This week got away from me somehow. So did a lot of this month. Rabbit, rabbit.
Most of today was spent with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rushthatspeaks, watching Pasolini's La ricotta (1963) as a follow-up to Mamma Roma (1962)—and then trying to look up what Derek Jarman said about it, being intermittently distracted by photographs of Karl Johnson in the process—and discovering that the capsaicin rush produced by an order of garlic chili chicken hearts from DooWee & Rice plus half a dozen of their lime habanero chicken wings is functionally indistinguishable from being high. We went through a lot of water and paper napkins. I can breathe through my nose for the first time in weeks. We also went grocery shopping, but on the whole that was a lot less exciting, although I did learn one can buy a dozen Unreal peanut butter cups at Market Basket for the price of three from Store 18. That's dangerous to know.
Yesterday,derspatchel and I braved the mall crowds at the CambridgeSide Galleria in order to go clothes shopping: we both hate it, so we went together for mutual moral support. I have never been able to walk out of a food court with a sumac chicken roll-up (with extra pickled turnips when I asked for them!) and a bottle of Karoun's yogurt drink before, but evidently that's what Sepal is for. We were standing outside Best Buy when the blackout hit. Rob had just described retail stores as "the dark circus of the soul." The lights flickered and we were plunged into post-apocalypse. Say thank you, Cambridge.
Right, and here is where I should mention that we were clothes shopping because we are leaving next Thursday to spend six days in Orlando. It was becoming inevitable. My stuffed Figment has been living at the foot of Rob's bed ever since I unearthed him from the cedar closet right after Halloween. I haven't been to Disney World since I was eight.
The rest of this post composed of things either I wanted to link earlier this week or was just amused by. Look, there's five of them.
1. I have been following the story of the pigeon's wartime code since Rob sent me a link at the beginning of November. It went to Bletchley; now it's gone to the internet. If the sender used a one-time pad, the information may never be recoverable. I would love to find out it was encrypted with one of Leo Marks' poem-codes.
2. Also courtesy of Dean: this week was Live Like a Stoic Week at University of Exeter. I find the idea of a Stoic revival fascinating. I am now waiting for someone to propose living like a Cynic, which will be a lot less snarky than it sounds from a modern perspective unless everyone involved models themselves after Diogenes.
3. Michael Cisco has posted readings from his latest novel Celebrant (2012), which I heard a chapter from at Readercon and then happily read for myself. It has rabbit girls, Tibetan philosophy, forgetting country, and lead poisoning; it may be my favorite of his novels so far, and that's including the one where the protagonist is a paper-stuffed golem.
4. On the evolution of Lolcats. "It is unknown how the memetic mutation that caused Breadcats (Felis virtualis panis) has any adaptive advantage whatsoever."
5. I had no idea llama font was a thing.
Oh, and have a poem about Shakespeare. I am going to finish re-reading So You Want to Be a Wizard? and go to sleep.
Most of today was spent with
rushthatspeaks, watching Pasolini's La ricotta (1963) as a follow-up to Mamma Roma (1962)—and then trying to look up what Derek Jarman said about it, being intermittently distracted by photographs of Karl Johnson in the process—and discovering that the capsaicin rush produced by an order of garlic chili chicken hearts from DooWee & Rice plus half a dozen of their lime habanero chicken wings is functionally indistinguishable from being high. We went through a lot of water and paper napkins. I can breathe through my nose for the first time in weeks. We also went grocery shopping, but on the whole that was a lot less exciting, although I did learn one can buy a dozen Unreal peanut butter cups at Market Basket for the price of three from Store 18. That's dangerous to know.Yesterday,
derspatchel and I braved the mall crowds at the CambridgeSide Galleria in order to go clothes shopping: we both hate it, so we went together for mutual moral support. I have never been able to walk out of a food court with a sumac chicken roll-up (with extra pickled turnips when I asked for them!) and a bottle of Karoun's yogurt drink before, but evidently that's what Sepal is for. We were standing outside Best Buy when the blackout hit. Rob had just described retail stores as "the dark circus of the soul." The lights flickered and we were plunged into post-apocalypse. Say thank you, Cambridge.Right, and here is where I should mention that we were clothes shopping because we are leaving next Thursday to spend six days in Orlando. It was becoming inevitable. My stuffed Figment has been living at the foot of Rob's bed ever since I unearthed him from the cedar closet right after Halloween. I haven't been to Disney World since I was eight.
The rest of this post composed of things either I wanted to link earlier this week or was just amused by. Look, there's five of them.
1. I have been following the story of the pigeon's wartime code since Rob sent me a link at the beginning of November. It went to Bletchley; now it's gone to the internet. If the sender used a one-time pad, the information may never be recoverable. I would love to find out it was encrypted with one of Leo Marks' poem-codes.
2. Also courtesy of Dean: this week was Live Like a Stoic Week at University of Exeter. I find the idea of a Stoic revival fascinating. I am now waiting for someone to propose living like a Cynic, which will be a lot less snarky than it sounds from a modern perspective unless everyone involved models themselves after Diogenes.
3. Michael Cisco has posted readings from his latest novel Celebrant (2012), which I heard a chapter from at Readercon and then happily read for myself. It has rabbit girls, Tibetan philosophy, forgetting country, and lead poisoning; it may be my favorite of his novels so far, and that's including the one where the protagonist is a paper-stuffed golem.
4. On the evolution of Lolcats. "It is unknown how the memetic mutation that caused Breadcats (Felis virtualis panis) has any adaptive advantage whatsoever."
5. I had no idea llama font was a thing.
Oh, and have a poem about Shakespeare. I am going to finish re-reading So You Want to Be a Wizard? and go to sleep.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
