vital functions
Aug. 30th, 2020 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettReading. On The Come Up, Angie Thomas. Oh but she is such a good writer: such immediate, vivid characters, and all of them feel like people. This is set in the same neighbourhood as The Hate U Give, from a decidedly different perspective.
Paladin's Grace and, subsequently, Swordheart, T. Kingfisher. I have been burying my head in a lot of emotionally intense and emotionally safe fiction over the past few weeks (yep, this is something that's come up in therapy), and working my way through Ursula Vernon's back catalogue is definitely one way that's manifesting. "Ah," I said to A, "I'm about three-quarters of the way through this book, which means that [story beats] are about to happen..." and indeed they had, within the next couple of pages. I have learned a lot about Vernon's id over the past couple of weeks and honestly I am here for that. I think these probably aren't actually good, on a craft level, in the sense that I think they're not up to standard of craft exhibited in other work that doesn't take place in this universe: there's a very specific pattern of characters being Ridiculous for the sake of it, with the a whole bunch of gleefully contrived tropes shoehorned in, but by the gods has she committed to her id. And, you know, it's something I want to roll around in enough that I am both Here For That and definitely looking forward to the next instalments.
A Queer and Pleasant Danger, Kate Bornstein, as discussed. I am really very fond indeed of Auntie Kate, for all the obvious reasons, and as a memoir this told me much more about her life story than I'd previously known, and. Well. I think the way I feel about her is... not dissimilar to my feelings about Carrie Fisher? In that (notwithstanding that I feel more personally Looked After by Kate) my Big Feelings include "oh, sweetheart, no"; "can I give you... a hug? i would. i would really like to give you a hug."; "thank you <333"; and "-- oh. oh. um. I... I can see how you get there but that's really not best practice on dear???" With this one, that last feeling was definitely strongest re the intro, the "I'm definitely trampling my daughter's boundaries... but she's a Scientologist and her boundaries arise directly from her cult membership".
Short fiction by Malka Older (again as rereads while reducing the number of items in the TBR folder on the ereader): The Black Box and The Rupture (or at least -- I'll finish the latter while I'm brushing my teeth!). Not much to say about these!
Also read: the rules for Hanabi, so maybe we'll get to playing that at some point this week; ongoing slow satisfying progress with my reread of The Starless Sea. Up next: Thinking Fast and Slow, loaned to me by someone who'll be moving away soonish and who wanted the book back within ~6 months... in The Before Times. Onward.
Watching. CXG S01E07, I'm So Happy That Josh Is Happy! Still riveting; de-e-efinitely for Small Doses, though; only watching one episode this week was... sensible.
Playing. honk honk honk honk honk
(and also I enjoyed the trailer for two-player Untitled Goose Game)
PoGo: I do not at all understand what's going on with Mega Evolutions, but nevertheles this week I have wild-caught: my first Tirtouga (shit IVs, but TINY BLUE TURTLE FRIEND), a 95% Machop, another 98% Murkrow (level 30!), a 98% Cacnea, aaaaaaaand... a 100% Ditto. THANKS, GAME. Also a 95% Charizard off a Mega Charizard X raid! So that was pleasing.
Cooking. So many tomatoes need eating good grief (feat. v good tomato-mint-shallot-olive-oil salad, yes splendid). A round of potato (sweet & Irish) wedges + fried beefsteak tomato + omelette. Continued experiments with injera. I've also been making myself a lot of hot chocolate sweetened with condensed milk, because I had a tin as needed using up.
Eating. Cooking's been Hard this week on a number of evenings, the above notwithstanding, so Notable Eating has included My First Pizza Express Pizza Since The Beginning Of The Quarantimes, arranged by A to be my standard (via customisation, as it wasn't available for order directly), delivered to us, for which I was very grateful.
Also another round of tonkotsu: today A realised there was a branch right there by the outdoor distanced social we were doing this afternoon, and ordered some for us to take away and eat at home. Their ramen is still so good.
Bonus points: the Ruby Violet pear sorbet I made a few months ago. I'm doing an okay job of remembering to get it out the freezer in time to let it soften to scoopability, and I'm enjoying it immensely.
Exploring. A park in St Albans, with a picnic blanket and a warm blanket and a picnic packed by A and a collection of my cousins (at appropriate distances), where we hung around outside Happening at each other until the rain got determined enough that we retreated; the very edge of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, this afternoon, for More Social.
Growing. Honestly this week I have been Quite Remiss in making it to the allotment, due to a combination of Thesis Swamp and Actual (Weather-Warning-Rain) Swamp; nevertheless I have somehow achieved another 4kg of tomatoes brought home (and three cucumbers, and a bean).
I have not sown anything, nor have I thinned (*cough* transplanted) the various root veg. Those are all definitely still on the todo list, as is getting some parsley seed (from the plant out back) set aside and coaxed along a bit more competently than I managed this year.
Elsewise at the plot: the maize various blew over quite badly but is extremely decorative, currently, with all its tassles (so with any luck we'll be eating some corn soon); the patty-pan squash is setting fruit; and so is the luffa. I've abruptly got a whole lot more tromboncini, too, so I suspect we'll be eating a fair amount of squash over the next bitand that I should remove the butternut squash from the grocery order. Greek Gigantes are still looking plenty healthy, but frustratingly none of the bean pods so far have managed to get longer than my thumbnail before shrivelling up and dying, and I'm not quite sure why. I'm increasingly confident, though, that at least three purple sprouting broccoli plants have survived the depredations of the wildlife various, and am hopeful we'll get to eat any of them...
Observing. A cormorant, at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, pointed out by A, who needed it identifying! My cousins saw a red kite in a tree in St Albans but I alas did not. We are contemplating moving one of the pairs of binoculars to live in the car. Gingko trees are still green, and I've been enjoying them.
Paladin's Grace and, subsequently, Swordheart, T. Kingfisher. I have been burying my head in a lot of emotionally intense and emotionally safe fiction over the past few weeks (yep, this is something that's come up in therapy), and working my way through Ursula Vernon's back catalogue is definitely one way that's manifesting. "Ah," I said to A, "I'm about three-quarters of the way through this book, which means that [story beats] are about to happen..." and indeed they had, within the next couple of pages. I have learned a lot about Vernon's id over the past couple of weeks and honestly I am here for that. I think these probably aren't actually good, on a craft level, in the sense that I think they're not up to standard of craft exhibited in other work that doesn't take place in this universe: there's a very specific pattern of characters being Ridiculous for the sake of it, with the a whole bunch of gleefully contrived tropes shoehorned in, but by the gods has she committed to her id. And, you know, it's something I want to roll around in enough that I am both Here For That and definitely looking forward to the next instalments.
A Queer and Pleasant Danger, Kate Bornstein, as discussed. I am really very fond indeed of Auntie Kate, for all the obvious reasons, and as a memoir this told me much more about her life story than I'd previously known, and. Well. I think the way I feel about her is... not dissimilar to my feelings about Carrie Fisher? In that (notwithstanding that I feel more personally Looked After by Kate) my Big Feelings include "oh, sweetheart, no"; "can I give you... a hug? i would. i would really like to give you a hug."; "thank you <333"; and "-- oh. oh. um. I... I can see how you get there but that's really not best practice on dear???" With this one, that last feeling was definitely strongest re the intro, the "I'm definitely trampling my daughter's boundaries... but she's a Scientologist and her boundaries arise directly from her cult membership".
Short fiction by Malka Older (again as rereads while reducing the number of items in the TBR folder on the ereader): The Black Box and The Rupture (or at least -- I'll finish the latter while I'm brushing my teeth!). Not much to say about these!
Also read: the rules for Hanabi, so maybe we'll get to playing that at some point this week; ongoing slow satisfying progress with my reread of The Starless Sea. Up next: Thinking Fast and Slow, loaned to me by someone who'll be moving away soonish and who wanted the book back within ~6 months... in The Before Times. Onward.
Watching. CXG S01E07, I'm So Happy That Josh Is Happy! Still riveting; de-e-efinitely for Small Doses, though; only watching one episode this week was... sensible.
Playing. honk honk honk honk honk
(and also I enjoyed the trailer for two-player Untitled Goose Game)
PoGo: I do not at all understand what's going on with Mega Evolutions, but nevertheles this week I have wild-caught: my first Tirtouga (shit IVs, but TINY BLUE TURTLE FRIEND), a 95% Machop, another 98% Murkrow (level 30!), a 98% Cacnea, aaaaaaaand... a 100% Ditto. THANKS, GAME. Also a 95% Charizard off a Mega Charizard X raid! So that was pleasing.
Cooking. So many tomatoes need eating good grief (feat. v good tomato-mint-shallot-olive-oil salad, yes splendid). A round of potato (sweet & Irish) wedges + fried beefsteak tomato + omelette. Continued experiments with injera. I've also been making myself a lot of hot chocolate sweetened with condensed milk, because I had a tin as needed using up.
Eating. Cooking's been Hard this week on a number of evenings, the above notwithstanding, so Notable Eating has included My First Pizza Express Pizza Since The Beginning Of The Quarantimes, arranged by A to be my standard (via customisation, as it wasn't available for order directly), delivered to us, for which I was very grateful.
Also another round of tonkotsu: today A realised there was a branch right there by the outdoor distanced social we were doing this afternoon, and ordered some for us to take away and eat at home. Their ramen is still so good.
Bonus points: the Ruby Violet pear sorbet I made a few months ago. I'm doing an okay job of remembering to get it out the freezer in time to let it soften to scoopability, and I'm enjoying it immensely.
Exploring. A park in St Albans, with a picnic blanket and a warm blanket and a picnic packed by A and a collection of my cousins (at appropriate distances), where we hung around outside Happening at each other until the rain got determined enough that we retreated; the very edge of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, this afternoon, for More Social.
Growing. Honestly this week I have been Quite Remiss in making it to the allotment, due to a combination of Thesis Swamp and Actual (Weather-Warning-Rain) Swamp; nevertheless I have somehow achieved another 4kg of tomatoes brought home (and three cucumbers, and a bean).
I have not sown anything, nor have I thinned (*cough* transplanted) the various root veg. Those are all definitely still on the todo list, as is getting some parsley seed (from the plant out back) set aside and coaxed along a bit more competently than I managed this year.
Elsewise at the plot: the maize various blew over quite badly but is extremely decorative, currently, with all its tassles (so with any luck we'll be eating some corn soon); the patty-pan squash is setting fruit; and so is the luffa. I've abruptly got a whole lot more tromboncini, too, so I suspect we'll be eating a fair amount of squash over the next bit
Observing. A cormorant, at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, pointed out by A, who needed it identifying! My cousins saw a red kite in a tree in St Albans but I alas did not. We are contemplating moving one of the pairs of binoculars to live in the car. Gingko trees are still green, and I've been enjoying them.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-31 02:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-31 04:51 am (UTC)Strong same.
"I'm definitely trampling my daughter's boundaries... but she's a Scientologist and her boundaries arise directly from her cult membership".
Further contemplated by: "and she's been brought up in Scientology from birth and has never known any other life or had schooling outside the cult or any family who were not cultists, and her other parent's still in the cult with her."
(no subject)
Date: 2020-08-31 09:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-09-10 01:09 pm (UTC)Oh, I grew up in St Albans :) Hope you enjoyed!