viridian5 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
viridian5) wrote2025-08-09 09:52 pm
viridian5) wrote2025-08-09 09:52 pm
Entry tags:
I'm only a crack in this castle of glass
I took a very bad fall Thursday on my apartment's driveway again. No use complaining to the landlord because he does jack shit. Left ankle is killing me, worse than the June incident, and my right knee is bashed up, swollen, pulsing, and buzzing. I rammed the concrete. The fall was so hard I just sat there for a while, like "Whelp, I guess I live in this driveway now."
This time, I didn't walk a few miles on it. I eventually, painfully, got myself to my feet, walked up the three flights to my apartment, iced it, tightwrapped it, and mostly stayed off it. I left a message at my podiatrist's office since they were closed when it happened. Considering I had a fracture with my left ankle injury in June, I wasn't taking chances.
The podiatrist confirmed my left ankle is sprained (but didn't fracture). I'm back in the boot for 2-4 weeks. I just got out of the boot! I'm somewhat depressed about it.
My foot didn't swell much but the ankle is still more painful than in June. I screwed up some ligaments on the other side of that foot too this time.
+++
In less serious but still annoying news, I bought a packet of Trader Joe's Super Sour Scandinavian Swimmers candy and the green ones taste like sweat to me. It's a flavor plus a burst of whatever up into your nose from inside your mouth issue. Given the other flavors, I think the green are supposed to be lime. I mean, there's cherry, orange, ...pink, and sweat.
+++
Writing long fics can be funny for me, since with a lot of them I have a "I thought up this bit while eating at White Castle that one night with the amazing sunset over Manhattan!" and "I was thinking of this while driving to see my dad." It's a patchwork of memories.
My earliest fic, when I had more IRL interactions with other fans, a lot of the discussions and sometimes happenings from those made their way into my fic.
This time, I didn't walk a few miles on it. I eventually, painfully, got myself to my feet, walked up the three flights to my apartment, iced it, tightwrapped it, and mostly stayed off it. I left a message at my podiatrist's office since they were closed when it happened. Considering I had a fracture with my left ankle injury in June, I wasn't taking chances.
The podiatrist confirmed my left ankle is sprained (but didn't fracture). I'm back in the boot for 2-4 weeks. I just got out of the boot! I'm somewhat depressed about it.
My foot didn't swell much but the ankle is still more painful than in June. I screwed up some ligaments on the other side of that foot too this time.
+++
In less serious but still annoying news, I bought a packet of Trader Joe's Super Sour Scandinavian Swimmers candy and the green ones taste like sweat to me. It's a flavor plus a burst of whatever up into your nose from inside your mouth issue. Given the other flavors, I think the green are supposed to be lime. I mean, there's cherry, orange, ...pink, and sweat.
+++
Writing long fics can be funny for me, since with a lot of them I have a "I thought up this bit while eating at White Castle that one night with the amazing sunset over Manhattan!" and "I was thinking of this while driving to see my dad." It's a patchwork of memories.
My earliest fic, when I had more IRL interactions with other fans, a lot of the discussions and sometimes happenings from those made their way into my fic.
kaberett (kaberett) wrote2025-08-08 11:58 pm
kaberett) wrote2025-08-08 11:58 pmvictory of the day
Today I have got Somewhat Caught Up on last event's lost property Situation. My GREAT TRIUMPH was, partway through the paperwork, going "... I'm sure that brooch in particular is... Oddly... Familiar..."
-- and indeed upon going back through my records it transpires that I HAD RETURNED IT TO ITS PERSON AT THE FIRST EVENT THIS YEAR.
So my spreadsheet is duly updated and they can have it back again at the last event of the year :)
(Some other victories: cut-price overripe strawberries. More of my mother's birthday cake. Rye and caraway and poppyseed bread. the elderly niter kibbeh in the fridge still being Definitely Food and substantially enlivening dinner. Shitposting in the PD crew Discord. Starting Solutions and Other Problems with A, and the cake, and the strawberries.)
Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (azurelunatic) wrote2025-08-08 03:44 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2025-08-08 03:44 pmDisbelief, suspension thereof / therein
Suspension of disbelief = I will not start verbally poking holes in the physics of this action movie until we are out of the movie theater
Suspension in disbelief = a frozen state of constant WTF
Suspension in disbelief = a frozen state of constant WTF
Monica (cellio) wrote2025-08-08 04:26 pm
cellio) wrote2025-08-08 04:26 pmEntry tags:
the tomato that conquered Pittsburgh
This year I got three (different) tomato seedlings, all container-friendly, along with some peppers and other things. Having failed to do proper research, I allocated the tomato cages pretty arbitrarily. I should not have done that.
The giant tomato plant in the center is a Sungold. It seems to be in the process of conquering my patio, the neighborhood, and perhaps the city. It makes sweet, tasty, orange cherry tomatoes. I've had quite a bounty so far and there's plenty more to come. It was originally on that ledge with the others, but a month or so ago I realized that if I kept it there, I would not be able to harvest without a ladder. (So much for using that trellis.) At least this way I can climb up on that ledge to reach the ones I can't reach from the ground (or at least I hope I'll be able to reach them all!). Wowza. Next year, bigger cage! (They're very tasty, so I do plan to get this type next year.)
The other two tomato types are Patio Choice, advertised as good for small containers, and Mountain Magic. They both produce red grape tomatoes (Patio Choice are sweeter). On the right, not as clear in the picture, are two Cornito peppers and a banana pepper, all still working toward a first harvest. I've moved these around a few times over the course of the summer to try to optimize sunlight.
I wish I thought, 'What jolly fun!' (gool_duck) wrote2025-08-08 11:45 am
gool_duck) wrote2025-08-08 11:45 am(no subject)
I got invested in the characters in the comedy and the new episode put them in situations so it took me two days to watch one hour of television.
The comedy is k-drama 'My Girlfriend is The Man' in which a woman is transformed into a man in her sleep - it runs in the family, it's temporary, she knew it might happen. She still has to deal with it and it's weird. it's also about her romantic relationship with her boyfriend. and about sexual-attraction based romantic relationships.
Also in episode 5 the boyfriend is shown seeing the girl when he's looking at the man-shape she currently is. and seeing the girl when he expects & wants her to show up, when it's a different girl who is actually there, and it takes him a moment to realise and see who it actually is. Which is a more accurate-to-my-experience depiction of face-blindness than people having blank spaces where their faces ought to be.
The comedy is k-drama 'My Girlfriend is The Man' in which a woman is transformed into a man in her sleep - it runs in the family, it's temporary, she knew it might happen. She still has to deal with it and it's weird. it's also about her romantic relationship with her boyfriend. and about sexual-attraction based romantic relationships.
Also in episode 5 the boyfriend is shown seeing the girl when he's looking at the man-shape she currently is. and seeing the girl when he expects & wants her to show up, when it's a different girl who is actually there, and it takes him a moment to realise and see who it actually is. Which is a more accurate-to-my-experience depiction of face-blindness than people having blank spaces where their faces ought to be.
kaberett (kaberett) wrote2025-08-07 11:53 pm
kaberett) wrote2025-08-07 11:53 pmRedactle-related fact of the day
I did not, until a few hours ago, know that diesel was named after Rudolf Diesel, "... who invented the Diesel engine, which burns Diesel fuel".
(Some cheerful things, in brief: turns out shimmer inks really do work better when you thoroughly scrub the feed of your fountain pen clean at least occasionally; I am excited about tomorrow's bread; I was Greatly Honoured by the Toddler in a truly toddleresque fashion the details of which I shall not go into; I have finally got my act together to order a copy of the Roti King cookbook; glorious comfort reread of a thing I'd totally forgotten was even available for comfort reread, and for bonus points there are new bits!!!)
viridian5 (viridian5) wrote2025-08-07 01:24 am
viridian5) wrote2025-08-07 01:24 am
I couldn't even take you home
I've been very unimpressed with recent store windows but found some previously unposted photos of a run I made in August 2022 that involved Bloomingdale's, Bergdorf Goodman, and Saks Fifth Avenue. Many are very colorful and some are strange. I also put up a few recent photos of a shoot at St. John's Cemetery. All of these are at my Flickr. +++
During that recent Manhattan night trip that didn't give me any good window options, I drove way uptown for a bit just to see stuff. They've really gentrified a part of Harlem I hadn't been to in many years.... For the way home, I consulted the Apple map on my iPhone and noticed it suggested a way home that wouldn't involve tolls, an option I always have on. Now, I'd already gone through Manhattan's Congestion zone to get into Manhattan and shouldn't have to pay again if I went back through it, but I decided to see what my alternative was just so I'd know. So, you can't use the Queensboro Bridge to get back into Queens without paying the congestion toll; you can get into Manhattan without the toll if you use the top level of that bridge because the top feeds out into the 60s, above the zone. To avoid a Congestion zone toll from 110th Street, where I was, you have to take the FDR Drive all the way down to Brooklyn Bridge, where the FDR feeds into the bridge without actually hitting the city streets, then take the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway back to Queens, adding a lot of additional miles. I was unlucky enough that the BQE had a lot of traffic that night at that time too.
The Forte's seats really aren't as comfortable as they should be, so I was somewhat stiff and hurting after this long drive.
+++
Local Crowley Playground has reopened after months of work, and I'm so disappointed with what they did to it. It needed work, desperately, but everything aside from the child play area now looks like the most generic contemporary-styled park, all white and beige and tile and the exact same plants they put in all new parks. Less seating, less identity. It used to look like the old school park it was. They took out a lot of old trees that used to be around it too. They couldn't just fix the paving?
I haven't been back at night yet so I don't know if they improved the lighting. There were parts of the playground that had none, so anyone using it after dark had to put their cellphone flashlights on to see anything. I don't assume someone with sense fixed that.
she of the remarkable biochemical capabilities! (ursamajor) wrote2025-08-06 05:35 pm
ursamajor) wrote2025-08-06 05:35 pm
['cause] it's boiled [and] fried so
I have found THE WAY to make crispy firm tofu that I will now do forever more (or until I get bored and wander off to my next food obsession): brining it. It takes no longer than pressing it, is less messy, and the results are unbelievably crispy, even still a little crunchy after overnight refrigeration of the leftovers and then microwaving it, neither process designed to encourage that. And far more successful than any baking or cornstarch-dredging that I've tried before; will never go back. Noting here for my memories:
- Bring 4 cups water with 1/4 cup of salt (or, ratiowise, 1T salt for every 1 cup water needed to cover your tofu) to a boil, then turn off the heat
- Plop your cut-up tofu into the brine - the video did sliced planks, I did cubes so I didn't have two separate cutting steps, it came out fine
- Let it sit for 10-15 minutes
- Pan-fry the tofu in a little oil, flipping around the 3-4 minute mark; repeat until tofu is crispy enough to satisfy you.
As for silken tofu, for quick breakfasts/solo dinners, I've been nuking it with butter and soy sauce and a little bit of chili crisp, then topping it with a scallion that I chopped while waiting for the microwave. Maybe grating a little ginger over if I'm feeling fancy, or now that the lemons are slowly starting to come back, squeezing a little lemon over. It's like a hot hiyayakko, and might be more so if I ever remembered to pick up katsuobushi at Yaoya-San, heh.
*
In the meantime, our neighbors had been texting us while we were away about the annual plumpocalypse, and we came home to a carpet of purple underneath said plum tree, despite the neighbors coming by and picking up the excess while we were gone. Right now, we have enough to fill our entire dutch oven, withdozens hundreds more dropping daily. I really need to set up some kind of net situation to catch them before they hit the ground, I have made refrigerator jam literally every day for the last week and a half, and we are not keeping up. (Right now, our total jam despite our attempts to chip away at it fills my second-largest glass storage pan - 11 cups!)
But because my method so far looks like:
* sweep plums into a pile
* scoop plums of various softness into our largest kitchen bowl
* fill plum bowl with water and let it sit (hyounpark says in case there are worms?!)
* sort plums - only the intact ones make it through
* cook plums until just soft enough to pit
* pit
* weigh the puree, add 40% sugar
* cook, skimming off scum, until it passes the spoon test
* cool
* find a storage container to put the jam in in the fridge
* put on yogurt and toast ad nauseum because I have not committed to buying the whole kit for Proper Jam Making that would let the jam last longer than a few weeks in the fridge
At least our neighbors are equally meh about Proper Jamming so I feel less bad about not doing it, LOL. Still, I did take a cup and a half of yesterday's puree and turned it into a plum version of my favorite roasted applesauce cake for yesterday's block party, and it went smashingly; I was barely able to snag a piece for H and I to split!
Between the cake success and the tofu triumph and lovely August tomatoes marinating in a pool of olive oil and mint and salt and their own juices, I'm proud of these recent food feats. Now to figure out what I'm doing with the pork belly (for dinner tonight). Probably something that can get topped with some of the plum jam, heh.
- Bring 4 cups water with 1/4 cup of salt (or, ratiowise, 1T salt for every 1 cup water needed to cover your tofu) to a boil, then turn off the heat
- Plop your cut-up tofu into the brine - the video did sliced planks, I did cubes so I didn't have two separate cutting steps, it came out fine
- Let it sit for 10-15 minutes
- Pan-fry the tofu in a little oil, flipping around the 3-4 minute mark; repeat until tofu is crispy enough to satisfy you.
As for silken tofu, for quick breakfasts/solo dinners, I've been nuking it with butter and soy sauce and a little bit of chili crisp, then topping it with a scallion that I chopped while waiting for the microwave. Maybe grating a little ginger over if I'm feeling fancy, or now that the lemons are slowly starting to come back, squeezing a little lemon over. It's like a hot hiyayakko, and might be more so if I ever remembered to pick up katsuobushi at Yaoya-San, heh.
*
In the meantime, our neighbors had been texting us while we were away about the annual plumpocalypse, and we came home to a carpet of purple underneath said plum tree, despite the neighbors coming by and picking up the excess while we were gone. Right now, we have enough to fill our entire dutch oven, with
But because my method so far looks like:
* sweep plums into a pile
* scoop plums of various softness into our largest kitchen bowl
* fill plum bowl with water and let it sit (
hyounpark says in case there are worms?!)* sort plums - only the intact ones make it through
* cook plums until just soft enough to pit
* pit
* weigh the puree, add 40% sugar
* cook, skimming off scum, until it passes the spoon test
* cool
* find a storage container to put the jam in in the fridge
* put on yogurt and toast ad nauseum because I have not committed to buying the whole kit for Proper Jam Making that would let the jam last longer than a few weeks in the fridge
At least our neighbors are equally meh about Proper Jamming so I feel less bad about not doing it, LOL. Still, I did take a cup and a half of yesterday's puree and turned it into a plum version of my favorite roasted applesauce cake for yesterday's block party, and it went smashingly; I was barely able to snag a piece for H and I to split!
Between the cake success and the tofu triumph and lovely August tomatoes marinating in a pool of olive oil and mint and salt and their own juices, I'm proud of these recent food feats. Now to figure out what I'm doing with the pork belly (for dinner tonight). Probably something that can get topped with some of the plum jam, heh.
Isis (isis) wrote2025-08-06 06:11 pm
isis) wrote2025-08-06 06:11 pmwednesday reads and things
What I've recently finished reading:
Tombland by C. J. Sansom, the last of the Shardlake books. It's massive, I think the longest of these books, with a very long historical essay at the end which I'm slowly reading through. It's very firmly set within a historical event, namely Kett's Rebellion of 1549. Which is probably why it's so long. While some of the other books in the series include actual events such as the execution of Anne Boleyn or King Henry VIII's Progress to York, those are all mostly backdrop to the mystery plot. Here the plot is interwoven with the rebellion - actually kind of oddly, because it's really plot plot plot plot REBELLION REBELLION plot REBELLION, where suddenly the ostensible activity Shardlake's undertaking is put on the back-burner because of REBELLION, and it's mostly dropped until very near the end where the villain does a somewhat clunky exposition explaining everything. Not the smoothest of these books for sure, but still quite interesting, with great characters as usual.
What I'm reading now:
While I'm waiting for some holds to come in at the library, I started reading George Orwell's 1984, partly because one of the people I subscribe to on Substack (Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance) is hosting a group read of it. I haven't read it since I read it in college, for a class on "Utopias and Dystopias in Film and Literature", so it's pretty interesting to revisit. (And terrifying. Also, terrifying.)
Still watching:
We're getting close to the end of S2 of Arcane. I amused myself by abruptly recognizing Maddie's voice as Suvi in Mass Effect: Andromeda (Katy Townsend, typecast as a lesbian, I guess!). Then I checked the cast list and realized there are really so many actors I have heard in other things! But the only other one I recognized was Shohreh Aghdashloo, because of course I did, how can you not? (And hee, she was in Mass Effect (3) as well!)
Still playing:
Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which is finally getting a little less linear. I set the difficulty one step down (I was on normal=3/5, set it to 2) and it's much kinder - I still get killed a few times by the toughest enemies at the end of each quest before I kill them and prevail, but that's okay.
Tombland by C. J. Sansom, the last of the Shardlake books. It's massive, I think the longest of these books, with a very long historical essay at the end which I'm slowly reading through. It's very firmly set within a historical event, namely Kett's Rebellion of 1549. Which is probably why it's so long. While some of the other books in the series include actual events such as the execution of Anne Boleyn or King Henry VIII's Progress to York, those are all mostly backdrop to the mystery plot. Here the plot is interwoven with the rebellion - actually kind of oddly, because it's really plot plot plot plot REBELLION REBELLION plot REBELLION, where suddenly the ostensible activity Shardlake's undertaking is put on the back-burner because of REBELLION, and it's mostly dropped until very near the end where the villain does a somewhat clunky exposition explaining everything. Not the smoothest of these books for sure, but still quite interesting, with great characters as usual.
What I'm reading now:
While I'm waiting for some holds to come in at the library, I started reading George Orwell's 1984, partly because one of the people I subscribe to on Substack (Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance) is hosting a group read of it. I haven't read it since I read it in college, for a class on "Utopias and Dystopias in Film and Literature", so it's pretty interesting to revisit. (And terrifying. Also, terrifying.)
Still watching:
We're getting close to the end of S2 of Arcane. I amused myself by abruptly recognizing Maddie's voice as Suvi in Mass Effect: Andromeda (Katy Townsend, typecast as a lesbian, I guess!). Then I checked the cast list and realized there are really so many actors I have heard in other things! But the only other one I recognized was Shohreh Aghdashloo, because of course I did, how can you not? (And hee, she was in Mass Effect (3) as well!)
Still playing:
Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which is finally getting a little less linear. I set the difficulty one step down (I was on normal=3/5, set it to 2) and it's much kinder - I still get killed a few times by the toughest enemies at the end of each quest before I kill them and prevail, but that's okay.
Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels) wrote2025-08-06 07:09 pm
lannamichaels) wrote2025-08-06 07:09 pmEntry tags:
[Daf Yomi] Maseches Avoda Zara, perek 3 Kol HaTzlamim
What images are used as avoda zarah, and can you benefit from things that have previously been used for avodah zarah? If so, what sorts of things and what needs to be done first, and who has to do them. Still a fun time!
( Read more... )
kaberett (kaberett) wrote2025-08-06 10:08 pm
kaberett) wrote2025-08-06 10:08 pmEntry tags:
humans: always and forever Like This (affectionate)
For Redactle reasons, yesterday I wound up working my way through Wikipedia's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities.
This turned out not to be helpful for Terrible Game Purposes, but it did mean that I came across a city in Anatolia, Turkey, "founded by the Phrygians in at least 1000 BC[E], although it has been estimated to be older than 4,000 years old".
The name of this city? Eskişehir.
"Eski" is the Turkish (and possibly Turkic?) word for "old" (antonym of "new" -- antonym of "young" is a different word). "Şehir" means "city".
We are so good at this.
Tucker McKinnon (jazzfish) wrote2025-08-06 02:19 pm
jazzfish) wrote2025-08-06 02:19 pmEntry tags:
but of course, books
Oh hey, I meant to write this all up last week. Well. It's more interesting this week.
What are you reading now?
The Count of Monte Cristo, translated by Robin Buss. Someone, presumably on Mastodon, recommended this translation specifically a few years ago, and I made a note of that but not of why. An internet search reveals that it's the only translation of the complete book; all others are working from anabridgement bowdlerization from 1846.
It's great, of course. The Three Musketeers is Dumas's most famous novel, but I would bet money that there have been more adaptations and retellings of Monte Cristo. It's a universal story. Heck, The Crow is a Monte Cristo retelling.
I read it once in the late nineties and enjoyed it. Sometime in childhood I read the chapter detailing Edmond's escape from the Chateau d'If, where he disguises himself as the dead abbé to get the jailers to carry him outside. I froze in delicious terror at the absolutely chilling line "The sea is the graveyard of the Chateau d'If." Unclear why I didn't seek out the rest of the book at the time, when that one chapter was so great.
What did you just finish reading?
Emily Tesh's latest, The Incandescent, about a teacher at a contemporary Magic School. It's spectacular. It's not quite as vehement as Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy but it still gets in some solid criticism of The System, and I think the worldbuilding hangs together a bit better than Scholomance's. It shares with Scholomance a feeling that the latter third is suddenly very different, but in Incandescent that's more obvious and with a very very good reason. Highly recommended. I suspect I shall reread soonish so I can figure out whether I think it all hangs together metaphorically as well as ... whatever the opposite of metaphorically is, in-the-world-of-the-book.
(I have a theory, which is by no means an original theory, that if a writer does not consciously direct her themes and metaphors they will tend to reinforce the prevailing social order of the time she is writing in, which may or not be a desired result.)
Before that, Elizabeth Bear's Lotus Kingdoms trilogy. These are ... fine? The characters are great (I don't entirely believe Chaeri's heel-turn but that might just be me), the first book has a lot of moving everyone into position but once they're there the trilogy does not drag. I think this just caught me at a moment when I am spectacularly disinterested in powerful people complaining about how stressful it is to be powerful, and there is a lot of that. But: if you're looking for some colourful secondary-world fantasy, these are absolutely that, and excellent examples of it.
What do you think you'll read next?
I'm nine chapters into the 117 of Monte Cristo. "Next" seems like a very long ways away. Having said that, I'm carrying around a paperback of Morgan Locke (Laura Jo Mixon)'s 2011 shoulda-been-award-winning SF novel Up Against It in case my devices fail me, so hopefully not that but maybe.
What are you reading now?
The Count of Monte Cristo, translated by Robin Buss. Someone, presumably on Mastodon, recommended this translation specifically a few years ago, and I made a note of that but not of why. An internet search reveals that it's the only translation of the complete book; all others are working from an
It's great, of course. The Three Musketeers is Dumas's most famous novel, but I would bet money that there have been more adaptations and retellings of Monte Cristo. It's a universal story. Heck, The Crow is a Monte Cristo retelling.
I read it once in the late nineties and enjoyed it. Sometime in childhood I read the chapter detailing Edmond's escape from the Chateau d'If, where he disguises himself as the dead abbé to get the jailers to carry him outside. I froze in delicious terror at the absolutely chilling line "The sea is the graveyard of the Chateau d'If." Unclear why I didn't seek out the rest of the book at the time, when that one chapter was so great.
What did you just finish reading?
Emily Tesh's latest, The Incandescent, about a teacher at a contemporary Magic School. It's spectacular. It's not quite as vehement as Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy but it still gets in some solid criticism of The System, and I think the worldbuilding hangs together a bit better than Scholomance's. It shares with Scholomance a feeling that the latter third is suddenly very different, but in Incandescent that's more obvious and with a very very good reason. Highly recommended. I suspect I shall reread soonish so I can figure out whether I think it all hangs together metaphorically as well as ... whatever the opposite of metaphorically is, in-the-world-of-the-book.
(I have a theory, which is by no means an original theory, that if a writer does not consciously direct her themes and metaphors they will tend to reinforce the prevailing social order of the time she is writing in, which may or not be a desired result.)
Before that, Elizabeth Bear's Lotus Kingdoms trilogy. These are ... fine? The characters are great (I don't entirely believe Chaeri's heel-turn but that might just be me), the first book has a lot of moving everyone into position but once they're there the trilogy does not drag. I think this just caught me at a moment when I am spectacularly disinterested in powerful people complaining about how stressful it is to be powerful, and there is a lot of that. But: if you're looking for some colourful secondary-world fantasy, these are absolutely that, and excellent examples of it.
What do you think you'll read next?
I'm nine chapters into the 117 of Monte Cristo. "Next" seems like a very long ways away. Having said that, I'm carrying around a paperback of Morgan Locke (Laura Jo Mixon)'s 2011 shoulda-been-award-winning SF novel Up Against It in case my devices fail me, so hopefully not that but maybe.
kaberett (kaberett) wrote2025-08-05 11:05 pm
kaberett) wrote2025-08-05 11:05 pmEntry tags:
[embodiment] physio notes!
Today was Lower Limb Class #2, as ongoing follow-up for the most recent ankle reinjury. (On which status is: still a biiiit weaker when I'm pushing to limits, but not really noticeable in day-to-day life, e.g. I'm no longer regularly wincing when I jar it getting off a bike; definitely still feeling the work up the outside of my right leg when doing e.g. isometric holds on double heel raises.)
I am very amused by how "???!!!" the physios got when I tried to faint from things that "shouldn't" have been significant cardio and indeed aren't by my standards for cardio but crucially involved a lot of moving around and position changes while upright: sit-to-stand, lunges, crab-walking with knees bent. Apparently I have carefully selected for exercise done while seated or prone for really solid reasons, i.e. that would be the orthostatic hypotension. Which I apparently hadn't told the physios about as its own thing. ...whoops.
( notes )
Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath (tcpip) wrote2025-08-05 11:48 pm
tcpip) wrote2025-08-05 11:48 pm
Unfinished Tales
I find myself in the situation where I have a number of "almost finished" diverse projects nearing completion and several social activities worthy of mention, but without a common and unifying theme. The first involves an essay I'm composing out of pure love following several Shakespearean events which my mind raises the question: "Why Shakespeare?" After all, there were many excellent playwrights and other artists during the English Renaissance, but here we are still looking toward The Bard almost five hundred years later. It is an extraordinary achievement by any measure, and I have a few thoughts on the matter which I will circulate in the near future. Also in the "coming soon" category is a review of "Bleak Squad" at the Queenscliff Town Hall, a sort of 90s supergroup made up from members of Dirty Three, The Bad Seeds, Magic Dirt, and Art of Fighting, which I attended with Kate R., who rather delightfully took me out to see them and spend an evening at the 19th century Vue Grand Hotel (their website is so bad I won't link it). Band member Mick Harvey was also present at the lodgings, and I took the opportunity to mention how much I liked his work in "The Birthday Party". The overnight stay was also an opportunity to visit my old friend Lyle A., who now lives in the region, and also to see the famous "Black Lighthouse", apparently one of only four in the world to have such a hue.
On the RPG side of things, I notably joined Liz, Karl, Gavin, Phil, and Dan for an in-person session of "Dragonbane" on Sunday. This game is derived from the almost-mythic "Drakar och Demoner" Swedish RPG from the early 1980s, which itself was "very heavily" derived from Chaosium's Magic World booklet from Worlds of Wonder. The latest incarnation still shows these roots, albeit with some newer innovations, but still with a great deal of style and design elegance. The day previous, my dear friend from Ningxia, Dr Yanping, graced my home for lunch with Kate R., and Mel S., as well (why am I always surrounded by such fabulous women?), where I experimented with an Italian-Chinese fusion cuisine. Yanping has been away from Australia for over a year, so it was a real delight to see her again, and I'm very pleased that she'll be here for an extended period, having acquired some gainful employment at Monash University. Somehow I neglected to mention attendance at Brenda L's birthday gathering in recent entries where I played the role of waiter and provider of cocktails; especially excellent conversation with Brenda, Fiona C., Matthew C. and others. This all does sound like an extensive social life, and to be fair, that has taken a good portion of the past several days. Journaling does provide a gentle reminder that I do have other serious ("boring but important") work to catch up on; the batteries have been recharged.
On the RPG side of things, I notably joined Liz, Karl, Gavin, Phil, and Dan for an in-person session of "Dragonbane" on Sunday. This game is derived from the almost-mythic "Drakar och Demoner" Swedish RPG from the early 1980s, which itself was "very heavily" derived from Chaosium's Magic World booklet from Worlds of Wonder. The latest incarnation still shows these roots, albeit with some newer innovations, but still with a great deal of style and design elegance. The day previous, my dear friend from Ningxia, Dr Yanping, graced my home for lunch with Kate R., and Mel S., as well (why am I always surrounded by such fabulous women?), where I experimented with an Italian-Chinese fusion cuisine. Yanping has been away from Australia for over a year, so it was a real delight to see her again, and I'm very pleased that she'll be here for an extended period, having acquired some gainful employment at Monash University. Somehow I neglected to mention attendance at Brenda L's birthday gathering in recent entries where I played the role of waiter and provider of cocktails; especially excellent conversation with Brenda, Fiona C., Matthew C. and others. This all does sound like an extensive social life, and to be fair, that has taken a good portion of the past several days. Journaling does provide a gentle reminder that I do have other serious ("boring but important") work to catch up on; the batteries have been recharged.