Quote of the Day:

(Another quote by William Trevor — I don't know where this one came from…)

"I get melancholy if I don’t write. I need the company of people who don’t exist."

— William Trevor


Today's Writing:

I managed a little over 430 words, written before I fell asleep! \o/


Tally

( Days 1-12 )

Day 13: badly_knitted, brithistorian, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, ysilme


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My original plan was to make pork chops with peach butter for dinner tonight, but then no peaches arrived with my grocery order, so I did a quick pivot to pork chops in lemon-caper sauce (NYT gift link) and they are delicious. I think it would also be very good with chicken if you don't eat pork (or eggplant, which seems to be my veggie substitute for meat these days, though it is more labor-intensive).

Anyway, I substituted a half-cup of chicken broth with a tablespoon of white wine vinegar for the wine and forgot to add the flour until I'd already added the broth, but it all turned out all right. Definitely recommended!

*

In other news, I've had Saja Boys' Soda Pop stuck in my head all day. "Tom's Diner" vanquishes it briefly but then it returns. It's a cute song! Very catchy! I'd like to not have it in my head all day!

*

Title: Voice in My Throat
Fandom: Sense8
Music: "Voice in My Throat" by Pearl & The Beard
Summary: 

I walk down the road and I'm alone again but | All these years I've travelled down a lonely pathway
You will be the voice in my throat | You have been the voice in my throat

Notes: Made for colls for fandomtrumpshate 

AO3 | DW | Tumblr

A couple weeks ago, I finally realized I was never going to go to someone else to get my hair cut, so with some encouragement from my sister, this morning, I did an extensive detangling (both before and after washing) and then trimmed about 3" off the bottom myself. Is it even? Probably not, but it was in long layers, so I don't think it really matters. It will eventually even out as it grows and I trim it. Mostly what matters is that after 3 years, the old ends have been trimmed away. And now that I know I can do it, I will try to keep up with it on a more timely basis. At least, I don't think I'll let another 3 years go by. *wry*

*

The Mets did not get no-hit last night but they did lose, and then lost again today despite leading for 7.5 innings. *hands* There is something very wrong with this team, but who can say what? Sigh.

*

Quote of the Day:

"Are my stacks of books clutter? To some people, yes. Do they block the antique radio? Yes, they do indeed. Do they sometimes fall over, and are they hard to dust? Yes. But I find it a supreme pleasure to be surrounded by books that I may read today or tomorrow or soon or not for the rest of my life. Because they hold ideas in their crisp or crumpled pages, and because they are beautiful objects, and because they are mine and I know when I bought them and why. I like to look over my stacks and think about what to read. I see ideas to be contemplated, stories to take in with a bourbon in my hand and my dog by my side. I see torn covers, and spines faded by the sun, and underlined lines, and phrases jotted in the margins that years later I no longer understand. And when I see these things, I see myself, and the world I inhabit, more clearly."

— Susan Harlan, "In Praise of the Book Tower" on Lit Hub (2015)


Today's Writing:

A little over 600 words, the first third COMPLAINING, after that some that are actually usable. 8-)


Tally

( Days 1-11 )

Day 12: badly_knitted, brithistorian, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, goddess47, luzula, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora, ysilme

Day 13: china_shop


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It's time for Microsoft Voice Access!

A few days ago, I noticed that the roving from the spindle workshop had introduced very tiny critters to my active knitting projects, kept adjacent. Off they went to chill, one ziploc bag in the freezer and the rest waiting at the back of the fridge. That meant starting a different knitting project. I squelched my initial idea of fine-gauge, two-color brioche for a shawl (to use up certain yarn skeins) and chose the pattern from my Ravelry queue that scares me the most.

Yesterday I washed a swatch, the start of the first sleeve. I guess the designer pulled very tightly on his recently discontinued yarn, of a type that snaps if you look at it funny (BT Shelter). I'm using a yarn with slightly more heft, gained via the last of my in-kind shop samples, and I was able to have a second go at a sleeve on smaller needles ( before a minor accident )

(So much for that daily posting thing - I've already skipped a few without meaning to. /o\)

Today I rode an e-bike for the first time. Useful for the hills, for sure, but it wasn't as much fun as a regular bike, so I don't see myself doing that often.

Last spring I signed up for a local rent-a-bike service, and ever since then I've been riding bikes a lot again, after a break of something like 15 years. (That was about when my bike got stolen, and I didn't buy a new one because I didn't and still don't have a good place to put it.) I still like biking a lot, though I'm glad I no longer have to in the winter, the way I used to when I was still biking to uni. *g*

I've also been walking a lot again this summer, so overall I've been getting a lot more exercise than I used to! Which, alas, did not turn out to be an unmitigated good. (Turns out that more physical activity makes me hungrier - shock, horror! - but not exactly in proportion. I'd really rather keep fitting into my clothes, and also I don't want not be constantly hungry. So less activity might actually be better. Since we're heading into winter and I don't like going out very much when it's wet and/or cold, I guess I'll see!)

Friday sundries:

= Wow, have I really not posted since Sunday? This week was pretty busy at work and I guess my Elementary rewatch, plus reading a very very long Batfamily time travel story (still in progress *sobs*), and also watching the Mets' downward spiral, left me uninspired.

= I didn't watch them blow a lead last night and lose, because it's so disheartening - there is like no sense that they can hold a lead or come back if they are losing. I'm only planning to watch tonight to see if they get no-hit by Jacob deGrom on his first return to Citi Field as a Texas Ranger. #the existential futility of being a mets fan <- my tag is too long for DW but it is accurate

= I did make it through week one of our family survivor football league - my niece decided on doing a survivor league this year since it is much less work for everyone than a fantasy league. In it, each week, everyone picks one team to win, and either you win and move on, or you lose and are out, though we are doing it with 2 strikes, so you can lose twice before you are out. And you can only pick each team once, so you can't, like, ride the Packers or whoever to victory every week. My strategy is basically to pick whoever is playing the New Orleans Saints, since they are predicted to be the worst team in the league this year. I made it through last week, anyway. *g*

= Usually I have my groceries delivered on Friday afternoon but somehow in my infinite wisdom last night while I was updating the order, I rescheduled it for Sunday afternoon. And then I was in a meeting from 8:30 am - 11 am this morning, so it was too late to move it back to today when I discovered what I'd done. So I left it where it was and will just order pizza for dinner tonight and then have it breakfast and lunch tomorrow as well!

= Anyway, the world is a vampire. Uh, trash fire. But there will be pizza and baseball and probably sleeping in tomorrow. Hopefully it is cool enough to leave the AC off tonight - it was for most of the week, but then last night was not. And since I had to be up an hour earlier than usual (see above re: 8:30 am meeting), I didn't want to spend precious time tossing and turning because I was too hot to sleep.

*

Quote of the Day:

"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."

--Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942)


Today's Writing:

Uh, I left writing until too late and, uh, fell asleep. With my laptop open. *facepalm* So, just a few sentences, written before I fell asleep. Also, I'm behind on replies to comments. Sorry! Sheesh.


Tally

( Days 1-10 )

Day 11: badly_knitted, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, trobadora


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Alien: Earth:

The internet tells me Sigourney Weaver is watching Alien: Earth and is as enthralled as yours truly. Now if that isn't a compliment to Noah Hawley et al, I don't know what is.

( Spoilers are on a quest to use the creepiest Peter Pan quotes in every episode )


Foundation

Is the first season finale necessitating that the next season has to start without a century like time jump. Also, yowsers.

( ...while the worst are full of passionate intensity )

Quote of the Day:

I'm always alive to the possibility -- anytime there's a good poem there, I leave everything else and write the poem. Sometimes it comes thicker and faster than others, but there's never been a period in my life when I haven't had my antennae out ready to receive a poem.

—Thomas Disch, interview in Strange Horizons (2001)



Today's Writing:

Not as many words as yesterday — not quite 250 — but good ones! \o/


Tally

( Days 1-9 )

Day 10: badly_knitted, brithistorian, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, trobadora,yasaman, ysilme


Let me know if I missed you, or if you wrote but didn't check in yet. And remember, you can join in at any time!

Quote of the Day:

Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying in six weeks; he claimed he knocked it off in his spare time from a twelve-hour-a-day job performing manual labor. There are other examples from other continents and centuries, just as albinos, assassins, saints, big people and little people show up from time to time in large populations. Out of a human population on earth of four and a half billion, perhaps twenty people can write a serious book in a year. Some people lift cars, too. Some people enter week-long sled-dog races, go over Niagra Falls in barrels, fly planes through the Arc de Triomphe. Some people feel no pain in childbirth. Some people eat cars. There is no call to take human extremes as norms.

— Annie Dillard, The Writing Life (1989)


Today's Writing:

I wrote 714 words, using yesterday's method, with equally good results!


Tally

( Days 1-8 )

Day 9: badly_knitted, brithistorian, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, trobadora


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Sara E. Wolf, Teaching Copyright: Practical Lesson Ideas and Instructional Resources: ( for non-legal educators who teach about (c) )

How Republics Die: Creeping Authoritarianism in Ancient Rome and Beyond, ed. Frederik Juliaan Vervaet et al.: ( democratic decay: how does it work? )

Michelle Carr, Nightmare Obscura: A Dream Engineer’s Guide Through the Sleeping Mind: ( I took a ton of notes )
Noah Feldman, To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People: ( Interesting )
Ko-Lin Chin, Counterfeited in China: The Operations of Illicit Businesses: ( also interesting )

Adam Becker, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity: ( depressingly interesting )

Shoshana Walter, Rehab: An American Scandal: ( oh look more depressing )

Today I finally updated my word count spreadsheet, for the first time since March.

Nothing but alibi sentences for most of that time, now all typed up and word-counted. Turns out (not entirely unexpectedly) July and August this year were my second- and third-worst writing months ever since I started documenting my writing ... Time to get out of that slump NOW.

Does anyone have tips for restarting? I think I could use some ...

ETA: Specifically, what I'm struggling with is that I've been writing no more than a sentence or three at a go, for much too long, and now I'm out of the habit and can't seem to go beyond that without a major effort. *grumbles*

Quote of the Day:

"Before you become a writer you must first become a reader. Every hour spent reading is an hour spent learning to write."

— Robert Macfarlane, Landmarks (2015)


Today's Writing:

I sat down and wrote 431 words, free-writing, mostly complaining, expecting nothing much. But it actually produced something useful. Maybe I should just complain more. Writing is so weird.


Tally

( Days 1-7 )

Day 8: badly_knitted, brithistorian, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, the_siobhan, trobadora, yasaman, ysilme


Let me know if I missed you, or if you wrote but didn't check in yet. And remember, you can join in at any time!

Quote of the Day:

"Notes aren’t a record of my thinking process. They are my thinking process."

--Richard Feynman, from an anecdote in Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, by James Gleick (1992)


Today's Writing:

A lot of staring a the screen, and an alibi sentence. 8-/


Tally

( Days 1-6 )

Day 7: badly_knitted, brithistorian, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, goddess47, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, trobadora, yasaman, ysilme

Day 8: china_shop


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Dear fffx writer,

thank you so much for writing a gift for me! I'll be absolutely thrilled about anything you can create about the relationships or worldbuilding themes I requested. and everything important is in the requests themselves, but if you'd like even more info, general likes etc., here you go.

My AO3 account is Trobadora, and it's set to welcome treats.

General Preferences

( Likes & Dislikes/DNWs )

Fandoms, relationships, worldbuilding

In somewhat alphabetical order - note that one of them is expanded compared to what's in the sign-up form:

Jump directly to:

• Christabel/Grimm crossover: Worldbuilding
• 绅探 | Detective L: Huo Wensi/Luo Fei
• Grimm/Guardian (TV) crossover: Nick Burkhardt/Sean Renard/Juliette Silverton & Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Worldbuilding - expanded
• Nantucket Trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha
• 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen/Gu Xuanqing

( Christabel/Grimm crossover: Worldbuilding )

( 绅探 | Detective L: Huo Wensi/Luo Fei )

( Grimm/Guardian crossovers:  )

( Nantucket Trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha )

( 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen/Gu Xuanqing )

Another month and another update on periru3  and my vid album Jagged Little Slayer, a mashup of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alanis Morissette. Here are the two we've posted since last time — we're very excited about these two:

Despite getting a late start all weekend and being distracted by a new matching game on my phone (I can lose hours to these stupid games), I got some good cooking done!

Yesterday, I made garlic & mozzarella milk bread (pics), which turned out quite well even though I forgot the salt due to its weird placement in the recipe (in theory I understand why it is where it is, but in practice it makes no sense to do it that way), but I used salted butter, so I don't think I missed it, and the bread rose just fine.

This afternoon, I finally made this strawberry cheesecake since my cream cheese was well past its use-by date and my heavy cream was getting there! It's still chilling, but when I licked the spatula after pouring the filling into the pie plate, all I really tasted was the five-spice powder. Which I like! But it's not what I would expect given the amount of freeze-dried strawberry powder in it. I guess we'll see how it goes when I cut into it tomorrow. (I also have this issue with nutmeg - even when I try to go easy on it in something, it still is frequently the only thing I taste after using it. I don't know why!)

And then I finally got up and made meatballs with oregano and red wine vinegar to have for lunch during the week. This was a method my grandmother used to use, and it is a great way to eat meatballs (or veggies - she also used to make it with zucchini, and I imagine you could do other types of squash or eggplant this way) - you make and cook the meatballs and set them aside. Then you saute onions in some olive oil (or in the beef fat left if you've fried your meatballs - I do mine in the oven, so I just use oil) and lower the heat and let them caramelize a bit, then you put the meatballs back in, sprinkle about 1/8 cup of dried oregano over them, and then pour in 1/3 - 3/4 cup of red wine vinegar. Be careful as billows of deliciously pungent smoke will rise from your frying pan at that point! Then lower the heat and let it all simmer for 10 or 15 minutes. Good both hot and at room temperature! (I haven't made it with zucchini myself, but for that, you slice and fry or bake your zucchini, and then continue on with the onions/oregano/vinegar as described.)

I have taken the garbage out and started the dishwasher, so now I am prepared for the awfulness of Sunday night. Sigh.

*

I don't know where the day went, or the weekend. How is it almost midnight already?!

Anyway: Over at sid_guardian we've kicked off another rewatch - a slo-mo one this time, half an episode per week. And since we've already done the "take an epic amount of notes and write epic post" kind of rewatch, this one's going to be a bit more relaxed. *g*



Here's the first post, episode 1, part 1.