caffeine diary

games
Lots and lots of Long Live the Queen. This game isn't all that great... [three days of gameplay later] goddamn this stupid game.

I am something like 2/3 of the way through.

I have unlocked 29/39 achievements, 9/11 deaths, and 16/24 epilogues. I suspect I know how to unlock 1 of the 2 remaining deaths, and 1 or maybe 2 of the achievements.

stuff that is not LLtQ

Umm... I've read a little bit of the sf anthology I started last week, and a bit of Jennifer Traig's Well Enough Alone: A Cultural History of My Hypochondria.

I am trying to remember to wear my Yules. I am finding most of them don't have as much longevity as I would like. :/

I wore "Practical Occultism" for Epiphany. Lab description: A Victorian occultist's incense, invoking the Four Archangels: precious wildcrafted Indian frankincense with myrrh, cassia, sandarac, palmarosa, white sage, red sandalwood, elemi, and drops of star anise bound with grains of kyphi. I was worried about the anise, since I'm not a huge fan of it, but it didn't overpower any of the other scents. I wore it for Epiphany because frankincense and myrrh, and because it sounded more opulent than other perfumes I have with those notes. It turned out to be a really good choice and invoked all the Epiphany feels I was hoping for.

books:

I finished The Night She Died and read all of Six Feet Under by Dorothy Simpson. I really like these books; they are British cozies featuring an police detective, and all the mysteries are of the small village/lots of secrets/complicated interpersonal relationships kind, very Agatha Christie (and particularly very Jane Marple; Jane Marple would solve all of these cases in basically a day, but we provide allowances for Detective Inspector Luke Thanet.) They were written in the 1980s and 1990s and are set then, which is really nice and appropriately period, and only occasionally provides confusion of the, "How did people live before Google?" variety. (When reading Christie, it's easy to put myself in that time period, but these are much closer to contemporary so I keep doing doubletakes and thinking, "Can't you just check the internets?")

I also read 1 Kings and a good bit of 2 Kings for Sunday school. I will try to finish 2 Kings, and then read Micah, which is what's next.

In terms of fiction, next up is the set of library books that I am very excited about -- there is apparently a third Bridget Jones book, there are two more books by Jincy Willett, and there is Clariel.

For many years of my life, I looked fruitlessly for Regiment of Women by Clemence Dane. A chapter was anthologized in Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the Seventeenth Century to the Present ed. Lillian Faderman, and that chapter plus the things mentioned in the preceding biographical blurb were basically tailor-made for my burgeoning kinks. (It is not a happy story and is deeply homophobic, according to the summary, and ends with pastede on het, but!

[behind the cut for trigger warnings, because your kinks are not my kinks. (Probably internalized) homophobia and mention of suicide]

( Read more... )

Anyhow, I fruitlessly searched for many years but couldn't find it, and yesterday I suddenly remembered it -- I saw mention of "queer literary fiction" and it popped into my head -- and lo, there is is on Project Gutenberg. If we have this technology, why don't we have the technology to send it back in time to me-at-fourteen, who really wanted to read it? I suck at reading long things on my computer, and my interest in self-loathing lesbians is substantially less than it used to be, so I suspect I won't actually read it. Which is sad, because teenage!me. (and because I feel like a crossover between this and Discworld's Monstrous Regiment needs to exist.)

perfume

My BPAL 'weenie decants from synecdochic_decants arrived just in time for me to wear the first four on the correct days. Brief writeups, since heaven knows I won't manage longer ones:
( Read more... )

food

I usually talk about this on Culture Created Tuesday, since most of the food I eat is created by me, but we went out to eat for my birthday.

We went to Alladin Cafe. I got lentil soup ("Red lentils seasoned with saffron, curry, cumin and lemon") and lamb kabob ("Tender marinated lamb, grilled and served with cucumber yogurt sauce" and with basmati rice and sautéed vegetables). It was all quite delicious.

I also got crème brûlée from Cosentinos, which was, as aforementioned, both disappointing and inspirational.

coloring books

I am not sure where these fall on the consumed/created scale, but Elizabeth gave me a Care Bears coloring and activity book for my birthday, so the first hour of being 29 was a lot like being 5.

sports

I half-heartedly watched the by-play on mlb.com during the last game of the World Series, so I would know whether my pie was celebratory or consoling.

+++

idk, I feel like I don't know where the week went. I mean, frequently I frivol away time, but I usually at least know where it went. I guess I did a bunch of baking, and read a novel and a half, and did a bunch of personal writing, and went out to eat with my roommates, and had a long phone call with my dad last night, and these things add up.

Great big small box of bpal!

Bottle of Penitence.

12 imps I ordered.
4 frimps.

What to smell FIRST, friends?

Ok, first to sort out the frimps (free imps, which are delightful surprises).

One of them seems to be Blockbuster, which is a Twilight Alchemy Lab scent (the line intended for ritual use):

Used to open up options in your life, overcome obstacles, and create opportunities. This blend increases your potential for success, inspires creativity and quick thinking, and helps you to be more flexible, adaptable and open to change.

Which is fine, although not the ritual scent I would have chosen for myself at this moment in my life.

Also Mage from the RPG series, which I think was on my wishlist, Sheol, and Tamora.

OK THEN. What to smell first?

All right.

Miskatonic University.

( misk u )