 i can't seem to focus and you don't seem to notice i'm just a mute check your complexion to find your reflection so welcome to my new apartment and to the first reading log in it i feel like the camera is very far away we'll come closer to you is that better well maybe you don't want to see me up close but sorry so yeah today i have off from work because it is better in today because you can see we take our holidays very seriously and do a lot to commemorate them i've been living here for like just over a week a week ago last this past friday i was moving day it feels like i've been here longer not in a bad way like i'm not sick of it it's just like it's you know been what i've been about moving for so long and then i mean of course because pandemic i'm just here all the time just like i was all the time in my old apartment still have to go back to my old apartment to like final clean it whatever not that chapter is almost done but not quite but that affects this reading blog not at all today i will be hopefully getting some reading in i hopefully understandable i didn't get a ton of reading done while i was mid move so tail end of january beginning of february like i didn't manage to listen to some audiobooks but reading was definitely not a priority and not an option but since then i mean i've been getting back into reading reading vlogs are always good for that however i also the other thing that wasn't really an option mid move was filming videos so today i do need to film a couple videos one of which i'm kind of like i don't know if i want to do it i want to do it but i don't know if i want to do it because it's a subject that came up in my tag video that i posted this past saturday where like it's something that i didn't even plan to talk about but it came up and the response that i got on it was unexpected and intense so i do think it's a subject that i want to talk about i want to make a video about but i'm still fresh off of being irked at the response i got um at being so uh aggressively misunderstood so i definitely want to make that video basically is what i'm saying like it's not deciding whether or not that video should be made at all it's i don't know if i need if i should do it today and i also don't posting it so soon after like i don't know it's better to do it right after the tag to be like by the way let me explain or if i need to like let that breathe and come back to it fresh and let my audience come back to it fresh they're not conflating whatever their impression of what i said was in that video with what i will now be saying in my planned prepared i say planned and prepared i'm not scripting anything but i mean like being more intentional about going in deciding to discuss this because it was a tag video so it just like came up while i was answering a tag question where i was like i guess this so i didn't plan to talk about that but now i will be planning to talk about that so i don't know if i'm ready to film that today um i might put it off just to again so that i'm less like and so that my audience is less it's better for everybody we need to take five so yeah i do need to film again some videos that are just like regular old videos so like what am i filming my blade itself review which is a long time coming for my fourth raid you know it's about time i finally finished the broken earth trilogy by nk jemisin um so i'd like to finish or not finish a film a series review the other video that i had in mind was my spicy discussion which i might be punting i hate makeup to go to waste though so i may i think well there was another video there is another video that i've been planning for some time i still don't think i'm ready to film it because it's going to be a lot of work so not bad but i think i had a when i was batch filming before my move i had like 50 billion videos like written out as ideas and i managed to film like 10 of them but i had like a read a likes on that list that i might film today need to check it see if i still agree with myself from a month ago so yeah oh and what am i reading right now that's probably what i should have opened with um i finally started reading gardens of the moon which as if you don't know i'm buddy reading with my father he's actually a farther along than i am which is to be expected because he reads faster and because he hasn't been as busy as me and he was like waiting to start until i started and i was like look i started it but like i don't have a ton of time to read so like no rush and he's like pacing himself we're getting only like only four times as fast as i do instead of 10 times as fast as i do seems to be enjoying everything i'm enjoying it so i'm not that far into it but so far so good um then i'm also reading shadow of night which is the sequel to a discovery of witches um it's not very far into it all within the first 30 pages i'm already like having similar like different but similar issues to my issues of the first one where i'm like it's entertaining but like the way you speak and the way things are going i'm just like you wouldn't though they wouldn't though this wouldn't though but so far it's at least entertaining at the setting which is the main reason that i picked this up in the first place the setting so far is like it's what i wanted i wanted to be in this where this is i'm not saying because it's far the rate for the first book but you know i feel like most people probably already know because all the trailers for the show give it away but uh that's why i'm being all cryptic and i dnf'd these violent delights yesterday so i'm not reading that i need to read from blood and ash before the live show but i have some time i like to read the blades and modifiers book club books like the week leading up to if possible because then it's freshest in my brain i've been putting off my re-read of before they're hanged because i wanted to film my review of the blade itself and have like that as crystal as it can be crystal and separate from the second book before i dove in so if i do finish i mean if i do film my blade itself of you today which i plan to then i can finally dive into my re-read of before they're hanged just generally on deck for the month i still got girl in the tower and deathless divide which are both body reads because every fucking thing i'm reading this month is a body read this is not on my tbr but i bought the queen's gambit because i would like to read it before watching the show since i learned that it is based on a book but i don't know i mean i don't think i'll have time to finish everything since my tbr anyway so it's irresponsible to pick up something else as well what idea enough to be smiling delight so it can replace that maybe any who yeah i'm just gonna read a little bit this morning while i drink my coffee and then film some videos and then i'll check in with you cool okay well i finished filming two videos per my plan as you can see i'm all made up now i think i i mean i know i filmed uh me setting up my camera don't know if i'm including that footage you know more than i do um yeah so i filmed my blade itself review and my broken earth review both of which are quite choppy because i think it's garbage day nearby so i had to keep stopping speaking because of trucks my new apartment is definitely like way quieter than my old apartment but i still live in downtown l.a in fact i live more downtown than i used to but i don't live near the freeway on ramp anymore so it's not constant sirens and this building is sturdier so like i can still hear my neighbor sometimes because like that just comes with the territory and it is an old historic building so the like heating system is like steam heat so like i can hear it coming on and clicking like the pipes and stuff and all of my neighbors use it but again compared to where i live before it is so quiet but today has been especially noisy which of course it was because i'm filming today so people driving by with their radios on full blast garbage trucks particularly with my broken earth review i had to stop for like four minutes and the cameras kept rolling because i was like it'll stop it'll stop it'll stop and by the time i started talking again i was like what even was i saying so i feel like that the video is gonna be quite like i'm afraid it's gonna be apparent that there was me and then there was me four minutes later being like where was i what those books in particular like it's not the kind of book you want to be discussing and losing your train of thought so hopefully it's fine it is what it is um what time is it it is almost 11 30 so i think what do i think i mean i have the rest of the day to myself now i'm gonna oh where's my book jacket oh all crinkly can you see probably can't eat but oh wow the books a bit and the bottom of it it's like wet well i guess i'm keeping it whatever yeah i think i'm gonna have tea and read um i will be doing no further cooking today because i have so many leftovers from the weekend i have three kinds of pizza and i have nacho fries so those must be eaten i also have like a lot of avocado that i'm afraid is gonna go bad so pizza with avocado nacho fries with avocado toast with avocado tea with avocado doing everything with avocado now for right now i'm kind of hungry i'm not gonna lie that smoothie bowl was good but i want salt i always want salt so i might have some pizza no i'll wait i'll wait until noon even though it's a clearly irrelevant when you're eating lunch but i'll wait i'll have tea and read some more of this or if i want to read gardens of the moon i've been mainly doing this on audio um partly because of convenience partly because i like this narrator and partly because i'm an auditory learner so uh i know people have said that like they'll they'll do audio books but if it's a really complicated book that they'll purposely read it like the physical book because they don't want to miss anything if it's a really complicated book i often choose specifically to read it on audio instead because i'm an auditory learner and i retain a lot more um from an audiobook than from reading a book physically so it is because that it is more complicated than that i'm reading it on audio because that's how i function but that said i kind of want to like try out reading it like on page for a bit maybe um or i'll just sit on the couch drinking tea and listening i don't know i know people like to listen and read along and i cannot do that i've tried it but it's so distracting because all i'm thinking about is matching what i'm hearing to the words and then it becomes like an activity like a matching game instead and i'm not paying attention to what's going on at all i'm just like matching matching matching oh it's not i think wait where did he go wait matching matching matching and that's all i'm thinking about so that is not an option i can read it or i can listen to it but yeah okay cool let's make tea and read some books yep it's reading vlog putting lamps on tables and whatnot would be such hard work i guess i had a lot of hot tea or before i started and i'm wearing sweats brilliant but um this is not my new lamp this is an old lamp can it focus on that instead of my face cool anyway um i didn't know where to put this so i just had it in a box still but i decided to move the lamp that was there on my vanity the lamp you just saw me put together if i included that footage is on my work desk which is in my bedroom for like work work stuff um and that yeah and then i finally put a bulb in my salt lamp which has been bulbless for like a year um and i have another lamp like this on my bedside table so i've had that one in for a while i was like i don't know where to put the second one i was like i want it where i can see it when i'm not in the bedroom i mainly did this because i thought like that amber colored lamp that i just got didn't go with that lamp like it looked weird together um and this goes better with that and it makes the amber colored one makes my work desk look more homey instead of just like because it's covered in just like pc monitors and like machinery so having that warm amber lamp over there helps it feel homeier this room already feels quite homey so i could put in a more industrial lamp here anyway that's my what's the word i'm looking for interior design update for you um it is now quarter after two i'm sweating from doing all that um so what do i need to tell you okay it's a reading vlog so let's talk about what i've been reading i read a bit of gardens of the moon and i read a bit of shadow of night um i read a teeny tiny bit of rogue of one zone and i was like i'm not feeling this right now i was like it's valentine's day weekend i should read that and then i was like nah i want to read gardens of the moon i think i think i think through all that hot tea i'm gonna have a ice cold beverage now so that i can get cold again and then i can snuggle up with probably shadow of night i think i don't know we'll see what i'm feeling and that's my update for you you're welcome so originally i was planning just to vlog today um but i think i'm gonna extend this vlog into tomorrow because i didn't really get far enough into any book that i was reading to really talk about it so i mean yeah i've read about a hundred pages of shadow of night and where am i in gardens of the moon i'm 70 pages into gardens of the moon so like that's almost 200 pages of reading today which is you know not amazing but not bad but yeah it's like it's too early in both books to really say anything um yeah so tomorrow is a work day unlike today but um i have been as of like four days ago gotten or been getting into the habit of waking up earlier so that i can like make coffee and read a bit before i start work so i intend to read tomorrow morning um i intend to read tonight a bit more too i just like wanted to tell you this now that i decided it because i kind of kept thinking tonight i was like man i need to like talk about what i'm reading but i'm like i don't have anything to say right now so now i'm like you know what it's fine you can have stuff to say tomorrow so yeah i'll read before i start work tomorrow i'll probably read during my lunch break and i'll read tomorrow evening after i finish work those are pretty much the options so yeah uh just wanted to update you let you know the situation okay see you later so originally i wasn't planning on filming anymore tonight but um i decided to go through some mail that my mom brought over for me yesterday and uh included in the mail which i didn't realize was something that i've been waiting for for quite some time and then i also was excited to show you guys um so now last minute i'm going to show you i'll show you again um either tomorrow in the daylight or i am also planning to do a video that's kind of related to it so i'll show it off then but it is pretty freaking cool okay so it's uh this viking jewelry and it comes uh each piece comes in a wooden box that says vikings on it um again i'll show you in daylight it'll look better um but anyway i got a ring and an arm band um and they're very viking so i got this raven ring i got it in a larger size so that i could wear it on my um pointer finger my pointer finger is very fat so i got it kind of big but you know you can get your size obviously it's a ring uh and they come in different uh you can get it like silver or gold or um kind of oxidized like this um anyway i'll show you in daylight i don't know why i'm showing you now so i'm also going to show you in daylight but it's because i'm excited and then again same thing you can get the arm band in uh gold or silver or this kind of oxidized style which this is quite latvian looking even though this is not a latvian design but this is very similar to a latvian design so and it has i got the wolf one so you can see it looks like howling wolves on the ends and it goes on like that so now i have the hand of a viking shazam back to reading a robe of one's own which is what i decided to read by listening to classical music and being all girly and fancy okay bye just popping by because i'm almost done with work uh not quite but almost before the daylight fades i'm gonna show you my bling it's pretty epic is it not i've been wearing it all day and it's been clanging against my desk all day but it's worth it um i had a bunch of packages arrive you see you can kind of see normally if i wasn't vlogging i would spend the rest of my evening putting together the furniture that is in those boxes but i extended my reading vlog into today so that i could read so my haul is just gonna have to be filled with boxes and furniture until this vlog is done tonight so yeah my hair desperately needs a wash but i got dressed today and everything so i wanted to like show you my bling my clothes my boxes my hair before i hop in the shower after i finish work and then heat up some leftover pizza and read what i need to figure out is what i'm gonna read tonight we'll see what i'm feeling when i get out the shower work has been finished hair has been washed pizza has been consumed not necessarily in that order and now it's time to read this morning i don't know if i told you i don't think i did because i don't think i told you anything this morning when i was getting like cleaning in the kitchen and making breakfast i was listening to before they were hacked by joe bercrom because as previously stated i didn't want to start that reread until i had filmed the review for the blade itself which i filmed yesterday so i was like great let's get right into it um so i low key i just want to read that but no no no no must read something new so yeah last night i read not terribly much i read like 40 pages of a robe of one zone and then prior to that i had read about a hundred pages of shadow of night and then prior to that i had read about 50 pages of the gardens of the moon so they're all options um i think um in the military but i also don't know what i'm in the military none of these appeal to me right now like they don't sound terrible but they don't before they're hanging sounds the best okay i will i should have done this before y'all know my trick of putting in like checkpoints to keynotes so that like the prospect of reading an entire thing isn't so daunting i'm like oh no i just gotta make it to my checkpoint gotta make it to my next checkpoint so i'm gonna set some checkpoints for gardens of the moon and i'm gonna read that until i reach that checkpoint and then continue on if i feel like it or switch to something else good plan oh also bethany told me that she started girl in the tower which she and her buddy are eating um but it is really warm in here right now i think it's because like these windows face uh west west ish so when the sun is setting you're like right before sunset like a lot of sunlight hits this room so it's pretty warm in here in the evening gardens of the moon checkpoints read that great cool yes that's what i'm doing nailed it well my friends i do believe that we have reached the end of this reading vlog i have made it to chapter six of gardens of the moon which is page 148 in this edition of it and i i feel like i am both like i want to say that i'm really confused but i'm not confused but i am confused so like i within each scene i know what's going on but at the same time i just generally don't feel like i know what's going on i don't know if that makes any sense maybe if you've read it that makes sense like like what i'm in the middle of the scene i'm i'm like yeah i know what you're talking about i'm i'm not lost about your dialogue you know who you are know what you're trying to do know what you're saying to each other like i'm with you but then when i like if i think about like how if i was going to try to explain to somebody like what this is about so far and like where i'm at i i feel like i haven't read it and i don't know what's happening i think it's it's like uh it feels like if i was like at the park or something and like i kept uh overhearing conversations with people and like um and i happen to know their names which you know i wouldn't but um and like while i'm listening to their conversation because like you know i know what's going on in the world like i know what they're talking about and like i can i can eavesdrop and be like totally sure i know what they're talking about but also i don't know who they are as people and you know what i mean kind of like i know that they're humans in my world in the park but i don't know more than that i don't know if that makes any kind of sense that's how i'm feeling about this like i feel like at any given moment i am home there i know what's going on but overall not so sure i know what's going on like i don't know maybe it will crystallize as as we go on hopefully it will it's weird i knew it would be i knew it would be difficult and complicated i knew that going in so like i'm not entirely surprised that i feel this way i will see i do like the writing style i really do it's kind of uh a little more flowery which i like um i really hate when fantasy pros is like super basic and modern it just doesn't feel like fantasy like it'd be so like watching you know queen elizabeth the first to say hey what's up you know what i mean like she doesn't go like uh so i like the the more formal poetic kind of style of the writing i do and i feel like it also helps me to to take magic more seriously like when people talk about magic casually with like modern speech i'm like that sounds dumb but when you say it all like highfalutin and magic like the magic sounds more like philosophy something that's like mysterious and unknowable as opposed to like whether with a stick on the spell i don't know if that makes any kind of sense that's how i feel so yeah i think i'm enjoying it hard to say when i also don't know what's happening yeah i do also like the names they're just fun names that like i like i just like hearing them and i feel like i'm going to enjoy saying them if and when i review it whiskey jack and anameter rake you just like they you just want to say them i don't know why i feel similarly about the names in dune the names in dune are names that i like i find excuses to say like i instead of using a pronoun i'll say the name again because i just think it's a fun name like fave ratha and leto atreides they're just like they're real namey names and i got some good syllables i don't know there's just something about the names in this tatter sail whiskey jack doesn't even sound like a fantasy name i just like whiskey so i think i like hearing the name whiskey jack repeatedly because i'm like whiskey and like it's just it literally sounds like somebody is named after jack daniels but i'm fine with it the anameter rake is probably my favorite name so far like it sounds like something from dune okay that's my expert analysis on gardens of the moon so far clearly i need to go to sleep so yeah let me know in the comments down below whatever you want to let me know about whatever i've said in this vlog i don't even remember what's happened i feel like i've been vlogging for days but it was mainly just yesterday that's yep okay well i'll see you when i see you bye