This Is Beautiful: Friends

I feel like I talk about this all the time, but I love friendship. Having friends is so important and great and wonderful and I love it. Don't get me wrong, I'm picky about friends and really like my space, but it's wonderful to have friends and people you can hang out with and go to when you need a bud or need to talk. And I finally feel like I have some friends in Michigan!

Part of it is the holidays are here and all the orgs are hosting cute bonding events, part of it is probably that it's the end of the semester and my birthday, but that's fine. I'm starting to feel more settled and that I belong and that's lovely.

I'm on hiatus for the next two weeks for the holidays! Have fun out there!

“Drowned in Milk Tea” by Anne Chivon

November’s free ebook from the Great Ace Digital Book Box is a book of poetry! This made for a really nice change, I’ve mentioned this before but I really want to read more poetry. This book focused on one relationship and how it comes together and falls apart.

The really unique thing about this book though is that every other page is a writing prompt. So you see a prompt, and then a corresponding poem on the next page. I actually really enjoyed this because it allows you to see a piece of the author’s thought process, what her writing is responding to, and possibly some dual meanings to her writing.

I also thought her poems captured really well this sense of memory, of how you can go through a breakup but thoughts about your ex still haunt you for a while. Maybe they never leave. I don’t know. But you clearly see the cyclical nature and how these memories can still flood you for ages afterwards. The end of the relationship never really is the end.

In case you missed it a couple weeks ago, I’d highly recommend signing up for the mailing list! Free ebooks! Support asexual writers and representation! I’ll be reviewing them as I get them so we can all have a discussion about it. It’ll be fun!

This Is Beautiful: Being On Air

Alright so I'm embarking on this journey where I am trying something new and training to become a radio DJ with the local student-run radio station. And today (the day I'm writing this) was my first time going on air and spinning some tracks. It was awesome!

It's a little odd because it involves a lot of sitting around and waiting and then hitting a whole ton of buttons, kinda like those video games where you're a server or something and have to plan out when you go where. But it's also addicting. I loved talking and playing music and navigating the sound board. I had such a good time, I can see how people love doing this every week.

So here's to trying new things! Here's to freeform radio! Here's to the radio in general!

Rereading “Watchmen” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

While I was home for the holiday I reread the graphic novel “Watchmen” to prepare for my binging of the new tv show. My original thoughts are here, and I don’t think I’ve really touched the book since then. Going back to it was wild.

I can’t believe how much more you pick up on the second reading. The art and the writing is so meticulously planned. All of the different plots interweave and parallel each other, and they all come crashing together beautifully by the end. There are layers to it that I couldn’t have even imagined the first time I picked up the book. It’s really glorious. Bits of dialogue, or character positioning from panel to panel, connect the different perspectives being told on the page in a gorgeous way.

And the world-building is incredible, I had forgotten about the pages at the end of each chapter that are excepts from a newspaper or a book or some correspondence from the world of “Watchmen.” It really elaborates on the events of the comic, since not much is explained up-front, and demonstrates the extent of the thought put into the story.

I’d forgotten how… gritty the whole book is. Which I honestly really like about comics. I feel like so many are bright and bubbly and happy whereas I look forward to messy superhero stories like this one. Because this isn’t afraid to deal with the bigger problems of society and life that things like the MCU cheerfully ignore and make several million dollars in the process. Ticks me off. But yeah there are panels that are downright gruesome with blood and gore all over them. I don’t really have anything significant to say about that, other than you don’t see graphic novels like that all too often. Most fall into the bubbly MCU variety.

I’ve heard amazing things about the tv show but have yet to start it. I really hope that the rumors are true and that it lives up to its source material because this is a tough act to follow.

Hot take: the “Watchmen” movie is amazing and haters can suck it. I love it, maybe I’ll rewatch it as well as a run up to the show.