Amadeus . he/she . 20+ . bigender (?) futch lesbian
I am into:
Medieval history, science fiction and fantasy (60s-80s), art history, religious studies, speculative evolution/biology, fabric arts
Reading List, in no particular order:
-ACOTAR (currently reading)
-Gardens of the Moon
-Dune
-The Quest for El Cid
-The Stranger
Tags:
- Book Club: Chapter-by-chapter breakdowns of what I'm reading
- Quotes: Interesting bits I come across during my readings, usually for class.
- Soup du Jour: Daily ramblings, journal entries.
- Art: Digital and traditional art
- Fabric Art: Crochet and other fabric art projects
- Poetry: Sometimes mine, sometimes others
- My Writing: All sorts of writing that is specifically mine
All my profile pictures were drawn by my friend, TheFaerieMerchant
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Sticky: Misc.
To-Do List
Finish elegy paper - done by 3/17- Speak to family about trip - ASAP
Sign that release for grad schoolMeeting w professor- Start observation project - over weekend
Finish that other paper - EOD 3/19- Presentation project - over weekend
- Medieval violence project - over weekend
Words I Like
- Effluvia: A usually invisible emanation or exhalation, as of vapor or gas. A byproduct or residue; waste. The odorous fumes given off by waste or decaying matter.
- Osier: Any of several willows having long rodlike twigs used in basketry, especially Salix viminalis, native to Eurasia. A wig of one of these shrubs or trees. Any of several North American dogwoods, especially the red osier.
- Colonnade: A series of columns placed at regular intervals. A structure composed of columns placed at regular intervals. A series or range of columns placed at regular intervals with all the adjuncts, as entablature, stylobate, roof, etc.
Other Snippits of Decent Sound
- Daedalus Rising
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ACOTAR: Chapter 6
I think my initial bewilderment at the quality of this book has calmed down, or perhaps I am simply too tired this week to be angry at it outside of actively reading it.
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Final thoughts on Chapter 6: This whole thing is a dead twig. I could snap it in half so quickly. I have little about this one to say. I dislike the fake feminism, I dislike being spoon fed basic descriptions while simultaneously not being given any description for anything that matters. I am glad to be past this one.
( Read more... )
Final thoughts on Chapter 6: This whole thing is a dead twig. I could snap it in half so quickly. I have little about this one to say. I dislike the fake feminism, I dislike being spoon fed basic descriptions while simultaneously not being given any description for anything that matters. I am glad to be past this one.
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ACOTAR: Chapter 5
A bit of a nothing burger, to be honest. Ah, well. That's how it goes sometimes. This was maybe 5 pages long, very quick.
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Final thoughts on Chapter 5: No real emotions at all for this one outside of my snide little comments. It definitely didn't make me hate the book more, but there wasn't much else for me to feel, either. So. Here's to hoping the next one has a little more substance.
( Read more... )
Final thoughts on Chapter 5: No real emotions at all for this one outside of my snide little comments. It definitely didn't make me hate the book more, but there wasn't much else for me to feel, either. So. Here's to hoping the next one has a little more substance.
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Art: Noire Clérouge

Noire Clérouge, a stern French noblewoman. She has hemiparesis on the right side of her body from a stroke, bought on by heavy opium use. She didn't get much use before the previously mentioned server got turned into a fandom one. But I still enjoyed her a lot. The whole Clérouge family storyline with maybe 5 other people was a ton of fun to work on. We went on to work on the Swann family before I stepped back. I think this was done around summer 2025.
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Poem: Dumbass Dyke
funny dumbass dyke
I have no idea where this came from, I found it one day while scrounging around in my notes app. I want to say it was some sort of strange mad libs post I found that was memorable enough to save. Regardless, it is a poem to me and about me. Rarely does anyone ask if I write poetry (mostly because I don't), but when they do I always bring this one up. It usually makes people laugh
im already there
i m a woman who fucks
my style is fucked up, unusual, comfy
I have no idea where this came from, I found it one day while scrounging around in my notes app. I want to say it was some sort of strange mad libs post I found that was memorable enough to save. Regardless, it is a poem to me and about me. Rarely does anyone ask if I write poetry (mostly because I don't), but when they do I always bring this one up. It usually makes people laugh
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Poem: My Hive
Apparently, bees dance to communicate about where all the good flowers are
And which petals are best for napping in.
I can't waltz or tango
I am horrible at the foxtrot
And don't ever ask me about the last time I did the Cha Cha Slide
But I talk in dace just like bees, I think
Because I use my body to point to the nearest 7-Eleven (the one with the best icees)
And I pat the couch cushions to tell my dog to get on up next to me and take a nap.
And sometimes, just like the bees, I hum while I do my work.
Whatever queen I may be serving, I hope she likes my dance
And I hope that the love for my friends is sweet enough honey to keep her warm
In the cold hard months to come.
Another class assignment that I ended up enjoying. I can't remember what the prompt for this was, but I wasn't in a poetry class so it wasn't anything complex. I don't do a ton of poetry, but the last post I made reminded that I had this (and one other!) that I thought I might as well put here.
Another class assignment that I ended up enjoying. I can't remember what the prompt for this was, but I wasn't in a poetry class so it wasn't anything complex. I don't do a ton of poetry, but the last post I made reminded that I had this (and one other!) that I thought I might as well put here.
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Poem Fragment: The Passage of Time
I often find myself aloft
on some strange beast
with three eyes, two set east
and the third unwillingly estophed
Had to write one stanza of an elegy with an ABBA rhyme scheme for a class assignment today. I have no real desire to turn this into anything, but I will put it here because I do not think it was all too horrible. The idea was to sort of.... mourn the passage of time. A march forever forward with no way to turn back (that being the third eye). Something that I find sneaking up on me without even knowing it.
on some strange beast
with three eyes, two set east
and the third unwillingly estophed
Had to write one stanza of an elegy with an ABBA rhyme scheme for a class assignment today. I have no real desire to turn this into anything, but I will put it here because I do not think it was all too horrible. The idea was to sort of.... mourn the passage of time. A march forever forward with no way to turn back (that being the third eye). Something that I find sneaking up on me without even knowing it.
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ACOTAR: Chapter 4
I do this thing where I pick books I know I will enjoy reading, my DNF list is very small because of how selective I can be. This has it's pros and it's cons. Perhaps a mix of both is where I'm at right now with this book. Because I have never been so frustrated after reading a chapter before.
( Read more... )
Final thoughts on Chapter 4: I am astonished at SJMs ability to make each chapter worse and worse. I really don't know how she does this. It's some sort of talent, I think.
( Read more... )
Final thoughts on Chapter 4: I am astonished at SJMs ability to make each chapter worse and worse. I really don't know how she does this. It's some sort of talent, I think.
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Well... Shit.
I just realized that I made a typo in my username. Atualamadeus as opposed to Actualamadeus. I forgot that C. Damn. I'd love to change this, but I don't know if I really want to pay $15 for a single letter. Maybe one day I will, but for now it will just be an annoyance.
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Art: Euphemia Swann


This is Euphemia Swann, a role-play character I created for a server I am in. I never really ended up writing her. It was a decent original historical fantasy server, but it got revamped into A Song of Ice and Fire server. I created Euphemia for this new setting, but it very quickly became clear that me not having read the books would be an issue if I really wanted to understand everything that was going on.
I enjoyed the art I did for it, though.
I don't have an exact date for when I made this, however it was in 2025 and is the most recent portrait I've made.
I've decided to start posting some art every few days, just to have it here.
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ACOTAR: Chapter 3
Chapter 3 was read during quick pomodoro breaks. A simple book like this makes an easy break.
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Final thoughts on Chapter 3: By far the worst of them. We didn't get any of that artistic language, which was good. But we also didn't get anything else. What we did get was SJM creating actual sinkholes. Negative impact on the story. I could be fine if Feyre was some small-town girl who knew nothing of the world around her. But she does know things, because we get her narration and exposition. There is just nothing for anyone to know, there is nothing in this world outside of the vague feelings around the "upper class" and royalty. In real life, people have always had jobs that tie directly to the government or are impacted by the government. In a market scene, I would expect to see signs of that. Hell, just steal the idea of subsidized goods and you immediately have a kickass system of poverty that keeps people hungry. Kickass in that it is an effective worldbuilding tool. I'm from an agricultural state in the US, all the farmers here are subsidized, we don't see any that produce in the local market and it's really deeply impacted the states nutrition and access to fresh food. You get an immediate sense of government function and details on the local economy. I understand that we aren't meant to be in this village long, but the sheer lack of detail just makes me thing that SJM has no idea what she is writing. There is no proof of a deeper understanding of her world anywhere. Not in the setting, not in the characters, and not in the plot. A decent editor, someone who is at least a bit familiar with craft, could fix this. I could fix this. I won't, but I could. And that's a frustrating thing to think as a reader.
( Read more... )
Final thoughts on Chapter 3: By far the worst of them. We didn't get any of that artistic language, which was good. But we also didn't get anything else. What we did get was SJM creating actual sinkholes. Negative impact on the story. I could be fine if Feyre was some small-town girl who knew nothing of the world around her. But she does know things, because we get her narration and exposition. There is just nothing for anyone to know, there is nothing in this world outside of the vague feelings around the "upper class" and royalty. In real life, people have always had jobs that tie directly to the government or are impacted by the government. In a market scene, I would expect to see signs of that. Hell, just steal the idea of subsidized goods and you immediately have a kickass system of poverty that keeps people hungry. Kickass in that it is an effective worldbuilding tool. I'm from an agricultural state in the US, all the farmers here are subsidized, we don't see any that produce in the local market and it's really deeply impacted the states nutrition and access to fresh food. You get an immediate sense of government function and details on the local economy. I understand that we aren't meant to be in this village long, but the sheer lack of detail just makes me thing that SJM has no idea what she is writing. There is no proof of a deeper understanding of her world anywhere. Not in the setting, not in the characters, and not in the plot. A decent editor, someone who is at least a bit familiar with craft, could fix this. I could fix this. I won't, but I could. And that's a frustrating thing to think as a reader.
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ACOTAR: Chapter 2
Chapter 2 this morning, as I have a lot of academic reading going forward. Chapter 3 will be read once I finish this paper.
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Final thoughts on Chapter 2: Many things in here that should have been in the first chapter. Many things that fall a bit flat because of how they were introduced in the first chapter. Art metaphor is not well developed enough for me to like it. Nesta and Elain feel very weak with their ungratefulness. I can see the threads that SJM is trying to pull, the little ideas she has about how characters act and work. She's just doing a piss poor job at developing them.
( Read more... )
Final thoughts on Chapter 2: Many things in here that should have been in the first chapter. Many things that fall a bit flat because of how they were introduced in the first chapter. Art metaphor is not well developed enough for me to like it. Nesta and Elain feel very weak with their ungratefulness. I can see the threads that SJM is trying to pull, the little ideas she has about how characters act and work. She's just doing a piss poor job at developing them.
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ACOTAR: Chapter 1
I am hate reading ACOTAR. If you love ACOTAR and me disliking it is an issue, utilize the block button! Don't take my dislike of the book as a slight against you. I don't know you!
Going to make a post about this, chapter by chapter. I'll upload my annotations and cite them, so we all know what I'm talking about here.
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Final thoughts on Chapter 1: It was enjoyable, I guess. But not good. I've been reading so many heavy things that something like this is incredibly easy to absorb. It's simple and fun. But really just holds up poorly when I put anything more than surface level thought into it. I know that main characters like this are really supposed to be blank slates for the reader to project themselves onto, but I can't stand a weak or boring narrator. If a character doesn't have oomph, I don't care about them. And so far I've gotten so little oomph from this girl that I don't even know her name.
Going to make a post about this, chapter by chapter. I'll upload my annotations and cite them, so we all know what I'm talking about here.
( Read more... )
Final thoughts on Chapter 1: It was enjoyable, I guess. But not good. I've been reading so many heavy things that something like this is incredibly easy to absorb. It's simple and fun. But really just holds up poorly when I put anything more than surface level thought into it. I know that main characters like this are really supposed to be blank slates for the reader to project themselves onto, but I can't stand a weak or boring narrator. If a character doesn't have oomph, I don't care about them. And so far I've gotten so little oomph from this girl that I don't even know her name.
There were many moments that I could have complained more about exposition drops or rough transitions. But that would be more akin to a close reading where I pick apart everything, and none of us have time for that, especially my girlfriend, who is annoyed at me for taking so long to write this instead of sitting down and watching an episode of Twin Peaks (I assume it will be Twin Peaks) with them.