Breathe Again - R.A. Young - Feb. 27, 2024
Breathe Again
It is now Day 17 of my COVID-19 journey. I tested negative on Day 11, started feeling human again on Day 14, and as of Day 16 no longer wake up in the middle of the night coughing uncontrollably. Being able to take deep breaths again without struggling feels so good.
There are still lingering symptoms, including a cough and a nose drip that goes into the back of my throat. The worst of the symptoms is what feels like my sinuses having been burned out. I managed to keep my sense of taste and smell through the entirety of COVID, but halfway through when my throat and sinus pain were at their worst both senses changed. Food tastes acrid and my nose feels like it's full of dust or smoke. Just one more thing I'll have to be patient with while my body fully recovers from COVID.
Looking back on the entire ordeal, I question whether or not I took it seriously enough. I spent my first four days with COVID alone (well, with two emotional support doggos). I don't know how intense my fever truly got. There were multiple times I coughed to the point of choking on something in my lungs. And while I never felt like I was struggling to breathe normally, my lungs now feel torn up in a way that makes me wish I worried more about it at the time. I suppose that's just the COVID experience.
I never want to catch it again.
Writing Again
I'm dipping my toe into writing again, post-COVID. It's starting to feel like I have nothing but excuses here, but they're pretty good excuses. I spent January on a drug that turned me inside out mentally, and February recuperating from that drug and wrestling with COVID. If I were superstitious I'd have to start counting the omens. But I'm desperate to write and I'm doing all of these brain drugs to try and ensure I can write productively long into the future. It's been, and will continue to be, an ordeal, though.
This is my second newsletter since I caught COVID, and it has been the kindling to my writing campfire. I wrapped up last week's letter and immediately dove into wrapping up my work on the ResetEra Comic of the Year results. Putting out a few thousand words capturing why these comic books are excellent felt great. I'm going to have to figure out a way to keep doing editorial outside of this newsletter. It'll hopefully fuel my narrative writing, rather than take away from it.
Before rededicating myself to a writing schedule, I've got an appointment today that may lead to a new prescription. Hopefully, everything goes well and this time next week I'm talking about outlining again.
Lightning Round
Here are some quick thoughts on the media I've consumed over the past week.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth [Game] - I'm so close to it being done. I don't think it's a bad game, but it has some bad elements. Having to level up two separate parties is bad. Worst Yakuza story I've played yet, but great characters. I've put so much time into it that I can't stop now.
The Zone of Interest [Movie] - A film about the mundanity of evil, as a family lives what they see as a normal, happy life next to Auschwitz. Especially terrifying given the state of the world and the US specifically, given this past week's news coming out of Oklahoma and Alabama. Recommended in the extreme.
Countdown to AEW Revolution [Wrestling] - AEW's next PPV is this upcoming weekend. Even catching COVID after seeing AEW live in Phoenix hasn't slowed my excitement for this. Sting's last match... against the Young Bucks! Ospreay's first match... against Takeshita! The next chapter in the Hangman vs. Swerve epic. Bryan and Eddie hopefully wrapping up their feud. This is gonna be a great show.
Street Fighter 6 Capcom Cup X [Esports] - I'll admit, I was a major critic of the qualification format for this year's Capcom Cup. A number of incredible players from both Japan and the US were left out, in favor of the most diverse international Street Fighter tournament ever. Capcom made the right choice. There were so many huge upsets and so many previously unheard-of talents were spotlighted. Get paid, Uma!
Red Country [Book] - I wrapped up this Joe Abercrombie fantasy take on a western and it ended poorly. It blurred genres quite too much in the back half and couldn't help but focus on characters from previous books, to the detriment of its more interesting and better-written protagonists. COVID had me stuck on Red Country for a month, so I'm excited to be moving on. Next is The Witcher: Sword of Destiny. I'm very excited for it.
That's it for now. Thanks so much for reading and following along with this journey back into writing. Soon it will have more thoughts on actually writing. Crossing my fingers.
Big love,
Rory