Blog

I managed 5 weeks of weekly blogging (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5) but I just don't do that much that's worth writing about; it probably makes more sense to try and do this on a monthly basis.

Reading

• I (finally) finished book nine in the Wheel of Time series, Winter's Heart. It was fine? It ends with the cleansing of saidin, which was both over- and underwhelming. Apparently Rand learned how to do this from the Aelfinn (though they didn't provide the answers in the book), but I don't even remember him asking the question. Sadly, this series will probably warrant a re-read at some point. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
• I somehow managed to also read the entirety of book ten, Crossroads of Twilight. It was a quick read, or else I’ve just been making a lot more time for reading than usual. Parts of it were supremely boring (I will never care about Perrin or Faile, apparently) but we got to see a bit of political intrigue, and some cool magic, and finally spend a decent amount of time with Egwene doing her Amyrlin thing.

Art

• I did manage to put pen and paint to paper a few times this month, which feels good. I have a project in progress that I have to finish before May, which sounds like a long time but the weeks keep slipping by without any progress being made.

Other

• La Poutine Week took up a bit of my time in the first half of the month; though it was mostly disappointing. How hard can it be to put together a decent poutine? Very, apparently — there was only one option I would bother eating again.

• I finally pulled out my paints and brushes this week and got started on a new piece. It isn’t much to look at just yet, but I am excited to see where it goes and it’s really nice to have something new to work on.

Reading

• About halfway through Winter’s Heart. There’s been, like, one chapter with Rand in it so far. I know this story is not just about him, but maybe the reason this book feels like a slog is because it’s mostly centred around boring-ass characters like Perrin and Mat (sorry, I know a lot of people love Perrin and probably even more people love Mat, but Perrin is dumb as a post and Mat is sort of just a fount of misogyny and narcissism).

Watching

• TV took a bit of a back seat this week but The Last of Us is still really good.
• Season two of The Fight Attendant is great so far, and I’m so glad to see some character development from raging alcoholic to someone actually trying to improve their life.

• It feels like it hasn’t stopped raining in Vancouver for months. The occasional clear day isn’t quite enough to make up for it. Dreaming of somewhere sunny.
• Work is picking up after a long slow season, and it looks like I’m in for a busy year. Thanks, I hate it!

Reading

• Making slow and steady progress through Winter’s Heart. Apparently this is about halfway through ‘the slog’, which fans seem to agree is somewhere from books 7 - 11 (Winter’s Heart is book 9). I can’t say I felt that the previous novels were excruciatingly slow, but this one definitely feels like it’s off to a slow start. I have never cared that much for Perrin, and even less for Faile. Guess I’ll just have to keep on slogging.

Watching

• The Last of Us is off to a decent start. I never played the video game, but I’m far more interested after episode 1 than I ever was for, say, The Walking Dead.
• That 90’s Show is terrible. It’s practically a carbon copy of the original, which was barely better than mediocre to begin with. If it weren’t for the nostalgia, it would be 100% garbage. I’m so tired of shows and movies trying to cash in on nostalgia. Are we really all done with the original ideas?
• The Flight Attendant is at least interesting, though it’s very hard to feel for someone who is just… a bad person? Glorifying the absolutely insane level of alcoholism (since she was a child??!?!?) feels… not right. But this is definitely a better opportunity for Kaley Cuoco to show off her acting chops than as, say, Billy in Charmed.
• Finally got around to watching Glass Onion. It’s good! Solid whodunit, but I’m not sure it needs multiple rewatches as some friends have implied.