I’m behind on posting my thoughts about books I’ve read recently. Mostly, this is because I’ve finished reading them (once) but I’m not finished thinking about them yet. Still, want to post some initial thoughts for now

Finished Reading: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 📚

I’m not sure if this was quite as amazing as the internet makes it out to be, but I definitely did enjoy it. I was aware going in that the prose would go from descriptive and flowing to a sudden, very modern sort of slang. I thought that might bug me because something in blog posts that comes across as someone trying to be clever and just coming across as sarcastic for no real reason, but I think it worked here. I think because it was just Gideon and Harrow who used that slangy language, it gave you the impression that they were two kids who hate each other, but actually had more in common with each other than with the rest of the universe.

I liked Gideon a lot - she’s funny, and liked Harrow too once I got to know her. I liked that there wasn’t much in the way of exposition in this book - you had to pick up the way the world works as you go along. I’m sure I missed a ton and still don’t get, for example, is this our solar system thousands of years in the future?

I didn’t know much about the story going in, but I like how it started quite open-ended and things seemed to slowly close in as Gideon and Harrow explore more. Definitely enjoyed reading, and I’ve bought the second and third books and I’m looking forward to reading them soon too.

I’m not sure if it’s an autism thing, or a depression thing, or just a me thing, but I find it hard to get dressed on a morning. Like, it just seems like a harder task than it needs to be. Recently I had a clearout of my wardrobe and I thought I’d try rearranging things to see if I can help make it a bit easier.

I have half-watched a couple of videos on YouTube about ‘capsule wardrobes’, and I took away from those the idea of a small set of clothes that can be mixed and matched. I’ll be honest here: that’s just clothes, right? I know people can build outfits and things but that’s definitely not me. I have clothes (and I hate buying them).

But going through my stuff I realised that I definitely do have more clothes than I need, and some stuff doesn’t mix and match as well as other stuff. So I took out 5 pairs of trousers, half a dozen hoodies and shirts, and half a dozen t-shirts and designated these as my ‘core’ clothes. It’s not perfect but mostly you could put these together in any combination and get a set of clothes that don’t make you look like a packet of Skittles. I moved my ‘nice’ clothes out of the way (I’m lucky enough to work somewhere where casual wear is acceptable so I don’t need to wear smart trousers and shirts and things regularly) and moved stuff that is only for ‘Summer wear’ out of the way too. The remainder, the legit ‘spare’ clothes, I have kept.

So now I have one rail in my wardrobe with my core rotation of trousers and tops hanging. Trousers on the left, tops on the right. Below that there’s a drawer of t-shirts, folded so they sit vertically, with the ‘core’ t-shirts in an organiser at the front of the drawer. On a morning, I take the leftmost pair of trousers, the rightmost top (unless it’s warm enough to not be needed), and the leftmost t-shirt. And that’s my clothes for the day. If something doesn’t seem right (because not everything matches really), I choose the next thing along and that should work. If I’m feeling like I want to dress up a little bit that day for work, the ‘nice’ clothes are still accessible, and if for some reason I want something from the ‘spare’ pile, they are accessible too. But neither of these are visible when I’m doing the default mode.

When I’ve washing my clothes, the core trousers and shirts go in the middle of the rail so that I’m always picking the least-recently worn stuff. Similarly, I put my core t-shirts away by putting them in the organiser at the right of the other t-shirts.

I’m going to keep the ‘spare’ clothes because I do like them, and as and when the regular stuff wears out I can replace it with the spare stuff. And if I just feel like wearing something out of that lot, I can. I did also get rid of a lot of stuff, stuff that was worn out or doesn’t fit any more, or stuff that I can comfortably say I’m not going to wear anymore. It’s got me thinking that I really don’t need any more clothes though, I was probably wasn’t able to see the wood for the trees when I was trying to get dressed before. Too much choice and too much thinking for a morning task. Now that I’ve got it slimmed down, and got a simple rule in place that takes away the need to choose, hopefully I will find things a bit easier.

Currently reading: The Courage To Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi 📚

Currently reading: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman 📚

Currently reading: Looking After Your Autistic Self by Niamh Garvey 📚

🎮 Reigns (2016)

Downloaded this from Apple Arcade because I was looking for a simple game that would be fun to play on my phone to kill 5 minutes here and there.

I thought this would be a pretty straightforward randomised-type of game, and it is, but there are ‘achievements’ that you can unlock, and I think this is a linear thing that gives a bit of an overall story to the whole game. I wasn’t expecting this!

It’s also funnier than I thought it would be and there’s even extra stuff like the sword fighting, which I still don’t think I quite understand.

Overall, good game, better than I was expecting and definitely worth checking out

Finished Reading: Fast. Feast. Repeat. by Gin Stephens 📚

Interesting book, and it’s helped me to neaten up what I think my body has wanted me to do all along.

Key points for me:

• water and black coffee only until you’re ready to start actually eating. Other stuff will make you feel hungry or shaky and mess the whole thing up
• feel free to not stick stick to regular eating window
• actually do eat when it’s time, then stop when you’re nicely full, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that it’ll see you through to the next day
• water and black coffee. I’m putting it in again because honestly, huge.

Currently reading: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 📚

Currently reading: Wastelands by John Joseph Adams 📚

Gonna try and slowly make my way through these stories. Been ages since I’ve read an ‘apocalypse’ type story

Currently reading: Fast. Feast. Repeat. by Gin Stephens 📚

I heard about this on a podcast and it’s got me interested because actually I think I kinda do this already? I’ve said for years that my stomach wakes up several hours after I do, so I’ve never really been big into eating breakfast. And I’ve always been told that that’s bad for me.

I’m intending on learning a little bit more about intermittent fasting, and just taking enough away so that I can ‘tidy up’ my natural eating habits. I do feel a shaky sometimes, for example, and it would be good to know how I might avoid that

Finished Reading: Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies by Tara Schuster 📚

Bit of a case of reading the right thing at the right time. I think overall I’m glad I read this. Her life is really different to mine, and so is her personality, and also so are a lot of the ways she went about fixing things. But there are similarities too: thinking that you are broken and that things will never get better, doing things to distract yourself away from you issues so that you never get to know yourself and you never get to sort your problems out. And being totally into journalling, too haha.

It was kind of reassuring to read about someone who has managed to sort herself out, and actually nice to know that it took several years, and that there were still a ton of missteps along the way. And it did end on a bit of a silly note (intentionally) but it wasn’t a sort of ‘happy ever after’ ending, she’s still single for example, but feeling a lot happier about the relationships she has with the people in her life. I hope I can get there some day.

If nothing else, reading this has given me a bit of a boost in motivation to journal. I’ve not been into it for a while, and it started picking up recently, and I think it’s been nice to have that extra little kick.

Nintendo Direct - Thoughts

I got round to watching the Nintendo Direct that came out a week or so. Here are my thoughts:

Mario & Luigi

I loved Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and the other games have been alright but not amazing. I’ll keep an eye on this one and stay hopeful

Nintendo World Championships: New Edition

I don’t think this is for me at all. It does look like it’d be a lot of fun for the people it’s aimed at though!

Fairy Tale 2

Nah.. I mean, it’s the kind of thing I might get when I really fancy playing a JRPG so possibly maybe, one day?

Fantasian

This doesn’t seem like anything special to me? 🤷‍♀️

Nintendo Switch Sports Basketball

OK, Nintendo Switch Sports always makes for a fun evening with people, but I’m still not gonna buy it

Mio

Didn’t give an awful lot away but it got my attention. I will keep an eye out for more info on this one

Disney Illusion Island

Not for me

Hello Kitty Island Adventure

Very cute. I think Animal Crossing is enough of this business for me, though

Among Us

Enjoyed watching streams of Among Us during lockdown and that’s enough for me

Farmagia

Haha here’s our obligatory farming game! The Switch needs more of these

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD

I think we rented the original Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo back in the day and it was good but too hard for me. I never played the sequel though, so I should maybe grab this one some time and give it a go.

Dragon Quest III (and also I & II)

I really like the Octopath Traveler-style art. I loved the absolute heck out of Dragon Quest IX, and enjoyed what I played of XI. Might have to try these some time. Also, I now want a slime plushie like what that guy has

Funko Fusion

What exactly even is this?

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD

I’m still Luigis Mansion’d out from playing the third one a year or two ago.

The New Denpa Men

F2P = instant no

Metal Slug Attack Reloaded

Doesn’t appeal to me at all

Darkest Dungeon II

Ohhh, I would be so crap at this! But I’d probably still have fun?

Phantom Brave: the Lost Hero

I’ve never played a Phantom Brave game (nearest I’ve come to it is being baffled by Disgaea, maybe?) It might be interesting to try out

Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection

Nah

Super Mario Party Jamboree

I don’t think I get to play with other people enough to justify this. I know they mentioned online play but this will just be a small part, right?

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Flipping heck. This looks interesting. I love the cute graphics, and I’m really intrigued that they’re taking the weird creativity from Tears of the Kingdom and putting it I here. I am very interested in this.

Just Dance

Not for me

Lego Horizon Adventure

Lego games never manage to hold my attention. I love that they exist though

Stray

I wasn’t interested in this at all when I saw it on Steam, but on Switch… hmm, it might be alright

Tales of the Shire

I want this and I can’t give you a good reason why, I just want it

Ace Attorney Investigations Collection

I do want to play an Ace Attorney game again some time soon, but I’d grab one of the older ones first. Maybe one day.

The Hundred Line

This looks quite interesting - a bit Persona? I can’t imagine I would have the attention span to play through it (just like Persona) but hey, maybe one day.

Romancing Saga 2

Naah

Metroid Prime 4

I should definitely give this a shot. Only Metroid Prime I played was the first one, on the GameCube. I liked it but I haven’t played any first person games at the time, and, honestly, I was crap at the shooting and at the exploring. Time to give Metroid Prime another go.

Currently reading: Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies by Tara Schuster 📚

Finished Reading: Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers 📚 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This series is just cosy and nice, just… people getting along and trying to understand themselves and each other. It’s not exciting but it just makes you feel quietly good.

Currently reading: Cheer Up Love by Susan Calman 📚

📺 Trainwreck: Woodstock ‘99 (2022)

I watched this after listening to the episode about Woodstock ‘99 on The Big Flop podcast. I’m a bit surprised I hadn’t heard about this before as this was kind of my era (then again I was only a teenager and the internet wasn’t as ubiquitous at the time). Dear me, what a shitshow! Very interestin, very infuriating that the people running it seemed completely oblivious to everything going wrong, and even in the interviews they still don’t see to grasp what horrible mistakes they made. I suppose at least they made lots of money though, eh.

I really like the new Apple Watch Pride Strap. The fluorescent colours are very pretty.

(I promise it isn’t as tight as it looks in this photo, it’s nice and comfy 😊)

One of my fidget toys - a big squishy ball with tinsel-ish stuff inside. My sister and I were wondering what it would look like in slow motion. I like it!