Weekly summary: Jan. 14 - Jan. 20, 2024

[alchemicink]

Another week down! I had a little more free time than I expected, so this is gonna be a long link-heavy summary this time 😂

I did not, however, find time to write a review of Miss Scarlet and the Duke again this week. So some brief thoughts: episode two was good! I liked the mystery this week (a murdered undertaker), and I've also liked the difficult working circumstances Eliza and William have been put in this season. It's a lot more interesting than whatever was going on in season three.

But the best part of episode two was actually the cliffhanger ending 👀 I've been thinking about it all week. I'm very much looking forward to tonight's episode that'll feature flashbacks to Eliza and William when they first met 👀👀 (I'm a sucker for childhood friends to lovers, episode three is gonna destroy me, I can already tell)

***

Still doing the Snowflake Challenge! My posts: #8 (a WIP you're working on) and #9 (a new rec) and #10 (five things)

Also, I celebrated ten years of fic writing this past week 🥳

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I'm on a tiny fic writing break right now (until the end of January probably), so I've been catching up on fic reading instead. Several recs this time:

An extremely fun YGO murder mystery game. (No ships, no one actually dies) I'm very pleased I was able to guess the murderer correctly!

A very cute and funny Star Trek Lower Decks fic featuring Tendi/T'Lyn ♡

I love basketball and I love royai, and this FMAB au fic combines the two. Very lovely to read

I've never read Riza Hawkeye/Rebecca Catalina before, but this FMAB fic was really fun. The bartender's one line really cracked me up too.

For a more serious FMAB fic, this royai one was so well done. In which Roy chooses to stay blind, goes to rehabilitation, and still manages to find a way to start reconstructing Ishval.

Lastly, I enjoyed this this Star Trek DS9 fic set during the season 6 episode "The Sound of her Voice." Featuring Garak/Bashir as the romance, but the bulk of the fic is really on friendship with Keiko & Garak, and Bashir & Lisa Cusak.

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Music stuff! It's been quiet for weeks but now everyone decided to finally start releasing some new stuff again!

Garnidelia is releasing a new album, so they shared a new music video: -Ten-

Nemophilia is also releasing a new album, but they promoted it by sharing two concert performances: AMA-TE-RAS and revive

HSJ is back sharing weekly videos again, and for some reason they choose this performance of life is an adventure featuring what is probably one of the top 5 ugliest costumes of all time 😂 I genuinely don't know what the song sounds like bc I was too busy laughing

The YouTube algorithm got weird this week and decided to rec me a song from Matenrou Opera, which is a band I don't think I've listened to since 2010 😂 anyway, they're apparently still together and releasing music. This latest song is Hikari no Ame. Yes, one of these guys plays a keytar!!

I guess I'm gonna have to add a Kanjani8 tag because they keep releasing performances of old songs that I liked by them. This week is a nice concert performance of life, which was one of my all-time favorites. You know, I don't even miss the vocals from the bandmates who aren't there anymore...

Lastly, a live performance of nanmaida by Gacharic Spin. It feels kinda like they mashed three different songs together in one, which is kinda jarring, but I think it'll grow on me. If nothing else, I love their energy.

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fandomtrees reveals were this week! My gifts are in the comments here. I received some nice recipes to try, some new icons, and a very sweet sulemio fic!

I also wrote three little ficlets as gifts for people too:
☆ Let the cards fall where they may (Fruits Basket, Kyou/Tohru)
☆ Best seats in the house (Star Trek TNG, Guinan & Jean-Luc Picard)
☆ Knuckles (Yu-Gi-Oh, Bakura Ryou/Yami Bakura)

It was a fun event! I'm hoping to have a chance to browse through other people's gifts this week!

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Lastly, I had a few cooking adventures this week. Trying out some new recipes and such! I made a noodle soup that ended up tasting like spaghettios?? (Whoops?) I experimented with making homemade pizza (this turned out well). I made a batch of Japanese cream stew yesterday (the last of my cream stew stock that was gifted to me by a friend and there's nowhere to buy it locally 😭)

And I'm hoping to try some new things this week too. If work isn't too exhausting 🤞

Anyway, this summary post is way too long 😅 so I'll end it here. Wishing everyone a happy week ahead!

Comments

[vriddy]

Busy week!! :D :D Is there any reason for tiny writing break, is it something you do regularly? (No worries if you'd rather not talk about it, though!) I ponder often about taking the time to "refill the well" though I worry about breaks ending up lasting years, as has happened before. I guess with a 10y streak you don't have to worry about that too much :D

[alchemicink]

I don't mind talking about writing habits and such 😊 I force myself to take writing breaks whenever I feel like I'm teetering towards burnout. I wrote a lot in a short period of time in December and then didn't give myself a proper break after that. So I feel like I need one now (especially bc work is going to be extra busy the rest of the month and that involves quite a lot of writing too. I have to be careful to balance work writing with fun writing and not do too much of either!)

"Refilling the well" is definitely a good way to describe it. Being creative can actually be quite exhausting, and I believe everyone needs to give themselves rest periods. Just like you'd need if you spent all the time dancing or playing sports, etc. Writing is an "active" hobby moreso than a passive one like reading, but I think a lot of people forget that because it's not really that physical.

Anyway, I usually get too restless to stay on a break for longer than a few weeks, but that's mostly because I don't have a lot of other hobbies 😅 have you had trouble in the past with taking really long breaks? I suppose if you are taking a writing break that lasts longer than a year but you're filling your time with other fun stuff, then that's not so bad, right?

(I get kinda rambly when I talk sometimes, I'm sorry 😅)

[vriddy]

Please ramble away!! I also love talking and hearing about everyone's habits and processes, so much!! :D :D It's very cool. It's really, really neat that you understand yourself well enough to understand when you're potentially approaching burnout and can take the appropriate steps in advance.

The last time I decided to take a break because I didn't know what to do next (I had written a couple of novels but couldn't for the life of me figure out how to edit them, plus a lot of RL stuff), I didn't write again for 12 years 😭 I started writing again in April 2020. You're very right that I filled the time with other cool stuff but I hope I could still keep writing a regular part of my life if that were to happen again, even if it means writing a couple of hours a week only or something. Mentally I just do so much better when I can use writing to process life.

It sounds extra tough to balance if your job involves a lot of writing as well!! A friend of mine is a translator and she struggles a lot with that balance as well, or often ends up all out of words by the end of the day.

[alchemicink]

Ah well, I have to admit recognizing the signs of impending burnout comes from a lot of practice over the years 😅 it gets easier over time, but I'm still figuring out the right balance sometimes!

12 years is quite a break, but I can see how editing frustration and other things would contribute to that. I'm glad you circled back around to writing again tho, especially because it's enjoyable and also a helpful way to process stuff 😊 I totally understand that. I feel like everyone always goes through different cycles of life where what you need changes over time. So maybe you needed that long break back then, but now, not so much. Either way, I wish you lots of good writing in the future 😊

Oh yes, your translator friend sounds very relatable. This week I have just been zoning out when I get home every day because my brain is mush 😂 I haven't had a chance to catch up on so many posts I wanted to comment on!