vital functions
Jan. 19th, 2020 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettReading. Fire and Hemlock, Diana Wynne Jones. Further explanation of what was even going on has been very kindly provided, and I've been rereading the last couple of chapters and letting it all slot into place!
Watching. More She-Ra. They all still need a lot of therapy. I am enjoying watching it, but in the way where a lot of my reactions are picking holes in worldbuilding: shit like "okay but WHY don't Bow's dads care about the fighting given what the Horde is doing to civilians" and "WHY is Mermista hiding in a bathtub instead of looking after her citizens" and "but WHY is the Princess Alliance called the 'Rebellion' when as far as I can tell they control vastly more territory than the Horde" and also "WHY are Adora and Glimmer doing SO BADLY at talking to each other". We are clearly accelerating towards Revelations and Conclusions, though, having just had episode 8 of season 4.
Listening. DEATH TO THE MECHANISMS, twice: once, in person, on Saturday night; piecemeal, the livestream, on Sunday. ("Your First Mate" -- my HEART.) A little way into their first set on the Saturday I really properly actually realised that That's It, That's The Mechs Content, There Isn't Going To Be Any More, If I Want More I'm Going To Have To Dust Off My Best Jonny Voice And Write It Myself. And -- it has been so strange having so many TMA fans present for this-the-end, just beginning to get into them, while I was hanging out near the front of the stage with friends who were in the living room where a lot of OUAT...IS got written, and ended up in a hugpile with a Mechanism as they came off stage, and -- good grief it's just been a lot of my life, has this band.
Relatedly: we're now up to episode 7 of The Magnus Archives. So far I'm... really not getting much creepy out of it, which in some senses is good because I'm not really a horror person, and in other senses means I'm waiting somewhat impatiently for The Plot to start happening so's I can get invested.
Cooking. Experimental proof-of-concept churros! Because I was, on Wednesday, having the kind of bad brain day that results in omelette & chips & salad & profiteroles, and at the point at which I had a pan of hot oil and slightly more choux pastry than sensibly fit on my baking sheet. I'd decided I wanted to give piping another go, but used the same bag-and-nozzle set-up as I had for the profiterole, i.e. Quite Large. This meant that the churros were gooey in the middle, in a way that A was extremely keen on.
Profiteroles: a serious levelling up! I... continue to trust the Leiths cookbooks. I am not yet at a point where I believe in my ability to pipe whipped cream into them, but I'm Extremely pleased with the improvement.
Preparatory, more than cooking, but: one friend invited me & another friend to go pick their olives, and we ended up with 5kg that we then parcelled them out; over the past couple of days I have cleaned, picked over, and otherwise prepared 2.3kg of tiny olives and got them into brine. There's another ~200g of Rather Larger ones, but they can start happening... later. Possibly while I'm procrastinating tomorrow.
Eating. Bisha restaurant! Eritrean food a few doors down from Nambucca, where we saw the Mechs. Lots of familiar food, and also a mushroom thing and a beetroot thing and a green lentil thing I'd never had before, all of which I was Very Into.
Growing. Headlines first: treated the lemon with pesticide on Friday; no more leaf drop since, as far as I can tell. Fingers crossed that the recovery continues.
I made it to the plot once (hurrah!), whereupon I fed the bin and did abitlot more weeding and came to some conclusions about the sensible way to deal with the Current Architectural Issue (the answer being "I know you don't wanna but cut down the remaining leg also, resoak the end in wood treatment, and then level/fill in holes/etc"). Garlic and shallots continue enthusiastic, which is very pleasing.
At home: one of my comedy onions is actually growing roots with sufficient enthusiasm that it has pushed itself out of the potting medium, unlike its siblings, all of which are staying put. I am delighted by its Enthusiastic Legs, even as I'm somewhat concerned for it.
As mentioned, I also sowed some Augusta onions last week, which aren't doing anything much visible yet. In the warm plant box, I have got Passiflora edulis, one chilli, and two types of bell pepper (hopefully) started: one or two of the chilli seeds look to be thinking abouthatchinggerminating, but all else (one broad bean aside) is fairly quiet.
Playing. Another week in which I have managed to play At Least One Note every day on the horn!
I have also completed my first playthrough of the main game of Portal 2, which is to say that I have been dumped by my Murderous Potato Girlfriend :(
I continued to enjoy the thing; I continue to hate launching myself into endless voids; I was Very Cross about the claimed toxicity of lunar rocks and have a lot of opinions about the extent to which it appears that the portal technology relies on felsic (high-silica) materials. (Which in turn means that there are much easier ways to render a surface portal-compatible than using VERY RARE AND EXPENSIVE AND HARD-TO-OBTAIN SAMPLES, but there we go, clearly they worked this out eventually, grumble grumble plot.)
Co-op mode: coming up.
Poking. I have been Very Pleased by the new Pokémon various, and also by hatching a 100% IV Tepig.
Watching. More She-Ra. They all still need a lot of therapy. I am enjoying watching it, but in the way where a lot of my reactions are picking holes in worldbuilding: shit like "okay but WHY don't Bow's dads care about the fighting given what the Horde is doing to civilians" and "WHY is Mermista hiding in a bathtub instead of looking after her citizens" and "but WHY is the Princess Alliance called the 'Rebellion' when as far as I can tell they control vastly more territory than the Horde" and also "WHY are Adora and Glimmer doing SO BADLY at talking to each other". We are clearly accelerating towards Revelations and Conclusions, though, having just had episode 8 of season 4.
Listening. DEATH TO THE MECHANISMS, twice: once, in person, on Saturday night; piecemeal, the livestream, on Sunday. ("Your First Mate" -- my HEART.) A little way into their first set on the Saturday I really properly actually realised that That's It, That's The Mechs Content, There Isn't Going To Be Any More, If I Want More I'm Going To Have To Dust Off My Best Jonny Voice And Write It Myself. And -- it has been so strange having so many TMA fans present for this-the-end, just beginning to get into them, while I was hanging out near the front of the stage with friends who were in the living room where a lot of OUAT...IS got written, and ended up in a hugpile with a Mechanism as they came off stage, and -- good grief it's just been a lot of my life, has this band.
Relatedly: we're now up to episode 7 of The Magnus Archives. So far I'm... really not getting much creepy out of it, which in some senses is good because I'm not really a horror person, and in other senses means I'm waiting somewhat impatiently for The Plot to start happening so's I can get invested.
Cooking. Experimental proof-of-concept churros! Because I was, on Wednesday, having the kind of bad brain day that results in omelette & chips & salad & profiteroles, and at the point at which I had a pan of hot oil and slightly more choux pastry than sensibly fit on my baking sheet. I'd decided I wanted to give piping another go, but used the same bag-and-nozzle set-up as I had for the profiterole, i.e. Quite Large. This meant that the churros were gooey in the middle, in a way that A was extremely keen on.
Profiteroles: a serious levelling up! I... continue to trust the Leiths cookbooks. I am not yet at a point where I believe in my ability to pipe whipped cream into them, but I'm Extremely pleased with the improvement.
Preparatory, more than cooking, but: one friend invited me & another friend to go pick their olives, and we ended up with 5kg that we then parcelled them out; over the past couple of days I have cleaned, picked over, and otherwise prepared 2.3kg of tiny olives and got them into brine. There's another ~200g of Rather Larger ones, but they can start happening... later. Possibly while I'm procrastinating tomorrow.
Eating. Bisha restaurant! Eritrean food a few doors down from Nambucca, where we saw the Mechs. Lots of familiar food, and also a mushroom thing and a beetroot thing and a green lentil thing I'd never had before, all of which I was Very Into.
Growing. Headlines first: treated the lemon with pesticide on Friday; no more leaf drop since, as far as I can tell. Fingers crossed that the recovery continues.
I made it to the plot once (hurrah!), whereupon I fed the bin and did a
At home: one of my comedy onions is actually growing roots with sufficient enthusiasm that it has pushed itself out of the potting medium, unlike its siblings, all of which are staying put. I am delighted by its Enthusiastic Legs, even as I'm somewhat concerned for it.
As mentioned, I also sowed some Augusta onions last week, which aren't doing anything much visible yet. In the warm plant box, I have got Passiflora edulis, one chilli, and two types of bell pepper (hopefully) started: one or two of the chilli seeds look to be thinking about
Playing. Another week in which I have managed to play At Least One Note every day on the horn!
I have also completed my first playthrough of the main game of Portal 2, which is to say that I have been dumped by my Murderous Potato Girlfriend :(
I continued to enjoy the thing; I continue to hate launching myself into endless voids; I was Very Cross about the claimed toxicity of lunar rocks and have a lot of opinions about the extent to which it appears that the portal technology relies on felsic (high-silica) materials. (Which in turn means that there are much easier ways to render a surface portal-compatible than using VERY RARE AND EXPENSIVE AND HARD-TO-OBTAIN SAMPLES, but there we go, clearly they worked this out eventually, grumble grumble plot.)
Co-op mode: coming up.
Poking. I have been Very Pleased by the new Pokémon various, and also by hatching a 100% IV Tepig.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-19 11:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-24 09:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-20 12:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-20 08:58 am (UTC)*nods respectfully*
I hope it was a good Death.
(And that it wasn't too weird/intrusive having so many new Mechs-fans-via-Magnus there.)
Relatedly: we're now up to episode 7 of The Magnus Archives. So far I'm... really not getting much creepy out of it, which in some senses is good because I'm not really a horror person, and in other senses means I'm waiting somewhat impatiently for The Plot to start happening so's I can get invested.
To steal someone else's line: THE PLOT WAS STANDING BEHIND YOU THE ENTIRE TIME.
With hindsight, a huge amount of plot and worldbuilding stuff is being set up in these early eps, you just don't know it. It'll be a while more before Plot visibly breaches the surface of the water and you go OH! PLOT!!!, but the build-up means that when you start seeing it, it's amazing.
In the meantime, enjoy listening to this grumpy arsehole refusing to believe in things and being rude about one of his subordinates.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-31 04:27 pm (UTC)It was, and for bonus points I ended up in a hugpile with a stripping Mech as
To steal someone else's line: THE PLOT WAS STANDING BEHIND YOU THE ENTIRE TIME.
I have read enough spoilers that I'm picking up on some of the plot, yes. :-p
I'm a little bit "Jon, if you don't believe in ANYTHING why are you DOING this job"
(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-31 05:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-20 02:34 pm (UTC)Sounds like good PR.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-20 05:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-20 05:49 pm (UTC)Oooh, where are you up to?
(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-20 05:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-01-20 07:32 pm (UTC)