I’ve been watching loads of fashion content on YouTube, lately.

Ash Callaghan, mainly, but also other creators, such as James Leung. Both are pretty good, by the way - Ash is a bit of a hater, which seemingly turns some people off, but James comes off as a very wholesome person with measured takes and honest opinions.

I’ve also been looking at shoes. I have some shoes - 5 that I would consider wearable, 6 if I count my winter boots (which are pretty decent, just not really weather appropriate for some 80-90% of the year) - and it’s not that I find that not to be enough, but rather that, well, simply put: 4 of them are falling apart. Mostly at the heel, or, I don’t know what it’s called. The inner heel? The inside of the shoe that rubs against your Achilles’s tendon. That part.

I have two of the same Adidas Run 60s and two of the safe something-something from Decathlon. I’ve gotten my fair share of wears out of them, I suppose, but I’m finding it tough to replace them. I mean, I can think of shoes to replace them, but I don’t want to fork over the cash. However, I’ve been going on walks these past few days and it’s really been hitting me how important it is to have some reasonably comfortable shoes for that. My one pair that’s in a good state - though it’s also showing some wear in the same area, despite my taking considerably good care of them - are some Adidas Rebound or something like that. They’re fine, but they’re not really comfortable enough to go on long walks. They’re moreso fashion than function, I’d say. I like them, but not that much.

I think I really just need to get some hiking shoes, or something. Maybe I should get Hoka’s, I don’t know. Running shoes. I’ll have to do much more research into this; read some Reddit posts.

Yesterday, there was no electricity for a great deal of the day. It returned around 9, I think, after having gone out just before noon. Thankfully, I got my mechanical pencils in the mail. Oh boy! I love them so much.

The Uni Kuru Toga really is incredible. I’ve been writing with it lots and enjoying every moment. The DelGuard has become something of a disappointed, by comparison, though I still like it very much. I wish the Kuru Toga looked like the DelGuard, but still worked as it does. Now that would be epic.

I’ve also pretty much decided to buy a new notebook. A Midori MD A5. It’s not even that expensive, really, and I hope I’ll make good use of it. Some journaling.

Speaking of which, I looked around the apartment for some pens and found a roller ball, needle tip. I like it much more than the other pens I’ve been trying out. I believe I’ve mentioned that I was sorrowfully disappointed with the BIC Gelocity I purchased some time ago, but I’m happy I’ve found something that performs better than that sitting right there, for free. Nice!

I’ll try to include more pen writing.

I got some news from me trying to cancel my grant and whatnot. Turns out, I need the other supervisor to sign the damn thing… Which sucks, because that’s the one that isn’t replying to my emails. I did manage to cancel my PhD very easily, so that’s nice. Just needed to fork over 20 buckeronis. No problem. Hopefully, I get a reply soon from that supervisor and manage to get rid of this thing already.

Also, I got confirmation that I did not get a job I was interviewing for. I’m not sure I’m happy or sad about it… Maybe I’m neutral. On one hand, I need a job, so I want a job. On the other hand, I didn’t really want that job, in particular, and there’s other jobs that I’ve applied to that I’m more excited about and I believe I have a decent chance of getting. Hopefully I’m right about that. I almost wrote “write” there, instead of right, by the way, which would’ve been a little funny, I think, so I’m mentioning it despite having caught myself and typed it correctly, after all.

I read the next section of Orpheu, but I found it so thoroughly confusing that I’ve elected to wait a little longer, give myself some more time to digest and analyse it, before I write a review.

In the mean time, here’s my review of the first 39 chapter of Shadow Slave:

It’s just OK. It’s cliché and a little dramatic, in the way little kids playing with super-heroes and making up cool superpowers - I kill you with my death-beam! I survive with my anti-death-beam! I kill you with my anti-death-beam-resistant-death-beam! - and not in the Toradora way. Still, it’s interesting. I like the concept, though really it’s just a LitRPG, isn’t it? I think the MC’s abilities and “flaw” are really cool, especially the flaw. I’ve decided to keep reading it; I’ll see where it goes and report back.

Also, I’m writing this on Alexandrite. I’ve been using Photon, lately, but it just has so many little things that make it bad that I can’t find it in myself to continue. It looks better than Alexandrite, and it does have some better features, but the features it doesn’t have, the problems it does have, those are quite terrible, really. Alexandrite is simpler and uglier, but more functional, and therefore, better (for me).