November: the flowers on our windowsill are blooming again

[schneefink]

I kind of want to post more, but somehow every time I actually sit down in front of my laptop it feels like I have nothing to say. Ah well, I don't need to.

Work is still interesting, which is good, though classes are getting more stressful, which is annoying. (My seborrhoeic dermatitis is acting up again; now that I'm pretty sure that it's to a significant degree stress-related it acts like an early warning sign. At least I'm not so tense (yet) that my wrists are hurting again.) For most of October I managed to stick to seven hours of sleep each night, but I was less successful recently and it's often been only six, once or twice even less than that. I really should try to improve that again. I have managed to go running once a week! I hope I'll be able to keep it up.

I cooked today, and I'm disproportionately excited about the result. With the exception of easy dishes/dishes I've cooked a lot, I usually use recipes (and when I cook for myself I generally don't go to a lot of effort.) In the past few months DD and I often cooked together, which usually means that I cut and prepare things and wash the dishes while she's the actual chef, since she's great at it and uses a lot more different spices and rarely even needs recipes. (I used to think cooking classes in high school were not necessary but it's clearly a big bonus.) But today I threw together a bunch of vegetables and a bunch of spices I rarely use (cumin, turmeric etc.) in a tajine and let it simmer for about an hour, and it turned out very well. I got the tajine as a gift a while ago and then didn't use it, but I should use it more often, it's very convenient and good.

I'm not doing NaNo, but I do want to write >200 words every day this month, and so far I'm on track. Nothing finished yet because I'd need to reread some things and I'm busy with canon review for Yuletide. (I'm slightly nervous but excited about the prompt I got.)

I've also started listening to "The Magnus Archives". (I think I can mostly blame madmaudlingoes and rydra_wong for finally giving it a try.) Well, first I got DD listen to it, and she finished it in four days and then told me to listen too, so I am. I'm not a huge horror fan, but four episodes in it's fine, though I think my decision to only listen to it when it's not dark outside is smart (let's see how long I manage to stick to that if it's as good as people keep saying.)
DD had no spoilers and enjoyed it a lot. I have a lot of spoilers about the overarching plot (though very few about the individual episodes) and that comes with its own fun. In episode two there's the line "You can get used to anything if you have to, no matter how bizarre", and "It's funny how fear can just become as routine as hunger - at a certain point I just accepted it", and I thought about the upcoming apocalypse and yep, that's probably going to happen, isn't it?
I'll only have time for a few episodes a day, especially since the days are getting shorter and it's dark when I get home from work, but I should catch up in plenty of time to enjoy the post-season 4 speculation/theories/stories and not have to wait too long until season 5.

Comments

[alasse_irena]

Aaaah Magnus Archives yes goooooo!

There are transcripts around for a lot of it, so if you want to get through creepy content or just speed up your catching up, that's an option.

Honestly I feel like if I hadn't had a bunch of oversarching plot spoilers I wouldn't've listened at all, because like you, horror is not really my jam, but there's enough going on in that metaplot that appealed to me that I decided to give it a go anyway.

Re accepting the upcoming apocalypse, I have definitely read interviews with the creator where he talks about how he wanted to mimic that feeling of resigned helplessness that we feel in late-stage capitalism, so it's not surprising I guess that we look at our real lives like "I guess the end of the world does feel a bit like that..."

[schneefink]

Of course it's always easier to say so when you know what's coming, but I was surprised that I saw hints to larger storylines very early on - talk about elements that will most likely come up again, like Leitners, Jane Prentiss etc. (Not sure about vampires yet...)

Oh man, that makes total sense with that sense of helplessness and I look forward to the new season a lot.

The transcripts are helpful for when I miss stuff because of e.g. background noise, but I'll try to listen because I think I'd miss a lot otherwise.

[alasse_irena]

I found that reading was generally fine, but the more different characters are actually present in an episode, the more incoherent it gets to read.

Which ended up being like, I read most of it, but listened to the last few episodes of every season, bc that's when shit goes down.

But obviously do what works for you with that.

Oh I'm so keen to see you meet more and more of the overarching plot! If you're up for it pls keep me informed.

[schneefink]

I'll try to :)

[vintagewitch]

"At least I'm not so tense (yet) that my wrists are hurting again."

I have this issue too and it suuuuuucks. Definitely a reason I need more frequent massages and baths and sauna excursions than the average person.

[schneefink]

Ooh, I should go to a sauna gain :)
I just recently treated myself to a massage again and it was very nice, I should do that more often.