This week in squirrels…

Summary

  • Hospital Week Pt 3
    • This week, we are going hard on things; the ramp-up is over. The treatments are changing and going quickly.
    • As expected, Chemo does, in fact, suck, but I have been getting all gold stars on how well I am progressing through bloodwork and treatments. It’s going well, and that’s the exciting part.
    • We had a minor complication with one of the procedures so I have been in a lot of pain and I need to spend a lot of time lying down to manage things, which I hated. it’s shocking how much all your motivation and energy can vanish with constant pain.
  • Music
    • I shifted my focus and attempted to open with an ambient/sounds piece. It’s coming along, but my ears get tired really quickly, so I am working slowly at it
    • I ended up not liking Bitwig on Linux due to a lot of minor UX and working bugs that I can’t tell if they are Linux, Bitwig, or NixOS, so I have been just focusing on trying to up my tracker game again when I have the energy.
    • Making ambient music in a tracker is a challenge for me, though
  • Reading
    • It seems every book I pick up is so bad, or maybe I just can’t get into these things.
    • Luckily, I found some cozy books to dip into and a bunch of ok TV backlog to watch while lying down.
  • More thoughts because I am stuck in a painfully straight space
    • I frequently think of the studies that mention that transgender people are less than 2% of the US population.
    • This means that I am statistically likely to be the first trans person most cis people meet, but they have also been told about what to think about me well in advance due to campaigning.
  • Media control
    • I normally whine about these things down below in articles, but honestly, the constant news and talk about Brendan Carr pushing for control over the media, making threats, and trying to dictate headlines is the most frightening thing I have seen in a while.
    • We can never underestimate the need for independence from government media control. diverse news points aren’t always fun to read, but when the government has control over what we see and read
    • FCC chair threatens broadcasters over Iran war coverage | USA Today

Books

  • House of Crimson Hearts ⭐
    • I tried so hard, but I couldn’t get through this. I love a good vamp story and even an enemies-to-lovers, but… the sex was constant and not even well placed, mostly usually between scenes of extreme violence and attacks. The drama was thin and stretched too far, and overall, if you told me this was the author’s first Wattpad, I would believe.
  • My Goddess is Precious Today Too Vol. 2 ⭐⭐⭐
    • This is a really good volume 2 to an already cute series. There was some unexpected adult content in this one, but it wasn’t excessive, and I wouldn’t have been shocked if I’d been reading it in public.
    • The epilogues mixing all the couples really put this one over for me, too.
    • This would have been a 4-star volume if not for the really bad print quality, where covers and inserts were full-sized, but pages were super small. Also, the translation/writing is awkward in spots, and you have to get used to the jilted feeling of English.
  • Fired But I Maintain All the Software! Volume 2 ⭐
    • This volume stops being about the quirky MC and starts focusing solely on how toxic Japan’s workplace is, and just kinda dwells in depressing employment stories, which wasn’t fun enough to make me want to finish the volume.
  • The Lone Wolf Café ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • For what it is. It’s not the best in the genre, but it’s damn fun and cozy, with a big splash of action and drama. I didn’t love the constant anxiety written throughout the character and booo, but it was consistent with the character l.
    • The writing at the end feels a bit too trying, though, to put the biggest bow on it all. But still, cozy.

Music

  • Angine de Poitrine
    • I do love me some weird music, and why not microtonal math rock? This is the new find that I got into for the week
  • Lady Gaga’s Mayhem
    • Good pain music
  • Tweaker
    • Also good pain and depression music
  • Kittie
    • Feeling some rage
  • Orbital
    • This is always great music for me to get lost in, I am a huge fan of so many albums for different moods or meditations
  • Snog
    • sometimes we feeling dark

Reads and Videos

Quote of the Week

The emerging cases of AI psychosis have shown that all it takes to drive some people completely insane is to put them in contact with a sycophantic chatbot who always agrees with them.

Now, what does that tell us about billionaire CEOs surrounded by sycophantic people who always agree with them?