This Is Beautiful: Set Schedule

 It's the start of a new semester, and I am viciously protecting my work from home time. I've decided to keep two days as at home only, and then go into work the rest of the time so that I have motivation to see people and get work done. And we are doing it and sticking to it! Only took me five years but we are keeping to this and at least start the semester strong.

“A Victory of Eagles” by Naomi Novik

This is the fifth book in the Temeraire series! You can find posts on the earlier posts here as well, there’s the first, second, third, and fourth! This is the first book to head back to England and honestly it is probably my favorite of the series so far. It was so nice to head back to familiar territory and see how the war is going. This book also does something different in that the narration now alternates between Temeraire and Laurence instead of just being from Laurence’s perspective.

The book starts with Temeraire in the breeding grounds with other dragons and being bored out of his mind. Laurence is meanwhile on a ship in forced servitude more or less, punishment for bringing a cure to the French and essentially committing treason at the end of the last book. Temeraire gets news that his ship sank with him on it, and starts rallying the dragons up there to go fight. They form their own regiment and head out to fight the French. Laurence meanwhile did survive, and was told that times are desperate enough that he has to find Temeraire and report for duty. They eventually catch up to the dragons and Temeraire insists on being treated as a leader in the army and getting pay for his dragons.

Napoleon tragically takes London, and Iskierka (a fire breathing dragon who hatches a book ago) ends up leaving the group and getting herself and her captain captured. Laurence and Tharkey head after her and Laurence runs into the woman he was supposed to marry if he didn’t go into the Aerial Corps and her husband. The husband accompanies them on the rescue mission and gets himself killed. They head off and the army leadership end up using Laurence’s status as a criminal to have him use the dragons to massacre French raiding parties. Tharkey eventually catches up with him and snaps him out of his despair that just led him to agree to this, and they have a huge battle with the French forces. The English are successful and drive them off the island, but Napoleon gets away and the white Celestial Lien blows apart most of the Navy.

During the calm afterwards, Laurence is sent off to a remote island to do a colonialism with Temeraire as his punishment. Iskierka ends up following them so Granby comes along too, and Tharkey agrees as an adventurer. On the way over, Laurence assures Temeraire that he is quite happy with how things turned out.

So a continual conversation going through the books is Temeraire’s insistence on the humanity and rights of the dragons. He has the most progress here in that now the dragons can hold positions of leadership in the military and they start to build infrastructure that can accommodate dragons. We also see Laurence advocate for them more. Temeraire also has an increased understanding of human politics as he realizes just how badly the treason hurt Laurence’s relationships and material prospects. By far though the best part of this is seeing how Temeraire is able to organize the dragons at the breeding grounds and get them to participate in the war and fight for themselves instead of sitting by passively. This leads to a lot of progress for the British in fact, and the dragons seem keen to carry this forward.

What is also fun is to see how on Laurence’s side his treason has impacted his relationships with the other dragon handlers. We don’t see as much of this, but he talks to Jane about how he could have done this more covertly, and he runs into his old girlfriend in London who thinks he’s a traitor. Harcourt just had her baby and doesn’t seem too with it, but she even seems worried about him. They for sure don’t disagree with what he did, but they appear to be very locked into their roles and can’t do much about that. The dragons in a sense are much more free than they are.

I do think one of the shortcomings of this book though was that the switching between narration took away a lot of the transitions and travel time. There were multiple points where I was confused what was happening because something was glossed over or missed in the transition. It is nice to hear from Temeraire, especially with the dragon liberation plot, but that doesn’t mean that we need to get sloppy with it.

All that to say that I don’t think I’m going to like this next book very much. The previous traveling books were fine but they didn’t have a firm base with familiar characters and setting, and we just cut down on the vast majority of the characters that I loved seeing again in the past two books. I am going to read it anyways and it’ll be interesting to see how Norvik pulls this off, but I suspect that my peak interest in the series just passed. This will be a tough installment to follow.

This Is Beautiful: The Woobles

 I don't think I've written about this yet, but I have a new crafting hobby to add to all of the other ones. It's crocheting little amigurumi! This company called the Woobles puts together little kits of everything you need, and they have videos demonstrating how to do it all. It was really easy to learn from, and I love that it's an all-in-one kit (even if I have like 7 crochet hooks now). I also love that the yarn is easy to work with, and they give you a good amount so you aren't drowning in yarn by the time you're done.

Honestly I've found them to be really helpful for crocheting other things too, I now feel pretty confident with reading patterns and have made a few non-Wooble amigurumis. It has made the process just so much easier when you know how to get started. The kits are pricey, but if you have the time, I would really encourage picking one up, it has made my spare time much more enjoyable!

“The Rift” by Gene Luen Yang

I have been slowly making my way through the Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novels and this is the latest one. (Check out the earlier ones like The Promise and The Search). I think I might have read this one before, a lot of it seemed familiar.

In this story, Avatar Aang wants to celebrate a traditional Air Nomad holiday, but a city has sprung up where the ceremony is supposed to take place. He finds a joint effort from the Earth and Fire Nations to extract metal from the area and refine it. Toph tagged along and loves this venture, while Aang is sad about the loss of tradition. Turns out that Toph’s father is in charge of it, and Aang learns from his past life Yangchen that the festival is to keep a dangerous spirit at bay. An earthquake traps many people underground, and Toph’s metal bending is the only thing keeping them safe. Toph’s students save them, and Aang ends up fighting the spirit, wounding it and causing the spirit to leave while bemoaning how humans destroy everything. Aang speaks to another spirit though, who praises the ingenuity of humans, and he ends up more hopeful about finding balance between their worlds.

Now Toph is one of my favorite characters and I loved seeing more of her here. I just wish that they wouldn’t have her clash with Aang so much. The refinery is clearly horrible for the environment, having her defend it so staunchly just looks bad. But it was cool to see her reunite with her father.

The note that the series ends on is pretty bleak. The spirit storms off saying that the Avatar won’t be enough for balance as the Avatar is human in the end. Balance seems far off, or antiquated at best. I don’t think Aang’s conversation with the hopeful spirit really makes up for that. But it does introduce these ideas that later show up in Korra.

I like chugging through these periodically, they aren’t very long and are a nice way to see characters from Avatar that I love so much. I’ll keep going, there are a few more that are left for me to check out!

2024 Year in Review

 I don't usually do this, but let's take a look at 2024! I read a whole lot, from a skim of the blog I wrapped up the Diane Duane saga and started a new series (Temeraire by Naomi Novik). Also read more about a-spec identities and Palestine to try and have an informed take about a single thing. It's great that I managed to find a new fantasy series that I'm really enjoying, and that I managed to reread things. I still don't love how I react to world events, but I think that's more to do with the fact that I don't know everything and I have to just keep reading and learning things. And that's alright.

My favorite book of the year (if it isn't His Majesty's Dragon and starting the Temeraire series anyways) is one that I haven't even published the post on so I'll save it, but it's a memoir about art that struck a chord with me.

I also posted a whole lot about how much I dislike being a PhD student and enjoy breaks from work. (Lol?) I'm still a ways from the end unfortunately... But it's been a good year for me and work. I got my paper on the ethics of same-sex sexual behavior out FINALLY. And I sent in my submission for "Dance Your PhD." Both have been a while coming, and both mean a whole lot to me for different reasons. I am very glad though that I can continue to be creative while in my program as I would keel over otherwise.

In the next year, I'm hoping to cease participating in things that drain my energy. I can tell I'm getting a little curmudgeonly in my ancient PhD days and I want to do things less. But I still am doing new things somehow, I restarted pointe work this year and tried out aerial circus lessons for the first time on a regular basis. But there are definitely things I need to cut out of my life. I also was the instructor of record for a class for the first time, affirming that I love teaching, and went to a teaching research conference which gave me a new vision of the future. Both great things for my future!

Anyways, it has been a good year. Hard year but a good year. Things are looking good for 2025, although I am getting nervous about graduating, but we shall see.

Turning 30

 I turned 30 years old yesterday! And I also got married on the same day! (I didn't plan it that way, it's just how schedules worked out.) Which leaves me in this interesting position here, as I have now been running this silly little blog for well over a decade, enough that I went back and reread the post I wrote as a 20 year old. Funnily enough, it isn't as cringey as I thought it would be. There is some good stuff in here, things that I still forget most of the time haha. 

On my thirtieth I don't want to do another little listicle just because those are so lame and such simplifications. And I'm just in a more pensive mood. 30 years feels like such a milestone and also I am still in a PhD program, it's wrapping up, but I'm essentially still in school and training for an adult job that I hopefully eventually get. I don't feel that I have read and absorbed everything I want to learn about and advocate for, and I hope that I keep feeling that way. But I certainly don't think I have wisdom to impart.

The past year particularly I feel like I have had to contend with the limitations of my body more than ever. I'm less physically able to do a lot of things I could in the past, and I've been trying to train more to make up for it, but it feels like I'm hyper aware of how I look and my body type. And I super don't love that. Since my 20th birthday I've also had a cancer diagnosis and had to go through that treatment, and there's been a worldwide pandemic. I didn't react to the pandemic particularly well and I still kinda hate myself for that. I haven't always been a great anti-racist advocate and I also hate myself over that. But we keep moving forward and trying to do better.

I am really hopeful for the coming decade though. I will finally get my doctorate and I will hopefully move somewhere that has more stuff in the area for me. I so want to get into ballet more and keep dancing. I want to keep creating. I made so much great art in my 20s and I don't want to peak here; but it is so hard to create as an adult. Especially out of school and trying to find community groups. It's so hard and I'm not looking forward to that but I know that I can't stop choreographing and acting and making! I don't want to give that up and I'm determined to seek out spaces I can do these things.

Oh and I'm married now. I'm finally in a healthy, stable relationship that feels good. And feels like we are on the same page when it comes to asexuality and aromanticism and what we want. It just feels like a comfy friendship where we will plan together and create a life together, and that is the ideal. Getting married itself was more symbolic than anything else, nothing is actually going to change, but hey it is nice we did that.

So yeah, thirties here we come. Here's to leaving my twenties behind.

This Is Beautiful: Tchaikovsky and Ellington

 I went to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra last weekend to see a really cool performance of the Nutcracker music! They played first the lush orchestral original version that Tchaikovsky composed, and then immediately played the Ellington jazzy version. It was so cool! I already know both versions extremely well being a dancer and a musician but having it back to back really highlighted what Ellington borrowed from Tchaikovsky and how he tweaked it. Honestly, I only want to listen to these pieces this way now!

It also was so nice to hear the music played live. The past few times I've seen the Nutcracker it has been with recorded music instead of a live orchestra. And it really loses something. Never mind that I love live performances because they have raw mistakes (the DSO is too good for that) it's just a different resonance in the space and maybe you're hearing one part a little more clearly. And it's just so cool to see it in person.