A migrating cormorant stopped by the neighbourhood pond! The mallard was like “uh what is this?”
#Birds
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Pablo el Peregrino
@setmeravelles@lgbtqia.space
mastodon 4.7.2I'm Pablo. He/his/him/Él.
Trilingual English-Español-Català.
I post about my life, pop culture interests, Mariah, Spain, travel, life on the autism spectrum (also have ADHD) and coping with anxiety and depression.
I am happily taken, but my boyfriend hates social media.
Currently in Illinois, Spanish at heart.
Freelance translator/writer. Ph.D dropout (recovering academic).
Welcome, bienvenidos, benvinguts, ogni ettori to my world.
105 Followers
105 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 23, 2025
Website/Blog:
www.setmeravelles.com
Currently Watching:
Women of the House
Currently Reading:
Isn't He Romantic by Adib Khorram
Patreon/Bluesky/Letterboxd etc:
Setmeravelles
We watched most of Buen Camino tonight, the Italian movie about a White Lotus-type family on the Camino, and it was way better than I expected. Funny with heart, typical Italian.
It got me excited about my upcoming Camino...which I'm still debating on cancelling. I purposefully scheduled four days in València for hikes around my old home and because last year coincided with a gota fría which the entire city was closed in case of flooding like the 2024 DANA. Guess what? NOTHING BUT RAIN IN THE FORECAST FOR LIKE THE ENTIRE PENINSULA BUT ESPECIALLY VALÈNCIA :'( Wonder if it's a sign to just cancel :-/ Flight on Wednesday and I don't feel at all ready.
Replying to
@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca Que te mejores pronto.
I'm really over not being able to concentrate on anything #ADHD
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@aspeed@lgbtqia.space I got my Covid today!
Snowpiercer the movie is better than the graphic novels...how's the show?
Aww, New Found Glory is a fave. May Chad Gilbert RIP.
https://ew.com/chad-gilbert-new-found-glory-founding-guitarist-dies-at-45-12130536
Doing a 25th anniversary rewatch of The Others, which I probably haven't seen since 2001...and it's...not as good as I remembered, but my concentration is also shot today. Nicole Kidman is great, but Moulin Rouge! was the far superior film.
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- International Relations by Zac Hammett. A UK diplomat hires a U.S. actor to pose as his partner and they end up married for visa reasons...and fall in love. While very contrived for a genre full of contrived plots, this romcom was still a delight to read. #Bookstodon
This week's Sunday Vintage Film was Band Wagon, which might be my first Fred Astaire. It was a lot of fun and worth a watch.
Apparently it was a rewatch as I had rated it in 2014 on IMDb lol.
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@billzismyname@queer.cool Fingers crossed!
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- In the Absence of Men by Phillippe Besson. A queer first love set in World War I France as the protagonist deals with his love going off to war. Besson is a great writer, but this is probably my least fave of his that I've read (but it's still good!)
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- An Ugly World for Beautiful Boys by Rob Costello. One of my fave reads this year. A troubled teen in small town upstate New York (ie red) is okay with his queer self but deals with other demons and yearns for a different life. Recommend highly. #Bookstodon
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- Inspiration Porn by Ryan O'Connell. A sorta memoir/essay collection about his experiences as a queer man with cerebral palsy. Really enjoyed this one.
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- Transcendent by Laverne Cox. I didn't know much about her, other than the name, but I enjoyed her memoir.
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- Fruit Fly by Josh Silver. This had a lot of promise but ultimately fell flat. A straight woman appropriates a gay man's trauma to write her second novel. Her escapades on Grindr were hysterical "Slay".
ETA: Looks like the straight women appropriating gay culture on GoodReads/The Story Graph aren't getting that it mocks them...of course they aren't.
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- Lie With Me by Philippe Besson (translated by Molly Ringwald, yes, that one). French coming of age novella (I think metafiction) about first loves and losses. Besson is quickly becoming a fave of mine. #Bookstodon
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- The New People by Andrea Uptmor. In 2008, a lesbian couple move into a house in small college town Indiana and don't know the prior owners are still living in the attic. Really fantastic read. #Bookstodon
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- Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music 1969-2000 by Barry Walters. Very informative look back at both the icons and the actually queer musicians from Stonewall to the end of the century. But the exclusion of Mariah (and Kylie!)? Whatever.
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I didn't finish The Open Era by Edward Schmit. I feel bad for him, having his debut come after another gay tennis romance, (Thirty Love by Tom Vellner), but when the love interest's dog died, I had to check out of it :(
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- The Castle of Dreams by Matt Cain. I adore Matt Cain, and his latest, about a gay man who inherits a castle in Italy and spends the summer renovating with his boyfriend and boyfriend's kids, is just as good as his prior books. One of my fave queer writers right now.
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- Ship Happens by Mason Deaver. A trans man finds himself on an Alaskan cruise with his ex. It had potential it never lived up to (also had to speed read because the second I checked it out someone put a hold on it and it makes me anxious to know someone's waiting for a book I'm reading at the library...)
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- The House of Now And Then by Edward Underhill. A trans guy goes to a cottage in Cape Cod for the summer to forget his ex and failure in academia and is literally confronted with the ghosts of his past. Queer magical realism by a trans writer worth reading.
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- Dearly Departed by Chip Pons. Hades is no longer the king of the underworld but a funeral home owner named Hayden and falls for the town floral arrangement guy. Tedious read, especially since I had high hopes after Winging It With You :-/
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- Devout by David Archuleta is a heartbreaking memoir about the singer's struggles to accept himself as queer in the Mormon church and an emotional abusive father. Related all too well to it.
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@beecycling@wandering.shop Any idea where I can find one that cheap in short notice? Thanks for the suggestion!
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- The Celebrants by Steven Rowley. A group of uni friends agree to give each other funerals while they're still alive after their friend dies. Really disappointed in this one. Characters were insufferable, and I didn't care about anyone other than the Jordans. #BookSky
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@Wendycr@glammr.us Gene Kelly was so dreamy. Even on roller skates in his later years.
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- So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder. Insufferable characters, and then one of the 2 I didn't hate is the one who dies? I have not finished Ginder before, and I wish I hadn't bothered giving him a second chance. He won't get a third.
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- Always the Almost by Edward Underhill. A trans male teen pianist falls for the new guy after a breakout. I was disappointed since I loved Underhill's other books, but this one was just kinda there for me. I did love Stefania, the piano teacher though.
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- One Week To Win the Chocolate Maker by Timothy Janovsky. I'm not sure we needed a queer (adult) retelling of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but here we are. It was sorta cute, but...
Either the local hummingbirds hadn’t migrated yet or we have a couple that are migrating that found our feeder. It’s adorable how one comes for the mate and they fly off together. And return for more.
S3 of Halt and Catch Fire is off to a good start. Feeling somewhat better but still a bit off...executive functioning has ceased to exist this year (and since I'm AuDHD...it was barely there to begin with). Hopefully a good night's sleep and I'll be back to "normal" tomorrow.
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- A Murder Most Camp by Nicolas DiDomizio. I've loved DiDomizio's other works, but as I'm not a fan of mysteries, I was a bit hesitant on this one. No need to fear, as DiDomizio keeps this tale about a privileged guy's (think S1 David Rose) summer at camp to earn his inheritance fresh.
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@beecycling@wandering.shop How much are they? I’ve thought about it to be honest.
It’s a six week trip though.
Looks like the cardinal couple has a healthy young lady to raise, one who has spent the day in a bird feeder.
#Birds
A pair of movies today.
Charlie Bartlett was better than I expected, from 2007, about a teen who gets kicked out of boarding school and becomes his public school's new prescription drug dealer.
Testosterone was one I enjoyed in the mid 2000s, despite the bad pronunciation of my name...alas, due to the political affiliation of the two leads, this movie hasn't aged well, but it is fun watching both try to play gay. Jennifer Coolidge was Jennifer Coolidge and stole the movie, along with Sonia Braga. They need to remake this and just cast Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey, and Coolidge can still play the same character.
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- Bloom by Robbie Couch. Ufff. I was looking forward to this one, but I was so stressed out for the plant being okay that I didn't enjoy this meditation on grief of a former teacher losing his husband and his husband's daughter's coping. Poor Jade the Plant.
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@chillguy20@mastodon.social Alas, no job, so no insurance, so no official diagnosis, so I can't get medication, and I can't find a job until I can get treatment, so it's a bad circle.
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- Thirty Love by Tom Vellner. An actual heated rivalry turned romance by an actual queer male writer. I wish I liked tennis, because that would have made this book much better, but I just don't care about any sportsball...still enjoyed this book a lot though.
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- A Black, Queer History of the United States by C. Riley Snorton & Darius Bost. A short, informative, academic history closing in on queer moments in Black history.
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- A Crushing Walk in Cornwall by Nicholas George. Chase's third long-walk in England with a murder. I might be the oddity that wants more of the walk (and Chase's relationship with Mike!) and less of the murders; that's also the hiker in me who burnt out on murder mysteries in the 90s.
I have to post/mail my luggage from València to my hotel in Gijón this year, either Correos or DHL. Should I bring my laptop? It would be used nearly half the days of the trip and I’m not good with mobile/iPad typing. (Would not take it on the Camino).
I usually leave it with a friend in Barcelona, which I won’t be visiting til the end of the trip.
I have to post/mail my luggage from València to my hotel in Gijón this year, either Correos or DHL. Should I bring my laptop? It would be used nearly half the days of the trip and I’m not good with mobile/iPad typing. (Would not take it on the Camino). I usually leave it with a friend in Barcelona,
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- Afternoon Hours of a Hermit by Patrick Cottrell. A trans guy goes home five years after his brother's suicide. It's hard to describe but well worth the read.
This week's Wednesday Foreign Film is El vampiro negro, an Argentine noir from 1953 that was well worth watching.
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- Kiss & Tell by Adib Khorram. A fun YA about a former gay hockey player who is now a singer in a boyband, recently broken up with another ex gay hockey player and publicity dating turn real dating a member of the opening act.
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- The Case of the Murdered Muckracker by Rob Osler. I loved the first book about Harriet, but this one was disappointing. I didn't care about the mystery. If it had just been Harriet living as the first female PI and life in queer Progressive Era Chicago, I would have liked it more...
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@flanakey@aus.social I don’t feel bad about not finishing it then…