Frankenstien and other romantics
March has freakishly creeped up on me. Things have been looking up, I just needed to pull myself out of the funk. I've had to be a bit more proactive with myself this year in the happiness department. The jury's still out on if this is a good thing or not, but I think that it just might be.
There's a shit ton of work due soon, but oddly I'm not freaking out too much. I've been planning my dissertation topic mostly, though I still haven't pinned it down. I know I'm leaning towards women's history. I loved doing my paper on it last year, and am intrigued by the directions I can go with it this year. I sometimes look back and think how odd it is that I like it so much.
I think that I have made the classic blunder of falling for the stereotype of women who do women's studies. I am not an angry man hater, far from it. Thinking about this has made me sit back and revaluate if I am a feminist, and if so what does it mean. I think I am a feminist, I believe in equality of the genders and that seems to be the one meaning most people can agree on. It seems a reasonable belief, I wish no ill will on men or any other section of humanity. Coming back to my original fascination with the study of women's history, I like it because it is history, because it is another piece of the story. Not because it is going to further any political or social agenda I may have about women, that is not history. To study history one must be prepared to have missing pieces and dark stories that don't fit your ideals. It is the story of ourselves, and one cannot ignore that we have cocked things up quite a bit at times. Thus, I like doing these papers cause it gives me a better understanding of what I have known before. I could go on, but I really, it would be a completely separate rant.
On a more fluffy note, I have had my second successful dabble in Czech cooking. M was waxing poetic about these fruit dumplings her mother makes, and I wanted to have a go. I discovered that the library had a Czech cookbook, so I've been having a gander at it for a few weeks now. Czech cuisine has this dichotomy of sweet and savory that is unlike anything I have encountered before, and it's fantastic. So you make this sweet yeast dough and wrap pieces of stone fruit in it and then boil the dumplings. when they're done you put farmer's cheese, powdered sugar and butter on top. I would never think to put the cheese and sugar together, but it works and the whole thing is actually kind of refreshing. I made a few bad ones at the beginning cause I didn't boil it long enough and I needed to cut the fruit pieces smaller, but after M put up with some testing, she declared that it was good and fairly authentic. I'm well chuffed if I can get that response from a Czech on my first go at this, and apparently it's one of the harder dishes to make. The only trouble was the cheese, I couldn't find the Czech cheese so I went with haloumi which is a bit too salty. I'm thinking I'll try other stuff out, the cookbook is a bit off in the measurements, but I think I can work around it.
As to my odd subject line, I finally finished reading the copy of Frankenstien Rory gave me at Christmas. I'm now working my way slowly through the writing prompts she has given me, so I shall be posting those fairly soon, or at least the first one. If you happen across them, do comment, and give me constructive crit, cause I've never really written fiction before and thus am dipping my toe into new waters with this. They're not based on any fandom, I've tried to start one a few times, but something in my head demands I write my own thing at the moment. Reading Frankenstien has encouraged me to read other romantics. I'm sure Rory will be pleased. I've taken to picking out interesting passages or poems and writing them out and illustrating them with pen and ink. Not sure where it's heading, but I like the process so far so I'll stick to it.
We finally got the key to the back garden! I've been going out and just putting my feet on the grass. It's something I take for granted at home, but is so precious to me in the city. When it gets a bit warmer I think I might take my pen and ink out there and bask in my tiny slice of green. Sigh, back to work. Hopefully I'll be posting stories soon and if I'm lucky, someone will read them.
Be well,
--Liber
There's a shit ton of work due soon, but oddly I'm not freaking out too much. I've been planning my dissertation topic mostly, though I still haven't pinned it down. I know I'm leaning towards women's history. I loved doing my paper on it last year, and am intrigued by the directions I can go with it this year. I sometimes look back and think how odd it is that I like it so much.
I think that I have made the classic blunder of falling for the stereotype of women who do women's studies. I am not an angry man hater, far from it. Thinking about this has made me sit back and revaluate if I am a feminist, and if so what does it mean. I think I am a feminist, I believe in equality of the genders and that seems to be the one meaning most people can agree on. It seems a reasonable belief, I wish no ill will on men or any other section of humanity. Coming back to my original fascination with the study of women's history, I like it because it is history, because it is another piece of the story. Not because it is going to further any political or social agenda I may have about women, that is not history. To study history one must be prepared to have missing pieces and dark stories that don't fit your ideals. It is the story of ourselves, and one cannot ignore that we have cocked things up quite a bit at times. Thus, I like doing these papers cause it gives me a better understanding of what I have known before. I could go on, but I really, it would be a completely separate rant.
On a more fluffy note, I have had my second successful dabble in Czech cooking. M was waxing poetic about these fruit dumplings her mother makes, and I wanted to have a go. I discovered that the library had a Czech cookbook, so I've been having a gander at it for a few weeks now. Czech cuisine has this dichotomy of sweet and savory that is unlike anything I have encountered before, and it's fantastic. So you make this sweet yeast dough and wrap pieces of stone fruit in it and then boil the dumplings. when they're done you put farmer's cheese, powdered sugar and butter on top. I would never think to put the cheese and sugar together, but it works and the whole thing is actually kind of refreshing. I made a few bad ones at the beginning cause I didn't boil it long enough and I needed to cut the fruit pieces smaller, but after M put up with some testing, she declared that it was good and fairly authentic. I'm well chuffed if I can get that response from a Czech on my first go at this, and apparently it's one of the harder dishes to make. The only trouble was the cheese, I couldn't find the Czech cheese so I went with haloumi which is a bit too salty. I'm thinking I'll try other stuff out, the cookbook is a bit off in the measurements, but I think I can work around it.
As to my odd subject line, I finally finished reading the copy of Frankenstien Rory gave me at Christmas. I'm now working my way slowly through the writing prompts she has given me, so I shall be posting those fairly soon, or at least the first one. If you happen across them, do comment, and give me constructive crit, cause I've never really written fiction before and thus am dipping my toe into new waters with this. They're not based on any fandom, I've tried to start one a few times, but something in my head demands I write my own thing at the moment. Reading Frankenstien has encouraged me to read other romantics. I'm sure Rory will be pleased. I've taken to picking out interesting passages or poems and writing them out and illustrating them with pen and ink. Not sure where it's heading, but I like the process so far so I'll stick to it.
We finally got the key to the back garden! I've been going out and just putting my feet on the grass. It's something I take for granted at home, but is so precious to me in the city. When it gets a bit warmer I think I might take my pen and ink out there and bask in my tiny slice of green. Sigh, back to work. Hopefully I'll be posting stories soon and if I'm lucky, someone will read them.
Be well,
--Liber