Category: Personal

Posted on
Nov 6, 2021

The Friday Five for 5 November 2021: Clothing

Lena Headey as Cersei in Game Of Thrones

Answers to this weeks question at The Friday Five @ Dreamwidth.

1. Do you have a yearly, or monthly, clothing budget? Do you stick to it?

No budget – I loath clothes shopping, and only do it when I can’t avoid it so I can’t budget it – some months I have to spend some on clothing, but most months not at all. I can’t predict at all on a yearly level what I might need to buy in the next year; there’s just too many variables. Only things I can plan for are the winter coat and winter shoes and I usually only have to buy those once a decade.

2. Do you buy trendy clothes, or classic pieces that can be worn for years?

Clothes that I like, are comfortable, ageless and can be worn for years because they’re well made. I don’t care if they’re trendy or classic or whatever.

3. Is there a current fashion trend that you hate?

There are a lot of styles I think look stupid but I don’t follow fashion so I don’t know if they’re trendy now or not. One style that that looks stupid IMO to are those women’s business trousers that end well above the ankle (like this: https://m.made-in-china.com/product/New-Simple-Style-Fashion-Slim-Fit-Formal-Pants-for-Women-718292762.html) – that just looks like you bought the wrong size/ran out of fabric to me!

One that’s not so much stupid as I just can’t wrap my head around is wearing like a thick sweater or a hoodie with skimpy summer shorts with bare legs and sandals – it would seem to me that either your legs are freezing being bare – or your upper body is melting in that thick hoodie, all depending on the weather. Like you can’t possibly be comfortable dressed like that?

4. Have you had clothing altered to fit you better?

I always need to have full lenght trousers shorted because I’m short. I either do it myself or take it in.

5. Is there a piece of clothing, or accessory, that you covet?

Not so much a piece or accessory but…

I’d love to be able to wear high heels, or just shoes in general comfortably! I have huge problems with shoes – only ones that fit are some winter shoe models, some walking shoe models and sandals because my feet are thick in the midfoot (the cuneiforms/metatarsals area) and majority of shoes are too shallow there for my feet to fit in them. And all shoes except for sandals rub my heels bloody so I have to put on damn big double band-aids whenever I put on shoes which also irritates my skin unless I can switch to sandals in work/school/indoors activity for the day instead of wearing the band-aids for hours on end. So I would LOVE to be able to wear all the shoes like normal people!!!

Apart from the shoe issue, I’d love to try on a historical corset sometime! Especially ones custom made for me. I love women’s 1750s dresses. I also love Cersei’s season 1 and 2 costumes so I’d love to try on dresses in those styles as well 🙂 And also 1870s women’s dress. Actually, name any historical women’s dress style and I’d probably want to try it on!

Posted on
Nov 5, 2021

f.riday5.com – November 5 2021

Picture from Pixabay, because pretty.

Answers to today’s questions at http://f.riday5.com/2021/11/05/friday-5-for-november-5-november-rain/

1. What unique behavior, attire, or ceremony element have you seen at a wedding?

I’ve only ever been to one wedding, about 20 years ago and as such I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think there was anything unique about it. I think the most unique thing about weddings are that of the people in my circle I would have attended the weddings of, none others have married – either they’re single or just live together with their SO.

2. Who’s your favorite piano player? (alternate question: Among people you know, who’s the best piano player?)

The only pianist I can remember is Richard Clayderman and I like his work, so I guess him! (No one I know plays piano)

3. When did rain notably ruin your plans?

Never as far as I can remember. I don’t really mind rain. It rains here a lot during the winter months (so, 8-9 months of the year) (or it’s otherwise wet because it rained during the night) and often in the summer too so it’s very common and I’m used to it. I’d be upset all the time if I minded the rain.

Maybe when I was a kid and we were camping and had planned to do something with my parents or my best friend… but even then I remember loving things like swimming in the ocean while it was raining.

4. What is your going-to-bed ritual like?

I need to read fiction for at least 10 minutes… doesn’t matter whether it’s something I’ve read so many times before that I know it by heart, or whether it’s something completely new. Just need to read something fictional to relax and get into the sleepy state of mind. Of course, often I intend to read just a bit and then look up and it’s three hours later…

5. When did you last give roses to someone or receive them from someone?

I just received roses from my Mom and her SO on Tuesday when they came to visit my birthday! They are the same color as in the pic above.

I can’t quite remember when I last gave them – I gave flowers to my Mom in June for her name day but I can’t remember whether it was roses or something else. Could’ve been those roses that come in pots – she likes them in the summer because then she can plant them in her garden.

Posted on
Oct 28, 2021

Health & Personal Update

Picture from Pixabay, because pretty.

Still struggling with iron defiency. I’ve been taking oral iron supplements for 11 months now and my ferritin levels haven’t improved practically at all. It got from 9 to 21 to 18 and then stayed there, and then the iron supplements finally in mid-September started to make my Crohn’s Disease symptoms worse so I had to stop taking it. My ferritin should be at least 100 because of IBD to be sure that the iron levels are sufficient. Going to have to talk about this to my doctor in my yearly check-up at the end of November. Ideally I should be given an iron transfusion because the oral supplements aren’t effective and I have IBD, but doctors are extremely reluctant just generally to do them; most of them don’t even admit that ferritin has any impact on the body and a person’s well being. So it’s a continuing struggle. I have so many problems (exhaustion that never goes away, daily headache, chronic migraine, memory problems, weakness in limbs, joint pains etc.) that might be helped with getting the ferritin up properly, especially the head pain and exhaustion and I’d like to find out if an iron infusion could help my quality of life.

Otherwise I’ve been much the same as all this year – same level, lesser Crohn’s symptoms since I changed the dose and timing of Agiocur (thanks for the tip, gastroenterologist!) in last November so I’m glad about that. But still daily headache, exhaustion. On the other hand, my sleep’s been a lot better (no waking up a million times) and my insomnia is better – I can usually fall asleep now when I go to bed, for some reason – don’t ask me why – I don’t know! Still sleep about 11-14 hours a day though (without any dent in the tiredness) unless I have to set the alarm because I need to be somewhere. And a few days a month I sleep for 22 hours, only waking up to take my meds during that time. As for my day – I’m usually awake 8-12 hours. It’s been like this at least since 2010, but apparently it’s normal to be tired and sleep a lot when you have IBD, according to gastroenterologists that I’ve complained to. I just don’t get how I’m supposed to work feeling like this so it’s a good thing I’ve been unemployed ever since I got ill.

I dyed my hair red with henna about a month ago, and that’s lifted my spirits 😀

Haven’t felt much like doing site work in the last several weeks, just haven’t felt like it. Also haven’t had energy for creative endeavours since the heatwave broke, I guess recovering from it takes its time.

I’ve been reading a lot this summer and fall and I’m so happy about that! 😀 I’ve been reading Minette Walters’ thrillers, re-reading actually, some of the oldest of them such as The Sculptress and The Scorn’s Bridle (I remember seeing these as tv series!). I’ve also been reading scifi novels: Semiosis and Interference by Sue Burke and Ancient Night by Elizabeth Bear. Also read two books by Tiina Raevaara who is a Finnish novelist who has written at least two scifi leaning novels. Not sure about her earlier ones, I have them from the library but need to finish Ancient Night first. I’m on a scifi kick again, just wanting to read scifi, scifi, scifi! 😆 I felt the same way last year too for a bit. Then earlier this year I mostly read Ann Cleeves and Elly Griffiths and other thriller/detective novels. I’m only on my 30th book of the year at the moment – last year I made it to 50. But for the first time I don’t mind having more than one or two library books on my bookshelf waiting to be read, and that feels good. Back a few years ago when I couldn’t read anything new for two years, once that started to let up, for the longest time I could only have one new book waiting on the shelf – if there were more I’d panic and not be able to read any of them. I still can’t have more than say 7-8 new books waiting, or I start to panic again, but it’s better than it was two years ago. I wonder what’s that all about? Books have always been easy for me, a refuge. I used to have like 15-30 library books at any time at home, reading 3-4 at the same time before that weird two years when I couldn’t read anything new. I didn’t keep a list of books read back then, so I wonder if I used to read more more books in a year back then than I do now?

Dynasty II: The Colbys
Posted on
Oct 11, 2021

Dynasty II: The Colbys

I’ve been rewatching Dynasty and its spin-off Dynasty II: The Colbys the last few weeks. These two are the soaps I compare all other soaps to (and always find them lacking). I was about 11 or 12 years old when The Colbys aired in the mid-80s, and I loved it even more than Dynasty. I haven’t seen The Colbys since that airing but it has remained my favorite soap in my memories always! 

Dynasty was re-aired here in 2000, but The Colbys have never been re-aired since that original showing.

I capped as many episodes of Dynasty as I could back in 2000 (with Finnish subtitles because that was the only option!) and had a screencap site that was welcomed by Dynasty fans. I got a lot of feedback on that site – apparently I was the first one to cap the series more consistently and Dynasty fans were happy to get full ep screencaps instead of random shots of fave characters, from all seasons. I tried to do at least a handful of episodes from all seasons. I remember that site was hosted by Fortune City, spread over many accounts like I always had to do. Early 2000s was right around when finding free webspace had started to become harder – either the disk space offered was tiny, or the ads were too intrusive and many free webhosts had either shutdown or been eaten by bigger ones and then the free service shut down.

This summer I learned that my local library has all 9 seasons of Dynasty, remembered that season 5 is available in HD, and that The Colbys have actually come out on DVD, the UK release in 2018 which I finally had to buy. So now I’m battling the urge to cap, cap cap! Can’t seriously upload them though unless I delete at least some of the Game Of Thrones UHD screencaps or one of my other sites. Which is lucky I guess – I did decide when I gave up star-trek.info and the other big sites that I wouldn’t have big screencap galleries anymore. Game Of Thrones UHD is the exception and it’s a temporary one. But still – I want to cap, cap, cap!

These caps are from The Colbys episode 1.14 The Trial.

Posted on
Oct 7, 2021

The Friday Five for 8 October 2021

Picture from Pixabay. Answers to this week’s The Friday Five.

1. What is your favorite carnival ride?

Ferris wheel. I haven’t been to a carnival since I was a teenager (so about 30+ years)! But I always loved the Ferris wheel. It was still exciting but sedate enough for me (couldn’t really do those fast spinning things, or the roller coaster – my head felt unpleasant in those).

2. What is your favorite thing to do outside?

Sitting in a swing at my Mom’s backyard and chat with her, as long as it’s not too warm and if the sun’s out, the swing roof must be so pulled that I’m in shade. That’s the only outdoors thing I like that I’m not immediately wanting to end and go inside.

3. What is your favorite household chore?

I don’t have a favorite houshold chore – does anyone?? The least irritating is watching my Roomba do its thing, and doing a little tidying oftne so that things like dishes don’t pile up in the sink.

4. What is something that you always have with you?

Whenever go out for a longer time than it takes to take out the trash: Lipbalm and sun glasses is the one I always have with me and it’s been the longest (40+ years). But now I also always must have my migraine meds and my diarrhea meds with me and of course, also my phone. I usually also always have the gift card to an art supply store with me (unless I’ve used it up) because otherwise I won’t remember to take it with me when I need it.

5. If you could visit any single city in the world (that you have not visited before), where would you go?

That I haven’t visited? That’s a rather difficult choice! Hmm, I think Paris because then I could go to Louvre. I’d be really tempted by Cairo/Giza too because the pyramids.