Trismegistus

...with June's falling on this weekend. It was grand. There were four of us at final count; we sat down to read at 11:30 and didn't stop until 6:15 pm. The only time anyone spoke was when one of us got up to get more tea and asked if anyone else wanted any, too. I love that I can do this, and that I know multiple people who are also happy to spend their weekends doing this. (And it's even better now because having those other people with me means that when I sit down to read a book, I actually read the book, instead of pushing through a page or two and then picking up my phone "for just a minute" and doomscrolling updates about things I have no ability to affect for hours on end.)

I finished Kara Cooney's When Women Ruled the World, which was an incredibly frustrating book and Maggie O'Farrel's Hamnet, which was an incredibly good one (but which left me as melancholy as if I had doomscrolled the news for hours on end).

Afterwards we popped over to Near BBQ and introduced one of the SSRers to one of the employees, a Geek BBQ alum whom we hadn't seen in ages and with whom it was great to catch up. Then we walked SSRer A to the metro, with a short interlude to kill 30+ lanternfly nymphs on the way.( Read more... )

All in all, a pretty good weekend.

これで以上です。

My 2024 time off came in January, and therefore so are my 2024 memes. This one came from kingstoken.


Your main fandom last year?
That would be Baldur’s Gate 3, to such a life-consuming degree it was basically my only fandom in 2024. I played 400+ hours over the course of six months. I have one NPC quest boss battle and the final battle to complete, and then I will have finished the game. I have been avoiding doing either because once they’re done, I will have finished the game. 😭

Your favorite movie watched last year?
My favorite 2024 release was, hands down, Deadpool & Wolverine.

My favorite older but first-time watch was Colossal, which I thought was going to be a kaiju movie, but which is is actually a feminist horror film, and an absolutely excellent one at that.

My favorite documentary was Coded Bias, which was so infuriating I had to repeatedly pause it to go take agitated walks, despite having already read the scholarship it’s presenting.

Your favorite book read last year?
Of the new-to-me books I read in 2024, this is probably a four-way tie between Ann Leckie’s Translation State, Amy Lipcott’s The Outrun, Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing, and Ferdia Lennon’s Glorious Exploits, which I inhaled in a day and which is still lodged in my brain a week later. Of these four, only the first has a fandom presence (although Glorious Exploits is ripe for one).

Your favorite TV show of the year?
Say Nothing. I rocketed through the book in two days in March and immediately went poking around online to see what others' thoughts were. This revealed that Disney+ had optioned the rights for a screen adaptation. That will never happen, I thought. Fast forward to November, when I saw that it in fact had. But there’s no way it’ll be any good, I thought. It was indeed very good. So good, in fact, that the GC (who doesn't like documentaries or historical dramas) ended up eagerly watching the entire thing.

Your favorite video game of the year?
See: “Your main fandom this year”, above.

Your favorite song, album, or artist to listen to this year?
Song: Crows’ Bored. This song is a freaking banger. As is the album it’s on. As is Crows’ entire catalogue.
Album: Robbie McGowran’s The Irish Way. Just classic, artful playing all the way through.
Artist: Russian Circles. Their albums are phenomenal, as was their live show this fall.

Favorite podcast of the year
The only podcast I listened to start-to-finish this year was Tortoise Media’s Master, which was horrific, excellently written, and wholly believable.

In terms of as-yet-ongoing listens, I enjoyed the Grimfrost and History Fuzz podcasts immensely. The first is a wonderfully in-depth look at various aspects of Norse and Viking history that focuses on the historical record even when that might contradict the dearly held positions of various likely audience democraphics. The latter is an enjoyable look at European and pre-Columbian American archeoastronomy, although listeners will have to put up with a fair amount of purile academic cattiness from the host alongside the good stuff.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
While not a “big” discovery per se, I remain tickled by this BG3 Easter egg.

Specifically, this book, entitledYoshimo Is Willing.


Larian sees you, OG BG players.

Your biggest fandom disappointment?
Pulling a full-on “Troy meets LaVar Burton” when meeting Coinneach MacLeod. How does this happen? I am always so smooth in my head.

Your TV video game boyfriend of the year?
Astarion, aka the Felix Harrowgate of Faerun. What a freaking fantastic character arc.

Your TV video game girlfriend of the year?
Karlach, whose IRL girlfriend I would be in a second, if she existed IRL.

Your biggest squee moment of the year?
Finding myself less than two feet away from Pac, Cesaro, and Jon Moxley as they made their Dynamite ring entrance last month.

       


Mox turning his cold, cold stare on me for a solid 7 seconds as he stalked by was An Experience.

(Bonus: the GC and I have a friend who wrestles for *mumble mumble* promotion out West. We both wore his t-shirt to the show. He saw us wearing them while watching the live broadcast and was over the moon.)

Fandom resolutions for next year?
I don't really have any? Ideally, I just keep reading, writing, and watching.

Your biggest fannish anticipations for the new year?
I’ve already written about my excitement for Paraic O’Donnell and Natasha Pulley’s new books. To this, let me add the publication of Katherine Addison’s The Tomb of Dragons, which comes out in March.

My full 2024 Multimedia List is here.

これで以上です。

Because chances are I will neither finish an additional book this afternoon, nor post complete this meme if I let it go until evening. And with that, ( here's what my 2024 reading looked like. )

Happy New Year, everyone!

これで以上です。

Because what I should be doing is prepping for work tomorrow.

( Read more... )

Happy New Year, everyone!

これで以上です。

Less than two days to the New Year, so I might as well get started on the "year in review" memes. Seeing as Snowflake Challenge also starts on the first, and as I put together a list of goals as part of this year's challenge, let's see how I did. ( Spoiler alert: it's a mixed bag. )

これで以上です。

Covering the first five months of the year.

( Doing. )


( Playing. )


( Reading. )


( Watching. )


( Writing. )

これで以上です。

I did this last year and it worked out pretty well, so let's try it again. Below the cut are 50 books I need to read, reread, or finish reading. It's not a list of books I have to finish this year, or a list of the only books I'm allowed to read this year, but rather a list to see how many of the books, out of those I felt I might like to read this year on January 4th, I actually did read by December 31st.

( Read more... )

これで以上です。

Say what you like about her latter books (on which I too have Opinions), or her 90s persecution of fanficcers, that Interview With the Vampire--an entire book about clinical depression and not-straight-ness--merely existed, was HUGE to me when I was a kid.

これで以上です。

...or a drill, and I am not exaggerating when I say I am really, really excited for all the good stuff that's ( set to publish in the next six months. )

Seriously, this is going to be a TBR bonanza and I am super excited.

これで以上です。

( Let's do this. )

これで以上です。