Weekly Update 08/30/2020

Well, it has been about four months since I posted a real update on my blog. I could go into the long story, but the short story is — I came down with some mysterious viral crud, that may have been Coviid, and never got better. I ended up getting a Coviid test back in March, and the results were negative. At the beginning of July, I got an antibody test, and it was negative, which should prove that I didn’t have coviid. However, it’s common knowledge in the medical community that coviid tests have a false negative rate of about 30% and not everybody develops antibodies. So maybe I did, maybe I didn’t???

What I do know is that I came down with coviid like symptoms at the end of March. I ended up taking off a week from work and battled shortness of breath, fever, headache, muscle aches and fatigue. After a week ill, I was well enough to return to work, but the symptoms never 100% went away. I continued to have the above symptoms, although in a much milder form.

Eventually, I saw my primary care doctor. She ran bloodwork that showed my body was full of inflammation with no clear source. Then, she referred me to a rheumatologist–who ran blood tests that showed the exact same results. And we never got answers to what was wrong with me, though I started various medications and even ended up getting a steroid shot in my knee. A few weeks after the steroid shot, I started to feel much better and am back to mostly how I was before the illness.

I am hoping to get back to updating my blog on a weekly basis with life updates (haha I’m still in quarantine, I have no life updates) and writing about what media I watch every week. However, if you are still wanting more of me in your life (you weirdo), I have been participating in a weekly Digimon podcast hosted by a friend of mine. We talk about the current episode of Digimon Adventures 2020, every week. Look up The Ink and Paint Club wherever you get your podcasts, and Talking Digimons is us. I’ll even link the first episode, so the first hit is on me folks! 

Prepare for a lot of weird austitic girl, unable to figure out when she can and can’t talk without visual cues, interrupting a lot. A+ entertainment, highly recommended.

While I’ve been on this hiatus, I’ve mostly slept, but here’s some media that stood out to me.

TV Shows

I have been on a huge anime kick lately. I haven’t watched anime this obsessively since…the early 2010’s. The good thing is it has gotten so much better since then. 

Dorohedoro

The most fun series about income inequality! Dorohedoro is a series that is impossible to explain. There’s a crapsack world, a lizard man who has a random dude living in his mouth, and so much ultra-violence that it would make Quentin Taratino have an orgasm, within the first episode. It’s strangely dark but super funny, and I really wish I could explain the plot but it would ruin the fun. Plus part of the fun is discovering the world and story as you go! Caimen, one of the main characters, is a man with a lizard’s head who wakes up in ‘The Hole’ not knowing who he is, or how he came to have a lizard’s head and that is the perfect starting point!  The writing is top-notch as fuck though; this series is easily my number 1 anime series now, and I’m predicting I’ll watch it multiple times before the year is out. The characters are great as well. They’re all fully imagined characters with distinct personalities and motivations. This series also features some of the best women characters I’ve ever seen, and to make it even better, they’re not sexualized for the most part, which is always a plus in the world of anime.

Plus that opening theme. This show is on Netflix, so you can skip the OP, but if you skip it, I will be very disappointed in you. It’s just that good. Furthermore the series is 12 episodes long, and yet, there’s multiple ending themes with unique and interesting animation.. If you don’t want to commit to watching the series I encourage at least looking these up.

My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom

I began watching this right before I got ill in March and got about four episodes in before I proceeded to do nothing for four months. I finally finished it this week. While I don’t love this as much as Dorohedoro, this has definitely found a place in my heart. 

The main protagonist is hit by a car on the way to school, dies, and then is reincarnated in the otome game she was playing the night before her death, called Fortune Lover. She is born into the life of the villain of the game, Katarina Claus.

However, the reincarnated Katarina is very different from “canon” Katarina. Former Katarina was stuck up and mean, reincarnated Katarina has a big, kind heart. She also has memories of the game from her past life, and is desperate to prevent her oncoming demise. What unfolds is my favorite kind of harem story–where Katarina proceeds to befriend everyone she comes across and wins them over with the power of friendship. And by winning them over, it really means make them fall head over heels in love with her. Unfortunately for all of them, she’s completely oblivious to their affections and thinks they’re just the greatest of friends.

One of the big things in this series favor is the character of Katarina. She is awkward and brash and often partakes in activities not befitting of a noblewomen, such as gardening and climbing trees. However none of the characters hold that against her and love those qualities about her. It’s so wholesome, and I love it a lot.

I found the first half of the series better than the second half. The first half had a little bit of court intrigue and some very emotionally moving drama. The second half goes harder into shenanigans and hijinks between the characters, which by the end of the series had become a little bit stale; although, I still enjoyed them. Despite the drop in quality, and my expectation that season 2 will be more of the same, I am still excited for more.

And that’s all I have to talk about this week! I will try my damndest to be back next week with a new update post. In the meanwhile, do you have any shows you want me to watch or books you want me to read and see my response to? Let me know in the comments below.

(Also thanks for bearing with me, I have been struggling to get a post out for the past month.)