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Dang-nabbit, internet, is persuading me to buy books again. (I really do not need to buy any more books. Although at least they are e-books - which is either a lease to read it on the Kindle, so not really buying ...I don't know, the whole thing confuses me to no end. And I can't afford a Kindle and a Kobo. Plus buying books on Kindle is easy and cheap, so there's that and I get points. )

1. I bought Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Safron - about a boy in late 1940s Barcelona or post WWII Barcelona who is charged with protecting a book, long out of print, and rare - from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. The Book in question is also entitled "Shadow of the Wind". Thank you Sarah Michelle Gellar for perking my curiosity enough for me to purchase this book. Much appreciated. (She said in an interview broadcast on Instagram that her two favorite books were Donna Tartt's Secret History (which I loved and devoured in the 1990s) and Shadow of the Wind (so I got curious about Shadow of the Wind - which Stephen King also adored). The book is difficult to describe with a convoluted plot - I apparently like to read and write these types of books, which makes my life more difficult but far less dull.

Then grabbed, "Locked-In by John Scalzi" - which I'd flirted with previously, as when he first published it ages ago, but got persuaded when he posted that a bunch of people in Texas (it's always one of the Southern States - must be all those hot days? Bakes the brain?) had chosen to ban it. He was upset about it. (I'd have been too.) Apparently it's never happened to him before. (which is interesting - he's certainly liberal and political enough). So, I got curious - and decided to get it for $6.99.
Which is admittedly more than usual, but there you go. It's a sci-fi/mystery hybrid with a convoluted plot. Has a Black Mirror vibe to it. I've read a couple of his "stand alone" books: Red Shirts, Starter Villain, Kaijiu Preservation Society...the last two were read by Will Wheaton. Scalzi is a nerdy sci-fi writer, and usually has nerdy protagonists. He's kind of similar to Andy Weir? Except I like Weir's books slightly better.

As an aside? I'm fundamentally against censorship. Are there books that I despise? Yes. Do I think they should be censored? No. The challenge of "free speech" is folks you don't agree with have to have it too - in order for it to work. There were librarians commenting on Scalzi's post stating they sent out books they despised all the time.
( thoughts on book censorship )
And finally a Dark London Mystery/Romance Series novel entitled Winterblaze by Kristen Callihan which was $1.99,
and a second chance romance between an estranged married couple, in a paranormal verse. "Poppy Lane is keeping secrets. Her powerful gift has earned her membership in the Society for the Suppression of Supernaturals, but she must keep both her ability and her alliance with the Society from her husband, Winston. Yet when Winston is brutally attacked by a werewolf, Poppy’s secrets are revealed, leaving Winston’s trust in her as broken as his body. Now Poppy will do anything to win back his affections." The second chance ex-lover trope is a huge kink of mine. (I prefer older romances to young ones...for the most part.)

I love books. Books are my friends. They've seen me through some tough times.

Coworker: Are you one of those people who always has a book in your hand or with you?
ME: Definitely

If I had to choose between books, television and movies - I'd probably pick books - easier to carry around and less noisy.

setsuled

Watch on YouTube

Yesterday, Melania Trump appeared at the White House with a robot who speaks with pronounced vocal fry. I guess if your robot's going to resemble a berserk killing machine from Evangelion, having it sound like a 20 something barista is one way to counterbalance the horror.

Should I say it or she? I don't know, there will need to be a courtroom drama about robot pronouns.

Watch on YouTube

Commander Data provides a Merriam-Webster definition of "android"--"an automaton made to resemble a human being." Melania's robot refers to itself as a "humanoid" which, on Star Trek and elsewhere, typically means an alien life form that bears some rudimentary resemblance to a human. I suppose they didn't use "android" for fear of legal troubles with Google's Android phone. Ironically, Google's Android was originally to be called "Droid" until there was the possibility of legal trouble with Lucasfilm because that's the word for robots in the Star Wars movies. So we have a little game of copyright musical chairs to reshape the landscape of our language.

Melania's robot notably doesn't take any questions and it seems like the barista speech was pre-recorded, possibly by a real barista. Though AI and synthetic voice generative software would seem to be far enough along to have such a level of communicative ability in a robot. Maybe there's not enough room for it amidst everything it needs to sense its environment and control its own movements in response. Human bipedal motion is a more delicate and complicated procedure than we're typically conscious of.

It was an altogether unimpressive demonstration, now that I think about it. Why am I even writing about it? Well, artificially intelligent robots seem like an inevitability at this point. Maybe this is a sign we can at least rest easy that they won't be working for Trump.

Current Mood: groggy
Current Location: The lab
Current Music: "Mood Indigo" - Nina Simone

shadowhive

So I was hoping to do two posts today but I kinda got sidetracked (but there’s still time for a second, if not it’ll be tomorrow.)

First, I managed to roll credits on Pokopia, so that’s the story quests of the game done. There’s still much to do, there’s plenty of Pokémon to find, I’ve got to reach environment level 10 in each area (and find recipes). However right now I’ve become fixated on Rocky Ridges. There’s a museum there and I’ve been trying to make it look nicer/ger better access by clearing ash but… ugh there’s so much of it. There’s multiple storage boxes filed with the stuff and it feels I’ve not made a dent. (The museum itself does look better though) however I’ve become fixated on the task so csnt really do any of the other things)

I did however, find Mew due to fixating on a puzzle before that. And ahhh so cute!

Yesterday we went to pick up something mum ordered from sainsburys (or rather mums friend ordered for her as a birthday present). That turned out to be… not the best idea. Why? Because wwe got hit by surprise hail! In the way there it was only briefly, however in the way back it came hard, feeling like pebbles hitting my face and arms which wasn’t great.

However I got some things, from tk I got two Agatha books (paperback with fancy covers): The Mysterious Affair At Styles and Murder On The Links. Also I got two books that seemed interesting, The Moonstone and The Mountain In The Sea. There was also a Stranger Things game and a puzzle (which feels a bit random). I did look for the project Hail Mary book in sainsburys but it was out of stock (same with the rabbit set people have got to make a Lego Rocky).

I had considered going to the BMTH concert thing at the cinema, but I talked myself in and out of it, mostly cause I’m not super familiar with the newer stuff. Seeing the festival show they did a few months ago was good but it didn’t matter I didn’t know newer stuff. A full set? But going out made the whole thing moot anyway.

Speaking of cinema I am a bit annoyed Ready Of Not 2 is going from 4 shows a day this first week to only 1 next week, and after 8pm. That’s so annoying. I might try and go, see it with They Will Kill You,but also Mario Galaxy is out too. Maybe I’ll see if they have spdecent showings next Saturday, cause there’s an entertainer Lego Easter egg thing. (Also speaking of Mario anyone going to the odeon next week? They’re gonna have little keyring things so I’m curious at the price)

Other cinema trips are gonna be Undertone, Exit 8 and maybe The Mummy (cause it’s out for Record Store Day).

Other planned trips are Megacon Saturday, mostly for Seapeekay (I really hope to find him, I’ll at least see his panels) and I might go to some of the other panels. I’m not expecting to get much (I’m hunting for Oroject Hail Mary or Pokopia stuff, but most likely I’ll just come back with dice). And there there’s 5 Seconds Of Summer next week yay! The first date of the tour was tonight snd, thankfully, there’s only one t-shirt thta I like the look of. Thank fuck.

Tonight I watched the next of the Doctor Who blu ray episodes, The Awakening. The Awakening is this season’s 2 parter, but it was wrote as being a full 4 part story. I think it really shows it was meant to be longer. It defintely feels it’s lost something.

There’s some good parts to it though. The Malus prop looks pretty cool and the guest cast are all pretty good, especially Jane and Will and Sir George does make a fairly good villian. And the sets area pretty good too. It just feels like it’s lacking in some areas. The central concept, of an entity using a renanctment to get the energy from it, is a pretty good one but doesn’t feel like it’s fully realised.

There’s comments about the whole village being involved in the ‘war games’ (why it’s called that repeatedly instead of a reenactment is baffling), and yet the village is deserted bar the people on horseback. Maybe if there were a few more extras as villagers that part would’ve worked better. Along with a scene or two showing the Malus effecting sir George it would be better. Also it was funny that they came to the village for Tegan to meet her grandfather and the doctor wanted them to leave before they’d even had any time together.

It was an ok ep overall. Two parters are always tricky to do but I think it really showed that this wasn’t intended as one, which made it feel so rushed. Next time is Frontios, which like The Awakeninf, I e not seen in awhile so don’t rememebr much of it. I guess we’ll see if that’s good.

Plan for the night: watch some of The Awakeninf special features, maybe work on the other post or fic, then snuggle.

Tomorrow it’s Father Brown, Beyond Paradise and Death In Paradise, along with Megacon prepping (mostly gathering stuff together.i might take the new sfx magazine cause it came yesterday too

Current Mood: thoughtful

beanside

If you asked me why I'm awake at 3:30 in the morning, I think my body would just shrug. It was a confluence of needing to go to the bathroom at 2, but being too cozy, the cat yelling and my traitorous body deciding why the fuck not. It's going to be a long damn day either way.

Work was fairly busy again yesterday, with me spending a lot of time on the phones. I did some wheeling and dealing to get some people in, but it was somewhat frustrating, because for every one that said yes, at least one other said no. I understand work and childcare and all of that, but when your doctor says STAT, I'd at least like you to try to see if you could work it out before you say no. In some cases I worked hard to get you those spots at the locations you said you could do. Ugh, people. So annoying sometimes.

Towards the end of the day, our order came from the Punjabi Market and Halal Butcher. I got a bunch of meat for Yoda's meals as well as some quinoa and other snackies. I got a mix of meats, including chicken, chicken legs, chicken gizzards, ground goat and some goat meat for stewing.

I started with the goat stew meat. It had bones, seeming to ne mostly the cast off pieces, so into the pot it went to make a mild broth. Once that had cooked for 2 hours, I got the goat out and let it cool and threw in butternut squash. Later, when the goat had cooled enough to get the bones out, I deboned and threw it back into the pot along with some frozen green beans. Let them stew for a little while, until the squash was soft, and scooped some out to cool for his dinner, hoping against hope that he would like goat.

Turns out, he really likes goat meat. Which is good, since we have two more trays of meat.

Today, I shall wash out the pan and throw in some chicken legs and some gizzards to boil up a broth. Then, I don't know. Maybe some more squash, maybe some brown rice. We'll see on what veggies we want to add as well.

The goat was great, but next time, I need to get more of it. The bones ate up a lot of the weight, so it only made two meals.

The chicken I have a lot of, so I'm going to make a lot, and put it in little tupperwares in the fridge and freezer. I'm thinking about getting one of those vacuum bag sealers to make fairly flat packages that won't take up so much room, especially for vacation. They can just be frozen until they're ready to be used. I never thought that I would have Opinions about dog food and vacuum seals, but hey. Life comes at you fast. Sometimes your elderly dog gets sick, and you'll do anything to prevent it happening again.

Today, I shall write a bit more of Marchen, since I'm up early. I realized that I need to work on the character's introduction, write a little vignette to bring them into the game. I felt like it gave each character a little time to shine right at the beginning, and it gave the other players tantalizing backstory tidbits. My group is all nervous about the intros, but I promised them that I had them. I will set the scene and guide them through it. All they have to do is answer my questions the way the character would, and relax and have a conversation. I've got them. I find that it's more immersive and that it gives the setting a lived in feeling as well as giving the players a chance to roleplay the character before the story starts, so they get a feel for them.

Then, after the final introduction is done, then I shall bring them all together, and the story shall begin.

That's in 24 days now. I still have plenty of time to finish it up and be ready. I already have enough for probably 5 sessions or so, maybe more. I'm going to strip out some of what I wrote, because I was writing for a mysterious person who might want to buy and run my module, and that was hard. So now, I'm just writing in my style. Setup, possible outcomes, and let the players decide what will happen.

The plan is to have all the nations set up, so that the players can choose where they want to go. Some scenarios might be punching above their weight class, so they'll need to pick carefully. During the set up, I will definitely be mentioning which rulers are the more volatile ones, so hopefully, they'll know to avoid them.

I got the cutest little outfit from Torrid last night. I had gotten the skirt, but it was huge. Apparently my upper and lower are two sizes, the lower is a size smaller. This time, I got it in the right sizes, and added the matching top.

I even have a studded belt I can add if I so desire. It looked fun and I think I'll enjoy wearing it. I would like to get a pair of combat boots to wear with it, but we'll see. I've been having trouble finding boots that fit.

I also got some plain square neck jersey dresses that are super cute, but not so fancy you can't wear them anywhere. I like them with tennis shoes and biker shorts or leggings underneath to avoid chubrub.

Also, OMG, they have pockets!

Speaking of things I bought, I just bought an additional carry on that will count as a personal item. I'll stow my backpack above the seat, which will have most of my medications, some clothes in case of delayed luggage, and other stuff I'm not likely to need during the flight. The person case will contain the stuff I might need/that's too important to stow like medications I might need during the flight. My Mounjaro, which I don't need to get pushed around or crammed in with other bags, some ibuprofen, tylenol, benadryl, antacids, and anti anxiety meds.

Today, I shall hopefully not be on the phones quite as much. I'd love to work on the cardiac folder to see if I can start shrinking that down, but we've just been too busy.

I'm off this weekend, so we'll have to do something on Saturday. We have game on Sunday, helping one of the Marchen players to set up her entirely homebrew subclass character sheet and introducing her character to Jess' character since they're going to be starting in the same prison.

I have no idea what to do on Saturday. It's supposed to be sunny, but cool, so possibly not outside. Probably will just be lunch and relaxing. Maybe I'll go to the non-halal butcher and see what lean cuts of pork they have for Yoda and get my emissions testing done. That could be good and adult-like. I could also pick up my prizes from the quarter auction.

I have 14 days til I start school, and 42 days until we leave for the cruise. I'm slowly starting to get things in order for that. I think I have my clothes figured out. It's just a matter of packing them. But for that, I need to know the temperatures we're looking at and the weather. SO far, it's still butfucking cold in Alaska, so hopefully the temps go up a little in the next month. I keep looking at the sites to see if I can print out our boarding passes yet, or if I can chose our meal for the flight. Nothing yet. Probably a couple of weeks before, but hope springs eternal.

Okay, time to hop off and do some work on Marchen. I'd like to get the introductions written today.
Everyone have a lovey Thursday! Or Friday Eve, however you like to look at it!

goodbyebird

+ I'm back at work, though one day later than I expected to be. It'll be a shorter trip of only four weeks, so now I just need the fishery to be good. I'd love to come home without my brain leaking out my ears; it took me over two weeks to recoup last time.

+ 2026 is shaping up to be a great movie year. I highly recommend both The Testament of Ann Lee and Project Hail Mary, plus there's both Pillion and Dune 3 to look forwards to. I guess I can hope really hard they don't fuck up Ready or Not 2? (I'm definitely showing up either way, if only for the cast)

+ Other things to look forward to: Microsoft Flight Simulator is set to get its VR update sometime next month. So long as it's not borked on the base PS5, that's a day one purchase for me. There's a bunch of cities to fly around, a safari/hot balloon thing, helicopter rescue missions, etc. It might even be just the thing to let my mom play.

+ And on the subject of my mom: she'll be moving back home! My brother and his partner are splitting up, and my nephew is old enough that she doesn't see him that much anymore, so now she's looking for an apartment to buy. I'm really happy about it. Both for my own sake and for hers.

Now I just have to bee diligent with looking for places we can visit in England. Hoping we can do a fun two week vacation there in August.

svgurl

latam is a community for people to come together to talk about Latin American music, films, food, culture, fandom, etc. The official languages of the community are Spanish, Portuguese and English.

vforvictoryexchange, a multi-fandom exchange about V-shaped polyamory ships, is open for nominations until March 27th, 10PM Eastern.

bitesizedfandomsex, an exchange for fandoms whose canons can be read, watched, played, or otherwise experienced in 8 or fewer hours, is accepting nominations until March 28th, 11:59PM Eastern.

narniaexchange, a community/exchange based on the Chronicles of Narnia books/movies is running a adult oriented prompt fest on AO3. Prompting is open and will close on March 30th.

fangfrenzyficexchange, a vampire themed (canon and AUs of non-vampire fandoms) fic exchange, is open for sign-ups until March 31st, 10AM Eastern.

Sunset Archive, a site using AO3's code dedicated to F/F, NB/F and NB/NB fanworks, is running its inaugural prompt meme. Prompting will close on March 31st but fills are open indefinitely.

fandom5k, a multi-fandom gift exchange for fic with a 5,000-word minimum and comics with a 5-page minimum, is accepting nominations until April 1st. It will then close temporarily and reopen when sign-ups do.

seasons_of_fandom, a multifandom community where you join a team and participate in challenges to earn your team points, is starting a new round on April 4th! Find out more info and sign up HERE. (And let them know I sent you if you do!)

seasonalremix, a quarterly, trope-based multifandom event focused on remixing an already existing work, has opened sign-ups for its Spring 2026 Round until April 11th, 11:59PM GMT.

shadowkat

I've a bunch of doves, sparrows, cardinals, and robins, also pigeons, tweeting in the backyards behind my building. My living room windows look out on a bunch of tree tops - so I see the birds, along with an occasional squirrel in them. I've debated buying a bird feeder - but I've no idea how I'd attach it to the back of a window without killing myself in the process. And it's not really necessary? They perch on my wide window sill all on their own.

***

I finished, Illona Andrews' The Inheritance (Breach-World Series #1) - which is a survival/adventure story not a romance, and if you are at all familiar with the writer - is most likely within the Innkeeper and Bayou world-building, it has similar characters and a similar tone/writing style to those two series, albeit without the romantic elements.

The book is hard to describe? There's a lot of world-building. And it has a convoluted plot. But I'll take a crack at it? ( description of book I just read, without any major spoilers ) So this is definitely not a romance novel - it's a science-fiction survival story and what the heck happened investigation, which is a huge story kink of mine. I love stuff like this. Mystery/Survival/Sci-Fi Hybrids are my favorite. (Also reminds me a little bit of a video game.)

It's the first book - I sped through in a while. So fingers crossed that the reading slump from hell has ended? Not wishing to tempt fate, I'm trying an earlier series by the writers - The Kinsman Series - which has two novellas, a short story, and a book length book involved in it. I don't know - but it appears to be more along the lines of romance fantasy or romance sci-fi, which isn't really my thing? But it might work. Who knows? At least the writers write strong female characters for the most part. Also the books are dirt cheap. The first ebook was $4.99, and the other was free on Kindle Unlimited.

***

Flirting with the television series Succession - which I'm told gets really good after the third or fourth episode, and takes off in the sixth episode. This is unfortunately true of a lot of television series? Particularly HBO series that fall under the category of hyper-realism.
Also flirting with the c-drama, Pursuit of Jade - of which there are 40 episodes on Netflix, it's in Mandarin with subtitles, and is...very pretty on the eyes? Honestly the cinematography is amazing for a television series. It's a historical action/adventure romance. I may continue - it's pretty and kind of relaxing to watch? Considering I have subtitles or closed captioning on half the time anyhow...not sure it matters? I have more issues with it for animated series. Mainly because it's hard to see the close captioning through the animation - they have a tendency to put it in white.

***

Catching up on March Question a Day Meme:

23. When was the last time you ate some chocolate?

About an hour and fifteen minutes ago. It's my main vice. And I'm not giving it up.

24. Harry Houdini was born today in 1874. Are you a fan of magic shows? Have you ever seen someone perform close-up magic?

Depends on the magic show? For the most part I enjoy them? But I also know some of the tricks?

Yes, more than once. I was even pulled into the act once on a girl scout retreat with my father when I was roughly speaking 10 years of age?( Read more... )

25. How often do you wash your hair? Do you style it, or just let it dry naturally?

Just did. But typically every other day, and sometimes every two days, depending on what I'm doing and usually at night.( Read more... )

musesfool

We were all super anxious about today's board meeting, but despite all the agita, it went well. Whew. We will still need to do some tweaking in terms of the order stuff is presented in, but thankfully nobody got all up in arms about the changes.

My router keeps dropping my internet connection in short spurts every few hours, and I finally opened the chat with Spectrum about it. I was like, could it be that I need a new router? It's 6 years old. And the chatbot or whatever was like, it seems to be working right now! And I was like, yes, but it's been dropping the connection repeatedly for the last three days, several times a day, for 5-10 minutes at a time, both on wifi and with the computer that is plugged into the ethernet cable. And it was like, please hold. And then it came back and was like, ah yes, now I see there is some bad signal coming from your router! Perhaps we should replace it. It is 6 years old. And I was like, yes please! How do we do that? And it offered to ship it and a new modem, which is also 6 years old but has not (yet) been troublesome, so I said yes, let's do that. So now they are shipping me a new modem and a new router, which I will install and then return the old equipment to them. So we'll see how that goes.

I also signed and scanned back my tax returns to my accountant and I'm so glad they take payment by Zelle now so I don't have to mail a check. I'm getting money back from both Fed and State, which will have to go right to paying bills. At least I can't rack up more credit card charges atm because my niece has put a moratorium on any new clothes for Baby Miss L until they clear out out some space. It is very hard to restrain myself but I have done so womanfully. There are just so many cute toddler girl clothes out there though, and she enjoys playing with her clothes (she likes to do fashion shows by trying on various items, accessorizing with a hat and a purse, and then walking round the living room), so I enjoy giving them to her. Hopefully they'll get some old stuff that no longer fits put away and I will be given free rein again.

*

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Ooh Child - the Five Stairsteps

setsuled

The first episode of the new season of Daredevil: Born Again does feel more solid than season one. I don't know if this indicates a better season overall but the pacing felt more natural, conversations didn't feel oddly crammed into blocks of a few minutes. The action scenes are better but still nowhere near the level of the old Netflix series. The performances are good with one new supporting character being a standout.

During the whole Paul Dano non-controversy in which Quentin Tarantino criticised the actor, Tarantino also took a swipe at Matthew Lillard. This basically confirmed for me that Tarantino had not watched Twin Peaks season three because anyone who's seen that amazing 18 hour work of art knows that Matthew Lillard can be really impressive. As a new character on Daredevil, he infuses a lot of life and intrigue into the scenes he appears in.

He plays Mr. Charles, some kind of fixer working for Fisk. A lot of people are talking about how eerily Wilson Fisk's "Anti-Vigilante Task Force" resembles ICE under the Trump administration, especially considering that people who worked on the show claim everything in season two was written two years ago. I don't necessarily believe that. Although the makers of the show obviously wanted to avoid the schizophrenic quality of Born Again's first season, Disney and Marvel are, I think, too addicted to late stage tampering to have abstained from it entirely.

But Vincent D'Onofrio's version of Wilson Fisk was always based on Trump, at least a little, even in the first season of the Netflix series. He was a greedy, tacky landlord in that, just like Trump was primarily a greedy, tacky landlord in the '80s. Though one of the best things about the Netflix Daredevil series was how complex Fisk's character was. I think some people are afraid of making villains too sympathetic so they actively avoid making them complex. But one thing Andor showed was that you could reveal the humanity of your villains without making them enviable. The audience sympathises with Dedra Meero but no-one would want to follow in her footsteps.

So the Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF) resembles ICE because they work for a Trump figure and they're a bunch of chubby guys in bullet proof vests, beating up innocent people. They're a simplistic bunch of comic book thugs; it's not hard for them to superficially resemble something because they're not very complex. So I don't find the parallel very interesting in itself but I do find it interesting that such a broad, two dimensional villain resembles people in the news. Partly this is an indication of the oversimplified narrative presented in modern news media, partly it's an indication of a real moral void in American leadership and law enforcement.

So far I'm not getting a whole lot from the character development this season though I did like the conversation between Karen and BB about her uncle. I really like the line Karen repeats, "The easiest people to manipulate are manipulators." I think that's a line from the old series, I'm not sure. In any case, it's a surprisingly astute observation from a show like this.

I didn't like the dialogue doubling down on the "Nelson, Murdoch, and Page" thing that seems to be retconning the old law firm to have included Karen as a partner. Does she have a law degree now?

Daredevil: Born Again is available on Disney+.

Current Location: Hell's Kitchen
Current Music: "I Don't Mind" - James Brown

ruric

Apparently this week is one with too few hours and too many tasks...I'll be pulling a late night or possibly all nighter to try to catch up!

Annoyingly driving home tonight I was fiddling with my ear piercings and popped both the back and the little cabochon off the smallest one on the left hand side - which is now somewhere in my car, so I'll never find it. Back to the lovely Willow I go on Friday to get a replacement stud and I'll get one or two helix piercings done at the same time.

I postponed the work thing I was due to do on Saturday because I need a full weekend to:

* spend some time on the allotment - 26 bags of compost to spread from last weekend
* sort out what I'm taking to Wales besides all my dirty laundry (which will get done up there)
* chill out a bit- maybe?
* sort out the chaos of 300 open tabs over 3 windows..
* make a start on decluttering the living and bedrooms

Seen on insta today all of which sum up my life right now:

* I don't have a train of thought, I have 7 trains on 4 tracks that narrowly avoid each other when their paths cross and all the conductors are screaming

* My ducks are not in a row. Some are missing, one's on fire and I'm pretty sure one is a pigeon.

* A reminder that Persephone is the goddess of flowers and also the Queen of Hell, so don't ever think that you have to fit into just one box.

I have far too many insta posts saved about tattooists doing fantastic floral and botanical work - which is what I want on my left arm. Currently I'm torn between fineline blackwork or something more colourful. I think I may need a proper vision board to help me decide. The aim is to get new ink before the end of the year. Then I can start planning for the right arm!

Also we're in the middle of fools spring - 19 or 20 degrees, brilliant sunshine and blue skies for the last week lulled us all into a false sense of security. Today the temps plunged and we had 4 seasons in 30 mins including torrential rain, sleet, and sunshine. Likely frost overnight - at least I don't have any tender plants outside yet.

Annnnd our office move - which was supposed to happen on Friday so I would have had 2 days to unpack before going away - has been postponed until 6 April - slapping in the middle of my holiday. What's the betting I come back on 13 April and my stuff will have disappeared into the ether?

Right - time for a giant pot of coffee, a rug to snuggle under and to fire up the work laptop.

beanside

It's hump day! We're almost at the halfway point! Work has been kind of draggy this week. I've been spending a lot of time on the phone, and it is not making me happy. There are other things to do, and it's been difficult to get any of them done. I could have made some moves and gotten a couple more patients in, but there just hasn't been time. I've had to release a bunch of holds I have because I haven't had time to look to see if any of them are movable. I can't wait til we have this batch of new people and the next trained, so maybe it takes some pressure off the phones coworkers, and I can do more actual work.

I did get some time to do other things in the am, and some of the m worked out, So that was good. And a couple during. I got to deal with the pt who had been bounced around because people don't necessarily understand that there are documents as they relate to combo MRIs and MRAS. Especially MRAs. Theres's a handy document about Cardiac MRIS and then MRAs. Because some MRAs have toe be done together. Like the Loey Diets Protocol. It's five separate MRAs that should be like 3hours total. But when you add them, they become a protocol that cane be done in 60 minutes. (Tbf, even our other PAS3s don't always get this one. I know it because I've spent plenty of time with the Cardiac document, but People schedule it all over the place. So I fixed that, spicy patient and all.

Yesterday morning, after I finished my journal, I went and wrote a bit on the new campaign, Marchen. By the time I had to go get ready for work, I had 929 words out. The number annoyed me, so at lunch I wrote more, topping out for the day at 1229. I was much more pleased with that number. It's moved them through two countries, so I am pleased. I feel like I'm set up well to have the campaign writen or at least the majority fleshed out. I certainly have worked on the fly in the past if they break the campaign, or if some random villian will prompt their ire, leading to a new chapter about going to deal with them.

Even if I didn't write anything more until after we started playing, I'd be fine.

I offered the musical introduction for the player characters in Marchen, and the players jumped on it. I've got two out of the four already, plus the music I'm using in my lead in. I'm about to upload the player's intro. The two I've gotten already are very interesting. Totally different feels to them. One is the Dishonored soundtrack, which is cool, in a dark, moody sort of way.

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And then Jess sent me a band I've not heard of, with a track that was wistful and maybe a little regretful.

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I on the other hand was not so original, and picked May it Be from Lord of the Rings (So cliche!) as performed by the 2Cellos.

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I honestly cannot wait for this campaign to start. I'm hoping it's a lot of fun and that the small clues I'm dropping will make it a fulfilling mystery.

In other news, the vacation is now 43 days away. It's very exciting! I'm still nervous about Yoda, but I'm going to be positive, and believe that this is going to go well. I've started looking at the app more closely, looking at the deck plans, so I will know where I'm going when the time comes. I feel like I need to know the most about everything, so I can make the vacation smooth for us.

As usual, I want this to be the best vacation possible. I want it to be perfect for the people I'm draging along in my wake, my Travel Prince(ss). They have an itinerary that I printed out and nothing else. I may let them carry their boarding pass, but that's about it. They can have their boarding pass for the flight once we go to the airport and print them all out from my phone, where they live. Our car service's info? In my phone. The hotels? In my phone. Our Excursions are all in my phone as well.

Mind you, while we're in Vancouver? That free day is entirely up to them. They can tag along with Jess and I, or they can do there own thing. And once we're on the boat, they can do whatever they would like.

Okay, time for me to work on Marchen and maybe take a nice shower. Everyone have a most wonderful Wednesday!

scaramouche

It's an autobiography! Michael J. Fox has written other autobiographies before (I haven't read those, though) and this one, titled No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality focuses on the recent, specific period of his life when (1) his Parkinson's symptoms got more intense, (2) he had spinal surgery to remove a tumour and (3) after said surgery fell down and broke an arm (!!!!) -- hence multiple rounds of physical therapy and recovery as the three issues overlapped.

Tangent: Fox is so synonymous with Parkinson's, that I was surprised to read that he was only 29 when first diagnosed. I do vaguely remember when the news came out, but since I was a kid at the time, my brain remembered it as him as having gotten it when he was a mature adult who'd already lived a long life. That vantage point is certainly different now! Twenty-nine is so young.

The book's primary focus is in sharing the issues of his specific disabilities and how he feels about said disabilities, with his fear of missing out on experiences with his family and friends, of feeling betrayed by his own body, of his attempts to make emotional sense of his situation. Although Fox is funny and witty in his anecdotes, it's still an intense read for that, though I do appreciate all the detail of how his symptoms limit his movement, speech and facial expressions, and the kind of geometric math he has to calculate in his head every time he wants to walk across a room. Fox does get angry and sad at points, but as the title says, he's also very grateful of what he's able to achieve despite his "premature ageing", and (IMO) the main thing he really wants to get out there is that the disabled should not be made invisible, and how important accommodations are.

Fox interweaves these health stories with his second-wave career, post-Spin City through the various supporting roles he had over the years in Rescue Me, The Good Wife and others, with shoutouts to the accommodations various friends and sets were able to give him in order to allow him to act. The book wraps up during covid-19 lockdown, with the epilogue being about how he's retiring again since he's done with acting, though he could come back if he gets better. (I would guess he did, since he was in Shrinking this year.) Fun and thoughtful read, with certain issues hitting close to home.

Current Mood: hot
Current Music: Tom Jones - Kiss

setsuled

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Terence Stamp rats on his former comrades in the London mob and is thenceforth marked for death, pursued by John Hurt and Tim Roth in 1984's The Hit. This Stephen Frears film has a surprisingly effective tone of detached, melancholic comedy.

For his courtroom betrayal, Stamp's character, Willie, is rewarded with a new life in Spain under witness protection. However, a pair of hitman working for his old crew track him down, kidnap him, and start driving him to Paris, where they expect to meet up with the boss. At this point the film becomes a road movie.

John Hurt and Tim Roth play the two hitmen, Braddock and Myron. Hurt is cool, detached, and experienced while Roth, whose first film this was, plays Myron as a naive young hoodlum. Willie is surprisingly calm and jovial and subtly starts trying to play his two captors against each other.

Braddock is experienced but he starts making a number of mistakes. He takes a woman hostage, Maggie (Laura del Sol), whom Willie observes ought to have been executed immediately. Both Braddock and Myron seem attracted to her, Myron the more foolishly, but Braddock's hesitation from harming her seems strange when the filmmakers go to such pains to establish him as a cold blooded psycho.

According to Wikipedia, this is one of Wes Anderson's favourite British films and it makes sense with the film's subtly twisted moral comment and delicately comedic chemistry.

The Hit is available on The Criterion Channel.

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Current Mood: groggy
Current Location: The road
Current Music: "Pashernate Love" - Morrissey

goodbyebird

Hey. Psst. Were you one of those kids that would find a pretty rock when out walking and you'd carry it with you for the rest of that adventure and put it in your pocket and whatnot? Go see Project Hail Mary at the cinema. Don't check out the trailer, just go.

(also featured: science! teamwork! nice knitted sweaters!)

beanside

Title ripped from David Crosby's Hero, which I remembered while pondering songs for the Fairytale capaign. (It's totally Jess' Paladin, Dalton's entire steeze.

As I'm writing and the lands are taking shape, it's been interesting to see how things are changing from where I started them. I'm sure it'll continue to to shape itself. This morning, it ocuured to me that the thing I did for Crooked Moon, I could do for Marchen. I had already planned to give the characters introduction scenes, but I could also put out the call for the character's theme song.

It's the song that plays over the introduction scene. They can use the music to further set the scene and to give the overal vibe for the character. One of our Crooked Moon players was introduced just before his entrance to his final UFC fight. She chose Blink 182's Blur-Song 2 for the intro, set up to hit the moment the character walked into the arena.

Players had so much fun with it, and I really felt like it helped to personalize the intro even further, to help the player really get a feel for their character. You write it up, and you have an idea, but then you realize that the "Perfect Song" you found speaks to a slightly different character. Maybe you change it, maybe you change the character? It's up to the player.

I really enjoyed it, and I hope my players in this group will too.

Yesterday was not bad. I was on the phones for the morning, then in the afternoon, I was mostly doing the new job. I got the dubious honor of checking all of that coworker's appointments. Fortunately, it seems like she's really slow, and only makes between 10-20 appointments per day, so I was able to whip through them. I got them done and was condsidering getting back on the phone when J hit me up to fix a cardiac opening. I did that, and another day sprung a cardiac opening. And it was a day where the appts could be Tetris-ed into a better formation that would allow us to get in a pt who got kinda fucked over by poor scheduling. It was a 90minute cardiac slot., which is a bitch to find. The pt was scheduled in May. But I got a cancellation, and was able to shift things around for the pt, and had her moved up to this coming Monday. Not half bad.

I was really sore yesterday, so we just had KFC for dinner. It wasn't bad, but not great either. My tender wrap was pretty okay, but the potato wedges were nasty. Ah well. They can't all be Reindeer Games. (This is another idiom shorthand that we picked up from a shitty movie, and still use to this day. In this case, it's from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. We are just full of these stupid quotes, and almost no one will understand them.)

While we waited for dinner, I made Jess watch half an hour of the 1987 live action He-Man movie, Masters of the Universe with Dolph Lungren and Frank Langella. It's actually far worse that I remembered, which is saying something.

I went to bed early, since I had trouble sleeping the night before. Fortunately last night was better.

Today, we shall work and get our pay slip. I won't get the actual money til tomorrow, but tonight at 3-4:30pm, I'll know how much it'll be. Probably not a ton. I don't think I worked any OT this paycheck, and it's still at the old rate. The one I'm looking forward to seeing is the 4/8 paycheck. That'll have the new rate, plus one day of OT. It should look lovely.

I made Yoda a pile of food on Sunday. Boiled the chicken, added vegetables and healthy rice. It made enough for 7 meals. Which should work out well. I planned to make two kinds of meals for him each week, so we can alternate which we give him.

It's going to be a lot of work, but I'll feel better knowing that he's got good food that will help his stomach. I even bought a food scale so that I can measure his portions out exactly. He's going to eat better than us. Though while I'm at it, I may try prep our dinners as much as I can. I'd like to use door dash less.

With the total clusterfuck that is our government, I'm debating on moving the ride to the car back an hour just to be sure we don't miss our flight. They're saying that in BWI, security is taking 2 hours. They open at 4 am, so if we go then, we should get through pretty quickly. That of course, will mean leaving at 3:30am, which would suck, but I am not letting anything fuck up this vacation.

I really have no idea what I'll be working on today. My counterpart, Jo, is in today, so I won't need to make a ton of calls. That's literally her only job, calling people back, so we send them all to her. She's only reliably here from M-W. Thursday, sometimes, Friday never. She's also an elderly lady who's been with Hopkins for like 50 years, so I can see why they've minimized the work she needs to do.

But we'll play it by ear. Also tomorrow, I can put in my request for the last of my vacation days! It won't cover the Monday after we get back. I won't have that time til close to the trip, but if need be, I can call out sick that day. I've got the SSL leave for it. We get in at 7pm thanks to the time change, and I am certainly not going to be going in at 8am on Monday. They'll be lucky if I stumble in Tuesday morning.

Okay, time to do a bit more writing in Marchen. I've only got about 3 1/2 weeks to get at least the first teir done. I do need to also have a little something for the RP two of the Marchen players want to do of their characters' first meeting. Everyone have the best Tuesday!

scaramouche

While I was away for Eid I got into a mini-Bollywood marathon watching old movies on streaming, and I had SUCH a fun time. The movies I watched:

Khabi Khabie (1976)
Netflix's summary: "Years after they're forced by their families to marry other people, a poet and his true love must come to terms with their past".

I was bamboozled by that summary, wrongly assuming that said poet and his true love would get back together! After poking around a bit, this movie seems to be part of a mini-movement of movies in that era that explored emotional and/or physical infidelity, though this movie is "only" of the emotional infidelity front and is actually really thoughtful because no one's a villain, and it delves into the complications of romantic and familial bonds, and how love and our expectations of love change over time. I also really liked that, when one of the characters is adopted, the movie made sure to show that her adopted parents are her real parents, and do not become secondary after said character finds her birth mother. The 1970s style with its emotional shorthands and broad drama really worked for me in this case because it was balanced with a grounded emotional core. As a side bonus, I don't think I've ever watched a movie that had both Shashi and Rishi Kapoor in main roles, which was fun.

Anjaam (1994)
Netflix's summary: "A wealthy industrialist's dangerous obsession with a flight attendant destroys her world, until she takes matters into her own hands to exact revenge."

This doesn't even start ominously the way Darr does, and instead uses rom-com tropes some have described as "slap-slap-kiss" except in this case there's no "kiss" reward for the man, because his pushy behaviour is used to show his sense of entitlement and his refusal to take "no" for an answer is bad, actually! The tonal shift wasn't abrupt per se because there was build-up, but when the movie turned to outright violence I kind blinked dazedly in ye meme of "well, that escalated quickly". My parents only caught glimpses of this as I was watching it, and were super confused because they kept assuming that Shah Rukh was the hero/romantic lead, and he's, uh... not. Very not. Satisfying turn for the female lead, satisfying revenge arc, satisfying ending for the characters. Madhuri Dixit wasn't among my fav Bollywood actresses growing up, but I'm really appreciating her depth and range now.

Aaina (1993)
Netflix's summary: "When a woman leaves her fiance to pursue her dreams of stardom, her sister steps in to marry him. But what happens when the bride returns?"

About half an hour into this movie I realized that I'd seen it before, when I was younger and specifically during those formative years, because boy oh boy some iddy tropes I still find super delicious today are in full technicolour in this movie. I do laugh that this movie wants us to believe that Juhi Chawla is the "plain" second sister, but she's so good at playing the arc of a self-conscious woman who'd been raised to believe that familial respect means always letting her older sister bully her, and eventually learning to stand up for herself for herself (as opposed to fighting purely for the sake of a man). Although her character is in love with Jackie Shroff's character from the start, the movie fully acknowledges how messed up it is that she has to be his replacement bride, and she is the one who sets boundaries for their new marriage. The melodrama and big gestures of Amrita Singh are SO delicious and OTT as she tries to sabotage their marriage, and the machinations of the movie are not "reasonable" or "realistic" -- they are indulgent and cruel and wonderful, and I love it. I hadn't seen anything of Jackie Shroff's for years and years, so watching this movie was a journey from "yeah, I remember how charming he is now" to "he is the most handsome Bollywood actor in the WORLD" (/hyperbole)

Current Mood: distracted
Current Music: Dil To Pagal Hai

shadowkat

It was raining most of today - as it turns out, and cold. With a chill in the air. When it wasn't raining, it was misting.

1. I'm glad I'm not flying anywhere at the moment. Newark has had several plane collisions in the last few months, and on Sunday, Laguardia (LGA) in NY had a fatal plane collision with a Fire Truck. Air Canada and a Fire Truck collided.

LGA Air Canada and Fire Truck Collision.

I woke up this morning - turned on the news - and there it was as the lead story. It happened late Sunday night, they shut down the airport and evacuated the terminal - the news broadcasters told us that nothing was flying in or out of LGA until 2pm.

And if you were catching a flight before then - to contact your airline because it was probably cancelled and the airport was closed. This was at 6:30 am this morning.

( what happened as far as we know... )

( how many flights were canceled )

Art History Major aka Busy Bee - is off to Florida on Wed. ( TSA and ICE not the best mix for travel )

God, how did we get here? We all agreed that we wanted the thing in the White House gone. And when it happens? We'll flood the streets, hold impromptu celebrations, dance in the street, kiss each other on the cheeks, and hold a big street party. We'll be united in glee. Another rendition of ...the classic 1941 ditty, When that Man is Dead and Gone - which is both tragically and ironically valid today

Mother, I, AHM's boss, and Breaking Bad have all decided we're not flying anywhere any time soon. I'm hoping this sorts itself out by at least May or June. But not holding my breath.

2. I'm frustrated with My Doctor's Office/Health Care Provider. So the PT wanted me to schedule an appointment with his buddy - the vestibular therapist on Tuesday, but alas my primary care gave me a referral to a therapist who can't see me until May and isn't the vestibular therapist the PT introduced me to and wanted me to see this week.

I went online, and after a lot of maneuvering in their site - managed to find the PT that I wanted.

So I asked if I could choose my own or switch to the other one. Primary Care agreed - and if they don't allow it, let her know and she'll send a new referral.

So I call the physical therapy scheduling office and after an hour on hold and, it doesn't exactly go well?

( talking to healthcare provider schedulers requires far too much patience... )
[I'll got talk to the schedulers tomorrow in person. Maybe I'll get somewhere. Unlikely, I'm going in with low expectations? With Healthcare Providers - it's best to go in with low expectations - that way you don't get disappointed.]

See? This is the reason that I've done nothing about the vestibular/vertigo issue. By the time, I actually see the guy, the problem will be gone.

3. There's been a lot of "problematic" famous people dying lately? James Vander Beek, the guy who shall not be named - he was a political guy, and Nick Brendan. Of the three JVB was probably the least controversial and easiest to deal with - and considering he was against vaccines, and a Trump supporter, that's kind of saying something?

Nick Brendan portrayed a problematic character on Buffy (who I consider complicated and was actually quite likable towards the end of S3 and through S7 for the most part. Being a well-rounded and 3 dimensional character - he had plenty of flaws, but that made the character memorable. Also, beloved and relatable to many. Perfect characters or goody two shoe characters are not relatable or beloved. We tend to forget about them. Yes, he was a bit of a jerk in S1-3, but also an adorable goof-ball, and he saved Buffy's life three times). He was troubled and problematic man in life, far more so, actually than most of the characters he portrayed or at least the most familiar of them.

I stumbled upon Nick Brendan's last post on FB - where he takes questions from his devoted fans, and ....I felt for him, while at the same time, was horrified at what he'd become and what his fans, unwittingly enabled. There's a lesson for us all in there somewhere? ( discussing a dead man feels so morbid but here we go... )

The internet scared me today - because I looked up what ailed him. It's "Cauda equina syndrome (CES)" which according to the Orthopedic Centers of Colorado is a rare, medical emergency involving severe compression of nerve roots at the base of the spine, requiring immediate decompression surgery—ideally within 24 hours—to prevent permanent paralysis, incontinence, and sexual dysfunction. Key symptoms include severe low back pain, saddle anesthesia (numbness in groin/buttocks), and sudden bowel/bladder dysfunction.

The internet loves to throw symptoms at you that you think you have and don't. Technology is turning me into a hypochondriac.

( back to discussing Brendan's demons )

4. Stumbled upon this disturbing article about being a young professional screen actor and dealing with the toxicity of social media.

Barry Keoghan Says Online Abuse Means He
Doesn't Want to Go Outside Any More

"Oscar-nominated actor Barry Keoghan has said online abuse about his appearance is affecting his life, to the point that he now does “not want to go outside”.

The Irish actor, who is playing Ringo Starr in Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles tetralogy, told SiriusXM host Ben Harlum that though he left social media in 2024 due to online abuse, it was still so bad that he was “shying away” from the public eye – and it was making him want to retreat from acting.

Asked about his fans, Keoghan acknowledged that some “people are so lovely out there”, but added: “There’s also a nasty side of it. And I’ve removed myself from online, but I’m still a curious human being that wants to go on. And if I attend an event or if I go somewhere, you want to see how it was received. And it’s not nice, you know?”
( my two cents )

yourlibrarian

1) It was nice to see that when Jeopardy used "slash fiction" as a clue, they actually had the correct definition.

2) This article which looks at Hamnet's role as an Oscar nominee was interesting but asked an odd question at the start: "(Chalamet) is not wrong in noticing that the classical arts have less mass appeal than pop art...Given this logic, if the classical arts have a connotation of decline because the masses no longer engage with them/or they are inaccessible, why does William Shakespeare—arguably just as distant from everyday popular consumption—continue to carry enormous cultural prestige, especially in industries like awards-season filmmaking?" ( Read more... )

3) Enough time has passed now that I'm not entirely sure what I wanted to discuss regarding several Netflix shows, but I think it had to do with what made them memorable. ( Read more... )

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setsuled

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Sydney Sweeney finds out there's more to spying on your neighbours than you might expect in 2021's The Voyeurs. It's basically a loose remake of Rear Window but it's quite good for that. The moral crisis Sweeney's character finds herself in in the climax is kind of exquisite.

Sweeney plays Pippa, an optometrist who's just moved into a fabulous new apartment with her boyfriend, Thomas (Justice Smith). Their apartment has massive floor-to-ceiling windows through which they can easily see into the apartment across the street. That apartment also has the massive windows but the curtains are never closed and the lights are always on. Inhabiting the apartment are a professional photographer, Seb (Ben Hardy), with a studio inside the apartment, and his girlfriend, Julia (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). The two don't seem at all conscious of the fact that their most private moments are on display for everyone across the street.

One flaw in the film's logic is that it doesn't consider the possibility of anyone else in Pippa and Thomas' building being able to see these neighbours and events proceed as though only Pippa and Thomas can see in. They are thus forced to grapple with the responsibility they have for witnessing disturbing incidents.

Some reviews say the second half of the film is ludicrous but I'd say those critics forget the fact that first part of the film is also ludicrous. It's just that the first part of the film gives us a premise we're more used to accepting in fiction. Hitchcock played with this idea in Vertigo in which the first half of the film gives us a bunch of absurd stuff we're used to accepting from movies, but then Hitchcock pulls the rug out from under the viewer. The Voyeurs doesn't do that but it does go somewhere interesting. I suspect the second half of the film was taken in a slightly different direction than what was originally in the screenplay after Sydney Sweeney was cast because it makes very good use of her famously "good genes". But it works wonderfully.

The first half of the film does a good job of slowly building Pippa and Thomas from characters who can't help watching what's very much on display to actively spying, going to complicated lengths to improve their surveillance methods. It's Pippa in particular who compulsively concocts moral justifications despite the fact that she's primarily deriving sexual gratification from the experience. This shaky moral ground leads to some scenes of impressively sexy subtext when Pippa finally meets the two neighbours, particularly in the case of Seb who, with his photographer's eye, turns the tables on Pippa. What happens to Pippa after that is a bit underplayed in my opinion. She's subjected to such severe physical and psychological violation that I feel like her trauma would've been far greater than what we see. But there is a sequence of Pippa really losing her shit and smashing things and Sweeney's performance does convey the idea of someone being stripped of both confidence in her capacity for rational thought and all sense of moral justification so. She's almost bestial, driven back to a primal motive.

The Voyeurs is available on Amazon Prime.

Current Mood: groggy
Current Location: An apartment
Current Music: "The Unicorns" Legend OST - Jerry Goldsmith

ruric

Last week was busy, this week will be too - but we have spring weather here in London, blue skies and that combination plus my current obsession is stopping me spiralling into apathy.

HOME: continuing the slow and steady deep clean and declutter - bathroom done. Next up is the bedroom. Didn't quite tick off all my targets last week but happy with progress.

HEALTH new hair cut was a hit at work - unexpected compliments left, right and centre! Opened up piercings not giving me any issues - definitely going back for helix (helices???) in May or June. Titanium jewellery the way to go. Planning new tattoos too. Sleep patterns normalising as I'm trying to put in the effort to get a solid 6-7 hours a night. Arthritic knees feeling OK. Rejoined the gym at the weekend - now just need to figure out how to fit sessions into my days. Need to find my Fitbit.

LIFE ADMIN: pretty much up to date - need to sort out green waste fees for the cottage, review council tax bills for cottage and London and apply for a postal vote. Sorting pensions on back burner until decluttering done - which should reveal where I stashed all the paperwork!

DIGITAL DECLUTTER: email still around 11,000, not managed to reduce it - in fact I looked away from it last week and by the weekend had 2000 unread. Ugh. Staying on top of transferring To Keep items from tablet to dropbox, have started reviewing and decanting images from phone because it is FULL.

GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: barrowed 30 bags of compost from delivery site fown to my plot on Friday. Community day at the plots on Saturday, which was lovely, and then Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon I started prepping my plot. I have a plan to tackle it in 1-2 hour blocks to avoid overwhelm.

COOKING/EATING: fewer takeaways last week and stocked up on healthy food at the weekend - so no excuse for bad habits. Getting back into overnight oats for breakfast (great for grab and go mornings) and giant salads for lunch. Reactivated membership of a logging site which let's me track macros and calories - suspect I'm out of whack on my carb/protein balances.

READING/LISTENING: Finished re-reading Heated Rivalry matching book chapters to rewatch episodes. May be diving back into a reread of the other books as I have time off for Easter.

WATCHING: still Heated Rivalry all the way. I think I've fully reheated 5 times but also watched various eps as standalone so ai'm at the point where I've lost count and no longer care. I'm all up in the fanvids too - I'd forgotten how much I enjoy them! Picking up some shorter fan edits too (mostly from tumblr and insta I think). May have to do a short term subscription to YouTube premium over Easter so I can legally download my faves. This fandom is also very generous - people are sharing Google doc fic links which are truly epic and so much other material. Unfortunately reading between the lines the fandom has evolved as fast as the show which means certain of the less great things are surfacing - homophobia, racism and in some places exclusion of queer audiences which WTAF way to miss the point. I want all the nice things do not piss off the show runner, creatives or actors. Luckily my lists are curated so I only tend to see this alluded to and not the actual posts. And it sounds like many of the people involved have stepped back from social media engagement - which, good for them!

CREATING/LEARNING: still have crochet projects underway - we did new things at crochet club on Friday so no progress on existing projects - spring wreath, Halloween blanket, granny square blanket, hexicardi, granny square bags x 2. Might get one or two done by the end of the month.

CATS: all good. They're both being super affectionate at the moment. Cuddles all the time.

VOLUNTEERING: community day at the plots was good with another one planned for 19 April. Our community plot - where we host parties and the plant sale - is looking good.

SOCIALISING: busier than usual last week! Post work drinks with a few colleagues on Thursday - just for an hour - which was both nice and enough. Hung around a bit on Friday afternoon with allotment people during compost distribution. Same on Saturday as we had a pizza lunch after working. And a few calls with

ravurian.

WORK: first round of inspections almost done - hope to finish this week. Need to do the ton of admin it generates and deal with end of year close down. Reprofiled my parts of the capital budget. Have mostly packed everything for the office move at the end of the week.

Today I'm working from home - likely in the office Tuesday through Thursday and probably Friday morning, then working Saturday 11 to 2pm. Aiming to try and add in some gym and allotment time to this week too.

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A place for Marvel/Star Wars Disney+ shows.

A place for Marvel/Star Wars Disney+ shows.

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Sigh, I acquire more books...now that reading slump is gone

A Human Work

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We cannot just stand by, it's time to match your strength of will.

Buttering my muffin.

current fandom events

Wed Book Meme...

someday when the world is much brighter

The Devil's in His Kitchen

It's being quite a week

The hero knew what he had to do and he wasn't afraid to fight.

Book Log: No Time Like the Future

The Malaise of Dangerous Men

Go treat your inner child.

It was one of those great stories, the ones you can't put down at night.

Big Movies

Monday Monday ...Rainy Days and Mondays...

Getting It Right

Who are You Watching?

Week 12 - on time for once!

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