The second season of Altered Carbon is out! The second season of Altered Carbon is out! Yay!
What else is new?
Currently reading: still Collected Stories 2 by Vladimir Nabokov. I haven’t been reading much lately, but then again, this book is to be savored, not rushed through.
Currently watching: as you’ve already guessed, I’ve just watched the second season of Altered Carbon, and I’ve enjoyed it. They had a difficult task: to keep the audience emotionally invested even though most of the characters are new. And by most, I really mean most: Poe is back, and Takeshi Kovacs (though the actor is a different one, for obvious reasons like the entire concept of the series), and Quellcrist Falconer. That’s it. Well, there’s one more person, this time with a bigger role, but telling who it is would be a spoiler.
Now, we do see some of the characters from the first season again, and we get to enjoy in some really, really creative ways to bring characters who are residing on another planet and/or are dead back to the show, but mostly, it’s new folks with their own backstories and tons of problems.
And it works.
I admit that I’ve cared more about Poe’s well-being than about the Quell mystery (or about what’s going to happen to the entire planet), but hey, I did care, and that’s what counts when watching such shows: that we’re drawn into the story and that we care.
I hope that there will be another season. So far, they haven’t disappointed.
Mostly working on: finished another course (about blog content strategy, with lots of useful info), and trying to post regularly on Catwriter’s Fiverr Adventures. It looks like posting every day, especially with tags like “content marketing” (and “cats”!) brings followers, though I’m honestly not sure whether they’re reading any of my posts. Still, that blog is definitely a useful experiment, and I will have another purpose (or few) for it in the future.
What I should be working on: stories of my own. Hopefully I will, at some point. I’ve got some ideas, but the stories refuse to write themselves.
Still not much to mention, so another quick one (that’s also letting me remember when I did what).
Currently reading: Collected Stories 2 by Vladimir Nabokov. Hey, it’s Nabokov, and he’s always good.
Recently read: iPhuck 10 by Victor Pelevin. It was a fun read. I’ve seen complaints about the last part, but I’ve enjoyed it as much as the rest of the book. Sure, I’ve enjoyed some of his other books more (Generation P, The Helmet of Horror (definitely my favorite!), Empire V…), but this one was good, too. Not exactly politically correct, but hey, it’s satire (and he did make fun of practically everyone and everything). If you like Pelevin’s books, you might like this one, too.
Currently watching: not in the mood for series or movies, though that might change in a few days, with the second season of Altered Carbon. Right now, though, I’m mostly watching courses.
Mostly working on: courses! And Catwriter’s Fiverr Adventures, but that’s not new, I’ve mentioned it last week. I’m trying to fill that one with content, and hopefully use that content again later.
As for courses, it’s both stuff for work and things I could use myself, like copywriting, personal branding, blog content strategy, creative writing… So far, the courses were good, informative, time-saving (I could find a lot of it for free, but if I can have it all in one place and systematized for $14, I see it as a good investment)…and teaching me I should be working a lot more, and giving me tons of ideas.
Oh, and I’ve ran into a gorgeous illustration that can be used for free, and I’m using it as my page cover (and as a featured image for this post, too). Isn’t it beautiful? Feel free to use it, or just enjoy looking at it!
Dobrosav “Bob” Živković (Bob is usually enough, pretty much everyone around here knows who he is, his illustrations and caricatures are famous and there are many of us who grew up with them) had a retrospective exhibition, and it was awesome to see so many of his works in one place. It was also awesome to see teachers bringing their students, and the kids really enjoying themselves.
Here’s one of Bob’s illustrations
You can see one of the illustrations on the top of this post, and another one above, and here’s another one:
And another one:
And another one, and I better stop with these now:
Then, of course, there was the Belgrade Book Fair in October, and I bought way too many books. Again. Here’s one of the photos, but that’s just a part of it; I bought 70+ books (and I’ve read 30+ since then):
Books and comics! Yay!
Before that, there was the International Comics Festival, so of course I bought something there, too…yes, I know, I should stop buying too much. I also read a lot, does that count?
And other than that? There’s freelancing, of course, though that has slowed down to a crawl. There’s also reading (The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin was really interesting, I’ve greatly enjoyed Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend, Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik was enchanting, Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda is still gorgeous, to mention just a few), and there’s binge-watching of various series, and not just series.
I Lost My Body, for example, has an unusual concept, and manages to be melancholic in spite of it. Do watch it!
As for the series, I’ve watched:
Carnival Row (sort of like migrant crisis, but in fantasy setting and with fantasy beings; Guillermo del Toro was supposed to work on it, and it shows),
The Witcher (not happy with the choice for the role of Geralt, but overall, the series turned out fine),
Downton Abbey (always lovely),
The Boys (if you think you’ve got enough of superhero deconstruction and that you don’t need another one, watch this one and you’ll see that you do),
Euphoria (wonderful and sad and fun and perhaps it won’t be easy for you to watch teenagers destroying themselves and the adults not being helpful),
Big Little Lies (if you want to enjoy in a bunch of good actors in one place, this is a good choice),
Dracula (also called Dracula 2020, the new BBC mini-series, done by the same people who did Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch; I loved it; wonderful British humor, and Dracula is finally not an unhappy romantic in love, but a cheerful psychopath; oh, and there’s sister Agatha Van Helsing, and she’s awesome),
Mandalorian (people love baby Yoda, and it’s super-cute, but to me, the humor and pretty much everything else seems to be targeting little kids, and not in a good way),
Castle Rock (I liked the first season better, but the second one wasn’t bad, either),
The Good Place (in the afterlife, you go either to The Good Place or to The Bad Place; the man character gets into The Good Place, but she immediately realizes that she was mistaken for someone else (it’s in the very beginning, so not a spoiler), and desperately tries to avoid being sent to The Bad Place; and it’s only the beginning, this comedy series develops into a lot more, and is actually a really good series about ethics),
His Dark Materials (a YA fantasy series made after the books of Philip Pullman, but he treats his young readers as very, very smart, and it shows in the series (where he happens to be the executive producer) too. Now, it can be somewhat confusing if you haven’t read the books, but it’s all nicely explained by the end of the season),
What We Do in the Shadows (a hilarious mockumentary with vampires),
Peaky Blinders (pretty good and very enjoyable for those who love British crime series),
Messiah (an interesting one, interesting premise, good actors, would have been a lot better with better storytelling; they’ve really wasted a lot of awesome opportunities), and
Altered Carbon (the second season is coming soon, yay!).
Well, that’s it for today. Hopefully it won’t take me forever to write the next one.
A Kitty Dreaming About Wings 