Wednesday morning things

* I finished the body, and so attached the head and ears to it, for Sylvie Culture last night. I've decided that the idea of her having tiny field boots on her hooves amuses me too much NOT to do it, even though it will be fiddly and annoying to make four of them. (I am going to sew them on so they won't get lost).

* So I'm taking today off, or mostly off, from working (I probably should finish the exam I started writing last afternoon). I'm probably going to  Sherman for groceries, and I did get a little cash at the bank the other day (cash is now going to be how I buy "non essentials" so I am more conscious of how much I am spending). If the new "Simply Knitting" is in I will get it, and I need to get some brown felt for the boots.

I'm also possibly going to go to the barbecue place for lunch. I don't know. I know I said "no meals out!" but if I get the "small portion" lunch it will not be THAT expensive.

(This whole thing is just hard to negotiate for me because I have an all-or-nothing mindset about these things)

* I stopped taking the guaifenisin (generic Mucinex) yesterday. I got a dizzy spell while over working yesterday and they say that's one of the uncommon-but-not-serious side effects to the stuff. I think I'm over the congestion enough I don't need it any more anyway.

* More piano music. This came up on the "related videos" on YouTube to something I was watching, and I like it - I never really thought that much about the music in the Studi Ghibli movies; it's just there. But it is pretty and relaxing and "friendly":



I probably need to re-institute a periodic watching or re-watching of calming and fun movies. I could re-watch "My Neighbor Totoro" every couple of months or so and not get tired of it. (I think that's my favorite Studio Ghibli movie, of the ones I've seen. As much for the lovely backgrounds - you can almost identify the wildflowers in the fields, that's how detailed they are - as for anything with the story. (My other favorite is "Kiki's Delivery Service.") There are a few I haven't seen, and a few of the "wilder" ones that I don't find as relaxing ("Princess Mononoke"). And I could re-watch "Inside Out" sometime, or "Big Hero 6"

I also need to hunt around on Amazon Prime (Yes, I still have that) for some of the free streaming stuff that is similar. I watched "The Secret of Kells" that way and I think they have some similar movies available free. (And they have some anime on there, though some of that is not to my taste....). I probably need to do less stuff like settling for re-watching episodes of "Untold Stories of the ER" that I've seen before and seek out nicer happier stuff.

The world isn't a nice or happy place a lot of the time and I find it helps to seek out things like Studio Ghibli movies or some of the nice Pixar work or other things. (Yes, a lot of my favorite movies are kids' movies, but I really think many directors/writers seem to feel they have more freedom in kids' movies to explore interesting ideas or create appealing worlds; so many of the movies-aimed-at-adults seem to just perpetuate the adult dysfunctions that I personally blame for getting the world into the mess it's in.....so I'd rather watch movies about a big grey forest spirit or a brave princess who can ride horseback and is a good archer.... I wonder if in some way my feelings are related to CS Lewis' comments about "children's books," specifically that the ones that can ONLY be enjoyed by children are not good stories. A lot more by Lewis on  writing for children is quoted here. I also like his comment that "Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence."

and also: "When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

(I once put part of that quotation over a picture of Ponies, but I can't find it now)

* I'm finding that learning German with Duolingo is getting easier for me. I still struggle with the....I guess you call it noun declensions? English doesn't explicitly mark when a noun is the object, or direct object, or things like that, so I struggle with it in German (French didn't either, as far as I can remember). Also the whole gender-of-things-that-aren't-clearly-male-or-female is hard to remember - for example, beer is female in French but male in German. Why? (And yes, I know, it goes beyond "male" and "female" in the sense of reproductive parts but still the idea of inanimate things having a gender confuses me)

I'm also having a little easier time with some of the piano stuff. Maybe these things go by cycles? Maybe for a while you are just kind of dull and stupid about things, and then that resolves, and you get better at it? I never seem to progress at anything smoothly - I struggle for a while and then suddenly it becomes easy for a while until I struggle again.