Strong Verbs Are Just Better

I am in what those around me say is a predictable post-submission slump. I. It's like I'm in anxiety withdrawal. Unless I have, like, a class RIGHT TODAY, it's very hard to convince my brain we should be awake and doing things. (Exception seems to be talking in radiantfracture's journal about Gawain of an evening: but, despite the citations, that qualitatively FEELS like a fan conversation, Gawain always does to me.)

Anyway I want to sleep all the time. It's like I'm sick, except I'm not. I'm physically stiff and sore, but not ill.

As distraction: Friday Five

1) Has the weather where you are finally started acting like spring is here? Yes! I got back from chicago and spring had happened! This week's temperatures were a bit variable, but definitely spring.

2) Do you have any special spring activities or outings planned? Uh... no. I kind of want to replant my balcony garden, but is there a point when I've only got three months left in the flat?

3) Have you started wearing different clothing appropriate to spring? Not really, but I CAN wear fewer layers, and that was useful on Monday when I realised I had not done laundry for three weeks and my chicago bag didn't contain clean work-appropriate clothes.

4) What signs of spring are manifesting around you? Well, it's warmer. There are flowers in the lawns in the parks. Sunset is notably later (that's really daylight savings at work, but it FEELS like spring).

5) Are there special foods you enjoy preparing and/or eating in the spring? Not as a ritualistic thing, but I did buy asparagus once before easter and will probably do so again soon. And I'm looking forward to my first ice cream of the season: probably this weekend, while doing laundry.

(site note monksandbones i haven't replied to your last comments, which, hah. i laughted a cynical laugh. Am not annoyed with you or anything. Limited emotion brain resources.)

1. I deserve points, because I just made a doctor's appointment for a non-urgent matter.

2. Midnight Oil concert was totally worth it. The anxiety I worked myself up into in advance of going to Paléo was not, really. There *were* big crowds coming in by 8, 9 pm - but not at 5pm for the opening gigs! It was super chill when I got there. I ended up leaving at about 8.15 - I'd moved on to a smaller stage featuring tiny british boys known as Temples, but the mix of cigarette smoke and pot in the air was making my eyes stream and my head hurt. I feel a bit... a bit useless because I went to a thing and LEFT as everyone else was arriving. But actually, who cares? I saw what I wanted.
2.i. I have to say though, some of the tracks off Diesel and Dust which if you think about them too hard are Not Cool, well. They are really uncomfortable when you're all standing on European soil. the Dead Heart, particularly: it's pretty close to musical blackface to begin with, and the cultural dislocation just makes it more obvious.
2.ii. Garrett chose to do his contextualising around 'imagine if the French government had got their act together and had made it to the east coast of Aus before the British, I'd be singing all this in French'. Which. Okay. He didn't try to suggest this would be better, or worse, colonialism-wise, but I was still not happy with the way it felt. And at some point he referenced 'our dear first peoples, the indigenous australians', and just. Nope. How patronising can you GET?
3.iii Rob Hirst remains crazy talented oh my goodness. I somehow forget to notice the complexity of the percussion if I'm just listening, but as soon as you see him in action: wow. Also, the percussion kit included an honest-to-goodness rusty corrugated iron water tank, which I can only assume they physically transported from Aus for use during 'Power and the Passion'. Hell yes.

3. I started making a weekly habit tracker thing. Like a sticker chart for kids - you set a number of chores or self-care activities and colour in when they're done. I think I've set 49 possible things over a week, but not all of them are daily so I have targets. If i met every target I'd be at 41 things; so far I'm rewarding myself if I get to 25. And it's... working? The first few weeks I had days with only one or two squares; now normal is 3 or 4.

And on that note I'd better go and address today's tasks, starting with 'walk to work' (i missed 'get up by 8')

When I came to Europe I said to myself I would move hell and high water to see a production of Notre Dame de Paris if anyone staged it, anywhere that I could reasonably get to. There is currently a Francophone-Europe tour going on! So I did not have to move hell or high water, I merely paid 60 CHF to see it in Geneva.

Things that were great:
- whole thing makes more sense when you can differentiate WHICH DUDE IS SINGING RIGHT NOW by visual cues. There turned out to be five lead dudes, not three or four. Many things make more sense to me now.
- (possibly in addition to that the diction might have been clearer than on the CD? I picked up many more dialogue nuances)
- faaaantastic lighting
- Luc Plamadon, who now lives in Montreux, got called onstage at the end and gave a hearfelt but slightly doddery ramble about his feeeelings about having written this show.

Things that were not so great:
- as far as I could tell they were using piped music rather than live. Unless they had a separate orchestra room and piped the music THROUGH? The website has a list of musicians, but no indication of if they were on tour or just recorded.

I am not sure if I loved it enough to warrant going down to Lyon to see it there in November, but I am very glad I saw it here.

This is me, with baby Gremlin's teddy. (Or possibly GremlinMother's teddy, Gremlin's not that interested in large teddies yet.) I babysat for a few hours on friday, which he spent asleep, so I spent a few hours napping in front of a fan and it was *glorious*.

I would like to state that babies continue to be excellent academic therapy. Gremlin can be a difficult little human (although I've not had him at his most... explosive. Just shouty. I have yet to meet the 'crapocalypse' mode). But he doesn't care about my thesis. He is extremely demanding but these demands do not include 'think complex thoughts'. Ergo, he is good for me.


Gremlin understands that iPhones are something you show off for. (I got an iphone. Thus far it's glorious.)


Probably a hollyhock flower.


Bridge near my house.


Basil from my basil plants.


Said basil plants, with parsley and chrysanthemums.