Weeknotes: Week 41-42 of 2023
My reluctance to be on my laptop during the weekends means that these weekly review posts are always a bit late but oh well.
The temperature has been fluctuating between warm and suddenly cold and everyone is hurrying to get their flu shots.
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- Iโm still chugging along at A Day of Fallen Night. Finally familiar with the characters so my reading should be picking up from now.
- Also trying to wrap up my reading of ๅ่ๅญใฎใขใณ which I started in February! To be fair to myself, my Japanese reading pace has only recently improved so I feel like Iโm finally in a good rhythm but I also desperately want to read something new.
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- Listening to the audiobook for The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna read by Samara MacLanen which is one of the cozier books Iโve read in a while. I always appreciate when narrators go all in on different voices and the entire cast of characters are delightful.
- Relistening to The Magnus Archives in preparation for The Magnus Protocol which Iโm very excited for ๐ป
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- Finished Castlevania: Nocturne. The pacing got much better towards the end and I am now fully invested and excited for season 2.
- Started and finished Bocchi the Rock! which was incredibly heartwarming, relatable and funny. Currently recommending it to anyone who appreciates indie rock bands, live houses and friendships ๐.
- Started the new Goosebumps series on Disney+. A bit disappointed in the direction of aging up the characters and making it serialized instead of an anthology. Goosebumps is such a good intro to horror for younger demographics that they could have gone with a Stranger Things direction as opposed to something closer to Riverdale. While on my soapbox I also dislike the trend of making every remake incredibly visually dark in the sense that the blue filter makes it hard to see whatโs going on. Horror can be bright! with colors! Leaning into a more campy, physical horror effects is also perfect for Goosebumps. However it does seem to have a fairly positive reception so far and I am not the demographic so I will keep watching to see where it goes.
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- Trying to balance getting informed about whatโs happening with Palestine and how I can help without getting sucked into doomscrolling. Being overly anxious or nihilistic about humanity is not going to be helpful right now.
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- Currently practicing for my first tsugaru shamisen performance. I have immense stage fright and Iโve never worked up the courage to play an instrument infront of people due to the way my hands shake so this will be a crazy big challenge. I suppose that even if itโs a disaster, itโs something that I can say I tried.
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- Still sticking to my no/low buy trial leading up to 2024 and will be doing a write up soon. I did cave and resubscribe to Kindle Unlimited again since lots of indie authors I follow publish there and there are a good few manga series available for free. I prefer to buy and read manga physically for ease and to support the authors but itโs good to be able to try a few volumes of a series beforehand.
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- Free Ebooks for a Free Palestine! ๐ https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/495-free-ebooks-for-a-free-palestine Haymarket Books has a great collection of books on Palestine and are currently offering 3 of those ebooks for free. The last free ebook bundle I received from them was during the BLM protests and those were also incredibly informative.