jillian g. meehan

weeknotes eight

2026-04-11T00:00:00Z

Trees are blooming! The sun is out! It feels like a miracle. I went home to visit my family for Easter last weekend and it was still a little cold and rainy, but the pear tree in the backyard was blossoming, and the magnolia tree was on its way.

Also went to the RevenueCat event in New York to hear mb’s talk, and remembered that it is fun being around people and hearing about what they’re working on or excited about. Networking is not my strong suit (I’m shy!), but I do like to tag along with Lickability folks and meet new people. I never know what to do when someone asks for my LinkedIn QR code, though — I guess I should download the app.

things i’m doing

Going to Chicago soon for Deep Dish Swift with mb!
Still playing an awful lot of Reverse: 1999. I’ve been trying to catch up to the story by playing through some of the old events, and I’m finally going to start Chapter 9 soon. Hoping I can pull a quick Willow from the next Reveries banner so I can start building a Poison team.
Saw Project Hail Mary last week — I loved it. Thought the soundtrack was really nice, too. Amaze amaze amaze :)

weeknotes seven

2026-03-28T00:00:00Z

I got new stickers for my journal, but now I have decision paralysis. I assume all sticker-havers are familiar with this feeling — you get stickers because you want to use them, but if you use them, you won’t have any stickers left to use. It’s not that I don’t know what to use my new stickers for; I just want to make sure I use my finite supply effectively.

I got over it by the end of the week. Now, my weekly and daily spreads are more fun and colorful. Now, I feel like I’m actually using my journal.

I got the stickers (along with a Uni-Ball One and a Pentel Multi-8) from Baum-Kuchen. I love their blog, and they have a nice selection of stuff. The packaging it came in was so cute, and came with a little bookmark wrapped up in a lovely note.

Went to Red Hook Tavern for a very late dinner on Sunday night. The burger was crazy, the steak tartare was the best I’ve ever had in my life, and the negronis and wine were delicious. Very cozy vibes, want to go back.

things i’m doing

I started playing Marvel Rivals about a month ago — it really got me! I’ve been playing so much of it lately. I avoided playing ranked games for a while, but finally gave it a shot for Season 7, and I’ve (so far) managed to get to Platinum III. My goal was just to get to Gold, so I’m very happy with that.
Another sort-of new game for me: Reverse: 1999. This has replaced almost every other gacha for me (aside from Genshin, which is still my favorite).
Been reading Invitation to a Beheading. I like it, but I don’t think I love it. I recently finished If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler, which kind of blew my mind, so I’m more lukewarm on this one.

shhh

We don’t need to talk about how I haven’t written a blog post (let alone weeknotes) in a while. If I don’t write another one for a long time after this, that’s cool. I just felt like it today.

Fields of Mistria vs. Stardew Valley

2025-10-07T00:00:00Z

the short version

I got to talking about Fields of Mistria over on Mastodon today, and Marcel asked if it’s worth playing over Stardew Valley. Here’s my short answer.

the long version

I have over 200 hours in Stardew Valley. I did the bulk of my Stardew playing closer to when it came out in 2016, but I’ve started new farms here and there and continue playing it now when I’m in the mood. I’ve played both with and without mods. And I know there have been a lot of updates over the years, so there’s some newer stuff in the game that I still haven’t experienced.

Comparatively, I have about 85 hours in Fields of Mistria so far. I was hesitant to check it out in Early Access, but there is plenty of content already in the game to keep me busy, and their team has been good at shipping regular updates and sticking to a public roadmap.

I love both of these games, they both keep getting better all the time, and they both have pretty big communities of people building companion tools and updating wikis with helpful information and all that.

Of the two, Fields of Mistria is the one I reach for most often lately. The biggest, most obvious reason is that I’ve already played enough Stardew to be satisfied — yes, there’s some new stuff, but I’ve already done my time & I already know what I’m going to be getting from that game. Fields of Mistria is new and refreshing, so my drive to play one more day and discover new things is stronger.

Aside from that, there are a few reasons that I prefer Fields of Mistria:

The characters: The characters are just more interesting to me, from the designs to the dialogue. The interactions they have with you and with other characters in the game feel richer. You can talk to characters multiple times a day, and it still took me a while to find any repeat dialogue! This is one of the strongest parts of the game, imo.
The lore: I love finding out more about the world of Mistria — the ancient history, the recent past, and the present. I think they did a good job building a story around the game and giving you a reason for doing everything you’re doing that isn’t just the same old “outsider inherits an abandoned farm and fixes it up” schtick.
- The archaeology: Somewhat related, I love that archaeology is one of the core skills in this game. There’s not much to it, but it fits well with the vibe and the story.
The quests: There are quests! Most of them are simple little requests to deliver an item to somebody, but there are also bigger quests that actually move the story forward, and I think that’s neat. Obviously this is not groundbreaking, but I enjoy having a bunch of incremental milestones to work toward other than make farm better.
The art: This is completely a personal preference, but I like the pixel art in Fields of Mistria more than Stardew Valley. I usually end up using a lot of mods to change how things look in Stardew, but I think Fields of Mistria is very nice to look at already.
The character customization: You can change how your character looks whenever you want. I would have to double-check, but I’m pretty sure you can also change your character’s name and pronouns whenever you want. It is very easy to get new hairstyles and clothing items and accessories and stuff. The hair is animated! You can wear a cape!
The QoL: Look, nothing is perfect, but I do think there are things in this game that just feel easier and better to do. You walk faster, you can jump over things, you can see where characters are on the map, you can buy things from shops whenever you want, crafting benches can pull items from any of your chests so you don’t really have to worry about where you put things, etc.

Note

In turn, there are some things that I would say are harder than in Stardew: it takes longer to start automating your farm, unlocking lower levels of the mines requires items that can be difficult to get, there’s more RNG involved to complete the museum, and those quests sometimes require a lot of resources that you may have wanted to save for something else. But none of these difficulties have felt annoying or unnecessary to me — just a way to space things out so I always have something to do.

Stardew Valley is still a very nice, comforting game to me. I reach for it when I want something familiar, or when I just want to do some plain old farming without worrying about everything else happening in the game because I’ve already played it. (Or when I want to play something on my laptop, because Fields of Mistria isn’t available on Mac yet.)

I think, also, Stardew is for the minmaxers and spreadsheet sickos. Fields of Mistria might be more your speed if you want something that’s slightly more casual on the farming side of things and slightly more interesting on the story side of things.

september

2025-10-02T00:00:00Z

things i did

Got COVID for the first time — I missed a whole week of work laying around and being sick. Not too bad, but very boring since mostly I was too exhausted and dizzy to do anything but watch Youtube videos for hours while I marinated in Dayquil.
Went to a wedding upstate with Dylan when the leaves were just starting to change 😌
Got a new iPhone for the first time in years. Orange phone good.
Started playing Hades II

At the Crossroads

2025-09-30T00:00:00Z

Note

I haven’t figured out how to add spoiler tags to my website yet! Read at your own risk.

game diary

I started playing Hades II this week! I know it’s been in early access for a while, but I wanted to wait until it was out for real. I loved the first game, and so far I love this one just as much, if not more.

So far, I’ve beaten Chronos twice and gotten to Olympus once. I really like that there are two different routes you can do — I’ve been alternating between them most of the time, unless there are specific materials I need from one direction or the other.

Big fan of the axe, but the sister blades and umbral flames are also great. I’m also really into the cast in this game, compared to Zagreus’. It’s very fun to sink a bunch of boons into your cast and then just hang back and watch everything die from afar.

Note

I’m using God Mode, because I used it in the first game and it helped me a lot. I feel plenty challenged as it is, lol.

my first clears

This is actually my second Chronos clear, because I didn’t get a screenshot of the first one. It was my first time getting Aries boons, so I scooped up as many of them as I could.

I really wasn’t expecting to actually clear the surface this run, but somehow I managed to hold out until the end with 7 HP left. I had a lot of fun with the axe in this one, mostly just going for the spin-to-win Ω attack.

steam summer sale

2025-06-28T00:00:00Z

I am supposed to be packing for a two-week vacation right now, but instead I am sitting at my computer because I realized it’s Steam Summer Sale time and I have some recommendations that I would like to share beyond my small Discord server.

Kingdom Two Crowns

$4.99, 75% off

I have played so many hours of this. Half tower defense, half very chill base builder, and has different difficulty levels for different types of players. You can take it easy and enjoy the vibes, or you can challenge yourself, and you’ll probably die a few times either way but it’ll be fine. Also has a bunch of DLCs — Norse Lands and Call of Olympus are the best versions of the game, imo, but the base game is great to start with.

Roadwarden

$3.84, 65% off

I usually describe this as a very chill text-based version of the Witcher without the cool Witcher powers. All vibes.

You can play this at the normal difficulty, which gives you a certain number of in-game days to complete your chosen quest, and then each time you play you can explore different things. Or you can do what I did and play story mode, explore every little thing in one 30-hour run, and then put it down and wish you could erase it from your brain to play again for the first time. I still think about this game all the time.

Note

This one is not the best for Steam Deck, because the text is a bit small and you do have to use the trackpads. It’s doable, and I certainly did it, but I enjoyed it more on my laptop.

Potion Craft

$4.99, 75% off

An alchemy game where you grow mushrooms and herbs, figure out different potion recipes, sell them to people, level up, etc. I know I keep calling all these games chill, but it’s very chill. Less of a game that I would play for hours and hours and hours straight, but perfect to pick up for a bit when I’m in the mood for it.

Inbento

$0.99, 80% off

Just a very nice little puzzle game with a bunch of levels. Really easy Steam Deck gaming. Good vibes. Not super difficult, but it’ll make you use your brain.

Hades

$8.49, 66% off

If you haven’t played Hades yet, now is the time to pick it up. It’s a great game, everyone knows this — I don’t think there’s anything more for me to say.

Dorfromantik

$8.49, 40% off

Another extremely chill game that you can lose hours and hours to. It’s sort of a world-building puzzle game, I guess? You place hexagonal tiles down on a grid to continue expanding your world, meeting certain requirements that pop up until you eventually run out of tiles and have to start over. There is no final sense of accomplishment, just many little accomplishments along the way until the game is over — ad infinitum.

New Star GP

$4.99, 50% off

This is such a fun racing game, lol. If you like F1 but racing sims are too hardcore for you (me), this game is the solution. It’s just good, vibey fun. Not too difficult, but enough of a challenge that it feels good to keep trying and improving on each track. Perfect for Steam Deck.

Minami Lane

$3.49, 30% off

A very cute game about building and managing one city street. It only took me a few hours to beat everything, but it was a very nice and relaxing few hours. There is something to be said for very short, well-made games that just know what they’re about.

A Short Hike

$4.39, 45% off

Speaking of short, well-made games that just know what they’re about: I haven’t played this game in many years, but it left such a lasting impression on me. It is so good. Meant to be played in one afternoon and then digested forever.

Dawnfolk

$11.99, 20% off

This is a newer game for me, but I’ve been playing a lot of it lately. It’s a tile-laying city-builder kinda thing with a story campaign to get you into it, followed up with lots of additional levels & daily puzzles to keep you going if you want more.

Fields of Mistria

$11.19, 20% off

God, this is such a good game. If you like Stardew Valley at all, you will love this. It’s still in “early access,” but there’s already so much stuff in the game that I’ve played nearly 40 hours of it and am definitely nowhere close to running out of things to do.

A Fresh Start

2025-04-17T00:00:00Z

Anh told me to play Stardew Valley, so I’m playing Stardew Valley. I haven’t properly touched the game in a while, and I know there’s been a lot of new stuff added that I haven’t seen yet, so coming back to it with a fresh save feels both familiar and new.

I started with the new Meadowlands farm, which has a really interesting layout & gives you a coop with two chickens to start off with instead of a bunch of parsnip seeds. I spent a little bit of time clearing away land and getting some green beans growing right away, since I know they’ll regrow all season.

My first week of Spring had all the usual getting-started stuff: I met some villagers, I got a fishing rod, I planted a few more crops when I had enough gold to buy the seeds, I got to Floor 5 of the mines and crafted a furnace, I started gathering wood to build a silo, and I checked out the community center for the first time.

mods

I wasn’t going to play with mods, because I’m mostly playing on my Steam Deck where they’re a little more annoying to install, and because I thought it’d be nice to have the “vanilla” experience since there’s a bunch of new stuff. But I couldn’t help myself.

It ended up not really being that annoying to install the mods. I downloaded all the ones I wanted on my laptop first, zipped them up into a folder, and emailed it to myself (lol classic) to download on my Steam Deck. Dragging a bunch folders around with the little trackpad is probably the most fiddly part of the whole process.

I made a list of the mods I’m currently using, and some that I’m not using but want to remember to try at some point. I’ll try to remember to keep it updated. 🫡

weeknotes six

2025-02-16T00:00:00Z

hibernating

The weather is gloomy this week — rainy and snowy and dark, but at least the sun is setting a little bit later every day. I haven’t felt much like posting, and I’ve had a very lazy week. I’m having a hard time keeping up with my routines and chores lately, but I’m trying not to make myself feel too bad about it.

I wish I had updated this sooner, because there have been plenty of things for me to write about in the past couple of weeks. I’ll try my best to remember it all, but no promises.

journaling

I still try to do some form of daily journaling in Obsidian, because it’s a nice part of my routine and I like having a record of my days to look back on. But I’ve also been supplementing that with a very cute and charming mood-tracking app, Unhinged.

watching

Severance

I finally started watching the first season of Severance. I think everyone probably already knows this already, but it’s insanely good. There’s not a single thing about it that I don’t love.

listening

Never Post

This is one of my favorite podcasts these days. I’m not bringing it up now because it’s new, but because they somewhat-recently did an episode looking back over their first year of the show and it got me all emotional about the people who make stuff like this & the people who care enough about it to support them with real dollars.

playing

Isle of Arrows

I downloaded this on my phone and then apparently played 15 hours of it in one week. It’s a nice little tower defense game with a handful of different modes to play through and unique daily challenges — it’s hard enough that I feel very accomplished when I manage to win, but not hard enough that I want to stop trying.

New Star GP

Dylan told me about this one, and I love it. It’s a racing game for people who like F1 but aren’t actually into sim racing, which is exactly me. The vibes are just incredibly sick. I’ve spent several nights sinking into my couch and playing this on my Steam Deck for hours.

The gachas

I’m having the usual amount of fun keeping up with Genshin, Honkai Star Rail, and ZZZ! I always love Lantern Rite this time of year, and I like that ZZZ had a similar event.

In Genshin, I pulled for C4 Childe on the Chronicled Wish banner and ended up with a C1 Ganyu and C1 Xiao along the way, which I can’t complain about. I also got Mizuki, and now I’m going for her weapon since I assume I won’t have many other chances to get it in the future. If there’s anything left over, I might try for a Sigewinne constellation before the banner ends — but after that, I think I’m just saving for Skirk.

In HSR, Mydei has quickly become one of my favorite characters, so I’m just waiting for him to come along in the next update. And in ZZZ, I got Astra Yao (very fun, wow) and finally got Qingyi’s teapot, which was a huge upgrade. I’m pretty interested in going for Trigger in the next update, because apparently I just love stun agents in this game.

weeknotes five

2025-01-18T00:00:00Z

two-week sleepover

One of my best friends is coming to visit & stay with me for a couple of weeks, and it’s gonna be a great time. We have lots of plans to play video games together and rewatch our favorite k-dramas.

learning greek

I just finished Section 1: Unit 9 of the Duolingo Greek course this morning! Onto the next. I’ve also been practicing my Greek handwriting this week on pages in the back of my Hobonichi journal — it’s like educational doodling.

playing

Honkai Star Rail

Very into the 3.0 update. The Herta is great & very fun to play, Amphoreus is lovely, and I’m really excited about this chapter of the story so far. Penacony was great, but I can already tell this will be better.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time grinding through the past Simulated Universe expansions, since I never really finished them. I unlocked all the secrets in Swarm Disaster and Unknowable Domain, and now I’m working on Gold & Gears.

balatro

Have been getting back into Balatro a bit this week, since it’s a really good Steam Deck game. I am not very good at it, but it’s such a fun way to lose a few hours on the couch.

The other gachas

I’ve really just been playing a lot of HSR this week, so my other games — Genshin, ZZZ, and Wuthering Waves — have taken a bit of a backseat. But there’s a new ZZZ update coming up soon that I’m excited about, and it’s almost time for Lantern Rite in Genshin!

weeknotes four

2025-01-04T00:00:00Z

Two days until work starts up again — at this point I’m grateful for it, because I think I really need to just get back into my normal routines. And to remember that time flows normally even after vacation ends, because my brain keeps tricking me into thinking that I need to do everything I’ve ever wanted to do before Monday or I will run out of time and lose the chance to do any of it ever again. Silly!

what i’ve been up to

I went home to see my family for Christmas; had a good time hanging out there for the week eating cookies and playing Uno. I came back to Brooklyn to see friends and make New Year’s Even plans — which turned out to be very chill. Dylan and I hung out with a small group of friends and drank wine while we played video games until midnight.

reading

I spent an entire day reading 500 Years Later: An Oral History of Final Fantasy VII, which was pretty cool. It was less about the game itself and more about the business & management stuff happening at Square at the time, told through interviews with a bunch of the people involved before, during, and after the game launched. Really made me want to go back and play more of it!

I also just got a copy of The Norse Myths retold by Kevin Crossley-Holland, and I’ve been making my way through it. I like having a bunch of these stories in a collection together that I can flip through, and there’s a lot of extra context in the introduction & the footnotes for each story, so I’m learning a lot. 50 Watts has a bunch of other collections in the same “Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library” series, and I’d like to pick up more of them once I finish this one.

watching

I didn’t watch any Christmas movies this year! I always kinda forget to when I’m not with my family, and they watch them all early anyway. I’m in the mood for a Phantom Thread rewatch soon, though — it’s a holiday movie in my heart if not in reality.

My family and I usually like to watch comedy specials on Netflix when I’m home. This year we went for the newest Nate Bargatze one, and a couple of Tom Papa’s. And when I got back to New York, Dylan and I started watching the new season of Squid Game, which we’re a few episodes into so far.

playing

Both Genshin and Wuthering Waves had updates this week, and Honkai Star Rail has a big update coming up soon, so I’ve naturally been playing a lot of those. I’m also still playing a lot of Kingdom: Two Crowns — I finished the Call of Olympus DLC and started Norse Lands, to go along with the book I’m reading.

The big news is I just realized I can play Dragon’s Dogma 2 again, after not being able to get it to open for months. It’s not really a great time to sink my teeth back into a game like that, because I’ve got plenty of other things I wanted to do, but I can’t help myself. I’m going to try to remember how the controls work today so I can pick up where I left off with the main story.

footnote

I’m happy with the changes I made to my /now page recently, and I’m happy to actually be updating it & writing weeknotes more often, but it does feel a little silly to me that I’m essentially writing the same thing in two places at the same time. They’re not exactly the same, but there’s a good amount of overlap. I don’t know what I wanna do about that…or if I really care to do anything about it at all. Maybe it’s fine! Whatever!

weeknotes three

2024-12-21T00:00:00Z

It’s been a while. Excuse me while I clear away the digital cobwebs.

what i’ve been up to

After my last two days of work for the year, I spent my week ruining my sleep schedule and playing video games on my couch with Junie sleeping next to me on a cozy blanket. I also kinda blacked out for a day and made a bunch of changes around here — changelog if you’re interested. The tl;dr is: the website is still kind of a mess, but at least the things piled up in the corner are stacked neatly. The baseboards are dusty but the dishes are done, etc.

I’m trying to ignore the classic holiday break anxiety that I’m not being productive enough with my vacation! Dylan’s coming home from a work trip today, so I’m excited to spend the weekend hanging out with him for a bit before heading home to see my family for Christmas. And then I’ll have another week or so to fix my sleep schedule and catch up on YouTube videos I’ve been meaning to watch.

playing

I’m still playing all the usual stuff (mostly ZZZ, because they just added it to Geforce Now & the latest update has been really good). Having time off means I can dedicate more energy to just catching up on stuff — playing a bunch of live games at the same time is hard, lol. Unfortunately, I love them!

infinity nikki

I wasn’t going to play Infinity Nikki, but I caved and downloaded it onto my Steam Deck to check it out this week. My favorite part of any RPG is finding & upgrading armor — and this is basically a game about exactly that, but the armor is cute clothes.

I had fun playing it for a day and satisfying my curiosity, but I’m probably not going to play much more of it for now. I’m glad it’s there if I’m in the mood, but I’m not super interested in playing it on a regular basis right now.

inbento

My friend told me about this puzzle game recently — it’s cute, satisfying, and not too complicated! I’ve gotten to the ninth level so far, and I like that I can just pick it up and play a little bit of it quickly & casually. I want to play more games like this.

(Looks like they also have a mobile version, btw!)

kingdom two crowns: call of olympus

I played a bit of Kingdom: New Lands over the summer and liked it a lot, but haven’t touched it in a while. I remembered seeing at the time that they had another version of the game, Kingdom: Two Crowns, so I picked it up — and then let it sit on the shelf for a bit.

I don’t really know what the difference between the two games is, but Two Crowns has a bunch of DLCs that are basically reskins of the game in different settings (“Norse Lands,” “Shogun,” etc). All this to say: I stayed up way too late last night working my way through the Artemis island in the Call of Olympus version. And now I’m going to stop writing this so I can go play some more of it.

i bought some fonts

2024-03-16T00:00:00Z

I did some other stuff too, but the fonts are the fun part. As mentioned in the changelog, I finally got around to sprucing up the place a little bit — I was getting tired of looking at a css-less website.

As the first step of that process, I treated myself to two Connary Fagen fonts that I’ve had stashed away in a folder for a while: Argent Pixel & Addington. Once I got those all set up, I stole Andy Bell’s css reset to get me started. And then I wrote some very lazy, scuffed css just to quickly get everything looking a little nicer.

I do have aspirations of really nice, clean, efficient scss files that are organized and easy to read. But I decided when I started this project that it wasn’t worth getting into the weeds with all that before I’ve had the chance to play around and actually figure out what I want the website to be. I’m still in the messy, experimental phase.

Oh — I also (as mentioned in the last post) got some more collections set up in Obsidian. So now I can make really quick updates to the /now page by adding & editing Obsidian files for books I’m reading, games I’m playing, and other things I’m doing.

Next, I think I want to set up individual pages for each item in those collections — each book, each game. And maybe a “shelf,” so I can also list the things I’ve already finished or haven’t started yet. And then maybe after that I’ll get around to writing better css.

using obsidian as a cms

2024-03-09T00:00:00Z

It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do about the dreaded content management over here. Mostly because I didn’t think my ideal solution — writing stuff directly in the obsidian vault that I use for everything else all the time & then being able to put what I’ve written online without needing to actually push anything to GitHub myself — was a real option. Turns out it kinda is.

I’m using the GitHub Publisher plugin for Obsidian, which has a bunch of configuration options that I am pretending to understand how to use. I added a folder to my Obsidian vault — alongside all my other folders full of notes that already exist — and moved all my old blog posts into it. I also set up an Obsidian template for new blog posts, with all the front matter properties I need. Now, all I need to do to publish a blog post is hit the little “publish” checkbox in the file properties, and the plugin will push it to the repo & merge it automatically.

This plugin is cool, and it pretty much is the ideal solution I was looking for, but it’s not perfect. It took me a couple of days of wrangling with both the plugin & 11ty to figure out how to get images to actually show up in posts because of file path weirdness (the solution I ended up with was making each blog post a folder note with another folder inside it for photos). The plugin also can’t pull any content in, so if I were to add a post via some other method for whatever reason, I wouldn’t be able to see & edit that post in Obsidian without making a brand new copy of it — not that I expect this will happen often.

fun config stuff if you’re nosy

I will not claim to be an expert on anything that’s going on here, but these are the plugin settings that seem to be doing what I want:

Since I want the file structure to stay the same as it is in my Obsidian vault, I have file tree in repository set to Obsidian path. I’m also using the folder path name replacer — the name of the Obsidian folder I’m using is 🍵 oolong, but the plugin very politely pretends that it’s named src so everything will end up in the right place.
I have folder notes turned on, so each blog post is in its own folder — the folder is named with the blog post title, and the post itself is just “index.md,” which is what 11ty was already doing. For whatever reason, this is what fixed the issue I was having with images not showing up.
I have internal links and wikilink → mdlink converting turned on but I don’t actually know what that’s doing because I haven’t tested it. I suspect I’m gonna have to play around with it to get it to work, but it’s not like I’m using a lot of wikilinks here.
I have transfer attachments turned on — this is so anything that’s not a markdown file that gets linked in a markdown file (e.g. an image in a blog post) also gets published. I also have attachments set to use the Obsidian structure, so they stay in the folders I put them in rather than all getting sent to the same place.
I changed my share key to “publish” rather than the default “share” because I like that better.

So that’s what i’ve been tinkering with this weekend. Right now, it’s just set up for blog posts, but I want to try using this method for other types of collections — books I’m reading, games i’m playing, etc.

weeknotes two

2023-12-29T00:00:00Z

Happy dead week.

what i’ve been up to

I started the Greek Duolingo course this week. While I’m not particularly good at keeping my Duolingo streak, I do like to pick up new courses every once in a while to see what’s up — I mainly focus on learning Mandarin, but I’ve started at least five others just for fun.

I just find it really interesting to check out the beginning of different courses, especially when there’s another alphabet involved — regardless of how much Greek or Korean I ever end up learning in my life, I think there’s something to be said for having a basic understanding of how their alphabets work & how to pronounce things.

I also, as you may have already seen, started slowly rebuilding my website from scratch. And I’m having fun.

reading

I finally got a copy of Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Iliad and have been slowly making my way through her (fantastic, imo) introduction. I also spent Christmas morning reading Bryan Doerries’ translation of Ajax in All That You’ve Seen Here is God, which I loved. I’m excited to read the rest of the plays in this collection.

playing

A year after I originally started playing FFXIV, I’m finally about to finish the Seventh Umbral Era quests. I also recently got an Analogue Pocket (!!!) and have been playing Castlevania: Circle of the Moon & Fire Emblem: the Binding Blade — both for the first time.

I picked up Roadwarden from the Steam winter sale and then played it for four hours straight until I had a headache from reading a lot of tiny video game text on my Wteam Deck in the dark without moving. it’s so good.

watching

I saw Napoleon a few weeks ago — I wish it had committed more to being one of the several different movies it was trying to be all at once. To make up for it, I really want to find time to see Maestro & The Boy and the Heron sometime soon.

I haven’t really been watching any new tv shows, but I did decide (after watching this video) that i want to watch Andor. I’ve also been hearing a lot about Doctor Who again lately, which is kind of making me want to get back into it.

weeknotes one

2023-11-10T00:00:00Z

I’m going to copy Anh — I’ve been thinking about weeknotes lately, and about why I don’t write here very often, and about how I could change that. It’s easier not to write than to write, and writing in public is a little humiliating in a way that private journaling escapes. But I’ve managed to build up the habit of journaling, so maybe I can do this, too.

I go back and forth on this: I sometimes feel annoying and useless taking up space “on-line,” like I’m whining and begging everyone to look at me! I’m here! — like the only way I’m allowed to post is to share something interesting I worked on, and the rest of me has to live in the shadows.

But I know that’s not true. I know that I like to fill my feeds with tiny life updates and silly thoughts from people I follow, even people that I barely know at all. I love when I have no idea what anyone is talking about. I love browsing ooh.directory for blogs I never would have known existed, and filling my rss feed with inconsequential posts that nonetheless make me happy to read. I want more of that, so maybe I have to be part of making more of that.

what i’ve been up to

I’ve been sketching more — in an actual sketchbook, with actual pens and pencils. I like doodling in Procreate, but something about sketching on paper feels better. Even though it’s harder to correct things I’m not happy with, and even though I have far less freedom & flexibility with materials, I like what I make in my sketchbook far more than anything I make on my iPad.

Because of that, and because we’re nearing the end of the year, I’ve been thinking a lot about notebooks and planners. I still haven’t decided if I want a new Hobonichi for next year or if I want to try something else. I really don’t need a planner, much less a daily one, but I still like having them. I do have some idea of what my ideal notebook would be, and the modularity of the Traveler’s Notebook comes pretty close — so I might try that out.

watching

After years of curiosity, I started watching Outlander on Halloween — which was kind of perfect, because the first episode takes place on Samhain. I immediately loved the vibes. I’ve watched about half of the first season, and I’ll probably continue watching it for a bit, but I don’t know if i’ll be able to hang on for seven seasons.

I also saw The Killer, which I didn’t think was very good. It definitely looked & felt & sounded like a Fincher movie, but the story was lacking compared to everything else he’s done. I would rather just rewatch The Social Network for the 300th time.

playing

Genshin’s 4.2 patch just came out, and I stayed up embarrassingly late to play the entire Archon Quest in one night after pulling for Furina and her weapon. I’ve really loved the whole Fontaine arc, and I think Act V wrapped it up so well — Furina is easily my favorite archon.

And to brag for a second: I managed to get 100% exploration on the existing Fontaine map before 4.2 was released, I got the Fontaine wings, and I also finally hit 1000 achievements this week. I have really played a stupid amount of this game.

As for the other Hoyoverse games, I finished the latest Trailblaze Mission in Honkai: Star Rail last night, just a few days away from a new update. And I finally started Honkai Impact: 3rd this week — so far, I have no idea what I’m doing, but the story is really interesting to me. I wanna know the lore!!!

reading

I just reread Sophocles’ Ajax, a play I never expected to love as much as I do. I feel like every time I read it, I get something new out of it.

Skamander river
hostile to the Greeks,
there is one man your water
will not mirror
again

(Ajax, Sophocles)

An issue of Spencer Chang’s newsletter from all the way back in February made its way into my queue recently, and I really loved reading it. Makes me want to be a more curious, friendly, open person.

I want to believe in people. I want to believe that I still believe in people.

(believing in believing in people, Spencer Chang)

I’ve also been thinking + reading a lot about chess lore recently:

That’s all. Happy Friday. Going to go make another cup of tea and clean my apartment.

opening mail

2023-01-06T00:00:00Z

i really like saving up a bunch of mail for a bit to open all at once — not like, bills or other time-sensitive things, but fun mail. stuff like the postcards & stickers in that photo, from cheyenne barton’s patreon, or letters from friends.

i spent most of my morning in bed after waking up at 6:45 to watch the 3.4 genshin impact livestream, and only got up a few minutes ago. i was supposed to go to the dmv today but the thought of going outside is sort of filling me with dread, so i rescheduled my appointment for a couple weeks later & now i have the whole day to myself. i have a bunch of little chores i want to take care of — first thing on the list was opening mail.

i had a whole backlog of things from patreon to open, plus a few holiday cards from friends that i was saving to open on a calmer day. i also got a big census envelope in the mail this week, but i’m ignoring that today in favor of the fun stuff. i’ll get to it later.

today i got to add four postcards, a handwritten note that made me smile, and a painting done by a friend to the wall above my desk. i think i’m starting to run out of space, but i’ll manage.

back at work

2023-01-05T00:00:00Z

it’s a thursday, but it feels like a monday. i’ve got a full slack inbox & and an empty new hobonichi, ready to scribble in with my also-new pens.

i’ve missed sitting at my desk! i’ve missed typing on my little keyboard! i’ve had a nice break from everything, visiting family & playing video games & giving myself permission to not think about projects and stuff. but it is good to be back in my regular routines, even if it feels a bit like picking up breath of the wild for the first time in months and forgetting how to take out my wind glider.

my therapist told me my routines are very important to me (she’s right, and i knew that). breaks are nice, but i have a hard time feeling like a person again after going a week without getting up at my usual time & making a cup of tea first thing in the morning. i’m sure most people feel the same — i don’t mean the pretty, idealized, lifestyle-bloggy morning routines; i just mean the things you do every day that you don’t really notice or think about until they’re missing. i snooze my alarm once every morning on principle, whether i need to or not.

i got some new pens

2022-11-27T00:00:00Z

happy sunday. i got some new toys :)

i never understood the fountain pen hype because i’ve never actually used a good one. but i was browsing jetpens last week looking for a notebook that would change my brain chemistry (didn’t end up getting one — the several unfilled notebooks i have are fine) and wandered into a post about different kinds of pens & which one is right for you etc etc etc. (i got two of their recommended “best gel pen,” the uni-ball signo um-151.)

somehow from there i ended up reading “The Best Beginner Fountain Pens” & adding the platinum preppy fine nib + the pilot kakuno medium nib to my cart. so now i’ve got two fountain pens.

i was worried i wouldn’t like them, or that i wouldn’t be able to write well with them, or whatever. but they’re actually really, really nice — they’re so smooth & easy to write with. i get why people like these now. (there’s also just something fun about having a pen that requires more care & maintenance than your average rollerball; it’s like a pet.)

the pens i steal from hotels get the job done just as well as anything else, and i can scribble notes on whatever piece of paper i have in front of me — that’s all i need. but it’s nice to have a little treat sometimes.

good morning

2022-11-18T00:00:00Z

hi i guess. it’s been a while since i did any kind of blogging—i don’t really know how to begin.

i started reading the iliad last night & got very worked up at nearly 3 a.m. about the fact that i was reading a story that people were enjoying ~2700 years ago. so many things feel ephemeral—how many people are downloading their twitter archive right now for fear of their tweets being lost? (and will they ever even look at it?)—but somehow i can read a story on my ipad that’s so old we barely know anything about the origin of it. what? ok.

i don’t think i ever want to make something that lasts that long. i don’t think that i could, anyway. i’m content to tinker away at my little ideas & projects without the threat of longevity.

when i was a kid using the family computer in the basement, i used to have bookmark folders of blogs & websites i liked, and i’d check them every so often to see what was new. it’s hilarious to me to think of a time where i didn’t rely on feeds. anyway: if you want, you can keep up with my posts here via rss. if you’re more of a newsletter person, there are a bunch of rss-to-email services out there—feedrabbit is one with a decent free tier.

🫡