(no subject)
And another week! I'm not sure what is going on with my nights, but I feel like I get home, browse the internet for a few minutes, maybe make dinner, and then it's 7. And then I choose something to do, glance at the clock, and find that it's 9 or 10. It's pretty frustrating.
I did manage to achieve some of my goals this week. I finished Portal of a Thousand Worlds on Monday night. It was kind of mediocre, and certainly a disappointment. For most of the book, there wasn't any kind of unified plot and I just wasn't sure what the story was driving toward. That made it kind of hard to be invested in it. I did like a lot of the characters, but he switched between them a little too often, so it was hard to get attached to most of them. I also was disappointed because, although it's billed as a fantasy novel, it was very light on the fantasy aspects. There was a dragon, and there was the portal that only appeared at the very end. It felt much more like an alternative history. The ending was really good though. He managed to bring everything together in a manner that I found really satisfying. I wouldn't say I hated it, but my expectations were kind of high, so I was sad that I didn't like it more and only gave it 3 stars.
My next book is Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh. The next Magical Space Pussycats podcast is going to be on it, and since I own it, I thought I would read it before I listened. I'm about 80 pages in and really enjoying it. I follow two of the three podcasters on Goodreads and Youtube, so I know that they didn't love it, but there's something about Cherryh for me. I loved her Fortress series even though I thought objectively that the writing style was weird and the plot kind of slow. Something about it clicked just right for me. I also really liked her Faded Sun Trilogy. I didn't like the Chanur books as much, but my expectations are still pretty high for Foreigner. Somehow, it feels similar to the Fortress books, which is probably why I'm so excited. I hope I'm not disappointed, although the number of books that I'd have to read to catch up on the series is intimidating if I do end up liking it.
I finally finished playing Witcher 3 last night! Such a good game, but so long! I played around 100 hours. I did most of the quests, explored a lot of places, and generally had a good time with it. The ending was pretty satisfying for me, but it will definitely be a good long while before I even think of picking up the DLC for it. I'm ready for something much shorter.
I picked up the Humble Bundle this week as well, mostly because I thought J was kind of longing after it. Our Steam accounts are linked so that we can share the vast majority of our games. I also gifted him a couple of the ones that he was more interested in. I still haven't added most of them to my Steam account. I'll have to get on it this weekend.
I really want to focus on playing some shorter games for a little while. I'm idly playing Stardew Valley and some other casual games, but I want shorter games for story right now. I started playing Transistor tonight. I love the aura of it, and I'm super-intrigued by the plot, but the combat was crazy hard. I've got a combat guide pulled up and I'll need to read it tomorrow because I'm not getting it. I think it's much more strategic than I prefer, which will be hard for me. I'm more of a hack and bash person. I don't play games for the combat, so I'm really not interested in strategy for it. Anyway, I'll definitely have to get a better handle on it to get anywhere.
After that, I'm considering playing Tomb Raider or Ori and the Blind Forest. Then maybe Bioshock? Or the second Shadowrun game. I just don't want to spend the next five months on the same game like I did with Witcher. It was worth it, but I need to feel like I'm making progress for a bit now. I really want to play all three Mass Effect games, but I'm not ready for the length of them yet, so they'll have to wait.
I'm just about finished with my 31 day video series of yoga! Of course, it's taken me significantly longer than 31 days, but part of that was being sick and then hurting my back. And then the other part was just that I don't always have the willpower to get myself to do it on a day-to-day basis. Anyway, that means that tomorrow I get to go and buy a book! I'm not sure what I'll get. My plan is just to go to the bookstore and grab whatever looks most exciting. I feel kind of bad letting myself do it, actually. I've been stressed about money, and I went ahead and spent some money to buy myself an iPod Nano, which is probably bad. But I need to be able to reward myself for exercise and keep myself motivated if this will ever become a habit. So, a book it is.
Speaking of that iPod, I'm glad I bought it. I put it on my Paypal credit account so I can pay it back a bit more gradually without incurring interest. I wanted it so I could listen to audiobooks through the Bluetooth on my car, and it's working quite well for that. I was trying to use my phone previously, but it wasn't working. I had an app I was using, but it would intermittently just stop working. And when I tried to use the regular music app, it would constantly lose my spot. When you're listening to a 9 hour file, that is beyond frustrating. So, yay audiobooks! I know I was doubtful about them before, but they're definitely growing on me. Right now, I'm listening to Sir Apropos of Nothing by Peter David. I always thought that this was a light and satirical fantasy, but it's actually pretty dark and satirical. There's gang rape, murder, bullying, and, in general, people being asshats, including the main character. I'm still enjoying it, but in a different way than I expected to. And I'm quite glad to be able to listen to it again.
Anyway, that's where I'm at. I apologize if I'm a bit incoherent. I'm pretty tired. XD
I did manage to achieve some of my goals this week. I finished Portal of a Thousand Worlds on Monday night. It was kind of mediocre, and certainly a disappointment. For most of the book, there wasn't any kind of unified plot and I just wasn't sure what the story was driving toward. That made it kind of hard to be invested in it. I did like a lot of the characters, but he switched between them a little too often, so it was hard to get attached to most of them. I also was disappointed because, although it's billed as a fantasy novel, it was very light on the fantasy aspects. There was a dragon, and there was the portal that only appeared at the very end. It felt much more like an alternative history. The ending was really good though. He managed to bring everything together in a manner that I found really satisfying. I wouldn't say I hated it, but my expectations were kind of high, so I was sad that I didn't like it more and only gave it 3 stars.
My next book is Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh. The next Magical Space Pussycats podcast is going to be on it, and since I own it, I thought I would read it before I listened. I'm about 80 pages in and really enjoying it. I follow two of the three podcasters on Goodreads and Youtube, so I know that they didn't love it, but there's something about Cherryh for me. I loved her Fortress series even though I thought objectively that the writing style was weird and the plot kind of slow. Something about it clicked just right for me. I also really liked her Faded Sun Trilogy. I didn't like the Chanur books as much, but my expectations are still pretty high for Foreigner. Somehow, it feels similar to the Fortress books, which is probably why I'm so excited. I hope I'm not disappointed, although the number of books that I'd have to read to catch up on the series is intimidating if I do end up liking it.
I finally finished playing Witcher 3 last night! Such a good game, but so long! I played around 100 hours. I did most of the quests, explored a lot of places, and generally had a good time with it. The ending was pretty satisfying for me, but it will definitely be a good long while before I even think of picking up the DLC for it. I'm ready for something much shorter.
I picked up the Humble Bundle this week as well, mostly because I thought J was kind of longing after it. Our Steam accounts are linked so that we can share the vast majority of our games. I also gifted him a couple of the ones that he was more interested in. I still haven't added most of them to my Steam account. I'll have to get on it this weekend.
I really want to focus on playing some shorter games for a little while. I'm idly playing Stardew Valley and some other casual games, but I want shorter games for story right now. I started playing Transistor tonight. I love the aura of it, and I'm super-intrigued by the plot, but the combat was crazy hard. I've got a combat guide pulled up and I'll need to read it tomorrow because I'm not getting it. I think it's much more strategic than I prefer, which will be hard for me. I'm more of a hack and bash person. I don't play games for the combat, so I'm really not interested in strategy for it. Anyway, I'll definitely have to get a better handle on it to get anywhere.
After that, I'm considering playing Tomb Raider or Ori and the Blind Forest. Then maybe Bioshock? Or the second Shadowrun game. I just don't want to spend the next five months on the same game like I did with Witcher. It was worth it, but I need to feel like I'm making progress for a bit now. I really want to play all three Mass Effect games, but I'm not ready for the length of them yet, so they'll have to wait.
I'm just about finished with my 31 day video series of yoga! Of course, it's taken me significantly longer than 31 days, but part of that was being sick and then hurting my back. And then the other part was just that I don't always have the willpower to get myself to do it on a day-to-day basis. Anyway, that means that tomorrow I get to go and buy a book! I'm not sure what I'll get. My plan is just to go to the bookstore and grab whatever looks most exciting. I feel kind of bad letting myself do it, actually. I've been stressed about money, and I went ahead and spent some money to buy myself an iPod Nano, which is probably bad. But I need to be able to reward myself for exercise and keep myself motivated if this will ever become a habit. So, a book it is.
Speaking of that iPod, I'm glad I bought it. I put it on my Paypal credit account so I can pay it back a bit more gradually without incurring interest. I wanted it so I could listen to audiobooks through the Bluetooth on my car, and it's working quite well for that. I was trying to use my phone previously, but it wasn't working. I had an app I was using, but it would intermittently just stop working. And when I tried to use the regular music app, it would constantly lose my spot. When you're listening to a 9 hour file, that is beyond frustrating. So, yay audiobooks! I know I was doubtful about them before, but they're definitely growing on me. Right now, I'm listening to Sir Apropos of Nothing by Peter David. I always thought that this was a light and satirical fantasy, but it's actually pretty dark and satirical. There's gang rape, murder, bullying, and, in general, people being asshats, including the main character. I'm still enjoying it, but in a different way than I expected to. And I'm quite glad to be able to listen to it again.
Anyway, that's where I'm at. I apologize if I'm a bit incoherent. I'm pretty tired. XD