2022 in Review
2 Jan 2023 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimorene- New to me:
Office work (started September 1st). Of course, all the individual things you do in office work are familiar, because I live on my computer and spent much of my childhood doing home publishing with Microsoft Word and at Kinko's (my dad has been into science fiction fandom, APAs, and small press zines since before I was born, and my mom, an artist, worked as a managing editor for a science journal in the cut-and-paste era of layout when I was in kindergarten and first grade, before she went to grad school and became an art teacher). But office work is still somewhat different, obviously - the pace, and the amount of new incoming things you do mixed up together, and the number of phone calls. I used to be petrified of phone calls. Doing work phone calls isn't the same as having to be yourself on the phone of course, so there's still anxiety, but it's a bit like jumping into cold water and swimming around a bit... in office work there are simply too many of them to focus on anxiety about any one thing; the individual phonecalls vanish from your perception.
Also I'm now 40 years old and in the process of being evaluated for ADHD, which is still novel even though I have read a lot about what to expect in the past.
New tenants! We are no longer new to being landlords, but our previous tenant, the little old lady who was incredibly absent-minded and pretty cool, needed to move to the Big City (Turku - that's a joke) and so we got new tenants last summer. There seems to be a local housing shortage so it was surprisingly quick and easy to get tenants, and we chose our current tenants because they seemed to have the greatest need and the least chance of finding somewhere else to live at the time - they're one of the ~15-20 family groups of Ukrainian refugees in our town, consisting of two sisters in law and their collective four children. Actually one of the women and two of the children recently moved out to another apartment, because they found that the MIL suite in the other side of our house was too cramped for all of those people now that it's cold outside and everybody was going to be inside all the time. They are still over here hanging out together a lot though. They are very sweet. - Milestones:
Our house was finally ready enough to host overnight guests, and in the summer we had Wax's brother and SIL to stay with their two children, and also Wax's favorite aunt, her husband, and one of Wax's cousins and his wife and toddler. A little overwhelming (especially for the bunnies, who are always objects of interest to small children...), but it was nice and we invited everybody back.
We also hosted the family Christmas Eve feast this year just a week ago. A total of 12 people sat in our dining room around Wax's mom's enormous farmhouse table (a BIL had to carry the extra leaf up from the garage and then back out, because it's solid wood). Six of them were sitting on backless stools instead of chairs and everybody ate too much, but it was wonderful.
Also I got around to getting Finnish citizenship. The only strong incentives to do this are the ability to vote in national elections (as a resident you can only vote locally) and the Finnish passport, which WILL be useful if I ever travel inside the EU again. The outcome wasn't really uncertain, but the wait period is long and there's a rather expensive processing fee, so we kept putting it off. No longer! I haven't got around to ordering my new passport though. - Personal Achievements:
I finally finished the Curséd Hoodie Sweater (finished without a hood though).
I overcame my fear of phone calls (at work). - Biggest Fail:
The biggest disaster was so much of our yarn getting eaten by wool moths last summer. This wasn't a personal failing, per se, although in theory it could've been prevented by noticing and taking action sooner. We had to throw away some of our less-worn wool sweaters, including winter merino base layers that were packed away and some of our hand-knit wool socks, and also a bunch of our yarn stash. The stash was probably way too big anyway - we attempted to squeeze it all into the glass-fronted barrister case in our livingroom when we moved into our side of the house, but there were always bits that wouldn't fit. We threw away a lot of yarn with holes in it, emptied the closet and everywhere where fabrics are stored, and everything got either put in the freezer for a week, washed very hot, or baked in the sauna for a few hours to kill moths. Our yarn is now entirely stored in ziploc bags and doesn't even fill the barrister case; our wool garments are in big plastic storage bins.
I guess you could say my biggest fail is that I've accidentally paid stuff into the wrong accounts (the next account up or down on the drop-down list of recipients, that is) three times already at work since September. I saw one of my bosses (the one who hates Bob) start to say "Again? You've got to -" and then visibly realize/remember that my brain is just LIKE THAT and sigh, and a minute later she came by and patted me on the shoulder, which sent me from a mild guilt-anxiety spiral into like, wanting to cry at the human kindness/connection and the fact that other people are so neurotypical and good at communicating with other people that she like... knew what I was thinking and fixed it just by patting me on the shoulder?! Sigh. So anyway. I'm not mad. I'm trying harder to make sure I doublecheck everything. As you may know, having executive dysfunction means that you can't be SURE it will work even if you attempt to doublecheck everything and sometimes even when you DO doublecheck everything. - Illnesses:
There was a cat ear infection scare last summer! (The cats actually don't have ear infections.)
Some cats have naturally gunky/dirty/waxy ears and others don't; some cats have very fine clear earwax naturally and some have dark-colored earwax. Snookums has always had naturally clean ears as a young cat, but he's now 14 years old and his ears have just sort of gotten dirtier looking. Tristana, like the BB before her, naturally has dark earwax. We've never had to clean cat ears regularly before, but I confirmed with the local vet (after a harrowing week of trying to get emergency appointments) that they didn't actually have an infection, just a situation that could lead to infection if the ears remained so dirty. For a while we had to wash the cats' ears both daily with an oil-based ear cleaner, and now it's more like once a week for Tristana, twice a week for Snookums. His ears could stand a bit more than that, but they're sensitive, and he hates it so much.
Last week after he had his teeth cleaned and one pulled, Snookums started to get a gum infection, but he is now on antibiotics and feels better. - Most Excitement:
We are probably/maybe going to get a third cat soon. This is something we've talked about before, because while Tristana was a good solution to make sure Snookums isn't lonely - and we agree he shouldn't be an only cat - she has SO much more energy than him, and we want to take some of the pressure off him by giving her someone else to play with. We've been in discussion for a few months with the breeders we bought Tristana from and might be adopting a young adult cat who is technically her first cousin. He's a very handsome boy, gangly and even larger than Snookums, and a big soft snugglebuddy just like Snookums is, and we're extremely excited. Fingers and toes crossed. - Fandoms, Hobbies, Interests, Ventures:
Wax abruptly got into Roswell: New Mexico late last year and she continued reading that monofannishly for much of this year. The show got cancelled, but I guess the fandom is still going? But I think I have gathered that she mostly rereads the same things that she liked.
I read a lot of Stranger Things fic after the quick blossoming of the new pairing last summer following the airing of series 4. I'm always interested in pairings that spring up like this and I have continued to check back up until now, combing through all the headers and at least partly reading a decent subset of the fiction. The fervor has slowed down somewhat, and the overall quality has also dropped as a lot of the initial people who got into it last summer lost interest - which is usually what happens after a one-off media fandom canon is published, like a summer blockbuster or whatever, that isn't part of an ongoing series. Of course, Stranger Things itself is, but one half of the pairing was already killed off, and that rather badly, so. I wouldn't say this is my fandom, though - I don't sincerely, like, identify with it. I don't really have a fandom now and haven't for some time - just shows that I like, but none of them have fandoms I can really get into either.
Wax has gotten really into baking cakes, though, that's fun.
I have continued reading a lot of lesser-known golden age mystery novels over the last year.
I abruptly stopped (paused?) my previously very-active decorative arts blog on Tumblr, which had a lot more followers than any of my other blogs (though not much interaction - it's a very passive sort of reader that that kind of blog gains). See, last summer I posted about maybe celebrating a subscriber milestone, but I got very few suggestions, and I ended up saying I would take submissions or post suggestions for subjects to cover for a few weeks, but then my anxiety about dealing with the resultant messages in my inbox caused me to just drop the blog and not update it at all since then. I don't actively intend to never update again, but I still can't quite look at it again yet... so... ??? - Watched in 2022:
I couldn't access watch history on Prime or HBO so this list is probably incomplete. However, I don't watch that many things compared to Wax, so it's probably not that bad.
TV:
A Black Lady Sketch Show s3(?) 5/5 A+ apocalypse content
A League of their Own s1 hate this. The plot style, and especially that Wax tricked me into paying attention to baseball. Good that it had queer plots and queer gen though. But not for me. Only for people who are willing to spend neurons on sportsball.
Behind Her Eyes 1/5 yikes
Day Shift 2/5 I reviewed this at the time
Death in Paradise (pilot) 3/5
Derry Girls s3 5/5
Ghosts (US) s1 4/5
House of the Dragon s1 4/5
Interview with the Vampire s1 5/5
James Acaster Repertoire 5/5
Letterkenny s1-3 4/5
Moon Knight s1 4.5/5
Never Have I Ever s1 (Mindy Kaling sitcom) 3.5/5
Only Connect (random episodes) love it
Our Flag Means Death s1 5/5
Rings of Power s1 2/5 but 4.5/5 for visual design
Sandman s1 4/5
Santa Clarita Diet s1 eh
Severance s1 4.5/5
Stay Close (Richard Armitage thriller) literally no memory of this???
Stranger Things s4 3/5
Umbrella Academy s3 2.5/5
What We Do in the Shadows s4 5/5
Would I Lie To You? (random episodes) I wish they made more of this so I could watch it every week.
Film:
Everything Everywhere All At Once 5/5
Glass Onion 5/5 ♥
The Green Knight 4.5/5 pretty
Last Night in Soho 4.5/5
Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels 5/5
The Lost City 4.5/5 fun
Matrix Resurrections 4.5/5 so meta
Misbehaviour 4/5 good attempt
The Pelican Brief 4/5
Pitch Perfect 2 2/5 eh
The Rainmaker 4.5/5
Robocop 4/5 lol
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 4/5
Snatch 5/5
Their Finest 3/5 that twist though
The Trip to Spain (Coogan & Brydon) 3/5
A Time to Kill 5/5
Troll 3/5 that's not how that works
Underworld 2/5 lol
YouTube:
Boone Bake
Device Orchestra
Drawfee Show
Epicurious
Folding Ideas
hbomberguy
How To Cook That
Hydraulic Press Channel
J'adore
Joconde
Luna Lee
Mark Rober
Pete Beard
Practical Engineering
Stand-up Maths
Tantacrul
Technology Connections
Townsends - Favorite TV watched:
1. Interview with the Vampire 2. Derry Girls (but that was the final season) 3. What We Do in the Shadows 4. Moon Knight 5. Our Flag Means Death - Favorite Film watched:
1. Glass Onion 2. Everything Everywhere All At Once (I didn't like any more enough to put on this list really, but The Lost City was fun) - Read in 2022:
*bounced off Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice for the second time.
*bounced off Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.
*bounced off Ellen Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer
*bounced off Patricia McKillip's Ombria in Shadow.
*Unfinished: William Morris' The House of the Wolfings. It's mostly in verse and gets a bit tedious, but it's kind of funny how interested he is in the minutiae. Less fantastical than most of his medieval romances - just sort of... imagining ancient germanic peoples.
Cherryh, CJ. The Dreaming Tree. 5/5.
Debodard, Aliette. The Teamaster and the Detective. 4/5
Engdahl, Sylvia. Enchantress from the Stars. 5/5 but too YA, would not read any more.
Ford, Jeffrey. The Portrait of Mrs Charbuque. Horrible, terrible twist.
Holdstock, Robert. Mythago Wood. 2/5. Sexist, 1980s, manic pixie dream girl incoherence. A bit tragic really, because the initial idea was cool.
Jemison, N.K. The Broken Kingdoms (Inheritance #2). 4/5. Kingdom of the Gods. Inheritance #3. 4/5. Not as great as The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.
Lee, Tanith. Death's Master. 3/5
Lee, Tanith. Night's Master. 5/5
McIntyre, Vonda. The Moon and the Sun. 3/5.
McKillip, Patricia. Riddle-Master of Hed trilogy. 5/5, but uneven pacing, slightly abrupt finish.
Mcpherson, Catriona. A Step So Grave, The Turning Tide, The Mirror Dance. (Latest Dandy Gilver books.) 5/5 all. This is my favorite currently ongoing series of books.
Mcpherson, Catriona. Go to My Grave (modern thriller). 3/5.
Mitchell, Gladys. Death at the Opera. 4/5.
Mitchell, Gladys. Printer's Error. 3/5. Book printing setting, but with Nazis.
Mitchell, Gladys. The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop. 3/5. Bonus for fantastic butcher's shop murder scene.
Mitchell, Gladys. The Longer Bodies. 5/5, hilarious vintage track and field training.
Mitchell, Gladys. The Saltmarsh Murders. 2/5, boring.
Mitchell, Gladys. The Devil at Saxon Wall, 2/5, incoherent, vague, downer.
Mitchell, Gladys. Groaning Spinney. 4/5. Christmas story with frozen corpses, time of death shenanigans.
Mitchell, Gladys. Here Comes a Chopper. 5/5, fun romp: passers-by become dinner guests.
Mitchell, Gladys. Tom Brown's Body. 5/5, fun times. Boys' school stuff.
Mitchell, Gladys. Merlin's Furlong. 4/5, a bit messy. Voodoo dolls and castles.
Mitchell, Gladys. A Hearse on May-Day. 4/5, ending is a letdown.
Mitchell, Gladys. The Dancing Druids. 4/5, great beginning. Enjoyable druid dancing.
Mitchell, Gladys. Twelve Horses and the Hangman's Noose. 5/5, fun horseracing/fraud setting.
Mitchell, Gladys. Nodding Canaries. 5/5 archaeology club shenanigans and caving.
Mitchell, Gladys. My Bones Will Keep. 5/5 for fantastic period tour of Scotland.
Mitchell, Gladys. Death of a Delft Blue. 4/5 fascinating spots and an almost unbelievably circuitous plot.
Mitchell, Gladys. Pageant of Murder. 4/5 Local history, Shakespeare, and town council politics.
Morris, William. The Glittering Plain. 4.5/5. This one has an extreme feeling of allegory to it, as if the entire thing is actually a spirit journey, and I loved that, but I couldn't quite resolve all the pieces in a way that made sense.
Novik, Naomi. Uprooted. 4.5/5.
Scyoc, Sydney J Van. Starmother. Felt like about 1/3rd of a book. 3/5.
Shea, Michael. Nifft the Lean & The Mines of Behemoth. 5/5. Classic.
Wells, Martha. Murderbot novels: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy. 5/5. Trying to draw them out so as not to finish the last published one and have to wait.
Wolfe, Gene. Soldier of the Mists, Soldier of Arete, Soldier of Sidon. 5/5. Fantastic.
Fanfiction read:
Highlander (rereads, obviously, lol)
Stranger Things
The Sandman (only a little bit)
Our Flag Means Death (for about a week after I watched the show, out of curiosity)
The Dark is Rising (rereads) - Favorite Book: 1. Gene Wolfe's Soldier of the Mists 2. The new Dandy Gilver books by Catriona McPherson. 3. Murderbot diaries (any or all of them). 4. Riddle-Master of Hed Trilogy (McKillip) tied with The Dreaming Tree (Cherryh). 5. Wm Morris's The Glittering Plain.
- Knitting review:
Finished objects: Two hats: Musselburgh for Daddy in Filcolana Arwetta and self-striping Scheepjes Downtown; Oslo for me in Sandnes Sunday and Filcolana Peru; and the Curséd Hoodie Sweater (Without a Hood) (see above) knitted in Svarta Fåret Ulrika (a heather color that they discontinued, of course, which is why I couldn't make a hood). The latter took a great deal more knitting because of the parts being done multiple times!
Abandoned/failed projects: The original blue cashmere Tsubaki that Wax then finished a new version of for me, after I bought a new batch of wool for it.
Incomplete projects: One pair of socks (Euclid's Love), one double-layer tube hat (Musselburgh 2, in golden Sandnes Sunday), one sweater awaiting modification (new pockets, collar frogged and made into a hood, new zipper), one sweater I purchased the yarn and buttons for but haven't cast on for yet (to become an oversized black tweed Aran cable cardigan with pockets).
Knitted objects that Wax made for me: Three sweaters and a balaclava! Tsubaki in Sandnes Garn Merinoull, Minori in Rintalan Tila Iivari (Kainuunharmas), and Pom II in Sublime Yarns Extra Fine Merino. The cabled balaclava From Russia With Love in Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed.
Yarn stash review:
We lost a lot of stash in the fight with the moths. Apart from the yarn I bought a few weeks ago for a new sweater, there are no sweater quantities of yarn in the stash unused. There are two throw blankets' worth of yarn (cotton and bamboo), though, and a quantity of very fine virgin Finnish wool that's originally intended for weaving. Wax wants to make a blanket out of that too. - Art review:
I drew a lot more lettering this year, including a logo for Daddy and his bff Andy's online paleontology conference and a text-only cover for Daddy's small press magazine. Used up two more sketchbooks, I think, again, mostly with lettering. I'm pretty satisfied with that even though I intended to spend some more time on calligraphy instead and ultimately did not.
(Lettering is drawing letters, instead of writing them. Calligraphy is writing them, often - at least when I'm talking about it - in a formal manner and a historically-influenced style. Typography is arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing online or in print.)
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Date: 2 Jan 2023 06:17 pm (UTC)What did curiosity yield? I enjoyed the show but never looked up any fan stuff.
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Date: 2 Jan 2023 06:24 pm (UTC)But by the end of the week I detected an overall offputting tweeness about the fandom, and from the outside, and what I've since seen in passing, I'd upgrade that to insufferably twee, from my perspective.
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