Hey friends!
As of tomorrow, we will have passed into the second half of 2019 but it still feels like only yesterday when I was setting my 2019 goals back in January. I can’t deal with how fast the year is going by and it needs to slow down because I don’t want to think about all of my upcoming deadlines…
June managed to be a surprisingly good reading and gaming month for me but on the flip side of that it’s because I didn’t manage to get much work (blogging and uni) done which has been fairly frustrating. For now, though, I want to celebrate the progress I made with my reading and the fun that I had in taking part in the Sims-a-thon!
→ Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri – ★★★★★ ←
→ The Tea Dragon Festival by Katie O’Neill – ★★★★★ ←
→ Lost Gods by Micah Yongo – ★★★★☆ ←
→ All Systems Red by Martha Wells – ★★★★☆ ←
→ Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes by Holly Bourne – ★★★☆☆ ←
→ Saga Vol. 6 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples – ★★★★★ ←
→ Saga Vol. 7 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples – ★★★★★ ←
→ Saga Vol. 8 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples – ★★★★☆ ←
→ Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine by Hannah Fry – ★★★★☆ ←
I read a surprising amount in June, mostly thanks to my friend lending me her copies of Saga volumes 6-8, although I didn’t manage to review any books. So, whilst I’ve been making good progress on my reading, my reviews are starting to back up quite a bit.
Sims-a-thon
My success at the Sims-a-thon was mostly thanks to the number of graphic novels I managed to read this month but it was fun nonetheless. I wish I had had time to read a few more prompts, especially as my sim never ended up with a career due to my bad planning, but I’m fairly pleased with how my sim turned out. I chose to create a sim in The Sims 4 after I had read all of my books so that I could see what kind of Sim they might be and be molded by the books I ended up reading.
As my ‘create-a-sim’ book ended up being Lost Gods by Micah Yongo, I decided to try and make a Neythan inspired Sim. He ended up falling in love (The Tea Dragon Festival) and getting married (Saga Vol. 8) to his wife, and they had a child together (Saga Vol. 6). Aside from their little family, Neythan and his wife bought a pre-bought house (Are We All Lemmings and Snowflakes?) in Newcrest to live in where they ate cookies (All Systems Red), paid bills (Hello World: How to be Human…) and aged up to adults (Don’t Touch My Hair).
What’s New?
🌻 I recently handed in my notice at my current job and my last day will be right before YALC at the end of July. This is a huge relief for me as I have a lot of work to catch up on for my master’s degree including my 15,000-word dissertation due in September and two Quantitative Methods take-home papers.
🌻 But, I have a new job already lined up for September when I start my PhD! I will be a peer facilitator at my uni’s SU, helping to train students to become active bystanders and feel confident in safely intervening if they witness sexual harassment on campus.
🌻 I presented my first academic conference paper at the Anthropology in London Day Conference at UCL a few weeks ago on being an anthropologist whose research focuses on video games, and I received an email saying my abstract for the London Science Fiction Research Community Conference on ‘The Political Economy of SF’ has been accepted so I will be delivering a paper for that in September as well.
🌻 I’ve made some huge progress this month with my depression & anxiety, and independence. My partner was away in Manchester for surgery for 1.5 weeks earlier in the month meaning that I had to look after myself at home whilst continuing to do other life stuff like go to work and care for the dog. I only had one very minor freak out one evening which is a far cry from previous incidents when I’ve had to cope alone for long periods of time. As well as this, I’ve been socializing out of the house a lot more and have started to feel completely comfortable when interacting with new people. I’ve been able to have interesting discussions, ask a few questions and even make some new friends which I haven’t been able to do confidently for the past decade so I am very happy and proud of myself!
You might have noticed my gaming round up is absent from this post but fear not, it is because I have been playing so many games this month that I thought they deserved their own wrap-up post which I will be posting tomorrow. Instead, my first wrap up of the month will now be exclusively for books and monthly life updates ❤ I hope you all had a wonderful June as well, let me know what you got up to!
Red Rocket Panda 
Graphic novels for this readathon is such a good idea, I wish I’d thought of it. You sound like you’ve got a busy summer ahead, best of luck getting your dissertation ready!
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Looks like you’ve enjoyed almost everything you’ve read and that’s amazing👏🏻
I hope your July is a better 💕
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I’m glad you got to read some more and that you made some decisions to make life a little easier for yourself this Summer (quitting your job). Sounds like the new is right up your alley.
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I really need to get back to reading Saga. I think I read the first four graphic novels so far. It’s such a good series! I am so happy to hear that you have made some huge progress with your depression, anxiety, and independence this month. That’s so great! I’ve been having to be home alone a lot more now that we have moved, which didn’t really affect me too much when I was living next door to my family. But now my family lives four hours away, so sometimes I get so paranoid being alone for days when the husband is away for work. I’m glad you’ve been able to socialize a lot more as well. I’m so bad with socializing and meeting new people. It’s definitely something to be happy and proud of! 😀
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