Hints on how A.E. Graves spends her imaginary spare time
Author: aegoncoffee
Human female. Multi-racial, mostly vegan foodie. Science-lover. Photographer, both alt-process wet darkroom AND digital. Fluent in legalese. Use a French press with enthusiasm. Bibliophile. Cephalopodaphile. Taught swimming, trained as an architect, teach users on legal software and legal/compliance topics.
The Summer Hikaru Died, Chapters 32 – 33 by Mokumokuren published in English by Yen Press 2024 – 2025 (ongoing)
These volumes are building tension VERY SUCCESSFULLY.
Not only is the fabric of reality pocked with holes through which misfortunes arrive in the human world and boys’ home region, but their friend Maki is connected through family traditions to the Other Side, and is likely to be dragged over into it (which is fatal) if Yoshiki and Hikaru don’t intervene.
Hikaru’s intervention plan is… risky. And low tech! And this is all I want to say until the story reaches some safe-to-discuss milestone.
Great storytelling and creepy vibes continue – Mokumokuren is doing a superb job in pacing these episodes.
I’ve noticed that several songs on somafm’s Fluid channel/station that I especially like are by Macroblank, and that Macroblank has SIXTY releases at Bandcamp (the site that gives musicians a bigger piece of the profits than most others), so I am signed up for an account, and purchased the entire Macroblank discography.
i take no credit. everything is plundered. マクロブランク
I’m wandering through the albums nearly at random, but have come back to the satisfying song Wrath of God on the Proxima Centauri release a few times (link below).
This is a pleasantly chill soundtrack for this rainy weekend.
I love electronic music, and many types of it, but fall behind in understanding the labels/names of the subgenres.
Future Soul I grasped. Liquid Trap I still suspect is a nickname to a nickname to a niche subgenre. But am I really into the microgenres Vaporwave, Mallsoft, and Barber Beats? Um… Maybe? Or is this all just invented so that other people can’t tell whether we’re cool or not?
Vaporwave – Wikipedia
A vaporwave-style image with Wikipedia as the main theme
My mood of the moment is Inner Lights from Macroblank’s collection Occult. This song sounds best with bass-heavy speakers .
Weblog by A. Elizabeth Graves. iPhone photography and links to science-y and foodie topics.
(Image above: Thursday evening image of the stormy sky above the bay before the arrival of current rainstorms; this image will be a future source of oil pastel color studies and related painful lessons!)
I remain amazed that my new pour-over-imitation-chemex device makes such a pleasant cup of Sulawesi-Kalosi (Peet’s). It doesn’t beat Yosemite Dos Sierras, but I enjoy it still.
It makes my house smell so nice. Especially after being out in the rain while running errands. Warmth and coffee. Ahhhh.
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My errands included making the person at the hardware store laugh as she was ringing me up. She burst out unexpectedly while ringing me up with, “HAHAHA! You’re tall!” (I brought something to the counter that hangs from a very high hook, and she was impressed that I was able to get it on my own.) Reaching stuff FTW!
Other accomplishments today include sleeping 11 hours (I am/was a wreck), depositing a check I was sure I would never receive (a cleaning deposit from a place I lived a full year ago), cancelling a video streaming subscription, and signing up for a new audio streaming service!
My next task: writing to my European friends and explaining the current state of affairs from my point of view. What? No, I can’t just send the poop emoji, but thanks for the suggestion.
Collage of images: top row: cocktail in a highball glass, latte with dove-like foam, pink foamy cocktail; middle row: ramen with veggies, vegan nachos; bottom row: herb dusted fries, harissa ketchup, roasted brussel sprouts, baba ganoush, pita, and a candle in a wicker cage.
Even as an introvert, I love to (a) socialize with friends while (b) eating delicious foods. So this was a dining out weekend! I had a spontaneous cocktail and dinner outing with a friend Friday, and a long-planned ramen and caffeine social outing Saturday.
Friday, I took my team out for Thai food (lychee iced tea goes with everything!) and espresso drinks. In the evening, I enjoyed great conversation over a fine cocktail, za’atar fries, roasted brussel sprouts, flavorful baba ganoush. After running late Saturday afternoon, I enjoyed catching up with two long-standing friends, hearing about recent travels, AND enjoyed spicy ramen with ‘artisanal’ gluten-free noodles, a brief walk, a delicious almond milk latte, and picked up vegan nachos on the way home before the weather turned colder. At home, my meals have included vegan potato and poblano scrambles (with JustEgg and chipotle habañero salsa), pour-over dark roast coffee (Peet’s Sulawesi-Kalosi), gluten-free high protein waffles with raspberry fruit spread, yuzu and plain green teas, a homemade Thai green curry, more of those vegan nachos… and I’m not convinced that I’m done eating yet!
The only challenge: it is “cold” to us locals, and something about cold weather inspires me to want to overeat and then hibernate for at least a month.
This past week of January 2025 here in the U.S. feels like an especially good time to stress-eat and then withdraw from the world. Events in the U.S. associated with the new administration are… what was the Lemony Snicket story called, something like A Series of Unfortunate Events? That. The news is THAT. Reading about current events this past week has been painful.
My country has withdrawn from most meaningful international projects. Taxpayer funding for health and science programs has abruptly ceased. Government officials have been illegally fired; government employees with job offers in hand are receiving notice that their offers are being rescinded. Historical fascist gestures that were immediately condemned in Europe were normalized by the domestic media. (‘Shoutout to Germany for using their expertise to call it as they saw it). There is a propaganda effort to suppress information about the achievements of women and people of all ancestries other than European. The new administration has made a combination of invasion threats and trade war moves against both of our nearest neighbors, plus (somehow) Denmark, Columbia, and Panama…
The words I would choose to characterize these developments are neither fit for printing nor the public internet, though they are passionate and fair. I’m unlikely to write about world / current events here. (This blog is slow-paced and not time-sensitive. I save my tirades for people who can exchange these sentiments in person.) But know that I’m aware of them, even if I am choosing not to address those topics here.
It’s time to change my very long work password. This always disrupts the network and our phones for a day or so, and then comes the awkward habit of typing the old password automatically, and wondering why it doesn’t work.
The funniest part of the process to me is that the instructions include a sentence that our new passwords ‘must not be from the list of prohibited passwords.’
But… we aren’t allowed to see the list of prohibited passwords.
Slow Horses published by Apple TV+ (4 seasons so far, ongoing) 2022 – 2024
Slough House is where MI5 agents who have screwed up in spectacular ways get sent to give up on their careers. Under the overtly hostile mismanagement of Jackson Lamb, an unwashed, loudly farting, anti-motivating late career agent, the doomed agents assigned there, nicknamed the Slow Horses, suffer verbal abuse and menial tasks in an old building with too many stairs and a door that needs to be forced open.
While the office houses many failed agents, River Cartwright, a young blond man whose grandfather was a famous head of MI5 in the past, feels especially embittered about his dramatic fall from grace. Like others, he keeps trying to play the hero to redeem his reputation and get back to MI5. Sometimes, his efforts get the ‘Slow Horses’ involved in issues that are deadly and above both their competence level and pay grade.
Lamb was so convincingly off putting in the first episode that I didn’t want to continue, but Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) as the MI5 heavy who is always ready to send government assassins out to prevent embarrassment, plus the entertaining screw-up agents kept me engaged until the pace abruptly picked up and became high stakes and intense – then I didn’t want to stop watching.
This series involves: creepy bad guys, creepy good guys, assassins, political intrigue, old vendettas, hard liquor, office flirting, AA meetings, car chases, fellow agents coming for you with guns, people trying to be the hero, River running (I mean the character), slimy politicians, and a constant flow of insults. There is cast turnover – the show isn’t afraid to kill off Slow Horses or MI5 agents routinely and unexpectedly, and shows the surviving colleagues coping with that. And Lamb, whose sole redeeming quality is loyalty to his agents, is so unwashed you can nearly smell him through the screen.
I’m not ‘into tv’ and I watched ALL FOUR SEASONS that are available so far! I recommend it if you like: well-paced spy thrillers.
Taming the Marquess by Ire, KRFFR, and gol_G published by Webtoon (3 seasons, 92 chapters plus epilogues – complete) 2022 – 2024
Laranora Ador, the only daughter of an unfashionable family of blacksmith-merchant-nobles, decides to disrupt an auction where a young child is being sold. After wreaking havoc, she takes the strange little boy she rescued home. Unbeknownst to her, this child is a magically disguised man there to disrupt the sale from the inside and go on a lawful murder spree… but he can’t resist milk, cookies, and coddling once he realizes that his rescuer isn’t some kind of creep. Rather than revealing himself as a notorious mage known for MASS MURDERING AN ENTIRE KINGDOM, Eskal plays along – for months. And, instead of doing any mass murdering, he appears to die while saving dear Laranora and her household from an attack by a rival kingdom while they are unconscious.
A year later, when things aren’t looking great for the Ador family, a still-traumatized Laranora decides she must marry well to save her family’s political fortunes, and somehow winds up dealing with the mysterious & terrifying murder mage – a grown man who looks JUST LIKE Eskal, and also happens to be named Eskal. What are the odds?
This comic features: women who like to hammer, sibling rivalries, blue fire, magic-eating butterflies, an ominous child, dwarves in mountains, greedy emperors who like to murder families, auctions, dragons, curses, deadly side effects from using too much magic, fashion fads in armor, knights who complain about having to work, secrets, zealous heteronormativity, men with long hair getting framed in a manner that leads to multi-generational-hatred, and swords that WON’T STOP TALKING.
Consistent with this type of comic, both Laranora and Eskal have histories of trauma, which are obstacles to their relationship(s). Despite it all, things work out for them in the traditionally conservative, heteronormative way typical of these manhwa stories. (That’s not a spoiler for these comics – even the “mature” stories that center sex result in marriage and kids!)
Recommended if you like: relentlessly optimistic heroines who are good with hammers, talking swords, and murderous blondes with teal eyes. (You can parse this sentence in more than one way and the meanings all apply.)
Weblog by A. Elizabeth Graves. iPhone photography and links to science-y and foodie topics.
Long weekends are a TREAT.
I managed to stay home ALL THREE DAYS of this particular weekend, though I had friends over, so it was still social. (I APPRECIATE my friends, and realized this week that I have friends who consistently INTERACT WITH ME INSTEAD OF THEIR PHONES. How great is that?)
I have many interests and too little time to pursue them, so holiday weekends can give me stress to DO IT ALL. I have so many projects waiting – film to scan, drawings to complete, letters to write, websites to update – but, having a restful day is also important. Accepting that… is a challenge. Yet, I was able to enjoy minimal chores, fun friends, my new oil pastels, a long Korean comic, and generally moved slowly to better recover from what ailed me more than a week ago and left me with lingering symptoms. So, I know REST is POSSIBLE.
