Dispatch #01
Easter weekend reset, new keyboard, and a new playlist for 2026
I’m starting a new series of posts, or recreating a similar version of it that I used to regularly publish on an old Wordpress blog—called All Things Current: a loose record of what’s been filling up my days lately. What I’m reading, listening to, or watching, and the small highlights that make up my week. Or just whatever catches my eye at the moment.
It’s Easter weekend, which meant I had Thursday and Friday off (it’s Saturday 2AM as I write this and I should probably be in bed already). This gave me enough time to clean and organize my room the way I always wanted to after moving a few months ago, but work happened and I didn’t get to do any of it until two days ago. And so I spent most of those two days doing just that. Now my room feels lighter.
I also bought my first “fun” keyboard—something I never thought I’d even be into—and immediately replaced the keycaps with these soft, jelly-like ones that make the whole thing look and sound almost edible. It’s so cute! Sometimes I catch myself typing just to hear it.
Work is still stressful, that hasn’t changed much. But I think I’m getting better at managing the work itself, or at least my relationship to it. It doesn’t feel as all-consuming as it used to in October-November last year when I was still fairly new (and in some ways I still am, even eight months in).
I also finally had the ads removed from my new Kindle! Which feels almost insignificant but it’s such a small luxury that gives me a sense of satisfaction every time I look at it. A gripe I’ve always had with the Kindle is that if you’re buying from a reseller—especially if you’re not based in the US or UK—the device almost always comes with ads and there really isn’t an option to choose otherwise (even though you shouldn’t really be getting ads on a device you purchased in the first place anyway). So for a while, I had to look at those pesky ads every time I picked up my Kindle and I always found them intrusive. Amazon doesn’t make it easy to remove them either. I remember in 2022 when their customer service could still take them off for free if you weren’t in supported regions (I had the ads on my first Paperwhite removed for free). But gone were those days! So now that I’ve finally found a way to remove them (after being instructed to change my addresses and stuff), it feels oddly satisfying.
What I’m reading: Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino. And it’s really really good so far. Of course, since I’m reading it in translation, I can’t fully speak to the original text in terms of writing, but even then, it comes through as sharp and almost unsettling. There’s a kind of grit to it that reminds me of Out, which I also loved. I’m also buddy reading with a friend an objectively awful BookTok rec out of spite. This is less about enjoyment and more for laughs, and also so that I can be spiteful about it with specificity, though I’ve decided not to say what book it is. But if I’m gonna suffer through it, I will at least come out of it with fully formed opinions.
What I’m listening to: I’ve been weirdly fixated on BABYMETAL and Poppy. Just something about loud music lately has been so stimulating especially when I’m working. Then there’s In My Room by Julia Wolf, and of course Zara Larsson, who somehow always finds her way back into rotation for me.
What I’m playing: Breath of the Wild. Basically a replay for me. I finished the game last year but felt like I rushed through most of it at the time— and let’s ignore the fact that I brushed past all the side quests just to defeat Ganon ASAP. So I want to enjoy the game a little more this time around and actually play it. I also bought and got started on Tears of the Kingdom last year but found it too overwhelming. I might come back to it at some point in the future but definitely not anytime soon.