On the writing front #
This week, I prepared my small potted succulents for the Printemps des Viennes. I’ll be offering little aloe vera, sedum, and Christmas cactus plants to people who buy my books or illustrations during the event. Each cup is printed with my illustration of the cherry blossom tree in the tea house garden (from Le Voeu de Yoko). I’ve only prepared about ten cuttings, as I don’t expect to make many sales at this kind of event.
On the writing front, I’m making small but steady progress on all fronts at once: a bit of editing on L’Enfant des Esprits, continuing the second story in Le Cabinet des Mauvais Souvenirs, and revisiting the first story, with some reflection on narration, which is more technical than usual since it’s omniscient perspective. (I work more with internal third-person perspectives in my other stories, with some flexibility in L’Enfant des Esprits.)
On the web front #
Oh no… I’ve hit a blocker in developing my Obsidian plugin for Marlène, my little transcription program based on Mistral AI’s Voxtral. I understand that these plugins are built on Electron technology, but it seems only the web layer of the program is accessible during plugin development, and I can’t figure out how to start Marlène, my Node.js program. Two parallel paths lie ahead:
-
I can continue implementing my custom UI, built from scratch using Electron. The next step in my prototype is to integrate environment variables so the Mistral API key can be entered into the program.
-
I can develop a web version of Marlène. Not only am I not very familiar with browser-based audio, but I also don’t know if the Web Audio API is fully compatible with Obsidian, or if there are subtleties I should be aware of before diving in. Some research is in order.
In the garden #
I’ve officially banished the lawnmower from my garden. This noisy, destructive tool isn’t compatible with my small LPO wildlife refuge. I’d love to learn how to use a scythe; in the meantime, I’m sticking with my pair of shears, which I use to trim small areas each week, always leaving the rest in tall grass.
Issue 58 of Epsiloon Mag (in French, subscription required) contains an interesting article about hoverflies, those little striped flies often seen hovering in gardens. I already knew they were flies, but I hadn’t realized their potential as pollinators, as mentioned in the article. I hope the hoverflies I regularly spot in my garden will take care of my kiwi plants, which are growing very well. That said, I’ll probably continue hand-pollinating my zucchini flowers to avoid any unpleasant surprises.
On the culture front #
My partner and I finished the first season of Elementary, a series that reimagines Sherlock Holmes in a modern setting, and, for once, it puts female characters in the spotlight. John Watson becomes Joan Watson, a former surgeon who gets pulled into Sherlock’s police investigations. While some of Sherlock’s deductions are a bit far-fetched (though this is often the case in adaptations I know), the well-written character development is enjoyable to follow. This first season has the merit of offering a satisfying ending: if you don’t want to commit to all seven seasons, you can stop here and still feel content. Warning! If you plan to look into it further, I strongly advise against reading the Wikipedia page since it contains a huge spoiler.
For what it’s worth #
Do you know Babelio, the site people use to write book reviews? This is completely irrelevant, but I have to tell someone: Every time I see their logo, I think of a golden turd. To make this slightly more useful, you should also know about a Fediverse alternative called BookWyrm.