Vultures Descend (Day 146)

It can be challenging to think about something to write every single day, but I think it's also important that I continue to do so. It keeps my brain operating and prevents it from melting into a pile of sludge. I've done far too much damage to my thought process over the years. I think this exercise has possibly restored some of my lost mental faculties. (?)

I'm still kind of playing Path of Exile nonstop. I predict I'll get burned out on it sooner or later but for now it's a really pleasing diversion. Since I've finished the main story of the game, I can also mark it as Beaten on my Backloggery, which fools me into thinking I've done something even remotely productive. I've even gotten some material for this blog out of it! But I think that's drying up approximately now, because there's only so much I can say about a game where you rove around cutting up demons and collecting the riches that spill from their gutted carcasses.

I want to talk about The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle because it's the first book I've read in a very long time--but I think I still want to wait on it. I'm not even halfway finished so I feel like I don't have a fair interpretation of it. Suffice to say though, I'm quite enjoying it. It's sort of like a breath of fresh air because I haven't experienced anything like it lately. I haven't immersed myself in stories and characters--it's all been video games with mindless gameplay. I haven't watched any films recently and the most recent TV series I watched was The Walking Dead, which, while having some emphasis on character development, is at its heart a story about killing zombies.

I'm excited when I think about all the books I could potentially read soon. It seems that in my hiatus from books I've become quite the slow reader. Even though I quite enjoy the book I'm reading now I'm making quite slow progress--although I'm not devoting the entirety of my day to it, either. That honor is currently being heaped upon Path of Exile and it's possible that won't change within the next week or so. However, after I'm done with it or have decided not to devote so much time to it, I'm going to start reading a lot more. I have some more Marukami to check out and I think I'd like to read some Terry Pratchett. I've read several of his books already (years ago) and adored them.

What I'm going to do for right now is listen to some new music. I took a gander at my recommended artists on last.fm and chose a few albums that seemed interesting. I decided on Disconnected by Greymachine (noise/industrial project from Aaron Turner of Isis and Justian Broadrick of Jesu), Palms self-titled (post-rock featuring members from Isis and Deftones), All Around Us by Miaou (Japanese post-rock), and From Fathoms by Gifts from Enola (post rock).