july updates ^_^

/diary

good afternoon. i finally decided to simplify the blog. i would like to write longer form and less microblog-y texts since i already do that in my little discord. i continue to waffle between using proper capitalization and just using all lowercase (incredibly tempting to continue to do). (edit as of december: i've caved and reverted to lowercase because the font looks nicer like this. so sorry.)

literature

i'm making solid progress in my attempts to finish reading all the books i was given as gifts for a recent milestone. i finished logicomix, which was gifted to me by my father, even though i am not an avid math or philosphy enjoyer (although i did like the book). i am currently reading man's search for meaning by viktor frankl which was given to me by one of the horticulture employees i worked with, and i'm hoping to start rilke's letters to a young poet. these are not necessarily books i would read of my own volition, and the covers are just boring enough to make me sad but WE PERSIST! because i need to get through them before i order any more books from the library, although, truth be told, i did order some and set the date to activate the hold on the 25th of this month. maybe cheating but whatever. i also was lent a bunch of arctic science books by my neighbor who is a geophysicist which i need to get through before i need to return them to her. i am also still working through the worst journey in the world on gutenberg, and enjoying it for the most part. aforementioned neighbor called it "five hundred pages about penguins" and while i'm sure she isn't wrong, i don't really have a problem with that.

i've also been hunting for some new books to order after i get through everything soon. my taste is pretty juvenile which isn't necessarily a bad thing but i like to expand my literary palette whenever possible. the only thing i will absolutely not touch (or touch with extreme trepedation) is dystopia, which tends to make me feel disassociate-y and awful in a way i do not find productive for my psyche. maybe i will write my thesis on why dystopian fiction is overrated someday. some books i'm really looking forward to reading: 20,000 leagues under the sea by jules verne, the viral underclass by steven w. thrasher, the one straw revolution by masanobu fukuoka (also gifted to me by one of the hort. people), and maggie stievfater's greywaren, because i actually never even read it even though i thought i did.

i am about 2/3s of the way through let me tell you by shirley jackson and i swing between utter bewilderment and overinvestment. some of her stories hinge so much on social cues and 50's faux pas that i just cannot parse what the story is supposed to mean or what is even happening sometimes, but then she'll turn around and write the most incredible story I can actually comprehend and I just lose my mind. "good old house" has been my favorite piece so far, i think i enjoy her nonfiction writing more than her other writings.

other stuff

i recently procured an inexpensive kiln as well and am excited to reenter my ceramics endeavors. i, maybe foolishly, have plans for a lot of figurines, which are the hardest things to sculpt especially at the scale they're at but somehow remain irresistable to me. pop figures can only go so far (says girl with ten million pop figures). i wish that there were more of a western media figurine market, most of the cool ones are of miku and etc. which doesn't really align with my interests. you see i wish that there were a funny sparkly venom figurine. that's all i want. so i will do it. i also want to get back into charm making. i really need to figure out how i can permanantly close the loops that go through the charm and attach it to the lobster clip because almost all of my charms have loosened and fallen off. i think i permanently lost my edward little charm which is kind of sad but i guess i'll just make another.

i finally got the digital camera i received up and working. it takes the sweetest 480p videos. These are some photos i took of my windowsill decorations. i love my little toys and figurines.

i've also been working on some oc stuff, mostly tidepools (which i still need to come up with a better name for). i finished some matching icons and then uploaded sabine and monette to toyhou.se, which you should check out. i also added some cursory information. i'm hoping i can start working on an actual finished product for it soon. i'm not sure if i have the stamina to do an entire graphic novel but it is what would fit the story best, unfortunately. i think i'm going to keep their character pages on th for now but i do still want to keep a page for the story as a whole on here because i need somewhere to put inspiration and etc. so I'll work on that soon.