Hello, friends and enemies. The news this week is that my Eurovision plans are officially canceled. I was really excited to go for my 40th birthday, but the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is doubling down on its support for Israel, and I don’t feel I can go in good conscience. Last week, the EBU had a meeting with broadcasters from all the countries that participate in Eurovision. There had been talk of letting members vote whether Israel should participate next year, but I think that Israel claiming that they’re having a “cease fire” (which it has violated over 500 times and during which Israel has destroyed over 1,500 buildings) gave the broadcasters cover to keep on ignoring the atrocities. So far, only five countries have said they will boycott the competition while Israel is allowed to stay: Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, the Netherlands, and Iceland. The director of the Eurovision Song Contest has boldly come out saying that it “shouldn’t be used as a political theatre,” which is nuts considering the entire damn point of Eurovision was to get European countries to like each other again after World War II. It sucks to have something I like so much ruined like this.
All that said: what should I do for my 40th birthday? The Eurovision trip was exciting for the Eurovision itself of course but also because I had given myself the challenge of learning as much German as possible before going to Vienna. I stopped working on the language when it started to look like they were going to allow Israel to compete as usual. I wasn’t super obsessed with learning German and wanted to keep spending my time on Spanish and Icelandic. I like when I can do something that combines multiple interests and I like going to places after having a chance to read up on them. I don’t love going places with no context, as I learned when I was 14 and we lived in England for a year and my (now ex-)step-mom dragged us to every historical and cultural site on the island. I am being encouraged to find an alternative 40th birthday activity but I’ve had this in mind for so long that I’m drawing a complete blank. Any suggestions from the commentariat?
Books and Other Words
Time’s Convert is the fourth book in Deborah Harkness’s All Souls series and the first to feature different main characters. While the first three books were exclusively about the relationship between Diana Bishop and Matthew de Clermont, Time’s Convert focuses on Matthew’s vampire son, Marcus, and his girlfriend Phoebe who has decided to become a vampire herself (good for her). The story bounces between the perspectives of Marcus coming of age and becoming a vampire during the American revolutionary war and, in the present, Phoebe becoming a vampire and the happenings of the Bishop-de Clermont household. I found this book a bit harder to get interested in than the previous ones, perhaps because I am simply not interested in the American revolutionary period or perhaps because there was too much movement between different story lines. It was still an enjoyable read overall, just not as intense as the previous books. I’m onto the next book already and I’m liking it better so far.
I finally finished reading Don Quijote! I started in January (see this post) and it took me the whole fucking year! Although I didn’t exactly read it every day and my ereader reports that I spent 67 hours total reading, which is a lot of time to be sure but not “takes a whole year” numbers. It was definitely a good learning exercise and, if nothing else, I have improved my stamina for reading in Spanish. I think I would have been better served by reading a chapter summary in English or even reading the English translation before each chapter in Spanish, just because there’s a lot of archaic weirdness and it was hard to keep up, despite the literal thousands of footnotes scattered through the book for the modern Spanish reader. It’s not unlike English speakers reading Shakespeare with no preparation (although Shakespeare’s plays are short).
As for the actual content of the story, I did like it. I found a lot of humor in it (and I believe there is even more humor there that I did not find lol). I mean, it’s inherently funny for Sancho to go on and on about how he would like to be rewarded for his service with an island only to be made a governor later on and fucking hate it (plus he’s illiterate, which is not ideal for government functionaries). I particularly enjoyed some of the bizarre characters who showed up and there’s even an appearance from the wizard Merlin in which he drops some sick rhymes. What a cool guy. Something else I was amused by is that Don Quijote (ne Alonso Quijano) goes nuts after reading too many novels about knights, and there’s a scene where a local priest and Don Q’s housekeeper are trying to get rid of all these books that drove him mad. It just goes to show that people will be pissed off about any medium at all. If it’s not the kids and their damn phones its the landed gentry and their chivalric fiction. I also think there’s an element of what we would now understand as fan fiction in this tale. Cervantes is very well versed in this genre and then decides to make up his own guy to send him on adventures in this universe, which feels very fan fiction to me. Is that all fiction? Is that just being alive? I don’t even know anymore but I think there’s an argument to be made. Maybe I’ll get a master’s in Spanish and write a thesis about it (please don’t let me do that).
Meanwhile, on the internet:
- The Company Betting You’ll Bet on Anything via The Present Age. Betting on everything seems to be taking over the US, or at least the US internet—if you’ve seen any “news” posts from Polymarket, you are getting news from a betting company. One of the new “trading” (read: gambling via your phone) companies, Kalshi, has a CEO who wants to turn “any difference of opinion” into something you can bet on. Bleak! They’re marketing themselves as a “new asset class” rather than gambling and trying to get college students hooked. Seems bad. I also think this fits with something Ryan Broderick of Garbage Day has been observing for a while: our whole economy is turning into a casino.
- Scientists Are Increasingly Worried AI Will Sway Elections via 404 Media. I’m sure nothing bad can come of that.
- Dr. Oz Tells His Federal Employees to Eat Less via Wired. Dr. Oz can fuck right off. No one wants their boss to comment on what they’re eating. Get a life.
- The Anti-Cosmetic Surgery Essay Every Woman Should Read via Father Karine. Just as the title says, you should read it.
Media
I was already planning to write bit about how I have started getting DVDs from the library instead of paying for every streaming service at once, and then I saw 404 Media published The Last Video Rental Store Is Your Public Library, to which I say: hell yeah. Kirk and I recently decided to get caught up on Doctor Who and of course it’s somehow not on any streaming service that we already pay for. Then I remembered that the library has DVDs that you can borrow for free. I could have been doing this all along! It’s not surprising that more and more people are remembering that they can get their shows at the library now that streaming services are fragmented and prices are going up. When Netflix was new, it really seemed like we would be able to get any show or movie at any time forever so it was unnecessary to have DVDs or your own collection. Well, that clearly turned out to be a lie. Stop spending money on streaming services! Get ye to the local library!
Computer World
I recently discovered that Linux (at least Linux Mint) doesn’t allow you to right-click and edit properties for music files like Windows does, which had me searching online for how to do that! After the Great MP3 Reorganization, I am unwilling to let my music collection fall back into disarray. I found a program called EasyTag (also available on Windows lol) that is for exactly this kind of stuff. It is, indeed, easy to use. I was very glad to get it set up because the new Rosalía album had the artist tagged as “ROSALÍA” instead of “Rosalía,” which are two completely unrelated entities as far as the computer is concerned. I’ve set it all to rights now. By the way, the album is really fucking good.
Rampant Consumerism
Kirk and I had been talking for a little while about switching to an induction stove, both because it’s probably environmentally better and to get us away from the local gas company, PG&E (fuck PG&E). Our microwave broke on Thanksgiving, just before it’s most important week of the year (Thanksgiving leftover season is peak microwave time) and we quickly realized that a microwave is very important to how we operate. So, we went out and bought both new appliances. They are very nice! I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the induction stove but it heats things up so quickly and evenly. I love it! I’ve been putting the oven through thorough testing by making a ton of holiday treats over the last week and I feel like it’s doing a good job. I think our old one ran a little cold, so it’s nice to have one that works correctly. I was alarmed to learn that you apparently have to “burn in” a new oven, so consider this a public service announcement. I turned on the oven and freaked out when I smelled burning and thought there was some kind of plastic trapped in there. No. Apparently that’s just a thing that no one should worry about.
By the way, if you’re in Sacramento and looking to switch from gas to induction, SMUD has a good rebate available.
Doing Stuff
I had a super busy weekend doing holiday stuff. We went to see Sac Ballet do The Nutcracker, which I enjoy more now that I know more about ballet and about what the hell is happening in the story. It’s not always very easy to figure out what is going on in these ballets if you’re not already familiar. I think my favorites are the peppermint dancers, they just look fun. I also thought the dancers playing the gnome and Mother Ginger were very fun to watch; they hammed it up well and Mother Ginger was low-key vogueing the house down.
On Sunday, Lemon and I hosted a holiday cookie party and invited our friends to show up with cookies to swap. Honestly, hanging out with your homies and eating a ton of cookies is peak human activity; it doesn’t get much better! I highly recommend it. Here’s the cookie spread!
Languages
One of the fun parts about translating Wikipedia articles is filling in the network of articles that connect to a topic. I had been translating some articles into Spanish about songs from this year’s Eurovision, which included the Miriana Conte song “Serving” aka “Serving Kant.” This really necessitated explaining the concept of “serving cunt” in Spanish as well because otherwise the controversy about the song title doesn’t mean much. I also translated the article on the Arabian riff (you’ll know it when you hear it! There’s an audio player on the Wikipedia page). That was cool because I didn’t even realize that tune had a name or a history beyond the schoolyard rhyme of “there’s a place in France/where the naked ladies dance.”
I’m doing similar things in Icelandic (not thematically similar; I’m not ready to explain serving cunt in Icelandic) and I recently translated the article on kúgildi, which was a unit of value that means “cow value,” into English. I’m very proud of my work on the article on Garðskagaviti, a lighthouse in southern Iceland and a favorite of my lighthouse-loving friend Abby. This article is not a translation! The Icelandic article was light on information so I read some articles (mostly in Icelandic) about the lighthouse and wrote this Wikipedia page, then translated it into Icelandic to review with my teacher. I haven’t updated Icelandic Wikipedia yet, so if you go looking for that version, you’ll need to wait a few days.
Moving It
Last call for my next dance (and perhaps final) recital! It is on Saturday, December 20. If you want to go, you can get a ticket here: https://www.etix.com/ticket/o/10638/galaxydancearts
Kitchen Witchery
I have been making a lot of holiday treats and the majority are pictured here. We got:
- Sugar cookies with Christmas M&Ms.
- Gingersnaps (I roll them in vanilla sugar for a little extra excitement).
- Chessboard cookies (from the Nordic Baking Book).
- Dulce de leche fudge (I also made walnut fudge but forgot to take a picture. You can imagine it, I’m sure).
- Toffee! In high demand among my family members.
- Candied nuts, a new addition this year. I used the Smitten Kitchen recipe.
- The diva, my million peso shortbread.
It might look like I’ve been subsisting entirely on treats, but here is some actual food to prove otherwise. After thanksgiving, I immediately put my leftover turkey to use in turkey, farro, and chickpea soup and then a pot pie (I use a recipe from The Harvest Baker). I used the rest of the chickpeas I made for the soup in tahini loaded sweet potatoes, which we like a lot. Finally, I made a bean and bacon soup.
Cat Therapy
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves.
