☆☆☆

( Anxiety grumping )

As counter to the whole bunch of kvetching above, here are some nicer things:

☆ I have two potential matches for nightonficmountain, as well as somebody that I could treat if I decide to do that, which means I can stop worrying about whether I'll have someone to write for. (There's still plenty of time to sign up, if anybody is interested...! Tag Set and Ao3 profile/FAQ for reference. /nudge)

☆ It's just slightly over a month until Eurovision! Even though it seems like it'll be very Balladvision (according to what I've heard, anyway - I've only listened to maybe two songs), I'm still excited about it. I think this time around I might be able to listen to the semifinals, even if I'm not able to actually watch them. That would be nice. I hate having to skip them and then see everyone throwing their commentary on twitter; it makes me feel like I'm missing out on so much.

☆ My mate Tik is hinting that I should learn Polish. I'm trying to resist, but I think she might be winning. It's ridiculous, considering I haven't been spending time on Norwegian, so I shouldn't pick up another - but it couldn't hurt to learn some basics, so that I can at least understand how to pronounce everything properly... But this is how it starts. (And she's hinting that picking up Ukrainian would be easier if I know basics of at least one Slavic language. I'm still unsure if I want to even try to learn Ukrainian, but still, maybe -- she's so devious. And she knows me too well.)

☆ straightforwardly reminded me about the existence of the game Never Alone*, which I've been meaning to play for ages, but forgot about for a while there. It's set in the arctic, and it's inspired by traditional Iñupiat lore, and the screenshots look so pretty... basically it's everything I love in one nice package. It might be a while before I get to this one, but I really am going to have to play it one of these days.

Reading Wednesday

Finished reading: Claude Monet, 1840-1926: A Feast for the Eyes by Karin Sagner-Duchting. This one's a biography of Monet, with lots of gorgeous plates of his paintings and so on, and though it took me a little while to get into it, it was certainly an interesting read... I can't say of how it compares to other studies of Monet and his career, but one thing it did make me realize is that I know hardly anything about most of the artists that I admire. Luckily, this is something that can be easily fixed, and I expect I'll have fun with that. As for Monet, funnily enough, reading about him made me feel better about my own work. I'm thinking of the Haystacks series in particular, how he wanted to do so many views of haystacks at different times of day, and different seasons, to catch the differences in lighting and atmosphere and so on. Sometimes I feel like I'm writing the exact same thing over and over - except that it isn't the exact same thing, because every scene is a little bit different. Not that I'm at all like Monet, of course, but it was nice to see a little of myself reflected in his work. (Even if it's a part of his work that I'm not actually a fan of - the Haystacks paintings fall flat for me. Though perhaps I'd feel differently if I saw one in person.)

Currently reading: Welcome Home: Travels in Smalltown Canada by Stuart McLean. It's basically what it says on the tin - a travel narrative about small communities in various Canadian provinces. (Much to my disappointment, he skipped Alberta and the Territories.) In some ways, it's made me very glad that I don't live in places like this - but it has also reminded me of everything I miss about living in Wolfville. There's a certain sort of atmosphere that I really do miss, and something that's impossible to get in this industrial city. Ah, well. Oh, another thing - this book was written when the issue of Quebec separation/sovereignty was very current, and the section set in Quebec deals with that quite a bit. It's sort of like a time capsule of the issue, I guess, or at least a small sliver of it, and I found that pretty interesting.

Reading next: Race to the South Pole: The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen, compiled/edited/translated by Roland Huntford. This one is pretty much what it says on the tin. In addition to Amundsen himself, it also contains logs from another member of the Norwegian expedition party, Ove Bjaaland. I've read Amundsen's published account of his South Pole travels, but this is entirely new to me, and I think I'll really enjoy it when I get around to it. I'm... less excited about Scott's journal, because he came to such a depressing end, and to be honest everything I've read about the British side of the South Pole race makes it sound like it was a poorly-planned clusterfuck. But I won't skip over his entries, of course.

Waiting for: Building Fires in the Snow: A Collection of Alaska LGBTQ Short Fiction and Poetry. Can't start this one yet because I'm still waiting to receive it in the mail.... When I saw this anthology on the Lambda awards list, I just knew I had to read it. At first I was hoping to get it through the library, but then I changed my mind. It intersects so well with some of my interests, so I figure, it's one that I want to have in my personal library - and I'll probably like most of it, anyway. (Well, okay, you never know, I suppose....)