dreams

I'm enjoying this meme my DW friends are doing (

blackcatofmisery off the top of my head) so I'll be doing it too, for the month of August! How it works is, you pick a day and ask a question in the comments of this post. I'll answer it with a post on that day. I'm curious about what y'all are curious about.
1

matsushima: Do you like your name? If you were to choose a new name, what would it be and why?
2

matsushima: What book(s) made you want to be a writer?
3

china_shop: How did you come to start watching Kdramas, and what do you like most about them?
4

radiokomorebi: How does your average day go by lately? How do you schedule your work and other activities (and make sure you stick to it or improvise) and decide on rest days?
5 6 7 8
9

yarnofariadne: Do you have any writing rituals?
10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30
31

radiokomorebi: What's your favourite poem you wrote?

Current Mood: curious

adore

I talked previously about a new online writing software/word processor called Skrib. I have since tried it out. What I liked about it was the search function, being able to toggle between documents from the sidebar, and having the planning/brainstorming board right there alongside my draft. However, I decided it's not for me based on a suggested edits feature that will literally give you suggestions for what to do with your sentences. Skrib purports to be anti-Gen AI and granted, the editorial suggestions feature isn't generating sentences. But telling you what you can do with your sentences comes too close and makes me uncomfortable. I know people use Grammarly or ProWritingAid for the same thing, but I personally don't like it. And it's not useful to me. My editing process is very gut-checky and vibes-based.

So I'm going to stick to Ellipsus. They've recently introduced a premium plan on top of their free one. Their free plan is great: I can have all the projects/documents I want and sync them to the cloud automatically, which covers the basics for me. And I can use timers, focus mode, and add collaborators. The premium plan introduces custom themes and something opt-in called 'emboss' which is like your writing fingerprint (it shows how many sessions you wrote the document in, typing speed, and other stuff meant to show you wrote it yourself, without using AI checkers). I'm irritated that our writing tools now are having to help writers prove they didn't use AI.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: refreshed

tinkaton

➤ Someone find my motivation for me because it must be dead in a ditch somewhereeee. I have been reading my friends list (slowly, I'm always behind lol) but not been commenting on much. 🥲 And I kept meaning to write up an entry but obviously haven't!! Clearly... I think spreading my journaling out to various places (here, my media log, my physical journal, etc) is making me too lazy to update in multiple locations.

➤ Though speaking of journals lmao I caved and got a super cheap Hobonichi Techo Original A6, 2026 edition, but I'm going to use it next year as a daily journal and just ignore the year/days. I know, I know, I just said I'm too lazy to keep up with multiple journaling locales, but listen...I miss the Hobonichi paper sjhkjsfsdfs now that I'm using a fake Weeks it's just not as nice... So we'll see!! I'm already itching to get a cute cover and start using it but I have to wait until January. 😩

➤ I was finally forced out of Samsung Messages on my phone and now I have to use shitass Google Messages because Samsung hates me personally. 😑 It sucksss give me back my color customization!! However at least now I can see the emoji reacts from Apple users in group texts jsdhfkjsdf it was so funny before because it'd just be like "So-and-so liked [full original text]" five times in a row.

➤ Okay ending with a random music rec, I just stumbled across this Korean duo that debuted at the beginning of the year named dodree who combine pop with traditional Korean music. Apparently both women have a traditional art background (one is a pansori singer and one does dance). This is their latest release; they only have like, 5 songs out so far but I listened to all of them and really enjoyed them so I hope they continue to make music!

Watch on YouTube

adore

I recently watched the k-drama Absolute Value of Romance, in which a BL fangirl ships her high school teachers with each other

When she's writing fic about them, the scenes she's writing are shown on screen with her teachers acting them out with hilarious dramatic flair, while wearing equally dramatic makeup and clothes reminiscent of k-pop styling. Tangentially, her homeroom teacher is played by N. (Cha Haknyeon) from the K-pop group VIXX, and he's plenty shippable with his bandmates

Of course, she tries not to ship them, but we know the futility of trying not to ship a ship that has captured you in its fannish fold.

She takes things her teachers said and did in real life to put into her fic while changing the context to be the tropiest BL, which is hilarious to watch. She's busy putting them in a love triangle and resolving it. But then, once she knows which two teachers are going to end up together, she doesn't know what to do with the third, who is as attractive as the other two... besides involuntarily shipping him with herself

But fear not, it's not a romance (despite the title of the drama) and the teacher is a man of integrity with unshakeable boundaries. For instance, when she writes him a love letter, he simply corrects her spelling and gives it back to her

When she gets into trouble at school (for writing teacher fanfic lol), the way her teacher responds was my favourite bit.

"It might feel like everything is crumbling down. But this doesn't mean your life is over. It might feel like that right now, but it's not."

I grew up with the adults around me (parents and teachers alike) treating me like I'd failed and had ruined my life, or was about to, for trivial things that never mattered. And mistakes are something you'll always make. I saw a tweet about this which said that as an adult, when you break a plate, you'll just say a curse word and start cleaning it up. But as a child, if you break a plate, you're yelled at and punished and none of that is helpful for actually dealing with things. Basically all that kind of upbringing does is give you generalised anxiety. So I really appreciate seeing this depiction of a teacher not making a mountain out of a molehill.

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: happy

frenzy

Ope. Its been a while.

What have you finished reading?

A Slow Death 83 Days Of Radiation by NHK TV Crew - This is a pretty gruesome account about someone who got hit with a boatload of nuclear radiation and died a terrible death. It isn't terribly long, and I found it fascinating.

The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin - This was also a great book and I couldn't put it down once the main character goes back home. This was my first Le Guin book, and it took so much of me to not pick up the next book of hers i had to read next. But I'm going with something that feels like its been on my pile 5ever, Watership Down, which I got from Kate (hi!) ages ago.

What are you currently reading?

Us: Getting Past You & Me to Build a More Loving Relationship by Terry Real - I think I shall be the change I wish to see in my relationship and start reading this again soon.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville - The latest chapter just dropped and I can't wait to read it. I have become OBSESSED with this book. I am certainly in the "oh god i dont wanna put it down" phase while still obeying the reading list for fun and tension.

What are you watching?
All the sports! Playoff hockey (while I was for the Habs, I'm just glad the rapist goalie didnt win), nba finals (Knicks winning is a good feel good story), and world cup. Admittedly I don't start watching closer until its the knockout rounds.

What are you playing?
nothing. maybe i will eventually, but I barely have time to listen to music as much as I'd like. I doubt I see myself playing games anytime soon.

What are you listening to?

I wrote a lot of these months ago, and just hadn't posted a Wednesday media post. So here goes:

Perseverance II: If My Best Friend Can Coldly Fuck Over Everyone Else in His Life, Turns Out He Can Do it to Me, Too by Shards of Grey always support the homies. pop-industrial-idek project from my buddy. I really can recommend it. He's been working on this album for a little too long, but I also think its a really exceptional album.

Dark, Darker, Darkest: The Infected Mass Reworks by Those Who Walk Away
so this is a rework of an older album, but its ambient and growing. it gives me a lot of godspeed vibes.

Panopticon/Uprising - Split LP by Bindrune Recordings a short split by one of my favorite BM bands. The band theyre doing the split with also rips and its for a good cause.

Masks by Chat Pile oh dang i guess chat pile is also on sub pop records now too. just a two song release for a 7inch. The B side, a cover, is my favorite of the two.

Power Trippin' Dipshits by The Taxpayers seems like last month everyone was putting out short albums to support Minnesota. This is another one, but from the taxpayers. Folk punk with horns. Its a lot of fun just signing about running ICE outta town. Its nice.

Seduced By Conquering Darkness by Petrichor whats up with black metal folks always making side projects? This is a side project from Blackbraid and its only a couple songs and its good. indigenous black metal forever.

Relics Of Ancient Love
by Tears Of Fire Persian funeral doom metal. Absolutely amazing stuff here.

friends

August Ask Me Anything

Writing software/word processors pt.2

124 ☆ happy oops it's already july

K-drama: Absolute Value of Romance

What are you reading Wednesday (for the last 15 wednesdays) on a Saturday cuz i absolutely forgot