schneefink

My gf and I went on a guided tour about bird voices today. I had a good time :) Even though my body is clearly in ~vacation crash mode, as in "oh I can relax now? Excellent, you don't need that energy anyway, I can go back to being (half-)sick."
The guide said there are even more birds audible in the morning than in the evening, but it was more than enough for me, I already struggled enough with telling them apart and remembering their calls. There might be a handful I might be able to recognize now maybe, like the chiffchaff and the spotted woodpecker, and some others I'll suspect a lot, like the blackbird and the chaffinch and the great tit and the blackcap (I didn't even remember hearing about that last one but they clearly sing frequently and prettily.)
For fifteen minutes it was also much harder to hear the birds because of the church bells, I didn't even realize that was longer than usual until about halfway through and then someone said why.
We also saw several wild boars! Saw them quite well even, since I conveniently had binoculars with me (borrowed from my mom.) And we saw a caterpillar that seemed to float in the air above the path, meters away from any trees.

I'm glad I managed to watch Conclave before the actual one happened ^^ A very pretty movie. Good cinematography - if I knew more about movies I would probably have better words for it, but I liked how they used colors and space. The ritualistic environment was also very good. I already knew who would become pope in the end but none of the details. It took me a while to be able to tell all the faces/characters apart at first but I managed in time to follow the plot.
( Spoilers )

I'm very tired. Both weekends since my exam have been full of classes for the next exam; tomorrow is my first day off in a while, and I already made plans with my family and with friends so while nice it's not going to be a free day either. At least I can finally sleep in for a little bit. LB wants to go ice-skating tomorrow but I told him I don't think I'll have the batteries for that, even though it's a shame.
L is on a short notice two week work trip, silver lining that that's happening while I have little time anyway. I'm very glad for modern communication.

A few quick reviews:

New Hades II major update! I played several hours after the last major update in October, so I was surprised that this time I only played a couple of runs. I think it's because with the last boss they added I also loved what they meant for the story, while the new new boss is a cool fight (I won on my first try but only because of god mode and it was still very close) but a less interesting character. And the few new plot progression dialogues I got were a reminder that naturally I remember less after not playing for several months, and that's even more relevant in Hades II than it was in the first one because the plot is a lot less straight-forward and there's also quite a few character and relationship developments that I want to watch closely. I might change my mind (and there's at least one more major update planned before the full release), but right now I think I won't play that much more in EA for now; but then probably start a new save in version 1.0. I'll definitely have an advantage because I already played over a 100 hours (though also an adjustment to not have all the upgrades anymore) but they're still changing boons anyway so figuring out the best combos now would only be temporary anyway.
I don't regret having played in EA so far though, I've had a lot of fun and I got to discover things myself and already have many cool theories about how the story will go.

Flow (2024 film): L and I watched that in the cinema and enjoyed it a lot. Great atmosphere, beautiful visuals, kinda, hm, dream-like storytelling that I loved. (At times it almost seemed like the animation had a low frame rate, not that I know anything about animation, but it didn't really bother me.) Not much is explained, which fits very well. L and I had completely different initial theories on the ending and I like both of them.
I thought the animals were very well animated with their body language etc., but I'd be curious about the takes of cat people in particular.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett:
( Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries )

I'm currently caught in a spiral of not enough sleep -> no energy -> can't make myself go to bed on time -> not enough sleep... Which is bad but happens occasionally and usually a weekend helps. (My recent sickness and a root canal treatment this week surely didn't help.)
But! The timing is particularly unlucky, even apart from the fact that I have an exam in a month, because I have a second date tomorrow that I'm excited for, so this is my post for public accountability that I will now turn off the computer and go to bed.
...I may have written this and then put off posting it for half an hour. *sighs* But actually this time.

Thanks to my mom, who volunteered to come help me on Saturday, my new study room is already looking quite nice! Unfortunately the wifi in this room is much much worse - DD has said it wasn't great but I didn't realize how bad, it keeps cutting off. I got so frustrated that on Monday evening I decided to move the modem from one room to the other since it looks like there is also a suitable thingy near the electrical outlet, but it didn't work and then the wifi promptly also stopped working in the first room when I moved it back. ...my nerves did not like that, wow, I had not realized I was so close to freaking out.
Yesterday I came home late so I couldn't look at it, but today I tried turning it off and on again and it works again! What a relief. Now before I move it to the study room (which definitely needs to happen before my online exam next month) I'll do some more research.
I'm also procrastinating on studying by tidying (among other things), which, could be worse but still. Have I mentioned I have an exam in a month.


I'm enjoying cleaning out my post drafts though. Feels good. This time, some notes I made about Dream SMP videos/vods/streams I watched and didn't post for whatever reason, back in 2022-2023. Solely for my own recollection.

( Quackity 1 million followers celebration, ft. being hunted by Techno )

( Blueberry TV Dream SMP season 2 )

( Tommy Exile Arc )

( Revivebur visits Phil, Tommy visits Las Nevadas, Mumza visits the server, George visits his nightmares )

( The Masquerade )

( Annoying teeth things )

Unsurprisingly I have done very little today after that, mostly reading and fishing on MCCI. I got another screenshot with Etho today, that was pretty cool, after the first one two days ago (I was so surprised that time I completely forgot how to go into screenshot mode and remove the hotbar etc.) And I saw Scar yesterday, that was also cool. I've now made it to level 33 and the first tropical island, and I finally had some better luck with cosmetics today though I still don't have the ones I want most (the forest witch hat, or any of the rods or wings.) Currently I'm wearing a normal witch hat and carrying a beach bucket, with the new eyeblossom cape, and I think it looks cute.


About a month ago I was asking for podcast recs and scintilla10 recommended The Two Princes. I enjoyed it a lot! I really enjoyed the romance between the titular two princes, they are very sweet. I also enjoyed most of the supporting cast, like Joan and Cecily and the Chamberlain etc. Seasons one and two have big adventures with just the right amount of humor to keep it (mostly) light-hearted; season three had a bigger villain (and tbh a bit of a predictable deus-ex-machina ending, though I didn't really mind), but more importantly it's also a musical with some very fun songs.

Season one has the least songs and is occasionally a bit heavy-handed in its messaging, but my biggest pet peeve was queen Lavinia. ( vague spoilers )

The longer I don't post here the harder it is, so. Some whatever.

( some whatever )

Three days of eight-hour-classes this weekend and it was not as exhausting as I feared, yay. In preparation for an exam in October that I found out I will have to take in February because I missed the sign-up deadline, oops.
For scheduling reasons this was the first of my classes that I could take in person instead of as a webinar and I much prefer that.


I finally watched Dumb Money on Friday. (It was also my first time going to the "cinema on the roof" above the main library and that was very nice, next year I need to check what other movies they are playing there.) It's about the GameStop short squeeze in 2021 and I was very curious about it. It would be a vast exaggeration to say that I "was there," but I did check the subreddit regularly when things got heated back then.

I enjoyed it, and I'm glad I watched it. So much about Wall Street sucks and it is full of assholes, no surprise, but that makes it nice to watch when they get a bloody nose, at least.
I didn't find it entirely satisfying but I think a lot of that were too high hopes and me overthinking.

( Details )

Watching this reminded me of watching "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," the movie that played a big role in me staying interested in accounting many years ago. (That is one of those movies I'm not sure I want to rewatch because it might not be as good as I remember it being, but otoh it might be very motivating when I need to start studying IFRS.) I do like a good business ~documentary.

As before every vacation I'm already full of anxiety a few days before I leave, flip-flopping between "I have more than enough time for everything" and "there's so much!!!" I don't know why traveling makes me so nervous, especially since I'm going to a country not too far away where I speak the language. But it's just so big in my brain there's little space for much else. It's usually fine once I'm there, thankfully.

Oops, I just remembered I have to ask one of my neighbors to water my herbs while I'm gone. The chives died already but the rest is still - well not all of them are looking good but they're alive.

I went swimming again today, and the previous weekends as well, I'm pleased that I managed to keep that up. Especially because I haven't used my bike in weeks. In my defense, it's been really hot and humid often. I still have noodle arms though.

At New Year's I was hanging out with friends and we were talking about various stuff and I mentioned that it'd been months since I'd sung in a choir and that eventually I want to look for one again, and that one day in the future I want to sing the Carmina Burana. (My other one-day piece had been Mozart's Requiem and I sang that with my old choir, it was fantastic.) Then a week later F called and said guess what my old choir is singing this semester…

So I joined a choir again! Together with F and A, which was great. The choir did two projects this semester: the first one was Beethoven's mass in c-major, which funnily enough was the first major classical piece I ever sang, but alto back then and soprano this time. (I mostly remember that concert back then because I collapsed midway through. Fortunately someone had some grape sugar and water and I eventually got back on my feet, and my mom who was standing in the row in front of me didn't even notice.) This time we sang it together with another choir in the Mozart Hall of the Konzerthaus. I didn't quite get the "can't stop beaming" euphoria afterwards I've had after some concerts, but it was a lot of fun.

The Carmina was a project together with a school choir, and the soloists and the percussionists were students too. Both choirs and the percussionists could have used a few more practices I think tbh, but LB said it was fine and LB is usually very critical when it comes to classical music ^^ It was fun, and I'm glad I got the chance to sing it.

I decided not to continue with that choir next semester, or probably any other. Overall in the last few months it felt like the choir practices cost much more energy than they gave. Also the choir sings almost exclusively classical music and while I do enjoy that occasionally, overall I much prefer a more varied program. F and A will probably be leaving too for that latter reason, and I haven't really made enough other connections to be an argument for staying. F and A will be looking for a new choir, but I think I'll take a break for a bit, especially since I'm starting exams this fall. I'm glad I had some time in a choir again for a while, and maybe I'll just have to go to karaoke more often to sing instead.

Happy New Year!

Together with several friends I spent New Year's Eve at an AirBnB a few hours from Vienna, having raclette and playing board games and making tiny animal good luck charms for each other and others out of colorful modelling clay. I also brought one of those ~wire-looking head massagers, which was a big hit. It was raining lightly at midnight but we went to the lake for a toast and to watch the fireworks anyway, and then we continued playing games until 3am.

We'd booked an extra night, which was great because it meant we could have a very relaxed brunch the next day and then two people left but the rest of us had a nice stroll around the small town and more games and then raclette again because we had so many leftovers and then I wanted a reading break so D and F tried out a card game for two people and we also just sat around and chatted and cuddled, a very nice evening.

It was a wonderful way to start 2024. Today the travel home went well and now I will meet up with LB for a spontaneous dinner+movie night at his place so that is even more good things.


I wrote Yuletide fic:
Dreaming of a Rainbow (A Day of Fallen Night – Samantha Shannon)
1.2k, Kuposa pa Nikeya/Noziken pa Dumai, 5 things
Summary: Five times Nikeya dreamed of Dumai.
Canon knowledge required: Yes

Notes: I enjoyed getting more into Nikeya's head. My recipient asked for that and to see how Nikeya fell in love with Dumai and tbh I could have included more of the latter but by that point I was already attached to the five moments I'd chosen and I think it turned out fine.