...

i made garlic cucumber last night and it was ?!?! somehow the best i've ever made it. an alchemical mystery. and then, i finished reading planet of exile, book 2 of this ursula le guin collection titled worlds of exile and illusion. first of all, it's so funny that they came up with this title by just mashing together the names of the books: rocannon's WORLD, planet of EXILE, city of ILLUSION. secondly, i love ursula le guin's writing so much. rightfully so, left hand and the dispossessed get a lot of love, but i barely hear a peep about the others in the hainish cycle, and having made it to the third book of this original "trilogy", i can see why they're regarded, if at all, as "lesser" works by comparison, but i think they still fully deserve to be read! there's a lot of wonderful, moving writing in them, and they share a lot of ideas, themes & motifs with her later books. she writes so evocatively about... every kind of feeling, and about time and space, and about meeting one another across the vast gulf of difference.

[...] the cold of the bright November morning woke him fully. He pulled on his shirt and breeches—heavy, soft, dark cloth of Parth's weaving, cut and fitted for him by Buckeye—and stood at the wooden rail of the porch looking across the Clearing to the brown and red and gold of the trees.

Fresh, still, sweet, the morning was as it had been when the first people on this land had waked in their frail, pointed houses and stepped outside to see the sun rise free of the dark forest. Mornings are all one, and autumn always autumn, but the years men count are many. There had been a first race on this land... and a second, the conquerors; both were lost, conquered and conquerors, millions of lives, all drawn together to a vague point on the horizon of past time. The stars had been gained, and lost again. Still the years went on, so many years that the forest of archaic times, destroyed utterly during the era when men had made and kept their history, had grown up again. Even in the obscure vast history of a planet the time it takes to make a forest counts. It takes a while. And not every planet can do it; it is no common effect, that tangling of the sun's first cool light in the shadow and complexity of innumerable wind-stirred branches... (from city of illusion)

what else is new? i had a lot of health (insurance) problems in the past two months, but things are getting back on track. the stress and pain had me feeling disconnected from my body and my surroundings; i'm trying to get back in touch. learning mandarin is slow-going but steady. i might plan a trip to toronto with my friends in the spring. i've been downloading so many movies lately that i actually need to start watching them before my hard drive runs out of storage. stay tuned for upcoming screenings...

mabel's dancing tiktoks are my favorite way of discovering songs. okay but i love this katamari core shit!!

i've been in a long creative lull, but i feel like it's coming to an end soon. we'll see.