solovei | Entries tagged with life

Current Mood: sick

I didn't know the air quality scale had an upper limit but apparently we hovered pretty close to it today! It was sort of okay on my way to work, hovering at 2-3, then SKYROCKETED up to 10+ which is the highest it goes. The view from the office windows was downright apocalyptic, all gray haze and wind and the sun nowhere to be seen. You could feel the smoke inside, too - my desk is closer to the outside of the building, so I
definitely smelled it most of the day and then took advantage of the offer to work from home the rest of the day.

Basically, UGH. I thought my apartment wasn't too bad when I got home but now I think maybe I just lost my sense of smell and couldn't tell? I'm also CONGESTED AGAIN after I just kicked whatever other thing I had the week before last where I was all stuffy and sick. Not enjoying this month so far, I gotta say.

I know these are relatively minor inconveniences, and we haven't gotten evacuated or anything -- so I shouldn't complain. My one coworker with asthma was having a really bad time. But it still sucks, especially because we usually get these smoky days closer to August.

Some good news though: I ended up going to the midnight release of Tears of the Kingdom after all. Lineup was a lot bigger than I expected, but we got there at a decent enough time that we were done at a reasonable-ish time. Have been playing it pretty much non-stop since Friday -- I didn't really get into the pre-release hype for it at all, but honestly I'm enjoying it on its own merits in spite of that? It doesn't feel like just "BOTW but with sky islands", there'a sooooo much more to explore now, it really does feel like kind of a new place where you have to find your way again.

Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Sea Power - Whirling-in-Rags, 8 PM

Quick recap of the last two weeks because I kept meaning to post and then things would invariably happen:

Took Monday/Tuesday last week (May 1-2) off work because I had spent half of my Easter long weekend with migraines and I felt like I had to make up for it. Activities included finishing my sense8 rewatch, drawing, and Horizon Zero Dawn (I should write something more fully about that), though I did venture out to the mall to buy new work clothes. It's unseasonably warm here (which means we actually have a lot of wildfires happening?!) and I'm not mentally prepared for it to be summer yet, so shopping helped a little.
Unfortunately, I managed to also pick up some kind of... cold, or sinus infection, or something somewhere, (congestion, runny nose, general head-full-of-snot feeling) which came on Tuesday afternoon and got steadily worse throughout the day. I will fully admit that I should NOT have gone to work in that state on Wednesday BUT in my defence: I thought it may have been allergies, I wore a mask all day, and also I'm still getting used to the whole "nobody will think you're lazy for taking sick time" situation I'm finding myself in. Worked from home the rest of the week and should be okay to go back tomorrow, hopefully.
Been absolutely sucked into Disco Elysium since starting it on Thursday evening. Like, staying-up-till-2-am kind of sucked in, I genuinely didn't think I would like this game as much as I did.... (no spoilers plz, I'm not done yet!!!) Expect more posts/squee on this in the future
Tabletop the last two Saturdays, which went pretty well! Ongoing Pathfinder campaign last week, and Starfinder's "Save The Renkrodas" scenario before that. There's a very bi-flag dinosaur! You can make friends with it! We drove a car over the bad guy's face! Also now I need to level up my Safety Inspector (putting this here so I don't forget but I probably will and have to panic level as usual)

Generally speaking I'm finding myself in a weird sort of headspace where it feels like everything needs to happen now and that there's too many things I need/want to do at once so I end up just doing one thing for too long instead of breaking stuff up and doing a little of multiple things. Now that I have stable/good employment for like the first time in my adult life, I feel like I need to rush to get all the other aspects of my life squared away, to make up for all the time they were on hold while I was trying to GET said employment (and due to the panini) -- like, finding a somewhat nicer place to live (my kingdom for in-suite laundry...), reviving my social life, how do people even date nowadays??, etc. and trying to do all of those at once is very overwhelming!

Part of this is the usual "oh no I'm X years old and I haven't done [milestone of adult life that society expects of me] yet!!!" anxiety, yes. But knowing what it is doesn't mean knowing what to do about it!

So, somehow I had gotten myself interested in comics. Like, actual mainstream comics, of the Marvel/DC variety. You can now add X-Factor to the list of Things I got Interested In Because of the Ships.

I had never really bothered with it before, you see. I watch all the movies when they come out, and I like the characters and the set-up... but having to dig through 50-some years of issues never really appealed to me. It was daunting. Where does one even begin?

Well apparently in this case, one begins with seeing someone on Slack posting cute pictures of Shatterstar. And then remembering that one's favorite tumblr fanartist has drawn even more cute pictures and oooh so that's who those two guys are, please tell me more!

I guess what I'm trying to say is I've been working my way through X-Factor Investigations, and it's pretty good. Having literally never read a comicbook before (Saga doesn't count), it took me a little while to get used to things like crossover events and changing artists and the fact that sometimes half the story is actually in another series entirely, but I'm actually really enjoying it.

Part of me is waiting for the axe to drop, actually. Part of me can't believe that here is a mainstream publication with two queer characters in a relationship, and nothing bad has happened to them so far! And I keep being told there is angst upcoming, but right now it's been pretty cute shit, along with, you know, feels. Lots of feels.

There's also this amazing feeling that comes with having your ship become canon, when the subtext becomes text. I feel a little bit invested in it, like it's a matter of... faith, almost? Look everyone, we believed and it came true! Look at them go.

I had that feeling reading The Raven Cycle and I'm getting that now with X-Factor. What a time to be alive!

Also this morning a train hit a car downtown and as a result I was late for work. But I got paid so I bought myself some cake! (I actually wanted cupcakes, but the closest place to get them was an additional 15 minutes of walking past my house, and it was rainy and cold. Next time, maybe!)

p.s. I broke down and bought PWR BTTM's album after spending various hours playing their NPR Tiny Desk concert on repeat. Everyone should listen to it. It's amazing.

Current Music: Siouxsie and the Banshees - Arabian Knights

Wow, it's probably about time I updated this thing, no?

☂First things first - Yes I am alive.
All sort of real life things happened and because the universe is a cold, unjust place, they all decided to happen at the same time. Or at least, within the same 2-3 month span. Here's a quick rundown:

I volunteered for my local comic expo; had a job interview - didn't get it, then did; went to Vancouver for a week to see my grad school friends, came back significantly poorer (oops); signed the lease on my first actual apartment, and now I'm here.

☂The new job is going okay. I mean, it's a significant step up from my previous job (dear retail, I will not miss you, even if you tried to win me over with sweets!) and actually makes use of some of the skills I, you know... have an education in. The contract is for 18 months but I'm keeping a sharp eye on other internal postings already.

☂Book news: I'm speeding through Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Cycle series. I have a lot of feelings about it and will probably make a bigger post about it tomorrow or the day after

Current Music: hide - LASSIE

I really should stop writing in this thing once a week at most. Sorry about that, guys.

Before I forget, and because my post-it notes are buried somewhere in the mess that is My Desk at the moment, here's my to-do list for the upcoming week:
( attempts at productivity )

Okay, let's hope that will actually get done. Who knows,

yuuago posts his to-do lists on here all the time, maybe it will work for me too? :P

So, I ended up seeing a couple movies in the last few days. Saw Zootopia with some friends on Friday (I'm not a furry, but...). It was cute! I am pretty sure the chubby cheetah cop is totally me, if I had an animal equivalent. Ambiguously gay and a huge sweet tooth and an unabashed fanboy - yes yes so very much yes.

I also watched Kingsman: The Secret Service on Netflix and, well... I've had a bunch of people tell me how great it is, and I know it has an active fandom on AO3, but. I wasn't really that impressed. If anything it just made me watch to watch Misfits again. It's not that it was bad, it's just seemed very unfocused, like it wasn't sure if it was trying to be a Serious Spy Movie or a ridiculous action-fest.

P.S. my friend somehow managed to get me into TsumTsum plushies >.> This is baaaad. Very very bad. I don't even have one yet and I'm already planning sneaky ways to go to the disney store here so I can avoid horrendous shipping charges.

Current Music: Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)

Somebody managed to drag me out again yesterday, this time to a queer pub night. It was pretty fun, though I may have lost my voice somewhat. I'm kind of glad I didn't wear a dress because the crowd was pretty masculine-presenting. Like, I had on black skinny jeans and my fox sweater and I still felt kind of out of place. It doesn't help that maybe 60% of people (at least most of the younger ones) had That One Lesbian Haircut. You know what I mean. I don't even have to describe it because it's so ubiquitous.

Anyway, onto stuff that actually matters: FANFIC.
I finished the really angsty Kuroo/Kenma one I've been working on since January. I mean it's angsty yes but the ending is good so fear not, my friends. It borrows heavily from "Jenny" by Studio Killers, which is a great song that everyone should listen to (shapeshifting lesbians on motorcycles!).

( click for link and summary~ )

Next up is an Onni/Reynir fic that's about half done! Featuring mageverse makeouts, elaboration on Onni's romantic history, and just how far down those freckles go.

Current Music: Malice Mizer - Color Me Blood Red

I'm about halfway into Carry On by Rainbow Rowell which is a difficult book to describe. Like, it's sort of a spinoff of Fangirl but it's more a weird queer rehash of every YA teen wizard book/chosen one ever. It's like Harry Potter, but with more kissing and more vampires, I guess. And swearing, there's swearing in it too. Expect a full review when I'm done with it.

Speaking of Rainbow Rowell, I've noticed a weird trend with her books. I've only read her YA titles so far but they're all that sort of book that is very easy for me to devour, they look big but read fast. I haven't stayed up till 3 am reading with this one (yet) but I can absolutely see myself doing that. I wonder if her adult books have that same quality. The thought did occur to me to check them out one of these days, but I looked over the synopses and neither really appealed to me? Oh well.

The weather's been doing really weird things lately, like they promised +17 yesterday? It didn't happen but it was still really warm. And then today it started to rain which turned into actual big white fluffy flakes of SNOW that melted as soon as they hit the ground? No wonder I started feeling shitty at work today. I really don't want to be THAT PERSON that carries around painkillers but migraines are also not fun.

Current Music: Arcade Fire - We Exist

Ugh.

This time I swear I have a reason for not updating. Ended up working basically the entire long weekend. Valentine's Day was hell. We do not talk about that day. You know when you're so tired you can't even force yourself to get into bed, or sleep, or anything? So you just sit there and stare into space hoping that eventually you'll fall over and die? That was Saturday. And then Sunday. And then I got called in on Monday too. Yay.

Actually the whole week was pretty shitty except for Friday; dinner and Deadpool with a friend, fun times were had by all. Really needed that in retrospect given how the rest of the week was panning out. I don't know if that movie was genuinely funny or if I'm just really far gone into whatever undiagnosed thing is wrong with me, but I can honestly say I have not laughed that hard in about six months. Also the stinger was fantastic in every way possible.

Decided to take it easy today partly due to this dumb migraine (thanks, weather!). Watched some stuff on Netflix and made tortilla chips. Almost done the first series of Misfits. To sum up: five delinquent kids doing community service get caught in an electric storm and develop personality-based powers. It's pretty good so far, kind of like if Skins got a Superpowers AU. Then again I didn't get that far into Skins (about halfway through series 2 and I don't know if I'll keep watching because I got too emotionally invested in the first generation and can't bear the thought of NEW PEOPLE) either so maybe I'm totally off, but so far that's how it feels.

Oh, also there's a new trailer for Daredevil season 2 (well, half a trailer) and I am beside myself with excitement. I hope Foggy will be okay. Please just let Foggy be okay ;~; I don't care about the rest of Manhattan, PROTECT FOGGY NELSON.

Current Music: Florence + The Machine - What The Water Gave Me

Phew, it's been a while hasn't it? (Evidently it has been 8 days!) I'm pretty bad at updating this, sorry.

In those 8 days I decided to send a surprise postcard to

yuuago ! Well actually I sent it exactly a week ago. He got it yesterday so I guess I can talk about it now, yay! That was actually really really hard to not mention anything in our Tumblr chats in between exchanging fanfic ideas and miscellaneous ship-related flailing. I actually only sent it because I got a set of fairly nice colored pens the day before and wanted to try them out, but hey, you don't need a reason to send nice things to your friends! Interestingly the set also came with a stylus pen which is... a strange sort of addition to my life that I never really needed, but now I have a drawing app for my tablet in which I can mess around to my heart's content, so that's good I guess?

Aside from that I've been playing lots of Pokemon and watching a fair bit of Netflix. The usual, really.

Chocolate Box is almost done but needs to be edited; I don't know if I'll end up having time to do any of the treats I've had sitting in opened tabs for the past two weeks. It's not even that I'm busy per se, but for some reason writing is kind of hard lately? (I also spent a little too long on that Kuroo/Kenma fic I'm writing and I think it kind of made me even more depressed? It's a very very angsty fic). There are ideas in my head and I know I have a million WIPs I need to work on but somehow actually getting down and WRITING is difficult. Blargh.

I've started reading I Can't Believe It's Not Better by Monica Haisey. I don't usually (actually, ever) read humor books, but I saw part of it reprinted online a few months ago (Getting a Job: A Short Story by Your Parents) and it was so fantastic that I wanted to check out the book. It's not bad so far; not laugh-out-loud funny but definitely has those chuckles of recognition you get from like, a buzzfeed article titled "20 Things only ____ People Will Understand".

Oh, also. I did a bad thing today. I tried not to, I really did.
But I am weak and the temptation was strong.

I placed a pre-order on this Nendoroid of Nishinoya :

I know what you're going to say. "But Solo," you will say. "Haven't you already fallen deep enough into this volleyball hell? Surely this is too much?" And you will have a point. However, I have thought about this for a good long time (~45 minutes, plus snack break) and I have come up with several very good reasons.

I have acquired several Figma figures over the years, but I am yet to own a Nendoroid, despite the fact that their cuteness has been taunting me from the internet for a long time
Look at that adorable thing! He's SO TINY
Some people I know have waaaay more fandom merch than I possess, so one figure is really not so bad.
Buying the merchandise will support the show and we can get more awesome episodes and the manga can keep going!
Seriously have you seen it it's so adorable I can't even

So yeah. Look forward to me squeeing over that when I get it (sometime after May)

Current Music: Mew - Waterslides

I can honestly say I spent the whole weekend playing Pokemon and puttering around the kitchen. That's it. Nothing else got done.

Well, sort of. The Chocolate Box fic is finally taking shape, after

yuuago helpfully suggested turning it into a drabble collection instead of whatever rambly unfocused mess it was before. He always has the best advice!

I ended up rewatching Avatar on Saturday night.Remember when that was a thing? Seven years ago everyone was freaking out about how much money it made, how amazing it was, and now... what? Can anyone even quote a single line from that movie? I definitely can't. For all the money it made, it's amazing how little of an impact it had on pop culture.

Current Music: The Postal Service - Brand New Colony

I thought I should maybe make a post just so it doesn't seem like I stopped updating after that very sad last post, so here we go, some general updates.

❄Tuesday was the premiere of Agent Carter season 2! I loved the first season and despite it's short run I thought it did a good job. So, this one was pretty great also, lots of funny and cute stuff between Peggy and Jarvis, but also a great set-up for the rest of the season. I don't know how I feel about them moving the show to Los Angeles, (because isn't everything already in Los Angeles? *groan*), and it seems like they scaled back the really nice jazzy soundtrack that the previous season had, sadly (Caro Emerald!). But all that aside, it was a great couple of episodes and I will definitely keep watching.

❄In other TV news, I forced myself to watch DC's Legends of Tomorrow yesterday and it was soooo bad. Wow. I won't go into detail because I've already complained about it to two different people, and you all can google it if you want, but... geez, I've never been that bored by the first episode of a show.

❄Decided to actually force myself to be social on Wednesday. Went out to dinner with a friend and we watched one of the Fullmetal Alchemist movies after. The ramen place wasn't too bad, but it doesn't really measure up to my favorite place in Vancouver. Like, it approaches it, but maybe only about halfway there. Not bad, just not... amazing. Still, I had a nice time.

❄Baked milk buns last night, or attempted to anyway. Apparently there's a trick with measuring the milk AFTER you heat it up, because otherwise too much of it evaporates? In any case, they came out pretty good after, though definitely best eaten when fresh. And it only makes 8 buns, so for the amount of time you spend proofing it I would honestly double the recipe to make it worth the while

❄Oh, currently I'm trying to get back into Pigg Life, which is... I guess like Japanese Farmville? Only, you know, much cuter. I used to be very very into this game after my friend Brittany introduced me to it, like... obsessively into it. (I stayed up till 3 am once to finish a quest to get a duck pond for my farm) At some point I guess I got too frustrated or too busy or something. But, coming back to it now, I don't know why I left? My house is really cute and I have a lot of nice dresses for my avatar... I'll see if I can keep it up again.

Current Music: Icona Pop - I Love It

Got a package in the mail from my lovely friend and RP buddy Alia! (As in, just now. Literally two minutes ago, I should be getting ready for work instead of writing this but OH WELL)

Inside was the SSSS Language Tree Print (!!!) and two Haikyuu vinyl keychains!! Tsukki-crow and Hinata-crow <3 (Hinata, in true Hinata fashion, is half in an eggshell).

This actually reminds me that I got a few character pins (Asahi, Kenma, Noya) way back in November and have yet to put them onto anything, so clearly I need to fix that.

(But also I think I have the same anxiety people get for stickers, only for pins? Like, I've got this weird paranoia that "adults" aren't supposed to decorate their bags with pins featuring anime characters or slogans or what have you, and if I do I'm being immature)

Anyway, I had better force my heartrate back down and go dry my hair.

Current Music: Björk - Pluto

Whenever a Disparition song comes on shuffle I remember that I'm at least 2 months behind on Welcome to Night Vale. (This is more surprising when you consider that I used to listen to new episodes literally the second they were released)

I also realize that I had two whole weeks off work where I could have caught up and... didn't. It's not even that I was terribly busy. Most of my christmas-related obligations (fic exchanges, secret santas, etc) were finished by the 23rd. I spent the rest of the time playing video games and faffing about on tumblr/netflix.

So, bottom line is, Solo is terrible at keeping up with things she likes. Hell, I've had Saga #5 since... late September, and I still haven't read it. It's literally just sitting there in a pile of other papers/books and taunting me with its presence. (And it's not even that it's long. 4-5 comic chapters, that's all. Blah.

On the other hand, I canonized a 6-person relationship tag last night and now I'm super proud of myself.

~(◔▽◔)~

Legend of the wildfires

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