vital functions
Oct. 27th, 2019 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettReading. Very little for pleasure. I did get started on A Handful of Flour, a Shipton Mill book I picked up from the bargain bin in a supermarket a couple of years ago, on the occasion of getting 51kg of their flour delivered to me.
Watching. The Blue Planet: Dive to Shark Volcano. This, also, is suffering from fundamentally not being David Attenborough, but was sort of charming in that it was basically Mike deGruy getting to cut together a bunch of footage of him being really excited about all the kit (i.e. toys) and fish (i.e. fish) he got to use around Cocos Island. The goal was to film seven shark species in seven days, which they didn't manage, but still: charming. Unlike the previous special episode, which was very Doom!!!! Foreboding!!!! SUSPENSE!!!! this was... "we're super excited about sharks so let's play SHARK TOP TRUMPS". ("What we're going to do now: FIND SOME SHARKS.")
The daytime filming of the reef whitetips was extremely reminiscent of chasing pigeons, but for incredibly high-tech grown-ups. They spend daylight hours basking on sand between reefs and getting cleaned by wee fish; at night they are accorded DANGER FACTOR: 5 because they are JEKYLL AND HYDE i.e. at night they're actually active and, you know, feed, and stuff.
Not a shark: GARDEN EELS that WAVE AROUND, Heterocongrinae, 10/10, would recommend, deGruy was DELIGHTED about doing them a THREATEN so that they all RETRACTED.
Also Not A Shark: they were going for hammerheads (DANGER FACTOR: 6), and actually found marble ray and some Tang fish doing Sex Things, and thus in spite of A Long Day stuck around to... observe... the Sex Things. ("FISH DOGGING," interjected B, emphatically & repeatedly. "IT'S... BASICALLY FISH DOGGING. THAT'S... WHAT IS GOING ON HERE.")
Following on from which I was rather surprised that the silvertip sharks (DANGER FACTOR: 7) in Unexpectedly Shallow Water weren't there for A Sex Thing but were, instead, present for Getting A Valet Service From The Fish, specifically, the wrasse. Which I was entertained by because C had, the previous evening, played "rasse" in Scrabble, which turns out to be Not A Fish But A Civet, but also because there's a really charming blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of a wrasse nibbling its way up to deGruy all "do... you need a clean? are you for cleaning? is that why you're here and standing still? you're standing still you must... want... a clean... but hOW CLEAN".
Hammerheads did make an appearance, eventually, and were once again being cleaned! Because Cocos Island: Shark Service Station, apparently. Their cleaner species are king angelfish; what I hadn't known (& therefore learned!) is that their heads are That Shape because! Of fluid dynamics! It massively increases manoeuverability! See also: head-fins on experimental planes.
Two other sharks were observed, silkies (eating a bait ball, footage very much appeared in the main series) and blacktips (which weren't really doing anything of note).
Shark Not-Appearing-In-This-Feature (DANGER FACTOR: UNKNOWN) was Odontaspis ferox, maybe, which they'd heard Rumours was showing up in the deep, but which was not inclined to make an appearance for the cameras.
This wasn't the shark volcano I was expecting but it was super charming, I was super charmed, I learned some things, I'm very glad to have watched, Good Sharks Well Done. Next up in terms of nature documentaries is probably March of the Penguins, following which we'll get started on Planet Earth.
Cooking. Another iteration of the pear-and-hazelnut crumble, this time with cardamom & cinnamon instead of cardamom & vanilla. Several more things containing fennel seeds (I have so many fennel seeds): squash-pepper-basil-shallot pasta (+ chilli), sweet potato & peanut curry, probably something else.
Creating. C got me a (botanical, Kew-branded) colouring book; B got me watercolour pencils that aren't so nice I'm scared to use them. For bonus points, as I think I've mentioned, the colouring book was half done already by a previous owner (who copied the example images extremely exactly within the limits of their palette), which means I'm not even scared of ruining it. I have consequently spent some of the past couple of days very contentedly Quietly Colouring In & it's been pretty great.
Playing. 1x Scrabble, in which I learn that "yu" is a word for jade; 1x Splendor, in which I exhibited identifiable strategy & therefore via (1) some luck and (2) Adam's failure to pay attention, I actually won. :D (We all three of us scored 16, but I had fewest cards by Some Margin.) And then bonus extra Splendor (plus baby!) on Sunday afternoon.
Poking. Most excited about the Golett I got from field research; secondarily excited about having actually got my act together to get the current raid legendary. New species: Pansear only (I think), from a hatch. Also acquired: 100% Venonat (Team GO Rocket), 100% Sableye (field research), spoopy starter Pokémon various.
Watching. The Blue Planet: Dive to Shark Volcano. This, also, is suffering from fundamentally not being David Attenborough, but was sort of charming in that it was basically Mike deGruy getting to cut together a bunch of footage of him being really excited about all the kit (i.e. toys) and fish (i.e. fish) he got to use around Cocos Island. The goal was to film seven shark species in seven days, which they didn't manage, but still: charming. Unlike the previous special episode, which was very Doom!!!! Foreboding!!!! SUSPENSE!!!! this was... "we're super excited about sharks so let's play SHARK TOP TRUMPS". ("What we're going to do now: FIND SOME SHARKS.")
The daytime filming of the reef whitetips was extremely reminiscent of chasing pigeons, but for incredibly high-tech grown-ups. They spend daylight hours basking on sand between reefs and getting cleaned by wee fish; at night they are accorded DANGER FACTOR: 5 because they are JEKYLL AND HYDE i.e. at night they're actually active and, you know, feed, and stuff.
Not a shark: GARDEN EELS that WAVE AROUND, Heterocongrinae, 10/10, would recommend, deGruy was DELIGHTED about doing them a THREATEN so that they all RETRACTED.
Also Not A Shark: they were going for hammerheads (DANGER FACTOR: 6), and actually found marble ray and some Tang fish doing Sex Things, and thus in spite of A Long Day stuck around to... observe... the Sex Things. ("FISH DOGGING," interjected B, emphatically & repeatedly. "IT'S... BASICALLY FISH DOGGING. THAT'S... WHAT IS GOING ON HERE.")
Following on from which I was rather surprised that the silvertip sharks (DANGER FACTOR: 7) in Unexpectedly Shallow Water weren't there for A Sex Thing but were, instead, present for Getting A Valet Service From The Fish, specifically, the wrasse. Which I was entertained by because C had, the previous evening, played "rasse" in Scrabble, which turns out to be Not A Fish But A Civet, but also because there's a really charming blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of a wrasse nibbling its way up to deGruy all "do... you need a clean? are you for cleaning? is that why you're here and standing still? you're standing still you must... want... a clean... but hOW CLEAN".
Hammerheads did make an appearance, eventually, and were once again being cleaned! Because Cocos Island: Shark Service Station, apparently. Their cleaner species are king angelfish; what I hadn't known (& therefore learned!) is that their heads are That Shape because! Of fluid dynamics! It massively increases manoeuverability! See also: head-fins on experimental planes.
Two other sharks were observed, silkies (eating a bait ball, footage very much appeared in the main series) and blacktips (which weren't really doing anything of note).
Shark Not-Appearing-In-This-Feature (DANGER FACTOR: UNKNOWN) was Odontaspis ferox, maybe, which they'd heard Rumours was showing up in the deep, but which was not inclined to make an appearance for the cameras.
This wasn't the shark volcano I was expecting but it was super charming, I was super charmed, I learned some things, I'm very glad to have watched, Good Sharks Well Done. Next up in terms of nature documentaries is probably March of the Penguins, following which we'll get started on Planet Earth.
Cooking. Another iteration of the pear-and-hazelnut crumble, this time with cardamom & cinnamon instead of cardamom & vanilla. Several more things containing fennel seeds (I have so many fennel seeds): squash-pepper-basil-shallot pasta (+ chilli), sweet potato & peanut curry, probably something else.
Creating. C got me a (botanical, Kew-branded) colouring book; B got me watercolour pencils that aren't so nice I'm scared to use them. For bonus points, as I think I've mentioned, the colouring book was half done already by a previous owner (who copied the example images extremely exactly within the limits of their palette), which means I'm not even scared of ruining it. I have consequently spent some of the past couple of days very contentedly Quietly Colouring In & it's been pretty great.
Playing. 1x Scrabble, in which I learn that "yu" is a word for jade; 1x Splendor, in which I exhibited identifiable strategy & therefore via (1) some luck and (2) Adam's failure to pay attention, I actually won. :D (We all three of us scored 16, but I had fewest cards by Some Margin.) And then bonus extra Splendor (plus baby!) on Sunday afternoon.
Poking. Most excited about the Golett I got from field research; secondarily excited about having actually got my act together to get the current raid legendary. New species: Pansear only (I think), from a hatch. Also acquired: 100% Venonat (Team GO Rocket), 100% Sableye (field research), spoopy starter Pokémon various.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-10-28 06:21 am (UTC)The colouring book sounds lovely.