#the chronicles of a chaotic academic witch

[liesonthefloordramatically]

A wild 2023 recap post appears!

Stuff I made this year:

Fiction: Nope. Work continues to consume me.  I DID write like 33k that maybe will be publicly accessible in the future, but who can say.

Playlists: I think the only two I remembered to share were Oleander (a playlist for my Wickedness character) and the vast and the void (what it says on the tin).

RPGs: Also a nope.

Knitting: Made a shawl!  And a hat, technically, that I forgot to take pictures of.

Other stuff: Taught 5 classes, 4 of which were new preps!  Did fieldwork in Japan for the first time since 2019! Gave an hour-long talk in Japanese!  Presented on two conference panels!  Finished two academic book reviews! Survived somehow!  The period between August and December sort of doesn’t exist in my memory?  I was doing things but almost all of those things were work, so. The isolation has been wearing on me, but with the combination of A. not having any time to do anything other than work and B. for Various Reasons questioning whether I want to stay at this job, it's been really hard to build local community. I'm going to try to work on that next year, but also I'm going to have two new preps again in the fall and one of my spring classes is already overenrolled, so who knows how effective that'll be.

Media I enjoyed this year:

Books: I read 46 books this year apparently!  Top picks in no particular order: The Singing Hills Cycle (embarrassingly my jam), The Southern Reach Trilogy (shocking that it took me this long to read this), My Own Devices (even MORE shocking that it took me this long to read this), Imperial Radch (so AGGRESSIVELY my jam), She Who Became the Sun (this was a hilarious accompaniment to one of my fall classes), Camp Damascus (read this on a plane back from Japan which was An Experience), The Tale That Twines (loved the first book; the second book is even better), System Collapse (yeah, no one is surprised that I loved this).

TTRPG: Wickedness!  This was the only new TTRPG I played this year, but it was really good.

Video games: Mask of the Rose and Saltsea Chronicles, both of which I want to/should poke at more. Special nod to 13 Sentinels which we enjoyed 90% of a lot.

Manga/comics: I think the only thing I read was The JOJOLands?

Fanfic: I didn’t actually wind up reading that much fanfic this year again, in part because I was reading so many books.  A few picks, in no particular order: The Gardener (CR C2), Keys to the Castle (CR C2), Whistle Song (CR C2), pieces of (you) me (CR C2), Descriptions of a River Flowing (CR C2), Slip the Blindfold (CR C2), Heart to Heart (JJBA: JJL--PLEASE read this if you care about JJL at all), riverside beatitudes (JJBA: SDC), Fully formed, ready to run (ExU: Calamity).  Honorable mention to Asking for More (Stranger of Paradise), which is a WIP but made me laugh so hard I hit myself in the face with my phone.

Films: I actually watched like eight movies this year!  All but two of the new ones on a plane, to be fair, but.  Top picks: Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse and Shoplifters (『万引き家族』).  Honorary mention to Suzume.

TV: Finally finished Stone Ocean!  It was good!  Rowan and I are also like halfway through catching up on TGCF and it is also very good.

Podcasts:  Continued to listen to way too many of these.  Top picks: The Silt Verses, Trice Forgotten, Within the Wires (hey can we talk about the newest season? truly wild), and Re: Dracula.  Honorable mentions to The Evaporated: Gone with the Gods, 『なんかIWAKAN！』 (WHICH IS TRAGICALLY ENDING???? where am I supposed to get my chaotic Japanese gender and sexuality discussion now :(((((), Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later, Critical Role, and Worlds Beyond Number.

Music: Dessa's Bury the Lede was excellent, of course.  I also apparently listened to Maisie Peters' The Good Witch a lot (it was in my grading rotation in October). And then this past month there's been a lot of Hozier's Unreal Unearth. But a lot of my listening this year was either albums on the bus (rotating mainly between Quiet Company’s We Are All Where We Belong, Bury the Lede, yorushika’s entire discography that I can purchase, Wednesday Campanella, and various soundtracks) or putting something on loop and falling into a fugue state.  Apparently my top song of the year on Spotify was “Square One,” which I think I put on looping while grading in the spring.  My Spotify top songs list was even more inexplicable than usual this year.

Anyway, あけおめ！！！ 良いお年を！！！ (or else!!!!)

[imthearsonist666]

a beginner's guide to astrology, from a beginne

in today’s post you will learn about:

- your natal chart

- planets

- the signs archetypes

a natal chart is a screenshot of the sky when you're born. each planet will be in a different position and the combination of each planet and where it is will give off an energy that will be "stamped" to you. so, planets. the planets we use in astrology are all of those in the solar system, including the sun, the moon and pluto. each planet represents something different and have many interpretations but here's a quick summary:

the sun is the center of all. it's your ego and you in your purest self

the moon is your emotions and your heart

mercury: is how you communicate, how you learn, teach, and express yourself

venus is how you love and how you receive love

mars is anger, fury and passion

jupiter is your luck and fortune. it is also heavily associated with growth and expansion

saturn is your limits (think about the rings and how they can symbol a restriction). it's also how you discipline yourself and how you deal with responsibilities

uranus is everything unusual. your uniqueness and rebellion.

naptune is your imagination and dreams

pluto symbolizes rebirth and transformation. spiritually, it is also associated with death and the unknown. 

finally, your rising sign is the point exactly above you when you were born. in your chart, it represents your appearance. it's like the mask you put on. when someone first meets you, they might think your sun sign is your rising but as they get to know you they will see your sun sign be more relevant.

there are some other aspects of the chart but i think those are the most important because now that you know what each planet means, you can google the sign that is on each planet and relate the characteristics of each sign to each planet. if you want to, you can send me your chart and i can explain it to you the best i can (to know your chart you'll need to know your exact birth time. this is the website that i use to do them https://www.astro.com/ )

as you might already know, each sign is connected with stereotypes. please please pleaaase ignore them!! they are the stupidest things ever and will only confuse you. one thing you should pay attention to are each signs archetypes. archetypes are neutral characteristics of each sign. they are also ancient and go back to ancient greese. here are each signs archetypes:

aries: they are warriors, knights and leaders. bold, daring, protective, corageous

taurus: they are earth lovers. persistent, determined, strong, comfort oriented, patient

gemini: they are jesters, acrobats. intelligent, funny, communicative, entertaining, poetic, tricky

cancer: they are mothers, guardians, nurturers. protective, supportive, intuitive, sensitive, creative.

leo: they are performers, heroes. radiant, confident, joyful, charismatic, expressive.

virgo: they are mentors, teachers. humble, analytical, intelligent, precise, practical, detail-oriented.

libra: they are diplomats, lawmakers (fun fact aoc is a libra). they are charming, sophisticated, persuasive, just.

scorpio: they are detectives, sorcerers. deep, fierce, magnetic, intelligent

sagittarius: they are explorers, philosophers. optimistic, humorous, blunt, restless, philosophical

capricorn: they are the fathers, rulers and advisors. structured, organized, traditional, sarcastic, efficient

aquarius: they are scientists and creators. unique, intellectual, intuitive, cosmic, rebellious (think galileo!), independent.

pisces: they are mystics and artists. dreamy, sensitive, emotional, poetic, cryptic, oceanic

i'll tell you a bit about my birth chart: i have a scorpio sun. scorpios are water signs and their ruling planets are mars and pluto. scorpios are highly emotional and stereotypically very secretive i have aquarius rising. i usually look like the odd one out. i stand out easily because i have very varied style. one day i look like a punk from the 80s and the next i look like a hippie from the 70s. my moon is in aries and its the thing i like the least from my chart lol. my emotions are always at their peak and im constantly on edge. i have veeery quick mood swings so i love to blame all of that on having a fire sign ruling my emotions.

thank you for reading :) if you have any questions feel free to leave them on my ask box, i’ll respond as soon as i can. if i made any mistakes please let me know so i can fix them. i’d love to hear your opinions on the signs and planets so share them with me if you want to!! 

i hope you have a wonderfull day xx 

[muresetivoire]

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."

-C. S Lewis

[imthearsonist666]

commitment

there's this boy. 

he's tall and he's got the most beautiful brown curls, his eyes are pools of sunshine and his smile can light up a room. cliche, i know. he treats me like no other and i feel safe when he's around; his mother adores me and my dad is kinda proud. we've been talking for a year now, face timing every day. once we were on call for 6 hours straight, it was great. see i talk about this boy, the one i know so well, but there's something between me and what could happen next. my heart belongs to him, there's no doubt of that, but i can't help to think about the possible aftermath.

what would my parents say? what would his friends think? am i ready to do this, or am i too naive?

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hello dear reader! what you just read is a little poem i just wrote about a situation i'm currently in. we all got our commitment issues so if you're dealing with your own, i encourage you to vent in my ask box (anonymously or not, as you wish) and get everything off your chest. if you liked my poem, i also encourage you to reblog and send it to someone you know that might be going through the same thing. please consider following me and checking out my previous posts to go along with me on my journey i hope you have a wonderfull week! 

[imthearsonist666]

thank you

i wanted to take a moment to thank you for the love on my last post. as  you seem to like it, i’ve decided to  start doing more “educational” posts. i do have some ideas but if you’d like me to write about a specific topic (it can be related to astrology, spirituality, wicca, paganism, art or any other thing you come up with).

i will be taking longer than usual to post as i just started school and i want to post about that as well. 

again, thank you so much for the love <3

[imthearsonist666]

...hey

soo... i kinda disappeared from the surface of the earth for a little while ... to be completely frank, i forget tumblr exists sometimes. it´s not in my radar as much anymore. i've also been extremely busy with school since i´m in my last year of high school and doing the IB diploma !!! so yeah, extremely busy times. i'm thinking that i'll maybe do an IB/highschool survival guide when im done because even though i'm stressed asf, i'm having a pretty good time. i´m still very much doing astrology stuff, i'm obsessed with candles and i´m learning tarot !!! so good so fun.

i hope everyine is well, if you have any questions leave an ask, im always down to chat even though i might take a bit to answer.

i'll leave my instagram and spotify links if anyones interested

xoxo, gossip girl

https://www.instagram.com/sheb.ar/

[imthearsonist666]

routines

i’m not a routine-y person, at least i don’t think i am. but i really want to be. i want to be a peacefull being that wakes up at 9am on weekends and has a consistent morning routine. i want to take advantage of every day and do what i want to do but for some reason it’s so hard. i can’t do what i want to do and it’s tearing me apart. is it because i dont try hard enough? should i give up? 

as you might know, i’m moving cities. i live in a small town and i’m going to the big city, 2000km away from here in 4 short days. it’s a big change, i know. but i’m hoping that a change in atmosphere will help me make other good changes. like working out, having a morning/night routine and being better at school.