Books
Finished Thunderhead, started The Toll, Arc of a Scythe #2 and #3, respectively, by Neal Shusterman.
Still very much enjoying the worldbuilding of this series. We’re approaching the conclusion, whereever that leads us! It’s hard to say much about the second book because it’s a lot of setup for the next book when there’s a trilogy.
Movies
Watched The Boy and the Heron and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels this week.
I really don’t know what to say about The Boy and the Heron. Miyazaki obviously loves airplanes. I think he hates birds? Or wants to be a bird? I really have no idea. I think I’m going to have to rewatch it about eight more times to even start to understand what the fuck was going on there.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels holds up surprisingly well. There’s a few “ugh, the 80s” but a lot of the offense is directed at “ugh, Americans” rather than blatant -phobia or -isms. (It’s not a perfect movie, but of the comedies of the 80s there’s not a lot of “oh no” moments.) And it’s just a masterclass of Steve Martin and his many faces.
TV Shows
Watched season 1 & 2 of The Booth at the End (2010), rewatched season 1 of Severance to refresh for season 2 starting, abandoned BSG to start a rewatch of The Expanse.
The Booth at the End season 1 was a show that got the assignment. The writing was tight, the shifts over the course of the season were subtle but perfect. Honestly, for being a tight camera, dialogue heavy show, it was perfection.
Season 2… felt like we’d missed a season. It would have been great as season 3, where the vibe of season 3 (currently 2) was introduced at the end of season 2 (no season exists).
But the acting was sharp. Loads of actors where you go “Oh hey, it’s that guy/lady!” and a nice bit of having to pay attention to see where, if applicable, the stories intertwine. As Augs knows, I will talk to the TV/Movie and he can tell me to stop at any time (I don’t do this around other people because I know it’s an acquired taste)… The Booth at the End almost always had a character ask the question or address the unspoken question within seconds of my asking it. The writers put thought, care, and attention into the script and world development. I appreciate a show that has the audience in mind.
Season 1 gets a recommendation with my whole chest. Season 2… I don’t know. I’m not mad that I watched it, I don’t want those two hours back, but I don’t feel like it improved on the first.
Season 1 of Severance still holds up. Season 2, episode 1 did what Severance does best… I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS. But I will be patient and wait. Impatiently. Also, Milkshake.
Look, if you haven’t seen The Expanse and you love sci-fi, I don’t know what to tell you aside from I think you’re in for a treat. As for why I bailed on BSG? Season 2 is rough for BSG. Season 2 for The Expanse lets me hang out with Bobbie, warrior queen of Mars. It’s an easy choice. Yes, there are (massive) issues with one of the actors, but I am not letting the brilliance of Wes Chatham as Amos or the amazing Shoreh Agadashloo as the impeccable Avasarala be abandoned because one person is horrible.
Knitting
Finished knitting the Fireweed Sweater (blog entry to come) and I’m really happy with it. I still need to weave in ends, wash, and block it. (I also need to come up with a fold-down sweater drying rack – I think I have an idea.
Now that colorwork in the round no longer intimidates me, I think it’s time to learn how to steek (EEK!). The Art Nouveau cardigan is waiting in the wings for me to start, though I have Augs’ Secret Gift (part 1) to work on between projects, as well as a few other things that are still on the needles that need to get worked on. Which means that my upstairs project is now Secret Gift (part 1) and the downstairs project will be to be determined.
I’ve started on Leinwand and while I’m sure I could run it through a translator, I’ve decided to see how much my German language acquisition has come along to see if I can follow a (very simple) German knitting pattern. The only screw-ups so far have been from me not paying attention to what my fingers are doing.
Sewing
I ordered the wrong size set for the Salida Skirt and I could kick myself. Got in touch with the company and asked for help, got the right size set and had it printed. Looking forward to tracing that and getting a skirt sewn to go with the Drip-Dye sweater I knit last year and the Fireweed sweater. I think that will be in an anthracite grey corduroy and the Encore skirt will be done in a black corduroy. Heavy fabrics, sure, but they’re for winter wear.
Lego
Still slowly acquiring the parts to make the base plates MOC for the winter village set. I am looking forward to it being the slowest build in history as I start to assemble it as the appropriate pieces come in.
Home Automation
I ordered ten window/door sensors to put in the basement apartment/office because if the windows or doors are open in winter, that could be a world of hurt and expense. I figured I’d have to finagle it somewhat to get the sensors to line up, but I was having no luck.
I popped open the non-powered part and found that it was just a magnet in a plastic casing. Quick search for flat neodymium magnet resulted in this:
and that means I should be able to attach that to the edge of the frame and get a good connection without having to faff about with the high plastic housing. This also means that we can have the window sensors be a little less obtrusive, which I am down for. I’ll let you know how it works when it arrives.
Errands
As I might have mentioned in other places, I’m working on shifting my errand/grocery day because the previous one meant there wasn’t enough space in the fridge for when Augs did his Saturday shop for things he wanted. Unfortunately, due to the fact that we have a tiny Euro fridge (though bigger than the dorm ones, it’s just one of the tall skinny fridges), this now means that Mondays are out for shopping days. I think I’ll try Tuesdays. My routines are utterly ruined as a result of this. (No, I’m not upset with Augs and his judicious fridge use, though after I get the dishwasher in, we are making moves to replace the fridge. Because there are things where I will assimilate and places where I will not. And I hate the forever tiny fridges we’ve been stuck with.)
Other
Still working through possible blog layouts for how I want to approach the week in review look. I also know that comments and subscriptions are closed. I’ll work on how I want to approach that. Apparently with more than one subscriber, I’d have to set up a mail thingiemabob that would charge me to send out emails and this is for fun, so I don’t know if that’s how I want to utilise part of my budget. We’ll see. As for now, it is RSS available if you’d like to go that route.
Overall, I think it was a pretty good week. I have plans, figured out some stuff that’s been working for me, and I got back in more regular contact with a few friends. Goddamn I’m grateful that my friends are all neurodiverse because no one’s feelings were hurt for the three years of “I can’t really brain other people right now.”
Hope everyone has a great week 4 and I’m looking forward to getting a lot of personal projects underway this week!