tammaiya | Entries tagged with reading

I am kind of amused at how after months of crickets chirping LJ has exploded into sudden activity. You know it is Yuletime when...

This doesn't affect me so much, because I haven't participated in Yuletide ever before and I am not about to start when I can't even update my own WiPs, but. It does make one a little nostalgic for the days back when you would go away for a weekend and come back to 3 pages of F-list backlog.

Still trying to break out of the habit of writing blog posts in my head and then never committing the words to virtual paper, but it's difficult, because writing the thoughts down takes time and I am feeling the pinch of that enough as it is. I probably need some time off but I am using all my leave on Spain and Paris, so that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Not that I regret it- I am pretty excited about finally getting to see EUROPE - but I am a little tired at the moment.

Speaking of nostalgia, recently I have been reminiscing about one of my old origi-fic worlds, and I went poking about google drive to see if I could find any of the old planning docs. No dice - I will have to check an external harddrive if I can be bothered enough - but I did find some hilarious unfinished documents as well as a depressing number of WiPs. For example, there is a document which was PROBABLY meant to be a game blog, but the only line in it is "I had to stop myself from actually shrieking out loud: OH NO, NOT HER!!!!!!!!!!!" ... I read that and then just stared, mystified, wondering what on Earth that was referring to??? (I did wonder if it was a reference to Dahlia Hawthorne in the later episodes of Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Trials & Tribulations, but I seem to have a different unfinished but at least more finished than that file for T&T in my google drive so I guess not?)

There is also an unfinished gameblog for Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. It is amusing to reread my original impressions of games a while after I played them. In particular - "The eighth mystery of Twilight Town: Xion's magically disappearing and reappearing hood." I STILL DON'T GET THAT. And it is still a thing in the cinematic HD version in 1.5, too. Why? We may never know.

Actually, speaking of reading the original impressions of games I played a while ago, having just replayed Trials & Tribulations, it was pretty funny to see some places where I apparently made EXACTLY THE SAME MISTAKE on both play-throughs. I guess some things don't change.

Meanwhile, an update on the status of what I am up to in my tragically limited free time.

Watching: Since the last post, I finished S1 of the Magi anime and have also started Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, along with the aforementioned Elementary, Once Upon a Time and Legend of Korra. I haven't started s2 of Magi, which is currently airing, because conveniently enough s1 finished about where I was up to in the manga. I am going to catch up on the manga before I pick up watching again. I also started watching the Taiwanese drama Love Buffet, because... it was there and why not? I dunno. It is based on the manga Love Parfait and I find it a little distressing when I keep veering between who I ship the main character with - it is a love triangle and at any given moment I am usually shipping her with whoever she is not in love with, which is a bit awkward. Plus sometimes I want to smack people for being idiots. Which actually is not related to the love triangle itself. I have opinions about love triangles, but these can wait until that Cassie Palmer post I still swear I will get around to one of these days.

Playing: Still stalled on AC etc, still playing Project Diva F on and off. Finished replaying Gyakuten Kenji and have now moved onto Gyakuten Kenji 2, which I have never played before so it is a new and interesting experience. Be hard to write fic about since it was never translated, but there are a lot of aspects that are quite intriguing, like Gregory Edgeworth's junior showing up. Also, I should have known it was coming, there is quite possibly a corrupt judge for a change. These games have a REALLY messed up legal system... and I am beginning to form an awful suspicion that Edgeworth may lose his badge around the same time Phoenix did...

Also, I just acquired the Tales of Symphonia/Knights of Ratatosk PS3 remake, so I am contemplating whether to start playing that.

Reading: Finished Shadowfell Book 2. That is an interesting one for me, because by book 2 it is less about the romance than the rebellion plot line, and these days usually I won't bestir myself to read something unless I have an existing attachment to it (e.g. Discworld) or I am going to ship something. And usually in books I will go for the books where the thing I ship is canon. Also, Shadowfell is set in a rather dystopian political environment, which generally isn't my thing... but I do like stories about the Fair Folk, and so I will keep reading it. Since the last post, I have also read... hmm.

This needs bullet points.
( Book ramble. )

Current Location: Australia, Australian Capital Territory, City

Since I am determined to start blogging again, I decided a good way to do this would be with an update on what fannish things are currently happening in my life...

Now watching: I have finally started watching the anime of Magi, which has been around for months now and which I have vaguely been intending to watch since it started. I love the manga (which I am now also several volumes behind on) and being now up to episode 19, I can vouch for the fact that it is a really good adaptation - the voicing suits the characters, it is really faithful to the manga, and the animation is beautiful. There is a season 2 starting in about a week, which is also exciting! But I suspect I will actually have to catch up on the manga for s2.

A bunch of my shows have also just started up again, so I am also watching S2 of The Legend of Korra, S2 of Elementary, and S3 of Once Upon a Time. I was catching up on White Collar and managed to get from a season and a half behind to half a season behind, but I have stalled on that one again.

Now playing: Technically I am in the middle of Assassin's Creed on PS3, Trails in the Sky on PSP, and Final Fantasy Gaiden: The 4 Heroes of Light on DS, but in terms of what I am actually making progress in right now - Project Diva F, a rhythm game for PS3, and (of course) Gyakuten Kenji (AKA Ace Attorney Investigations) on DS. I also started the Magi game on 3DS, but that was more on a whim than anything. It is what finally pushed me to start watching the Magi anime, though.

Now reading (books): I just finished Tempt the Stars (Cassie Palmer book 6) by Karen Chance and Isabella and The English Witch by Loretta Chase. These represent two of the reading genres I now generally stick to crabbing about - paranormal romance, and historical romance. XD I refuse to be judged! Also, I have a lot of feelings about Cassie Palmer right now, so there might be a post about book 6 one of these days that is a thinly veiled excuse to pontificate about my feelings on the love triangle and why I am Team Pritkin all the way. Currently, I am in the middle of Raven Flight, book 2 of a new-ish series called Shadowfell by an Australian author, Juliet Marillier. It is high fantasy, set against a celtic sort of folklore, about a political rebellion and a girl whose canny powers to make friends of the fae (the Good Folk) make her a target. The world-building in this one is pretty rich, and it doesn't suffer from the heavy-handing writing style and language usage that high fantasy can be prone to. Plus, I do enjoy any good book about the fae.

Now reading (manga): I am not in the middle of tearing through any series wholesale, but there are a number I am reading from month to month as they come out. The ones that spring particularly to mind are Skip Beat!, Love So Life, Kimi ni Todoke, and Kami-sama Hajimemashita, which... are all shoujo. Huh. Technically I am also reading Sekaiichi Hatsukoi as it comes out, but it comes out so infrequently it doesn't really feel accurate to say I am in the middle of reading it. Meanwhile, I am feeling the distinct urge to catch up on Magi (not a shoujo - gasp!) and Pokemon Special, and also to start the Magi spin-off manga (The Adventures of Sinbad). Of these, the last chapter of Skip Beat! was a major cliffhanger, so that is the one I am most on the edge of my seat waiting on the next chapter for.

Now writing: ................... *WEEPS BITTER TEARS* If I were to provide a list here of all the WiPs that I feel guilty about but haven't touched in months or years, it would be longer than this entire post. I did start a Phoenix Wright fic, though. Who knows if I will ever finish it or even write any more on it, but starting something at all is notable enough these days.

Looking forward to: Many, many things. I exist in a perpetual state of impatience. *g* At the top of the list right now are KH3 (it has actually been announced now! but still doesn't have a release date, so I will be waiting a pretty long while), KH 2.5 HD Remix (okay this hasn't actually been officially announced yet but it seems almost impossible that it won't be given everything, so my near future chances of this one are a lot higher than they are for KH3), Cassie Palmer book 7 (these books come out every 2 years so it is possible I will legit see KH3 first, or at least have a release date for it by the time this book comes out), and the next chapter of Skip Beat! and next episodes of my shows, which at least I have a chance of seeing in the next few weeks. Also kind of looking forward to the Disney movie Frozen and the next Thor movie. :)

Naturally, if anyone wants to discuss any of the games, books, tv shows, manga, etc in this post, I am all for it! Come at me, bro.

Current Location: Australia, Australian Capital Territory, City

So I haven't updated in a while but at least on the bright side I have been checking my flist again? And I've been writing posts in my head. I don't know why I don't just write them and post them when this happens, I fail at cyberlife.

Anyway, things:

* After 10 years of internet friendship, I met Kelsey in person for the first time ever! I had dinner with her and Fahye while she was here in Canberra. It was awesome. :)

* Work got really super ridiculously busy for a while, mostly due to a constant need for me to be at meetings plus two senior associates in my team going on maternity leave over the course of one month

* Related to this, I spent 13 hours on the weekend before last working on a tender response. This is worst kind of work you can be required to spend your weekend on, because tenders are very boring, and also it is non-billable so it doesn't help you meet your billable hour targets. Seriously, it is like a job application for your firm, ONLY WORSE. Sigh. On the bright side I got it done, it apparently wasn't crap and we submitted our response on Friday.

* I am still a lawyer until February, whence upon I become an associate, but last Monday my boss told me to move my stuff into an office. I have an office, you guys! Guys! A real office! WITH A DOOR! (not all our offices have doors.) Admittedly like all offices in our... office... the walls and door are made entirely of glass and the door is a sliding door so it is not like it is soundproof or anything but still. An office. MY office!

* I might be going on secondment with a Commonwealth Department for 3 months. Maybe. In theory the secondment was supposed to start yesterday though, so who knows.

* After about two years of not really watching western tv, I have finally been in the mood again to catch up on some of the things I've missed. I watched all of Elementary S1, then finished Sherlock BBC S2, and am currently catching up on White Collar, which I was a season and a half behind in. While on this spree of television I ordered the DVD of the 2009 BBC adaptation of Emma, which I watched with my mother and sister on the weekend. (Jonny Lee Miller: best Mr Knightley ever. My mother, who watched but didn't care overly much for Elementary, lamented the loss of such a good Austen actor.) As previously mentioned, I also finished watching S2 of Once Upon a Time and am currently watching S3 of Teen Wolf as it comes out. I may at some later stage make a post about my feelings on one or more of these things.

* Watched Pacific Rim. It is not my new favouritist movie ever or even my favourite that I have seen recently, but I enjoyed it well enough, more than I thought I would from the trailer.

* Still reading a fair amount. Up until recently this was mostly in the way of paranormal romance, urban fantasy and their young adult equivalents, but after watching Emma I am going through a historical romance phase.