eleanorjane | Reading

This is over two weeks' worth of reading, since I didn't do a post while I was in Japan.

Recently Finished
The Colossus Rises
First book in a middle grade series about a group of kids who discover they carry some ancient gene that can give them super powers but will also kill them soon after it manifests at age 13 unless they can find seven objects that were hidden in the seven wonders of the ancient world. This is clearly trying to be the next Percy Jackson type thing, but while I've never read the Percy Jackson books, I'm pretty sure they must be better than this. The characters were all stereotypes (and there's only one girl in the group of four and she's literally the only female character in the book) and the plot and worldbuilding all felt very haphazard. No interest in continuing the series.

The Disaster Tourist
Translated from Korean. Yona works at a dystopian company that sells tours to disaster zones and when she takes one herself to evaluate whether the company should discontinue it or not, things go off the rails. This was interesting but I didn't love the ending.

Bright
Translated from Thai. When five-year-old Kampol is abandoned by his parents, he is taken in and raised by the close-knit community. This is more a series of short stories than a novel. I liked it a lot.

A Murder for Miss Hortense
First in a new murder mystery series featuring a middle aged Jamaican British sleuth. I liked this a lot. Highly recommend the audiobook.

The Deep
Fantasy novel about a race of mermaids who were born from pregnant slaves tossed over the side of ships. Only one person in each generation holds the memories of their past, and must share them with the group. Interesting world building, but I never could get that into it.

Night Drop
First in a series of muder mysteries set in 1990s LA, around the time of the Rodney King riots. I liked it all right. Will continue the series.

Teaching What Really Happened: How to Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks and Get Students Excited About Doing History
I am not a teacher nor do I have kids, but this sounded interesting and it was.

An Unnatural Life
A cyborg in prison for murdering a human claims he didn't do it. The MC is a lawyer who decides to take his case and attempt to get a retrial based on the fact that a human jury was prejudiced against him. I liked this but it dragged a bit. It's more novella length, but could have been even shorter.

Two Truths and a Lie
Short story about a woman who mentions a creepy children's show, thinking she's making it up, only to find out it was real and she was on it as a kid. Reminded me a lot of Mister Magic.

Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome
Short story tied to a series of sci-fi novels I haven't read. The novels don't sound that interesting, but this is like a mockumentary style write-up of the world building. I liked it a lot. No knowledge of the series necessary.

Age 16
Graphic novel about three generations of Chinese/Chinese Canadian women and their strained relationships with each other. Chapters alternate between the present when the MC is 16, her mom at 16 in the 70s, and her grandma at 16 in the 50s. I liked it a lot.

Stone Fruit
Graphic novel about two queer women, their relationship with each other, which is falling apart, their role as fun aunts, and their reconnection with their respective sisters. I liked it.

Kokoro no Ichiban Kurai Heya vol. 1
Newish horror manga with a framing story of an online chat group that tells off-the-cuff horror stories based on random words the group suggests. First volume was free on Amazon Japan. Vaguely curious about continuing, but the first volume didn't really grab me, and the overarching plot introduced at the end seems less intriguing, so I'm not sure if I will continue it.

A Star Brighter Than the Sun vol. 5

Mystery to Iu Nakare vol. 16

Saint Oniisan vol. 22

musesfool

Just woke up from an unexpected 2 hour nap, so thoughts on The Pitt finale will have to wait. Here's today's poem:

Materials for a Gravestone Rubbing

I have long wanted to be starlight in spring
and the late snow that lingers there, coming down
at Harpers Ferry over the river or gathered
on a windowsill on third street in Brooklyn
when I was twenty-two — the potpourri
of sky the wind carries after a storm.
The gray darkening on a far ridge. If you are reading this
there is still a way. I can take your smooth palm in mine
and lead you toward a distant city and a night
when you were on the mountain and dreaming of the other world
and we can walk together past the pre-war homes
converted now to low-rent apartments for college students
or workers come in from long days on a road crew,
coveralls draped over the backs of kitchen chairs
and the light swaying just so. We can go on —
along the cracked sidewalks above the train tracks
that can't exist again even as the grasses come up between them
and look through a fog and a single pair of headlights
making definite beams in the material cold.
No moonlight to get netted up in on the surface of the water
no traffic at this hour just the scraps of paper blown
into gutters and the electric hum of streetlights,
a few voices, which almost walk like footfall down alleys
overgrown with briars and creeping vines, their crude
latticework against the brick and the exhale
of a bartender on a smoke break and the smoke
which still drifts. Now it must be all worn through
but then it was barely remarkable though I stop
to look back at the homes and at snow melt on roads
the flat glitter on the black road, the moiré pattern
yet to be captured by language — and for a minute believe
in something as my stepfather believed in the smell of fire
whenever he left in the middle of the night
and returned before dawn and spoke to no one, didn’t
wake anyone up. Sometimes I feel that alone,
that pure, as if looking back at myself
through the scrim of time and you are there
standing in our kitchen at this hour and I can almost
hear you and the first singing caught-up there in the back
of your throat. Lately I've stopped worrying about the end.
Each day my hand is smaller on your shoulders. New birds
still return and the hillsides green all around, the stars
have traveled over the horizon and in the blink
of an eye you are here — grape-vine charcoal in your hand;
little hyphen I have become.

--Matthew Wimberley

*

Current Mood: sleepy

torachan

1. I woke up late today (by like an hour or so) and felt pretty tired mid day, but otherwise am pretty much recovered from the travel.

2. Yesterday I went to Petco to buy more litter and decided to get a new cat tree for the kitties as a treat. I wanted to spray it with catnip spray to get everyone to notice it, but so far can't find the spray. Jasper really likes it, though.

3. I'm very glad I have a four day weekend before having to go back to work on Monday.

4. Molly didn't come out of hiding last night until around 9:30, but she's been pretty much glued to my bed ever since. And she was extra demanding of pets when I went to bed last night.

musesfool

Almost forgot to post!

Shoulders
by Naomi Shihab Nye

A man crosses the street in rain,
stepping gently, looking two times north and south,
because his son is asleep on his shoulder.

No car must splash him.
No car drive too near to his shadow.

This man carries the world's most sensitive cargo
but he's not marked.
Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE,
HANDLE WITH CARE.

His ear fills up with breathing.
He hears the hum of a boy's dream
deep inside him.

We're not going to be able
to live in this world
if we're not willing to do what he's doing
with one another.

The road will only be wide.
The rain will never stop falling.

*

Current Mood: tired

schneefink

I think the exam this morning went well, that is a big relief (though I won't find out for sure for six weeks or so.) Finally time to catch up on fandom things!

I participated in

mcytbattleship this year - the first one, technically, since last year was AUFest in battleship format - and I had a lot of fun. I was on team Tide and we won!! It was extremely close, too, team Bolt was missing one board tag at the last check.
I came into the event planning to write at least one fic, and I ended up writing six, which I'm very happy with, and two of those (the last two in this list) especially. All six stories were for Hermitcraft/Life series, and all featured ZombieCleo - yes I have a clear favorite. (I started fics without them too but those didn't come together.)

The Watcher at the End of His Games, Hermitcraft/Life series
1k, Cleo&Etho&Grian, Watcher!Grian
Summary: After the last game ended badly, Grian invites Cleo and Etho to one more world.
Notes: Roomies <3 This needed more editing to come together the way I wanted it too but not bad I think.

Waxen Care, Hermitcraft
0.7k, Cleo & Joe, came back wrong, platonic wax play
Summary: Cleo's body was changed, again. Joe helps.
Notes: I think several tags I was aiming for a very obvious, and I do like Joe taking care of Cleo.

Find the Missing, Life series
1.2k, Cleo/Etho, superhero AU
Summary: The downside of having a famous superhero ex is that you might get kidnapped to get to him. The upside is that he will come and rescue you, and you might even find out how much you still care about each other.
Notes: This is an urban fantasy AU so technically I could have tagged this Hermitcraft but idk Life Series seemed to fit this version of them better. Not written in second person btw, for some reason I put the summary like that.

Parsec High Club, Hermitcraft
0.6k, Cleo/Etho/OFC, brainship AU
Summary: Due to the limitations of being a spaceship, Cleo could sometimes use some assistance in properly taking care of their captain.
Notes: I just had to write something to hit "AU - Brainship" ^^ Sidenote, this one and the next had five tags from the rare tags list which gives me a golden ticket for next year, need to figure out what to use it for...

/keep @server hermit 2, Hermitcraft RPF
1.1k, Cleo & Grian, IRL Hermits on Hermitcraft isekai
Summary: Being on Hermitcraft is different when the Server doesn't let you leave.
Notes: My first actual MCYT RPf fic, and I have wanted to see more Hermits-on-Hermitcraft for a while. The recipient called it "kinda horrifying, actually. But also lovely." which is pretty much what I wanted :)
I really liked my idea to use a made-up gamerule for the title; I don't know anything about gamerules but I got some feedback that made me think it's maybe not immediately clear but makes sense in context.

The Swarming of Hermits, Hermitcraft
2.8k, Cleo/Everyone (Cleo/Grian, Cleo/Etho, Cleo/Cub), e-rated xeno harem with lots of breeding kink
Summary: The Time of Swarming has begun, and Hermits from all over the place have gathered together.
Cleo breeds her swarm.
Notes: This year there was a battleship tag "grasshopper-style gregarization," and I found a prompt for it that also included xeno, oviposition, and breeding kink, and somehow I came up with this. Definitely the kinkiest fic I have ever posted! Feels a bit awkward to reread but I'm also proud of it. And I have many thoughts about the worldbuilding that I will hopefully write down at one point.

deird1

For some reason, I felt moved to write femslash pirate dubcon smut. Not sure where that came from.

Title: And a Bottle of Rum
Rating: R
Word Count: 1536

Summary: Seriously, guys, this is just smut.

( yo ho ho )

torachan

1. We are back home! It was a long day of traveling and then a long day of staying awake for a whole other day so as to get back on LA time, but we did it. So glad to be home!

2. I looked at making reservations for the bus from the hotel to the airport last night but ended up not doing so because I didn't want to commit to a time yet and I had the vague memory of having made same-day reservations last year. Well, either I misremembered or this year they're just busier because this morning it was telling me I was outside the reservation period. We checked out of the hotel and then waited a few minutes downstairs for the bus to come by and asked the driver if we could get on without reservations and he said no, so we ended up just taking another bus to Maihama station and then taking the train (I think it was like three trains lol) to the airport. With the new rolling suitcase we bought last week, it was actually doable, and we would have been able to do the same in Osaka and save those taxi fares if only we'd had it then. idk why we thought backpack style bags were the way to go, but we are definitely converts to the rolling suitcase now. By taking the train, we were able to stop back at the Disney store in Tokyo station which we had checked out yesterday morning but then decided to make our purchases when we came back through on the way back to the hotel, except our plans ended up taking us a different route and we didn't go back through Tokyo station. So Carla was able to get a few more last minute Rapunzel items before we left.

3. Overall it was a really nice trip, but I'm not sure I want to do a full two weeks again. The last couple days we were away, there were some cat pee accidents, so I think the stress might have been getting to someone (we suspect Molly since she was in hiding most of the time we were gone, even though she knows Alex), and we just missed the babies a lot.

4. I never close my bedroom door but Alex was closing it while she was working, which of course made Chloe very curious as to what was going on inside!

settiai

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.

Current Mood: accomplished

isis

What I've recently finished reading:

After I finished The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow, I idly looked for fanfiction. There are all of two fics: one is Una/Owen smut, and the other is not actually for The Everlasting but is a sort of fusion, Palamedes and Camilla from The Locked Tomb Series in a plot drawn from The Everlasting...

...and I really liked it! Camilla Everlasting by

DullestProdigalSon, about 23K, lots of very short chapters. You do have to have read Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth, as it's very firmly based in those books, but I thought the translation of the Everlasting plot to the Locked Tomb world was very cleverly done. (You don't need to have read The Everlasting. There's some reference to "The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex" but you probably don't need to have read that.) In this story, Palamedes is the scholar/necromancer from the future who is sent back in time to help the famous Camilla Hect become a Lyctor. What's really cool is that in this fic, Palamedes was not the necromancer of the original narrative, but essentially overwrote that narrative to be the story we read in the novels, which I thought was very in keeping with the way that Harrow the Ninth rewrites the story of Gideon the Ninth, and also echoes Cytherea's actions in the first book. The character voices and general tone and style felt super-true to the Locked Tomb, too - overall an enjoyable read!

And...that's about all. I'm currently eyeball-reading The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, and listening to Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor (book 4 of the Bobiverse).

What I'm currently watching:

We noped out of Fallout S2 after two episodes, and are now about midway through 1923, one of Taylor Sheridan's numerous Yellowstone prequels. I had not been really inclined to watch it, but B roped me in with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, who I must admit are excellent here; however, the narrative strand dealing with the Indian boarding school is the most compelling (and horrifying) to me. (Living in Indian country now - Southern Ute land, near a college that is free for tribal members, who make up about half the student population, which incidentally was originally on the site of an Indian boarding school - I'm much more aware of this terrible part of our country's past.)

What I'm still playing:

I think I'm getting close to the climax of the second act (of three) of Ghost of Tsushima.

settiai

I've finally started my rewatch of the early episodes of CR4 so that I can properly get caught up on Critical Role. Actually starting it has been the hardest part, so I'm hoping that now that I've begun I can stick to at least one episode a day and more if possible.

It's definitely easier to keep track of things in the early episodes now that I actually know who everyone is and what's going on. Having advance knowledge of just what groups everyone will be splitting up into shortly seems to be helping as well, as I have a better idea of what's really important to focus on and what's not. I'm also picking up on some smaller details that I completely missed the first time around just because I was already struggling to keep track of who was who and such.

I'm hoping that this rewatch will help it keep my attention better than it was the first time around. 🤞🏻

Current Mood: hopeful

resonant

( The Hero's Journey, by Tony Hoagland )

musesfool

I knew Isa Briones was on Broadway, but I had never heard her actually sing until yesterday when I saw this on tumblr: Isa Briones sings "Who's Sorry Now" from JUST IN TIME | Now on Broadway. What a set of pipes!

*

Today's poem:

Fire

a woman can't survive
by her own breath
alone
she must know
the voices of mountains
she must recognize
the foreverness of blue sky
she must flow
with the elusive
bodies
of night winds
who will take her
into herself

look at me
i am not a separate woman
i am the continuance
of blue sky
i am the throat
of the mountains
a night wind
who burns
with every breath
she takes

—Joy Harjo

*

Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: Who's Sorry Now - Isa Briones

raytheraven posting in

beautifulmechanical

( You're about to view content that a community administrator has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

settiai

There's nothing like getting a comment on a fic of yours that's talking about how said fic is older than the person leaving said comment. 🙃

Oh, don't get me wrong. It was a very positive comment overall. But, still. Oof. I'm used to getting comments like that on some of my really early fics, but I was already out of college when I posted this one.

Current Mood: old as dirt

musesfool

Today's poem:

A Dictionary Names the Wind in the Trees
by Susan Cohen

Psithurism because
what else would we call sound embedded
with leaf mold and breath
zithering just below the daily drone
of power saws and chippers,
eons of air shifting
like an old Chevy through leaves,
riffling papery corn fields
and the eucalyptus,
stuttering through windbreaks,
jittering an aspen
in a beam of breath,
lisping nothing pins me down
in the language of the Huron,
in Olmec, in Sanskrit, chittering
all its unpronounceable names,
its tunes with the shiver of pine needles
and the moves of a river?
Psithurism comes as close
to the clash of wind and trees
as orgasm comes to the friction
of muscles, nerves, bodies,
which is to say when so many words
cannot catch it,
those of us always searching
for just the right one may
as well stop speaking
and lift our heads
like mule deer, ears twitched
for the smallest sound.

*

Current Mood: busy

torachan

Today was our last real day in Japan, with tomorrow being just a travel day. Our flight is at 5:30pm, but we don’t really want to do anything before then, so we’re just going to use the morning to pack before checking out and then take the bus to the airport and do a little more shopping there.

Today we had no plans so we ended up going to the Ueno zoo, which was very nice. A little sunnier than I’d hoped, but once we were in the zoo it was pretty shady for most of the time. We also finally made it to a Pokémon Center thanks to

starlady’s suggestion of trying the Skytree one. Skytree’s mall was busy, but a normal level of busy, so we were actually able to get in the shop and buy some stuff.

Then we came back to Ikspiari for dinner before going back to the hotel and had super delicious tonkatsu and got dessert from Ichibiko again. We spent a lot of the day on trains, buses, and subways, but it was a fun day overall.

musesfool

Today's poem:

Eurydice
by Carol Ann Duffy

Girls, I was dead and down
in the Underworld, a shade,
a shadow of my former self, nowhen.
It was a place where language stopped,
a black full stop, a black hole
Where the words had to come to an end.
And end they did there,
last words,
famous or not.
It suited me down to the ground.

So imagine me there,
unavailable,
out of this world,
then picture my face in that place
of Eternal Repose,
in the one place you'd think a girl would be safe
from the kind of a man
who follows her round
writing poems,
hovers about
while she reads them,
calls her His Muse,
and once sulked for a night and a day
because she remarked on his weakness for abstract nouns.
Just picture my face
when I heard –
Ye Gods –
a familiar knock-knock at Death's door.

Him.
Big O.
Larger than life.
With his lyre
and a poem to pitch, with me as the prize.

Things were different back then.
For the men, verse-wise,
Big O was the boy. Legendary.
The blurb on the back of his books claimed
that animals,
aardvark to zebra,
flocked to his side when he sang,
fish leapt in their shoals
at the sound of his voice,
even the mute, sullen stones at his feet
wept wee, silver tears.

Bollocks. (I'd done all the typing myself,
I should know.)
And given my time all over again,
rest assured that I'd rather speak for myself
than be Dearest, Beloved, Dark Lady, White Goddess etc., etc.

In fact girls, I'd rather be dead.

But the Gods are like publishers,
usually male,
and what you doubtless know of my tale
is the deal.

Orpheus strutted his stuff.

The bloodless ghosts were in tears.
Sisyphus sat on his rock for the first time in years.
Tantalus was permitted a couple of beers.
The woman in question could scarcely believe her ears.

Like it or not,
I must follow him back to our life –
Eurydice, Orpheus' wife –
to be trapped in his images, metaphors, similes,
octaves and sextets, quatrains and couplets,
elegies, limericks, villanelles,
histories, myths...

He'd been told that he mustn't look back
or turn round,
but walk steadily upwards,
myself right behind him,
out of the Underworld
into the upper air that for me was the past.
He'd been warned
that one look would lose me
for ever and ever.

So we walked, we walked.
Nobody talked.

Girls, forget what you've read.
It happened like this –
I did everything in my power
to make him look back.
What did I have to do, I said,
to make him see we were through?
I was dead. Deceased.
I was Resting in Peace. Passé. Late.
Past my sell-by date...

I stretched out my hand
to touch him once
on the back of the neck.
Please let me stay.
But already the light had saddened from purple to grey.

It was an uphill schlep
from death to life
and with every step
I willed him to turn.
I was thinking of filching the poem
out of his cloak,
when inspiration finally struck.
I stopped, thrilled.
He was a yard in front.
My voice shook when I spoke –
Orpheus, your poem's a masterpiece.
I'd love to hear it again…

He was smiling modestly,
when he turned,
when he turned and he looked at me.

What else?
I noticed he hadn't shaved.
I waved once and was gone.

The dead are so talented.
The living walk by the edge of a vast lake
near, the wise, drowned silence of the dead.

*

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: I Second That Emotion - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles

torachan

1. The weather today was pretty nice. Mostly overcast (though sometimes more glarey than I would prefer) and temps in the mid-high 60s. It was very muggy, though. Definitely better weather for a Disney day than Saturday was, though.

2. Today was our second and last DisneySea day. Last year I felt like two days was not enough, but that was because everything was new to us. This year two days felt just right, and one day is good for Disneyland, so while I had left tomorrow open for possibly more Disney if we wanted it, instead we will go to the Ueno zoo. Last year we went to a museum there and it was lovely, but we haven’t been to the zoo before and in fact haven’t been to a zoo since Carla first moved out to LA, so like 28 year ago?

3. Tomorrow is our last full day and then we’re flying back Wednesday (leaving here in the evening but arriving late morning in LA due to the magic of time zones). Alex has been sharing lots of cat photos with us but while we’ve had a wonderful time here, two weeks is a long time to be away from the kitties and I’m so looking forward to cuddling them again soon.

settiai

Pride's Solace, a Dragon Age exchange focusing on Solas, when live a little while ago. I ended up getting not one but two lovely gifts from it!

First up is a fleeting moment, focusing on Lucanis & Solas & Spite post-Tearstone Island in DA:V.

Then there's Garden of Statues, focusing on Solas & Tarquin with Tarquin meeting Solas sometime pre-DA:V. There's also a lovely bit with Ashur towards the end.

Current Mood: cheerful

musesfool

I feel like I've probably oversold this post as well-put-together meta when it is mostly a lot of bullet points with me going "WTF? WTF?," which I guess is basically the Dungeon Crawler Carl experience in a nutshell. Anyway! It's a month until Parade of Horribles comes out, so I figured I'd better post before the post was obsolete. *g*

This is mostly stuff that I've picked up on in reading/rereading and am wondering what will be resolved (and when, given that there's supposedly 3 more books, and ( spoiler ) I also wanted to do a little speculation about endings. Because despite people on reddit being very vocal about Dinniman being a horror writer and how it's not going to end happily and everyone will die, I don't believe that to be the case, necessarily, based on my reading of the books. (I mean, is it likely? Sure. Do I want that ending? Nope!)

The first, less salient, point in my favor is that the books open with Carl telling the story in a way that sounds like he's looking back on it, that he's been through it and lived to tell the tale. This is typical in novels written in first person past tense; however, ( spoilers )

The second, more important, point, to me, is the theme of the story that's being told – one of resistance and revolution, anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism – and having that be snuffed out in favor of late stage capitalism and status quo antebellum being restored is just...I don't see it (especially not now). I guess even if everyone dies, the changes Carl et al. have forced on the galaxy will linger, at least for a while, but I am not sure anymore that even Carl dies at the end (I would have said 98% yes he does, but I read some interesting meta on tumblr that made me wonder if he will in fact survive and why, rooted in his own past trauma to make it make sense).

I do think a lot of our favorites will die, probably horribly, but I also think Donut will make it out alive. I cannot imagine killing the cat at this point. It would be interesting and somewhat surprising to make Carl live in the new world too. (I am not just saying this because he's my blorbo, but that might be a major factor in it.) Though how – given his primal race – could be as something new and different (or its own horror, given the givens), which might as well be death in some ways? Metamorphosis, at least. Idk.

Anyway, I've wrestled with how to organize this – by character? by theme? – and decided to go with *drumroll* location! It seemed to make the most sense to me, anyway.

There's spoilers for all 7 books (I am not a member of the Patreon so I haven't read any excerpts from book 8 or the extra material from the print versions of the books) from here on out.

We'll start wide with ( the galaxy )

Which brings us to ( earth's surface )

And then, the most important location, ( the dungeon )

I'm sure there are things I've forgotten/missed/am making too much or too little of, but there is just so much going on that I needed to track it all somehow, and so here we are. If you've read the books, what do you think?

*I said this on tumblr, but I do hope someone makes a Carl vid to Springsteen's Trapped - it's definitely #1 on the Carl playlist I did not actually make but which lives in my head while I contemplate inchoate fic ideas I will never write.

***

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Mets vs A's on tv

musesfool

Today's poem:

July
Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

The figs we ate wrapped in bacon.
The gelato we consumed greedily:
coconut milk, clove, fresh pear.
How we'd dump hot espresso on it
just to watch it melt, licking our spoons
clean. The potatoes fried in duck fat,
the salt we'd suck off our fingers,
the eggs we'd watch get beaten
'til they were a dizzying bright yellow,
how their edges crisped in the pan.
The pink salt blossom of prosciutto
we pulled apart with our hands, melted
on our eager tongues. The green herbs
with goat cheese, the aged brie paired
with a small pot of strawberry jam,
the final sour cherry we kept politely
pushing onto each other's plate, saying,
No, you. But it's so good. No, it's yours.
How I finally put an end to it, plucked it
from the plate, and stuck it in my mouth.
How good it tasted: so sweet and so tart.
How good it felt: to want something and
pretend you don't, and to get it anyway.

***

I caught up on Abbott Elementary last night and ( spoilers )

***

Current Mood: shocked
Current Music: Feelin' Alright - Joe Cocker

torachan

1. I got laundry done again this morning. We’re only here for three more days (only two full days) and it’s such a hassle to go to the other hotel, so I think we’ll just save any remaining dirty laundry for when we get home.

2. Today was a non-Disney day and we went to a couple non-touristy areas that we’d seen recommended by TabiEats. In the afternoon we went to Shizuoka to try and go to Tower Records, Pokémon Center, and Nintendo Store, but it was sooooooooooo crowded it was ridiculous. We did go to Tower (it’s a huge one and Carla finally found some of the CDs she’s been looking for for a long time) and then a Disney store we spotted on the way, but did not go to the Pokémon Center or Nintendo Store as with the level of crowds we figured it would probably be as crowded as the ones at Osaka Station had been and we didn’t want to deal with that. Having the contrast of the non-touristy places in the morning with the hell of Shibuya on a Sunday afternoon made us appreciate our low-stress morning even more (and all the food we had was delicious).

3. We came back to the hotel too early to get dinner while we were out and didn’t want to go back out again, so we tried out the hotel restaurant. It’s a buffet and not worth the price they charge but it was decent (better than the one at the hotel next door that we ate at last year), and it was nice to just not have to go out somewhere.

4. The weather was pretty nice today. Sunny, but we managed to stay in the shade most of the time, and the temps were lower than yesterday. Tomorrow and Tuesday should be similar, though even more overcast (hopefully that’s actually true).

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

I keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.

Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)

We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.

settiai

Nothing makes you feel old like looking at your AO3 profile, glancing at your user ID, and suddenly remembering that it's a really fucking small number because you technically joined before they were even in open beta. By, like, a day. But still. I remember the length of the queues back then.

Seriously, I was still living in Tennessee when I made that account. That's terrifying.

Current Mood: surprised

musesfool

Yesterday, after I logged off work, I made these banana blueberry muffins, which used up the last of all the fruit that I got last week in the wrong grocery order (well, the raspberries got moldy before I could use them, so they just got thrown out, but I used the strawbs, the bluebs, and the bananas in the end). They're good!

Then this afternoon, I tried out this vanilla cupcake recipe, which I had originally planned to make for Easter. As written, it makes 40 mini cupcakes, so if I make it next weekend to take to work on Tuesday, which is what I am thinking, I will double it. And make that KAB whipped ganache frosting. I might do that tomorrow, just because I can, once the last of the ground meat I received last weekend is thawed and used to make meatballs. I have ravioli in the freezer so I can free up even more space (I used the frozen tortellini last night). Anyway, I want to see if these vanilla cupcakes really do stay moist for a few days. I already replaced vanilla with funfetti for Christmas, but I feel like you should always have a good vanilla cupcake recipe in your back pocket, and the one I like for cake was never the best for cupcakes.

Now I've got a chicken roasting in the oven and it smells so good.

Anyway, here's today's poem:

Hurry
by Marie Howe

We stop at the dry cleaners and the grocery store
and the gas station and the green market and
Hurry up honey, I say, hurry,
as she runs along two or three steps behind me
her blue jacket unzipped and her socks rolled down.
Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?
To mine? Where one day she might stand all grown?
Today, when all the errands are finally done, I say to her,
Honey I'm sorry I keep saying Hurry—
you walk ahead of me. You be the mother.
And, Hurry up, she says, over her shoulder, looking
back at me, laughing. Hurry up now darling, she says,
hurry, hurry, taking the house keys from my hands.

***

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Rangers vs Stars on tv

torachan

1. I got the final confirmation from the tax guy so I was able to sign in the app and have those sent off. I get really antsy leaving it so close to the deadline so that’s a weight off my mind to have it all done finally.

2. After yesterday’s rain, today was warm and very sunny. And muggy. Ugh! And since it was Saturday, the crowds were out in force, but we still have a really nice day today at DisneySea. Tomorrow we are doing non-Disney stuff and then going back to the park on Monday which should be both less crowded and not as hot and sunny, so fingers crossed.

musesfool

Today's poem:

The Other Woman

as I picture her
she has no basil
no cumin
no sun-hardened hyssop
nor sage around her eyes

she never catnips
but laughs comfrey
tansy with a primula smile

as I think of her
she's angelica
foxglove and jasmine
somewhat peppermint
not letting you see
all her saffron at once

one day I’ll meet her
that rue woman
that wild indigo teasel
somewhere neutral
free of woodruff and of dropwort
some summer savory

she's the nose
set to lavender
eye full of sesame
ear ringing rosemary

she's wind
through wild thyme

--Twyla M. Hansen

*

Current Mood: full
Current Music: Mets pregame

torachan

We had a nice, relatively relaxing day today that kept us mostly out of the rain. There actually wasn’t much rain most of the day, just sprinkling off and on, though it did start coming down harder here and there in the evening.

We went to a little train museum not too far from the resort area that required taking a train and then a bus, and I’ve never taken a bus in Japan before so that was fun. We also ate at a family restaurant (Gusto), which is another thing I’ve never done before. This one was very high tech. You order off a tablet (which we’ve seen a fair amount of), the food comes to you by robot, and then it’s self-checkout at the register. There was also a Book Off right nearby so we got some books and CDs, and then since it wasn’t raining right then, instead of getting on the bus where we got off, we walked several stops towards our destination before getting on, which got us a nice little neighborhood walk in a less touristy area than where we’ve mainly been so far. In the evening we went to Ikspiari for dinner and more shopping. I definitely feel like we’re getting the hang of Ikspiari now. It was soooooo confusing last time and I stil hate the layout, but we were able to navigate without too much trouble this time. Now we’re back at the hotel early and can just relax before our big DisneySea day tomorrow.

musesfool

Today's poem, for which I had to turn on the rich text editor and still couldn't get the spacing quite right sigh:

Seaside Improvisation
by Richard Siken

I take off my hands and I give them to you but you don't
want them, so I take them back
and put them on the wrong way, the wrong wrists. The yard is dark,
the tomatoes are next to the whitewashed wall,
the book on the table is about Spain,
the windows are painted shut.
Tonight you're thinking of cities under crowns
of snow and I stare at you like I'm looking through a window,
counting birds.
You wanted happiness, I can't blame you for that,
and maybe a mouth sounds idiotic when it blathers on about joy
but tell me
you love this, tell me you're not miserable.
You do the math, you expect the trouble.
The seaside town. The electric fence.
Draw a circle with a piece of chalk. Imagine standing in a constant cone
of light. Imagine surrender. Imagine being useless.
A stone on the path means the tea's not ready,
a stone in the hand means somebody's angry, the stone inside you still
hasn't hit bottom.

*

Current Mood: coughing, still

schneefink

Some reviews of recent media before I hopefully disappear into a metaphorical cave for a week to study before my next exam; I say hopefully because I already made dumb decisions like staying up late to read fic the last two nights. Ah well. I do need breaks at some points, and I plan to get regular fresh air too.

I watched Project Hail Mary in a theater with friends on Tuesday: two of us had read the book and the other three knew nothing at all about it, which made it extra fun to hear their reactions afterwards. I read the book a few months ago, and unlike the book the movie did live up to all the good things I'd heard about it. That was great. I really like how they adapted it (yes they cut some fun stuff/good additional info but overall I thought they did a great job), I liked the designs and the visuals, it was at times very exciting and dramatic and emotional and funny, and I had a fantastic time.
I've already seen some great fanart on Tumblr and look forward to more of it, fingers crossed.

Only four people of my TTRPG group had time two weeks ago so for a few hours we tried out Sunderfolk (Steam link), a multiplayer turn-based tactical RPG where you play as animals.
I had a lot of fun! I played an arcanist raven with teleportation powers, I loved that. I could do damage as well but my most effective moves were teleporting my allies (a rogue (weasel), a pyromancer (salamander), and a vanguard (kangaroo rat)) into better positions. The story so far is rather simple, you defend the settlement against the ogres, do side-quests and help gather resources for the rebuild; I'm not sure how much I'm meant to think about the implications (like that the animals came from above and with their bright lights took away living spaces from the ogres that are now starving) but I look forward to seeing where it goes.
We're only halfway through act 1 chapter 2, but we already have a date set for next time. This time we had three of us on the couch and one joining online, next time all four will be able to attend in person, even better.
About a week later, same scenario, only four people from my TTRPG group had time – different people this time so we started a new campaign. This time I played the bat bard, and they're absolutely adorable. Gameplay-wise unfortunately I enjoyed the bard much less; we only got to level 3 so maybe it gets better later? The other player who played for the second time also enjoyed his second choice (antelope ranger) much less than his first (pyromancer). There are currently no active plans to continue, but we might if we happen to have that group again.

Dragonoak by Sam Farren #1 + #2, The Complete History of Castelir and The Sky Beneath The Sun:
Rowan, exiled from her village since they discovered she is a necromancer, runs away with a dragon knight and becomes entangled in conflicts spanning multiple kingdoms and races.
My (now ex-)gf recommended this trilogy to me, so I wanted to like it; and maybe that puts it into the category of "would have liked it more if not for my high hopes/expectations," idk. There were parts I liked, prominent among them the amount of queer characters; unfortunately it was neither the pacing nor most of the characters.
( Spoilers )

The Dementia Cascade by L. Lynn Gray (

tassosss) #1 + #2, The Dementia: A Space Adventure and Surviving Peace:
Four generation ships fly in formation, still several generations from their target planet; when there are suddenly massive technical issues, solving them requires cooperation, which is made difficult by social and political conflicts.
Like many books with multiple PoVs book 1 had some I enjoyed a lot, some I was neutral about, and some I liked less (I'm currently quickly frustrated by characters with ideological blinkers.) I liked book 2 even better: fortunately for me it focuses on my favorite characters from book 1, and also the most difficult political situation. Namely, Jacks and Antony on Peace, that had a violent uprising deposing a corrupt authoritarian leader in book 1 and the consequences of that in book 2. ( Spoilers )

torachan

1. I took my laundry over to the hotel next door this morning and since last time I used their app to do it, I did not take any cash. We’ll, you can still use the app, but there’s terrible cell reception in the hotel, especially back by the laundry room, and last time I didn’t notice it because I was using hotel Wi-Fi, but I’m not actually a guest at that hotel, so no Wi-Fi for me. I just about got the wash going after a long struggle, but unlike the machines at the last two hotels, this is not a combo so I had to go back to do the dryer separately and foolishly did not take cash that time either, and I couldn’t even text Carla to bring me cash since the reception was that bad. Instead I took the damp laundry back to the hotel to hang dry. Thankfully we had enough clean clothes to wear today (though we really were down to the last few items as we packed light with the intention of doing laundry multiple times) and when we came back to the hotel in the afternoon, I took the few things that were still damp and did a 15 minute run in the dryer (with cash) to finish them off.

2. Today was our Disneyland day and it was pretty much perfect. Despite the delay of doing laundry in the morning, I was able to get over there and line up before opening and Carla joined me soon after. We were in the park by a few minutes after 9 and got an express pass for Beaty and the Beast right away, plus one for Monsters Inc a little later. Last time we hadn’t managed to get the pass for Monsters Inc and while I went on it myself Carla wasn’t up to the hour+ line, so I wanted to make sure we got that this time. By the time we were able to put in for another pass, they were sold out for Winnie the Pooh, but we were able to do it with the regular line later in the evening when the wait was down to 20 minutes. It was a bit sunny in the morning but not hot, and windy in the afternoon and evening but not too cold.

3. We were planning on DisneySea tomorrow, but it’s supposed to rain all day (though based on the total inches, probably only sprinkling) and the park is closing at 6pm, which means we wouldn’t be able to go back to the hotel and rest then come back for dinner, which is our preferred method. So instead we will go on Saturday, which will be more crowded, and do other stuff tomorrow.

4. Finally heard back from the tax preparer and we will be getting a decent refund!

settiai

In tonight's game, ( the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off, because the DM's internet died again (as the game's start was already delayed because of internet issues).

Current Mood: accomplished

isis

What I've recently finished reading:

In eyeball, The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. Time-loop novel about a medieval historian and the lady knight he's obsessed with, in an alternate world that is not quite our England; one of you called it "sort of Arthuriana" and I guess it is, though that sort of is important. In a way it reminded me of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August as much of the novel is the characters gradually figuring out that these same things are happening again, and then trying to take advantage of this knowledge to make the next loop better. Unfortunately, in this case the source of the time loop has very clear, firm aims, and does not want to be thwarted by the mere pawns acting out the story that is destined to be enshrined in the country's lore. I liked it a lot, especially as the layers unfolded, though actually I was most interested in the villain of the piece and would like to have had more of that story!

In audio, All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor, the third Bobiverse book. I'm really liking these, although they could use some closer editing to avoid repetition of things we already know. It's an interesting inversion of Adrian Tchaikovsky's "How can we see the other as a person?" in that the viewpoint characters, the Bobs, are cloned brain patterns from a now-dead engineer which run on computers installed in spaceships; though within the narrative they are unquestionably people, other humans don't necessarily see them that way. And yet as they are enabling and directing the expansion of humanity into space, they're the segment of humanity making first contact with the other sentient species of the galaxy, and they're the ones who have to handle the related decisions. The structure of these books, with the multiplicity of Bobs and their storylines, means that all the different cases can be handled: the Stone Age civilization, the early-industrial civilization, the possibly advanced civilization that no longer exists, the advanced civilization that presents a terrifying threat. And as some humans fight against the idea that the Bobs are human, some Bobs work to reclaim as much of their humanity as possible. There are some deep philosophical questions one can tease out of these books - but I don't think that's the author's intent, and they are enjoyable reads just as fun science fiction.

What I've recently finished watching:

We enjoyed the Netflix "nature documentary" miniseries The Dinosaurs; quotes are because I think it's basically all CGI. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, it's a dramatic tour of prehistory, from the first proto-dinos to the asteroid that ended it all. It does a good job of telling individual "stories" of the various dinosaurs looking for mates, protecting their young, and doing their best to eat and not be eaten.

heron61

I realized that I hadn't worried about nuclear war since the 1980s, and I'm deeply unhappy about having to do so again. Also, here's my favorite song about nuclear apocalypse (Goodnight London, by Seeming):

Watch on YouTube

musesfool

I was taken with the need to do an Orphan Black rewatch and there's so much I forgot! Tatiana Maslany is so good, which you all knew, and the supporting cast is *chef's kiss*. It makes very few missteps, and watching in marathon fashion means even storylines I disliked originally (CASTOR) work much better. It's on Netflix, so if you are in the mood and don't mind the grossout body horror, it's a good watch.

And this poem seemed fitting:

This Poem Will Get Me On Some Kind of Watchlist
by Jessie Lochrie

I'm dancing at a nightclub
when someone behind me
places a hand on my shoulder.
I assume it's a friend until
the hand slides down my chest.

Boiling with gin and rage
I grab his wrist, whip around,
and punch him in the jaw.
It doesn't land well—
I've never hit anyone before—
so I punch him in the gut,
just for good measure.

I look at him doubled over and spit
Never do that to a woman again,
and then I run. My friends laugh in the cab:
You punched a guy!
but I sit silent and burning.

In Crown Heights, in Union Square,
in South Williamsburg: men leer and
whistle and smack their lips.
I ignore them, or flip them off,
or tell them I'm married.

When they purr que guapa
I yell callate and they all laugh.
I can't tell if they're laughing at me
for being a white girl speaking bad
Spanish, or at the idea that anything
I say might actually shut them up.

In my impotent rage I dream of a world
where I am not public property. I would
start wars for my right to walk down a street
unafraid, a thousand wars for a single day
in which my body belongs to me alone.
An army raised against each cat call. A bullet
for every man who ever told me to smile.

***

Current Mood: still coughing
Current Music: Mets losing to the Dbacks

torachan

1. We took the Shinkansen today! I had originally planned for us to get in to Tokyo late morning or midday and then we could get lockers for the luggage and do some stuff in the city, but since we had a long amusement park day yesterday and another one tomorrow, we decided this would be a more take it easy day, so while we did get lockers and do a little bit of stuff and then took the train to Maihama, it wasn’t a whole long day of tramping around. Once in Maihama, we got dinner at Ikspiari and then took the monorail to our hotel.

2. Our hotel is nice, better than the first one, but not as nice as the Park Front Hotel at USJ. We’ll be here for seven nights, so I’m glad it’s not as tiny as the Respire, but they don’t have a coin laundry! I tried to do laundry this morning before we left, but the Park Front just has one machine per floor and it was in use, so I have a bunch of shirts and underwear/socks to wash. I went downstairs and asked if they really don’t have a laundry room and were apologetic and said we could use the one at the hotel next door, so I will be doing that tomorrow (it’s the hotel we stayed at last year, so I am familiar with the layout and the laundry room, and maybe even still have the app).

3. Disneyland tomorrow! It’s exciting just to be here in Maihama. Oh, and the monorail we took tonight had the DisneySea 25th anniversary wrap on it! The official anniversary celebration doesn’t start until the 15th, which is the day we leave, but they might already have some other decorations up and possibly even some merch out. Fingers crossed!

brokenframe posting in

vidding

Title: Walking On The Moon
Fandom: Ryan Gosling
Movie: First Man
Music: Walking On The Moon by Ruelle
Length: 3:56
Streaming/download at: DW | Tumblr

settiai

Unexpectations (2345 words) by Settiai
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kelly Chambers/Samara
Characters: Kelly Chambers, Samara (Mass Effect)
Additional Tags: Complicated Relationships, Developing Relationship, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Not Actually Unrequited Love, One Shot, Spectre Requisitions Rare Pair Exchange
Summary: Looking back, it wasn't something that came out of nowhere.

Current Mood: accomplished

settiai

Falling Apart, Coming Together, and Everything In Between (1975 words) by Settiai
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard, Thane Krios/Female Shepard, Kaidan Alenko/Thane Krios, Kaidan Alenko/Thane Krios/Female Shepard
Characters: Female Shepard (Mass Effect), Kaidan Alenko, Thane Krios
Additional Tags: Break Up, Developing Relationship, Getting Back Together, Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Mass Effect 3: Citadel, One Shot, Polyamory, Spectre Requisitions Rare Pair Exchange, Thane Krios Lives
Summary: Falling in love had been as easy as breathing.

Current Mood: creative

musesfool

Today's poem:

An Epistemology of Planets
by Annie Dillard

Mercury

A brook runs on all night;
a book, shut,
still tells itself a story.
So you, out of thought,
you, forgotten Mercury,
still spin and spend the circles of your fury.

Venus

Evenings, after I've eaten
dessert, you rise, you wear
your barest, shining skin.

Later, mornings, you up
and do it again.

Do you think I've forgotten so soon?

Earth

Planets, alone, and grieving,
look who you're running with:
look at our baby-blue planet the earth
and all of the people, waving.

Mars

Mars keeps its dignity,
its networks of cool.
Certain photographs reveal
an air of longing, still.

Jupiter

Swings, spattered
by shadows of Jovian moons:
Io, Europa, Callisto,
the giant, Ganymede.
Companionable, each

nonetheless keeps

the perfect arc of his distance.

Saturn

         It is to you I come in my dream,
you, dancing alone in the dark, light-heart,
       asleep inside your spinning hat!

Uranus

Uranus, cold face,
old rock and ice,
remembers a song
and sings it once
round the dark, twice.

Neptune

Banished, Neptune,
luminous, green,
sleeps, and dreams of the sun.
Awake, he holds her round
as tight as he can.

Pluto

Spends twenty years
wandering in Cancer,
that old celestial
crab. Takes years to touch
carapace, jointed foot
on jointed leg; nudges
mandibles, roving, awed,
in every season.
                          Getting to know
you, still, I find you clear-eyed,
cloistered, clawed.

***

Current Mood: coughing
Current Music: Mets vs Dbacks on tv

torachan

1. I actually got a full night’s sleep! Fingers crossed that continues.

2. It was a little rainy this morning (never more than sprinkling, really, and never for a long time) but dry the rest of the day. Very windy and cold, though. I’ve been wearing shorts and t-shirts since we got here, but today was definitely a jeans and hoodie day and unlike Disneyland, you can’t get back in the park once you leave, so we wouldn’t have been able to go back to the hotel and change if we’d needed to, but thankfully we made the right choice in the morning. It was colder than I would prefer today (especially with that wind!) but I’ll take it over the heat we had this weekend. (Still getting over the sunburn…)

3. We had a really nice day at Universal Studios. Even though we were only there for a few hours yesterday, it really did help us navigate better today, so I’m glad we went with the 1.5 day ticket. I do wish I’d done more research about the express passes and access to Super Nintendo World, because I tried to buy passes this morning before we went over there and they were all sold out. If you get a pass for one of the rides in Super Nintendo World, it guarantees access to the land, but otherwise you might end up with a situation like I did yesterday where even though you reserve a spot, there’s still a lottery for who gets in. I think that might only be for later in the day, though. This morning I couldn’t sign up for access at all, so I thought it was all sold out, too, but I then later I read something that they have non-reserved access first thing in the morning, so I tried again and was able to get a reservation for 3pm. Didn’t get to go on any of the rides because without a fast pass the lines were ridiculous (3 hours for Minecart Madness) but at least we got to go in and see the land. Even their original Super Nintendo land is bigger than ours, but now it has the Donkey Kong expansion so it’s huge and really impressive. We had a great time overall, though. Rode a few things they don’t have at our park, saw some shows, ate some delicious food, and took in the sights.

jamethiel

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: grumpy

settiai

I'm very, very, very behind on Critical Role at this point, and I'm very heavily considering starting Campaign 4 over the from the beginning to ease back into it and hopefully properly catch my attention again. Things were so hectic late last year that I was only half paying attention at times, which is really not a good thing for me when it comes to a new show and is probably why I've been struggling to get caught up. And, for all intents and purposes, CR4 is a completely new show from the previous campaigns despite still technically being Critical Role.

Things at work are quickly calming down, as this is one of our off periods, so right now I'm hoping that I can curl up on the sofa this weekend and properly watch at least the first few episodes ago. The hope is that will help get me re-interested in everything so that I can more easily marathon through the rest of it once I properly care for the characters again.

We'll see how it goes?

Current Mood: hopeful

kuwdora

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

musesfool

Today's poem:

Great Things Have Happened

We were talking about the great things
that have happened in our lifetimes;
and I said, "Oh, I suppose the moon landing
was the greatest thing that has happened
in my time." But, of course, we were all lying.
The truth is the moon landing didn't mean
one-tenth as much to me as one night in 1963
when we lived in a three-room flat in what once had been
the mansion of some Victorian merchant prince
(our kitchen had been a clothes closet, I'm sure),
on a street where by now nobody lived
who could afford to live anywhere else.
That night, the three of us, Claudine, Johnnie and me,
woke up at half-past four in the morning
and ate cinnamon toast together.

"Is that all?" I hear somebody ask.

Oh, but we were silly with sleepiness
and, under our windows, the street-cleaners
were working their machines and conversing in Italian, and
everything was strange without being threatening,
even the tea-kettle whistled differently
than in the daytime: it was like the feeling
you get sometimes in a country you've never visited
before, when the bread doesn't taste quite the same,
the butter is a small adventure, and they put
paprika on the table instead of pepper,
except that there was nobody in this country
except the three of us, half-tipsy with the wonder
of being alive, and wholly enveloped in love.

--Alden Nowlan

*

Current Mood: awake

torachan

1. Still failing on the sleep front, but I keep hoping the next night will be better. We’ll see!

2. We had planned to go to Dotonbori this morning before heading over to Universal Studios, but were both worn out from yesterday’s sunburn and Carla was sore, so we decided to skip it for this trip and just rest in the morning before we needed to check out. There were some shops nearby that were on the list to check out (Muji and HMV), but they both didn’t open until 11, so we rested and then packed up and checked it and had the hotel hold our luggage. The Muji was a huge one that has a cafe, too, so that’s where we had lunch.

3. Another change in plans was that we were going to take the train to USJ, but with Carla being so exhausted the idea of lugging our bags on public transport was not appealing so we decided to just get a taxi. It was of course much more expensive than taking the train would have been (even though it’s only five miles away), but it was worth it.

4. The Front Gate Hotel here at USJ is way nicer in every way than the Hankyu Respire in Umeda was, even though it’s much cheaper. The Respire you’re definitely paying for the convenience of being in the heart of the city.

5. We got the 1.5 day tickets for USJ so we just went in for a few hours this afternoon/evening to explore the park. Could not get into Super Nintendo Land, but hopefully tomorrow.

deird1

I've started a somewhat ambitious project, and am feeling very competent.

I have a box of letters written by my grandparents (to each other), along with various newspaper clippings, all from World War II. And my plan is to type it all up, put it in order, provide helpful comments, format it, index it, have it bound as a proper book, and present copies to all my grandparents' children.

And I know how to do all those things!

I'm making spreadsheet lists of documents, giving the letters unique ID numbers, correcting the punctuation while preserving the 80-year-old spelling, making notes on what will need to be indexed, and mentally planning how I'll present it all once it reaches an InDesign file…

I feel very good at my chosen profession today.

cereta

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musesfool

Happy Easter if you celebrate! Happy Sunday if not.

Here is today's poem:

Sunflower Astronaut
by Charlie Espinosa

[commence imbibition]

I begin my log in the seed capsule. There is little to report.
I am dormant. I am alone. I am drifting through the void.
Sometimes, I wonder what lies beyond the vacuum-sealed walls.
Sometimes, I swear I hear a very faint, very beautiful, song.

I have landed. Surface: moist. Atmosphere: favorable. Competition: unknown.
I discard the shriveled seed coat. Every cell in my body pulses with life.
Enzymes fly like meteorites and I emerge, gasping from my pod.

[commence germination]

There is no need to waste time with instructions.
I open my endosperm sack and gorge on the stored feast of sugar.
Invigorated, my radicle, that intrepid probe, plunges into the depths.
For the first time I taste, no absorb, the rich minerals of the new world.

My cotyledons unfurl like two green sails into the light.
Ah, sweet solar wind, filling my chlorophyll with galactic energy.
Gradually, I establish myself here, growing up and down, in light and dark.

[commence vegetative growth]

Forgive me. I have not been carefully logging my progress.
The divisions, they simply became too numerous to catalogue.
Besides, I was in a kind of trance, conducting the photo-symphony–
Keeping my glucose stocks fat and multiplying my meristems.

The important point is that I am tall with a well-defined stalk and enviable leaves.
There are other sunflowers too, and a rather impudent beast who is fond of digging.
All in all, I have adapted well. I am happy. Though I don’t care for the beast.

[commence ripening]

For months I have studied the sun. My head of bracts tracked its arc like an antenna.
Now I am a sun, with a yellow crown and a hot core of disk florets and pollen.
I, too, emit signals to orbiting bodies who come and go with fertile stardust.
Was this my mission, to set into motion a new solar system?

I merge with another star. My head sags under the weight of our fruits.
The inflorescence fades. The wind scatters my wilted petals over the floor.
It has become difficult to know where I end and where this planet begins.

[commence decomposition]

The digging beast beheaded me and made off with my seeds.
The sparrows peck at what’s left. Somehow, I don’t seem to mind.
Each day, a little darker, a little colder, siphons me away.

I said before I began alone, but now I remember something else:
Being a seed among other seeds encircled in a halo of yellow rays.

*

I made gyoza! #mygyoza They might not look that great but they are delicious!

*

Current Mood: full
Current Music: Mets vs Giants on tv

torachan

1. I got more sleep last night than the night before and fell asleep right away, but the total was still only like 5-5.5 hours max. Hopefully tonight will be more.

2. We had a really fun day today with

nintendoh and his husband. Cherry blossom viewing at Osaka Castle and then lunch at an okonomiyaki place and karaoke after that. None of us had been karaoke in years and this was a reminder of how much I enjoy it. It also provided a really nice way to relax after getting too much sun at the castle (the forecast had promised overcast weather all day so we did not put on sunblock or bring hats, which was a mistake as it was not overcast during the whole midday period that we were out).

3. Alex sent us lots of cat pics today again. I miss them so much but I’m glad they seem more settled this time.

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