Bits and Pieces: February

Picture/ Photo Find:

Something I Did:

 I watched a bunch of Hayao Miyazaki films over the past few weeks. Back at a camp  last November, I met someone who was really into Japanese culture/ anime (she'd even spent a month in Japan that past summer). She had this pack of cards that we played with, and they had these anime characters on it from a movie that I sort of recognized but didn't know anything about. 

She explained that the movie was called Spirited Away, and that it was her favorite.

Back when I was six or seven my mom brought home one of Miyazaki's films called My Neighbor Totoro, and I really liked it. So I had a recollection that those movies weren't bad, and I wanted to watch another one.

Anyway, turns out Hope's boyfriend happens to own a lot of Miyazaki films, including Spirited Away. I borrowed the movie from him and watched it the other day. Though it was definitely weird, I really liked it all the same. 

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I went back to Rhett's house the next day and borrowed Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle, Ponyo, and My Neighbor Totoro.

One thing I really like about every one of his movies is how creative and original the plots are. For example, Howl's Moving Castle is about a girl named Sophie who gets turned into an old lady, becomes a housekeeper for a magician named Howl in a moving castle, and befriends a talking fire, a spy dog, a cursed prince, and the very witch who turned her into an old lady in the first place. Of course, Sophie doesn't stay old, and the way that it's handled is very good.

It's really hard to choose a favorite out of all of them, because there are aspects of every film that I adore. So I guess I'll just leave it at that. 

A Writer Thing:

I took nearly a month long hiatus during January. It wasn't planned or anything, I just didn't really feel like writing--call me lazy. I'm ready to return now, and so this month (though it's half over), I definitely plan to cover some ground on Mermaidens, as well as now-untitled-redraft of The Glass Girl.

I'm not going to make it a goal, or announce anything, because when I do the goal usually doesn't end up getting accomplished and I feel like a failure. So for now it's just word of mouth. 

Horse-ly Horse:

 Nearly a month ago, in January, Peso injured himself.

Before surgery.

We keep our goats in the pen next to his, and we feed them alfalfa so that their milk will taste good. Peso enjoys alfalfa too, and so after I finished milking and left he tried to reach over the fence for it, and ended up kicking the fence down. That would be fine, except that when he tried to go through the fence, he got stuck between the barn wall and the fence, and ended up cutting his side pretty badly. 

 Several vet calls, surgery, some trials involving Peso refusing to eat his pain-killer, and daily hose-downs later, Peso has returned to his normal personality. Of course, it will be a few months yet before he will be completely healed, but we're definitely lucky that it didn't turn out worse than it did.

After surgery

Song I Can't Stop Listening To:

"Lego House", by Ed Sheeran