(Belated) October 2022 Monthly Update (Patreon)

Finally finished grading all my finals!!!

Ahem. So yeah, I'm sorry I missed the last one. I'm going to try not to make this update as intensive as usual or to cover the last two months. The basic lowdown is that my admin job constantly changing schedules (they hired a new person, then she quit) and the teaching job being difficult was kicking my ass. I also had a really sad personal issue with a longtime friend that isn't interacting well with my mental illness. It's been a lot. But I'll have a break next term and I intend to use it to really catch up on my writing.

One bit of exciting news is I'm probably going to England (mostly London) after Christmas! Tagging along with my Mom like usual. Going to see a ton of shows on the West End and so many sights. If anyone's been there and has a place they'd recommend, let me know.

Also, I went to a Metric concert. That was nice!

Anyway, to track my media consumption, let's do a handy list type thing

Currently Watching For this Anime Season:

Spy x Family, Mob Psycho III (you know the drill, you've seen the hype), Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (UTENA REFERENCES POTENTIALLY GAY ROBOT GIRLS), Chainsaw Man (I do like toothy devil girl. interested in seeing the hype), Akiba Maid War (Yakuza wars except it's 90's maid cafe girls, amazing) , Do It Yourself (cute)!

Interested in checking out but will save for a less packed season: Bocchi the Rock, My Master Has No Tail, Raven of the Inner Palace, I'm the Villainess so I'm Taming the Final Boss...there's a lot of interesting stuff.

I won't go into every book I've read and TV show I've watched the last two months, but here's a list of quick recs:

TV

-I did enjoy The Sandman! I think it handled some things better than the comic, so if you like dark fantasy, it might be worth a look

-A League of Their Own- the queer 1940's baseball story of my dreams, focused on an awesome variety of women.

-Still enjoying Abbot Elementary, a gentle mockumentary style comedy about teaching at a public school.

Youtube

-Kaz Rowe does a lot of awesome historical videos, with a particular focus on queer history. I wholeheartedly recommend them!

Books

Glowing Recs

Nona the Ninth- the third in the Locked Tomb series hits it out of the park again!

I'm Glad My Mom Died- A memoir by Jeanette McCurdy about her experience with her abusive mother (sexual and emotional abuse) and the child stardom that was forced on her. It's sharply written, insightful, and tosses in a few dark jokes. Definitely deserves the acclaim it's gotten

The Honeys- a queer horror novel set in a wealthy summer camp, where a genderqueer kid is investigating the mysterious death of a family member. It had a nice spooky mood throughout and some  poetic writing.

 Not glowing, but lit enough!

Afterworlds- A novel that alternates between a young YA author trying to make it in NYC and the paranormal romance she's writing. It's a bit long and dragged out and because things in publishing change so drastically the fact it was written in 2014 makes it feel like a bygone era, but I thought it was an interesting enough listen.

Cute Mutants- follows a group of queer kids who suddenly gain powers and fight an incel. It feels like it leans way too hard on meme culture and X-men references at times, not to mention it's a little disjointed and meandering, but it did capture a lot of the feeling of being a nerdy teen, had some creative concepts, and was pretty cute.

T.J. Powar Has Something to Prove- Focuses on an Indian American girl dealing with the stigma around her body hair. Despite the fact I was in debate as teen, I found those parts boring until the end, but it's a cute YA and very breezy.

Comics

Gender Queer: A memoir- You may have heard of this one with the banning controversy, but it's a short, nicely done graphic memoir about being, well, gender queer. 

SHWD- A yuri called Special Hazardous waste disposal, about ripped ladies in a special force fighting monsters! I'll just post my goodreads review: 

I'm disappointed but not surprised to see the top review making a jab at the fact the women in this are super buff- there's a million series about ripped men, god forbid one yuri series on earth be aimed at those who like exaggeratedly buff women.

The buff ladies were refreshing for me, and so was getting another dark sci-fi yuri. The characters were pretty charming too and there was a lot of attention paid to the trauma of the situation. This is a 4.5 rounded up though, because it does have a 'character who looks like a child', which is not my favorite trope for a lot reasons. It bothers me a bit less than other series because the art style does not do cutesy. She just looked like a short adult.The reasoning for having her there was...interesting, I'm not sure where they'll go with that, but it's original, though potentially weird? Anyway, I like most of what it's doing and I'm interested to see where this goes. I hope we continue to get a variety of yuri like this published over here.

I've been playing Disco Elysium! I'm a raging feminist communist apocalyptic finger gunning man on the go. It's been fun. 

Currently, I'm rereading (well, listening to) American Gods and just started Lonely Castle in the Mirror. Also, I've read 104 books so far this year (54 books, 50 manga/gns, though I only counted one from each series so actually more than that) 

That's all I can think of. I should be more on top of things in the coming month, hopefully!