#we're having a quiet one - board games and drinks with the fam and then off to seattle bright and early for the WINTER CLASSIC tomorrow

[basileus]

Caity's 2023 Most Enjoyed List

This isn't a real reclist, but a list for me to squirrel away all the things I enjoyed this year before it's over. It's a little all over the place but this was a mess of a year so I suppose my most enjoyed list can be a mess as well. See you later 2023, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Media:

1 - "Lena" by qntm. This is a very short story in the format of a Wikipedia article that gives me so many delightful shivery feelings about consciousness and trans-humanism and who owns the rights to machine learning/AI datasets. Very topical this year.

2 - Dungeon Meshi finished its publication and the final chapter made me cry real tears. I've been following the series for 8+ years and it is everything good with comics - art, world building, the engagement and subversion of fantasy tropes, relationships, story, recipes, the casual cannibalism, the ending. All perfect. Ryoko Kui is a genius. I am very excited for the anime airing next week.

"I think the entire point of this journey we went on was about learning how to accept death."

"Meals are the special privilege of the living. In order to stay alive, we need to keep eating."

3 - I read a lot of questionable cnovels this year but I really enjoyed two. The first was The Villainous Shizun Is As Beautiful As A Flower which is a shorter BL Shizun fucker cultivation romance. The arc after the MC finds his father goes on for a little too long (and the timeskip is awkward) but the MC is engaging enough that I didn't mind. This was a very fun quick read that I want to talk more about.

The second was For Love of the Game which is an e-sports danmei where an former actor falls in love with the captain of his fake League of Legends team (lmao). Look. Okay. I was on a kick and actually read FOUR e-sports BL novels this year and this was the one I enjoyed the most. I loved that the MC and ML had an established relationship before ever meeting face to face. Some of the reviews are salty about the ML's sneaky plotting side but both I and the MC were into it! The MC was even into the terrible secondhand embarrassing singing confession scene. But beyond the main couple, I LOVED the side paring of their "old" player and the captain on the rival team. I even got into the stupid video game strategy stuff. I had a great time.

I also re-read Who Dares Slander My Senior Brother and Where is Our Agreement to be Each Other’s Arch-Rivals? now that the translations are finished and enjoyed both of them again free from the tortures of machine translated cultivation terms. I still think both suffer from 3rd act issues. But damn did I like both ships.

(As a note - this is a list of likes but my highest high to highest disappointment cnovel was Cannon Fodder Fake Master Was Stunned After Being Reborn which I'm not even going to link because I'm still mad about it. The idol arc and the triple baby swap reveal made me so crazy invested I was literally telling my sisters the entire plot scene by scene as I read. But the last couple arcs ruined the romance/plot. I HATED the ML by the end. What haaaaappened.)

4 - I remained pretty into the SCP Foundation this year, but instead of the wiki itself, I spent a lot of time listening to the SCP Archives podcast and The Exploring Series podcast episodes. I really enjoyed the radio play aspect of the SPCA but I also enjoy how the Exploring series is just listening to some dude give you lore dumps. Its the ideal painting, journaling, chore, driving, etc. podcast for me. Check out Exploring the SCP Foundation: The ABCs of Death (Compilation) for TWELVE HOURS of great SCPs. Crazy stuff.

5 - Fire Emblem Engage and Fire Emblem Heroes. Not a ton to say on these but I enjoyed them! Ike/Soren continues to cook in FEH and I finished up merging/ascending my Eirika collection because she is the prettiest princess in the entire world.

6 - Among Us. I played..... a lot of Among Us this year with both my discord friends and new friends. Moving on.

7 - Silo on Apple TV. I'm a little burnt out on apocalypse media right now but I started watching Silo when I was also reading Red Rising and it got my brain working on all of these humanity is most human in the soil! the unfeeling earth feeds us! kinda thoughts. Rebecca Ferguson is the prettiest woman in the entire world.

8 - Speaking of digging, @Kala on Tiktok who is tunneling a "suburban mine" under her house, presumably in an HOA community the eastern United States. Kala is actually in the process of being cancelled right now and people are making very boring "I told you so" videos because someone finally snitched on her to authorities for not having a permit to dig, install electrical work, weld, reinforce, "mine", etc. under her property. Obviously this is bad! This is not how people engaging in the social contract/not experiencing some sort of mental illness do things! But I work in Construction/Engineering and am still fully obsessed with her. Hobby tunneling is so fascinating and here is someone who is documenting it for the internet. Let her dig!

Non-Media Related Likes:

1 - Volunteering once a month at my local hospital. I LOVED THIS. I got to hang out with friends and gossip for a couple hours every month, cook new giant recipes for families going through a hard time, and give back. Definitely going to continue this next year.

2 - Summer floating after work in my special "secret" river spot with a big floppy sunhat, a couple ciders, and someone to chat and watch the local birds (herons, turkey vultures, albatross, blackbirds) with. I brought 3 separate dates floating this year and it was the best idea. Will be happening again.

3 - Espresso martinis. I was actually sober for most of this year because I discovered I just like a fancy drink/excuse to go out and don't actually need the alcohol (and it's cheaper). But espresso martinis from this one tiny wood paneled bar in North Portland decorated like a hunting lodge where they make them extra frosted and sweet? Obsessed.

4 - Live music. Nothing as crazy as last year's 23 shows & 2 festivals (thank god) but shouting along to 'Batman' live at the perfect Front Bottoms show in late summer. The Michigander concert that I didn't even want to go to that felt like a house show. The Beaches on Christmas. Tons of local shows at Turn Turn (rip). So fun.

5 - Parasailing. I had never parasailed before my trip to Mexico this year. Who was gonna tell me it fucks! I want to go again right now.

6 - The weird local actor/play scene in Portland. I'm talking about a Cthulhu puppet show, publicly submitted one acts, a live acted Harry Potter rewrite where people shout along to Oppenheimer quotes, a horror fest in a theater so small they make you leave between acts and everyone in the lobby is talking about clown classes, and a one-man gay musical about ghosts. Where else except local theater will you spend $10 and a few hours watching someone pretend sprinkle themselves with seasonings and shove themselves in a large pot. This is the arts, babe. I am only going to attend more of these shows in 2024.