Well, hopefully the weather is now cooling down for a longer period than the last little tease. I knew it’d be back! It was actually much, much worse over the weekend just gone. While I shouldn’t blame the weather on decisions I make, I did indeed use it as an excuse to have a drink. Oh well, as if there was anything else I could possibly have done with my time.
Which I believe was my logic.
Anyway, I only spent two days off the wagon, so I’ve still been touching base with culture, albeit at a much slower and sweatier pace.
Behold!
THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION
Blimey, I completely forgot I’d downloaded the remastered version of this video game over a month ago! I actually had it on the PS3, but gave up very soon indeed. Having already gotten into Skyrim, I found it to be just hideous and clunky. I believe this remaster is meant to iron out all the things I didn’t appreciate in its 2006 original form, which is exactly why I decided to give it another go. However, as with many video games, the introductory scenes are as dark and dismal and punishing as one can possibly make them, so I’m currently taking a brief hiatus from digging out of the dungeons of somewhere I’m sure is of great importance to the story. Cough. Sadly, the PS5’s accessibility features are more fiddly than the 3 and 4’s, so I’m struggling with Oblivion’s inventory screens, due to the fact that I am no longer able to invert the colours at a touch of a button. Well, so I believe. If anyone out there knows the controller shortcuts for this option, then do drop me a friendly line! I’ve already got the three-tier zoom function mastered like a boss, which itself has improved since the previous generation. Perhaps I should just shut up and RTFM, but who honestly has the time.
ULFULS
The other thing my Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion film experience gave me, besides a warm heart and a resurrected faith in humanity, was this great Japanese band that performs the song that plays over Gamera 2’s end credits. They’re basically a more-upbeat Say Sue Me, in that they record pastiches of 1950s rockabilly and surf music, but of course with a modern twist. They’re also mad as all-get-out and loads of fun! The singer sometimes tries a bit too hard, so there’s break-up in his voice that sounds unnatural and not very pleasing, but you get used to it after awhile. Their guitar parts are inventive and feature some thunderous tones, which I’m finding incredibly inspiring, I’m curious to hear which direction their sound goes, as they still appear to be rocking hard after 30 years. Aww, I’m always so happy when I find a new artist to get into!
PLANT SCIENCE
Yes, we’re doing this. As part of research I may end up never using for an active writing project, I thought I’d actually learn something about our friendly neighbour on Earth: nature! I know sweet-fuck-all about botany, but I’ve always suspected that I’d be fascinated by the subject, which would surely suck me in like Seymour to Audrey II. Did that work?! Oh who cares. The other thing I was concerned about, besides incomprehension, when approaching the subject of plants and other dirt folk is that, as strange as it may sound, I actually find flora kinda gross. I don’t think watching the film Day of the Triffids as an impressionable child helped this aversion, but it is a very real, erm, borderline-phobia. I mean, if you look really closely at plants, they are really yucky. Plus, if you were able to speed up their movements and physical processes, then you could describe them as downright horrifying. Luckily, the first resource I’ve turned to on botany has the plucky Catherine Kleier at the helm. What a massive nerd! So much so that I find myself laughing every few minutes at how, well, nerdy she is. Which is great, of course, as hearing someone being so enthusiastic about something they love is a joy in itself. I’ve not quite settled on which time of day to listen to this series of lectures from The Teaching Company yet, but I’ll get there. Is the subject too eerie for nighttime? Too icky for before dinner? Too icky for even after dinner?! I love standing in nature, I just get a dicky tummy learning about its… feeding.
GATHERING MOSS
I didn’t think a human being could talk for 5 minutes about moss, but apparently I was wrong. The second resource I’ve gone to about botany is this 12-hour epic on, you guessed it, moss. I actually whooped out loud when this audiobook, after I’d already bought and downloaded it, was recommended by Catherine the Nerd, whom I mentioned above. I haven’t gotten very far as yet, mainly because its author, Robin Wall Kimmerer, whilst very sweet, does actually sound like someone who has spent a lifetime interested in… moss. Her introduction is less inspiring and more, for lack of a better word, creepy. I’m sure she lightens up as she goes along, but I had my hands over my mouth in horror as she narrated, without any irony in her voice whatsoever, the opening pages of her book on… moss. Bless. I’m confident she’ll get into the swing of things, but, like with Plant Science, I just need to find the right time of day to engross myself in, erm, 12-hours of hardcore moss talk.
DUTCH SHORT STORIES FOR BEGINNERS
As previously mentioned in umpteen different posts, possibly to the annoyance of my readers, I’m casually learning Dutch. Why, you ask? Because it’s there! I spent a few years in the Netherlands as a kid and apparently picked up a fair amount of the language, but I have no memory of this. I still put it down to a natural skill with reading human behaviour, but I’ve been assured otherwise. So, just for shits and giggles, as they say, I thought I’d actually see if I can pick it up “again”. So far, I’ve just been listening to Dutch pop music and watching Dutch films, which is a good starting point, but now I feel like pushing the boat, or “de boot”, out a bit. Boy-oh-boy is the web filled to puking-point with condescending language aids. I need to be condescended to, of course, but I don’t want to feel like I am. This audiobook seemed like a nice middle-ground. It reads you a brief story in Dutch, then tells you the premise in English and translates a list of significant words that crop up. I didn’t want to say “keywords” there, as that might’ve been confusing. I think I’m on the third story now and not finding it particularly helpful at all. But that’s just me. As a companion project, I’ve also downloaded just a regular Dutch-language novel in audiobook form and am listening to it “blind”, then looking up words that stand out or get repeated. Just like I do with Dutch music and films. I’m on, like, the seventh chapter already, and really enjoying whatever the flip it’s about. Maybe I should check. So, yes, while a very good idea overall that will probably work for many, Dutch Short Stories for Beginners isn’t turning out to be great for me. I will keep at it though, as I have high hopes it will shine eventually. Check me out being all positive!
Well, I think that’s pretty good going for having suffered a month of heatwave attacks. With any luck, more culture and less sweating is to come. You have not truly met a grumpy arsehole until you’ve met me amidst thirty degrees centigrade. Sorry, I don’t know which button to press to get the little “o” and big… oh wait.
There should be more Lone Wolf and Cub talk to come, in some form or another. I know I discussed the series ages ago, but there’s always new stuff to discover in there! I also would like to make a second attempt at purchasing the original Gamera series by Showa. I just need to be in the right mood for dealing with such tiresome online crap.
Don’t we all?
Moss!
Do stay in touch, darlings.
Toodles!
