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+ It's around that time of year when the internet gets boring. People are busy! NaNo is around the corner and all the writers will disappear for a month (unlike October, when the artists treat us to awesome inkwork for a month :V). Real-life events are coming up for many. ...Maybe I'll dial things back a bit too; there are few things cozier than curling up with a book and some hot tea on a cold evening, and obviously I can't do that and be an internet lurkbeast at the same time.

+ It snowed the past couple of days. I still don't have my snow tires on. Things are going to be interesting until I get that done, oh boy. I have an appointment, but I assumed I'd have more time. Famous last words. :V

+ Thought I was feeling better and that I was over this cold, but yesterday mom said that I still look like death, so I don't even know any more. And meanwhile, still resting my foot. Ugh, I am going absolutely stir-crazy over here. (Impatiently waiting for my physio appointment on Thursday... hopefully he'll have something good to say to me.)

+ Made a Bluesky account recently. An artist that I like is jumping over there, so I decided to take a look. It's very much a Twitter clone, and I haven't played around with it enough to know if there are any features I prefer at Bsky rather than Xitter, or what's even there as far as fandom goes... Anyway, I'm yuuago over there as always. I have 5 invite codes - if anyone's interested, let me know that you'd like to try it out, and I'll PM one to you.

+ Book rec: Last Call by Elon Green. True crime nonfiction about a series of murders in NYC in the 90s; the victims were gay men picked up at piano bars. I thought it did a pretty good job with the research, exploring the period, the victims, and what was going on culturally (gay bar culture, AIDS, etc), as well as the in-community activist response to the murders. And whathaveyou. Obviously, kind of a depressing subject, but worth a read if it's your thing and you're in the mood for it. Apparently there's a rather good documentary series based on the book, but I haven't seen it myself.

+ Found myself kind of missing the Duolingo forums. I was never super active there, but sometimes there were really useful resources posted, and it was nice to read some of the more thoughtful posts people made discussing their strategies and progress. Does anyone know of an online language-learning community like that?

+ The Dead South released their latest single a few days ago, "Tiny Wooden Box" [Bandcamp | Youtube]. Oh, this is bluegrass goodness. It's nice to hear something new from them; their stuff is always great. I see the album Chains & Stakes is going to come out in February; I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

+ Halloween coming up. Trick or treating isn't much of a thing in my apartment building, so I assume it's just going to be me, candy, and a horror movie. Well, that's not a bad way to spend it, anyhow. Question is, should it be Crimson Peak or The Exorcist?

Watched the film Das Leben der Anderen, AKA The Lives of Others. It's set in the early 80s in East Berlin, and it's about an agent of the Stasi who becomes increasingly absorbed in the life of the writer he's monitoring. Well, there's more to it than that, but I'm having difficulty summarizing it because I'm still digesting it. But it was very good. I found it very moving, and do suggest taking a look at it if that era/setting is at all to your interest.

It was a very serious film, though, and I think the next that I watch will have to be something lighter. But it did remind me that I really do enjoy the way the German language sounds... I really should watch more German films (well, not just because of that, but I admit that's partly it). Really, some days I wonder why I didn't decide to learn that language, since I find it so appealing and there are so many resources for it. (Or rather, sometimes the question is "why on earth did I choose to learn Norwegian of all things", but let's not get into that.)

Oh, speaking of learning languages that are not German, while reading my network I came across naraht's link roundup for Icelandic resources, it's over here. Outside my area, obviously, but maybe someone else will find it useful.

Anyway - I've finally finished reading Stephen King's The Stand. I enjoyed it a lot, though I'm not sure if I'll re-read it. Also not sure if I'll watch the miniseries version... we'll have to see about that. It's one of those novels that I couldn't read after dark, hah, and I don't know how well I'd do with a visual version. One thing that I hadn't expected when I started reading it, though, was the supernatural element. I guess I should have expected it, since it's King, but I'd been under the impression that it would be a straight-up plague apocalypse novel. Not so.

Haven't the slightest idea what I'll read next, but... probably not something so grim.

The last few days have been ridiculously cold and I'm quite frankly getting rather tired of it. I was hoping for a nice, warm day or two when the work rotation is finished, but it looks like it'll continue to hover around -40. Clearly the world is doing this just to make me miserable. ;)

And I will not lie, it's been kind of dull sitting at a desk for ten days in a row and I really need a break - but on the other hand, all I need to do is remind myself that I'm making [ridiculous amount of money] per day, and that there is plenty of downtime in which to read (and I finished 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea yesterday, as a matter of fact).

I've been studying Norwegian more than usual recently, because there has been downtime at work and I feel better about it if I'm doing something other than dicking around on LJ. So, I signed up for Livemocha, and I must say, I really enjoy the flashcards feature. Oi love flashcards. I guess it's mostly because when I'm learning language-related things, one of the biggest problems I have is that I have difficulty learning the vocabulary. And the Pimsleur lessons I was using before were great for learning how to put phrases together, but when it comes to teaching vocabulary... not so much.

The actual Livemocha lessons aren't so bad either. So, we'll see if I keep up with it. Who knows, maybe I'll try something else. There are only a limited amount of lessons for Norwegian, so if I finish all of them I might try Dutch - or try to take another stab at French. Good gods, I have such a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with French. I keep thinking that if I bang my head against it long enough, it'll start sticking. I studied French for way too long to suck at it as much as I do.

All that aside... oh, man. I am so looking forward to having some free time. At the end of the work day I have absolutely no energy to do anything -- and also no time. (And with the horrible weather we've been having, maybe I'll be able to keep the shopping itch at bay, and focus on things like writing. ;p Who knows.)