Let’s start today with a conspiracy theory. What the hell is going on with Spotify’s shuffle function? First it did a normal shuffle like it should but then they got complaints that it was randomly making suboptimal mixes. So they changed it to try and make a more balanced listening session. Then they made it so you could pick from both of those options and now that extra option is gone again. Did I dream that it existed? I can’t find it anywhere, nor can I find the option. And now it seems to be extremely biased towards songs I recently listened to. When I shuffle my Liked songs I get like 70% songs I liked in the last month and 30% everything else. They’re trying to feed us certain music more often to promote certain artists, I’m telling you.
I apologize for the silly start to this post, but since I’ll be ending it in a bit of a darker town I figured I’d get as much of a buffer between those two topics. I believe it’s time for a little bit of an update. Not a lot has changed in the past month, yet at the same time a lot has changed. I started antidepressants back in November and they seem to be working quite well so far. I feel much less anxious about things I can’t change and this has improved my quality of life tremendously. On the flipside, I did get covid back in December and although I’m mostly recovered, I still regularly wake up with a bad cough that sticks around for 20 or 30 minutes. I should probably go see a doctor about that.
Work has been good, I’ve really started coming into my own as a teacher and although I still have much to learn – which will stay a pattern for the foreseeable future – I also think I’m growing quite quickly. My classes seem to be going well and I’m learning more tricks to deal with certain behavior. It’s test week right now so I’m grading a bunch and although the results aren’t as good as I would like them, they’re nothing out of the ordinary either. I do still get two more classes back tomorrow, so I hope I’m not being positive preemptively. Putting aside grades, I think my kids like me and that’s the other side of the coin. Not that they like me, that’s not super important in and of itself, but more so that they feel comfortable in my class and we create a fun and healthy learning environment. If you don’t like your teacher, you’re not going to have a good time. As much as the education part of school is important, they’re also still kids growing and learning how to navigate life, so giving them a safe environment to do so is important. At least that’s what I think with my solid several months of experience.
While all of this has been going on, I’ve also been keeping up with reading and writing. I’m starting up a new D&D campaign soon. I’m playing a 3 foot tall mouse that’s a witch. The witch class is from Worlds Beyond Number, a D&D podcast that is incredible. The latest episode made me cry ugly tears on my commute back home. The players themselves are great but Brennan’s storytelling elevates the entire thing to another level. He seems like such a gem of a human. If you haven’t checked them out yet, I highly recommend you do. I named the character Salandra which is also the name of an upcoming character in the Hesitant Hero. Both Salandras are very different people but I liked the name so I’m using it twice. I might add mouse Salandra to The Necromancer’s Daughter, I think her story could be a fun subplot in a later part of that story. But let’s not get too far ahead of myself, I’m already working on far too many stories at once. Speaking of which, my first short story of 2024 is in the midst of being edited. It’s pretty different from what I normally write, much more focused on people and a more modern setting and it takes place in the same world as Danahsereth. Although the bigger story I’ve been wanting to tell in that world is on the backburner for the foreseeable future, I wrote the core of this story a while back and really wanted to finish it. I’ll hopefully publish it in March and if that fails it will be April. I’m working on both volumes 1 and 3 of the Hesitant Hero which is going poorly as you might expect. I’m now trying to get a bit ahead on volume 3 and then take a week or 2-3 to just focus on the first volume. Editing and expanding on that lore is less fun that writing new chapters, but it has to be done to make the story better. And as always, I once again didn’t post the Necromancer’s Daughter on the first day of the month. This time it was by design though, I’ve decided that it’ll take the spot of the first Monday of the month from now on. This way I can write one post a month less and give myself a bit more of a break. So that means that chapter 14 will be posted later today. It’s more or less done already, I just need to edit and proofread one more paragraph before I’m happy with it. I will then have to rewrite chapter 15 since it can use quite a bit of editing, but the core is already there. With our characters quickly entering the Academy arc that I’ve been very keen on writing, things will slow down a bit, but I think they’ll get interesting. Where I wanted to keep magic and politics relatively simple in The Hesitant Hero, I really want to nerd out with my other story and make it in depth. I don’t know if I’ll be good enough to pull it off, but there’s no success without a few failures.
Lastly, let’s move on to something that’s much less fun and might feel a little bit out of place here. I suppose it is, but it’s been on my mind and I don’t think I want to make a separate post for it. Let’s talk briefly – and shallowly – about the war in Gaza. I saw a tweet by voice actor and famed Dungeon Master Matt Mercer the other day. He talked about being depressed. It’s a reminder that you can’t really see what someone is going through as an outsider. He looks perfectly happy on Critical Role, but that’s not a proper reflection of how someone feels. He talked about how news from the Gaza strip is just so hard to swallow, seeing the horrible things that the IDF is doing to the Palestinian people and the psychopaths on Twitter trying to defend it. You can condemn Hamas and be an ally of Jewish people without having to justify an active holocaust happening. There’s not much substance I can add to this topic. I’ve donated some to the cause a while ago, but I’m far from rich and I don’t doubt that part of my money might get lost in the process. Truth be told, I almost donate more for my own peace of mind than for anything else. But I do think it’s important that we keep making clear to the people around us that we are there for them and that they can talk to us if they’re going through something. Check in on folks, you might accidentally brighten someone’s day. I know I’ve been through some terrible times and it was a godsend to have people to talk to. Anyway, I’ve been yapping for far too long, expect a new chapter later today and I thank you for your patience in reading this post.
Opal Kaharis 