cloud, star, moon on the hill

Pandemic life
I've been relatively slack about masking lately (supermarket always; other public situations, it depends on how busy it is, how well-ventilated, and what quality of interaction I want to have). So far I've escaped unscathed. *knocks on wood* *tries not to pathologise my low-level tiredness*

Previous poll review
In the Reading speed poll, 55.8% of respondents estimate their reading speed as faster than average, which ha, is probably about right, or maybe on the low side given Dreamwidth's self-selection. One fifth of respondents went for "average", and 23.1% said "it would be faster if my so-called attention span didn't keep dropping out."

In ticky-boxes, raindrops (48.1%) came second to hugs (65.4%), followed by stripes waiting for a cat (44.2%). Thank you for your votes! ♥

Reading
Slowly listening to Borders of Infinity by Bujold, read by Grover Gardner with Andrew, mostly while doing the dishes.

The only thing I've read in text is a beginner story in Chinese about a stray cat who's found a home. It's sliiiightly above the "see Spot run" level, but not much.

Kdramas/Cdramas
We're watching the last two episodes of Miraculous Brothers tonight, and I'm really hoping it'll stick the landing. If it does, I might do a write-up. It's a good show, and I can see it appealing to people who aren't regular Kdrama-watchers too.

Still rewatching Love Scout with Pru. We're nearing the end.

And on my own, I'm watching The First Frost (Cdrama), which is pathologically repressed m/f roommates-to-lovers. Both of them are skittish for reasons, and I'm enjoying every tiny crumb of progress. I'm about halfway through. (Note: the leads are super pretty. There's probably AI-enhancement going on, blah, but I'm (thankfully) mostly oblivious to that and trying not to think about it.)

Other TV
Wow, it's been a month!! Not that we've been watching a huge amount, but still.

We finished Blocco 181 season 1 (gangs, drugs, interracial tension, m/m/f threesome), watched all of The Other Bennett Sister (really excellent! A+!) and The Tourist season 2 (Irish-Australian black comedy about a hitman with amnesia; season 1 is set in small-town Australia, and season 2 is set in Ireland), and have just started season 2 of Blocco 181 (so far plenty of gangs, drugs and interracial tension).

Sitcoms: Dinosaur (Glaswegian woman with autism and her sister), Fisk (socially awkward Australian and her law office), and People of Earth (support group for "alien experiencers," with Wyatt Cenac).

My sister and I are watching White Collar season 1, awwww.

Once we've finished Miraculous Brothers with our friend, I think we're going to try Legends (hapless customs agents vs drug traffickers in 1980s Britain).

Online life
I have five bursting-at-the-seams browser windows open, which is three too many. I'm going to give myself an amnesty and cull them. | Saw on Instagram a reference to Deepstash (socmed with factual content from books instead of AI slop). I think it was in an ad, though, so who knows? Anyone? It's paid, so I couldn't just give it a try. Not that I have time for another platform anyway. I'm already not quite keeping up with Dreamwidth (but almost). *waves to you all*

Writing/making things
I finished a flashfic (of the niche interest variety), and in the week since posting it have written approximately a dozen words of fiction, total. Like, I poked briefly at the "flashfic" I was writing before that, but mostly it's been rewatch comments and political submissions. Basically, writing and I are on a break. (But it's not long till guardian_wishlist, at which point I'll want to get my head back in the game.)

Life/health/mental state things
I got three political submissions in last week. The last one was just four paragraphs of yelling/scolding, but still.

I'm spending infinitely more time on my phone than I did pre-Chinese, and thanking the stars for my stylus. (Against the odds, I haven't lost it, but I did buy a back-up shaped like a pencil and another backup shaped like a ballpoint pen and incorporating a real ballpoint, a flashlight, and an alleged phone stand that doesn't work (but not a digital clock, because this isn't the 1980s) for $3.50 each, just in case.)

House/car
( State of car, storage/organising, and the oven saga continued. )

Language Learning
( Cut for length. )

Goals
One more political submission to go (graaaaar).
Get the oven in this year, and maybe re-carpet the living room(???).
Get my Chinese reading level up to Elementary by my birthday.

Link dump
Video clip from The Sheep Detectives on the nature of God (Tumblr, via a friend) | I'm sure there were other things I was going to put here, but I really want to get this posted.

Good things
Reading in a new-to-me language (magic!). Biking weather. The gradual imposition of order on my house. Andrew, Halle, my sister, my friends. Hope for the upcoming NZ election (it could go either way, so there is room for hope). TV-watching dates. A wealth of Asian media.