nathan wentworth ✨ - posts

Weeknotes 26-19: porchfest

2026-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

Yippee I got my photos back!!!! They estimated a week for turnaround and it was like 4 days, I dropped off my film at Hunts before even leaving the country and I still haven’t gotten it back lmao……… UPDATE: I got them back on saturday lol, okay time to write my vacation post!!!!!!!

Played all of Time Flies for work game club, really nice game!!!! We had a lot of discussion about the classic “time vs money” thing in games, as the game is only like two hours long but 15 dollars. Which of course the main argument here is “a movie in theaters is also 2 hours and 15 dollars” and also, imo, “a thing is worth what you’ll pay for it”. And it was worth it I think, great little game n_n

Went on another date and it was soooooooo awkward. I truly feel cursed with either dates that I feel go really well and then when I ask about a second one I get a “you’re soooo cool and awesome but I’m looking for something else sorry” or dates that are kinda awkward but then they say they want a second one and I’m like “okay sure maybe you’re just nervous” and then the second one is also awkward -_-

Porchfest was on saturday which is when a ton of local bands play on porches around somerville, sooooo cool and fun every year, though it was pouring rain all day which made it less fun. The last band we stumbled across was probably my favorite! Though honestly it’s as much about the music as it is about the Vibe of the entire day, just crazy amounts of people walking around and filling the streets even on a day as rainy as that one, soooo so cool. A big example why I love living in a city and could never imagine living anywhere else tbh

I love this section from calcvol4, she truly gets it

I think it was me who brought the conversation back to motor vehicles. I insisted that a car was not a means of transport at all, or at least that its actual function was something else. Afterall, weren’t our vehicles first and foremost a form of protection? I could hear how it sounded—as if I were now entitled to all sorts of opinions about cars just because I had sat behind the wheel once, but I felt compelled to explain what I meant. Had the family car not prevailed precisely as the institution of family was beginning to crumble? Suddenly every family had to have a car: the patriarch at the wheel, the mother beside him, the children tumbling about in the back seat, and thus the fragile nuclear family traveled around inside its own protective box. As if the family unit could be held together simply by packing it into a metal tin and setting it in motion. The patriarch had become invisible, he had become a wage earner, absent from the family all day, but when he was off work, they all got into the car and no one could doubt who was the head of the household. But by then, it was already too late. The family was changing, and soon the whole thing collapsed.

I could tell that no one really understood where I was going with this, so now I turned my attention to all the cars that drove around with just one person inside them. The urge to sit in one’s own vehicle. A person enclosed in a capsule. Wasn’t that the same thing? Isn’t that what we do nowadays: We do not stick together, we sit there, separated and uneasy, individuals without direction, selves at risk of crumbling, and so everyone must have a car. A self-car. A thin shell, but a shell nonetheless. A contraption for those with insecure identities who crave a more robust armor than that which is built from within. People think that the car is a means of transport, I argued, but it is not the engine that gives the car its value. If that were the case, people would never accept the hassle of owning one: the costs, the risk of being killed or injured or causing accidents, the endless traffic jams and parking problems and visits to the mechanic. We would not put ourselves through all that if it were simply a matter of transport. It is the body of the car we need, I said, not the engine. The engine is just an excuse. We claim that we need the car to get from A to B. In reality, we need it to hold ourselves together.

Just kinda always thinking about this, the entitlement that the vast majority of car-drivers have. I think about this every time I see a car with blacked-out tinted windows, the only real reason to ever do that is to cut yourself off from the world around you, never allowing yourself eye contact with the pedestrians you’re cutting off in a crosswalk, or bikers you’re right-hooking. I have to imagine so much of that entitlement subconsiously comes from people seeing the car as a sense of identity

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

How Your Parents Ruined Driving: we hate SUVs and the CAFE standards!!!!
How We All Got Obsessed With A $6 Dripper: interesting history but also specifically interesting bit at the end where they all got rid of the clover, a new piece of tech that showed people a new way to do something, but then instead they switched from a high-maintenance proprietary system to something they could do themselves using cheap, reusable components
newfn にゅ〜ふぁん EP: shibuya-kei revival (sakura-kei) sooo good
i need to find this remix of Pop Sound by Kim Petras that Porter Robinson played in his Lima DJ set!!!!!!
After - Promise (When You Go): we love early 2000s soft-rock
Thaiboy Digital & swedm® - Paradise: incredible album tbh, i love trance music!!!!!
満島ひかり - 踊るノアール (Prod. cero)
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-18: post vacation

2026-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

Okay I started going through my photos!! Once I get my film photos back I will write :3c After Mariah and Nick left I brought my film to a different photo shop and their rates are the same as the other one but with a better scanner and half the time for turnaround so I think I’ll go there more often (only downside is it’s slightly more annoying to get to).

Back to work, something very funny about my first day back being on a rainy thursday so there was basically no one in the office lol. AND we had clients after work so no ping pong until friday where I only played a little bit anyway u_u it’s okay hopefully next week there will be more……

Thursday I went to see Oklou which was soooooo good. Opener was cool, mostly for the visuals, she had a semi-transparent sheet in front of her with projections so she was kinda in the visuals, very fun. Though, something was Up in that crowd, two girls had to be wheeled out of the venue in a wheelchair, the first one was dragged out of the crowd and was straight up screaming, the second one i just saw kinda slumped over in the wheelchair 10 minutes later. What is going on!!!!

Saturday I helped a friend/coworker with her 48-hour short film project, where I honestly did not do a ton other than help her pick up food and pack/unpack some equipment lol. Originally we were going to have two PAs but one got sick and I really don’t think she needed to be there anyway tbh. But it was fun!!!! Shot lots of BTS photos for them, and I’m excited to see the final thing!

Then Sunday I saw Hayley Heyndrickx, which was a pretty impromptu thing since Gabby had an extra ticket and told me about it on friday, sooooooo good. The venue had shockingly good sound and gabby got really good seats, super close to the front. I didn’t know most of the songs tbh but it was such a nice experience!

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

Lizzy Mcalpine — Ceilings (Will Atkinson Remix) (Evian Christ 22:22 Mix): obsessed with this
Skrillex - Smoke: yay this was finally released
LE SSERAFIM (르세라핌) ‘CELEBRATION’ OFFICIAL MV: i feel like edm has gotten more common in kpop recently (blackpink jump, katseye in general, this) but hearing hardstyle in a kpop song is still so crazy to me
NMIXX(엔믹스) “Crescendo” M/V: nmixx continues to be really interesting
American Football (LP4): great new album from amefuto
[Geese - Getting Killed From The Basement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIol9hig2G4): yeah okay i get it now
Le Makeup / The Crying Xpress: good new le makeup album!!!
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-17

2026-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

Two days late but whatever I feel like that’s within acceptable range. I’m back from copenhagen!!!! I will make a longer post later but I shot two film rolls there so I want to wait until I have those back so I can have all of my photos. Bag check guy at CPH clowning on me for asking to hand-check the rolls so they don’t go through the scanner, “You do know that an airplane has more radiation than these x-rays? I think you read too much reddit”. So ironic when the day before I was like “I bet the security will be nice here :)” Crazy combo with us getting pulled aside by logan CBP for having a checked bag on the way back that we didn’t on the way there.

Pre-vacation (ie monday) was also a day off!! Despite living in this area for my entire life I’ve still never watched the boston marathon, I should do that sometime! Instead I went on a date at a coffee place I had been wanting to check out. Date was pretty good, vibes of the coffee shop were really good. However Mariah has gotten me to really appreciate pour over and not only is it good, it’s kinda the best sipping/hanging out drink, kinda like getting a pot of tea, since you can share it really easily and the format just encourages drinking it slower. I need to find more places that do it in boston since I only know Ogawa (George Howell also I think?) It’s painful to get into something only through the expensive/specialty version since it makes me sooooo annoying and picky. Whatever I’ll just get a hand-grinder and a v60 and then do my own. Who doesn’t love a process-centered consumption hobby!!!!!!

Okay copying mariah and doing some quick copenhagen thoughts:

flight there and back had the best food i’ve ever had on a flight, like legitimately pretty good
public bathroom setup there rules, one room full of sinks and then just stalls, sometimes with an extra room with just urinals, so the stall area is always unisex. way better than the american “genderless bathroom” which is just gendered bathrooms with the signs covered up lmao
the exchange rate was kinda brutal, food/cafes especially were all so expensive, like it was rare to find food under 15 dollars and drinks under 5 dollars USD
great public transit, all automated and runs every 2 minutes without fail, only complaint with it is that the doors close so fast, even when people are trying to still get on (because automated)
crosswalk walk signals are really weird???? like switches to green and then there’s no countdown to the do-not-walk so you could pretty easily be surprised when it switches
i did not bike at all since it terrified me, there’s so many bikers there and the rules are so vague with where bike lanes are and stuff, but yay bike infrastructure
it’s so funny how people complain about train delays and stuff in the US thinking it’s unique to us, every non-metro train we got on had some issue (lost power, delayed, switched platforms two minutes before, platform only had a single ticket machine so a ton of people couldn’t buy a ticket in time)
okay i’ll save the rest for real blog i guess

No links since I wasn’t really on the internet at all lol I’ll post some next time

Weeknotes 26-16

2026-04-20T00:00:00+00:00

Waow last pre-vacation weeknote!!! It’s patriot’s day as I’m writing this so yay no work :^) After a week of really nice weather we had a week of Actual Spring, which is to say rainy and cloudy and mid-50s. At the very least it looks like mariah being a 晴れ女 will cause the rain to stop for the beginning of next week when she’s here! In order to catch up to mariah on On the Calculation of Volume I read the last half of 2 and went out and bought 3. 2 was realllllly good, pretty different than the first, which mostly felt like tone setting and plot setup, the Endless Eight of 2 (and I assume 3’s) Disappearance.

Good week for group social hobby time, went to the weekly pinball tournament and my group got 4th place purely because of how good one of my teammates was at Popeye lmao (3rd place high score on the machine itself). Fun as always!! On Sunday I went with some coworkers to the bi-weekly mahjong club meet and we had this really nice lesson from one of the teachers, guiding us through a full multi-round game. Super fun!!!! We’d been playing chinese-style, where the dominant strategy is to just get a “chicken hand” since those are so easy to get, so playing riichi was a pretty different mindset. It’s sooooo fun to pon and chii but every time one of us would the teacher would be like “okay, what’s your yaku?” and most of the time it didn’t make sense to pon or chii since it would break up a good set, or remove flexibility, or most importantly just remove the ability to riichi since that’s such a powerful yaku. It’s so interesting!!!!! I definitely want to play more, though I do agree with the teacher that for just fun socializing chinese style is better, since I was soooo invested in thinking and strategizing playing riichi. And of course we played more ping pong at work, the beautiful game.

Honestly not much happening otherwise!! Have not been playing games at all which is so tragic. Well I think I played like one day of Overwatch but no Marathon, sad, I need to get back to it.

OH also on tuesday it was Ben & Jerry’s free cone day, a beautiful warm day and a free ice cream…….. nothing better. okay that’s it bye

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

J2A0P2A5N: clearing out my tabs i thought i posted this, i guess not!! really nice travel blog but especially well formatted
オープニングムービー完全版｜TVアニメ『上伊那ぼたん、酔へる姿は百合の花』: watched the first two episodes of this, very nice, yama no susume/DIY-core (same people working on it), but the OP is still my favorite part
HEAVEN’S GATE CREW - HEAVEN’S GATE - Tabula Rasa - @ CIRCUS TOKYO: love heaven’s gate crew
Porter Robinson & Ninajirachi - WannaCry (Remaster + Crowd Removed): pls release this
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-15

2026-04-13T00:00:00+00:00

hiiiii okay so main things from this week: The Drama (good), RISD Unbound (cute art), ren faire (fun)

I got a film camera!! Yay! I’d been wanting the Kodak Snapic A1 and I decided to finally pick it up for my upcoming vacation. Seems like the ideal for something tiny and simple, but higher quality than a lot of the other reusable disposable-types. Something like the Lomo MC-A would have been perfect, but for 1/5th the cost I’m not complaining about my choice for sure (though, funny to even mention that when I spent 36 dollars on 3 rolls of film, so I’ll have spent the cost of the camera in like, 6 rolls + developing). I’ve only taken one photo with it so far but I’m sure I’ll be blasting through rolls next week!

I went to RISD Unbound, their annual art book fair, always love it!!! It was definitely smaller this year than previous, not sure why? But I got a few cute prints and sticker sheets :3c

I also went to a local ren faire in the middle of the city, really fun! So cool seeing the knights beat each other up lmao

I have sooooooo many thoughts about The Drama! Not every movie needs to be About Things, but this one very clearly is!!! It has an opinion about things and is very much trying to get you to agree, painting everyone who doesn’t in a pretty bad light. Which I’m into since I agree with the central thesis lmao. This whole thing is about restorative justice and the importance of forgiveness and believing that people can change for the better, which I think is a very underrated thing to believe in these days 🙂‍↕️

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

Tip2Tip China ended, really really good, so many nice moments
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-14: Blue Prince

2026-04-06T00:00:00+00:00

Monday, truly one of those days that reminds me why I love being in a city. Beautiful day, a little windy but partially cloudy and 65 by the time I left work. Biked to harvard square to meet up with ethan to get dinner before the Tigers Jaw show, ran into one of my coworkers while locking up my bike, then after eating I ran into a former coworker who I hadn’t seen in years, then at the show I ran into two of my friends who I didn’t even know were going. You love to see it!!!!! Also my driver’s license expired so I got the Xs on my hands, truly feeling like a teenager again lmao

Saturday I watched more buffy with olivia, halfway through season 7 still!!!! And then sunday was easter where I spent more time travelling than actually seeing family lmao. I played some Marathon with Ethan and he was talking about his new PC case fans and I was like “huh how do I even check my computer temps” and I opened the steam overlay thing and OOPS my CPU was at 90c!!!! that’s not good! I took off one of the panels on the top of my PC and vacuumed out the cpu cooler and immediately the temps were down to 75c after idling on the Marathon menus for 10 minutes, so that’s a good sign! But I may go to micro center soon and pick up a new CPU cooler! I do not want to have to buy new PC components in the current market 😔

I “finished” playing Blue Prince for work game club this week. Did not like that game! To deploy the Hater’s Gambit, I really wanted to like it! It felt like something I’d be really into (roguelites! puzzle game!) but the mechanics just did nothing for me. I played 13 in-game days, and way too often I’d like, get the car keys in one run and then never get a garage. Or get a garage and never get the car keys. Or get a handle and never get a room that I could use it in. Truly nothing worse in a puzzle game than knowing the solution to a puzzle, but the mechanics aren’t letting you solve it for one reason or another, and that felt like my whole experience playing this game. Like getting the individual pieces for a puzzle across multiple runs but not getting them in the same just felt bad.

It made me think a lot about what I actually look for in the puzzle games I’ve enjoyed, Fez, Animal Well, The Witness (which I did not finish), Inside, and I think for me it’s essential to either:

Feel like there’s a way to really learn and internalize the puzzle mechanics (The Witness, Fez, Tunic)
Get hints and be able to come back later when I’ve discovered new systems (see all three above, Animal Well)
Have puzzles tightly integrated into the game design where, while there’s no systems to learn, they all feel satisfying and well designed in their own right (Inside, Animal Well)

I could see a world where something like Blue Price doesn’t have the roguelite elements and I LOVE it, exploring the house and finding new rooms and mechanics and having those “ohhhhh that’s what thing I saw meant” moments, but the rougelite aspect just made me never want to touch it again every time I had a bad run. Which is exactly what I will do!

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

Still watching the Tip2Tip China series, soooooooo good
Thaiboy Digital & swedm® - Euro Dollar Yen
- cannot wait for this new thaiboy album with how good the two singles have been
What Was That (DJ Baauer HTID Bootleg) by Baauer
- banger
Hello World from the Artemis II
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-13

2026-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Another late post, I was seeing Tigers Jaw so I was out all day, I’ll write about that in the next post!! Not as many video games this week, though also kinda still yeah. Did another playtest of my friend’s game. Lots of changes have been made, really cool seeing it come together! Went to another pinball tournament on thursday, this time bringing a coworker since she had expressed interest before. Pretty fun as always! Friday we had a mini-lan party, I invited some of my coworkers but it was super last minute so most of them already had plans, but we still had a great group!! Played some Halo 3 but also Virtua Tennis and Towerfall. Also introduced gabby to Marathon (her first PC fps!!!!) she was pretty good???? Like had good aim against the robots and broke shields on a guy before they ran away.

Saturday I took steph to the local graphic design and typography book store, bought a little zine about tigers in print/product design. Then we went to a thrift store where we chatted with the cashier for like 30 minutes. It’s so impressive how she can just make conversation with anyone tbh. I got a nice little sweatshirt!! I had already been eyeing it and then steph independently was like “oh this is so you” so I knew I had to get. Then afterwards I went to a fighting game event that was just all casuals. The streamer Sajam was there and I kept being like “huh is that Sajam?” and didn’t realize it was actually him until people were taking photos with him lol

I know we do not need another post on the internet talking about LLM vibe code AI but mannnnn it’s so depressing seeing people talk about how making basic websites is “so hard now” and that “LLMs are the modern ‘inspect element’”. Like buddy the web inspector is still good! Websites are easier to make than ever! Nothing is stopping you from making a website exactly how you did in the early 2000s except now CSS is infinitely easier than it used to be, like I saw the “centering a div is so hard” thing mentioned like, bro flex has been widely supported in all browsers since 2015!!!!! a decade!!!!! it’s like three lines of code!!!! embarrassing tbh. okay i’m done lol

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

ExWHYZ - GIVE YOU MY WORD
new Bladee track is sooooooooooo good
the ludwig china video series continues to be really good
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-12: Joyce Manor

2026-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

Okay so I did play a bunch of Marathon again this week but I also did other things too!!!!! Talked about Metropolis (1949) at manga club which was interesting???? Very goofy and weird, not really at all like the Rintaro anime adaptation. On thursday I went to go see Project Hail Mary in 70mm which was super fun!!!! Really good movie, highly recommend to anyone and everyone. Seeing it in 70mm was really cool too

Friday we played mahjong (sorry, majiang) at work finally!!! It’s funny playing by the chinese rules my coworker knows because it’s so much more straightforward than how I learned in Mahjong Soul (riichi). Very fun, Snow had us saying all of the numbers and tile names in chinese so I know a bunch of words now, like how to say 1-9 and red. Can’t wait to play more tbh

Saturday my coworkers and I went to a free show in boston common with The Format, Joyce Manor, and Evan Greer, promoting a bunch of local political organizations. Very cool!! Lots of good causes!! It was kinda crazy hearing Nate Ruess’ voice from like 30ft away when I was a big fun. fan in high school (their first album specifically). Joyce Manor (really just Barry, the lead singer) played three songs acoustic which was fun. He was like “ohhh this one is gonna be so boring since it’s just me up here”, “any requests? constant headache? yeah it’s like shooting fish in a barrel haha”. Then we went to third time for a little ice cream snack, then off to get dinner and then to the actual Joyce Manor show, also really fun!!!! They’re so great live, it’s funny that since their songs are like 1:30-3:00 max they can fit in a huge number of songs, like basically all of their hits and a bunch of back-catalog stuff. For their encore they came out and played a song he said they’ve never played live before, Angel in the Snow, because Nate Ruess came out to do his guest vocals on it. Crazy! Funny how of every concert I’ve ever been to, all of the ones that had surprise guests have been in the last year-ish (Porter at Wavedash, Danny Brown at Frost Children, this).

Sunday was another Marathon day, I was sooooooooo sleepy from staying out so late (midnight lol!!!) I ended up watching this Ludwig video where him and Michael Reeves are crossing China from south to north with no map, “phones”, or translators. There’s some bits where I’m like “this is way too youtuber” but it kinda rules seeing how nice all of these people are to them and how much they genuinely want to help. I don’t even speak chinese and I can tell that ludwig’s pronunciation is awwwwwful lmao. Also crazy how much people apparently smoke cigs there???? I had no idea. Like people always talk about Japan as the smoker’s country but their rate has been steadily declining for decades, but in China 1/3 of male doctors are smokers??? insane to me

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

“This Is Not The Computer For You” · Sam Henri Gold
- i actually meant to link this last week and forgot lol. i love The Computer and the possibilities held within and i loooooove using a computer for things it wasn’t “designed for”. like underbiking philosophically
After on Audiotree Live (Full Session)
new underscores album is soooooooo good
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-11

2026-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

Big week for me, I got my new phone………. crazy!!!! I’m still getting used to the size, it’s just barely large enough where I can’t really one-hand stuff as easily. Like with my mini I never had to re-adjust my hand to reach anything, but I constantly have to do that with the 17 which makes it feel so much more precarious (like checking directions while i’m biking). I actually bought a case (shocking!) not for the protection or anything, just so I could have a place to put charms and to protect the stickers i’ll inevitably put on the back. Ultimately having ridiculously good battery life (and good camera updates!) is making it all worth it. I’ll probably relegate my 12 mini as a work testing device or something, we can always use more of those.

On thursday I did the first casual pinball tournament of the season and got last place which, lmao. The goals on each game were shockingly difficult, like even some really good players I talked to couldn’t do some of them, so it’s not super surprising that I couldn’t do a single one. Oh well, still fun! Saturday my favorite ice cream place re-opened, now with cafe and food (using teas from my favorite tea shop). Sooooooo yummy, the owner is really nice, we talked for a bit about tea and biking. Can’t wait for the weather to warm up a bit more so they can have outdoor seating, gonna be such a vibe. Afterwards I went to a friend’s place for a pre-oscars party where we watched Sinners and Sonic 3. I liked Sinners more on a second watch, and Sonic 3 was soooo good honestly, much better than the first two! Sunday was a coworker’s Oscars watch party, everyone had to dress as a character from a movie they liked that came out in 2025 so I dressed as Rui from The Colors Within because I look/dress like him anyway lmao

Also mariah and I got our plane tickets and booked a hotel for copenhagen and have figured out a pretty good itinerary for boston!!!!! yay can’t wait!

Death Stranding 2: People love to talk about how confusing and weird Kojima games are, which like sure sometimes they’re weird and complicated but usually the themes and messaging is incredibly clear and often spelled out for you by the characters themselves. Metal Gear Solid 2 has the whole speech at the end about memes and genes, MGS4 war is bad, etc, etc. Death Stranding 1 is interesting in that so much of it is about these isolationist people who connect via the internet and how powerful the internet can be in connecting people, and DS2 has a clear followup to that in the post-covid era, that connecting in person and making bonds in real life is even more important.

After Sam’s baby is stolen from him in the intro of the game, he goes on this journey of healing and along the way meets a wide array of people, many of whom join him in his crew and help him in different ways. Ultimately a really nice story, it feels like such a good followup to the first one.

Gameplay-wise it kinda feels like MGSV again in the best way possible, immediately giving you a wide array of tools. Ironically I ended up using the truck like 75% of the time because it’s just that good!!!! Car propaganda tbh. However!! it has one major failing, which is that it has the Sony First-party Syndrome, a companion character that talks at you about 90% too much about things that any player would already know. The amount of time that Dollman spends reiterating what the player already knows, or explaining what is right in front of them, is truly infuriating. Like honestly what are we doing here!!! If there’s any definitive proof that video games are Bad it’s this!!!! It’s like that meme of Scarface with the little emoji in the corner telling you what emotions to feel, except applied to pretty much every major first-party AAA game in the last decade.

Oh also the soundtrack is really good. I know this is from the first one but I keep listening to this Chvrches song

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

wow i have nothing to link other than art this week danngggggg

art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-10: Marathon, D&D

2026-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

I’m sorry to say but it was yet another big Gaming week this week. I generally have media consumption/hobby “seasons” and I guess right now I’m in a video game one because I’ve been doing it a lot recently!!!!

Marathon came out on thursday and I was peer-pressured into buying it but honestly???? Fun game. I feel like I Get It a lot more now, and the visual aesthetic/music/game-feel really keeps me sticking with it. I’m curious how I’ll feel in like, a month or two into the season, but I’m enjoying it so far! Also been playing a lot of Death Stranding 2, almost done with it this time! Will hopefully be done in one or two more sessions since it’s due back at the library very soon.

In very big nathan news which I’m sure I’ll talk about more in the next post, I bought a new phone……. truly a huge betryal for the iphone mini enjoyers out there, myself included, but the battery life was just so awful (even with a new battery) that I decided the small form factor just was not worth it when I was always worrying about my battery when going out. Like that time when I was in NYC and forgot an external battery and I was SO stressed. I don’t even use my phone that much (I average 2 hours per day) but sometimes I need it to last with a ton of usage!!! Like if I’m on vacation or even just going out all day and using maps a ton and taking photos. Review in next week’s notes 🙂‍↕️

On Saturday sean and I played D&D with some friends which was the first time I’ve played in probably a decade???? Like not since I was in college. Really fun!! It was my ideal style of D&D, very roleplay-light, mainly just storytelling and puzzle solving and fun, finely-tuned combat. We’re thinking of doing a 6-session campaign over the summer which I think would be a good time.

Bandcamp friday was this week!!!!!! Here’s what I got:

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

Evangelion 30th anniversary short (there’s english subs out there)
This full Pinkpantheress concert footage, I can’t wait to see her in a couple months!!!
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-09

2026-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

Big snowstorm again!!!!! This time it was blizzard conditions though I think the actual snow totals were less? Much heavier and wetter snow since it was a lot warmer, but that also means it’s already melting since it’s been above freezing for at least a little bit every day this past week (and much sunnier).

This was a big Gaming week, I started playing Overwatch again for the first time in 9 years (terrifying concept) and honestly???? pretty fun. It’s funny thinking about how when I first started playing that game right after launch I was really annoyed that there were no linear progression systems, only loot boxes. I was so used to playing games like Call of Duty or Destiny where you unlock new guns and cosmetics by playing and you can like, create goals to work towards in the game. But in (launch) Overwatch there was none of that, and I was always like “what’s even the point of playing if I’m not earning intrinsic rewards????”. I guess my complaint was answered maybe a bit TOO hard since now there’s loot boxes and a battle pass and a cosmetic shop and events and challenges lmao (like every other modern video game). But whatever I love a good cosmetic. It’s scary how fast I went from booting up the game to trying to justify buying a 25 dollar skin for a character I’d played twice.

Also got Death Stranding 2 from the library AGAIN. Played a few hours on Saturday just doing menial tasks but I think I’m finally ready to make plot progress in the game again lol. I also keep listening to this song in game, it’s so good……

I played the Marathon open beta on thursday and some more on sunday. I feel sooo conflicted on this game u_u I looooove the visuals and the Vibe but man I wish it was literally anything other than an extraction shooter. Like I don’t understand how “complete quest, get cool new gun as a quest reward, ‘ohhh i want to try out that new gun’, plays next game and is killed in seconds by someone I never see, can never use that gun again” is a fun loop??? It’s too bad because the enemy AI is shockingly good. Like super fun to fight against, and if this game was more similar to Borderlands or Destiny where it was a co-op PVE shooter that also had a dedicated PVP mode I would be SO into it. The second time playing I played it more like a BR, I only used the free loadouts and didn’t even touch any of my earned stuff and I had way more fun just not caring if I died or not. But at that point like…… why bother with the whole extraction thing I guess

Now that winter is ending (we’re probably entering fake spring soon before a return to cold weather, but we’ll see), I’ve really been taking advantage of it being not-horrible to be outside (like upper 30s to mid 40s) by actually going outside! yay! Went out with coworkers on thursday to chinatown for bubble tea and treats, friday went out for dinner and drinks with some other friends, and then saturday I went for a walk with olivia to enjoy the 48 and sunny weather and then went out for dinner and pinball with other friends, and then sunday my parents visited and then I got kaju with more friends! yayyyyy i love being social!!!!!!!

I know that Posting about social media is sooooo boring but I’ve been increasingly thinking about it again. I mean I’ve thought too much about it for like a decade at this point. But I keep thinking about how often I look at bluesky when I really get nothing of value from it???? I follow some artists there but they also all still post on twitter which also has every other artist i follow, as well as my really good “for you” algorithm that only shows me art. I don’t have the issue of needing to check my phone when I’m out with people or doing things, it’s just that I’m basically always on my computer otherwise and so the reflex to get that dopamine hit is way too strong. Though at the very least I haven’t logged into my main twitter in a while, like not in a few weeks I think? I can’t see myself deleting it as a “just in case” type thing, but I’ve felt zero draw to it. Maybe I should just unfollow anyone that’s not a mutual or artist on bluesky. That’d probably help me a lot!!!!!

Olivia and I were talking about the idea of “staying informed” via social media scrolling, and she was like “I used to get ragebaited by these ‘can you believe someone said this???’ type posts, but I started thinking, ‘if i’ve never heard someone say this in real life, i’m not going to read this’”. It’s like whenever I hear my friends or coworkers reference the “discourse” and it’s always some insane takes that I’ve never heard before I’m like “oh social media is truly so meaningless huh”. Like at this point despite being on social media a good amount I feel like I don’t really run into discourse ever which rules. Cannot imagine wanting to go back to that!

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

American Football - Bad Moons
- incredible new american football song, really really excited for their new album (and tour!)
Jorja Smith - The Way I Love You
- heard this at the bar I went to on thursday, bangerrrrr (they also played the salute jessie ware track, you love to see it)
TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA - Official Teaser
- Cannot wait for this new Jane Shoenbrun movie!!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-08

2026-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

Wrote most of this over the weekend but finishing it up during this big blizzard, my windows are completely covered by snow!! I can’t even see outside!!

Got my replacement earbuds, the Nicehck EB2S (green, 3.5mm, with inline mic)! Very affordable on aliexpress, a little over 30 dollars with shipping, and wow they sound so nice. Very clear and crisp, surprisingly open and wide soundstage, and very comfortable! Only real issue I have with them is that there’s a ton of sound leak, so I can’t reasonably use them in the office where it can get pretty quiet, but they’ll be perfect for at home or when walking around.

Okay so i watched the new Wuthering Heights movie, lol, lmao. i talk about it more in the review but man making the movie this horny but then not having any nudity is so crazy. I also watched GOOD movies this week, watched Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent to round out the oscar best picture noms this year. The Secret Agent (takes place in 1977 Brazil) really just reinforces my belief that more men need to be wearing tiny shorts and cropped shirts and open button-downs. That’s where men’s summer fashion peaked imo. No more of these terrible slim-fit shorts and way-too-long shirts!!!! stop it!!!

Also watched New Rose Hotel, an adaptation of a William Gibson short story that I read a few months ago (contained in Burning Chrome, which I bought at powell’s over the summer). Only knew this existed because I looked into Abel Ferrera’s works after seeing him in Marty Supreme. Fascinating movie!!! Really weird! Very dream-like filming style, combining film and video, long cross-dissolves, repeated voiceover and a really Chill soundtrack. Not sure if I really recommend it, but I think a certain type of person would love it (this means nothing)

A rare weekend with zero plans, I was originally going to go to a sweater popup sale with Steph but she had to cancel, so I just kinda stayed inside and did chores and read and watched movies all weekend!!!!!

Read:

Ex.Mag 6, Favorites: Little Astro by Hanna K, The Wind in Eternity by Genie Ink, The Body by Fiiishman, Aeon Orbit by Linnea Sterte & Gareth Damian Martin
PEOW 2 by Jane Mai, really good!! very funny!! Jane Mai rules I hope she writes another comic soon
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion (FINALLY), my ereader says it only took me a little over 3 hours so lmao @ me taking like 3 weeks to read it. It certainly was interesting! Did I enjoy it? Who knows!!! To be completely honest I started reading it because a girl on a dating app said she was and then she stopped responding to me right after I said I started reading it so,

Since I finished my current book and I totally don’t have multiple stacks of unread books on my desk, I walked to the harvard book store before the blizzard started to pick up On The Calculation of Volume 1, excited to read these so that mariah and i can read volume 4 when she visits~ yippee

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

Slyder - Score
- was listening to that most recent Burial single and i was curious if the distance trance arps were original or a sample, and it’s a sample!! the original song rules (could do without the moaning though lmao)
- because of this and others i’ve been listening to SO many songs from this youtube channel, really incredible resource full of stuff that is really hard to find outside of vinyl rips. i love trance music!!
new trailer for the witch hat atelier anime came out and it looks soooooooo good
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-07

2026-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

Okay I’m late posting this AGAIN because I had to read all of volume 3 of Gundam: The Origin for my manga book club. Really good manga btw!!!!! I got 2 volumes in and I was like “oh okay I get it now”. It’s been a lot warmer this past week (like actually above freezing) and it’s been soooooo nice. Spring will be so soon, I won’t have to wear my bomber literally every day! yippee!

Last week was another of fun socializing and ping pong, I played DDR for the first time since november and it’s soooo crazy how out of shape I am. Like last year I could play for 30-45 minutes straight without feeling too bad and I could barely make it through three (difficult) songs. I gotta get that pad back into my apartment and start playing again!!!! People love to talk about me biking as though it’s some form of strenuous exercise but it’s really just like going on a slightly long walk every day, not at all the 160bpm+ heartrate kind of activity that DDR is. Ping pong also, not super strenuous. I definitely work up a sweat (especially playing with Maham) but it’s not that bad. This week ramadan starts though which means I won’t be able to play ping pong with maham for a month u_u very sad about that

On Sunday it was sean’s birthday so we had a big Halo 3 LAN party which you can read about in way more detail here!!!! I love hanging out with my friends and playing video games together!! It’s crazy how that was so much of my childhood and teen years and even into college, and it only stopped when I graduated and my friends didn’t live like, in the same dorm as me lol. But I’m hoping to have a similar thing again soon with a bunch of my work friends, probably not just Halo since I don’t think most of them play FPS games and I don’t want to subject them to that, but I have sooooo many local multiplayer games that I love that are much more accessible! Towerfall, Videoball, Sportsfriends (if I re-buy a copy), etc. Towerfall specifically was a big hit at our work Extra Life event last november, like a bunch of people got really into it which was great to see.

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

How New York’s Phone Ban Saved High School
- this rules, no more phones!!!!
speaking of, I really liked this Becca Farsace video about leaving her phone at home
★ ぶいぶい〜
- cute art and cute website
Fred again.. & Jamie T - Lights Burn Dimmer (brandon’s night pt.3)
THE LUV BUGS, higma, 星宮とと / PAPERMOON（adomiori Remix）
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-06: Esther's Wedding!!!

2026-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

Actually writing this on a Sunday for once wowowowww, it’s soooo cold today and it snowed even more yesterday, but it’s supposed to finally go above freezing next week and i’m soooo excited. I watched more Buffy with Olivia today for the first time since november!! We’re a third of the way through the final season…. so close….. After we finish I’m going to make her watch The Tatami Galaxy i think, essential nathan and mariah media. Played more Death Stranding 2 afterwards, also a bit more of a third of the way though that, no way I’m going to finish it by the next library return date but as of right now there’s no one on the waitlist so maybe I can just auto-renew it??? hopefully!! On friday a chunk of ice fell through the skylight in the office so I guess tomorrow we have to wfh… tragic

On monday I went to go see Marty Supreme AGAIN (my third time) with some coworkers, this time in IMAX. Still really good on a third watch, I think this was the first time I’ve seen a movie in imax??? At least in my adult life, for sure. Do I think the imax really added anything to the experience? not really!! but whatever it was fun, and fun to discuss with people who hadn’t seen it yet (half really loved it, half hated it lmao)

On wednesday it was my birthday and I did nothing for it lmao. BUT!!!!!! coworker gabby drew me this wonderful illustration of me with hachiware :’)))))) I love it sooooo much :’)))))

Normally when I bike into work I don’t listen to music or anything since I want to be fully aware of the road around me. I probably could, it’s not like any of my earbuds block a lot of outside noise and I’m pretty much never using sound cues to navigate cars, really just listening for other bikers announcing passes, but since I’ve been taking the bus the last two weeks I’ve been listening to music on the commute in, and when getting off the bus I dropped my earbuds and stepped on them and they shattered u_u So I did some research into what to replace them with, since they’re good but there’s soooo many options out there, why not try something new? I went with the Nicehck EB2S which seem pretty nice, they review well and I love an aluminum shell vs the plastic MX500 style you usually see with flathead earbuds. Will post my review here whenever they arrive 🫡

Suit update, Saturday was my coworker Esther’s wedding!!!! It was soooo wonderful :’)))) I’ve never been to such a christian wedding before and I’m pretty sure her entire church community was in attendance, since whenever there was singing or praying involved I would glance around and my coworkers and I were the only ones not doing anything lmao. but it was so fun and a really great time and i always love hanging out with my coworkers 🙂‍↕️

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

this Chappell Roan Fortnite collab trailer is soooooo beautiful, incredible animation
Information–action ratio - Wikipedia
- often thinking about this
Lost on You by tigers jaw
- really liking all of the singles from this new Tigers Jaw album
really interested in these socks from yahae, whenever i see the kind of outfits in the product shots here it makes me want to dress like this (lots of linen, naturally dyed, black leather shoes)
- found via Dress like you live in Tokyo (winter edition) - YouTube
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-05: Something in the Way

2026-02-03T00:00:00+00:00

Okay so sunday night into monday we had one of the biggest snowstorms we’ve had in like a decade. We got like 17 inches I think??? Crazy. There’s a really wonderful day or two after it happens where there’s this great collective energy in the city with everyone shoveling it and clearing roads and everything kinda shuts down a little bit, but sadly it hasn’t gotten above freezing in the week since so none of it has melted, so bike lanes aren’t clear, tons of sidewalks are mostly cleared but going from the sidewalk to the street is impossible (or the “cleared” is just enough for your feet, not a stroller or wheelchair or anything else) so now it just gets kinda miserable lmaoooooo. I started going into the office via bus which is Fine but takes so long and if you miss the bus there’s a solid chance that it’ll be another 20 minutes until the next one. I miss biking!!!!!!!! Because of the snow I barely went into the office this week (only twice) which is wild to think that that used to be my normal. I’ve gotten so used to going in every day that not going in three days in a row makes me feel like I’m going crazy

Suit update!!!!!! On wednesday I biked to the tailors and got it fitted, the whole time the guy was just saying how well it already fit and how they didn’t need to do a lot, love to see it honestly!!! Like they didn’t even touch the pants or sleeves, just took in a bit in the back. Yay!!!! Only downside is I biked there and back and oh man those roads were NOT bikeable yet. I rode my older bike that has fenders on it and they instantly became packed with slush which was definitely worse than just riding without them, AND I had my suit and shirt and stuff in a tote that got wet from some road splash and I managed to stain my white shirt with dirt despite never even actually wearing it. Tragic.

When I got home I playtested my friend’s game again, it’s really coming along well! The vibe has changed which I think works for the better, less chaotic and more co-operative. Go sign up for the newsletter

It’s actually wild how much I’ve gotten into ping pong tbh……… thursday and friday I played for two hours after work, first with Maham and then with Snow. On friday Snow and I were playing a bunch and at one point she changed her grip (since she was trying to return some of the annoying serves I do) and immediately unlocked something within her and she got so good so fast. By the end of the night we were standing far from the table just whipping shots back and forth and it was sooooo fun. It’s gonna be so boring when I talk about ping pong every week on here because what even is there to say other than “yay it’s fun and i like hanging out with my coworkers” lol

Saturday and Sunday I went to Something in the Way fest 2026! Two day music festival with a ton of great bands. Was talking to my friend that I went with on saturday and honestly there wasn’t much of a theme really, like at first I thought it was just bands on Run For Cover Records but a bunch aren’t, and there was some genre overlap (lots of emo) but then Explosions in the Sky were the headliners for the first day which felt kinda out of place? But it was sooooo fun, so great to finally see The Hotelier live, and I really loved First Day Back on day two. Definitely will be going again next year~

tigers jaw

wicca phase springs eternal

first day back

citizen

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

Peterparker69 Oneman Live “yo,” - 2025.8.16 at Spotify O-EAST
- pp69 my beloved
【Official MV】ray 超かぐや姫！Version / かぐや (cv.夏吉ゆうこ)、月見ヤチヨ (cv.早見沙織) from #超かぐや姫！
- gorgeous MV for a song from Cosmic Princess Kaguya! directed by Shingo Yamashita
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-04

2026-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

Okay so this past week was pretty uneventful, which is fine!!!!! We had manga club on tuesday, talked about Tokyo These Days by Taiyo Matsumoto (the goat) which I really enjoyed. I need to read more of his stuff I think, I’ve had the first two volumes of Sunny for years and just never read it for some reason. It’s so funny to me how I can kinda blast through a volume of a comic/manga in like two hours and getting myself to start is the hardest part!!!

I played a bunch more Death Stranding 2, got about 1/3 of the way through but then I had to return it to the library (re-applied for a hold and I’m 5th so I’ll have it back soon). It’s kinda crazy how different the vibe in DS2 is compared to 1. Like it feels SO much like MGSV. I don’t have a ton to say that I didn’t say in my post last week, but I am curious to see how the plot works out. Like I think so much of what made DS1 work so well was the very dreary, melancholic tone combined with the story of bringing people out of isolation via the internet. DS2 has a way less melancholic tone and it seems like it’s more about bringing people out of isolation by being around other people, reconnecting IRL. Which would make sense based on the tagline “Should we have connected?”, at first I assumed that was like “maybe we shouldn’t have connected the chiral network (internet)” in the first one, but maybe it’s about the way we connected, virtually via the internet instead of in person???? We shall see………..

Was supposed to go on a date this week and she canceled the day of and then unmatched from me like 3 hours later, lol, lmao. Dating continues to be terrible but hey what else is new!!!

On a POSTIVE note, I’ve been playing a ton of ping pong in the office still :3c On friday Maham and Snow and I were doing rotating 1v1 games and it was probably the most fun I’ve had with it so far. I really feel like I’m getting the hang of my forehand and hitting fast, powerful shots. I ended up winning against Maham which was crazy!! When we were playing by ourselves earlier in the week she was like “I hope we don’t get bored of this” and I feel like one of the biggest things that has me enjoying it is that it’s an inherently social experience. Like you can’t play solo at all (unless you have one of those robot servers) so getting to hang out with someone while playing is basically all the motivator I need to keep going. AND it helps that she’s better than me so I have a target to work towards lol. Speaking of ping pong, A24 is selling the Marty Supreme table tennis balls so I think I have to buy some……

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

Weeknotes 26-03: Halo LAN party

2026-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

yippee pretty busy week this week!!!! i went out for dinner with some friends on tuesday to a place in chinatown that i had been to before and is really yommy and was put on the michelin list recently. probably deserved, it’s really good, thankfully it’s also very affordable and Normal, whenever i think of michelin restaurants i think of like….. places that have long waitlists and are expensive and have some ““concept”” that i often find silly. i went to go see No Other Choice on wednesday which ruled. my coworker described it as “the most HD movie” which i think i agree with. just something about how clear and saturated everything was. highly recommend!!!!

friday i had hot pot at sean’s friend’s house which ruled, i looooove hot pot, and doing it at someone’s house is such a vibe compared to at a restaurant where it’s really expensive. i think it was mariah that was saying she would have people over for hot pot and each person brings an ingredient which is a really good idea. i should totally have people over for hot pot………. afterwards we went to go see the new 28 years later movie which was really good!!!! very different than the first 28 years later, in a good way. no call of duty 360 no scope kill-cam shots, for better or worse

saturday was just a big chore day, i got my hair cut in the morning (it’s fine), then went to this fancy menswear store near me to get a shirt and tie for the wedding i’m going to. ended up spending more money than i wanted to but the guy was really nice and i’m kinda paying for the experience a little bit (and both items being made in the US/Italy). but that’s the last thing i need for this suit i think???? i really need to bring it to a tailor next week since i’m quickly running out of time 😵‍💫

i played some more death stranding 2, it’s kinda crazy how much more i like 2 than 1. like 1 was cool, it had a Vibe to it, but i couldn’t stand how much every character is talking at you and how devoid of life the game felt. which i know is kinda the point but still!!!! doesn’t make for a fun experience. DS2 on the other hand feels so much nicer in general. both way more fun as a game and also the plot is both compelling enough and also presented in a way that just feels way more palatable. like they really get to the point a lot faster, immediately give you stuff to do in combat, etc. i most certainly will not be finishing by the time my library borrow is up, but there’s not a ton of people on the waitlist right now so i’ll likely get it back within a couple of weeks.

can check

sunday was sean’s Halo 3 LAN party test run!!!!!! we had like 10 people over, spread out across four xboxes, all hanging out and playing halo. super fun, just such a great reminder how wonderful it is to play video games in person with people. like i know board game nights are the Thing among 30 year olds, but people need to be doing video game nights too!!!! they scratch a totally different itch than board game nights do, especially when everyone already knows how to play the game (or when there’s a nice mix like at this one). hopefully this will be the start of a trend among our friends to do more of these!!

yommy food check

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

I Promised The World - Emerald Waltz
- love this whole new EP, great classic 2000s metalcore (but new)
This Frieren Season 2 ED is so gorgeous, completely solo-animated by one person using colored pencils
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 26-02: Resurrection, ping pong

2026-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

omg how embarassing it’s the second week in a row where I forgot to write this by monday, I only remembered when mariah messaged me at like 10:30 last night and I was too sleepy to put any effort into it. Did I do anything particularly interesting? Who’s to say!

While I haven’t been reading a ton recently, I did have a wild parasocial relationship moment with one of my favorite musicians, since for the last year+ most of his online presence is just posting book covers on instagram of whatever he’s reading, and when he posted about Notes of a Crocodile I was like “whatever i’m just gonna message him to say that I appreciate his taste in books” and he responded and we had a brief conversation about it!! Kinda cool to me!!! It’s funny how back in high school I would have zero issue with messaging people on the internet that I thought were cool and now I would pretty much never do that. I know the online landscape has changed considerably in the last decade but mannnnn sometimes it still does good things!

I finally bought my new ping pong paddles and I’ve been playing a LOT at work. Like two days last week I played for an hour and a half after 5pm. It’s taken a minute to really get used to the new style (before we only had hardbat and then really old modern style ones that had zero grip or sponge left), but I’ve gradually been really getting it. It’s great having a fun activity that is a) not computer-based, b) a good opportunity for conversation, and c) a good source of exercise (my favorite kind, cardio). While I love biking, it requires that everyone involved has a bike, AND unless you’re on a trail it kinda sucks to talk while biking. And best of all it’s completely free for me to play :3c

On monday I went to go see Resurrection, absolute banger film, highly recommend. Incredibly gorgeous, great music, and a really great performance from Jackson Yee. The 30 minute one-take final section is worth seeing it alone imo, not only a cool segment on its own, but once you realize it’s in one-take seeing all of the coreography gets even more impressive

Went on a date on saturday at my favorite coffee/tea place and it was Okay but I already know I will not be hearing from her again lmao! Oh well! Dating consistently feels very bleak but I at least feel like I’m finally getting better at it at least ?? hopefully (after re-reading this sentence, the idea of “getting better at dating” feels sooooooo insane to me, as someone who has only ever had relationships that developed out of pre-existing friendships. probably why the whole thing feels so bizarre to me)

I also picked up Death Stranding 2 from the library after I’ve been on hold for a couple months, but I only have two weeks to play the entire game which will notttt happen, so I’ll just have to put myself back on the waitlist when it runs out to be able to finish it in another couple of months lol

Over the weekend I got to hang out with Sean’s friends twice, once for a post-holiday party where we discussed 2026 goals (of which I have very few!) and had everyone listen to our favorite songs of the year. My picks were hey phone by peterparker69, ack! by lanpage, and what is forever for by frost children, all great songs imo!!!!!!!! They’re big Social Event hosters which rules, I love it, my schedule is full and I am thriving

Crazy coincidence that happened there, I was talking to one of their friends that I hadn’t met before and I mention where I work, and she is immediately like “oh do you know [coworker’s name]?” and she went on to say that she was her classmate in college. Which makes sense, we’ve had lots of interns and freelancers from their school. BUT!!!!! When I talked to that coworker after, she brought up her instagram and I realized that I had bought art from her at an art show last year LOL. Crazy!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been slacking on playing guitar recently which I’ll blame on having too much fun with friends but I know it’s also partially because of too much social media time as always. Saying this here just to hold myself accountable i guess~

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

Ryan Hemsworth - Body Pillow (feat. Ricky Eat Acid)
fun conversation with josh safdie and chloé zhao, their energies (both in this interview and in their movies) could not be more different, yet they vibe and bounce off each other really well anyway. had no idea josh safdie was so into new age stuff
love everything becca farsace does, but i really appreciate her consistently talking about how you shouldn’t buy new tech, and something a few years old will be just as good and much cheaper, not to mention preventing more e-waste. always great to see from a tech youtuber
art i liked!!!
- 湯浅政明
- 全日制
- 연필
- fucca
- キクラク

Weeknotes 26-01: Poro-chan, Ikea, Marty pt.2

2026-01-06T00:00:00+00:00

omg how embarassing I totally forgot to write this until today LOL well whatever it’s not that interesting anyway. Work has been pretty slow this past week, as to be expected with everyone on vacation still, but also because both of my projects are in a bit of a client feedback/wrapping up phase.

I went to Porter Robinson’s new years eve eve DJ set which is the 10th time I’ve seen him live!!!! Soooooo fun, really great track selection, including one of my favorite songs of the year :3c By the end of the night I was really close to this guy recording the entire thing so you can watch all of it if you want!!! It got out at 2am which is so late for me and I was sooooo sleepy yet of course could not fall asleep until like after 3. Ran into a friend from college there which was super cool and unexpected, the last time I saw him was when I saw Porter in brooklyn many years ago haha

For actual New Year’s Eve I went to the local pinball place for a little bit, and then some other friends wanted me to go to a bar so I went since it was only like a 15 minute walk away, but when I got there they were at capacity and not letting more people in so I just went home lmao yayy. On the way there I stopped into my apartment to grab earplugs because I went to the same place last year and it was unbelievably loud. I think I preferred the vibes at the pinball place tbh………

I didn’t do much the rest of the week, my copy of Stop!! Hibari-kun! finally arrived so I read all of that. Both pretty funny and charming and also has aged kinda horribly, as to be expected of a manga from the 80s about a trans woman. But Hisashi Eguchi is one of the best ever so at least it has some really nice art!!!

Saturday I went to Ikea with Sean and we got some new rugs and lamps, both of which the apartment has really needed. Every year I get a bonus at work and I stress out about what to spend it on so it’s nice to force myself to actually buy something instead of just forgetting about it in my bank account!

After Ikea we watched Uncut Gems since Sean had never seen it. It’s funny rewatching that after seeing Marty Supreme and realizing just how small it feels in comparison, and nowhere near as stressful as I remembered!!!! Sunday we went to go see Marty Supreme, my second time. Banger movie honestly

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

kegøn - J-J POP (feat. Saren)
Yi Yi (2000)
- incredible film, highly recommend, honestly essential viewing. will absolutely be buying the 4K blu-ray when it comes out soon so I can make everyone I know watch it
art i liked!!!

2025 Favorites

2026-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

2025 was pretty good overall!!! I had a great trip to Japan to start the year and it was fun visiting mariah over the summer. I didn’t achieve either goal I set out for myself, but whatever!! Next year I hope to lean a little more creative and less consumptive and spend less time scrolling twitter, but I’m also not going to be too hard on myself about it because whateverrrrrrrrr

Hobbies and things I got into

Got really into watching movies more this year, with 107 watched!! It’s been fun really keeping up with new releases and also filling in the gaps of stuff I’ve wanted to watch for a long time but haven’t
Picked up guitar again after encouragement from one of my coworkers. Trying a different approach by following youtube tutorials instead of Rocksmith and honestly I feel much more confident with it already!
Weeknotes has been really nice, it’s basically entirely replaced Posting to me, even if it’s not 100% the same thing, I still felt the desire to post but bluesky just wasn’t doing it for me, for some reason. Also no better feeling than posting a weeknote post and having one of my friends message me about some part of it!! Much more satisfying than likes
Ever since we got a ping pong table at work I’ve been really into it, many days after work I’ll play for over an hour with one or a few of my coworkers. It’s surprisingly good exercise!!! Especially since I’m running all over the office to get balls that fly past me lmao. I’m sure part of this interest comes from the Gear aspect of the sport, like there’s so many types of rubbers and things to research, but it helps that it’s very easily accessible and now that I’ve bought a paddle, free to play

Movies

Top 2025 releases list is here, these are favorites I watched for the first time this year!!

I watched a couple of Paul Thomas Anderson movies this year in preparation for One Battle After Another and I had one of those “wow why have I not watched these sooner” moments with both of them. Really excited to dig more into his films next year! I watched In the Mood for Love with Mariah when I was visiting her and I absolutely adored it!!!! Which to my surprise, when I watched Chungking Express, I just could not get into it?? The style felt so different and in a way that I just could not connect with. I’m so curious about other Wong Kar Wai movies now and which of the two they more align to. Got to see Linda Linda Linda in theaters which I had never seen before, really loved it.

A Better Tomorrow
Boogie Nights
Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc
Cocoon: Aru Natsu no Shoujo-tachi yori
Collateral
Hamnet
In the Mood for Love
Infernal Affairs
La Chimera
Linda Linda Linda
Love Letter
Magnolia
Marty Supreme
Nemurubaka
One Battle After Another
Ping Pong
Shoplifters
Strange Days
Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald

Albums

Afternoon Bike Ride - Running With Scissors
Baths - Gut
caroline - caroline 2
Ethel Cain - Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You
F5ve - Sequence 01 + deluxe version
Frost Children - SISTER
La Dispute - No One Was Driving the Car
Ninajirachi - I Love My Computer
Oklou - choke enough
Peterparker69 - yo,
RAY - White
Skrillex - hit me where it hurts x
tennyson - aka

Songs

Bandcamp playlist with a bunch of these songs!

Afternoon Bike Ride - Miss Universe
Caroline - total euphoria
Ethel Cain - Dust Bowl
f5ve - I Choose You
Frost Children - WHAT IS FOREVER FOR
ISOxo - FUCK THE SPEAKERZ UP
Jonah Yano - Homerun 2021
LanPage - ack!
Lil Texas & Irradiate - Highs in my Dreams
NMIXX - Blue Valentine
Oklou - blade bird
Overmono - Paradise Runner
Peterparker69 - Hey phone
Quadeca - Monday
Skrillex - voltage (see you again)
Static Dress - face.
Tourist - Outside
初星学園 - サンフェーデッド
高木正勝 - Marginalia #209

Concerts

I went to 22 this year, the most I have in one year! I saw Porter Robinson three times technically, which is really funny to me, and both Maruja and Haru Nemuri twice. Really glad I got to see ExWHYZ while we were in Tokyo with the announcement that they’re disbanding in 2026 :’)

My favs

Wavedash w/ hirihiri, lilbesh ramko, NUU$HI, Heaven’s Gate Crew @ Circus Tokyo
Porter Robinson w/ Galileo Galilei @ Tokyo Garden Theater
ExWHYZ w/ Haru Nemuri @ Shinjuku Loft
Baths w/ Fashion Club @ The Rockwell
Ichiko Aoba w/ Hayden Pedigo @ Berklee Performance Center
Godspeed You! Black Emperor @ Roadrunner
BLADEE w/ ripsquadd @ Roadrunner
Lamp @ House of Blues
Frost Children w/ Peterparker69 @ The Sinclair
Porter Robinson (DJ Set) @ Big Night Live

Books

I started off the year blasting through a couple of these, but Never Let Me Go and The Housekeeper and the Professor slowed my reading to a halt. Second year in a row of reading 12 books, I hopefully can at least keep pace next year!! Not that the number itself is what matters, but it’s nice being able to read a good amount per year since my taste has been both broadened and solidified. Mariah has been getting me more and more into NYRB published literary fiction, and Stoner is easily one of my favorites I read this year!!!!!

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
The City & The City by China Mieville
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Bunny by Mona Awad
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
The Anthropologists by Aysegül Savas
Stoner by John Williams
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

Video Games

I barely played any games this year, but I did enjoy the ones I played!

Animal Well
- a perfect puzzle platformer type game, really fantastic puzzle and level design, great art style, highly recommend
To a T
- cute and fun!!!!! while i wasn’t fully sold on where the plot ended up going, i really loved this. i hope keita takahashi can keep making games
Deltarune Chapters 3 & 4
- okay chapter 3 i admit i was not super into, but chapter 4 brought me back into it and i’m very curious where this plot is leading
Peak
- Peak is peak, a perfect friendslop game, i finally reached the peak in a run and it’s immensely satisfying
Despelote
- really cool autobiographical game, shocked by how invested i got in the world cup results by the end lol

Art on the internet

I looooooooove illustration I love art yay yay yay

Weeknotes 10: Chrimbus

2025-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

Whoaaaaa it’s christmas time! I had two pretty leisurely days at work this week before having two days off to see the family. Tuesday I baked two batches of cookies for my dad’s gift, the eggnog snickerdoodles I made last week and the broma baking chocolate chip cookies using tcho chocolate. Soooooo good, super rich, highly recommend. I gotta bake with browned butter more often since I don’t have a mixer lol.

Suit update!!!!! The first one that arrived (and the smallest) seems to fit the best! The other two, which are both 42Ls are wayyyyy too long, but the 40R fits perfectly. I guess I have a short torso? I’ll probably sell the other two! Not a bad deal really, here I was prepared to spend like 600 dollars and I got away with effectively only spend like 150 (and probably closer to 75 after I re-sell the other two)

I’m almost done with The Summer Book, I read more of it on the train and I only have a couple chapters left!! Really nice, though I kinda wish I had read something else first only because I’ve been reading a lot of “short vignettes” type books recently, with The Anthropologists and Burning Chrome. Maybe I’ll finally read one of the books I bought in california/oregon next!!!! I was going to read more of it at my parent’s house but my brother and I started watching A Better Tomorrow (and did not finish it, i finished it the next day when i got home) and that movie rules!!!!! Real Dudes Rock cinema.

Speaking of Dudes Rock cinema, Jonah and I went to see Marty Supreme which owned. Already have plans to see it again next week lmao. Okay I mean it’s not really “Dudes Rock” in that Marty kinda sucks but it has that energy, you know. makes me want to get into ping pong even more even though that is not at all what the movie is really about

The weekend was pretty leisurely, I was doing Adult Things like setting up a roth IRA which I guess I should have set up years ago????? Since there’s a maximum annual contribution limit???? Oh well whatever I have enough in savings where I can fully fund it for a few years. So uh thanks to my brother for judging me for having too much money in a savings account lol. I found these videos (1, 2, 3) from The Money Guy to be pretty helpful in explaining their whole deal, and they do a nice job of like, reassuring you that it’s never too late to think about it and all that. yay

I went on a Date on sunday which was nice!!!! She lived in Taiwan for a while which is yet another sign that I should go there on vacation……. Afterwards I re-watched Baby Driver with michael, which I enjoyed more this time I think. The first like, 25 minutes alone are pretty flawless. Also been playing more Death Stranding and I think I’m back to where I was the first time I tried playing it, this time in significantly less time (I’m not really bothering building out the roads, before I was like “well I need to complete the road before I get to the next area” which takes forever). I’m only 4 spots away for my DS2 library hold so I gotta speed it up I think

next weeknotes will be in the new year, so i’ll probably do a combo “year/media review” type thing. i might change my numbering to reset for 2026 also. maybe!!!!

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

Weeknotes 9: Pre-christmas, guitar

2025-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

Last week before The Holidays start, though they kinda already did since I had my work holiday party on thursday and my friend party on saturday~!

But first, on tuesday, we had the manga club meeting and read a not-manga, For Your Murder. Pretty compelling plot, got me thinking about what I like in this type of story, and I think I mostly just enjoy a good detective procedural more than anything, it had me thinking of Manhunter a lot and how much I love that tension of like, “will they figure it out in time????”

I’m going to a wedding in february and so I’ve finally had to buy a suit, I’ve been researching and looking at options, and me being me I reallllllyyy didn’t want to buy something bad or of cheap quality (and I’m such a hater of modern suit tailoring), and since they’re an expensive piece of clothing regardless that means I went to ebay. I bought three that are all pretty similar in sizing, but all different enough where hopefully at least ONE fits really well, or at least close enough where alterations can do the rest. Three ebay suits was only 150 dollars which is like 1/4 less than I was ready to pay so even after alterations that’ll be a great deal lmao (especially for something I’ll wear at most once per year).

Now that it’s winter I’m back to engaging with my hobbies, and with the encouragement of one of my coworkers I’m back into learning guitar!!!!!!! She recommended Marin Music Center on youtube and his style rules, super entertaining but I feel like I’m still really learning stuff. I previously used Rocksmith which, while cool, felt a bit too much like I was learning how to play rocksmith rather than actually learning how to play guitar. Like I wasn’t focusing on how I sounded, just on if I was getting a good score. So now I’m doing my IIDX method of not sticking with any one song to learn and instead hopping around to a bunch that sound interesting, returning to earlier ones when I feel like it, and ideally I’ll be better at it by practicing a lot in general and gaining that breadth of skill. Some I’m learning!!!! Covet by Basement, In The Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, When The Sun Hits by Slowdive

Thursday I had my work party!!!!! It’s kinda far from the office, so some of us took the commuter rail in which was kind of a Vibe, I love hanging out with my coworkers so it was very fun :’)))) I baked the NYT eggnog snickerdoodle cookies (thank you mariah!!!!!!) and I was soooooo stressed about them but I had four people compliment them so I’m pleased with the results. I’ll make them again because what else am I going to use rum extract in ………

Friday after work some coworkers and I played ping pong for 2 hours… crazy. Then we got dinner at a new-to-us place near our work that was sooooo yommy. Got indian butter chicken, I need to go again tbh

Then saturday was the annual friend christmas party!!!!!! Connor and I started it many years ago and it’s just kept going, with last year’s being the most people that came, and thankfully this year’s was slightly smaller, but it’s so hard narrowing down who to invite with how many friends we want to invite u_u a terrible problem to have lmao. But it was really fun and great to see so many people, including some that I don’t get to see too often. yayyyyyyy

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

TDJ’s A State of Trance mix
Any Austin’s “How Many Trees Are There in Skyrim?”
Nemurubaka, really nice movie directed by Yugo Sakamoto my beloved (director of baby assassins)
art i liked!!!

Weeknotes 8: Video games, snow

2025-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

I’ve been playing Halo 3 (MCC) a good amount the last few months, and a couple weeks ago sean and I played Call of Duty Black Ops (2? I forget) and I joked that it would awaken something in me, bringing out my old COD-playing self. So obviously I bought Battlefield 6 which immediately scratches that itch, but thankfully I don’t feel as I once did playing COD4 in high school (lmao). It’s fun though!!! I haven’t played a Battlefield since 3 on the PS3, but this one feels like a middleground between that and later COD games in terms of TTK and speed. The sound design is unreal and combined with the visual effects it really sells the chaos that the larger-scale fights can be. I can’t see myself really getting into it the way I used to (that would require a constant group of friends to play with I think) but I’m enjoying my time with it!! Also full disclosure, I would not have bought this game at full price, but I have a friend who works at EA so I got it for 11 dollars.

Speaking of video games, my work’s game club wrapped up our previous game, Junkbot Undercover, the lego flash game from 2003, and now our next one is What Remains of Edith Finch which I’m excited to play again! I’ve already played it 3 or 4 times, but it’s been a while so it’ll be nice revisiting it I think. Kind of a perfect narrative video game to me, honestly. Short and relatively small in scope, but engaging mechanically where each section feels unique. While obviously very different, it feels like it comes from the same design mentality as something like Inside, where each section has a dedicated mechanic that’s introduced, and then not repeated later. The fish scene!!!!!! Iconic!!!!!

Speaking of video games again, on thursday I went to the pinball Howdy Partner event (co-op team-based pinball) which was fun! And the best part was that being there forced me to not pay attention to The G*me Aw*rds at all, a thing that I think deserves no attention from anyone, though I regrettably end up watching almost every year because I’m on my computer and my friends will want to talk over it while we watch together. I haven’t even watched the trailers that came out from it lol

It snowed over the weekend for the first time this winter, so I got dinner with some of sean’s friends and we got yummy tofu soup n_n

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

One of my favorite Marginalias recently
good post about the game awards
[HOONIGAN] Gymkhana 2025: Aussie Shred
- obsessed with this honestly, i loooooove these videos, been watching since the second one in 2009
i have no actual use for a calendar but i love a rotating artwork on my wall, so i got the mebachi calendar for 2026 (not actually on the wall, but still nice)
cute art i saw!!

Weeknotes 7: BC Friday, MICE, BFIG

2025-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

Okay last week’s post was sooooooo lazy but I’ll just say it’s because this week was so busy!! Monday Sean and I got our christmas tree for the year! I’m generally a winter holiday Hater but I do love having a real tree inside, every day I’ve gotten home and it smells soooooo good inside.

Some friends and I had a discord manga book club going for most of the year, but we all fell off over the summer for various reasons, but we had our first (mostly unplanned) meeting back finally :’))))))) really glad to be back doing it!!!!! And I’m next pick after this one and I have some Ideas :3c (probably something Taiyo Matsumoto)

Wednesday I went out with some friends to get dinner and play pinball which was nice !! Thursday I had a ticket to see Claire Rousay but it was SO cold that once I got home I really could not be convinced to leave the house. If I was going with someone else or something I’m sure I would have gone, but I could not motivate, so instead I stayed inside and watched Shoplifters finally, which I really loved. It was announced that Hirokazu Kore-eda is directing a Look Back adaptation which feels like a perfect fit, really excited to watch that

Friday was Bandcamp Friday and since everyone was posting their Sp*tify W*pped I had to mentally offset it by actually paying musicians ha ha

What I got!!!!!

Oxygen by Lontalius
- lovely track as always from lontalius :’)
el prado by ann annie
- found via youtube algo rec because of the nice album art, the music matches it well!
portrait of a dog by Jonah Yano
- one of those albums that i listened to once and enjoyed, but then came back a few months later and was like “oh wait i love this”, been listening to his stuff a bunch recently
Tranquilizer by Oneohtrix Point Never
- really good OPN album!!
Animaru by Mei Semones
- oh hey i posted about this a few weeks ago
goodbye, world! by miffle
- oh hey i posted about this last week
Racing Mount Pleasant by Racing Mount Pleasant
- i think sean would call this RYM-core but it’s good!
After EP 2 by After
- was already into a couple of tracks on this but when i heard Baroque i knew i had to immediately buy
Diamond Cut / Bby by Overmono
Music Is Invisible by Tourist
- i fully embrace this trance revival i’m seeing!!!!

I saw Wicked 2 (For Good) with a bunch of coworkers after work and it was Fine lol

Saturday was my favorite day of the year, MICE day!!! As I always say, the best thing to do with a paycheck is to immediately give it to artists. Went with some friends (planned) and ran into some coworkers (one kinda planned, one not) which is so fun :’)

the haul

A Liang Chan
- didn’t get anything from this artist because they were doing a talk for the hour I was on the show floor which suuuuuucks because I realized later that they aren’t selling the prints I wanted online
Ash S: let’s get burgers sticker sheet
- love Let’s Get Burgers, which was recommended by my friend Jane
Peow2: yoichi nishikawa art book
- Jane Mai was there….. she’s so cool…………….
Minha Lee: b&w zine bottom left
- gorgeous textures on this zine, also hand numbered/stamped which was fun
molar: sticker sheet in the top left
- sooo nathan-core
endokidd: zine in the center
- former intern at my work!!!! i also got a funny sticker not in the photo
snailsprite: print in the top right
- love this!!!

I REALLY need to buy some frames for the prints that don’t have frames (or frames that are the wrong size) and actually hang them up, I took down the ones on my walls recently and just never replaced them because a couple of the frames I got didn’t end up fitting the prints I had super well

Afterwards we went out to get dinner and stopped by a bookstore where I got The Summer Book by Tove Jansson since I just finished my last NYRB book. Mariah was rapid-fire texting me author names to see if the store I was in had any of them and 90% of them was no until she named Tove Jansson and I recognized the cover lol. We went to two japanese grocery stores on that street and the entire time I was like “ohhhhhh why do no stores have a hot drink shelf where they sell warm canned drinks!!!!” crazy living in a city where it’s cold for like 5 months of the year and we somehow haven’t figured out this technology????

Then Sean and I went to my friend’s birthday party which was super fun! I knew some people there but I got to meet her cool grad school friends (bonded with one of them over our love of white monster) and I stayed a lot later than I expected but it was fun so it was worth it

On Sunday I went to a coworker’s place for brunch and she made homemade bagels and they were sooooo good and yommy, I took a photo but my camera app didn’t save the photo so you’ll just have to believe me. After that I went to BFIG which I haven’t been to since maybe like 2015?? Which was extra funny seeing a game there that I remember seeing at the last BFIG I went to lmao. BUT I was mostly there to support friend and former coworker Owen and the game he’s currently making as a mostly-solo dev!!!!! Go sign up for his newsletter that exists just to email people when it goes up on steam, it’s fun trust me

Oh also on the way to BFIG I got the new winter edition red bull and it’s my favorite seasonal flavor of theirs in a verrrry long time, I will definitely be picking some more up soon

When I got home I watched 28 Years Later which was way different than I expected, really good though!! Even if the Call of Duty 360 headshot kill compilation camerawork was hilarious at times lmao

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

this guy’s outfits, those EG pants are so sick, i should get some……
some nathan-core art from the last week
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Weeknotes 6: New art books

2025-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

With the import tariffs I’ve almost completely stopped my art book purchasing, but there was a CD I wanted so I thought I’d make the most of it and import some other art books I’d been looking at!! The fees weren’t that bad, 19 dollars on a 58 dollar order, which basically cancels out any savings I’d have gotten by the yen being weak. Not happy about it but it could have been worse!!

Art by, in order:

I fed Jonah’s cat during thanksgiving!!!!

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

Saw Hamnet in theaters, really really beautiful movie!!!!
Finally got around to watching Ping Pong (2002), 13 years after I first learned about it lmao. Why did I wait this long???? This movie rules??? Ping Pong: The Animation is one of my favorite things ever so obviously this was also good
goodbye, world! by miffle, really nice tape-loop ambient album, reminds me of ricky eat acid
Finished reading Stoner by John Williams, sooooooo good, glad I finally got around to this one

Wishlist

2025-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

A consistently-updated list of things that I want to buy, gift ideas, etc! Bold things are at the top of my list

Gift Cards

Bandcamp
- This is 100% my favorite place to get music these days, DRM-free downloads and streams, merch, supports artists, etc! Here’s some specific albums I want: Bandcamp wishlist
AMC Theaters

Things/Clothing

Loose leaf teas
- Broken Cup Teahouse <- my favorite!!! really good oolongs
- Jade Leaf oolong/black teas <- second favorite! really love the formosan wild and red jade 18
- Mem Tea
clothing
- Alpaca Woven Scarf - Industry of All Nations
- Brut Best Sweat, heather grey (M)
- Genevive Sweeney sweaters (M)
  - Brown
  - Off-white
  - Green
- Dehen 1920 Heavy Duty Tee (M or L, any color)
- Nishiguchi Kutsushita socks (large)
tech/camera
bike stuff
other
- Penco Drafting Writer Ballpoint Pen - 0.5mm (Silver)

Books

Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams
Masks by Fumiko Enchi
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
The Outdoor Archive
Illustration Making & Visual Book: Itsuka Illustration Works Itsu no Hi ka
Asupara Art Book: A collection of illustrations that capture moments 2015-2023
Clubbed: a visual history of UK club culture
Parks – Standards Manual
Apartamento Tokyo Style, Kyoichi Tsuzuki

Comics

Prints

I have a to-buy list on inprnt, i love all of these!

Video Games

Armored Core VI (PS4)
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PS4)
Spyro Reignited Trilogy (PS4)

Blu-rays/DVDs

[A Brighter Summer Day (1991) The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/28596-a-brighter-summer-day)
[Yi Yi (2000) The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/781-yi-yi)
Criterion: The World of Wong Kar Wai
Kizumonogatari
Eureka Seven
Gunbuster

Weeknotes 5: Pops, ping pong

2025-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

Okay not a lot to talk about this week, it’s starting to actually get cold which I love for my Fits since I can finally wear all of my fun sweaters (BUT it’s so hot in my office that I really can’t which is so sad u_u like it should not be 75 indoors in the winter!!! That’s too hot!!!) After getting my 3sixteen RS-100xk they’ve kinda ruined how all of my other pants fit to me, I think I have to also get them in black because I’m wearing these too much

Another week of going to the casual Pops Pinball tourament, this time I actually did kind of okay! It was “price is right” rules so you had to get as close to the target score on each machine as possible, some of which were comically low (like 250 million on Attack From Mars, which you could easily get without even trying). A few I got really close to getting first place and then I would either just barely go over, or the other people I played with were just That much better and would knock me down a few ranks. It was really fun though!!!!!

I know it’s the like, stereotypical startup thing, but my office got a ping pong table a couple weeks ago and some of us have been setting it up and playing on fridays and it’s honestly kinda wild how fun it is. Literally feeling like Smile whenever I get a good point off lmao. My dumb reddit hobby brain is immediately like “I need to get really into this and spend money” but I definitely Do Not need to do that

Made one of my favorite foods, the soda bread my mom often makes, for Sean’s friend’s friendsgiving on saturday and it turned out shockingly well!!!! It’s pretty flat, I think when I make it again I need to use an actual mixer, but it tasted exactly as it should and I’m very pleased with it :’)))) So much better than my previous attempts at making any kind of bread LOL (I think the lack of yeast helped)

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

huuuuuge week for music for me
been listening to this NMIXX track a bunch recently
about halfway through Stoner by John Williams, really enjoying it!!

Weeknotes 4: Frost Children, Death Stranding, handlebar swap

2025-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

Okay I was out Having Fun monday night, unexpectedly, so I’m writing this tuesday morning in bed before work yay

Saw Frost Children and peterparker69 this week!!!! Both so good live, honestly so impressed that Frost Children played for a full 90 minutes with how high energy they were the entire time. Peterparker69 (only Jeter was there) was great, really fun hearing their tracks adapted to a live show setting (blending the original of loloi into the aamourocean remix for example), though sad that they didn’t have any merch! Danny Brown came out to perform his verse on Shake It Like A which was sooooooo cool, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a show with a surprise guest like that??? (wait that’s not true, when I saw Wavedash in Tokyo and Porter Robinson came out for the last 30 minutes)

peterparker69

I started (re-)playing Death Stranding, I played about 20 hours of it a while ago on Game Pass but since I don’t have that anymore I had to restart on my PS4. While I wasn’t huge into it when I played the first time, I realllllly want to play DS2 so, maybe I’ll like it more this time????? I feel like I’ve been really aware of just how much live-service games I’ve been playing (Fortnite, Skate, Halo Infinite (though rip lol)) which is great as a vehicle for socializing, but I’ve been craving a more singular experience in games. Like I’ve been playing Fortnite on and off for over three years, I just need something new!!!

Finally did a handlebar swap on my orange bike! I did most of it myself, but when I got to the point where I needed to thread the brake cables, I realized that the brakes I bought needed the brake cables to be installed new, brake levers first and then through the rest of the housing, which I didn’t have the tools for myself, so I brought it to a shop where they charged almost the entire cost of the parts I bought to install the brakes 😭 oh well!!!!! So much better now :’)

Went to my second Pops Pinball tournament this week, it was split flipper where you pair up with someone and one of you uses the left flipper, and the other person uses the right, which is fun~ I got out in two rounds, which is as fastest you could get out lmao. But it was fun! As sean always says, it’s just as much about the socializing and a good excuse to hang out with people and get out of the house! I went out for dinner with sean’s pinball friends twice this weekend and while I can’t see myself ever caring about tournament results or joining league, the casual tournaments are a fun excuse to hang out with them!

yommy

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

This Mei Semones album that I had seen around but never actually listened to, really good!
15delicious’s very cute art (i gotta make my “fav artists” post sometime soon)
f5ve’s new deluxe version of their album with three new really good tracks on there

Weeknotes 3: Skate, Extra Life

2025-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

I finished playing the Skate 4 (“skate.”)… campaign? Missions I guess? Not even sure how much you can say one can “finish” an early access video game, but there’s certainly very little to do in the game now at this point. Really feels emblematic of the current states of Big video games, a pretty popular game series finally gets the sequel that everyone wanted, but it’s a free-to-play skinner box treadmill with horrible writing, no soul, and so full of bugs that I’m shocked it shipped like this, even in early access. Did I enjoy my time with it? Sure. Can I see myself going back to it for any reason other than as a mindless hangout vehicle for conversation game? Not really!!! And that’s super disappointing since I was a big fan of Skate 2!!

The one upside to it being a live service game is that theoretically they could update it further down the line to patch in everything the game is missing, but I kinda can’t imagine it will when so much of what it’s lacking is fundamental design choices (like all of the art direction and level design). Like where’s the low, fisheye lens camera? Where’s the blown out lighting and camera shake?? Where’s the variety in environments??? OH WELL

It’s kinda crazy going on youtube and watching videos of Skate 2 and remembering just how interesting the level design was in that game. Such a huge variety of environments that flowed together so well, like being up in the mountain area and bombing a hill down into the city is so sick, or the tunnels that lead to the school area, so cool!!!! The entire Skate 4 map just being a city downtown isn’t interesting at all.

A few days after writing the above, I got a copy of Skate 2 in the mail for PS3, so much of it feels like a relic from 2009 (the wild FMV intro, the bloom and blown out highlights, the weird way it handles player gender (by simply always using male pronouns)) but there’s such a strong hook and the way that it just throws you right into the game without a really long tutorial is nice. Not to mention, I think there’s something cool about not having every inch of the map covered in challenges. It makes you see areas the game itself isn’t pointing out and makes you want to skate it, adding a sense of discovery. I’ll probably just keep replaying Skate 2 instead of going back to 4, unless someone wants to play multiplayer I guess

Speaking of video games, I started playing Stray Children which I think I’m enjoying? The art and world and music are really nice, but not being able to quick-retry a fight is really annoying when the whole combat system is figuring out the puzzles, but you aren’t always given those puzzles. I’ve since learned to just run from anything I don’t have the book page for yet, BUT it’s taken me like 2 hours of gameplay to figure that one out lol. I’ll come back to it for sure!!!

I finally replaced the battery on my iPhone 12 mini that I’ve had since 2020 (though the battery, and entire phone, was replaced 2021). Four years for that tiny battery to get to 79% capacity isn’t bad!! Hopefully it’ll last another four :’)))) Maybe now that they have the 17 Air they’ll make another small phone, or at least I can dream………….

Extra Life was on Saturday! Our annual work event where we raise money for the boston children’s hospital, this year we raised over 3000 dollars (thank you to Allie, Ethan, and Sean) and it was such a good time! Love to introduce my coworkers to the Peak of local multiplayer games, Videoball and Towerfall. I need to have people over for like a board game night but instead it’s 2014 local multiplayer video game night

I finally got Mariah’s gift box from her trip to Japan :’) so many cute nathan-core stickers and this art book by 横 yoko who i had never seen before but WOW it’s so nathan-core, i love it so much, and the nanga x duckhead umbrella that i requested lmao, thank you mariah!!!!!!!!!

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

finished The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Savaş, really liked it!!! reminded me of Perfect Days or April Story, meandering slice of life stories with no real central conflict, but in such a well-realized world and strong enough Vibes that it’s just a really pleasant time
new tennyson album came out, so good as always
love everything fucca draws but this one is especially nice
cute………..

Weeknotes 2: Chainsaw Man, halloween

2025-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

I went to go see the Chainsaw Man movie in theaters on monday, suuuuuuper good, I never watched the tv anime but I read the manga, and this movie changed everything I wasn’t into about the anime aesthetically. Tatsuki Fujimoto said he was inspired by the Before trilogy of films for this arc so I guess I should finally get around to watching those! I watched the third one in theaters when it came out knowing literally nothing about any of them, which is funny to me, kinda defeats some of the purpose of the structure lol!!

Conversely, saw Bugonia, didn’t like it as much as I expected, the whole thing just felt deeply cynical and nowhere near as weird as I was lead to believe based on trailers/pre-release discussion

Not a huge star wars fan but their Visions series has been consistently great, and this newest season has a short directed by Shinya Ohira, unbelievably gorgeous, can’t get over it. Clip here, here, and here

curry pan and red bean roll

ham and cheese panini and matcha donut

A new japanese bakery opened near me so you know I had to go twice on its opening weekend! It’s gonna be so dangeous having this so close to me

I went to Olivia’s Halloween party on Saturday, which was less party and more interactive theater/puzzle game. I’ve been hearing about the concept for a few months now, but I went in knowing very little other than it being a mixture of social deduction, character roleplay, and puzzle solving. The whole thing was SO impressive, so well written and the puzzles were well-designed, such a clever design trick to preface the whole thing with “you’re competing with the other groups to be elected as the next leader, and you all distrust each other at least a little bit” to then immediately force every group to communicate and work together by giving everyone incomplete pieces of puzzles without telling anyone that they’re incomplete.

It’s always interesting in these things how groups naturally break into two types, the social deduction, getting information for other people, leaning into their role type, and the people that are just there to solve the puzzles. Unsurprisingly I’m 100% the puzzle type, and these were really fun, I think my favorite was near the end where you needed to descipher a paragraph of text (alphabet substitution) with no key, but a few context clues to help you along, and then from there it was just inferring the letters based on what you assume they were. So fun!!!!

Next week I’m doing a charity event at my work which I’m super excited for, I’ve had a much bigger hand in organizing it this year, and I’m bringing in my DDR setup again. I have to assume that’ll be the bulk of my post for next week lol. If anyone wants to donate I’d be very appreciative n_n

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

G Jones B2B Eprom - Live @ Oslo Hackney London - really good set, haven’t heard Can’t Wait To in so long. I neeeeed that wavedash/porter robinson track to come out already
choke enough (expansion pack) by Oklou - four more great tracks from Oklou, love the fish song cover. did you know her name is pronounced “o-k-lou”??? i sure didn’t
halfway through The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Savaş, from Mariah’s recommendation. really really good so far
thinking a lot about this jacket, a recreation of the Eddie Bauer Kara Koram parka from the 1950s. such a nice color, i’m wondering if the iPhone 17 pro orange was inspired by this? Especially since a lot of their advertising around it was how durable it is (and the apple watch ultra and all that)

Weeknotes 1: iPod, Lamp, Frank

2025-10-28T00:00:00+00:00

Inspired by mariah and many others and also my desire to actually Post (i take a lot of photos that i just don’t do anything with because i find posting on bluesky/mastodon/etc annoying for some reason??? maybe it’s adding the alt-text that no one i know will ever use but i feel obligated to write lol) i’m gonna start Posting!!!! we’ll see how weekly i can make this, maybe it’ll motivate me to actually do things during the week if i have the pressure of posting about it. or i’ll just skip a week if there’s nothing interesting to say!!! who knows!

Last week I went to ethan’s halloween party and he gave me an ipod classic that wasn’t being used, I went through the process of setting it up only to realize that ipods (on stock firmware) don’t support the album artist tag, which would mean i would have to go through all of my albums and mark them as compilations if there’s some other artist on there, which would also mess up my entire way of thinking about albums!! Sooooooo I’m thinking I just should switch to rockbox, which is a whole other process, and if I’m doing that, I might as well just open it up and do a flash mod on it. There’s lots of good guides out there about how to go about this, with the caveat that the one I have is the most annoying to open up due to the metal front plate, but there’s replacement ones out there if I break anything, thankfully!!!

I went to go see Lamp on sunday for the second time after they toured last year, such a good show!!!!! It’s always funny going to shows with younger crowds, I never really Got the whole “phones at concerts” thing until seeing Lamp the first time

Did you know you can simply hang out with your friends after work?? On a weekday?? Wild stuff, what will they think of next

Went to go see Frankenstein (2025) in 35mm on sunday and picked up a mariah recommended book (Anthropologists) and one i’ve been seeing constantly and was interested in (Stoner)!!!!

Things I’ve been into this week!!!

Skrillex & ISOxo - Fuze - banger!!!!!
Behind the Sun by Chicane - I’ve been listening to a lot of late 90s/early 2000s trance over the last few months, like old Tiesto In Search of Sunrise mixes, and this is such a good example of that
April Story (1998) - really nice Shunji Iwai film, all about the Vibes

California + Portland Trip

2025-07-27T00:00:00+00:00

I was going to write a like, “spring + summer 2025 in review” kind of post but I kept putting it off and then I went on another vacation so I guess that’ll be written later lmao.

I went back to California!!!! This started from two things: First, I’ve been watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer with Olivia for the last ten months and whenever the Apple TV puts on the screensaver it’s of a different aerial landscape video, and one of the ones that came up was Yosemite Valley, which Olivia said she had never been to before, despite growing up in the area!! Second, Mariah was talking about wanting to take a vacation, and rather than planning something huge, why not just visit and do stuff in the area?

Palo Alto

After landing wayyyyy too early in the morning, Olivia, Hana, and I went to the Baylands nature preserve in Palo Alto and it was soooo cool, I know very little about birds and it was fun hearing both of them talk about them, and we even saw a bald eagle, which usually isn’t in this area!!! So cool!!! We ended the day watching an entire season of Jet Lag: The Game (“just like jet lag the game!”)

SJ/Foothills

Second day was hanging out with Mariah, we went to see In the Mood for Love for the 25th anniversary screenings in San Jose, and from there went to the foothills near Palo Alto, which were very nice but the whole time Mariah and I were complaining about how we just couldn’t get any good photos there lol

SF

Finally getting to meet up with Nick!! We went to the Stonestown Galleria so Mariah could get film for her new camera and while we were there I played a single round of beatmania IIDX 32 Pinky Crush for the first time :’) I haven’t been playing regularly and I’m soooo bad now lol

After that we went to Tunnel Records to hang out with tumblr mutual pomoe/Patrick, then walked up the beach along that new closed road-turned-park!! We stopped into a cafe/bookstore and the barista there said that Boston had a restaurant with really good hamburg steak???? I wonder if it’s Cafe Mami, I will need to check

SF2

No good photos this day oops! met up with Mariah and Nick, did some shopping on Hayes and Valencia street, then met up with Justin, went to Green Apple books, and got food at Mamahuhu’s (which was recommended by the barista from yesterday)

Half moon bay

Beach day!!! Went with Olivia and Mariah, afterwards we went to Mariah’s house and hung out at the park by the river. Very fun day!

Yosemite

First time going since 2013! It’s crazy how beautiful it is there, we went to the vernal falls, which sadly the top misty section was closed but still sooooo nice. I feel like it’s super hard to take photos in the valley, especially capturing that sense of scale. I feel like these are generally better than my 2013 ones, but still not great! But the weather and Vibes were perfect so I have no complaints n_n

Driving to Ashland

Now starts the long drive to Portland, though on the way we had a planned stop in Ashland to see The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival. I think it might be the first time I’ve seen a professional theater production??? It was so fun even though those first five minutes were worrying with how little of the dialogue I understood lmao. Afterwards we hung out in the park/playground (second time on the trip????) and it was wild how many stars you could see even in the middle of the town

Portland

Last day!! We went to the Japanese Garden in Portland with Olivia’s parents which was so nice, especially since we went before the crowds showed up so it was very peaceful. After we went to Powell’s City of Books and we all got even more to add to the pile for the trip. Olivia went home at this point, but Mariah and I went to The Pie Spot (very good) and QuarterWorld to play some pinball, and then we were off to the airport to return the car and deal with the nightmare that was delayed flights (hers WAY worse than mine) and my redeye flight where I got zero sleep 😔

Really fun trip!!!!! Can’t wait for the next one!!!!

Hokkaido + Tokyo Trip

2025-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

I went to Japan again!!!!! I turned 30 in February and what better way to celebrate than going back (this time to Hokkaido!) This trip was pretty different structurally than the last one so the format of this post will be a bit different. Rather than go day by day I’m just gonna list my highlights interspersed with photos I took! Yay! Also feel free to check out my friend Sean’s blog of the same trip!

Tokyo
Bike Check
Concerts

Hokkaido!

We went to Sapporo and Otaru for the first part of the trip, going in February means it was below freezing every day, with at least 1” of snowfall every night. It was soooo nice being able to be in a city in the winter that actually has accumulated snow (since it melts or turns to slush in Boston so quickly). Part of this was because they didn’t seem to salt the roads/sidewalks, rather just using gravel and plowing, which did mean I was slipping on ice way more than I ever have.

Otaru

I only even knew about Otaru because of a random vlog I came across that mentioned Shunji Iwai’s Love Letter which I had had on my watchlist for a while SO I watched the movie (it’s beautiful!!!!) and added Otaru to our to-visit list!

Sapporo

Sapporo was a total Vibe, lots of really cool fun stuff to do, not as overwhelming as something like Tokyo, though I definitely was happy to not have to deal with the cold when we go to Tokyo lol

miku street car!

huge snow sculpture at the sapporo snow festival

good cafe dog

amazake my beloved

obsessed with the lighting in this station

cable car from the 1972 winter olympics

view of sapporo from mt teine

1:1 scale snow miku statue

Tokyo

I was on-and-off sick for most of my duration in Tokyo, but I still go to do some fun stuff!!!!

glitch coffee (unbelievably good)

another cafe dog

mt fuji through the plum blossoms

Comitia

I went to Comitia 151 which was suuuuuch a cool experience, always wanted to go and it was great meeting all of these artists that I love (despite the fact that I could not say much to any of them lol)

comitia haul

Bike Check

Could not get over how many cool bikes I saw in Tokyo, tons of interesting custom stuff or just heavily customized in general (or just fun stuff like the dragon ball rubber keychain off the seat??? I gotta do that)

Concerts

NO WAY B2B In-character B2B SLEEPYHEVD

NUU$HI with 44 (yoshi)

hirihiri & lilbesh ramko

wavedash

Oh also Porter Robinson was there, who we saw again the next day

porter robinson smile tour (again)

ExWHYZ, super fun, unbelivable crowd energy

Yuragi

Okay I think that’s all, thank you 🙇

2024 Year in Review

2025-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

seeing porter robinson on the smile tour

The true curse of end-of-year lists is that as people are posting theirs, it gives me way more things to watch/listen to/read/etc, so then I feel like I need to delay my own to be more all-encompassing of stuff that came out in the year, BUT then it just means I never post it. SO!!!!! I am simply posting it and not thinking about that!!!

What I did this year!

That Japan trip truly fixed me, in that 2024 was one of the best years I’ve had in a while. I travelled a ton more than I have previously (Chicago, seeing my own city like a tourist when Mariah and Nick visited, Montreal), went to 22 concerts, made new friends in the area, Connor moved out and Sean moved in, and fully planned our next Japan trip for next month! I restarted (AGAIN) studying Japanese, and I’m definitely the furthest I’ve ever been so far. I’ve been taking a lot more photos this year, partially because I got a new bag that fits my camera really well, so I always have it with me (next personal project, make a better photo feed on here?). For next year I really need to spend even less time on social media and more time engaging with the hobbies that I do enjoy. My friend Ian’s blog/newsletter has been so helpful in keeping me motivated and to regularly re-center what I want to spend my time on!

It was so cool finally getting to see a ton of bands that I listened to 10 years ago and didn’t manage to catch live at the time! Owen, Prawn, Joie de Vivre, Pianos Become the Teeth, Tigers Jaw, This Will Destroy You, Touche Amore, Joyce Manor, all really good shows. Also it was great seeing a bunch of foreign bands on US tours, Lamp, Bôa, Chinese Football, Mass of the Fermenting Dregs, Delta Sleep, and finally getting to see Hannah Diamond!!!!!

This was a big shift in the year for media consumption (someone needs to invent a new generic word for watching/reading/listening/playing/etc that isn’t that lol) for me, it’s the least amount of video games I’ve played, the most movies watched, and by far the most books read. Getting an eReader (Boox Page, I want to write about my experience with this sometime, soon!) has been such a massive thing for me. I always admired the kindle from afar but never invested for some reason, thinking that reading ebooks on my phone was good enough and I really don’t need another single-use device that I’d love for a month and then never touch (see: every portable game console I’ve owned). Yet that couldn’t be further from what happened!!! It’s such a better reading experience than a phone, and honestly at times I prefer it over a paper book, even if just for the ability to bring some 600+ page book with me without needing to have a bag big enough to fit it.

Anyway!!!!! Onto the lists!

Music

Albums

my most played albums in 2024

Smile by Porter Robinson

Listen: Cheerleader

I mean how could I not. It’s not perfect (the three track run of Perfect Pinterest Garden, Year of the Cup, Kitsune Maison Freestyle is super weak compared to the rest) and it feels nowhere near as significant as Nurture, but I really appreciate what it is and what it’s trying to do, and a bunch of individual songs on here are incredible

All You Embrace by One Step Closer

Listen: Esruc

Bangers front to back, Esruc by far my most-played song of the year. Cannot wait to see what this band does next, because i’ll be there for it day one

The Anchorite by Geotic

Listen: The Lime of Stars

One of my favorites from Geotic, really gorgeous ambience with a lot of variety. The Lime of Stars is such a massive track and something I hope Geotic/Baths comes back to stylistically

メイドサントウィッチ by gaburyu

Listen: ヴレイヴイータ (IA) / Vraveater (IA)

Incredible weird electronic vocaloid pop album, super catchy melodies and songwriting across this whole thing, would love to see this live (shout out to the somunia golddisc live performance of Watermark that got me to revisit this)

Love Notes by Yuzuha

Listen: thru 7+

Really lovely EP very remincient of early 2000s Jpop/shibuya-kei/j-rock, every track is wildly different than the last while maintaining a very solid Vibe. I got this one on CD!!!

loop/boy & Retype by INU

Listen: ___

Yet another one that somehow slipped by me for most of the year but once I listened I couldn’t stop. Seconding the gaburyu comments for how great and hooky the songwriting is!! Really fun EPs

see you, frail angel. sea adore you. by Homecomings

Listen: Moon Shaped

Really wonderful Japanese shoegaze-pop/dream-pop album. I knew about them from the Insomniacs After School ED but I didn’t really get into them until this newest album, which I feel goes further into that dreamy/shoegazey direction. Definitely want to pick this one up on CD, such a good front-to-back no-skip listen

Sweet & Sour by ExWHYZ

Listen: Sweet & Sour

I had vaguely heard of this group when they first rebranded from Empire, I knew they were part of WACK, but that was kinda it! When I was looking to buy tickets to see Yuragi on my next japan trip, I saw that Haru Nemuri was playing a show with ExWHYZ, so I thought I’d check them out since I’d love to see Haru Nemuri. And I immediately got super into ExWHYZ as a result?????? Really interesting songwriting going on, obv still (alt-) idol pop, but their producer list (Seiho, KBSNK) really makes for some great tracks. Reminds me a bit of what RYUTist was doing on their last album before breaking up.

陽のかけら by inuha

Listen: 出発の朝

“angelic post-shoegaze” really is a good descriptor for this!!!!!

Others I liked!

Spiral in a Straight Line by Touche Amore
BRAT & remix album by Charli xcx
Memoride 1 by Cwondo
EMPT MILE by TEMPLIME
sentiment by Claire Rousay
meaningless off-screen death by ivy synthetic
Love Flutter by パソコン音楽クラブ

Songs not mentioned above

Movies

My Letterboxd yearly summary

I already have a bunch of stuff written up on letterboxd, so I’ll just mention a couple favorites here!

Perfect Days
- Flawless film, please go watch this (you KNOW i’m doing a tokyo toilet tour in february!!!!!)
Oomuro-ke: Dear Friends/Dear Sisters
- really just feature-length versions of Yuru Yuri episodes, but really reminds me of how much I loved that show and its vibe
Look Back
- One of the best anime movies I’ve seen in a long time. The story behind the production makes this even more affecting
I Saw the TV Glow
- incredible, indescribable feeling in this one. Got me to start watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer which is a huge plus lmao
Bird
- gorgeous, soft and melancholic and so full of love. please release that soundtrack Burial 🥺

Books

I read 12 novels this year! That’s wild for me! I used to read a ton as a kid, and completely fell off by late high school into college, only really picking it back up because of The Spear Cuts Through Water (thank you Caleb Zane Huett for the recommendation). I don’t keep up with new releases at all, so this is just a few I read this year

Neuromancer by William Gibson
- a classic for a reason, incredible vibes throughout this whole thing. Reminds me a bit of how Patrick (H) Willems talks about a “Vibes Movie”, so much of the dialogue in here is unexplained jargon but it doesn’t matter because it’s all about the Vibe
Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin
- took me a bit to get into this, but I loved the drama and messiness of it all. felt so incredibly earnest but in like a self-sabotaging kind of way. Really interesting look at queer life in 1980s taiwan
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
- I unintentionally read a bunch of “it’s actually about japanese society” books this year, but this one was probably my favorite. really quick read, super funny with a really interesting writing style

Anime (TV)

Definitely not a big year of anime-watching for me, but pretty much everything I finished was Good, so I’ll mention it!

Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!
- Really great rom-com series part of that “subverting tropes but not really but yes actually” style that I feel just does it really well. Every character is fleshed out and it avoids the worst parts of romance anime while highlighting all of the best, while having gorgeous animation throughout.
Hibike! Euphonium 3
- Incredible ending to a series I’ve followed for almost a decade now. I didn’t realize I had missed an OVA and a movie that came out after season 2, so I needed to do a little catchup for this one, but it was so worth it. Seeing all of these characters’ stories wrapped up in a beautiful send-off for an era of Kyoani is all I could ever ask for. :’)
Dungeon Meshi
- I mean sure everyone loves this show, for good reason. Fun worldbuilding and a great cast of characters who all have such a good dynamic, really can’t go wrong with this one.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
- Tbh second half of this was SO weak compared to the first (I am a certified “test-arc/tournament-arc” hater) since it ground the pacing to a halt in the worst way, and got rid of such a huge positive about this show, the variety in setting and characters that are introduced in the world. BUT i will forgive it as it still managed to be a great time with some gorgeous animation.

Games

Oh god oh no I forgot to play any video game other than free-to-play online shooters used a vehicle for conversation with my friends!!!!!!!!

Boku no Natsuyasumi 2

Wrote about this previously!!!!

Echo Point Nova

someone being really good at the game

The number of games I play, especially finish, gets smaller and smaller every year. This year I completed just four games!!!! Three of which were for my work’s game club, but the one that wasn’t instantly became one of my favorite games I’ve ever played. I played this entirely in online co-op and 100%ed in 14 hours, consisting entirely of pure, high-speed, FPS euphoria. The movement feels incredible, the physics-based projectiles make the gunplay satisfying when combined with the movement, and story gets out of the way to let you just do Cool Stuff. It scratches my nightcore brain itch of needing things to be fast, with a bunch of movement tech that lets you rocket across the map at often absurd speeds, rarely ever needing to slow down. Satisfyingly difficult, I never felt like we particularly struggled playing the game, yet by the end the enemies got numerous and tough enough that you couldn’t just throw yourself at a fight without a bit of a plan, creating really satisfying moments of triumph for the bonus fights. The perk system gives you so much variance in play style, especially when you get to the bonus ones, like one that randomizes your active gun, or where only airborne kills count, I often think about going back and trying new stuff (a thing i do not do often!!!!). I dream of playing this with a full group of 4 people, I absolutely see myself coming back to this game even after 100%ing it, it truly just feels unmatched. If you like movement-based first person shooters, I implore you to play this game!!!

Summer 2024

2024-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

In class blog fashion, I’ve been a bit neglectful in posting!! So here’s a nice hard reset where I recap everything that’s happened since my last post! Not going to be as detailed as my previous posts, but that’s fiiiiiine i’ll make up for it later

April

Saw Oneohtrix Point Never (again!), absolutely incredible show experience, unbelievable visuals, and it was a career-spanning setlist so I got to hear some of my favorites (including tracks from Garden of Delete)

May

Right after OPN, I got to see Owen (the singer from American Football’s solo project). It was peak “guys in their 30s wearing black denim jackets crossing their arms” so no one was trying to go to the front, so I got some great close-up photos about one person back from the front. Really great show, very funny guy!

A few weeks after Sean, Shawn, Connor, Gabe, Matt, and I all went to the Cape for a pre-memorial day beach weekend. It was way colder than we had hoped so we really only got one true “summer beach” day out of it, but the cloudy, chilly beach walks were also a total vibe

Though a big highlight to that weekend was when Sean, Gabe, and I drove out to the Monomoy Nature Preserve which was really out of the way and pretty deserted, so it felt like we were in Death Stranding on the empty, flat beaches with washed-up trees everywhere, and then when we kept walking the scenery was beautiful

June

Next trip, Montreal!!! This one was planned by Nick and Mariah, and I’m kinda shocked I’ve never gone there before! Connor, Sean, and I drove up, stopping in Burlington, Vermont on the way, and it was a super easy drive.

Montreal Kinda Owns, imo, it’s definitely a Vibe city, like I feel like we got most of the things we wanted to do done in like four days? But there’s so many nice restaurants and cafes and stuff that I could have definitely spent a few more just hanging out. Though, I didn’t realize how much french there would be!!!!! Like when I accidentally picked out a french book that Mariah bought without looking at it, since I just defaulted to assuming everything would be english. We brought back two dozen Fairmount bagels each and god, I need more… I miss those all-dressed so bad

white heron coffee

there was a bike race through the city while we were there!

creature SPOTTED on the way up mount royale

at the top of mount royale :’)

at naked and famous, i HAD to get the canadian tux while i was there

the architecture at the biodome was so cool

schwartz deli poutine!

biosphere, we stopped here for like 15 minutes but it was SO hot

on the way home!

June

Right after the Montreal trip, Alex came up to visit! I somehow didn’t take a single photo i’m satisfied with from that whole period lmao, but it was a good time!!!!! We went to the ISG, met up with some friends at the boston pride parade (and saw the Nicole Kidman AMC flagbearer lol), checked out the dragon boat races, went candlepin bowling, and had a good time just hanging out!!!!!

July

I went to the MODE Keyboard meetup!! I got the email about this and I HAD to go (not only for the MBTA sixtyfive badge i prommy). So cool seeing so many unique custom keyboards, especially all of the full-custom PCB/case kinda stuff. You can also check out Taeha Types’ blog post about this event (and you can spot me in his video about it~)!

August

kei van SPOTTED

In August I went to Seattle to visit Jane!!!! I hadn’t seen her since she came to Boston in 2022 and it was so nice to hang out for a few days n_n

tiny puzzle bobble cab!

cool car!

dog!

After getting back from Seattle, Connor started packing to move out after living together for 5 years (and Sean moving in! i’m sure i’ll have a apartment interior redesign post soon) so it was a pretty hectic couple weeks, though I still went to see Baths, Porter Robinson, and Joie De Vivre and Prawn!!! It was funny seeing the Joie De Vivre/Prawn show so soon after Porter Robinson, since they were basically the exact opposite kind of show. Porter was super produced and rehearsed, very theatrical, and then the Joie De Vivre singer was like “what chord does this song start in?” “what are the lyrics to this one?” before every song lmao

baths

porter robinson

joie de vivre

prawn

I looked at my last post and lmao @ me saying I was going to try to take less than a month to post about Montreal. OOPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mariah and Nick Visit Boston!

2024-05-28T00:00:00+00:00

A few times during our Japan trip we talked about Mariah, Nick, and Justin visiting Boston since we’d gone to SF but they’d never been to MA, and about a month ago (well, two now since it took me a month to even publish this LOL) they decided to do it!! We joked a few times of like, “well there’s nothing to see in Boston” but I pretty quickly had compiled a list of stuff that’d be interesting to see (sadly a good amount of it isn’t open pre-memorial day, like Castle Island and the harbor islands), but we had more than enough to fill out a 3.5 day trip, and we barely did any of it anyway since it turned into a pure Vibes/Food/Coffee tour.

Day 1:

Mariah and Nick arrived at 8am to Logan, and Connor and I drove there to pick them up, we came back and immediately went out to get coffee from Broadsheet Coffee Roasters and a pastry from PRB Boulangerie. Then we walked down to Harvard Square and saw the classic tourist-attraction of the John Harvard statue (which is always so funny to me). We walked back to my apartment and waited for Sean to get there, Nick borrowed my much neglected guitar and played it more than I have in the last six months, but man it sure did make me want to get back into it!!!!! After Trina’s brunch we went to Bow Market just to look around. Mariah picked up some cooking zines and Nick and Sean got records, and we all got some empanadas.

After that we walked down to Porter Square since the eventual goal was to go to the Lesley food court with all the japanese restaurants but first we stopped into Mudflat Gallery/Sign of the Dove which I somehow had never been to before?????? Got some VERY cute ceramics there, will absolutely need to check in there more often. Then we got dinner at Ittoku which I knew nothing about, but once I looked at the menu and saw hiroshima-style okonomiyaki we HAD to go. While there Mariah was convinced to make peanut butter cookies which was a wonderful way to end the night (exactly as predicted, Marian and I making the cookies and Nick and Sean playing Fortnite in the living room lmao).

Day 2:

The next day was the only time we had something truly planned, our visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum! I had never been (I tried to go with Sean a few weeks ago but they were sold out when we got there) so this was super exciting since I’ve always heard good things.

After we walked towards back bay/newbury st and then over to the commons, and finally I wanted to show them the Boston Public Library which is like a mini museum all on its own. From there we hopped on the green line back home and went out for Korean BBQ.

Day 3:

I reallllllllly wanted to check out Ogawa Coffee, so we went back to the same area we were in yesterday, but this time we took a detour to see the city hall and most importantly, the national landmark, the Boston Cop Slide. The day prior Mariah and I were talking about Keytar Bear and how despite living here for five years I had never seen him, and she commented on how now that she’s here we’ll probably come across him, like how she’d never seen Mt. Fuji until the most recent trip. Then!!!!!! Who do we see… Keytar Bear. Truly wild Boston Moment. After looking at some of the old buildings we got on the green line over to Brookline/Coolidge Corner since I wanted to check out the Maruichi there and a few other spots. I knew about Topdrawer, but my real favorite discovery was Boston General Store which I LOVED. Such a cute little shop full of really nice, well-made stuff. Made me want to get into using a safety razor and care about stationery lol. Will absolutely be going back! We also stopped into Brookline Booksmith, a super nice bookstore that was suuuuuuper big, with a great selection of new and used books across two floors. Maruichi is great as always, but sadly they didn’t have any BOSS Cafe Au Lait like I wanted u_u. We headed towards Allston so Nick could go to Mr. Music to check out guitar pedals, and on the way we went to Meet Fresh which a coworker had recommended to me and it was SO good. Then Connor drove us to Davis Square and we got Thai food and then went to Sacco’s for the New England classic of candlepin bowling!

Day 4:

For the final day, I went with Nick and Mariah to Johnny Boy’s in Union Square. I had heard about it a few months ago and added it to my list, but just never found the opportunity to go and thought this would be the best time. I’m so glad I finally did because it was GOOD. I’ve gone back multiple times since and I can’t recommend it enough 🫡

The same group is going to Montreal together next week so hopefully it won’t take me a month to post that one haha (edit: it took much more than a month)

Chicago, February 2024

2024-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

Back in February I went to Chicago with some friends to go see Nier: Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data]. Since I’d never been to Chicago before we went a couple days early and stayed the whole weekend to make a little trip out of it!

When we first got there, Sean and I checked into the hotel and met up with Shawn who was already there ahead of us and we went to Giordano’s to get lunch for our initial deep-dish experience. Afterwards we walked to the navy pier! Everything was so foggy and it made for some really nice shots

On the second day we went to the Art Institute with Alex and Ian! Incredibly cool museum, we walked around until close and only saw half of it, definitely need to go back again to see the rest~ Later we met up with Brennan who we were staying with

lana the cat

The next morning he made bagels which were delicious

Then we went to the Museum of Science and Industry which was fun, reminded me a lot of the Boston Science Museum (which I haven’t been to in sooooooooo long). Afterwards we got dinner at Lao Peng You and it was my first time having dan dan noodles and I’m obsessed tbh

After was the Nier concert! It was cool, though I do kinda wish it didn’t have all the plot stuff and instead was purely the orchestra for the full duration? It felt a bit like they needed to justify it, like they couldn’t just let the music stand on its own. Dunno!!!!!! Good time regardless!!

For our last full day (and my birthday :) ) we went to Galloping Ghost with Alex! First we stopped in this hot dog place since I was like, well I need to have the chicago dog while i’m here! These weren’t true Chicago dogs, but I dunno it’s close enough for me lol

Galloping Ghost ruled, so many cool games that I hadn’t seen before, but also had the “big arcade” problem of a lot of cabs being in pretty bad condition (like CRTs that were just solid green). After we went to Pequod’s for REAL Chicago pizza, and it ruuuuuled, highly recommend.

Then we got back and Connor had bought birthday cupcakes :’))))

Fun weekend! I really want to go back in the warmer weather!

Boku no Natsuyasumi 2

2024-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

Over the last ~2 months I’ve been playing Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 via the Hilltop english fan-translation and I finally finished today! I picked this for our work game club game this time, I’m excited to hear everyone’s thoughts~ I enjoyed so, so much of this game, and I really hope more of them get english translations (or I get enough japanese knowledge to play them) as this has been extremely my kind of thing.

This game is the perfect thing to play right as spring is starting, it really made me want that warm weather to come back so I can have my own Natsuyasumi

Some thing I really love about the game!!!

Plot happening around you and with you, not because of you

Over the course of your 30 days in Fumi both a lot and very little happens. But interestingly, most of the plot just happens around you, with Boku himself having very little sway over it. Which, I suppose makes sense for a 3rd grader lol. There’s small things you can do, like encouraging Yasuko to talk to Yoh again, or bringing the key that Yasuko’s mom leaves to her, but for much of the things that happen you’re simply an observer.

The stakes with most stuff that happens are so incredibly low that it’s funny that the one “dramatic” thing that happens you only hear about in hints and overheard conversations until the climax that starts and ends within one scene. But, that’s quite fitting for a small town summer vacation! Most people don’t have big dramatic things happening to them every day!

So many little moments given so much weight

This game is so beautifully earnest and kind. Many of my favorite moments in the game were just Boku talking to someone and they say something really nice or they open up about themselves to you. Takeshi talking about how he wants to become a teacher because of a gym teacher he had that “when a girl couldn’t do some exercise, rather than failing her he graded her on her piano playing ability instead”. Or the mysterious girl in the clinic, who talks about the beauty of the sunset and how much she loves this town. Or the doctor saying how “a slow day for the clinic or the firefighters is a good day”. The game is largely structured around this too, with the daily picture diary giving you an entry for lots of small things that might not even feel special for the player.

Gorgeous illustrated backgrounds!!!

This whole game is beautiful, the illustrated backgrounds giving the area so much depth, aided by fixed camera angles that create some stunning compositions (pulling out in a high angle when Boku reaches the top of the mountain, or pulling in close when he enters a small kitchen). More games need pre-rendered backgrounds and fixed camera angles!! It reminds me a lot of that GDC talk the Inside developers did about how they made the game look like that, and a big takeway was that it looks like that because they control the camera angle at all times. Freedom to move the camera is overrated tbh.

Everything feel so lived-in, with my favorite being Yasuko’s greenhouse room:

Almost every shot in the game has an evening version for the ~3 hours before dinner time as well, which not only act as a good indicator of “okay, time to go home” and that there’s different interactions available, but also show some of the most beautiful backgrounds in the game.

Music

Much of the game has no music at all while you’re walking around Fumi, which makes it feel incredibly immersive. Just the sound of the waves when you’re by the ocean and the sound of cicadas and other bugs when you’re further into the forest. However, there’s some diagetic music as well, like when Yasuko plays Gymnopedie on her record player or Yoshika plays her guitar outside the dining room. There’s some non-diagetic music as well, but its infrequency makes it all so much more exciting when it does play! I loved when I would be heading back to the house in the evening for dinner and I would hear the guitar quietly in the distance, and it grows louder the closer I get. The first time it happened I just stood there and listened for the entire loop before talking to Yoshika. Also, the end credits song specifically in the PSP port is so nice.

I’m so glad this game got an english translation! Ever since watching the Action Button review of the first one I’ve wanted to play, hoping that the dialogue would be simple enough for me to just play in japanese, but I never got around to it until the translation was announced. I highly recommend this game to anyone and everyone :’)

Websites I Like

2024-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

Inspired by the XXIIVV webring (which I’m part of), this is a list of websites that I like, either people that I think are interesting, or services that have a philosophy that I enjoy!! Check them out!

This webring is an attempt to inspire artists & developers to build their own website and share traffic among each other. The ring welcomes personalized websites such as diaries, wikis & portfolios.

Personal web/blogs

Portfolios

Art

Japan Trip 2023

2024-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

From Sunday, October 15th to Friday, November 3rd 2023, I went on an 18 day trip to Japan with my friends Sean, Connor, Mariah, Nick, and Justin. A wonderful, life-changing two and a half weeks that I’m sure I’ll be thinking about for the rest of my life!!! Thank you so much to Mariah for planning a ton of this and being our guide for a lot of it <333

Day 0

Woke up at 3am to catch our 6:30am flight out of Logan, running off of just 4 hours of sleep we got on our 1.5 hour flight to Toronto, where we had a 5 hour layover. Connor and Sean paid for the ~maple leaf lounge~ but I opted to not spend the extra money and just hung out at the gate for a few hours. Then began the true fun, the 12.5 hour flight from Toronto to Haneda.

Sean, Connor, and me

We landed at around 3pm JST and immediately got on the train to Yokohama, where we would meet up with Mariah and Nick. Standing around Yokohama station it was already wild seeing just how many people were going through this station on a Monday, not even during rush hour. Then we got back onto a different train to go to our hotel, checked in and dropped our stuff off, and then went to get yakitori, which was everything I needed after barely eating any real food for the last 24 hours :’).

yakitori

Day 1: Enoshima

Yokohama

Yokohama fern

Bright and early the next day, we all got breakfast at a kissaten near the hotel. Truly unbeatable being able to get food and coffee/tea for 6 people for ~35 dollars USD. Then, it was off to Kanagawa for our Enoshima day! Going mid-October I think I expected most of this trip to be a little chilly, but it was in the upper 70s and super sunny, I wore just shorts and a t-shirt way more than I expected lol. We took the train to the Enoden line and got off at Enoshima station.

It’s legit so wild how good the trains all were in Japan. Like I know that’s a thing people talk about all the time, but I didn’t fully Get It until I realized that, at least in Tokyo/Yokohama, every train we wanted to be on would be at the platform within 6 minutes. Usually only 2!! I think the longest I ever waited for a train (excluding the Yudanaka one) was maybe 10 minutes for the Enoden.

enopiko

BOSS cafe au lait

We walked from Enoshima station to Katase-Enoshima station, just to look at it (as featured in Bocchi the Rock!), because it looks so cool!!!! Where’s all the cool stations like this in the US smh.

Katase-Enoshima station

Then it was off to Enoshima itself! As we were walking across the long bridge to get there, we realized that we could see Mt. Fuji just peeking above the clouds, something that Mariah had never seen before despite being to Enoshima before! Seeing Mt. Fuji felt like such a good omen to start the trip n_n

Enoshima coast, featuring Mt Fuji!

the entrance to Enoshima’s main pathway up

There were so many beautiful views and SO many sets of stairs. That first day set the record for walking for the entire trip, truly the best way to work off the jet lag.

everyone (except justin) at the top of the sea candle!

While in Enoshima, Mariah introduced me to the concept of the goshuin-cho, a book used for getting stamps and hand-written caligraphy at various temples throughout Japan, as a record that you visited.

My goshuin-cho

Later we did a little shopping back in Yokohama, and I really needed something to hold all of these coins I was getting (since tons of places in Japan are cash only, or prefer cash, and anything under 1000 yen is a coin). So obviously I picked up a Miffy coin purse 😤

Miffy coin purse

Day 2: Kamakura & Hase

Another early start, we went to a couple other towns in Kanagawa, starting with Kamakura! We walked through Komachi street, a big shopping street with lots of local shops and craftspeople, first going to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu temple at the end of the street. Honestly I REALLY wish I had gotten more stuff in this phase of the trip. This was all the kind of stuff I loved the most, but since I just had my backpack with me and we were going to be frontloading the travel I didn’t want to lug stuff around with me, but thinking back on it, it was really the stuff I wish I had bought the most.

Komachi street in Kamakura

Tsurugaoka Hachimangu

macha taiyaki

enoden trains, I loved the LED display

look at the little guys!!!

my enoden model I got out of a gacha machine

Then it was off to Hase, where we went to Kotoku-in, a temple with a giant buddha that we went inside!

For dinner we went to 和心蕎花鎌倉店, a pretty random pick that I just saw on google maps. We were the only ones there as it was pretty early (4pm dinner lol), but it was SO good. Highly recommend!

cold noodles

After getting back into Yokohama, we stopped into a Taito Station and Sean and I played beatmania IIDX 31: Epolis, which had just come out that day.

Day 3: Off to Osaka

Goodbye Yokohama, off to Osaka! Mariah, Nick, and I started our day by going to Toaster!, a really cute little cafe with a drink bar and some great toast.

toast with four types of jam

We made our way to Shin-Yokohama station and got on the shinkansen to Osaka. We could see Mt. Fuji again, this time from the window!

Rather than waiting around to check into the Airbnb, Mariah, Nick, Sean, and I put our stuff in a coin locker and immediately headed to Osaka castle.

taking a photo of nick taking a photo of osaka castle

lol

Osaka castle

With time left in the day and our stuff still in a coin locker, we went from Osaka castle to the aquarium! It had some truly questionable enclosures, but also some of the liveliest animals I’ve ever seen in a zoo/aquarium.

Day 4: Sumiyoshi Taisha + Dotonbori

The next morning, Mariah, Nick, and I went to Sumiyomi Taisha, a temple in Osaka.

loved these handrails

frog truck

really steep bridge

a really cool train we saw!

After, we got lunch at Gyukatsu, which was easily one of my favorite meals I had in Japan!

gyukatsu

Then we went into Dotomburi and checked out some clothing stores, like Zabou and Vintage Dig Store Nats and it started suddenly raining u_u

Then we split up for dinner, Mariah, Nick, and I got okonomiyaki at Kashiminyaki Futahako. This was closer to hiroshima style than osaka style, which Mariah said is much better! It was bar-style seating, the two employees were so nice and funny!! They were teaching Nick and I various phrases in japanese, like how to say “one more please!” and the like. I loved the experience of like, hanging out with the staff, great time!

okonomiyaki

Day 5: Kyoto

the skies on the way to Kyoto

Mariah, Nick, Justin, and I went to Kyoto! Since Sean and Connor went to the Final Fantasy Cafe the day before, they opted to stay in Osaka and do the shopping streets the rest of us did. Our first stop was the Fushimi Inari shrine (aka 1000 gates shrine) and it was SO crowded, to the point of not really wanting to stand around anywhere for very long. Definitely the most touristy place we’d been so far. The shrine itself was nice! But the crowds definitely lessened my experience of it. It keeps going up the mountain, so further up the less people there were and the nicer it got, but it’s also just kinda more of the same, so!!!!!!!! We left pretty soon after hitting the halfway point.

Once we got out of the shrine we just started exploring the city, we each had a few things we wanted to check out, like Traveler’s Factory, Beams, and Porter Classic. I got a camera wrist strap at Freitag which was a super cool store. Spending this day in Kyoto definitely made me want to go back, and I really wish we had stayed in Kyoto instead of Osaka, since I enjoyed my time here a lot more! The architecture was beautiful and the ~vibes~ were just real nice.

Day 6: Kanazawa

Goodbye Osaka Airbnb 🫡

Heading out from Osaka, we checked out of our Airbnb and took the Thunderbird train to Kanazawa, probably the least touristy area we went for the whole trip.

Justin’s gold-flaked takoyaki

This area, much like Kamakura, was one of my favorites that we visited. I love, love, love these old-style towns that have a big focus on local artisans and craftspeople. There was one shop we went into, Enishira, where everything was made by a local artist and everything had signs next to it with an artist bio and links to more of their work. Love that!!!!

Day 7: Shirakawa-go

Now, for the entire reason we came to Kanazawa, Shirakawa-go! A very early rise (I think our bus left at like 9am or something?), all of us except for Connor got on a highway bus that took around 55 minutes driving through the mountains to get to our destination.

Getting off the bus we were immediately surrounded by these huge, green mountains. It was pleasantly cool for the first time on the trip so far! We walked down the main street for a bit, checking out the shops, and then turned around to go walk up to the observation platform. After a short hike up a mountain, we reached the main platform, and the view we saw when we got to the top was breathtakingly beautiful.

shirakawa-go

This village is the same one as featured in the visual novel/anime Higurashi, so there was Higurashi merch everywhere. I picked up some Higurashi-themed candies for myself and Julie, and got a Higurashi-themed churro because how could I not???? So what if it was like 10 dollars lol

higurashi candies

higurashi churro

Afterwards, we headed down the mountain, got some lunch, and it was time to explore the area proper.

Shirakawa-go pudding my beloved…………. I need to go back and get more

shirakawa-go coffee pudding

At around 4pm we went over to the “open air museum” section, we didn’t really know what to expect, but it ended up being an incredibly cool area of the town that had a bunch of preserved houses of the era, and since it was at the end of the day we were the only ones there. Being there during sunset made it even more beautiful and peaceful, seeing the sun set over the mountains, reflected in the small ponds throughout the museum was amazing :’)

Then when 5pm came around, we headed out of the museum area (which they promptly closed behind us) and the whole town closed, despite our bus not taking us back until 7pm. We assumed we could just stay in the bus station, but nope that closed too!! So we just waited outside for two hours with the whole town going dark outside of some lights inside houses. Mariah and I walked back into the town after a while to use a bathroom and we fully understood why a horror anime was set there LOL

We got back to Kanazawa and had hot pot which was everything I needed after a long day ☺️

Day 8: Nagano Onsen time

The next morning I woke up and took a little walk through town to get breakfast. I went to Watanabeya! and got a raspberry and custard steamed bread (second breakfast place with a ! in the name???). Then we got on the shinkansen to Nagano! After getting into Nagano station, we transferred to a local train to Yudanaka that only ran once every 90 minutes and required a physical ticket to get on.

When we (all but Sean, who was visiting a friend in Nagano) got to Yudanaka station, it was another 15 minutes on a bus to get to the onsen ryokan we were staying in.

We settled in and the exhaustion really started hitting me and I just did not want to do anything anymore lol!!! I basically just sat around until our scheduled dinner, a 9-course meal where a lot of it was fish, but the dessert was the real highlight, to the point where we were all wondering who got to have Sean’s pudding, until we got a message from Sean that he was almost there and we decided to bring it to him instead.

the fabled pudding…

I ended up going in the hot springs after dinner and it was so, so nice. My shoulders were killing me after hauling my stuff in a backpack so much, so that bath was everything I needed.

Day 9: Going to Tokyo

The next morning I went back in and was much more comfortable that time, and that water was just as nice the second time. If anything it was even better, since it had cooled off over night so the outdoor bath was super refreshing against the ~45 degree air.

When it was time to leave, Mariah, Nick, and I decided to just walk back to the station. None of us had luggage outside of a backpack so we had nothing to haul. We got to the station and the train was about to leave, so we hopped on assuming that the rest were already there, since before leaving we had checked the bus schedule and saw that one was supposed to arrive soon. After the train started going though, we realized that the rest hadn’t even gotten on a bus yet, so once we got back we just stayed in Nagano station, got some food, and bought shinkansen tickets.

We eventually all met up and got on the shinkansen to Tokyo! Connor, Sean, and I were getting off at a different station than the rest, so we split up and transferred to the Ginza line, got off at our station and checked in. Sean and I stayed in one room with Connor in his own, and at that point I was so exhausted that we just got McDonalds and watched anime in the hotel room LOL

Day 10: Shimokitazawa

Tokyo time!!!!!!!! Our first full day in Tokyo, I woke up early and met up with Mariah and Nick at Cawaii Bread & Coffee, which had this nice deck seating over the river with a view of the Sky Tree.

Then we were off to Shimo-Kitazawa! Aka the place where a bunch of Bocchi the Rock! takes place lol

sadly we had just missed the bocchi shimokita curry festival

The whole area was super nice, lots of cute second hand clothing/select shops, we stopped in Village Vanguard which is basically Newbury Comics in Japan, complete with american cartoon merch and pop punk playing over the speakers and skate clothing brands.

I literally lol’ed when i saw this Adventure Time display

Afterwards we went down to Daikanyama for some clothes shopping, super cool area. Loved Drybones, Okura, and Nanamica. We all met back up in the Tsutaya Books and then took the train to Shinjuku to get pork katsu curry for dinner.

Day 11: Ghibli museum, Capy cafe

We had tickets to go to the Ghibli museum for noon, so I hopped on the train ahead of everyone else so I could check out the area. I got off at Kichijoji station and walked over to andoh coffee, a super tiny, very cute little cafe that’s essentially just a counter-serve window no wider than maybe 6 feet? From there I walked to the Parco to pick up some limited merch from a popup for the web manga “The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All”. Then I walked down to Inokashira Park and just meandered through, generally making my way over to the Ghibli museum but in no real rush as I was a full hour early.

Inokashira Park

While I was waiting around for everyone to get there, a guy approached me and asked me to fill out a tourism survey for the city of Tokyo and a got a free pen out of it lol

After everyone arrived we got in line and headed in! A few of us immediately went to the theater to watch the short film that was currently on display. The one running this time was Treasure Hunting, directed by Hayao Miyazaki and originally released in 2011. Super cute, no english subtitles, but I thankfully understood enough of the japanese where I got a general idea of the plot (and then Mariah clarified the rest afterwards). After the movie, we all just kinda wandered around, the museum is designed in a way that there’s no true golden path, so I just went into whatever rooms I was near at the time. Nothing was in english so it was admittedly a bit hard to appreciate some stuff, like the Future Boy Conan exhibit that had tons of really cool production materials, but I assume I would have gotten more out of it if I could have read the displays.

My favorite room by far was the general movie production works section. Truly incredible seeing sketches, character design sheets, keyframes, storyboards, etc all laid out in this sort-of organized chaos. I really would love to go back with more japanese knowledge at some point to really appreciate it more!

My Ghibli museum ticket

Then it was time for the Capy Neko Cafe!!!!! I looooved getting to pet a cat for the first time in ages, and getting to pet a capybara was a treat. She was so friendly!

After, we all went back to Ginza and went to a Tsutaya Books again!! Nothing better than going to a japanese book store and taking photos of all of the book covers I want to look up when I get home, only to find out that barely any of them have english translations.

Day 12: Miku collab cafe, Yarou Fes, art show, Gundam

Sean and I had plans to go to Yarou Fes back in Yokohama today, but he wasn’t planning on getting ready until later, so I headed out before him to visit the Mint Heim Hatsune Miku collab cafe, mainly because I love the artist that did the character designs/art for it.

miku!

my breakfast LOL

Then since I still had more time, I walked over to an art gallery that had a small showing of original pieces from another artist I love, rururoru. Super cute little gallery!

my original wood-block drawing from rururoru

Then I met up with Sean at the Yarou Fes venue and we went in. It was a good time! The art isn’t the kind of thing I had any motivation to buy, but it was super cool being able to go to a comics fest while in japan. Love to vicariously get that feeling of “oh i know that artist!!!” through Sean when he recognized a couple different artists he follows on the internet.

Since it was still pretty early in the day and we were in the area, we went over to the big Gundam. I have to admit, it’s pretty cool!! We managed to catch the “full program”, where the gundam moves around and has a little audio drama happening. Most of what was said was some standard “shounen anime dialogue” so I understood a solid 1/3 of it lol.

BIG gundam

We took the train back to Tokyo, getting off in Shibuya, which was a MISTAKE. We didn’t fully realize that it was the Saturday before Halloween, so the streets were absurdly crowded and it was impossible to get anywhere. I just wanted to get OUT of there as soon as possible. Later Sean and I went over to Akiba for the first time to check out some of the arcades. Taito HEY and Gigo Akiba 1 quickly became almost-daily staples for us at the end of each day, the game selections at each were incredible, with games like Typing of the Dead, beatmania III, and tons of stgs and fighting games.

Taito HEY

Day 13: Shopping @ Kashiyama, Park Harajuku, Arcades

The next morning I got breakfast (including this ginger soda that was just crushed ginger and soda) and stopped into Kashiyama Ginza to pick up a t-shirt from a collab with an artist I love, tamimoon.

ginger soda

tamimoon collab standee

From there I met up with Connor and we went to Park Harajuku, one of my fav stores :’) and after shopping there for a solid hour, we popped into this art show we saw was happening, only for me to realize once I was in there that I followed the artist on tumblr! Endlessly so cool getting to meet artists I like in real life.

We got back to Ginza and got dinner with Sean, and all three of us went to Akiba to go back to the arcades!

Day 14: Melonbooks Akiba, meeting up with sean’s friend

The next morning Connor and I went to Akiba to go to some book stores and we met up with Sean who was visiting a friend in Ikebukuro. We visited Sunshine City which is like, the closest thing to an american mall that we saw there. We stopped in the massive gachapon hall and I got a cute keychain!

Day 15: Met back up with Mariah & co in Ueno, more arcade lol

egg baby!!!!!!!!!! I met up with Mariah, Nick, and Justin for the first time in a few days and got lunch at this super cute cafe in Ueno. It was the last day that the three of them would be in Japan, so they were getting last-minute souvenirs for people.

egg baby!!!!!

Then we met up with Sean and Connor and we all got Yakitori again 😭 we went back, once again, to the arcades in Akiba just to show Mariah/Nick/Justin, and after that we said our goodbyes 😭😭😭 Well, not before Justin went with Connor to a beer pong bar, then Connor gave us the wrong address lmao

Day 16: Record shopping with Sean, Miyashita park, Tower records Shibuya, Ramen festival after

The last few day became kinda like wrap-up days, just clearing some stuff off our lists that were easy enough to do. So Sean and I went to Shibuya not during Halloween so we could check out Tower Records in earnest, and then walked over to Face Records in Miyashita Park.

horse display in tower records

Then I was off to Setagaya to meet up with my cousin who lives in the area! We were meeting up for a ramen festival in Komazawa Olympic Park, and it really felt like I was in the suburbs out there. I was pretty early, so I just sat for a while in the park watching a college? high school? soccer game being played. It’s funny hearing all those sports chants in real life after only hearing them in anime LOL. Once he said he was almost there, I walked over and we got some ramen, though I can’t imagine how I would have had more than just the one bowl, since they were all serving full portions! When everyone was done eating, we went back to their house which was absolutely gorgeous. Also the first time getting in a car the entire trip, it was very surreal sitting in the front left seat and not being the one driving.

Day 17: Meteor and Sky tree

I did nottttttt feel good this day. Not sure if it was something I had eaten, or not eaten, but I was feeling Bad so it was a very low-key morning. I walked over to a cafe and got some bread to try to settle my stomach, which didn’t do much. Then Sean and I got on the train to check out Meteor, known for the My Famicase art show every year. Sadly the actual famicases weren’t there when we went, but it was cool to finally see! Then we went back and met up with Connor and headed over to the Sky Tree. The sun had fully set by the time we got up there, so the view was of the city lights, and it was such a good way to end our final night there n_n

view from the Sky Tree

Day 18: Mebachi art show, flying home :salute:

The final morning! After a whole nightmare with our flight getting delayed and Connor needing to call to get it sorted, with our flight getting delayed and transferred to a different airline, it was now time to do the last thing that I insisted we do, go to the mebachi art show opening! Another one of my favorite artists, I knew I had to go to this, especially when she would be there doing signings. The art show was wonderful, showcasing her line of Comic Yurihime covers done over the course of 2023. I bought a bunch of the merch from the show, and she signed the book for me!

check out this cool bike i saw

Then from there, we were off to Haneda to fly home. Until next time!

goodbye japan 🫡

How to Have a Better Experience on Twitter

2023-09-08T00:00:00+00:00

Everyone’s favorite birdsite. Some of this is meaningless now, but keeping it around for archival purposes. I would love to just be like “ohh go to mastodon!” “make a blog!” etc, and while i DO think those are things people should do, I fully understand that not everyone has moved to other platforms or will ever, so having ways to access it being more pleasant are essential imo~

Step One: Quick and Easy Solutions to Bigger Problems

One of the easiest and best ways to improve the twitter experience is removing any and all algorithmic posts from your feed. Since it focuses on engagement, you’re gonna see a lot of dumb, low-hanging fruit style takes and anything that warrants a lot of replies (often not good)!

Browser Extensions

Tweak New Twitter is an extension for default web twitter that does exactly that, along with a good amount of other engagement and annoyance-reducing features.

Settings I recommend!

Always use chronological timeline
Hide “What’s Happening”, “Topics to follow” in the sidebar
Hide “Who to follow”, “follow some topics” in the timeline
Hide “more tweets” when linked to a tweet
Hide tweets quoting accounts you’ve blocked or muted
Hide explore

This will clean up most algorithmic things on the site, only showing you who you follow and hiding the rest. I believe by default it will move retweets into a separate timeline, which you may want to disable if you don’t want that feature.

Additionally, while I don’t use it anymore, Twitter Demetricator can be nice to add. It hides metrics such as like and follow counts, further reducing the desire of “number go up” or adding additional value to a tweet based on the numbers.

Another one I love, Old Twitter will revert the twitter UI to being how it was in 2015. Truly a better era.

Tweetdeck + BetterTweetDeck

I personally use tweetdeck most of the time for twitter, since I have two accounts and it makes managing them both at the same time much easier. Not only that, but by default it doesn’t have ads or algorithmic timelines. However, it’s nice to get some additional improvements!

It’s pretty complicated to get Tweetdeck working in 2023, and it might not even be possible in the future, but for now dimdenGD made a firefox extension that will allow you to access it again

BetterTweetDeck adds lots of extra features and tweaks that make for a generally better experience. The preserving media aspect ratio is my favorite, since I follow a lot of artists (no bad crops!).

Third-party apps (as of 2023, can be ignored as none of these work)

On my phone, I use and highly recommend Tweetbot. While twitter themselves severely reduce features available through their API, and therefore limit what is available on third-party apps, most day-to-day features are available on Tweetbot. No ads, chronological timeline, great themes, and many other features make it one of the best twitter experiences out there.

The main missing features are group DMs and native poll support, so I have the official app installed but buried in a folder just for notifications of group DMs.

I don’t use android, but I’ve heard good things about Fenix and Talon

Notifications

Turn them off!!! Trust me, you don’t need them. Leave on replies and direct messages since those can warrant a time-sensitive response, but you don’t need notifications for likes, retweets, photo tags, “suggested tweets”, or anything else twitter tries to use to keep you engaged. If there’s no reason for you to immediately do something to that notification, then you should turn it off.

Step Two: Higher Effort, Less Reward, Still Important!

Honestly, with the above steps, you should already have an infinitely better twitter experience. Though, there’s always room for improvement, especially if you’re like me and use twitter too much. Now for the things that take a lot more effort, but will overall result in a much better twitter experience!

Following Audit

set up a new list
Make it private
Completely from memory, add the users that you remember really enjoying reading the tweets of. Not the ones that you feel obligated to follow or feel are “important”, but truly the ones where you always think that they have good tweets.
If you’re using tweetbot, set that list as the default timeline (tap where it says “Timeline” and switch to the list). If in tweetdeck, add the list as a column and remove your home column. If in web twitter, just go to the list itself and try not looking at the home timeline.
Use just this list for a while, and if you find yourself missing a specific person, add them to the list! But try to keep the list to less than 80 users.

Once you’ve only used this list for a while, go through your following list and unfollow some people. Anyone who you absolutely didn’t miss the posts of, or anyone that you feel may have made your experience worse. The eventual goal here is to whittle down your main follows, either unfollowing or muting anyone who’s left not added to the list.

Another important aspect, once it’s reduced a bit, is to turn off retweets from certain people. This one will apply to some more than others, but some people have okay tweets but either retweet too much, or retweet things that are mostly negative. So going into their profile and turning off retweets is essential for people like that (though keep in mind that this function doesn’t work in lists, so this will mainly apply when you’ve lowered your actual following count).

If you really want to be able to turn off retweets in a list, I recommend just making a second throwaway account that exists purely to act like a list. A downside of this is that you can’t invisibly follow people like you can with a list, though it does mean that you’ll still retain access to their tweets if they switch to a private account. In tweetdeck, tweetbot, and the default mobile twitter app you can set up multiple accounts pretty easily, so it isn’t too much more work to using it than using a list!

I personally recommend following no more than 250 people. For example, I follow 240 and when I wake up in the morning there’s been around ~80 tweets since I fell asleep, and there’s often 30+ minute gaps between tweets in my timeline, which are all healthy amounts! A constant stream of information will just cause your feed to be overwhelming and distracting.

Division of topics using lists and alt-accounts

One of the biggest issues I see with the way twitter works is the collapse of many different topics into one feed. For example, you have posts about the news next to posts about new music next to art next to hot video game takes. It can be exhausting and jarring reading these things in such an unorganized order, and that’s where lists and alt-accounts come in.

If, for example, you want to keep up with news posts, don’t put them in your main feed. Make a new list on your account and read that instead. If you want to exclude retweets from a list, make a new search using the list ID. When you open a list in the website, the url will be something like https://twitter.com/i/lists/14633396. Use the number at the end in your search, using the pattern list:14633396 to show that list without retweets. You can use filters like filter:links to only show tweets with links, exclude:replies to not show any replies, include:nativeretweets if you do want to see retweets in a search, or any combination of those! There’s more that can be found in the advanced search panel or by googling around for them.

This one is highly specialized to me, but I’m mentioning it as an example of how I use and enjoy twitter. I have two accounts, my main that I use to follow people generally, and a second one that I only use to follow artists that I like. This second account is set up as a column in tweetdeck that only shows tweets with images and I’ve disabled retweets on a lot of accounts that I follow. This turns this column into a feed of nice art from artists I like (and artists they like, with retweets). And then since I use a second account, the likes on that account are just my favorites of my favorites, and create a nice feed to scroll through! Also that way, instead of the context collapse of twitter where you have art next to takes next to news, things are separated out and I can more easily choose what to look at. It’s honestly great! It turns twitter into what I often use Tumblr for, a nice feed of good art.

This no longer works, even in old tweetdeck, sadly. In addition, I have a search column in tweetdeck using the query "melonbooks.co.jp" OR "booth.pm" OR "alice-books.com" OR "base.shop" OR "inprnt.com" list:[list id] include:nativeretweets. This will show me any new links from artists I follow for new art books or prints on common art stores. Super helpful since many artists don’t use things like mailing lists and the tweets can get lost in the feed. You can’t normally search the following list of a user, so I use the service vicariously.io which will auto-generate lists based on the following list of a user.

Mute, Block, Soft-block

See someone’s tweets show up a lot that you don’t like? Don’t want to see those tweets anymore? Mute and/or block them! It’s that easy! You are under no obligation to keep up with whatever they’re saying, except for rare circumstances there’s no real reason to force yourself to read the tweets of someone that you don’t care for. Whenever I look at a tweet and I see someone saying something dumb or posting something clearly in bad faith, I often just block them on sight. Sure, chances are I’ll never see them again regardless, but life is too short to expend energy getting mad at someone on the internet.

Additionally, if someone followed you that you don’t really want following you, soft-blocking is always good. Soft-blocking is when you block and unblock someone who is following you, as it will then make them unfollow you without any notification of that to them. A caveat to blocking/muting, by default twitter won’t hide quote replies of that account, you’ll need to enable the option “Hide tweets quoting accounts you’ve blocked or muted” in Tweak New Twitter, mentioned above!

Doujins/Art books

2023-04-24T00:00:00+00:00

title	original_title	artist	guest_artists	circle	price	franchise	url
AIKOIII		AIKO		AISHOP	¥1,650	Azur Lane	link
AIKO PERSONAL COLLECTION S		AIKO		AISHOP	¥1,650	Original	link
BOTANICAL		遠坂あさぎ		AliceSyndrome*	¥1,815	Hololive	link
Endless End		風間雷太		Apocrypha	¥1,100	Nier	link
tarou's kicks vol.1		tarou2		atmosphere	¥1,650	Original	link
tarou's kicks vol.2		tarou2		atmosphere	¥1,650	Original	link
tarou's kicks vol.3		tarou2		atmosphere	¥1,650	Original	link
genshin achievement: Ver2021.12		marumoru		Blue apple	¥1,595	Genshin Impact	link
AMELIART		なび	Hitsu, らんぐ	Butterfly	¥1,100	Hololive	link
ふゆのおんなのこ		森倉円		CANVAS	¥1,430	Original	link
hello summer	ハローサマー	森倉円		CANVAS	¥1,430	Original	link
Vacation!		森倉円		CANVAS	¥1,430	Original	link
Lingerie Bouquet		森倉円		CANVAS	¥1,430	Original	link
CANVAS BOOK 3		森倉円		CANVAS	¥770	Original	link
Stay with me.		森倉円		CANVAS	¥1,430	Original	link
MORIKURA NOTE		森倉円		CANVAS	¥660	Original	link
OTOGI		森倉円		CANVAS	¥1,430	Original	link
GEMME【新刊セット】		森倉円		CANVAS	¥1,430	Original	link
COSTUME!!		ちょこ庵		Chocolate Sheep	¥1,257	Original	link
RENEWALS		ちょこ庵		Chocolate Sheep	¥1,572	Fate	link
VARIOUS!		ちょこ庵		Chocolate Sheep	¥1,572	VTuber	link
Tlier.3		ぬこみるく		CONECHRO	¥785	Hololive	link
holobook		ぬこみるく		CONECHRO	¥785	Hololive	link
holobook vol.2		ぬこみるく		CONECHRO	¥864	Hololive	link
SPOTLIGHT		HxxG		EMBER	¥1,300	Hololive	link
Nagisa's Cradle	渚のゆりかご	淵゛		Fragile	¥1,320	Original	link
silence and words	沈黙と言葉	淵゛		Fragile	¥1,572	Original	link
283×APEX		あかね		getwild	¥550	Idolm@ster	link
cat and me.	猫とわたし。	Various		GOT	¥3,200	Original	link
Gradd and Syu		west		grehmerl	¥1,324	Original	link
わたしのかのじょがかわいすぎ		KOUGI		KOUGIのみかん畑	¥785	Love Live	link
う丼		手島nari		meisaiya	¥785	Uma Musume	link
TOKYO GIRL		Mika Pikazo		MikaPikaZo	¥1,540	Original	link
Mika Pikazo set		Mika Pikazo		MikaPikaZo	¥2,090	Original	link
SUMMER TIME!		Mika Pikazo		MikaPikaZo	¥1,430	Original	link
Vertex	頂点	Mika Pikazo		MikaPikaZo	¥2,530	Apex Legends	link
Solace		namie		Nambarimasu	¥1,400	Arknights	link
カッコイイ女子超[SUPER]		POKImari	よむ, かやはら, 有坂あこ	POKIZM	¥2,357	Various	link
POPLOOP vol.2 HotchPotch		くるみつ		POPLOOP	¥1,100	Original	link
They are (not) INVINCIBLE.2019AW		れおえん		Re:	¥1,572	Original	link
They are (not) INVINCIBLE.2020SS		れおえん		Re:	¥1,885	Original	link
Ribbon Life		so品		rootチ	¥660	Aikatsu	link
Alleluja		so品		rootチ	¥785	Fate	link
AKMK3.		so品		rootチ	¥220	Idolm@ster	link
glow		so品		rootチ	¥785	Idolm@ster	link
Root Chi C97 limited new issue set	rootチ C97限定新刊セット	so品		rootチ	¥785	Idolm@ster	link
FLOOF!		フカヒレ	戌神ころね, はねこと, LAM	RUINON	¥1,500	Hololive	link
YUBITOPIA		フカヒレ		RUINON	¥1,485	Hololive	link
Cotton8.5		せんちゃ		sencyairo	¥550	Original	link
Cotton9		せんちゃ		sencyairo	¥1,572	Original	link
Tee Tee!		猫村		Sleeper	¥1,572	Nijisanji	link
Summer clothes and sweets 2	夏服とスイーツ2	森倉円	Hiten, パセリ, 望月けい	SYNTHESiS DESiGN	¥1,815	Idolm@ster	link
Summer clothes and sweets 3	夏服とスイーツ3	森倉円	モ誰, パセリ, 望月けい	SYNTHESiS DESiGN	¥1,815	Idolm@ster	link
Summer clothes and sweets 4	なつふくとスイーツ4	森倉円	森倉円, さいね, 栗原さくら, 綾野優, 甘木くるみ, 黒菌, 田中寛崇, 92M, もちつきうさ, アシタ, chiri, 智弘カイ, 緑川葉, U35, ERIMO, 富士フジノ, fumi, 吟, 左折, あかね, 源, れつな, wogura, ミツナリ(敬称略)	SYNTHESiS DESiGN	¥1,815	Idolm@ster	link
FALLING DOWN		The Vision of DemonLord		The Vision of DemonLord	¥1,572	Idolm@ster	link
LIV4LUV		加川壱互	およ, 西沢5㍉, 緜	いちご園	¥2,291	Hololive	link
By the window.		海島千本		うなぎのおみせ	¥1,500	Original	link
オコメチルドレン※1.5		いけ	おしぼり, とうや, アサゲン, toco	オコメチルドレン	¥732	Original	link
Holos Garden2		かかげ		おもちやさん	¥1,572	Hololive	link
HOLOSGARDEN3		かかげ		おもちやさん	¥1,572	Hololive	link
HOLOSGARDEN4		かかげ		おもちやさん	¥1,572	Hololive	link
Rose Garden3		かかげ		おもちやさん	¥1,572	Granblue Fantasy	link
Diary		工藤える		くぼうえる	¥1,100	Idolm@ster	link
NOSTALGIA vol.002		加藤オズワルド		サイレント	¥660	Original	link
SUNSHINE COLOR'S2		さけハラス		さけハラス	¥1,210	Original	link
SAKE BEST		さけハラス		さけハラス	¥1,760	Original	link
Aikatsu! Plain clothes joint magazine 2nd edition "PARADE"	アイカツ!私服合同誌第二弾「PARADE」	ウミノモクズ	秋空さわやか, AS4KLA, いのちすこやか, ウミノモクズ河馬子, KAYO, くもすずめ, ごぼう, koyubi, シソ, so品chiri, 問七, nghr, 七神マナ, nueco, 橋口隼人, ぼっくん	しずみ荘	¥3,143	Aikatsu	link
SUPREZZATURA		凡竜		スーパーブルー	¥908	Sound! Euphonium	link
Super Blue 2020 Summer		凡竜		スーパーブルー	¥1,100	Sound! Euphonium	link
Super Blue 2020 Autumn		凡竜		スーパーブルー	¥1,100	Sound! Euphonium	link
Super Blue 2021 K.O.		凡竜		スーパーブルー	¥715	Sound! Euphonium	link
Super Blue 2021 Spring		凡竜		スーパーブルー	¥1,210	Sound! Euphonium	link
またたび		らんふ		すくらんfullえっぐ	¥770	Original	link
近視の姉		92M		ダイコテツ団	¥785	Original	link
Your face is too genius III	顔が天才過ぎますIII	ぱいしぇん		チームタテガミ	¥785	Idolm@ster	link
SHE		米山舞		ツナまよねーずごはん	¥1,980	Original	link
THE ONE		米山舞		ツナまよねーずごはん	¥1,650	Original	link
esc.#0		米山舞		ツナまよねーずごはん	¥1,650	Original	link
FUN		米山舞	作品ekao, tarou2, セブンゼル, PALOW., BUNBUN, NAJI柳田, タイキ, 一才	ツナまよねーずごはん	¥2,310	Various	link
"Our daily life. 2"	「わたしたちの日常。2」	じょろり		どっつ＆らいんず	¥785	Original	link
Miscellaneous Graffiti Book	ごちゃまぜよろず落書き本	にゅむ		にゅむproduction	¥550	Original	link
CYA spece		pako		ハイパーソニックソウル	¥1,980	Hololive	link
drifting	漂流	はむねずこ		はむねずこ	¥1,300	Original	link
Even though I don't know anything	何も知らないくせに	はむねずこ		はむねずこ	¥600	Original	link
Farewell melancholy	さらば、メランコリー	はむねずこ		はむねずこ	¥1,379	Original	link
Doodle holo summary	らくがきホロまとめ	肋兵器		ほしとマタンゴ	¥990	Hololive	link
HoloMatome		肋兵器		ほしとマタンゴ	¥1,980	Hololive	link
HoloMatome2		肋兵器		ほしとマタンゴ	¥1,540	Hololive	link
ほろのなつのほん		肋兵器		ほしとマタンゴ	¥770	Hololive	link
abr Rakugaki Matome		肋兵器		ほしとマタンゴ	¥2,750	Princess Connect	link
だいたいセーラーふく		もりちか		まるたぁ小屋	¥715	Original	link
Daily life of a girl and a dog	女の子と犬の日常	もりちか		まるたぁ小屋	¥770	Original	link
Daily life of a girl and a dog 2	女の子と犬の日常2	もりちか		まるたぁ小屋	¥1,415	Original	link
Daily life of a girl and a dog 3	女の子と犬の日常3	もりちか		まるたぁ小屋	¥770	Original	link
Daily life of a girl and a dog 4	女の子と犬の日常4	もりちか		まるたぁ小屋	¥770	Original	link
uniform sometimes dog	制服ときどき犬	もりちか		まるたぁ小屋	¥770	Original	link
What are you doing now? Mizusu's work collection	いまどうしてる? みずす作品集	みずす		みずす	¥880	Original	link
WHITE BULLET		トマリ		ミルクランプ	¥2,357	Hololive	link
100DAY CHALLENGE GALLERY		モ誰		もじさん	¥2,200	Various	link
100DAY CHALLENGE SECOND GALLERY		モ誰		もじさん	¥2,200	Various	link
LiPPS gravure vol.2	LiPPSグラビアvol.2	モ誰		もじさん	¥1,257	Idolm@ster	link
Ganbare Douki-chan 1	がんばれ同期ちゃん 1	よむ		よむ書店	¥880	Original	link
Ganbare Douki-chan 2	がんばれ同期ちゃん 2	よむ		よむ書店	¥880	Original	link
Ganbare Douki-chan 3	がんばれ同期ちゃん 3	よむ		よむ書店	¥880	Original	link
Ganbare Douki-chan 4	がんばれ同期ちゃん 4	よむ		よむ書店	¥880	Original	link
Ganbare Douki-chan 5	がんばれ同期ちゃん 5	よむ		よむ書店	¥880	Original	link
Ganbare Douki-chan 6	がんばれ同期ちゃん 6	よむ		よむ書店	¥880	Original	link
ILLUMINATE DREAM		GUCHICO	蜜咲姫朱	ラインメロン	¥1,572	Hololive	link
HOLO+MIX		GUCHICO		ラインメロン	¥1,572	Hololive	link
HOLO+MIX2		GUCHICO		ラインメロン	¥1,572	Hololive	link
NZMZ illustration summary 2	NZMZイラストまとめ2	れぇ		れれBOX	¥1,572	Sound! Euphonium	link
NZMZ illustration summary 3	NZMZイラストまとめ3	れぇ		れれBOX	¥1,540	Sound! Euphonium	link
real		ろ樹		ロキ調停会	¥791	Idolm@ster	link
it was summer	夏でした	みなはむ		ンキッャヒ	¥1,320	Original	link
daily achievements6&7		hncl		一期一会	¥3,300	Various	link
daily achievements5		hncl		一期一会	¥1,650	Various	link
MIWANO RAG 2020		美和野らぐ		三食納豆飯	¥1,375	Original	link
Fishman		HJL		台湾修羅場	¥3,144	Original	link
TAIWAN OFFICE LADY 1		天之火		台湾修羅場	¥1,612	Original	link
箱庭之声		風味馬吉		台湾修羅場	¥1,466	Original	link
RKGK HOLOLIVE FAN ART BOOK		泉彩		大陸間弾道少女	¥1,572	Hololive	link
TennenSuidousui20		パセリ		天然水道水	¥660	Hololive	link
FEMME FATALE		MAIRO		彩蝶の箱庭	¥770	Idolm@ster	link
Two-sided		木なこ		木なこもち	¥880	Original	link
Holo Style vol.1		おいなりせんせー		本日のいなり	¥550	Hololive	link
Holo Style vol.2		おいなりせんせー		本日のいなり	¥550	Hololive	link
BAKATARE CIRCUS		おいなりせんせー		本日のいなり	¥1,000	Hololive	link
Omega		裕		東のペンギン	¥2,357	Original	link
ticket		またよし		株式会社 1月と7月	¥2,970	Original	link
Beware of Falling Apples #01		Se_eeeee		正経同人	¥849	Haikyuu	link
Beware of Falling Apples #05		Se_eeeee		正経同人	¥849	Haikyuu	link
Hydrosphere		zinbei		瀝青の海	¥1,980	Original	link
travail de chateau		saitom		猫マル商店	¥1,150	Original	link
travail de chateau2		saitom		猫マル商店	¥1,430	Original	link
Zimakupiza		saitom		猫マル商店	¥550	Original	link
zimakupiza F		saitom		猫マル商店	¥550	Fate	link
zimakupiza F2		saitom		猫マル商店	¥550	Fate	link
DF		saitom		猫マル商店	¥1,150	Original	link
annus		生倉のゑる		生のりのつくだに	¥1,100	Idolm@ster	link
ARMA		ゆきさめ		醒	¥785	Original	link
ステッカー①		hamafugu			¥320	Original	link
ステッカー ②		hamafugu			¥320	Original	link
KG-2000		komugiko2000			¥2,980	Original	link
光		hirono			¥800	Original	link
AIK4TSU! 2015—2020		Moving2			¥2,000	Aikatsu	link
citron		ゆーきん			¥1,500	Original	link
イラスト本		ポム			¥1,000	Original	link
休日おバイク絵日記		fumiko			¥600	Original	link
2020.11		myusa-e			¥600	Original	link
A-Z:Designworks		neco			¥1,210	Original	link
とこなつ		サコ			¥700	Original	link
ワンピースとパジャマ		サコ			¥1,000	Original	link
じゆうちょう２		サコ			¥1,000	Original	link
衣食住		サコ			¥1,000	Original	link
圖		赤井製作所			¥850	Original	link
BLUE		mol			¥1,000	Original	link
虫の域		mol			¥400	Original	link
トリケラトップス！！		mol			¥1,000	Original	link

Media of the Year 2022

2023-01-05T00:00:00+00:00

Lots of great stuff this year! The fall anime season alone was incredible, and there’s still a ton I have to catch up on. Some music releases I was really looking forward to that ended up not really clicking for me (Charli XCX, Bladee, etc) but there was a TON I loved, especially track wise. Also I only read one real book, The Spear Cuts Through Water, but it quickly became one of my favorite books.

Some stuff I did this year!

Got my ears pierced (which still haven’t healed LMAO)
Saw Bladee/Drain Gang live :’)
Met Jeff Wiggins and got a pop’n music controller (cleared some uhhh 30s i think??)
Saw My Chemical Romance live after that show was delayed two whole years
Took a trip to NYC to visit john hill and it was ~3 days full of non-stop activities! Playing DDR and visiting happy99 were highlights for sure
Flew to San Francisco to see Second Sky 2022 (and mariah) which was GREAT and I would absolutely do again. Seeing Taku Inoue specifically ruled, such an incredibly fun set. Got me planning out a Japan trip in 2023!!!!

Music

Albums

Never before seen, never again found by arm’s length
- Fav emo/pop punk release of the year!
- Favorite tracks: Object Permanence, Formative Age, In Loving Memory
Actual Life 3 by Fred again..
- Only learned about Fred again.. this year when he was on the Second Sky 2022 lineup, I checked out the first thing that appeared when searching for him on youtube which was one of his piano lives and I was like “oh cool he’s like a dancey piano guy, that’ll be fun during the sets” and then he came out with his Boiler Room set and I realized how wrong I was. GREAT album!!!!
to not now, nor to ever, despair by geotic
- I rediscovered Geotic’s 2020 Oxperls this year which honestly gets retroactively put on my favs list since god that thing is incredible. BUT this album is also great, I love the return to a much more drone/ambient style for him on this project.
shiawase ni narukara, narouyo by jyocho
rot by tennyson
BAD mode by hikaru utada
killer in neverland by 4s4ki
LOG 3-8 by Miyauchi Yuri
- peak passive listening, great to put any/all of these on shuffle and go for a walk
en by ryutist
- RYUTist rules!!!!! I love when jpop idols work with super interesting producers/composers and make super unexpected stuff. This whole album is great but たったいま:さっきまで is my standout for sure

things i have to listen to more but really liked so far

uragaeshi by ilie
honeybee table at the butterfly feast by teen suicide
春火燎原 by haru nemuri
it’s hard to see color [when you’re so impossibly far away] by jaron

Songs

Fantasy by Bodysync
- CERTIFIED BANGER
dust bowl by Ethel Cain
Object Permanence by arm’s length
- the peak of current emo imo
風のゆくえ by Ado
Megaton Kaiser by DJ Myosuke
- one of the hardest tracks of the year, just absurdly aggressive, absolutely hits everything i want out of this style of hardcore, 200 bpm and no one section lasts longer than 20 seconds
Glimpse of Us by Joji
Die Young by Lil Texas
- that vocal chop at 1:44/1:56 is sooooooo good
The Light by Lyrical School
A New Start by Nanashi Mumei
- Isekai anime-core, the obligitory vtuber song, legit love this song though
- Obligitory mention of these two great remixes: Eivesohn’s swancore/pop punk remix, Wherefore’s bootleg
Astrogirl by Tsukumo Sana & Snail’s House
- Okay the other vtuber song, though it’s kinda cheating since it’s really a Snail’s House song.
carrefour by phritz
Everything Goes On by Porter Robinson
Strong by Romy & Fred again..
- LOVE this trance-y sound
たったいま:さっきまで by RYUTist
- I truly do love pairing japanese idol groups with absurd net-label-esque production techniques. The Sophie samples at 1:53 into a full-band rock section right after rules.
Reallywanna by Tennyson
- So wonderfully textural, that signature Ryan Hemsworth (co-)production, that vocal processing, that key change!!!

Anime

Bocchi the Rock!
- Absolutely the best anime of the year, no bad episodes, incredible animation, super funny while also being wonderfully heartfelt. Dearly hoping for a season 2. Literally bought a guitar to start learning because of this show!
Lycoris Recoil
- Great original concept with some weird execution! I cared so much more about the main two characters and their relationship than I did any of the surrounding stuff. Gimme a spin-off manga about just their antics
My Dress-Up Darling
- Super cute! Really nice character animation!
Encouragement of Climb: Next Summit
- Incredibly comfy as always, made me write down a bunch of places I want to go when visiting Japan
Mob Psycho 100 III
- Honestly???? didn’t like this season as much as the rest. It’s a very nice conclusion for the show, but the pacing felt weird and I wasn’t anywhere near as invested in the story arcs here.

Movies

Aftersun
- Gorgeous, that dance scene near the end is incredible. Highly highly recommended
Top Gun: Maverick
- I’m rarely a “gotta see this in theaters” kind of person but this one earns it!
RRR
- An instance of a movie I wish I saw in theaters! Well, other than the length since I paused multiple times to take a break and get a snack lol.
The Batman
Everything Everywhere All at Once

Games

Beatmania IIDX 29: CastHour
- Another year of sinking an absurd amount of hours into this game!! Cleared a 10, some 9s, lots of 7s and 8s, and got a lot more AAAs all the way up to 6s. Feeling great about my progress in this game!
Fortnite
- The ultimate hangout game, I used to play Apex all the time which, admittedly, is the much better game! But Fortnite is just so casual in comparison that it acts as a great vehicle for conversation and just Hanging Out while still having fun mechanical engagement which I’m always in the search for more of.
Tunic
- God I loved tunic, reminded me so much of the experience of playing Fez, finding all of these hidden secrets and puzzles and needing to do some real lateral thinking to figure some of them out. Love it!!!! I fully admit to using a guide for a good amount of the end-game stuff though
Neon White
- It’s so rare that I strive to 100% a game but I absolutely had to here. It helps that I never got tired of that soundtrack and the mechanics felt just perfectly tuned to me getting better and better times.
Immortality
Stacklands

Not yet finished but I’m really enjoying:

Signalis
Need for Speed: Unbound

Commissions/OCs

2022-11-22T00:00:00+00:00

IIDX qpro

IIDX qpro (original)

by @whale_m0m

by @burrsho

by lalimeeko

by @soyacomu

by @rururoru

by ふゆう

by @nekokaitai0

by @inking_g

by @05xxko

Final Fantasy XIV

Final Fantasy 14 character + Brock Hampton by @burrsho

Forza Horizon 5 Screenshots

2022-01-09T00:00:00+00:00

Click each photo for high-res! All are 2560x1440 pngs.

Media of the Year 2020

2021-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

Uhhhhhh a few months late on this one! oops!

Albums

4s4ki - Your Dreamland
Baauer - Planet’s Mad
CY8ER - 東京
A. G. Cook - 7G
REOL - 金字塔
8485 - Alpha Testing
Baths - Pop Music / False B-Sides II
♥ GOJII ♥ - ALL MY HEART
gupi - None
Clouds - Arkiv1-3

Games

I barely played any video games in 2020, after developing some form of RSI preventing me from using a game controller comfortably. As always, a lot of these games didn’t come out in 2020. Beatmania IIDX and Stepmania/DDR have completely dominated my game-playing time, 2020 truly became the year of the rhythm game. I started playing IIDX in November 2019 and by the end of 2020 I was 2-Dan (二段).

Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere
Disc Room
YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story
428: Shibuya Scramble
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r]
Kentucky Route Zero Act V
Beatmania IIDX 27 Heroic Verse
Stepmania

Anime

Okay honestly 2020 was not a very good year for anime, imo. Or at least not the kinds I wanted to watch.

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
DECA-DENCE
Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul
Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club

Vtuber clips

Much of the second half of 2020 was spent watching vtubers, mainly from hololive. The debut of Hololive EN especially changed my media consumption habits, meaning I was watching a lot more streams than I ever had before.

About

2020-11-26T00:00:00+00:00

via @ttto_ok

via Sangled’s image maker

via にこっと！おんなのこメーカー｜Picrew

Hi! I’m nathan wentworth, I make video games and websites. I like using vanilla javascript, Unity C#, and python. Recently I’ve been into making CLI tools and server-side web apps. I think websites should be lightweight, tracking-free, and accessible! I’m a strong supporter of anything that encourages people to make their own websites, like tilde.town, neocities, and github pages.

I’m interested in design, open source software, minimalism, fashion, and human-scale technology. I like fun music, video games, and taking photos. Check out some media, websites, and other things that I like!

I love playing Dance Dance Revolution (3rd Dan [三段]) and Beatmania IIDX (4th Dan [四段]), I also play a little Pop’n and SDVX!

Feel free to email me or talk to me on twitter! All posts/categories on this site can be followed with RSS: posts, projects, and recommendations.

Featured in

moshboy’s 1000 gamemakers / Rock Paper Shotgun / itch.io Twitter / itch.io CSS Showcase

Elsewhere

Site info

This website is hosted on a Digital Ocean (affiliate link) droplet running Ubuntu 18 and nginx. Let’s Encrypt is providing the SSL Cert, and my CMS/site generator is Jekyll. The last.fm/pinboard/etc sections on the front page auto-update once every hour. Feel free to check out this site’s source code on Github.

Games Played in 2019

2020-05-09T00:00:00+00:00

I played way less games in 2019 than I have any previous year. But I finished pretty much all of them, which is super rare for me!

Some favorites!

Outer Wilds

Time played: ~15 hours Amount played: 100%

A truly beautiful game. The sense of discovery, paired with interesting worlds to explore, gorgeous music, and satisfying interactions/mechanics make this one of my favorite games of the year, and one of my favorite experiences in a while.

There’s something about a game that so heavily features space travel, but also feels so small. The planets feel so contained and can be traversed in very little time and the people you meet are always alone.

A Short Hike

Time played: ~3 hours Amount played: Pretty much 100%

God i adored this game. It isn’t at all what I expected it to be, I assumed some 45 minute experience where it’s only the platforming elements. I was delighted by the dialogue, characters, and side-objectives! Incredibly cute and charming while still having character outside of that. Fills that niche of game that’s a pleasant world to spend time in. Love the system of being given “quests” that have no real fail state and often no direct reward, and no way to track what you have active. It makes that aspect feel noticeably less gamey, and far more like you’re just interacting and hanging out with these people.

Not to mention of course the wonderful soundtrack and visuals. This lo-fi pixelated 3d look is so solid and well done. I’d be playing and not even notice it at times, which really drives home this idea that visual fidelity really isn’t that important for a lot of games.

Control

Time played: ~20 hours Amount played: main story + a good amount of side stuff

God this game has a style and it executes it so well. The architecture and the way it’s used in game is genius and the graphic design (those screen-filling area-name title cards), menus, and FMV overlays all lend itself so well to this look. The combat i found to often be way too hard and often just annoying. Falling through a hole beneath me to die and have to restart an entire boss fight isn’t exactly fun! But, it was still immensely satisfying to pull an object from behind a Hiss, hit them, and then throw it back in their face. Would have loved an easy mode, or at least checkpointing mid-boss or something!

The rest

Handulum+
Pilgrimage
Gris
The Witness
The Gardens Between
Horizon Zero Dawn
Baba is You
Pikuniku
Untitled Goose Game
The Outer Worlds
Control

Some games that came out in 2019 i need to play still

Frog Detective 2
Wattam
Kingdom Hearts III

Setup

2020-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

Computer hardware/software I use

Sadly I’m basically full-time Windows for home desktop usage and a M2 Pro Macbook Pro for work usage!!!! One day I will get back into the Linux on the Desktop lifestyle…………

Desktop

Current setup is Ubuntu 20.04 and XFCE4 with the a CDE theme:

xfce with a terminal, cmus, keyboard settings, thunar, and sublime text (shade closed)

desktop screenshot with neofetch

Old Setups

i3

screenshot of sublime text and a terminal

i never use floating mode, but it sure looks nice

empty desktop with rofi (application launcher)

firefox and cmus (music player)

output of trimage and vim

Budgie

desktop screenshot with firefox and sublime text

desktop screenshot with wallpaper and terminal

OS: Windows 10
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Motherboard: ASUS AM4 TUF GAMING X570-Plus ATX
RAM: Team Dark 16GB DDR4-2400
Storage:
- Samsung 960 EVO 250GB m.2 (Windows boot drive)
- Samsung 960 EVO 1TB m.2
- WD 500GB Blue SATAIII SSD (Ubuntu boot drive)
- Seagate 2TB HDD
- Seagate 2TB FireCuda SHDD
GPU: EVGA RTX 3060
Power Supply: EVGA 750W
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (White)
Monitor: Dell U2415h (24”, 1920x1200) x2
Keyboard: KBDfans DZ65 with Gateron browns and astrolokeys keycaps
Mouse: Logitech MX Vertical
Headphones: Sennheiser HD595

~~ OLD ~~

OS: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Windows 10
CPU: Intel i5-7500 3.4Ghz Quad-Core
Motherboard: MSI Z270 SLI PLUS LGA1151
RAM: Team Dark 16GB DDR4-2400
Storage:
- Samsung 960 EVO 250GB m.2 (Windows boot drive)
- WD 500GB Blue SATAIII SSD (Ubuntu boot drive)
- Seagate 2TB HDD
- Seagate 2TB FireCuda SHDD
- Leftover 500GB HDD from my PS4
GPU: Zotac GTX 970 4Gb
Power Supply: EVGA NEX 650W
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (White)
Monitor: Dell U2415h (24”, 1920x1200)
Keyboard: Apple Magic Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech MX Master 2S
Headphones: Sennheiser HD595

PC Part Picker page

Read about my switch from mac to linux here!

Phone (iPhone 6S)

phone screenshot as of july 2018

phone screenshot as of august 2018

Software

Utility

Things
1Password
OTP Auth
- 2FA client
iA Writer
Halide
- camera app with manual controls and RAW support
Hello Weather
Pinner
- pinboard client

Tweetbot
Discord

Media

Doppler
- fantastic music player app
- allows you to just drag files in from a browser, or import directly from safari
Overcast
- saved over 24 hours with smart speed
Reeder
Apple Books
nPlayer
- all-purpose video player with network support
ComicGlass
- extremely utilitarian function-over-form manga/comic reader

Essential Media

2020-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Favorite music, comics, games, etc.

For more frequently updated things that I like (maybe not as much as the things here), check out my recommendations page! You might also be interested in websites I like.

Music

Albums

Porter Robinson - Nurture

Burial - Rival Dealer

Carissa’s Wierd - You Should Be at Home Here

gaburyu - メイドサントウィッチ

American Football - American Football

Anamanaguchi - Capsule Silence XXIV

Baths - Romaplasm

100 gecs - 1000 gecs

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven

Songs

Mixes

Ghost Protocol - Go-qualia
Mix for Triple J Mixup Exclusives - JACK
FADER Mix - Danny L Harle
Huewave - Tielsie
100 gecs @ Mine Gala
LuckyMe Rave At The Poetry Club (ft. Cloudo, Mayhem, Rustie & Jackmaster)

Comics

Oyasumi Punpun
Solanin
A frog in the fall (and later on)

Games

Fez

NieR: Automata

Inside

Noby Noby Boy
Katamari Damacy
Metal Gear Solid 2
NieR
Undertale
Kentucky Route Zero
Bloodborne
Silent Hill 2
Dance Dance Revolution
Beatmania IIDX

TV

Ping Pong: The Animation

Mob Psycho 100 II

Nichijou

The Tatami Galaxy
Mawaru Penguindrum
Kaiba
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Made In Abyss

Bike Commuting

2019-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

For the last few weeks I’ve been commuting into work via bike. I love it!! When I was commuting from Fitchburg it would take me around two hours each way, car then train then walking, to get to work. It was awful!! Now that I live in Somerville, biking into work takes around 18-25 minutes. Not only is it significantly faster, but it’s a much more enjoyable experience. I love biking without headphones in so I have time to think. It gives a nice transitional period between work and home without needing to fill it with endless content and media.

Strava stats from last week

I’ve been riding my black 21 speed bike, but my dad recently gave me his single-speed fuji that I’d love to ride in with. Sadly the rear brake isn’t great, and that can be essential when navigating between cars. Hopefully I can find the time to go to a bike shop soon and have them figure that out!

RSS

2019-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

Favorite Games I Played in 2018

2019-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

I played very few games that came out in 2018, and rather my year was filled with either very small indies, or things that came out in previous years. Regardless, there’s a lot of stuff that I really enjoyed! The full list (in order of completion) is at the bottom.

Yakuza 0

Yakuza 0 / Yakuza Kiwami

Why didn’t I play these earlier? I had wanted to get into the Yakuza series back in 2014 when I bought Yakuza 3, but I quickly fell off it. Starting back up with 0 makes me even more excited to go back to the entries I already own (3, 4, 5) with a newfound appreciation for the series. The effortless blending of goofy comedy and explosive crime drama mixed in with wholesome characters and varied gameplay makes for truly wonderful games.

As Matt Kessler put it on twitter:

Yakuza 6 is a power fantasy, but the fantasy is that no one—-not the gangsters, the joke characters from two games ago, the kids who don’t know better—-is so far gone that they can’t set themselves on a path to be better people.

Titanfall 2

While a weird comparison, this game reminds me a lot of Inside mechanically. Each level has a unique twist or mechanic that gets just enough time to feel fully realized while never overstaying its welcome. It’s the perfect length for the kind of game it is (I think I finished it in around 5 to 6 hours). The plot isn’t anything incredibly unique, but it gets the job done.

Not only is the single player great, but the multiplayer has probably my favorite progression system in a game ever. You get consistent unlocks with every level, in addition to randomized cosmetic rewards, and you get a currency to spend on unlocking anything you want (even high-level guns and cosmetics), and you get extra unlocks for completing milestones with weapons/classes/etc. This means you end up getting rewards every few matches, giving a constant sense of reward.

Fallout New Vegas (+ DLC)

I played Fallout 3 in high school and enjoyed so much about it. The intro, the unique side-missions you stumble across completely separate from the main story. NV came out a little while after I played 3 and it didn’t appeal to me at the time, it felt too similar to 3, and the intro felt flat and almost too open-ended in what you’re supposed to do. In college I played Fallout 4 and found it incredibly monotonous and bland, with really nothing going for it outside of the companions and their quest-lines.

Then, I decided to give New Vegas another try. I already owned it on Steam from a sale a while back, and I kept hearing good things about it, like this incredible review on Killscreen (rip). After I got through the first few hours I started to really love it. The different groups and factions all felt so real and believable. All had their own motives and vision for what they wanted New Vegas to be (I wish I could have spent more time with the Followers of the Apocalypse). Sadly, I didn’t really enjoy Caesar’s Legion as an antagonist as they felt too blatantly evil. Obviously things like that have existed, but I guess I would have preferred something with more subtlety. For a world filled with so much political nuance, their brand of fascist dictatorship felt a little too direct.

Most of the DLC was a nice bonus too. Honest Hearts was one of my favorite parts of the game, and one of the few aspects of the game that made me truly question my choices. Old World Blues was definitely my least favorite (if there’s one complaint I have about the game, its sense of humor is seriously not to my taste).

Persona 5

I played this game with Sabrina for close to a year. We started in October 2017 and finished it in August 2018. We clocked in 145 hours by the end. It’s much too long. It’s rare that I feel truly burnt out on a game by the end but WOW was that the case here. I absolutely loved the first few hours, but the lackluster character development, uninteresting (and weirdly difficult) combat, and poor writing just left a lot to be desired. There were so many cases where the characters just straight up explain something to you when they absolutely didn’t need to. I don’t want to be too down on this game, there’s a ton I loved! The art and UI design were flawless, the music never got old, even 140+ hours in, and the pacing is solid. But in the end, it just left so much to be desired.

Donut County

SUCH a good soundtrack. Loved this game, Ben Espisito’s sense of humor is 100% my thing and the Trashopedia is one of my favorite parts of this game.

There’s a bunch of other games that I loved this year that I don’t really have a lot to say about other than “this is great”, so I’ll just end this with the full list of everything I played, in chronological order.

Full List

Rime
Mario Odyssey
Virginia
What Remains of Edith Finch
Un Pueblo De Nada
All Our Asias
Florence
SUPERHOT
Minit
Fallout: New Vegas (and all DLC)
Yakuza 0
Yakuza Kiwami
Titanfall 2
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit
holedown
Persona 5
Donut County
DELTA RUNE
The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game
There is Never Enough Space!
Embrace
Celeste

Film Roll 002

2018-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

Photos taken from October to December 2017 with a Canon Rebel 2000, Canon 50mm f1.4, Kodak Porta 400. Roll 1

Film Roll 001

2018-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

Photos taken from August to October 2018 with a Canon Rebel 2000, Canon 50mm f1.4, Kodak GC/UltraMax 400. Roll 2

Using the Javascript Revealing Module Pattern

2018-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

I almost always try to use vanilla javascript if possible when writing personal projects, but a thing I constantly miss from more OOP languages is the ability to separate code into classes. A nice method to get a similar functionality in js is to use functions as classes.

let sampleClass = function () {
  let localVar = 'hello';
  let globalVar = 'everyone can see me!';

  function localFunction() {
    console.log('this is a local function')
  }

  function globalFunction() {
    console.log(localVar);

    localFunction();
  }

  return {
    text: globalVar,
    printLocal: globalFunction
  }
}()

// sampleClass.text
// 'everyone can see me!'

// sampleClass.printLocal()
// 'hello'
// 'this is a local function'

sampleClass is a self-calling function (due to the () after the closing curly bracket) which allows this whole thing to work. Anything not inside of a function declaration inside of sampleClass will be automatically called, so if you don’t want that happening, put it in a function. For example, if you were to have the below, it would be called immediately on page load.

let sample2 = function() {
  console.log('called!')
}()

But, since the functions inside of the class function aren’t self calling, nothing inside those will run. This can be helpful for having a few initializing functions that occur when the class is loaded, but other things that only happen when you specifically want them to.

It’s good to think of these a lot like ES6/node.js modules but without having include/require or needing anything to combine code. You can see extensive use of this system (complete with react-esque components) in the front-end for Writer’s Flock.

Photos from the Unity Farm Sanctuary

2018-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

I went to the Unity Farm Sanctuary over the weekend with Sabrina! This place was great, and if anything is moving me closer to being a vegetarian it sure is this. I never realized just how soft (and loud) chickens are, and dang they’re cute.

My favorite chicken

Photos

2018-07-14T00:00:00+00:00

Nginx automatic folder direction

2018-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

As I’m getting more subdomains on my website (wf, brutal) I wanted to setup my web server to automatically handle these so I didn’t need to set up each one manually every time I make a new one.

Each of my subdomains are in folders named [subdomain].nathanwentworth.co in the /var/www/ folder, so this capture includes the full domain (I could also just name the folders [subdomain] and omit the rest of the domain name).

I couldn’t find anything directly for what I wanted on the internet, so this is what I set up for myself:

server {
  listen 80;
  # ~ tells it to treat the following as regex
  # the () is a capture group, referenced by the $1 in root
  # this specific capture group is looking for [anything].nathanwentworth.co
  server_name ~(.*\.nathanwentworth\.co);
  root /var/www/$1/html;
  index index.html;

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ =404;  
  }
}

Ohio 2018

2018-07-08T00:00:00+00:00

From Mac to Linux

2018-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

I’ve almost exclusively used Apple products since I was maybe 5 years old, from OS9 to macOS 10.12, I never owned a Windows computer. In 2008 I bought my own computer for the first time, a “Limited Edition” aluminum unibody 13” MacBook. I pushed that computer far past its expected life expectancy and I replaced it with a 15” MacBook Pro Retina (Late 2013). This computer served me all throughout college very well, with only two major failures (haha) that required replacing (sure glad I had AppleCare!).

But, in June 2017, with my MacBook Pro feeling the end of its life — battery status as “Service Battery”, struggling to do some basic tasks, etc — I decided to look at my options. I could get a new MacBook, sure, but I didn’t want to shell out 2000+ on a computer that was getting pretty poor responses due to a faulty keyboard, USB-C-only input, and a lackluster performance:price ratio. So, I ultimately decided to build a desktop PC. I rarely used my laptop as a laptop, so a desktop just made the most sense.

After building a desktop and installing Windows 10 on it, I realized that I just really did not like Windows! Even with improved features like WSL/Bash-on-Ubuntu-on-Windows, it just felt like I was fighting against the OS at every turn. Trying my luck, I then used a second hard drive to setup a hackintosh. That worked shockingly well for a non-purposebuilt machine, but it ultimately was far too inconsistent to use as a daily driver. I wasn’t so into the idea of booting up my computer being a gamble and having to mess with config files.

Finally, after a weekend where I couldn’t boot into my hackintosh — even when using my backup config files — I decided to wipe the drive and start over with Ubuntu, an OS that I had never touched before but had always been curious about. The whole download/installation process was shockingly fast and pain-free, the most complicated part being the disk partitioning, since I couldn’t do a fresh install with my Windows drive still existing in the computer.

I’ve now been using that Ubuntu machine heavily the last few months with almost zero complaints. There are some things I miss, like Adobe apps and iTunes, as I use Apple Music, but for the most part every app I rely on is there. It’s also forced me to rethink a lot of my workflows and apps of choice to choose the most open/cross-platform/FOSS options.

If this was a few years ago when I still did more visual/graphic work (Maya, Illustrator, Photoshop) I think I’d be far less satisfied with it, but Ubuntu has been getting the job done for me with my current requirements.

Next, I’m very tempted to start heavily customizing my computer UI, starting with using a different window manager and desktop environment.

Colors

2018-05-18T00:00:00+00:00

✨

Nice ↓

#FF83C5

#B5C0FF

Paperbeatsscissors ↓

#3C00FF

#FF5D38

#160099

#7B65FF

Vibrant

Lower header colors ↓

#f55

#55f

#6528DD

Goteki 45 ↓

#febe05

#f31e70

#FF5555

#6528DD

#FBF435

#f55

#5f5

#55f

#eccdeb

Alex Griendling (1980s Sci Fi Movie UIs) ↓

#EE697E

#E89454

#F7DA7E

#90B764

#98DCEF

#C784BA

Muted

Greyscale ↓

#F4F5F6

#eee

#e6e6e6

#ccc

#17272F

#f1f2f3

#6a6a6a

#fbb

#C8E0D9

#fbb

#bfb

#bbf

#fcb

#ffd5c0

AG-SYS ↓

#53AAB7

#FFF

#050607

#DD6E7B

#81D3DF

#BBDEBF

Greys

#B3C9CC

#E0F1E7

#CFDBDB

Accessible Color Combinations

#D5CB69

#1F2D41

Games Played In 2017

2017-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

January

Super Mario 64

February

R4: Ridger Racer Type 4

March

NieR: Automata

April

Shadow of the Colossus
The Last Guardian

July

Uncharted 4

August

Until Dawn
Gnog

September

Windjammers
Just Cause 3
Night in the Woods
Silent Hill 2

October

Infamous: Second Son
Everybody’s Golf
Hatoful Boyfriend
Doki Doki Literature Club

December

Monument Valley 2

Games Played In 2016

2016-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

January

Wolfenstein: The New Order (Completed)
Oxenfree (Completed)
In Ruins (Completed)
Orchids to Dusk (Completed)
Gardenarium (Completed)
Emily is Away (Completed)
Grow Home (Completed)
Firewatch (Completed)

February

Street Fighter V (Completed)

April

Hyper Light Drifter (Completed)
Resident Evil 5 (Completed)

May

Push Me Pull You (E)

June

Final Fantasy VII

July

Zero Time Dilemma (Completed)
VIDEOBALL (E)
Kentucky Route Zero Act IV (Completed)
Spaceplan (Completed)

August

Inside (Completed)

October

Thumper

November

Overwatch (E)

December

Grow Up
Undertale (Completed)

Games Played In 2015

2015-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

January

Ledoleil (e)
Lovely Planet
The Swapper (Completed)
Futuridium EP

February

Life Is Strange: Episode 1 (Completed)
Rogue Legacy
Persona 4 Arena
Metal Gear Rising: Revengance (Completed)
A Good Snowman is Hard to Build
how do you Do It (Completed)

March

OlliOlli (Completed)
10x8 (e)
OlliOlli2
Helix (e)
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD
Life is Strange: Episode 2 (Completed)

April

Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae (Completed)
Nier (Completed)

May

Guacamelee Super Turbo Championship Edition (Completed)
MiniMetro (e)
Toren (Completed)
Life is Strange: Episode 3 (Completed)
The Writer Will Do Something (Completed)

July

Rocket League (e)
Journey PS4 (Completed)
N++
Life is Strange Episode 4 (Completed)

August

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Completed)
Call of Duty: Black Ops III Beta (e)
Hotline Miami 2

September

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Completed)

October

Undertale
Metal Gear Online 3 (e)
Heavy Rain (Completed)
Destiny: The Dark Below (Completed)
Destiny: House of Wolves (Completed)
Life is Strange: Episode 5 (Completed)
Destiny: The Taken King

November

Trials Fusion (Completed)
Fallout 4 (Completed)
Crap! No One Loves Me

December

Dr. Langskov, The Tiger, and the Terribly Cursed Emerald (Completed)
Broken Age
Cibele (Completed)
The Order 1886 (Completed)
Wolfenstein: The New Order

Games Played In 2014

2014-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

January

Uncharted 3 (Completed)
Spec Ops: The Line (Completed)
The Rapture is Here and You Will Be Forcibly Removed From Your Home (Completed)
Night in the Woods: Longest Night (Completed)
Botanicula
Castles in the Sky (Completed)
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Completed)
Electronic Super Joy

February

Threes (E)
Eliss Infinity
Bravely Default
Demon’s Souls
Oquonie

March

Tomb Raider (Completed)
Final Fantasy X HD
System Shock 2
Waiting for Ganondot (Completed)
Touch My Katamari (Completed)

April

DMC: Devil May Cry (Completed)
Batman: Arkham City
Monument Valley (Completed)
Nuclear Throne (E)
FRACT OSC (Completed)
Half-Life 2: Lost Coast (Completed)

May

Kentucky Route Zero Act III (Completed)

June

Luftrausers (E)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (Completed)
Stealth, Inc.
Persona 3: FES (Completed)
Tearaway (Completed)
Wipeout 2048

July

Hatsune Miku Project Diva f (Completed)
Street Fighter x Tekken (E)
Super Street Fighter IV: AE (Completed Arcade mode on easy once)
Destiny Beta (Completed)

August

Persona 4 Golden (Completed)
Muramasa Rebirth (Completed)
Dragon’s Crown
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re:Birth 1

September

Sportsfriends (E)
Playstation All-Stars: Battle Royale (Completed once)
Destiny (Completed)
PT (Completed)
Infamous: First Light (Completed)
Aquapazza

October

Vib-Ribbon
The Last of Us: Left Behind
Blazblue: Calamity Trigger
Nier
Super Smash Bros. for 3DS (Completed)
Freedom Wars

November

Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (Beat mom once)
Ultra Street Fighter IV (E)
Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U (E)

December

Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- Demo (Arcade completed once)
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Sunburn!
Hatsune Miku Project Diva F (Completed)
Hohokum (Completed)
Tekken 2 (Completed twice)
Yakuza 3
GTAV (Completed)
Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- (Arcade once on normal)

Games Played In 2013

2013-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

January

9 Doors, 9 Persons, 9 Hours (Completed)
Ni no Kuni

February

Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward (Completed)
Pokemon: Emerald (CNF)

March

Ridiculous Fishing (Completed)

April

Bioshock Infinite (Completed)
We ♥ Katamari (Completed)

May

Wipeout HD Fury
Proteus (E)

June

Sleeping Dogs (Completed)
The Last of Us (Completed)
Earthbound

July

Animal Crossing: New Leaf (E)
Jet Set Radio
Attack of the Friday Monsters!
Kentucky Route Zero (Completed (to act II))
Persona 3 FES
Dear Esther (Completed)

August

Fez (64 Cube ending)
Noby Noby Boy (E)
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Sound Shapes (Completed)
Half-Life 2 (Completed, Re-play)
Gone Home (Completed)
Fire Emblem: Awakening

September

The Walking Dead
The Binding of Isaac (Completed (once))
Fez (Mac Replay (32 cube ending))
Burnout Paradise (PC Replay)
Fallout: New Vegas
Spelunky (PC + PS3)(E)

October

Kingdom Hearts Final Mix HD
Pokémon X
Thomas Was Alone (Completed)
Hotline Miami (Completed)

November

The Entertainment (Completed)
Risk of Rain (E)
Final Fantasy VII
Starbound (E)