larissa | Recent Entries

I've been here since the beginning, but I've never actually used this as a journal. LET'S CHANGE THAT.

I’m into a lot of different fandoms (check out my profile for a full list) but most often you’ll see a lot of Final Fantasy (all, but primarily Ivalice, VII, and XIV) and other video game talk. Occasionally I’ll go on about my tastes in music, and sometimes I end up watching nothing but a single TV show for a month. There's a lot of variety here. If you want a general idea of what I like in media, take a look at my websites.

You're welcome to subscribe, but I don't usually grant access because I rarely even make access-locked posts in the first place, and I prefer to get to know people first. Nothing personal! I like meeting new people, so feel free to comment - even on old posts. While not required by any means, I'd appreciate if you left a comment here letting me know why you subscribed - it lets me know what people are here for!

Other things!
Writing: larissa / diali
Tumblr: farfromdaylight / larissawrites
Bluesky is now a thing?: larissa.redcrown.net

it's close enough to the middle of january, anyway.

let's have a look at how i'm coming along with those goals i posted about at the start of the year.

websites: i'm down to the last 3 pages i need to write for this site, so we're making solid progress. haven't had time in the last few days to work on it, but i'm hoping to knock out at least 2 of the remaining pages this week.
writing: uh, i haven't even looked at the endwalker fic. tbh i have little motivation for it right now, but maybe that'll turn around...? i have been writing every day though, just not fic.
video games: i'm about 15 hours into pokémon scarlet, give or take; i have 4/8 badges, 3/5 titans, and 3/5 team star bases done. decent progress, in other words. i've been trying to play an hour or two a night; i've missed some nights but i'm making tangible forward motion and that's what matters. trails in the sky the 3rd is looking more like a february game at this rate, though.

overall, not bad. still some work to do, but it could be a lot worse tbh.

other things:

i'm currently reading slow gods by claire north and while it's quite well written, it's by no means a quick read, so i've been plodding through it. i haven't been sleeping great, but i've been trying to read a little every night... i really could have read more last night considering it took me two hours to fall asleep, but at least i made some progress.
not currently raiding in ffxiv on account of the hand stuff and i'm bummed about it, because the new savage fights look really fun. i've been having good hand days and bad hand days, and the unpredictability of the latter means that raiding is pretty much out right now. still been doing the weekend extreme farm, but that's it. in the meantime i've been powerleveling one of my alts for the sake of glamour, as one does...

that's about it for the moment.

Current Music: To Galaxy — Neil Davidge

it's 7am on the first day of 2026, i have been awake for two hours already, let's make some goals for the month.

i say month rather than year because every time i make long-term goals like that (aside from like, # of books or movies to consume in a year), it goes pretty badly. which makes sense: a year is a lot of time to plan out. let's get a little more granular with it.

anyway, i'll break this down into categories.

websites

i need to finish my ardbert site for the current makeashrine challenge. this has a deadline, which historically has always motivated me, so i'm hoping it works this time around as well...

i have other website stuff i want to get done, but nothing else takes as much priority. perhaps next month i can work on the treasury layout, or revamp my fanlisting collective, or stare at the redcrown revamp that's been stalled for months.

writing

i... should really work on endwalker fic. honestly if i complete the chapter i've been stuck on, i'll call it a win.

more seriously, i signed up to do 300 days of writing this year at getyourwordsout. most of those will probably continue to be my self-indulgent au stuff, but i gotta try to do other things too. most of my talk about this will be over on diali, my writing journal.

video games

i want to complete at least one JRPG per month this year. JRPGs typically being 40-80 hour experiences, this is a tall ask, but i want to do it, because i only finished one game last year that wasn't FFXIV. atrocious! we gotta play more stuff.

currently on the docket for january: pokémon scarlet, with a side of trails in the sky the 3rd. finishing either would make me happy, but i'd really like to try for both.

what else?

NOTHING. THAT'S IT. it's winter, it's the miserable months of the year, i am not over-committing.

Current Music: Heavensward — Masayoshi Soken

this year's reading goal was 40 books! i didn't make it, but i got MUCH closer than i thought i would, and i'm really happy about that. sometimes not reaching a goal is okay if you genuinely try and make it most of the way there in the trying.

anyway, books!

( books of 2025 )

and the did not finish list...

( dnf )

here's the roundup for this year:

best books i read this year: these burning stars, where peace is lost, the incandescent
worst books i read this year: the fractured dark (really killed any interest i had in the series)
longest book i read: the ashes and the star-cursed king (591 pages)
shortest book i read: silver in the wood (105 pages)
longest time it took to read a book: setting aside the fact that i was stuck on city of last chances for months, then the answer is killers of a certain age (23 days)
shortest time it took to read a book: i read crash test in two hours, lol.
authors i read the most of: carissa broadbent (6 books)

here's a graph. that first half of the year really is depressing...

as usual reviews are on storygraph but require a login. a fun fact: since 2021 when i started reading again, i have read 248 books. that's a lot!

the tl;dr for this year is that everyone should read these burning stars, because it's been weeks and it's still living rent-free in my mind. genuinely one of the most phenomenal books i've ever read. i need everyone to meet esek nightfoot immediately.

book goal for 2026 is... 50 books! it's certainly doable, especially considering how the back half of 2025 went, but it's not overwhelming.

Current Music: 覚醒ヒロイズム - THE HERO WITHOUT A "NAME" — Antic Cafe

i definitely thought about making this post yesterday. did i remember to make it? no, but i thought about it, and that's what counts, right? right?

anyway, if i'm gonna be late i still gotta get it in before the year ends. holidays were very nice; spent a good chunk of time with family without it being Too Much, which is always the goal. my most exciting gift this year is a vacuum cleaner, which tells you a lot about the stage of adulthood i'm at... (i did get a fun video game or two, but yeah, no, i needed the vacuum.)

i did finally manage to make an appointment about potential arthritis. of course it's not until the back half of january, which will put this at nearly five months since my hands started fucking up. not pleased about that. but, it is what it is, we persist, etc.

i have, as of right now, read 34 books this year, but i'm hoping to make it 35 as i've been ~~cheating~~ reading a novella trilogy to finish the year off. LISTEN, A BOOK'S A BOOK, even if it's short. surely this balances out all the 400+ page fantasy novels i read. anyway, book wrap-up to come in the new year once i get the full stats from storygraph.

i have played a pathetic number of video games this year, and that i am hoping to change most of all next year, because i have so many jrpgs i want to get through. i did get pokémon scarlet for xmas, which i somehow just missed out on the year it came out, so i'm hoping to get through that first because it's REALLY neat so far, i love this unique set-up. and i definitely haven't already had my ass kicked by a gym. definitely not.

pretty low-key week otherwise though, not much to talk about. i will probably aim for posts once or twice a month next year, because weekly is Too Much, but i'll feel it out as i go. i am glad i managed to stick with weekly posting (for a whole year, even!) but my life is not exciting enough to warrant that much posting, at least right now.

Current Music: The Girl Who Stole the Stars (from Chrono Cross) — John Oeth

got my MRI results back! the good news: no surgery. the bad news: i probably have arthritis, sob. at least now i know why the treatments the hand doctor gave me weren't working...

in any case, the past week was mostly spent mucking about in new ff14 content, as is typical for patch week. i never got around to writing a post on the new raid tier but i quite enjoyed the fights (and am still quite sad i won't be able to do savage this time around). my hands have generally been feeling well enough for me to actually play, which has been nice, though it's clear that i still need to take it easy overall. still, i'll take what i can get.

also, the new extreme is WILD. what a wild fight. the designers were really cooking with this one.

planning on seeing family this week for the holiday, though the specific plans are still somewhat up in the air. i should be able to see both sides of my family though, so that'll be nice. i got the last few bits of my shopping done this past weekend, so i should be good to go on that front.

still reading this brutal moon; i didn't really intend to read it this slowly but at the same time i've been enjoying it so much that i'm glad to not be rushing it. that said, i've clearly reached the point in act 3 where everything comes to a head and i'd like to read the rest in one sitting, so hopefully i can find time for that this week.

it's that time of the year where i'm starting to think about plans and goals for next year, but i think i'll hold off talking about them in depth until next week. i do think i'm not going to make weekly posts next year; i've enjoyed having an excuse to blog regularly but also i've definitely struggled to think of what to post on slow weeks.

Current Music: Wailers and Waterwheels — Masayoshi Soken

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mid-january update

happy new year, here's some goals

websites

writing

video games

what else?

books of 2025

2025 week 52

2025 week 51

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