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post with some things in it
Dec. 22nd, 2015 06:08 pm1) I got a flu shot yesterday, and as a consequence am tired and achey today. I was expecting it but it's still annoying.
2) Today after work I went to the fancy cheese shop and bought some fancy cheese to eat on Christmas. I got a bit of Fleur de Maquis and whole little robiola foglie di castagna (I didn't pay $20 bucks for it, either, but I think mine might be smaller). I also got a tiny amount of ridiculously expensive rabbit and pork cheek paté. It was more splashing out than I had meant to do, but I love good cheese and it's been a loooong time since I was able to afford it even as a special treat.
I liked the cheese shop a lot, and I have a vague plan to go back once or twice a month and get a little of one nice cheese each time.
3) Work potluck on Christmas Eve. I've got a cranberry cake in the freezer that will just need to be thawed out and glazed (well, and also have the over-browned bits cut away) and I'm planning to make a big dish of baked ziti, which I'll prepare the night before and bake in the morning.
The gendering of the work potluck is interesting, I can tell you. Most of the people who bring nice homemade things are women (and me, but I'm not out at work so they see me as a woman); meanwhile, the men either come empty handed, the bastards, or they bring something like a storebought cheese and cracker tray or a bag of tortilla chips. Not everyone knows how to cook, of course, and men are more likely than women to never have been taught, but they could at least bring nicer things.
4) I have failed to write anything for Yuletide, even treats. In fact, I have failed to write anything since last Yuletide. (On further reflection, I think I did finish a chapter of the regency romance project, but that's all.) I have a New Year's resolution in mind to write 100 words a day, 5 days a week. This is very very minimal but I think I need to start minimal to get over whatever the hell the problem is.
5) I'm trying to read Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. I started with Player of Games because several people on FFA said it was a better starting point than the first Culture novel, Consider Phlebas. It turns out I've read PoG before but I didn't realize until I was a good halfway through, and I only remembered a few standout incidents, so that was fine. I enjoyed it, for a certain value of enjoy considering how terrible most of its events are; it was gripping even though I hated the main character a lot of the time, as I was probably supposed to. I'm now most of the way through Consider Phlebas, which is a weird experience because it's got a lot more plot and events than PoG, but they're all described in such unbearably complete detail that it's rather a slog. It's pretty standard space opera, too, unless there's a big twist coming; PoG is better on the worldbuilding front but it still felt rather thin. Does the series get more impressive as it goes on, or is Banks just remarkably overrated?
2) Today after work I went to the fancy cheese shop and bought some fancy cheese to eat on Christmas. I got a bit of Fleur de Maquis and whole little robiola foglie di castagna (I didn't pay $20 bucks for it, either, but I think mine might be smaller). I also got a tiny amount of ridiculously expensive rabbit and pork cheek paté. It was more splashing out than I had meant to do, but I love good cheese and it's been a loooong time since I was able to afford it even as a special treat.
I liked the cheese shop a lot, and I have a vague plan to go back once or twice a month and get a little of one nice cheese each time.
3) Work potluck on Christmas Eve. I've got a cranberry cake in the freezer that will just need to be thawed out and glazed (well, and also have the over-browned bits cut away) and I'm planning to make a big dish of baked ziti, which I'll prepare the night before and bake in the morning.
The gendering of the work potluck is interesting, I can tell you. Most of the people who bring nice homemade things are women (and me, but I'm not out at work so they see me as a woman); meanwhile, the men either come empty handed, the bastards, or they bring something like a storebought cheese and cracker tray or a bag of tortilla chips. Not everyone knows how to cook, of course, and men are more likely than women to never have been taught, but they could at least bring nicer things.
4) I have failed to write anything for Yuletide, even treats. In fact, I have failed to write anything since last Yuletide. (On further reflection, I think I did finish a chapter of the regency romance project, but that's all.) I have a New Year's resolution in mind to write 100 words a day, 5 days a week. This is very very minimal but I think I need to start minimal to get over whatever the hell the problem is.
5) I'm trying to read Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. I started with Player of Games because several people on FFA said it was a better starting point than the first Culture novel, Consider Phlebas. It turns out I've read PoG before but I didn't realize until I was a good halfway through, and I only remembered a few standout incidents, so that was fine. I enjoyed it, for a certain value of enjoy considering how terrible most of its events are; it was gripping even though I hated the main character a lot of the time, as I was probably supposed to. I'm now most of the way through Consider Phlebas, which is a weird experience because it's got a lot more plot and events than PoG, but they're all described in such unbearably complete detail that it's rather a slog. It's pretty standard space opera, too, unless there's a big twist coming; PoG is better on the worldbuilding front but it still felt rather thin. Does the series get more impressive as it goes on, or is Banks just remarkably overrated?
