#andy's life

[andrandiriel]

watching deadloch for the first time in a couple years, we are 4 minutes in and dang there really isn't a single line in this show that isn't solid gold

[andrandiriel]

Something I didn't anticipate about Mountie on the Bounty is that it would crank up my yearning for the Great Lakes and particularly Lake Superior to absolutely critical levels. This is the longest I've ever gone without standing in or next to one of the Great Lakes in my 36 years and now that I've been reminded, it's not agreeing with me one bit!! Gotta go back soon, maybe this year!!

My last visit to gichi-gami, isn't she beautiful?

[andrandiriel]

I was tagged by @hopecomesbacktolife thank you dear!

Fav color: I usually call it the teal/turquoise spectrum

Watching: due South! And providing hand-holding for two friends who are annoyed with BJ dragging their feet through the late seasons of MASH

Reading: Small Gods by Terry Pratchett (going on my list of "books that feel like they were written for me personally"); Fellowship of the Ring reread aloud with my housemate; waiting for my hold on The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough to come back around at the library so I can finish the last few chapters (curse e-books)

Last Google: "Raspberry Pi Zero"

Currently working on: Hawkahy meta about The Colonel's Horse (they may have been looking at pictures together, but I don't believe for a minute that they were choosing a Nun of the Week). A screenshot essay thingy about the due South pilot being a rom-com. Drafting a picnic table I'd like to build once I'm back to being awake in the daytime later this year.

Tea or coffee: I go through phases. These days I'm a near-daily coffee drinker and occasional tea drinker; this summer I'll prob quit coffee for choir tour and I'll remember how much I like tea and that'll be my thing for several months

Current phone wallpaper: Bill Christopher and castmates in Beyond the Fringe 1963

10 no-pressure tags: @tirlaeyn @hxans @serpercival @nefernov @marley-manson @lunaruleseverything @denizbevan @plebeiangoth @arbitrarymelodist @mxmorel

[andrandiriel]

just had a dream I was visiting Toronto and thinking of moving there? It was snowy

[andrandiriel]

Getting to Know Your Mutuals

Tagged by @nefernov and @marley-manson cheers!

1. Origins of your blog's name:

Short answer: it's what "andrandiriel" would mean if it meant something

Longer answer: Without getting too much into the weeds, the "andrandiriel" handle is a portmanteau of Sindarin roots that mean "age" (in the sense of like, an epoch) and "wanderer" plus an ending that meant "daughter of" in most of Tolkien's work but there's definitely the standalone case of Gilthoniel that does not carry that connotation. So in one sense it's meant to mean time-traveller, but only kind of, in that it's very stylized. At the risk of sounding a little pretentious (I think I was 19 or 20 when I started using this handle, and even younger when I came up with it), it's a relic of the days when my plan was to be a Latin teacher, and when people would ask me why anyone would want to learn a dead language, I'd tell them a big part of the appeal of reading ancient texts in their original language is that it's the closest you can get to travelling back in time.

2. My 'I'll always order this food':

Feels a little silly because I make this kind of thing at home a lot too, but if a menu has a grilled cheese sandwich on it with some kind of interesting condiment or additional ingredient (jam, mustard, fruit, fresh herbs, grilled onions, things like that), I'm not even looking at the rest of the menu!

ETA: Also, if there are sweet potato fries, I'm getting them

3. Overused emoji:

💖 and 🤣, no question

4. Current comfort movie, show, and book:

Movie: I can feel Wake Up Dead Man becoming one of these. What We Do in the Shadows. Haven't seen Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) in a few years, but it feels like visiting an old friend.

Show, current: MASH. Show, lifelong: Cosmos, the 1980 one with Carl Sagan.

Book: Cosmos by Carl Sagan. The Wee Free Men or Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. Lord of the Rings.

5. Song on Repeat:

Most recently, a recording I made of my choir director playing Noël X by Louis-Claude Daquin on the organ

6. My current hyperfixation:

Media: MASH, and, dovetailing with that, Bill Christopher and tracking down everything I can of his work (the theatre stuff will keep me busy hunting for a while, not all of it is terribly well documented!)

7. Oddly specific thing that brings me joy:

Bill Christopher's answers to the music question and the "if you could meet anyone" question on that questionnaire from the 90s

8. What smell makes me happy:

Redwood forest

9. Something I did as a kid and still do:

Play with stuffed animals. Nowadays this mostly involves moving them around the house and putting them up to different shenanigans (climbing on and into things, giving one of them a book and turning the page every time I walk past for weeks), whimsy levels are as high as they ever were

10. Phone wallpaper right now:

A still from Beyond the Fringe 1963 of Bill Christopher and his castmates looking like they've just had balloons dropped on them?

11. Are you an early bird or a night owl:

I became an early bird when I started being a night owl professionally, so apparently the answer is "whichever one is least suited to my lifestyle at the moment"

12. If you work, what is your profession and do you like it:

I support a large scientific instrument in a technical capacity, and it was the perfect job for me for about the first 5 years or so... which was some years ago. I think I'd like to do something else in the foreseeable future.

Tagging @hopecomesbacktolife @captainofthedefiant @plebeiangoth @emthought @hearteyespierce @denizbevan and anyone else who wants to!! (even if I didn't tag you, say I did if you do this so I can see your answers!)

[andrandiriel]

the anniversary of a friend's funeral can really sneak up on a person when the anniversary of their death came and went without hitting you that hard, oof

[andrandiriel]

we got a happy holidays coupon from the car dealership for a free fluid exchange 😅

never heard that exact phrasing re: car maintenance before, so we got a good laugh out of that

[andrandiriel]

mannn, when I was trying to decide if I wanted to visit family earlier in the month or this week I forgot about the tendency of Thanksgiving week in particular to have absolutely bullshit weather conditions for driving