The Pickled Mushroom

Sherlock Holmes and the wonderful PLING (63k!)

Well well well, it’s been a while. I reached the magical 50k words barrier on the 11th of November because two hours before midnight I suddenly decided that it would be a fun thing to crack the minimum on 11/11. So, I stayed glued (woah, just spelled that ‘glood’ at first – should get to bed soon!) to my keyboard until shortly before midnight.

Since then it’s been a few days and now I’m proudly at 63k, EXACTLY. My daily average word count so far is at 4,200 words which has been better, but I can live with it. Currently I’m more at around 3k daily, though – and things have been stalling a bit, but it’s getting better now. Thank goodness, I need some more plot happening! At first Albert didn’t want to appear at all, now I’m having a hard time squeezing in scenes with other characters in between bits of him and Abraxas having crazy human-ghost sex. (Not really, but I always wanted to write that just to fulfill the cliché. Go, me.)

Anyways, today I ran into a bit of a problem that had be tearing out my hair for an hour before I figured out a way to work with it. (Please note: I don’t solve problems. I work with them.) So, Albert died in 1997. A big part of his first memories he gets back concern literature. Well, I had this PERFECT scheme of him having read all the Sherlock Holmes stories when they appeared, and he also owned his own copy of the complete works, all that jazz. Abraxas goes to a second hand book shop and happens to find that exact book, Albert’s name still in it and everything. Whoot.

Doesn’t sound so bad, right? Thought so, too. Until I checked my own copy of the complete novels and short stories. The last story wasn’t published until 1927. Dammit. But, being the clever little girl that I am, I also remembered that Holmes faked his death sometime and the series was on hold for a few years, including people publicly mourning his death with black armbands and veils, until he was ‘resurrected’ in The Adventure of the Empty House. Luckily, these years happened to be from 1993 to 1903. (In 1901, the Hound of the Baskervilles was published which takes place before Holmes’ alleged death chronologically, his actual return only came in 1903.)

This is something I could actually work with because in this manner, Albert died when all the world thought that Holmes was death for good and there must surely have been a ‘complete’ compilation around, so all’s well with the world. We also have a touching scene of Albert discovering that the hero of his youth actually ‘lived’ still.

This is what I love about writing, seriously.

Now, to leave the topic of NaNo for a moment and explain the PLING in the title: even before I took my first bellydance lesson I knew that I wanted to learn to play the finger cymbals (or zills, as they are also called). Zilling and dancing simultaneously is a skill that is considered essential to claim professionality by many. (Although, of course, there are people that disagree.) I myself love the mere concept and have been itching to reach a level to try it myself.

Well, my teacher heard from my eagerness to learn to play and invited me to take part in the cymbal project at the dance school and so I had my first real life acquaintance with zills yesterday.

IT. WAS. HEAVEN. TWENTYFOLD. NOT JOKING, GUYS.

I actually surprised myself by being able to dance and zill quite decently already – not perfect, of course, but I had been expecting to only be able to zill OR walk at a time, not to zill and actually move in a way that could be called dance if you’re optimistic. This is so many kinds of awesome I can’t even begin to tell you, really. I also got alphabet soup for the soul when people could hardly believe I’ve only been learning to dance for one and a half months. Goodness, I’m feeling like an idiot for sitting here with a huge, delirious grin on my face.

And so I bought my own first set of zills and am happily zilling up and down besides my bed in my room, annoying my rabbit. I already muffled every zill with masking tape, but they are still a bit loud, so I try to practice as much as possible down in the living-room where I won’t be disturbing Sally. (Only the neighbours, but they’ll have to live with it.)

Anyway, I should be off to bed now – it’s 12:30pm and I have to get up early. Laters, everyone!

 


France vs Germany & Austria (40k!)

Well, who would have thought that? The ML’s (= municipal liaison) of France contacted the one of my home region, Germany & Austria, and suggested a massive international word war. Well, what can I say? We accepted.

There’s three disciplines:

  1. average word count
  2. percentage of winners (= people that reached 50k words or more)
  3. percentage of people that donated to NaNo

And we have to win two out of these three, of course.

Needless to say, this competition is extremely motivational and I’ve been typing like crazy for the past days, including today’s 4k (which I may still expand upon tonight) that finally brought me to beautiful 40k. I’m so proud of myself, and I still have so much to go. So much fun!
Now, have some excerpt-y goodness before I get back upstairs.

(more…)


First off, I forgot to mention earlier that today I visited the basar at my bellydance studio. I loved it; my dance teacher improvised a beledi that was just incredible, I can’t wait to learn that. (She looked stunning in her dress too.) I bought a whole lot of stuff: a new hip scarf (red with beautiful red beaded crocheted hem), a cd, earrings and two necklaces. I could just barely resist the set of zills sitting there, but maybe if I decide if I’ll take part in the zills project. (I so want to do that, but I’m not sure if I’m actually at a point already where I can start to learn zilling. I’ll ask on Wednesday.)

What’s more, there was also a book market in our town and I bought a book from 1910 called “Women and their world” and three post cards stemming from World War I. Beautiful portraits on the front! They also gave me the inspiration on how to do an important scene in my novel.

It has been a long while since I have felt as strongly about two of my literary characters as I do about Jazz and Barb.

I love writing them.

And I wrote them a love declaration, just because. Right after I finished last night. I don’t care if no one ever reads this, but it has to get out. Here’s to you, Jazz and Barb.

(more…)


Fifty Percent Gay (36k!)

As hedgefairy already noticed in her comment on my last post, the name of this blog has changed again, and it’s probably going to stay at least for as long as I will be working on my novel. Now, to make the explanation I gave hedgefairy understandable for everyone else on here who doesn’t speak German:

The Pickled Mushroom is a setting in my novel, more specifically a pub that’s pretty much the most exciting place for a newcomer band to feature. I actually worked a lot with the impressions I got from the Irish pub and restaurant Hapenny Bridge in Geelong during my exchange when I saw Kate Miller-Heidke playing there. The Pickled Mushroom has a very similar layout, but is weirder, featuring an eccentric owner that never fails to remind me of Master Guy in disguise. (Hello, Naruto readers out there!) This owner also happens to be named in a special way, he is Mr Ian Woon. If you change those letters around, it spells out NaNoWriMo, and featuring him in their novel is an endeavour every good NaNoer tries their hand at. (Or at least, a lot do.) Piece of useless side information: he was actually called Mario at first, before I changed my mind.

So. We’ve got the setting, we know Jazz is playing with his band The Stingrays and he’s pretty nervous. Barbara is there and Abraxas too, his girlfriend Emilie and a whole bunch of others. The concert is awesome and stuff happens. Wanna meet the band? Have some of the unedited goodness. (There’s another post coming up right now, just to not make this one too long.) Just for your info, Marcel’s lead singer, London guitar, Andy bass and Jazz drums.

(more…)


2 Story Excerpts – Enter the Fun! (26k!)

As you will have noticed, I changed the design of the blog, simply so I can now proudly display my word count widget to the left. Isn’t it pretty? Makes me all fuzzy to look at it.

Anyway, as promised, here’s two excerpts from what I’ve written so far. Please note that NaNo is for writing, not editing, so it’s pretty raw still, there’s typos and awkward sentence structures in there, unripe concepts of sentences, and lots of word repetitions. If you can bear that, read on!


6 Days into the Madness – and loving it!

Why, hello there. I am still alive and well and writing – the latter being the most important right now, of course.

If anyone has had a glance at my page over at NaNoWriMo, they will no doubt have seen that I’m doing pretty well so far – 22k words on day 6 (and I haven’t even really started writing yet for today) is an achievement I’m really proud of.

So, how has it been going? I started off with a great 7,225 words by midnight of the first day and did well except for Wednesday when I reached “only” 1,317 because I procrastinated my writing until past eleven pm and had to start hammering out something before I got a total of zero that day. At school I’m constantly being stared at when I explain that I’m writing a probably-100k-novel just for fun, and people are learning not to ask me how I am today, but what my word count is.

Click for more, including a super-duper-special-exclusive sentence straight from the novel.


NaNoWriMo… will get you, too!

So, there’s this thing called National Novel Writing Month, short: NaNoWriMo. I’ve heard about it a few times in the last few years, but never thought much of it. Well, this year I’m along on the ride and have right now 25 minutes left until November, until absolute literary business.

I must be masochistic. I’m about to start in 24 minutes and I don’t even have names for the majority of the characters in my first scene. At least I’ve got a bit of a plot outline and an idea of the beginning, middle and end of the story, which isn’t too bad considering that enough people start without any plot whatsoever. (Although I have to say that I have 22 minutes to go and am feeling the impulse to ditch my whole plot and write a pirate story instead. Must… resist… won’t… give in…)

Now, this is a bit of a first for me – not just NaNo, but the story itself. It’s going to be a ghost story, which is kind of funny considering that I really don’t like ghosts. (I don’t believe in them, but I prefer to think that they really don’t exist, because they’d scare my pants off me.) Now, last night I was happily staying up late, reading on the internet… And suddenly the old CD player in the livingroom goes off! Let’s just put it down to some technical weirdness, okay? I don’t even want to think about ghosts before writing a story about them. Gladly, I’ve got only one ghost, and he’s not the scary yucky type. Whew. Love you, Albert.

Anyway, let’s have a look at my synopsis:

Ghost of a Touch (working title)

Abraxas Timothy Holt, nicknamed Bas, can hardly believe his luck when he gets to move into his own small house, which is very old but just perfect for him to live out his student life and have some space to create his paintings. What he didn’t know he would get in the bargain is the ghost of a young man that died a century ago and knows only his name, Albert, but cannot for the death of him remember how he died.

As time goes on and the two slowly start unravelling the mystery of Albert’s life and death, they develop a curious relationship that leads Bas to question all the rest of his relationships, including those with his family and girlfriend.

Doesn’t that sound exciting? I filed it as “Mystery & Suspense” because weirdly enough, there’s a board for “Horror & Supernatural”, but only a category for “Horror”. Oh well.

May I mention that I love Abraxas’ name?

Anyway, twelve minutes two go and I still have no names for those other people. Perfect! Let’s get cracking.

You can follow my progress here.


Something to think about.

Neither of these were written by me, but it’s something we all should give a second (or a third, or a fourth, or…) thought.

The Top Ten Reasons Why Anti-Gay Marriage People Are Stupid:

1.) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, liposuction and air conditioning.

2.) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3.) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4.) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5.) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6.) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.

7.) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8.) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America. (Take that Fred Phelps!)

9.) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10.) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

Re-post this if you believe in legalizing gay marriage.

Sad, But True:

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.
I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.
I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.
We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.
I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.
I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.
I am one of the lucky ones, I guess. I survived the attack that left me in a coma for three weeks, and in another year I will probably be able to walk again.
I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.
We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.
I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.
I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.
I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.
I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.
I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.
I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.
I am the man who died when the paramedics stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.
I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I did not have to always deal with society hating me.
I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don’t believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.
I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.
I am the person who is afraid of telling his loving Christian parents he loves another male.

Re-post this if you believe homophobia is wrong. Please do your part to end it.



Oriental and Medieval Dreams

Sep 21
1 Comment

As it’s usual for me now, this has taken a while. School is keeping me incredibly busy and there’s a bunch of personal projects that are taking up a lot of my time, so not much blogging time left.

This is to write about my current obsession: oriental dance! Belly dancing is only an aspect of the whole, but the subject is so fascinating! I have worked a lot this month and now I’ve got some money to spend and decided to try out dancing. My first lesson is on Wednesday, just to try it out, but I hope to make it a regular part of my life.

I’m very excited and nervous, but I’ll just have to see – no telling yet before I haven’t been there. Let’s just hope for the best.

Last weekend was very tiring, but Saturday was exciting – there was a tiny medieval festival in a neighbouring town, and it was really good. I loved the band and bought their latest CD, they’re called Versengold and are absolutely brilliant. I especially love their song “Und schon wieder rollt ein Kopf…” (= “And again a head is rolling…”).

So, keeping it short for today, but I’ll have to report from my lesson!


Frills and Bubbles

Aug 06
1 Comment

Last Saturday and Sunday was the first German lolita convention in Bonn, including a reading corner, gastronomy, indie brand stands, raffles, bring & buy and info talks. It was amazing! So many beautiful lolitas and so many great clothes. I didn’t get what I intended to (bloomers and a new petticoat) but instead bought a whole lot of other things:

- a jumperskirt by Bodyline, actually an Innocent World replica, but I don’t mind much
- a lace headpiece by Les Incroyables, matching the dress
- a Dunkelsüß shirt
- a pair of earrings and a matching necklace
- a cameo that I’ll make into a necklace or a brooch to match my Innocent World Musical Note jumperskirt

Oh dear! I’ll have to post pictures. Monday I went to the library just to bring back one book and got all dolled up in my new dress and everything. It was very funny!

I’ve also got a new game for my Nintendo DS, it’s called “Soul Bubbles” and is really great. You’re a soul herder and have to bring the souls of the deceased to the other world in a bubble, protecting them from getting lost in the way. The graphics and music are absolutely beautiful, and it’s very original. I love it!


Sweet 18

Now. First things first, so let’s start with the serious stuff. Ahem. I’m 18 years old since the 16th. … WOOHOOOO! Good. Well. I intended to do an entry on my birthday, but life got in the way and then I was simply lacking the motivation… Lazy me. Thanks to everyone who thought of it! I had awesome weather and got some nice things, including The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (I’m so glad I’ve got my own copy now because it is one of my most favourite books ever, I’ll have to write an entry on it some time – homoeroticism, hedonism, Dandyism, shameless decadence, morally very questionable main characters, how can you not love it?) and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (of which I have so far only seen the TV version with Colin Firth – who, I may add, looks hot with sideburns – but I’ve read the first chapter and love it).

It was a rather quiet birthday, but that’s the way I expected it and I’m not sad about it. I’m still going to have a brunch with family and friends (and we’ll also celebrate my granny’s 73th which is on the same day) and I’m looking forward to it. I don’t really feel all that grown-up now, but, well… I guess that’s one of the things that creep up on you slowly. One of my favourite quotes that I’ve seen in an online signature: “So this is what it’s like to be an adult.”

My art is thriving currently and I’m proud to say I manage to get my hour a day done at least, be it something from my imagination or anatomical studies. (I’m doing a lot of David K. Rubins these days, but I’ve got Sehen und Verstehen by Gottfried Bammes from the library, which is brilliant too behind all those fancy words.) I’m very fond of brush and ink now and usually don’t even make a pencil sketch anymore but dilute the ink to varying degrees and paint over it more strongly once I’m sure how I want it to look. It certainly frees me up and gets me into the “zone”. (I usually notice I’m in it when I don’t take notice anymore when the song I’m listening to changes.) My sketchbook on ConceptArt.Org is getting updated pretty regularly, every few days at least.

Today my family and I spent at the Neanderthal museum, which I love dearly and have visited countless times. They’ve even got copies now of the Venuses of Willendorf and Lespugue and several other monolithic female figurines, which I have a soft spot for, especially since there’s some belief among Neopagans that they hint towards a widespread monolithic Goddess worship. There’s many, including me, who don’t think it likely, but it’s still a fascinating thought. Just by themselves, they are works of incredible detail and beauty. The museum even sold key chains and fridge magnets of the Venus of Willendorf! Seems almost a bit blasphemous (ha! good thing I don’t have a concept of blasphemy!) to me, but now I’ve got my own little Venus to bring me luck. I guess, why not?

I’m looking forward to the 8th of August: there’s going to be the first two day lolita event in Germany, the Dunkelsüß Lolita Market! Dunkelsüß is a foto community for German-speaking lolitas (so it includes people from Switzerland and Austria) and the market is going to include a bring & buy, stalls from German indie brands, info talks and the like. I’m going to be helping on Saturday, but if I can organize myself a place to stay overnight (meaning: find someone to stay with or get a tent) I’ll be there on Sunday too. I’m so excited!

Now it’s to get up to my room and get that hour of anatomy done. I also need to study motorscooters! (Blame Kate Miller-Heidke with her song Motorscooter - or better yet, listen to it.)


A Mix of News

A bit of stuff has been going on – for one, I took part in the absolutely terrific tooth brushing flashmob in Düsseldorf. I’ll do a separate post for that later.

I’m also on holidays now – summer holidays, in case my Aussie friends didn’t know. *wink* It’s good to not have homework and instead a lot of time to read and draw, especially the latter. I’ve neglected my art shamefully in the two months since coming back to Germany, so it’s good to be back on track. It’s a bit sad though having holidays because I’m also done with Latin – forever. I’ve earned the Latinum, which is like a certificate confirming that I have completed my five years of studying Latin. My marks aren’t outstanding, but alright, considering that I have only been here to be marked for two months.

On the topic of art again, I intend to spend heaps of time drawing during the holidays, preferably two hours or more a day. (Lazy thing that I am, I’m aiming for one and a half first, but we’ll see.) Looking around on the web, also among others my age, I’m amazed at all the incredibly talented people out there. It’s going to be hard work trying to catch up and reach the level to work as a professional artist, but I’m positive that with persistence and a good attitude I’ll get there. Looking at other artists’ journey from amateur to pro is greatly inspiring and shows me that even they have once been at the point that I am at now.

To have an additonal motivation I went back to my account on Concept Art and opened my own sketchbook. If people here are interested in my drawings, have a look over there! It’s still very pitiful, but I’m doing my best to improve. (And one day, some day, I’ll surely have a working scanner to not have to take photos of everything. Grrr.) Right now I’ve got two things in the work, a sketch of the armchair in our living room and a small still-life I set up on my table, including my beloved Innocent World headbow. Both are on hold right now, though, as the lighting (natural sunglight) changed too much for me to continue. Since I’ll be working all during the week, I think I can only continue them on the weekend or such. Pity.

Ah, yes. Work. I’m very happy to be helping in a holiday work shop for disabled children from Monday to Friday, some of them I know already from helping in a Friday afternoon group. The pay isn’t bad either, so the perfect holiday job. I hope, by the way, to get a mini-job at my favourite cosmetics brand Lush when I’ve turned 18. They’re free of animal testing, environmentally friendly, have awesome products, great customer service… Figures I’d love working there. It’s only 11 more days till my birthday.


Ten Things I Like – Number One

Inspired by Dianne Sylvan’s lists on Dancing Down the Moon. She’s one of my great role models and since a big box from Australia finally arrived with my copy of The Body Sacred (which is outrageously good) I’m rereading it currently and just found out about her blog. I want to be a bit more mindful again of the things I’m blessed with, so here we go with my first list.

1. Sailor Moon. I loved the series as a little girl and I’m right back into it. I never really realized how truly good and danceable the first German intro is. (And the video! The video!) She will always stay my heroine, somewhere in my heart. I hung up two old posters on my wall.

2. The sky clearing up after it’s rained.

3. Pink. It’s not a colour people associate with me and I don’t wear it, but it’s such a beautiful colour. I’m talking about dusky rose here, beige pink, peach blush… Not the Barbie kind.

4. Online TCGs. I only know German ones and currently play Gekko Yume (where I used to be webmistress, back when I was still known as Dorinka) and Whispering Secrets.

5. Steampunk. Victorian fashion. Jules Verne. Brass. Goggles. Air kraken. Need I say more?

6. Sherlock Holmes. I don’t think I can ever stress enough how good a read Sherlock Holmes is.

7. Animals. There’s nothing that makes you more accepting of everything fate might throw at you than spending some time around animals. Have you ever seen the calm dignity in a cow’s eyes?

8. The sea. I don’t even like it so much to swim in it, just revelling in its sight and smell and feel as it caresses my feet is enough.

9. Flashmobs. They are reintroducing chaos, senselessness and fun for the sake of fun to a world that’s ruled by an “eyes on the prize” mentality where everything has to have a purpose: to make you rich or famous or successful.

10. Lying in bed reading while the rain is pouring outside.


The Fool

Jun 24
1 Comment

The Fool

Pointy shoes, the tips turned up
Coquettish rests the jester’s cap
Upon his curls, his copper curls
As in a tune his fingers snap

A merry jingle follows him
As vultures do a dying man
He’s not in chains
But still he’s trapped

 “What can I play for you today?”
He banters with a witty smile
“The flute, the harp, the drums, the pipe?”
The king is still
The jester knows, the web is tight

 The smile that’s painted on his face
Does well to hide his harried eyes
He leaps and rolls and twists to please
The man that holds him like a vice

 There is no smile to coax today
From the king’s wine-sodden lips
His reddened ears, without a doubt
Follow not the joker’s wit 

The fool despairs, he knows too well
The end is not to please the king
He leaps the higher, twists the more
And yet it is to no avail 

A sad thing is a jester’s life
As fragile as his bones
The turn of thumb will signify
If he’ll see the next dawn’s glow
From his rooms
Or from a cell 

Balanced on a tightrope
He has but the king’s pleasure
To measure
His life.

A poem I wrote for English class. Jesters and clowns are a recurring theme in my drawings, so I thought I might write about them too.


Fresh Cherries & Cocaine

After the business of the last weekend I’m glad to relax a bit. It was Japan Day in Düsseldorf, a huge annual event, and there was a skirt to be sewn for the lolita meet-up I was going to attend. It was fun and I saw many absolutely gorgeous outfits and met really nice people. There was a fashion show on done by CD Japan, featuring two drop-dead gorgeous outfits by Victorian Maiden and Beth. Also, a freeze flashmob! It was a bit unorganized though, but maybe it’ll be better next year.

Now that it’s over, I’m happy sitting back and reading. As posted yesterday, I read my way through Body. Leben im falschen Körper by Christine Fehér and am now devouring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, the complete novels and short stories in two volumes. I’ve started reading the first book before and got as far as The Adventure of the Crooked Man before I stopped reading for some reason – I think it was during a holiday and cannot for the life of me remember why. Right now I have finished A Study in Scarlet which I think is absolutely brilliant, and am at the beginning of The Sign of Four.

I adore the old-fashioned language, all the “my dear fellow” and “I dare say”, the foggy streets of London filled with cabs and street urchins, the sitting-room fireplaces and gentlemen. It takes me right back in time and makes me wish to travel into this London that is so morbid and homely at the same time.

It also intrigues me how closely light and dark go together. Holmes, while being highly intellectual, sensible and a master of deduction, is also arrogant, almost cold, and sharp. Not to mention his cocaine addiction, which I have to confess fascinates me immensely. I have the deepest respect for Watson’s disdain of it, seeing that in the times of Holmes cocaine was freely available and not considered unhealthy in any way, so Holmes’s dependency on his “seven-per-cent solution” thrice a day is not thought of as bad by society in general.

Watson in general is a wonderful character that is reduced way too often to a clumsy dimwit, another Oliver Hardy to make Holmes look even more intelligent by comparison. While it is true that he lacks the sharp skills of observation and deduction that Holmes possesses, Watson is in no way lacking in wits, he simply cannot win if compared with his companion. (But then, who can?) He himself has considerable skills and knowledge and is a renowned medical expert, which I think speaks of his qualities. He’s also the filter through which the reader may see Holmes without being put off by his cold sharpness.

Just last night I read an excellent essay about the two as a possible couple, and while this is of course debatable, there have been a lot of scholarly studies, essays and analyses concerning Watson and his women, Holmes and his lack of women, Watson and Holmes. I personally quite like it since having read a few good texts on the subject. To each their own, I suppose.

In philosophy class yesterday we talked about Peter Singer and what he says about vegetarianism being the way to go. Since I am almost vegan now (I do still eat products with dairy or eggs in them occasionally, but try to avoid them) I had to explain myself again to classmates as to why, etc. While I have no problem with that, I do find it amusing how often I am asked, “What do you eat?” Heaps of stuff, actually, but nobody seems to believe me when I say that I eat lots of yummy things everyday without having to resort to animal products. Strange, that. (Mind you, I was actually munching on a delicious vegan muffin while explaining, so… I don’t know, maybe they didn’t consider muffins a good example of nice foods. I can’t fathom why.)

Today my grandmother went to the market and bought fresh cherries and strawberries. I love strawberries, but cherries are more expensive and one of my favourite treats! There’s nothing better than reading a good book or essay and slowly eating up a great bunch of sweet, fresh cherries.


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