๐ŸŽต Another Dragonforce recommendation: “Symphony of the Night”. (If you think you know what it is, you’re 100% correct.)


๐ŸŽต Decided to listen to Power Metal while working today. There’s a lot wrong with the world, but Dragonforce’s cover of “My Heart Will Go On” is 100% right.


Want to read: Fibershed : growing a movement of farmers, fashion activists, and makers for a new textile economy ๐Ÿ“š


Here’s your (somewhat) regularly scheduled voting selfie!


Having a low spoons day today, so I’m working through a bunch of fiddly, errand-type to-do list stuff rather than getting knee-deep in data collection. But I have been reflecting on just the beginnings of this research process somewhat.

I’m an old hand at turning fun into work and vice versa. I did it with my first career as a Latin teacher, and then when I was a Latin teacher and picked up reading and blogging about kidlit and YA lit as a hobby, I became a school librarian. If things had gone differently at my job after that, I was going to steer my work in the direction of the Maker Movement and STEM-to-STEAM. In my two qualitative methods courses, I wrote my final papers about improv, which was my (incredibly) dominant hobby at the time.

Some people find that when they do a thing as a job, they don’t love that thing anymore. But not me, usually. (If I stop loving the thing, it’s less to do with the thing itself being my work and more to do with the work environment.)

So when I decided to make my research about cosplay, it was not a little bit because I knew that if I made cosplay part of my work, I would prioritize it more than I had in the past, and that’s definitely happened.

As part of looking at the resources Kroski recommends in her book, Cosplay in Libraries, I have found myself getting really excited about the possibilities for my own cosplay in the future. While everyone I’ve interacted with around cosplay has been immensely kind, it can be hard to feel like you’re capable of jumping in. There are so many possibilities for techniques you might use when you transition from styled cosplayer (where I still am right now) to cosplay maker, and I’m looking forward to having these resources at my fingertips to help me dig in more.

I think Gillian Conahan, author of The Hero’s Closet, tries to learn a technique with each costume she makes, and that’s my goal, too. For Oak City ComiCon, I’m putting together a Kitty Pryde (Sprite) costume and a Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) costume. For Kitty Pryde, I’m going to learn 3D printing and painting a 3D printed item. For Spider-Woman, I’m going to learn to use craft foam to modify glasses.



๐ŸŽฎ Played Monument Valley 2.

I loved it but it went so fast!


๐Ÿ“š Want to Read: How to Be Sick by Toni Bernhard


Just skimmed Parenting Doesn’t Matter, the main premise of which is that according to science, your parenting is unlikely to be the thing that messes up your kid. It reminded me of an argument I hear sometimes for a variety of possible parenting choices that makes me grouchy: “I [insert whatever here] and I turned out okay.” For example, “I was bullied in elementary school and I turned out okay.”

This rhetoric seems to me to rely on the assumption that childhood experiences only matter to the extent that they impact our adult lives. But I take issue with this assumption.

Children are not raw material waiting to be formed into real people when they reach adulthood. They are full-on human beings, with emotions and thought processes, and they deserve to have positive experiences NOW, not just when they are adults.

So when I have the opportunity to make life better for my kid, I don’t ask myself whether I turned out okay in spite of not having the experience I’m considering. I ask myself how it will impact his life NOW.


Just lost a really long post about my dissertation proposal and proposal defense because, like a fool, I didn’t save the draft and because I’m sleep-deprived and hormone-addled, I closed the tab.

I’ll try to recreate it later. Blergh.


So my dissertation study was determined exempt from further review so I guess I have to actually, you know, collect data now. (Still planning to spend at least tomorrow putting together organizational systems and a data management plan.)


๐Ÿ“š Want to read: Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD


๐Ÿ“š Want to read: Carpe Diem: Seizing the Day in a Distracted World by Roman Krznaric

Found this on the Wikipedia page for Memento mori. Drawn to the neologism “nexistentialism.” Here for mementoing mori.


Pisces New Moon spread.


๐Ÿ“š Set aside for now with plans to pick back up later:

  • Total Immersion
  • Swim Ultra-efficient Freestyle
  • eBay for Dummies
  • Paperback Crush
  • Reinventing You

๐Ÿ“š Currently reading: The Immune System Recovery Plan by Susan Blum, M.D., M.P.H.


๐Ÿ“บ Watched Brooklyn 99:

Season 6 -

  • episode 18, “Suicide Squad”

Season 7 episodes -

  • 1, “Manhunter”
  • 2, “Captain Kim”
  • 3, “Pimemento”
  • 4, “The Jimmy Jab Games II”

I’m blown away by how this show has stayed so good for so long.


๐Ÿ“ฝ๏ธ Watched Notting Hill.

As cute as it was when it was released. We were all so much younger in 1999, weren’t we? Hugh Bonneville is extra young here, all black hair and awkwardness. A far cry from the Earl of Grantham and Mr. Brown!


๐ŸŽฅ Watched Home Again.


๐Ÿ“š Currently reading: Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier by Terry Laughlin and John Delves


๐Ÿ“š Currently reading: Swim Ultra-efficient Freestyle by Terry Laughlin ๐ŸŠ๐Ÿฌ


Help me identify my strengths & make plans for what’s next! This is a 4-question sentence-completion survey. If you know me at all, I’d love to get your input!


Want to read: Going Alt-Ac by Kathryn E. Linder, Kevin Kelly, and Thomas J. Tobin ๐Ÿ“š



๐Ÿ“ฝ๏ธ Watched Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Oh my goodness did I enjoy this one. Spidey has been my second favorite superhero since I started reading comics (Kitty Pryde being my first) because he’s nerdy and quippy. This movie did a great job of capturing his essential kid-ness. There were some really beautiful examples of what in my as-yet-unpublished Buffy podcast I call “The Spider-Man Problem” (and Sailor Moon did this in between Spidey and Buffy): the problem of having great power and thus great responsibility while also trying to live a normal teen life. This movie does a nice job of showing how Peter Parker is able to eventually strike a balance, but only after many initial mishaps. (He tends to err on the side of prioritizing being a hero over being a teen, while Buffy often goes the other way. I could talk forever about how each of them is a better whatever they prefer because they are also the other thing.)

Highly recommend, though not as stand-alone from other MCU films as I would like.