Previous poll reviewsIn the
Space poll, 44.7% went with Douglas Adams ("that's just peanuts to space"), and the other options were pretty evenly split. Books came second to hugs, 57.4% to 70.2%.
In the
Legacy media poll, 82.8% of respondents have a lot of DVDs and access to a DVD or Blu-ray player. Far fewer have cassetts or VHS tapes, and there's only one other person who has Super8/MiniDVD/etc tapes. *high fives* "At this point, it's just a lot of old stuff, help!" garnered 31%. Thank you for your votes! ♥
ReadingA little more
Cetaganda (Bujold, narrated by Grover Gardner), and that's all. I haven't even started the little Chinese grammar book I bought for 99 cents. *hides* (It's not that I don't want to; my attention span is currently not conducive to sitting down and doing one thing.)
Kdramas/CdramasI finished
To My Beloved Thief, which had a slightly draggy ending, but was otherwise a delight. Historical magic realism ftw! It made me want to rewatch the old Hong sisters' version of the Hong Gil-dong story, too (unfortunately, not available in streaming).
Also finished
Absolute Value of Romance, which
spoiler
navigated between the ending I didn't want (teacher/student romance), and the ending I craved (teacher is gay) to find a slightly unsatisfying middle ground. I don't know if Ga Woo-Su was actually oblivious to Ui-Ju's love confession or just ignoring it to avoid the awkwardness of rejecting her outright, but an unnecessary childhood connection and significant "first snow" moment kind of point to them getting together in the future, when a) that would still be completely inappropriate and jeopardise his teaching career, AND b) Ga Woo-Su has previously shown no sign of interest in her at all (imo). He and Yoon Dong-Ju are obviously boyfriends or pining for each other! Why on earth else would he have reacted so weirdly to being the second lead in Ui-Ju's webnovel? (Which, btw, was wildly inappropriate.) Someone please write me slash for this!! (Note to self: tag this post for Yuletide.)So now, in solo-watching, I've started episode 1 of
Hong Gil Dong on my phone (ie, on my exercise machine), and gone back to
The Spirealm (fantasy horror Cdrama) when I'm in front of the TV.
We're still watching
Miraculous Brothers (contemporary thriller, time travel) with a friend at a rate of two episodes per week. The central character is a hot mess with no moral compass but somehow likeable enough that I'm engaged, and the mystery built around a cold case is pretty cool. I'd put it in the same category as
Glitch and
Sisyphus. Hopefully it will delve into the scifi/supernatural aspects more at some point.
Pru came over for some
Love Scout, and even with our erratic viewing schedule, it's completely swoony and great. I think once we're done I'm going to zoom through it again by myself.
Andrew and I watched two episodes of
The Story of Pearl Girl (Netflix Cdrama), but the acting is too melodramatic for him, and I want some humour in my shows, so I think we're calling it.
Other TVWe're halfway through the first season of Italian drama
Blocco 181, which I heard about on
polyamships. It contains a trope I find super stressful
to wit:
leading characters steal drugs from drug dealers, argh, but the three leads are all really charming. Warning for violence and a ton of drug use.
Finished season 1 of Scottish sitcom
Dinosaur, about an autistic woman and her newly engaged sister. It's not laugh-out-loud, but I really like it and am looking forward to season 2.
A bit more
Night Train with Wyatt Cenac on Youtube. Vaguely looking around for a new show, preferably English-language.
Audio entertainmentWriting Excuses, Cross Party Lines, and approximately a billion newbie lessons of ChinesePod. (I feel like I'm fiddling while Rome burns, but oh well.)
Writing/making thingsThis fic is never going to end. I don't even know why I'm writing it anymore. Maybe when we get to
fan_flashworks' amnesty round I'll get some momentum back? /o\
Life/health/mental state thingsMessing around with storage and sorting out stuff. Biking a lot. Battling brain weasels at night. I'm in my mid-fifties, and I don't know what I'm doing with my life. My arms are hanging in there, just.
Language LearningI've been posting Chinese practice sentences, vocab, and occasional observations to
china_shops_kjnl; feel free to follow. * The fact that I can parrot phrases from the podcast into Google Translate and it mostly comes out with the right characters/meaning still feels like magic. * I'm not learning enough characters. (I don't really know how to learn them except through Duolingo? Possibly ChinesePod's character course?) * I have little previous exposure to gamificiation, ergo no immunity, so Duolingo had eaten a big chunk of my life -- and would be gobbling more if my arms were up for it. (Stylus has arrived; shorter than I expected, but a vast improvement over fingers. I might get another, full-size one.) But I think the podcasts are better for listening and pronunciation anyway.
Goals1. Sort out my stuff. Throw some of it away. (Do I want to start in on my books/DVDs? /o\)
2. Learn enough Chinese characters that I can read a graded reader.
3. Get started on the project of replacing my ancient gas oven with an induction hob/electric one.
Good thingsMaking sentences in a new language is really satisfying, and I love noticing grammar patterns and looking them up to see how they work. Podcasts generally. TV-watching-with friends. Walk in the bird sanctuary in the not-quite-rain. Good biking weather forecast for this week. Guardian and the Dreamwidth corner of Guardian fandom. *loves*
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 45
I estimate my fiction reading speed as
View Answersfaster than average
24 (53.3%)
average
10 (22.2%)
slower than average
3 (6.7%)
it would be faster if my so-called attention span didn't keep dropping out
10 (22.2%)
depends on the language (I read fluently in more than one language)
5 (11.1%)
other
1 (2.2%)
ticky-box of 我喜欢在家里休息 (I like to rest at home)
14 (31.1%)
ticky-box full of ever more elaborate breakfasts
13 (28.9%)
ticky-box of a raindrop sliding down a glossy green leaf
20 (44.4%)
ticky-box full of stripes waiting for a cat
18 (40.0%)
ticky-box full of hugs
30 (66.7%)