the birds remember how to come home (week notes 008)

Doing

• School is officially back in session, so my free time is much more limited now. I’m optimistic for the year, though!

Reading

• Death Is Not an Option by Suzanne Rivecca. Finished at last. I have not much new to say compared to last week. I felt a notable sense of relief to be done with it and free to move on.
• Write as you wish: a call to bring back the prose by Marisabel. I’m not a good enough writer for this to be applicable, so call this aspirational reading.
• back at it & social media free by kristin. I’ve pretty much dropped Twitter in the last few weeks — I really want to separate myself from toxic online spaces.
• Please please please please please please share your big dumb beautiful self with the world by Keenan. “What does it look like to put yourself on a page, or in a photo, or a brushstroke, or a string plucked and reverberating harmoniously out into the room? When does the screaming inside become loud enough, so all-encompassing that you open up the door to let it pour out of you?”

Watching

• America’s Next Top Model, cycle three. Top Model is my comfort show right now. I love the first seven cycles best, but cycle three has a special place in my heart. It’s one of the first cycles I ever saw and has one of the most entertaining casts. The modelling itself is pretty poor, but that’s not really what Top Model was about.
• Run Button’s Star Wars Outlaws streams. I’m really interested in Outlaws based on what I’ve seen; Keith has been complaining about the stealth a lot in the streams, but I think a good amount of that has been player error.

Playing

• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. I’ve tried to get Joe to play KotOR for years, but he was turned off by the combat. We listened to A More Civilized Age’s coverage together, though (he’s a big Friends at the Table fan), and it got him interested in KotOR II (despite my insisting for years that it is the finest piece of Star Wars media). We’re playing through together — me with the controller but collectively making decisions. We’re still on Peragus (gross), but I’m enjoying revisiting it. This will be my first time playing it in at least ten years and my first time with the restored content mod.

Listening

• Life’s a Riot With Spy vs Spy, Billy Bragg. I like “A New England” a whole lot; the rest was good but didn’t grab me. There’s a sparseness and intimacy that struck me when I first heard “A New England,” but the novelty had worn off for the other tracks.
• For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver. I listened to this all the way through one night and it unfortunately really spoke to me. I know I’ve listened through it before, years ago, and I didn’t care for anything except “Skinny Love”; this time around, every track hit.
• “Bishop, CA” and “Wig Master,” Xiu Xiu. I swore off Xiu Xiu back in 2013 or so after listening to them heavily during a deep depression; I’m not cold turkey on them anymore, but they’re not in my regular rotation either. I’ve been thinking of these two, some of my favorites then.¹