this week, I have been mostly sneezing
Mar. 5th, 2024 03:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitI would apologize that it's been over a month since I've posted (or, alas answered comments), except that I seem to do that so often that it's become its own routine. I've been meaning to post, really! But the stars (the desire, the time, and the energy to post) have not aligned.
1. Spring allergy season comes early here in northern New Mexico, because juniper is the allergen equivalent of those people who start wearing their shorts and flip-flops as soon as the temp hits 50F/10C. It's a truly vile nuisance allergen in all ways; almost everyone who is exposed to juniper pollen for long enough will eventually become allergic to it. My first couple of years here, I had no spring allergies (and thought I had found an allergy-free Shangri La). Ever since, I spend several weeks in February and March sneezing, sniffling, coughing, and desperately fighting the urge to rub my eyes until the FUCKING. ITCHING. STOPS.
This year I discovered Pataday antihistamine eyedrops (thanks to a youtube video by the world's most famous ophthalmologist, Dr. Glaucomflecken aka Will Flannery, who became famous thanks to short funny skits about doctors and has now branched out into teaching people about eye health and being really, really angry about the health insurance industry. I recommend him.) Anyway, Pataday helps, but the drops are once daily and by about 12 hours in, they are definitely not helping as much as they did. I confess to wondering if I could get away with taking them twice daily for a while.
Anyway, my body is convinced it's sick, and that combined with stupid work stress means my energy is zilch.
2. Stupid work stress is another reason I haven't posted, because it's very much on my mind but far too tedious to post about. Short version: my job has become boring, without any real opportunity to grow, and the opportunity I was told would emerge still has not. I am frustrated. However, the job pays pretty well for retail, has excellent benefits including genuinely amazing-by-U.S.-standards health insurance, and is firmly trans-supportive. I don't think a better job is going to materialize for an awkwardly over-educated, but under-market-valuable-skills-having, 54 year old trans man. So I feel a bit trapped and it gets me down sometimes.
3. Still notking writing. I need a new fandom, but none of the small number of things I've tried is doing it for me. I love Taskmaster but the fic I (barely) started has stalled. The RPF factor (not a moral objection, just the fact that there is a vast amount of Real Canon, and it feels constraining even though I made a conscious decisions to treat Taskmaster like a fictional canon, where anything offscreen can be used or not as I wish) and my ignorance about how television is made and lack of interest in researching it, held me back.
For other things I haven't become fannish about, see below.
4) Reading/listening/watching:
(4a) The first few episodes of The Magnus Protocol. I stopped after the first lamentably mediocre episode (the historical one about the violinist, halfway through which I thought "Jonny did not write this," and the credits verified that neither Jonny nor Alex wrote it; I think it's very sensible of them to bring on more writers but . . . ). If anybody has listened to more of it than that, I'd love to hear how you're finding it so far. Is it going in actual new directions from TMA, or is it just a rehash? I'm willing to sit through the occasional pointless episode if the show overall is worth it.
(4b) T. Kingfisher's Paladin books, plus Nettle and Bone. T. Kingfisher is Ursula Vernon's pseudonym when she writes for adults. The ones I read are all fantasy + romance, and they have very dark elements without actually being dark stories. I enjoyed them a lot, and I can't say I think they were very good. They're a bit same-y, which is extremely clear if you read five of them in a week like I did. The romances in particular all have the same elements, which isn't helped by all the Paladin books being set in the same milieu. I found them pretty engaging as romances go--the characters are all either middle-aged or heading that way, many of them are damaged in non-cutesy ways as well as having other quirks and flaws that aren't always endearing, and most of their choices make emotional sense even when they're bad choices--but it did feel like reading the same story in three-and-a-half iterations. The one that's slightly different is a male/male romance, but alas, that book is by far the weakest of the four in both romance and plot, and the sex scenes felt to me like Kingfisher was uncomfortable writing them. However, the fourth and most recent book in the series seems to be taking the plot and the story universe in interesting new directions, so if there are more I'll probably read them for that.
I also want to read Kingfisher's recent horror novels, but I'm a little bit hesitant because I've heard they're gruesome. I like horror, but I don't like gruesome horror (e.g. insects, decay). I can take violence (so long as it stops short of torture porn, which I'm sure Kingfisher would) and even a certain level of body horror; it's specifically icky stuff I can't handle. Advice gladly accepted from anyone who's read them.
(4c) Tana French's The Witch Elm. Somehow I hadn't known that French was writing non-Dublin Murder Squad books; I'm glad, because like a lot of people I feel iffy about cop stories these days. It's still a mystery novel of sorts: our protagonist, Toby, is attacked in his own living room by burglars he surprises, and suffers a brain injury that affects, among other things, his memory. During his recovery he moves in with his aging uncle, in whose house Toby spent most of his childhood summers. And then a human skull is discovered in the back garden, and Toby can't remember whether he, or someone in his family, might be a killer.
It's typical of French in certain ways, with the psychological aspects at least as important as the mystery, and unsettling hints of the possibly supernatural cropping up throughout. (It's not, I'm happy to say, as explicitly supernatural as thelast DMS book. ETA: Fourth book, The Secret Place. In fact a wholly mundane explanation is possible for everything. And yet.) I recommend this book highly, but be aware that Toby is kind of a shit--in ways that are nothing to do with possible murders--and you'll be spending the whole narrative in his head. I was also a bit disappointed in the setting, which felt much less specifically Irish than the DMS books, even though the story is still set in Ireland. Toby is Anglo-Irish (and Protestant? I couldn't tell) from a well-off family, and it seemed like he and his family and their circle could just as easily have been English. Which may be culturally accurate, for all I know. But I missed the vividness of French's Dublin and surrounds from previous books.
(4d) Eric Kurlander, Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich. This is a scholarly book (Yale UP) on a topic about which there's a glut of sensationalist popular writing. I was interested mostly because some years back I read Heather Pringle's The Master Plan: Hitler's Scholars and the Holocaust, which focuses on the Ahnenerbe and Nazi "race science," but which inevitably ties into occultism because Nazi race mythologies did.
The first section of Kurlander's book, its general overview of the state of occultism, supernatural thinking, and "border science" e.g. astrology, world ice theory, parapsychology, and other purportedly scientific endeavors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is the most interesting so far. It's very much worth a read, because it resonates a LOT with the current state of the world. Kurlander looks at a whole complex of mystical beliefs and practices that seems fairly harmless in itself, like biodynamic agriculture, alternative medicine, and various western adaptations/appropriations of Hinduism and Buddhism, but that has historically, at its fringes, had ties with fascism. None of it's innately fascist, of course, but Kurlander argues that the irrationalism/anti-rationalism of a lot of these movements made fascism, which is also anti-rationalist, a better political fit than the explicitly "scientific" leftism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Basically, communism demanded its supporters abandon those beliefs, while fascism accommodated them. And we still see that frequent, though not inevitable, political drift today: alternative medicine becomes anti-vaccine views, which slip into the conviction that "they" want to poison "us" for their own sinister reasons, and whoops, here we are back at racial purity and antisemitic blood libel. Organic farming has a fascist fringe and has had one since the start. Fascists and Nazis are in every neo-pagan movement connected to supposed European pre-Christian faiths. The nice lesbian emu farmer with the popular Instagram account turns out to be a fascist (this really happened, though I'm hazy on the details).
Kurlander's observations may be especially resonant for me because I work in a co-op "natural" grocery store. We carry biodynamically-grown oranges, which are enormously popular. We carry a zillion weird supplements and homeopathic pills and tinctures that purport to clear your body of the toxins in vaccines. A lot of our customers and staff are into these beliefs in some way, and I can't doubt that some of them are very far gone into the nasty side of it. (Here are my takes, for the record: organic farming seems to be better for the environment, and better for farm workers who are less exposed to toxic pesticides and herbicides. But there are nuances, e.g. organic cotton requiring a hell of a lot more water to grow. And I haven't seen convincing evidence that organic agriculture, by itself (bearing in mind that it excludes GMOs) could feed our world population. Also, organic vs. conventional produce seems to have no direct effect on consumer health. Biodynamic agriculture is bullshit; it doesn't matter which phase of the moon you sow your crops in. Fad diets e.g. keto, raw foods, being "gluten free" without actual celiac disease or gluten intolerance, etc. are bullshit. Alternative medicine is 99.99% bullshit, because if any of it worked, pharma would be all over it. And the fact that supplements are almost entirely unregulated in the US is scandalous and dangerous. Astrology is slightly amusing bullshit. Alternative spirituality doesn't appeal to me any more than the conventional kinds; I have no problem with the people who practice it, so long as they're not trying to make other people do so too. The way some white people appropriate, market, and claim to speak for the traditional beliefs of mostly non-white people, however, is disgusting.)
Anyway, after this strong and harrowing start, Hitler's Monsters lags. There's a lot of repetitive narrative along the lines of "here's how the Nazis reacted to occult groups through a mix of absorbing them into Nazism and repressing them. Here's how they reacted to astrology in exactly the same way," etc. And the book is deeply undertheorized; I'd call it untheorized, to the point where I'm surprised a university press would publish it, even given that the subject makes it a guaranteed seller for popular audiences too.
I just checked and it was published in 2017, which means that Kurlander will have done most or all of his research and writing before Trump's election emboldened fascists, and before Covid had its paradoxical effect of vastly increasing anti-vaccine and anti-science sentiment. I don't know if Kurlander has commented on the prescience of it, but I imagine it's not a case where he's entirely pleased to be proved right.
(4e) Apart from that, I've been reading through various horror anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow. If you've read other Datlow anthologies, you'll know the kinds of things she likes and whether you like them too, so my recommendation or not is superfluous.
5) And finally, another thing probably too boring to post, and yet here I am. I recently bought a pair of Hoka running/walking shoes, having heard them recommended far and wide, and having been told a while back when I was in physical therapy that I should get better shoes.
I have difficult feet: very wide, with a very high arch and instep, and I supinate (step on the outer edges of my feet) a lot, plus my right ankle is kind of unstable. So I looked up the best shoes for correcting supination and found Hoka Bondi 8 among the recommendations. I went to REI to try some on. The ones I tried on felt pretty good in the store, despite being too narrow. (I wasn't entirely sorry to have to order the correct width directly from Hoka, because the REI salesperson was so snooty to me that it overcame my wish not to "showroom" by trying on in-store and buying online.)
They arrived, and felt okay when I tried them on, and then I wore them to work and . . . I never knew a pair of sneakers could hurt my feet so much. First of all, they threw my gait off in weird and awkward ways, which may partly have been the shoes not accommodating my supination, but felt like more than that; I kept worrying that I'd stumble and fall any minute. Second, even though the shoes themselves are hugely padded (they're enormous), the insole is . . . firm. Not cushiony at all. At the end of a full day wearing them at work, walking on concrete, I was literally limping from the pain in my heels and soles. (BTW, at REI I also tried on Hoka Cliftons, and they were uncomfortable even in the store.)
I'm hoping I can return them--Hoka has a generous return policy in general, but I stupidly discarded the box they came in and I need to check if they'll take them back without it. And I guess I should probably see a podiatrist and get expert help. But I don't want to! I see enough doctors and have enough medical stuff happening already! *mutters in disgruntlement*
And with that I'll conclude, this post having been more than long enough.
1. Spring allergy season comes early here in northern New Mexico, because juniper is the allergen equivalent of those people who start wearing their shorts and flip-flops as soon as the temp hits 50F/10C. It's a truly vile nuisance allergen in all ways; almost everyone who is exposed to juniper pollen for long enough will eventually become allergic to it. My first couple of years here, I had no spring allergies (and thought I had found an allergy-free Shangri La). Ever since, I spend several weeks in February and March sneezing, sniffling, coughing, and desperately fighting the urge to rub my eyes until the FUCKING. ITCHING. STOPS.
This year I discovered Pataday antihistamine eyedrops (thanks to a youtube video by the world's most famous ophthalmologist, Dr. Glaucomflecken aka Will Flannery, who became famous thanks to short funny skits about doctors and has now branched out into teaching people about eye health and being really, really angry about the health insurance industry. I recommend him.) Anyway, Pataday helps, but the drops are once daily and by about 12 hours in, they are definitely not helping as much as they did. I confess to wondering if I could get away with taking them twice daily for a while.
Anyway, my body is convinced it's sick, and that combined with stupid work stress means my energy is zilch.
2. Stupid work stress is another reason I haven't posted, because it's very much on my mind but far too tedious to post about. Short version: my job has become boring, without any real opportunity to grow, and the opportunity I was told would emerge still has not. I am frustrated. However, the job pays pretty well for retail, has excellent benefits including genuinely amazing-by-U.S.-standards health insurance, and is firmly trans-supportive. I don't think a better job is going to materialize for an awkwardly over-educated, but under-market-valuable-skills-having, 54 year old trans man. So I feel a bit trapped and it gets me down sometimes.
3. Still not
For other things I haven't become fannish about, see below.
4) Reading/listening/watching:
(4a) The first few episodes of The Magnus Protocol. I stopped after the first lamentably mediocre episode (the historical one about the violinist, halfway through which I thought "Jonny did not write this," and the credits verified that neither Jonny nor Alex wrote it; I think it's very sensible of them to bring on more writers but . . . ). If anybody has listened to more of it than that, I'd love to hear how you're finding it so far. Is it going in actual new directions from TMA, or is it just a rehash? I'm willing to sit through the occasional pointless episode if the show overall is worth it.
(4b) T. Kingfisher's Paladin books, plus Nettle and Bone. T. Kingfisher is Ursula Vernon's pseudonym when she writes for adults. The ones I read are all fantasy + romance, and they have very dark elements without actually being dark stories. I enjoyed them a lot, and I can't say I think they were very good. They're a bit same-y, which is extremely clear if you read five of them in a week like I did. The romances in particular all have the same elements, which isn't helped by all the Paladin books being set in the same milieu. I found them pretty engaging as romances go--the characters are all either middle-aged or heading that way, many of them are damaged in non-cutesy ways as well as having other quirks and flaws that aren't always endearing, and most of their choices make emotional sense even when they're bad choices--but it did feel like reading the same story in three-and-a-half iterations. The one that's slightly different is a male/male romance, but alas, that book is by far the weakest of the four in both romance and plot, and the sex scenes felt to me like Kingfisher was uncomfortable writing them. However, the fourth and most recent book in the series seems to be taking the plot and the story universe in interesting new directions, so if there are more I'll probably read them for that.
I also want to read Kingfisher's recent horror novels, but I'm a little bit hesitant because I've heard they're gruesome. I like horror, but I don't like gruesome horror (e.g. insects, decay). I can take violence (so long as it stops short of torture porn, which I'm sure Kingfisher would) and even a certain level of body horror; it's specifically icky stuff I can't handle. Advice gladly accepted from anyone who's read them.
(4c) Tana French's The Witch Elm. Somehow I hadn't known that French was writing non-Dublin Murder Squad books; I'm glad, because like a lot of people I feel iffy about cop stories these days. It's still a mystery novel of sorts: our protagonist, Toby, is attacked in his own living room by burglars he surprises, and suffers a brain injury that affects, among other things, his memory. During his recovery he moves in with his aging uncle, in whose house Toby spent most of his childhood summers. And then a human skull is discovered in the back garden, and Toby can't remember whether he, or someone in his family, might be a killer.
It's typical of French in certain ways, with the psychological aspects at least as important as the mystery, and unsettling hints of the possibly supernatural cropping up throughout. (It's not, I'm happy to say, as explicitly supernatural as the
(4d) Eric Kurlander, Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich. This is a scholarly book (Yale UP) on a topic about which there's a glut of sensationalist popular writing. I was interested mostly because some years back I read Heather Pringle's The Master Plan: Hitler's Scholars and the Holocaust, which focuses on the Ahnenerbe and Nazi "race science," but which inevitably ties into occultism because Nazi race mythologies did.
The first section of Kurlander's book, its general overview of the state of occultism, supernatural thinking, and "border science" e.g. astrology, world ice theory, parapsychology, and other purportedly scientific endeavors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is the most interesting so far. It's very much worth a read, because it resonates a LOT with the current state of the world. Kurlander looks at a whole complex of mystical beliefs and practices that seems fairly harmless in itself, like biodynamic agriculture, alternative medicine, and various western adaptations/appropriations of Hinduism and Buddhism, but that has historically, at its fringes, had ties with fascism. None of it's innately fascist, of course, but Kurlander argues that the irrationalism/anti-rationalism of a lot of these movements made fascism, which is also anti-rationalist, a better political fit than the explicitly "scientific" leftism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Basically, communism demanded its supporters abandon those beliefs, while fascism accommodated them. And we still see that frequent, though not inevitable, political drift today: alternative medicine becomes anti-vaccine views, which slip into the conviction that "they" want to poison "us" for their own sinister reasons, and whoops, here we are back at racial purity and antisemitic blood libel. Organic farming has a fascist fringe and has had one since the start. Fascists and Nazis are in every neo-pagan movement connected to supposed European pre-Christian faiths. The nice lesbian emu farmer with the popular Instagram account turns out to be a fascist (this really happened, though I'm hazy on the details).
Kurlander's observations may be especially resonant for me because I work in a co-op "natural" grocery store. We carry biodynamically-grown oranges, which are enormously popular. We carry a zillion weird supplements and homeopathic pills and tinctures that purport to clear your body of the toxins in vaccines. A lot of our customers and staff are into these beliefs in some way, and I can't doubt that some of them are very far gone into the nasty side of it. (Here are my takes, for the record: organic farming seems to be better for the environment, and better for farm workers who are less exposed to toxic pesticides and herbicides. But there are nuances, e.g. organic cotton requiring a hell of a lot more water to grow. And I haven't seen convincing evidence that organic agriculture, by itself (bearing in mind that it excludes GMOs) could feed our world population. Also, organic vs. conventional produce seems to have no direct effect on consumer health. Biodynamic agriculture is bullshit; it doesn't matter which phase of the moon you sow your crops in. Fad diets e.g. keto, raw foods, being "gluten free" without actual celiac disease or gluten intolerance, etc. are bullshit. Alternative medicine is 99.99% bullshit, because if any of it worked, pharma would be all over it. And the fact that supplements are almost entirely unregulated in the US is scandalous and dangerous. Astrology is slightly amusing bullshit. Alternative spirituality doesn't appeal to me any more than the conventional kinds; I have no problem with the people who practice it, so long as they're not trying to make other people do so too. The way some white people appropriate, market, and claim to speak for the traditional beliefs of mostly non-white people, however, is disgusting.)
Anyway, after this strong and harrowing start, Hitler's Monsters lags. There's a lot of repetitive narrative along the lines of "here's how the Nazis reacted to occult groups through a mix of absorbing them into Nazism and repressing them. Here's how they reacted to astrology in exactly the same way," etc. And the book is deeply undertheorized; I'd call it untheorized, to the point where I'm surprised a university press would publish it, even given that the subject makes it a guaranteed seller for popular audiences too.
I just checked and it was published in 2017, which means that Kurlander will have done most or all of his research and writing before Trump's election emboldened fascists, and before Covid had its paradoxical effect of vastly increasing anti-vaccine and anti-science sentiment. I don't know if Kurlander has commented on the prescience of it, but I imagine it's not a case where he's entirely pleased to be proved right.
(4e) Apart from that, I've been reading through various horror anthologies edited by Ellen Datlow. If you've read other Datlow anthologies, you'll know the kinds of things she likes and whether you like them too, so my recommendation or not is superfluous.
5) And finally, another thing probably too boring to post, and yet here I am. I recently bought a pair of Hoka running/walking shoes, having heard them recommended far and wide, and having been told a while back when I was in physical therapy that I should get better shoes.
I have difficult feet: very wide, with a very high arch and instep, and I supinate (step on the outer edges of my feet) a lot, plus my right ankle is kind of unstable. So I looked up the best shoes for correcting supination and found Hoka Bondi 8 among the recommendations. I went to REI to try some on. The ones I tried on felt pretty good in the store, despite being too narrow. (I wasn't entirely sorry to have to order the correct width directly from Hoka, because the REI salesperson was so snooty to me that it overcame my wish not to "showroom" by trying on in-store and buying online.)
They arrived, and felt okay when I tried them on, and then I wore them to work and . . . I never knew a pair of sneakers could hurt my feet so much. First of all, they threw my gait off in weird and awkward ways, which may partly have been the shoes not accommodating my supination, but felt like more than that; I kept worrying that I'd stumble and fall any minute. Second, even though the shoes themselves are hugely padded (they're enormous), the insole is . . . firm. Not cushiony at all. At the end of a full day wearing them at work, walking on concrete, I was literally limping from the pain in my heels and soles. (BTW, at REI I also tried on Hoka Cliftons, and they were uncomfortable even in the store.)
I'm hoping I can return them--Hoka has a generous return policy in general, but I stupidly discarded the box they came in and I need to check if they'll take them back without it. And I guess I should probably see a podiatrist and get expert help. But I don't want to! I see enough doctors and have enough medical stuff happening already! *mutters in disgruntlement*
And with that I'll conclude, this post having been more than long enough.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 12:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 12:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 02:24 am (UTC)I enjoy a touch of the supernatural even in a realistic narrative, but in that case I like it at the level of hints and unease. I prefer how French handles it in In the Woods, where all mundane explanations for the kids' disappearance fail, but no one even explicitly suggests that it could be something supernatural. It just hangs in the air, a possibility that no one will name.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 01:15 am (UTC)The thing is, though, that Ursula Vernon has recently started to suspect that she is some level of autistic, and other people apparently find her horror books absolutely terrifying but she doesn't and neither do other autistic people, per Twitter. And I have also started to suspect the same about myself and didn't find either of these books terrifying. So…YMMV.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 02:36 am (UTC)Interesting point about Vernon and her stories and autism. For a few years now I've been kicking around the idea that I'm probably somewhere on the autism spectrum (without seeking a diagnosis because I don't think one would be helpful at this point in my life). Now I'm curious to see if I'll find them scary. I'm easily but idiosyncratically scared.
And now I find myself trying to pin down a distinction between scary and horrifying. Only the first series of TMA was consistently scary for me, but I almost always found it horrifying. I think it's to do with suspense vs. feeling of impending and possibly unavoidable doom, and as the show's premises grew clearer, it moved from the former to the latter. I was scared for the characters often enough, but it's not quite the same thing.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 04:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 03:16 pm (UTC)Hitler's Monsters looks like it had a great setup, but a disappointing execution. Tying in the ways that anti-science beliefs can lead into fascist mindsets would have been a good hook throughout, and even before the current open fascism advocates, would have helped explain a certain amount of why so muxh of the "alt" of our times heads in that direction once a person gets serious about choosing their gurus over their doctors.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 02:23 pm (UTC)Oh, man, do I hear that! After having terrible allergies my entire life, I had five beautiful allergy-free years here -- just enough to give me a good, long taste of how other people live, before the juniper pollen pounced. Ugh. I have noticed that the last few years I've been a bit less sneezy -- thanks, I think, to an agressive use of two different kinds of allergy medicine, but perhaps more so to no longer having cats around making it all worse -- but if anything my sinuses have been getting worse and worse.
And I've also started using Pataday. I'd seldom had eye symptoms before, aside from a little bit of itchiness, but then they started watering and weeping mucus, to the point where I was certain I had an eye infection. Nope. Just a fun new symptom! How delightful to discover I can still get those after all this time. Bleh. Anyway, my eye doctor recommended the drops, and they've helped immensely, but I've found I have to use them year-round now, because the moment I stop, my eyes start feeling decidedly uncomfortable. I've been tempted to use it more than once a day during the worst bouts, too, but so far I've resisted.
If anybody has listened to more of it than that, I'd love to hear how you're finding it so far.
I have been, but I honestly don't know what to say, because I still have no idea what to make of it yet. The most recent ep had a ton of TMA references (like... a ton), and I have no idea what any of them mean, if they mean anything. I'm enjoying it OK, but then I think that's to some degree due to having adjusted myself to having no expectations.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 05:16 pm (UTC)OTOH, when I lived in Minnesota I had fall allergies, which I don't really get here. And since fall is my favorite season, I'm glad of that change.
In re: Pataday, I know there's a once-a-day version that has 0.7% antihistamine, while my once a day has 0.2%. I wish I knew whether that added up to a higher absolute dose (which would mean I could use mine twice a day safely) or whether it's just that the bottle is engineered so that the droplets are smaller. Googling hasn't helped; I supposed I'll eventually need to get a bottle of the 0.7% and see.
I'm enjoying it OK, but then I think that's to some degree due to having adjusted myself to having no expectations
Makes sense. I know Jonny and Alex swore they were going to do completely new things with the Magnus universe in the new show, but it seems like it would be difficult to accomplish given how clear TMA eventually made all the premises of its universe. I had thought they might go for setting TMP in a universe where the Fear entities didn't exist until what Jon and Martin did at the end of TMA, but that doesn't seem to be the case based on the TMP timeline.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 06:29 pm (UTC)That I'm envious of! Fall is my favorite season, too (such as it is here, anyway), but I get the allergies both coming and going, and it does rather mar the experience. At least it's usually not nearly as bad as in the spring.
I know there's a once-a-day version that has 0.7% antihistamine,
That's the one I've been using, the extra strength. I do find that it's only on the worst days that I feel it loses effectiveness too soon, but of course your mileage (and your eyes) may vary.
I had thought they might go for setting TMP in a universe where the Fear entities didn't exist until what Jon and Martin did at the end of TMA, but that doesn't seem to be the case based on the TMP timeline.
I don't think so, no, although frankly everything about the timeline just confuses me, anyway. I do get the feeling they might just maybe be hinting at a different way of thinking of/categorizing the Fears, which could be really interesting. But it's hard to say yet. For the moment, I just keep reminding myself that it took a very long time for how everything worked to become clear in the original, so patience might well pay off again with something new. That and the no-expectations thing seems to be working pretty well for me.
no subject
Date: 2024-03-06 08:00 pm (UTC)I would say that some are better reads if you know the source materials. Like, I had never read the Fall of the House of Usher before WMTD. There are callbacks to The Willows in THP. Having both of those on the ghost story albums Jonny Sims put out meant I finally knew the stories and I got more out of both books in rereads after hearing them.