Stretch

Life. There’s not much going on in my life. I’ve just been reflecting a lot lately. Have you ever had impostor syndrome? It’s quite common, I think. I’ve always been struck by it in my professional life. Slow processing times do not beget professional confidence 😅But lately I feel like an imposter in this space too. In my personal life. I sometimes go back and re-read my journal entries this year and I feel this sense of either not expressing important things with the gravity they deserve, or swinging in the opposite direction. Like… I am overly maudlin, a Lydia Deetz with a shallow depth in her prose and poetry. Even though I write these for me, to pull these feelings and words out of my brain, I still harshly critique my own words.  Even if I wrote my words on a paper and burned it to ashes I think I would feel the same. Perhaps it’s better to be humble and know my shortcomings than to not be humble and overinflate my sense of self.

Gaming. I got the hankering to play Etrian Odyssey, so I dusted off my old 3DS and started Etrian Odyssey Untold 2. The game will kick your ass on every level, but the map-making and slow pace makes it oh-so relaxing. I hope this time to finish the story because flaky ass me never did get around to finishing it. I have the trilogy on the Switch too, but they don’t include the story mode like the Untold entries. I think I will play it one day after I experience the story, just for the fun of building my perfect team. I will say that the 3DS battery life was amazing! I remember playing Fire Emblem Engage a few years ago and damn it sucked the battery life quickly. 

Books. I have been reading a bit more, though we'll see for how long. My reading ebbs and flows. I am enjoying this though. I feel my focus is better when I read more. 

• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka: I’ve been enjoying shorter works that provide food for thought, and this was a wonderful example of that. I was able to read it within a day, but spent more time watching videos on the book, reading articles, and of course talking about it with friends and AI. I felt this book was a poignant reminder of how easily a person can fall from grace if they fail to meet societal expectations. I feel society gets this at an intellectual level. Because we love the archetype of the underdog. We cry for the unfortunate. We rail at the evil people who bully others. But we perpetuate the problem, don’t we? We continue to reject. We have rejected others for a million different reasons throughout history, but the result is to banish others to an isolated existence. I also thought it was interesting how there were two opposing metamorphoses at play. As Gregor withered, Grete bloomed. As if two people could not grow in tandem. That for one to shine, the other must perish. I adored this book, and at 60 pages there’s no reason to not read it at least once in one’s life ^_^

• The Agony of Eros by Byung-Chul Han: I ended up writing a journal entry on this one but in summary, it was a great read and I thoroughly enjoyed the deep dive into love and all its modern demons 

• What Would Frida Do? by Adriana Davis: I enjoyed this detailed and accessible book about Frida Kahlo’s life. It was geared for the social media gen, so some parts didn’t resonate with me but I still think this is a wonderful book. I could tell that Frida Kahlo means a lot to the author and it was beautiful to see the care in which she described Frida, her life, and her work. The book is also broken up with pages of quotes and sidebars, making it a quick, engaging read! 

• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin: I just started this but so far I am enjoying it! I wanted a more classic, lighthearted read after the other things I read through haha. I’ll add my full thoughts when done!

Movies. I am getting ever closer to finishing project watch every Ghibli movie™! Four more left. Last weekend I watched two:

• Tales of Earthsea: I’ve not read the books so I can’t speak to how it stacks up to the source material (I just started the first book). I felt it had odd plot threads that would peter out at random and some pacing problems but overall I enjoyed the movie and the song is gorgeous. 

• The Tale of Princess Kaguya: I adored the art style and the slow pace. The message was poignant and sad. I also liked that it is rooted in an old folk tale. I didn’t realize that Persona 4 and 5 had a DLC Persona representing Kabuya so that was fun to learn! This is not the coziest of Ghibli films, but I feel it’s a much-watch for the story and the art.