Thanks to everyone who's send their well wishes! 🧡🧡 It's really appreciated. I'm feeling a bit less sore now. I don't have the spoons or function to respond to everyone, but I wanted to say thank you!

I'm putting an update on my issues under a cut, but please don't feel it necessary to read. This is just 1. for me to rant, and 2. for anyone who might be interested in the shit-show of dealing with the medical profession in the US.

( details feel free to skip )

Open Learn

The Restless Universe
My interest is more looking at the stars and planets and this course was more concerned with the physics of this planet, so, although I completed the course, I don't think I gained much from it.

Lottery of Birth
As might be expected this looks at the different factors which can affect how a child will grow up and thrive, or not. I don't think I learnt anything new.

Exploring Ovid's Big Ideas
I studied Ovid's Metamorphoses for Latin O-level an eon ago, but, if anything, by the end of the course I was less interested in Ovid that when I started.

An Introduction to Geology
Life in the Palaeozoic
Earthquakes
Looking around for something to study, I decided a look at how our planet is formed might be interesting. I know a little more now, but wouldn't say this was a subject I'd be particularly interested in progressing with. However, they all helped with building the big picture of 'life'.


Having looked at most of the OpenLearn courses I'm currently interested in, and, in the case of some of the scientific courses, can actually understand, I've now picked out a few FutureLearn courses to continue to widen my horizons.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End follows an elven mage on a journey to try and get to know humans better, years after she was part of a band of heroes that defeated the demon king.
I was a bit apprehensive going in, since the style and humour of manga doesn't always work for me - but Volume 1 in particular was really lovely. Very contemplative, with great depth of emotion and only occasional bits of humour to lighten the tone.
There was also a very interesting exploration of how different lifespans affect attitudes to time, purpose and death.
Volume 2 was a lot darker and more violent, and Volume 3 felt very meandering and rather silly - but I still enjoyed them and plan to continue the series at least for a bit longer.

Search and Recovery by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is Book 11 in the Retrieval Artist univers, though Book 4 in the Anniversary Day subseries. I've mostly really enjoyed this whole set of books so far (with a couple of dips) but this one was disappointing. Rather than moving on from the end of Book 10, it went back in time to the start of the Anniversary Day section of the story and seemed to retread a lot of old ground without really revealing anything new. There were seven viewpoint characters in 225 pages, which felt like a lot, and the stories within this particular book didn't reach any sort of conclusion, so it felt weirdly transitional and also suggests we won't be going back to the 'present' of the story in the next book either. A real shame.

41. Love is sharing your popcorn.” – Charles Schultz
42. “Love is an electric blanket with somebody else in control of the switch.” – Cathy Carlyle
43. “I love you more than coffee, but please don’t make me prove it.” – Elizabeth Evans
44. “Love is being stupid together.” – Paul Valery
45. “Marriage is the chief cause of divorce.” – Groucho Marx
46. “Love is like a tornado; it picks you up off your feet and sometimes takes half your house.” – Unknown
47. “Love is the answer, but while you’re waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty interesting questions.” – Woody Allen
48. “Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.” – Albert Einstein
49. “Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.” – W. Somerset Maugham

* What did the snail who was riding on the turtle's back say? Wheeeee!
* What do you call a lazy kangaroo? A pouch potato.
* What does a pig put on dry skin? Oinkment.
* How do you open a banana? With a mon-key.
* What do you call a pony with a sore throat? A little horse.
* How did the pig get to the hogspital? In a hambulance.
* Why did the cow jump over the moon? The farmer had cold hands.

1. Have you ever contributed to something being crowdfunded? Was there an incentive to do so?

I have not.

2. Have you heard of the ‘Language of Flowers’, published in 1884? Victorian Britain and America were caught up in the concept in the 19th Century. Do you know the secret meaning of any flowers?

I sure don't.

3. Have you ever traced any of your family tree?

Yes, I got quite far with my fathers family. Very interesting stuff.

4. Today is a holiday in many countries, either to celebrate Labour Day or May Day. If you have a day off today, what are your plans?

When I was young we would deliver a may basket for all our favorite neighbors. They were filled with peanuts and mints. I probably did that until I was 10.

Snagged from


Places

I'm filling this up at:
my tv room
Last place I went to:
The hospital
Favorite place in your house:
My recliner
Last place I cried at:
I don't cry
Last place I laughed at:
Today when I watched a comedian in my tv room.
Where did you go on your last vacation?
Greece and Istanbul
What was your favorite thing about the place? How nice people were in Istanbul.
What was your least favorite thing about that place? Didn't have any least.
What's your favorite place in your city? Botanical Gardens, the butterfly enclosure.

What do you like about that place? The butterfly enclosure.

My allbingo card for May!

shield	rivalry	destruction	beauty
capture	animals	chariot	riddle
escape	altar	obsession	loss
exile	hunt	metamorphosis	betrayal

Was Sunday and I didn't have a sense of time pressure, so I went to church for the first time in a few weeks. I still feel more like it's a thing I do sometimes than a community, in great part due to the hour and ten minute travel time making it feel like I really don't want to get involved in other things throughout the week given my general exhaustion level when working. However, the female pastor mentioned a few small groups starting soon, one of which is for Grief, and it kind of tempts to at least try...

Afterward, I ate at a really good soup restaurant but still needed a little more food. Got some fries on the way home and a few other things from McDonald's, which is the closest food to my apartment. Went to sleep for hours after. I had a day of internet productivity yesterday and therefore didn't get a lot of sleep. I want to do more, but I also don't want to just be a lump. There's a lot of boom or bust about being physically active or active online that I wish I could balance when I am off work.

I need to make a plan for what food I am going to make next and go to the grocery store tomorrow afternoon, but I can't decide what to make. Maybe it's time for beef/veg soup again. I used to make it weekly. Recently, I've been making more Mexican-coded stuff.

I kind of would like to make a sort of Mexican-y chili but with whole beef instead of ground beef. Every time I find pure ground beef here, it is "from frozen" and because I stick it in the freezer until use it feels like the texture of gravel half the time. Dunno if that would work...??? I do have chili seasoning mix but I am unsure.

Watched this video and thought it was interesting: "Why 'It's Gonna Be May' is Weirder Than You Think"

Sometimes I daydream about actually studying linguistics. Oh to be a student again, I say while also loving not having homework.