acequeenking (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
acequeenking) wrote2023-01-15 11:17 pm
acequeenking) wrote2023-01-15 11:17 pm
Diary 1/1 - 1/15
I'm trying to do a diary every couple of weeks to try to keep track of things Wot Are Happening! Let's see if I can keep up the habit! Some will probably be F-locked, but this one isn't!
Things Wot I have accomplished in Early January:
* Got important birthdays entered into my planner for 2023. I forgot this in 2022 and as a result I forgot a lot of birthdays. :)
* Mailed three whole things! Mostly late Christmas stuff but getting to the post office is always a challenge for me even though it is statistically one of the closest buildings to me.
* Spend a large amount of time attempting and failing to repair a water heater. Bought a new gas water heater only to ultimately get stymied by the inability to turn off the gas to swap the old one in for the new one safely. We have to turn off the gas for the house to do it. Not a great idea in January on my side of the world. Thankfully, we have a backup water heater, this one electric -- but it's much much smaller, which means showers have to be roughly a minute to two minutes until spring.
* Started doing some intro lessons for a certification. Found two other certs I'd like to get for my field, and a third my contract house would like me to get that I'm a bit less enthused by, so plenty to study a bit on there.
* Looked at apartments twice and didn't barf at the prices. Entirely. But still had a panic attack and closed the page, so, we're still working on that one.
New Things Wot I Bought:
* From the Steam sale: Divinity: Original Sin 2. I didn't like the OG Divinity pretty much at all and bounced on it very quick, but everyone keeps raving about 2, and I have a friend who I know will want to play through with me, and it was finally cheap enough to take a risk on it, so we'll see how it goes. I also bought MaZM: Phantom of the Opera because re-seeing ALW's POTO confirmed I am POTO-trash, hungry to hunt down any adaptation, and Castlevania: Advance Collection because I wanted to play those games ages and ages ago on DS when they were VERY expensive, and figured if not then, why not now for 3.99?
Things Wot I Made:
(again trying to keep better track of new things I try so I don't wind up at the end of the year going SIGH I GUESS I DID NOTHING).
* Made this brothy bean recipe. It was very good, though IMO not enough dill or lemon. Your millage may vary; someone in the comments thought it was too much. I am someone who loves lemon and usually eats lemon slices after they've been soaking in my tea for a bit, so keep in mind I may be more lemon gremlin than you are if you try it.
Still it was a good vegetarian meal and I think next time will be better so 5/5 stars. And I will be making it again spectacularly quickly because I could only buy dill in quantities of roughly a bajillionty. It also makes a lot off of two cans of beans and a couple potatoes because I ate it as a side-dish for five meals straight.
*I also made a beef stir-fry for the first time, which was 99% basic since it was my first go at it. Beef, carrots, water chestnuts, green beans, broccoli (all from a frozen veg pack), red pepper, onion. Soy sauce, salt, pepper, garlic and red pepper flakes to season bc I was cooking for someone who has a sesame allergy which restricts sauce options quite a bit. I liked the vegetables more than the meat and tbh would skip the meat next time. Basic but good and filling and again would eat again. 3.5/5, I think next time I make this I will add ginger but I didn't have any.
* Proud culinary moment of the early half of the month: I managed to cook sockeye salmon without burning the shit out of it by cooking it en papillote (or, for the less fancy, "I shoved it in some aluminum foil with some herbs and said a small prayer") and it was very good. The salmon was a Christmas gift from my aunt and man they're really nice quality meats. I don't get salmon a lot because it's quite expensive here so it's a rather nice surprise. The skin wasn't crispy which is the trade off, but with such a lean cut I was afraid of burning it. Might try to sear it for a minute or two next time to crisp up the skin, and then send it to the oven? 4/5.
The sauce I made for this I also realized would be an amazing vinaigrette if I added vinegar: dill, garlic, lemon juice, parsley, and 2 tbsp of good olive oil) so I have been making that and using it toss my salad in it this week (with the oil cut down to 1 teaspoon).
* Culinary Disaster averted of the early part of the month: I attempted to make this Betty Crocker Beef Stew recipe to get rid of some stew meat we had bumming around in the fridge. The recipe went south for me fast: despite covering and setting it on our oven's version of simmer, the water burned up to nothing in less than an hour, burning some of the beef.
I then did the very mature cook thing and panicked and threw the kitchen sink at it: I gradually threw in two cups more water, then two more of beef stock as that water started to evaporate, and then a cup of red wine for good measure, figuring the acid might make the meat less tough; then threw a million vegetables at it: onions, potatoes, carrots, celery, and green bell pepper haunting the crisper drawer. Then I threw in spices, too: Garlic (jarred/chopped, copious amounts), Parsley (dried, also copious), bay leaf (dried), salt and pepper. And then three tablespoons of tomato paste, since what mistake cannot be cured by tomatoes and garlic? Then a desperate roux of flour and water as I manically tried to find a way back to Betty's recipe.
Long story short: it did not wind up as Beef Stew. It was an utter failure of a beef stew. But it turns out I made a perfectly good vegetable beef soup, which is one of my (very picky) family member's favorite soups, so it turned out okay! The tomato sauce + bell peppers + garlic gave it a very earthy, almost sour taste, but that works well for us. The beef was soft but still flavorful, though honestly I would make this again and skip the beef (but that is because on my own, I've been mulling going vegetarian; not possible with the nutritional/eating preferences of the house at present, though). It was even better the next day and we got four very hearty meals out of it. I should write down the recipe while I remember it (mostly) before I forget. 4.5/5, Task Failed Successfully.
Media Wot I Read/Watched/Played:
* I've played not very much because I've been having a problem with one of my fingers. :(
* Finished: Wednesday Season 1, with my mother. We're both big Addams family fans and we both enjoyed this adaptation. I feel a little bit more torn on it in that it feels very much like the Riverdale-if-i-cation of a generally family-friendly franchise. I think this is actually a better fit for it than Riverdale; the Addams were already ooky and spooky after all, and most of the horrors/tension here is supernatural in origin. I feel like if we have to have these shoehorned franchise-tie-ins now instead of Actual Original Content most of the time, this isn't an unnatural fit. It makes me sad that they have Wednesday resent her family (IMO one of the strongest appeals of the Addams family is that they are a very united family; they may be weird, but they are weird together), but I think the boarding school situation works well for this type of show; it is natural to move Wednesday away for her family for Self-Growth, but I kind of wish they had played with tropes a bit more than they did as far as the Stock YA Family Story.
I do think Gomez was absolutely cast perfectly and I hope in Season 2, we get more of Luis Guzman. Of the younger actors I think the biggest break-out is Bianca's actress, Joy Sunday, who is absolutely a delight whenever she is on screen. She has some of the most expressive eyes I've ever seen, even with fishy contacts in, which isn't IMO an easy feat. I deeply appreciated Eugene and his moms; he was really an adorable kid who you could see as a natural first friend for Wednesday. I also really love Thing (who is my mother's all-time favorite Addams family character), and I was delighted that Thing got to steal the spotlight a lot. Mom really loved that and was happy whenever he was on screen so that was nice as well.
The villains were...not great. I think its weird that the Pilgrim Dude never even seemingly got his magical powers explained? Maybe I missed that part.
I'm not feeling too fannish about it, so I probably won't fic it, but I enjoyed it and would watch season 2. 7/10.
* Finished: House of the Dragon S1 -- though this might have been late December instead, I don't remember when I watched the last episode. I really enjoyed House of the Dragon, more so than I would have thought! I enjoyed GoT, but I never was able to successfully complete a fic about it -- probably because I got into it late, and my opinions on it were never particularly popular. (But I will maintain, now and forever, that Cersei/Daenerys was a great fandom ship.) This one though, feels a bit like the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 of the GoT franchise, in that it's mostly set in one area and full of politics with characters who are all various flavors of flawed.
I really enjoyed it, though I do wish they had a couple more episodes/ the time-skips hadn't been as long a skip as they were. Still, I feel like it's a great show, and I'm looking forward to season 2 and dreading it a bit at the same time. My favs of the season were Rhaenyra and pretty much all of house Velaryon, who IMO is shockingly slept on in the fandom based on what I've seen so far. I really wish we had gotten more of Laena, who seemed like a really vibrant person in the brief time we get to see her (I LOVED her and Daemon racing on dragonback and the way they talk in Penthos). I LOVED Laenor and thought they handled him and his relationship with Rhaenyra very well, giving them a tender friendship.
My favorite couple and characters of the whole show are Rhaenys/Corlys. It has...below zero fandom interest, presumably because it's two old people and fandom Loves the Young'uns but god I wish I could get another couple people on this pool noodle with me. There's so much power and intrigue held within their grasp, and I love, love, love the idea of them being this relatively stable couple obsessed with building a Legacy who then suddenly lose everything and have to pick alliances in a rapidly declining political landscape. Prayer circle that Rhaenys gets a better wig next season.
I also liked Daemon, much to my surprise; I wasn't wild about Smith as the Doctor in Doctor Who (sorry), but I love his acting much more as a villian. He's a trashfire, but he's an entertaining one, and therefore I enjoy him.
I also really like Alicent who is a very complicated antagonist, which is IMO one of GoT's strongest strengths. I have a great deal of sympathy for her (she's def a tool that's been manipulated by her dad and her husband and even Larys); she has given her entire life for the "proper order" of things but consistently makes political moves that further destabilize the realm. What happened isn't her fault (entirely), but I love that you can see why some of it is and how she played that part, even if it doesn't seem like a big issue at the time.
I hope Season 2 does more with the Black kiddos and Heleana: this end of season did a lot with Aegon (or rather, told us he's the worst) and Aemond (a bit of a jerk, but less the worst), but Heleana was left on the table, and Jace and Joffrey didn't get much at all, and Baela/Rhaena got to Be Present For Like Two Scenes and I'd really like quite a bit more of them all.
But I really enjoyed the show! 9/10.
Still Watching: Castlevania. I ignored this when it came out thinking I wouldn't be interested, but my friend M. kept mentioning it in group chats and telling me how much I would love Dracula and Lisa and damn if they aren't right. Trevor and Sypha are very cute as well.
Interestingly to me, it's Alucard who I liked less than the game itself, until realizing, uncomfortably, that the reason I disliked Alucard was that what I had remembered of Alucard was not part of his actual character, but rather the world-weary, solemn man that I had invented, playing through Symphony of the Night as a smol thirteen year old in the year of our lord ninety ninety question mark (so long ago, I cannot remember; not 1997, the year of its release, but late enough I was playing off the greatest hits collection). Going back to the game I see Alucard didn't have much character at all, and all my world-weary, tired, regretful dhampir feels were invented; a discomforting reminder, really, of how much the enjoyment of media is tired directly to the world we create in our head around the media. Once I was able to realize that, I started to enjoy him more...or maybe it was just Season 3 put a rather interesting turn on the character.
I also really enjoy the weird but highly medieval-Christianity sort of ...religious undertone? subtext? to the show. The concept of being sent to hell for doing good things with witchcraft; the concept of being doomed for being a good person with "bad" habits -- it's interesting, and I like mulling on it.
Things Wot I have accomplished in Early January:
* Got important birthdays entered into my planner for 2023. I forgot this in 2022 and as a result I forgot a lot of birthdays. :)
* Mailed three whole things! Mostly late Christmas stuff but getting to the post office is always a challenge for me even though it is statistically one of the closest buildings to me.
* Spend a large amount of time attempting and failing to repair a water heater. Bought a new gas water heater only to ultimately get stymied by the inability to turn off the gas to swap the old one in for the new one safely. We have to turn off the gas for the house to do it. Not a great idea in January on my side of the world. Thankfully, we have a backup water heater, this one electric -- but it's much much smaller, which means showers have to be roughly a minute to two minutes until spring.
* Started doing some intro lessons for a certification. Found two other certs I'd like to get for my field, and a third my contract house would like me to get that I'm a bit less enthused by, so plenty to study a bit on there.
* Looked at apartments twice and didn't barf at the prices. Entirely. But still had a panic attack and closed the page, so, we're still working on that one.
New Things Wot I Bought:
(trying to keep better track of my finances and see if I'm getting use out of the new things I buy.)
* A detangling brush for the shower, because my old one had glue that was starting to peel off the rubber part of it. This one is explicitly meant for showers (and doesn't have that little cushion) so I am hoping it will last longer. It's bright green and sparkly which pleases my inner seven year old. And...then during the Hot Water Repair times, I lost where I put it. :/ So hopefully it will resurface.
* From the Steam sale: Divinity: Original Sin 2. I didn't like the OG Divinity pretty much at all and bounced on it very quick, but everyone keeps raving about 2, and I have a friend who I know will want to play through with me, and it was finally cheap enough to take a risk on it, so we'll see how it goes. I also bought MaZM: Phantom of the Opera because re-seeing ALW's POTO confirmed I am POTO-trash, hungry to hunt down any adaptation, and Castlevania: Advance Collection because I wanted to play those games ages and ages ago on DS when they were VERY expensive, and figured if not then, why not now for 3.99?
Things Wot I Made:
(again trying to keep better track of new things I try so I don't wind up at the end of the year going SIGH I GUESS I DID NOTHING).
* Made this brothy bean recipe. It was very good, though IMO not enough dill or lemon. Your millage may vary; someone in the comments thought it was too much. I am someone who loves lemon and usually eats lemon slices after they've been soaking in my tea for a bit, so keep in mind I may be more lemon gremlin than you are if you try it.
Still it was a good vegetarian meal and I think next time will be better so 5/5 stars. And I will be making it again spectacularly quickly because I could only buy dill in quantities of roughly a bajillionty. It also makes a lot off of two cans of beans and a couple potatoes because I ate it as a side-dish for five meals straight.
*I also made a beef stir-fry for the first time, which was 99% basic since it was my first go at it. Beef, carrots, water chestnuts, green beans, broccoli (all from a frozen veg pack), red pepper, onion. Soy sauce, salt, pepper, garlic and red pepper flakes to season bc I was cooking for someone who has a sesame allergy which restricts sauce options quite a bit. I liked the vegetables more than the meat and tbh would skip the meat next time. Basic but good and filling and again would eat again. 3.5/5, I think next time I make this I will add ginger but I didn't have any.
* Proud culinary moment of the early half of the month: I managed to cook sockeye salmon without burning the shit out of it by cooking it en papillote (or, for the less fancy, "I shoved it in some aluminum foil with some herbs and said a small prayer") and it was very good. The salmon was a Christmas gift from my aunt and man they're really nice quality meats. I don't get salmon a lot because it's quite expensive here so it's a rather nice surprise. The skin wasn't crispy which is the trade off, but with such a lean cut I was afraid of burning it. Might try to sear it for a minute or two next time to crisp up the skin, and then send it to the oven? 4/5.
The sauce I made for this I also realized would be an amazing vinaigrette if I added vinegar: dill, garlic, lemon juice, parsley, and 2 tbsp of good olive oil) so I have been making that and using it toss my salad in it this week (with the oil cut down to 1 teaspoon).
* Culinary Disaster averted of the early part of the month: I attempted to make this Betty Crocker Beef Stew recipe to get rid of some stew meat we had bumming around in the fridge. The recipe went south for me fast: despite covering and setting it on our oven's version of simmer, the water burned up to nothing in less than an hour, burning some of the beef.
I then did the very mature cook thing and panicked and threw the kitchen sink at it: I gradually threw in two cups more water, then two more of beef stock as that water started to evaporate, and then a cup of red wine for good measure, figuring the acid might make the meat less tough; then threw a million vegetables at it: onions, potatoes, carrots, celery, and green bell pepper haunting the crisper drawer. Then I threw in spices, too: Garlic (jarred/chopped, copious amounts), Parsley (dried, also copious), bay leaf (dried), salt and pepper. And then three tablespoons of tomato paste, since what mistake cannot be cured by tomatoes and garlic? Then a desperate roux of flour and water as I manically tried to find a way back to Betty's recipe.
Long story short: it did not wind up as Beef Stew. It was an utter failure of a beef stew. But it turns out I made a perfectly good vegetable beef soup, which is one of my (very picky) family member's favorite soups, so it turned out okay! The tomato sauce + bell peppers + garlic gave it a very earthy, almost sour taste, but that works well for us. The beef was soft but still flavorful, though honestly I would make this again and skip the beef (but that is because on my own, I've been mulling going vegetarian; not possible with the nutritional/eating preferences of the house at present, though). It was even better the next day and we got four very hearty meals out of it. I should write down the recipe while I remember it (mostly) before I forget. 4.5/5, Task Failed Successfully.
Media Wot I Read/Watched/Played:
* I've played not very much because I've been having a problem with one of my fingers. :(
* Finished: Wednesday Season 1, with my mother. We're both big Addams family fans and we both enjoyed this adaptation. I feel a little bit more torn on it in that it feels very much like the Riverdale-if-i-cation of a generally family-friendly franchise. I think this is actually a better fit for it than Riverdale; the Addams were already ooky and spooky after all, and most of the horrors/tension here is supernatural in origin. I feel like if we have to have these shoehorned franchise-tie-ins now instead of Actual Original Content most of the time, this isn't an unnatural fit. It makes me sad that they have Wednesday resent her family (IMO one of the strongest appeals of the Addams family is that they are a very united family; they may be weird, but they are weird together), but I think the boarding school situation works well for this type of show; it is natural to move Wednesday away for her family for Self-Growth, but I kind of wish they had played with tropes a bit more than they did as far as the Stock YA Family Story.
I do think Gomez was absolutely cast perfectly and I hope in Season 2, we get more of Luis Guzman. Of the younger actors I think the biggest break-out is Bianca's actress, Joy Sunday, who is absolutely a delight whenever she is on screen. She has some of the most expressive eyes I've ever seen, even with fishy contacts in, which isn't IMO an easy feat. I deeply appreciated Eugene and his moms; he was really an adorable kid who you could see as a natural first friend for Wednesday. I also really love Thing (who is my mother's all-time favorite Addams family character), and I was delighted that Thing got to steal the spotlight a lot. Mom really loved that and was happy whenever he was on screen so that was nice as well.
The villains were...not great. I think its weird that the Pilgrim Dude never even seemingly got his magical powers explained? Maybe I missed that part.
I'm not feeling too fannish about it, so I probably won't fic it, but I enjoyed it and would watch season 2. 7/10.
* Finished: House of the Dragon S1 -- though this might have been late December instead, I don't remember when I watched the last episode. I really enjoyed House of the Dragon, more so than I would have thought! I enjoyed GoT, but I never was able to successfully complete a fic about it -- probably because I got into it late, and my opinions on it were never particularly popular. (But I will maintain, now and forever, that Cersei/Daenerys was a great fandom ship.) This one though, feels a bit like the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 of the GoT franchise, in that it's mostly set in one area and full of politics with characters who are all various flavors of flawed.
I really enjoyed it, though I do wish they had a couple more episodes/ the time-skips hadn't been as long a skip as they were. Still, I feel like it's a great show, and I'm looking forward to season 2 and dreading it a bit at the same time. My favs of the season were Rhaenyra and pretty much all of house Velaryon, who IMO is shockingly slept on in the fandom based on what I've seen so far. I really wish we had gotten more of Laena, who seemed like a really vibrant person in the brief time we get to see her (I LOVED her and Daemon racing on dragonback and the way they talk in Penthos). I LOVED Laenor and thought they handled him and his relationship with Rhaenyra very well, giving them a tender friendship.
My favorite couple and characters of the whole show are Rhaenys/Corlys. It has...below zero fandom interest, presumably because it's two old people and fandom Loves the Young'uns but god I wish I could get another couple people on this pool noodle with me. There's so much power and intrigue held within their grasp, and I love, love, love the idea of them being this relatively stable couple obsessed with building a Legacy who then suddenly lose everything and have to pick alliances in a rapidly declining political landscape. Prayer circle that Rhaenys gets a better wig next season.
I also liked Daemon, much to my surprise; I wasn't wild about Smith as the Doctor in Doctor Who (sorry), but I love his acting much more as a villian. He's a trashfire, but he's an entertaining one, and therefore I enjoy him.
I also really like Alicent who is a very complicated antagonist, which is IMO one of GoT's strongest strengths. I have a great deal of sympathy for her (she's def a tool that's been manipulated by her dad and her husband and even Larys); she has given her entire life for the "proper order" of things but consistently makes political moves that further destabilize the realm. What happened isn't her fault (entirely), but I love that you can see why some of it is and how she played that part, even if it doesn't seem like a big issue at the time.
I hope Season 2 does more with the Black kiddos and Heleana: this end of season did a lot with Aegon (or rather, told us he's the worst) and Aemond (a bit of a jerk, but less the worst), but Heleana was left on the table, and Jace and Joffrey didn't get much at all, and Baela/Rhaena got to Be Present For Like Two Scenes and I'd really like quite a bit more of them all.
But I really enjoyed the show! 9/10.
Still Watching: Castlevania. I ignored this when it came out thinking I wouldn't be interested, but my friend M. kept mentioning it in group chats and telling me how much I would love Dracula and Lisa and damn if they aren't right. Trevor and Sypha are very cute as well.
Interestingly to me, it's Alucard who I liked less than the game itself, until realizing, uncomfortably, that the reason I disliked Alucard was that what I had remembered of Alucard was not part of his actual character, but rather the world-weary, solemn man that I had invented, playing through Symphony of the Night as a smol thirteen year old in the year of our lord ninety ninety question mark (so long ago, I cannot remember; not 1997, the year of its release, but late enough I was playing off the greatest hits collection). Going back to the game I see Alucard didn't have much character at all, and all my world-weary, tired, regretful dhampir feels were invented; a discomforting reminder, really, of how much the enjoyment of media is tired directly to the world we create in our head around the media. Once I was able to realize that, I started to enjoy him more...or maybe it was just Season 3 put a rather interesting turn on the character.
I also really enjoy the weird but highly medieval-Christianity sort of ...religious undertone? subtext? to the show. The concept of being sent to hell for doing good things with witchcraft; the concept of being doomed for being a good person with "bad" habits -- it's interesting, and I like mulling on it.
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ETA would you like me to babble about cooking?
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have you gotten an oven thermometer to check the actual temps in your oven? it seems to run hot from what ou've described.
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Oh wow, I've done a bit of the same stuff as you so far this month!
My friend and I have been playing DOS2 on the weekends for a while, it's a pretty long game, but it's fun that we can both run around and do whatever we want. Even when she killed an NPC I wanted to talk to because she got caught stealing from them hahaha. Very chaotic, I love it.
And I also made a beef stew and some stir-fry! For my beef stew I left the meat chunks too big and didn't like how it turned out, but the veggies are always good and I will definitely put more veggies than meat next time. You'd think something you just leave to simmer would be easier to cook 🤣
My stir-fry was chicken with broccoli, cauliflower, edamame, carrots, and red pepper and I made the sauce myself, very garlic-y and delicious (woe to vampires).
I enjoyed reading this :^) & good luck with your habit building!
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How have you been enjoying DOS2? I am moving very slowly through it with C. Just off the first island now. I am really enjoying its magic being like...eldrich in a fun way? Which party members did you take?
I am playing Sebille and took Lohse, The Red Prince (C's preference for the tank), and Fane (skeletan man). I wish I could have taken more people but alas!
Your stirfry sounds delicious and I, too, am solidly team garlic. Who needs eternal life when you can't eat garlic?
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I too am weak to ice damage. I hope your boiler made it through winter okay? We're still holding on, thankfully.
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Also please don't apologise for late replies, I'm... awful with replying, we all know that.
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