#flutish

thank you!!

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

yes! two debut authors - youtube’s own Lindsay Ellis, who wrote Axiom’s End, and Joy Demorra (aka @thebibliosphere who wrote Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites - both have sequels coming, which i am VERY excited about

21. Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

Did you watch the season? I had to stop fairly early, once I realized where the show was heading. It upset me so much more than I could have imagined from a show I used to love up until a few months ago… :(

2. if you could have saved one TV show from cancellation, which one would it be?

Well, there’s a lot of good shows I’d save from cancellation, but at the moment, it would be One Day at a Time, without thinking twice. That show means so much to me (as a lesbian latinx) and I related so much with it. ODAAT just makes me very happy and I’d give my life to have it back :’(

6. which shows do you think are underrated and need more love?

Ohhh, there’s a lot of shows actually, but here a few that you should all consider to watch and give them some love: One Day at a Time (one of the best comedy shows of this decade), Humans (a really good sci-fi show and Gemma Chan plays one of the main characters), Channel Zero (horror show, better than American Horror Story, in my honest opinion) and Killjoys (another bombastic sci-fi show and Hannah John-Kamen plays the bad-ass protagonist).

22. if you could write your own TV show, what would it be like?

I think it would be a comedy show about the modern geeks and nerds. No, it wouldn’t be a copy of The B*g B*ng Theory, it would actually be better than that. I’d try to make it as much as accurate as possible, by including more characters of color, lgbtqia+, women, etc. We need more accurate representation of geeks on screen, otherwise the average white fanboy would continue to think that only him exists in the world, therefore every piece of geek culture needs to be about him. 

Any chance for some friendship gifsets? :D Dot/Celia, Anne/Phil, Liddy/Bathsheba, I dunno anything else that strikes your fancy! Just some nice friendships in webseries that don’t get enough attention among all the ship-ships.

(The opening of the Rīga railway bridge in 1914, over the Daugava River)

Railway Train in the Night

(by Aspazija, my translation from the Latvian original)

Listen, put your ear to the ground! Can’t you sense the noise: Hissing, hellish, heavy hammering, Coming closer over its earthen bed Like a horde of infernal dogs With their prey of woodpeckers.

Power that streams uncontrollable, Scattering all obstacles, Trampling all before, into the ground! Iron turns, against iron teeth, Steel pulling steel, tapping the gaps, The air woven with blistering steam.

Burning red fire sparks, Two staring eyes, yet unseeing, Threatening danger into the opposing night! This raging beast glaring, Measuring the dark forces, As if casting a deathly radiance.

After it fire flows, Hot streaming lava, Gaseous sparks spin, Over the darkness, light suddenly sprints; An expanse of peace, shattered by terrors, The whole night set tremulous…

Listen, listen! Iron thunders - These are the words of the future! Dwelling in ash and hollow sludge, The dreary clangs hammering, In your heart they sound a rhythm, It is the speaking of your spirit.

Hey! The whistle blows, a shrill squeal, Exultation and a victory cry, Awakens in your ears: Since you also, since you also, Can break your own shackles, This is your moment you are hearing!

- Aspazija (1865-1943)

For the Latvian original...

Meanwhile, here it’s so unseasonably cold that I’m convinced it’s still February and don’t understand what has happened to the weather. I had to wear a COAT the other day. IN MAY. IN THE MIDDLE EAST. It’s due to RAIN later this week. What is time. :( :( :(

What?! That... does not compute...?

For most of March and April, the weather was colder and damper than usual for us, but not quite so out of the ordinary as that. Meanwhile, my cousin in England had a few weeks of abnormally hot, dry weather, so it felt a little like we had swapped climates.

Replies are in reverse chronological order... Also, sorry for not replying to these sooner, but the trip was very busy and hectic!

normallyparenthetical replied to your post “Day 15 in New Zealand: Taieri Gorge Scenic Railway”

Fly well and safely tomorrow!

Thanks!! We flew safely, though catching our connection in Auckland was a really close call due to the delay in our Dunedin-Auckland flight. But the important thing is, we made it home safely, as did all of our luggage.

normallyparenthetical replied to your post “Day 14 in New Zealand: Orokonui Ecosanctuary”

Bingo! It sounds like you've had a wonderful trip.

It really was a fabulous trip! Thanks for following along!

lies replied to your post “Day 13 in New Zealand: Otago Peninsula”

Highly r. to my i.! And that’s fascinating about the F/F albatross pair and the same-sex penguin pairs.

Isn’t it?! And you get these anti-marriage-equality jerks saying same-sex marriage is “unnatural”, yet we see it in nature all the time. And albatrosses are monogamous and usually stay with the same mate until one of them dies. 

normallyparenthetical replied to your post “Day 11 in New Zealand: Christchurch and little blue penguins in...”

Penguins! Also, I really liked the Cardboard Cathedral when I was there in December, and respect the way they really lean into it with the merchandise. I was a ring-in on a Catholic music tour, and most of the other tour participants were much less impressed with the "temporary" building.

Penguins! I love them! 

I am not Catholic (at all), but I was interested to see the Cardboard Cathedral because of having seen the ruined cathedral and ... just conceptually. I thought it worked pretty well. It felt light and ... well, it felt like a real church. 

normallyparenthetical replied to your post “Day 13 in New Zealand: Otago Peninsula”

Albatross!

Albatross! :D I had forgotten all about that sketch.

lies replied to your post “Day 12 in New Zealand: Whitestone Cheese factory, Moeraki Boulders,...”

Also agree that your competent-to-incompetent ratio is impressively high for the day. Another accomplishment: providing ongoing much-appreciated bird-related coverage for the benefit of foolish followers on the other side of the world.

Always happy to provide bird-related content for you, @lies!

scribblinaway replied to your post “Day 12 in New Zealand: Whitestone Cheese factory, Moeraki Boulders,...”

I think driving on the left side of the road is a huge accomplishment!

Thanks! I am proud of myself for this, actually. It is really, really hard to orient oneself to the middle of the road when sitting on the other side of the car.

flutish replied to your post “Day 11 in New Zealand: Christchurch and little blue penguins in...”

You're just going from awesome to awesome! I actually didn't end up stopping in Oamaru at all (drove straight through it!), but I saw little blue penguins outside of Melbourne, which was also pretty cool. Are you going to Dunedin/Otago Peninsula and the yellow-eyed penguins there?

The whole trip was awesome! The itinerary was largely planned with penguins in mind. As you presumably know by now, we did indeed go to Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula to see the yellow-eyed penguins! And it’s so sad how threatened they are. But hopefully something can be done. The local population seems pretty committed to trying to protect them.

amarguerite replied to your post “Day 11 in New Zealand: Christchurch and little blue penguins in...”

Omg that sounds like the most adorable thing

They (the little blue penguins) were so, so cute. 

amarguerite replied to your post “Day 10 in New Zealand: swimming with dolphins!”

That sounds incredible!!!

That was a pretty amazing experience even for me on the boat, and was presumably even more intense for the people who swam with the dolphins. 

flutish replied to your post “Day 10 in New Zealand: swimming with dolphins!”

The swimming really is magical (like honestly, top things I've ever done in my life), but it seems like you got to see a lot of other stuff (mating?!) that the swimmers probably couldn't and honestly, they're just so INVOLVED that just being out there is so fun. <3

Well, once the swimmers were back on board the boat did stay out for a while longer so everyone could get photos and watch the dolphins some more. But I couldn’t possibly have swum; I’m not confident enough in the water or with a snorkel, and that is even aside from the issue of the water being so cold (even in a wetsuit).

lies replied to your post “Day 7 in New Zealand: Marlborough Sounds”

This sounds like an amazing day.

Oh, yes, that day on the boat and islands was terrific. 

flutish replied to your post “Day 6 in New Zealand: ferry to Picton!”

Dolphins!!!

Dolphins! I think those (the ones I briefly saw from the ferry) might’ve been a different kind than the ones we saw later in the trip, but I didn’t get a good enough look to know for sure.

flutish replied to your post “Day 5 in New Zealand: Wellington/conference”

Yay yay all of this sounds lovely and I can't wait to hear about your South Island adventures! <3

They were great!

llamapunk replied to your post “At airport!”

I hope there will be a Sock Review at some point!

So, I brought wool and cotton socks for most of the days, and that turned out to be a good thing, because for a while it was warmer than I was expecting and wool would’ve been too warm, but by the end it was definitely too cold for cotton. So it was good I had both options. 8 pairs did not get worn.

flutish replied to your post “flutish replied to your post “Day 2 in New Zealand: Wellington” ...”

I'm glad you're there too and hope you have a fun rest-of-conference! <3

The conference was good, especially once I had given my talk! Most of the people are not analysing their data in ways I necessarily find interesting or convincing, but the questions they’re asking are compelling. So I was glad I went, though I probably could have made more of an effort at networking. 

camillavirgil replied to your post “Day 2 in New Zealand: Wellington”

Hooray!!!