Meida Round Up: Cool Trees
Mar. 29th, 2025 11:43 amHere's some thoughts on what I've been reading and watching lately:
The Yin Yang Master (2021)— My group watch discord server has decided to have monthly movie nights as an activity that is easier for people who struggle to keep up with the dramas we are watching. This was our first movie. I liked it a lot! great visuals, including a bunch of dramatic vistas, cgi monsters (my favorite was the tree yao with petals drifting around her) and fun fights. Plus there are female characters!
A Garden of Marvels: Tales of Wonder from Early Medieval China by Robert Ford Campany—I think it's helpful to read more Chinese stories from this time period to get a better sense of the genre and see how other people do translation. This book is aimed at undergrads so it has less footnotes than To Live as Long as Heaven And Earth which was also translated by Campany. Personally I like the footnotes, so that’s not a plus for me. All of these stories are very short, mostly less than a page when translated, so there’s not a lot of story or character development, definitely something I read for intellectual reasons and not for the stories.
Love of Petals— It took me a couple of episodes to get into this drama, I didn’t like the relationship between the leads at first, but it got better fairly quickly and I’m glad I stuck with it. The FL is a gardener and the ML is a flower yao, and eventually they start a flower nursery with a group of formerly mistreated yao. There are several very beautiful sets with many many flowers. The ending is a bit rushed and confusing, but it's mostly pretty charming. I don’t have Deep Thoughts about this or anything, but it was cute and fun.
(Content note: attempted suicide)
Seawitch by Skye McKenna —The third book in the Hedgewitch series, read out loud to the kid. I think this is my favorite book in the series so far. In this book they go visit the main character’s cousin who lives in a seaside town in Cornwall, and I really liked all the sea mythology. This book also features a boy who wants to be a witch and I enjoyed his storyline.
Somehow I’ve already finished five dramas this year! Which is as many as the most I've watched in a whole year previously. All of these were 24 episodes or less, but still that’s a lot for me.
Reading joyfully continues to be a challenge, and I’m trying not to push it because I don’t think it helps. I’ve been anxious and depressed a lot recently and its just hard to do anything joyfully when one is in that state.
The Yin Yang Master (2021)— My group watch discord server has decided to have monthly movie nights as an activity that is easier for people who struggle to keep up with the dramas we are watching. This was our first movie. I liked it a lot! great visuals, including a bunch of dramatic vistas, cgi monsters (my favorite was the tree yao with petals drifting around her) and fun fights. Plus there are female characters!
A Garden of Marvels: Tales of Wonder from Early Medieval China by Robert Ford Campany—I think it's helpful to read more Chinese stories from this time period to get a better sense of the genre and see how other people do translation. This book is aimed at undergrads so it has less footnotes than To Live as Long as Heaven And Earth which was also translated by Campany. Personally I like the footnotes, so that’s not a plus for me. All of these stories are very short, mostly less than a page when translated, so there’s not a lot of story or character development, definitely something I read for intellectual reasons and not for the stories.
Love of Petals— It took me a couple of episodes to get into this drama, I didn’t like the relationship between the leads at first, but it got better fairly quickly and I’m glad I stuck with it. The FL is a gardener and the ML is a flower yao, and eventually they start a flower nursery with a group of formerly mistreated yao. There are several very beautiful sets with many many flowers. The ending is a bit rushed and confusing, but it's mostly pretty charming. I don’t have Deep Thoughts about this or anything, but it was cute and fun.
(Content note: attempted suicide)
Seawitch by Skye McKenna —The third book in the Hedgewitch series, read out loud to the kid. I think this is my favorite book in the series so far. In this book they go visit the main character’s cousin who lives in a seaside town in Cornwall, and I really liked all the sea mythology. This book also features a boy who wants to be a witch and I enjoyed his storyline.
Somehow I’ve already finished five dramas this year! Which is as many as the most I've watched in a whole year previously. All of these were 24 episodes or less, but still that’s a lot for me.
Reading joyfully continues to be a challenge, and I’m trying not to push it because I don’t think it helps. I’ve been anxious and depressed a lot recently and its just hard to do anything joyfully when one is in that state.
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