thegreatratsby | a late tuesday

listening

TRANS DAY OF REVENGE (G.L.O.S.S.) - would be good gym music. haven't decided if I want to buy the album yet.
The Pines of My Past (Gabriel Coia) - hazy, cozy, hiking in the woods with a warm thermos. favorite track: Batsto Village
Thank God That's Over (Opal Vessel) - industrial and ambient. heartbeat of a dying city. favorite track: 血の雹 (Have a Nice Life) (track 2)

reading
finished "Earthlight" by Arthur C. Clark! really enjoyable! interesting narrative choice to periodically switch to an omnicient narrator, or at least one that was viewing the events of the story from the future. I was briefly really excited because I thought Clark had predicted the usage of many smaller hexagonal mirrors for telescopes but apparently the first telescope to use those was a 1.8m diameter in 1952 and this book came out in '55, which does mean that Clark was at the very least staying on top of cutting-edge astronomical advancement! which is cool! the telescope at the observatory is noted as being the largest one ever created at 1000cm (aka 10m) across, which we have FAR surpassed at this point so that's really neat. hello Extremely Large Telescope in Chile, still under construction but still. yes it's actually called that. astronomers are very funny.
Turning Off the TV in Your Mind by Lincoln Michel. some interesting ideas about visual vs written media Vibes.
Happy Public Domain Day 2025 to all who celebrate by Cory Doctorow. yayyyy public tomain
Bimbo’s Initiation and the weird history of fraternal orders by Jonathan Lyons. knew a little of this already! I like the old Demoulin Brothers catalogue images. the 'lifting and spanking machine' is especially funny.
The Vulture article on Neil Gaiman, available on 12ft.io to get around the paywall. oof. it's quite bad. I'd been planning on buying a sandman anthology as a graduation gift to myself next year but that feels very icky now.
read more "The Sentimental Person's Guide to Decluttering". good supplement to Marie Kondo's whole shtick.

watching
caroline winkler & her collab with paige wassel on interior design stuff/tour of her apartment...the new years resolution vids from caroline winkler and morgan evelyn cook...
Why I spent 3 years working on a coat hanger (Simone Giertz) - she's so cool. 'coat hinger' is a really funny and good name.
nothing specific yet beyond some Anthony Bourdain but I remembered that tubi exists and is good.

playing
was hanging out with beloved friend celestialtourguide where she told me about "A Little to the Left" and "Belatro"; I played a little of the former on her steamdeck and watched her do a demo round of the latter. I do NOT need to buy MORE GAMES at this point but I will be filing those away for later.

making
neocities webbed site :-) the website will get updated throughout the week as I have things to add to it and then the final post will get crossposted to dreamwidth and tumblr as normal!
went to my mom's drawing class with her! I'm very rusty but charcoal is very forgiving

eating
made homemade beef n pork dumplings with my boyfriend and his sister! I brought home leftovers and my brother DID eat 6 of them raw without realizing somehow. love wins
a lot of eating out, catching up with local friends at home!

moving
went to the gym for an hour with my mom as her guest pass! it was crowded but I got a good lift in! lat pulley thing (30lb, 3x8); seated row (60lb, 3x8); lat pulldown (60lb, 3x6); upper chest pulley (20lb 10 on each side, 30lb 5 on each side); bench press (bar, 3x8 2x5); prone leg curl (38lb, 7 5 7).

misc
got back to my apartment this tuesday :-) I love my cat
doing more decluttering, good way to start the year imo. I'm excited to be back in my space. crafts......