sourceThe way this ends on an odd number so there isn't a final couplet. I think this was my least favourite canto tbh and I'm not sure if I'd like Shade if he was a real person based on some of the dislikes he gives in this section. If the entire poem is a metaphor for life then it makes sense that it is unfinished as that is the case for Shade himself.

I can safely say that tonight was my best day in ages. Work wise. I can only hope that my future self will be rewarded handsomely for the efforts these days.I actually spent a bunch of time planning my dissertation project. But I couldn't finish the planning in only a few hours, I will need to work on that on Saturday as well.

sourceI think this one was kind of underwhelming for me after the previous two especially because of the first couple chapters with Fireheart trying to keep the clan together while Bluestar was completely gone off the rocker and spiralling, Tigerstar is doing who knows what sinister nonsense, and now we’ve got a whole dog pack??? EXCUSE ME??? PACK, PACK, KILL, KILL has permanently lodged itself in my brain and I don't like it.

sourceAn alien presence has been on earth for decades, but the US hid this from everyone. Our main character, estranged from her whistleblower father, is against her will thrown into a situation where she is the first human who can communicate with the aliens. I somehow expected a "first contact" novel, it was described as "Arrival meets Transformers-Fanfiction". Disclaimer: I dont know more about Transformers than "fighting robot cars?". And also: I like Lindsay Ellis' video essays. This book has been review-bombed from the fanbase of right-wing Youtubers, and honestly, that just made me curious. And I wanted to like it, the premise sounded interesting. Sadly, this was absolutely not for me. The prose and pacing felt like it was all over the place, the main character was passive and a bit pale. There were good ideas in there - should the whole population know the truth about everything?, could that lead to a panic?, which responsibility do politicians have in that aspect? - but the discussion was staying on the surface. I had problems figuring out what was going on at points, because part of the story became so convoluted. And one part of the story seems to be either loved or hated, and I hated it. a romantic subplot between the human MC and the alien MC. I did not want to read about her attraction for fascinating shiny compound eyes. The human MC decides the alien is male, even though she does not know how gender works for them, or if they even have a concept like that. There could be a hundred little nitpicks I had with the book. But overall, it was just not for me, and I am still not sure what exactly happened in the end.

Weekly Reflection Score: 22.1%What went right?I'm at 66.4kg. I sticked to my calorie range 0/7 times. I’ll still be decreasing my calories to 1,970kcal per day, there’s fluctuations to my weight due to the cheat days, with lightly active activity level as I found that I could still talk long convos during my workouts. Will still be observing the changes next week and see how far it’ll drop then! 0%

sourceAaand finished: short and powerful. Poetic justice at its finest. What I am learning about people is that they don't dislike systems of authoritarianism; they actually crave it, so long as they are the ones receiving a benefit from it. In a sense, we all live in a real-life prisoner's dilemma every day, and the majority of people don't realize it.