Am I still studying? Yes. Am I putting a minimal amount of effort into my Japanese lessons, waiting for my brain to come back online and take this more seriously? Also yes.
Language Study: Slow, and also Slow
Life: Trying to Slow Down
Loving the Dome
Weblog by A. Elizabeth Graves. iPhone photography and links to science-y and foodie topics.
What I want to do: write long letters by hand with fancy inks, and perhaps show off some of those inks.
What my writing arm wants me to do: NONE OF THAT.
This post brought to you by: ice (the frozen water) and Biofreeze, which are glorious relief for swelling when combined! Thank you, physical therapist, for introducing this combination to me!
I had to stay home for an in-person delivery today AND the weather is flat and gray. These two conditions moderated my impulses to run around frantically, trying to achieve a year’s worth of projects in a brief holiday break. But I still feel like a firefighter who should be firefighting? There’s plenty of that waiting for me at work when I return next week, but… but… Downshifting is easier when I’m traveling, as there are only travel-related things I can do.
This is something a bubble bath can fix, I think…
Coffee: Hire Wire’s Conscientious Objector
I have an almost religious identity as a French Press coffee person: I love the flavor that emerges from coffee when it has time to steep in boiling water without having a paper filter come between me and the oils. Our local roasters are so good that I also have a dark-roast-as-choice-not-to-hide-poor-bean-quality set of beliefs and tastes: gently dark-roasted coffee can taste RICH without bitterness. I have had over-roasted beans, and dislike those flavors; but a skilled roaster doesn’t go so far. In addition to my press, I have a single-cup pour-over device from a local fancy place, and use it for small servings, but am dissatisfied with the off-brand filters I’ve been using with it. I periodically have medium or (rarely) light roasts that I enjoy, especially when Ethiopian coffee has that almost blueberry aftertaste, but that can go too far for me, and I revert back to dark roasts in my daily habits.
And yet two things happened last week: my friend New K gifted me a bag of Oakland-roasted medium roast beans from Hire Wire, and I won a knockoff Chemex-style, paperless pour-over brewing kit at the gift exchange at work.
Oh. My. Goodness.
Conscientious Objector is at about the 70% mark on High Wire’s “roast intensity” scale. The beans are medium-light brown, but oh do they make a gloriously inky, opaque pot of pour-over.
This coffee, which High Wire notes will change seasonally and from crop to crop, is smooth, fragrant, flavorful, and delicious. I prepared it in my beloved French Press and enjoyed it hot (to most accurately compare it to my usual beans); I chilled some of the French Press, and enjoyed it iced; and finally, I broke out the new pour-over device, and ran sub-boiling water through the grinds while they got all creamy during stirring.
So GOOD.
I am eager for a cup every morning (and am on vacation from work, so I have a chance to make it at a civilized pace!). I brewed some during my mother’s visit and made her a sweetened version with almond milk; she gave up coffee decades ago, and claims she doesn’t even like coffee now, but loved it so much I made a multi-serving jar for her to take home with her!
Friends with great taste in coffee are great friends.
Life: Time for Drawing Abstracts
In addition to enjoying the remaining vast amount of food I prepared for guests, plus a nap I went down so hard for that I should have left a crater, I made time to DRAW LINES ON PAPER. It is so satisfying, it’s hard for me not to float away from the keyboard.
My fingers are covered with ink, and I’m relaxed and happy. [Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.]
Life: Merry Christmas!
This German meme was just brought to my attention and I feel obligated to reshare it here Frohe Weihnachten
— Niléane (@mastodon.nileane.fr) December 24, 2024 at 9:15 AM
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Most of my friends in this time zone decided that 9am was the correct time to begin exchanging Christmas texts/emails, and I love them for it.
It wasn’t too early, it wasn’t too late, and I was already on the computer replying to one when the other messages arrived, so it was CONVENIENT.
Art: Iridescent Inflatable Fun
Studio DAAO (at Glow SF)(13 December 2024)
Weblog by A. Elizabeth Graves. iPhone photography and links to science-y and foodie topics.
The whole ‘tornado warning’ puts a damper on this, but this is the last weekend of Let’s Glow SF, and a new thing I especially enjoyed at this light projection festival is the inflatable sculpture by Studio DAAO, shown above.
If you happen to be around and the weather lets up, it is worth visiting!
Life: TORNADO WARNING!?!?!
My friends were texting. It is a rainy December Saturday after 5 AM, with lots of storm sounds, and they were commenting on the gusty winds. One of them shared a screen grab of a warning that a very intense weather front was coming in, filled with lightning and movement…
And then the phone SHRIEKED. Because a rain-wrapped pillar of swirling air was coming toward land in Daly City (the city just south of San Francisco).
Spoiler: the tornado danger passed, it was okay, I got live texts from the friend who had shared the warning as he sheltered in a basement, the local emergency alert service eventually also decided that, being late to the show, they should at least tell us it was over.
I had plans today, on the basis that a little rain isn’t a big deal, and I could still run errands. I am… rethinking all of those plans. I can surely… appreciate the INDOORS today.
Reading: In Progress
Books I’m reading now:
- The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin (audiobook): a futuristic tale of how cities become their own life forms, but must be defended against ancient eldritch creatures who prey upon young cities. Humans act as the City champions. There is a sequel, which I already have on paper.
- Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil: non-fiction about how algorithms are both poorly designed, intentionally opaque, and then misused to deny people good things, like jobs and healthcare.
I have some promising sci-fi recommendations, but some of those are also a series, and I’m considering waiting until that is complete before I start.
Also: I’m very eagerly waiting for the third book in William Gibson’s Jackpot Trilogy. The line between eager and impatient is written in smearing graphite for me: I’ll be so excited when it is released! (Also: more of The Summer Hikaru Died, which you are getting the blow-by-blow of here because I can’t contain myself.)
I’m also still reading entirely too many manhwa, including new seasons of those I endorsed earlier, plus many that I’ve started (described below) but may not finish. The two most likely to keep my attention are in bold.
- A Savage Proposal (Webtoon), in which the young princess of a defeated kingdom agrees to marry the infamous warlord who defeated her armies, sacrificing her happiness to prevent the wholesale slaughter of her subjects, only to discover that he is… young, really hot, and more respectful to her than the creepy men of her own kingdom.
- I Will Become the Villain’s Poison Taster (Tappytoon), an isekai story in which a modern girl winds up in the body of a villain, decides the villains might be her only safe allies if she wants to survive, and begins to suspect that the heroes are up to no-good. (Silly dialogue, naive heroine.)
- Frost will Always Fall (Tappytoon – age restricted), in which a directionless modern girl with a shamanic family has flashbacks to her past lives, where she is torn between two men, at least one of whom she has hot sex with in both the past and present. One of the men has killed her (past) and/or will kill her again (future), though she isn’t sure which.
- The Villainess Empress’ Attendant (Tappytoon), in which a knight runs away from her kingdom and royal boss, and winds up a servant to the empress of her adoptive homeland – and swears to use her powers to protect the lovely-but-gaslit empress against some unexpectedly close and evil foes with terrifying powers. (The crown prince is pretty. This always helps.) This is wholesome.
- The Young Emperor Is Obsessed With Me (Tappytoon), in which a mage who prevented the destruction of the world by sealing an interdimensional gate used by evil invaders is adored by a sociopathic boy, who grows up to be a sociopathic emperor; he burns down her house & enchanted forest to force her to live with him (oh-oh); she may be the key to defeating a returning threat to the world, if she can overcome the traumas of all she lost.
- To My Husband’s Mistress (Tappytoon), in which an innocent young woman falls for a love scammer who kills her father and then has his girlfriend kill her; she takes on a new identity for a multi-year plan to bring her killers and their accomplices to ruin while drinking too heavily, loathing herself, and being bankrolled by a frequently shirtless prince with his own revenge plans.
- You Can’t Kill Me: The Secret Bride of the Black Wolf (Webtoon), a woman abused by a powerful husband in the afterlife dies (?) there horribly, but relives her earth death and has a new chance at her underworld afterlife (?) by marrying a different, random underworld nobleman; her new husband is patient about her PTSD, but doesn’t know her true situation, nor that he is interacting with her past-afterlife-abuser.
The overarching theme is: women in unusually bad situations having a do-over in some form. Let’s not wonder why I am drawn to these stories, or if we must, emphasize that most of them will likely have a happy-ish ending.
Writing: Correspondence adds up
I’ve tried to have a restful and unproductive weekend, but got antsy, put away laundry (my least favorite chore), and through my restlessness made my home slightly less chaotic.
I mailed holiday cards out to my short list of active European correspondents, skimmed through my mail to find some unanswered letters, and wrote long, handwritten replies with fancy pens on obscure papers. Of the 43 cards and letters received from my pen friends so far this year, I’ve only got one left to respond to. I wrote ~67 letters this year (!!!!), and will likely write more during Xmas break. I’ve made 172 posts on this blog (this will be 173), and 185 photo posts (only some of which have wordy narratives) at my photo blog. I also filled several notebooks with personal nonsense that I needed to clear from my mind…
So perhaps I can go easy on myself for not completing the editing of my first NaNoWriMo novella, which I left somewhere in its third draft? Or at least easier on myself? Let’s pretend the answer is yes.
Writing: Fountain Pen (Teal and White Theme)
I decided to buy an Esterbrook Camden in Manitoba Blue, because I couldn’t resist that the nib matched the pen. (Yes, I am that easy to sway.). It turns out that the pen is a pleasure to write with, and is extremely smooth. I’m keeping a journal with it now, and the way it glides over Clairefontaine paper is just magical.
Did I need another pen? No. Am I glad I got it? Yes. Will I use it? Oh, goodness yes – with eight active European pen friends AND so many members of my family suffering from arthritis, I’m on a spree.