vital functions
May. 17th, 2020 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettReading. Helen Keller! Slowly! The framing of the letters is still very "look at this fascinating specimen" and the letters themselves are still... difficult... in terms of how she talks about herself and how she's clearly been taught to talk about herself, and I'm not sufficiently familiar with the period to really grok how much of this is just How Children Then And There Spoke and how much of it is... well, but also she's a random 9yo writing to a lot of very influential people, apart from the bit where it's not random, so I have my suspicions.
I've been actually managing to close some tabs, containing non-fiction various.
I skimmed through an Amnesty International FutureLearn course on Defending Dignities i.e. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 101, which I found frustrating and discouraging, but the discouraging probably says more about my state of mind than the course. I finished FutureLearn Irish 102, i.e. actually completed the final outstanding composition exercise (edited into my last post), including looking up vocabulary and idiom independently.
Watching. The stork nest cam (Germany). The first five episodes of the new season of She-Ra. I have only needed to pause it to shout at the screen once! I have been a bit cross about physics another couple of times, but. I... definitely have feelings about ways in which people treat each other shittily, especially with conditional acceptance and support and "communication is bad because it's all THEIR fault" and also I'm very fond of them and am obviously going to keep watching and only haven't finished it in one big inhalation because I wanna parcel it out a little more than that. Also: SPACE WOL SPACE WOL SPACE WOL.
Listening. TMA TMA TMA. (I continue intimidated about talking about it in asynch rather than CHAT FLAIL media at least in part because so many of you are thinking so hard about What's Going To Happen and How Does It All Fit Together and while I enjoy reading other people's meta I have inadequacy feelings about producing any. But. Flail to come.)
Relisten: we've now skipped two episodes, Lost Johns' Cave (because me) and Killing Floor (because A). Content notes for caving. Amusingly (ish), on the first listen the point in LJC where I just relaxed all at once and in great relief was the point at which a body wasn't found. For me the horror and suspense was entirely in "no this is stupid and dangerous and THEY'RE GOING TO DIE HORRIBLY" and honestly the fact that they didn't made it all better for me. I... continue to suspect that I'm mostly not having the expected reactions to this show.
Cooking & eating. Largely as discussed yesterday, for notable endeavours.
The pear sorbet goes exactly as well as I'd hoped with the black sesame ice cream and it was a good time. I'm also still finishing up the rice pudding, slowly, and enjoying that a great deal.
There's egg white infusing with basil in the fridge, to turn into meringue, to be eaten with the Treat Strawberries.
Oh! And I made a batch of yoghurt with a seed I'd extracted from some commercial yoghurt and frozen On Delivery. The internet had suggested that the graininess I was getting might be due to culture senescence, with best results achieved with freshest (and definitely less than week-old) starter, and as I'm not eating yoghurt that quickly... the freezer it was. It seems to have worked! There's another portion nestled in a wee tub waiting for me to finish the current lot.
Growing. So much garden.
As I mentioned yesterday: the lemon is growing leaves.
Also at the plot: the broad beans continue flowering; the peas continue FINDING A CLIMBING FRAME; the currants continue swelling up; the shallots and garlic continue merrily; and most of the onion sets are sprouting (!). The Greek Gigantes I planted out mostly seem to have died of slug and the summer squash under their cloche are struggling a bit, but I've given them a feed and I continue to water them, and fingers crossed. (If all else fails I've another of them at home I'm nursing along, plus two more of the seeds for next year, sigh.) In the greenhouse I've got eleven cucumber seedlings thinking about producing true leaves, along with a courgette I really need to think about how to reasonably plant out. Two of the tomato cultivars are starting to produce flower buds, and the various peppers continue growing busily. The spring onions I sowed around the base of the tomatoes in their bed haven't started germinating yet so far as I can tell, but such is life. Also no signs of life from the luffa or the butternut squash, yet.
Infrastructure: I've decided I really do want to move the door of the fruit cage to the in-retrospect-obviously-sensible-all-along place but am DELAYED in so doing because I think I need to order another part (though I'm now second-guessing myself and should double-check whether I can bodge it with what I have, hmm) because I want to order a few other things from the same retailer while I'm paying for shipping anyway and some of them are, most inconsiderately, out of stock. I'm sufficiently keen on said parts that I actually got in touch with customer support and in theory they were supposed to be available again by the end of last week, so, hmm, we'll see what happens come Monday morning. But! I've moved the water butt and finally stuck my plot number on it so as to be clearly visible (as required by regulations, almost two years on); I've propped the grape up along one edge of the fruit cage (having weeded enough to pin down all of it, bar the edge I'm waiting on Dealing With until I've got the door rearranged, unless the fruit ripens up before I get to that point); and I've shuffled around the dead water butt and the Bin Full Of Spare Woodchip to optimise raspberry-growing space.
At home: I've potted up the comedy onions and the one remaining summer squash. I've sown the rest of the Greek Gigantes (after having left the packet out at the allotment to get rained on a few weeks ago, whoops) and a small set of sweetcorn and need to work out how I want to organise more of same, ditto quinoa. Holy basil is coming along sufficiently well that I am considering trying to get the purple variant started. Lovage continues enthusiastic; poppies in with it are starting to grow true leaves; everything else is doing well, with both the strawberry and the blueberry starting to set fruit.
Lots to do. Lots to be enthusiastic about.
Observing. During the exploration of Trent Park we met, as discussed, an oak sawfly larva. It is sort of a very pale white with LOTS OF BLACK SPIKES and it is a Good Friend. Do we want photos? A took a photo and I can Provide.
Playing. PoGo: hatched 98% Feebas and Aerodactyl but little else of note.
A few rounds of Dominion Online.
Still pretty pleased with the noises I'm getting out of the horn. Really need to settle down and do a big heckin' retune of the whole thing.
I've been actually managing to close some tabs, containing non-fiction various.
I skimmed through an Amnesty International FutureLearn course on Defending Dignities i.e. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 101, which I found frustrating and discouraging, but the discouraging probably says more about my state of mind than the course. I finished FutureLearn Irish 102, i.e. actually completed the final outstanding composition exercise (edited into my last post), including looking up vocabulary and idiom independently.
Watching. The stork nest cam (Germany). The first five episodes of the new season of She-Ra. I have only needed to pause it to shout at the screen once! I have been a bit cross about physics another couple of times, but. I... definitely have feelings about ways in which people treat each other shittily, especially with conditional acceptance and support and "communication is bad because it's all THEIR fault" and also I'm very fond of them and am obviously going to keep watching and only haven't finished it in one big inhalation because I wanna parcel it out a little more than that. Also: SPACE WOL SPACE WOL SPACE WOL.
Listening. TMA TMA TMA. (I continue intimidated about talking about it in asynch rather than CHAT FLAIL media at least in part because so many of you are thinking so hard about What's Going To Happen and How Does It All Fit Together and while I enjoy reading other people's meta I have inadequacy feelings about producing any. But. Flail to come.)
Relisten: we've now skipped two episodes, Lost Johns' Cave (because me) and Killing Floor (because A). Content notes for caving. Amusingly (ish), on the first listen the point in LJC where I just relaxed all at once and in great relief was the point at which a body wasn't found. For me the horror and suspense was entirely in "no this is stupid and dangerous and THEY'RE GOING TO DIE HORRIBLY" and honestly the fact that they didn't made it all better for me. I... continue to suspect that I'm mostly not having the expected reactions to this show.
Cooking & eating. Largely as discussed yesterday, for notable endeavours.
The pear sorbet goes exactly as well as I'd hoped with the black sesame ice cream and it was a good time. I'm also still finishing up the rice pudding, slowly, and enjoying that a great deal.
There's egg white infusing with basil in the fridge, to turn into meringue, to be eaten with the Treat Strawberries.
Oh! And I made a batch of yoghurt with a seed I'd extracted from some commercial yoghurt and frozen On Delivery. The internet had suggested that the graininess I was getting might be due to culture senescence, with best results achieved with freshest (and definitely less than week-old) starter, and as I'm not eating yoghurt that quickly... the freezer it was. It seems to have worked! There's another portion nestled in a wee tub waiting for me to finish the current lot.
Growing. So much garden.
As I mentioned yesterday: the lemon is growing leaves.
Also at the plot: the broad beans continue flowering; the peas continue FINDING A CLIMBING FRAME; the currants continue swelling up; the shallots and garlic continue merrily; and most of the onion sets are sprouting (!). The Greek Gigantes I planted out mostly seem to have died of slug and the summer squash under their cloche are struggling a bit, but I've given them a feed and I continue to water them, and fingers crossed. (If all else fails I've another of them at home I'm nursing along, plus two more of the seeds for next year, sigh.) In the greenhouse I've got eleven cucumber seedlings thinking about producing true leaves, along with a courgette I really need to think about how to reasonably plant out. Two of the tomato cultivars are starting to produce flower buds, and the various peppers continue growing busily. The spring onions I sowed around the base of the tomatoes in their bed haven't started germinating yet so far as I can tell, but such is life. Also no signs of life from the luffa or the butternut squash, yet.
Infrastructure: I've decided I really do want to move the door of the fruit cage to the in-retrospect-obviously-sensible-all-along place but am DELAYED in so doing because I think I need to order another part (though I'm now second-guessing myself and should double-check whether I can bodge it with what I have, hmm) because I want to order a few other things from the same retailer while I'm paying for shipping anyway and some of them are, most inconsiderately, out of stock. I'm sufficiently keen on said parts that I actually got in touch with customer support and in theory they were supposed to be available again by the end of last week, so, hmm, we'll see what happens come Monday morning. But! I've moved the water butt and finally stuck my plot number on it so as to be clearly visible (as required by regulations, almost two years on); I've propped the grape up along one edge of the fruit cage (having weeded enough to pin down all of it, bar the edge I'm waiting on Dealing With until I've got the door rearranged, unless the fruit ripens up before I get to that point); and I've shuffled around the dead water butt and the Bin Full Of Spare Woodchip to optimise raspberry-growing space.
At home: I've potted up the comedy onions and the one remaining summer squash. I've sown the rest of the Greek Gigantes (after having left the packet out at the allotment to get rained on a few weeks ago, whoops) and a small set of sweetcorn and need to work out how I want to organise more of same, ditto quinoa. Holy basil is coming along sufficiently well that I am considering trying to get the purple variant started. Lovage continues enthusiastic; poppies in with it are starting to grow true leaves; everything else is doing well, with both the strawberry and the blueberry starting to set fruit.
Lots to do. Lots to be enthusiastic about.
Observing. During the exploration of Trent Park we met, as discussed, an oak sawfly larva. It is sort of a very pale white with LOTS OF BLACK SPIKES and it is a Good Friend. Do we want photos? A took a photo and I can Provide.
Playing. PoGo: hatched 98% Feebas and Aerodactyl but little else of note.
A few rounds of Dominion Online.
Still pretty pleased with the noises I'm getting out of the horn. Really need to settle down and do a big heckin' retune of the whole thing.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-18 02:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-18 07:32 am (UTC)Ha. I have minimal clue what's going to happen; I have some vague ideas about the likely sort of ending, and ways I think it's unlikely to go, but that's it. I look forwards to being surprised.
Honestly, the thing I enjoy listening to most is people flailing about THIS THING!!! or THAT THING they loved! or OMG THE OTHER THING! As long as I have just enough info to be able to work out which thing they're Flailing about, so I can go OMG I KNOW RIGHT???, I'm happy.
Larva Lamp
Date: 2020-05-19 09:48 pm (UTC)Yes please!
(no subject)
Date: 2020-05-20 08:54 pm (UTC)Dominion Online the card/deckbuilding game?
I got introduced to it by a friend who knows how to set up games, but sometimes I’ll go join games, though I keep having to re-learn things because of all the different card sets