Log: October 7, 2025

[welcometohighwater]

READING

• Finished The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.  Excellent excellent excellent.
• Because of course I would change my mind, I've started on Mort, the fourth in Terry Pratchett's Discworld, instead of going on to Ghost Story.  Sue me.  If I am able to read, uh, reasonably, I should be able to finish it and start Ghost Story before the end of the month (aka, Halloween, aka, Spooky "Ghost Story" Season, ha ha).  But I am unfortunately a very slow reader, soooooo we'll see.
• Also started reading a writing book, Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! NaNoWriMo guide.  I'm seriously contemplating a NaNo-type project this year, even if the official NaNoWriMo is, for all intents and purposes, dead.  I want to do it so, so bad.  Unfortunately, coming up with a plot is my chief problem, and I don't think this book's gonna help as much as its title might suggest.
• AND for the first time since literally March, I think, I'm listening to an audiobook!  One of my library's digital services, Hoopla, does free borrows at the end of each month, so at the end of September I borrowed The Spirit Collection of Thorne Hall (seasonal) and I decided to make myself get back into audiobooks.  So far, cute--the basic premise of the book is so good, shame that it's more of, like, a romance instead.  Less focus on the romance and more on the supernatural would make for a much more fun book, I think.

LISTENING

• Podcasts  Mostly staying caught up on things, and giving myself a nice, comfy Magic Tavern relisten with liveblog on my Tumblr.  It's nice.  One of my seasonal favorites, First in Fright, is back for a second round of episodes for October.  It details various the ghost stories and hauntings of North Carolina through interview and vignettes from storytellers, and I really enjoy hearing these stories of places so close to home.
• Music  Of course I gave Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl a couple of listens (zeitgeist, my dear).  Man, people are so fucking weird about Taylor Swift in general.  She's not a god, but she's also not a devil (she might be closer to it, but that has to do more with the privileges of her wealth than with her music).  I think it's a perfectly fine album.  There are songs that I like well enough, and songs that I do not care for.  Some of the lyrics are good, and some of them are miserable.  Frankly, I much enjoy this return-to-form (pop music) after . . . whatever Tortured Poets was supposed to be.  That one was a nightmare for me--I'm sorry, but that shit wasn't poetic genius, it was giving overwrought pretentious high schooler.  LIke, sometimes Taylor Swift can give us a really nice turn of phrase, but more often than not, it's really not that hot.  I guess I just don't get it.  In general, she's got this way of using language, of speaking that's so odd.  Unfortunately I can't source it, but I think it was a Tumblr post I saw once that compared her way of speaking in interviews as like a homeschool kid trying to see what slang they could get away with.  I think about that with her writing, too, all the time.  Anyway, as a palate cleanser, I'm listening to Dan Mangan's Nice, Nice, Very Nice for the umpteenth time today.  "Fair Verona"--now there's a Shakespeare song for you.

WATCHING

• Working through Shoot from the Hip's improvised plays on YouTube, and I am enjoying them IMMENSELY.  Probably I'll be watching their other YouTube stuff, their games and whatnot, after I get caught up.

DOING

• As mentioned, I am considering giving a NaNoWriMo-type thing a legit hard try this November.  Originally I was thinking of finally finishing this TAZ Amnesty fic I started Years and Years ago, but my thoughts, regrettably, might be shifting.  Still, perhaps sadly, to fanfic, alas, oh well, perhaps a HftMT thing that will appeal to . . . absolutely no one by myself.  Which is okay because that's who you gotta write for, babey.  It will be strange and specific, and much in the vein of Ms. Swift, quite overwrought.  I'll own it.
• Perpetual decluttering.  Circumstances have changed, so I'm back into bedroom work.  I'm thinking about some major bedroom changes (chiefly, ditching the space-devouring queen bed and going back to my old daybed), so I'm trying to dig stuff out from under my bed and all and go through it.  I've got to figure out a way to get rid of STUFF.  Unfortunately I love MY STUFF.