Week 25: 6/21/2020 - 6/27/2020

I've been fighting a summer cold all week and I'm behind on a couple of things. All the same it was a productive week. 

I've started laying paths in the garden. This time I'm putting pea gravel down and laying edging all around. It's a slow and laborious process but I'm also finding it very satisfying. I keep forgetting to water though which is becoming a problem.

We are set up to start painting the bathroom but I want Thomas out of the house when I treat the walls with a fungicide film which is slowing me down some.

I've now make two different ramen meals (the real stuff and not the horrible instant packs). It's a type of cooking I'm not as practiced in. In a bowl of ramen, there are a number of individual components that must be prepared separately. Each individual component is relatively straight forward and easy to prepare but the difficulty is in having all the components ready at the same time and putting the bowls together. Now that I've done it a couple times, the process feels less intimidating but it's still a juggling act. I have enough of this first batch of base to try another two ramen meals to practice with which is exciting.

For the next week I really want to finish the Little House on the Prairie books and really focus on writing. 

The List:

1. The Science of Good Cooking by Cooks Illustrated (Nonfiction)
2. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
3. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (Non-YA)
4. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (Non-YA)
5. The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller (nonfiction)
6. Seeing the Spectrum by  Robert Rozma (nonfiction)
7. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Finished 6/22/2020)
8. By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
9. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
10. Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
11. These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
12. The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Horror Means the Good Guy Loses

Some things are cultural. In American films and books, the bad guy generally loses. There are exceptions of course, but the bad guy gets caught (or dies) and the monster is vanquished. That's not true of Asian film and literature. 

I noticed it first when watching "The Ring". I've never been so terrified by a ghost story. Here is a story where the characters encounter a ghost and there is literally nothing they can do. They are going to die. Even when they think they've gotten away, they are snatched back...and they die. It's horrifying.

It's true for psychological thrillers too. 

I just finished reading The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong. It's a Korean novel about a young man who wakes up in a pool of blood and can't remember what happened. The entire thing takes place over three days while the protagonist sorts through a persistent case of amnesia and the body count rises. 

It's a quick read and it's not more gory than other thrillers. The horror factor comes from the "surely not" effect. As in "he won't get away, surely not".  It makes sense. The idea that the bad guy gets caught and punished is very comforting and conversely the bad guy triumphing is more horrifying. It just seems like we pull that particular punch more often and that Asian lit is more willing to go there.

Or may I don't really read enough in the genre. Maybe it's simply what is getting translated and ported over... but it does seem like a trend.

Gravel Under the Surface

One of my (many) projects involves digging out the front strip of "lawn" between the side walk and my garden boxes and turning it into a garden bed....specifically an okra patch. I needed to dig out the old paths in order to reset them so I thought, why not dig out the bed at the same time. Everything was going well until I got close to the crepe myrtle. Suddenly, every shovel stab ended about two inches under the surface grinding against stone. Turns out there's a huge patch of gravel out there under a thin layer of dirt and weeds. Ryan thinks its the remnants of old landscaping but I think it's more like driveway gravel. Regardless it's annoying; I can't functionally shovel the stuff and I end up on my knees peeling off sod and sifting out chunks of rock. I haven't really decided what to do about it.

Aside from being annoying, it's a pretty neat metaphor for life. Most of it's easy digging but the rocky patches get in the way. Those rocky patches have to be dealt with some way or other. I could sift out all the little rocks or I could cover it over with my new path which is probably what I'm going to do in this case. (There's too much shade for okra under the crepe myrtle anyway)

There's a lot of gravel in life.

Also, Korean psychological thrillers are really creepy.

Book Binging

I had a slow start to my reading year. My goal is 175 books, but when Covid hit and we all moved to distance learning, I just couldn't, somehow, make myself read. It's no great matter whether I make the goal or not, the goal is for fun and to keep me motivated. So, when I fell behind, I didn't really sweat it. 

In theory, if I were on pace for the goal I'd finish June with 87.5 books on the finished stack. I'm currently sitting at 70 books. It has just occurred to me that it's possible to be back on pace for the mid point. It means reading 17 books in 15 days, but it is possible. It's a silly thought. I shouldn't even really consider it, but part of me really wants to give it a go.

Wouldn't it be cool...

Week 24: 6/14/2020 - 6/20/2020

I read an article about "Book Hangover". It's the feeling of despondency after finishing a good book. Sometimes the feeling is so deep that the idea of picking up another book is unappealing. It's a feeling that I'm pretty familiar with. I think it's probably more applicable to any project. When a book is finished or a project completed, there's this sense of dissatisfaction. It can be tough to get through. And yet, there is always another book and a new project. 

That's my random observation for the day. 

This week's List

1. The Science of Good Cooking by Cooks Illustrated (Nonfiction)
2. What Elephants Know by Eric Dinerstein (Finished 6/14/2020)
3. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
4. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
5. Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
6. Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman (nonfiction)
7. The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong (Finished 6/17/2020)
8. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (Non-YA)
9. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (Non-YA)
10. The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller (nonfiction)
11. The Bone Clock by David Mitchell (Non-YA)
12. The Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman 
13. Seeing the Spectrum by  Robert Rozma (nonfiction)
14. Scrawl by Mark Shulman
15. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Finished 6/15/2020)
16. Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Finished 6/16/2020)

Wonder Woman. . . and pizza

Today, Monday, is the family play-date. We host our niece for the whole day to play with Thomas and then switch over to her house across the neighborhood for a build-your-own pizza night. For the summer, at least, we will do this every Monday. Mostly, the kids take care of themselves. They play and we the adults do other things and occasionally referee disputes.

So, today in my spare time between referee calls I finished building the second replacement garden box. I finished reading Wonder Woman: Warbringer and started reading (for the 18 millionth time) The Andromeda Strain. I also cooked a summer squash soup, vegan pasta salad, and made whole wheat pizza dough. It was a busy, good day. 

Wonder Woman: Warbringer was a surprisingly good read, by the way. Leigh Bardugo did a good job crafting a narrative that made Wonder Woman feel relevant and sympathetic. I remember the character from when I was a kid as distant, oddly perfect, and sterile. The Diana Prince that Bardugo describes is still otherworldly. As a semi-mythical Amazon, she couldn't really be "the girl next door", but she's also a lost teen who desperately feels the need to prove herself as an Amazon. She's insecure and absurdly capable. She's emotionally vulnerable and nearly invulnerable to bullets. She's a study in contrasts and it works for the character. 

Despite a prohibition from bringing mortals to the Amazon's immortal island of Themyscira, Diana dives into the ocean to rescue Alia Keralis after watching her ship explode from shore. She brings her back to the island, which causes all kinds of problems and launches her into the real world to avert a mythological crisis. It turns out Alia is the many times great granddaughter of Helen of Troy who was herself the daughter of Nemesis (according to this) and is a catalyst for global strife called the warbringer. People want Alia dead, but Diana thinks she can save her and possibly earn herself a proper place among the Amazons. 

Huzzah.

It was a surprisingly fun read. Maybe it was my mood, but I found myself engrossed in the narrative. The blend of greek mythology and super hero narrative was engaging.

Week 23 6/7/2020 - 6/13/2020

Another busy week. It's strange how busy breaks can be. There is always so much stuff to do and it gets exhausting. I've been averaging about five books a week which is a pretty good rate. The gardening is continuing at a good clip too but it really seems like I'm having much bigger issues with insects this year. I'm digging up and replacing my two oldest garden boxes. When we dug up the second box, we found a snake nest. There were three DeKay's Brown snakes coiled up together in a little ball. Thomas was super excited. 

This week's List

1. Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo (Finished 6/8/2020)
2. White Cat by Holly Black
3. The Science of Good Cooking by Cooks Illustrated
4. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton (Finished 6/9/2020)
5. Alex & Eliza by Melissa De La Cruz
6. What Elephants Know by Eric Dinerstein
7. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
8. Ringworld and Other Stories by  Philip Jose Farmer (Non-YA)
9. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
10. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (Non-YA)
11. Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
12. A Time of Angels by Karen Hesse
13. The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong (Non - YA)
14. The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller (nonfiction)
15. Beyonder: A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull
16. The Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman 
17. Seeing the Spectrum by  Robert Rozma (nonfiction)
18. Scrawl by Mark Shulman
19. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
20. Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Victorian Mysteries or Chili?

Cooking is one of those things that takes time and is a labor of love. Many, many people only have the most basic skill in the kitchen. They may love food and love to eat, but that doesn't necessarily extend to preparing the food. Some people learn to cook well as an expression of love for their family. Left to their own devises they'd live on cheese sandwiches and salads, however their families inspire them to provide wholesome food, and so they cook. Some people though, just love the process of it. There is something about cooking that is essentially practical alchemy. It's magic combining ingredients in a way that transforms and elevates them into something new.  

That being said, I spent about half my day today cooking. I made my favorite chili recipe which starts with rendering the fat out of half pound of bacon. Rendering fat isn't something that is really talked about in most modern cookbooks but it's a fairly basic skill, and most home-cooks have done it even if they didn't know what to call it. It's a slow methodical process. It isn't hard, but it can't be rushed without risk of burning what ever you are rendering the fat from. I end up with about half a cup of bacon grease and that is what gives my chili its intense rich flavor. I love the stuff and I love making it.

I also mowed the lawn. Also satisfying.

I'm reading the second book in a series of Victorian mysteries written by Philip Pullman called the Sally Lockhart mysteries. This one involves the spiritualist societies that were so common at the time. I enjoyed the first book in the series (A Ruby in the Smoke) and I have high hopes for this one - The Shadow in the North.

Week 22 5/31/2020 - 6/6/2020

I am behind with the blog. However, I have been amazingly productive over the last five days. In the last five days I rebuilt one of my oldest garden boxes (and incidentally dumped an entire nest of ants down my shirt as the board they were nesting in crumbled in my hands - I look like I have the pox lol). I planted out two boxes and everything is starting to come up wonderfully. I waged war on the cat briar growing up next to the house. I'm not sure I won, but the cat briar didn't either. The exterminators came and evicted all the wood bees and carpenter ants.

Inside the house, I deep cleaned the kitchen floor and organized my dry goods. I just emptied out the freezer, and reorganized it. It turns out that we have about five pounds of sunflower seed and that about a quarter of the space was taken up with various forms of freezer cold packs.  I also reorganized the toy bins...but that is part of a much bigger project.

I also read Stiletto by Daniel O'Malley which is part of an excellent series that I intend to say more about later. It was about 600 pages and was a significant investment of time.

This Week's List:

1. Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo
2. Alex & Eliza by Melissa De La Cruz
3. What Elephants Know by Eric Dinerstein
4. Ringworld and Other Stories by  Philip Jose Farmer (Non-YA)
5. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (Non-YA)
6. The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong (Non - YA)
7. Ghost-Spider: Dog Days Are Over by Seanan McGuire (Finished 6/3/2020)
8. The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller (nonfiction)
9. Stiletto by Daniel O'Malley (Finished 6/2/2020)
10. Spider-Geddon: Covert Ops by Priest (Finished 6/2/2020)
11. The Shadow of the North by Philip Pullman (Finished 6/5/2020)
12. The Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman 
13. Seeing the Spectrum by  Robert Rozma (nonfiction)
14. Little House In the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Finished 6/6/2020)
15. Little House on the Prairie by Laura IngallsWilder