A Song in the Trees

The cat: One of our friends gave us a couple of plastic springs that their cat goes crazy for. It turns out our cat goes crazy for them, too. He has spent so much time batting them around, picking them up to trot around with, and then batting them around some more. No other toy has gotten this kind of reaction out of him. It's really cute!

Games: I picked up a couple of games from the Steam summer sale and have so far only had time to play one of them, KinitoPet. It's a horror game based on Bonzi Buddy, and while the writing was very predictable (Kinito is sooo lonely that he does creepy things to get you to stay with him!), the execution impressed me. There was one section that had me jumping, and while I've seen other horror games that do the 'your computer starts doing creepy [but actually harmless] stuff' thing before, this one pulled it off very well. ...except for when it tried to turn on the webcam my computer doesn't have, lol. I didn't feel like I needed to finish the secret ending (where, presumably, you uninstall him and it is very sad), but it was enjoyable to go through once.

Books: I have not gotten very much reading done lately for various reasons (well, reading of books; I did go on a Morrowind fic binge). But today I finished How to Say Babylon, which is the author's memoir of growing up in poverty in Jamaica in the confines of an increasingly restrictive Rastafarian household cult. This was one of those books where I really liked the first 95% of it, but not so much the last 5% because the arc of the author's escape turns meandering. I know that real life doesn't always make for a nice story arc, but I felt like this could have been written or edited better. There's a part about "and now I had to learn what it was like to be a black woman in America" that felt confusingly misplaced because she had not only gone there multiple times but spent years living there, and then a reconciliation with her extremely abusive father after he attempted to murder her, which was (obviously) extremely traumatic to both her and her younger sister, who witnessed it. And you might think, wow, that sounds interesting, how did she come to reconcile with him after something like that? But there's very little detail given to that reconciliation, especially compared to the account of her attempted murder, so you don't know why she felt okay spending a week alone with him next time she was in Jamaica, or if anything brought her father around beside the crushing loneliness of having his family abandon him.

Which is a shame, because while were a couple of aspects of the first 95% that I didn't care for (she sometimes gets repetitive in her descriptions, and personally I didn't care for the obvious artistic license in some of her memories), it is very compelling and vivid writing and often beautiful, especially when she is describing the environment around her or the metaphors of her internal turmoil. I had to put it down a few times because some of the scenes of her abuse were so haunting. For me, it was also interesting to read because I don't know that much about Jamaica. I would still recommend it even though I found the ending a little disappointing.

Garden: After the disappointment I had last year with my tomatoes - they did not taste any better than store-bought and all died of powdery mildew despite my best efforts - I just planted a bunch of eggplants instead. They have formed some weird patterns on their leaves that worried me some, but they seem to be growing well and making fruit, so I'm leaving them alone for now. I put most of my basil in pots because last year they also died of some sort of disease that I couldn't identify, and they have been providing a lot of leaves. I also grew green onions for the first time this year, and definitely growing them from now, they have so much flavor for no effort.

I sacrificed my wallet to Skate Canada and the ISU to get Worlds tickets for next season. I'm going with my mom :) I remember looking at the prices for the canceled 2020 version and being sad that there was no way I could afford to go, but now that I have my job... it's still a lot of money, but not completely unreasonable anymore. (And the train tickets will be cheap.)

I also contacted my coach to start lessons again now that I think I have my boot issues 90% sorted and my schedule is a little more stable. Possible bonus to the heel bumpers I am using: might help with the blisters I keep getting in my hiking shoes? Z and I are going to test it out on a short trail.

Garden updates:

• The eggplants have finally started to take off a little in the past few days. I remember one year I bought some from the farmer's market and they barely grew for a month with our weather.


• The daikon all bolted instead of growing roots. Ah well, worth a shot, and the greens taste good. And hey, they did way better than the carrots, which are at a 0% success rate. Will try again in the fall.


• It's been interesting watching the tomatoes because they're all planted in the same area and started off fairly similar in size and apparent health, but they've diverged rapidly since going in the ground. Some of the plants have tripled in size already; a couple of them have been slow but have gradually turned greener; one of them has looked limp and sad since transplanting no matter how much or how little it's been watered. It seems to have turned a corner these past couple of days, but I'll keep an eye on it.


• I like slugs, but not when they're munching on my basil :|


• Half my edamame has come up! I replanted the other half in case they don't. Absolutely none of the mizuna has sprouted, though - I was promised it was an easy plant! No idea what happened, so I just threw more seeds in the ground in the hopes that second try's the charm.


• Second round of lemongrass is looking nice and doing quite well. Second round of garlic chives had a zero percent success rate. Ah, well. I have one plant of it that's been growing slowly.


• I'm giving away some extra seedlings to grad students from my former department tomorrow. Hope the plants grow well for them.

🌱:

• Pulled more weeds and repotted the eggplants and tomatoes! They're starting to take off now that the weather is warming up. All the seedlings mostly live outside now except when it gets cold enough at night.


• Daikon are a little bit nibbled-on (not from rabbits) but growing well. There are also at least two carrot sprouts; not sure what percentage of the rest is grass or carrot yet!


• Gave lemongrass a re-try since the one sprout that survived never grew (and then died off a few days later). So far the new ones seem to be doing better. I also tried planting new garlic chives since I'm down to one plant, but no sprouts yet.


• Now that it's nice out, it's very pleasant to sit outside in the evenings and read something.

📚:

• I tried reading The Little Prince since what I'd osmosed made it sound right up my alley and I've heard so many good things about it. Nope; hated it. I dropped it a quarter of the way through. Sorry, I abhor the positioning of creativity and art against math and sciences, and I'm also not here for the idea that adults don't want to hear about flowers and birds, only numbers, even if it's meant to be metaphorical.


• I finished The Life of Milarepa, a Tibetan (at least somewhat fictionalized) biography of a man who goes from great evil to enlightenment during the course of a single lifetime. I... hate to say this, but I can't recommend it unless you are already deeply knowledgeable about Tibetan Buddhism or otherwise have a determined interest in the subject matter.
  
  • The book is in a weird place where it's defining very basic Buddhist concepts like samsara but skips defining many of the more advanced ones. Frankly, some of the definitions that it does contain are unhelpful - not to mention none of them are footnoted. I quickly gave up looking for most definitions because so many of the Tibetan Buddhist phrases, which are thrown at you one after the other in the introductory chapter, weren't defined. If this translation was intended to be readable by a non-specialist audience, most of whom will know even less about Buddhism or Tibet than even I do, I think a Tale of Genji footnote-heavy approach would have been much better.
  
  
  • Because it is a work written for a particular religious sect, a lot of the imagery is not really comprehensible to someone like me, and it goes on at least one dry tangent detailing what work such-and-such disciple of the great Milarepa went on to do.
  
  
  • I did quite enjoy the parts that were more story-like, but they were written distantly at times, so the emotional weight of a traditional story was lacking. In particular, there were many incidents of someone 'receiving the oral teachings' and never details on what basically any of the teachings are - though I wouldn't be surprised if those were sect secrets or something. I did feel super bad for Milarepa in the section where he decides to turn his life around and devote himself to the Buddha, because for a while there, the tale becomes a litany of physical and emotional abuse that ends up being justified as clearing his karma faster. This isn't even 21st-century-American-me's view, the wife of his lama calls the treatment abuse and is constantly trying to help Milarepa because she feels terrible for him. It goes on to the point where he nearly attempts suicide - but because he finally receives the teachings, it's all fine and dandy and his lama is great and amazing, and going through all that made up for his murdering people, yaaay 🥰
  
  
  • The imagery at the very end around Milarepa's funeral was absolutely gorgeous, though.
  
  
  • I also enjoyed reading something in a Tibetan setting, so I'll have to see if I can find something that is a little easier for someone like me who doesn't have a deep religious background.
  
  
• In paper, I've now started on a collection of Henry James stories that I picked up from the same place as Milarepa. I found The Romance of Certain Old Clothes okay, but the ending didn't quite work for me; it wasn't drawn out enough for any sense of creeping dread, but wasn't quick enough for a twist, and it was pretty obvious what was likely to happen. The Last of the Valerii didn't interest me much at all, and even the horror aspect was boring. I wonder if it would have been more horrifying if I was the kind of person who thought that pagan religions were Bad and Evil, but as it is, there's a guy having an overdramatic reaction to a statue he's drawn in by that may or may not contain a little bit of goddess. I was more creeped out by the narrator going on about what the guy's 'Italian blood' meant.


• In electronic reading, I'm about two-thirds of the way through Tsilke the Wild. Not the most exciting story, but I do like Tsilke and the descriptions of the beautiful forest she lives in. The translation's grammar issues and bad paragraph formatting keep putting me off, but it's a free translation and I've seen much worse.


• ...I feel like I'm complaining a lot about these, hah. At least I'm not reading dense philosophical papers like Z is right now.

💬:

• After too many phone calls, it sounds like the ENT's office doesn't think I need to come back for a follow-up, which I'm glad about.


• My new vocal exercises are more interesting than the last set. They're supposed to teach me how to speak in the 'most efficient' manner to lessen the pressure on my vocal cords.

🏃‍♂️:
Z and I went on a short hike a few days ago. Unfortunately, I had issues with my shoes (ended up going barefoot for a bit when we hit a road), but the scenery more than made up for it. We spotted some beavers and blue herons as we walked along a lake surrounded by evergreen forest; there were little purple flowers out along the path, and the ferns are starting to unfurl. At the end of the route, we climbed up to a restored fire tower - nerve-wracking to climb (I kept imagining it collapsing beneath us) - but beautiful view from the top. While we were up there, a flock of geese took off from the lake and flew right along the treetops beneath us, all honking at top volume.

I think the up-and-down weather has confused the poor forsythias - we got flowers on the very ends of some of the branches, and the rest skipped the flowering stage entirely to start developing leaves. So no beautiful row of showy yellow flowers for us this year :(

The seeds I've started are doing well so far, though! I might ask around to see if anyone wants free plants so I don't have to kill off as many of the extras.

Did my taxes a few days early. Spent a day worrying about having to fix something on the HR side of my job because it looked like they had fucked up my taxes. Discovered that it was I who had fucked up my taxes and had to quickly file a revision. (Working remotely has fun tax consequences that vary by state!) It all worked out, though, and next time I'll know what to do the first time around.

Z and I went to the Asian food market because he's decided that he really wants to learn how to cook the best pad thai and we needed supplies for that. I always enjoy picking up a few random things that look good while we're there and trying/figuring out what to do with it later - this time my random snack from the Japanese area was not very good, but I did find nori potato chips, so I'll call it a win. I also bought palm sugar, which I used in one go on a batch of biko, and dried figs, which I like tastewise but not texturewise. I tried making these mead cookies with them, and they were good but not really my favorite, so still figuring out what to do with the rest.

I finished reading Figure Skating: A History juuuust in time to send it back to the library. It was very interesting, but also one of those books where it was hard not to wonder what it would look like if it were written now, twenty years later. Like, I can see why an author in 2003 might have decided to write a book about figure skating, gush over John Curry for a few pages, and yet have absolutely zero mentions of homosexuality or homophobia anywhere in it, but it was very glaring to me reading it now. Ditto to a lesser extent the lack of focus on Asian skaters besides the existence of Midori Ito and Yuka Sato given that they've really become a force since then.

I received a text this morning saying that the place we toured had been rented to someone who got there before us. But then Z texted his landlord to ask if he has any options that are opening up, and he says he'd be willing to rent us the place literally right next door to Z's building!

Downside: much more expensive, though it'd doable even if Z takes a while to find work after graduating
Upside: much more space! big garden!
Downside: it's not the most walkable area for me (I really gotta nail down learning to drive now that the weather is warming up....)
Upside: we'd be the only ones in the building! No loud neighbors, no smoking neighbors, nobody getting bothered by the noise when Z is excitedly yelling with his friends about Battle Bots (well, we might need to close the windows, but nobody on the other side of the floor).

We're getting a tour next week, since I've only been in the living room while visiting some of his friends, but I've seen the garden from his place, and there's so much space. I might've spent a couple of hours today clicking through seeds and daydreaming about having a flat space to plant things on instead of a hill that grows rocks. (Did you know that they sell pink blueberries? And that jewel corn is incredibly pretty? Would burdock really grow here?! So many flowers I could put out front....) The only thing is that I'm not sure how long we'd be living there, so I'm also trying to figure out what the best cost/effort ratio on options for starting a garden are if you don't know if you'll be living there for a year or several years. I always took a very lazy approach here and just, like, dug holes and planted stuff without disturbing the lawn too much.

In other news, Z finally took his ukulele in to the shop to see why its one string was bad. They said the fretboard had warped from moisture, so he got a new ukulele, and he also got a smaller one. He's hoping he'll have an easier time teaching me to play extremely basic songs on that one, since my hands are small and my fingers are short :)

I also just started a new yuri AMV for an old anime nobody has ever heard of. Maybe I'll try submitting it to Con.txt or something this year. The night I started it, I had a very mundane dream about moving clips around in Premiere

The many days of rain have come to an end, and someone finally mowed the lawn here, so I can plant things! I bought my eggplants, a couple of purple basils to replace the other ones that didn't survive separation, and on impulse, a little thing that the seller said was called 'annis hysop'. Annis == anise, so it smells like licorice. Can't wait to try eating it. I am reassured that it grows like any other mint, which means I need to get another pot and more potting soil. Still thinking about also getting cherry tomatoes or something.

In skating, I am now being repeatedly told that I need to skate more aggressively, which, hah. Physical risk-taking does not come that easily to me, but I'm trying to make it happen. (It does help that I can now tie my skates more tightly, so they aren't wiggling on my feet when I stroke, or not much. Now if only the laces would stop loosening.) It's also important because R skates faster than I do, so it makes ice dance lessons more difficult if he always has to set himself to my pace. He says his secret is that he skates out all his anxieties and just gets angry on the ice; maybe I'll start skating faster when I'm ready for my thesis defense, then.

Our coach wants us to test the first dance pattern soon. There are three on the first test, but he said that you can test them at different times. Last week, we tried skating it with music, since we've been getting faster, and better at not accidentally skating into the corner. It was not the best experience, since we were doing the thing with our coach following us with R's phone playing the music while we skated around the public session, and we could barely hear it. I thought it was harder than skating while our coach counted for us, since it seemed so fast; R said he thought it was actually less frantic. We should practice on a freestyle together some time when we can play music over the sound system.

One of the older men who skates regularly told me that my spirals are looking nice :) And he gave me some advice on my spin. All of the regular skaters I've interacted with in my area so far are kind.

Last weekend, Z and I went to go see a recorded Bolshoi ballet in the cinema. I wasn't sure how much he would enjoy it, since he knows even less about ballet than I do (vague childhood memories + Princess Tutu + Yuri on Ice meta = my ballet knowledge), but he seemed to like it. It was a combination of one-act Carmen and Petrushka. I saw the opera version of Carmen some years ago, but had never heard of Petrushka (which they apparently anticipated, because they had summaries of the scenes for that one).

I think I might have enjoyed the ballet Carmen more than the opera Carmen - I did miss the lyrics when Toreador played, but the love triangle I hated so much was easier to stand when it was all dance and no words, haha. The woman dancing as Carmen was charming, though the hand-on-hip posing did get a bit old after a while. (I know it's unfair to compare them for several reasons, but sorry, figure skaters, none of you make half as alluring of a Carmen as a professional dancer.) Did get confused about who the woman in the black pantsuit was, until I looked it up on Wikipedia afterward and saw that she was Fate - I don't think that role existed in the opera? I also enjoyed the male dancers and when they danced together, and the Toreador had a great-looking white costume with black details.

The recording left in the whole of the audience clapping (for a very long time) and the intermission, so we both got up to stretch our legs in the middle.

The women's costumes in Petrushka were nice - the more prominent dancers in the first group had lovely skirts with sharp pleats, made of shot fabric, which gleams different colors depending on how the light hits it. The second group had skirts with rolled pleats, which you don't see every day. The men's costumes, on the other hand, were pretty eh.

My favorite parts were when the dancers for the puppets came out with mannequins attached to them - one in front, one behind, with rods connecting their limbs to those of the dancers, so they made walking motions floating above the ground. Very cool and very creepy. I loved the effect. I also liked watching how the dancers moved so much like puppets brought to life - it's cool to see the different ways people can move.

Z got confused about which man was Petrushka and which one was the Moor, and I had to help him out afterward; though I think the version we saw didn't exactly match the summary we were given, which didn't help. It certainly doesn't match Wikipedia's. I remember being lost about the bit where the ballerina is supposed to be trying to seduce the Moor, for example. (I do remember a scene where Petrushka is watching the Moor dance very suggestively, though.) But it was a fun experience, and I enjoyed it. Maybe we'll go see another one next season.