I’m a big fan of night photography (which used to be much more complicated back in analog days), so I’m looking forward to these colorful and festive stamps. They’ll be available June 6, 2024.
Life: Earworms
Me [unpacking groceries]: Why I am I singing ‘Love is a Battlefield’ by Pat Benatar? I haven’t heard that song (from 1983?!) in years… Or have I?
[look suspiciously at groceries]
[remember that the local grocery store plays 1980s music as part of their customer profile]
[shakes fist in general direction of grocery store]
Life: It feels like summer (ask the fog)
Summer Indoors (27 May)
Weblog by A. Elizabeth Graves. iPhone photography and links to science-y and foodie topics.
The forecast this week suggests it will be over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7+ degrees Celsius) for a few days out where my family lives, yet it is still (technically) spring. That hot weather pulls a blanket of fog across me, and… I’m okay with that.
Plus: it is still allergy season. But all of us sniffling, coughing people have known that for a month.
Oh, and: wildfire season. An 11,000 acre fire is burning in an area east of the City, and evacuations are in effect for the nearest town. With high winds yesterday, it spread very quickly. I was growing fond of NOT reading about fires in my state…
Wherever you are while reading this, I hope you are safe, not crying/sneezing, have no need to evacuate, and are dressed appropriately for whatever the weather delivers to you.
Life: Holiday Weekend Daze
Carnaval 14
Weblog by A. Elizabeth Graves. iPhone photography and links to science-y and foodie topics.
Hello! I HAVE INTERNET AT HOME AGAIN! (I’d like to thank post-scheduling for hiding the fact that I didn’t for several of those days.) It is a good thing. It makes so many other things possible!
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It is a three day holiday weekend here in the U.S., and I’m being too productive. I’ve had multiple scheduled appointments, I’ve been to a post office, I’ve reset faulty breakers six times, I’ve ordered excessive numbers of notebooks (because I fill excessive numbers of notebooks), I’ve washed laundry, I’ve attended a fantastic parade (and am awash with images from it to manage), I missed a chance to purchase a limited edition fountain pen that I didn’t know I was interested in until it sold out (oh, well – I’ll forget it ever existed shortly), I’ve performed maintenance on a Roomba which appears to have become senile, I’ve treated my hair and scalp with multiple products, I’ve criticized myself for not being more creatively productive (even though I’m always working, commuting, or performing chores), I’ve enjoyed tapas and white sangria (which I hadn’t realized exists, but of course it does), I wrote a letter with a pretty fountain pen and equally pretty ink…
The problem with holidays feeling rare is that they become so precious I feel I must USE THEM TO THEIR FULL POTENTIAL, which likely isn’t the best choice. That makes them feel like a different type of work. Goal-oriented work. The wrong kind of activity needed to recover from all the other kinds of work.
There are some cultural elements of this. My mother is still wrestling with her upbringing, which included a rather fanatical insistence on not being able to sleep late into the morning, even if you worked nights (!!), and pressure to always be doing SOMETHING. ANYTHING. A sort of haywire protestant work ethic. I may have absorbed some of that, but also live in a culture where being “busy” is proof of importance / worth in itself.
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Speaking of work, here is some context for all of those manhwa I’ve been reading from South Korea whose stories are premised on people dying from working too much:
South Korea is known for its punishing work culture, with some of the longest hours in the developed world. Despite the introduction of the 52-hour weekly work limit in 2018, overwork and exhaustion are still not uncommon. In 2023, the government proposed to increase the maximum weekly working time to 69 hours, sparking a severe backlash and eventual backdown.
–from https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/27/seoul-international-space-out-competition-south-korea.
(Yikes!)
Wish me luck as I attempt to… relax in a goal-oriented way??
Writing: Fountain Pen (Sea Glass theme)
Earlier this spring, I had a work anniversary, and bought myself an Esterbrook Essie fountain pen in sea glass with a stub nib.
It’s lovely. It’s a good size, and is easy to hold. It writes well – not that you’d know from this casually / hastily written page of notes, but it is a smooth writer. I’ve only tested one ink in it so far, and found that it got a little dry after a long writing session, so I’m making minor adjustments to ensure that it will put down consistent amounts of ink, even when I change writing speeds.
And yes, as the text notes, I’ve started to dream up scenes from science fiction stories I want to write, so we’ll see if I can get enough rest to do that.
Reading Life / technology: Notifications
The quality of the notifications on my phone has increased dramatically since I started buying manga/manhwa/comics on my phone.
Book (Manhwa): The Remarried Empress by Alphatart, Sumpul
The Remarried Empress
by Alphatart, Sumpul
published by Webtoon (174 chapters, 3 seasons, ongoing)
2020 – present
While I am tired of reading about royalty, the fact that royalty are always at each others’ throats does make for light entertainment. [Sound] Oh, I meant in fiction. What? [Conversational sounds.] Yes, I suppose that’s also true in real life, but the characters are more compelling in fiction!
Navier grew up as the designated empress-to-be, and was childhood friends with emperor-to-be Sovieshu. They married, appeared to make a great couple, and Navier proved herself to be an effective empress, picking up Sovieshu’s slack. However, as the story opens, Sovieshu is demanding a divorce in favor of his childish mistress. Navier shocks everyone by not only accepting the divorce, but demanding remarriage to the emperor of a neighboring state, who makes an entrance and marries her on the spot!
How did we get here? That’s what the first two seasons set out to explain, while the third season proceeds once we’ve caught up.
This comic features: men who like their women childlike and dim; the stress of losing a not-great partner to a tantrum-throwing younger woman (I was going to joke that ‘we’ve all been there,’ but realized I have experienced this, and am unsure how to make it funny beyond assuring you that it is funny); blackmail; love potions that might work; pity; people who think power means being able to mutilate one’s own domestic staff; an empress who trained for one job her whole life, and isn’t sure how to pivot; divorce lawyers; love letters delivered by unusually clever birds — a reason not to EVER eat birds for dinner; secrets; regret; an attractive man with an improbably muscled torso standing in a fountain in a way that burns his likeness into Navier’s mind…
The art evolves over the course of the story in a way I like: the lines firm up in pleasing ways, so give it some time.
This is a story that teaches us to let go of partners who aren’t that nice to us, and let them reap what they sow; to accept flirty love letters from pretty birds, and flirt right back; to do right by people; not to harm the family members of journalists; to get to know friendly men who look amazing naked after you spy them in abandoned places; and to find a place that will appreciate your leadership.
Book (Manhwa): Twilight Poem by Kim Suji, MIDNIGHT STUDIO
Twilight Poem
by Kim Suji, MIDNIGHT STUDIO
published by Webtoon (69 chapters, complete)
2022-2024
This story has a controversial ending that set the comment pages afire.
What if… the angelic heroine of a story, who was abused terribly from infancy until the age of marriage, can’t stop crying? What if… the handsome, heroic male lead forced into marriage with the female lead is a self-absorbed jerk whose character growth heads in the right direction, but too slowly to benefit the female lead? What if… the villain is the only character who behaves consistently? What if all of this happened in a gorgeously drawn Chinese period costume drama?
THAT is this story!
Yes, female leads are usually perfect, and male leads usually grow up to be admirable human beings. That… just doesn’t happen here. The female lead is so busy weeping and trying to martyr herself that the male lead can’t even deal, terrible things happen as a result of his neglect, and then everyone makes bold choices accordingly.
I won’t post spoilers, but I think the ending was fine! Perfectly reasonable! MORE dramas should end this way!
(If this sort of thing amuses you, I encourage you to peruse the angry reader comments at the end. The best comment was a complaint from a botanist resolving a character disagreement on whether a valley had moss or flowers in it – HILARIOUS.)
The drawings are lovely, the glowing-lantern-filled scenery and palaces are well executed, the ribbon-style hair is shiny, the male lead looks like a face painted on a traditional kite when he is angry (which is most of the time)… I enjoyed that characters are flawed, I enjoyed not liking the characters, and I even enjoyed the fact that the ending is controversial to some readers.
Collecting/Mail Life: Ansel Adams Stamps are Available from USPS
Life: So Tired
I have been tired. So tired. How tired? I have been able to achieve REM sleep on public transit.
This is… worrisome.