my birthday was a few days ago (the 16th), so i'm 23 now! doesn't feel that different, except wow the decade is going to end pretty soon. time is fake.

my presents include Betrayal Legacy (board game -- now I just need to gather enough friends/family members to play a full campaign with me); a beanie with cat ears; a "Huggie" (sort of like a Snuggie, except not as long); AI: The Somnium Files for Switch (my parents even got the special edition, which i wasn't expecting, so i also have the artbook & soundtrack! which is on a CD. if i can get my main computer to work again, i'll have something to play the CD on...)

i also got 3 books:

• Ninefox Gambit
• The Traitor Baru Cormorant
• Gideon the Ninth

i've played a few hours of AI: The Somnium Files; it's interesting so far, and i may post more about it later. but the rest of this post is gonna be about Gideon the Ninth.

Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir, is -- to quote the tagline on the front cover -- about "lesbian necromancers exploring a haunted gothic palace in space!" it's every bit as awesome as that description implies, and more.

also, i don't normally encourage judging books by covers, but the cover is fucking awesome and shows off our badass protagonist, so here it is. (side note: my copy also has black page edging, which looks killer & is thematic for a book about necromancers)

it has, no joke, the most amazing rivalship i have ever seen. slightly more detailed summary: the necromantic heirs of each House, along with their personal swordsmen/women, are invited to a decaying palace on a planet almost no one has been to in ten thousand years, in order to serve the deathless god-Emperor. Harrow, the powerful necromantic heir to the Ninth House, brings her hated childhood rival Gideon as her swordswoman. Gideon would rather be anywhere-fucking-else.

i devoured this book yesterday. i'd been hearing about it for a while, so i knew it was supposed to be good, but it was fucking amazing. it's rocketed onto my Favorite Books list. i have a feeling i'm going to want to reread it, maybe soon. it's one of the top fandoms this year for Yuletide (like 30 requests?? damn), so now i have something else i might write treats for (though doing my assignment first would be, smart.)

ALSO i found the author's tumblr (tazmuir) and the author used to write fanfic, which isn't surprising in this day and age EXCEPT that i recognize her username (she used to write Homestuck fanfic, including a few fics i really liked; in retrospect, this does explain how amazing the rivalship is in this book.)

spoilers below.

( gideon the ninth spoilers )

in conclusion, please read Gideon the Ninth if you haven't already, and then please talk to me about it!!

ps. the "absolutely unofficial nine houses test" says i'm Sixth House, which is fair.

so after a month or so (more? i don't know, time is fake) of reading various hot takes about Marie Kondo, i've been curious about what her actual teachings are, so i decided to seek out a copy of her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. turns out my mom had a copy, so i gave it a read.

now, i haven't cleaned my room in at least a year, probably closer to two. and it's probably been much longer since i really made an attempt to organize, or to decide what i wanted to keep and what i didn't want any longer.

there are some things about the book that intuitively appeal to me. for instance, in the introduction Kondo mentions (in regard to advice to tidy up "a little bit at a time"), "I am not the type of person who likes to plug away at something, one step at a time. For people like me, who do their assignments on the very last day right before the deadline, this approach just doesn't work," and then, "If, like me, you are not the diligent, persevering type, then I recommend aiming for perfection just once." this appeals to me because i find trying to build slow & steady habits very difficult; i tend to read a book or write an essay all at once rather than a little bit at a time.

( Read more... )

i don't know. it looks promising but idk if i have it in me to confront that anxiety. so maybe i just won't. i guess i'll think about it for now, since tomorrow i'll probably be too busy anyway.