January media log
-Oh, January...!
books
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Still working through Come as You Are and Angela Chen's Ace.
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Finished the Meat route of the Homestuck Epilogues! Definitely turned a corner and started having a fucking incredible time reading this.
spoilers:
sorry for not bothering to dig up how to make details inline again, but FUCK, HOW DID NO ONE TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS WITH TEREZI????? Like, I was already hooked when Jade showed up and I was like ohh my god it's my blorbos, my girls, i love these characters so much actually??? But then out of fucking NOWHERE terezi just ARRIVES and just, whew, it really got me. I can definitely see how people went on to really hate Dirk, if only because having to return to him narrating after Calliope get's tranq'd is such a dragggg. Really looking forward to the Candy route but I'm gonna take a break to get through some other stuff, plus it's really inspiring me to get writing, so i wanna keep another blast of that feeling in the canister :P
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Finally finished Deep Wheel Orcadia! What a stunningly, unspeakably beautiful book... I guess I gotta lend my copy to someone so I can talk about it with them.
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Started Wizard of Earthsea!!! Ohhh my god I love this book so much, holy shit. I'm only through the first 3 chapters but it's all coming back to me why this series holds such a special place in my heart.
blogs n' websites
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Cohost finally had the plug pulled proper. The fact it's pretty thoroughly archived tempers the grief, but please, wobble one out with me for my favoritest final feed post.
- Satisfying three body bot post.
Really neat post from sarah zedig on how the EWL (from her godfeels fanfic) handles time.
movies & audiobooks & youtube videos
Finished the harry potters with chamber of secrets, as promised. Since we both got sick immediately, we blasted thru the audiobook for half-blood prince and order of the phoenix and we're almost done with deathly hallows. I had all of the audiobooks on cassette when I was a kid and would listen to them to fall asleep and it's actually so wild how much detail I remember from these. I'll be like "Oh when harry turns around hedwig is going to be sooo sad" and then boom, it'll happen.
Some phenomenal peak-sick-delirium i watched on the couch in the middle of the night when i couldn't sleep (from sickness) courtesy of maedotmkv: the benson tapes + commentary!
Really good video from my favorite Visual Novel Video Essayist Ameliee Doree on Saya no Uta, an absolutely wretched VN that I can't in good conscience recommend to anyone (and certainly can't talk about) unless you basically already know about it, but despite that I still played it as a high school and was quite moved and shaped by it! I'm glad Ameliee replayed it so I didn't have to, lol.
haha, shit, TATU & Rammstein End of Evangelion AMV from 18 years ago, fuck yeah 😎
I'm sorry but Defying Gravity | Synchronized Roller Coasters (Wicked/Roller Coaster Tycoon 2), lol, lmao. What can I say, this made me gasp and gave me chills, i like what i like!
Me n' the fam went to see The Brutalist (after a beautiful day of ice skating) and I didn't like it! I thought it was sloppy! Exiting the theater I said, "I think this movie might launch me into an era of being a hater." Unfortunately I am too much of a lover for this to ever truly come to pass, but that's saying something about the magnitude of my disappointment!
music!
Got to see Ada Rook and Anita Velveeta AND Snakeworld! Suuuuuuch an amazing show and so glad I was able to go so hard RESTING and RECOVERING after having covid so that I could still make it out and get my physical copy of Fallow signed and get a lil knocked around too.
Great interview + DJ set from Eris Drew and Octo Octa. Makes me want to dance and also get more involved with rave and dance stuff around here!
Had a great haul on my first trip to Free Geek after being sick. Spent the whole time testing doodads (cassette players, CD players, portable radios, audio recorders) which are honestly my favorite. Check these out:
Cassette player (B-1000EW) is a big upgrade (now that I have the deck I can give up on recording into a walkman. I'd still replace this with an older one without any recording functionality and a bit of a sturdier build quality, but this one is awwwfully cute), Asuka McDonald CD player (DE220) is a gift for Phi, and the radio (SRF-33W) looks so cool. It's got me listening to the radio!
Subpoint: Caught a nice big chunk of Drone not Drones and just, wow, drone on the radio is such a perfect beautiful mix. Really cool. Also just had a cool interaction at work today where Brian and I had our usual "what's good" exchange and he said he was going to see a band tonight (the same one that was on his shirt), and I asked about it and then I said oh! Is this that "best new bands of 2024" show? I heard about it on the radio yesterday! I liked the song of theirs they played! Isn't that incredible?
Enjoyed this lettuce leaf vs. holly bee NYE conejo beat battle (translation: second life live set from devi mccallion and another person i don't know lol)
I finally listened to Ethel Cain's Perverts and read this essay from Jacqueline Codiga. Phenomenal phenomenal phenomenal. I listened through the album at work and Eve came over and I showed her I was listening to it and she rolled her eyes and said "Oh of course this is the album you like and not her other stuff." What can I say, I love drone!
games
Got really hooked into Omori during my convalescence and played it a lot, then got bored inside the whale and needed to take a break.
During the break, I was still sick and therefore in need of more games and remembered I had Tunic on my switch, so I finally started it! Having an inordinate amount of fun, I keep telling people "Truly I am experiencing ludonarrative heights I haven't felt since like, the first time playing Shadow of the Colossus and Final Fantasy X."
And oh my god, that reminds me that we played Mario Party (the newest one) at Margie's for her Lunar New Year Party and I was talking to someone there who was a "programmer working on making a video game", so I asked him about games right and this fucking guy goes on and on and then finally reciprocates the question and I tell him I've been playing Tunic and loving it and I say that line up there in the last bullet point at which point he admits he not got first the uh, (he can't even remember) not even the first boss? And then he starts talking about how he loves AI art and I retort by asking him about David Kanaga's Oikospiel (of course he has not heard of it) and then he starts fucking talking about how he loves how Tunic made "references to other games that only True Gamers would recognize" and how he's "stealing this other guys angry birds art to use in his game and it'll be so cool because then you know, real gamers will get the reference and think it is so cool and funny." and then has the nerve to say that's what he LIKED about Tunic!!! Bitch!!! It's so good because of the way it subverts this whole nostalgia reference bullshit!!! Anyway here's this genius video essay on the subject by Sarah Zedig that I can't wait to finish once I finish Tunic!
But then I got kinda stuck on something in Tunic so went back to Omori and WOW I was steps away from one of my absolute favorite bosses so far (the Slime Girls) and then a whole huge bunch of narrative! Whew!
Also had a funny little moment with Planet Coaster. I was mega into Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 as a kid and this does kinda scratch the itch, but I wonder if I'd have more fun with RCT2?
Damn..! ...damn. Now it's the end of january...