This Week in Squirrels: 2025-W48

This week in squirrels…

Summary

• Relaxing
  • I took this week off. A lot of it was taking care of some backlog tasks and trying to relax with my hobbies.
  • And of course all the manga backlog you can see below
• Medical Time
  • What is the best way to start a holiday? The doctors! Blood work! New medications! Yay! Aging.
• Tuning a model in VTubeStudio
  • This week, I learned so much about tuning a VTuber model. I had done it before, but there was always something wrong.
  • I watched all the tutorials I could and after a lot of hacking and realizing a lot about tuning the “sides” of the controls, all is fixed!
  • I can still do better but for now it’s a huge improvement.dis
• All the streaming
  • I have done so much streaming this week.
  • And of course redoing my chat and everything else.
• Merry Thanksgiving
  • One of my favorite holidays.
  • What better time than right now to get out and spend time with friends and family around food?

Books

• If I Could Reach You, Vol 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • The manga shifted onto the B couple, which I like way, way more than the central love triangle. Their relationship is toxic and all messy trauma, but it is way more touching
• If I Could Reach You 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • The setup from last volume culminated in an entire book of people squirming and acting shady, and the B couple got nothing.
• If I Could Reach You 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • Finally, cards are coming out onto the table, and it’s going down, omg. Also, having more of the B couple helps the book
• If I Could Reach You 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • The payoff and drama are in this book. I am once again left wondering where the story is headed, but I liked this as a dark ending.
• If I Could Reach You 6 ⭐️⭐️
  • The drama was good, but it feels way too late to burn half a book on deep backstory
• If I Could Reach You 7 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • Might as well finish the series, right? Not necessarily a HEA but more of a… huh, yeah, ok.
• Wolf’s Daughter a Werewolf’s Tale Vol 2 ⭐️⭐️
  • I like the premise of werewolf as a girl’s coming of age, but this one is too stiff and dry for me.
• Whisper Me a Love Song 10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • This book is a victory lap from the last arc finishing up, testing out new couples and their drama, revisiting thr “main” couple in max sappy romance service, and introducing some extra hot new drama. The writing and pacing are perfect for me here.

Music

• Xiu Xiu’s “Girl with Basket of Fruit”
  • When I mention looking for an entry point for an established band, this is the kind of album I think of. This is still very weird and eclectic, but it has some grooves and a catchiness that I really like
• Danny Brown’s “Stardust”
  • I haven’t heard anything from Danny Brown in a really long time personally. This album is fantastic, though. The laundry list of underground hyperpop producers here can’t be beat.
• Spellcasting
  • This is something I found through a stream, and honestly, it’s the most eclectic mix of clownish electronic cartoon music. It bounces between playful, weird, and glitched out, which is extremely my vibe. The earlier stuff is even more eclectic in a way I love, but they just dropped a new album

Reads and Videos

• X’s messy “About This Account” rollout has caused utter chaos | The Verge
  • When I started seeing all of the “Major MAGA accounts are all psyops” only in the least reputable news sources, I started wondering if this was even stupider than people are saying… and of course, it’s the fact that X can’t get a good feature out.
• America’s Polarization Has Become the World’s Side Hustle
  • It’s fascinating, though, that there IS a significant global market for making rage content off of Americans. In every conspiracy theory, there is some truth, and this is it. There are accounts out there cashing in on political rage.
• David Chisnall: “For those who are skeptical that AI is a bubble, let’s look at the possible paths from the current growth” | Hachyderm.io
  • A fascinating econ breakdown of the various scenarios of the US market based on how AI costs evolve. I always start clenching up when I see that the incentives are not to improve the technology, but to stagnate it in ways that make it less accessible to people and keep power in the major players.
• My ‘I’m Not Enron’ t-shirt has people asking a lot of questions… | The Verge
  • Yikes
• Every Decision Has Three Costs: Time, Focus, and Optionality
  • This is something I think about a lot for work.

Quote of the Week

Windows 11 is an ad delivery platform disguised as an operating system.

• Jason Evangelho