Reading

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Thank you very much for the well wishes on the previous post. I'm still a mess, but we're persevering! I'm supposed to be released for work on the 10th, but I don't think I'll actually be starting back until the 15th. Which is good, because I'm going through hella withdrawals from duloxetine. XD;;

I somehow read six books over the month of May! The Sworn Soldier series by T. Kingfisher (What Moves the Dead, What Feasts at Night, and What Stalks the Deep) started out very strong, but the third wasn't quite my jam.

We Are Always Tender With Our Dead by Eric LaRocca was a surprise! I decided to read this after the author gathered up bad reviews and used them as testimonials. What a weird, quietly horrific, ride. I devoured it; I haven't read like this in years. ] I'm looking forward to the sequel, even though I'm not entirely sure why. I'm not attached to any of these characters but the actions they take are awful and fascinating, and I'm really interested in seeing where this goes.

They Fear Not Men in the Woods by Gretchen McNeil was a book I'd read no reviews for, just picked it out because of the title, cover, and because I love natural horror. This was so good with a surprise queer relationship that I loved. It was a little slow to start and I think there were a few more characters than there needed to be (but we must have cannon fodder!), but I ended up loving this.

Down by Ally Bloom was very enjoyable....except the main romance. XD; I don't actually have a ton of tolerance for romance in books, but I didn't realize that until I started reading this book. I found myself incredibly frustrated with the two main dudes; all of the side characters were far more interesting. But it was still a good ride. :)

I've signed up for Art Fight! for the first time! I need to get all of my OCs in order! I need to create character references! I'm very excited to participate. :3 I have at least four WH40k OCs but I'm sure I can come up with more OCs in different fandoms/original work to add. :D Oh, Yesun Gesi, my warrior of light! I'm frantically drawing reference pictures and this has been so helpful in figuring out color schemes, weapon loadouts, and armor details. OH MY ROGUE TRADER! :D

Anyways, I have so many things to draw, I can't wait. :D

EDIT: I wrote everything above a couple of days ago, so now I am continuing from TODAY. I really need to start dating when I start writing a post, because the post will be open for days and I'll add onto it but sometimes that messes up context and shit. ANYWAYS. I have talked to my boss, they are VERY EXCITED to have me back (yay!), and I'm going down to four days a week. Prozac causes a bit of mania and also DREAMS, which I HATE, I haven't dreamt since becoming a habitual weed smoker and I LIKE IT THAT WAY. So I'm going to switch to taking in the morning and see if that helps.

cypher and I watched Mortal Kombat (2021), they for the first time, and you know what? I liked it much better this go-round. I freaking love the actors for Sonya, Jax, and Kano, and OH MY GOD LIU KANG IS ADORABLE??? Anyways. Still eagerly awaiting MK2 (which I just looked up and is available for streaming! when I get my first check, we're having a living room date night!). I'm just really proud that we managed to sit down and watch something! That was my first movie since last May. Of 2025. And much longer for Will! Kinda proud it was Mortal Kombat that broke that streak for us. XD

Made cherry pie today! Much more successful with a few changes over the apple pie. Glad I didn't put the recommended amount of sugar for the stewed cherries though, I would've have died of sweetness lmao

One of my cousins and her father have stopped by today. They've got business in the area, so they're only sleeping over.

I don't want to wake up for 4am BA Open Run tomorrow... It's already 11pm and I need to do an hour more of coding. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that my body will try...

... I keep grappling with the idea of getting more mutuals vs interacting with whoever on DW to fulfil my social needs. ( Read more... )

Unrelated, but I've played a bit of The Farmer Was Replaced! It's been fun, and my (minimal) previous coding language knowledge has helped quite a bit!

Community Thursday challenge: every Thursday, try to make an effort to engage with a community on Dreamwidth, whether that's posting, commenting, promoting, etc.

---

Over the last week...

Commented on common_nature (birbs!)

Signal boost:

• Via dw_community_promo - Folks are looking to start doing The Artist's Way together over at theartistsway, hop over and comment if you'd be interested in joining! Expected start on June 28th.

By 'kin', I mean incorporate them into my personality/style. So far, I have Kurusu Akira / Amamiya Ren (P5), Wei Wuxian (MDZS), Venti and Alhaitham (GI), Yu Junghyeok (ORV), and Shadow the Hedgehog (StH).

Maybe the problem is that I like women from non-fixation sources and thus don't think of them much? Or that I end up attracted to them before I can see myself as them? With the male examples, I'd say I identify with them more than I am attracted to them, whereas I'm quick to fawn over female characters with hearts in my eyes... Of course, internalised misogyny or unfavourable female character tropes could also affect it.

If I had to say I identify with specific female characters, they'd be Y'shtola Rhul and Sadu Dotharl (GNC rep my goat) (FFXIV), Fu Xuan (HSR), Koga Mitsuki and Oosawa Aya (TGSWIIWAGAA), Arasilla Hugo (V&V), Wren Tala (AIIY)... uh IDK who else.

"But Zav, Y'shtola and Sadu are from your current main fixation!" Yeah, but I'm weirdly not that type of invested in the characters, if you know what I mean? Like, I'm as much a G'raha fan as the next guy, but I'm not thinking about him all the time or whatever. The fanworks aren't as addictive for me, I guess? Unlike how I got dragged full-force into Genshin's fanworks, emphasising any and all loves and hates I had. My love of FFXIV strongly revolves around the experience as a whole. Same kinda goes for HSR, honestly.

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Yesterday was Laila's birthday party, and sashagee had decided long ago that she was going to give Laila a roller skating party since Laila had been asking about roller skating for a while. The only problem is that there are no roller rinks at all on the north side, but she did manage to find one--Martin Luther King Jr. Entertainment Center on 76th street. So sashagee sent out invitations, a couple of her classmates responded (not as many as we were hoping for bit a few), and we drove out there with Papa and Nana at around 11:30 a.m.

Laila had a good time! She got to see her Uncle theshortlifeofaman--and, more importantly, get her plush Foxy back after Foxy spent a long time away on a world trip and a rejuvenating spa session (aka, we can't find the original plush but theshortlifeofaman found another one on sale somewhere)--and theshortlifeofaman's girlfriend omfg_its_chels, who's an atual roller derby girl and thus the most qualified of anyone to skate; hang out with a couple of her classmates; and skate! Laila didn't actually do that much skating, because this was literally the first time she had ever skated before, but she put on her roller skates and her Grandpa took her out with one of the pipe hand-hold frames that the center provided. She didn't do much skating, but she did more than one of her classmates (whose parents just could not convince him to get out on the rink). And now she's talking about how much she wants to go skating, and sashagee has her own skates so they can go skating together. In the summer there are some park districts that open family skating, including a couple right by my work. They could go skating and we could all go to lunch together.

We did get some sad news that one of Laila's classmates, whose birthday we went to a few months ago, isn't going to Laila's neighborhood school next year because they live outside the district and so they didn't get in--Chicago works basically like Japanese schools, where you can apply to go to any school in the district you want to. They're going to keep trying but they won't be classmates together next year.

( bonus pictures )

Final note: It's true that her birthday was almost a month ago but we had to wait until she got the all-clear after her surgery to perform physical activity, and then we had to have enough lead time

Since I decided to entirely ignore my work this semester (was gonna fail anyway), my sleep schedule has been... well, not good, but closer to an early-riser than a late one — winter sure is a time to wake up early, feels like I woke up in the evening! Before, I'd be staying up for 4am Baldesion Arsenal, now I'm waking up for it — not even like, on purpose half the time, there just happens to be a lot of open BA runs, though it does somewhat feel like I am waking up earlier on BA days... Can you tell I woke up at 2am, and now I'm waiting in a BA party? They're being silly in VC, it's great XD

Anyway, also decided I'll try and look every now and then at CozyTalk. My profile (Eurys) is based after my WoL, aha. She's so cute!

Feels like 31°C at 7:30 a.m.

Feels like 38°C at 10:00 a.m.

There's supposed to be a thunderstorm later and then more thunderstorms tomorrow so we'll see if that brings the temperatures down, but we're also supposed to go to the farmer's market later. Oof.

Next Monday, forecasted temperature high is 19°C. That's the midwest!