post with some things in it
Dec. 22nd, 2015 06:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkit1) 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?
no subject
Date: 2015-12-23 04:09 am (UTC)Here that gendered phenomenon is called "Ladies bring a plate" because that's what used to be on every notice of a meeting. Now it just says "bring a plate", but I think my dad and paternal grandfather were the only men I knew who ever went to any trouble over it.
no subject
Date: 2015-12-23 11:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-23 05:11 am (UTC)But also, ugh, the gendering of potluck contributions bugs me so much, even though I'm in the fortunate position of it being somewhat abstract. (My husband does nearly all of the cooking, and my male boss is one of the keenest recipe-sharers in my office.) It boggles my mind how few male-socialized folks seem to make the jump from "oh, an event where people bring food" to "I, an attendee, should bring food".
On a more positive note, I really enjoy the way you talk about food!
no subject
Date: 2015-12-23 11:21 am (UTC)Even when it's made explicit that everyone should bring something, a lot of men seem to think they're exempt. Or they bring chips or soda or beer, which are not in themselves unwelcome contributions, but it's as though these guys feel it would impugn their masculinity to be seen thinking about food or putting more than a bare minimum of effort into it.
no subject
Date: 2015-12-23 06:05 am (UTC)Once I hosted the bookclub at my house, and I made chicken salad sandwiches with avocado, which was considered far too radical, and had there been gentleman present, they would have been shocked. Because not only do the men not cook here, they tell the ladies exactly what they want brought on a plate and it had better not be anything exotic like avocado. I thought I'd gone back in time.
no subject
Date: 2015-12-23 11:30 am (UTC)they tell the ladies exactly what they want brought on a plate and it had better not be anything exotic like avocado
*laughs/cringes* The more I think about it, the more men's relationship with food seems quite weird. I could almost, but not quite, feel sorry for men like that, because even while they're off-loading a lot of labor onto women, they're also having to deny themselves a lot of pleasure, both from cooking and from eating "exotic" foods. But then again, the cultural norms around women's relationship with food are also weird, and in a vastly more damaging way.
Anyway, what you're saying reminds me of my childhood, where what was served in my extended family was always determined by men not wanting to eat anything unfamiliar or exotic.
Did the book club women enjoy the avocado in the end?