The missing LEGO piece

Why do brains think the worst all the time

💻 what I'm up to 💻
I’ve always found assembling LEGO sets soothing. It’s the same kind of relaxing that comes from putting together puzzles, except with LEGO you have precise instructions about where things go so it kinda alleviates some pressure?

Anyway.

My husband gifted me a LEGO set for Christmas that came with six bags of pieces. As I went through the bags and clicked LEGO bricks together, I realized I was doing something with alarming frequency. I’d dump out the bag the instructions told me to open and start flipping through assembly page by page. I like to locate each piece the instructions call out before I put anything together and if it took more than one second to locate a piece, my brain jumped to, “Oh no, what if it’s missing!”

This thought floated through my brain nearly every other page and of course the piece was never missing. I found it within the next breath. And also, I’ve never encountered a missing LEGO piece and I’ve put together at least a dozen LEGO sets in my life. Like, why are you doing this brain?! Why?

Not the LEGO set I recently put together, but A LEGO set of mine

And it’s just that my brain always jumps to the worst conclusion. I know I’m not alone in this. It doesn’t matter how much I’ve practiced mindfulness to try and stop my brain from doing this. Or that I try so hard to devote equal time thinking about the positive outcome. Whatever happens, my brain makes the leap to the bad until I learn information that confirms otherwise.

But that bad habit happening with LEGO pieces over and over again when I had no reason to think a piece would be missing?! I definitely noticed and that’s been helping me note how much I do it in general. I’ve been writing down every instance and just the act of, “Hey, you idjit, you’re doing it again” is making me more aware and helping a little.

📘 my book things 📘
That one book project out of the several books in talks is chugging along. I’ve been conducting interviews, and we’ll see, this one might be done by next month. Then it’s just waiting until I can announce it…

Otherwise, wow, my rom-com is coming along so slowly. I’ve barely carved out any time to write things like this and I keep getting distracted by a faery idea. I admire anyone who writes, even more so when they make the time to do while working another full time creative job.

Related to that full time job, I’m going to a press preview of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser soon. Keep your eyes on Nerdist for my thoughts!

📺 what I'm watching 📺

Superman & Lois
Picture this: Clark Kent doing Superman things, yes, but more importantly, being Dad Clark who has serious talks with Lois, looks out for his twin sons as best as he can, and wears cardigans and has a glass of red wine on the farmhouse porch to wind down in the evenings. This show charmed my socks off. And if you're like, Amy, I'm not sure about yet another CW DC Comics series, I get it. But this one is worth it. Plus I think they have a higher FX budget than the other shows? Anyway, season one is streaming on HBO Max.

Peacemaker
It's a very superhero TV series week, I guess. I didn't think I'd be the audience for Peacemaker, and yet... John Cena is freaking hilarious and the story is just absolutely bonkers enough to pull me in. Plus all the actors are on point. And we cannot forget about the opening credits (which you should watch even if you have zero interest in the series). If you aren't aware/don't spend 8 hours a day working for a site that focuses on pop culture, Peacemaker is a spinoff of James Gunn's The Suicide Squad.

I've also been checking out The Gilded Age because I loved Downton Abbey and... Gilded Age wants to be Downton but it is not. Carrie Coon is a queen though. And the costumes? Forget about it.

📚 what I'm reading 📚
A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I Lin
Okay. This book swept me away. It involves magic rooted in Chinese mythology—tea magic!!—and mystery and betrayal. Ning, our protagonist, travels to the imperial city to compete to become the court's shennong-shi, master of the ancient and magical art of tea-making, and she does so in order to investigate who is behind her mother's murder and to save her sister—both poisoned by tea! It's a layered and prickly/beautiful story to get lost in. This one's out March 29, so you have plenty of time to preorder.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
What happens to those who stumble through portals (a la Alice or the Narnia kids) but then get thrust back into the real world? Every Heart a Doorway gives those kids a place to go: a home with other youths just like them. Of course, their parents think the home will cure the kids of their nonsense fantasies. But no. The home is on the kids' side. This is the first in Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series of novellas, and the idea is brilliant. The story and the kids... just heartbreaking and rejunativing at the same time.

I've also quite enjoyed Helen Hoang's The Heart Principle and M.A. Kuzniar's Midnight in Everwood.

🐳 something whalesome 🐳
I like wholesome things and the whale emoji is cute so: whalesome!

hedgehog_azuki

A post shared by Monaka & Azuki the hedgehog (@hedgehog_azuki)

A whole feed full of little hedgehogs in costumes and cute poses.

🍃 creativity corner 🍃
Here I’ll share tips and tricks that are helping me write, imagine, and/or stay productive.

I don’t mean to enable you to lose hours in internet rabbit holes, but that’s what I’m going to do. In the past, when I got interested in a new hobby, I had a tendency to go all in. When I liked making jewelry, I acquired more beads and wires than any single human could use in a decade—especially when said human was just doing it for fun. I ended up giving away a lot of those supplies during one of my moves. And it was like this for several things: polymer clay, crochet. (Cross-stitching is one of the few things I’ve stuck with since I was a teen). Hobbies are important but not going overboard has also been important for me.

Some RPG dice earrings I made once!

So now, when I have an itch to get into a creative thing, I take it slowly and watch a million videos and read articles for beginners, watch lots of creators’ reels on Instagram. Sometimes after an intense study I’m like, you know, I don’t think this is for me or I’ll be like, okay, I’m into this but I’m going to get the minimum equipment to try it out and I’ll look at Craigslist first. You still get to be creative but maybe you don’t end up with a bunch of stuff you’re not gonna use in a few years.

Anyway, if you start seeing me messing with stained glass projects and/or painting tabletop miniatures soon… 👀 

📃 quote of the month 📃

“She was a story, not an epilogue.” - Seanan McGuire, Every Heart a Doorway

None of us are the ending or an afterthought. We’re all still in our own stories and it’s good to remember that once in a while. You still have time to do it or to try doing it, whatever “it” is for you.

I hope you’re doing okay. Reply and let me know! And if you feel so inclined, buy me a Ko-fi!