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Spring things
May. 18th, 2023 06:23 pm🌱:
📚:
💬:
🏃♂️:
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.
- 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.
