heleninwales | Reading

It sounds like both D and DG are sick now, having gotten germs on the Vegas trip. J seems mostly fine and even did an ambitious bike ride after work – he headed toward the reservoir, west of town, but the wetlands weren’t very wet so he didn’t go all the way. As for me, I just did a few errands and then settled in to read the new Murderbot novella.

flemmings

Grey and blowy day when I did nothing but rescue my laundry from the basement and sit on the couch with vidka and beanbags. The cherry petals begin to fall in the breeze and polkadot the mudroom roof. Somehow I am going back thirty years to that similar grey cool May just back from Japan. It wasn't a better time, no matter what I think of it now. Was, in fact, nearly as traumatic as the present, except that I'm well acquainted with the present traumas and then I wasn't at all.

eve_prime

Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine. Ella (as in “Cinderella”) is funny, playful, resourceful, and kind. She’s also cursed. She has a fairy godmother, certainly, but a different fairy, one who’s flamboyant and thoughtless, showed up at her birth and enchanted her to always have to obey any direct order. Naturally, many problems ensue. Can she figure out how to break the curse in time to save the young man she loves, and the kingdom itself? A very entertaining bedtime reread.

julesjones

Day 5: Favourite male character

Blake.

He's the reason for the entire story. Nation created him as something more complex than just a gung-ho freedom fighter; and Boucher as script editor for the entire four year run plus writer of some of the key episodes put a lot of work into making him even more complex and, for want of a better word, real. He's not always likeable as a person, but it's very easy to understand why he's the way he is, why the others follow him, and why he believes (with good reason) that what he's doing is the least bad option. And he does know it's the least bad option, rather than the best option. He's a good man in a bad situation, who still stops to help individuals along the way.

I pre-ordered the Blu-ray boxes for series 1 and 2 as soon as they were announced, because I loved the idea of having remastered and restored episodes. It is not a coincidence that I am buying the series 3 and 4 Blu- ray editions more for the new extras that aren't on the DVDs than the remastering.

oursin

Have not been sleeping terribly well lately, thus the blahs.

Not sure why this is, because it is not lower back kicking up etc (yay physio) but more that annoying thing of Morpheus seeming very skittish.

Possibly the whole life-admin stuff that going on at the moment? (2nd appt with our Person of Law next week, also appt to Register Our Intentions.)

Perchance the Even Tenor of Our Ways is just a leeetle disturbed.

Still, am doing my best to pull together Something Entertaining and Instructive on Condoms and related matters, which is largely remixing stuff which I do already have, but not entirely.

Am a bit annoyed that I was informed that I could anticipate proofs of a review today but so far no can haz, would have liked to get that out of the way.

eve_prime

The guys all came home safely from Vegas this afternoon, but they were exhausted and weren’t going to play Magic this evening. On my trip to the library, I went into the game store to tell the employees about D’s spectacular achievement over the weekend, and they were quite excited.

Later, even though I’m pretty wiped out from allergies (my brief May respite started early but is already gone I guess), I did make it to the last Delgani concert of the season. There’s an Australian composer who wrote several string quartets with an optional didgeridoo part, and as it happens the world’s best non-Australian player of contemporary non-indigenous didgeridoo music lives in the Bay Area. He came up to perform with Delgani last year, but I didn’t see him in person. It was fun to see him today and much more interesting than via livestream. He brought three of them and uses different ones for different movements. His name is Stephen Kent, and I chatted with him a bit after the concert about the East Bay parks. I also chatted with first violinist Anthea and with my friends CH and LC.

oursin

Happy birthday,

catvalente!

flemmings

We are at the pale green, pale blue, and blossoming white stage of May. Today was warmer but breezy so it didn't feel as humid as 20C usually does. I slept in till noon, ordered in dumplings midafternoon, and didn't get out until nearly five. But managed two of the foot-draggers. While waiting for the delivery guy I got last year's leaves out of the garbage bin and into a garden waste bag, and managed to add some of the thin twiggy branches as well. This evening I got the air purifier out of its box, read the instruction book, and got it ready to go. Apparently if it makes noise there's something wrong with it, but we shall see. Anything that catches dust and pollen is a good thing.

My census form arrived today, or rather, the code needed to fill the census online did. They don't give you much lead time here: thing is due in eight days. You must apply for a paper form which I really doubt will reach you before the 12th. Heigh-ho. We must live in the future whether or no.

oursin

Syphilis cases in expectant mothers have dramatically risen since the pandemic (in the USA) and there is consequently a rise in congenital syphilis:

can result in a range of negative outcomes, the most serious of which is miscarriage or stillbirth. If the fetus survives, long-term developmental delays, blindness, hearing loss, permanent teeth and bone malformation, heart defects and rashes can occur. Symptoms of congenital syphilis can happen immediately at birth, or they may not be recognized until the child is over 2 years old, when molars erupt, or as bones grow and the changes become more pronounced.
Congenital syphilis is treatable with antibiotics, which will stop progression of the disease but cannot reverse any negative outcomes that have already occurred.

***

And will this once more become a common tale? Telling abortion stories: The life of Florence P. Evans (1913–1935)

***

This is well creepy: ‘It ruined my night’: photographers accused of targeting women at St Andrews May Dip: 'Students taking part in university’s annual ritual say images of them in swimwear are being published without consent in national newspapers':

In recent years this quirky ritual has become a target for agency and freelance photographers looking to cash in on images of students in bikinis, including some who camp out overnight on the East Sands dunes near the Fife coastal path.

julesjones

Day 4: Least favourite female character

Cancer, not least because of the ridiculous costume change and "Bwa-ha-ha, my pretties". Pella in Power is probably next, because the episode was written by Ben Steed with all Ben Steed's interesting ideas about gender politics and there was only so much Mary Ridge could do about it.

oursin

Happy birthday,

thinkum!

flemmings

I took my tipsy self to bed last night without looking at the time but am pretty sure it was well before my usual hour. Woke briefly at 2 something, then slept until 6:30, and then couldn't get back to sleep. That common wisdom of every hour before midnight counting as two may well be true because I was awake awake, even if heavy-eyed and yawning through the morning. Did get to see a marvellous sunrise all gold and blue behind the cherry blossoms doing their winter snow routine, which was nice, but not nearly as good as three more hours of sleep would have been. And I ached all over all day in spite of physio and acupuncture yesterday. Consequently have accomplished very little: got milk from the super, washed dishes, and vacuumed the living room because bro proposes to visit me at some point next week and the carpet was disgustingly dusty.

Really hope I feel better tomorrow.

asakiyume

One thing I'd wanted to do on this trip is make asaí (or in English we write it açai, from the Portuguese, because Brazil is the major exporter) juice. It's a good physical effort, but the whole thing went faster than I thought it would. It was me, my tutor's older brother, and her mom doing it, with her doing the videography and photos :-)

The first step is to soak the asaí berries. Here they are with hot water poured over them.

Then you pound them! The pounder was made by my tutor's mother from palo de sangre, bloodwood, which really does bleed red sap when you cut it (and is a lovely deep red color when carved). You pound until the pounder makes a sound like a boot pulling out of the mud when you lift it. At that point it's pounded enough. My tutor's brother and I took turns with this ;-)

Watch on YouTube

Then you pass that mash through this sieve, which is called cuechinu in Tikuna, and was also made by my tutor's mom.

passing the berries through the cuechinu (cernidor, strainer)

And then you further strain it through a very fine strainer. The hands belong to my tutor's mom:

passing asaí through the finest strainer

And then ... you can drink it :-) I had mine with sugar. Looking very pleased with myself BECAUSE I WAS.

julesjones

Just rewatched Star One after watching it last night; this time with the audio commentary, which turns out to be a new one recorded for the Blu-ray release. Sally Knyvette, Brian Croucher and Mat Irvine. A couple of snippets I either didn't know or had forgotten - David A Hardy did a lot of the space backdrop paintings in the second series, and Brian Croucher did not like Paul Darrow. 🤣

Audio commentaries are supposed to be *commentaries*, but a lot of this one was them talking amongst themselves rather than saying anything about what was on screen. It turned out to be interesting anyway once they got going (and amusing when Croucher was getting catty about Darrow). Much better than a couple of the ones that were done for the original DVD release in the early 2000s, where they didn't really have anything interesting to say about what was on the screen, but also weren't really doing much with general reminiscing.

I need to go through the "extras" list for the DVD and Blu-ray boxsets and see whether there are other new commentaries, as I'd assumed the ones on the Blu-rays were just the ones done for the DVD release. Too late now for new ones from some of the people I'd really like to hear more from, but at least the Blu-ray remasters are being released while there are still some of the cast and crew around to do them.

julesjones

Day 3: Favourite female character

I don't really have a strong bias towards a particular female character. I prefer Jenna and Cally to the later female crew members because I prefer the first two series in general, and I think there's better, more complex characterisation for them than there is for Dayna and Soolin. Dayna in particular I think is a bit one note; Soolin has an excuse both in having only one season and in being even more reserved about her past than Kerr "I do not need anyone at all" Avon, with good reason. Servalan is marvellous throughout, of course.

There quite a few good guest characters as well. The one at the top of my mind today is Lurena in Star One, since I watched that last night. Saying much more would be a spoiler, but she's stuck in a terrifying situation, she's almost fainting with horror and shock, and she still manages to hold herself together to fight back.

oursin

Last week's bread held out remarkably.

Friday night supper: penne with Peppadew roasted red peppers in brine whooshed in the blender and heated.

Saturday breakfast rolls: eclectic vanilla.

Today's lunch: diced lamb shoulder casseroled in white wine with baby carrots, chopped leeks, bay leaf, thyme, white peppercorns and salt, with a sliced potato topping (blanched in boiling water for 5 mins, brushed with melted butter, and seasoned with salt and pepper, put on for the final 45 mins or so), served with white-braised fine green beans and baby courgettes.

puddleshark

( Green ways on a grey day )

oursin

Happy birthday,

forthright!

cmcmck

( Read more... )

Current Mood: photographical
Current Location: 'ome from town

eve_prime

Today I went to Tsunami Books for a book talk featuring two local authors. One was John Zerzan, who is internationally prominent in the anarchist movement; he’s 82 and has just written a memoir. The other is Rick Levin, a long-time journalist who just couldn’t stand having an office job anymore and decided to become a bus driver instead; his book is a novelization of his experiences with that. I bought the Zerzan book before John’s talk – he’s a gentle and thoughtful man who’s very well read. After Rick’s talk, in which he read passages from the book, I bought his too, as he seems very entertaining and insightful.

I got both of the books signed, and I had very different conversations with the two authors. John and I chatted about the Unabomber and his manifesto. Rick and I chatted about my neighborhood bus line, which he says is the prettiest in the community – and apparently the time the bus got stuck at a weird angle on our neighborhood hill, during an ice storm, has become legendary.

Meanwhile, at the Vegas Magic event, I’d mentioned that David made top 32 in the pro tour qualifying event. Well, today he won his 8-person draft and qualified for Pro Tour Amsterdam! That’s going to complicate their trip to Europe, but hopefully in a mostly good way.

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Helen

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Helen

Reading

A quiet Tuesday

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Book completed

30 Days of Blake's 7 - Day 5

State of the blahs

Didgeridoo!

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These are all fairly depressing, sorry

30 days of Blake's 7 - Day 4

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making asaí (açai) juice

Blake's 7 - Star One - audio commentary

30 Days of Blake's 7 - Day 3

Culinary

Along Ackling Dyke in May

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Last holiday pics

Book talks and more

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May 2026

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