duckprintspress | Entries tagged with unforth rambles

1. Have you ever been to summer camp?
Yep, I went to day camp many years and sleep away camp four times.

2. Have you ever made a s'more?
Many many many times. Most recently last Saturday.

3. Have you ever slept under the stars (no tent/tarp)?
I don't think I've ever had nothing. I don't want bugs or rain on me. I've had only a tarp tho.

4. Have you ever had a member of the opposite sex sleep over at your house?
Many times? I don't really get this question tbh.

5. What type of bed do you have (queen, twin, bunk, etc.)?
I have a full. In my house there are, uh... two twins, two fulls, a sofa bed (a full or a queen?) and a queen.

It's been a while since I've seen a Friday Five that looked like a good match for me, but. Here we are!

1. What is your all time favorite book?
Probably the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. There are a billion things that drive me nuts about it but I've nonetheless come back to it over and over for 30 years.

2. What is your all time favorite movie?
Harder to answer. I can't really pick one. Does the BBC Pride and Prejudice count as a movie?

3. What are you reading right now?
Solo Leveling vol. 4 by Chugong

4. What is your favorite show on TV?
Much easier. It's Star Trek: Deep Space 9.

5. What is the last movie you saw in the theater?
Normally I'd have trouble remembering but it was so recent - I went with my kids to see the Minecraft movie.

1. If you were a crayon, which color would you want to be?
something bright, like sunshine yellow or emerald green

2. Which color do you think you would be regardless of what you wanted?
probably gray or brown but that's okay, really all colors are good colors, I just like bright ones

3. Would you rather be used and get blunt, broken and lose your wrapper, or not be used and stay pristine?
please use me up

4. Would you rather be in a small set of crayons or a large set?
I'm fine with being just one tbh

5. Would you rather be Crayola, or a different brand?
I want to be one of those custom molded ones shaped like a star

1. Did the house where you grew up have a newspaper delivered regularly?

Usually. My mom didn't always have the money for a subscription but even then she bought it virtually every day. But yes, more or less, most of the childhood we got the paper delivered to the apartment.

2. Have you ever subscribed to an actual print newspaper?

Nope. Only digital.

3. When was the most recent time you physically picked up and read a newspaper?

Genuinely can't remember. Probably one of the recent times my kids had their photos in there. For some reason photos that include my kids keep making it into local papers for local events. I mean. They ARE adorable.

4. Do you pay for news online now?

Yes! I am currently paying $5/month for theguardian.com US edition; before that I had a New York Times subscription for over a decade, but uh. yeah. fuck them actually.

5. Do you have any saved newspaper clippings?

Many.

1. Ten years ago, what did you think you would be doing now?

I wasn't sure, honestly, but I was definitely hoping I'd be doing exactly what I am. I started planning this indie press during the summer of 2015.

2. Where do you think you will be five years from now?

Hopefully keeping on. But given the cheetoh's election, I'm just going day to day right now.

3. Do you live life one day at a time or look to the future?

Just answered this one lmao.

4. Do you wish you could go back in time and undo something in your life?

No, not because I don't hate some of the dumb choices I made, but because I wouldn't sacrifice the family I have now in order to fix the mistakes that led me to this moment. Like, if I dump my asshole ex a lot earlier, or if I'd pushed through and majored in science instead of history, do I meet my wife? Do I have these children? No mistake I made in the past is big enough and important enough to change that it's worth losing them.

5. If you could send a message back in time and give a younger version of yourself some advice, what would it be?

Web search: asexuality.

1. If you could go back and relive one moment or day from your life, without changing anything, what would you re-experience?
Right now, any summer day with my grandfather. But that'll change when my parents pass, I'm sure.

2. If you could witness a moment in history, again without changing anything, what would you want to see?
Third day of the battle at Gettysburg.

3. If you could talk to a younger version of yourself, what age would you visit and what message would you give?
Past me. You absolutely MUST research asexuality. That's it. that's the whole message. I promise it'll help.

4. If you could choose one moment that would be guaranteed to happen in your future, what would it be and when would it happen?
tbh just that I'll have a future, that my kids will have a future. show me dying at 90 with my kids and whatever family they've opted to have around me, and then I'll know the world won't end before they can grow up.

5. Pretend you left a time capsule for yourself 5, 10, 15, 20 or more years ago. You just opened it. What three things from your past are you now holding and what age were you when you buried them?
oh, huh. let's say 25 years I guess??? I've been adult since 2000. A PS1, the video game Lunar, and a bunch of anime posters. I was 17.

1. First time you cooked for someone else?
Heck if I know. Probably college.

2. First time you threw up in someone else's toilet?
I was going to say never, cause that's not really... a thing I do? But I definitely threw up at work when I was pregnant with my second kid, so I guess then.

3. First time you did anything illegal?
Stole from the corner market on 86th and Broadway just to see if I could. It was a bag of chips I think? Or maybe a candy bar. Anyway that store's been gone for 25+ years. Sorry for my contribution to that.

4. First time you saw snow/the ocean (whichever is more exotic)?
Neither is exotic for me, I grew up in New York City. We get snow and we're an island in the ocean. I've grown up with both these things.

5. First thought when I say "crumple-horned snorcack"?
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, isn't it? *googles* oh, no, it's Harry Potter. Why are we blogging about Harry Potter in 2025? Fuck TERFs.

1. What is the most adventurous food you've ever tried?

Hundred-Year Egg! I got a hundred-year egg pastry when I was in Hong Kong. I liked the flavor but struggled with the texture. (Hundred-year eggs are made by preserving an egg in clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls and burying them for several months.) I think if this was a food I'd grown up with, I'd have been delighted by it tbh.

2. What is the most adventurous food you'd be willing to try?

Eh, idk. I was an insanely picky eater growing up, and I try to combat that by being an adventurous eater now. Put it in front of me, and I'll try it?

3. Would you have a problem eating dog meat and why or why not?

I'd eat it. I mean, the dog's already dead by the time it's being served to me, I might as well try it. I wouldn't kill a dog for it or go out of my way to find this as a dish, but yeah. If I'm there, and it's there, I'd eat it.

4. For the most part, do you consider your diet to be balanced?

nope. I don't eat nearly enough fruits and vegs.

5. Which is more appealing: being a vegetarian for the rest of your life or being a strict carnivore for the rest of your life?

They will pry cheese from my cold dead hands, so I guess if I gotta pick, it's vegetarian. I like meat but I could give it up. I could not give up cheese. (sort of a lie. I mean, if it was medical necessity I would, but that's not the question here. so. no, I'm keeping cheese.)

1. What is the oldest object in the room with you?

uh, well, I'm at Panera working? But let's pretend I'm home lmao. The oldest thing in that room is...hmm...well, the office is where our filing cabinet is, and all the family pictures, including a lot from my parents. There are photographs my grandfather took in France during World War 2, for example. My mom took back some of the oldest pictures so she could label them, so I'm not exactly sure what's oldest, but I'd bet there are photos back to at least the 19teens in there still, and possibly as old as the late 19th century.

2. What is the newest?

I just got a new plant a few days ago! There's also always new art and stuff that my kids have made. And bills that came in the mail lmao.

3. What is your favorite object in the room with you?

The original of Man with a Gold Earring by Omar Rayyan - https://www.studiorayyan.com/

All my favorite art is in the office so I can see it every day, and I bought a lot of lovely originals back in a previous life, or, er. Career. When I had more money.

4. What is the most valuable object?

Oh hey. I should have read ahead lmao. Also Man with Gold Earring. I spent $5,000 to bring my beloved. It took me two years to pay it off and I've never regretted it for a moment.

5. What is the ugliest object?

My wife has some really ugly dice she uses for gaming.

1. What is your favourite food?

...if I have to pick only one, I'm a little embarrassed to say, it's gonna be pizza.

2. What is your favourite food preparation method?

Grilling! Yum.

3. What is your favourite cuisine or style of cooking?

If I have to pick one cuisine for the rest of my life it'll be Japanese every time, fuck I love Japanese food.

4. Do you have any dietary restrictions and if so what are they?

I am a supertaster, so while I don't have any restrictions, some things just taste vile to me, like coffee. Also, my wife has several severe allergies so that influences my day-to-day options, I won't keep anything she's allergic to around.

5. If you could introduce the whole world to one ingredient to improve their culinary experience, what would that be and why?

Turmeric. Turmeric is fuckin awesome.

1. Do you celebrate or observe Halloween? How?

I do! I'm in the US and my kids are 6 and 8 so it's the Done thing. We trick-or-treat in our neighborhood and we give out candy; we got 150 trick-or-treaters at our house yesterday (we keep count because we're neurodivergent and it's fun lmao).

2. What is your favorite Halloween candy?

Three Musketeers, Nerds, anything sour.

3. Do you get trick-or-treaters on Halloween?

So many. As mentioned above.

4. Do you enjoy dressing up in costumes?

I really do, but it's more effort and expense than I can really put in right now.

5. What is your favorite Halloween memory?

oh hmm. I won a gift certificate in 8th grade for my costume as a hippie. Riding the subway in the "19th century prostitute" costume I wore my senior year of high school. Going to the Greenwich Village parade in NYC with my oldest friend G - he was Spock and I was a Union soldier. My daughter's first Halloween, my son dressed as Ash, my wife and I as Team Rocket, and we made a six-month-old sized Pikachu outfit for my daughter. (She dressed as Pikachu again this year! she's a lot bigger now lmao)

1. Do you like soup?

I do!!

2. What is your favorite soup?

Oh man how can I pick? I love chicken soup and chicken noodle soup. I also love really smooth soups like tomato or butternut squash. Stews are great also. Idk. I like soup. Are we counting things like ramen as soup? cause then the answer is kitsune udon.

3. What kind of soup would you like to try, but never have?

uh, nothing is springing to mind? but I'm open to soup experimentation.

4. Is stew just a soup with extra ingredients?

no???? that's not the difference??? I'm so confused. To me, at least, stew is soup but a lot thicker; it has a lot less liquid. To me, stews are a subcategory of soup.

5. If you were a soup, what soup would you be and why?

Again are we counting noodles in broth? If so, maybe a spicy ramen bowl, hm. If not...matzo ball soup.

My last month has been so busy that I completely neglected to update my bingo card, even though I've been reading. Currently I'm burying myself in a book for work and manhua on the Bilibili app, and none of those will fit for any of my remaining squares (though I could maybe stretch a couple to fit "Mythology." Like, does a modern manhua about Pixiu and other Chinese mythological characters count as mythology??? idk..). I definitely think the remaining squares will be hard for me, with what I read, but I'll see what I can do??? I did just realize I can count the Minecraft books I'm always reading to my son as books for my hobby square, so I just gotta pick one and put it in, cause heck knows I've read plenty. Books about building with legos, too. It's not MY hobby, but they're hobby books....

Anyway, I've added Dinghai Fusheng Records as my historical fiction book; it's very deliberately set a few centuries after the Warring States period, and the historical context is important and referenced often.

I read six volumes of the Black or White manga, too, and eh that might as well be my Free Square I guess??? Gotta put something there.

I still expect MDZS Vol. 3 to be my Banned Books square, I'm just reading it stupidly slow cause it's all flashback and I don't like it that much lmao. But I'll get there. Person's Name in the Title is still gonna be my dad's book, I've just been procrastinating. But I'm kinda forbidding myself from starting another danmei book until I finish some of the things I "have" to read, so.

Also I'm neck deep in the Poyun manhua and there's a good chance that, as a result, the book has vaulted from being "somewhere down on my TBR list" to "next," lmao.

So yeah, as long as I'm willing to bend "mythology" until it screams, which...I am...the only one of these remaining that'll really have me stumped is a book from the year I was born. I don't want to read something from 1982. I want to read gay shit. What gay shit were they publishing then???

I'll figure something out. Maybe I'll get lucky and one of the books I read to the kids will fit???

AHA! I just googled Children's Books Published in 1982. I've heard of almost none of these BUT one I have heard of, and own, and have read before, is The BFG. Could give me kids a worse introduction to Dahl...

I might just manage a black-out on this yet...

(Also I really enjoyed Dinghai Fusheng Records, and Black or White is hot af.)

Inspired by @shipperslist, I've grabbed the reading bingo card from @kingstoken, and I'm gonna take a stab at at least getting a line. I read 11 novel-length books for leisure in 2022, and I'm aiming for 12 in 2022, so. And I swapped out two that I would have found really challenging for two that will be, for me, gimmes, considering everything I read is by Asian women writing stories set in China, lol.

Bonus, maybe I've finally found something Dreamwidth-specific to blog about here! I try to make it that each of our accounts has SOMETHING that isn't just "reposting things we post on other platforms," but it's been harder with Dreamwidth. I've been eyeing memes done by our mutuals, but this is our smallest platform platform right now so it's just. A little challenging. This'll be something, at least. :D

(If you're reading this and have some ideas of what else you might like to see us blog about on Dreamwidth that we don't do on our other platforms, feel free to speak up. :D )