dancing around the subject 'til my legs hurt (week notes 23)

Doing

We had an unexpected snow day on Tuesday and then Wednesday off for Lunar New Year, which was a welcomed opportunity to relax at home. I played a lot of Fields of Mistria and did some upgrades to the computers in my house — all three (my PC, Joe’s, and one hooked up to our TV) are AM4 builds, so I’m able to upgrade my PC and put the old parts into the others. We’re also planning and ordering equipment for our next big home project: wiring the living room and office with Cat6 ethernet and running down to a managed switch on the network rack. We made all of the purchases this week and plan to do the work over our February break.

Joe and I had a talk about something I’ve been rolling around in my head a lot lately — my inability to shut my brain off and enjoy things, my refusal to ever just commit to the moment. It’s maybe a topic for a longer post.

I finally deleted my twitter account, which dates back to probably 2011 or 2012. I stopped using it in favor of Mastodon and Bluesky a long time ago, but I dragged my feet about actually pulling the trigger. I’m finally done. Elon Musk is a Nazi and I don’t fuck with that. I could delete Facebook without another thought, but I have a few friends who use Instagram only that I want to keep up with. With time, maybe, but this is a step in the right direction for now.

Reading

I have not touched Villette since reading the first twenty pages. Maybe back to back 19th century lit wasn’t a good idea?

Watching

I finished Euphoria. I think I really liked it? Season two went some bad (as in, poorly written and plotted) places, but so did season one I think — the first season was just a lot tighter and more cohesive. I’ve read some about the behind the scenes drama with the show, which sours me — the creator seems like a dick. Jules remains my favorite, and I’m interested to see where season three goes if it ever actually gets made.

Joe and I have been watching Vinny and Abby play The Roottrees Are Dead on Nextlander. It seems like a neat game that I’d really enjoy playing, but I love Vinny and Abby’s dynamic too much to not watch it — and I think I’d need time to forget everything before I play it myself. The streams make me miss the golden days of Giant Bomb East…

I’ve also been watching (with Joe on and off) Into the Aether’s short-lived Final Fantasy X playthrough. It’s reawakening my love for that game; I think I have convinced Joe to play through it with me.

Playing

I’m continuing to enjoy Fields of Mistria. I’ve reached mid-fall and the bottom of the mines (for now). It might become a game I check in on when new updates come out, but I think what’s here is really, really amazing.

Listening

I listened to 10000 gecs after really liking 1000 gecs. It was a disappointment personally; I admire experimentation and innovation, but it didn’t hit for me. It strayed too far from the goofy hyperpop that they did so well on 1000 gecs; it was too much of a genre mishmash that leaned too hard into absurdism for the sake of comedy.

A friend of mine, who made their own really sick hyperpop album, recommended that I check out fishmonger by underscores. I loved it. Maybe a perfect album.