Making The Most Of It {2025 Week #11}

How are you? You're always hearing about my bullshit, how about letting me know how its going for you? Comment, use the form, anything. I'd be happy to hear about your day, week, life, whatever you feel like talking about.

Anyway, now more on my bullshit. Monday was fun. First, my brother's friend streamed us some Apex, which I haven't played in years and it made me a little nostalgic for my uni days. My sister had a friend over so we all decided to play Roblox together. I usually hate Roblox but I'll play when it's something we can do together. We played the fake Buckshot Roulette game and fake Uno and I won twice at Uno! 

In the evening me and Mo watched Jumper which is a terrible movie but it has Jamie Bell in it. It was one of those movies teachers at our school would put on during a special day when kids had to be kept indoors for some reason. Usually before a big event in the evening or if the weather was bad during lunch break. 

I'm still grappling with confronting daunting tasks. I have a very annoying micro-management system going now. Basically, I fear complicated tasks that are usually out of my control. My biggest issue has been that there are usually a ton of little things that are roadblocks to getting that one big task out of the way. So instead I wallow about how impossible it all feels. I'm not really successful yet, but now I just pick out the little tedious problems and pretend the big picture doesn't exist. 

It was the birthday of a childhood friend on Wednesday but ever since my phone died, I have lost contact with a lot of people. My first ever fan-listing got approved by the Fanlisting Network! It's for the band Elliott which I am obsessed with. Alice was my first member, I love her site and browse it often. I should probably tell her that. Elliott really doesn't have a bad song. I was supposed to go to the employment office today but I didn't. The more I drag it out, the worse it's going to be...

Ow the edge.

In the afternoon me and my sister went to the thrift store because she always has a half-day on Wednesday. She found a really cute short-sleeve black button-up and a striped sweater. I got a Norah Jones and The Fray CD.

On Thursday I checked my Neocities and got so many lovely comments from people about my fanlisting. It was really nice to read. The visual part of my site is probably the most important so I feel really good when other's appreciate the efforts. I also picked up where I left off with Listen To Sassy. Such a great podcast. It must be cool to be Pamela Ribon, talking and writing about TV through the 2000s! I got sad about Quizilla being dead and looked at some stories through the Wayback Machine. Some of the most generic emo boy love stories but there was just something special about that.

On Friday, I finally went to the employment office thing I needed to go to and got an appointment. It was literally so easy but I spent so much time building it up in my head that it grew into something catastrophic. Well, it wasn't. Am I going to learn my lesson from this? Nope.

I finished a sprite for Nanoreno but I am not feeling optimistic about the demo. I may have to postpone to next year. 

On Saturday we watched Superbad with my sister who hasn't seen it before. It's kind of funny to think that a childhood staple for me is something strange for her. Like, do Gen Alpha kids get McLovin' as a reference? Maybe. I don't know. Old man, cloud, you know, the usual. Anyway, I love the ending of Superbad. It's so sad. It's what going to uni felt like for me too. One last hurrah, you promise everyone to meet again and then it just doesn't happen. No ill will or anything, turns out we were all just a little too naive and hopeful. 

In the evening I was hanging out in Kuroi's chat and had a lovely time with other website visitors. Chances! Just being in the right place at the right time. 

On Sunday I made an executive decision to officially quit Nanoreno this year. It just wasn't going to happen and I didn't want to rush the project. We had a nice lunch and went to the park to play Frisbee. My throwing game is off. Marta walked Yoshi, he enjoyed himself because he's never been to the park before. At night we watched Blue Crush, chock full of a boring romance but such cool outfits. Me and Marta are feeling the summer early.

This week's song is a little hidden gem by the name of Super Down (by Super TransAtlantic). I heard it when I was watching American Pie ages ago but it's super catchy. Not a great film but dammit there's somethings about it I can appreciate.

Le Petit Blog #5: Ma Vie Dans Dix Ans

Cette année, j'aurai vingt-six ans. Pendant les deux dernières années, j'ai l'impression que ma vie est en pause. C'est un sentiment fatigant. Dans dix ans, j'aurai trente-six ans. J'espère que ma vie changera beaucoup. Je veux trouver un travail bon et cohérent. Aussi, je voudrais vivre seul, juste avec mes chats. J'aime ma famille, mais j'ai besoin de mon propre espace. J'espère que mon français s'améliorera considérablement et que je pourrai parler de mes intérêts, de mon travail et de ma vie. Je veux être artiste de bande dessinée toujours. Donc, quand j'aurai trente-six ans, j'aurai quelques bandes dessinées complètes.

 

If We Don't Make It, Nothing Changes {2025 Week #10}

Hey. The tenth week has ended, we are in the double digits which means the year is truly on it's way and my life is still a total mess. On Monday I had a meeting with a really nice lady from InfoDroits and I explained my bank situation to her. She gave me a step by step plan for what to do next. I need to send a letter to the bank again and if that doesn't work, I'm going to have to contact a mediator that is a specialist in dealing with banks. If that too fails, its time for court. I really hope we don't have to go that far because the situation is dumb enough already and I'm too nervous to be in a setting like that. Couldn't be a criminal, too nervous. At home we played Alien Isolation, we are really getting through it slowly. My dad was really annoying and sat on his phone the entire time but that's just how he is. We watched Step Up 2, its a nostalgic movie for us. I know its not a good movie or anything but its just a lot of fun.

On Tuesday we went to a nearby town to our favourite Chinese buffet. I finally ordered the soup and it was awesome. Super tasty. Everyone had a pretty good time, we laughed about how terribly my brother put whipped cream on his dessert, it was the saddest looking thing Ive ever seen. After that we dropped by Easycash, a kind of pawn shop, to check in with what X-boxes they had. Now were thinking of getting a PS3 instead, who knows. I didn't find anything good but my sister bought a lamp that looks like a Minecraft potion.

Mum and dad stayed in the town and walked around and Monique drove us back. We stopped at her house to see if she had a DVD player because I needed one but she didn't. However, she let us have a look at a bunch of old tech she kept but doesn't need anymore. She let my sister have a flip phone and I took two camcorders and a analog camera. Sadly both camcorders were out of commission but I'm still hopeful I could do something to fix them. The analog camera is really cool but it uses irregular film and batteries so now I need to figure out where to get those. I have the same problem with the Konica.

On Wednesday mum and dad left to another town to buy some stuff for the house. We still have so much work to do around here and we haven't even started with the third floor. For some reason they bought me a collector's edition VHS set of the Star Wars trilogy. Cool? Yes, but now I need a VHS player too. While they were gone me, my sister, and brother played Minecraft on our server. In the evening we watched Aliens and as usual my dad sat through nearly all of it on his phone. Everyone's always dissing zoomers for being addicted to their phones but its really a mixed generations issue. 

Thursday, my mum and dad left early to catch his plane out of Bordeaux. Me, Mo, and Marta went to the Noz and Marta found herself some stuff. She was most excited about a Mandalorian Funko Pop. I am a Funk Pop hater so I would usually dissuade her but since he didn't have those beady eyes I let it slide. We bought a frozen pizza and put bacon on it. We finally watched the Ryan Gosling Blade Runner because Mo has been badgering us about it for literal years. It was fine. I can tell why its popular with "introspective" nerdy dudes mostly. And my brother likes it because it's really giving Ergo Proxy weirdness.

I was pretty good on Friday, read for once. Worked on a new microsite that I hope to introduce sometime in April. Prepared lunch. I feel like I'm going to have to abandon my visual novel plans this year, its just not coming along at all. We also re-watched Stick It, I am obsessed with that movie.

On Saturday me and my sister went to the second hand store nearby our house. She went to bed so late so she was grumpy when she first woke up. My brother too. She found herself a denim miniskirt that was cute and a beige coat. My brother got flowers and a chocolate for my mum and sister but I didn't want any. I kind of hate bouquets. They feel so wasteful. So anytime someone wants to get me one, I really would rather they get me anything else. A potted plant is way better. 

In the afternoon we met up with Tom and hung out at our town's park with some snacks. My sister and her friends went out too. When we started walking towards oour house I realized we forgot to take the spare keys! The worst. Luckily my sister is a genius so she hid them for us. We got it and had some tea and decided to watch a movie. We watched Barbie because Mo hadn't seen it yet. I realized only later that Barbie for Women's day was such a weak choice but I kind of didn't even notice we did that. Its a fun movie but dislike it if I'm honest. Verilybitchie had a good video about it and the shallow plastic feminism. 

It was fun with Tom though and he left about 8-ish. His mum called to make sure he was safe and he was annoyed that she was treating him like a kid. I remember one time when I was seventeen and I forgot to call her when we were out drinking. I come back half-sober at midnight and she was mad as hell. And I was like, I'm a grown ass person, stop treating me like a baby, blah blah blah... I was pretty immature. 

On Sunday me and Mo went to do our cleaning job. He vacuumed and I stayed for longer because I had to mop and wipe down like 10 big rooms. I also did all the toilet, sink, and tub cleaning. I used to mop an office and it felt way easier. I was exhausted when I got back. 

Everything feels like its going by so fast that I can barely catch a glimpse of it, never mind actually keeping up. Would be nice to have a normal brain that can be programmed to do the right thing, even if its not all the time. Well, that just isn't meant for me, I guess. Not like I believe in destiny or anything, but I'm just being realistic. I'm not made for greatness and most days it feels like a relief and not like a let down. 

If there aren't any pictures on this post as you're reading this, its because I'm still having issues with connecting my phone to the PC. If there are pics, ignore this! 

This week I could not stop listening to the entire OC albums list. I have actually been in love with these mixes before I ever thought to watch the show. So, I'm picking my fave song from all the songs put together. Paint the Silence by the South, so underrated, post-britpop masterpiece.

{2025} Spring Goals

Spring Goals 2025

──────── ୨୧ ────────

Hey, welcome back to my quarterly 

goals and wishes check-in. Here I 

take a look at my goals for the year

and figure how far along I am in com-

pleting them. Wish me luck this spring!

──────── ୨୧ ────────

 Goal #1: Get A Job

Update: Still issues with the

bank. I'm at a stand-still. 

☐ March: Letter to bank.

☐ April: ???

☐ May: ???

Goal #2: French

Update: Studied but did not hit

 all the goals I wanted to. 

 ☐ March: Cover A2 chapters.

☐ April: Cover B1 chapters.

☐ May: Take sample exams.

 Goal #3: Health

Update: I have been feeling better 

but my diet is still kind of poor.

☐ March: Daily stretching.

☐ April: ???

☐ May: ???

Goal #4: My Comic

Update: The current project is 

actually a visual novel.

☐ March: Complete Nanoreno.

☐ April: ???

☐ May: Develop Mermaid characters.

 Goal #5: JS/Python

Update: Currently not learning anything

new. In March I will learn Renpy.

☐ March: Learn Renpy.

☐ April: JS Basics.

☐ May: ???

Goal #6: Video Diary

Update: I am looking to buy a 

digicam and figure out how to transfer

videos from my camcorder.

☐ March: Nothing.

☐ April: Film something daily.

☐ May: Film some prompts.

 Goal #7: My Site

 Update: All is going well, need to 

continue updates and adding missing pages. 

☐ March: Updates only.

☐ April: Video Club microsite.

☐ May: Collections page.

Goal #8: Blogs

 Update: Need to do a lot of catching up.

☐ March: Missed French & media blogs.

☐ April: Fashion A-Z.

☐ May: ???

 Goal #9: Screentime

Update: Not a good month for this, let's do

better in Spring.

☐ March: No YouTube during week.

☐ April: Only 1 hour for phone.

☐ May: YT only on weekends. Limited videos.

Goal #10: ???

???

──────── ୨୧ ────────

Small Goals

 ──────── ୨୧ ────────

CD/DVD Collection

I picked up 3 DVDs and 4 CDs in

January. I want to order some CDs 

from Discogs in spring.

Buy an Xbox 360

I actually had the money to do this but

we really needed it for other stuff so this

will have to wait.

Jailbreak Banana

I'm giving up on this because it just

doesn't seem worthwhile with the 

phone's OS being basically abandon-

ed. I instead want to collect more flips.

Fairyary

I failed. I only drew 2 fairy characters

and didn't even finish them. The new de-

signs are pretty cool though.

200 New Movies

I only watched 15 new movies in January 

and February, which isn't great  because

I need to watch at least 16 films a month

to reach 200 movies in 2025. 

10 Fiction Books

I'm still reading Three Body Problem and 

didn't finish a single fiction book in the 

winter. I need to speed it up.

10 Non-Fiction Books

I finished only one non-fiction book this 

winter, Michael Parenti's Blackshirts and

Reds, it was awesome.

Digital Camera 

I really, really want one but I can't just-

ify the cost right now. The one I want

is about 100 euros plus a little shipping. 

──────── ୨୧ ────────

We'll Be The Same As Before {2025 Week #9}

Hey. How's it hanging? Week 9 of the year is at an end, it feels like time is running away from me. Monday was as usual, a bad day. I did make a pretty nice dinner, finish my Elliott fanlisting and started watching What Did You Eat Yesterday. 

It made me confront that maybe I do actually like cooking. For some reason I still have some residue of internalized misogyny that makes me think I can't enjoy what some people see as "womanly" activities. Or maybe I'm just not a great cook so there's no point saying I like it. But I kind of do. When you cook food you're excited for, its a special moment of the day. 

We're having strange weather.

I was back to studying on Tuesday after the mess that was last weekend. I also took a little walk to the Noz and picked up the cutest Moomin notebook that came with a little key chain. I love it. Also found a Kaiser Chief's CD that I actually already have but it's at grandma's house so I probably wont see it for the next decade. My visual novel for Nanoreno is being prepared but the rules are that you cant start anything that will be in the final project before March.

He's the best!

I had a meeting with my social worker on Wednesday. She's real nice and helpful and she helped me schedule a meeting with a person from an organization that helps foreigners with all the documents and stuff. I'm still waiting for my letter from Banque de France. I also started the O.C. today. What beautiful trash! I have listened to the official soundtracks for close to a decade now but never actually watched the show. I actually decided to after seeing a clip on Alice's site where Seth and Summer argue about Death Cab. I love Death Cab. Studied too. My eyes have been kind of hurting recently, I think I'm at the PC way too much but all my hobbies are here so I'm trapped. Still, need to touch more grass, no argument against that. 

Did my make up for once.

On Thursday my mum left to Bordeaux to go pick up my dad. He's coming for my sister's birthday, she's turning fourteen. Last we talked in person we were on good terms but we had an argument on Whatsapp because he is a conniving shit. Anyway, I let bygones be bygones and when he arrived we were fine. Finally he brought the hard drives he has been promising for ages! The reason we don't get on well is because we don't really know each other. He hasn't been in my life since I was twelve, I'd see him for a week or two every two years maybe. It's always weird having a near stranger get upset with you or reprimand you as if he's your family, never mind that you're pushing 26 and haven't been a kid for years. But honestly I already feel nothing about this situation we have in the family, I'm just keeping things civil.

On Friday we had a pretty lazy day because everyone was so tired from yesterday. Dad made some very fancy burritos so that was nice, him and mum mostly did some stuff in town and got ready for my sister's birthday trip to Spain. I'm not going just because I need a little space to be alone and catch up on missed tasks. 

Saturday was my sister's birthday, they left kind of late, at about 10 AM. I went to Noz again and got 4 more CDs. Awesome CDs! Feeder, Embrace, Taking Back Sunday, and Manic Street Preachers, each for 2 euro! What a steal. I watched Lemonade Mouth during lunch, I had a turkey sandwich. Did not enjoy it. I got some things done but a huge migraine started at the worst possible time. Before bed I watched half of Charlie's Angels. I was not impressed.

Sunday, I woke up early to finish Charlie's Angels and I actually appreciated the camp much more in the light of day. See, your mood or health can seriously affect how much you can enjoy parody, satire, camp, or anything really. I worked on a lot of web stuff and prepared a notebook for Nanoreno. Everyone arrived pretty late, they brought me a cold McDonlands burger and a solar-powered Maneki-neko. I also got my sister a Death Note mug from Noz.

And so ends the week and the month of February. I will not miss it, it was terrible. Honestly, the future is not promising but I'm not making any predictions. This week I offer you one of my fave bands of all time, Rival Schools. This is 69 Guns.

Wishing For... {2025 Week #8}

The week started pretty great. I woke up on Monday, early, got the e-reader out and got through a few chapters of Three Body Problem. About 9 AM I sat down and studied French for a few hours, did lots of exercises (my pen even ran out!). Monique gave my mum a printer as a birthday present a few days ago and today I finally set it up. It works great, it's an Epson. 

I updated my missed posts and some days in my diary, then I tried out the scanner feature on the printer by scanning a few of my notebooks. Specifically, their covers. Because I have no pictures for this week either, they scans will be the visual stimulation for this entry.

Kitty cats!

Ancient Muji flipbook.

My fave brand, Our Story Begins.

An oldie.

Ancient!

Very wizard-y.

This one rocks.

Some of these are unused but they are all super old, I bought them when I was still a teen and living in China. Good times. I'm going to make a page for my notebook collection on my site because I have so many and also I'm still addicted to them.

Tuesday was okay too because I studied as well. This may seem like a very mediocre achievement but as someone who struggles to even get started it was pretty good for me. We finished the first season of Minecraft Storymode and honestly, it has no business being that good. Lukas is best boy, according to a consensus of my sister, my brother, and I.

On Wednesday we had an appointment with a new social worker, she's a very nice lady and she helped me to get another appointment at Banque de France. I also have to get an appointment with ALIFS which is another organization that helps foreigners with random issues. 

The cheap and scummy bank option that I was trying to get to work failed. I showed up to a convenience store to pick up the card but the guy refused to give it to me if I didn't have a permanent ID card (titre de sejour). I only have my temporary ID right now (attestation de prolongation) and apparently it's not good enough for a regular and online bank alike. I'm fucking pissed. I'm not gonna lie I wanted to bust a hole through some wall like a white guy but I refrained. It's just getting so stupid. The employment office and the social workers tell me my document is fine for work, study, and the bank but in practice I just get refusal and refusal. Is it like this on purpose? So people can't get their welfare? I don't even want it... I just want to start working already. I'm lucky that I live with my family because I can't get a job without a bank account and I'm not getting any welfare right now either. Yeah, if I was alone I would probably have to do shady and illegal work like many people. Then you get stuck there. I'm mad as hell.

I took the earlier train to Agen on Thursday because my appointment was at 10 AM. I mostly walked around, dropped by the bookstore to get two new pens. Browsed the H&M but honestly everything they had sucked. I'm also trying to buy only second hand now. At my appointment the lady working the desk was pretty surprised that my case has been going on since February of last year and that the banks keep refusing me. They often are. But at least she didn't dismiss me like the last guy and said they would provide some kind of a document that may help. I'm just so worn out already. I;m this close to running into the woods and living under the foliage. Fuck money, fuck banks, they are literally the devil. At least I had a nice lunch at a bakery before my train home.

I found one pic I took this week! It's Simona being insane.

Unhinged.

 Friday was uneventful. I spent a long time adding stuff to my site, like a more easy to use media log. Also finally made my media blog, where I'm going to keep track of stuff I've seen, listened to, etc. It turned out pretty cute.

Frutiger Metro adjacent?

On Saturday my period started and I only had enough Nurofen for a few hours which sucks! Luckily it wasn't too severe but I did still spend the entire day lying down. The good thing about period days is that they are movie days. I watched Bounce Ko Gals and August In The Water, I've been meaning to for a while. We also started season 2 of Minecraft Storymode which was fun. 

Sunday was a little better but I still felt pretty low. I've just been super strange lately. Easy to irritate and not very forgiving. Also feel like I'm let down a lot, I think some of that isn't actually happening but some of it is. We as human beings are super insensitive to the little ways we hurt each other deeply. So why can't I just get over it? Especially when I'm no better. I don't know. Guess 'cuz it hurts.  

This week, I present Susumu Yokota's Three Ripple. He is better known for the more minimal but intriguing Sakura (2000) or the experimental and fantastical Symbol (2004), but Sound of Sky (2002) is highly underrated and worth listening to. It's probably Yokota at his danciest. 

Le Petit Blog #4: Mon Avis Sur Les Films

Bonjour, les lecteurs ! Est-ce que tu aimes les films ? Moi, j'adore les films, en particulier les films des années 2000 et 1990. Ces décennies sont mes favoris, mais j'aime les films plus récents et plus anciens aussi. J'apprécie tous les genres, mais j'aime beaucoup les drames, les films de science-fiction, les films d'art d'essai et les films d'animation. Je n'aime pas les films très populaires, je préfère les films plus obscurs et sous-estimés. Je pense que les meilleurs personnages sont ceux qui ont beaucoup de problèmes et qui ne sont pas parfaits. Dans un autre post en futur, je voudrais écrire sur mes films préférés. 

Le Petit Blog #3: Quand J'étais Professeur

Bonjour tout le monde ! Aujourd'hui, je vais écrire un post sur mon ancien travail. Avant 2019 ou 2020, j'ai travaillé comme professeur d'anglais. Généralement, j'ai enseigné les enfants d'âges entre 5 et 16. C'est un métier dur. J'ai travaillé en Chine pour beaucoup d'années et ce temps me manque. J'ai aimé les moments quand j'ai pris le bus pour le centre-ville et quand je suis allé déjeuner après un matin occupé. Cette ville me manque vraiment. Quand j'ai quitté la Chine, j'ai arrêté mon travail comme professeur et j'ai commencé mon travail comme animateur 2D. Maintenant, je pense si je travaillerai comme professeur encore. 

Love Is For Suckers {2025 Week #7}

I had very shifting moods this week. Hot and cold. Totally powerless and apathetic and literally filled with ambition a few hours later. I haven't done much outside, we went to the recyclerie once but there was nothing good again. I did figure out how to get manga on my Kindle finally though. Now I can finally read them without burning my eyes out. Phone screens really wear me out.

I made Tonkatsu this Thursday for dinner for the first time because everyone was apparently sick of chicken. It turned out pretty good with the sauce and all. I kind of miss making little lunch boxes to take with me to class like I did about this time last year. 

More importantly, on Thursday I finally bought all the ingredients for my mum's birthday cake. Yes, her birthday is on Valentine's day. I never celebrated it because it was always her birthday for me. I do love the aesthetics of Valentine's something about the cheesiness and comfort of hearts, pink, red, and chocolates. 

On Friday it was her birthday, first she took a long bath with some trinkets my sister got her like a bath bomb and stuff. Then I made a big breakfast for everyone and my brother went out and bought pastries. Because everyone's sleeping schedules are shit, we all got sleepy at lunch time and took naps. After we started to prepare the house of guests and dinner. Every time we want to spend a birthday with just family we somehow end up having 10 people over. It's kind of annoying.

Anyway, I made the cake and through it in the fridge. It was a Mango White Chocolate Ripple Cheesecake and it turned out really well! Like a dumb ass I forgot to take pics of everything. Anyway, me and my mum prepared a nice shepherd's pie and we got a bunch of snacks and drinks ready. People started arriving at about 7 PM. It was pretty nice and all the food was awesome. However, the party started to really stretch into the night... I am a bit ashamed but I went upstairs and had a lie down. When one of the guests came looking for me I pretended to be asleep. So immature! But my social battery was completely flat.

The weekend was uneventful, we did finally order pizza on Sunday like we planned to for a while. We also re-watched Nanny Diaries, it's a pretty fun film and also the rich people in it are a very special kind of horrible. Before that we went for a walk over the town bridge closer to where the farms are. We also took the cats for a short walk closer to our house. It's getting warmer so we can go out with them more often soon. I've been super ditzy these past few weeks, short and bland posts, no photos, I'm going to try to do something more exciting next week. It's good for my own brain. 

This week, a sad and angsty banger from Avril Lavigne's second album Under My Skin. I saw her live once when I was like eleven and had a period where I thought I was too cool to listen to her so I'm happy to report that that time has passed. Here's Together:

Cyber Girl {2025 Week #6}

A very late post, but my motto will always be a better at some point in time than not. Late is usually an understatement. I can't lie, it was a very lame and boring week. Stuff I was expecting to get done was not but I took some time to work on my site which went well.

 Since Monday I was gathering buttons for my fanlistings collective page. You ever spend a ridiculous amount of time on tasks that don't exactly contribute anything to your life besides making you just kind of happy doing them? That's kind of how I felt going through every category on the Fanlistings Network. Did it take way too much time I could have spent studying? Yeah, but I had fun. The pages turned out super cute though so I am happy with that.

The main page.

The joined fanlistings.

I was a real computer girlie this week, pretty much focused on making stuff for my site. After the collective I posted my media page. It's not totally done but I was really happy with how it turned out, it's really giving the Gen X Soft Club that I love a lot. I actually have to write some reviews for all the movies, TV, music etc. that I have watched or listened to.

Reviews incoming!

I still really want a digicam, preferably a Sony Cybershot type. But I just can't justifying buying it right now, maybe for my birthday. My mum's birthday is next week and my sister's is two weeks after. I have to prepare presents for her quick. 

I also binged season 1 of Project Runway, it's got me totally addicted. There is a very specific subset of trashy reality TV like Project Runway and ANTM that have me hooked. I think it's the outfits. We also started playing Minecraft Storymode as a joke with my brother and sister and we were totally surprised by how much we actually liked it so my apologies to MCSM. We especially like Lukas and Petra, they are easily the best characters.

On Saturday I finally figured out Zonelets for the blog for my site. I just copy stuff I write here over there, a kind of mirror for this blog. I also set up utterances to work with a Github repository in order to have comments on individual posts. It works, I tried it out, but no one has commented yet.

The home page of the blog.

It was a pretty uneventful week but it somehow still ended up being draining. I don't want to socialize much but also being cooped up all day is really bringing me down. Time to find a better middle ground. This week I'm leaving you with Fefe Dobson's In The Kissah. This entire album is perfect top to bottom and is contagiously fun. Fefe should have really been as big as Avril, I think.

Le Petit Blog #2: Mes Chats

Bonjour, mes lecteurs~! Cette semaine, je veux écrire sur mes chats. Maintenant, j'ai deux chats, Simona et Yoshi. J'ai nommé Simona et ma sœur a nommé Yoshi. Simona est très petit, plus petit qu'un chat moyenne. Yoshi n'est pas grand, mais il est très long. Simona est un peu moins intelligente, mais elle n'est pas paresseuse, Yoshi l'est. Ils ont habitaient avec nous depuis mai 2023. Cette année, ils auront deux ans. Ils vivent à l'intérieur, mais nous les promenons quelques fois par mois. Ils sont très drôles, en particulier quand ils se battent. Je les aime beaucoup, la vie n'est pas la même sans les chats.  

Simona (gauche) et Yoshi (droit).

 

Claire Sandwich {2025 Week #5}

Hello again. It has been strange. This is the week I had a try out for a temporary job in the next town over. More on that later. It's been raining a lot, which to me, is a mood booster. I'm still thinking and thinking about movies all the time. I already decided that I would write something this Thursday but we'll see how that actually goes. Anyway, Monday was the rainiest day of all, I went to the store optimistic that it wasn't that bad but as I was going back, with a heavy ass bag, it poured like we were flooding. Our area is actually often under threat of floods so that's not good. Anyway, I bought a cute photo album to store the many photos I got from my childhood stuff box. These are actually from uni. The photo album doesn't actually have sleeves though because I'm a dumbass who forgot to check. So now I have to buy some special photo stickers to slot my pics in.

The starry cover.

 

My bestie in Budapest.

Only two photos fit per page which is tough but also is more dramatic which I kind of like. The two pics are of my best friend in high school, Yuka. We are both not avid social media users so we usually just text on WhatsApp but ever since my phone broke in December we haven't been able to chat which sucks. I need to contact her through some other way soon.

On Tuesday I was mostly just anxious about the short work trial I would be having on Wednesday. I have no chill and stress about everything before, during, and after. I did do more writing for my projects and I do need to speed up all the pre-production of my visual novel in time for Nanoreno in March.

At last, Wednesday arrived and I left to the next town at about lunch. We arrived earlier to put all the printers into Eric's car, he was the leading guy in the activities planned for the day. Yeah, I forgot to mention but the job is being an assistant to a teacher who teaches a short class about 3D printing to kids. I don't know anything about 3D printers but I have taught kids a lot, but usually English. 

It was awkward as hell. There was no structure, no teaching part and trying part, it was a mess. I seriously hate working like that because it feels like there is no organization. I don't blame Eric, it's not his full-time job or anything. But I was super stressed out. The kids also did not care for what I was saying in my broken French at all. There was this one kid that was super nervous and shy, I relate. It wasn't bad overall but I just felt it was not productive. We had a bunch of printers malfunction, some models failed to print or broke, and Eric had to explain how they worked to the kids very briefly and over and over because the kids all came at different times. Well, at least now I know how to use a 3D printer. If I get paid to attend next time as an assistant, I will go. But I ain't doing this for free again. Also because I felt pretty useless. I wasn't given any tasks so I was just hovering and helping when I could which feels like not doing much...

A little mid-week break here. Key made a blog post on their site recently answering the Blog Questions Challenge 2025. You know my ass cannot resist a questionnaire so here comes my attempt at responding to these questions:

Why Did You Start Blogging In The First Place?

I cant remember shit. Seriously. If I didn't keep a diary I would have very obscure and random memories, like what happened in a music video a friend showed me 10 years ago or which actor was in which long-forgotten TV show from the 90s, but no formative memories of my own. No dates, no timelines. My memory would be dumb references and memes I saw somewhere once. Terrible. A blog is the best diary... the internet is nearly forever!! And with time stamps and pictures.

What Platform Are You Using To Manage Your Blog, And Why Do You Use It?

Take a guess, buddy! That's right, blogger. I think the fact that it is borderline abandoned by Google is what drew me in, as well as nostalgia for it because I'm pretty sure we used it for some kind of school project eons ago.

Have You Blogged On Other Platforms Before?

A long time ago I sort of blogged on... Quizilla. I miss that piece of shit website so bad. I also had a blog that my uni paid me to maintain during my exchange in Finland which was funny. 

How Do You Write Your Posts?

Just straight into the Blogger text editor. It has an awful spell check that doesn't understand my writing style but also at least my few readers don't have to read the words 'absolutely' and 'seriously' misspelled. I am bad at spelling, okay?! 

When Do You Feel Most Inspired To Write?

When I have a bunch of pics I want to post too. It makes me feel sad when my blog is empty of pictures. Does this mean that I need to hide behind fun or pretty imagery to make up for my poor quality of blogging and uninteresting life? Who knows! Don't think about it! Good? Good.

Do You Normally Publish Immediately After Writing, Or Do You Let It Simmer?

 I serve that shit as soon as it's done in the oven. Sometimes... it is not totally cooked and maybe I should have given it a second. Typos everywhere that I have to go back to shamefully and fix.

What’s Your Favorite Post On Your Website?

 My most popular post is probably my Week 51 post from 2024 (wow, 58 read, I'm basically famous!). It's actually not a very happy entry so I can't say it's a favourite at all. If I had to pick, I'd probably say 'So This is The New Year' from the first week of this year. It was a good week with a fun trip and New Year presents, oh yeah!

Any Future Plans For the Website? Maybe a redesign, changing the tag system, etc.?

I'm probably going to use Zonelets at one point to "move" this blog to my main site. I think I'll always post here first to make this my sort of work book for my blogging. I changed the look of this blog recently and I'm probably going to leave it how it is for now.

Your Turn!

No one has to actually do this even if I tag them of course haha, but whoever read this blog post, I tag you. If you feel like doing these questions write me a comment so I can check out your version! Would be really cool if Krish took a jab at it but if you're not in the mood for it don't even worry about it.

Anyway, back to the week. Thursday was spent at home, mostly working on stuff on my computer. Actually most of the week was on the computer! It's because I'm working on my site a lot. Thursday was a little more for my blog, I checked out TwinkieChan's blog again to browse her outfit pics because I felt really inspired by them. She has such a fun and cute style.

TwinkieChan's blog.

On Friday I finally played some games on my super cool new PC... Mirror's Edge from 2008, not exactly a benchmark type of game but I love it. During dinner we watched Alien: Romulus and the human-xenomorph hybrid at the end was so nasty!

Saturday I finally went out. In the morning I went to the thrift store closer to me and got a cute flannel and skirt. I love flannel, plaid, gingham. Me and Tom met up at the other thrift store at 3PM and we browsed a bit, mostly laughing about how crazy some of the shoes were. I found a cute little poncho. For the longest time I thought I could resist, but yeah, I like ponchos! 

After we walked around a bit and later went to his house. We hung out for a bit and then played some Resident Evil Revelations 2. Moira is a funny character. Next time we wanted to grab my brother too and play all together. We played on the Switch, and I'm not gonna lie, the controllers kind of suck. I think I might buy one in the very distant future but since Nintendo are so annoying about homebrew right now, I don't really see the point. I left about 7PM and froze my ass off on the way home even though the day was warm.

I wasted a lot of Sunday watching random videos (I only watch YouTube on weekends) and seriously regretted that. I'm feeling super low energy since maybe the middle of January. For my site, I started working on my fanlistings collective page. I totally lack all the backend skills to make the fanlistings functional so I'm just doing what can be done. 

This week was kind of scattered and made me feel pretty disoriented. I hope I can feel better next week. This week I am still hooked on Elliott, particularity the song Away We Drift. Please give it a listen.  

I'm A Hack, I Make Hack Art {2025 Week #4}

Slow week! I was mostly home and didn't take any pictures. Terrible. I did get a pseudo-job offer which is pretty awesome. It's nothing full-time or permanent but it's not too shabby if they end up keeping me. On Monday, I was still awake from starting a movie before midnight and finishing it after. It was I Come With The Rain from 2009, a movie I have very mixed feelings about. The important thing is it spurred me to get back to more analytical writing and I started working on the media page on my personal site. Hopefully I'll end up with some reviews that aren't just the five sentences I came to rely on recently. Tom also invited me and Mo to hang out on Saturday so we'll probably walk around town together or something.

Madeleines from the local bakery.

Tuesday was more of the same, web site, art, projects, blah blah blah. I made a list of the available CUTiE mags on my fashion blog. Also got a lovely comment from Krish there. Soon enough I was daydreaming about having my own magazine...

Wednesday my period started so I was out of commission. I fell over and finally watched Ramen Girl. A weird movie but it's honestly pretty charming. Good job to the cast. Brittany Murphy had such a future ahead of her, it's so damn depressing that her life was cut so short. As usual, the culprits are the disgusting media and speculators. 

Thursday was a real new low for me. I started to feel really down, no real reason, but I just could not get anything done, no inspiration was coming at all. I felt really swamped and I hate when it happens because I don't even know where to start with getting out of a place like that. Basically, I also feel like a total fraud. How am I nearly 26 and still so mediocre at what I do? I'm a hack. I usually hang out with the cats and it helps.

Friday was a little better. I started my media page, it's looking the way I want it to which is nice. Not always the case. In the evening I watched Tokyo.Sora finally. It's free on YouTube! It was great. Slow. Just how I like them. It's been a good week for movies at least.

On Saturday we went to chill with Tom. We met up at our house then just walked around some. We ended up at his house and hung out at his garage spot where he has a couch, video games, a Playstation, and a book about Trixie Mattel that I was browsing. I'm not very well-versed in drag race lore but I like Juno Birch and he knew her. We just talked a lot, it was fun. About zombie shows. Other stuff.

We headed up to his house, his mum was doing an art project of some sort, she's a creative lady. He offered to give us a tarot reading and though I'm not a believer I'm always up for trying things out. Unless it's doing some curses or a summoning because even if I don't believe in it, I seriously do not see the point of taking your chances. So, my reading was interesting... I asked about my future in work and art but Tom said his cards are gaslighters so they told me about the present instead. I'm filled with anxiety, analysis paralysis, and being pushed around by external factors. Allegedly. Whenever I come out of my period of struggle, which is apparently soon, I should have sympathy for those that are now in the place that I was. Roger that!

Sunday was alright, my period finally ended. It's usually like 3 or 4 days but the first two are always super painful. I did more work on my site, I'm satisfied. Man, it must have been so cool to have been a web designer in the years 1997-2005. The golden age. Now's fine too because I'm not doing it for work so...

Since I have so few photos this week, I took some picks of the really random little things I kept in a metal box for years. It's one of the things that arrived from China. I still have to go though a lot but this one was so nostalgic because it's basically stuff from 2010-2017. Which is no vintage, I know, but it's years and years ago and in my meager lifespan, that feels like millenniums.

The box!

What a mess...

So sweet! A bookmark from school.

My cat notebook for fave songs.

A Shaak Ti doll I made when I was 12?

IDs of my dad and me...2013?!

Even older ID and some cards.

Lots of pins.

Ancient notebook.

A friend sent us some Xbox games.

Lol.

It's not the early 2010s without rubber bracelets.

A bunch of random stuff.

Some figurines. And the cutest cat perfume vial.

Worn and loved bracelets.

Whatever all of this is...

Flags, toys, and bits of stuff.

Metal doodads.

More trinkets.

Super cute sticky notes and pins.

I used to work at a cafe/bar.

That's my middle school locker lock!

More metal. Lots of buttons.

Two music boxes! Have a listen.

So that's just one box that was inside a bigger box. I have way more stuff I need fo through and I might make some space in my posts about it. Creatively, I have been super stunted this week... but I'm gonna try to fight through it in the next week. After all, a creative block might go away now or in a month... I can't wait that long.

This week please enjoy This Guy's Ready For Bed by Pop Unknown. This is to celebrate me going to bed earlier than usual this week but also because it's a great song with a moody melody. I can't stop listening to emo.