While out and about at a used book shop helping my mother find a book, I briefly snuck a glance at the sci fi section they had and was extremely mindboggled to see a pristine copy of 2001, and TWO copies of 2010!
I had just recently re-watched both movies with a friend (my mother showed me the first one when I was maybe 9? and I later bothered her to rent out 2010 to see, back when rental movie places were still massive, and when I heard my friend hadn’t seen either we immediately sat down for a back-to-back marathon), and after the re-watch I had wanted to get my hands on the books, but I greatly dislike buying things online, so I sort of had to hope for them to show up beneath my nose… and they did!! A very positive thing for me after a recent couple weeks of very harsh setbacks, so I’m very excited to enjoy the spring weather and read these two while working on my own sci-fi story :]
Rylan: Good reading, now that America is seriously doing what really make great her
(I’m referring to the proceedings at the Cape; fingers crossed and Goodspeed !)
Today I referenced IF at work, in a crowd of people who I’m sure don’t IF. Just because. These things are part of my DNA now, if I don’t blurt out stuff like “A pirate I was meant to be, trim the sails and roam the sea” regardless of the likelihood that people won’t get it, then I’m not me.
In this case, we were talking about brains, and the lack thereof. A colleague said that his current assignemnt had drained him of his, so naturally - naturally - I replied “Your brain is gone. It must be brought. You have a rock.”
This was in a text messaging platform, and my shift ended shortly after, so I don’t know whether there was any reply. It’ll probably be ignored. But I mean, dude, it was right there, on a silver platter. No way I could not do it.
Today I got confirmation that there will be auditions for the Choir of my country’s State Opera Theatre, on June 8/9. I had already been contacted by them to do “reforço do coro” (not sure how this translates; it’s being enganged periodically to bolster up the numbers of the Choir for works which require more people than the Choir has in their permanent numbers), hopefully starting May 4.
I have tried multiple times to get in. This will be yet another one. But every time I am getting closer to my goal of ditching my day job (interpretation; it is gratifying, and the second best thing I could possibly be doing, but I want to be rid of it ASAP) to do what I have been working towards for the past couple of decades: making a living singing Opera. A solo career is a fine dream, but a steady permanent job at the choir of the national opera house is realistic and a complete life game-changer.
I have failed to get in multiple times. This may be another failure. It may not. Regardless: the clock is ticking. My life will change for the infinitely better in a couple of months, or not change at all.
Kinda, maybe. Or trench warfare. Gunfire and gunpowder fill the air, the smell is indescribable, explosions seemingly everywhere, and am officer is barely heard shouting: “Don’t give me that shit, my men are dying over here! We need more tenors! Get that through your thick skull! We’re being massacred! WE NEED MORE TENORS! AND A HANDFUL OF BASSES! WE NEED THEM NOW! NOW! NOW!”
An ocean away seems like an oddly lenient use of almost… granted, that’s thinking on an Earthly scale, on the scale of even just the solar system, the Atlantic might be thinner than a human hair is at a human scale, and at a galactic scale, an Earthly ocean is probably incomprehensibly small and calling Mars almost Earth might not make something thinking at that scale bat an eye.
While the holidays are nearly over and I feel like I completely wasted my time during them, it’s good to look back every now and again and just remember any positive moments you had. The small bits that you’ll remember not because they were interesting or extraorfinary, but simply because they still exist.
I don’t know if I’m making any sense, but it’s positive to me.
Last week, I got an Akai MPX8 to get into finger drumming. I haven’t been able to do any percussion in almost a decade, and it’s wonderful to get back into that.
Something I’m learning quickly, due to joint issues: Do not use the ring finger oh my gawd
Still trying to optimize my layout, but I think I’m finding something quite good!
I found a spider in my room that I’m pretty sure was a bold jumping spider, link to Wikipedia page here, and managed to coax it onto a black tray so I could bring it outside. Tried using a green folder at first, but it seemed scared of the folder because it kept refusing to crawl onto it. Maybe the black tray seemed friendlier because the tray had little nooks in it. I scared it out of its wits getting it to go on the tray and then moving the tray, which is funny because I’m moderately arachnophobic and was leery of getting close to it on a purely instinctual level, even though I had all the power. Reading the Wikipedia page and thinking about their lifespans (about a year) and courting rituals made me feel better about getting close.
It was terrified on the tray when I was taking it outside. It tried to reach the ground using a strand of web, which was funny because for about twenty seconds I was holding a black tray with a spider dangling from it two feet down by an invisible strand of web while hustling downstairs, but then it gave up and pulled itself back up because the ground was too far away and moving too quickly. It definitely thought it was going to die.
Apparently some people keep bold jumping spiders as pets and let their pet spiders crawl on their hands, going off the Youtube videos I found. The Wikipedia page says they can’t really hurt you, and their bite is only mildly painful, so I could’ve tried that, but I wasn’t brave enough to try it.
There was some silk left on the tray afterwards. It’s downright bizarre that spider silk is real and can be made by a real living thing.
Closest encounter I’ve had with a wild animal in some time.
I am a (mostly) reformed arachnophobe and I believe I’ve perfected the catch-and-release technique and have successfully managed to liberate enormous wolf spiders, small centipedes and other critters from my apartment into the wild.
I have two identical clear plastic cups from the soda fountain at the gas station. The important thing to check is that they nest but leave a bit of space between both cups at the bottom. Hold one cup under the critter and knock it in, then nest the other cup carefully so you don’t crush it. This allows me to carry it anywhere securely and safely for the critter and with little fear (although wolf spiders are so strong I can feel them banging around inside trying to escape the cup!). I don’t have to worry about them leaping away in transit or trying to web down or risking a bite so I can deliver them all the way to the tree-line outside my apartment and release them.
The little jumping spiders are really cute though and I usually leave them because they’re often hunting mosquitos and small mayflies that collect on my window screens.
Season 2 of The Pitt has been uploaded to my usual source for audio descriptions and I’ve listened to the first two episodes as well as Dr. Mike’s reactions to those two episodes.
Was trying to practice more proportions, and I tried this trick of drawing a leotard-like thing so I can draw the leg lines coming out of it and hopefully have the legs look better.
I also ended up watching a film I liked, Hollywood Stargirl. And now I’m listening to stoner metal before bed.
Got paid today and managed to stay up until my direct deposit landed so I could get same day delivery for my big grocery order for the month at a decent time. This month’s splurge ended up being stuff to make nachos. Mixed some nacho cheese and glacier ranch tortilla chips(basically store brand Doritos) seasoned my usual helping of pinto beans with bullion and my homemade taco seasoning blend and cooked them in the rice cooker for 80 minutes so most of the water boiled off, topped with shredded fiesta blend cheese, diced bell pepper and onion, sliced black olives and jalapenos, medium salsa, salsa con queso, and a few dollups of sour cream Would have added tomato, but the tomatoes I ordered where out of stock and unsubstituted. And I have enough to make another two batches… though I ended up putting the whole can of black olives after the can opener turned out to be borked and barely made a gap large enough to pry the can open with a butter knife.
