Mood
When I awoke, feeling nice and refreshed
for a change, my mood was hopeful and happy and I was convinced I could do stuff
today. Unfortunately, technology, and in particular my Samsung soundbar (great
sound but really frustrating to use), soon ruined my good mood, had me in tears
at one point, and using a stream of extremely strong swear words the rest of
the time 🤬.
All I wanted to do was listen to an
audiobook on my PC through my soundbar . . .
how hard is that? Very difficult, as it turns out.
I should explain that my soundbar already
annoys me because someone else in the area seems to have connected to it
through wifi, so every so often it turns itself on and plays whatever they’re watching/listening
to (they seem to favour crappy sitcoms from the 1960s and 70s) or, worse still,
disconnects from my TV while I’m watching it, to connect to this other person as
if they have the override. It did cease for a while as the dinosaur egg light I
mentioned the other day also has a Bluetooth speaker and if that’s turned on
the other person seems to find that instead (I keep the sound down on it and
don’t use it as a speaker so not really bothered if it connects). But as it was
sunny this morning, there was little point in turning it on.
Previously I’ve paired my soundbar with
everything that I might want to use it with – TV, PC, iPad, phone etc., so it
should just have been a case of connecting and playing – and if my TV isn’t on
and it’s not connected to the 1970s, then it tends to automatically connect to
the PC anyway. But no, not this morning. It kept saying it was connected but
wouldn’t play the audiobook. Then, it refused to be deleted from the PC so I
could pair it again. Even restarting the computer and soundbar (several times for
the last because the mystery listener connected while I was rebooting) did nothing.
By the time I finally got it to work it was almost lunchtime and all energy for
doing anything else had long since been drained.
Audiobook
But why was I suddenly so interested to
listen to an audiobook, I hear you ask, especially given my mention last week
(or was it the week before?) that I’ve got out of the habit of
reading/listening to novels. The answer is, probably unsurprisingly, because of
C-drama.
During an update video from one of the
reactors who deals with Chinese drama, they mentioned that the highly-anticipated
Three Body (the Chinese TV version, not the Netflix one) is
due to be released shortly (I just looked it up and it starts today). I've been
looking forward to this drama as every time it’s been mentioned previously it always
sounds really interesting, but I hadn’t, for some reason, connected it to the
extremely popular and highly-rated Remembrance of Earth's Past sci-fi trilogy by Liu Cixin. These
have been on my to-listen-to list for what seems like a million years, and I
suddenly realised that I should listen to the first book, at least, before I
tackle the series.
I have no idea what either series will be
like, although Netflix’s obviously has more diverse characters (and very
few Chinese ones), but I’m pretty sure the Chinese version will be closer to
the source material than the Netflix one. There is already a cartoon version,
currently showing on the same Chinese channel, which I don’t believe is available
elsewhere (yet). However, it’s received terrible reviews across the board as it
seems to bear no resemblance to the original novel and is generally considered
a disappointment, so everyone’s pinning their hopes on the upcoming version
(not the Netflix one).
Thus, I suddenly felt fired up to start listening
to the first book, and so far I’m finding it interesting and entertaining. It’s
been a long time since I last delved into a proper hard science-fiction story
(probably the last time was my re-listen to Dan Simmons’
excellent Hyperion Cantos, back in 2011, if Goodreads is to be
believed), so it’s taking me a bit of time to take on board all the physics
stuff. Interestingly, it’s also evoking all sorts of feelings in me because it's reminded
me of my Dad, who loved sci-fi and introduced me to Ray Bradbury, Isaac
Asimov, Frank Herbert, Larry Niven and all those older SF
writers when I was a kid. I think he would have loved this book, so I hope
wherever he is he’s either read it or is listening along to it with me.
Tea
Yesterday’s post provided me with some new
tea. I’ve pretty much been drinking Bird&Blend’s Spiced
Pumpkin Pie since last October (I love it and bought loads because it’s only
released for Halloween) or Rosie Lee Tea’s Wizard Brew (since
forever), and I thought it was time for a change. This was assisted by old
favourite, Adagio, having a sale, although I actually didn’t buy
much from it. I nearly bought a new teapot but then remembered that I currently
have 3 in general use, another 2 for decoration as they're useless for loose tea (a Unicorn and a Christmas tree) and
2 tea balls as well, so I really don’t need any more (oh, and also one that is
part of a ‘tea for two’ stackable set that my friends bought me back in college
in the early 1980s 😳 that is sitting a cupboard somewhere 🤦♀️).
Anyway, getting the Adagio email reminded
me that I needed to buy some more Cinderella teabags. These are from
their children’s Fairy Tale range, so they are caffeine-free and milder
than usual, and are thus excellent for when I have a migraine, as drinking
anything strongly flavoured/scented is out of the question and I can’t drink
much water. I added tester sizes of the Fujian Baroque, Dancong Aria,
Honeybush Pumpkin Chai and Chocolate Chai as they were between
25-50% off. Finally, I decided to give the black, oolong, and gourmet taster boxes
a try, to cover as many different teas as possible. Perhaps I should resurrect
the tea blog and review them all, but with the taster boxes you only get one
cup of each type, so not really enough for me to make a judgement further than whether
I’d buy it again or not. Perhaps I’ll just make do with a table (you know I
love a table) listing the teas and what I thought of them.
This Evening
I’ve taken a break from the audiobook to
write this (and get it posted early, I will beat midnight!) and to join a Twitch
stream as it’s watching an Ateez variety show that I haven’t yet
seen. Dinner will be salad again – steak this time – and then it’s back to the
audiobook, and an evening away from the TV. The only music I've listened to today was the OST album for Unlock My Boss, as I wanted to check which songs to add to my OST playlist. I am intending to go through my K-pop end-of-year list while I listen to The Three-Body Problem, and make sure I have everything in my playlists, so I can get finished with listening to them this week (hopefully).
Birthdays
With so many K-pop/drama and C-drama idols
on my radar, almost every day is someone’s birthday. Today, it’s the turn of Jun.K from 2PM and the Taiwanese actor Guang Hong (Darren Chen).
Oh, and the fairy lights are still going, despite not having been turned off at all since last Thursday. Blue is now very
faint but green is still putting in a strong showing. I really want full
colours again, but feel bad changing the batteries when there’s obviously still
a little life left in them.
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