coyoteclaw11

Mostly 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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

My account was temporarily suspended, but it was apparently by mistake. I can't blame that for my absence, though lol but I'm happy it was quickly resolved.

How have y'all been this year? I feel like things are mostly the same for me . We had a ridiculous heat wave in Washington, with temperatures going over 100 degrees! I got vaccinated as soon as I could and was very disappointed in my lack of side effects (I wanted a cool story to tell, but all I got was a sore arm for the first shot and then nada for the second. Ah well.) Masks were required indoors for a while, which was a nightmare as a retail/food service employee... Having to basically babysit grown adults who couldn't be bothered to just wear their mask properly was far worse than sanitizing all the surfaces every hour and wearing gloves to take money. It was great to finally stop worrying when the mask mandate ended. It's back now, but honestly it's not as bad as the first time around. I guess everyone who was going to throw a fit about having to wear a mask had already decided to stop coming to our store lol. I definitely have customers who have their mask under their nose or otherwise not properly covering their face, but I'm just too tired to care any more.

Currently, my life seems to be volleying between work, sleep, and playing Genshin Impact lmao. Several of my coworkers play, so we end up chatting about the game at work, and we co-op every week to fight bosses. It's a gacha game, meaning to get characters, you have to spend in-game currency to roll for a chance at getting them. Generally 9/10 rolls are garbage weapons lol I ended up spending actual money to get a character when I was having the absolute worst luck, but honestly I don't regret it. His name is Kazuha and he is my absolute favorite. His design? His voice? His personality? All absolutely 10/10 worth every dollar. But to make it even better, he's just so much fun to play and really strong!

I got Diluc recently, who's also a really cool character. Of my coworkers who play, like 4 of us are complete Diluc simps lmaoooo It took me a while to get used to actually using him in the game, but I can finally kill stuff with him, which is fun. I was also able to get Xingqiu recently which I am SO excited about. As a character he's Okay, but he's an amazing hydro user and I needed hydro on my team soooo so bad. I really wonder why they put this boy in such short shorts. I'm not complaining, but I really wonder lmao.

On the fandom side of things, I'm really only tangently involved with the Genshin fandom. I'm actually starting to use Twitter, which is weird lol but it feels like that's where all the art is. I joined a Kazuha big bang which I am suuuuuper excited for even though I really haven't been drawing much lately. I've also been keeping my eye out for a rarepair ship week or something of the sort. While there's nothing stopping me from drawing Diluc/Kazuha (except my own... everything), I think there's a better chance of it happening in an organized event.

I keep finding that I get bored really quickly when drawing... it sucks because I really want to draw, but as soon as I start I just completely lose steam. Maybe it's just art block and adjusting to a new desk setup??? I don't know but it sucks. I hope I can overcome it. I want to draw lots of Kazuha ;;

I am finally, finally, finally going back to Miami to get my stuff and say my final goodbyes to my friends and the city I spent a majority of my life in ;o; You know we've had our stuff sitting in a storage unit for like... a year? I know it's materialistic but I think about that stuff so often... my Neko Atsume poncho... my OC notebooks... my books... I want it all here with me now!! I'll also get to see my friends again which! I am very much looking forward to since I have been... very lonely. I don't have any friends here, so it's been kind of rough. It'll be nice to actually spend time with people I'm comfortable around. My best friend's birthday's the week after I go, so I'll be able to give them their birthday present in person <333

I'm also looking forward to getting my desktop back... listen, my chromebook is lovely! Super portable! Super dependable! It has been very nice to me and I super appreciate that!! But I can't fuckin draw on it. I can't game. I can't draw... I miss Sims. I miss Paint Tool Sai. I miss a whole lot of things I had before suddenly uprooting and going to Seattle. I'm just... super excited.

Speaking of Seattle... well... for a bit of background, basically my mom got an internship that brought us here, but we stayed with family across the water while she was doing that and afterwards while she was looking for a full-time job. I ended up getting a job at Barnes and Noble while I was there (which!!! Excite!!!!!!). Everyone was super nice and cool and I ended up in a D&D group with some coworkers so that was awesome! The worst of it really was that I could never remember my coworkers on the book side (I work Cafe) so I would be always asking their name and if they had a membership fghjk

Fast forward, mom got a job (whoo!) and we finally get a house in Seattle. I transferred to the Barnes and Noble here and that was cool and exciting (I no longer had to travel 2.5 hrs each way from my new house to work dfghjk). But!! Well, everything's different first of all which isn't super bad? But I don't,,, know anyone. I'm not clicking with my coworkers like I did at my old store (though I was definitely an awkward mess there too) and I just,,,, constantly, constantly, constantly feel out of place. I feel... super outside the circle, except I'm standing directly inside the circle and trying to be as unobtrusive as humanly possible. People aren't mean or rude! They're just not.... overtly friendly in a way that helps someone as stand offish and nervous as me. You've gotta get to like Level 10 frienship with my to unlock my personality, so all I've really got going for me is my work ethic? And that doesn't super seem to be working for the store managers (though the Cafe manager and lead are v nice and say they're very happy to have me!)

Idk I just feel like,,, peak awkward constantly all the time.

I miss. Hanging out with my friends. and sitting in companionable silence.

Back in high school, my friends and I would take the trolley down to Barnes & Noble, settle down on the stage in the children's section (where there were plugs to charge our phones) and answer Would You Rather questions from the American Girl books. It was always a lot of fun sitting there discussing our answers and trying to convince each other to choose the other one.

The last book I got from Barnes & Noble was 300 Would You Rather questions... but I haven't opened it yet. It doesn't feel the same without friends.

Aaaaah!!! How exciting!! I just moved up to Washington and honestly the last time I saw snow was when I was 10 during a layover in Chicago. To actually stand outside with the snow falling is so, so cool ;;; I might even get to play in like real snow tomorrow??? Oh gosh this is so wild. I'm so excited. It's so pretty aaaa

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First off, someone gifted me a month of premium???? Thank you so much ;o; <3

Second, I finally saw Into The Spiderverse!!! It was super cool oh my god. & like? Gwen Stacy was so cool? Like she looked cool in screencaps I saw, but like seeing her in action, she was rly rly cool 💖 And Miles Morales? Endearing as high he'll oh my gosh. This was just a super cool and fun movie aaaa ((Also that after movie clip???? I'm wheezing omfg remember to sit till the end of Marvel movies y'all. Don't be one of the ones who miss the good stuff))

I'm losing my mind omfG I just found out I have not one but two LiveJournal accounts I have no memory of making dfghjkgfdfghj One has nothing on it but an intro post stating

I'm not even sure how to approach using livejournal to be honest. At this point I'm pretty much viewing it as an alternative to tumblr that's not blocked at school and will consist way more of my own posts than "reblogs."

While the other is just like a collection of like... my Homestuck rps from 2012??!??!?!?? dfghjfdfghjjh this is such a trip oh my god blessed be google chrome who remembers all your accounts even when you don't

In a completely unsurprising turn of events, they both have Haru icons bc that's just like... who I am or whatever dfghjkjhghj