don’t you know that I’m crazy for you? (WN32)
Doing
This was the first full week of school, so naturally that consumed most of my time. Things are going well enough so far; I have one class that’s really challenging, but the rest are smooth sailing.
I saw an optometrist for the first time in my life this week; I noticed last year that I was having trouble seeing the board at the front of my classroom toward the end of the day. I thought it might just be fatigue, but Joe encouraged me to make an appointment even so considering I’ve never been. Apparently I have crossed a new threshold of old age and now need readers. I’ve insisted for years that I want glasses, that I feel they suit my face and personality, but the moment the doctor asked me “Do you want someone to help you pick out glasses today?” I was immediately confronted with my hubris and regretted all previous comments. The pair I ordered haven’t come in yet, so expect a further meltdown next week.
On the computer nerd front, I’m trying out Mailspring in lieu of Thunderbird (which is great, but the interface is clunky and ugly and I am a fundamentally vain person), and I subscribed to Obsidian Sync for my vaults with work notes and my (non-blog, creative, unpublishable) writing. Obsidian offers a remarkably generous educator discount (40%). I’ve also taken my first foray into Soulseek, for which I’m about thirty years late to the party.
Joe and I had a long conversation this week about some serious shit that isn’t really appropriate to write about my little fucking blog, but the bit I do feel comfortable sharing here is my lifelong obsession with death and dying — not in a macabre true crime bullshit way, but in a perhaps obsessive and compulsive anxiety about my impending death and the ones of those I love. He has encouraged therapy; I said I would consider it for his sake. I believe he then encouraged me to also work on my lack of self-worth in therapy, too.
My volleyball rec league started back up, so I now have that and my Sunday morning runs as regular routines. I’m running a 5K in early November and feel more than prepared, endurance-wise (the Sunday runs are five to six miles), but I’d really like to push myself to improve on speed before it rolls around.
Reading
I finished All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson at last. I think I need a break from young adult literature for a while — Perdido Street Station was next on my list, but a student teased me about never having finished Villette, so I’m tempted to give it another shot.
Watching
I’ve kept on with Downton Abbey on and off; it’s become my folding laundry show. I’m now almost finished with the last season. It’s remained entertaining, though I wouldn’t consider any of it good in an objective sense beyond the first season. I think there are a few storylines that are completely misguided and borderline intolerable (Bates and Anna, mostly, and Prince Kuragin), but I haven’t been compelled to stop watching, which indicates something — if only my low standards for what I consume whilst folding underwear.
Listening
Plex had a data breach that meant I had to change my password and do some reauthentication that I didn’t get around to until the weekend, so I streamed a lot of music off the Bandcamp app when away from home — primarily EELS by Being Dead, which I first mentioned back in July and remain a great fan of.
A student of mine recommended that I listen to Tyler, The Creator, which I now feel obligated to do, though I think I know what the end result will be. He gave me three albums, and I think I’m going to start with CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST. More to come on that.
I also ripped a better quality version of … A Better View of the Rising Moon by 1997, an album I really liked when I was 12, so I’m listening through that for the first time in probably over a decade. No detailed thoughts at the moment, and any that I could offer would be undoubtedly clouded by nostalgia. My best sweeping generalization is that it’s not a bad album, but it’s dated and kind of for children, which I no longer am. I need readers, after all.