I haven't posted to this account in ages, mostly because this year has mostly just oscillated between me being sick, playing Genshin Impact/Honkai: Star Rail, or both.

But now that the 60th anniversary for Doctor Who is within spitting distance, I'm getting back into the headspace I need to actually make my way through the rest of the Wilderness Years content (including the TV movie) I finish the undertaking I first started back in 2017. I've also held off on rewatching much of New Who until I finish this, so I'm looking forward to doing a big rewatch of that at some point, though I don't think I'll do a story-by-story review like I did for the Classic series (though maybe I'll write something).

Haven't been motivated to write much in general. I've tried gassing myself up a couple of times the past couple of years only to further fill my files with unfinished drafts. I'd like to polish off a couple of them before the year ends but we'll see. A couple of the most promising ones, in my opinion, are for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I haven't been in that headspace at all the past year. It was also partially fueled by Tumblr, which I haven't used much this year because I'm avoiding spoilers for all the TV and anime I haven't been watching.

Twitter is dying. I made a Bluesky account but it's still invite only so not a ton of people are on it yet.

Overall in the past week or so I've managed to make serious headway with the major mental hangups I've been dealing with this year, and I'm in a much better headspace going into the fall even though I have basically no plans as of writing this. Less pressure I suppose.

Honestly didn't realize that I haven't posted anything here yet this year. January was both unending and somehow sped by without me really noticing.

The month has mostly been dealing with work stuff and playing Genshin Impact. I've made it pretty far already after only starting a month ago, but I think I've finally hit a stage where it's gonna basically force me to slow down which is probably a good thing. Also been watching (and re-watching) K-Pop survival shows. Boys Planet is fine so far but I'm much more invested in Girl's Re:Verse and Peak Time (which hasn't premiered yet but DKB will be in it so...)

Doctor Who has been more on the back-burner than I had expected in it's anniversary year, but that might be because new episodes are so far away that it's been out of sight out of mind. Kind of bummed that I didn't finish out the Wilderness Years last year but I still have plenty of time. (Honestly Twitter itself might implode before the Specials air at this rate).

The only down side is that my sleeping habits have gotten really bad - either I'm not getting enough or I'm getting too much at the wrong time. It's made it really difficult to do any kind of consistent exercise much less start going to the gym like I've wanted to. I just wish the learning curve for using gym equipment and actually getting some kind of personal training wasn't made so deliberately difficult.
 

Didn't end up going through my Doctor Who watch plans on the anniversary because I spent most of November sick. First because of some random fall sickness that kept me low level fatigued for like two weeks, and then shortly after that I got my bivalent Covid Booster and then, like a moron, immediately did an outside activity that worsened the side-effect symptoms considerably. I think I'm okay now, but saying as much feels like tempting fate.

I spent the past week or so rewatching a bunch of Disney and Pixar movies - mostly ones I've watched within the past couple of years. The ones where its been longer feel like they deserve more attention that being on in the background while I'm doing something else... but that's how I got through a lot of the MCU stuff so maybe I should let that go.

It's also officially December so I feel more comfortable binging Holiday stuff. I kind of let Halloween fizzle this year since I had a hard time getting into the mood and I ended up being sick that week, so it would be nice to have some Holiday cheer before the gaping maw of winter inevitably sends me into another seasonal depression.

I posted a couple of days ago that I haven't been sleeping well the past couple of weeks, mostly because my sleep schedule has been super off the past week especially. Last night I pulled the "in case of emergency" rip chord and took some Tylenol PM in order to force myself to go to sleep at a slightly more reasonable hour, but I still think it's gonna take some work to get fully back on track. With vacation and travel stuff starting on Thursday I need to be in better shape sooner rather than later.

I wish it wasn't so hot out? I normally don't mind the heat but its been so consistently hotter than normal that I haven't really left my apartment at all the past three weeks, and it's starting to feel like how it was during the thick of lockdown which hasn't been spectacular for my mental health (and might explain why my sleep schedule has been so off). Weirdly I'm still doing way better than I was in the winter, and I guess I just have to accept that I get seasonal depression now for the first three months of the year. So yeah... that's fun.

As far as fan stuff goes it's mostly been K-Pop for the past couple of months, but I've been trying to slowly wean myself off of it because as far as fandom goes its not a particularly great environment? Like even with the groups I "stan" being relatively low drama, it's still not great. Now that Queendom 2 is over and I went to my summer concerts, picking my other interests back up is something I'm making a concentrated effort on. If any kind of new Doctor Who news dropped that would certainly help matters a lot.

Overall though I'm excited to get into this last leg of summer and into the fall, which is my favorite time of the year. I woke up this morning actually brainstorming fall activities and I hope I can actually get some of my friends to do some of them with me.

Haven't posted in ages because for about a month and a half I was crazy busy and in the last couple of weeks I've been doing basically nothing. Though I'll probably have more to post in the coming months as I finally get into Wilderness Years Doctor Who content and the Centenary Special gets closer.

I'm in a weird mental headspace that's definitely not burnout. I experienced that in spades back in the winter. It's more like restlessness I guess? Like there's so much I want to do but can never seem to find the time to actually do it? It doesn't help that my sleep schedule is the worst its been in years the past couple of weeks, and try as I might I cannot seem to fix it.

☆ Television: I've been keeping up with Drag Race the past few weeks but that's really about it as far as Western TV goes. I'm also technically watching Roswell New Mexico but I'm very behind on it, though I do want to get caught up sooner rather than later because it is the final season. I managed to stay current with the final season of Legacies and it was definitely worth the investment.

☆ Anime: The tradeoff to not watching much regular TV is that I'm finally watching anime again! I go through phases where I watch I ton for a while and then none for months at a time, and it feels nice to get caught up with certain shows and get reminded how much I actually do love the medium. This current resurgence is definitely thanks to My Dress-Up Darling. Now I just need to do my rewatch of The Devil is a Part-Timer! so I can actually start watching season 2.

☆ Gaming: It's mostly still just been Animal Crossing and Fortnite, though I recently replayed all of the first Danganronpa game on the Switch, and I loved it but also forgot how long those games are. I was gonna replay the second game right after but I'm taking a bit of a break from it because it's a huge time suck. I have played some more of Wandersong as well and it is a delight, and I want to set aside a day this month in order to play though even more of it. Biggest serotonin boost I've had in a while.

I haven't been super inspired to write lately - bad things happening in the world will do that - but with how this summer has gone I'm hopeful for a creatively fulfilling trajectory this fall (and maybe even a concentrated effort this year to do NaNo and finish up some stuff). I also have stuff I want to say about the concerts I've gone to but I think I'll save that for a different post.

The past two weeks have been... fraught to say the least. I went on a really fun vacation right before then but as soon as I got back I was immediately swamped at work and had to deal with a freak power outage over the weekend, so today is the first day where I haven't felt completely burned out. So yeah, no progress on any writing or other creative projects. At this point I'm not holding out much hope on that front until spring rolls around and the weather improves, because I wanna channel whatever motivations and energy I have into getting a semi-consistent workout routine again. (In the past I've had the most success attempting it in March so fingers crossed.)

☆ Television: Still watching Drag Race, and the current regular season is starting to pick up again... which is good because UK Versus the World is really crashing and burning as it limps towards the finish line. (Right now I'm #TeamMoHeart because at least she's been killing the runway every week, but I think they're gonna end up giving it to Blu who I've felt very meh on aside from a couple of bright spots.) I'm really hopeful the upcoming season Drag Race España will be as good as the first one and inject some much-needed enthusiasm back into this sphere.

As far as regular television goes, I hit the pause button on my Golden Girls universe watch for my vacation, and ended up seguing afterward into finally finishing the third season of You, and watching the first seasons of Bridgerton and Archive 81. All three were excellent, and it's making me tentatively wanna dive into more new shows like that even though I'm not really sure I have the drive or the attention span (Squid Game is still sitting in my queue unwatched). Disney Plus is also adding all the Netflix Marvel shows in Mid-March, and conventional wisdom seems to indicate those characters will only become more re-integrated with the main MCU films and tv series, so it might be a good idea to check those off my list? I've had very mixed responses to Phase Four so far so it probably wouldn't hurt.

☆ Gaming: I bought Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Legend Arceus, but I wanna finish all of the Pokémon Sword Expansion Pass content before I officially start those. I should be finishing Isle of Armor tonight so then I can start The Crown Tundra this week, and then I'm planning on starting both of the new games simultaneously. I've also been enjoying New Pokémon Snap quite a lot, and I'm anticipating that one will have a long shelf life for me like Animal Crossing has. I have mixed feelings on the Scarlet and Violet announcement, since I really like the starter designs and the vibe, but I think the art style is veering too much into uncanny valley territory and I wish they'd done something similar to Sword and Shield.

As far as other games go, I've started Yooka-Laylee, which I'm enjoying but I never played that style of game as a kid so it's a bit of a learning curve. I'd also like to get back into and finish EarthBound, Figment, and Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, but I think taking a break from them is a nice recharge. I've still been playing Fortnite on and off but my enthusiasm has definitely waned compared to the last two seasons, and I mostly just wanna hit level 200 before the season ends so I can unlock everything.

It's been a hot minute since I've made a more casual post, and I want to start doing more of these instead of exclusively using this account for giant Doctor Who reviews or motivating myself to write fanfic.

☆ Writing: I started a bunch of fic drafts last year (and the year before) that I never got around to finishing. New mini-goal for 2022 is to finish at least some of those (and fill in more spaces on the 100ships challenge). Also lowkey wanna start writing some Fortnite fic (because I am a clown) but I'm probably gonna have to untangle the lore a little fic first even if I just end up writing about Jonesy getting dicked down lmao.

☆ Gaming: Been playing a lot more Animal Crossing and just got into the Happy Home Paradise expansion. I'm also still in Fortnite hell, and I've started playing some Indie Games on the Switch because of a sale they had towards the end of last year. So far I'm really digging Figment and Wandersong but I'm hoping to play more once I've finished with those.

☆ Television: I'm halfway through the most recent season of You, but honestly I haven't been that inspired to watch much Live Action TV the past month or so aside from Drag Race (and Queen of the Universe and Drag Race Italia were pretty big letdowns imo). I'm excited for the new US season but I really feel like I'm in a rut... which may not be a bad thing? I was consuming a lot of content for a very long time so I could probably stand to slow down a little.

☆ Movies: Encanto and Spider-Man: No Way Home were great, but - especially with the Omicron variant - my big return to watching movies hasn't really panned out. Even before that I never got around to watching Dune, and I did see Eternals but thought it was really bad. Trying to jazz myself up to watch The Matrix and Scream movies for the first time but so far no dice.

☆ Doctor Who: I really liked Eve of the Daleks, but I didn't think it was remarkably better or worse than Flux like a lot of the takes have been. (Though admittedly I guess I liked Flux more than most?) I'm currently wading my way through the "Lost Season" season 27 Big Finish audios, before I figure out how I'm gonna tackle the actual Wilderness Years content and the TV Movie. I also finally started The Edge of Reality... but the controls on Switch are kind of difficult (and it's very obvious that it was originally designed as a VR game) so I kind of haven't gotten back to it. Either way, I'm happy that I still have a wealth of content to get through considering the next two specials seem to be the only New Who we are gonna be getting for quite a while.

Haven't gotten much work done on anything the past few weeks, from a combination of being on vacation and dealing with a lot of work stuff (not to mention having my weight ping-pong up and down a lot the past few days, which is just adding stress). It looks like things are finally starting to calm down though so I'm hoping I'll be able to get back to writing and other fun stuff, since the only real "recreational" thing I've done the past few days is play fortnite before bed.

I played Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins now that it's been ported to Switch and I really enjoyed it! Highly recommend to anyone who's a fan of either the Moffat or Chibnall eras of Doctor Who, and the actual game play mechanics are relatively simple so you don't have to be a gamer to be able to play and complete it. (It's also available on other platforms besides the switch, such as PC and Mobile phones). Managed to knock out the whole thing in one evening, and that was taking a completionist approach. I also enjoyed how it felt like an additional, Doctor-lite episode of Who that slots nicely in between Revolution of the Daleks and the upcoming series of the show. I'm now even more excited for the The Edge of Reality game, which is releasing at the end of September.

It's also looking increasingly like the new series of Doctor Who will be premiering sometime around October, so now that I have time I'm gonna try to make my way through the rest of Seven's era, which seems doable. I'm currently reading the two companion books (which I should hopefully be through by the end of the month) and I think September and at least part of October should easily be enough time to watch seasons 25 and 26 without burning through them.

First day of writing and finishing up old draft fics for 100ships is going pretty well! I already have one done that just needs to be proofread (and possibly britpicked) and two more I've made good progress on (and I'm gonna try to knock out a little more in the next hour or so).

I also have a couple of outlines/ideas ready for Merlin Bingo, and I think I'll be able to pair one of them to count for 100ships as well. (Maybe more, but my sudden urge to write Merthur fic has taken me a bit by surprise). I'm impressed by how active the fandom community still is considering the show has been over for almost ten years, and I feel like I'm gonna end up rewatching a chunk of it within the next couple of months in order to refamiliarize myself with some of the characters' mannerisms and speaking patterns. I think a Buffy rewatch is pretty inevitable too, which works since I'd like to finish two drafts I wrote (and am really happy with) for my failed Buffyverse Bingo.

I also have some Hetalia drafts that are close to a decade old and still mostly read pretty well!. I have a multichapter that I started back in July 2011 that I only need to knock out one more chapter for, so that's another short-term goal for this summer. I think I need to specifically set aside a day to devote to just that though, since it'll require immersing myself back into the story (don't want any loose threads after all this time!). The new season of the anime has also put me in a much better headspeace to write for it than in the last few years.

On a semi-related note, my landlord recently put some patio tables and chairs out near the front of my building, so now I actually have a place where I can sit outside if I want. Today is the first day I've utilized it and I can see myself hanging out here a lot. I just wish it wasn't right next to main road.

Yesterday I turned 30, and I ended up not doing much of anything (partially due to the pandemic, partially due to poor planning and foresight on my part). I did think a lot about certain milestones I hadn't hit on my fitness goals/writing/etc., but a day out it all feels just as arbitrary. Aside from the number on my social media changing it doesn't really feel like I'm in my 30s, especially since pretty much everyone agrees the past year has been a wash so I can still pretend I'm 29 if I want and society probably wouldn't judge me for it.

I didn't meet my arbitrary goal of finishing Classic Who before I turned 30 but that might be for the best, since I would have rushed through the Seventh Doctor era at lightning speed (and I'm enjoying it too much to do that). I also realized that I was so eager to see how'd they'd handle the regeneration I started Season 24 without reading those Companion novels like I'd planned, so now I think I need to go back and think about when I'm going to tackle those. (Especially since the Brigadier shows up in that and I know he pops back up in Season 26's Battlefield.)

July will be ten years since I started a particular multi-chapter fic so I think my immediate writing goal is finishing that up before anything else. I am in the midst of consuming a bunch of gay media (mostly Tales of the City) for Pride Month though so I may end up seguing into writing something more in line with that first. I have some Merlin prompts due at the end of the year that might be a good outlet for that.