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Hello, people in my computer

I'm coming live to you immediately post-grade-release for my final semester of university (and I'm very happy with how things turned out). Funnily enough, the university messed up the initial release, so we all got grades from the previous semster again... even people who graduated last semester! It's all fixed now though.

Last digest, I talked about cubital tunnel and my photos on 110 film. Well, similar outcomes: the cubital tunnel died down, but I think it's probably going to flare back up in the next few weeks, because I'll be working from home over the holiday period. Unfortunately, my desk situation isn't ergonomically-ideal, and I'm not sure exactly how to fix it.

Somewhat similarly, my 110 format photos didn't really turn out all that well. The light situation is horrible, but I can't find any flash attachments for the camera, so next time I'm shooting inside (even if it seems 'well-lit'), I'm going to try using my phone flash at the same time. Most of the photos truly turned out fully grey, but some of them were salvageable, and even nice.

Some of the nicer photos on my 110 camera, which I've put into my photo album!

Now I've got my regular Pentax back in action, I've got a few rolls of black and white film to go through that I bought discounted from Lomography, so we'll see how that goes!

MUSICAL MOMENT

I got new speakers for my room recently, so now I can listen to my CDs with better left/right distribution while I'm lying on my bed. It's not exactly 'surround sound', but it's better than before. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with my other CD player (keep it, move it, give it away). It doesn't have a line out, so I don't think I can connect it to the speakers. We'll see what happens there.

Aside from that, I don't have much of a music update. Deezer released my music of the year summary, but it's only accurate for the last few months, so my top artist and album is Faetooth's Labyrinthine. Great album, by the way! I've just bought a CD on Bandcamp Friday, even though shipping from the US is super expensive right now.

I also re-listened to Death of a Bachelor by Panic! at the Disco recently, and I was impressed by how bad it was. I used to love that album as a teenager, but it didn't age well at all. Mostly boring, but there are a few songs that aren't too awful. I reviewed it on my Record Club, which I've started using as an alternative to Musicboard, but I'm honestly not sure which I prefer.

FILM & TELEVISION

Great month for movies! Last weekend I attended the International Film Festival in my city, which was a lot of fun. I'd especially recommend Endless Cookie if you're a fan of animation, creative non-fiction... or psychedelics. I'm not sure where you can watch it though - it's only in theatres and doing the festival circuit for now.

My partner and I had booked one movie for Sunday night, and had a lovely leisurely dinner, went up to the cinema, and realised I'd taken us to the wrong place. Whoops! Luckily we managed to make it to the other cinema in time.

Aside from that, I've also made a list of every Georges Melies film, which I'm allegedly going to watch through completely... I've made progress, but it does get a little repetitive here and there. No offence, Georges.

Shamelessly plugging my own Letterboxd.

LITERATURE CORNER

So, I kind of gave up on Wuthering Heights. It's not bad, but I really hate having to look at family trees to understand what's going on in a story. It's a problem with huge fantasy novels as well. I just don't remember who that person is, how they relate to this other person, and why I should care!

Instead, I read some short stories by Bram Stoker (some were good, others not), and then the excellent horror anthology Out There Screaming, curated by Jordan Peele. I really enjoyed it. People of StoryGraph and on Goodreads were complaining about it not being 'horror' enough, or equating that with not being 'scary' enough, which I disagree with on multiple levels. Some of the stories were pretty spooky, but more importantly, whether something is 'scary' is so subjective! Doesn't make much sense to me. Plenty of people also said that the best stories were in the first half, and others said the second half was better - so clearly people aren't agreed on that either. I liked stories throughout it, and there were none that I regretted reading or felt were a waste of time, which is impressive for a short story collection. I recommend picking up a copy if you like horror or short stories, but especially if you're looking for new black authors to read.

You can follow me on StoryGraph here, by the way!

I've made a little more progress on Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, but it's been too annoying carrying my console (in a specific carry bag) to work alongside my regular work bag, so I've only really been playing that if I go out without needing to take a huge bag with me. Crazy how much of life revolves around random circumstance.

Aside from that, I haven't been doing too much. I've been playing The Binding of Isaac again after quite a long time, which I was totally addicted to as a teenager, so that's been... hard. If you haven't played it, I don't mean emotionally or whatever, it's just a very difficult game. I'm at the point where I want to unlock more levels/items/characters/bosses, but it's so hard to get the right combination of things to unlock whatever. It's a little frustrating, to be honest.

My goth home decor project has stalled a little, because I'm looking for a suitable container to mix black fabric dye in. The box recommends a stainless steel pot or bucket, but nothing seems big enough. Hopefully I can just use a big plastic tub of some kind, and that will be fine.

Ultimately, I'm just really looking forward to a bit of time off while I graduate and over the holidays. Hanukkah is soon, so candles and fried food are in my future!

That's all I have to say, I think. Stay safe, everybody!