but let's talk about you for a minute (week notes 011)

I’m doing two weeks in one post. Last week I was dead sick and working too much so I didn’t assemble a post throughout the week as I normally do.

Doing

• Joe and I drove back to ___ for a funeral… and then back, all in one day. Eight hours on the road, but it was nice to spend some time together, singing and talking about heavy things.¹
• I ran four miles in one go! Not without stopping and walking, and I’m far from my best times, but I’m trying to rebuild my endurance and speed after taking a long time off.
• I’m trying to get back into skin care. I’ve never had a thorough routine, but I’ve been slacking even on the meager bit I do. I looked in the mirror and saw an old person looking back at me, so I’ve been cleansing and moisturizing on a near-daily basis now.

Reading

• The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey. I’m reading this on recommendation of a friend and coworker. The writing has a beautiful directness, but I’m not exactly fascinated by (or at all interested in) snails. It is eye-opening to read something so scientific in approach that is still a work of literature, however; it leaves me to consider how our different disciplines — me as an English teacher and my coworker a Science teacher — change the way we think and look at the world.
• a ranking of iMac G3 colors by tulip.
• field notes cured my twitter addiction on The Birdhouse. A lovely ode to a notebook.

Watching

• Gilmore Girls, season six. Joe and I have reached about the end of the season. I think six has some good moments and episodes but is, on the whole, drudgery. Luke’s character takes a bizarre turn, and I somehow have even less patience for Rory and Logan’s relationship this time around.
• America’s Next Top Model, cycle five. Passive rewatches while folding laundry; the actual modeling and photoshoots are a low for the UPN seasons, but the personalities make it an entertaining season.

Playing

• Joe and I have played more of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, which is really him watching me play and selecting dialogue options with me. He really does not care for the combat; I don’t love it either, but having played so much of this game and the first as a kid, I know my way around it much better. He doesn’t seem to like any of the characters yet; on one hand, I get that, because I think the KotOR II characters are much more complex and harder to initially like than the first game’s, but maybe the series just isn’t for him…
  • We’ve been playing as a female Exile, but Joe was interested in the Handmaiden, and I prefer her to the Disciple, so I decided to roll back a save and use the PartySwap mod… until I realized that I have Steam Workshop mods mixed with the KotOR II Mod Build.² Apparently, because I used the Workshop 13 years ago when I last played this game, Steam decided I definitely wanted those installed again. Ugh. The solution was to start from the beginning with cheats that will let me zip through and get back to where we were. It took the better part of five hours to re-install all the mods and play back through Peragus and Telos.
  • That all said, I really love this game. I love the way the narrative places you in a backstory rather than the “blank slate” approach of the first game.³ The player then gets to decide the Exile’s reasons for going to war, their outlook on the Jedi, and there’s a lot of gray area to be found.

Listening

• Mr. Anyway’s Holey Spirits Perform! One Foot in Bethlehem and Pure Particles by The Bug Club. More recommendations from a former student of mine. I’m really enjoying them! One Foot in Bethlehem very clearly has some religious satire, but I’ve not had a chance to parse for sub-text… At this point, I’m on a basal, what’s catchy level (the answer is a lot).