Fox Squirrels!

Work. The two groups I participated in for the hackathon won awards! One won the overall champion and the other won for being the most creative idea. I was so excited! The hackathon was a lot of work and was a bit scary, as it is unfamiliar ground to me, but it was an awesome experience and I learned a lot. 

Gratitude. I am ever grateful for cooling blankets. I got one and it makes it so comfy on summer nights! I always need to be covered, but summers often suck because I feel like I’m uncomfortable sans blanket and boiling alive with it so I tip my hat to whoever invented this amazing blanket category haha

Creativity. I’m almost done with the socks that I’m knitting for my mother-in-law’s birthday. I finished one and am halfway through the second sock’s leg so I think I’ll be done in the next week or so. I also drew two things this week. It felt nice to do so after the hackathon. There weren’t good drawings but that’s ok. Drawing is about drawing for me which is good, considering that I only truly love 10% of my artistic output 😅

Books. I read a few shorter pieces this week as I continue The Kraken Wakes. I’m also listening to the audiobook for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I read it as soon as I turned 42 last year so it’s a relaxing, funny story to revisit.

• The Flowers of Buffoonery by Osamu Dazai: A short novella that acts as a prequel of sorts to No Longer Human (which I read 2 years ago iirc). This one is lighter in tone and just a small slice of the protagonist’s life, but the light tone makes the story more poignant, for how many of us act like fools to hide our pain from others? The author also broke the fourth wall here, which could have annoyed me, but it was oddly charming in its sharp self-awareness.

• Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu: I read this one on an app called Serial Reader, which I love because it breaks up classic novels into chunks so that one receives one installment of the story daily. As a fan of Dracula, I’ve always intended to read this and am glad I finally did. I will say that my girl Carmilla is quite a flirt! She kept on hitting on Laura and showering her with kisses. Not bad for an era where ankles were considered blush-worthy.

• The Time Machine by H.G. Wells: I just started this on Serial Reader after finishing Carmilla, so we’ll see how it goes!

Music. I found the new Spotify daylist an interesting concept. It looks for what you are listening to the most at different points of the day and dynamically refreshes every few hours with music that reflects past habits. The titles get funny, like “heartbroken sentimental thursday afternoon”. Here’s my daylist

Movies. I watched two Ghibli movies:

•  Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. It reminded me somewhat of Princess Mononoke while remaining distinct. This one wasn’t very cozy for me, but the lovely message made it worth the tears. A stark reminder that we often treat monsters as angels and angels as monsters, with the slimmest of evidence as to who is a monster, and who is an angel. Also, was the fox squirrel an inspiration for Pokemon? 

• Castle in the Sky. This one was a wonderful adventure story with humor cleverly used to make its points. I think this made Castle in the Sky a more lighthearted movie than Nausicaä, though I adored both. There was even a fox squirrel cameo! I teared up in the garden scene. How can we scoff at the beauty of nature?