and then I forgot to update. again.
Mar. 13th, 2025 11:25 amOn the one hand, it's great that I've been keeping up with those weekly writing updates! That's fabulous! On the other hand.... I kind of forgot to update here about literally anything else, which is... a Big Oops. On my part. Sorry about that.
...let's just dive right in.
Books and Reading: My last entry was on February 7, where I was worrying about finishing Ann Leckie's Ancillary Sword before it was due back on February 9. Well. I went to the silent reading event at the library the next day, and managed to read a very large chunk of the book before I had to leave. And then I went home and... finished reading the entire book! So that was nice. The library's ebook collection also had the last book of the trilogy, Ancillary Mercy, available, so I started reading that and finished it up on February 14!
After that, I dug into my next reading project of sorts: The Murderbot Diaries! Because of the upcoming TV show, they released omnibus editions of the novellas (and System Collapse, which is a short novel) in January. I bought the first two, which collect the four initial novellas that I've only had digitally, with some Xmas money. Since February 14, I have made my way through the entire series, finishing up System Collapse yesterday morning! I love these books so much; they're very comforting reads, in a way, and I really enjoy the characters and especially Murderbot's development as the series has gone along.
I'm not sure what I'm going to be reading next. I have tentatively pulled Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small quartet off my shelf, but I haven't started it yet. I'm playing with the idea of sticking with sci-fi for right now, or else rereading Network Effect (one of the Murderbot books). I don't know, though.
(Honestly, I really need to pull all my books out of the bookcase and reshelve them. I finally got the motivation to pull down all my Neil Gaiman books and shove them in with my Harry Potters in a crate in the hall closet, so there's some sizeable gaps that need to be filled in. But... that's a project for another day, I think.)
Various Health Updates: So The Headache That Won't Stop is still an ongoing concern. At my follow-up with my PCP on February 28, she upped the beta blocker since it hasn't really been helping my high heart rate or the Headache very much. She also called in for an MRI of my brain/head, to see if anything was amiss that might be causing the Headache. I had the MRI the following Thursday, and not twenty minutes after I got home, I got the results.
It was normal. Because of fucking course it was. My PCP's note about it was "well it's normal, have a nice day", which I do not think is... sufficient, but what do I know. I probably need to get back in with her and see if there's anything else that can be done about this. I'm just. I'm so fucking tired of being in pain or just general distress (see also: the fatigue that comes and goes that's been an ongoing problem for the last several years), and then every test comes back like there's nothing wrong. Which. Yeah, fine, but the fact that I am still having problems speaks to the fact that something is obviously wrong with me!!!! UGH. I hate this!!!
Fiber Arts: I finished Sock #1 of my First Pair of Socks project on February 18! I started Sock #2 the next day, and I just finished it this morning!! I have a pair of socks! That I made myself!! I am very pleased about this!!! I still have to weave in all the ends from the various color changes, and then wash them and block them and everything but! Socks!!!! I made them!! Whee!!!
I'm not sure what I'm going to work on next, though. I have many extant projects in both knitting and crochet, alas, but picking one is so hard! I really would like to get back into crocheting on the regular--I have a couple amigurumi projects on the go right now (a wyvern that I started last year; and a unicorn I just started recently because I was bored), as well as a whole host of other projects I've set down for one reason or another. I don't know. I'll figure something out, certainly.
Fun Distractions of Various Types: On February 10, I did something I haven't done in a while: I sat down and watched an episode of a fictional TV show. The show in question was CBS's Sherlock Holmes procedural Elementary, which I had watched the first season (and some of the second) while it was still on the air, and have always intended to sit down and finish someday. By February 17, I had finished the first season, and by the 20th I made it halfway through Season 2 before life started getting in the way. (Life in this case consists of various responsibilities and other activites--looking after my nieces when they're over, watching figure skating with my mother (which I do enjoy, it just takes a LOT of time), working on my writing, reading books, and so on.) So I haven't been watching the show at such a fast clip the last few weeks. But I'm hoping I can maybe get back into it once the figure skating seasons ends, maybe? (Worlds are the last weekend of March.) It was honestly really nice, just sitting down and letting myself be absorbed by a show. I haven't done that in literal years, maybe almost a decade? (If you don't count last year's attempt to watch all of New Who, which honestly never reached binge-ish levels.) So it was a nice feeling. :)
I mentioned last update entry that my brother had bought me a video game (Portion Craft: Alchemist Simulator) that I had promptly become obsessed with. I managed to complete all the quests in the Easy mode game I was playing, which was very satisfying! I started a regular difficulty game not long after, but then I got absorbed by watching Elementary and fell off playing video games altogether. But on February 23, I noticed that Spiritfarer (a game I have hugely enjoyed playing on my Switch) was on sale on the Steam store. So... I bought it, and I have been playing it almost daily ever since. It's been fun, though some of the controls are a little difficult at times. It's a fun game, and I really enjoy the gameplay loop. I'm almost done with my first save file.
I also did something I haven't done in a while on this past Tuesday: I went to the movies! I saw Mickey 17, the new sci-fi film from director Bong Joon-ho, starring Robert Pattinson. I quite enjoyed it! Though it wasn't as outright funny as the trailers made it seem, it was still rather delightful, and the satirical elements were top-notch. I also really liked the creature designs; they were very cool-looking. And Pattinson was amazing in his dual roles; I've enjoyed watching his career trajectory after the Twilight movies, and this was another great performance from him. But yeah. I went to the movies! I had a good time!! I need to do this more often, but there are so rarely films I actually want to see coming out...
I think that's about everything that I've been up to? More or less? Thank you all for reading this novel of a post.
Hope you all are doing well, as ever. Best wishes to you all. :)
...let's just dive right in.
Books and Reading: My last entry was on February 7, where I was worrying about finishing Ann Leckie's Ancillary Sword before it was due back on February 9. Well. I went to the silent reading event at the library the next day, and managed to read a very large chunk of the book before I had to leave. And then I went home and... finished reading the entire book! So that was nice. The library's ebook collection also had the last book of the trilogy, Ancillary Mercy, available, so I started reading that and finished it up on February 14!
After that, I dug into my next reading project of sorts: The Murderbot Diaries! Because of the upcoming TV show, they released omnibus editions of the novellas (and System Collapse, which is a short novel) in January. I bought the first two, which collect the four initial novellas that I've only had digitally, with some Xmas money. Since February 14, I have made my way through the entire series, finishing up System Collapse yesterday morning! I love these books so much; they're very comforting reads, in a way, and I really enjoy the characters and especially Murderbot's development as the series has gone along.
I'm not sure what I'm going to be reading next. I have tentatively pulled Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small quartet off my shelf, but I haven't started it yet. I'm playing with the idea of sticking with sci-fi for right now, or else rereading Network Effect (one of the Murderbot books). I don't know, though.
(Honestly, I really need to pull all my books out of the bookcase and reshelve them. I finally got the motivation to pull down all my Neil Gaiman books and shove them in with my Harry Potters in a crate in the hall closet, so there's some sizeable gaps that need to be filled in. But... that's a project for another day, I think.)
Various Health Updates: So The Headache That Won't Stop is still an ongoing concern. At my follow-up with my PCP on February 28, she upped the beta blocker since it hasn't really been helping my high heart rate or the Headache very much. She also called in for an MRI of my brain/head, to see if anything was amiss that might be causing the Headache. I had the MRI the following Thursday, and not twenty minutes after I got home, I got the results.
It was normal. Because of fucking course it was. My PCP's note about it was "well it's normal, have a nice day", which I do not think is... sufficient, but what do I know. I probably need to get back in with her and see if there's anything else that can be done about this. I'm just. I'm so fucking tired of being in pain or just general distress (see also: the fatigue that comes and goes that's been an ongoing problem for the last several years), and then every test comes back like there's nothing wrong. Which. Yeah, fine, but the fact that I am still having problems speaks to the fact that something is obviously wrong with me!!!! UGH. I hate this!!!
Fiber Arts: I finished Sock #1 of my First Pair of Socks project on February 18! I started Sock #2 the next day, and I just finished it this morning!! I have a pair of socks! That I made myself!! I am very pleased about this!!! I still have to weave in all the ends from the various color changes, and then wash them and block them and everything but! Socks!!!! I made them!! Whee!!!
I'm not sure what I'm going to work on next, though. I have many extant projects in both knitting and crochet, alas, but picking one is so hard! I really would like to get back into crocheting on the regular--I have a couple amigurumi projects on the go right now (a wyvern that I started last year; and a unicorn I just started recently because I was bored), as well as a whole host of other projects I've set down for one reason or another. I don't know. I'll figure something out, certainly.
Fun Distractions of Various Types: On February 10, I did something I haven't done in a while: I sat down and watched an episode of a fictional TV show. The show in question was CBS's Sherlock Holmes procedural Elementary, which I had watched the first season (and some of the second) while it was still on the air, and have always intended to sit down and finish someday. By February 17, I had finished the first season, and by the 20th I made it halfway through Season 2 before life started getting in the way. (Life in this case consists of various responsibilities and other activites--looking after my nieces when they're over, watching figure skating with my mother (which I do enjoy, it just takes a LOT of time), working on my writing, reading books, and so on.) So I haven't been watching the show at such a fast clip the last few weeks. But I'm hoping I can maybe get back into it once the figure skating seasons ends, maybe? (Worlds are the last weekend of March.) It was honestly really nice, just sitting down and letting myself be absorbed by a show. I haven't done that in literal years, maybe almost a decade? (If you don't count last year's attempt to watch all of New Who, which honestly never reached binge-ish levels.) So it was a nice feeling. :)
I mentioned last update entry that my brother had bought me a video game (Portion Craft: Alchemist Simulator) that I had promptly become obsessed with. I managed to complete all the quests in the Easy mode game I was playing, which was very satisfying! I started a regular difficulty game not long after, but then I got absorbed by watching Elementary and fell off playing video games altogether. But on February 23, I noticed that Spiritfarer (a game I have hugely enjoyed playing on my Switch) was on sale on the Steam store. So... I bought it, and I have been playing it almost daily ever since. It's been fun, though some of the controls are a little difficult at times. It's a fun game, and I really enjoy the gameplay loop. I'm almost done with my first save file.
I also did something I haven't done in a while on this past Tuesday: I went to the movies! I saw Mickey 17, the new sci-fi film from director Bong Joon-ho, starring Robert Pattinson. I quite enjoyed it! Though it wasn't as outright funny as the trailers made it seem, it was still rather delightful, and the satirical elements were top-notch. I also really liked the creature designs; they were very cool-looking. And Pattinson was amazing in his dual roles; I've enjoyed watching his career trajectory after the Twilight movies, and this was another great performance from him. But yeah. I went to the movies! I had a good time!! I need to do this more often, but there are so rarely films I actually want to see coming out...
I think that's about everything that I've been up to? More or less? Thank you all for reading this novel of a post.
Hope you all are doing well, as ever. Best wishes to you all. :)