever meet Reynolds.

[jedusor]

I watched the hockey episode of Leverage and was so deeply furious at how pointlessly incorrect it was about everything that I refuse to watch any other episodes. (it was wrong about hockey but it was also wrong about BASIC MATH. you cannot write a plot about a best-of-seven series relying on the fact of the seventh game being played! this is not complex sports knowledge, it is COUNTING TO FOUR. GRRRRGHFGH)