skye_writer: Cropped cap of Amelie in a movie theater from the film Amelie. (watching movies)
On 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. :)
skye_writer: The TARDIS from Doctor Who, a bright blue police box, stands in a garden of yellows and greens. (tardis)
Note: this review is a little all over the place. I tried to cover the important stuff. Please let me know if this comes off as self-centered or whatever. Please.

Something is wrong in the city of Finetime. People are going missing, but the disappearances aren't really noticed. Lindy Pepper-Bean hasn't noticed, and it's only when she's contacted by the Doctor and Ruby Sunday that she begins to peek outside her bubble and find out what's really going on. Slug-like creatures are eating the people of Finetime, and it's up to the Doctor and Ruby to get as many people out as they can before the entire populace is devoured.

SPOILERS, as usual; also discussion of my white cluelessness )
skye_writer: The TARDIS from Doctor Who, a bright blue police box, stands in a garden of yellows and greens. (tardis)
This season's third episode marks writer Steven Moffat's return to Doctor Who, his first episode since 2017's "Twice Upon a Time." The Doctor and Ruby land on the war-torn planet of Kastarion 3, where the Doctor runs right into trouble: he has stepped on a landmine, and he cannot move without everything going BOOM.

SPOILERS ABOUND, as usual )
skye_writer: The TARDIS from Doctor Who, a bright blue police box, stands in a garden of yellows and greens. (tardis)
The second episode of this season's double premiere, "The Devil's Chord" follows the Doctor and Ruby Sunday to 1963 as they go to watch the Beatles record their first album. But something has gone wrong with music, and the pair soon find themselves in a fight for the universe against the mysterious Maestro.

SPOILERS ABOUND, as usual. )
skye_writer: The TARDIS from Doctor Who, a bright blue police box, stands in a garden of yellows and greens. (tardis)
After a quartet of specials last year to ring in Russell T Davies' second term as showrunner, Doctor Who has returned for a regular season at last! With Ncuti Gatwa helming the TARDIS as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson joining him as companion Ruby Sunday, Season 1 (or as I like to think of it, Series 14) got started last weekend with a double premiere, the first episode of which was "Space Babies."

BE YE WARNED: SPOILERS ABOUND )
skye_writer: Edited cap of Rey from Star Wars, looking determined. (reydiant)
Some things, as always:

- I finished the cat cross-stitch for my SIL! Here is a link to a picture on Reddit! I am so glad to be done with it, because at least now that means I can focus on the Rivendell for my brother.

- Regarding the Rivendell cross-stitch: I am hoping to at least finish the second page, and maybe a bit of the third, by Christmas. I have no delusions that it’s going to be done in two and a half weeks. I am hoping, however, to get it finished by maybe the end of March next year? Here’s hoping, anyway.

- Other than cross-stitch, I feel like I haven’t been doing a whole lot? I started a book from the library (A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness) that I’m probably going to have to renew because it’s 600 pages long and I don’t think I’ve cracked page 100 yet. It’s not that it’s particularly dense or anything like that; it’s just that I can’t seem to concentrate on reading for long stretches like I used to. I’m fascinated by the world of the story, and kind of fascinated by the human (well, witch) and vampire romance that seems to be brewing. I haven’t read a lot of vampire romance books, outside of Twilight (which was mostly to see what the fuss was about and later just for the sheer wtf-ery of it all). But it’s interesting to see how Harkness handles it, though I think it helps that the characters at the center of the romance are on par with each other power-wise, as opposed to being utterly mismatched (which is to say, one person has all the power, while the other can only hope that person doesn’t overstep their bounds).

- I also watched the first episode of The Mandalorian on Disney Plus. There were things I liked and things I disliked, but the former outweighed the latter, so that’s nice. I will have to fit the next episodes into my life somehow or another. I had a good opportunity the last couple days with my dad out of town (and thus not blasting the volume on the living room TV), but didn’t take advantage. Anyway, things I loved: the MUSIC, for one. I like that the world of Star Wars is being expanded just a little bit. I like that everyone seems to have their own motivations, good or bad. (Like, at one point the Mandalorian is assisted in getting to his bounty by a person who just wants the bounty gone, because its presence near his home is disrupting his way of life and he doesn’t like it. He has no dog in the fight either way, he just wants the Mandalorian to solve his problem by collecting the bounty quarry.) I love the creature/alien/droid designs. Just great design all around. I really like the IG bounty droid towards the end of the episode. The way he MOVED was amazing—just utterly strange and alien and awesome. And, of course, Baby Yoda/the Child is very cute.

- Speaking of Star Wars, I can’t believe Rise of Skywalker comes out in two weeks. I am probably going to wait to see it until my brother and SIL are here, and maybe we can all go as a family or something? I don’t know. I’m excited and hoping desperately that JJ Abrams didn’t fuck up the finale. (Still, as I keep reminding myself, at least it wasn’t Colin Trevorrow. Thank GOD.) I did see the press roundtable or whatever where Oscar Isaac was talking about his disappointment that FinnPoe didn’t happen and... well. I’m not surprised, to be honest; Disney wants to hold on to their “squeaky clean” image, even though that image is horribly exclusive so they don’t piss off certain (white, Christian, conservative) sections of the moviegoing population. And at least nobody’s queerbaiting by saying “well why don’t you just watch and find out if they get together ;)”. It’s still sad, though.

- Tbh the only thing I don’t want to see in TRoS is Reylo. The only way I can see that happening is if Kylo does something truly monumental to redeem himself, and to be honest, I feel like the only redemption available to him now is him sacrificing himself to save everyone else. He has made so many choices, and most of them have taken him down the path of self-service and empowering himself, not helping others. I guess I get why people ship it (hero x villain ships have always been popular), but... like... what part of Rey literally closing the door in his face in TLJ was unclear? Rey was only interested in him because she thought she could turn him. Given his actions in the throne room, I don’t think she believes that anymore. (Also, I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t think telling someone “oh you’re nobody but with me you could be somebody” is all that attractive? Like. No? I don’t think so? If you can’t accept me at my scavenger nobody, you don’t deserve me at my Jedi queen?)

- Okay, I guess I have a lot of Star Wars feelings. So that’s a thing. (Other things I DNW: Kylo turning good, while Rey turns evil. No. // Rey turning out to be related to someone important. That is a huge no, the whole POINT of her character is that she’s unconnected with the Skywalker family and all their drama.)

- A N Y W A Y.

- Enough about Star Wars. Other things I have been doing include watching a Breath of the Wild LP on YouTube. The guy playing it has gotten through the story and at this point the LP is a Collect All The Things quest, which is fine. Eventually I’ll get to the DLC parts, which will be interesting because I haven’t seen the DLC yet. In a related story, I know there isn’t going to be any news about BotW 2 until probably E3 next year, but I’m still so excited about that. :D

- Other video games stuff: Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes out in like three and a half months now!!! I need to start paying down more of my preorder (I’ve got $30 down on it already, so). Cannot wait for more information on that, though there were some screencaps that came out from a Nintendo of Mexico meeting that look really neat. // Stardew Valley 1.4 continues to be fun. The only new content I’ve really gotten to at this point is the fish ponds, but that’s fine. I’ve already thoroughly spoiled myself on the new stuff, and I can’t wait to get to it all. :)

At any rate... that’s basically what I’ve been up to? Hope you all are doing well, as ever.
skye_writer: Cropped cap of River Song from Doctor Who, aiming her blaster to the right edge of the icon. (bang)
Kitten update: he's still adorable. We gave him a bath yesterday, and he put up with it fairly well. He did try to get away a couple times, but other than that, there wasn't any crying or clawing, so that's a win in my book. He is exceptionally playful now, and he loves to get in the way when I'm trying to do something in here. But that's how it is with youngsters, so I don't begrudge him.

Other updates:

- I am slowly but surely making my way through the Good Omens TV show. I've watched the first two episodes, and half of the third (up to the opening credits). I would have watched the rest of ep3, but my internet decided to crap out and I couldn't get it to work again. That said, I am deeply enjoying the series. It reminds me a lot of Pushing Daisies, which I absolutely adore, so that's about a million points in its favor. And it's just... delightful. Can't wait to get to the end of it. And maybe reread the book at some point, too.

- After a week and a half of fits and starts, I'm writing again. On a random story idea I've had for a while, but that I wasn't planning to touch at all at any point this year. At this juncture I"m just writing whatever strikes my fancy, and so it's pretty plotless, but I don't care, so long as I'm getting words down. It's a werewolf story with a female lead, though I'm trying to avoid a lot of the female werewolf tropes I've seen before in fiction (mainly that female werewolves are... b*tches because being a werewolf means (for whatever dumb reason) that you can't have kids, and then also mean because they don't enter into the leadership of the pack and just dumb patriarchal stuff like that). So I'm playing with a lot of ideas and stuff, and just writing whatever works for me at the time.

But hey: it's words. That's all that matters.

- I need to start reading again. I finished the library book I'd been reading, The Radium Girls, which was an excellent if harrowing read. So I'd like to get back into Priory of the Orange Tree, but I just... haven't been reading? So maybe I need to whet my palate with something I've read before. I might pull a Pratchett or a McKinley off my shelf and read that, just to get back in the groove of it.

- Also need to get back into doing cross-stitch (which was on hold because I'd been doing at my desk in the spare bedroom, which is now a Bad Idea because Kitten) or crochet or knitting. Just. Making something with my hands. I've been playing too many video games, it seems like. Need to make something for a change.

- In the non-interior realm, Nintendo announced the Switch Lite yesterday. It's basically a handheld-only Switch, which after some reflection I don't have a problem with? I don't play a lot on my WiiU anymore; I'm mostly sticking with my 3DS. I don't want to get a full-on Switch and then let it gather dust because it's too many steps to turn it on (thanks, executive dysfunction). So I think this handheld unit will serve me just fine. (I will say, though, reading the comments on an article about it was both amusing and frustrating. As someone pointed out, if you're asking "who is this for", it's obviously not meant for you, so shut up.) That said, I wish we knew at this point whether or not Animal Crossing: New Horizons is going to have handheld mode. I'm guessing yes, given that it's probably going to be their flagship release for next spring, but... it'd be nice to know before I got one and found out I need to buy something else in order to play ACNH.

- Garden update: My squash plants (the zucchini and the pumpkin) fell victim to squash bugs YET AGAIN this year. We got several good sized zukes off the zucchini plant, though, and a couple of smallish pumpkins, so it's not a total pointless loss, but STILL. STILL. I was so upset when I found squash bug eggs on the pumpkin last week. And then on the zucchini. I'm not surprised about the pumpkin, given how its vines were going everywhere, but I'd really been hoping that, with the stilts for the planters my dad made, the zucchini could avoid that plague this year. But I guess not. At least the tomatoes are still doing okay. I've got enough off them to make tomato sauce this weekend.

...Can't think of much else going on. Hope you're all doing well, of course. Best wishes and all that.
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