What Coyo's up to These Days
Jan. 2nd, 2022 02:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coyoteclaw11Mostly work, as per usual. I'm still working at a bookstore cafe, and I like it a lot. I still want to go back to school, get a degree, and then try to get a job teaching English in Japan... but step 1's been a little difficult with the pandemic. I took online classes in high school, and I took a conversational class over zoom last year. All this experience has taught me that I am really bad at online classes and do not enjoy them one bit... I'd like to wait until in-person classes are viable, but who knows how long that'll be.
Gaming
I haven't actually been playing that much Genshin! I mostly log in for my dailies, but I'm not super consistent with that. I think there's only so many consecutive months I can obsessively play a game, so I don't mind having to step back a bit lol. My birthday's coming up on the 22nd this month, and a really cool character's going to be featured in the banner starting on the 25th. My plan is to gather up all my tip money and whale on that banner. I'm really excited hehe
I'm currently playing Hashihime of the Old Book Town, a BL visual novel (VN). Steam Winter Sale really tempted me, and though I only bought... okay it's really 5 games, but they're one series and it was a bundle! My VN backlog's getting ridiculous, though so I'm trying to tackle that. I like this game a lot honestly. Time loops? Mystery that unfolds over several timelines and replays? Trans representation that's actually taken seriously??? This game ticks a lot of boxes for me lol It seems to be getting a lot darker with every route, though. I've only finished two, but that last one... woof. I also finally finished my first playthrough of Arcade Spirits, one of the VNs I got with the Black Lives Matter bundle back in 2020. That one's a really cute, light-hearted game. The romance isn't my favorite (a bit too fast paced and... not shallow exactly? But it feels almost detached, like you're just meeting two people who are already dating? Even though the main character plays more like a self-insert, the romance leaves you feeling like a third party)... but I love all the characters and the portrayal of their friendship.
Reading
I finally gave up on finishing Donna Tartt's The Secret History. It took me 6 months to get 3/4s of the way through that book, but from what I've read so far and what I've heard online, I just don't think there's any reason to keep going. The second half of the book just has no plot, and I don't like the characters nor am I intrigued by them enough to sit through their drawn out character analysis for the remainder of the book. I finished Memorial by Bryan Washington, which was really interesting, and I started The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (which I got from a book swap at work). I'm not really vibing with that one, though, so I might drop it. Speaking of book swap... I picked up 10 books as if I don't have twice (maybe 3 times that) already sitting unread on my shelf >.> Maybe for the new year, I'll try to do a reading challenge to tackle that.
Crafting
For Christmas I finally finished knitting the skull and crossbones bookmark for my uncle. I also started and finished two dicebags for my aunt and cousin! I didn't take a picture of any of them because I forgot lmao I'm really interested in trying to knit two socks at once (since I can't be counted on to start the second sock after finishing the first.) I got some circular needles and have been watching how-to videos! I just need the yarn. I'd also really like to go back to the Harry Potter cross stitch project I've been working on with my mom... I completely forget where we left off in the audiobook last time we worked on it lol but I look forward to it.
Language Learning
After another several months of abandonment, I'm once again back to learning Japanese. One of my new coworkers is from Japan and actually used to teach her neighbors. I don't want to ask her teach me or anything (especially since I'm kind of happy with my current setup), but I would like to improve enough that maybe we could talk in Japanese. Actually having a friend who shares my interests and is a native speaker in the language I'm trying hard to learn isn't an opportunity I want to give up! Right now, I'm working my way through the Tango N5 Anki deck. I'm pretty familiar with grammar, but I'm seriously lacking in vocabulary, so I hope that'll help. It's also to help teach me kanji in vocabulary. I've been kinda slacking there, and I want to be able to read. I'd be nice to go back to Mango Languages and WaniKani (speaking and kanji learning apps respectively), but I'll try not to take on too much at once before I've even established one habit.
I haven't actually been playing that much Genshin! I mostly log in for my dailies, but I'm not super consistent with that. I think there's only so many consecutive months I can obsessively play a game, so I don't mind having to step back a bit lol. My birthday's coming up on the 22nd this month, and a really cool character's going to be featured in the banner starting on the 25th. My plan is to gather up all my tip money and whale on that banner. I'm really excited hehe
I'm currently playing Hashihime of the Old Book Town, a BL visual novel (VN). Steam Winter Sale really tempted me, and though I only bought... okay it's really 5 games, but they're one series and it was a bundle! My VN backlog's getting ridiculous, though so I'm trying to tackle that. I like this game a lot honestly. Time loops? Mystery that unfolds over several timelines and replays? Trans representation that's actually taken seriously??? This game ticks a lot of boxes for me lol It seems to be getting a lot darker with every route, though. I've only finished two, but that last one... woof. I also finally finished my first playthrough of Arcade Spirits, one of the VNs I got with the Black Lives Matter bundle back in 2020. That one's a really cute, light-hearted game. The romance isn't my favorite (a bit too fast paced and... not shallow exactly? But it feels almost detached, like you're just meeting two people who are already dating? Even though the main character plays more like a self-insert, the romance leaves you feeling like a third party)... but I love all the characters and the portrayal of their friendship.
I finally gave up on finishing Donna Tartt's The Secret History. It took me 6 months to get 3/4s of the way through that book, but from what I've read so far and what I've heard online, I just don't think there's any reason to keep going. The second half of the book just has no plot, and I don't like the characters nor am I intrigued by them enough to sit through their drawn out character analysis for the remainder of the book. I finished Memorial by Bryan Washington, which was really interesting, and I started The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (which I got from a book swap at work). I'm not really vibing with that one, though, so I might drop it. Speaking of book swap... I picked up 10 books as if I don't have twice (maybe 3 times that) already sitting unread on my shelf >.> Maybe for the new year, I'll try to do a reading challenge to tackle that.
For Christmas I finally finished knitting the skull and crossbones bookmark for my uncle. I also started and finished two dicebags for my aunt and cousin! I didn't take a picture of any of them because I forgot lmao I'm really interested in trying to knit two socks at once (since I can't be counted on to start the second sock after finishing the first.) I got some circular needles and have been watching how-to videos! I just need the yarn. I'd also really like to go back to the Harry Potter cross stitch project I've been working on with my mom... I completely forget where we left off in the audiobook last time we worked on it lol but I look forward to it.
After another several months of abandonment, I'm once again back to learning Japanese. One of my new coworkers is from Japan and actually used to teach her neighbors. I don't want to ask her teach me or anything (especially since I'm kind of happy with my current setup), but I would like to improve enough that maybe we could talk in Japanese. Actually having a friend who shares my interests and is a native speaker in the language I'm trying hard to learn isn't an opportunity I want to give up! Right now, I'm working my way through the Tango N5 Anki deck. I'm pretty familiar with grammar, but I'm seriously lacking in vocabulary, so I hope that'll help. It's also to help teach me kanji in vocabulary. I've been kinda slacking there, and I want to be able to read. I'd be nice to go back to Mango Languages and WaniKani (speaking and kanji learning apps respectively), but I'll try not to take on too much at once before I've even established one habit.
