13 January 2021
Jan. 13th, 2021 03:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thaddeusly"When We Were Young" by Adele
"Soldier Poet King" by The Oh Hellos
No real progress on the Python book.
I'm up to page 105 in The Ethical Slut. I think I'm enjoying how it talks about jealousy/insecurity more than I remember liking how More Than Two handled it. I also really enjoy how there's really explicit conversations on what ethical non-monogamy looks like in relation to consent and the types of skills that one might need to develop in order to make things work when there are more moving pieces.
I picked up my copies of Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker and Across The Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire from the local bookstore today! I'm already 90 pages into Mooncakes, but I tend to read graphic novels pretty fast. I'm really enjoying it! One of the main characters is nb and they're in the early stages of something adorable with the other main character. I love Nova's blue hearing aids! They're so bright! The art is cute and I'm particularly enjoying that there's a cat. They're having a mix of the Autumn Harvest Festival and Sukkot in the sukkah and I'm thrilled! I'll probably start AtGGF tomorrow. I found out last waking cycle that Regan's intersex and I'm super curious about how that plays into the story! Nancy being ace wasn't a big deal, Kade being a trans man was part of why he couldn't stay where he was, and Jack has such an important relationship with her girlfriend/fiancee. I really like how Seanan writes different identities into her stories, but those play out like life does. Sometimes it has a huge effect on things, sometimes not so much. It's kind of soothing to get to read a story and to know that there will be marginalized identities in it, but that won't necessarily be everything the story is about. The queers get to have adventures!
I started Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis (2001) this week. I'm on page 16, starting Chapter 3: The Reality of Law. I'm reading it on the recommendation of a friend's mum. I asked her about books that could help me understand how she relates to her faith as part of my trying to understand what makes Christianity beautiful to some folks, and she said that C. S. Lewis is classic to her understanding and recommended this and The Screwtape Letters, which should be coming in the mail sometime this week. She said that I could email her about my thoughts, so that'll be nice. I definitely understand books better and think about them more when I'm discussing them with others. So far there's something that doesn't sit quite right with me about Lewis's idea that there's herd-instinct, a selfish instinct, and then the third voice of morality relating to the Law of Nature (which he seems to relate to as an instinctual understanding of right/wrong, fairness/unfairness). I haven't quite figured out what my probably with this idea of the three voices is, besides the part where my own "Law of Nature" voice just doesn't seem to work the way he thinks it does? It's a conscious choice to act in a pro-social way, to aim to do the things I know the people I trust would want me to choose, even when I'm tired and grumpy. I think this relates back to the conversations I've had with friends about not really identifying with the way they've decided I'm of the Lawful alignment because of a consistent moral code... which I have mostly developed intentionally because I know that my instincts really can't be trusted for anyone I haven't mentally claimed as "mine." There's probably something there I need to think about harder in relation to not understanding what other people are experiencing in relation to morality.
I mended the ripped thigh seem of a pair of leggings! Only to realize that there are places where the elastic is giving out. I'm in a weird place about them. I really don't enjoy wearing things that are that clearly made of synthetic fabrics, but the underlayer is helpful for staying warm at work, especially when outside is this cold. At least they'll be wearable for a little while longer while I try to find a solution.
The cotton shawl is probably going to be finished knitting up in the next couple of days. I'm nearing the end of this skein and only have one more, so I might get it washed and blocked for my friend before next the next weekly update.
Gramps cardigan is finished! It's huge on me and the last two buttons probably go down too far to be useful for me. If I knit myself another one, I'll probably go down a size and move the bottom-most buttonhole up one and consider putting the highest button in the short row shaping area to close up the fairly wide v. It turns out that elbow patches are An Experience to place on your own! But I did it and liked it okay! The sleeves are kind of sweater-paw long on me, so I had to decide on where I wanted the patches to be covering. I decided that I liked where they'd be if I bent my arms to lean on things with the cuffs over my fingers. I washed it early and now it's beginning the long process of drying while laid flat on my kitchen floor. At least there's no lace in it, so I didn't have to put pins everywhere and won't risk stepping on them like I did with the white shawl.
I've spent a fair bit of time this week poking at Christianity. I'm still in love with Judaism, so I don't think it's any conversion urge, but I think I'm at a place where I'm ready to try to understand it? It's such a strong part of our overall cultural narrative here in the US, but I've never actually tried to learn it. I had a conversation about book recommendations recently in the comments of a post from over a decade ago because people were interesting and I wanted to let them know they were interesting to people in the future too, and then I found out a song that I was listening to for fandom reasons (up there at the top, "Soldier Poet King") was about Jesus and I just... didn't catch that. I couldn't figure out what was being said in the third verse and looked up the lyrics, and Genius told me the entire album was based on The Screwtape Letters. I was curious and I was thinking about what else I'd bumped into lately and realized that I hadn't really had the mental flinch response to any of it lately, so it was time to try to understand. It's... weird? I can definitely see where pieces of the readings I've done so far interact with how my parents raised me, but not very much and I just... feel like I'm trying to introduce myself to an entire language that's influenced so much of how people communicate around me.
I also fell back into watching the historical costuming/sewing videos of people like Bernadette Banner and Morgan Donner on YouTube and it's been so much fun to watch those while I knit! It's kind of interesting to realize that COVID affects their videos more than I would've guessed. But also definitely a source of comfort in a week that's been... well, stressful.
So! In the good news! The scones are actually more edible after they've sat on the counter for a few days, so I've been nibbling away at them. I only have one or two left, I think, so I'll probably finish them tomorrow. I didn't get to the tuna noodle casserole, but I think I might aim to do it in the upcoming week. I cleaned instead, and I think that balances well for me in the win-some-lose-some of it all. I've had half a mind to try to find a focaccia recipe. The coffee shop I stop at sometimes on the way home from work does a sandwich on it and I keep thinking about how much I love how soft the bread is. It could be nice, if I figure out a decent solution to the kneading problem.
Honestly, most of what I thought about this chapter was "fic opportunity!" There are so many places where I thought things could be explored or treated as prompts, and that amuses me. I like the chapters like these, when it feels like we're getting a little more character interaction than we get during the chapters with more active fight scenes. In particular, I caught myself thinking about all the places where Gandalf's interacted with Pippin specifically a little harshly, but fondly over the last two books. I kind of want to know what fics already exist about that dynamic so I can start determining where I agree or disagree with various ideas. Maybe I'll try to remember to look some up this week.
Other than that! The crystal ball. Even if I hadn't already seen the films, the emphasis put on it this chapter would make me know that something was going to happen with it. This many mentions tends to mean that it'll be important later, like when an object is colored slightly differently in a cartoon. A reminder to pay attention. Saruman's awful and this chapter is definitely interesting for watching how Gandalf interacts with knowing that. That obvious tone of wishing things were different, could be different, but not being surprised that they aren't is... oddly relatable for someone who has never been betrayed like that. XD Just saying.
The Ents!!! I'm hoping this isn't the last we see of them! I want to know more about Watchwood and what Treebeard is thinking after Merry and Pippin turn away. They turn away "hastily," which relates so well to how Treebeard talks about them influencing him to be hasty. I want to know whether they all keep up a friendship later. I want to know if they ever find the Ent-wives! I wonder if Old Man Willow from when the Hobbits meet Tom Bombadil counts as a "black Huorn." I continue to not love JRRT's word-choice for some of things, but here we are.
Some coworkers and I were talking this week and one of them seems to have identified as neutrois without knowing the word for it, so I let her know it was a concept that has a name! She seems excited, but said that it was making her rethink how some of her life has gone. She didn't seem to realize that she could be trans and still want to keep her long hair and she/her pronouns, but also not want to have breasts? So probably we'll end up discussing how there's a wide variety of trans identities and expressions at some point.
My friend who has been away for the last couple of years moved back to nearish the area! We have plans to have a socially distanced and masked hang out in a couple of weeks. It'll be so good to see them. We were so close when we lived in the same area and have pretty compatible urges to live in each other's pockets and live in that weird state of friendship-relationship confusion. It's delightful and I'm kind of thrilled to see what the future might hold for us now that they're back to the Pacific Northwest.
It's been raining so much this week and I love it. It's so cozy to hear it rain while I drink tea and cuddle into my shawl with more knitting. Pretty strong wind tonight though. It's rolling things through the streets and I don't much care for that.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-01-14 06:38 am (UTC)I used to wear leggings under my normal pants to keep warm in winter. Now I prefer insulated pants. There are some lined on the inside with fleece or flannel, and some have a light-weight fill between an outer and inner layer of fabric. It's hard for me to find ones that fit well and are comfortable, but when I do I love them.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-01-19 02:18 pm (UTC)I think I'd probably prefer insulated pants in general, but mostly I've been trying to think about what I could reasonably wear under my scrubs for work. One of my coworkers wears pajama bottoms under hers though, so maybe I should look into another pair of pants to wear under mine...