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• Chiikawa Dress-up Game NEW! A chiikawa character creator by me and coworker michelle!
• Weeknotes 26-30 NEW! hiiiiiiiiiiiii Okay so Monday I went to go see the band First Day Back, really good, super fun!!!! Loved the opener too, gapyear. It was at a really tiny venue and the energy was pretty unmatched. Probably one of the most active crowds I’ve seen in a bit, like 1/3 of the crowd had a pit going and there were constant stage divers (off of like, a 1-foot stage lol, the staff were helping people stage dive, it was so funny). Truly love being able to see cool bands I love and then walk like 15 minutes back to my apartment. Speaking of music, I listened to the new Charli XCX album………… I dunno man……. I kinda can’t see myself listening to it again. Like I appreciate some of the instrumentation/production, but the vocals and lyrics just feel so half-baked, it’s kinda bizarre. Like why are none of these songs even 3 minutes?? Very much feels like she wrote a chorus and then realized she had to write the rest of the song and largely Didn’t. Oh well!!! So it goes, maybe this will be another Crash for me where it’s her getting something out of her system and then comes back with something way better. I saw the Odyssey twice, which was fun! I’m not going to go over it here, I wrote a pretty detailed review for it on letterboxd, so feel free to read that I guess lol. I’m really curious what Olivia thinks about it since she knows the source material pretty well. Saturday morning I was getting a haircut and I mentioned that I was seeing it to my barber, and he was like “Oh I was trying to see that but my buddy didn’t respond in time so it sold out. Looks cool, but I kinda thought it was going to be like a normal movie. I didn’t think there were going to be monsters and stuff”, and I was like “oh, you don’t know the Odyssey?”, and he hadn’t heard of it before. Kinda incredible honestly. Like my coworker who grew up in China, that makes sense that she wouldn’t know the Odyssey super well, but I assume this guy grew up in a Massachusetts school system?? I feel like it would just Come Up at some point in english classes. Speaking of books I’m almost done with Woman Running Through the Mountains. It’s good!! Despite the pretty depressing sounding synopsis it’s written in a way where everything feels pretty light. Like the stuff happening is much tougher than anything that happened in ‘they’ but this is written in a way where all of it is much more engaging. Interesting how that works I guess! On Saturday I bought The Left Hand of Darkness so maybe I’ll finally read that. Michelle at work had been talking about the carrier bag theory of fiction which Olivia has also brought up, and I feel like as an enjoyer of science fiction and also stories where there’s no central/major conflict I owe it to myself to read some Le Guin. Maybe I’ll be done with it next week……… Sunday we went birding again!!!!! We saw a Least Bittern which was pretty crazy. Cool looking bird!!! On the way there AND back we stopped into Little Wolf Coffee so I got two pour overs. Maybe a mistake, I was so caffeinated lmao, but it was yummy so how could I not. Though I also learned that Broadsheet is starting to do pour overs now so I should go try that out soon. All of this is really to say that I have yet another new expensive consumption interest now I guess! Next I just need to get a dripper and grinder and stuff and make it at home. Oh right birding! It was a good one this time, saw a bunch of birds I hadn’t seen before and it was just such a perfect day out. We’ll have to have a normal beach day sometime soon, though maybe if we go to horseneck we can see some shorebirds while we’re there. Things I’ve been into this week!!! (oops all music this time) ねねちのギラギラファンミーティング (Kanzaki hiro Remix) / 桃鈴ねね: uplifting trance remix of a vtuber song, one of the best trance leads i’ve heard in a while Bibio & Dorian Concept - Shame 2hollis - Hurt: really good new 2hollis From First To Last - Your Name In Red Ink: i’ve really been missing If I Die First and this is basically that so yay!!!!! Masayoshi Iimori - RALLY ‘25 (Extended Mix): somehow didn’t know about this IIDX soundtrack EP, this was my favorite track from sparkle shower and the extended version rules art i liked!!! fucca: “地球のまるみ” oyatsu: “さよララ……” いずみ 井上まち@あんてぃくうす連載中！: “summer run” ooo
• Weeknotes 26-29 Late post but it’s still Monday!! Okay honestly nottttttt an eventful week. That’s okay though!!! Air quality was super bad because of wildfires in Canada, very hazy and smoky for a lot of the week, or honestly it was kinda more scary that the worst air quality was on the day that it didn’t even look that bad outside? I went to go see The Invite with coworker Brina, I hadn’t really been sold on it from the trailers but it was good!!! Very very funny. Though I honestly was kinda shocked that it was so explicitly about sex and relationships and there was no actual sex in it lmao?? Speaking of movies on Saturday I went birding early in the morning, though when I woke up I felt pretty bad. Like, not normal “waking up tired” but especially exhausted. But I thought “well maybe I just need to get outside and then I’ll wake up”. Quite the opposite!! I biked over to where David was and I instantly felt nauseous and had to sit down for 15 minutes, completely drenched in sweat and my hands going numb. After a bit all of that subsided but I still didn’t feel great, and we had kinda missed the birding window anyway, so we both just went home lmao. The fact that I saw three cybertrucks on my bike really should have been an omen. I then proceeded to spend the entire day in bed watching The Wolf of Wall Street which I really did not like, and The One (starring Jet Li) which ruled in a cheesy goofy way. You know an action movie is good when it has a nu-metal soundtrack and has dudes being air-juggled. Then Sunday I was watching Slow & Sacred Films For My Funeral from Youtube User Almost_Orpheus and him talking about Goodbye, Dragon Inn (a movie I’ve been meaning to watch for a while) got me to watch the original Dragon Inn. Super fun! The first hour is basically flawless, Xiao Shaozi’s (Shih Chun) swag is off the charts. Speaking of Taiwan, Taiwan trip soon???? I’m currently in big vacation planning mode. I just booked my train tickets and hotel for the wedding in October, it’s kinda insane that amtrak uses Ticketmaster scarcity pricing where it’s more expensive the closer it is to the date. Like why is a one-way ticket already 80 dollars three months out??? Round trip is legitimately like 20 dollars cheaper than flying which should not be a thing. But it’s okay it’ll be worth it, I get to see my friends and it’ll be fun. Then I’m waiting to hear back from that same friend about September which, the second it’s locked in I’m booking my Utah national parks trip flights and stuff. Yippee!! And now most likely going to Taiwan and Japan in January/February!!! Though we’ll see, very early planning. I need to study up by watching more Taiwanese art house cinema I think. I’ll force myself to watch A Brighter Summer Day one of these weekends. Okay that’s it maybe I’ll have something more interesting to talk about next week :3c Things I’ve been into this week!!! i’m into this uniqlo chiikawa sweatshirt but it’s so funny to me that they’re selling collab goods here and the movie isn’t even coming out here art i liked!!! こむぎこ2000 個展8/22-31日『POP QUEST』: “りんごと少女と青空(ロゴなしver)” Amii: “HEAVEN” ぽみ　Pomi: “再会　Reunion / 2026 / gouache and colored pencil on paper/21.3×30.3cm” おのやま: “初夏の風” まだごはん: “あまくてつめたいスイカ” fucca: “展望室へ” みなはむ: “本と音楽”
• Weeknotes 26-28: American Football, birding again Wow, another week has happened, incredible. It’s the start of the new anime season and for the first time in a while I’m actually watching stuff!!!! Sayonara Lara, The Ghost in the Shell, catching up on Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk from last season, probably gonna watch that new kyoani show. I kinda fell off watching anime over the last few years, or I’d watch the first episode of something and not be super into it and not continue, but the first two episodes of Goodbye Lara were good enough where I cannot see myself dropping it. Like come on the OP has hand-painted cels, and a great soundtrack! I saw American Football for the second time and Jejune for the first (which makes sense because this is their first tour in like 26 years lmao) american football jejune Both really fun shows, really fascinating crowd at each, like I expected both to be much older on average but I guess the teens love 90s emo. Though it was kinda crazy that Mike Kinsella was like “oh yeah we’re gonna play one more old one and then take a quick break and play some more new stuff” and then they played Never Meant and then 1/4 of the crowd left lmao??? Some of my coworkers have been taking bike riding classes run by the city of Boston, incredibly cool free service, my coworkers who have been doing it all say how much they love it and how motivating it is, and one of them was even like “I want to sign up for more so I can get better even faster, I don’t want to wait for the next class”. It’s sooooo nice to see people learn to bike, a thing anyone who knows me would not be surprised by since I’m the number one bike evangelist of anyone I know. They were going to have another class on Wednesday but they got an email about a “staff emergency” and they were like “ahhh dang we were so excited, well guess we’ll just sign up for the next one” I woke up the next morning and checked instagram to see a story from the local bike shop I frequent, one of their teachers had been killed by a driver on her way to work that morning. Every day I wish that this city cared more about the lives and safety of the cyclists and pedestrians that live there more than the convenience of the cars that drive through it. Tonal whiplash!!!!! I went birding again on Sunday, first at the Concord Great Meadows and then at the Fells. Great meadows was really nice, super pretty. Saw an egret and a great blue heron, but the big one was seeing the marsh wren. Pretty uncommon!! Later in the day David wanted to go birding again at the Fells, but since I was the only one who wanted to go I biked there. 9ish miles each way, took about 50 minutes there and 45 back, had me really wishing I hadn’t gotten a single speed lmao. There was a huge hill climb for the last segment of the ride that was absolutely brutal and I haven’t been doing a ton of longer rides this year. Oh well, it’s a good feeling at least! northern leopard frog Once I got there we immediately started going down the trails and were hearing a ton of scarlet tanagers but we didn’t see a single one the whole time. We were doing laps for a solid 30-40 minutes and it felt like Pool Hill again where were just weren’t seeing anything, but then we started hearing a brown creeper and I spotted some movement in a tree and managed to see it!! Very cool!! Then afterwards as we were about to leave we heard some super loud bird calls that merlin wasn’t picking up, we walked closer to it and realized it was a cooper’s hawk and we saw two of them eating a chipmunk. Overall worth it!!!! Also the bike home was downhill the entire way which ruled, it felt so fast compared to the way there. Great way to end the week!! Things I’ve been into this week!!! Rebecca Black - Hot Wet Delirious: really good new rebecca black single, excited for the album!! Frost Children - Creep: love the new frost children EP, crazy story of how/why they made it Joyce Manor - Full Performance (Live on KEXP) excited for Field Mag 02, really enjoyed the first one art i liked!!! monlo: “house” ずし🍣@C108(土)東7 D21b: “🌞🍨 #プロテインザスバル” めばち: “【お知らせ】 kurayamisaka「hikari」ジャケットイラストを担当しました。” 水母毛布: “夏になったから再掲 #indie\_anime” lychee 🌾 🔜 aiba table 311: “missing them [ #輪るピングドラム #ピンドラ15周年 #penguindrum]” ゆいあい - illustrator: “あなたがずっと私を忘れませんように #おやすみプンプン” 雨故: “君はどんな顔だっけ”
• Weeknotes 26-27 As always in this area, summer came very suddenly this week in the form of a 90+ degree heat wave for most of the week. I biked into the office every day anyway, the commute is short enough where upper 90s isn’t unbearable, and at least I’m not paying for the AC in there as opposed to my apartment. Some coworkers and I went to a bar to watch one of the world cup games, very bizarre vibe there, sadly as with most bars they turned up the music way too loud so after like an hour I left since I was tired of having to yell to talk to people!!!!! Why do they do it I’ll never understand……. Friday was my brother’s birthday, so I went down to visit him which is sadly like 3-4 hours depending on travel method, unless I were to rent a car or something which I’d rather not do honestly!!! Imagine if the northeast corridor had the same scale of rail network that it had 100 years ago??? The dream. Always fun seeing everyone, thought it was funny since I just saw all of them at the wedding Sunday was a Chill day but I got yummy kaju dinner with friends and then watched more Buffy with Olivia, only four episodes left!!! Crazy!! Then I can make her watch a bunch of stuff I love like Hackers and Madoka Saturday was an eventful day!!!! Woke up and went to the local Japanese bakery near me and got a Maine blueberry sunrise, very yummy! Then we started the drive up to Maine to go to a friend’s 4th of July party. As it always goes, I check the traffic estimate when I wake up and it’s like, 1h45m to get there, and then when we actually go to leave it’s at least 30 minutes longer. So it goes! Most of the way there we stopped into the new Maine Pops pinball location. Really nice! After like 15 minutes the owner comes in to fix a game and he brings us to his friend’s farm to see the pigs, but sadly the pigs weren’t there. But I got to ride in the back of his tiny pickup truck which felt very American of me (lmao) At our friend’s house it was 10 degrees colder than in Boston, but it was still pretty dang hot. And yet we somehow ended up playing some improvised 1v1v1 + goalie version of soccer where Ethan was making up rules as we went. Very fun!! Exhausting! They also have a ton of instruments so we were jamming out, since I have no musical jamming ability I played a handpan which led to Ethan and I doing a little trip-hop style jam which was sooooo fun. Always so great seeing everyone there, maybe now that we’ve all been going birding more we’ll finally have excuses to go to Maine and see them more?? Since Round1 was never enough of an excuse Things I’ve been into this week!!! Is Art Like a Maze, or a Labyrinth? Tarkovsky’s “Stalker,” Oshii’s “Angel’s Egg,” & The New Novel: another banger from almost_orpheus, love labyrinthine art good new idialedyournumber album and good new tennyson c-sides! plx by tennyson also not new but i’ve been listening to fred again lights burn dimmer a lot recently because of the tracks he made for the Dior runway show art i liked!!! おいもち: “お風呂上がりのほかほか状態で冷えた部屋に入る瞬間も好き” 飯田研人 Kento IIDA えなか　あきひ: “モリーの私服を考えてみる落書き” 🦋shelly 🦋: “angel sighting” くまぞう　🧸🐘: “衣替え🌻☀️” ころりよ⚓︎: “やっと見つけた”
• Weeknotes 26-26 Oh hello, in contrast to last week I did very little this week lol Deltarune chapter 5 came out but I still haven’t played, but I did finish Forza Horizon 6 (well, got the “legend” status which I’m going to treat as finishing the game). Pretty fun game, all of my thoughts here still apply. I wish the game had more Sauce but hey what can you do. Played in the final round of the pinball league, I did pretty well all things considered, didn’t come in last in the whole tournament, and most importantly got to hang out with people! yay! Big birding day on Sunday! We did a really similar route to Saturday but Sean came this time so we drove instead of train, and Olivia came along! We got a slightly late start but so did David, we all got to Pool Hill forest first, David had been there for 40 minutes already but was on the search for an indigo bunting that he had heard but not seen. He met us in the parking area and we walked in, still hearing that indigo bunting, and after about two minutes of walking we look up and there it is!! Really good moment From there we left to get a little snack and we looked out at the foggy ocean from a jetty(?), and then we were off to Halibut Point again. Honestly kind of a wash here bird-wise? Didn’t see much, though the rocky ocean shore was nice, even though Olivia fell in the water 😭 The trails near the beach reminded me of being in northern California (also with the fog) We left here and were off to get lunch on our way to Plum Island. Sadly we left a little too late and when we got to Little Wolf they weren’t doing any coffee drinks since it was 15 minutes before closing, so I couldn’t get the pour over I wanted. Sad!!!!! I’ll just have to go again next time. Plum Island however, really really good. We went pretty deep into the park to start to do a 1 mile loop. Moseying through we saw a bunch of birds, none super unique but some I haven’t heard of before (Eastern Towhee, Lesser Yellowlegs). I was getting eaten up by bugs, mainly greenhead flies, so not like I have huge welts like from a mosquito but still annoying!! One of the biggest things for me though was I tested out shooting consistently at +1/3 and on a different film profile on my fuji and I really love how my photos came out Things I’ve been into this week!!! Reality is a Camera Trick by Jacob Geller: really good video essay (and one that actually justifies being a video) about first person perspective and how it’s used in video games and film, and what makes it look “convincing”. loved the segment on Nickel Boys, gorgeous movie. also makes me think of the way people talk about film photography, it being “nostalgic” even when the photo is recent, which i’m sure in part is similar to that “digital patina” mentioned in the video, the fuzzy edges and representation of vision feeling more real than actual sight Village idiot attempts to explain the ineffable genius of Clarice Lispector’s Magnum Opus: been really into this guy’s videos recently (of which there are not many). i haven’t read this book but i love hearing him talk about it and dig into the themes art i liked!!! 薬味: “ビールが好きなショートカットのかわいい女性” キセルアオシ kiseruaosi: “海沿いの道の絵” NAMUNG やす うらやか RU!🍏: “my friend sold her ds so i had to draw it to immortalize the epic sticker deco…” 永井博(Hiroshi Nagai): “6/23(火)曇り最高気温26℃最低19℃…🖌📐🐧💦追加1点。＃バンコク” Simz 芒朔: “出去玩吧”
• Copenhagen 2026 I went to Copenhagen with Mariah and Nick!!!! Yippee!!
• Weeknotes 26-25: John's Wedding + birding Wow another busy week!!!!! Went to see a movie on monday, had manga club tuesday, went to my brother’s wedding wednesday through friday, then went birding saturday and sunday. How fun!!!! Went to go see The Furious in theaters, banger movie honestly, just guys going sicko mode and beating each other up for 2 hours straight. Fight choreography was by Kensuke Sonomura, the same guy that did the choreo for Baby Assassins (my goats!!!!!) so anyone that liked this movie needs to watch baby assassins, in my onion My brother’s wedding was last week!!! Kinda crazy to think about honestly. I was his best man so I had to do all of the wedding party stuff and be in all the photos and write a speech. Mercifully he gave me guidelines of “less than 2 minutes, no cliches” so after weeks of agonizing over it I finally got something that I think went over well enough. I rewrote a line while the person before me was speaking lmao. The ceremony was great and went off with zero issues, and the whole thing was only like 15 minutes. It’s nice being able to get that kind of done with quickly, only focusing on what really matters to them, and then we can all just go to the reception and hang out. Always great to see family!!! Especially the ones who I rarely get to see due to living across the country (or just being so busy with kids that they can’t come visit as often). And I also like getting to hang out with my brother’s wife’s brother who we have a ton of interest overlap. I first met him at my brother’s bachelor weekend and we talked about NYC and trains and tech, but ALSO about Sophie and all of the cool music we’re into. Really funny hearing him talk about a show he’s going to and all the artists he lists are ones I know of (DJ Seinfeld, etc). After getting back from the wedding I went birding twice, first going to Rockport which was super easy to get to on the train (I started reading Woman Running in the Mountains). David is the real dedicated birder who can identify them pretty well, but I really just love hanging out and seeing them. We first went to a little foresty park where we heard a ton of birds right when entering, but they slowly got more and more distant the further we went in. I have to assume part of it was because of part of this forest just being people’s back yards. Right when we were about to turn around to go back we saw a huge deer!! I crouched down to put down my drink and take a photo through the binoculars but it dashed away the moment I moved. So it goes! After we went to Halibut Point park, which we kinda speedran since we had to meet people for lunch, but right when we got to the quarry area I spotted a juvenile double-crested cormorant just standing on a rock. I really want to go back!!!! So much we didn’t see in that area. We left to get lunch and coffee (got a Colombian La Pradera geisha pourover) and afterwards went to Plum Island where the second we parked it started pouring rain. Immediately got back in and started driving further into the island hoping the rain would stop. It let up enough times where we spotted a bunch of willets and honestly the views were worth it regardless. Hopefully going back here next weekend with Olivia since she’s talked about how she misses birding and doesn’t know the birds on the east coast. Sunday we went to one of the harbor islands on the ferry. It wasn’t super big, and we were only there for two hours, but it was just really nice to walk around nature and see some birds and beautiful ocean views. There’s something nice about being able to identify birds and trees around you, connecting you to the world you live in. An admirable skill, imo Also totally had it on the mind after reading this from an essay mariah sent me: A 2017 study in Perspectives on Psychological Science documented a steady, decades-long decline in references to nature in fiction, song lyrics, and film storylines beginning in the 1950s, with no parallel decline in references to the human-made environment. The authors attributed the shift to “the explanatory role of increased virtual and indoor recreation options (e.g., television, video games) in the disconnect from nature.” Finished reading they by Helle Helle, which I bought in Copenhagen (lol oops about that blog). It was okay!!!!!! A nice slice of life/coming of age, it had this very detached writing style that honestly made it kinda hard to get into. I know there’s a lot going on and it rewards a careful/close read, but maybe that’s just not my kind of writing? Like all the side characters kinda blend together and while it’s short and well-paced it just never hooked me. Oh well so it goes!!!!! Things I’ve been into this week!!! boneyard aka fearmonger - underscores: after seeing underscores last week i’ve been listening to this a lot again Porter Robinson b2b Ninajirachi @ Chinese Laundry (FULL SET): how could i not, incredible set front to back, this combo would be a dream to see live art i liked!!! pup: “:P” tayama 夜空ぴ: “ミアちゃん” Lil: “Kaiba I really need to draw more Kaiba stuff lol” Dan: “˙ᵕ˙” fucca ⌇通販: “🌙”
• Weeknotes 26-24 Apple keynote, movie weekend, birding, baauer
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