21 Jun 2026

Weeknotes 41

I took this week off from work and I had wanted to spend the time being wildly productive, but of course reality happened and it was [fart noises] pretty chill instead. I made zero progress on any side projects, but I did clean my apartment, touch grass, hang out, read books, play Destiny, and get cooked by the sun.

I did a riso workshop at Fluoro which was very cool! I’ve wanted to take one for a long time so I’m glad I finally took the opportunity.

Holding my riso print next to my phone. The print is a pink and blue drawing of my cat Sophie, posing like a mermaid, except her back legs are an actual mermaid tail. My phone wallpaper shows the reference photo.
she's a mermaid
The two layers that make up the riso print, rendered in grey ink. One layer is the top half of Sophie's body; the other is the tail and her face.
The layers! I should have gone way lighter on the lights...

I played a bunch of Destiny because of the recent update and also because there’s a funny bug going around that lets you stack damage buffs so you can delete bosses, so I did some dungeons and deleted some bosses. Good stuff.

I finally finished reading Ficciones after more than a year, since I had to keep returning it to the library and then reborrowing it and then forgetting to read it. It’s incredible!! My favourites from it are The Circular Ruins, The Garden of Forking Paths, Death and the Compass, and The South.

I also won the used bookstore lottery and found these:

Two books: <em>East of Eden</em> by John Steinbeck, and <em>Labyrinths</em> by Jorge Luis Borges with introduction by William Gibson

I’ve never read East of Eden but I’ve heard universal praise for it, so I’m really excited to read it! (Sometime. Eventually.)

Labyrinths has most of the same stories as Ficciones but I think by a different translator(s). I found this quite in-depth article by Michael Marcus discussing the various translations, though I’ve only skimmed through it. What a fascinating topic!

Lastly, I also found Babel by R.F. Kuang, which I’ve heard mixed things about—thematically, it sounds up my alley though so I hope I like it.

I got tickets to see The Odyssey next month, and some impractical part of me is like hmm maybe I should try to read it first? Nevermind that I’ve never studied classics so I don’t even know where to start with that, and I don’t actually know what happens in the story. Is this doable?? Someone who has read it tell me which translation to read. Or dissuade me out of it.

Sophie, my tabby cat, lies next to me on the couch. She's rolled onto her back, front paws curled, back paws resting against my leg, and looks quite fluffy and extremely cute.
SHE'S SO CUTE AAAHHHHH