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alterkrmn) wrote2025-06-09 10:57 pm
alterkrmn) wrote2025-06-09 10:57 pmCurrently reading/watching/making - Part I
I did many things this week… At least, that’s how it feels. I’ve been so busy with work, but I made progress on my craft project, and that makes me happy. I know I’m not an artist and my skills aren’t out of this world, but embroidery is an activity I really love. I read, finished a series I’d had on hold since December, and caught up on a few others from my list… though not all of them. I also kept up with my Chinese classes, went out for food and drinks with friends on Friday… and yeah, it did feel like I did a lot. There are days when I wish I could do everything, but it’s just not possible. I try not to sacrifice sleep to do everything I want to do, but sometimes my brain is too active and insomnia kicks in, so instead of just tossing and turning in bed, I read or watch stuff, though I try to keep that to a minimum.
But anyway, on to the update.
Currently making
Finished reading
Finished watching
Currently reading
Currently watching
Last weekend, I transferred the pattern onto the fabric. It’s a black cotton fabric that I love. I don’t know why I’m so drawn to dark fabrics, but there’s just something about them… I have some embroideries from almost a decade ago and I made them on black fabric. I think they have a certain charm. Maybe one of these days I’ll post pictures of them here. And last year, I made a gift for an event here on Dreamwidth… also using black fabric.
But before actually starting to embroider, I remembered there are some DMC threads that would be perfect for this project (on black fabric, though I think they’d look good on colored fabric too) and went looking for them. I found an online craft store in my country that sells them individually and was about to buy them (they’re in my cart), but before doing so, I wanted to check a local craft store that carries DMC threads, just in case, by some miracle, they had them. Since I was out on Friday anyway, I stopped by, but unfortunately, they didn’t have the specific series I wanted. So I’ll have to order them online… after payday.
Since they didn’t have what I needed, I bought some satin threads instead and started embroidering over the weekend. It’s still a test run, but at least I have a clearer idea of how I want the final project to look. Hopefully, I can pull it off, haha. I’ll share a photo of my progress… for accountability. I think I need to change the font of the text I want to add and maybe increase the size a bit, too.
Working on the embroidery let me finish (well, mostly listen to) El secreto del río, since it’s a Mexican series and I could follow along without needing to watch every second. The show is set in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and follows two childhood friends who share a dark secret. SPOILER! *One of them is muxe, and the series also touches on muxe life.* I’ll admit, one reason I paused it was because it deals with transphobic violence, and I wasn’t in the best mental space to watch it without feeling triggered. There are painful and difficult moments, but in the end, I really liked it.
After finishing the series, I embroidered while listening to music playing through my beloved headphones: the Yuri on Ice OST, of course. No, the obsession hasn’t ended 😀
Ahhh, SVSSS Vol. 2 was so fun. There were some really interesting and hilarious moments. Well, at least I found them hilarious. SPOILERS! *I loved the reveal of Luo Binghe sleeping with Shen Qingqiu’s corpse when he thought his shizun was dead and was trying everything to bring him back… meanwhile, Shen Qingqiu was already inhabiting his magical mushroom body. Luo Binghe is unhinged, but ridiculously sentimental (affectionate, I love a weirdo) when it comes to his shizun. I’ll admit, that passage gave me ideas. I imagined Luo Binghe dressing and undressing Shen Qingqiu’s lifeless body in different outfits like a doll, combing his hair, being absurdly gentle and careful, even talking to him (kinda like Hable con ella).* I don’t know, those thoughts made me want to read fics about it, but I haven’t gotten around to searching for something that fits what I want… As for writing it myself? Please, I haven’t even written MDZS fic… and I do have ideas sometimes. But anyway, I finished Vol. 2 and already started Vol. 3. Maybe I’m regaining some of my reading stamina? Who knows… but my need to know what happens next is strong, and that always motivates me, haha.
I’m almost caught up with Winter Begonia again, and that makes me so happy. But oh gods… the last seven? eight? episodes have destroyed me. It’s such a wonderful series, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about the novel it’s adapted from. But beyond that… The visuals? The acting? Love it. I adore Shang Xirui more with each episode. I’d also love to embroider fanart of this series someday. There’s one of Shang Xirui’s opera costumes (not one of the more intricate ones) that I loved, and I think it’d make a beautiful piece.
I thought I’d have enough energy to finish this whole post, but I overestimated myself… my eyes are closing. I’ll write the rest tomorrow in a second part.
But anyway, on to the update.
Currently making
- Not-so-secret craft project – Yuri on Ice test for a future triptych…
Finished reading
- SVSSS Vol. 2
Finished watching
- El secreto del río (Mexican drama) – 8 episodes
Currently reading
- SVSSS Vol. 3 – Chapter 15
Currently watching
- Winter Begonia (Chinese drama) – Weekly, weekends – 33/49 episodes
- My Stubborn (Thai BL drama) – Weekly, Sundays – 8/12 episodes
- Boys in Love (Thai BL drama) – Weekly, Sundays – 7/12 episodes
- The Ex-Morning (Thai BL drama) – Weekly, Thursdays – 3/10 episodes
- Break Up Service (Thai drama) – Weekly, Mondays – 9/12 episodes
- Leap Day (Thai drama) – Weekly, Tuesdays – 8/12 episodes
- The Bangkok Boy (Thai BL drama) – Weekly, Saturdays – 2/12 episodes
- Perfect 10 Liners (Thai BL drama) - No schedule - 4/24 episodes
Last weekend, I transferred the pattern onto the fabric. It’s a black cotton fabric that I love. I don’t know why I’m so drawn to dark fabrics, but there’s just something about them… I have some embroideries from almost a decade ago and I made them on black fabric. I think they have a certain charm. Maybe one of these days I’ll post pictures of them here. And last year, I made a gift for an event here on Dreamwidth… also using black fabric.
But before actually starting to embroider, I remembered there are some DMC threads that would be perfect for this project (on black fabric, though I think they’d look good on colored fabric too) and went looking for them. I found an online craft store in my country that sells them individually and was about to buy them (they’re in my cart), but before doing so, I wanted to check a local craft store that carries DMC threads, just in case, by some miracle, they had them. Since I was out on Friday anyway, I stopped by, but unfortunately, they didn’t have the specific series I wanted. So I’ll have to order them online… after payday.
Since they didn’t have what I needed, I bought some satin threads instead and started embroidering over the weekend. It’s still a test run, but at least I have a clearer idea of how I want the final project to look. Hopefully, I can pull it off, haha. I’ll share a photo of my progress… for accountability. I think I need to change the font of the text I want to add and maybe increase the size a bit, too.
Working on the embroidery let me finish (well, mostly listen to) El secreto del río, since it’s a Mexican series and I could follow along without needing to watch every second. The show is set in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and follows two childhood friends who share a dark secret. SPOILER! *One of them is muxe, and the series also touches on muxe life.* I’ll admit, one reason I paused it was because it deals with transphobic violence, and I wasn’t in the best mental space to watch it without feeling triggered. There are painful and difficult moments, but in the end, I really liked it.
After finishing the series, I embroidered while listening to music playing through my beloved headphones: the Yuri on Ice OST, of course. No, the obsession hasn’t ended 😀
Ahhh, SVSSS Vol. 2 was so fun. There were some really interesting and hilarious moments. Well, at least I found them hilarious. SPOILERS! *I loved the reveal of Luo Binghe sleeping with Shen Qingqiu’s corpse when he thought his shizun was dead and was trying everything to bring him back… meanwhile, Shen Qingqiu was already inhabiting his magical mushroom body. Luo Binghe is unhinged, but ridiculously sentimental (affectionate, I love a weirdo) when it comes to his shizun. I’ll admit, that passage gave me ideas. I imagined Luo Binghe dressing and undressing Shen Qingqiu’s lifeless body in different outfits like a doll, combing his hair, being absurdly gentle and careful, even talking to him (kinda like Hable con ella).* I don’t know, those thoughts made me want to read fics about it, but I haven’t gotten around to searching for something that fits what I want… As for writing it myself? Please, I haven’t even written MDZS fic… and I do have ideas sometimes. But anyway, I finished Vol. 2 and already started Vol. 3. Maybe I’m regaining some of my reading stamina? Who knows… but my need to know what happens next is strong, and that always motivates me, haha.
I’m almost caught up with Winter Begonia again, and that makes me so happy. But oh gods… the last seven? eight? episodes have destroyed me. It’s such a wonderful series, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about the novel it’s adapted from. But beyond that… The visuals? The acting? Love it. I adore Shang Xirui more with each episode. I’d also love to embroider fanart of this series someday. There’s one of Shang Xirui’s opera costumes (not one of the more intricate ones) that I loved, and I think it’d make a beautiful piece.
I thought I’d have enough energy to finish this whole post, but I overestimated myself… my eyes are closing. I’ll write the rest tomorrow in a second part.
Ysabet (umadoshi) wrote2025-06-09 04:10 pm
umadoshi) wrote2025-06-09 04:10 pm
Entry tags:
Weekly proof of life (belated again): sentimentality, reading habits, household things...
Cat Herding: Our beloved Jinksy!bear turned twelve on Saturday. Twelve! He's (by a margin of a good few years) the second-oldest cat I've ever had, and continues to be just the sweetest, softest boy. May he be with us in good health for years to come.
It was also Claudia's birthday, of course, and I always think of her on their birthday. Oh, my darling baby cat.
*The oldest was Jenny, the cat of my childhood who was still with my parents for years after I moved out. She made it to nineteen, most of that time in rock-solid health, and never really forgave me for moving to Toronto and thus straight-up vanishing from her life for months at a time.
Reading: I finished reading Jennifer 8 Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, which remained an interesting read right through, and read Adrian Tchaikovsky's City of Last Chances, which I think is only the second thing of his I've read? (Elder Race is the other one I'm sure of.) Having finished it, I'm in a position that's annoyingly familiar, where I liked the book quite a bit and am curious about what happens next, but am not sure I cared enough that I'll ever actually get around to picking up the sequel.
(The thing where I've almost entirely been reading books I own for years now doesn't really help, where I've often picked up the first book of a trilogy of series or whatever on sale in ebook because I've heard it's good, and then am not sure I'm invested enough to pay full price on the next one when I own literally hundreds of yet-unread books. Feh.)
Watching:scruloose and I are up to date on Murderbot and have seen the first episode of Kingdom season 2.
In the case of the former, I'm skeptical about the nqqvgvba bs n punenpgre jub qbrfa'g nccrne va gur obbxf ng nyy--juvpu V'z abg vaureragyl ntnvafg, tvira gung gur fubj vf pyrneyl vgf bja guvat, naq V'z thrffvat fur'f gurer gb pbairl fbzrguvat gung jbhyq'ir orra gevpxl gb qb gur fnzr jnl va guvf sbezng nf va gur abiryyn. Ohg fur'fnaablvat , naq V'yy cebonoyl xrrc svaqvat ure naablvat jurgure fur vf va snpg freivat jung V pheeragyl guvax vf ure cebonoyr shapgvba (rarzl ntrag znfdhrenqvat nf nyyl) be fbzrguvat zber vagrerfgvat. [ROT13] Guess we'll find out soon!
Working: Thank goodness the manga I'm working right now is (as usual) a fairly easy rewrite and not a tight deadline, because scrounging the mental energy for freelance work has been frustratingly hard recently. I'm almost halfway through my draft and have about a week and a half left with it, so it's fine, but. :/
Weathering/Householding: We've had a lot of gray days and some high-ish temperatures combined with humidity (which I hate), and the air quality, while not remotely as bad as it is in a lot of places, has been fluctuating significantly...and the AC function of the heat pumps is essentially nonfunctional. >.< This is crappy timing, given how much of the time over the last several days has required having the windows closed (and the air purifiers running for good measure, although they don't address some of the nastiness from wildfire smoke). And for bonus fun, while the heat pumps are still under warranty, the company we bought them from went under a few months ago, which complicates things. (I think possibly the main person died. :/)
That said,scruloose made a bunch of calls today and we have reason to hope that someone can come in and take a look at them soon, if that particular company has the parts in stock. And while it's been uncomfortably warm inside some of the time because of this, at least it's not full summer yet. Hopefully we can get things dealt with by the time summer heat arrives in earnest.
And on a purely pleasant note, a couple nights ago we were in a phase of "somehow the air quality is fine outside right now, so we can just open the windows and run fans" while it was pleasantly cool and raining atmospherically and the wind was doing a wonderful job of wafting the smell of the lilacs into the living room.
It was also Claudia's birthday, of course, and I always think of her on their birthday. Oh, my darling baby cat.
*The oldest was Jenny, the cat of my childhood who was still with my parents for years after I moved out. She made it to nineteen, most of that time in rock-solid health, and never really forgave me for moving to Toronto and thus straight-up vanishing from her life for months at a time.
Reading: I finished reading Jennifer 8 Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, which remained an interesting read right through, and read Adrian Tchaikovsky's City of Last Chances, which I think is only the second thing of his I've read? (Elder Race is the other one I'm sure of.) Having finished it, I'm in a position that's annoyingly familiar, where I liked the book quite a bit and am curious about what happens next, but am not sure I cared enough that I'll ever actually get around to picking up the sequel.
(The thing where I've almost entirely been reading books I own for years now doesn't really help, where I've often picked up the first book of a trilogy of series or whatever on sale in ebook because I've heard it's good, and then am not sure I'm invested enough to pay full price on the next one when I own literally hundreds of yet-unread books. Feh.)
Watching:
scruloose and I are up to date on Murderbot and have seen the first episode of Kingdom season 2.In the case of the former, I'm skeptical about the nqqvgvba bs n punenpgre jub qbrfa'g nccrne va gur obbxf ng nyy--juvpu V'z abg vaureragyl ntnvafg, tvira gung gur fubj vf pyrneyl vgf bja guvat, naq V'z thrffvat fur'f gurer gb pbairl fbzrguvat gung jbhyq'ir orra gevpxl gb qb gur fnzr jnl va guvf sbezng nf va gur abiryyn. Ohg fur'f
Working: Thank goodness the manga I'm working right now is (as usual) a fairly easy rewrite and not a tight deadline, because scrounging the mental energy for freelance work has been frustratingly hard recently. I'm almost halfway through my draft and have about a week and a half left with it, so it's fine, but. :/
Weathering/Householding: We've had a lot of gray days and some high-ish temperatures combined with humidity (which I hate), and the air quality, while not remotely as bad as it is in a lot of places, has been fluctuating significantly...and the AC function of the heat pumps is essentially nonfunctional. >.< This is crappy timing, given how much of the time over the last several days has required having the windows closed (and the air purifiers running for good measure, although they don't address some of the nastiness from wildfire smoke). And for bonus fun, while the heat pumps are still under warranty, the company we bought them from went under a few months ago, which complicates things. (I think possibly the main person died. :/)
That said,
scruloose made a bunch of calls today and we have reason to hope that someone can come in and take a look at them soon, if that particular company has the parts in stock. And while it's been uncomfortably warm inside some of the time because of this, at least it's not full summer yet. Hopefully we can get things dealt with by the time summer heat arrives in earnest.And on a purely pleasant note, a couple nights ago we were in a phase of "somehow the air quality is fine outside right now, so we can just open the windows and run fans" while it was pleasantly cool and raining atmospherically and the wind was doing a wonderful job of wafting the smell of the lilacs into the living room.
soph (sophia_sol) wrote2025-06-04 12:06 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2025-06-04 12:06 pmEntry tags:
triumphant return
Since my last non-fic-related update here, there has been.....a lot. A lot going on!
And between all that, it's been harder for me to keep up with dw, which is something that I find I'm only really able to do well when I'm doing well. And then I was SO behind that I was just like.....how do I even come back??
But! Maybe I just need to give myself amnesty. I haven't been keeping up with my dw reading page since early april and that's just gonna be what it's gonna be, and I will be reinvesting myself as of NOW.
And! I am doing a ridic thing to try to do better at handling my dw reading list, so that it isn't so hard for me to keep on top of! See, I really find it easier to keep up with long-form content if I don't feel like I have to commit to reading all posts no matter the length at the time when they're posted, and with dw if like to see what the latest posts are but want to be able to temporarily skip the longer posts when you're going through your reading page, then it's hard to come back later and find them again in the depths of previous pages. So I wanted to be able to add all the journals I follow to my RSS reader. It is technically possible to add someone's journal directly to an RSS reader, but you only see their public posts that way....so now, for ppl I follow, I have subscribed to get emails every time they post, and then (and this is the ridic work-around bit) I have used the newsblur function for adding e-newsletters to rss, to put those emailed post notifications into my RSS feed!
The emails just tell you the post title and tags and author, and don't contain the full text of the post, but I still really think this is a huge step in the right direction for me! RSS is how I am able to keep up with all the tumblrs I follow, and that has been very successful for me for years, so I think the experience will translate to these dw emails-to-rss. I'm very excited for this revolution in my dw experience.
Fingers crossed!
- Trialling a new medication that sapped my energy for doing much other than being anxious for two months straight
- Started a project on doing a bunch of repainting walls and replacing baseboards which spiralled as projects always do and has been taking over so much of my spare time
- Bird migration season, which means any spare time DOES actually need to go towards looking at birds
- Redacted for reasons of not providing too much personally-identifiable information on the public internet, but some other stuff that's also been really time consuming
And between all that, it's been harder for me to keep up with dw, which is something that I find I'm only really able to do well when I'm doing well. And then I was SO behind that I was just like.....how do I even come back??
But! Maybe I just need to give myself amnesty. I haven't been keeping up with my dw reading page since early april and that's just gonna be what it's gonna be, and I will be reinvesting myself as of NOW.
And! I am doing a ridic thing to try to do better at handling my dw reading list, so that it isn't so hard for me to keep on top of! See, I really find it easier to keep up with long-form content if I don't feel like I have to commit to reading all posts no matter the length at the time when they're posted, and with dw if like to see what the latest posts are but want to be able to temporarily skip the longer posts when you're going through your reading page, then it's hard to come back later and find them again in the depths of previous pages. So I wanted to be able to add all the journals I follow to my RSS reader. It is technically possible to add someone's journal directly to an RSS reader, but you only see their public posts that way....so now, for ppl I follow, I have subscribed to get emails every time they post, and then (and this is the ridic work-around bit) I have used the newsblur function for adding e-newsletters to rss, to put those emailed post notifications into my RSS feed!
The emails just tell you the post title and tags and author, and don't contain the full text of the post, but I still really think this is a huge step in the right direction for me! RSS is how I am able to keep up with all the tumblrs I follow, and that has been very successful for me for years, so I think the experience will translate to these dw emails-to-rss. I'm very excited for this revolution in my dw experience.
Fingers crossed!