It’s been a very long time and a lot has happened, but I’m excited to say that I’ll be starting to blog again.
You might remember me from my old book blog Vicky Who Reads, which is very much a relic of my teenage days. (Oh boy, did I embarrass myself…) I took a very long hiatus for my four years of college, but now I’m a full-grown adult with a stable job and (some) free time. Over the years, my interests have definitely changed a lot, but ultimately, when I think of sharing my experiences into the void, blogging is still my poison of choice (even if it’s a dying platform).
On Vicky Again (again, because this is the second time I’ve tried to use this new blog), I’m really hoping to treat this like a journal. I really want to take a different approach to things (in part because of my own complicated feelings on how I handed Vicky Who Reads, which is a whole entire mess of a post for another time) and just kind of sit quietly in my little corner of the internet and share the things that I’m enjoying with anyone who cares to listen.
I don’t intend to open up requests of any kind — I will be an entirely non-commercial girly from now on. If you want to send me free things, by all means go ahead, but I make absolutely 0 promises that I’ll look at it within the next year. I am a fickle being with fickle interests and it’s at your own risk that you send me things. Teehee.
Anyways, as an introduction, I wanted to talk about some of the things I’m working on! You’ll also notice the audio file at the top of the post — I wanted to try and make things a little more accessible, and so I’m hoping to record a narration of all my future posts for anyone who needs or wants to consume this in that format.
Reading
I’m not going to go into detailed play-by-play of what I’ve read, am reading, or plan to read, because honestly, I drop things randomly and am an extremely fickle reader. You’ll hear about specifics in my weekly? biweekly? wrap up posts that I hope to write, journaling what I did in that time frame.
I will however, comment on my reading taste and how it has vastly changed from my teenage days. Back then, it was YA, all day, every day, with only a dash or two of adult SFF, as a treat. Now, I can say that I have (probably unexpectedly) aged out of that category. In 2023, I read 42 books, and only 5 of them were YA.
If I had to describe, I would say I oscillate mainly between adult science-fiction fantasy and literary-fiction-adjacent introspective novels, with a healthy dash of adult romance (and a few YA romances) for that feel-good comfort in between. I’ve gained a new appreciation for shorter fiction, both in short stories, novellas, and poetry, as well as the occasional nonfiction piece, although only generally in audio formats.
Oh. And fanfiction. But the full details of that are one that I will very much take to my grave.
Gaming
In college, I picked up more game-related hobbies, and although I try to limit my screen time, I do admittedly sometimes get lost in a Stardew Valley haze. The two main games I play on any sort of regular basis are
- Stardew Valley, as I just mentioned. This is probably unexpected, but I too have fallen into the Stardew Valley fervor, and it has a chokehold on me. I’m 180 hours in (which, considering other players, is not that much) and still on my first farm with no marriage in sight. This is the most hours I have on any game, just narrowly edging out Starbound for a top spot on my roster. I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up inviting Krobus to live with me (I have beef with like…all the bachelors and bachelorettes, which is something to discuss another day), but boy. It really is a soothing pastime, and it’s just mindless enough that I can listen to an audiobook while I play. Win-win!
- Valorant. I can’t believe I’m saying this — I never thought I’d play a first person shooter (FPS) game, but here I am. I’m, as expected, horrendously bad at it (so bad. so so bad.), but it’s still really fun to play with my friends, and even by myself too! I’ve been playing for around six months now, and I can say that it’s definitely been a nice way to stay in touch with some of my friends.
When I first started, I was really worried that I would get dizzy from playing in the first person perspective (Minecraft makes me dizzy), but there’s so little movement in Valorant compared to other first person games, that it is very much bearable. The nice aesthetics of the game maps and characters make it a lot more approachable than other FPS games, which I certainly appreciate. You obviously still have to deal with random people being weird as it’s a 5 v 5 game, but if you mute them all, who can tell! I’m perfectly content being bad at Valorant — I can see how it’s super easy to become really sweaty over it, but overall I think I’ve kept things mostly chill and have just been enjoying myself and not buying $25 digital goods for aesthetic purposes (lol).
Fiber Arts
I started seriously crocheting August 2022, after on-and-off working on a single, very ugly scarf since I was 8. That has led me down the fiber arts rabbit hole (as in, I’ve started knitting too), and oh boy, it’s a rewarding and frustrating hobby. Frustrating because everything I’m working on now are projects that I’ve had to frog (which is undo) large sections of to fix. *screams*
As for my main crochet projects, things you might hear about include
- A green leaf cardigan, which was my first serious crochet project, but that I intend to partially frog because the fit on the body isn’t quite right.
- A blue lace cardigan, whose sleeves are 2 inches too long that I have to unseam and reseam, which wouldn’t be a big deal except that the yarn I’m using is especially splitty and drives me NUTS!
And knitting projects, like
- A lacy white scarf, which I’ve knit half of, and have decided to also frog because I would never wear it and I want to use the yarn for something else.
- Brown cabled cashmere socks, which feel so luxurious, but everyone who exists has said that they’re impractical, will wear down fast, and that the cables don’t even look that pronounced on cashmere. To which I reply, I don’t care, they feel so cozy, piss off.
Digital Arts
I am, as always messing around with my digital arts. I don’t want to go too deep into this (again, also because like reading, I am exceptionally fickle about what I work on), but I’ll say that I have a 10 page comic that is slowly being worked on, a longer graphic novel that I’ve had in progress for years, a random Arcane fanart of Jinx & Viktor that I’m hoping to finish before the second season comes out, and a boatload of assorted aesthetic digital paintings that I’d like to finish. Some key words from those paintings include: jungle predator, regency gays, pink light, indolent fairies, and farm girl. Wish me luck in getting this done in the next decade…
Other Arts
I have a wide variety of assorted other artistic hobbies that I choose from each weekend and weeknight, because now I’m a grown adult with the rest of my life to spend doing whatever I want. And whatever I want mainly consists of staying home, starting art projects, and having no real plans to finish any of them. Which is okay, because they’ll all eventually get finished because I have so much time ahead of me. Decades. My god.
So, some other things I’ve been fiddling around with include
- Linocut. I got a linocut carving kit this holiday, which is the one thing that I asked my parents for (yippee!). I’ve made two carvings so far and I really enjoy it. I find it very satisfying to carve away the block, and although I’m not very good at the printing portion of it on paper (all of my stamps have been a bit…impefect), they still look pretty darn cool!
- Embroidery. I like embroidering little things (like tiny flowers and small rabbits and stuff), but I’m trying something a little bigger for my friend who loves Spongebob. I’m trying to embroider a Spongebob hiding behind a boob pocket on a shirt for her, but right now, he just kind of looks demonic. Stay tuned for if I ever make him look passable.
- Sewing. I like buying fabric, and I recently acquired a very cute Star Wars Grogu (baby Yoda) retro print fabric in a cream color, and I’ve got very neat plans to turn it into a mini purse. I’ve acquired all the additional fabric I need — a thick, velvety polyester as an outer fabric, with the Grogu fabric as an inner lining, as well as a dark green fabric for accents and interfacing for structure, but I’m still acquiring the necessary hardware (purse feet, clasp, strap/chain/rings to attach strap) to make it a reality. And I’m waffling on whether I want it to be hand sewn (like literally hand stitching the whole thing) or waiting till 2025 when I am hoping to acquire a sewing machine. (I’ve always hand sewn, including my Totoro bag, so I’m not sure whether it’s time to try something new or not.)
- Good ol’ acrylic painting. I took an oil painting class in college, and although I don’t ever intend to oil paint again (too many chemicals for me to deal with), I’m perfectly willing to try those techniques out with acrylics again. I have a small canvas primed and reference photo ready to go, just have to find a nice weekend to sit down and work on it!
Gosh, that was a lot! And that doesn’t even cover the other things, like my ventures into cooking lazily, fun baked goods, and the tunes that have me obsessed. (As well as the plethora of other things I’d like to try in the future…herb gardening, alteration, mini sculpture…) All I can say is thank goodness I’m done with college and have free time to do the things I enjoy once more.
As for what to expect from me in the future?
Absolutely nothing! Please expect nothing out of me! Please keep your expectations so low, they’re nonexistent! I will do whatever I want!
But, as for what I have planned, I’m hoping to do weekly or biweekly posts going over some of the progress I’ve made on whatever thing captured my attention in that time span, which is probably going to be something from the above list. I’ll also made other posts when it pleases me, but I hesitate to mention any of them, because we all know that the minute I say it, I will immediately drop the ball on it for the next four years. (Much like my last book blog…)
So yes. That’s all I have today, but if you’re reading this, thanks for sticking around till the end, whether you’re a new reader or an old one.
With love,
Vicky
Vicky Again 