This Is Beautiful: Animal Crossing

Yup I did it, I finally bought "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" and it is every bit as great as all the hype suggests. It's a peaceful escape to a world where the main objective is to make friends, find creatures, and learn more about the world around you. Yes it is also fundamentally capitalist and can be exploitative of nature, but it's a game and there's only so much it can do. (Having said that I would LOVE a radical left-wing Animal Crossing would that just be living with all of the characters and having 0 objectives? Sounds amazing.)

Great features of this game include how you can design all of your own clothes and you don't need to even pick a gender for your lil avatar! It's turned into a vehicle for self-expression and affirmation which is lovely to see. Many gamers online are taking advantage of this which is just wonderful.

Oh and I said that one of the key objectives is to find new critters for museums and things. As a biologist, I LOVE that learning about the world around you is a part of this game. I bet kids that grow up with it have an appreciation for nature, even if the game isn't perfect on that front.

If like me, you were planning on traveling this weekend and now can't because of corona, I would highly recommend taking a vacation to your local Animal Crossing island. It's an alright substitute. :)

“The Beast of Callaire” by Saruuh Kelsey

Alright so I teased last month that the Great Ace DigitalBook Box might be suspended or something, but they have not! Instead, they are highlighting not one, not two, but four books you can get for free with Amazon Kindle. I’ll be reviewing and reading each of them, and here’s the first one!

The Beast of Callaire is the first of an urban fantasy romance series that centers on Yasmin, the daughter of a god (Venus) and a Manticore. She has insane powers that include being telepathic and transforming into a dangerous beast she can’t control once a month. She lives with a bunch of other people like her (termed Legendaries) who can also control Magick and/or transform once a month. But on top of all that, she meets this girl Fray accidentally after getting shot in the woods in her Manticore form. And somehow, they end up dating, despite Yasmin’s fears that she’s putting her girlfriend in danger or that she will see who Yasmin really is and leave her.

Honestly, it is a fantasy gay romance, so it does not get much better than this for a light read. While I did get sick of Yasmin’s angsty narration at times (she is just SO INSISTENT on pushing everyone away constantly) watching her struggle with herself and with loving other people is beautiful to watch. And she is a moody teen so I guess I can forgive the drama Yasmin is constantly speaking with. In fact all of the characters are really excellent, from the flamboyant son of a phoenix to a fortune-telling daughter of Apollo. And a trans water magick guy. Really big fan of him.

I will say that the book just throws you into this world and most explanations do not come until much later. I had no idea what mythology we were working with (I think it’s all of them) or what a lot of the terms mean until about halfway through when Yasmin has to explain things to Fray. Which makes for a bit of a disorienting read, but it also is not that long of a book so you get there alright. And there are a lot of minor characters to keep track of. They all have their own powers and relationships, credit to Kelsey for fleshing all of them out, but it is a bit much to remember.

Definitely give this book a read, did I mention it is free right now? And it’s part of a series, so plenty of reading there for you! We need more books like this with well-developed worlds and gay representation everywhere!

This Is Beautiful: Podcasts

I've probably talked about podcasts sometime before, I don't know. Anyways I've found the audio only medium great for staving off loneliness, these days I'll put a podcasts on while eating or making dinner so that I have something to listen to. I forgot about podcasts for a while because I usually like to listen to them while I'm doing mindless work. And since I'm never at work anymore, once quarantine started I forgot about podcasts for a bit. I changed it up this week though by finding a new one to listen to and just diving in whenever I was taking a break. Would definitely recommend finding one that you're interested in, it makes it easier when you have a voice to listen to and can learn something new!

“Howl’s Moving Castle” by Diana Wynne Jones

Hmm you probably all thought this post was going to be about the movie. WELL IT IS NOT. My sister found a copy of the original book that the movie is based on and sent it to me for a read. I had no idea that the movie was based on a book at all. And here we are!

First of all, the book is quite different from the movie. The book gives a lot more background to the Witch of the Waste as a more menacing character, rather than the movie where she is a bit one-dimensional. Howl’s background is also much more interesting in the book, where he is from a modern-day Wales! The castle has a door that leads to there and he takes Sophie as well as his apprentice there once when a poem is swapped with a spell. I think this is a fascinating and quite interesting aspect that the book doesn’t go into much detail about, but it’s a really cool bit of world-building. In that case though, it is understandable that the movie leaves it out. And also, in the movie there’s Markl, a young boy in the castle. While in the book, there’s Michael, Howl’s apprentice. Michael also is romantically involved with Sophie’s other sister (also absent in the movie) so it does kind of make sense to eliminate him as a character, but keep around Markl as a sign that Howl can show compassion.

Now that the comparison is out of the way, the book itself is a lot of fun. It’s a great fantasy story where whimsical and fun things happen and are patiently accepted by the characters most of the time; just taking the reader along for a ride. It makes for a great reading experience, I’ve missed this kind of fantasy.

My sister found the book confusing and I can see why. There are a lot of characters to start with and a lot of very similar characters. There’s Sophie’s two sisters, who also swap places at one point. And then there is the prince and the ex Royal Magician who are split into different pieces and recombined by the Witch of the Waste. Not to mention the people that are in Wales as well. So that makes for a lot of parts to keep track of. But it isn’t hard to get the main gist as long as you keep track vaguely what a person is associated with.

I alluded to this earlier, but the world-building is pretty neat. Which is partially why it is so confusing, it isn’t a long story but there’s a decent amount packed into it. There’s all the doors that the castle has, and one opens out into Wales! I still think that is hilarious. Really wish that mechanism was explained a little more than “magic stuff” but it is the style of fantasy where nothing is explained and you just have to suspend disbelief. It is super amusing to see Sophie’s reaction to cars and computers and things. And to see computer games in the 80s.

Final thing is that I love Sophie as a character. Her story is still primarily one of acceptance, here she is accepting her faults and learning to control her magic. (Similar to the movie.) She also has a great perspective, pretty sassy and also clever. I loved seeing her thoughts written out in a book instead of just illustrated in a movie.

Regardless of whether you have seen the movie or not, I would highly recommend the book as well. It is a lot of fun to read, and fleshes out the characters a little bit more. I think you can find it somewhere online, so may as well take the recommendation and have at it!

This Is Beautiful: Music but quarantine

I think it says a lot about the way I feel about the music I've been doing in grad school when I'm so much happier about it while a pandemic is going on. There's just so many people continuing to make music together over social media, and figuring out the technology to make it work and still make art. It's wonderful to see, and even better to be a part of. Because the best part is that there's no restriction on physical location, you just need a decent mic and an internet connection! It just feels so much more accessible to everyone, no one's doing auditions haha, and you can pick and choose whatever pieces and projects are most interesting! I'm now in a virtual jazz ensemble, a sax quartet, and a kazoo ensemble! It's great, keep trying to connect and make art with others! Don't let the pandemic stop you!

Michigan Weather

I just have nothing really to say about the continued quarantine, like we're just here and this is where we're going to be and nothing has really changed on that front. However, watching my window all day has made me realize that Michigan weather is really a temperamental thing.

Just as an example, it's April now, and on Thursday it was hailing on and off all day. Yes little frozen bits of water were falling from the sky and smacking my window. But every once in a while it would stop and you'd see some sunshine. It's either 0 or it's 100, there is no in between!

Also we had snow the first week of quarantine. That was fascinating to watch. It was the end of March then, so not that out of the ordinary, but relative to the rest of the world I think it was unusual.

And then there were the first two days of sun last weekend, followed immediately by utter blackness the next Tuesday. Seriously, I haven't been turning the lights on in my apartment to use the sun and save electricity, I had to turn them on that morning.

Having said all this though, we had a pretty mild winter. It wasn't frozen all the time, and we didn't get buried in the snow. It's just so funny to watch this all play out while I'm working, and realize how out of touch with the weather I've been before. Hope it's nice where you are!

This Is Beautiful: Sir Patrick Stewart Reading Shakespeare

There are very few things getting me through this time, and one of them is Sir Patrick Stewart. He's been recording himself reading a Shakespeare sonnet everyday and posting it to his twitter account here. It's wonderful to listen to! I haven't been paying much attention to the sonnets per se, I just think that his voice sounds soothing and lovely for the most part. It's hard to do any analysis when you're just listening to it. But the sonnets are also lovely (it is Shakespeare after all) which makes for a nice experience to take you out of the bad things for a minute or so.

“Possibilities” by Nicole Field

We interrupt my social distancing complaints to bring you this installment from the Great Ace Digital Book Box! Possibilities tells the story of Ernest, a prince who suddenly ascends to the throne after his father’s death and sibling’s abandonment. It is also the story of Drel, a royal jester who hopes to make life easier for their king.

The best part of this book is the inclusion of pronouns and gender fluidity into a medieval court setting. Yeah it’s a little strange, but it fits so well into the way that Fields writes. Drel is gender fluid (I will refer to them as they for simplicity’s sake) and the pronouns that they use change day-to-day. This is reflected in the narrative where sometimes Drel is a he, she, or they. And it is even widely accepted in the kingdom, when Drel is hired Ernest asks for their pronouns and Drel adds that this is a fairly common question in this kingdom. Later, in one key passage, Drel wants to be explicit with Ernest about this, and they come up with an arrangement where Ernest asks Drel for their pronouns after breakfast each day. Drel describes this as incredibly intimate for them, they aren’t open about their pronouns to anyone else. It’s so wonderful to see a relationship including a gender fluid person, and how natural it is in this world. And even though it is accepted, it still makes Drel happy!

Unfortunately though I thought the world building here was a little lacking. SPOILERS! The whole plot is a love story between Ernest and Drel. Maybe it’s because I’m a stickler with fantasy, but we never get an answer to why Ernest’s sibling ran off or where to. It revolves around this one relationship. And something about a king marrying his jester feels icky to me. I mean the book presents it in a fine way, everything is consensual and cute, but like. Still. There’s one heck of a power dynamic there. And it never really shows anything messy about their relationship. Ernest is constantly commenting on how graceful and lithe Drel is, how they seem to know what he needs at any moment. I’m not totally sure why Drel is into Ernest. But he doesn’t seem to put any effort in, and Drel never calls him out on anything he does. I don’t know, this is fiction and isn’t supposed to be real but I’m suspending a lot of disbelief here if the ending with them getting married is supposed to be happy.

I should knock it off, it’s a cute story, a quick read, and very well-written with good representation. It’s just something about this leaves a strange taste in my mouth. But hey, it’s a free ebook! Sign up for the mailing list if you haven’t already, the curator is taking a break for corona since this isn’t the best time to get authors to hand out free books, but they will be back afterwards!

This Is Beautiful: Staying Moving

Well the quarantine has been fun for very few people, but it's been real rough for me the first couple of weeks. It's been getting better now, but I think a big factor there has been me enforcing a schedule and planning in some movement classes. I'm not a big gym rat or anything, but I am pretty active where I go to dance classes regularly and things like that.

What's really been saving me is there's plenty of online yoga classes now! Seriously just go search YouTube or try the app Down Dog. And you don't need a ton of space for it either! I tried to do a dance class and ended up sad because I didn't have the space for it, but with yoga you really only need the space for a mat and can go nuts.

Another great thing has been going outside for walks. Getting outside to this park near me has been wonderful. It's not even a long walk, just getting outside and breathing the nice air has done wonders.

Keep moving! Stay sane! We're going to get through this.