The Corpse Brigadier

So, I ran a marathon and ditched reddit and bluesky the first week of October (my account on the latter remains undeleted, but I anticipate axing it next month unless I have a sudden change of heart). I am officially through every New Year's resolution I had for 2025 and finally taking some time to savor Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, which is delivering pretty much what I wanted the majority of the time (tolerable to good voice acting for most characters, additional clarifications and lore I can be a huge losernerd about, and the ability to undo movement command... GOD!). My opinions may sour as I push onward and more added text emerges, but I'm a stalwart soul who does their best to ignore creators revisions/redactions/twitter posts/etc... to works already presented as complete.

In light of the socmed abandonment, I'm also trying to think through how I wish to proceed with having an Internet presence, and it may be that I become--as I was for much of the first decade of my Internet-using life--more a lurker than a poster, although I do dearly love my personal sites and will try to keep up with them. I hope, as I always hope, to post more here, but I'm realizing that in a lot of ways I'm a sort of antsy person who really leaned into the mechanics of likes/hearts/kudos and the quippy, brief statements post 2010s social media trades in to get over the awkwardity of more sustained social interactions, and it may be hard to find my footing. It's alright, however it pans out. I have a pretty rich and active social life in a lot of dimensions now, and my gradual detachment from and eventual cessation of most social media has--as far as I can tell--been nothing but a positive. I'm not sure precisely what I want to be doing in this space in the future, but I'm pretty sure that Dreamwidth isn't really going to have the effects on my life that more contemporary sites do. I'll figure it out in time.

In other news, I'm watching a lot of horror films in light of the season (Andrzej Żuławski's Possession stands out in particular as deeply memorable and uncomfortable), I'm rocking out at ignoring anti-choice protestors tell me about how deeply I feed the evil within me at my escorting gig, and I'm making a lot of fun/dumb food and sewing Halloween costumes. I'm hopeful it'll be a pretty nice autumn going forward.

I continue to exist. I deleted my tumblr at long last and may yet escape bluesky and re-escape reddit (I'm down to social media use being limited to three days a week). The past seven and a half months have been very full, with the highlights being that I am now a regular abortion clinic escort, I got my amateur radio license, and I'm training for a marathon. I've also taken up linocut, written a few fics, made a few cakes, seen the local salamanders migrate, successfully brewed and intoxicated myself on dandelion wine, semi-accidentally gone vegan, obtained a 3D printer, participated in a few parades and marches, experimented with natural dying, joined the local group that pulls invasive weeds in the park, and joined a few book clubs.

Also. Final Fantasy Tactics is apparently getting a remaster or something, and I feel about as one would expect.

(It unfortunately comes out 5 days before the previously mentioned marathon tho. X_X)

I'm writing from the hospital today after having spent the past three weeks either running around to a number of delightful and very busy Halloween celebrations, watching and reacting to the recent US election, or prepping for this week, in which I got to have my left kidney removed. I've been coping fairly well on all fronts, I think.

( Political/surgery talk under the cut )

The weekend turned out... pretty phenomenal. I ran a slow, plodding half marathon. I went apple picking. I saw some friends I hadn't actually had a prolonged occasion to hang out with since before the beginning of the pandemic.

Unfortunately had to once again return to the job today (which I remain unlaid off from and not yet able to quit), but I made up for it with a rousing evening of watching city council members fight (Tonight's hot topic: Does voting "abstain" and not "yay" or "nay" after you've participated in the conversation leading up to the agenda item being voted upon threaten the integrity of the vote?) and then finally enjoying the fine art of sitting around not doing very much.

It's been a reasonably pleasant year, all things considered. After the complete overwhelm of 2023 (Get a doctorate! Get a job!), it's been nice to coast for a bit. While I've had a reasonably busy time of things in 2024, there's not been the same sense of everything being suddenly and dramatically changing, which has been nice.

( Other sundry updates... )

Witness another attempt to actually get back to posting here on the regular.

( Dolorous Recent Travels and Also Booze )

I have not been posting for months on account of landing a job (not a terribly exciting one, but still vastly better paying than gradstudenthood), which has required a lot of schedule tinkering. I've been forced against my better judgement and inclinations to become a morning person, which is somewhat at odds with much of my prior adult life. I've become reasonably good at working out in the morning and going to bed at a sensible hour. I've yet to become reasonably good at engaging consistently in all my prior hobbies. (Most of my various writing projects have stalled, and I couldn't muster the wherewithal to prep for either a ___-tober or Yuletide).

I managed to do/see a lot of one off stuff locally in the lead up to said job. I saw one of my favorite musicians live, caught a very nice series of festivals around town, and gawked at a lot of melodramatic local politics. One of the things I've definitely managed to accomplish this year has been getting more engaged with the ins and outs of government at the municipal level--which I would be proud of were my motivations not so clearly mixed up with my love of watching a petty slapfight. As I sink deeper into the abyss of middle-aged squareness, I've become a regular city council audience member, eager to watch first hand as people twenty years my elder fight with one another for ten minutes over approving the previous meeting's minutes.

All things considered, I'm pretty content with my current mode of existing, although part of that is just being able to just exist without having to constantly push towards the next doctoral milestone/job hunt lead/etc... 2023 has been incredibly intense for me, and I'm glad to finally be in the midst of something that looks to be a boring patch.

My life is a mess of deep cleaning, finally catching up with irl friends/relations, and reading this fascinating book on childhood in the middle ages (may or may not result in more Orinus fic someday). I got a chance to make my favorite weird ice cream (pictured below with cake, coffee, and very aesthetic dishes), my cabinets are finally done, and I sent out some handwritten fic to people who requested it following this tumblr post re: what we should all do following the ao3 DDoS attacks. (People who want an FFT double drabble and are willing to trust me with a physical address may still inquire)

( Desserts! )

Also became one of those few lucky people to win a gift card from blood giving. My suffering paid off. :]

I did it. Yesterday, I unlocked a new drop down option on forms where you have to give a prefix before your name. I stood for an hour and a half in terrible, hot, partially velvet robes and was given a piece of paper that entitles me to practice book medicine.

I'm thinking of moving more of my Internet use to Dreamwidth if I can swing it, although like many resolutions, I have little clue if it will stick.

( Slightly Pensive Mopery )