unclutter | Member Posts

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vae

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wychwood

I have been enjoying the slightly calmer pace of life; being back in a work routine has really helped, so that even being out every evening last week was not actually that stressful! However it looks like I'm going to be spending next week, or possibly the week after, at my mother's while dad goes to shut up the house in France for the winter, so I shall be all out of sync again... The plus side is that the main thing I miss when I'm there is my computer gaming, and right now I am doing basically zero of that (well, a couple of hours of The Sims 4 at the weekend, but that barely counts).

The second attempt at my annual diabetic retinopathy check was rather more successful, and I came out with a clean bill of health (yay!). Tomorrow I have my flu and COVID jabs, although the NHS has reduced the criteria so extremely this year (even dad doesn't get one, and mum only does because she's literally just finished chemo!) that I'm going to have to pay for it. There's definitely more fun things I could do with that £75, but I'll take it.

Work has also calmed down slightly, to the point where I can actually find some time to spend on the urgent things my boss wants me to work on, instead of purely on emergent... stuff. I am solidly three months behind on reporting, but the big testing project I was supposed to be doing this month has shrunk because most of the work is not in fact ready for testing yet. The next round, early next year, will therefore be much worse, but that's next year's problem (and hopefully I should have more support from the rest of the team then, because it's not the start of the academic year! or so I can dream).

And now I need to run around and get things ready for the cleaner tomorrow, instead of accidentally doing nothing for another hour.

umadoshi

Reading: As of midweek, I'd read nine novels (well, eight and a novella) this month, which is very pleasing given that I usually consider that a good number for a full month, never mind just about halfway through one. (Of course, for the last few days my brain's done an about-face and decided that I'm going to be just reading a cookbook now, thanks.)

Since my last accounting, I've finished KJ Charles' All of Us Murderers (gothic murdery queer romance), Freya Marske's Cinder House (which I wish I'd realized going in--or perhaps more importantly, when I bought it at full price--is a novella, although that didn't keep me from enjoying it quite a bit), Stephen Graham Jones' The Only Good Indians (very solid, but I feel I've met my quota for books with mutilation for a while), Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle (not so much my thing, maybe [whatever that is], but I sure see why it's a classic!), and E.K. Johnston's Pretty Furious (a satisfying "~good girls~ lash back at the fucking patriarchy and its associated bullshit" read).

Now I'm reading through the aforementioned cookbook, Bee Wilson's The Secret of Cooking: Recipes for an Easier Life in the Kitchen, which swiftly made its way onto the inherently-aggravating-but-complimentary list of cookbooks bought in ebook that I now want in hard copy.

Also,

scruloose and I are...maybe a third?...of the way into Fugitive Telemetry (having decided to listen to Murderbot in chronological order rather than publication order).

Growing: In a shocking development, our Tiny Tim tomato plant (which we bought immediately before the drought turned unmistakable official, and therefore have since watered once or at most twice since putting it in) has produced a couple handfuls of ripe fruit!

scruloose reports that they're tasty! We're over halfway through October!

Current Mood: impressed

tyger

In a true strike of fate, I got my health care card this morning! When I had to go to the doctor to get my new meds script! \o/ This means the doctor's visit is free! (Otherwise you pay up front and get a certain amount back, which is a) annoying, and b) still requires you to pay extra money, bleh.)

It ALSO means my meds are cheaper, not that they were breaking the bank as it was since they're generic and also our medical system is halfway decent. But still, is nice!

Anyway, did that, and then got a BUNCH of snacks at the supermarket - I've been utterly out for over a week, it's been sadtimes for me - and then came home and just passed the fuck out. Sigh. Not that we'd've been able to work on the chook run thing anyway, given the weather - it wasn't raining excessively, but enough that everything would be wet and slippery and someone (likely me) would end up injuring themselves.

I did another couple of lines on my quilting project, too. Only two, but they're getting so goddamn long that that took like four hours orz orz orz. Still not max length! Soon though. Soon. And then they'll get smaller again!

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: Birthplace

zenigotchas

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Current Mood: overwhelmed
Current Music: ...What do you think?

stonepicnicking_okapi

This one is not related to Halloween or autumn. It was recommended by Minisculus.

Watch on YouTube

paperghost

I've been thinking about the band Whitehouse again. I want to write a page about it, but I can't put how I feel into words... Until then, I found a good review on Tumblr that explains what they're about:

Whitehouse The Sound Of Being Alive (2016)

My fascination with Whitehouse started when Controlled Bleeding’s Paul Lemos name-dropped them during the reviews section of Long Island’s underground music zine Under The Volcano. Since Cruise (2001), I paid very heavy attention to what William Bennett and Philip Best had done because I always wondered how they got away with their subject matter. Almost no artist even dared to put serial killers, sexual deviancy, psychological torture, and obscene vocabulary on permanent medium. Even just as curious was Whitehouse’s sound. Yes, we all know that after William Bennett’s tenure with Essential Logic did he want to explore sounds that could incite people as well as “bludgeon” them. So he took it from there and never looked back. The total sum of all parts intriguing, racy, and controversial became very interesting. It was why the Cruise-era and beyond became the era I mostly identify and am most familiar with.

The Sound Of Being Alive is a twelve-track reminder of Whitehouse’s final period starting with Mummy & Daddy (1998) to their final record Racket (2007); re-collecting an era of provocation, African instrumentation, and real celebrity subject. By then, Whitehouse ultimately became more sophisticated and thought-provoking, sharper and essential than ever due to their near untouchable subject matter and place in the creative world. This compilation absolutely wastes no time in not giving one fuck about your personal safety or well-being. It doesn’t care about consoling you or identifying what you’re currently going through. They are not here to deal in the obvious self-help or friendly pick-me-up. They are only here to glorify violated feelings, account for damaged lives, and cutting criticism. They will even offer more questions to bring it all out, even if it’s yours. Of course, they can’t do it without creating the sonic power-violence helping to push their always-controversial themes that illicit the type of artistic criticism it deserves.

They couldn’t possibly touch upon the subject of violation without the damaging sounds of “Cruise (Force The Truth)” and “Princess Disease” through synthesizers racing like sirens or pulverizing militarized noise rhythms of “Why You Never Became A Dancer”. The lyrics on “Cut Hands Has The Solution” is in no way self-help; piling on issues of anorexia and cutting which are validated by the success of those suspected of self-imposing their drama on others. The extremely sexually intrusive and awkward “Dumping The Fucking Rubbish” deals a multitude of questions leaving zero answers because you’ll never get them. They never cared for answers as you seen on the cover for “Cruise”. And hold on to precious life when the pink noise from “Philosophy” hits.

Or, how they ruthlessly tear you down to nothing with the caustic “A Cunt Like You” where Bennett’s key shrills and Best’s hateful venomous beratement are both acidic. If you’re still not damaged or perplexed after somehow even attempting to process their artistic output, maybe “Daddo” could become the final blow where vibrating frequencies dance around a delicate glass rim before disintegrations erase any evidence of sanity or stability through flashes of risqué Lolita imagery.

But beneath the rally of all the heavy discord and valid shock, there’s a true substance under it all. The stories of Stuart Lubbock found dead inside British celebrity Michael Barrymore’s swimming pool and the brutal truthful eulogy that came with it on “Wriggle Like A Fucking Eel”. A scathing attack on artist Tracey Emin as “Why You Never Became A Dancer”. The mystical African instrumentation and cultural references from “Dyad” and “Cut Hands Has The Solution”. The origins of “Philosophy” or “Just Like A Cunt”. These aforementioned tracks rewarded Whitehouse fans when they discovered their true obscure meaning. The former two would cross into tabloid and celebrity territory in order to really deliver the dirt. Ascetisists 2006 and Racket (2007) would help signal Bennett’s change of artistic direction to become Cut Hands. The final two stem from Bennett’s second-hand experiences of downright hateful arguments between two warring sides.

The idea that Whitehouse ran its course making a mark of the taboo, the racy, and the unspeakable speaks volumes. Very few (noise) artists really did go for the kill the way they did. Bennett’s start-of-project created lots of controversy because of his thrust of the unknown, causing lots of distress and violence because no one understood it. With Best helping to change Whitehouse’s direction and writer Peter Sotos throwing a little of his money in, Whitehouse pushed the limits on noise and subject matter as far as it could within reason to such distinction. Hearing all that’s said and done, The Sound Of Being Alive as a whole signifies the hideous, the missed expectations, and the damaging reality of it all that make you wonder if this is what existing and breathing really is.

I might try to write my page about how I feel. I can't reccomend Whitehouse. I don't like this kind of music. But it was "there for me" at a bad time when nothing else was.

zenigotchas

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jenett

It's been two years since I signed up for Yuletide, but I'm looking forward to it this year!

Thank you so much for writing for me, and I hope you also have a fantastic Yuletide exchange, whatever that looks like for you. I've included both what I particularly like about each canon and a couple of prompt ideas, but I'm up for anything that doesn't hit my DNWs and includes the characters.

( General notes, things I love, my do not wants )
( All Of Us Murderers - K.J. Charles )
( Greta Helsing Series - Vivian Shaw )
( England Series - K. J. Charles )
( The Odyssey - Homer )

kaberett

Reading. No finishes, lots of fragments.

Started: The Old Guard: Opening Fire, Rucka et al. Their faces are WRONG and I don't LIKE it. (Shared Reading Experience.) I also don't like The Smoking, and I really feel the absence of the baklava scene.

In progress: Forgotten Fruits, Stocks, which despite saying I was going to DNF I have continued working my way through, with occasional grumpy squawks; Index, a history of the, Duncan, in very small nibbles; and I'm now a third of the way through Ouch!, Kerr + McRobbie, which is much more sociology than I was expecting when I bought it, having failed at that point to register that one of the authors is a sociologist. A bunch of the neuroanatomy is irritatingly (and unnecessarily! they could have just been less specific!) wrong; we've had a lengthy case study focussing on endometriosis but as yet no indication that they're actually considering the role of ongoing tissue damage. Not ruling out that they'll get there, though.

Dreamwidth catch-up: UP TO SEPTEMBER.

Listening. Cornish waves recording.

Cooking. Ridiculous Textures Of Beetroot from The Modern Vegetarian (good, did like); mildly underwhelmed by Bengali five-spice roasted squash, a totally acceptable meal it was very pleasant to be able to stick in the oven and forget about while I did something else; and stir-fried pumpkin with cashews from Rosa's Thai Café: the Vegetarian Cookbook.

Buttermilk continues to work. Managed some bread. Baked some crabapples and then singularly failed to actually make the ginger-and-lime caramel to coat them in, so this lot probably needs composting and I'll try again next week. Maybe. (Raymond Blanc recipe, from The Lost Orchard, which I much preferred at least so far to Forgotten Fruits.)

Eating. Particularly excited this week by Limonera pears, which are apparently DPO Spanish-cultivated Docteur Jules Guyot! All of the descriptions say "very reminiscent of Williams, flavour not as good unless you get them just right", to which I add that they are sliiiiightly firmer fleshed in a way that I think is an active plus.

I am very much enjoying yoghurt + hazelnuts + a drizzle of quince syrup.

Creating. ... took some photos of some plants?

Growing. MORE SAFFRON. Still very excited by the saffron. Also the chillis. (Home saffron also now definitively coming up, in the trough if not around the fig, but no sign of it intending to flower, alas.)

Cannot tell if the windowsill lemongrass is in fact just dried out or if it's in the Growing Many Roots stage. Grumpily aware that going digging is counterproductive. Pineapple continues pineapple.

Observing. A MUNTJAC. There was, at the plot, A Great Rustling out of the plum tree on the neighbouring plot, and I looked up and thought, for an entire moment, "gosh that's a remarkably large fox with a remarkably short tail", before my brain caught up with the data it was actually being sent. Less than twenty metres away. Think that's the closest one of them's ever been to me (at least that I've noticed)!

peaceful_sands

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zenigotchas

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tyger

We tried to work on the chook coop thing again! It... did progress? But not far. Fuck this fucking kit, I swear. (Also Mama is SO SURPRISED at how small it is, and is like, I don't think it's matching the measurements on the website. Me: No it totally is, it's just that you thought that meant something bigger than it actually is.)

Anyway, might try and get some more done tomorrow, though it'll depend on how late my doctor's appointment is and when I get back from getting meds etc. etc.

I did also work on the quilt tonight! Got three more lines done, which is half the number of lines as yesterday, but more than half the work. They're still! Getting! Longer!!! Getting through thread, too, which is part of the goal! Looks like we'll be running out of variegated stuff sooner than I thought we would, I thought it'd last one whole direction, but looks like not so much. Oh well! Still got a fuckton of thread to use, I'm not worried about that so it's fine. :3 (Hopefully after this we'll at least be down to two boxes of thread, though I'm not gonna be mad if it's only one... :D)

Also! Managed to brush both cats this afternoon, which is extremely handy given it's shedding season again. They're still gonna be shedding every-fucking-where, but at least some of it is contained! :3

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Birthplace

nanila

How long ago did you join LJ (or DW)?

I joined LJ in 2001 and DW in 2009. I stopped paying for an LJ account some time ago, but I don’t want to abandon the community I still have there. So I still cross-post to both, manually since automatic cross-posting hasn’t been possible for some years.
How did you find out about LJ (or DW)?

I believe I was introduced to LJ by victorine. I can’t remember who introduced me to DW: apologies if this was you!
If someone introduced you to LJ (or DW), is s/he still on your friends list?

If they’re still active, either as a poster or a commenter, then yes. I don’t remove people until they’ve been inactive for years and are clearly not coming back.
Have you introduced anyone to LJ (or DW)?

A few people, but I can’t remember their identities. It was mostly a long time ago, when there was more chance of recruiting people to blogging / journaling sites. Most people just use social media apps these days, so it feels pretty pointless trying to compete with that. I’m also really fond of my stable, long-running communities on these sites, and as long as there are a few empathetic folks left to commune with, I’m happy.
Is your LJ (or DW) public or friends only, and why?

They used to be mostly public, but these days almost everything personal or with photos of me and/or my children is locked. Back in the early days of journaling, it was easy to feel optimistic about the internet being used for peace and love and bringing together global communities. With social media being used so frequently to amplify hate and fear, terrorise minority groups, and shield trolls and creeps from consequences, I don’t feel quite so confident about sharing my life openly.

kalloway

Bit of everything...

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter 1 (Kazuki Irodori/Yatsuki Wakatsu/Kikka Ohashi) - manga, read before and why I ended up getting the novels. I still have the last novel to finish (or, probably, a re-read of the whole series; it's only three books) and then maybe I'll get back to picking up the manga? BL isekai-gone-wrong series, does start off rather dubious.

Land of the Blindfolded 1-9 (Sakura Tsukuba) - from the box of manga I dragged home to read last November and then, uh, just put in the stacks. This is some vintage shoujo where the leads have supernatural powers. (In this case, being able to see the future/past at times.) A nice romance, and all the side bits with the puppy and turtle are cute. I'm debating keeping this one; I suppose I have a month to decide.

Disgaea 1-3 DVDs - the Disgaea anime is okay. It's certainly an adaptation, and it's enjoyable on its own but it also has moments perpendicular to the game but... (It kinda makes me want to replay the game, really?) I think this was out, originally, because my mother had wanted to watch it back before she decided she did not actually like the Prinny plush she'd adored for more than a decade. Anyway, she also did not like the anime and I suspect that was the beginning of the end for the plush, which I rescued.)

The Perilous Void (Jason Lutes/Keny Widjaja) - this is a TTRPG book to use for generating basically everything you need for Space Adventures. It's a joy to even skim through. I don't really have a dedicated tabletop shelf right now (or shelves, at this point) and need to rectify that somehow.

Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy - I think this was out because the boycritter isn't actually familiar with much Gundam/Universal Century.

Try Knights - I bounced off this the first time but enjoyed it on try no. 2 (lol). This is a sports anime about rugby, which I have no knowledge of and the series expects that of its audience and does its best to teach along the way. (I cannot say I understand much more, but-) Lots of pretty boys, lots of ship bait.

A pile of keepers this time (and debating for a bit on Land of the Blindfolded), surprisingly.

fred_mouse

My personal seasonal shift has happened. It was raining earlier, and is overcast, and I'm feeling whingey about being cold. Apparently it is 20°C, a temperature I have considered to be perfectly acceptable through the cooler seasons.

This means that I'd better remember a jumper or other warm clothing tomorrow. Last week I was being lazy and was perfectly fine in 3/4 sleeve work t-shirts; I have a blanket in the office that solves most of the slight being cool that come from being in the bottom floor where the ground is one floor up to the north.

fred_mouse

In slightly surreal events, artisanat got an email from livejournal to tell them that their account is 19 years old. I haven't had a livejournal account since I committed fully to dreamwidth and decided I didn't care for crossposting, but I guess it would be heading up to 20 years old.

Which, huh.

watersword

Protest in a New England town (pop. 15K) today was excellent, well over a hundred people at any given moment, very cheerful, with attendees from toddler to octogenarian (several people using mobility aids), and much support from the cars driving by. One person was in an inflatable pig costume, and another in a dinosaur costume.

Unfortunately, we could not park near the corner with the dinosaur, because our sign read NO KINGS (EXCEPT FOR T.REX) because the small human I was attending with wanted to make sure his support for T.Rex was clear, and frankly I think we had the best sign there. Someone brought a kazoo, which added an excellent element of whimsy to the proceedings.

Good job, everyone, let's do this again until we stop needing to.