vital functions
Jul. 14th, 2019 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettReading. Finished up Testosterone Rex (in a bit of a sprint); I'd have benefitted more from it had I felt abe to Slow Down And Wallow and also follow up all the references, but am v glad to have read it, not least because it's given me concrete rebuttals to a few things and given me a whole bunch of background and new information on others.
I decided I wasn't going to make it through Half of a Yellow Sun (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) before it was due back at the library, and someone else had put a hold on it, so I returned it early and then found a copy for 50p in a charity shop.
The City Born Great (N.K. Jemisin) was also available from the library, but the thing about borrowing ebooks on the basis of who wrote them is that I frequently don't have any idea how long they're going to be, so was a little startled that this turned out to be a short story. I enjoyed it, though.
Similarly, I hadn't realised that Helen Oyeyemi's What Is Yours Is Not Yours was a collection of short stories, but so far I'm very much enjoying the Queer Artists it opens with.
Watching. The Blue Planet, episode 2, The Deep: this largely consisted of them going "here's some footage we got of an animal, isn't it pretty, fuck if we know what any of it's for though". I was, however, pleased by ALVIN'S CAMEO. Hiiiiiii Alvin. Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), brought along by the cousins for Movie Afternoon, on the basis that it is hella gay and also hella polyamorous provided you pay any attention at all to the subtext, which, We Were. Goodness but 3D animation was... in a state of development... fifteen years ago...
(Poss. future films for Movie Afternoon include The Spy Who Dumped Me, for more subtextual polyamorous queers; Fury Road, because godcousin the younger hasn't seen it; Disney Descendants, because apparently it's terrible but the cousins en masse are having A Moment over Uma; Yes or No, a Thai romedy set in an agricultural college. Suggestions cheerfully taken, with a preference for Women and ideally also Queers. In consequence of movie-related discussion we also watched Adam's favourite Fury Road fanvid.)
Rewatch of The Dawn Wall with my baby brother, who's visiting for a few days.
Listening. Medium Smallcousin pointed us all at Getting Ready To Get Down.
Cooking. I am grudgingly coming around to doing the topping of the pineapple upside-down banana bread in a saucepan rather than half-arsing it in the oven. The carrot macarons (1) tasted less of carrot than I'd hoped/intended, while actually being visibly orange so okay; (2) did not work as well as I'd hoped with the marscapone-lemon zest filling; and (3) while My Most Successful Macarons Yet (in terms of shape, overall appearance, etc) have led me to conclude that maybe I really don't actually like macarons very much and I should just use the egg white to make meringue and wafers (for ice cream) instead. Other highlights: I have more things yet to learn about how to introduce ripple to ice cream usefully but I think consensus (at least from Adam) is in favour of the raspberry ripple-apricot & soured cream ice cream, and I'm strongly contemplating saturating the next batch with cardamom; the Kardemummebullar were inhaled enthusiastically and en masse, but I think I've come up with a couple of tweaks to proceedings that will make them Work Better next time (and have actually written them down in the recipe in the hopes of remembering when it comes to the next batch); and I'm improving at soda bread.
Minor downside: the Kenwood stand mixer bowl I bought from a charity shop so that I'd have two without feeling guilty about nicking one from the misc ancestral hoard... is also plastic and of a slightly different era, meaning that it is sufficiently different in shape that I'd have to adjust all my beaters every time I used it. So while the principle of "have two bowls" was sound (one full of cake batter! one full of Italian meringue! and then, eventually, one full of enriched yeast dough, once I'd rinsed it out!) I think I'm going to swap it out with A Closer Match from the garage pile for my own personal use.
Growing. The Cambridge Favourite strawberry is putting out runners! Which I am very pleased about. Also on the patio: the walnut isn't dead yet, the lemon is jubilantly putting out more leaves and flowers both, the tomatoes are becoming more tall, and a second batch of self-seeded parsley is starting to actually establish itself (the first batch having died of wind scorch) alongside an enormously enthusiastic regrowth of mint. There are also... A Lot... of semi-unintentional sunflowers, thanks to the birds; we'll see if they do anything interesting. (Probably I should transplant the most enthusiastic ones from the lemon pot to... somewhere... more sensible...)
I've possibly tentatively worked out what it is I've been doing that's resulted in seedlings sulking and dying off post-germination, but only if they're not suitable for sowing direct, so that... might be progress, and maybe I'll be able to nurse the passion fruit along sufficient that I don't have to resume from start.
At the allotment, an enthusiastic weeding of the redcurrant made it enough easier for the birds to get into the bush that by the time I went back all the proto-currants were no more. Next year's infrastructure project is very definitely a fruit cage (this year's being SORTING OUT THE CARPET, urgh).
Observing. We met a leopard moth! Its antennae were SO GOOD.
At home, the new "squirrel-proof" bird feeders seem to be deterring the birds but not, alas, the squirrels, so that... is a thing to think about. And: the stupid cat came to visit twice, and is staaaaaarting to learn that No Means No.
Poking. Of particular note: a third shiny Aron (so I can now get the entire evolutionary tree, even though none of them are actually any good); a Jynx with perfect IVs from a research task (lolsob), and ditto a Voltorb (which is at least less horrifying). I can solo a Starmie with Hydro Pump (three-head raid boss)... with about a second to spare, once I'd maxed out both a Gengar and a Houndoom.
I decided I wasn't going to make it through Half of a Yellow Sun (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) before it was due back at the library, and someone else had put a hold on it, so I returned it early and then found a copy for 50p in a charity shop.
The City Born Great (N.K. Jemisin) was also available from the library, but the thing about borrowing ebooks on the basis of who wrote them is that I frequently don't have any idea how long they're going to be, so was a little startled that this turned out to be a short story. I enjoyed it, though.
Similarly, I hadn't realised that Helen Oyeyemi's What Is Yours Is Not Yours was a collection of short stories, but so far I'm very much enjoying the Queer Artists it opens with.
Watching. The Blue Planet, episode 2, The Deep: this largely consisted of them going "here's some footage we got of an animal, isn't it pretty, fuck if we know what any of it's for though". I was, however, pleased by ALVIN'S CAMEO. Hiiiiiii Alvin. Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), brought along by the cousins for Movie Afternoon, on the basis that it is hella gay and also hella polyamorous provided you pay any attention at all to the subtext, which, We Were. Goodness but 3D animation was... in a state of development... fifteen years ago...
(Poss. future films for Movie Afternoon include The Spy Who Dumped Me, for more subtextual polyamorous queers; Fury Road, because godcousin the younger hasn't seen it; Disney Descendants, because apparently it's terrible but the cousins en masse are having A Moment over Uma; Yes or No, a Thai romedy set in an agricultural college. Suggestions cheerfully taken, with a preference for Women and ideally also Queers. In consequence of movie-related discussion we also watched Adam's favourite Fury Road fanvid.)
Rewatch of The Dawn Wall with my baby brother, who's visiting for a few days.
Listening. Medium Smallcousin pointed us all at Getting Ready To Get Down.
Cooking. I am grudgingly coming around to doing the topping of the pineapple upside-down banana bread in a saucepan rather than half-arsing it in the oven. The carrot macarons (1) tasted less of carrot than I'd hoped/intended, while actually being visibly orange so okay; (2) did not work as well as I'd hoped with the marscapone-lemon zest filling; and (3) while My Most Successful Macarons Yet (in terms of shape, overall appearance, etc) have led me to conclude that maybe I really don't actually like macarons very much and I should just use the egg white to make meringue and wafers (for ice cream) instead. Other highlights: I have more things yet to learn about how to introduce ripple to ice cream usefully but I think consensus (at least from Adam) is in favour of the raspberry ripple-apricot & soured cream ice cream, and I'm strongly contemplating saturating the next batch with cardamom; the Kardemummebullar were inhaled enthusiastically and en masse, but I think I've come up with a couple of tweaks to proceedings that will make them Work Better next time (and have actually written them down in the recipe in the hopes of remembering when it comes to the next batch); and I'm improving at soda bread.
Minor downside: the Kenwood stand mixer bowl I bought from a charity shop so that I'd have two without feeling guilty about nicking one from the misc ancestral hoard... is also plastic and of a slightly different era, meaning that it is sufficiently different in shape that I'd have to adjust all my beaters every time I used it. So while the principle of "have two bowls" was sound (one full of cake batter! one full of Italian meringue! and then, eventually, one full of enriched yeast dough, once I'd rinsed it out!) I think I'm going to swap it out with A Closer Match from the garage pile for my own personal use.
Growing. The Cambridge Favourite strawberry is putting out runners! Which I am very pleased about. Also on the patio: the walnut isn't dead yet, the lemon is jubilantly putting out more leaves and flowers both, the tomatoes are becoming more tall, and a second batch of self-seeded parsley is starting to actually establish itself (the first batch having died of wind scorch) alongside an enormously enthusiastic regrowth of mint. There are also... A Lot... of semi-unintentional sunflowers, thanks to the birds; we'll see if they do anything interesting. (Probably I should transplant the most enthusiastic ones from the lemon pot to... somewhere... more sensible...)
I've possibly tentatively worked out what it is I've been doing that's resulted in seedlings sulking and dying off post-germination, but only if they're not suitable for sowing direct, so that... might be progress, and maybe I'll be able to nurse the passion fruit along sufficient that I don't have to resume from start.
At the allotment, an enthusiastic weeding of the redcurrant made it enough easier for the birds to get into the bush that by the time I went back all the proto-currants were no more. Next year's infrastructure project is very definitely a fruit cage (this year's being SORTING OUT THE CARPET, urgh).
Observing. We met a leopard moth! Its antennae were SO GOOD.
At home, the new "squirrel-proof" bird feeders seem to be deterring the birds but not, alas, the squirrels, so that... is a thing to think about. And: the stupid cat came to visit twice, and is staaaaaarting to learn that No Means No.
Poking. Of particular note: a third shiny Aron (so I can now get the entire evolutionary tree, even though none of them are actually any good); a Jynx with perfect IVs from a research task (lolsob), and ditto a Voltorb (which is at least less horrifying). I can solo a Starmie with Hydro Pump (three-head raid boss)... with about a second to spare, once I'd maxed out both a Gengar and a Houndoom.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-14 08:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-14 08:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-14 10:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-15 02:29 am (UTC)I still need to watch Fury Road myself; for some reason my upbringing left me irrationally wary of R rated films, despite having seen a handful at this point.
I wasn't sure what to expect for the song, and was half-expecting something very different, but I do like it, and I'm inclined to maintain that "get down" isn't *purely* the uh, innuendo there...?
...at the last macaron update I was still up in the air about whether they were the French kind or the coconut kind (aka macaroons). I don't even think your usage disagreed with my preferred unambiguous use, I just got it into my brain that carrot-coconut cookies would be interesting. Bummer about the bowl.
The gardening news sounds nice/hopeful/unfortunate, in its varied parts. ;) I have only eaten red currants a couple of times; I've come across a couple u-pick farms in online listings, but the local one seemed to be closed, and the one we were sort of near on vacation, we didn't get to.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-15 07:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-15 03:16 am (UTC)She's working on the novel version. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-15 07:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-15 05:46 am (UTC)*(except australia, where they apparently get brushtail possums instead)
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-15 08:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-15 12:45 pm (UTC)Oooh, thank you!
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-15 02:29 pm (UTC)2. I have the first book of an N.K. Jemisin trilogy sitting on my shelf on semi-permanent loan from my brother-in-law, as well as another African fantasy book and I'm like "in theory these are totally my jam, but oh dear they require more Brain than I have right now" so perhaps I should hunt down short stories instead...
3. The "Poking" section confused the everloving shit out of me until I realized it was Pokemon Go. (it's Monday morning, I'm slow...)
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-15 05:55 pm (UTC)I have seen it and VERY much wish to show my cousins it.