the ol’ frazzle-dazzle

[x_los]

Having so much trouble focusing today! Did a lot of chores, but still feeling quite behind and at sea on several fronts.

Today I went out grocery shopping and brought Katy and I home a coffee from the gay coffee shop. (It’s got a giant rainbow flag and looks to be staffed entirely by lesbians; if it has a real name, I have not bothered to learn it in five years. We also call it Hipster Bean.) I did an unusually full day of work, given that the government educational fund management contract I’m on is insanely poorly managed and see-saws between ‘slammed’ and ‘nothing to do for weeks on end’. I’ve brought this to many people’s attention, but it turns out you can’t fix a business that doesn’t want to be fixed, and ultimately as a contract employee, these are not my monkeys. I’m considering what I want to do next: another nothing gig like this that allows me time to do other work, or something more vocational, involving monkeys all my own. 

While I did data entry, I listened to the first short story collection in the Anne of Green Gables series—nearly done with it now. I'm also into s3 of “Food Wars” right now, which, for a show entirely about boobs and terrible pedagogy, is weirdly informative about cooking techniques. Learned and played “My City” (the Board Game Arena version) with Katy.

I made a tomato and egg stir fry for lunch and served leftover mushroom risotto from last night for dinner. Fine, but not as good as the last time I made it with jankier substitutions, frustratingly. Went through the mending to see what I could do vs. what I should take to the alterations girl. I don’t trust myself with a zipper. Yes I could look it up and learn, but it’d look not quite professional, and there’s no point in that. 

I bought an Eiderdown on Saleroom, the dealer-facing antique auction site. This will hopefully replace the satin covered one Katy turned out to despise for being satin. SVSSS volume 4 came; as did TGCF 3–it was on sale for £11, but even so I shouldn’t have bought it because it’s taken me months to fight through the sludgy, awful, translation of book 1. Like trying to breathe grits.

Relearned how to cast on and garter stitch more easily than I’d feared I would after a couple years of not knitting. Got a quarter of square 1/16 of this baby blanket done—it’s a start. Katy wavered on whether we should go to Wales to see friends this weekend given that we had colds and made me write them to see if they still felt up to the visit, but they do and so it’s still happening.

Cramming German again before the Munich visit, which I let lapse to work on Spanish. Finding the word order in sentences difficult to detect patterns in. I can’t do the thing some people can where they refer to grammar rules—that’s never worked for me, even in English. (I proof read professionally, or have at times, but it’s entirely based on ear: I couldn’t tell you what I’m doing, I’ve just read enough to know what’s permissible and what isn’t.)

Also did yet another flea comb of all three cats. I hate this process a lot: they’re so mad at me, every day, and they fight it and make it difficult for me to finish quickly and strain and tire themselves. I bathed them with cat shampoo, talked to the vet, switched to a new prescription flea med, am using flea collars and environment spray weekly and combing them daily. Seriously ready for this to be over.

I’m behind on editing the next chapter of “Purely By Accidenr”, the “Faerie Queene” book club and shipping auction lots to myself. I also need to hit this week’s NiF, though I lost some enthusiasm this week because there was this weird conversation in the book club server that was almost an argument over me saying very casually that I would have liked a chengyu footnoted.  Second time this week someone’s wanted to have a fight with me on Discord over like, a just making conversation sort of comment. idk what’s up, whether it’s me or the medium or whether the fact that I’ve had to start hormonal birth control, for the first time ever, in an attempt to regulate the stupid disability has me extremely and unduly in my feelings. Possibly a combo platter.

 

Comments

[lunarriviera]

LIKE TRYING TO BREATHE GRITS, i will never be over this, thank you (and hope the combo platter evens out soon <3)

[x_los]

It is AMAZING how much easier it is to read really competent prose, as anyone who's shared our struggle of grading a student essay where this is not much in evidence can attest.

[lunarriviera]

the shoddy translation quality of most (okay, all) of these newly-in-English danmei is breaking my heart. I didn't want this to be the west's introduction. I WANTED PEVEAR AND VOLOKHONSKY AND I'M GETTING CONSTANCE GARNETT ON HER WORST DAY. if the priest translations are this bad next year i'm going to eat my socks.

[x_los]

Yeah just--industry-standard, I would have groused at slightly, but this is so below that? Really not acceptable.