(no subject)
Apr. 1st, 2023 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puddlesharkGrey. Drizzly. But not cold. And the wind has finally dropped. More heavy rain forecast at lunchtime, so I decided against any expeditions. I'm hoping for a day of hoovering & household accounts, followed by tea and television.
***
I am in a feud with the IT department at work. I help out in a lot of different departments these days, and was given access to half a dozen shared departmental mailboxes. Three months ago I lost access to those shared mailboxes. The IT department made a few attempts to restore access, before shrugging their shoulders and giving up.
Now they've given me online access to two out of the six mailboxes, but the online access is missing half the functionality. I can't even move emails into folders. And they seem to think their job is done.
And, just to put the cherry on the cake of The-IT-Department-Really-Doesn't-Care, every time I log on, Microsoft 365 greets me cheerily by my surname.
***
Dance practice this week was great. Most of the dances were a bit shambolic - I still get lost and need someone to call the moves to me. But we went through the more complex eight-person dance twice, and on the second run it all came together - and suddenly there was this terrific feedback between musicians and dancers, and the dancers were part of the music. Astonishing energy.
Okay, I think I see why my sister loves dancing now.
Unfortunately we've only got a few more practice sessions in the community hall left. In summer the side stops practising, and just dances out at folk festivals and at local pubs. I don't think I'm ready to dance out in public yet. Even though I have been given a very sinister hat.
***
Some of the tunes we dance to are ridiculously catchy. I get earwormed by hornpipes, and I find myself wanting to play them. So I went mad and bought a 4-string tenor banjo. The idea is that I learn to play in the Irish melodic style, but so far the sounds I'm producing are anything but melodic. I've never played a stringed instrument before, only keyboards, and there is a lot of mis-plucking and mis-fingering going on.
I have no idea whether I'm capable of learning the banjo, but I'm having fun. And just looking at the banjo makes my heart lift (in a way that the electronic keyboard I borrowed from my niece during lockdown never did. Practising that was always a chore.)
***
Reading: on rainy evenings I have been re-reading Ann Cleeves' Shetland mysteries. Find myself wanting to visit the Shetland Isles.
***
Television
Still watching Korean legal drama Divorce Attorney Shin on Netflix. The writing could be tauter, more pacey. It's is a bit Netflix-y. (There's a sort of self-indulgence that writers for Netflix often fall into. They're so in love with their lead character that they give the character a worshipful chorus of friends to show how special the character is, but the friendships don't feel very grounded or believable).
But this isn't by any means as bad as Itaewon Class. The acting is good, and I'm enjoying it.
Started watching Korean drama Oasis on Viki.com, friends-turned-enemies melodrama set during the 1980s military dictatorship. Melodrama with a capital M! My word, this is makjang! All the secrets!
Also started watching Chinese costume drama Pledge of Allegiance on Viki.com. At last a Chinese costume drama that doesn't have a bubbly squeaky-voiced female lead. A crafty thief with a hidden past gets caught up in politics and plotting, and finds himself impersonating a member of the Imperial Secret Police. The writing doesn't always make sense - it may have been very heavily edited to pass censorship - but I'm enjoying the characters so far.
***
I am in a feud with the IT department at work. I help out in a lot of different departments these days, and was given access to half a dozen shared departmental mailboxes. Three months ago I lost access to those shared mailboxes. The IT department made a few attempts to restore access, before shrugging their shoulders and giving up.
Now they've given me online access to two out of the six mailboxes, but the online access is missing half the functionality. I can't even move emails into folders. And they seem to think their job is done.
And, just to put the cherry on the cake of The-IT-Department-Really-Doesn't-Care, every time I log on, Microsoft 365 greets me cheerily by my surname.
***
Dance practice this week was great. Most of the dances were a bit shambolic - I still get lost and need someone to call the moves to me. But we went through the more complex eight-person dance twice, and on the second run it all came together - and suddenly there was this terrific feedback between musicians and dancers, and the dancers were part of the music. Astonishing energy.
Okay, I think I see why my sister loves dancing now.
Unfortunately we've only got a few more practice sessions in the community hall left. In summer the side stops practising, and just dances out at folk festivals and at local pubs. I don't think I'm ready to dance out in public yet. Even though I have been given a very sinister hat.
***
Some of the tunes we dance to are ridiculously catchy. I get earwormed by hornpipes, and I find myself wanting to play them. So I went mad and bought a 4-string tenor banjo. The idea is that I learn to play in the Irish melodic style, but so far the sounds I'm producing are anything but melodic. I've never played a stringed instrument before, only keyboards, and there is a lot of mis-plucking and mis-fingering going on.
I have no idea whether I'm capable of learning the banjo, but I'm having fun. And just looking at the banjo makes my heart lift (in a way that the electronic keyboard I borrowed from my niece during lockdown never did. Practising that was always a chore.)
***
Reading: on rainy evenings I have been re-reading Ann Cleeves' Shetland mysteries. Find myself wanting to visit the Shetland Isles.
***
Television
Still watching Korean legal drama Divorce Attorney Shin on Netflix. The writing could be tauter, more pacey. It's is a bit Netflix-y. (There's a sort of self-indulgence that writers for Netflix often fall into. They're so in love with their lead character that they give the character a worshipful chorus of friends to show how special the character is, but the friendships don't feel very grounded or believable).
But this isn't by any means as bad as Itaewon Class. The acting is good, and I'm enjoying it.
Started watching Korean drama Oasis on Viki.com, friends-turned-enemies melodrama set during the 1980s military dictatorship. Melodrama with a capital M! My word, this is makjang! All the secrets!
Also started watching Chinese costume drama Pledge of Allegiance on Viki.com. At last a Chinese costume drama that doesn't have a bubbly squeaky-voiced female lead. A crafty thief with a hidden past gets caught up in politics and plotting, and finds himself impersonating a member of the Imperial Secret Police. The writing doesn't always make sense - it may have been very heavily edited to pass censorship - but I'm enjoying the characters so far.
