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[personal profile] shadowkat
I gave up on "I Will Repay" by Baroness Orczy. (I was bored. I didn't know it was possible to make yearning and pining even more unreadable, but she managed it. Chapters are devoted to this. "Oh dear, should I seek vengence? No, yes, no, yes - I promised my father, but he's dead? No, yes. I feel guilty. No, I love him. No, my father made me swear an oath on his death bed. I must!" or "She can't love me, I killed her brother in duel. Oh dear. Oh dear. And oh, I must rescue Marie Antoinette from the quillotene, I know I'll tell my love - whose brother I killed in a duel all about it. She'd never use it against me. She's an angel. Oh, if only we could be together." With brief breaks - to include Sir Percy Blackeny, who looks on with bemusement, mild concern, sympathy - and tries to intervene and eventually gives up. Even after, the hero's ward begs him to. But alas no, the man is in love. And all of this is written in 19th/early 20th Century prose - so it kind of circumnavigates the point. It's just painful. My attention kept wandering and I was skipping whole pages.)

Now, I'm trying The City We Became by N K Jemisin, who is a four time winner of the Hugo, apparently. This is a fantasy novel. What is it about?

Well so far a young grafitti artist trying to save a city, by panting holes all over it. In between eating lunch in various places, while being stared at, either because he hasn't washed his clothes in ages and can't afford new ones, or he is Black. He doesn't know which. (I think he's eating in the work establishments.) However, I like the writing and the author's voice - also it's not putting me to sleep. My attention is wondering - but that has more to do with me than the book.

"Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all."

I went to some trouble to get it to come up on my Kindle this morning. I'd found it on the HD Fire last night, but it's heavy, so prefer the Kindle.

**

My Commuter Pass is damaged. (And no, I can't just buy a new one - this is special, it's a free unlimited subway pass provided by Crazy Org per my Union. Expires in 2025. Although now that it is damaged - it has a dent in the magnetic strip - I'll have to replace it, and it may not expire until 2026.)

On the way to work this morning - I went to use my pass - and alas, no. I tried numerous times, it did not work. They tried to help me. It did not work. I showed the pass to them. They let me through.

On the way home, same problem, and that's when we figured out it was damaged. They also let me through. I'm going to try and get it fixed tomorrow at work. Union told me to go the Pass Office to fix it.

Worst case scenario - I'll have to purchase a metro card or use the OMNY for a bit. Still a bother on many levels.

***

Right now, the best television series that I'm watching is Slow Horses on Apple TV. It's engrossing. I start, and I keep going. Very bingeable.

Highly recommend, if you have Apple TV.

***

Mother discovered that the insurance policy that my father had through his former company didn't lasp as she thought, and she may be owed some money, after all. She has no idea what to do about it. And has been fretting over the thing for the last three days. She's afraid to fill out the application - because what if it is fraud.

I don't see how it would be fraud, but one never knows. She's also been procrastinating taken my father's name off various accounts.

**

Barbara Streisand in her memoir and the Assistant Minister at my church both felt the need to preach about connecting with people this week. And how important our connections are with others.

Hey, look, I am trying. Lay off.

***

I am now lusting after an ice cream maker at Walmart. It's not surprisingly cheaper via Walmart than Amazon, or the maker's website.

I need this like I need a hole in the head.

Date: 2024-02-01 03:29 am (UTC)
spiffikins: (Default)
From: [personal profile] spiffikins
I think for me the instantpot was a combination of being slightly afraid of it - pressure cooker horror stories - and also it being a totally different way of cooking that I am not familiar with, and didn't have any particular recipes or meals that *need* the instantpot to make? So there was no real incentive for me to figure it out.

The crockpot is similar - but I do have meals that I make in the crockpot and find it the easiest way to make those things, vs using the stove or oven - so that's one of my most used appliances! But I can see - if you don't have any particular thing that you want to make in the crockpot, that it isn't the first thing you think to use.

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