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Yet Another General Life Update
Time for another general life update! My current plan seems to be updating DW once a week and alternating between general updates and work-specific updates, which I realize will make it appear I am not keeping my update schedule to people who aren't logged in, since the work updates are subscriber-locked, but that's fine. Holding myself to a standard with quantity of updates is for me more than it's for any of you.
I suppose I will keep doing these like a best-of reel, by subjects, because that is a hell of a lot more interesting than trying to remember what I did day by day for the past fourteen days. And I have had a pretty good two weeks!
Blood Drive: I gave blood! I never have before because you need to weigh 110 pounds and have an iron count higher than 12.5 for my age bracket and I have always failed to achieve one or both of these things. But I finally gained a little weight and started taking iron pills and my count was a clearly very impressive and barely acceptable 12.6 so the nice phlebotomists were able to accept my blood. I did this 10% because I am a Good Person and wanted to make the little old man (who I'm fond of) who organizes the drive happy, 90% because writing research.
Hilariously, I was really nervous the entire time I was doing the intake form and the initial medical screening but as soon as they determined I was healthy enough to give blood, I 100% chilled out and was totally relaxed. I used to have my blood count tested once a week, for like three years, getting stuck with a needle is NOTHING. It was just the fear of being rejected which was very upsetting, lol. I'm glad I did it but afterward my body very insistently wanted red meat, specifically kbbq, and I was so sad I had no one to get kbbq with.
Hot Pot Birthday: My sister's birthday was on Wednesday, February 6th -- hilariously, the same day I gave blood. So I came to visit dad for the weekend to see her and so we could go out for hot pot birthday dinner with my cousin Steve. It was nice seeing my sister -- we also went shoe shopping and poked around dad's local mall to see what had changed over the years -- and eating soooooo much delicious meat, I love! hotpot!! Also I'm p sure my body was extra happy about all that iron after relinquishing a whole bag of my blood.
Driving: I drove with dad on Saturday and then drove myself home from his house Sunday morning, but didn't practice parking at all. I still need to do my six hours with an instructor and after having to cancel because of weather, I keep dragging my feet about trying to schedule a new appointment. After the first school going bankrupt on me I'm just... Super paranoid this school will also vanish into the ether, which I recognize is stupid but it being stupid and irrational doesn't make me less FEAR. Please I just need to do these stupid lessons so I can take the licensing exam. Please, self, fucking get with it.
Games: I apparently quit my new taptap game! I haven't started missing having a taptap again yet but that one lasted only... A month, I really need the hypmic game to come out already. There are a couple Japanese rhythm games which I think are actively slated for first quarter release, though, so if those come out in a month or two I'll have yet another new shiny thing to get bored of within four weeks! Yay!
I have no idea why I'm like this. I just reeeeeally like rhythm games and when I played love live I enjoyed the regularity of having this task I did a little bit every day and where by doing that, I and my account slowly got better and better. But these days I resent mobile games for requiring so much of your time and I don't stick with them. I'm really curious to see if the hypmic game will ACTUALLY grab me, or if release will take too long and my feelings about hypmic will have cooled and that won't be enough to keep me interested. Eventually, we will even find out!
In other gaming news, I started playing Disgaea for switch! Goddddd I have missed this game, I love Nippon Ichi sooooo much as a company but also lmao I sure did forget how grindy this game is. Like... I knew, but I feel like when I first played, I didn't have to grind in the very beginning? This time I had to power through some repeat stages just to get my characters' levels up. On the other hand, I think it only feels weird because I'm chomping at the bit to fall into the item world for five million years and my characters are TOO WEAK for that to really be fun just yet. Grinding by repeating story stages is boring let me grind in the dungeon for fun already!!!
But I could write an entire journal entry about how much I love disgaea and about all the fiddly mechanics no one else gives a shit about, so I will cut myself off here.
Media: I want to watch Russian Doll, but haven't yet. I haven't been in the mood for a show with the kind of tone and atmosphere it seems to have, but I feel very strongly that as soon as I am, I'll really love it. Instead, I started watching One Day at a Time, a sitcom about a Cuban family with a lesbian (or at least definitely not straight) daughter, which is all the information I was originally presented about it.
I'm really enjoying it? I was disoriented at first because it is A SITUATIONAL COMEDY in the full traditional "has a laugh track for the jokes" sense and I never watch shows like that so it was suuuuper jarring. But the more I watched the more that stuff faded into the background and thank god, because otherwise it's such a cute and heartwarming show. Parts of it made me genuinely teary and it's sooooo nice to watch something about a young person figuring out their sexuality, I'm so glad this is a thing that exists and which baby teens can also watch and enjoy. The world is a shitshow but at least we're creating so much media of the kind baby teen me thought would never be mainstream. That, at least, makes me super happy.
Meanwhile, I haven't been reading comics these two weeks but I have still been reading a lot of fiction. I finished Pachinko, which was EXCELLENT, and began reading Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer. It's such an INTERESTING book but definitely something I would say is an acquired taste, I struggled a lot as I was beginning it to decide if I actually LIKED it or just needed to know why the book was the way that it is. It's set in the 2400s on earth but written in the style of a 18th century novel, with that specific kind of first person narrative that addresses the reader directly. My impression is that for all that the narrator presents a lot of things to you as facts, its all deeply, deeply colored by his personal biases and perceptions. He often tells the reader what he "knows" the reader is thinking, putting thoughts and biases into your mouth whether or not you'd agree with them.
My impression is that this is meant to be subtly uncomfortable, especially since there has been one single chapter from a different POV character who was a lot more rational and objective and not infatuated with the 18th century narration format and it did feel designed to serve as a contrast to the primary narrator of the book. So it's really INTERESTING to me what the author is doing with the juxtaposition of the subject matter and the style in which that information is conveyed to you, but I get the sense that for all the people who will LOVE the way the book is designed, there are others who would hate it too much to read it.
I recced it accidentally to a friend who got SUPER excited for everything about it, though, and I'm glad I found the book such a perfect audience -- and an audience who will be able to talk with me about it!
Conventions: Ah, a preemptive catch-all for katsucon! I'm all packed and will be driving down with Samy and Em later today and joined by Yrin and June later this evening and I am SUPER PUMPED for a good weekend with friends. I don't have any real set plans besides PLAY JUBEAT but there are sooooo many people I'm looking forward to see, it is going to be a good time.
Annnnnnd that's probably everything? I've been keeping busy and mostly I've felt good, these past two weeks. I don't really believe in new year's resolutions because I feel like most people create challenges for themselves that are too tall an order to be fulfilled and then you just feel BAD instead of accomplishing anything, but. If anything, I'm trying to get into good self-care habits this year. And I mean real self-care, making yourself do things that might be hard for you and which you wish you didn't have to do, but which will make you feel better if you stick with it.
I am the sort of person who has very strong willpower and determination but where, if I can rationalize something to myself, I will very confidently do so much self indulgent bullshit. Some of it is fine -- I spend money on almost every mobile game I play and I import a kind of alarming number of doujinshi -- because even if it's the kind of stuff other people might have trouble controlling, I know I am doing it within limits and that I never spend money I cannot afford to put towards fun things. But I realize I cannot only rely on retail therapy to make myself happy. I need to give myself good food and enough sleep and take good care of my surroundings, and if I just... maintain a baseline level of executive functioning, I'll feel good about things.
I'm doing my best as a human creature. Maybe it's even working.
I suppose I will keep doing these like a best-of reel, by subjects, because that is a hell of a lot more interesting than trying to remember what I did day by day for the past fourteen days. And I have had a pretty good two weeks!
Blood Drive: I gave blood! I never have before because you need to weigh 110 pounds and have an iron count higher than 12.5 for my age bracket and I have always failed to achieve one or both of these things. But I finally gained a little weight and started taking iron pills and my count was a clearly very impressive and barely acceptable 12.6 so the nice phlebotomists were able to accept my blood. I did this 10% because I am a Good Person and wanted to make the little old man (who I'm fond of) who organizes the drive happy, 90% because writing research.
Hilariously, I was really nervous the entire time I was doing the intake form and the initial medical screening but as soon as they determined I was healthy enough to give blood, I 100% chilled out and was totally relaxed. I used to have my blood count tested once a week, for like three years, getting stuck with a needle is NOTHING. It was just the fear of being rejected which was very upsetting, lol. I'm glad I did it but afterward my body very insistently wanted red meat, specifically kbbq, and I was so sad I had no one to get kbbq with.
Hot Pot Birthday: My sister's birthday was on Wednesday, February 6th -- hilariously, the same day I gave blood. So I came to visit dad for the weekend to see her and so we could go out for hot pot birthday dinner with my cousin Steve. It was nice seeing my sister -- we also went shoe shopping and poked around dad's local mall to see what had changed over the years -- and eating soooooo much delicious meat, I love! hotpot!! Also I'm p sure my body was extra happy about all that iron after relinquishing a whole bag of my blood.
Driving: I drove with dad on Saturday and then drove myself home from his house Sunday morning, but didn't practice parking at all. I still need to do my six hours with an instructor and after having to cancel because of weather, I keep dragging my feet about trying to schedule a new appointment. After the first school going bankrupt on me I'm just... Super paranoid this school will also vanish into the ether, which I recognize is stupid but it being stupid and irrational doesn't make me less FEAR. Please I just need to do these stupid lessons so I can take the licensing exam. Please, self, fucking get with it.
Games: I apparently quit my new taptap game! I haven't started missing having a taptap again yet but that one lasted only... A month, I really need the hypmic game to come out already. There are a couple Japanese rhythm games which I think are actively slated for first quarter release, though, so if those come out in a month or two I'll have yet another new shiny thing to get bored of within four weeks! Yay!
I have no idea why I'm like this. I just reeeeeally like rhythm games and when I played love live I enjoyed the regularity of having this task I did a little bit every day and where by doing that, I and my account slowly got better and better. But these days I resent mobile games for requiring so much of your time and I don't stick with them. I'm really curious to see if the hypmic game will ACTUALLY grab me, or if release will take too long and my feelings about hypmic will have cooled and that won't be enough to keep me interested. Eventually, we will even find out!
In other gaming news, I started playing Disgaea for switch! Goddddd I have missed this game, I love Nippon Ichi sooooo much as a company but also lmao I sure did forget how grindy this game is. Like... I knew, but I feel like when I first played, I didn't have to grind in the very beginning? This time I had to power through some repeat stages just to get my characters' levels up. On the other hand, I think it only feels weird because I'm chomping at the bit to fall into the item world for five million years and my characters are TOO WEAK for that to really be fun just yet. Grinding by repeating story stages is boring let me grind in the dungeon for fun already!!!
But I could write an entire journal entry about how much I love disgaea and about all the fiddly mechanics no one else gives a shit about, so I will cut myself off here.
Media: I want to watch Russian Doll, but haven't yet. I haven't been in the mood for a show with the kind of tone and atmosphere it seems to have, but I feel very strongly that as soon as I am, I'll really love it. Instead, I started watching One Day at a Time, a sitcom about a Cuban family with a lesbian (or at least definitely not straight) daughter, which is all the information I was originally presented about it.
I'm really enjoying it? I was disoriented at first because it is A SITUATIONAL COMEDY in the full traditional "has a laugh track for the jokes" sense and I never watch shows like that so it was suuuuper jarring. But the more I watched the more that stuff faded into the background and thank god, because otherwise it's such a cute and heartwarming show. Parts of it made me genuinely teary and it's sooooo nice to watch something about a young person figuring out their sexuality, I'm so glad this is a thing that exists and which baby teens can also watch and enjoy. The world is a shitshow but at least we're creating so much media of the kind baby teen me thought would never be mainstream. That, at least, makes me super happy.
Meanwhile, I haven't been reading comics these two weeks but I have still been reading a lot of fiction. I finished Pachinko, which was EXCELLENT, and began reading Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer. It's such an INTERESTING book but definitely something I would say is an acquired taste, I struggled a lot as I was beginning it to decide if I actually LIKED it or just needed to know why the book was the way that it is. It's set in the 2400s on earth but written in the style of a 18th century novel, with that specific kind of first person narrative that addresses the reader directly. My impression is that for all that the narrator presents a lot of things to you as facts, its all deeply, deeply colored by his personal biases and perceptions. He often tells the reader what he "knows" the reader is thinking, putting thoughts and biases into your mouth whether or not you'd agree with them.
My impression is that this is meant to be subtly uncomfortable, especially since there has been one single chapter from a different POV character who was a lot more rational and objective and not infatuated with the 18th century narration format and it did feel designed to serve as a contrast to the primary narrator of the book. So it's really INTERESTING to me what the author is doing with the juxtaposition of the subject matter and the style in which that information is conveyed to you, but I get the sense that for all the people who will LOVE the way the book is designed, there are others who would hate it too much to read it.
I recced it accidentally to a friend who got SUPER excited for everything about it, though, and I'm glad I found the book such a perfect audience -- and an audience who will be able to talk with me about it!
Conventions: Ah, a preemptive catch-all for katsucon! I'm all packed and will be driving down with Samy and Em later today and joined by Yrin and June later this evening and I am SUPER PUMPED for a good weekend with friends. I don't have any real set plans besides PLAY JUBEAT but there are sooooo many people I'm looking forward to see, it is going to be a good time.
Annnnnnd that's probably everything? I've been keeping busy and mostly I've felt good, these past two weeks. I don't really believe in new year's resolutions because I feel like most people create challenges for themselves that are too tall an order to be fulfilled and then you just feel BAD instead of accomplishing anything, but. If anything, I'm trying to get into good self-care habits this year. And I mean real self-care, making yourself do things that might be hard for you and which you wish you didn't have to do, but which will make you feel better if you stick with it.
I am the sort of person who has very strong willpower and determination but where, if I can rationalize something to myself, I will very confidently do so much self indulgent bullshit. Some of it is fine -- I spend money on almost every mobile game I play and I import a kind of alarming number of doujinshi -- because even if it's the kind of stuff other people might have trouble controlling, I know I am doing it within limits and that I never spend money I cannot afford to put towards fun things. But I realize I cannot only rely on retail therapy to make myself happy. I need to give myself good food and enough sleep and take good care of my surroundings, and if I just... maintain a baseline level of executive functioning, I'll feel good about things.
I'm doing my best as a human creature. Maybe it's even working.