Jan 2026 Media
Feb. 2nd, 2026 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
latespringIt's been a while since I've done one of these! This is a bit of a looser format this time. I kept getting caught up in trying to figure out how I wanted to do this wrap up, when I'm the only one dictating its format.
So, here's how this month has been!
I'm already behind on one of my goals this year, to paint every month. I kept thinking I had more time than I did, and next thing I knew it was February and I haven't picked up a paint brush at all. I feel like I'm doing things much the same as last year, that I'm still waiting to move out of my parent's house, that I'm still being flattened by work. It's so much easier to think about changing my life than actually do it.
However, I'm also up on some of the things I want to do this year! I've gotten some research done on apartments I want to call, and I'm going to reach out after I finish writing this. I've read some novels, as I wanted to do this year! It's a slow start, but that also feels fitting for the year.
Here's what I've been reading and watching this month:
I watched S1 of the pitt last year, and really enjoyed it, and so I'm watching S2 as it comes out! I really enjoy the character work packed into such a small format (the conceit of the show, is that each season takes place within the course of one day, with each episode being one hour of the day). My favorite characters are probably Santos, Mohan, King, and Javadi. Also fond of Jack Abbot. Not sure if I'm really viewing it in a shippy lens, with the exception that I hope Mel and Langdon don't get together.
I also finished watching heated rivalry in Jan! I watched the first two episodes with friends, the next two with my tattoo artist while I was getting tattooed, and the last two by myself. I absolutely see why it's getting the hype it is: it's kind of the perfect storm in regard to all of its individual components, and there's a really tender heart in the middle of it. The same appeal as fic, in a lot of ways.
For movies, I watched Summer Wars and secret mall apartment, and rewatched pacrim and arrival. The latter two also happened when I was getting tattooed this month lol. Secret mall was a watch with friends, which I found kind of baffling. They don't even live full time in the secret mall apartment?? It's just kind of a hang out spot. The documentary kind of shows that the secret mall apartment is more akin to an art project than a literal apartment (though it very much was a furnished spot within the mall that no one else could access). I thought it was interesting to learn about, especially thinking about how people approached it as art given the fact that it was secret.
Summer wars was a fun anime movie I watched on the flight to see my grandmother. It's a family drama wrapped up in a story about an AI taking over this digital world called "OZ". It's really sweet in the end, and pretty silly, but I liked that it took its own premise seriously.
Books, I've read The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow, Supernova Era by Cixin Liu, and the first five volumes of Gachiakuta by Urana Kei.
The Everlasting is a recursive novel about the story of a historian and a knight who are trapped in a cycle of national propaganda, telling the same story over and over again. I really liked it. Harrow does a really fun job with the recursive time-loopy nature of the story, and it was a really snappy read. I very much bought the romance. Very much a fun vacation read.
Supernova Era considers the "what if" of a supernova going off nearby in space, and the idea that the resulting radiation would kill everyone over the age of 13 in a year. The premise and opening are pretty interesting to me, and I thought the immediate aftermath of the supernova going off was well done and interestingly thought out. I don't think Liu had a very compelling vision of what would happen after the adults died.
The novel suffered from a lack of vision in the second half, and I was really frustrated with it in the end. He kind of tries to explain why the novel is written the way it is in the epilogue, but I didn't find that it changed my mind any. For a novel primarily about children, it didn't seem that he knew much about children at all. It's a novel that's more about the thought experiment than anything else, and he didn't convince me that he could write about what might happen.
Gachiakuta is a manga series about Rudo, a boy who scavenges for trash in an upper world called "The Sphere" before he's framed for a crime and pushed off The Sphere to the garbage pits below, where he finds that the world is not exactly as he thought. It's pretty good so far! I think the themes of finding value in the things others throw away is really interestingly integrated with the power system.
Above all though, what I've been getting into this past year has been women's basketball! You heard it here first, I'm into sports now.
This month I've been watching the PWHL and Unrivaled, which is women's hockey and women's 3x3 basketball respectively. I'm really enjoying both! This last year was the first year I was into sports, so it's been cool to get to continue to learn about something new, and also have things to watch.
On a side note, it's been hard to cheer for the PWHL and also then turn around and read how USA hockey has effectively banned trans athletes from participating. I love watching hockey and also want to learn to play and skate but that kind of knocked the wind out of me the first time I read it, especially when I had been researching rinks recently. It's far from the biggest thing happening right now, but it felt like another bonus kick in the ribs to hear. Hockey is not a particularly diverse sport to begin with, and so I cheer extra hard for the athletes who are women of color, or who are queer, but like. Jesus. You would do this in CJ's league!!!! There was a HR fic I read a little while ago actually, where the in-fiction fan said something like "it's hard to love a sport that doesn't love you back", which is what I keep thinking about.
I still love the sport, but we'll see how long I remain a fan.
I'm currently reading Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente, which is a 1920s style scifi novel murder mystery! Very pulp fiction, very fun. It's mostly epistolary and transcripts, and relatively dense, so it's been taking me a while to get through it. Excited to finish it though! I'm really loving how it's talking about stories and how beginnings and endings work.
So, here's how this month has been!
I'm already behind on one of my goals this year, to paint every month. I kept thinking I had more time than I did, and next thing I knew it was February and I haven't picked up a paint brush at all. I feel like I'm doing things much the same as last year, that I'm still waiting to move out of my parent's house, that I'm still being flattened by work. It's so much easier to think about changing my life than actually do it.
However, I'm also up on some of the things I want to do this year! I've gotten some research done on apartments I want to call, and I'm going to reach out after I finish writing this. I've read some novels, as I wanted to do this year! It's a slow start, but that also feels fitting for the year.
Here's what I've been reading and watching this month:
tv
I watched S1 of the pitt last year, and really enjoyed it, and so I'm watching S2 as it comes out! I really enjoy the character work packed into such a small format (the conceit of the show, is that each season takes place within the course of one day, with each episode being one hour of the day). My favorite characters are probably Santos, Mohan, King, and Javadi. Also fond of Jack Abbot. Not sure if I'm really viewing it in a shippy lens, with the exception that I hope Mel and Langdon don't get together.
I also finished watching heated rivalry in Jan! I watched the first two episodes with friends, the next two with my tattoo artist while I was getting tattooed, and the last two by myself. I absolutely see why it's getting the hype it is: it's kind of the perfect storm in regard to all of its individual components, and there's a really tender heart in the middle of it. The same appeal as fic, in a lot of ways.
movies
For movies, I watched Summer Wars and secret mall apartment, and rewatched pacrim and arrival. The latter two also happened when I was getting tattooed this month lol. Secret mall was a watch with friends, which I found kind of baffling. They don't even live full time in the secret mall apartment?? It's just kind of a hang out spot. The documentary kind of shows that the secret mall apartment is more akin to an art project than a literal apartment (though it very much was a furnished spot within the mall that no one else could access). I thought it was interesting to learn about, especially thinking about how people approached it as art given the fact that it was secret.
Summer wars was a fun anime movie I watched on the flight to see my grandmother. It's a family drama wrapped up in a story about an AI taking over this digital world called "OZ". It's really sweet in the end, and pretty silly, but I liked that it took its own premise seriously.
books
Books, I've read The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow, Supernova Era by Cixin Liu, and the first five volumes of Gachiakuta by Urana Kei.
The Everlasting is a recursive novel about the story of a historian and a knight who are trapped in a cycle of national propaganda, telling the same story over and over again. I really liked it. Harrow does a really fun job with the recursive time-loopy nature of the story, and it was a really snappy read. I very much bought the romance. Very much a fun vacation read.
Supernova Era considers the "what if" of a supernova going off nearby in space, and the idea that the resulting radiation would kill everyone over the age of 13 in a year. The premise and opening are pretty interesting to me, and I thought the immediate aftermath of the supernova going off was well done and interestingly thought out. I don't think Liu had a very compelling vision of what would happen after the adults died.
The novel suffered from a lack of vision in the second half, and I was really frustrated with it in the end. He kind of tries to explain why the novel is written the way it is in the epilogue, but I didn't find that it changed my mind any. For a novel primarily about children, it didn't seem that he knew much about children at all. It's a novel that's more about the thought experiment than anything else, and he didn't convince me that he could write about what might happen.
Gachiakuta is a manga series about Rudo, a boy who scavenges for trash in an upper world called "The Sphere" before he's framed for a crime and pushed off The Sphere to the garbage pits below, where he finds that the world is not exactly as he thought. It's pretty good so far! I think the themes of finding value in the things others throw away is really interestingly integrated with the power system.
sports
Above all though, what I've been getting into this past year has been women's basketball! You heard it here first, I'm into sports now.
This month I've been watching the PWHL and Unrivaled, which is women's hockey and women's 3x3 basketball respectively. I'm really enjoying both! This last year was the first year I was into sports, so it's been cool to get to continue to learn about something new, and also have things to watch.
On a side note, it's been hard to cheer for the PWHL and also then turn around and read how USA hockey has effectively banned trans athletes from participating. I love watching hockey and also want to learn to play and skate but that kind of knocked the wind out of me the first time I read it, especially when I had been researching rinks recently. It's far from the biggest thing happening right now, but it felt like another bonus kick in the ribs to hear. Hockey is not a particularly diverse sport to begin with, and so I cheer extra hard for the athletes who are women of color, or who are queer, but like. Jesus. You would do this in CJ's league!!!! There was a HR fic I read a little while ago actually, where the in-fiction fan said something like "it's hard to love a sport that doesn't love you back", which is what I keep thinking about.
I still love the sport, but we'll see how long I remain a fan.
currently
I'm currently reading Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente, which is a 1920s style scifi novel murder mystery! Very pulp fiction, very fun. It's mostly epistolary and transcripts, and relatively dense, so it's been taking me a while to get through it. Excited to finish it though! I'm really loving how it's talking about stories and how beginnings and endings work.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-03 10:05 pm (UTC)sorry to dump in your comments, this has just been on my mind!!
off that topic, i deeply relate to your note about how much easier it is to think about change than enact it. my main goal this year is to keep prioritizing writing and pushing myself to do more in different genres, including original fiction, and have fun with it. i'm doing okay, though i'm already behind on my gywo goal (lmao). in fact i am procrastinating on doing writing right now typing this comment. but that can happen!
i do really want to read the everlasting at some point, it seems like the kind of fantasy i tend to enjoy and might be a good break from all the litfic i've been reading back to back.
+ gf and i are also watching s2 of the pitt and it's FUN dr. santos is my angel and i too am delighted by all the intricate interpersonal relationships and politicking amidst the medical setting. fun fun fun.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-04 08:32 pm (UTC)