Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 93
April 3, 2020
California Health Corps
wants YOU ETA does not want you unless you're licensed. Despite what they EXPLICITLY STATE ON THEIR OWN SITE, complete with assorted categories of unlicensed people on their own application. Alas.
I suspect that an intern MFT not currently affiliated with any organization and not willing to travel out of LA is going to be extremely low on their call-up list, but you never know.
(Normally I'd travel. In this case, it's too risky for my cats as I live alone and there's no guarantee a cat-sitter could get to them in case of emergency, as they might be totally locked down or sick themselves. This is an issue, like many right now, that I never imagined coming up in all the bazillion hours I've devoted to imagining disasters.)
However, if anyone ever bothers to look at my application, they'll see that in addition to my four years of clinical experience and eleven as a crisis counselor, I've also deployed with the Red Cross. Admittedly, that was exactly twenty years ago. But still. At the very least, it shows willing.
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I suspect that an intern MFT not currently affiliated with any organization and not willing to travel out of LA is going to be extremely low on their call-up list, but you never know.
(Normally I'd travel. In this case, it's too risky for my cats as I live alone and there's no guarantee a cat-sitter could get to them in case of emergency, as they might be totally locked down or sick themselves. This is an issue, like many right now, that I never imagined coming up in all the bazillion hours I've devoted to imagining disasters.)
However, if anyone ever bothers to look at my application, they'll see that in addition to my four years of clinical experience and eleven as a crisis counselor, I've also deployed with the Red Cross. Admittedly, that was exactly twenty years ago. But still. At the very least, it shows willing.
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April 2, 2020
Locke and Key # 1: Welcome to Lovecraft, by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez
After Rendell Locke, a high school counselor and father, is murdered by a former student, his wife and three kids move to their ancestral mansion, Keyhouse, located in Lovecraft, MA. That's not ominous at all.
The mansion is a cross between a haunted house and a magical house, with echoes that talk back and keys that unlock portals. It's strange and engaging, more dark fantasy than outright horror, with excellent, expressive art. There's one panel that made me gasp out loud - it's a comic equivalent of a jump scare.
I've had mixed feelings about Hill's fiction (not a euphemism for "I don't like it" - I mean I liked some parts a lot and disliked some parts), but I enjoyed the hell out of this comic.
I hate reading comics online/on an ereader and I normally buy comics from a local shop which is currently closed, so continuing this would be hard. Should I watch the Netflix series instead?
Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft[image error]
[image error] [image error]
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The mansion is a cross between a haunted house and a magical house, with echoes that talk back and keys that unlock portals. It's strange and engaging, more dark fantasy than outright horror, with excellent, expressive art. There's one panel that made me gasp out loud - it's a comic equivalent of a jump scare.
I've had mixed feelings about Hill's fiction (not a euphemism for "I don't like it" - I mean I liked some parts a lot and disliked some parts), but I enjoyed the hell out of this comic.
I hate reading comics online/on an ereader and I normally buy comics from a local shop which is currently closed, so continuing this would be hard. Should I watch the Netflix series instead?
Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft[image error]
[image error] [image error]
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Step and stair exercises
I came across a link to a set of exercises using only steps/stairs. I think it was on Metafilter? I failed to bookmark it, and now I can't find it. If anyone has it or a similar link, can you link me?
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April 1, 2020
March 32, 2020
My recent pandemic activities:
Converted a cat bonnet a friend gave me as a joke into a cloth mask.
Discovered that many restaurants are selling groceries to stay afloat, which can be picked up by paying with a credit card over the phone (tip included), then driving up and popping the trunk. No contact, and helps small businesses. You might try calling local restaurants to see if any are doing this in your area.
Discovered that LA County health department was shutting down restaurants due to selling groceries without a permit - the day after all our farmers markets were shut down! Composed angry and heartfelt letter to the mayor. Before sending, looked up article on this to check a detail. Discovered breaking news that the mayor is working out guidelines with the health department to make this legal.
Planted a lot of plants.
Ran out of containers. Converted a styrofoam cooler, a coffee can, and a container of toy soldiers into planters by punching holes in the bottom. Currently eyeing nearly-empty container of hot chocolate.
Watched gorgeous pink sunset with neighbors, six feet apart.
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Converted a cat bonnet a friend gave me as a joke into a cloth mask.
Discovered that many restaurants are selling groceries to stay afloat, which can be picked up by paying with a credit card over the phone (tip included), then driving up and popping the trunk. No contact, and helps small businesses. You might try calling local restaurants to see if any are doing this in your area.
Discovered that LA County health department was shutting down restaurants due to selling groceries without a permit - the day after all our farmers markets were shut down! Composed angry and heartfelt letter to the mayor. Before sending, looked up article on this to check a detail. Discovered breaking news that the mayor is working out guidelines with the health department to make this legal.
Planted a lot of plants.
Ran out of containers. Converted a styrofoam cooler, a coffee can, and a container of toy soldiers into planters by punching holes in the bottom. Currently eyeing nearly-empty container of hot chocolate.
Watched gorgeous pink sunset with neighbors, six feet apart.
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Wednesday Reading
I'm in the middle of three books, one of which I will be in the middle of for ages as it's a ridiculously long web novel which the author is also in the middle of, unless he finished it recently and I missed it. That's Ward by Wildbow, the sequel to Worm, his engrossing million-word epic about a girl who can control bugs. If the format makes your eyes bleed, some judicious googling will turn up downloadable versions. Please do contribute to the author's Patreon or PayPal him some cash if you read.
The other books I'm in the middle of are a pair of re-reads, Fitzempress' Law by Diana Norman and Doomsday Book[image error] by Connie Willis.
Please don't comment to inform me that my links are problematic. I'm aware. My recent attempts to create less problematic book links only resulted in a cascade of milkshake ducks.
Also, please don't comment to say that you would never read what I'm reading. I get a lot of comments like that. I understand that you don't mean it in a judgy way, but it sounds judgy. I am well aware that the majority of my readers prefer to read escapist fluffy stuff when their lives are depressing.
I too sometimes have that impulse. But I just as often have the impulse to read books for a different sort of comfort: the comfort of hearing, "I've been there too. I understand. And after all that, books will still be written; the one you're reading now is proof."
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The other books I'm in the middle of are a pair of re-reads, Fitzempress' Law by Diana Norman and Doomsday Book[image error] by Connie Willis.
Please don't comment to inform me that my links are problematic. I'm aware. My recent attempts to create less problematic book links only resulted in a cascade of milkshake ducks.
Also, please don't comment to say that you would never read what I'm reading. I get a lot of comments like that. I understand that you don't mean it in a judgy way, but it sounds judgy. I am well aware that the majority of my readers prefer to read escapist fluffy stuff when their lives are depressing.
I too sometimes have that impulse. But I just as often have the impulse to read books for a different sort of comfort: the comfort of hearing, "I've been there too. I understand. And after all that, books will still be written; the one you're reading now is proof."
comments
March 30, 2020
Nobody expects the lettuce demon
Today I ran out out of pots and accidentally summoned a microgreens cat demon.
Far left (most recent) photo, lurking in the styrofoamer container. A pair of evil glowy eyes and a tail curved up. You can see it better in the smaller size image.
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Far left (most recent) photo, lurking in the styrofoamer container. A pair of evil glowy eyes and a tail curved up. You can see it better in the smaller size image.
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Powell's is Saved!
Powell's, the Seattle Portland bookshop institution, let its employees go last week due to having to close its doors due to pandemic. But after a surge of online orders, it re-hired them!
If you keep idly thinking it would be nice to read some of the weird out of print books I keep reviewing, Powell's is taking orders! (They sell new, in-print books too.)
Here's what I ordered:
Song for a New Day, by Sarah Pinsker
Guns of the Dawn, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
No Name, by Wilkie Collins
Stalking The Faraway Places, by Euell Gibbons
Stalking The Blue Eyed Scallop by Euell Gibbons
Master of Restless Shadows: Book One, by Ginn Hale
Lord of the White Hell Cadeleonian (1 & 2), by Ginn Hale
Drowning Girl, by Caitlin R. Kiernan
Got opinions on any of these, or recs for more books I should buy? What are you thinking of nabbing yourself?
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If you keep idly thinking it would be nice to read some of the weird out of print books I keep reviewing, Powell's is taking orders! (They sell new, in-print books too.)
Here's what I ordered:
Song for a New Day, by Sarah Pinsker
Guns of the Dawn, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
No Name, by Wilkie Collins
Stalking The Faraway Places, by Euell Gibbons
Stalking The Blue Eyed Scallop by Euell Gibbons
Master of Restless Shadows: Book One, by Ginn Hale
Lord of the White Hell Cadeleonian (1 & 2), by Ginn Hale
Drowning Girl, by Caitlin R. Kiernan
Got opinions on any of these, or recs for more books I should buy? What are you thinking of nabbing yourself?
comments
March 28, 2020
How to Cook a Wolf, by MFK Fisher
I believe that one of the most dignified ways we are capable of, to assert the reassert our dignity in the face of poverty and war's fears and pains, is to nourish ourselves with all possible skill, delicacy, and ever increasing enjoyment. And with our gastronomical growth will come, inevitably, knowledge and perception of a hundred other things, but mainly of ourselves. Then Fate, even tangled as it is with cold wars as well as hot, cannot harm us.
This unique and lovely book has a very unusual pedigree. It was first published in 1942, as a book on cooking during shortages, rationing, and other problems of war. It was then added to extensively in 1954, during the Cold War, without changing or omitting a word of the original text, but instead adding notes in brackets.
This method creates a double period piece, a record of Fisher's changing ideas and new experiences, reflections on times past, new recipes, and a number of hilarious bits in which she admits that she has no idea what she was talking about in the original, like an original bit where she suggests using leftover or canned rice followed by a bracketed addendum where she wonders what she was thinking and whether canned rice exists or has ever existed.
Some of my favorite parts were Fisher's account of her aunt who called headcheese (itself a euphemism) by the polite alternative of "cold shape," the absolutely hilarious story of how we should always trust cats to steer us clear of smoked salmon that will be unchanged and bright orange till doomsday, and the character portrait of Sue, who foraged hundreds of types of sage in the California hills and dug potatoes from neighbors' patches in the dead of night.
Like all the best period pieces, it's both a record of what used to be before things changed and an aching reminder of what hasn't changed. I hope none of us ever need to attempt her life-sustaining "sludge" or do strange and ingenious things to cook food with the minimum use of heating oil, but the spirit of seeking comfort and even coziness in a time of danger is still relevant.
How to Cook a Wolf[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
This unique and lovely book has a very unusual pedigree. It was first published in 1942, as a book on cooking during shortages, rationing, and other problems of war. It was then added to extensively in 1954, during the Cold War, without changing or omitting a word of the original text, but instead adding notes in brackets.
This method creates a double period piece, a record of Fisher's changing ideas and new experiences, reflections on times past, new recipes, and a number of hilarious bits in which she admits that she has no idea what she was talking about in the original, like an original bit where she suggests using leftover or canned rice followed by a bracketed addendum where she wonders what she was thinking and whether canned rice exists or has ever existed.
Some of my favorite parts were Fisher's account of her aunt who called headcheese (itself a euphemism) by the polite alternative of "cold shape," the absolutely hilarious story of how we should always trust cats to steer us clear of smoked salmon that will be unchanged and bright orange till doomsday, and the character portrait of Sue, who foraged hundreds of types of sage in the California hills and dug potatoes from neighbors' patches in the dead of night.
Like all the best period pieces, it's both a record of what used to be before things changed and an aching reminder of what hasn't changed. I hope none of us ever need to attempt her life-sustaining "sludge" or do strange and ingenious things to cook food with the minimum use of heating oil, but the spirit of seeking comfort and even coziness in a time of danger is still relevant.
How to Cook a Wolf[image error]
[image error] [image error]
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March 27, 2020
Daring Garden Run!
I suspect that LA is going to be locked down even more strictly than now at any moment, and also due to the virus's doubling rate, anything people=adjacent that can be done today will be safer than doing it tomorrow.
So today I got up early - pre-coffee, even! - and ventured to The Marina del Rey Garden Center, where I made the acquaintance of Patches the friendly garden cat. The cart has my purchases - I even found California poppies in pots!
If you watch the video at the website, you'll see that it was the safest possible place - almost completely open-air and, when I went there, almost completely deserted. The parking lot is the size of a postage stamp, so a pandemic was the perfect time to go.
I figured this was going to be my last chance to get seedlings for spring and very possibly summer, so I stocked up. My strawberries have been doing very well, so I got more. Also dill, lemon balm, a cucumber, what I hope is a mini-cucumber-melon, variegated thyme, curly parsley, poppies, and probably a few other things I forget. Also ladybugs and a praying mantis case.
I've never seen the air so clear or the streets so deserted. It's beautiful and eerie. I love the natural environment of LA, and that's never been better. But I also love the people, who are the life of the city, and they're all gone, locked away like me.
I'm tending my garden for spring, and hoping the coming harvest will be both real and metaphoric.
comments
So today I got up early - pre-coffee, even! - and ventured to The Marina del Rey Garden Center, where I made the acquaintance of Patches the friendly garden cat. The cart has my purchases - I even found California poppies in pots!
If you watch the video at the website, you'll see that it was the safest possible place - almost completely open-air and, when I went there, almost completely deserted. The parking lot is the size of a postage stamp, so a pandemic was the perfect time to go.
I figured this was going to be my last chance to get seedlings for spring and very possibly summer, so I stocked up. My strawberries have been doing very well, so I got more. Also dill, lemon balm, a cucumber, what I hope is a mini-cucumber-melon, variegated thyme, curly parsley, poppies, and probably a few other things I forget. Also ladybugs and a praying mantis case.
I've never seen the air so clear or the streets so deserted. It's beautiful and eerie. I love the natural environment of LA, and that's never been better. But I also love the people, who are the life of the city, and they're all gone, locked away like me.
I'm tending my garden for spring, and hoping the coming harvest will be both real and metaphoric.
comments
March 26, 2020
Why we can't stop touching our faces
I've read lots of theories on this now, but never the one that seems most likely to me: it's an instinct to keep bugs away from our most vulnerable areas. If you've ever had a bug fly into your nose, mouth, or eye, you know why that's very undesirable. Especially in the times before medical care existed. And bugs can land on the face without you noticing, so if your hands are constantly brushing at your face, that would help brush away any unnoticed bugs before they reach any really sensitive spot.
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