Category: media: tv shows

weeknotes (nov. 2-8 2025)

Life Updates

Since my last Weeknotes update, I’ve left [redacted location] and arrived at my new catsit. I’m in Denver for the rest of the month! The cats here are adorable (as always) and the apartment I’m staying in is really nice; the owners are kind and let me come early and stay a few extra days, which was great for me because I saved a bit on accommodation money.

I’ve now been here with the cats alone for a week and I’m really enjoying the whole experience. I’m in a residential area and it’s super fun to walk around looking at all the interesting houses and the trees slowly dying for the winter. I’ve been going out nearly every day just wandering around (in a borrowed fleece jacket because it’s been fairly cold (for me)) with a few occasional forays into the rest of town.

I’m a little annoyed that most (all??) of the museums here have a fairly high entrance fee ($10+ minimum). Of course yesterday was free museum day and I totally forgot…

Continue reading “weeknotes (nov. 2-8 2025)”

weeknotes (sept. 21-27, 2025)

Life Updates

This week has fairly flown by but honestly I’ve been spending most of my time petting the cats, wandering the neighborhood, reading fanfics, and doing a BIT of work.

It’s a very enjoyable life, but at the same time I wish I’d gotten more done than I had. Oh well! There’s always next week…

Media Consumption

📺 Tried watching several movies and nothing much caught my eye, so instead have been putting Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes on in the background. Some of the newer episodes– including the very newest ones that were audience-funded– are now available on the Shout TV streaming channel (or Tubi) which is interesting because there’s a whole new host!

📖 Currently halfway through a very fun Star Wars fanfic, The 212th Attack Battalion’s Guide to Staging Rescues by antigrav_vector and Quarra, and am very much enjoying it.

🎮 I have my (hacked) 3DS with me, and am currently playing a fan translation of Rocket Slime 3 (not as fun as Rocket Slime 2, but okay) and Animal Crossing: New Leaf (which will get its own page on my website eventually).

I also have Sanrio Characters Picross going, which is super cute– you get “stickers” for finishing puzzles and can use them to decorate the backgrounds IN the game.

I’m planning on writing a post later about my 3DS because a) I decorated it and want to show off, and b) there’s some fun homebrew stuff which came out recently and has made the 3DS community more active than it was a few years ago when I first jailbroke it.

Food & Dining

Went to the farmer’s market and splurged on a few things, including a packet of “Reaper” flavored cheese from a local dairy farm and a $10 loaf of jalapeno cheddar sourdough (yum).

Also stopped by a coffee truck and got a honeybun latte, which was good but perhaps just a little overpriced ($7+ yikes).

Web Updates

I need to get back into the habit of posting again! I have so many drafts, but very little energy to finish them. Until then:

Looking Forward

Next week is several fun local events, including a flea market. I’m also planning to go to a thrift store and perhaps a Little Free Library. And of course, reading lots of fanfic (and maybe finishing a book or two).

📝 weeknotes (aug 24-30, 2025)

Is it still a weeknotes if I write massive amounts of text? All the other ones I’ve seen are shorter and more list-heavy. Well, whatever.

📩 Writing this from Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, with one kitty sleeping behind me on a heated blanket and the other two dozing in the homeowner’s bedroom (one on the bed, one under it). I have the back door open and it’s great weather, mid-60s and sunny– though my writing desk corner is shaded most of the day, which makes it easier to see the screen. I can see the garden from my desk, and so far have chased off the groundhog twice from breaking in and stealing tomatoes. I have on a new-to-me merino wool sweater on that I got from a thrift store a few weeks ago for like $7, which is my favorite shade of purple: a deep wine color. It’s soft and doesn’t itch like most wool things. The WALL-E soundtrack is playing as background noise.

Life Updates

The first half of the week was spent in a semi-sick state– not actually ill, but just bleh feeling, compounded by too much computer use tbh. I finally forced myself outside on Thursday and went walking around, and found a MASSIVE burdock just at the edge of someone’s yard which inexplicably cheered me up.

🐈‍⬛ The cats have been total sweeties this week (despite one day when a cat threw up his breakfast in 3 places, and another one left a poo just outside the litter box) and keep sitting on my lap/near me– compared to where we were at the start of this sit, when they were so nervous they hid under a bet all day, this is great! But of course I’m leaving in a few days and now all I can think about is how much I’ll miss them. 🙁

The only thing that solves that problem is going to another catsit, and luckily I have another one lined up right after this one.

Continue reading “📝 weeknotes (aug 24-30, 2025)”

📝 weeknotes (aug 17-23, 2025)

Life Updates

Overall I feel really good! There’s the creeping sense of dread re: finances which pops up every month or so, but otherwise I’m excited for the next few months of travel/catsitting.

I think it’s helped that I’ve been regularly going outside and walking for ~45 minutes every day. I’m really bad about doing that normally, but this neighborhood is good for walking and has enough interesting things to look at that I don’t feel bored. My Health app even says my step count is about double what it was last month!

I’ve also been venturing into some of Ann Arbor’s nature preserves, which are much hillier than I expected. Very beautiful trees, though! And usually not too crowded, so it’s peaceful.

Continue reading “📝 weeknotes (aug 17-23, 2025)”

📝 weeknotes (july 27-august 2)

Life Updates

Finally starting to feel settled into this housesit in Ann Arbor. Though the bed is comfortable, I haven’t been sleeping well. I wake up exhausted, which isn’t good. Feeling tired when I wake up makes me not want to go out and do things, so I’ve mostly been in the house slumping on the (admittedly very comfortable) couch with my books and my Roku.

But this week things changed! I dragged myself outside and did a walk around the neighborhood on Tuesday, one of the less-hot days, and I’ve switched to spending my mornings outside in the garden with my book and coffee mug. It’s an urban area, but this particular plot/neighborhood is ripe with tall trees and plants, so there’s lots of creatures to watch. Yesterday I spotted a goldfinch, and today I saw a chipmunk and a groundhog.

This morning I woke up feeling normal, so I think it’s working. I may start going on sunset walks when the temps cool down in the evening.

🐈‍⬛ The cats continue to mostly ignore me, but in a benevolent way. Miss F and Mr N have started letting me pet them more, but Mr B still runs if I get closer than 10 feet away. I suppose the upside is they’re very independent and I can get a lot of work done without having to shoo them off my keyboard.

Media Consumption

🎧 Lots of podcasts this week. Caught up on My Brother, My Brother and Me episodes from the last two or three months. I used to listen to eps regularly but this past year in particular it’s gotten increasingly obvious that they are aware that they’re, like, being watched? Like, it’s a little too much “looking for the bit” so they can clip it and put it on TikTok.

Also caught up with Too Many Tabs, which has topics I enjoy but which has gotten maybe a bit more shout-y since they started recording videos for Youtube. I’m sensing a trend.

Also listened to a great episode of Gender Spiral Podcast, which I wrote about here (DW).

📺 Continuing on my Midsomer Murder binge-watching. I’ve made it through DS Troy and have gotten into DS Scott’s episodes.

One thing I’ve been thinking about more during this rewatch is what happens to all these victims and secondary characters after the episode ends. So many people who find a dead body, lost a loved one, had a family secret exposed, etc. and they just disappear from the world entirely.

Hardly anyone shows back up again– there were a few times in the early seasons when a character from a previous episode would be referenced, and there’s one memorable time in season 10 (I think) where the same two character actors show up as the sister/nephew of characters from season 1. But other than that it’s just a swath of murder and misery in this one small UK county and nobody talks about it!

Which obviously has to happen, or else the story would never continue. But I think it’d make for an interesting story (perhaps a satire), to focus on what happens after a TV murder mystery. Anyone know if something like that exists? I’d be very surprised if a satirical author hadn’t put something out already.

📖 Still reading Moby-Duck, and am about halfway through it now. Very much enjoying it (especially when I’m reading it under a tree in a garden).

Food & Dining

I ate a salad and am very proud of myself.

Basically I ate all the good stuff from my major order (DW) and am down to eggs and beans, so I need to head out this week to get rice and potatoes and other starchy things I can put eggs and beans on.

Besides that, though, I actually have quite a bit left from my last order and I think I can put off ordering again for at least another week. Or at least until DoorDash gives me another coupon.

Web Updates

Joined heaps of fanlistings and a few cliques, as well as two site directories (Smooth Sailing and LinkLane.net) and a webring (No AI Webring). I joined the MelonLand Forum and am dipping my toes in.

New page added to the main site:

And blog posts:

Looking Forward

Keep working on my website, write more blog posts, finish Moby-Duck and maybe one more book, perhaps start an animal-spotting log for this garden because WOW and catch up on my Dreamwidth correspondence.

📺 watched: solo traveling with tracee ellis ross (2025)

🎬 Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross. Tracee Ellis Ross is packing her bags and inviting audiences to join her solo trips to experience the joy of solo travel. 🔗

I kept seeing clips from TER’s TikTok and thought it looked cute, so I’m watching it! Three episodes, set in Morocco, Mexico and Spain. She’s very bougie and stylish, and self-aware about it, which is fun. Very obvious product placement, which I suppose is how it’s making money (besides the ads).

Watching on Roku Channel, currently halfway through the first episode.

Edit: OH! It’s her own beauty line. So she’s promo-ing (and probably paying for?) herself.

Edit 2: Episode 1 was fun, she went out to the market and the desert and did shopping, etc.

Episode 2, Mexico, was slightly forgettable because she spent it at a resort. It did look very relaxing.

Episode 3, Spain, was exciting because she got food poisoning (from airport food?) and was stuck indoors. The last scene was her having a great meal, where she then had a conversation with other female travelers at a restaurant who said basically “we saw you sitting on your own and thought that it wasn’t good for you.”

I suppose they’re the type of people who’ve never gone someone alone and would never even think of doing it– not even in their own home town. Tracee gently corrected them and explained that not only was she used to it, but she enjoys it. You could see they were full of disbelief, but also they acknowledged their daughters would travel solo happily.

It just makes me feel so sad for them. It’s not that I think everyone should be able to travel the world alone for months on end (like I do), necessarily, but to not even think that someone (a woman) could do have dinner alone and NOT be depressed or sad or lonely…? It’s just so out of their worldview, they were gobsmacked.

Overall more of a show if you’re interested in TER herself (she talks about her POV a lot, of course), or like watching people wearing great outfits in foreign locations. Not so much a “travel show” where you learn specific destination stuff.

📺 2025 Watched List