Noli Me Tangere

[cassowary-rapture]

Composer of the Week blog

All #cotw posts here, before I moved everything to a separate blog in Week 19

Side project: chronological Schubert playlist

[o-craven-canto]

Alternate timeline in which all Greek and Latin roots are swapped:

catastrophe -> contraverse cephalopod -> capitoped chlorophyll -> viridofolia democracy -> populimpery homicide -> anthropoctony homosexual -> equigamic kilometer -> millimensure interregnum -> mesarchy magnanimous -> megapsychic manuscript -> chirography motorcycle -> ergatorote microscope -> parvovisor oxygen -> acidofex polyamory -> multierasty television -> remotoscope universe -> monostrophe

[aforest2006remaster]

yesterday i made a beetle out of soda tabs and wire. we took the bus home.

[cassowary-rapture]

HAPPY BRAHMS/TCHAIKOVSKY DOUBLE BIRTHDAY!!!

[cassowary-rapture]

Last night I had a dream where I...

found out that no one else can see my ferrets, whom I often dream about; I'm hallucinating that they're still alive

took a photo of a spider with some large prey in its web and captioned it "SPIDERS ÜBER ALLES" because apparently I can't remember the German word for spiders in my dreams

removed the skin from a mouse because I wanted to see its organs and then Googled "can a mouse survive with no skin." I woke up before I could view the search results but I'm guessing no but maybe yes for skinless dream mice

[cassowary-rapture]

[beardedmrbean]

Sneefin and Snorfin time at the Hertfordshire Zoo

[joy-and-whimsy-official]

Joy and whimsy detected! These Sengi are joyful and whimsical!

[cassowary-rapture]

My herpetology lecture class needs to be like 5x longer and chemistry lab needs to not exist at all

[cassowary-rapture]

Just read the first chapter in my herpetology textbook and I want to scream into a pillow

Just screaming would do, but also, CAECILIANS!!!

Which, hilariously, is pronounced very similarly to "Sicilians"

[cassowary-rapture]

I might do something German-related for my 2026 New Year's resolution project. I did want to start keeping a journal in German?

Too tired to think about this now, but we'll see!

I do also want to do a spider zine, which is more project-y than just taking up a new hobby or a slightly modified version of an old hobby

Less-fun new year's resolution: DENTAL WORK

I went from "A century or two ago, people just lost their teeth! It was whatever! Pirates are cool!" to "Teeth are stupid and I refuse to entertain them. Why can't humans be more like sharks?" to "Oh, right, I need teeth in order to chew"

Anyway 2-3 more cracked so I should get on that soon haha :(

I'm going to try to get discounted treatment at the nearest dental school clinic...which is like two hours from here. But it needs to be done

[cassowary-rapture]

2026 firsts

Music: Schubert's Fantasia in F minor

Animal: a tiny orbweaver with a fly in its web!

Purchase: black, neon pink, neon-ish green, and variegated yarn

Meal: two slices of French toast, fake sausage patty

Drink: Earl Grey with two sugars

Photo:

Injury: pending

Update: On January 14th, I dramatically flung open a door and hit myself on the side of my left toe. Not sure what I did exactly (I mean...some kind of crush injury?), but it took several months to heal and I was limping for the first few days. A fantastic first injury of the year that will be difficult to beat!

[cassowary-rapture]

So I'm reading In the Kingdom of Ice and I think maybe these people aren't going to die?? What the fuck. I think I picked it up because it was supposed to be a disaster. Which it is, but I do generally assume a disaster comes with a body count

Update: I spoke too soon! Their time at sea was really the easy part...

ANYWAY I read that the crew of the doomed but not like that USS Jeanette confirmed that Wrangel Land existed but was just an island and not large enough to qualify as a continent, so it was renamed Wrangel Island

And I just learned that Wrangel Island was also where the last population of wooly mammoths lived -- the place where they went extinct

[cassowary-rapture]

I did not follow the goat as closely this year but did catch a fun new goatlore development: Land Jeff and Sky Jeff. Presumably the latter is the plane lights? you can often see in the background flying past the goat

[taggsvansen]

🐐THE GOAT HAS FALLEN 🐐

[cassowary-rapture]

[guanyuyearner]

OORAH

GUESS WHOSE BIRTHDAY IS IT TODAY

YEAH ITS ME🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

Also drew Beethoven because his bday is on the 16th

The one on left is me lmao

The pfp mask ig idk 🤷‍♀️

Beethoven giving me a side eye 😒

[cassowary-rapture]

Lol damnit. Finally took the German placement test and got a 401, the minimum to place into B1/Intermediate German I. I don't know if I would have managed that at the beginning of fall semester, though

None of the core German language classes are offered year-round, which is very annoying. Beginning German I and Intermediate German I are offered in the fall and Beginning German II and Intermediate German II are offered in the spring

SO my options are 1) take Beginning German II in the spring despite placing out of it, 2) wait until next fall semester to take Intermediate German I, or 3) cram over break, retake the placement test, and hopefully get a higher score so that I can take Intermediate German II this spring

I guess I'll attempt option 3, and if I don't manage to place into Intermediate German II, I'll take Beginning German II just to avoid going without a German class for like eight months. I just need to study six of the textbook chapters

Update: Ah. Intermediate German II conflicts with a lab class with only one section that I refuse to drop. Also I basically just shot myself in the foot because I was trying to get rid of my core waiver so that Beginning German II would be covered by financial aid...BUT even if they were willing to drop the core waiver, it might not be covered because I placed out of it! But just by a single point? Ugh I don't know