icelilly | Reading

+ Long weekend. Had dinner with parents. Did a lot of faffing around aside from that. I feel like I didn't really do much aside from sleep and watch movies.

+ Some people invited me out to a thing, then cancelled but forgot to inform me. I didn't find out until the afternoon on the day it was going to happen, when I sent a text to check on the time (though luckily with enough notice that it wasn't a big deal). I'm still kind of annoyed about it. Like, on the one hand, I didn't really want to go to this thing anyway. On the other hand... dude, seriously? They want to reschedule, but I'm 50/50 on whether I'll decline.

+ Watched Akira Kurosawa's Dreams. Beautiful film, but very very artsy. It's an anthology of eight vignettes or "dreams", each inspired by an actual recurring dream Kurosawa had. Some are more fantastical than others. I'm glad that I took the time to watch it, but I'm also very glad that it was not my first Akira Kurosawa film - I don't think it would have been a good introduction to his work. Very recommended for Art Film enthusiasts though.

+ [Hetalia] Came across someone grumbling about the prevalence of SE/FI and the lack of other FI pairs, and on the one hand yeah I feel that, but on the other hand they were going on about how they've never seen work with other FI pairs except as a joke, and I'm like - hold on. Excuse me. Dude, you haven't been looking. Sure, there isn't a lot, but I've never seen a NO/FI or EE/FI shipper who wasn't 100% earnest and enthusiastic. There aren't a lot of fanworks out there, but there are some, and a lot of them are quite nice. Pairings other than those two are much fewer, but every so often something unexpected turns up. You just have to go looking, man. Or make your own. ...Anyway, it did remind me of a No/Fi story I've had notes for that I never did get around to writing. Maybe I'll try to write it when I'm on vacation in November. Not that I'll be sharing it with that asshole, but I do like the idea and it'd be nice to get it on paper.

yuuago

I have two skeins of Malabrigo Mechita that I have no idea what to do with. I did have something in mind when I bought them, but now I have no idea what it was. At one point I started making a scarf in a pattern I've done before, but today I changed my mind and unravelled the thing. Anyway, it's definitely enough for both a scarf and a hat, and there's no end to nice fingering-weight patterns out there, so I'm sure I'll find something nice. ...Too many options, really. Maybe I'll limit my search to my existing pattern library. (Or suggestions.)

I'm also sitting on enough worsted weight yarn to make a blanket. Maybe I could do that. Or I could make some socks with one of the random skeins I have hanging around. Or... Or most likely I will do none of the above. :Va

Today was weird. I forgot to turn off my alarm, so I woke up at 6:30 as usual. Judo was cancelled, so I could relax a little instead of rushing around. I ended up watching a movie while unravelling that scarf. ...Then I spent most of the rest of the day faffing around when I should have been doing chores, but, well, anyway.

kanadka

🍄️ New mushroom found. No pictures of him; I really can't identify him yet. Strongly decurrent brown gills (like so decurrent, he looks like an inverted top) which aren't too closely packed together. Super long stalk embedded all the way in the earth. Brown with a tidge of pink on the cap, which had split in a star-like fashion. I want to say Chroogomphus fulmineus, but I also want to say, some sort of inocybe species. Spore print failed; no spores actually fell. Oh well, maybe I'll find him again sometime.

🎪️ I've been now 3 weeks at my new position and I am so happy I left because hooooly shit, it's falling apart. I'm predicting 100% turnover at this rate. It's kind of nice to have that validation because sometimes I don't really say much beyond "yeah my job kinda sucks lol" and I feel like I or others minimise it. But like - wow! It really did suck! I wasn't kidding or making things up!! It's kind of really gratifying to see that. It's less gratifying knowing my old teammates are in the thick of it. :( Anyway, being in most of the group chats means I have a ringside view to the nonsense while also enjoying that not my circus, not my clowns feeling. New position is challenging, but my new boss is a) experienced and b) super chill.

🥵️ Trying my hand at kinktober this month. So far it's already 6 days in and I'm behind, but let's see what I can get done. I'm trying to keep it low pressure and if I get stuff writ, I get stuff writ; if not, not a big deal. I have a lot of ideas sketched out and maybe they'll turn out someday! The key is to keep them one-shots. I'm really not good at that.

⭕️ Have been playing a lot of Control and can really recommend it. I loved Quantum Break (Lance Reddick!!! 😭️) but bounced hard off Alan Wake. Remedy is a bizarre little game company in general doing really wild things and I really appreciate them. Only problem with Control is you need to turn off ray tracing or it will crash randomly.

🔏️ I really liked this video: "A chaotic guide to making stuff instead of doomscrolling"

For those who can't / don't want to watch, the tactics are:

1. Turn a mistake into art.
2. Pick a quote and turn it into art.
3. Write a letter to a friend.
4. Remake something you love.
5. Personify the resistance.
6. Exquisite corpse (any medium)
7. DIY super structure.
8. Alter something else to turn it into something else.
9. Answer famous questions (interview).
10. Do a constraint challenge (time/material/tool/brief from someone else).

I've been trying the constraint challenge on a daily "observe 1 thing per day". Actually, I find it really hard sometimes, and I think it's exposing some gaps in my knowledge (I'm starting to struggle to find the precise word, which suggests I probably should be reading more than I do). My hope is it'll improve my precision and maybe beef up my powers of description.

🌆️ NEW PROTOMEN ALBUM? IN 2026???? be still my heart. I'm so excited *_*

Current Music: Omen - Leghet

yuuago

Stuff I've been reading recently:

+ The Miss Clara Vale Mysteries series by Fiona Veitch Smith (The Picture House Murders, The Pantomime Murders, The Pyramid Murders and The Penford Manor Murders). A light and fun series set in late '20s and early '30s in northern England. It's a series where the time period is very much a part of the story - everything from societal attitudes, the role of class and servants, and the use of ~cutting-edge technology~ to solve cases. Plus, the protagonist is very fun. I also appreciate that the author notes discuss research that was done and details where the reality was stretched a bit to fit the plot. Would recommend for light reading.

+ Authority by Jeff Vandermeer. Second book in the Southern Reach trilogy. My feeling on this series is kind of weird, because I'm not into it per se, I don't like it exactly, but there is something very compelling about it and I'll probably end up reading the third novel eventually. Authority lacks the "survival in a hostile landscape" aspect that Annihilation had, unless you want to get metaphorical with it. What it does have is lots of questions about What Is Going On, some investigative aspects etc. I read this one for a "SciFi Horror" challenge, and it definitely fits the bill.

+ My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones. A slasher fan finds herself in the middle of a slasher plot! I remember seeing reviews of this after reading The Buffalo Hunter Hunter and seeking out more of Jones's work. Some people liked it, some people enjoyed Buffalo but didn't like Chainsaw. It does seem like a very "You'll either love it or you'll hate it" novel. Very referential, but that's part of the point, and it suits the protagonist - it has a strong narrative voice. I'll definitely read the next book in this trilogy.

+ My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress by Rachel DeLoache Williams. This one is about the author's experience with Anna Delvey, a fraudster who scammed not only businesses and banks, but also some people who considered her a friend (the author is one of those). This was the first time I'd heard about this particular scammer, and it was quite a ride. Worth a look if you enjoy reading about financial crimes.

+ None of This is True by Lisa Jewell. I love this author's stuff; her work tends to start off somewhat normal, and then slowly get more and more batshit and twisted as the narrative goes on. I have 1 hour left in this audiobook and I am so looking forward to finding out how it ends, because, what.

+ The Library at Hellebore by Cassandraw Khaw. I picked this one up for a challenge, but I'm frankly not very into it. The premise is that it's a school for the "dangerously powerful", promising a normal life after graduation. Except on graduation day, the faculty eat the students. Or something. This one jumps around the timeline a bunch, and brings in a bunch of characters in the middle of action, expecting us to somehow care about what's going on without being introduced to anyone or anything properly. I've seen situations where this can work, but this just ain't doing it for me. The book's short, so I'll likely finish it anyway, but yeahhh not my thing.

+ I have The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez out from the library, so I'll probably tackle that next!

yuuago

I spent my Friday evening making a colour-coded spreadsheet of candidates for the municipal election. It took a while because there are so many of these fuckers, but at least I know who to vote for now.

Advance voting is open, so I'm going to head down tomorrow to get this out of the way.

There are a lot of more interesting things that I've been meaning to post about, but between work and the above, it keeps getting bumped down the priority list. :V

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December 2012

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