Welcome to Ginny's Teahouse

What did you recently finish reading?

I just finished As She Ascends, the second Fallen Isles book. I don't know why it took me almost a month to read, as it continued the story quite well. My only excuse is that it was a large physical book, and there was a lot going on.

What are you currently reading?

I'm about halfway through The Masterpiece, by Fiona Davis. At first, I was a bit turned off because early on in the 70s timeline there were hints of a death in the 30s timeline, and that reminded me too muich of why I bounced out of The Dollhouse.

I'm also finally reading Six of Crows. Yes, I know, it's been out for ages and raved about for ages, but I have a lot of books I want to read, and this one finally came up. I'm not doing great with all the talk of indenture/slavery. The Fifth Season is still too much in my mind for me to be okay reading about slavery (y'know, for all that slavery is such a feel good reading subject anyway). Yes, I'm a delicate flower.

Oh yeah, and I just started Damsel on the bus this morning. (One e-book, one audiobook, one physical book. Isn't that how everyone reads?) I rather hate Emery so far. He's got a lot of growing to do. I want to wrap Ama in a sweater and give her tea. Things are not going to go well for her before they get better.

What do you think you'll read next?
I have European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman, by Theodora Goss, as my next e-book, and I'm hoping umadoshi will lend me the next Wayward Children book. *hopeful face*

I have joined nanodownunder in the name of embracing the creative impulses that have been tormenting me for about six weeks now. I might periodically pop up here, too. Maybe. We'll see.

Technically, I think I'm looking for a new drama (Japanese, Korean, I've even loved a Hong Kong drmaa!). When MU was taken down, the communities I got new dramas from dried up, and I don't even know what's out there anymore. Also, I am a particular fussy-pants who generally has to try five or six new dramas before finding one that doesn't make me twitch in horror.

So, if you know of a place to find out about new shows, link me? (Other journals are fine, people who watch/review/rec are fine, or anywhere on the Internet. It's getting pretty desperate.) The only caveat is I need subtitles, either in English or French.

In fact, it's so desperate that I'm considering domestic stuff. (I don't consider domestic stuff inferior; I just prefer Asian dramas because they're contained. You generally know how many episodes it will be. Also, I'm gonna bet that something like Ando Natsu, frex, would never in a million years get made in North America, but I enjoyed it very much.)

That wallet in your back pocket ruins the line of your butt. Do you want that?

The BlackBerry at your side messes with the line of your suit jacket right at your waist. Do you want that?

If you are of a certain embonpoint, your tie should still reach your belt, not where your gut starts to recede.

On the subject of ties, if you're going to be seen on TV, be sure you're not lolling in your chair with your tie off to the side. What's with that? I don't want that.

via karenhealey, If You Liked The Book, You'll Hate The Movie an X-Men First Class AU high school fic. Yeah, I know how that sounds, but wow, I really enjoyed it.

So I don't mind at all that the mail person left the package (of yarn!) in front of my door today. I really don't. What I find perplexing is that it was waiting for me as I was on my way home from the post office to pick up the package (of pre-yarn!) that the mail person wouldn't leave in front of my door the other day (Sunday!). The one I had to get from the post office was smaller, lighter and less valuable. No, before you ask, it didn't require a signature or payment. It's the inconsistency.

In happier news, I have lots of yarn and pre-yarn! Mineallmine!

I have just placed what is becoming my annual Elann order. Two sweaters' worth of yarmz will be heading my way as soon as they pack 'em up and ship 'em out! (You may say something silly like "only two sweaters a year?" but rest assured, I have many many yarn sources.)

It's also becoming pretty much a tradition to say in January that I'm going to knit from stash this year. I start out well, with only a small slip-up or two in the first nine months or so. (There are exceptions: anything for a gift or whatever I need to complement a stash yarn for a project is just fine.) The real problems start as the weather cools and I get needing warm fuzzy comfort. Yeah, in the last three months of 2011, I bought yarn for three cardigans. I did get one of them finished, and the other two are right up there in the queue. But you see how it is.

The new plan is one I found someone else doing: for every amount of yarn from stash I knit, I can buy half that much in new stash. Theoretically, the stash will always reduce. Theoretically. (Also, there's quite a lot of stash to reduce.)

Also also, I "supported" Laughing Rat's "closing my Etsy store for now" sale by buying some spinning slivers. La! (I learned today that worsted spinning [what I do] uses slivers, not roving; roving is for woolen spinning, and the fibres go in every which direction. Who knew? Now I do.)

I've been fighting it. It's winning.

Would demanding that people send cute things even work anymore? Let's try it.

Never mind. It got rambly, and there was an ode to tea, and then there was a question, and my head hurts, and I'M ON VACATION AND STILL SICK AND THIS SUCKS!

Just remember: nouns are nouns and verbs are verbs, and they work so very well together, and sure you can verb a noun, but that weirds language. (In other words, no, happiness is a noun, not a verb. You can say Epictetus said it was a verb, but the only reference I can find to that is a "reinterpreted by" on Twitter, and that ain't contemporary, and that sure as shootin' doesn't give your bullshit meme of wrongness any legitimacy. And that sucks, because I was in the middle of reading a post about being kind to your body with food, a thing I need to work on, and that ambushed me, and there was a 15-minute interruption for a rant that got deleted for being rambly and off-topic and …)

My head hurts. *whine* (At least I don't seem to be feverish. Maybe.)

Wait, there was another thing! When you're defining something, you should define it using an equivalent grammatical unit. IOW, nouns should be defined by nouns and noun phrases, verbs should be defined by verbs and verb phrases. So to say "True happiness is a verb. It is the ongoing, dynamic performance of worthy deeds" is to be not only wrongsauce, it is to define a noun you're claiming isn't a noun by a noun phrase, thus undermining your argument doubly. *nodnod*

[Also, I didn't proofread this because did I mention my head hurts? So maybe there's a grammatical error easter egg for the finding.]

I'm pretty sure a circle of hell is a long line for customs in a carpeted space—if not, it should be. WTF, Pearson?

Now, to try to make it to a reasonable (local) hour without constantly doing the time conversion in my head. Yeah, good luck with that, self.

In happier news, I'm unpacked and have tea. *pleased*