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[personal profile] starandrea
...when did I last post that I had to keep standing up to keep my muscles from stiffening so much I couldn't move, because that's how I feel right now. I fell asleep on the couch and couldn't remember what day it was, but did eventually remember that I'd meant to get some food and that would help, so I fed me and the dog and sat back down. With Daphne curled up in my lap or next to it, I usually wait for her to move first, and she just did, so I got up, and immediately I remembered whenever that was because wow, today was such a day.

Apparently it was last weekend? When I cut back the spirea and potted the cannas: that was only last weekend??

This is honestly one of the biggest reasons I'm posting more, because it's so great to have a journal of stuff I did and learned. It's here and gone so fast, and most of it is delightful (admittedly sometimes more so in the remembering, but that's a feature not a bug). It's so nice to be able to look back and go, oh yeah! I'd forgotten that and it was great, or, I remember that and it was worth it, or, I remember that and I just learned it again for the fifth time, ha ha.

(The other reason is that I did almost all of my posting in Chinese last year, and dreamwidth can't be searched in Chinese, which is not ideal. Tags work in Chinese, but they're not alphabetized (or stroke orderized, or organized by any logical system whatsoever as far as I can tell), so not only do I have to correctly guess what tag I might have used I also have to read my entire tag list to find it. This makes it very hard to find my garden notes on a particular plant or garden. I've been able to find basic stuff like what came up first and when, but what I started and how I cared for it, not so much. So this year I have two journals again. And it's great, because my English journal is much more readable. Half the time I have no idea what I was talking about in Chinese.)

Anyway, my point is twofold: one, I transplanted some blueberry bushes today, and also put some threadleaf coreopsis in with them (probably, idk, it's not really growing yet so I think it was coreopsis?) and now I'm very tired. Shoveling! So hard. And I've forgotten the second point, so.

Oh, it snowed while I was digging, so that was funny. (These are semi-established, dormant blueberry plants, not the sprigs I was potting last night, and the coreopsis overwintered in pots outside, so they should all be fine in the snow and the frost.) I guess I should go bring in the houseplants.

Genuinely do not remember what else I was going to say, but that's typical.

eta houseplant updates and the thing I forgot, which was a mug shaped like an orange )

Weekly proof of life: media intake

Apr. 19th, 2026 03:11 pm
umadoshi: (fangirl (bisty_icons))
[personal profile] umadoshi
(Thank you for the comments on my post yesterday about Claudia. I'll try to respond at least a bit.)

Reading: I finished Rachel Reid's Tough Guy, and then my digital hold on Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shroud came in from the Queens library, so I started in on that. I'm maybe a bit more than halfway through that now? It's interesting and I plan to finish it, but it took a long before I actually got interested, and I mainly kept reading through that chunk because I've enjoyed the handful of Tchaikovsky's other work that I've read quite a lot more than I was enjoying the beginning of this one, so I kept figuring I'd give it a bit longer. I doubt I'll wind up loving it, but I do want to see how things play out.

Watching: [personal profile] scruloose and I have finished everything we were watching! (And glancing at last week's proof-of-life post to see where we were then reminded me to cancel Crave just now, so yay for that. We'll be back eventually, Crave.) "Everything" in this case was the second seasons of OPLA, Frieren, and The Pitt.

My thoughts on Frieren at this point are, I think, more to do with the experience as filtered through its translation, and I'm going to ignore that for now and instead say the most important thing that I can possibly say at the end of that week of TV watching.

And that thing is this: against all odds, the live-action One Piece (which, as I have said countless times aloud and probably at least once here, if not more, should never have worked at all because it's One Piece, FFS) pulled off Chopper. I am floored. I am agog. I am delighted. I am still sort of mumbling "WTF???" about it under my breath once in a while. CHOPPER.

I won't say that he ever feels so natural to me that I forget he's a marvel of technology onscreen, but he works, and the voice is wonderful, and somehow even when I was at my most aware that he's not being performed by an actor in intensive makeup, he felt like...a stuffed animal/puppet brought to life? Not like CG? (Nothing like the plush Luna from the Sailor Moon drama, for the record.) It's incredible work and I love him so much. (I should also note that I haven't watched any making-of material, so all I know about the creation of Chopper is what Naye mentioned about his huge, shiny eyes accurately reflecting what he's looking at.)

As for what I'll/we'll watch next...I still haven't seen past the initially-released chunk of Justice in the Dark, so I'm trying the tactic of seeing if [personal profile] scruloose will watch it with me, which means an excuse to start over and refresh myself on the drama, as opposed to my blurry combination of memories from watching those episodes and from reading the fan translation of the novel ages ago. [personal profile] scruloose is willing to at least give it a shot, so hopefully even if they don't wind up sticking with the show, I'll get some momentum on it.

like you do

Apr. 19th, 2026 02:18 am
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[personal profile] starandrea
We have a lot of dogs around here and they're all great and also sometimes they like to run through the gardens so I fence some of them off. (The gardens, not the dogs.) My neighbor told me about some inexpensive fencing at a big discount store I'd never been to, and that's how I ended up with a backpack to carry my dog in and some new railing planters. Also the reason I was potting bare root blueberries at one in the morning (do those grow? they were in a plastic bag on a shelf and I was like, ima find out) which meant I had everything I needed out so I started my nasturtium seeds too.

This is what happens when I have space for more plants. And also when I don't.

Weekly Chat

Apr. 18th, 2026 01:55 pm
dancing_serpent: (Photos - Zen - Stones & Cherry Blossoms)
[personal profile] dancing_serpent posting in [community profile] c_ent
The weekly chat posts are intended for just that, chatting among each other. What are you currently watching? Reading? What actor/idol are you currently following? What are you looking forward to? Are you busy writing, creating art? Or did you have no time at all for anything, and are bemoaning that fact?

Whatever it is, talk to us about it here. Tell us what you liked or didn't like, and if you want to talk about spoilery things, please hide them under either of these codes:
or
starandrea: (Default)
[personal profile] starandrea
Took today off and worked on the patio. The grass is down, the greenhouses are up, and lights have been strung.

I took before and after pictures but it took all day, so the after picture is literally the patio in the dark.