Here is my overview of how 2024 went for me, as promised in my previous entry. It's a month-to-month summary with bullet lists. It might be a bit excessive, but I mostly wrote all of this for myself to look back on, so feel free to just gloss over this or skip it entirely. I might edit this in the future just to adjust small details. Also, you can hover over the images for more information!

January

• I started getting more into YouTube (aside from uploading AMVs) by doing a couple of videogame livestreams and uploading my own let's play videos. I would love to get back into that sort of thing at some point.
• I had a short phase with RPG Maker since I was really into game design at the time. I never made a lot of progress, but I enjoyed designing areas. I wonder if making a visual novel for my story ideas would be easier...?
• I went to a Chinese buffet with my dad and stepmom that none of us had been to before since the one in the area where I was practicing driving was closed. It's now one of my favorite restaurants!
• After months of practicing, I passed my driver's test on my first attempt!

February

• I bought a car off of a relative near the beginning of the month with my own money.
• As soon as I got my car, I put in my 2 weeks' notice at my previous job.
• I started my new job the day after my birthday. I make less money, but I'm much more happy.

March

• I decided to pick this website back up after months of abandoning it. This used to be a bunch of paragraphs in a single div because I still didn't really know how to code at the time.
• I impulsively deactivated my Instagram account, and it was probably one of the best decisions I've made...

April

• Near the beginning of the month, I FINALLY cut off people that I should have stopped talking to MONTHS ago. Who would have thought that cutting people off that made you feel bad would make your life better? Lol!
• I started reconnecting with a lot of friends on Discord, making new friends in groups, and spending more time with my family.

May

• I got a library card from a town "nearby". I was going there every month until this fall/winter since I've been busy + it's kind of an awkward drive.
• I started writing daily summaries in my notes app. It's been a much more effective way of tracking what I'm up to instead of trying to use different gimmicky apps.

June

• I cooked dinner on my own one night, and even though I only know how to make one meal, it was nice surprising my family with it. I definitely want to get into cooking on my own, I just keep putting it off.
• I made some sort of attempt at picking up learning Japanese. Again. For the billionth time. The only thing I did was reinstall HelloTalk and bingewatch videos about how/why I should learn it, but I never really did a lot of practice.

July

• I drove out to the city to visit an online friend. I've been here before, but it was the first time I was there alone and was staying in a residential area for multiple days. I really felt like a Country Girl going to the Big City.

August

• I cancelled my trip to an anime convention because I was too scared to travel even further for an event I was getting cold feet about. Maybe next (this) year...
• The start of my car problems. I'm just leaving it at that because ughhhh.

September

• My living situation changed for a shortwhile as an experiment. It wasn't extremely ideal, but it gave me an idea of what it's going to be like when I move out of where I've lived my whole life.
• I scheduled and went to many appointments because I had a backlog of things that needed taken care of.

October

• I went back to my normal living situation.
• I had been looking at a lot of job listings and even attended an interview since I couldn't make more money at my job.
• I went to The City (again) for my friend's birthday.

November

• I got a new position at my job.
• I've been working on this site here and there since I picked it up in March, but I feel like November was when I started working on it wayyy more often.
• This Thanksgiving, I saw some relatives for the first time since 2022. I had a lot of fun visiting them all.

December

• After a couple of years of abandoning it, I picked up cross-stitching again. It was a pain at first, but I enjoy it now.
• Updates for this site were somehow becoming even more frequent. I might be addicted to coding...
• I saw many relatives for Christmas, as expected, but this was the first time I was seeing a lot of them in YEARS. I feel like it was much needed quality time with many people in my family tree.
• I kind of spent New Year's with my friends in The City, but I went home early because I was homesick the entire time.

I only had one resolution for 2024, and that was for me to make it through the year. I set the bar really low because I was at a low point in life, what with my sucky job and talking to sucky people with my sucky self esteem and blah blah blah, boring boring boring. I wish I had more to show for this year, but the more I think about it, the more it doesn't really matter if people can or can't see the changes I've made so long as I'm a happier person regardless. Or something? Anyway, now that I'm a more confident and ambitious person compared to last year's me, I have a lot of resolutions/goals this time around. I really want to make a page dedicated to them for my site, so look forward to that! I hope everyone reading this had a decent 2024, and if not, I hope 2025 will be better!

Happy New Year! I had an entry idea in mind to wrap up 2024, but I was away from home for the past few days, so I didn't have the time to work on anything. I was at least able to get one thing out of the way— the homepage now uses navigation tabs instead of iframes. I tested out this sort of styling some months ago when I was messing around with a review page (that I never uploaded), so the process of doing this again wasn't too bad. Well, it shouldn't have been! But somehow, I kept messing something up. I guess it doesn't really help that recently, VS Code keeps acting weird every now and then where I can only type a few letters in a line before it stops after 1-3 seconds. I can't even click on suggested autofill options when a box appears because it vanishes instantly. This error seems to go away randomly after a while, but then it just comes back again. It kind of sucks since it makes coding really bothersome.

I'm hoping to get around to writing something for 2024 as soon as I can. I probably should have started it earlier, but my hindsight isn't really the best. I at least have some sort of outline in mind where I want to highlight specific events from each month. I'll go more into detail in that entry (obviously), but I thought this was a really good year for myself. Despite some of the bad things (which are inevitable), this is probably the year where I've accomplished the most and had the best social life. I'm extremely thankful for my amazing friends and having a family that supports me, and I'm also thankful that I had the perseverance to push through the hard times. I haven't shared much here, but I was going through it last year and earlier this year. I forced myself to get my life together, and although I would like to be doing more right now, I'm kind of surprised that I, of all people, was able to accomplish so many things.

I also want to say my thanks to anyone that views this website, especially if you're a recurring visitor. I kind of can't believe how many people have interacted with it since I picked it back up in March, and not in a “wow, I'm so popular!” sort of way. More like, I can't believe even just a few people enjoy my website, let alone look forward to future updates. Looking back, I feel like I might have been really awkward with social media because I just didn't know how to comfortably present myself for one reason or another, but having no restrictions on how much I can share and how I can share it is really freeing. Which is kind of, duh. Recently, I've received a few messages saying how they thought my website feels personal and how my writing feels genuine, and I really appreciate it! I know people have their own views about why they code (or any other creative hobby), so I mostly have been creating things for myself and close friends rather than for the interest of others. I wasn't even sure if my website would reach that many people, and I would have kept adding onto it regardless if no one was viewing it. That being said, thank you again to everyone who might be following along with this project! I've been focusing a lot on the design of things for the past few months, so I hope to make more written content next year.

Happy Holidays to those who are reading this. Although this week isn't over, I wanted to write about what I've been up to (considering I missed last week's entry).

This Christmas has probably been the best one I've experienced in a while. Not that the previous ones were bad or anything, but I got to spend time with relatives I haven't seen in years, and I had a lot of fun. I was also looking forward to all of the holiday-themed videos on YouTube since I enjoy binge watching them. I've especially been enjoying rewatching let's plays of Christmas horror games from one of my favorite YouTubers. I only allow myself to watch them during this time of the year, so it's like a festive tradition for me.

On the topic of YouTube, I'm only interested in writing about two channels that I discovered recently— the first being NotJustBikes, who momentarily had me interested in city infrastructure/vehicle safety, and Briesbe. I discovered her from her video about Zoochosis and immediately fell in love with her style/personality, which led to me watching her let's play and review of Stray Souls. I should try checking out her Twitch (even though I don't use it) because she doesn't have a lot of gaming content on her YouTube channel. I wish I could find more girls who uploaded horror game content because I love the genre so much and would love to find new content creators that are more similar to me.

Aside from watching many other let's plays on YouTube, I haven't really been into any other media. I'm still slowly getting through Delico's Nursery, I started reading No.6 (which has been surprisingly different from the anime), I still haven't been playing any video games, I haven't made any new song discoveries... A sidenote about the Song of the Day for this entry, I can't believe it's been nearly a decade since I first discovered the song + the cover of it, and it's still one of my favorite Vocaloid songs for some reason. Anyway, maybe that seems a bit lackluster, but I've been doing other things that aren't related to electronics. Even though I complained about cross-stitching in previous entries, I finally came around to enjoy it, and I even made enough crafts to put up at my mom's craft booth. I really want to make more, but I can't until next week since I'm leaving for a trip tomorrow night. I've honestly been enjoying the mundane moments I experience. Catching up on a RDR2 let's play, cross-stitching, only looking at my phone when I need to look at the pattern I'm using. I'm also still drawing (even if it's just simple stuff in my sketchbook) and even came up with a new character design that I'm sort of happy about. It's nice being off on my own, and it's been awhile since I've felt that way.

I feel like I could end this entry there, but for any dedicated Sunfish Dreamworld fans reading this, I'm feeling conflicted. Just after I had spent so much time updating and creating new layouts, I'm starting to lose interest in the theme I have going on. I think my site looks okay for what it's going for, but I already want to do something different. I've always kind of “struggled” with liking cute things while also liking scary things. I don't mean I'm into creepy-cute things, I mean I'm into creepy things and cute things. Two separate concepts. And not that I want to make this website scary(?), it's more like, I want to tone down the pink cutesiness of everything and maybe go in a different direction. Most of my problems have been trying to figure out how to get in that direction without even really having any inspiration that I can look at. I really like odd artsy things with weird but kind of compelling writing attached to it or profiles/videos that are unsettling in the sense that it has that “you shouldn't be here” feeling to it. This probably doesn't make sense at all. Agh. Oh well. I really try being genuine about myself for my website (and like, life in general), but I feel like I'm just all over the place, and I don't know how to capture it. I'm probably going to privately mess around with different designs for my website (or maybe I could just make a separate artsy website? idk), so don't worry about everything here changing overnight. I should probably focus more on writing things here anyway.

I feel like this week went by a little fast, and even though I didn't do anything super exciting, I'm happy with how things have been. I've still been working on my health and various art projects— slowly, but surely... Yesterday, I went to see my Mom's booth at a crafting shop that recently opened in town, and I still can't believe how many things she's made and put together in just the past month. I really admire (and sometimes envy) her ability to pick up hobbies and roll with them without anything holding her back. She only picked up soap making a month ago, but she's already made and sold so many of her products. I don't really know how she does it, especially since she's always busy with other things. I'm trying not to give up on cross-stitching so that I could sell them at her booth, but it might not be for me. At best, cross-stitching is a little boring, and at worst, it's an absolute killjoy. Anyway, I have other things I want to work on, hopefully by the end of this year. One thing is budgeting... Boring, I know. I try not to spend any money unless I have to, but I haven't been tracking anything, so I need to come up with some sort of plan. If I'm really going to stick with the plans that I have for next year, I need to save as much as possible!

I'm almost done reading Princess Jellyfish. Um. I wasn't expecting to feel so… Disappointed… I definitely need to make a page for reviews at some point because I have waaay too many thoughts about this manga- most of them aren't positive. I only have 4 chapters left, and I really doubt the ending will change any of my feelings. I can't remember the last time I experienced a downfall for something that I thought I loved so much… I forgot how heartbreaking it can be.

I might have fallen back to rewatching the same videos/channels on YouTube over and over, though I still have a few videos I wanted to write about, all of them relating to selfcare stuff. I usually play these sorts of videos in the background when I work, and even though there are a lot of “glow up" videos that annoy me for one reason or another, I picked out a few that I enjoyed.

teeny weeny micro habits that will change ur life - IMO, a lot of advice about habits you should do aren't that helpful if they're drastically different to how you usually go about your day, so I feel like trying out smaller habits would be a better approach. I want to check out this person's other videos at some point because I really like her personality. I like the simple list and how realistic Bossi is. I really want to check out her other videos.

6 months to change my life (ep.1) - I might have to rewatch this since it has a lot of visuals that I definitely missed out on a lot when I decided to play this with audio only and don't really remember a lot. I was kind of curious about how this would go since I've never watched an experiment like this before. Part 2 was uploaded recently, so I look forward to checking that out too! I'm treating this as a series I'm following along with rather than a selfcare sort of thing, but I might be able to take away some of Kiara's habits.

7 "Life Changing" Habits That Didn't Work for Me - This video was the most relatable to me, probably because the person is mostly criticizing a lot of selfcare advice and recommending alternative options. I had apparently watched her other video about selfcare stuff before not too long ago, but I don't remember much from it. It was kind of nice to relate to her selfcare struggles, and it also felt nice seeing that some of her recommendations were things that I already started doing on my own.

I've been going through my entire playlist for the first time in a while since I've only been playing the same 10-20 recently added songs. I plan on organizing my playlists eventually. I also spent this weekend listening to Gakupo songs and covers after I brought him up in a conversation relating to Malice Mizer/Gackt. I've heard a few of Lucifer's covers using Gakupo before, but I didn't realize how they've made almost all of the Gakupo covers on YouTube. Their cover of Aishite Aishite Aishite is my current favorite. I also (just now) discovered this older Gakupo cover of the same song, and I like how he was tuned in this one too!

I'm trying to get back into anime (once again). I've come around to manga to the point where I'm always reading something every day, but getting into and sticking with anime is something that I always struggle with. I want to try finishing just a few more before the end of the year, so I'm going through my PTW to find anything short and interesting. I watched a few more episodes of Delico's Nursery (mentioned in an older entry) since I'm halfway through it, and as I suspected, the main plot doesn't interest me too much. There might be a small dip in the animation quality and some scenes feel kind of clunky, but I'll try to get through it. Last night, I watched 2 movies. 2! Nothing amazing, but they were somewhat interesting.

I don't know how or when I discovered Hal, but I'm assuming it was sometime this year under random tags on Anilist. I've never heard anyone talk about it before, which kind of surprises me because I thought the story was unique, albeit a bit clunky, and I thought the animation and art style was really pleasant. The settings might be my favorite part of the movie. It's a little futuristic, mixed with traditional things and a lot of plants. I won't say too much about the plot itself, but if the trailer interests you at all, it might be worth checking out (especially since it's only an hour long).

Same as before, I most likely found Sekaiichi Hatsukoi: Yokozawa Takafumi no Baai through tags on Anilist, or maybe it was an anime listed in the recommendations of something else that I watched. I had no reason for watching this other than I saw that it was only 40-50 minutes long. I got the feeling just a few minutes in that I was watching an adaptation for a spinoff of a spinoff, and yeah. I went into this not knowing 90% of the background that was probably required to enjoy this (or at least make sense of it), but I ended up managing. I shared a part from the movie with my friends, and one of them instantly knew what I was watching, so he was able to give me some insight. I'm still a little confused about the story, but I don't mind. I somehow got lucky with picking this as the one (1) Nakamura Shungiku work I've ever seen considering the other stuff that she's made. Confusing as it was, the relationship between the Yokozawa (sales department guy) and Kirishima (the single dad) was kind of endearing.

That's my overly detailed entry for the week. I definitely want to try doing something differently because even though it's fun documenting whatever I'm up to, it takes up a lot of time and energy whenever I go into depth about everything. I also don't want to only write about my week-to-week life because there are so many other things I want to write about. I guess a project like this definitely takes a lot of time to figure out!

I probably shouldn't wait until Sunday to start writing everything for my weekly entries, hence why this is being uploaded on Tuesday. I feel like I don't have much to write about this week aside from the various media I've been into because I was just oh-so tired every day. I have a small space heater for my bedroom now, and it's prrretty nifty. I'm still kind of nervous about sleeping with it on, but I wake up in the middle of the night more often during the winter because I keep getting too hot or too cold + my radiator is always loud, so I considered that owning a space heater would get rid of those issues. I also bought health supplements for myself. I wasn't sure if I wanted to write about this because something about it feels super lame. Anyway, I haven't had any blood tests done nor do I want to deal with all of that, but I have an inkling that I'm fatigued all of the time because of a vitamin/mineral deficiency. On the 0-10 scale of pain severity, I'm always in the 4-6 range. It feels like I'm experiencing jet lag every day (I've never been on a plane, but that's besides the point), and my vision is kind of weird, and I'm always so tired, aaand something tells me that's not a good thing. When I was looking for resources online, a lot of people were recommending vitamin D and magnesium supplements as a start, so that's what I've been taking for the past few days. I don't feel any changes, although that is to be expected since it's not going to be an overnight fix + I have to make other changes to take better care of myself.

Enough about health stuff. I finally started reading Princess Jellyfish. I wanted to read it at some point, but I specifically started it because a character I saw in a different manga reminded me of someone in Princess Jellyfish. I watched the anime earlier this year, and I was kind of surprised that only 29 out of the 94 chapters were adapted for it. It was fun seeing how the story progresses after that point, but the latest volumes have been stressing me out. So many chapters are just the Amars + Kuranosuke + Nomu making clothes, and they're only now about to publicly sell their clothing in chapter 58. When it's not about that, it's about Tsukimi's relationship with Shuu, and it just feels. Weird. I didn't think the story would go in this direction since Tsukimi is 18 and Shuu is 30, and it feels like Kuranosuke mentioning his older brother's age or the Amars' rules involving men means nothing at all. I already didn't enjoy Princess Jellyfish's B Plot regarding Shuu being blackmailed by Shoko so that she can go through with her development plans, but this C Plot feels even more lame. I know none of this makes sense to a majority of people reading this, so I'll leave it at that for now. I'm already on volume 11 and only have 30 chapters left, and I really want to see how the story progresses now with a new important character introduced. I find that this manga is somewhat easy to bingeread because the art style is so nice, and I really like most of the characters.

I've been slowly reading The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto for the past month, and even though it's taking me a while to get through, it's been an interestin read. It's not a long book or hard to read at all, but I keep putting it off to do other things. I had a decent reading pace for Kitchen since I thought the story and characters were really endearing. Because of that, I feel like The Lake is a story that I should resonate with even more— Chihiro is from the middle of nowhere, she has her own views on things like relationships and careers that I can relate to, I (so far) find the portrayal of another character's trauma intriguing... Stuff like that. Honestly, one of the reasons why it took me so long to even start the book was because I thought the cover of it wasn't as appealing as Kitchen's, or appealing in general. I sometimes looked forward to reading Kitchen solely because of the girl on the front of the book, who I'm assuming is supposed to be Mikage. It might be one of my favorite book covers ever. The cover for The Lake just feels sooo bland to me, but I regret not picking it up sooner or reading through it as much as I should because I don't think the story itself is bad at all. I've only read two books from Banana Yoshimoto, but I really love her work. I'm not sure how close the English translation is to her writing style, but I feel like if I were an author of some kind, I would write similarly to her. I don't really know how to explain it. The way that the main characters think and explain things feels really close to how I would write my thoughts if I had to format them a little more professionally.

I unintentionally have a yearly tradition of watching this let's play of Super Mario 3D World, which never fails to make me laugh. I can't believe it's been a decade since this series came out! I'm also trying to catch up on my favorite YouTuber's let's play of Red Dead Redemption 2. I was following along with the uploads up until part 6 (around October) when I got caught up with other things. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (Complete) recently released, and a video of KayDaisy playing it showed up in my recommendations. I used to watch her videos where she would buy Gamecube save cartridges and show off the Animal Crossing towns that were still on them. I really enjoyed her personality and content but ended up drifting away from watching her, so I'm happy that I found her channel again.

I know I write a lot, but I feel like my entries might be getting... too long... I'm not sure if I should write less, or use more collapsible sections, or. Something. I might group some of my entries by month(s) once I have enough entries, or maybe things are just fine as is. I'll figure it out. Eventually.

Here is last week's obligatory entry— 5 days late! There was a lot I wanted to write about, but I didn't get around to most of it. I've been having even more issues with sleeping than before, so I'm going to use that as an excuse for why I'm not doing as much as I had hoped. I at least avoided a crash and burn by keeping myself a little busy every day.

My mom is starting up a craft shop, so I helped her with wrapping products and even kind of got back into cross-stitching with plastic canvases. It always takes me forever to make one craft, though that's probably because I don't use the half stitch method. I prefer doing perler bead crafts because I can place the beads wherever on the board and move them around if I make a mistake. I usually get somewhat frustrated when I cross-stitch, but I want to try doing it more anyway. I also visited my great aunt and other relatives for Thanksgiving. It's been 2 years since I've seen them, so it was really nice to spend time with everyone again.

I haven't made any notable discoveries for music, animanga, or video games, though I did rediscover Headlock by Imogen Heap because of Mouthwashing edits and animations. I used to love Imogen Heap years and years ago, and I'm happy that she's getting more attention— even if I have a knee-jerk reaction any time something I like gets popular. I also watched a lot of interesting content on YouTube (for once) and wanted to write about some of them.

I made this section expandable so that it initally doesn't take up too much space.

Xiran Jay Zhao - I remembered watching them a couple of years ago, so I rewatched their videos about Mulan and American Chinese food. I checked out their other videos that I hadn't watched before, mostly the ones about Chinese history.

Croton's BOTW Challenges - I watched a BOTW bingo race challenge from this channel a few weeks ago without much thought, but I rewatched it and checked out Croton's other videos. I really liked his Great Plateau gear only challenge, though all of the music edited over the game audio is really distracting for me, especially when it's even louder than the person talking sometimes. This is something that always bothers me in videos.

I rewatched a few videos of people traveling across the United States with Greyhound and Megabus. For some reason.

Are These YouTubers LYING To You? - My favorite YouTuber discusses how popular paranormal channels intentionally and unintentionally deceive viewers. I kind of wasn't expecting him to make a video like this since he criticizes big channels, but I also don't think he'd be too bothered by any pushback. I appreciate how he's been making videos about media literacy, and this one was especially interesting!

The GIRLS Episode (ft. Emirichu & OR3O) - I've always dreamed and even mentioned before how I wish there was an alternate version of the Trash Taste podcast where everything was the same, but it was just girls with less horrible takes as the hosts instead. I was looking up the Trash Taste episodes that featured Emirichu to rewatch since I thought she was a fun guest, but I ended up finding this godsend of a video. I admittedly haven't finished it yet because this might be this channel's only all-girls episode, and that's a little sad. If anyone knows any podcasts or channels in general of girls with this sort of niche, PLEASE let me know! ASAP! I'm extremely desperate!

I watched a video about power grids in a video game and thought it was weirdly informational and enjoyable, as well as Hannah Alonzo's latest Influencer Insanity episode and a DIY pond transformation.

Subscriptions Are Ruining Our Lives - I'm not really into journalism stuff, but I liked the reported, and it was a topic that I sort of relate to.

Anti-Bike Lane Revolt - A short video where someone attends an anti-bike lane meeting and discusses counterpoints to the people's arguments. I found out while watching that this was taking place in Montreal, which is where one of my friends lives, so I asked him for his insight. I felt second-hand embarassment from the people at this meeting... You'd have to watch the video to understand...

Japanese Winter Hacks - The algorithm really liked this video for some reason, and I'm thankful that it ended up in my recommendations. Chani is an older Australian lady who vlogs about her life in Japan, and I found her advice about staying warm in the winter to be really helpful. She's a very pleasant person, and her cat, Millie, is really cute!

I'm still struggling a little with focusing on my projects that I really want to do, but I want to try picking things back up next week. I ordered a few things to help me sleep and feel better, so I'm really hoping that these things work. I also should probably work on my time management skills. ^^; Aaand that concludes this last week's entry...

This week has been extremely hectic, but I somehow survived with only minimal damage to my psyche. For a lot of the problems that I dealt with, it's almost like they fixed themselves or something, so they were only temporary stressors. I've now had 4 car incidents within the past 3 weeks, and I also lost my wallet! Thankfully, it was found outside one of the buildings that I worked at, and I was able to retrieve today. It wasn't too badly damaged either, which was surprising to me because we got snow here for the first time this season, and there was a LOT of it the night that I accidentally dropped my wallet. I'm genuinely really thankful that a lot of things worked out for me when I honestly feel like they shouldn't have (for some reason). I've also been feeling really fatigued this week, but that's probably because I've been going to bed slightly later than usual, and skipping breakfast, and only eating microwavable meals, and not drinking enough water, and not stretching a lot… Of course I'm going to get headaches and not feel strongly motivated about working on stuff if I'm living like that. Duh! I should dedicate a lot of time next week into taking better care of myself. I've even been getting some sort of carpal tunnel feeling in my dominant hand. Scary.

I've been spending a lot of time with friends recently, which is very nice of course! It's been awhile since I've hung out with anyone outside of my immediate family, but two of my friends were making plans for all of us to celebrate New Year's together. It might be a little hard to plan around all three of us now having jobs. I think it will work out though! I've also been talking to one of my friends about all sorts of things, ranging from Splatoon to old YouTube channels to Mouthwashing fan creations… It's always so pleasant talking to them because they're very funny and smart and kind and endearing! I always subject them to my weird interests but they'll just keep the conversation going for an hour and I just really appreciate them! I've also recently made an emailing friend, which is something I've never really experienced before. I really like the format of snail mail, but it takes me 1-2 hours to write my responses because I just ramble so much and want to make sure it's at least somewhat coherent. I've already been considering featuring my site email somewhere on here for anyone who has questions or just wants to strike up a conversation. I also spent a little bit of time today playing Webfishing with my friends again. I saw that they were online and dropped by in their room for a little bit, and it was really fun!

Onto recent media stuff! For YouTube, I've still been rewatching the same things (as always), but one of my favorite YouTubers played Dress to Impress and Fears to Fathom: Ironbark Lookout. I've never seen much of DTI before, so it was fun watching someone else who didn't know much about it and took all of the prompts so seriously. I also think I enjoyed the latest Fears to Fathom episode, but that's probably only because someone that I liked was playing it. I just have some nitpicks with the game, like how the computers say that it's 2002, but the main character texts on a smartphone and there's some sort of lo-fi song featured in it? The ending also felt really abrupt, which kind of sucks because I thought the game had a decent atmosphere and that the story would go in a different direction. Oh well! I think episode 2 (the hitchhiking/motel one) might still be my favorite and definitely feels the most realistic since each episode is supposed to be based off of true stories that are user submitted, and the watchtower one felt kind of. Overdramatic.

A few days ago, I discovered Hardly Ever Smile (Without You) by Poison Girl Friend through an edit I saw on Pinterest, and it's a very beautiful song! The instrumental might be my favorite thing about it, but I also really love how one of the lyrics sounds (the “every night and every second" part). I've also been listening to a lot of Splatoon songs. Again. I was telling my friend (mentioned earlier in this entry) about all of the recurring themes and lore behind the songs and discovered that someone made a new compilation of all of the leitmotifs . I'm just so obsessed with how much thought was put into Splatoon's soundtracks (and Splatoon as a whole). But! I noticed that the compilation missed a leitmotif in one of my favorite songs. Here is the jingle for when you clear a boss stage in Splatoon 3, and here is the same jingle featured in Smeared Canvas (also used as the melody for most of the song). I honestly completely forgot that this song existed for some reason??? I have no idea when it's used in the game and only discovered it earlier this month when I was trying to find a different song.

I read a few chapters of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou since my friend (mentioned in the last paragraph) was reading it and recommended it to me. It's been on my plan to read ever since I watched the OVAs last summer, but they really sold me on it. The art is so beautiful and it feels wrong to not spend at least 5 minutes staring at every panel. I'm still rereading my favorite manga too, but now I'm at the point where the fanscans are really low quality, and the side couple is just as unpleasant as I remembered. I'm looking forward to volume 7 since the scan quality gets better, but it's also when the story gets really intense (not in a bad way). I've been struggling to get into anime for a while now. The last one I actually enjoyed watching was SK8, and that was at the end of September. I was scrolling through anime in my PTW on Anilist and saw that Delico's Nursery had a trailer on the entry page, so I decided to check it out. The trailer completely warped what I thought it would be like. Four beautiful guys who try to run a nursery, and three of them are cringefail dads??? I didn't bother looking through the rest of my list for what anime I should start. I'm not sure if I'll love the A-plot (or B-plot?), but I already find the four beautiful guys very endearing. I also really love the style of it, and the janky graphics and movements here and there are charming to me personally. I'll probably watch more of it on my next day off.

I originally thought of just having the media sections as short lists, but then I thought I could at least add on a few thoughts, but I end up writing paragraphs and paragraphs. Nothing new. To anyone that reads all of what I write, it is much appreciated!

I promise there will be an entry here soon— I just have a lot of images that I need to collect for it, but I keep putting it off. In the meantime, I thought that for every Sunday, I should try sharing what media I've been into and new media discoveries for that week.

For things on YouTube, I've just been watching the same videos of Breath of the Wild challenges, Mario Odyssey hide and seek matches, and podcasts as I have been on and off for the past few months. Nothing really to note.

For music, I've been relistening to Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Perfume, and Tommy february6 (as mentioned in my previous entry). One of my favorite new discoveries is "Love Cloud" by Perfume. I'm usually picky with this music genre, but I just really love how this song sounds.

For manga, I read chapters 1-4 of Petshop of Horrors and have been really enjoying it! I might take my time with getting through the story because I just want to prolong the experience as much as possible. I've also been rereading one of my favorite manga (again), though it was kind of unintentional... I was originally skimming through some chapters for my shrine, but then I was giving every page my full attention, and then I kept going to the next chapter... It's been a fun reread, especially since I'm noticing even more details about my favorite characters!

I'm really happy that it's the weekend. Besides what happened on Monday, I think this week was okay. This Saturday was okay too, though I wish I spent my time a little differently! Ever since daylight savings started, I accidentally got into the habit of waking up at 7, and then unintentionally falling back to sleep until 8:30-9. It's really annoying! I want to get right out of bed, but it's like I have to wake up twice. Weird.

I read a few chapters of Petshop of Horrors after waking up (the second time). I watched the OVA last month and really enjoyed it! I knew I should try reading the manga too, but I was kind of hesitant because I was worried about the online uploads of it being in awful quality, and the physical versions are really expensive. I really missed the characters though, so I started the first chapter last night. It's been interesting seeing the differences between the OVA (4 episodes) and the manga (41 chapters). I assumed the OVA would be an adaptation of the first 4 chapters, but only 3 out of the 4 chapters were adapted out of order. It's not really an issue IMO since the story is mostly episodic. Leon and Count D are always the main characters, and every chapter features new characters and new problems that are self-contained to that chapter.

I'm somewhat worried that the manga won't resonate with me the same way that the OVA did. The tone and atmosphere in the OVA is something that I've just never really experienced with other anime. It felt almost ethereal, which is a feeling that I love experiencing... Anyway, I'm still enjoying each story in the manga, and I'm very happy to see Count D again! Every time I read his dialogue, I just hear it in Toshihiko Seki's voice because 1: he's the voice actor for Count D in the OVA, and 2: he also voices a character in the yaoi that I really like. The upload that I'm reading has typos and weird scanning issues sometimes, but it's tolerable I suppose... Coming from the OVA, I was kind of surprised by Leon making so many remarks about Count D's ethnicity. A little odd, but they're always throwaway lines, so it's not really enough to make me stop reading. I also get the feeling that Leon will change his ways and be more kind and understanding towards Count D, especially since I've been finding a lot of their interactions very endearing.

Other than that, I feel like I didn't really do much. I know that I did, but because I didn't do what I originally planned, it just makes my whole day feel off. I've been going through all of my belongings for the past week and spent today sorting out a bunch of my old DVDs. It breaks my heart a little to get rid of anything from my childhood, but a lot of it has just been collecting dust, and I need to move on. I already gave away some of the DVDs and other belongings, though there are a few DVDs that I'm still holding onto because I told myself that I'll get around to rewatching them (I most likely won't). I also dusted some shelves, among other things... I still feel like my room isn't how I want it to be at all, but I'm hoping I could get there by the end of this year.

I did a lot of website stuff, but it doesn't really look like it. 20% of my time was spent adding drawings to my shrine, the other 80% was spent going through images and struggling to pick out a new background for the index page. I should really take a break from working on the design aspects of this site, but I can't help it! I also tried playing Splatoon again (Tower Control in X rank, not that it matters), and I might be officially burnt out from the game again after playing it almost every day since the Grand Splatfest. I usually listen to/watch my own things when I play Splatoon, so I at least made some progress with a playlist I found and have been going through for the past few days. A lot of the songs in the playlist featured Perfume, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Tommy february6... it's been so long since I listened to Tomoko Kawase. Maybe even a year? I discovered her through Paradise Kiss and used to listen to Hey Bad Boy a lot. I kind of just forgot about her music as time went on, so it's nice hearing her again. Before the day ended (as in, 20 minutes ago as of me writing this), I bought Webfishing, though I haven't started it yet because I wanted to save it for tomorrow or another time. I saw a few mentions of the game here and there and became super interested after watching a video of someone catching everything in it. I feel a little bad for buying it (even though it was only $5) because I'm trying to save up as much money as possible, but I guess it's okay if it means I can spend time with other people in it.

That's all for now! I have some plans for tomorrow that I'm really hoping I can get to!

I thought I would take a short break from coding after redesigning the index page, but here I am with a new diary layout... I'm probably not going to add my old entries here because I want to have a clean slate, and I didn't have a lot here anyway. I'm almost done with one of my shrines too, so I've been working very hard on my website just this past week. I really missed coding and writing stuff... I always have phases where I only stick with a few hobbies for a little bit until I inevitably crash and burn before I can really get into whatever hobbies I'm into. I only work on my website once in a while, but when I do, it's the one project where I feel like I won't suddenly fall out of it until I get to some sort of checkpoint. My friends say I should get into web design (as in, go to school for it), but that's not really my thing. I just want to keep this as a hobby, at least for now.

I've been up to other stuff besides coding and designing. This week has been filled with lots of friendship and happiness... I called my close friends a couple of times, did a drawing session on call with a group of other friends, got a lot of stuff done, my special package arrived in the mail, added a bunch of new songs in my playlist thanks to my friend's recommendations, got back into Project Diva, trained with a supervisor for my new position at my job, keeping up with my new sketchbook, a bunch of my favorite YouTubers uploaded this week... I've also been passively working on (thinking about) my OCs while repeatedly listening to Love Love Nightmare by Kiichi. I also really like this Len cover made by Prince Kuma. Anyway, the only bad thing was probably that I almost got hit by a truck going at 10 miles per hour because he wasn't paying attention? But my car was somehow untouched, so everything ended up being A-OK! This day was also super productive and fun, which I'm really happy about. I've been up since 7:30 and got a lot of chores done, I watched a streamer that I really like and made a new friend through the chat, and I overall just spent a lot of time with talking to friends today and even got to call one of them for the first time in a while!

I really REALLY want to get into blogging. Every time I get the ambitious idea to write more often about what I'm up to or how I feel, I avoid looking at my text documents for weeks and weeks. I'm not even sure if the motivation that I have now is temporary and is about to go away, but I'm just going to run with it. Wishful thinking makes me believe that this hobby could stick with me if I try uploading some sort of entry every week. I might keep falling out of blogging because I feel like I'm not a really interesting person or something? Mostly in the sense that I don't go on big adventures often, and I'm kind of shy about my interests sometimes. I'll try blogging more often. Like, for real this time! ... Maybe... ^_^;;