Trismegistus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lebateleur) wrote2022-06-02 08:26 pm
lebateleur) wrote2022-06-02 08:26 pm
Since it's June 2nd, here's a "Year So Far" roundup.
Covering the first five months of the year.
Doing:
BJJ - Cancelled because of covid, then back on but I couldn't go because my eye was busted up, and now cancelled again because of covid.
Flute - I've mostly been playing all the tunes I know very well, with the variations I already use, and have made little effort with practice exercises or picking up new tunes.
Gardening - I'm running out of interior surfaces for indoor plants (which is by no means preventing me from acquiring or propagating more). Outdoors, I have bay, begonia, lemon and Thai basil, Japanese leeks, jasmine, Meyer lemon, rosemary, thyme, several varieties of heirloom tomato, and half a dozen scented geranium.
Gym - This one's a mixed bag. Basically, I don't want to change into gym clothes and right now that's enough to keep me from undertaking the five minutes of effort required to go. If I could roll down in a t-shirt and the jeans I've been wearing all day and not get weird looks, I'd be there regularly. But I can't, so I'm not. Luckily, the GC's department included a set of resistance bands in their employee appreciation day package this year, and those I can use in a t-shirt and the jeans I've been wearing all day. So while I'm nowhere near where I was pre-pandemic, I'm at least maintaining muscle tone.
Languages - Came to a screeching halt when our Internet went down for a week and I haven't gotten back into the swing of studying since.
Running - Weirdly, the physical activity I had no intention of seriously picking back up again is now the thing I do routinely several times a week. Assuming I keep this going, I might try running one of the 10 milers next year.
Yoga - Still cancelled due to the pandemic, and I have no interest in finding a new place that is open. I've been doing the minimal amount at home, but at least I am doing it regularly.
Playing:
Dragonfire - Boasting, hands down, the most poorly written rulebook of any tabletop game I've ever played. Incorrect wherever it is not incomplete, and featuring an introductory campaign with entirely different mechanics than the main game. We've spent about 10 hours on this one so far, over nine of which were mulligans as we tried to figure out how to actually play the damn thing. It's also balanced for six despite the rulebook claiming it can be played by groups of two or four, making this all but unplayable until we're able to meet with our main group again. And because we got Dragonfire to have something to play until we're able to meet with our main group again, that more or less defeats the purpose.
Homebrew - My longest running campaign in terms of duration and amount of time I've been playing with these guys. Scheduling conflicts meant we've postponed more weeks than not so far this year, but the sessions we have managed to run have been stellar. I love my character, I love the party's characters, I love the DM and the campaign setting, and I love the most recent development, in which, unbeknownst to the rest of the party, my character's memories were stolen by the Big Bad. Because my character is a rogue, this has been a ton of fun to roleplay.
Out of the Abyss - This campaign was going swimmingly...until one of the players moved across the country for work. We've talked about continuing virtually, but so far that hasn't panned out.
Saltmarsh - Not my oldest campaign, but the group I've been playing with the second longest amount of time. This one's also great fun, both because of the people and because I'm playing a (in a departure from my typical mold) goody-goody paladin who's very charismatic but none too bright. This campaign has been on hold for a bit until two of the players married (each other!) but is resuming shortly, and I'm very excited for it.
The Wilds Beyond the Witchlight - The setting and ambiance in this campaign are just so well done. Unfortunately, the DM has a tendency to cancel or reschedule at the 11th hour, something the other players' schedules can accommodate, but mine can't. I've missed more sessions than I've played recently.
Reading:
I've finished 31 books so far this year, which is about 20 fewer than I've usually read by this point. Local library summer reading programs have just or are about to kick off, so hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of things through those.
The Awakened Kingdom
The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom
The Dragon and the Griffin
The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation vol. 1
Hammers on Bone
Homemade Magick
Indonesian: A Comprehensive Grammar
The Just City
The Kingdom of Gods
League of Dragons
A Marvellous Light
Mencinta Hingga Terluka
Monstress vol. 4
Pilates
Scythe
Riot Baby
Rouge Street
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol. 1
The Shadows of Men
Something Is Killing The Children vol. 1
Thick as Thieves
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends
Welcome to Indonesian
When the Tiger Came Down from the Mountain
The Wicked Cometh
Winter Isles
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels
The Witness for the Dead
観音経の話
蟲師 7
蟲師 8
Watching:
MoviesFree Guy - This was enjoyable. If the writers had bothered to pay attention to consistency in regards to the plot and worldbuilding, it would have been excellent.
Going Clear - A very different animal from the book of the same name, but equally as well made and utterly compelling.
Jungle Cruise - I was expecting this to not be very good, and was pleasantly surprised. It's ridiculous for sure, but it knows this and is therefore pretty fun.
Shang-Chi - I watched this one with the Out of the Abyss crew. Great action, great depiction of cross-generational and cross-cultural divides.
Spider Man: No Way Home - A bit of a mixed bag. I enjoyed it but thought it was the weakest of the three Holland!Spider Man movies, largely due to the plot and characterization inconsistencies. I also spent much of it irritated at Holland!Spider Man. (You! Your immature, impulsive choices are the reason people are dying and I do not find that sympathetic!) That said, the inter-Spider Man banter, references, and in-jokes were prime.
Thor (rewatch) - Kenneth Branagh does MCU as a Shakespearean quasi-tragedy. I love it, and this movie does not get as much credit as it deserves.
Thor: The Dark World (rewatch) - Hands down, my favorite movie in the MCU. I know this puts me in the minority. I do not care.
Thor: Ragnarok (rewatch) - Yes, it's fun, and more light hearted, and Taika Waiti is in it and Hela effing kills it. I enjoy it. I still like The Dark World better.
Music
Boy Harsher - Hell schedule made it impossible to see these guys when they came through in 2019, so I jumped on the chance to do so in 2022. This was a fabulous live show and I'd see them again in a heartbeat. (Also, in a total power move, this band did not include the hit song in their set.)
Club Music - Very much my thing and I wish the set had been longer.
Driftwood - They were fine, she says cautiously. Not a bad group, but they did not live up to the hype.
Doug Stevenson & the Spades - Not bad, but a little more contemporary and country-inflected than I like.
The Haunt - Not a bad band, but one that would probably work much better in small, crowded clubs instead of the large stages and venues they're currently playing.
The Hu - Phenomenal, every time I see them. On top of playing an excellent show, they also played an unplanned encore, which was such. A. Treat.
Mogwai - 2005-era me would never have believed I'd get the chance to see these guys live. They were amazing. Such a body of work, and they carry it off live so well.
Moose Jaw - Yes. This is my kind of bluegrass.
Television Arcane - It took me five months to power through this. The voice acting is excellent. The artwork is stunning. Vi and Caitlyn are my jam and I want them to have All the Gen-to-NC17 Adventures together. But holy crap, I do not give a fig for Lolicon!Sephiroth--I mean, Jinx--I mean, Lolicon!Sephiroth (You! Your immature, impulsive choices are the reason people are dying and I do not find that sympathetic!) and that apparently puts me in the extreme minority.
Avatar the Last Airbender (rewatch) - One of my Forever Shows. This was the third or fourth rewatch for me, but the first time the GC had seen it. Because I watched it as it came out, it's still very much a commentary on the Iraq War to my mind, and it was interesting to watch someone else relate to it without that context.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Season 1 - A love letter to the campy, heavy metal queerness of the original 80s series, and I loved it. Also, Teela stole the freaking show.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Season 2 - Less interesting to me than the first season, largely because protagonist resurrection stories bore me. That said, Evil-lyn stole the freaking show.
The Legend of Vox Machina - I enjoyed it well enough, but I think you need to have watched to the podcast to love it and while I've really liked the episodes I have seen, there's no way on earth I'll every have enough time to watch it.
Our Flag Means Death - I thought I would sit through this. Instead, I loved it. I'm in the midst of watching it again, and picking up on all the clever little details whose significance I didn't recognize when I thought this was just a lightweight comedy series.
Writing:
I've written more this year than last, which is good. A crazy job and never having more than 20 minutes of uninterrupted time to myself at home make it difficult to accomplish as much as I'd like. That said, in January I set myself a challenge of posting at least one thing to AO3 every month (even if it's only a drabble), and so far I've succeeded.
A Dish Fate Serves Cold - Baldur's Gate
On the eve of the party's siege of the bandit camp, Kivan reflects on how he has come to be here.
For the Season of Drabbles 2021-22 Winter Round. I love this character and was excited to match for him. What comes next, which Kivan doesn't know but BG players will, is what gives the drabble its emotional punch, and weirdly brought closure for me to a plot point that the game itself doesn't, just through the act of writing something adjacent to that lack of closure.
Introductions - Baldur's Gate
On the road from High Hedge, Kivan makes the acquaintance of some of his new companions.
Also for the Season of Drabbles 2021-22 Winter Round. Kivan! Minsc! Boo! I had a ton of fun with this triple drabble. As a bonus, my recipient liked both of my gifts and had no idea they'd been written by the same person.
The Clarity of Purpose He Once Enjoyed - Baldur's Gate
What could be more important than bringing the tenets of the Sun Soul order to the former cultists of the Twofold Trust?
For the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
100words prompt "Heretic." Rasaad is such a great character with a great character arc that the prompt gave me a great chance to explore a bit more.
Fool's Errand - The Witness for the Dead
Subpraeceptor Azhanharad writes a letter, and then must deal with the consequences.
I know, I know. Celehar and Pel-Thenhior make a ridiculously sweet couple. But apparently, if you write a gruff detective/policeman/investigator character I will ship him with the next available guy because this, I guess, is a Thing that I like. And since the Witness preview Tor released featured Celehar and a gruff detective...
Transportations - The Blake & Avery Series
William Avery travels to Australia to find the closure that had been denied to him.
For smut4smut, which I actually managed to sign up for this year. This is straight up raunch and I had SO MUCH FUN writing it. I have aspirations to long, plotty fics, but at the end of the day I'm really a slash genre writer, and I should probably just embrace it.
Release - Our Flag Means Death
Izzy went to sleep imprisoned by circumstance, and woke up free.
For the 100words prompt "Freedom." This one was all about mood and description, and carrying it off properly within the word count limit.
これで以上です。
Doing:
BJJ - Cancelled because of covid, then back on but I couldn't go because my eye was busted up, and now cancelled again because of covid.
Flute - I've mostly been playing all the tunes I know very well, with the variations I already use, and have made little effort with practice exercises or picking up new tunes.
Gardening - I'm running out of interior surfaces for indoor plants (which is by no means preventing me from acquiring or propagating more). Outdoors, I have bay, begonia, lemon and Thai basil, Japanese leeks, jasmine, Meyer lemon, rosemary, thyme, several varieties of heirloom tomato, and half a dozen scented geranium.
Gym - This one's a mixed bag. Basically, I don't want to change into gym clothes and right now that's enough to keep me from undertaking the five minutes of effort required to go. If I could roll down in a t-shirt and the jeans I've been wearing all day and not get weird looks, I'd be there regularly. But I can't, so I'm not. Luckily, the GC's department included a set of resistance bands in their employee appreciation day package this year, and those I can use in a t-shirt and the jeans I've been wearing all day. So while I'm nowhere near where I was pre-pandemic, I'm at least maintaining muscle tone.
Languages - Came to a screeching halt when our Internet went down for a week and I haven't gotten back into the swing of studying since.
Running - Weirdly, the physical activity I had no intention of seriously picking back up again is now the thing I do routinely several times a week. Assuming I keep this going, I might try running one of the 10 milers next year.
Yoga - Still cancelled due to the pandemic, and I have no interest in finding a new place that is open. I've been doing the minimal amount at home, but at least I am doing it regularly.
Playing:
Dragonfire - Boasting, hands down, the most poorly written rulebook of any tabletop game I've ever played. Incorrect wherever it is not incomplete, and featuring an introductory campaign with entirely different mechanics than the main game. We've spent about 10 hours on this one so far, over nine of which were mulligans as we tried to figure out how to actually play the damn thing. It's also balanced for six despite the rulebook claiming it can be played by groups of two or four, making this all but unplayable until we're able to meet with our main group again. And because we got Dragonfire to have something to play until we're able to meet with our main group again, that more or less defeats the purpose.
Homebrew - My longest running campaign in terms of duration and amount of time I've been playing with these guys. Scheduling conflicts meant we've postponed more weeks than not so far this year, but the sessions we have managed to run have been stellar. I love my character, I love the party's characters, I love the DM and the campaign setting, and I love the most recent development, in which, unbeknownst to the rest of the party, my character's memories were stolen by the Big Bad. Because my character is a rogue, this has been a ton of fun to roleplay.
Out of the Abyss - This campaign was going swimmingly...until one of the players moved across the country for work. We've talked about continuing virtually, but so far that hasn't panned out.
Saltmarsh - Not my oldest campaign, but the group I've been playing with the second longest amount of time. This one's also great fun, both because of the people and because I'm playing a (in a departure from my typical mold) goody-goody paladin who's very charismatic but none too bright. This campaign has been on hold for a bit until two of the players married (each other!) but is resuming shortly, and I'm very excited for it.
The Wilds Beyond the Witchlight - The setting and ambiance in this campaign are just so well done. Unfortunately, the DM has a tendency to cancel or reschedule at the 11th hour, something the other players' schedules can accommodate, but mine can't. I've missed more sessions than I've played recently.
Reading:
I've finished 31 books so far this year, which is about 20 fewer than I've usually read by this point. Local library summer reading programs have just or are about to kick off, so hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of things through those.
The Awakened Kingdom
The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom
The Dragon and the Griffin
The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation vol. 1
Hammers on Bone
Homemade Magick
Indonesian: A Comprehensive Grammar
The Just City
The Kingdom of Gods
League of Dragons
A Marvellous Light
Mencinta Hingga Terluka
Monstress vol. 4
Pilates
Scythe
Riot Baby
Rouge Street
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System vol. 1
The Shadows of Men
Something Is Killing The Children vol. 1
Thick as Thieves
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends
Welcome to Indonesian
When the Tiger Came Down from the Mountain
The Wicked Cometh
Winter Isles
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels
The Witness for the Dead
観音経の話
蟲師 7
蟲師 8
Watching:
Movies
Music
Television
Writing:
I've written more this year than last, which is good. A crazy job and never having more than 20 minutes of uninterrupted time to myself at home make it difficult to accomplish as much as I'd like. That said, in January I set myself a challenge of posting at least one thing to AO3 every month (even if it's only a drabble), and so far I've succeeded.
A Dish Fate Serves Cold - Baldur's Gate
On the eve of the party's siege of the bandit camp, Kivan reflects on how he has come to be here.
Introductions - Baldur's Gate
On the road from High Hedge, Kivan makes the acquaintance of some of his new companions.
The Clarity of Purpose He Once Enjoyed - Baldur's Gate
What could be more important than bringing the tenets of the Sun Soul order to the former cultists of the Twofold Trust?
100words prompt "Heretic." Rasaad is such a great character with a great character arc that the prompt gave me a great chance to explore a bit more.Fool's Errand - The Witness for the Dead
Subpraeceptor Azhanharad writes a letter, and then must deal with the consequences.
Transportations - The Blake & Avery Series
William Avery travels to Australia to find the closure that had been denied to him.
smut4smut, which I actually managed to sign up for this year. This is straight up raunch and I had SO MUCH FUN writing it. I have aspirations to long, plotty fics, but at the end of the day I'm really a slash genre writer, and I should probably just embrace it. Release - Our Flag Means Death
Izzy went to sleep imprisoned by circumstance, and woke up free.
100words prompt "Freedom." This one was all about mood and description, and carrying it off properly within the word count limit.これで以上です。
no subject
So far this year, I've worked. That pretty much covers it. Oh, and watched a few things but not that many.
no subject