Ruby and Reading

24-02-2025

Currently Eating: Soft boiled egg, rice, and spam

Currently Reading: Monkey King, by Wu Cheng'en; Homestuck

Currently Watching: MLP:FiM, season 2

Currently Playing: Hiveswap, Calico, Let's Build a Zoo, Kiwi Clicker (ironically)

Currently Listening to: Parade #2, by Yasushi Yoshida

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I got started on learning Ruby today. A lot of it is really familiar so far, both from my dabbling in middle and high school, and in its similarity to what little JavaScript I've learned. Unfortunately, the guide I'm following (Learn Ruby the Hard Way by Zed A. Shaw) made me learn how to do number variables right from the get-go, which I did not appreciate having to slog through. Luckily the aggressive writing style made me snicker enough to tolerate it. I'll be getting to the more fun stuff tomorrow.

! Spoilers for Mountain Girl River Girl ahead! Sexual assault mention ahead! !

Besides working on that, I also finished reading Mountain Girl River Girl by Ting-xing Ye. I have some big feelings about it. It hits strangely close to home. Not, you know, in the pain, sickness, or sexual assault luckily, but the draw to a brighter future. Both girls took a huge risk leaving home, following rumours they kept hearing such mixed opinions on, and faced real horrors chasing said rumours... And yet, they didn't quit. Because somehow, just going home again would be worse. And in the end, they finally made it work...

I don't live somewhere awful, but I don't like it here either. I know I'd be willing to endure worse if it meant finding something better. But it's hard to know what rumours to trust... The only thing I can do is try.

I had a hard time rating this book. I don't think I'd reread it for the story itself, but I would reread it for what it meant to me, to reflect on my life with the context of theirs. On Goodreads, I gave it 4 stars; on The StoryGraph, I gave it 4.75.