...brought to you by me, once again, giving myself a pep-talk and posting it on the internet 😅💪
Listen, the world is rough and tough and kind of awful sometimes.
It feels like everything is crashing and burning and we live in a frankly batpoop timeline.
August reached my bar for a good month
- which is admittedly so low it's practically touching the floor, but I'ma take it as a win 😅
Unfortunately, August was also pretty damned bad in terms of hay fever
- like, I've had hay fever a lot (more in recent years, because climate change,) but I've rarely felt this unwell with it.
So, yeah, that sucked.
Wales got it's first woman First Minister with Eluned Morgan.
...Which would be a lot more celebration-worthy if her predecessor, Vaughan Gething, Europe's first Black leader of a nation, hadn't been forced out after deeply unfair (imho) and personal attacks, which crossed the line into racism more than once.
So, mixed bag.
Eluned Morgan, btw, fully supported Gething until the end of his short tenure - so the blame shouldn't be placed at her door for this.
In other parts of the UK (England and Northern Ireland,) there were racist riots.
...So not a good look for the UK in general in August, racism-wise. *Sighs*
People suck sometimes.
My regular series (Comics Wrap-Up, Friday Fics Fix, and Nerd Church,) went on break in August, and I didn't post much all-in-all.
- I try to do that every so often so that posts don't start feeling like too much of a chore. 😅
All three are back in action now, though. So September's post-list will be a lot longer than this one.
'Other' Posts
Month(s) in Review(s) - June + July 2024
So that was my August - how was yours?
Talk to me! 😎💬
You can follow me on Twitter @CeeDoraReads, on Pinterest, and on Dora Reads @ BlogLovin. For more ways to support me, check out the Support Me page
It's my birthday today (15th Sep) so I figured I'd have a little fun.
(...of the nerdy sort, because that's on-brand, let's be honest.)
So, y'know that thing where people talk about their ideal celebrity dinner guests, either living or dead, fictional or real?
This isn't that.
But it is somewhat adjacent to that.
I thought that instead I'd talk about my celebrity birthday party list - with the twist that they also have to have their birthday on September 15th. Just because it's an awesome date, let's be honest.
So, here's my celebrity birthday buddies:
Warning: discussions of Depression and pet loss
...OK, doing this as a two-monthly thing is becoming an unintentional habit 😅
The only excuse that I have is that sometimes Depression messes my memory up - and the fact that I entirely (and I mean, entirely,) forgot to write a post for June coincides with some pretty sh**ty mental health days over the past two months.
So, yeah. I'm blaming Depression. And I don't feel bad about that, because it blames me for stuff all the time 😅
Do you get the feeling, sometimes, that everything out there in the big wide world is kind of... rushed?
It's kind of fast, kind of hurried, kind of urgent.
I'm so tired of the election.
...That's the UK election, by the way.
Which is happening on July 4th, the date of which apparently led to several people from the Conservative party using insider knowledge to place bets. Classy. (Allegedly.)
You wake up and go downstairs, pausing mid-way down.
The lines of each individual stair seem to waver for a moment.
The stairs themselves seem vaguely Burtonesque - all slanted lines and moving pieces.
Your head hurts and you close your eyes.
Warning: pet death, grief
Did I intend to make this a 2-month wrap-up?
No. No I did not.
Did it become abundantly clear that I wasn't gonna get April's post done by the end of May?
Yes. Yes it did.
April was awful.
Really.
You know how my criteria for a good month is one where no-one I care about - human or animal - dies, almost dies, or gets a life-changing diagnosis?
April was not a good month.
My beautiful cat died, dearest nerdlets.
And the world feels off without him. There's a hole in my chest.
So most of the rest of April + May has been trying to get used to life without him.
...It still hurts like hell.
That boy was my everything, and I have cried every single day since I lost him.
But I kept going, despite the urge to stay in bed and wail.
(Turns out I'm frighteningly good at wailing - with frighteningly being the key word. I... did not know I could make that kind of noise. I freaked my parents the hell out.)
So, y'know, if you've got the chance to check out the posts I somehow managed to write despite the separation of my soul from my body, that'd be great... 😅
Comics Wrap-Up
Was Not Expecting That! - Wenglish in Marvel's Echo and more
Iconic and Irreplaceable - Joker: Folie a Deux and more
I Can Already Tell - X-men '97 and more
My Fangirling Heart Is Singing Right Now! - Deadpool & Wolverine and more
You Learn Stuff, I Guess - Chibird and more
The Freaking Chaos - Marvel's What If...? and more
Actually Quite Lovely - X-Men '97 and more
Gracing The Waves of the Interwebs - Deadpool & Wolverine and more
Wholesome and Positive - The Cursed Princess Club and more
Friday Fics Fix
The Nature of the Void - A The Umbrella Academy (TUA) fic exploring the nature of death, grief, and the Void
Most of You Aren't Gonna Read This - A The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (TFATWS) horror novella that is extremely well-written. I loved it. I hated it. It's so good.
Because I Am Trash - A TFATWS fic where Sam and Bucky are stuck in an industrial freezer. I stand by my life choices.
Cyberpunk Stucky - In a nutshell: Stucky (Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes from the MCU in a relationship,) as detectives in space. But it's so much more than that. I would legit. buy this as an original novel - it's that good.
Vampires and a Smidge of FrostIron - Everything's better with vampires, right? Plus a little bit of Tony Stark/Loki love.
Klaus' Ghosts In A Specific Trope - I like the fandom-specific trope of Klaus literally showing his demons to people who deny or minimise them - the emo goblin spaghetti brain very much likes, OK?
Bucky's A Literal Demon and Sam's A Literal Angel - TFATWS
So. Freaking. Beautiful - A TUA Klaus/Dave fic with Klaus noticing that, in some lights, Dave's eyes are the exact same shade of blue as his powers, the ghosts, etc. etc. Which leads to a whole lot of introspection from both of them and... it's beautiful.
Nerd Church
Can Books 'Talk' To Us? - Do you think books can send us messages?
It's OK (Just Keep Going) - Brought to you by the art of giving myself a pep talk and then posting it on the internet 😅
My Heart Is Broken... - My beautiful boy is gone. 💔
Random Audiobook Ramblings - Walking is boring and books are awesome
Unpopular Opinion: I've Never Liked Gavin and Stacey - Sorry, not sorry. It feels uncomfortable - like Wales through an English lens.
What Does 'Enough' Even Mean? - Has anyone ever reached ‘enough’?
Things Happen When They Happen - I'm trying to remind myself that, so long as I'm working on things, they'll be ready when they're ready.
I Quit Google AdSense - Because this is way too many hoops to jump through for £7
Other Non-Review Posts
Month In Review(s) - March 2024
So, that's April and May for yours truly.
How was yours?
Talk to me! 😊💬
You can follow me on Twitter @CeeDoraReads, on Pinterest, and on Dora Reads @ BlogLovin. For more ways to support me, check out the Support Me page
I'm trying to remind myself that, so long as I'm working on things, they'll be ready when they're ready.
I'm an impatient person by nature - I want things done yesterday or earlier, thanks very much - but that's not the way to get sh** done in the long term.
...confessions of a rebel Welsh chick, I guess. 😅
OK - I know that there are international fans of this series, but since it's less well-known outside the UK, a little background:
Gavin and Stacey is a BBC sitcom about a Welsh woman from Barry and an English dude from Essex meeting on the internet, falling in love, and trying to get together despite being from opposite ends of the country.
It's also where James Corden hit the big time, in the UK at least. So... there's that. Make of it what you will 😅
...a post brought to you by my boredom with walking, and my doctor's insistence that, if I go walkies, it'll help with my mental health. (I'm not buying it - it's never helped before, but I'll try anything.)
When there's been no rain for a couple of days in a row, it's not so bad 'cos I can go to the woods, but otherwise said woods are like a very slippery mudslide.
So if it's been raining within 48-72 hours, then I have to walk around streets and shops and sh** so I don't trip, fall, and end up in the river/bang my head on a tree/anger one of The Fair Folk by falling into them or summat.
*Sigh* The woods are my natural habitat, dammit!
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The world is a total mess, but it's OK, just keep going.
There's war and floods and famine and disease, but it's OK, just keep going.
The things that bump in the night are real, but it's OK, just keep going.
March wasn't great.
Not terrible - but then, the bar for terrible is pretty high (or low, depending on your perspective, I guess,) at this point - but not great.
Basically: my mental health sucks at the moment.
February for yours truly wasn't too bad.
...It wasn't great either, tbh. But it's still one of the better months I've had lately, so I'll take it!
And 2023 is OUT OF HERE!!!!
And thank whoever's listening for that.
Because, in case you weren't aware, my 2023 effing sucked.
Warning: This post references true crime and murder, and discusses mental health problems - especially Anxiety.
Disclaimer time: I am not any type of psychological, medical, or scientific expert. I'm a chick with a blog, nothing more, nothing less.
Wild-child that I am, of an evening I like to get myself a snack, and a glass of diet coke, and watch TV for a while.
Lately that's meant, more often than not, true crime.
Because there's nothing more calming than some grisly murder before bed.
I've had to remind myself so many times, over the years, that it's best to take things one step at a time.
...That I only have two hands.
...That I actually get more done when I relax.
And yet... it's still so hard to do.
Yes, this post covers two months.
No, I have not done that before.
But I was already pretty busy/lacking in time in October, and then November...
Well, my criteria for a 'good month' in the hellstorm of 2023 is one where no-one I care about (human or animal,) dies, almost dies, or has a life-changing diagnosis.
