The East Coast branch of Binary System is currently in Florida, but the geeky stuff is still happening even if the recording isn’t, here’s what we’re reading, watching, drinking, and working on.
What we’re reading:
Kathryn: The Foundling by D.M. Cornish (colonial era (sort of) fantasy), and a kindle collection of Poppy Z. Brite’s short stories, Used Stories (amazon has a bunch of 5-dollar or less kindle collections of her short stories. They’re mostly stuff she freely admits weren’t good enough for her other collections, but they’re still good trashy fun.)
Elizabeth: I’m bouncing back and forth between Max Gladstone’s Four Roads Cross (which is excellent!) and C.J. Cherryh’s Visitor (which…isn’t. It’s kind of dreadful I’m afraid.)
What we’re watching (or listening to):
Kathryn: We’ve listened to four episodes of the Wooden Overcoats podcast, and I’m really enjoying it. The way the main character answers the phone makes me laugh EVERY time. “Now look here! Yes?”
Elizabeth: I’ve been rewatching Torchwood season 2. It’s cheesy in places but still very fun, but some things bug me: the episode where Gwen goes against Jack to find a lost kid? He could have given her three pieces of information (1 – I have the kids, 2 – they’re too damaged to go home, and 3 – do not let the mother stay in the room for longer than five minutes) and everything would’ve been better. And there’s no real reason why he couldn’t have done that, none. Sure, she could’ve just trusted him, but he could’ve just trusted her too. It’s a beautifully depressing episode, but man, that bugs me.
What we’re drinking
Kathryn: I’ve stuck to a tiny bit of Bailey’s over ice, and sometimes wine at dinner, while I’ve been on vacation, because the last couple times I’ve had hard liquor while traveling have resulted in a nasty headache, which is weird because it’s been perfectly fine if I drink that at home. (I mean, within reason obviously.) Has anybody else experienced this? Got any tips on what does or doesn’t work to prevent this?
Elizabeth: I had to miss selling at the Green Flash Treasure Chest Fest this year due to seriously low inventory, which is a shame, because two years ago I was having a terrible week and feeling low and then I sold at the fair with my friends and had the most amazing time and sold tons and tried lots of samples and I’d always hated IPAs before but suddenly I liked them. So I’m having some Imperial IPA: it’s both grapefruity and piney, but not too much of either.
Projects we’re working on:
Kathryn: I’m still working on my Quetzalcoatl staff (brought it down with me to Florida) so I may be able to finish that in time for the NC State Fair Craft Competition. (For what a Quetzalcoatl is, see below for some art we found and like very much.)
Elizabeth: I finally bit the bullet and bought a router attachment for my Dremel: cutting circular shapes for bottle cap circuit board pendants by hand is a giant pain, I needed to up my game. I’ll let you know if it works. (Okay yes, not as sexy as a Quetzalcoatl, but it’s not all Mexican feathered serpents around here.)
