Many Such Cases

...is slowly driving me mad. I mean this lightheartedly, naturally. However, it is extremely difficult to convince people to listen to the tiny people acting in your headphones.  Especially as the audio medium is more likely to be less constrained and more creative than others, which is absolutely amazing- but how am I meant to explain something like Stellar Firma , nevermind recommend it? This gets doubly hard when talking about audio dramas, because now it's niche AND old. The Bert Coules Sherlock Holmes radio adaptation? Clive Merrison? Anyone??? And it's not like a tv show, or book, or movie where you can pull snippets to terrorize your friends with, as even without context there is a visual for them to absorb. No this is just sound, and for some reason people do not respond well to just sound. Which is fine! I like sounds! It is just, again, making me lose my mind. Not to mention, people don't tend to be very sympathetic when you go 'oH tHeRe'S a MaGnUs ArChIvE...

I love doing the most. When I write, when I sing, when I go out and especially when cook. I kind of sometimes forget this fact when I'm stuck in an undiagnosed mental illness spiral and cooking is just sort of a means of survival- yet another chore to keep a household running. It kinda takes the spark out of everything, and it's especially grueling when you're already hungry. But sometimes you have a little Moment, and you make your flatbread dough from scratch, your refried beans, your mince (this is my dinner tonight). You realize the lettuce you've been fearing for is going to come in beautifully. You Do The Most and you enjoy taking the extra time to knead where you would usually just chuck the whole thing together and call it a day.  Measuring out the spices in individual bowls. Having fun with it. A lot of this does come down to chance. To energy. To a kitchen that was already clean when you got there. But when it does come down, it is very very welcome. This was ...

Having ocs is so fun. It's like trapping yourself in a little box with a whirlpool in it, and then just swirling and swirling and swirling in your stupid, gay little thoughts. Occasionally somebody will pop their head in and you can splash some of your Stupid Water their way and have a grand old time talking about it. Mostly, however, you will be trapped in there by yourself and then go mad for a million years. Anyways, my blog, I can talk into the void about this forever. you, dear reader I have three W.I.P.s at the moment, and they get progressively more niche as they go on. Firstly, my first OCs after years of writing fanfic, is for a project I've titled Without Gentleness for now. It follows a King named Godfrey, his best friend and chamberlain(i think? her role keeps changing) Bartholomea, and Godfrey's nemesis/crush, Wolfgrim. It's essentially a slice of life romance about Wolfgrim's ongoing attempts to assassinate his King, and Godfrey's undying devotion...

Incredibly annoyed about missing a post yesterday. A devil took hold of me and I spent most of the day sleeping, and by the time I came around I was still exhausted.  I had more in depth posting plans for today too, but it feels more like a fanfiction and chill out kind of vibe. I fell out of bed this morning and almost immediately walked to the store, so it might also be a productive one, the Lord willing. I think I'm mostly just stuck in a slight limbo. My father is coming end of this month and then hopefully things should pick up. That, or I miraculously find myself employed soon. On top of all this my hair is bad. Weh.

I deeply underestimated how tired I would be after all this. It's a good tired though- energy expended rather than wasted. Per the previous post, today our friend arrived to pick us up and ferry us into town for an excursion to the Iziko South African Museum , a place me and my sibling have been going to since childhood. We haven't been back in a while and have been near electric to revisit it, along with the Company Gardens that surround it. So naturally once we sorted out the fuckery that was parking we immediately took a turn in the National Library of South Africa . Spontaneous, certainly, but worth it. At least for architecture, as most of the Library isn't open to casual visitors and checking in through security took longer than the tour. And, perhaps, I definitely think we went in the wrong way? Once inside, however, it hardly matters, the central hall is massive and as soon as you pass into it the most amazing hush descends on you, a pressure of history and contemp...

This is essentially me glorifying my inventory because I absolutely will forget to equip it. For you see tomorrow (plans willing) me and the house + friend troop to the Iziko South African Museum (the one by the Company's Garden ) for a day of being massive fucking nerds. Last time we went I entirely forgot to bring my glasses, so now I have been seized by anxiety's quieter cousin. And seeing as I have nothing else to write of today, let's have a silly one. Items as follow: Glasses  bog standard. helps me see the plaques and the squirrels. Jewellery  a recent development, but now i feel naked without it. besides, good to fidget with. Binoculars  gifted to me on my birthday. in case we do take a turn about the Gardens, or if the fossils are particularly high up. Birding Book  just in case. Notebook + Pen  old ass notebook and pen i got for christmas. i'm gonna miss this thing when it kicks the bucket. I.D.  locals get in cheaper hehe. you are not getting a ...

I'm in the process of reading through some Lovecraft stories I've neglected to take up throughout the years. This was supposed to be the subject for today's post, but I started far too late and swiftly realized it was going to warrant a bit more brainpower than could be harnessed in 2-3 hours. Today was another strange haze of half-productivity, rendered at least pleasant by the mere fact that it was significantly colder than the last. One of my neighbours did emerge to scream in the street for about twenty minutes, which was alarming, but else the day passed without incident.  The rest of the Monday is going to pass in this fashion. Reading, some writing if lucky, Minecraft with the boys and then Cadfael to close the evening. If I'm lucky I'll clean my room, and it's pretty gross in there so I do think I will. two little dishtowels napping <3 (they are fully enclosed)

For someone who isn't Christian, and has a complicated relationship with this institution, I sure do love the sub-genre of 'religious figures solving crime'. Father Brown , it's spin-off Sister Boniface Mysteries , and more recently Cadfael .  I'm sure there's more, but these are the ones most often in my watch rotation. I do not mean Christians solving crimes, there is a different flavour to those. Honestly I don't even know what the difference is, and what attracts me to these shows more than others. I know I'm not alone at least- the fandoms for some of these shows prove there is a deficit of Christianity in their audiences (don't ask me what I was doing at the devil's sacrament I beg), and even if it is present they're certainly chill enough to write the things they do. In all honesty this genre feels irreligious. More a consequence of faith than institution, which is merely treated as an exciting backdrop. Not to say these pieces of medi...

My sibling has Minecraft world that all of us in the house live in. It has sprawled into a somewhat bustling little town on the edges of an ocean, which means we are beset by fiendish creatures from both land and sea, but the view is killer. I've exiled myself once from this little village of which my sibling is the mayor because of crimes committed against me by our mutual friend's boyfriend. I've built a wizard tower and a stable, but my crowning achievement is the pet cemetery and the accompanying funeral home. It was just the cemetery for a while, but after expanding into some dirt on the edges of my house, I now have a beautiful reception area and office where I admit my fellow village people to book their beloved animal's funerals with me. We kill our pets a lot, and it's a whole thing when we do. The entire concept is built on dramatics. I quested for snow in the early days of the world and along the way picked up a chicken in my boat. We were to return as he...

I get headaches for the rest of the day when I look at my phone first thing in the morning. I know this about myself, have occasionally taken steps to avoid this, but I don't always manage. Mostly as I have family and doctors alike who reach out to me, and I have a trained instinct to assume the worst, so I'm catapulted awake. All this to say I have had a headache since this morning and have been generally lethargic. There is a permeating heat today, which I think must come internally because it's not that bad today. Summer winds down.  infinitely grateful we snagged a place with a backyard and a tree. i'm definitely seeing the sun more. I'm pretty hungry too, we have very little to eat in the house and due to annoying circumstances it's beginning to shape up that we can only go grocery shopping tomorrow. Another win for lethargy. But I wanted to write something today. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back with energy, and then I'll read something or watch som...

Returning to that collection of ghost stories compiled by Rex Collings (I remembered his name at last), there is another gem in there and that is The Phantom Coach by Amelia B. Edwards. And it was a gem! A breath of fresh, snowy air after a veritable slog of mediocre scares and unwarranted bigotry.  Not to say that The Phantom Coach is particularly spooky, being in fact a really simple story, but there is an atmosphere to it that makes it compelling. A lingering tension and wintry setting makes it a perfect fireside story. Our protagonist is likable if not perhaps a little absent-minded, but never to the point of irritation. Our story follows a man named James Murray, who on a solo hunting trip has made the mistake of staying out too late on a wintry night. Spurred by concern for his wife and his well-being, James sets out on a direction and soon comes across a surly, mysterious man named Jacob, who reluctantly takes James to the house of his employer. Once there and after a brie...

Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) is a really strange movie. I knew this to some extent going in, but I really wasn't prepared for the specific way it was strange. I knew about the whitewashing of Captain Nemo, which will be touched upon (oh trust me). I knew the characterization of our main trio would be off. I even knew that the whole thing would be kind of goofy. In the interest of not going on about this forever and ever, I'm going to organize this...review? Rambling? Into a sort of Pros and Cons list, topped off with some observations that amused me- and trust me, there was plenty amusing. The raw, unfiltered notes app version of my experience watching this can never see the light of day. I do love a good classic Disney book opening. Pro : To get the big one out of the way, the set design and general atmosphere of this movie is gorgeous and that's no exaggeration. There are some shots in this movie that genuinely take my breath away and I can't help...