Subscriptions & Backlogs
Feb. 7th, 2026 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
knave_of_swordsI'm still enjoying watching Naruto Shippuden, but the pacing is starting to get to me... I'm in the Tenchi Bridge arc right now and it just feels like everything has been moving so slowly for so long. I'll get through it, I'll get through it... but I am kind of wondering if maybe it would just be a better idea to read the manga. But then I miss out on the voice acting and the color and the fight animation! Hmm. It's something I'm thinking about.
I've also been meaning to catch up with Kai-Hen Wizards again! I missed when it returned from hiatus, so there are about 20 chapters or so right now that are subscription locked... but the subscription is only like $2 a month, so I think I'll get it soon for a month, catch up on Kai-Hen Wizards, and then drop it. I'll probably even be able to do it during the free trial period of a week.
I've also decided to cancel my subscription to marquee.tv, an excellent site that has a lot of opera, ballet, and theater performances recorded that you can watch with a subscription. I just wasn't using it! I'm trying to get a handle on my backlogs in general, of video games and books and shows and etc., and I just wasn't using this subscription, though I'm really glad that it exists as a service.
Other subscriptions I currently have include DCU Infinite and Dropout, both of which I also need to use more often... but I do actually use them, at least. Other than that, there's Crunchyroll of course, and Amazon Prime... one day I will cancel Amazon Prime, but I just! keep! buying! things! from Amazon. I've gotten better at curbing my spending, but I still use it often enough that it feels worth it... but it would be nice if I could stop buying shit on Amazon often enough that a Prime subscription would be worth cancelling.
So now my biggest backlog items are video games and books. I need to get in the habit of reading on my phone instead of playing games or browsing ffa when I'm bored! The video games... well, I'll get to them eventually. Right now my main focus entertainment-wise (especially wrt my TV) is Naruto Shippuden, so I expect to make more headway with the video game backlog once I'm done with Naruto.
I've also been meaning to catch up with Kai-Hen Wizards again! I missed when it returned from hiatus, so there are about 20 chapters or so right now that are subscription locked... but the subscription is only like $2 a month, so I think I'll get it soon for a month, catch up on Kai-Hen Wizards, and then drop it. I'll probably even be able to do it during the free trial period of a week.
I've also decided to cancel my subscription to marquee.tv, an excellent site that has a lot of opera, ballet, and theater performances recorded that you can watch with a subscription. I just wasn't using it! I'm trying to get a handle on my backlogs in general, of video games and books and shows and etc., and I just wasn't using this subscription, though I'm really glad that it exists as a service.
Other subscriptions I currently have include DCU Infinite and Dropout, both of which I also need to use more often... but I do actually use them, at least. Other than that, there's Crunchyroll of course, and Amazon Prime... one day I will cancel Amazon Prime, but I just! keep! buying! things! from Amazon. I've gotten better at curbing my spending, but I still use it often enough that it feels worth it... but it would be nice if I could stop buying shit on Amazon often enough that a Prime subscription would be worth cancelling.
So now my biggest backlog items are video games and books. I need to get in the habit of reading on my phone instead of playing games or browsing ffa when I'm bored! The video games... well, I'll get to them eventually. Right now my main focus entertainment-wise (especially wrt my TV) is Naruto Shippuden, so I expect to make more headway with the video game backlog once I'm done with Naruto.
PXWLF Day 1
Feb. 7th, 2026 09:57 amolivermossI started with the main/downtown section of the festival and boy do I have regrets. There is a reason I usually mind the outskirts of the festival for interesting photos and experiences.
The Portland Winter Lights Festival is a 2 week thing with over 200 art installations and events. Last year they ranged from giant metal fire breathing dragon at the waterfront to 'store that happens to sell a few glow in the dark items is open late'. Also, last year I saw a drag king performance based on I Saw The TV Glow. It is a highly varied experience, and the website is deeply unhelpful. I can tell you already that some of the images this year are concept art and not actually was what done. There is cool stuff, but to find it you just need to keep hopping around hundreds of sites and hoping.
I've had a good time at the festival in the past. One year it happened during that extended snowstorm/power outage Portland had and I remember trudging through deep snow to see the fire powered light events, a truly surreal experience.
Anyway, the main downtown space can get crowded and people can get pushy. I don't have a sense of balance so people pushing me side to make a hole for their group is A Problem for me. Some lady wanted to push through a line I was in, rather than go around. I asked her to cut behind me instead of in front for a specific reason, and she had a expletive filled crash out at me.
I hopefully got at least 2 good pictures, but yeah, there is a reason I usually skip the main area. I am *hopefully* hitting the Electric Blocks and some east side stuff tonight, then I'll start sorting through lists to see what else I want to hit. The only exhibit up on St John's is... an art exhibit that's been there year round for years.
Also, damn, just like I need a dedicated Mike Bennett folder I need to start a PDXWLF folder.
The Portland Winter Lights Festival is a 2 week thing with over 200 art installations and events. Last year they ranged from giant metal fire breathing dragon at the waterfront to 'store that happens to sell a few glow in the dark items is open late'. Also, last year I saw a drag king performance based on I Saw The TV Glow. It is a highly varied experience, and the website is deeply unhelpful. I can tell you already that some of the images this year are concept art and not actually was what done. There is cool stuff, but to find it you just need to keep hopping around hundreds of sites and hoping.
I've had a good time at the festival in the past. One year it happened during that extended snowstorm/power outage Portland had and I remember trudging through deep snow to see the fire powered light events, a truly surreal experience.
Anyway, the main downtown space can get crowded and people can get pushy. I don't have a sense of balance so people pushing me side to make a hole for their group is A Problem for me. Some lady wanted to push through a line I was in, rather than go around. I asked her to cut behind me instead of in front for a specific reason, and she had a expletive filled crash out at me.
I hopefully got at least 2 good pictures, but yeah, there is a reason I usually skip the main area. I am *hopefully* hitting the Electric Blocks and some east side stuff tonight, then I'll start sorting through lists to see what else I want to hit. The only exhibit up on St John's is... an art exhibit that's been there year round for years.
Also, damn, just like I need a dedicated Mike Bennett folder I need to start a PDXWLF folder.
Semiosis (Sue Burke)
Feb. 7th, 2026 12:53 pmjs_thrillI can't really tell if I liked this book or not. Parts of the world-building felt underdeveloped or under-explored, and I never really felt like Stevland was as alien of an intellect as the premise suggested he was supposed to be. I think I might have preferred a narrower slice of time, with more depth, where a lot of the other details are conveyed because they are part of the collective history of the people in the story, but that would be a very very different structure for the book.
I think this book is about and raises a lot of interesting questions, but I'm not super satisfied with the way those questions were explored (it is not an enraging miss on its premise, the way Mysterium was, though).
I think this book is about and raises a lot of interesting questions, but I'm not super satisfied with the way those questions were explored (it is not an enraging miss on its premise, the way Mysterium was, though).
This Year 365 songs: February 7th
Feb. 7th, 2026 12:38 pmjs_thrillToday we have Snow Crush Killing Song
We are in a stretch where the annotations are sort of short, and I often don't have a lot to say. Today's annotations are about the approach to narrative structure for this album, but I feel like I'd mostly be repeating myself to include my thoughts on this.
This is a nice sombre song, though. And I am shocked still by how much Mountain Goats I haven't heard before.
Blockout (1989)
Feb. 7th, 2026 12:40 pmpauraqueThe splash screen of this game credits California Dreams, a familiar publishing label used by Logical Design Works for many of their home computer releases in the '80s and early '90s. As a kid I assumed these games were made in my home state of California, but nope. Almost all of them were developed in Poland by P.Z. Karen Co., a studio that primarily produced games for the Western market. (Another interesting title they developed was 1991's Solidarność ["Solidarity"], "a political simulation of the Polish underground freedom movement that culminated in the Solidarity trade union in 1980", which I have never played, though I am a little tempted.)
But today we're talking about Blockout. It's 3D Tetris. Instead of a side view, you're looking down into a well into which you must drop the wireframe pieces. In addition to using the arrow keys to move the pieces, you also get six rotation keys (clockwise and counterclockwise around three different axes of rotation). The rest of the gameplay is just as you'd expect; if you manage to fill a layer of the well, that layer disappears like a Tetris row, etc.
( I did have the DOS version of this game as a kid, but what I mainly remember is watching my mom play it. )
Blockout is free to download or play in your browser if you want to find out if your spatial reasoning abilities are more like mine or more like my mom's.
But today we're talking about Blockout. It's 3D Tetris. Instead of a side view, you're looking down into a well into which you must drop the wireframe pieces. In addition to using the arrow keys to move the pieces, you also get six rotation keys (clockwise and counterclockwise around three different axes of rotation). The rest of the gameplay is just as you'd expect; if you manage to fill a layer of the well, that layer disappears like a Tetris row, etc.
( I did have the DOS version of this game as a kid, but what I mainly remember is watching my mom play it. )
Blockout is free to download or play in your browser if you want to find out if your spatial reasoning abilities are more like mine or more like my mom's.
Deep blankness is the real thing strange
Feb. 7th, 2026 05:29 pmoursinThat was a week that felt a bit odd, which may have been quite a bit down to my not sleeping as well as have latterly been doing.
Also not getting out for accustomed daily walk as often as usual because RAIN.
Somewhat stunned by phonecall from friend with whom I am collaborating on various projects who has recently had some rather devastating health news.
Resumption of contact with two other friends: one of whom I had contacted after receiving what turned out to be, as I had suspected, spam email from her hacked account.
Having the February blahs, pretty much.
Blue Lock the Movie: Episode Nagi
Feb. 7th, 2026 06:24 pmprofiterole_readsBlue Lock the Movie: Episode Nagi was a lot of fun!
Of course I was excited that they dedicated a whole movie to my OTP, Reo/Nagi! <3 There were also some nice Isagi/Bachira scenes.
It's available on Crunchyroll (new to me, but it's been available to the high-tier subscribers for a long time).
Of course I was excited that they dedicated a whole movie to my OTP, Reo/Nagi! <3 There were also some nice Isagi/Bachira scenes.
It's available on Crunchyroll (new to me, but it's been available to the high-tier subscribers for a long time).