Got inspired to write something after seeing that the official organization for NaNoWriMo is shutting down, which I'm honestly not too broken up about due to their embrace of AI last year. Despite being trapped in a kind of brainfog for most of March, the last week or so I've felt myself lift out of it and actually managed to write some drafts that may eventually turn into something I can post on AO3. Instead of waiting for November, I'm contemplating setting myself a weekly(?) writing goal to encourage me to stick with it. So far my bursts of inspiration the past couple of years have ended because I either put too much pressure on myself or none at all, so maybe landing in some kind of middle ground is the solution.

Doctor Who returns in a couple of weeks and I still haven't gotten around to finishing the Wilderness Years, which was definitely hampered in part from leaving Twitter where I hosted my threads with my first impressions. The trailer for the new season looks really good, but the way Disney has been handling its properties lately makes me nervous that the rumors of Ncuti Gatwa shooting a regeneration scene may have some truth to them. Regardless, I do have faith that RTD will step in if Disney tries to exert undue control over the show, or condition further funding on catering the show to a rightwing audience.

In my last entry I mentioned I started watching Twin Peaks. I've been enjoying it but it's been a slow burn (I'm not yet done with the first season). I've gotten in the habit the past few years of watching television while simultaneously doing another task, and Twin Peaks is something that really demands my attention in a way that doesn't really allow that. Not that I'm complaining, it's just taking me a bit to readjust.

The world is, well, what it is currently. Trying to delve back more into stimulating/creative pursuits (actually being able to sit down and write more than a couple of paragraphs of fic still seems to evade me, but perhaps one day.)

☆ Television: I finished rewatching the first season of She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat - a very charming J-Drama about two women cooking together and then falling in love. I'm excited to start on season 2, especially since I think I can credit this show with pulling me out of the brain fog I've been in the past few months since the election. The series is based on a manga and I want to pick up physical copies of it from my local bookstore, especially since that version is still ongoing while I'm pretty sure the show has ended.

Last night I also (finally!) started watching Twin Peaks. Did a double take when I realized that the story was actually set on February 24th as well. I am kind of kicking myself for not watching this sooner, both because David Lynch passed earlier this year and because I'm pretty sure I got spoiled at some point for who "the killer" is and I'm 80% sure I know which character it is from the jump, which lowkey sucks. The pilot was fantastic though and I'm looking forward to diving more into it.

I've also been making my way through The Great North, and while I like it I think doing it right after watching all of Central Park and catching up on Bob's Burgers is burning me out on it a little. Keeping up with Drag Race like usual, and also currently watching Abbott Elementary, Happy's Place, and Mayfair Witches week-to-week. Doctor Who is coming back in April and I'm looking forward to it even as I'm nervous for the show's future.

☆ Anime: Started getting the itch to finally start watching more Anime again. Last year I really only watched the reboot of Spice and Wolf (along with a rewatch of the original, and reading the original source material). I somehow got it in my head that now's the time to watch Trigun and I'm not gonna fight it. The question now remains whether I'll watch it while doing cardio like I'm hoping or not.

☆ Gaming: Still doing the daily grind of Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Wuthering Waves. The other day I briefly flirted with redownloading Zenless Zone Zero but keeping up with four live service games is definitely too much especially if I wanna branch out and do other things with my free time. Hello Kitty Island Adventure is finally out on Nintendo Switch but I think I may wait for the physical version to release, especially with the weird flux state the Switch is in right now with it's successor on the horizon.

I'm gonna aim to do more periodic posts like this, especially as a way to keep my brain engaged with how I'm spending my time. As the weather gets better I'd also like to do more activities outside of media consumption and possible creation. Maybe this summer I'll achieve the romantic ideal of sitting in a park somewhere and writing.

So I haven't been in much of a headspace the past couple of months to do my normal type of writing around "event" releases - in this case the 60th Anniversary Specials of Doctor Who and the Xmas Special/First Episode of Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor.

( Spoilers for the 60th Anniversary Specials and The Church on Ruby Road, if it matters )

So my plan of watching all the Wilderness Years content in 2022 didn't pan out for one reason or another, nor did my planned New Who rewatch in 2023 (which has been surprisingly Doctor Who-lite in general). I have spent the past year tinkering with my approach a bit, which involved dividing this era into three sections as well as the TV movie, and it seems like it's mostly worked. The one part I've been going back and forth on is whether to include Reeltime and BBV films in the same ranking or to split them up. In the end I decided since these lists are gonna be divided up as it is why add another. (I will add that I am not watching any BBV material while providing any sort of financial support to the company, in light of what happened last year. Read into that as you will.)

Going into this I was expecting a dip in quality, mostly from visual production and scripting. However, the most common issue I ran into is sound quality, which I'm bringing up here because I suspect the sound mixing may have been fixed in versions of these releases I do not have access to, making it a marginally unfair metric to hold against it. That said, this aspect is important since I had trouble following what was happening in at least two of these. I actually ended up pretty impressed with how most of these turned out visually, to be honest.

Overall, this review covers video content from the '90s released prior to the 1996 TV Movie. This includes two officially licensed "special" productions by the BBC, and four independently-made spinoff films with officially licensed characters and/or monsters. I've ranked each story based on these two designations.

( Mum used to think that you were some sort of spy. We used to hope it, because at least that would be interesting. )

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.
 

I've given myself a couple of days to let the episode sink in, as a lot happened and there was a fair amount I was surprised by (and a couple of things that people theorized that I'm surprised came to pass). Overall I was pretty happy with it even though it suffered from some of the same writing pitfalls as the rest of the Chibnall era, but this definitely erred on the better side.

( As River Song would say: Spoilers )

I debated whether I should write one of these, since we're less than two hours away from the episode's premiere in the UK, but with the looming self-imposed six hour internet blackout to avoid spoilers, I figured now was the last chance I'd have to commit at least some of my thoughts and theories to a post. And I have to stress some, since a sixth month wait for a single episode of television gave me a lot of time to form various thoughts and expectations for one of the biggest episodes of Doctor Who in recent memory.

I have seen the trailers, but I haven't (at least knowingly) been spoiled for anything outside of that that actually happens in the episode. As far as I can tell the people who saw the advanced screening of the episode have been very good about keeping their mouths shut, only confirming that whatever happens with the regeneration at the end was not shown to them. So I'm going into this with high hopes and what I think are reasonable expectations.

( I think I have pretty reasonable expectations, but who knows? )

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.

The past month has kind of been a weird vibe, and I've both simultaneously been struggling to focus on specific tasks while also hyper-focusing on others. The months-long stranglehold that Drag Race and Fortnite have had on me though seems to be subsiding, though I'm still consuming both.

☆ Gaming: I'm continuing to enjoy playing Animal Crossing, and I've gotten into the habit of at least opening it every day and doing the basic chores. About every 3-4 days I design a house in Happy Home Designer, and since I'm also playing a waiting game when it comes to completing the deep sea creature and insect areas of my museum (I refuse to time travel) this should sustain me for the next few months at least. I know November was the last major free update, but I'm curious if this is the end of the line for this game when it comes to new content or if there are gonna be other, smaller updates at some point in the next couple of years.

The big news here, though, is that I've finally fallen in love with Pokémon again after dealing with some level of burnout with it for the past ten years. The other day I finished all of the main storyline of Pokémon Sword and made it to the battle tower, and now I'm getting started with the Isle of Armor expansion. I've also dipped my toe into New Pokémon Snap, and my copy of Legend Arceus is in the mail (and I'm contemplating getting one of the Gen IV remakes as well). I think Generation VII is still my favorite overall (even though I never ended up finishing Sun) but I'm really enjoying the vibe of this one and how it's all come together. Took me long enough to get on board.

I'm also still playing Fortnite and I've gotten used to the new map, but I'm not overly enamored with this season in general. I think starting out with one of the best seasons ever (last summer's Alien-themed one) kind of spoiled me for this franchise and now everything has to live up to some lofty expectations. I did find myself enjoying that weird Tones and I concert event a few weeks back though, and it did it's job of making me a fan of her music.

☆ Television: I put a bunch of stuff on hold because my normal grind of consuming TV wasn't cutting it for me, and most of what I watch aside from Nancy Drew has been on hiatus since December anyway. I started Abbott Elementary off Twitter recommendations and I'm really enjoying it so far, but the headline item is that I've started rewatching The Golden Girls and it's going to be the "complete binge" I've mulled over doing for the past decade. While I've already seen all of The Golden Girls and it's follow-up, The Golden Palace, I never saw the lesser-known spinoff shows Empty Nest and Nurses (mostly because they couldn't be found anywhere online). However, I now have access to all of it (save for one later episode of Nurses which I still have time to track down) so now I'm gonna consume all of it in broadcast order and let this shared late 80s/early 90s sitcom universe wash over me in full.

I'm also still really into Drag Race, and I'm mostly hopeful that's Pangina's success on Drag Race UK Versus The World will mean that more people will check out the criminally underrated Drag Race Thailand.

☆ Writing: I wrote a couple of pages of a gag fic as a gift to my friend, but there's like a 50% chance I'm gonna scrap it and start over because I made it slightly more complicated than it needed to be. At least I've written something recently. It's the small victories.