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( Intro and disclaimers )
( fandoms: Buffy, Firefly, Harry Potter, Heroes, Lord of the Rings, Merlin, Numb3rs, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek AOS, Star Wars TPM, Stargate SG-1, Supernatural, Vagrant Story, White Collar, X-Men (First Class), and misc )
This list is up to date as of May 3, 2015
my appetite has mysteriously vanished...
...which I'm sure has ~no~ correlation to having gone to the free thanksgiving meal my church did
two types of salad, turkey, ham, sage stuffing, peas and shallots, roasted brussels sprouts / carrots / onions, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, potato rolls, and like eight types of pie (including: pecan, pumpkin, sweet potato, apple, chocolate cream, key lime, and idk what else) with real whipped cream.
All homemade, all insanely good, and there was even a centerpiece that was a handmade cornucopia made out of bread and containing actual fruots and vegetables.
I ... am going to go into a food coma now, lol
two types of salad, turkey, ham, sage stuffing, peas and shallots, roasted brussels sprouts / carrots / onions, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, potato rolls, and like eight types of pie (including: pecan, pumpkin, sweet potato, apple, chocolate cream, key lime, and idk what else) with real whipped cream.
All homemade, all insanely good, and there was even a centerpiece that was a handmade cornucopia made out of bread and containing actual fruots and vegetables.
I ... am going to go into a food coma now, lol
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Back in 2018-19, Loki spent about 9 months in a cone, because he wouldn't stop killing his tail. ( cw: mention of medical saga )
And then randomly, he stopped. Since then he does still attack his tail sometimes (occasionally seeming extremely annoyed by it) but without making it bloody. I sort of get the impression he doesn't really understand that his tail is even attached to him, let alone part of him. Sometimes he shoves his tail down, stalks to a different bed, and gets upset that it followed him. Sometimes it feels like, to him, he bites the wiggly thing and then it bites him back.
But regardless, he wasn't doing serious damage.
Until last week.
We noticed a spot on the underside of his tail that he seemed to have licked bare. Then it bled a bit. So Friday was Vet Day. They shaved the area, cleaned it up, and gave him an antibiotic shot because it looked like he had just ... chomped way too hard.
So he's back in a cone. Hopefully it's just for the 10-14 days recommended by the vet. But. It's a different spot, but he does have history with, erm, tail issues.
If he continues with his tail the way he did in 2018... ( cw: mention of potential medical procedures )
Right now the dogs are banished from my bedroom so that Loki can have easier access to food/water and to litterbox. They are confused by this. Loki has been extremely clingy, jumping on my lap pretty much every time I'm in there and sleeping on me probably 80% of the night. I don't actually mind providing extra cuddles! But I think all of us will be happy when things go back to normal...
And then randomly, he stopped. Since then he does still attack his tail sometimes (occasionally seeming extremely annoyed by it) but without making it bloody. I sort of get the impression he doesn't really understand that his tail is even attached to him, let alone part of him. Sometimes he shoves his tail down, stalks to a different bed, and gets upset that it followed him. Sometimes it feels like, to him, he bites the wiggly thing and then it bites him back.
But regardless, he wasn't doing serious damage.
Until last week.
We noticed a spot on the underside of his tail that he seemed to have licked bare. Then it bled a bit. So Friday was Vet Day. They shaved the area, cleaned it up, and gave him an antibiotic shot because it looked like he had just ... chomped way too hard.
So he's back in a cone. Hopefully it's just for the 10-14 days recommended by the vet. But. It's a different spot, but he does have history with, erm, tail issues.
If he continues with his tail the way he did in 2018... ( cw: mention of potential medical procedures )
Right now the dogs are banished from my bedroom so that Loki can have easier access to food/water and to litterbox. They are confused by this. Loki has been extremely clingy, jumping on my lap pretty much every time I'm in there and sleeping on me probably 80% of the night. I don't actually mind providing extra cuddles! But I think all of us will be happy when things go back to normal...
Entry tags:
Cat dream
The first cat in the dream was a shorthair tortie -- mottled black and orange. Jumped onto my lap and then right shoulder, and demanded scritches. A kid nearby asked if it was a boy cat or a girl cat. My first reaction was "I don't know" but then I realized I did know because torties are 99% female. (The way I explained it in the dream was "orange boy cats can be all orange or orange-and-white, but not orange-and-black", which happens to be largely true IRL too. (Technically a boy cat that's XXY and heterozygous for this trait could be orange/black, but XXY is rare and only about half of them have a mix. But I didn't go into that.)
Then a big fluffy black cat jumped onto my left leg and swatted at the first cat, as if to say "my turn now". He was wearing little black "saddlebags" containing little foil bags, plus a note saying "feed me", so I opened one of the packets for him. It had a moist puck of wet food, and he chowed down quite happily.
There was an orange girl that, even in the dream, looked a lot like my former girl Monkey. She was lounging in an open drawer, and next to her was a skein of yarn the same color as her, which I snagged to bring home.
There was a sleek black cat lounging on the top level of a cat tree, well out of reach for pets but supervising. Not sure if boy or girl; somehow I knew that the fluffy black was a boy and the orange was a girl, but this one had no vibes.
And lastly there was a calico, white with patches of black and reddish orange and also yellowish orange; the oranges were slightly metallic looking. She reminded me of koi fish. Very pretty, but I didn't get a chance to pet her.
(This was an excellent dream and I'm glad I remembered so many details 💜)
Then a big fluffy black cat jumped onto my left leg and swatted at the first cat, as if to say "my turn now". He was wearing little black "saddlebags" containing little foil bags, plus a note saying "feed me", so I opened one of the packets for him. It had a moist puck of wet food, and he chowed down quite happily.
There was an orange girl that, even in the dream, looked a lot like my former girl Monkey. She was lounging in an open drawer, and next to her was a skein of yarn the same color as her, which I snagged to bring home.
There was a sleek black cat lounging on the top level of a cat tree, well out of reach for pets but supervising. Not sure if boy or girl; somehow I knew that the fluffy black was a boy and the orange was a girl, but this one had no vibes.
And lastly there was a calico, white with patches of black and reddish orange and also yellowish orange; the oranges were slightly metallic looking. She reminded me of koi fish. Very pretty, but I didn't get a chance to pet her.
(This was an excellent dream and I'm glad I remembered so many details 💜)
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Had a birthday, so did an Excursion to several of the local places that give free stuff. Some of them are good for a month, but it's funner to do it on the day. Sushi place has a big wheel you can spin; I got chopsticks (nice ones, not the disposable ones), which was funny because I'd also purchased lunch for takeout (they do an amazing calamari) and they asked if I needed chopsticks, to which I said no because we had some at home, and then they brought me to spin the wheel... I also got ice cream and an Insomnia Cookies deluxe, and the person also gave me a purple pen and a sticker.
Am I ridiculous for getting excited about free stuff? Probably. Do I care? Nah. The benefit of getting older is shedding the fucks you would otherwise give.
I also got myself a tuxedo cake from Costco. I'm not going to eat it all myself, that's more cake than I can eat, but dang is it good.
Other things:
Went to a concert Sunday, Itzhak Perlman and a klezmer group, doing a tour as a 30th anniversary celebration of the PBS special In The Fiddler's House. It's my first time seeing Perlman doing a non-violin-solo classical-music concert, but also he's fricking 80 and probably enjoys not having to be the only person onstage.
I finally got around to signing up for Apple TV, and started watching Murderbot. (I've read the books already.) Is very good. I haven't finished the Doctor Whos yet (mid season 2), and I have to do so much shit for my mom's situation that I can't allow myself to just watch tv all day.
(I've lost access to mom's MyChart because it turns out proxy access expires and has to be renewed, but mom can't log in -- not just at her internet-less home but literally anywhere; they introduced 2FA that sends a code to the email address she can't access because google wants 2FA to the cell phone that doesn't get texts -- and can't seem to call anyone other than me. I don't know if they take verbal permission given over the phone anyway. This whole situation is ughhhhh.
Am I ridiculous for getting excited about free stuff? Probably. Do I care? Nah. The benefit of getting older is shedding the fucks you would otherwise give.
I also got myself a tuxedo cake from Costco. I'm not going to eat it all myself, that's more cake than I can eat, but dang is it good.
Other things:
Went to a concert Sunday, Itzhak Perlman and a klezmer group, doing a tour as a 30th anniversary celebration of the PBS special In The Fiddler's House. It's my first time seeing Perlman doing a non-violin-solo classical-music concert, but also he's fricking 80 and probably enjoys not having to be the only person onstage.
I finally got around to signing up for Apple TV, and started watching Murderbot. (I've read the books already.) Is very good. I haven't finished the Doctor Whos yet (mid season 2), and I have to do so much shit for my mom's situation that I can't allow myself to just watch tv all day.
(I've lost access to mom's MyChart because it turns out proxy access expires and has to be renewed, but mom can't log in -- not just at her internet-less home but literally anywhere; they introduced 2FA that sends a code to the email address she can't access because google wants 2FA to the cell phone that doesn't get texts -- and can't seem to call anyone other than me. I don't know if they take verbal permission given over the phone anyway. This whole situation is ughhhhh.
Entry tags:
Duolingo alternatives
Found an article with suggestions and am noting for future checking-out. This isn't my personal recommendation, but if any of y'all have used these, feel free to comment.
* Drops ("Language Learning Games: Drops"). Mostly vocabulary rather than full sentences. Free accounts limited to 5min/day. Paid upgrade available. Company also has apps for specific languages incl Korean, Tagalog, and others
* Busuu. No time limits for free accounts, at least. Paid upgrades available.
* Memrise. Free plan is more vocab than full sentences. Grammar lessons require paid.
* Babbel. Exclusively paid r/th freemium. Mostly just European languages.
* LingoDeer. Has Asian and European languages - there is also a games app for Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, Chinese and German. Mostly paid.
* Drops ("Language Learning Games: Drops"). Mostly vocabulary rather than full sentences. Free accounts limited to 5min/day. Paid upgrade available. Company also has apps for specific languages incl Korean, Tagalog, and others
* Busuu. No time limits for free accounts, at least. Paid upgrades available.
* Memrise. Free plan is more vocab than full sentences. Grammar lessons require paid.
* Babbel. Exclusively paid r/th freemium. Mostly just European languages.
* LingoDeer. Has Asian and European languages - there is also a games app for Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, Chinese and German. Mostly paid.
Entry tags:
Doctor Who nitpick
I'm up to s2 e3 in my rewatch.
...and ok. In e1, the TARDIS, with those inside, accidentally shrinks. The Doctor and companions are the size of an inch. They go outside, where they realize that instead of a planet with anaconda-sized earthworms, they're on normal Earth as tiny creatures. Shenanigans ensue.
At the end of the serial, they -- of course -- get back to the TARDIS and get everything back to normal. And as part of this, the (mini) Doctor grabs a (full size) seed of wheat, which he brings inside as a way of measuring progress: as the TARDIS returns to normal, the grain of wheat shrinks from apparently huge to, well, the appropriate size for a grain of wheat.
Except that /doesn't fucking make sense/.
When the TARDIS first shrank, so did everything inside. People, their clothes, everything. Presumably embiggening works the same. So why is the seed excepted? By the logic of the miniaturization, the seed should have remained the same relative size, becoming a huge-ass seed.
*blinks in confusion*
...and ok. In e1, the TARDIS, with those inside, accidentally shrinks. The Doctor and companions are the size of an inch. They go outside, where they realize that instead of a planet with anaconda-sized earthworms, they're on normal Earth as tiny creatures. Shenanigans ensue.
At the end of the serial, they -- of course -- get back to the TARDIS and get everything back to normal. And as part of this, the (mini) Doctor grabs a (full size) seed of wheat, which he brings inside as a way of measuring progress: as the TARDIS returns to normal, the grain of wheat shrinks from apparently huge to, well, the appropriate size for a grain of wheat.
Except that /doesn't fucking make sense/.
When the TARDIS first shrank, so did everything inside. People, their clothes, everything. Presumably embiggening works the same. So why is the seed excepted? By the logic of the miniaturization, the seed should have remained the same relative size, becoming a huge-ass seed.
*blinks in confusion*
Entry tags:
DW S1 E28
...Ian just did a Vulcan Death Grip. *squints*
(also my dryer has fantastic timing. Dramatic scene ends with "let him die", dryer promptly tootles a cheerful triumphant tune...)
(also my dryer has fantastic timing. Dramatic scene ends with "let him die", dryer promptly tootles a cheerful triumphant tune...)
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Watching Old Who, my brain keeps wanting to treat it as a ttrpg. "No don't split the party!" and "oop I guessed he rolled a 1 there" and "tha what you get for not doing a perception check" and such.
Also seeing the early Daleks makes me think of Daleks telling scary campfire stories. "AND THEN" (waves flashlight under "face") "SUD-DEN-LY THE DOC-TOR." (Other Daleks shriek and flail in terror) ...or Daleks telling baby Daleks "BE-HAVE OR THE DOC-TOR WILL COME". Are there even baby Daleks? Hmmm.
Also ... is it ever explained why everyone speaks English?
Also seeing the early Daleks makes me think of Daleks telling scary campfire stories. "AND THEN" (waves flashlight under "face") "SUD-DEN-LY THE DOC-TOR." (Other Daleks shriek and flail in terror) ...or Daleks telling baby Daleks "BE-HAVE OR THE DOC-TOR WILL COME". Are there even baby Daleks? Hmmm.
Also ... is it ever explained why everyone speaks English?
Entry tags:
(no subject)
*wheezes with laughter*
In my DnD group, we just intentionally triggered a trap, dropping nine Intellect Devourers, which are tiny brains on four legs.
My character, an owlin monk with more chipperness than sense, was first in initiative; she exclaimed "brain puppies!", and tried petting one. It was amenable so she scooped it up for a good cuddle.
Character who was second in initiative, whose player is physically in the room with me, did the same. (The game is online via foundry and discord voice chat, but one person is local and my internet is better than hers.)
My DM /absolutely/ did not see this coming...
(Edit: for non-DnDers, this is roughly like seeing a herd of hungry grizzly bears, going "eee cute and fuzzy", and trying to cuddle one. If not friend, why friend shaped, amirite? Oh and you're covered in meat juice. And they all basically just want to eat you.)
In my DnD group, we just intentionally triggered a trap, dropping nine Intellect Devourers, which are tiny brains on four legs.
My character, an owlin monk with more chipperness than sense, was first in initiative; she exclaimed "brain puppies!", and tried petting one. It was amenable so she scooped it up for a good cuddle.
Character who was second in initiative, whose player is physically in the room with me, did the same. (The game is online via foundry and discord voice chat, but one person is local and my internet is better than hers.)
My DM /absolutely/ did not see this coming...
(Edit: for non-DnDers, this is roughly like seeing a herd of hungry grizzly bears, going "eee cute and fuzzy", and trying to cuddle one. If not friend, why friend shaped, amirite? Oh and you're covered in meat juice. And they all basically just want to eat you.)
Entry tags:
Misc stuff
1) finally got around to subscribing to BritBox -- partly because I've been wanting to binge Poirot, partly because they have the old Doctor Who (which I've seen scattered episodes of but not even a quarter), partly because I'm grumpy at Disney/Hulu for raising prices. Britbox should keep me happy for a while though. And when I finish the 26 seasons of Old Who and 13 seasons of Poirot, it'll probably be somewhere around 2050... lol
2) I'm kind of annoyed that not all of Doctor Who is available right now. D+ has the Ncuti Gatwa ones, but nothing else. I own the first few seasons of New Who, which is rewatch for me, but when it was first airing I stopped having access partway through Matt Smith, and I haven't seen Peter Capaldi or Jodie Whittaker at all. Obviously I can watch out of order, but. Grump.
3) My current headcanon for Phantom of the Opera is that Erik is some flavor of asexual. He wants Christine as a bride, but it's a very child-ish "marrying means you're together forever" attitude, and if he knows newlyweds sleep together, he's oblivious to that being anything other than cuddling. He doesn't take advantage of Christine when she's down in his lair. And the sequence of "Either be with me forever or your boyfriend dies" "What if I kiss you?" "... ... ... ok you can leave" fits in, because in my head he's like "??? is this sex? Gross???" This amuses me way too much somehow...
4) I've pretty much decided to quit Duolingo when I hit 4000, which is in a bit over a month. The content is getting more irritating and while I am a little sad to not see how far I go, fuck Duolingo.
5) Am doing a daily drawing challenge (via Marc Brunet on YouTube -- he has a "learn to draw in 30 days" video with prompts. Posting the oh-so-exciting results to my instagram ... if you're desperate to see a bunch of squares and circles and cylinders and stuff, lol.
2) I'm kind of annoyed that not all of Doctor Who is available right now. D+ has the Ncuti Gatwa ones, but nothing else. I own the first few seasons of New Who, which is rewatch for me, but when it was first airing I stopped having access partway through Matt Smith, and I haven't seen Peter Capaldi or Jodie Whittaker at all. Obviously I can watch out of order, but. Grump.
3) My current headcanon for Phantom of the Opera is that Erik is some flavor of asexual. He wants Christine as a bride, but it's a very child-ish "marrying means you're together forever" attitude, and if he knows newlyweds sleep together, he's oblivious to that being anything other than cuddling. He doesn't take advantage of Christine when she's down in his lair. And the sequence of "Either be with me forever or your boyfriend dies" "What if I kiss you?" "... ... ... ok you can leave" fits in, because in my head he's like "??? is this sex? Gross???" This amuses me way too much somehow...
4) I've pretty much decided to quit Duolingo when I hit 4000, which is in a bit over a month. The content is getting more irritating and while I am a little sad to not see how far I go, fuck Duolingo.
5) Am doing a daily drawing challenge (via Marc Brunet on YouTube -- he has a "learn to draw in 30 days" video with prompts. Posting the oh-so-exciting results to my instagram ... if you're desperate to see a bunch of squares and circles and cylinders and stuff, lol.
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Me: Dear brain, I know my mom is increasingly fucked, but obsessing in circles about what to do about that isn't helpful.
Brain: Okay what if I just dwell on the time in high school when you tried to be captain of the academic decathlon team, and the faculty sponsor gave y'all "practice questions" to work on that, when you got to competition, turned out to have been that year's actual questions, meaning you looked not just like cheaters but incompetent cheaters that didn't even have the intelligence to make it look plausible
Me: In actual fact, that doesn't help...
Brain: Okay what if I just dwell on the time in high school when you tried to be captain of the academic decathlon team, and the faculty sponsor gave y'all "practice questions" to work on that, when you got to competition, turned out to have been that year's actual questions, meaning you looked not just like cheaters but incompetent cheaters that didn't even have the intelligence to make it look plausible
Me: In actual fact, that doesn't help...
Entry tags:
Procreate stuff
New version now has a release announcement of "next week" [edit: might be available already?]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9QdA_SDnLY is a video going through all the brushes, including effects from pressure and also tilt and barrel roll. (I turn off tilt variation options, because not moving arm or wrist means tilt automatically changes through a stroke ... I may have to disable azimuth for the opposite reason, because I can't change pencil orientation. I don't have the Apple Pencil that supports barrel roll so can't do twists.)
TIL that a pademelon is a small marsupial, not a melon at all... (The new brushes are named after flora/fauna/locationsetc in Tasmania, which means the names aren't functional (no "gel pen" or "smoke" or "medium airbrush", now it's "chocolate" or "sandpiper" or "night heron") ... which means I have no chance at remembering what's what aaaaa
Anyway there are some reeeeally cool brushes and brush options.
(The old brushes will still be available and included, so e.g. old tutorials can still be followed, but I'll probably use the new ones more.)
( notes from brush designer )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9QdA_SDnLY is a video going through all the brushes, including effects from pressure and also tilt and barrel roll. (I turn off tilt variation options, because not moving arm or wrist means tilt automatically changes through a stroke ... I may have to disable azimuth for the opposite reason, because I can't change pencil orientation. I don't have the Apple Pencil that supports barrel roll so can't do twists.)
TIL that a pademelon is a small marsupial, not a melon at all... (The new brushes are named after flora/fauna/locationsetc in Tasmania, which means the names aren't functional (no "gel pen" or "smoke" or "medium airbrush", now it's "chocolate" or "sandpiper" or "night heron") ... which means I have no chance at remembering what's what aaaaa
Anyway there are some reeeeally cool brushes and brush options.
(The old brushes will still be available and included, so e.g. old tutorials can still be followed, but I'll probably use the new ones more.)
( notes from brush designer )
Entry tags:
Ooooh shiny
So I got an email tonight-- seen in my last check of the evening-- inviting me to beta the new Procreate. Which probably means it's a fairly broad beta at this point, because I'm nobody, but --
Um. Yes PLEASE.
I've only done a bit of playing with the new brushes but holy crap it's so good. Some of them have dynamic color interactions, behaving more like physical media. Some of them have amazing texture. Some of them would make amazing calligraphy.
I've gotten through 12 of the 18 categories in the comes-with-Procreate default library, and I really ought to go to sleep, but eeee this is so cool!
Um. Yes PLEASE.
I've only done a bit of playing with the new brushes but holy crap it's so good. Some of them have dynamic color interactions, behaving more like physical media. Some of them have amazing texture. Some of them would make amazing calligraphy.
I've gotten through 12 of the 18 categories in the comes-with-Procreate default library, and I really ought to go to sleep, but eeee this is so cool!
Entry tags:
I feel like an idiot
Guy came around with "the government wants you to have a free phone because you're on benefits"
and my roommate who is aggressive with solicitors wasn't home
and so I said sure (thinking maybe I could use it to try swapping the sim card from mom's old untextable phone)
even though I know better
so now I have a phone I don't really need, that may or may not be a scam, that I regretted accepting like five minutes later
(they didn't take cc info so maybe the worst they can do is harass me)
...fml
and my roommate who is aggressive with solicitors wasn't home
and so I said sure (thinking maybe I could use it to try swapping the sim card from mom's old untextable phone)
even though I know better
so now I have a phone I don't really need, that may or may not be a scam, that I regretted accepting like five minutes later
(they didn't take cc info so maybe the worst they can do is harass me)
...fml
Entry tags:
Aten't ded yet
Things what have been happening:
A. My mom is an epic stress demon -- this deserves its own post but teal dear (or I guess TL;DW since it's not written up yet) early stages of dementia plus physical complications plus denial plus verbal aggression ... on top of the normal "treating me like I'm a teenager" and "calling multiple times a day" -- and I'm kind of boiling alive because stress and uncertainty
B. Speaking of boiling, today was the third day over 100F. Even with air conditioning and fans and cooling towels, it's way too hot
C. I have no sense of time any more. Everything is somehow too fast and too slow.
D. My brain is perpetually convinced I'm forgetting shit. Occasionally I actually am. But I'm basically living in perpetual anxiety.
E. Also I'm training new aides, which always sucks even when they're good
F. Phoebe is still cute af. So is Loki. The two of them are the only things keeping me halfway sane. If I can remember tomorrow I'll upload pictures.
A. My mom is an epic stress demon -- this deserves its own post but teal dear (or I guess TL;DW since it's not written up yet) early stages of dementia plus physical complications plus denial plus verbal aggression ... on top of the normal "treating me like I'm a teenager" and "calling multiple times a day" -- and I'm kind of boiling alive because stress and uncertainty
B. Speaking of boiling, today was the third day over 100F. Even with air conditioning and fans and cooling towels, it's way too hot
C. I have no sense of time any more. Everything is somehow too fast and too slow.
D. My brain is perpetually convinced I'm forgetting shit. Occasionally I actually am. But I'm basically living in perpetual anxiety.
E. Also I'm training new aides, which always sucks even when they're good
F. Phoebe is still cute af. So is Loki. The two of them are the only things keeping me halfway sane. If I can remember tomorrow I'll upload pictures.
Entry tags:
Dream - video game
I dreamed I was playing a very casual game where you went around harvesting things -- a few types of mushrooms, different berries, catnip plants, even clouds somehow -- and you would also encounter creatures that you could offer the items to. Critters would respond with 😍 (love), 😊 (like), 😐 (neutral), 😝 (dislike), or 🤮 (ew), and their attitude would adjust accordingly. Enough positive points got a ❤️ and they became huggable; enough negative points meant they'd run away from you, though you could still leave gifts. There was a 'notebook' where you could keep track of discovered rules ("hyrax doesn't like snozzberries" is one I remember from the dream) and sometimes a creature would have a floating thought bubble with what they were in the mood for.
...I kinda want this game to actually exist...
...I kinda want this game to actually exist...
Entry tags:
(no subject)
So my G&S earworm morphed into a weird amalgam that started with HMS Pinafore --
We sail the ocean blue,
And our saucy ship's a beauty;
We are sober men and true,
And attentive to our duty.
-- only then towards the end of that song, shifted to a classical music orchestral piece that I had the damnedest time placing but that was something I knew I a) had heard within the past year, at one of the concerts I went to, probably late 2024, b) had not heard within the last month, c) had an annoying tendency as an earworm to loop (not just stick as earworms do, but literally loop back on itself), and d) had been in my head before, months ago.
It felt very much like either Tchaikovsky or Beethoven, and I was confident it was a symphony, so I went to imslp and started browsing the sheet musics. It was none of the Tchaikovsky ones, so I tried Beethoven, though I was fairly sure it wasn't the 9th. I also googled for "classical music that sounds like Indiana Jones" because some of the bit in my head reminds me of IJ music, only that confused things because the 3rd movement of Tchaikovsky'a 6th contains a (different) Indiana-Jones section. Obviously the symphonies preceded Indiana Jones, just as the 4th movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony preceded Jaws, but still. It had to have been some sort of inspiration.
Anyway I eventually found it: the beginning of the 4th movement of the 5th symphony (https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=3xUNCQ4TbN4&si=qqSWtKaUa7qsXghO) ... not the first measures, but the stretch 0:30 to 1:00 with the cascading runs down and the horns and then the bit I fondly consider the Indiana Jones section. (I think it's the modulations?)
So then I had to listen to the whole symphony, and I had almost forgotten just how fucking amazing it is. The first four notes get overused in popular culture to the point of being almost cheesy, but other than that it's just utter perfection. And listening to it makes me incredibly happy omg.
(It's one of my favorite symphonies -- my all-time favorites are Beethoven's 5th, Sibelius' 2nd, and Tchaikovsky's 4th (clearly I need a first and third to round it out) -- and it's one that, if I'm alone, I'm moving to, not just "conducting" with hands but full body emphasis. Obviously I behave at concerts, so I don't distract others, but. It's just. Good. So good.
(If you don't know it besides the duh-duh-duh-DUHHHH motif that starts the piece, go listen.)
...of course, fair warning, it does sometimes get bits stuck in your head...
[note to self -- this entry took exactly an hour to write]
We sail the ocean blue,
And our saucy ship's a beauty;
We are sober men and true,
And attentive to our duty.
-- only then towards the end of that song, shifted to a classical music orchestral piece that I had the damnedest time placing but that was something I knew I a) had heard within the past year, at one of the concerts I went to, probably late 2024, b) had not heard within the last month, c) had an annoying tendency as an earworm to loop (not just stick as earworms do, but literally loop back on itself), and d) had been in my head before, months ago.
It felt very much like either Tchaikovsky or Beethoven, and I was confident it was a symphony, so I went to imslp and started browsing the sheet musics. It was none of the Tchaikovsky ones, so I tried Beethoven, though I was fairly sure it wasn't the 9th. I also googled for "classical music that sounds like Indiana Jones" because some of the bit in my head reminds me of IJ music, only that confused things because the 3rd movement of Tchaikovsky'a 6th contains a (different) Indiana-Jones section. Obviously the symphonies preceded Indiana Jones, just as the 4th movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony preceded Jaws, but still. It had to have been some sort of inspiration.
Anyway I eventually found it: the beginning of the 4th movement of the 5th symphony (https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=3xUNCQ4TbN4&si=qqSWtKaUa7qsXghO) ... not the first measures, but the stretch 0:30 to 1:00 with the cascading runs down and the horns and then the bit I fondly consider the Indiana Jones section. (I think it's the modulations?)
So then I had to listen to the whole symphony, and I had almost forgotten just how fucking amazing it is. The first four notes get overused in popular culture to the point of being almost cheesy, but other than that it's just utter perfection. And listening to it makes me incredibly happy omg.
(It's one of my favorite symphonies -- my all-time favorites are Beethoven's 5th, Sibelius' 2nd, and Tchaikovsky's 4th (clearly I need a first and third to round it out) -- and it's one that, if I'm alone, I'm moving to, not just "conducting" with hands but full body emphasis. Obviously I behave at concerts, so I don't distract others, but. It's just. Good. So good.
(If you don't know it besides the duh-duh-duh-DUHHHH motif that starts the piece, go listen.)
...of course, fair warning, it does sometimes get bits stuck in your head...
[note to self -- this entry took exactly an hour to write]
Entry tags:
...well, hardly ever...
So I was listening to an audiobook of Agatha Christie stories
and one character mentioned the "why and wherefore" of something
which *immediately* got "Never Mind the Why and Wherefore" from HMS Pinafore going through my head [https://youtu.be/fz00Ru9RXA8?si=_iW2jYRH-8RW_w49]
which of course meant I had no choice but to listen to the whole of HMS Pinafore [https://youtu.be/N6iNGprcxFI?si=B-vFtrypguIKurHv for example]
and now various of those songs keep popping up ... for at least week now ... only the lyrics are starting to scramble, which tends to happen when something is stuck in my head long enough.
("I am the captain of the minotaur~~" wait no)
Anyway my plan for dealing with this is to watch the 1983 film version of Pirates of Penzance, which is an extremely solid plan with no possible down sides.
and one character mentioned the "why and wherefore" of something
which *immediately* got "Never Mind the Why and Wherefore" from HMS Pinafore going through my head [https://youtu.be/fz00Ru9RXA8?si=_iW2jYRH-8RW_w49]
which of course meant I had no choice but to listen to the whole of HMS Pinafore [https://youtu.be/N6iNGprcxFI?si=B-vFtrypguIKurHv for example]
and now various of those songs keep popping up ... for at least week now ... only the lyrics are starting to scramble, which tends to happen when something is stuck in my head long enough.
("I am the captain of the minotaur~~" wait no)
Anyway my plan for dealing with this is to watch the 1983 film version of Pirates of Penzance, which is an extremely solid plan with no possible down sides.
Entry tags:
Duo blathering
Duolingo's increasing reliance on AI at the expense of human employees bothers me a lot. It's also, not coincidentally, gotten sloppy. I've noticed things in the English that feel off -- "He didn't die because he had the operation on time" should have been "in time"; "It's possible that I start going out with Francisco" should be "I'll start" or "I might start"; "She isn't tolerant with other ideas" should either be "of" or the object should be "people" (this may be regional? but for me it's tolerant *of* things, tolerant *with* or of people); "The travelers would buy at the market" should either have a different verb like "shop" or should have a direct object (I know "buy" can be intransitive but it still feels weird in this sentence); etc. If there are things that strike me as odd about the language I'm a native speaker of, how the fuck can I trust them to be correct in the language I'm trying to learn?
I currently have a subscription, partly so I wouldn't get ads and partly because I supported their stated mission. I no longer want to support them. My renewal, set to annual, renews next month.
On the other hand I have a streak of 3839 days, several friends streaks over 300, and a ridiculous number of friends quests in a row (can't find the info but I think it's around 85-90?). Also while practicing Duo mostly makes me better at Duo, I am still learning vocab, even if some of it doesn't want to stick.
So I'm trying to decide:
Option 1: cancel subscription and delete app. Up side: cheaper and more ethical. Down side: realistically I'm not going to find an easy Spanish-practice alternative.
Option 2a: cancel subscription but keep "playing" until I reach a pretty streak number, then quit. Up side: cheaper, though ads mean they're still profiting, and I get to leave on a pretty number. Down side: ads, plus im still planning on breaking the streak.
Option 2b: cancel subscription and keep playing indefinitely. Up side: still get Spanish practice. Down: ads, blech.
Option 3: keep subscription for another year. Up: practice, no ads. Down: I'm paying money for dubious AI.
If I take one of the streak-breaking options -- either now or in 161 days (which is, uh, 5 months and change, so December? -- and then regret it, I'll have lost the chance to make the long streak longer. OTOH it literally can't go on forever anyway, and I don't like supporting AI. OTOOH one subscription isn't noticeable really, so they won't care.
...I hate making decisions...
(Side note: my phone's predictive texting really wants to decapitalize I. If I type "i wo" it of course autocaps i to I, but then doesn't suggest "would"/"wouldn't" for the next word, but instead suggests "i would" which changes the I back to lowercase. Is this inherent to autocorrect or am I doing something wrong?)
I currently have a subscription, partly so I wouldn't get ads and partly because I supported their stated mission. I no longer want to support them. My renewal, set to annual, renews next month.
On the other hand I have a streak of 3839 days, several friends streaks over 300, and a ridiculous number of friends quests in a row (can't find the info but I think it's around 85-90?). Also while practicing Duo mostly makes me better at Duo, I am still learning vocab, even if some of it doesn't want to stick.
So I'm trying to decide:
Option 1: cancel subscription and delete app. Up side: cheaper and more ethical. Down side: realistically I'm not going to find an easy Spanish-practice alternative.
Option 2a: cancel subscription but keep "playing" until I reach a pretty streak number, then quit. Up side: cheaper, though ads mean they're still profiting, and I get to leave on a pretty number. Down side: ads, plus im still planning on breaking the streak.
Option 2b: cancel subscription and keep playing indefinitely. Up side: still get Spanish practice. Down: ads, blech.
Option 3: keep subscription for another year. Up: practice, no ads. Down: I'm paying money for dubious AI.
If I take one of the streak-breaking options -- either now or in 161 days (which is, uh, 5 months and change, so December? -- and then regret it, I'll have lost the chance to make the long streak longer. OTOH it literally can't go on forever anyway, and I don't like supporting AI. OTOOH one subscription isn't noticeable really, so they won't care.
...I hate making decisions...
(Side note: my phone's predictive texting really wants to decapitalize I. If I type "i wo" it of course autocaps i to I, but then doesn't suggest "would"/"wouldn't" for the next word, but instead suggests "i would" which changes the I back to lowercase. Is this inherent to autocorrect or am I doing something wrong?)
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Kinda funny how mood can affect experiences as much as the other way around.
Impulse-went out to eat tonight... Black Bear Diner, a casual diner spot where I ( Read more... )
and I'm just really satisfied and happy, and I know good food improves my mood, but good moods make food better
I don't expect this mood to last all evening but dang it's nice
* * *
Unrelatedly, I love that the D&D DM for my group rewards roleplaying. Our group had freed a genie and were granted a wish; the guy with the highest charisma was volunteered to make our request. He didn't make any effort and was just basically "give us X", got a 19 on a persuasion check, and that failed and annoyed the genie. I used the inspiration I'd gotten (from a really good pun) to undo that attempt, then decided to take over since high-charisma dude didn't want to try again. My character has -1 to charisma, but I gave a passionate speech about the various adventures we'd been through and the various perils we were facing and how we could Defend The Innocents better if we could get some fun magic items to use... I got a 10 for the persuasion check and *passed*. (High-charisma dude is already at BEC status for me, so it was extremely amusing to win with a lower roll just because I ... erm, roleplayed, in a role play game, how novel...)
Impulse-went out to eat tonight... Black Bear Diner, a casual diner spot where I ( Read more... )
and I'm just really satisfied and happy, and I know good food improves my mood, but good moods make food better
I don't expect this mood to last all evening but dang it's nice
* * *
Unrelatedly, I love that the D&D DM for my group rewards roleplaying. Our group had freed a genie and were granted a wish; the guy with the highest charisma was volunteered to make our request. He didn't make any effort and was just basically "give us X", got a 19 on a persuasion check, and that failed and annoyed the genie. I used the inspiration I'd gotten (from a really good pun) to undo that attempt, then decided to take over since high-charisma dude didn't want to try again. My character has -1 to charisma, but I gave a passionate speech about the various adventures we'd been through and the various perils we were facing and how we could Defend The Innocents better if we could get some fun magic items to use... I got a 10 for the persuasion check and *passed*. (High-charisma dude is already at BEC status for me, so it was extremely amusing to win with a lower roll just because I ... erm, roleplayed, in a role play game, how novel...)