By I haven’t done one of these in years. The last time I wrote one of these wrap-up posts was all the way back in February 2023, and it seems I deleted all trace of my old wrap-ups from this blog. I deleted all traces of quite a lot on this blog, though, to be fair. Recently I had almost forgotten I had this website and that it still gets regular views.
So I decided randomly to write a wrap-up post again for this month. I don’t think anyone cares enough to read this stuff, but it’s kind of nice to look back and remember how the months were and how my endless media consumption contributed to them. And this month was eventful; I turned 21, finally, and now that I’m in my last year of college, I’m no longer being crushed to death under the weight of assignments.
Overall:
I’d say overall this month was pretty okay. I had been having a pretty difficult semester due to mental health, something I would like to write about on this blog more often–destigmatization and all that–but in November I finally started to feel a bit better.
To my own shock, I have been getting really into the gym this month. I finally created a consistent schedule and my goal is to stick to it through the winter. Goal: get jacked without killing animals. As I write this, I am struggling to down the world’s nastiest protein shake (I tried to make one using hemp protein powder from Trader Joe’s and the improvisede recipe I came up with did NOT work)
I went to two different animal sanctuaries this month with the campus organization I lead. That was maybe the highlight of the month.
Reading:
I finished three books during November:
Animal by Lisa Taddeo — this is one of those troubled-woman-does-strange-things books that I seem to love so much. This one, though, I didn’t connect to as much as I was weirded out by.
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders — similarly, George Saunders is a bit hit-or-miss for me. I’ve liked a lot of his stuff in the past, particularly Tenth of December, but I was a bit meh about this short story collection.
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow — Took a bit of a dip back into YA with this. I found one of the books in this series at a used bookstore, and decided to finally read it as it seemed like something I would have LOVED in high school. I will be reviewing this one on my blog soon!
Movies, Music and Other Miscellany That’s Not Reading
Movies / TV
Like everyone else, I was watching Vince Gilligan’s new show, Pluribus, this month.
I also binged all of the Hunger Games movies with my younger sister over the break, since I’d read the books a long time ago but never watched the movies.
Earlier in the month, I also watched Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb for the first time and I really really liked it. More than I expected. I don’t watch movies on my own very often because I get bored during them, but I found this one hilarious and very Vonnegut-esque.
Music
I was able to discover a lot of music this month, which was nice. In particular I was really enjoying the album A Promise by Xiu Xiu, and I also discovered some new artists like Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Acopia and Geese.
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I read all of this, enjoyed it and clicked through to the incredible songs. Thank you and as someone who has battled intense mental health challenges and come to a place of peace, I wish you hope in dark times and good therapists.
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Thank you! I’m glad that you have managed to find some peace
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