Kimberly Hirsh

I just played D&D for the first time in 3+ years and it was so great I almost cried.

Day 3 of a garbage migraine. Hate it. Rarely get them this bad anymore.

I rarely watch actual play TTRPG shows because Life Circumstances have made a 3-hr viewing a real challenge. I backed DesiQuest at the Town Folk level anyway because an all-Desi liveplay sounds amazing.

🎮 Things from today’s Nintendo Direct that feel like gifts they’re making for me, specifically:

• Theatrhythm Final Bar Line
• Harvestella demo today
• Tales of Symphonia remastered (I never finished the original on GameCube but I loved what of it I played)

📺 Will I need to watch The Book of Boba Fett to follow what’s happening in the next season of The Mandalorian?

We took a little walk on the trail behind our house this morning. Here are some pictures of what we saw: misty trees, a red leaf, an acorn cap, a yellow leaf bigger than M’s foot, and an earthworm.

Dark academia is too emotionally bleak an aesthetic for me right now, but I enjoy the ability to admire pretty pictures and have a list of new hobbies & media to try, so I’m playing with adventurecore right now.

📺 Watched The Sandman. It’s so great. I don’t think a better adaptation would be possible. I missed the black speech bubbles but I know those couldn’t really be done in this medium.

📺 Excuse me, I am watching The Rings of Power and Disa is my new fave, thought you should know. (And that’s a big deal because Galadriel, Nori, and Bronwyn are all great, too.)

Currently reading: Fabric by Victoria Finlay 📚

I hate when my brain won’t read, which it won’t today. Reading is my core way of interfacing with the world. The tools we use shape our thought processes, and writing and reading have been my primary tools since I was a small child. Reading heals me, distracts me from pain, comforts me when I’m lonely, and gives me new ways of thinking.

I know this inability to turn other people’s words into things that cohere for me will pass. And I can do audiobooks some. But there’s also something about the physicality of reading that I miss when I do that. So it is a great companion to reading text, especially for times it’s not smart to focus on texts like when I’m driving or trying to fall asleep.

Maybe I’ll try reading something middle grade instead of YA or adult and see if that helps.

Peace and long life, y’all. Happy Star Trek Day! 🖖🏻

I don’t write a lot of lengthy blog posts lately, partly because there’s a lot going on with my mom’s health that wears me out. But I want to write more, so watch this space!

Every time I call myself “Miss Kimberly” in my head, I immediately correct myself with “Doctor Kimberly.”

Kirby Howell-Baptiste is brilliant in The Sandman. I need all the Death spin-offs: High Cost of Living, At Death’s Door, all of it. She’s got brilliant big sister energy. 🖤 📺

Just spent a minute staring at all the app icons on my phone trying to figure out why the Star Trek app wasn’t in alphabetical order in the S section, but of course, the name of the Star Trek app is Paramount+. 📺🖖🏻

I’m very sorry for the colleague of my interviewee who was sick today and thus meant interviewee couldn’t get time off-desk and had to reschedule, but I’m really not in a great headspace for an interview today anyway so I will happily do other work instead.

John Cameron Mitchell doing Ethel Merman singing “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” is all I have ever wanted. A mid-90s musical theatre nerd’s dream come true. Thank you, The Sandman. 📺

I can suspend my disbelief enough to believe that entities like Dream, Death, Desire, & Despair exist, ravens can talk, nightmares can walk the earth… but I can NOT believe that people from NJ wear heavy layers while staying on the Space Coast.

Me, listening to an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation with my eyes closed: “Is that Harry Groener? It sounds like Harry Groener.

opens eyes, looks at screen

Narrator: It was, in fact, Harry Groener.

Finished reading: The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again by J. R. R. Tolkien 📚

Listened to the audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis, which I think made it much more enjoyable than when I read it in print 20+ years ago. Highly recommend.

What’s the most fun thing you’ve done in the past 2 years?

🍿 Watched The Company of Wolves. Peak 80s gothic fantasy with a gorgeous score and the grossest werewolf transformations I’ve ever seen.

There’s been some hard stuff this week, but I also went to the pool and had dinner outside on my gorgeous deck with my gorgeous family and that was really great.

💬📚 “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit