vital functions
Jul. 12th, 2020 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettReading. Rosewater, Tade Thompson. A near-future high-tech exploration of biologically-mediated telepathy-with-consistent-constraints, in which almost everyone is at least a little bit cyborg. I was very much Here For the worldbuilding, and simultaneously put off by the Very Heterosexual Dude first-person point-of-view. (Is it cheating if you're only having sex with a mysterious-but-beautiful stranger in the shared consciousness, rather than in the flesh? we just don't know. for a lot of the book, anyway.) Be warned that as of 2066 there is still significant lethal violence aimed at queer people, and there's one graphic on-page misogynist revenge killing. I will probably come back for the sequels but I'm definitely going to give myself a bit of a break. I note that I'm pretty sure I was reading the 2018 reissue -- it appears to have been published twice, first in 2016 and then again in 2018 with some amendments -- and this perhaps goes some way toward explaining how out-of-nowhere the final chapter or so felt. (Which I was... definitely squinting at from a disability-rights perspective, but am still digesting.)
Persuasion, Jane Austen, as recently discussed, which I am enjoying a very great deal.
Watching. The Matrix, because A had a craving. My goodness but it had been a small age since I watched this, and I'd completely forgotten a... lot... of the thematic parallels. Humans-as-batteries! Reincarnation! Weird Reality-Bending Superpowers (feat. BEES)! People Moving Faster Than Is Humanly Possible! Found Family On A Spaceship! Important Jumping Off Buildings That Doesn't End The Way You Might Reasonably Expect! Explaining How The World Really Works Under Unfortunate Circumstances And Time Pressure! ETHICAL CHOICES BY ORDINARY PEOPLE, or at least, people who think they're ordinary.
Listening. TMA(AAAAAAAH). JON STOP APOLOGISING TO MARTIN, I yell, shaking my fist at the sky.
Relisten: episode 53. I continue to have a lot of feelings about the cavalry veteran.
Playing. Stumblehill. You've all heard about being a horrible goose; here's your chance to be a shit penguin. A & I played this cooperatively, in a way that was never intended, as we did with Untitled Goose Game. The premise: you're a rubbish genderqueer penguin who keeps falling over, and you're trying to climb a mountain. With UGG I was directions and A was picking things up/flapping wings/etc, and with this I was jumping and object manipulation while A was directions. Probably we'd not have completed (A) or started (me) it without playing cooperatively, but given that we were we giggled at it a lot. I was mildly irritated that your character appears to cry every time they go donk against something (especially given that some tasks require that you go donk), but -- yeah, overall we had fun.
Horn: I definitely still have a face that contains muscles.
PoGo: a second shiny Drifloon, and a 100% Snivy! Both research rewards, thank you kindly. (why don't i get small sparkly friends to take home in exchange for ACTUAL research i ask you) New species: Genesect! (Also a research reward.) I am... extremely dubious about Jesse and James, though I will allow that I'm a fan of HOT AIR BALLOONS.
Cooking. Oh gosh such things. Another Ribiselkuchen, this time with hazelnut because I remembered, which we're most of the way through. A batch of Kardemummebullar, at the request of some COUSINS, who got sent away with most of them. My first essay at gooseberry fool, only I didn't bother stewing the gooseberries with sugar as they're sweet enough to eat straight off the bush: topped and tailed, cut in half, served with cream whipped with a little vanilla sugar. There's probably enough of them to do it again, and we're intending to.
Also jostaberry jam, which I am looking forward intently to sampling in greater depth than "licking the spoon on the way to the washing-up", but I want to finish our existing jams first, or at least the open ones.
Eating. More blackberries! More mysterious hybrid-berries! and A TINY PURPLE CHILLI, because I wanted to check if they were chillis, so I... ate one. in the greenhouse. despite knowing perfectly well that they were advertised as very hot. This was A Choice That I Made.
Making & mending. Oh gosh we have been doing a lot of tidying this week -- but possibly Most Interestingly, A very kindly did the power-tools bits of wrangling a raised bed into its final form such that I could fill it in at last, which I'd been avoidant about for months. But it is DONE.
I have also gathered myself a goodly quantity of dead raspberry canes from seasons past, and have consequently substantially reinforced the pea climbing frame (and also given some of the beans something to climb while the maize gets properly going).
I have not sawn up any more pallets. That is perhaps a job for this week.
Growing. At home: more blueberries are coming ripe! The patio cucumber is considering setting fruit! I... think the thing that's wrong with the basils might be powdery mildew? So I'm misting them with a weak milk solution and we'll see if they perk up.
At the plot: oh good grief so many tomatoes (still none of them ripe, natch). Baby brassica continue being Eaten; I am advised that the culprit might very well be The Pigeons. Multiple tiny peppers in the greenhouse, now, and some of the chillis are starting to change colour. The bin is sturdily eating away, but happily did not actually manage to digest the tool I dumped in unthinkingly before I hoicked it back out a few days later.
I have got some quinoa and some root veg actually into the ground; fingers crossed any of them will take. (I have been bad at watering them reliably at home, so many of the seedlings shrivelled up and died, alas.)
I am done with the jostaberry harvest, or at least, I've got them all home and need to decide what to do with them -- A thinks it is too warm for crumble but I'm running out of freezer space, so while some of them will get frozen the rest might yet find themselves destined for More Jam. We shall see.
The beans various are starting to flower; the self-seeded fennel are doing very well, thank you; and the maize continue getting visibly bigger, which is nice. Loofa are also very bravely ascending their various supports, though not yet producing flowers. We trundle along.
Observing. TWO BAT TWO BAT TWO BAT AT ONCE. Excellent treat this evening Yes Thank You.
I have not further disarrayed the Fake Snakes; I've been enjoying the parakeets and misc. other birds, and also the Back Garden Fox. Mostly, though, I am Excited about Bats.
Persuasion, Jane Austen, as recently discussed, which I am enjoying a very great deal.
Watching. The Matrix, because A had a craving. My goodness but it had been a small age since I watched this, and I'd completely forgotten a... lot... of the thematic parallels. Humans-as-batteries! Reincarnation! Weird Reality-Bending Superpowers (feat. BEES)! People Moving Faster Than Is Humanly Possible! Found Family On A Spaceship! Important Jumping Off Buildings That Doesn't End The Way You Might Reasonably Expect! Explaining How The World Really Works Under Unfortunate Circumstances And Time Pressure! ETHICAL CHOICES BY ORDINARY PEOPLE, or at least, people who think they're ordinary.
Listening. TMA(AAAAAAAH). JON STOP APOLOGISING TO MARTIN, I yell, shaking my fist at the sky.
Relisten: episode 53. I continue to have a lot of feelings about the cavalry veteran.
Playing. Stumblehill. You've all heard about being a horrible goose; here's your chance to be a shit penguin. A & I played this cooperatively, in a way that was never intended, as we did with Untitled Goose Game. The premise: you're a rubbish genderqueer penguin who keeps falling over, and you're trying to climb a mountain. With UGG I was directions and A was picking things up/flapping wings/etc, and with this I was jumping and object manipulation while A was directions. Probably we'd not have completed (A) or started (me) it without playing cooperatively, but given that we were we giggled at it a lot. I was mildly irritated that your character appears to cry every time they go donk against something (especially given that some tasks require that you go donk), but -- yeah, overall we had fun.
Horn: I definitely still have a face that contains muscles.
PoGo: a second shiny Drifloon, and a 100% Snivy! Both research rewards, thank you kindly. (why don't i get small sparkly friends to take home in exchange for ACTUAL research i ask you) New species: Genesect! (Also a research reward.) I am... extremely dubious about Jesse and James, though I will allow that I'm a fan of HOT AIR BALLOONS.
Cooking. Oh gosh such things. Another Ribiselkuchen, this time with hazelnut because I remembered, which we're most of the way through. A batch of Kardemummebullar, at the request of some COUSINS, who got sent away with most of them. My first essay at gooseberry fool, only I didn't bother stewing the gooseberries with sugar as they're sweet enough to eat straight off the bush: topped and tailed, cut in half, served with cream whipped with a little vanilla sugar. There's probably enough of them to do it again, and we're intending to.
Also jostaberry jam, which I am looking forward intently to sampling in greater depth than "licking the spoon on the way to the washing-up", but I want to finish our existing jams first, or at least the open ones.
Eating. More blackberries! More mysterious hybrid-berries! and A TINY PURPLE CHILLI, because I wanted to check if they were chillis, so I... ate one. in the greenhouse. despite knowing perfectly well that they were advertised as very hot. This was A Choice That I Made.
Making & mending. Oh gosh we have been doing a lot of tidying this week -- but possibly Most Interestingly, A very kindly did the power-tools bits of wrangling a raised bed into its final form such that I could fill it in at last, which I'd been avoidant about for months. But it is DONE.
I have also gathered myself a goodly quantity of dead raspberry canes from seasons past, and have consequently substantially reinforced the pea climbing frame (and also given some of the beans something to climb while the maize gets properly going).
I have not sawn up any more pallets. That is perhaps a job for this week.
Growing. At home: more blueberries are coming ripe! The patio cucumber is considering setting fruit! I... think the thing that's wrong with the basils might be powdery mildew? So I'm misting them with a weak milk solution and we'll see if they perk up.
At the plot: oh good grief so many tomatoes (still none of them ripe, natch). Baby brassica continue being Eaten; I am advised that the culprit might very well be The Pigeons. Multiple tiny peppers in the greenhouse, now, and some of the chillis are starting to change colour. The bin is sturdily eating away, but happily did not actually manage to digest the tool I dumped in unthinkingly before I hoicked it back out a few days later.
I have got some quinoa and some root veg actually into the ground; fingers crossed any of them will take. (I have been bad at watering them reliably at home, so many of the seedlings shrivelled up and died, alas.)
I am done with the jostaberry harvest, or at least, I've got them all home and need to decide what to do with them -- A thinks it is too warm for crumble but I'm running out of freezer space, so while some of them will get frozen the rest might yet find themselves destined for More Jam. We shall see.
The beans various are starting to flower; the self-seeded fennel are doing very well, thank you; and the maize continue getting visibly bigger, which is nice. Loofa are also very bravely ascending their various supports, though not yet producing flowers. We trundle along.
Observing. TWO BAT TWO BAT TWO BAT AT ONCE. Excellent treat this evening Yes Thank You.
I have not further disarrayed the Fake Snakes; I've been enjoying the parakeets and misc. other birds, and also the Back Garden Fox. Mostly, though, I am Excited about Bats.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-12 10:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-13 08:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-12 10:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-12 11:10 pm (UTC)DONK
(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-13 03:51 am (UTC)All your other stuff sounds fun. I watched Disclosure on Netflix last night which had Lilly Wachowski talking about making The Matrix before she had really come to terms with her trans identity, and some lovely stuff from her and Jamie Clayton about creating Nomi Marks for Sensate.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-13 08:59 am (UTC)<3
(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-13 11:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-13 08:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-13 08:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-13 08:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-13 08:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-13 10:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-13 01:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-13 02:06 pm (UTC)there was so much in it I nearly liked and then. yeah. THAT. wasn't it... EXTREMELY.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-07-13 05:55 pm (UTC)