State of the Krait

[krait]

I think this subject line is the best reason for choosing my username. :D

October seems as good a time as any to climb back on the posting bandwagon! So here I am.

The weather here remains mild, but I shiver in anticipation of colder temps.

The cats are well, although one tried to puke on me this morning. I keep meaning to make a post about them - I even started one, flocked it so I could come back to it with photos, and then never did get back to it - so that can go back on my To Do list.

Fannishly, I'm a bit... stalled? I've been rereading fics from old fandoms, mostly FMA, along with YOI fic, but no new canon has appeared to seize my attention. I really need to make some rec lists for YOI, so that can go on the To Do list, too and give me actual fannish content to post!

Been rereading Foreigner a bit today, and wishing for fic. I really want either Ian/Julio or Ian/Manadgi fic that explores the first contact and the nascent office of Paidhi in more depth (which is to say, any).

Still on Dragon Cave, kind of low-key annoyed by the frequency of releases this year but excited to see what the cute new Pygmy breed will look like, grown up!

Thanks to someone else's post, I now want to make okonomiyaki on Saturday. Will have to go shopping first, though, as I don't think there's a vegetable in the house that isn't a frozen green bean or pea. Nor are there any eggs, and I was thinking about making bread... Really need to finish the ice cream I made the base for last week, too.

Weight loss has been going okay, but with the change in work schedule and the change in weather I'm not able to keep up with my walking. Last week my weight didn't change from the week before, so I've been mulling over ways to maintain my physical activity through the fall and winter. I'm too cheap to pay for gym membership (and I hate exercising indoors; I just won't do it) but I may just have to pay for a gym membership. Alternately, is there any way I can cram a treadmill into some corner of my house? *tilts head curiously* I really don't see where, short of something radical like removing the Useless Giant Bathtub. But it would be nice to be able to do my activity here, with cats and without strangers, and not have to drive somewhere else.

How are all of you, my beautiful reading list?

Comments

[pinesandmaples]

How do you feel about getting an exercise stand for your bike? That's a fun way to buy minimal equipment but still exercise at home during cold months.

[krait]

It comes down to the same problem as a treadmill, really: I have 1200 square feet and it's full! Trying to fit some kind of exercise equipment into my house is a sharp lesson in how little space I have.

I did consider that a stairclimber would at least take up less space than a treadmill, and I think they may have treadmills that kinda... fold up? When not in use, so at least the long walk-on part isn't taking up floorspace when stored? I need to look into more options.

[princessofgeeks]

I should probably try Foreigner again someday. I found it too full of inner thoughts of the characters.

I would like to know what you eat in a typical day. My weight loss is stuck and I'm flailing around for some kind of a change up.

[krait]

You should! Of course, I'm biased because I would die for Bren Cameron. :) It is definitely full of inner thoughts (though there's really only one character's, plus his speculations on others), which I think is kind of a function of Bren's position both politically and narratively.

In-universe, the entire function of Bren's job is to be the only human in a sea of alienness that is different enough to require interpretation and translation. Bren not only has to second-guess every thing he says or does to make sure it won't cause friction with the atevi, he also has to triple-guess when reacting to atevi actions, because there's a fundamental misalignment with human logic than can kill if he missteps. His job is to explain humans to atevi and vice-versa across a dangerous biochemical and emotional gulf.

Narratively speaking, Bren's function is as a fish-out-of-water POV. He's surrounded by aliens with dissimilar instincts and emotions, so to convey this there has to be something that demonstrates the gulf. Bren's attempts to interpret atevi thoughts and motives are part of that, and the inner narratives also demonstrate his aloneness - he can't have someone who serves as a sounding board, because then his isolation and alienation are undermined. The same thing would happen if we changed POV; if you narrate from an atevi mindset, then you lose the intensity of Bren's distance AND the incomprehensibility of his alien company. (I have strong feelings about the introduction of Cajeiri, okay.)

But, uh, anyway! You asked about food!

I will say I am the most boring person when it comes to food; I live alone so I tend to cook one or two dishes on my day off and then eat them till they're gone. Whether that's curried lentils or steak tacos or pasta.

I sometimes joke that I only have one recipe, and it goes like this: put some protein and vegetables in a skillet with some kind of fat and seasoning. In another pot, make some kind of grain. Combine them and eat. :D

That covers everything from chicken stir fry over rice to lamb shawerma in pita to tilapia filets on quinoa, all of which are things I have made in the not-too-distant past. (Except maybe the shawerma? I rarely buy lamb because it's so expensive, but I love it.)

[krait]

More on food:

I am not a big breakfast person. This week I made banana bread muffins, and ate two or three for breakfast each day; but some weeks it's a granola bar or a PBJ sandwich.

I bring my own lunches to work because I'm way too cheap to eat out. This week I had a couple of different options; I made red beans and rice with kielbasa, but it ran out before the end of the week so one day I had cheese & tomato & pepperoni on crackers, and that night I cooked tilapia and green beans for the next day's lunch.

For dinners I've been eating pasta with marinara sauce, except last night when that was gone and I made tilipia (cooked two filets, one for that night and one for the next day's lunch) and then tonight I just had cheese and crackers because I had two homegrown tomatoes in the garden and wanted to eat them before something else did! (Few things are better than Havarti cheese and homegrown tomato on a cracker!)

...Yeah, I have been super lazy about food this week! Next week should be better; I have a huge pork loin I got out of the freezer today, and I'm planning to put it in the crockpot with two jars of salsa verde, frozen bell pepper, and some lime juice and cumin. I absolutely love it over rice or in a tortilla! Since there's so much I may freeze half of it after cooking, or else cut the loin in half and only cook half of it con verde. Maybe I'll rub the other half with Turkish seasoning and sear it in my braising pan, then stick it in the oven... That would probably be good served with naan, which I have in the freezer, and I can saute some green peas in the pan sauce.

I wanna make okonomiyaki, too, as I mentioned in my post, but I'll need to go get several ingredients before I can do that and I hate making grocery trips when I'm still pretty well-stocked. :/

[princessofgeeks]

I love that method of cooking! Thanks.

I read, I believe, most of the first three books and loved the characters and the worldbuilding to bits.

[krait]

Heh, I am glad that my cooking style (if it can be called that; it's more of a cooking lack-of-style) agrees with you. Some people are very precise recipe-followers, but I was raised by a mother whose cooking approach was "read 3 recipes, then figure out your own" and that's generally how I approach it, too. Less enthusiastically, though - my mother genuinely loves to cook, whereas I just want food that is cheap and tasty. :D

Every now and then I'll be Inspired and produce something very specific and fabulous, but most of the time I'm just cooking because That's How Food Happens.

The worldbuilding, especially in the first books, is so great! I STILL crack up at Bren's misinterpretation of Jago & Banichi's relationship! And if you got far enough to reach the 'salad' jokes, that is another favourite bit for me! I just love the trust and the tolerance it implies, beneath the humour.

[extrapenguin]

I am temporarily busy with a project, and then I'll have to figure out what I want to do when I grow up! :P

I've fallen headfirst into a new fandom that's a terrible mix of both ongoing and completed (completed in the original Chinese, WIP in the free online English translation) that has made me double my AO3 total wordcount this year: Modao Zushi. This post of mine has an introduction, in addition to a self-fansubbed fansong involving two minor characters. The fandom has somewhat exploded due to the animated adaptation, fic for which people insist on mistagging with the book's tag... I'm requesting it for Yuletide.

I also took up Chinese, because lol what is free time, who needs it? It's fun. Also sort of soothing? I like learning things and I'm a total teacher's pet.

As for weight loss, I don't know your situation, but I've heard good things about Bodyweight Fitness exercise routines, and googling for "living room workout" might bring you some ideas.

[krait]

Wow, learning Chinese? How cool!

I keep saying to myself that I need to figure out a way to take some classes or otherwise get back into studying the two languages I have some knowledge of, and then not doing it... And I keep toying with the idea of adding another, but again, no action thus far.

I'll check out the routines, thanks! My problem is that my living room (and every room) is far too full... I'm thinking about hiring a professional organiser sometime in the new year, to help me get stuff arranged because obviously I procrastinate too much to do it on my own.

Congrats on the new fandom! Let me just sigh with envy. :) I've actually heard of that one, but not in any detail; it's on my backburner-list of possibilities to look into one day!

[extrapenguin]

I know the feeling re: languages. It's awfully easy to just ... not do anything. I got an e-mail on the [institution] mailing list advertising cheap Chinese classes via the Confucius Institute, so I just signed up on a whim. It's nice to know that at the end of all this, I will be able to read terrible YouTube comments in an all-new language read thoughts and poems and such from over two thousand years ago. There's poetry from the Warring States era in ~200 BC that's survived to the modern day. The time depths are insane.

If your living room is very full, perhaps you can work out by clearing it up? :P Or, well, anything that helps. A professional organizer sounds like a dream.

I did not expect to find a new fandom, but that I did! I hope that you'll enjoy it, should you look into it. :)

[isis]

I recommend just dressing for the weather and going walking anyway! I too hate exercising indoors.

[krait]

It's a good idea in theory, but the problem is just how much I hate the cold. (There's a reason my namesake is a snake!) It is not possible to dress for the cold outside of a spacesuit, as far as I'm concerned. I grew up in a desert and anything below 50 degrees F might as well be the surface of Mars. Nothing Can Live In This Frozen Wasteland, Sending Me Into This Is Murder And I Object, I Am Going To Hibernate Until It's Gone.

(Also, more practically, winter here is usually composed of RAIN RAIN RAIN here have some sun maybe this is over JUST KIDDING MORE RAIN.)

Why can't exercising indoors be something I enjoy? :( It just isn't, though - I've tried it repeatedly, and I just never do it even when I have every intention.

[anotherfmafan]

YAY for old FMA fic! I will admit I read old fic (2003-2008ish) almost exclusively...or I did, before I read every damn RoyxEd fic produced in that period. ^^;
Now I REread them.

Hope the okonomiyaki is delicious!

[krait]

I find myself rereading old stuff more than new stuff, too, for the most part! In part because I'm partial to '03 FMA fic, which flourished in those years before FMAB came out and the manga finished.

The okonomiyaki is pretty delicious! I am okonom-nomnomming it as I type. :D

[anotherfmafan]

Exactly!! Those are precisely the reasons I tend toward fic in that range. I know some good fic for the first anime has been written since then and I really should give it a chance...but I also tend not to enjoy some of the more modern trends in fic (especially types like "wingfic," "omegaverse," etc.) which also sort of limits the field.

[krait]

Oh, yeah, definitely. I'd be sorry for those who like it, but nonetheless if "omegaverse" vanished tomorrow I would not mourn. :/ It's possible I might buy champagne.

I'm so glad I made it to the chat! When is the next one going to be?

[anotherfmafan]

Holy shit late reply is late, but...February 16th!

I hope you can make it to this one, too! <33

[krait]

Late replies are definitely welcome!

I'll do my best to make it! <3

[feuervogel]

I've had this post open in a tab since October, waiting for me to have time to write a comment. HI. I'm still here. Biggest news is I'm getting divorced. Aside from that, grad school continues apace and I'm almost done with that, finally.

I've seen treadmills that can fold up and slide under the bed (https://www.livestrong.com/article/364301-treadmills-that-fit-under-a-bed/) if you have that sort of space.

[krait]

Wow, October? That is dedication. I appreciate it! :D

Condolences on the divorce (or congrats?), but it's good to hear that grad school is progressing well!

I couldn't fit a treadmill under my bed, but just possibly it could fit under the couch??? Hmm. I should get out the measuring tape! Thanks for the link.