February 2026 Retrospective

Preamble

Shortest month of the year down, yet it was very eventful! Let's check in!

Personal achievements

Passed the last two of my exams!
Successfully finished my first semester of university!
Successfully started my second semester of university!
Joined my first project! I'm helping one of our assistant professors with a meteorological analysis of ozone as a pollutant

Reading

NEW! Found the book of the month, if not genuinely the book of the year - "Apparfently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die". Let me be honest with you, I am in love with this book. This book has raised my standards so high that no other book will ever be able to compare. This is the peak of the Sword and Sorcery genre as far as I'm concerned. If you ever take one book rec from me, let it be this one. I'll keep singing this book's praises until everybody else gets why it's so good
NEW! Speaking of Sir Cameron, I went to a very beloved friend of mine and struck a deal with her: she reads Sir Cameron, I read whatever book they choose. And I perhaps made a mistake in sweetening the pot so much, because she told me to read "Gideon the Ninth". I would later learn that this deal was more or less equivalent to exchanging a bottle of good wine for a lightly guided trip through the pits of Tartarus, but I totally loved the book. Would highly recommend. But also stop here if you aren't keenly invested in getting your heart stomped on
NEW! After finishing GtN, I was, of course, instantaneously hooked and had to read the rest of the series. That led me to "Harrow the Ninth". The first half of this book felt like being awake during surgery (in the most appreciative and reverend way), but soon enough I stopped crying every five pages and put my thinking hat on. I managed to reason out the twist of the book! Still mighty proud of myself for that one, yet the book did wreck me
NEW! Insatiable, after HtN I moved onto "Nona the Ninth". If HtN felt like being awake during surgery, the start of NtN felt like waking up dazed and confused after surgery, taking a good long look at the surroundings, and then screaming and pleading to be wheeled back into the operating room, because at least that was familiar. Recovered after slighly less crying on this one, and managed to reason out another significant bit of the world's lore, hooray me. Loved the ending of this one, can't wait for the final book in the series
NEW! I did also read the short stories in the TLT series, "The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex" (yeah, I laughed too), "As Yet Unsent", and "The Unwanted Guest", at the appropriate moments where they slotted into the narrative. They're also very good! And with them, I was caught up with "The Locked Tomb", and I'm joining everybody else in waiting for "Alecto the Ninth"

Gaming

NEW! My gaming highlight of the month was playing The Roottrees are Dead. Very good and unique puzzle game. I wish I'd used less hints while playing, but it was still a very satisfying experience. The extended campaign adds a lot, and the credits song from it is super catchy
NEW! Finally got around to playing the Habromania demo! I remember when this game was just fun concepts on the artist's instagram page, it felt so surreal to actually get to play it. Excited to see more!
NEW! For a bit of relaxation, I started playing Coloring Voxels. Pleasant game to turn your brain off to, but enable click-lock on your mouse so you don't get a strain injury
Still playing Genshin Impact, Sky: Children of the Light, and My Singing Monsters

Watching

Nothing new here!

Music

NEW! Got very into O Children. Their self-titled album is for sure my favorite, I adore the gothic, new-wave-y sound

Art and making

Decided to frog the sweater I was crocheting and actually started knitting it anew, the horror. I had a few difficulties with the color changes at first, but I think I've got the hang of it. Let me tell you this however, any subsequent sweater I knit will be plain and I'll weave any design in by hand. Will finish this sweater when the fancy strikes me

Going forward

I'm off to apply to another project, and I really should step in time with studying, don't want a repeat of last month's scrambling in June