sophia_sol | Entries tagged with anent: arts and crafts

one

can't believe that before I was obsessed with birds I didn't know what my favourite season was -- each season has its benefits and drawbacks, after all.

but now it's obvious that spring is the best season! and not just because of the spring bird migration (though obviously the spring migration is great). looking for birds, looking at birds, and spending time in environments that birds like: all of these things have opened my eyes to all the other joys of springtime as well!

and spring begins as early as february now for me, because the signs of spring I know how to recognise can begin that early, whereas I used to feel like it wasn't really spring till the trees started leafing in may!

two

the more you befriend people who go by a noun as a name, either online or in person, the more you get to have fun tripping up on words in sentences, like "hey why's this blog post about architecture mentioning my frien --oh right. words means things!" it's great. genuinely recommend.

three

the curse of the crafter: looking at things and going "ok but I could make that tho"

ok but WILL you. and do you have the time!

it's amazing how many things I confidently believe I could make at this point

four

I really love that Queer as Fact puts significant effort into talking about as many different queer people as possible, from many different racial and cultural backgrounds, even when the subject is challenging to find info on in english or at all. And they do a good job at working to be respectful of people groups they're not a part of, and at being up-front when there's things they don't know.

Every individual episode is interesting of course, but also the impression that builds over time as you listen through the archive is a deeply felt sense of the intellectual truth I already knew, that queer people have always been present no matter where you go. It's nice!

five

did you know: anne carson translations of greek tragedies good actually. anne carson good at words. greek tragedies compelling and delicious. theatre!!!

whoops it has been far too long, once again. sorry dw!!

one

I have realised: in the past few years I've gotten in the habit of leaving comments in tumblr tags to compliment the fanart I reblog, and as a result I have gotten out of the habit of using commas, because they automatically insert a tag break. And this has bled over into all my writing, including fiction writing! But using commas appropriately does improve the clarity of writing, especially when you tend to write a lot of long sentences like I do...I am having to re-learn to be very deliberate about my commas.

This is a very funny problem to be having! Thanks tumblr!

two

Last week I got to be in the presence of a small child asking me "why" questions about birds. Living the dream!

Small child learned from me about turkey vultures and mourning doves and starlings, as the birds that were most visible to her at the time to ask about. Occasionally I was stymied by what exactly she meant by "why?" -- like, what part are you wanting to know more about? Be more specific, please! But eventually I figured I could just treat "why?" as "tell me more, I'm interested," and that seemed to work well enough.

And then! The next day I got an update from small child's parent that she spotted a turkey vulture and was very excited, and talked about how I had taught her about them!! 🥺

three

I have figured out how to use my camera to take close-ups of tiny things! Turns out the key is to use manual focus; the autofocus doesn't work when you're that close. This is very exciting!

Guess what this presages: BUG PHOTO SUMMER. I'm excited.

four

Sally Pointer videos are there to save the day....when things feel hard, watching her enthuse about how much fun it is to make mistakes and try things out and learn is a guaranteed mood improver. Thank u sally pointer <3

five

I have been testing out various apps/programs for keeping personal notes, and think I might be able to use Joplin for a bunch of niches in my digital life, more than I was expecting -- exciting!

On the docket:

replace google keep, to jot down quick notes to myself

replace google drive, to keep semi-permanent lists I want to be able to edit while out and about (eg: list of things to look for while thrift shopping)

replace the folder in onedrive where I keep lists of many different things I want to track (eg: kinds of cheese and my opinions on them, all the artists I've seen live in concert, the timeline of all fandoms I've spent time in)

organize my ever-more-complex TBR list, which is what I was looking for a solution for in the first place

keep track of important details about friends and acquaintances' lives, since I can't rely on my memory to do that to a socially appropriate level

and I'm considering moving my personal project kanbans from Trello to Joplin too!

The one thing I'm specifically not going to move to Joplin: my fic-writing. The android app for Joplin does not have a functional word-count feature, and it turns out that IS a vital feature for me, unfortunately. So that will stay in Ellipsus for now, I think.

one

Whew that was the worst illness I have had in a lot of years. And my whole household was laid low by it at the same time! I disapprove. I'm so glad to be (mostly) better at this point, and come crawling back with a functional brain again

two

a few weeks ago I decided to stop being so intimidated by bias tape, and tried making my own! Turns out it's much easier than I feared; it's merely tedious. It's very doable!

three

I am up to 27 wpm on thumbkey, the weird mobile keyboard I switched to! There was a while where I felt convinced I would never make it up to a reasonable speed, but it's happening! It just takes a lot of practice. But I persevered.

(The other issue: google has a bug in gchat that means the correct way of coding backspace into a keyboard doesn't function right in gchat. Thumbkey has filed the bug report; there has been no change. Yes, this means I cannot backspace when typing in gchat on my phone; I can only highlight and overwrite if I typo or want to reword something! Infuriating, but of course google is not incentivised to care)

four

I have been back to regularly working on my current fic wip this week and it feels so good to make my small incremental daily progress again. this is how fics get written!! thank you jingyi for waiting for me <3 I'm nearly at 5k now!

five

spent a while recently browsing historic gees bend quilts....I've looked at them before and I'm still blown away by the artistry in the form. I love how within that artistic community, asymmetry, skew, and playfulness with colour and design are such important elements, handled masterfully. SO different from the quilting tradition I come from!

(if you're not familiar, this is a good resource: https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers)

one

omg hello what if I stamp-printed designs onto fabric to make clothes with fun patterns instead of relying on manufacturers to make patterns I like

eg: https://www.dharmatrading.com/home/the-cameloozy-blouse-a-mad-mim-tutorial.html

I mean yes this would require me to pick up SEVERAL more crafting skills. but. do you see the Vision.

I could make myself so many bird-themed clothes! and dinosaur-themed! and more!!!

two

I haven't ever seen or read or studied Measure For Measure before, and having now done the first three acts with my zoom theatre troupe, I sure do see why it's so rarely performed! One of shakespeare's "problem plays" for sure.

Which isn't to say it's a bad play, because it isn't! It's just very.....oh boy.

content note: it's a play about sexual coercion and the use of power

I am playing the role of Angelo. As an actor this is a great role! A character doing a lot of mental self-deception to justify his own actions to himself, which is really meaty and fun to play.

Buuuut his choice to engage in sexual coercion is one of the main drivers of the plot of the play, and it sure is a lot!

My zeatre group is people I trust, so engaging with this theme with them is good -- but it is not the sort of play I'd imagine the average person would choose to go see for a fun night out at the theatre, and not the sort of play the average school board would think is a good choice to have teens study in high school, the two main ways people today might experience Shakespeare's works. I think relatively very few people today are familiar with measure for measure. I didn't even know what the play was about until I was reading up about it in prep for zeatre casting.

And it's too bad, really, that I didn't ever have previous exposure to it -- I bet it would be a very fruitful play to study and analyse! And a story that's remarkably relevant to today's politics in some ways too!

three

I enjoy buying things at international grocery stores that I have never cooked with before, to see what I think and expand my food options. This week: really enjoying something that the package calls "beancurd sheets"!

From a little research, this seems an ambiguous term that can mean multiple things, but the thing I have is tofu pressed into thin sheets, not a film lifted off the top of heated soy milk.

I tore some into strips and ate them with noodles for lunch and they are a lovely addition. I will definitely buy this again in the future, and would not be surprised if it becomes something I frequently have on hand!

four

Just started listening to a podcast about dragonriders of pern, a book series I was obsessed with when I was 12 years old, but haven't read any of for at least 15 years at this point. (I loved these books, but I cannot say they are GOOD books.) The podcast: Dragons Made Me Do It.

And in the first few minutes of the first episode of the podcast they already said something that goes a long way to explaining why I loved pern so much as a young person: it's a story very interested in the question of "when is legend legend, why is myth a myth." And in "exploring connections between history, myth, and present reality."

And stories that ask questions about the connections between stories and reality have always been extremely my shit!

(I mean. Also there are dragons who you telepathically bond with. That WAS also a draw for preteen Soph!)

Then the rest of the episode was a delightful discussion and analysis of the first pern book, excellent all the way through.

Even more excited to keep listening to this podcast now!

In case you're interested, btw, it's one of those podcasts you have to add to your podcast app via url, you can't just search within the app. Their website lists the rss subscription url, but to make it even easier for you, here it is: https://dmmdipodcast.neocities.org/rss.xml

one

sorting through my photos from the last two years with the intention of putting together a photobook to print for myself, and wow there are really some major transitions within 2023 and 2024 for me! some more visible within the photos than others, tbh. But the biggest change for this purpose is that I take SO many more photos than I used to…..genuinely not sure how I'm going to pare these down to a reasonable number, lol!

two

Some bird photos are good because they are beautifully detailed shots that show you all the features of the bird. Some bird photos are good because they're fun.

This is absolutely the best photo of a dark-eyed junco I have ever taken.

( bird pic! )

three

I am trying out yet another weird mobile keyboard app, since the parent company of Typewise, the keyboard app I've been using for the last while, has become far too focused on ai for my comfort. The open source app store f-droid, though, has some interesting options on offer, and I am very compelled by Thumb-Key.

So far thumb-key is rather slow to learn, but I think its design will make it very fast to use in the long run. But the adjustment is hard in the meantime! I keep having to switch back to typewise in contexts where I need to be able to convey my thoughts efficiently, and then needing to remember to return to thumb-key when speed isn't as important so that I can continue practicing.

( screenshot of the keyboard )

On my first day of use, my thumb-key typing speed got to ~15 wpm, compared with 35-40 on typewise, and over 100 on a physical computer keyboard. Today, after a couple days of use, I am at ~20 wpm. So I am feeling very slow!

But when I used to use the standard gboard mobile keyboard, I was both slower and less accurate than typewise enables me to be, and already I can see how thumb-key will be even better than typewise once my muscle memory learns where the letters are.

I just hope I reach that day soon!

four

tfw the automatic association you have with a particular concept is a terry pratchett quote. I'm an edwardian era gentleman casually tossing off a quote from one of the classic works that I know all gentlemen of my status are familiar with because we all studied the same texts in school, except instead of latin or something, it's Going Postal.

"that greatest of all treasures which is Hope"!!!

five

Rereading old entries from previous years in my line a day diary and wow it is amazing how long it's been consistent that I regularly fail to go to bed at a reasonable time, become exhausted and miserable, and regret my choices. And then do it again.

I really wish bedtimes were easier for me!

Real nice though to see the way the overall tone of my entries perks up after I went on the right anti-anxiety med for me, midway through 2022.

one

It's been five years since I started reading cql/mdzs fanfic, four years since I started watching cql, nearly two years since I started reading mdzs the first time, one year since I started my in-depth mdzs reread book club with a friend, and this week I will finish that reread! Amazing how I continue to love this story and these characters, even as my relationship with them and understanding of them evolve over time. What a joy and delight it is! ❤️

two

staring thoughtfully at free-motion feet for sewing machines, as I think about the the things I could do if I had one

three

I cannot believe that not very many years ago I used to live a life where I habitually wore outfits that had zero pockets. These days, my daily pocket contents are:

- handkerchief
- charging case with bluetooth earbuds
- a rock
- carabiner which holds: various keys, a mini pocketknife, a mini retractable measuring tape, and a case with Loops earplugs
- wallet
- phone

I use all four pockets a standard pair of pants has on offer!

(yes the rock is a vital item. that's my fave stim toy.)

four

ahhhh how are there so many fun danmei and baihe novels out there that I have not read yet! I want to shove them all into my brain at once

I finished my latest bookbinding project! Two copies of a translation of Wei Furen from the Taiping Guangji, translated by Forestofglory; one copy for Forest and one copy for me.

I tried a coptic style binding this time, but I ended up feeling like it is not the binding style for me. The challenges with getting the sewing the right amount of tight, especially for the covers, was a lot! I'm glad I tried it for this project but I am unlikely to reach for this style again.

On the other hand I have definitely improved at other bookbinding skills, which is pleasing to see! No accidental glue on the good side of the book cloth, for example :P

one

I love seeing all the cool projects that my friends and mutuals take on! Creativity and passion being directed towards so many different kinds of things, according to our skills and abilities and drive! It's an endless delight 💖

two

One of the nice things about having a sibling is that she shares and understands many of my formative childhood references. I told her about learning to use the buttonhole attachment for one of my sewing machines and she immediately quoted Uncle Alec from the book Eight Cousins -- exactly what I was thinking about as I did the buttonholes!

three

I'm really enjoying the new Porter Talk series on the Discover Library & Archives Canada podcast! Featuring lots of recordings of interviews with black sleeping car porters in Canada in the 20th century, getting to hear in their words and voices what experiences they had and what they thought about things, with contextualisation from the podcast host and expert guests.

Stanley Grizzle was a porter and union activist who became deeply interested in preserving archival information about porters, and he took on the project of interviewing as many porters as he could. His fonds includes 30 hours of cassette recordings of interviews! One loves to hear of these kinds of people who decide something is important even when nobody else at the time values it, and go to great length to preserve and archive it.

You can find the podcast here, with 3 episodes of porter talk so far: https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng/collection/engage-learn/podcast/pages/podcasts.aspx

four

Recently I was reminded why I do not do jigsaw puzzles at home. I cannot be chill about jigsaw puzzles. If there is an incomplete jigsaw puzzle in my vicinity I WILL be working on it until it is done. Non-stop. I simply can't leave it be! It is the most more-ish of perhaps any activity I know, for me!

My parents basically had to shove me out the door when I was visiting them the other night, because I was working on a puzzle with my mom at their house, and it reached my parents' bedtime, lol.

five

Very funny how so many novels are thematically about The Power Of Stories. Why yes you would think that stories are powerful, author, wouldn't you! You're a storyteller.

But also. Authors are 100% correct in using this theme because stories ARE powerful! It always hits because it's the truth!

But then I would think that, wouldn't I. I am a person who loves stories!

I've been doing a bunch of cordage making in recent weeks! Using types of fibres that are new to me, and it's been fun to experiment and see what each is like. It's cool how many different things in the natural world you can use for fibres if you go about it the right way!!

First, milkweed bast:

( Read more... )

Next, corn husks:

( Read more... )

Most recently, an unknown garden plant:

( Read more... )

one

I have done too well at insulating myself from the relentless marketing of capitalism.....I forgot that black friday week is a thing and went in person to an electronics store on saturday to buy a new phone grip.

that store. had SO MANY. people, noises, flashing lights & images, maze-like aisles & displays, busy employees who couldn't stop to help me because they were already on a mission, etc.

I escaped with the phone grip I went for but. whew. that was a real experience.

two

so funny to think about my feelings on a lot of characters in mxtx novels on my first read vs on subsequent rereads. the number of characters I found boring, irritating, or incomprehensible who I now adore!

this post inspired by thinking about pei ming, an asshole who sucks (affectionate)

three

I have really been on a hell of a handcrafting kick of late. SOMEDAY I will get back to personal web dev! that's also a very exciting form of crafting!

four

sorting through a recentish batch of bird photography I did, and gosh did you know birds are SO cute and photography is SO fun?! I'm verklempt

five

Every time I watch a Sally Pointer video I get so fired up to do crafting! Her latest video is on a type of nalbinding, a technique working cordage into a bag or basket which has been used across the world and throughout history, back to the paleolithic era.

In this video she shows you how to make cordage from scratch, from whatever fibres you have available, and gives tips on what kind of fibre you might be able to easily access that's good for this kind of work.

Then she shows how to use the cordage to work both the single loop and the loop and twist variants on nalbinding, and walks you through how to use these methods to make a bag.

She demonstrates how simple they are to do, how adaptable to doing whatever it is you want with it, and how it's great to just do what feels right to you instead of following a rigid pattern. Perfection not required.

I really want to make myself a netted bag using this method now. And other useful "holding things" devices!

I was sick with a cold and lost the energy for hanging out on dw....but I'm back, feeling myself again! and trying to catch up!

one

It's love meme season again!

✨ holiday love meme 2024 ✨
my thread here

two

my household has two printers.

printer one: a fancy modern printer that came with an ink subscription you can't opt out of. you get 10 pages per month included; beyond that you pay per page. great for easily printing one-off forms you need in a hurry! terrible if you want to print anything of length.

printer two: an elderly laser printer that does single-side b&w printing only, but is very reliable and easy to use, once you're going. however its print driver doesn't work on modern computers so I have to boot up my 7 year old laptop that takes approximately forever to do the simplest of tasks, and laboriously convince it that it wants to download my documents, open them, and print them.

you see my problem, as a hobbyist bookbinder and as a frugal sewist who collects free online pdf clothes patterns!

three

the framing of certain kinds of stories as being interested in getting people in cahoots with each other struck me so hard from one of the early 8 days of dwj podcast episodes.....like yes. yes. that is SO one of the things I love in stories! and dwj does it so well!

I am going to be talking about characters being "in cahoots" forever now fyi

and I've been thinking about how more romance stories need to make the romantic leads be in cahoots with each other tbh. show me how they work together to a common goal!

four

weight talk, no numbers

a pants alteration project I recently completed was one to increase the size of an old pair of pants that had gotten unwearably tight a couple years ago, to make them a useable part of my wardrobe again

and the funny thing is, these pants have had alteration from me before.....when I had taken in the original waistband by a bunch of inches to make them fit how skinny I was, once upon a time. those waistband tucks were taken back out again years ago, but I can still see the marks of where those seam lines used to be. and now I am adding panels of fabric to make the pants even bigger!

I've worked to be at peace with my body and I'm not even upset at the thought of how much bigger I am now than I used to be, but it's wild to spend time working with this very physical reminder of the time in my life when I thought it was important to spend energy on Watching My Weight

five

did you know you can just MAKE things. I'm all 😍 every time!

here's a link to a pic of the little coiled basket I recently made out of fabric scraps!

of course the shaping of the basket is not perfectly smooth and even and symmetrical, but that's to be expected; this is the first time I've made a basket of this type. it takes practice for hands and eyes to learn! and I have learned things, and also have a cute little basket to show for it .

six

I'm amazed it isn't a common plot in post-canon mdzs fics to draw on the deliberately hanging thread of people's interest in the tiger seal, and the idea that they can get it from the nieyao coffin

like. here's a passage from mdzs ch 13, wangxian part three:

Suddenly, he heard a young man’s voice. “Then is the Tiger Seal really inside the coffin?”

A cloud of silence fell over the wine shop. A moment later, someone answered, “Who knows? Perhaps. What could Jin Guangyao have done with the Tiger Seal except for carrying it on him?”

“But there’s no way of telling. Didn’t they say the Seal’s become just a piece of scrap iron? There’s no use for it anymore.”

The boy sat alone at a table, holding a sword in his arms. “Is the coffin really firm enough? What would happen if someone wants to see if the Tiger Seal is inside or not?”

Immediately, someone raised his voice. “Who’d dare?”

“The Qinghe Nie Sect, the Gusu Lan Sect, and the Yunmeng Jiang Sect all sent people to guard the cemetery. Who in the world would have the guts to do it?”

Everyone expressed their agreement. The boy didn’t speak up again. He took the teacup from his table and sipped, as though he gave up on his idea. Yet, his eyes hadn’t changed at all.

Wei Wuxian had seen those types of eyes on many faces. And he knew that this definitely wouldn’t be the last time he saw them.

that tiger seal is hungered for. people ARE going to be digging up nieyao coffin and releasing angry spirits before that 100 years are up! and that would be so interesting to explore in a fic, if you are looking for a plot backdrop for whatever ship you're writing! and I for one would love to read a million of those fics.

one

I'm enjoying the thought that if a person reads any one of my fics from the last few years, yeah there's probably something birdy mentioned or present but it doesn't have undue narrative attention. but if a person reads a bunch of my fics, well, a suspicion will have to arise that it's a bit weird for birds to keep on coming up and being relevant like this in so many fics!

two

the problem with bookbinding is the steps that involve "let your project sit for hours to days while glue dries or paper flattens"

what do you mean I can't just hyperfocus and push through from start to finish in one inadvisable go

three

I've been thinking about the idea of formative fiction, and it's a concept I have always struggled with because like....how do you tell if a book or movie or whatever was actually formative, in that it contributed to forming you?

sometimes media has been obviously formative to me in that the wider experiences I had around a book did have noticeable effects on my life -- for example, how other people reacted to me reading it, or the experience of engaging with other fans of it.

or sometimes my enjoyment of a piece of media or engagement with it was reflective of other pre-existing formative influences in my life, in that I was only exposed to that media or predisposed to enjoy the things it's doing because of aspects of the environment I grew up in

or sometimes a piece of media took up an outsized amount of my attention and interest, or was particularly compelling to me on a visceral level from a young age, and which points to themes which continue to be a presence in the narratives I enjoy engaging with. but that doesn't mean the piece of media caused me to be interested in the theme, since it might have been speaking to an interest which was already within me. and it doesn't even mean that piece of media is was what made me realise I was interested in the theme?

so I'm really not sure I can say that any particular piece of media was specifically formative to me!

four

recently I was reading a short story that said something intended to be weighted with meaning about the hollowness and frailty of bird bones....I was immediately like: bird bones are thin and hollow but strong for their size! they are dense and they have a better mass to strength ratio than mammal bones! your metaphoric resonances are wrong!

one

people supporting each other. is good. ❤️ each of us in our own ways, with our own skills and capacities, being here for each other and our communities. we were doing it before, and we go on. no matter what.

two

sometimes.....it's 11pm and you are irresistibly taken by the need to fix a drawer in your craft room storage cabinet.

I did it! the bottom is no longer falling out of the drawer, and as a bonus the whole drawer is better squared and fits better into the cabinet!

very satisfying, and also, this kind of thing is why I can never manage to go to bed in good time

three

thinking about hua cheng spending 800 years knowing with a deep certainty that he is Sexually Into Men (well, Man. God. you know.)

and then when he finally manages to find xie lian after the third ascension.... xie lian has transed her gender. and hua cheng suddenly knows with a deep certainty that he is Sexually Into Women.

four

I remember my young naive teenage self who believed that sewing is the majority of what you do when you are sewing

five

I have learned how to use krita to crop photos! no longer do I need to download camera pics onto my computer with an sd card reader, email them to myself, download them from email onto my phone, use snapseed to crop them, email them back to myself, and download the new cropped pics onto my computer 😅

next: learning to use krita to alter brightness, contrast, and tint/warmth. then almost everything I use snapseed for will be something I can do on my computer!

(having used the krita user manual to learn cropping, I wouldn't say that their documentation is written with peak clarity, but I got there in the end at least. the user manual is not helpful on the other stuff though. it tells you what the possibilities are! it doesn't actually explain to you how to do anything with the tools available.)

one

whenever I work on a sewing project that involves a lot of piecing scraps of fabric together in order to achieve the necessary size/shape of pattern pieces, I think to myself "piecing is period" thanks to bernadette banner. even though nothing I'm making is particularly period!

two

kinglets might be a load-bearing portion of my mental health rn and you know, I'm so valid for that. they're such perfect birbs

three

recently I was listening to a library & archives canada podcast episode about a collection of hebraica and judaica, and the collection manager was talking about a particular volume that was written out by hand by a non-expert in the 18th century, in the context of a village that didn't have access to a printing press

and the collection manager said he can't imagine what it would be like to want a book so much that you would take the time to write out the whole thing by hand in the evenings after your full day of work

and meanwhile I was like. when you were describing this book, my first reaction was that I want to try writing out a whole book by hand!! it sounds fun! and I don't even have the context of that being my only way to be able to have that book!

four

it's funny being in fandoms (danmei!) where the canon is horny enough that I actually do not read most of my blorbos as asexual. I have spent most of my fannish life casually accidentally assuming everyone's ace because there's no canon to explicitly contradict it. sure they love each other, but sex?? why would they want that?

but now. like. the sexual attraction and interest is right there on the page! in detail! so obviously it makes sense to write fic about it. even if, the whole time, I seem to have internalised it as merely one of the weird quirks of these particular characters, lol

(It just seems so fake to me that most people are allosexual!)

five

I need to learn not to gasp in delight and whisper "oh! hi there, friend!!!" when I see a cool bird near me that I wasn't expecting lol. birds tend not to like that!

six

thinking this morning about an SVSSS fic I wrote where a background character is wearing yellow....evidence that PIDW is set prior to the Tang era and the development of sumptuary laws proscribing the wearing of yellow for commoners? or evidence that airplane wasn't thinking very hard about sumptuary laws when he was writing? (or both? :P)

one

it's wild to me every time I learn something new about the way the brain and body are connected. what do you mean my emotional state can affect my experience of temperature??? that sounds fake!

two

current state of my wip: I'm writing sexy ear-licking. the things that the cumplane ship makes you do! 😅

though also, I will admit, I take a certain pleasure from writing sexy scenes that have different priorities and foci than the standard sexual acts featured in fanfic

three

ok having a computery friend explain to me what docker is has been FAR more successful at making me understand what docker is than any web search I've done. and it's much less intimidating to think about learning to understand how I'm using it with linkding now that I understand what kind of thing docker is!

the thing about so much tech info available online is that it assumes that if you're reading it you already have a grasp of the vocabulary and a sense of how backend computer systems work...

four

can't believe how many years I went without knowing that you can have different sewing feet for different purposes. sewing zippers on is so much easier with a zipper foot, for example! and last year when I got an even-feed foot for my modern sewing machine it was revolutionary for certain types of projects.

five

so glad

rigormorphis introduced me to wordhippo earlier this year. an actually good thesaurus site/app! what do you mean I don't need to card through the fluff of my brain to find the word I'm trying to remember, and I can just look up words in the semantic vicinity to find it!

(of course it still doesn't help when what my brain is providing is words in the phonic vicinity of the one I'm trying to remember, but nothing's perfect)

one

As of three days ago I have reached a milestone on my ao3 account: I have broken 100,000 words of fanfiction shared with the world! with a total posted wordcount of 101,640. that's so many words?

so far this year I have posted 26,711 words of fic to ao3. I have had an ao3 account for fifteen years, so more than a quarter of my wordcount has been posted within the last eight months

This is the year I am THRIVING as a writer!

two

on saturday morning I went to the further away farmers market that has better selection. I went with the intention just to get a bushel each of peaches and tomatoes to can.....but there was SO much beautiful produce you see.

so I came home with:
- 1 bushel peaches
- 1 bushel tomatoes
- 1/2 bushel lodi apples (for applesauce)
- 1/2 bushel eggplants (to roast and freeze)
- 3 dozen ears of corn (to blanch and freeze)

and then have spent pretty much every waking moment since then working on getting all that done and dealt with. but other than washing down and storing away the jars, the labours are now done!

for now.

this won't be the last market trip of the season. [foreboding music plays.]

three

looking at the quilt design for last year's quilt, the one I made for Housemate Baby, the plan for this year's quilt for the approaching Nibling Baby is really next level! and last year's was a lot of work!

well I will be learning new skills and increasing my experience

last year I learned about half-square triangles, and how to more or less sew things together so that corners are close to touching, and how to machine-quilt the layers together

this year I will learn about strip piecing, and sewing angles that aren't 90° or 45°

maybe the next important baby in my life will have me learning paper piecing??

one.

we have lightning bugs in our backyard again this year! it feels so magical to me; I may have cried a few happy tears about it when I watched them the other night in the falling dusk

still feels weird to me though that everyone around here calls them fireflies - the last time they were a normal part of my life, I was a kid in a very different region than where I currently live, and lightning bugs is what everyone called them! it feels so much more cozy and homey to me; fireflies sounds very, like, the ten-dollar word you pull out for poetry

two.

sparkly brain: reading fic that makes you kick your feet in delight

exploding galaxy brain: writing fic that makes you kick your feet in delight

three.

I'm so glad that loving birds has unlocked within me the ability to find things cute

there are so many cute things in this world, it turns out!

(but birds are the cutest)

four.

me like how many different reading groups can one person be in 😅

- weekly orv/umineko book club

- weekly mdzs book club

- monthly chinese history paper club

- weekly tgcf read-along (yes I'm very behind)

- new addition, fortnightly yaoi studies reading group!

thinking back to the younger me who was desperate for a book club, but the only book clubs I could find were of people my parents' age reading Literary Fiction because reading is supposed to Improve Your Mind and that's how you do it

younger me would be so astonished that current me has so many fun groups to talk with about things we read, things that I WANT to read! current me is endlessly delighted.

five.

considering my fashion choices.....for any of my pants, do I want to add any decorative elements to them? to break up the vast swathe of unpatterned single colour, single texture. I'm thinking like how the edwardians used insertion lace, but just on top of the body fabric rather than actually splitting the fabric. and not quite as all-in as the edwardians were, lol! and it doesn't necessarily have to be lace, either

pants are just BORING, is the thing, at least until I can source pants-weight fabric in fun patterns and also learn how to sew pants. and adding decorative elements is much faster!

one

WELL I now own an antique tatting shuttle so I guess lace making is something that could be in my future?

owning a tatting shuttle is something that could happen to anyone!

two

dang my dreaming mind went ALL in on creating a classic gothic narrative the other night. big manor house that you run away from as it goes up in flames and everything. good stuff!

three

writing is so cool and fun you guys!!!!

I just am NOT over how writing has become a fun hobby I LIKE TO DO ACTIVELY, instead of writing being something that I liked to /have done/

never would have thought that all those years of making myself write bc I liked to have written would lead me here to this place!!

four

last night I was reading a fic where tea-making and tea-drinking were so well described that I literally went to go reach for a mug of tea next to me. where there was no mug of tea because I had not made tea that evening!

five

the thing about listening to podcasts about birds is that they simultaneously fill me with joy and wonder about all the cool things I learn about birds, and also with despair as it inevitably comes up that so many species are threatened or at risk or in massive decline due to human activities, like climate change and pesticides and invasive species and commercial fishing practices, and so much more. it's heartbreaking!!

one

oh my gosh?! I just learned this week that great blue herons, though they mostly eat fish, will also eat "amphibians, invertebrates, reptiles, mammals, and birds"

here's links to a sequence of three photos of a blue heron eating a least bittern. it's WILD. (content note for these photos for animal death!)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48752517@N08/4461543032/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48752517@N08/4460766121/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48752517@N08/4460766487/

You can also find photos of great blue herons eating crocodiles if you search online for it!

anyway this is why I need to do more reading about very common birds, because there's just so MUCH to know that I won't necessarily pick up from watching the ones I see around me!!

two

finally took the time to figure out how to use my manual guillotine for trimming text blocks for bookbinding; I got it secondhand and it came without a manual.

and it turns out to be remarkably straightforward!

LOVE it.

more bookbinding projects to come!

three

a very important way of conceptualising relationship frameworks for your blorbos: mommy baby tyrant serf

anyway Mei Changsu is determined to be a mommy tyrant but you put him with Lin Chen who can outdo the mommy tyrant in anyone, and Lin Chen wins. mcs does not get to mommy tyrant back at him. and this is why lin chen/mcs is such a fun and funny ship!

four

it's so cool to be able to learn things over time! you start knowing nothing and if you just keep putting effort and energy into the thing then you grow in skills and knowledge! and there's always more to learn, but it doesn't have to be in an intimidating way, it's just like.... the world is out there offering. and you get to explore! you'll never not have the opportunity to experience the joy of seeing yourself grow!

(yes this thought is about birds. but it's also about anything you want it to be about!)

one

I remember years ago, before I got into any cmedia fandom, the first time I attempted to read a fanfic for a cnovel. and the fic had dialogue written in that relatively formal way of speaking to someone in the third person, and I found it so alienating and unnatural a construction that I couldn't even finish the fic! and now...I love it.

I don't know why this just struck me now, but it's funny how much your opinions on something can change just by familiarizing yourself with it

two

red jeans alteration project complete! these jeans were too wide in the waist and too narrow in the thigh. (my thighs are almost universally more magnificent than pants manufacturers know how to accommodate.) I did the following:

1. removed the waistband so I could get some matching fabric from the inner side, to expand the thighs

2. unpicked the back seam and the inner leg seams

3. added the inner waistband fabric into the seams inside the legs, from the top of the seam to my knees

4. sewed up the back seam to take in fabric heading up to the waist

5. sewed the original waistband back on, with a tuck at the back to make up for how the back of the pants were taken in

6. sewed in some sturdy grey fabric scavenged from a dead pair of pants to cover the raw inside of the waistband

7. mended a small hole in the inner thigh

I maintained all the fabric in the seam at the back so that if I ever need to expand my waist again I have room to do that, instead of trimming the seams closely

and they're done! very pleased with myself. the pants work so much better for me now!

three

review of my playing of caesar in zoom theatre Julius Caesar: "please take this with the best possible spirit. I have never wanted to murder you more than in this role."

AWW YEAH I KILLED IT. (and then was killed. :D)

four

I just. need to bring up this quote from mdzs. because I feel like it's a moment that's glossed over FAR too quickly. wwx feeding his own blood to spirits he's called to help him, as a reward for their good work! what the fuck wwx!!!

"Wei Wuxian brushed the finger with the cut near each of their lips as awards. With crimson tongues made of paper, the Nether Brawlers slowly licked the blood beside their lips, as if they truly cherished the delicacy."

five

total eclipse is a totally wild phenomenon, I'm so glad I got to see that, holy shit

and also it's like. if I lived in a time before we knew what was happening, I would absolutely be like, that is a powerful omen portending SOMETHING for sure