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@phoenixrisesoncemore / phoenixrisesoncemore.tumblr.com

Tolkien (and other loves of my life) | cis-woman | she/her | fandom old | mother of cats | Header image is the Large Magellan Cloud as photographed by Ciel Austral | Find me on INprnt as phoenixrisesoncemore and on Twitter @OnceRises

Index Master Post (Updated 10-03-22)

Silmarillion, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, UT, HoMe, NoMe, OFS, Letters, Linguistics. Meta mostly focused on Sauron, Metaphysics, History of the development of the Legendarium, and the nature of story.

Meta about both The Untamed/Chen Qing Ling and Mo Dao Zu Shi. Also includes a link to MDZS/CQL art and fic.

My original art as well as fanart and fic for various fandoms, mainly MDZS/CQL and Tolkien for now.

Essays on other fandoms, art, history, philosophy, anxiety, and depression as well as personal biography. Other fandoms may include X-Men, Xenogears, Xenosaga, Final Fantasy, Moulin Rouge, The Magnus Archives, Legend (film 1985), Notre Dame de Paris, Arcadia (Tom Stoppard), and Doctor Who.

I enjoy tea and sometimes post about different teas here.

I occasionally post recipes. Find those here.

Hold On Tight

Tears Of The Kingdom was epic and it made me an emotional mess and was an amazing example of carrying a few simple visual and emotional motifs across a game and bookending the gameplay with them. I’ve been playing Zelda since 1988, and I don’t know that it has ever been better. Also, can we all appreciate that Link is 5’2”? And Zelda is taller than he is? And also the final stage of that boss battle??? I knew something like that had to be coming, but I was not prepared. Not sharing images of the ending to avoid spoiling anything but IYKYK.

Sichuan Eggplant and Minced Pork

Some of the best eggplant I have ever eaten. Adapted from this recipe: https://www(dot)chinasichuanfood.com/chinese-eggplants-with-minced-pork/

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 and 1/2 Japanese eggplants cut into cubes, each with a bit of skin.
  • 3/4lb ground pork
  • 1 baby bok choy, well cleaned, base removed, stems sliced half inch thick, leaves left whole or cut in half if larger.
  • 3-4 green onions, white parts cut into 1/4 inch slices, green parts into batons
  • 1 pkg dried maitake mushrooms rehydrated (larger parts separated), drained (you can probably sub many other types of mushrooms, though plain button style mushrooms might not be as flavorful).
  • 1 TBSP minced ginger
  • 3 cloves minced garlic
  • 2 TBSP shaoxing wine
  • 1 -2 TBSP doubanjiang (or to taste)
  • 1 TBSP sugar
  • 1 TBSP toasted sesame oil
  • 4+ TBSP vegetable oil
  • 2 TBSP soy sauce
  • Cornstarch for coating eggplant
  • 1/4 cup roasted peanuts

METHOD

  1. Soak eggplant in heavily salted water for at least 10 min. Make sure pieces are submerged. Thoroughly drain, then coat with cornstarch.
  2. Heat 2 TBSP veg oil in wok on med high heat. Stir fry eggplant until dark and crispy, being careful not to burn. Approx. 6-8 min. Remove eggplant and reserve.
  3. Add in 1 TBSP veg oil and stir fry pork until brown and crispy, breaking it up into fine pieces, 5-7 min. Remove and reserve with eggplant, leaving as much fat as possible in the wok.
  4. Add last TBSP oil to wok. Stir fry mushrooms until brown and crisp, 3-4 min.
  5. Add bok choy and fry until leaves are wilted, about 1 min.
  6. Pour wine around outside edge of wok allowing it to run to center. This will steam off for a moment.
  7. Once the steam dies down, open space in center of wok and place doubanjiang. Fry for 1 min then lower heat to low.
  8. Add ginger, garlic, white part of green onion. Stir for 30 seconds, or until fragrant.
  9. Add soy, toasted sesame oil, and sugar and toss to combine.
  10. Add all reserved ingredients back to wok along with green part of green onion and toss to combine.
  11. Remove from heat, garnish with peanuts, and serve.

The Meat-based Mind Conveyance is a Pain in the Ass

“Embodiment is a bad joke” is not, like, a hot take for Tumblr, I know, but my meat machine is being especially awful in the last 9 months (CW for lots of medical and menstrual stuff).

  • 2 scopes of the gastro persuasion (might as well cover both ends if you’re gonna do it)
  • Precancerous polyps removed
  • Got a brain MRI with contrast where the contrast escaped my vein and caused temporary (thank God) weakness and pain in my right arm
  • Seen PCP
  • Seen OBGYN (twice!)
  • New neurologist for increasing and changing migraine symptoms
  • Got my mammogram
  • Multiple eye dr trips for a diagnosis of severe dry eye disease for which I was prescribed drops that cost $500 a month (WITH insurance—looking for other options)
  • Seen pulmonologist
  • Sleep study that diagnosed moderate sleep apnea
  • Started using CPAP
  • Had irregular periods for the first time since I was a teen
  • Including bleeding for 40 days straight
  • Found 2 new fibroids and 1 that was found previously that has grown to golf ball size. Nothing grapefruit sized like before yet thankfully.
  • Had a major bout of vertigo that sent me to the ER and made me bed bound for about a week
  • Turns out this is because a virus reactivated and caused severe damage to one of the right side balance nerves, destroying 75% of its function
  • Going to start VRT soon to try to rehab and make my brain compensate
  • Thyroid hormones are doing weird things so have to see an endocrinologist
  • I have to get an HSG to check the position of the fibroids
  • And I may have POTS so I am supposed to get a tilt table test
  • (Oh and my endometriosis is probably back)

I am TIRED of doctors and hospitals and medical settings. Really, really, really tired. I wish the meat-based head conveyance would behave itself. I have papers to write and conferences to attend and Zelda games to play.

I don’t know who here likes historical-critical manuscript deep dives into the New Testament, but Pete Enns’s podcast recently interviewed Elizabeth Schrader Polczer about her work on the instability of Martha in the pre 5th century manuscripts of the Gospel of John. I’ve posted about her work before, but essentially, she is building on the work of scholars who have pointed out that the earliest manuscripts of John have a lot of variations around the existence and function of Mary and Martha. The types of changes and their frequency suggests to Elizabeth that Mary of Bethany is Mary Magdalene, whose brother was Lazarus, but who had no sister named Martha, and that the Mary and Martha of Luke were different people who did not have a brother named Lazarus. Schrader Polczer argues that the instability in the manuscripts may reflect multiple traditions that reflected anxiety around the role and prominence of Mary Magdalene in the early days of the church, particularly the tensions attested to in multiple sources between her and Peter. This is primarily because it becomes Mary who gives the Christological confession and who encounters the risen Christ and first proclaims the gospel all in one story if Martha is not there (as she is not in a significant number of manuscripts).

She also touches on why “Magdalene” meaning “The Tower” as a nickname is the most likely understanding of the word, and then talks a bit about the fundamental multiplicity (and contradiction) of the gospel narratives and why it is important to embrace that multiplicity in order to understand them (*cough*multipleeffoliationofcreation*cough*—it all comes back to Tolkien in the end).

https://thebiblefornormalpeople.com/episode-245-elizabeth-schrader-polczer-resurrecting-mary-the-tower/

Author’s Note

These timelines, based on the Timeglider.com software system,  have been taken from my ever-expanding database of slang, which was also the source of Green’s Dictionary of Slang, published in 2010. Slang covers many areas, but there are certain major themes which have dominated the vocabulary for over 500 years. To sum them up as sex, drugs and, in its widest sense, rock ‘n’ roll wouldn’t be so far from the truth. Plus crime, drunkenness, insults, racism and a number of other of our less savoury but quite inescapable activities. What you will find here are the first examples of what I intend to be a look at all of them. Prepare to be amused, informed, even shocked. Subversive, cynical, witty and sometimes cruel, whether we like it or not, slang is humanity at its most human.

Jonathon Green aka 'Mr Slang’

click a link below to view a timeline 

NB: The purpose of these timelines is to illustrate the wide range of terms that slang uses for a single topic. They are not a dictionary, with definitions and etymologies, simply an example of slang’s remarkable creativity over time. Their aim is to inform, but also to entertain. I do not pretend that all of them are in common use or ever were. What I do know is that I have found them in print, in lyrics, in scripts, online or elsewhere. There are certainly more that I have yet to discover. I must also add that the dates are not set in stone. Slang research is always changing what we know and there is only one rule: words are always older than you think. When I find proof, I shall make the necessary changes.

Today's music of choice while finishing my GIFCon presentation: Hymns from The Lily and the Lamb by Anonymous.

Here I am a week from my third paper presentation and my newly acquired vertigo won’t let up and the migraines are becoming more frequent. Seriously, meat puppet, give me a freaking break!