Hey friends. Winter continues... thought it's gotten so warm around my town. If our house was better isolated I wish we'd have colder winters but since that ain't the case I'll take the current predicament.
This week was much like every other, I'm still waiting on responses to my job applications. It's not looking good, I'm probably gonna have to start looking at options in bigger towns. I really don't want to but it's looking like I might not have a choice.
Week 6.
Monday was pretty great, I worked some more on ideas for Nanoreno and some minor stuff on the site. In the evening I finally started Red Dead Redemption. That game has been on my to-play list for like, 15 years already. It's time. I've already started saying howdy at family, cats, inanimate objects. It's bad.
Finished the July spread for the COTY calendar on Tuesday but I'm not revealing it yet. With my current working pace I'll probably have August to December done only in May. Which I guess I'm alright with. Me and Mo also played a lot of ODST, we'll probably finish it on our next sitdown.
I've been busy fucking around with the new client that let's everyone play Titanfall 1 again on Wednesday. Me and Mo didn't figure out how to host our own LAN server so we haven't started the 'campaign' yet but hopefully we'll do that soon. Later this year it's gonna be Titanfall 2's 10 year anniversary for which I definitely want to draw something.
My sister also forced the cats into a photoshoot with bubbles.
He's so long...
Nothing of note on Thursday but on Friday the Olympics started. I'm planning to keep up with all the snowboarding events and curling. The opening ceremony was pretty good with the crazy presentation and dancing and with all the athletes and their outfits (Brazil wins this one) until they showed JD Vance's face (so gross!). And then Israel showed up too. Double gross! Nothing good should ever be expected from the big business of sports-based whitewashing of course.
More Olympics on Saturday and Sunday, we're still in the qualifications for many events. I never really cared about ice-skating to be honest but I usually still watched it. I will not be cheering on the really shitty French couple that literally support a rapist. Why can't people be fucking normal for once?!
Regardless, I also spent the weekend doing some drawing and planning for the visual novel. I hope I can make some what of an announcement on finnybox later this month.
The end.
This Week I'm Excited For...
Snowboarding events, mainly Big Air and Halfpipe. My mum's birthday. Tom's gonna probably come over to hang as well.
Song Of The Week...
I found a random AMV someone made of Left 4 Dead 2 to Paramore's Hard Times on Tumblr and it's been totally glued to my mind all week. I haven't listened to much of Paramore's post-2010 or so stuff but this is such a great track, so catchy.
Hey everyone. Happy February! And just like that 1/12th of 2026 is over. I barely blinked, how does this keep happening? Isn't it weird how much time shrinks and stretches when you get older? Or maybe I just understand how a calendar works better now, I don't know...
I'm wishing on some stability as usual, making some of it happen, as much as I can while things out of my control keep on a goin'. One of my favourite quotes ever is definitely about the most profitable time to plant a tree (ten years ago vs today, you know which one) because it's perfect for lazy and indecisive people like me. But hey, it works.
Week 05.
Monday was pretty good: I had my follow-up meeting with France Travail and my new social worker. It was productive, paired with the job applications I already sent they will also notify me of any work opportunities. Sweet. I was on a roll and even dropped by the dentist's at the perfect time when she had no patients and got my filling adjusted.
Otherwise I took some time to add new members to CDwORLD. The backlog has been crammed to hell so I'm glad I finally got around to adding folks who've submitted applications like a month ago...
On Tuesday I was somewhat preparing for Nanoreno, mostly my brainstorming. I also watched some movies including the 2022 Scream. It was okay... I was gonna go see the new Scream in cinemas but I read that that's the one Melissa Barrera got fired from for being pro-Palestine so now there's no way I'm not torrenting it instead.
Wednesday and Thursday was more of the same. Working on projects, searching for work vacancies and so on. I actually didn't take any photos at all this week! This is terrible.
No response about work as of Friday. I would have a much easier time looking for work in Bordeaux or even Agen but I just don't know if I'd even be able to travel there every day. I guess I'll have to if nothing works out closer to home. It was my dad's birthday too, we had a short call with him. Not much too say but he was very sick in December so I do feel sorry for him about that. He's better now. But boozing catches up with you, I guess.
We also called with Tom and started Left 4 Dead 2 at last! Not often does a sequel of an already excellent game come out even better... but that is totally true for Left 4 Dead 2. I guess if Scream 5 taught me anything this month is not to be a genre snob. For so long... I denied being a zombie fan... I don't know why, maybe because of what a disaster the Walking Dead turned into eventually even though me and all my friends were so into it from like 2010-2014. But I am, okay?! Love zombies. Or maybe the world where zombies rule...
C'mon!
On Saturday Tom showed up in person and we played a bunch of games: Amped 2, Battlefront II, Hunter: The Reckoning, and Diablo III. We spent most of the time on Diablo III, this time I made a Demon Hunter and we called all our characters after Mean Girls characters. I was Gretchen.
I made a banana cake too.
Sunday, the month of January officially ended, that's kind of wack... time is passing all of us by. I tried to get listed on some directories recently, including Linklane and Smooth Sailing. I think my fave thing to join so far was the Linklings Club though! Everyone gets listed via their interests which can be as general or specific as you want them to be. Consider joining because I love nothing more than finding people into the weird shit I'm into.
The end.
This Week I'm Excited For...
Not sure. For anyone to respond to any of my work applications, I guess. Also next week the season finale of season 2 of Fallout will air so that's pretty cool. There's also lots of birthdays next month.
Song Of The Week...
I actually didn't really listen to much new music this week except a really bad album that tricked me into thinking it would be some boring yet pleasant 2000s pop. Lies! Instead I listened to a Deftones album I rarely listen to mainly because it has a cover of a Smiths song I don't really like. Like I find the original of Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want annoying, it has nothing to do with Deftones. I might be the only Smiths hater around honestly, and it has actually nothing to do with Morrissey being a total dick or anything. I just could never get into them. However, there are other great covers like Simple Man and some acoustics that are just wow. Like the acoustic for Be Quiet and Drive that is almost Massive Attack-like.
First month of 2026 is already over?! Say it ain't so! It was a difficult month for me but I did get some important stuff out of the way so we'll count what counts.
Goals
1. Buy a present for my mum
I spent ALL my money on bills this month and I have no good ideas for a gift either. I have two weeks to think of something stat!
2. Meeting with France Travail
Done and done, waiting to hear back from them.
3. Apply for titre de voyage/carte vitale
Something is really weird with the insurance site and I can't login. Need to bring it up with the social worker next meeting.
4. Full update to CDwORLD
Nearly done! Added a bunch of members and half the CDs. Woo!
5. Finish COTY calendar for July-August
Didn't do this this month... gotta finish it in February and March!
6. Localize all web site assets
Not all, but lots. I'll count it.
7. Continue notebook database excel
Did that and scanned some more notebooks. It will be nice to put them upstairs and make some more space in my room.
Greetings! Honestly, this wasn't a great week. It went mostly fine, I worked on more job applications and the like. Did a bunch of stuff on my site that I've been putting off for way too long.
But I got bad news on Saturday and I've been kind of dealing with that this week too. So, sorry if this post reads kind of lame and sad, I wasn't in the best mood from the weekend on. I wish I was stronger, better at taking the things that will inevitably happen to everyone in life. But I'm really not.
Week 4.
Had a funny experience on Monday. I was bored in the kitchen and had a book beside me so I decided to play a little fortune telling game that you too can play anytime, so long as you have a book. Here's how:
1. Ask a question. It can be open-ended.
2. Thumb through pages until you feel like stopping, crack the book open where you stop.
3. See a number in your head. Starting from the top of your page count down to the line of the number you got, if its a bigger number than there are lines on the page, flip the page and continue.
4. That single line is your answer. 99% it will not make any sense.
Er, except when it does! At least grammatically. My question was 'what kind of job will I get?' and as I leafed through the book and picked my line the answer was very direct, personalized, and threatening: 'her to the kingdom of the shadows of the dead'.
???
Like a funeral home? A cemetery? I'm scared. Don't go looking for your future in a book about Greek myths, it's all downers over there.
On Tuesday I updated all of the media logs for 2025! I missed like everything between September and December so it was a little rough catching up but I'm glad I stuck to it. Went to do my little janitor side gig.
By Thursday I finally decided to do Nanoreno this year. Not setting anything in stone a 100% but I think I'm gonna do a sort of whodunnit slasher visual novel. But just the first chapter, making an entire VN in a month is a little too wild for me.
On Friday I was chatting with my friend Tom on the topic of romance. Won't go into detail but thoughts were shared, I'm still wondering where I fit in all of it. I don't know if I'd be less lonely if I was with someone, or if I liked someone like that. I'm kind of afraid the answer will be yes. In a lot of ways I'm at my lowest in my life right now: don't have my own space, barely make an effort to get dressed for the day, and I'm a really boring and unambitious person. I'd hate to do all that to someone.
I do get very sick of people telling me that it will happen for me, it simply hasn't yet which is why I feel the way I do, because I'm not looking forward to it myself. Like, everyone's got more stakes in my love life than I myself do. I don't really know what I'm saying. Maybe it's like faith and lots of money; I wish I had it. But I don't and I can't do a thing about it.
I had a horrible Saturday. I'm sure a lot of people did. Nurse Alex Pretti was murdered in broad daylight by Nazis. Things were never really good but things are only getting worse. Nightmare and more nightmare.
One of my grandma's cats, my cat by extension, Pixel Junior, passed away that night. Pixel Jr because when we lived in China we sort-of had a cat (he just showed up one day and left another) who we called Pixel. Grandma liked how the name sounded even though she had no idea what a pixel was. He was totally normal until the morning of the 24th, when she found him. He passed in his sleep peacefully, at the age of around 13. He possibly had an underlying issue we never knew about because he wasn't sick or suffering. I'm heartbroken, I miss him so much. He was pretty reserved but so sweet and patient.
I looked at pictures of him, was scared to honestly, but was surprised that I felt more joy at the memories I had of him than the pain of having lost him now. I love him, I'll always love him and remember him. I'm so glad he was with us for his whole life, my brother found him and his siblings near a bin and they would have died. My brother took him and his friend took another kitten, and there was one more left who they also found a home for. My grandma had another cat who lived to near 17 called Elvis, him and Pixel were close. Once Elvis passed, Pixel missed him a lot. But we fostered a kitten Koda (who now lives on a farm, bless him, he is a very stupid cat and should be far away from moving vehicles) and adopted another kitten, Shigeo, who Pixel always took care of.
Here's some photos of one of the best things that ever was in the world:
Pixel Jr with Elvis.
Grandma spoiling him.
He was very dusty in the winter.
With my sister.
Nap.
More naps.
Chillin'.
Letting my sister dress him up.
I miss him and Elvis so much.
Hard day of studying.
Pixel Jr and Shigeo.
Pixel, then Koda, then Shigeo.
He was so caring to Shigeo.
Food time.
I have all three!
Loved carpets.
Funniest pic of Pixel Jr.
Bermuda triangle.
New year's eve with everyone.
More sneaking.
Hanging out with Pixel Jr.
Pixel Jr and my brother.
Caught something?
Outside... even in the show!
We played some more Left 4 Dead with Tom to stay distracted. It worked for some time but I was depressed all day. I take losing pets very hard, I know a lot of people don't think it's that serious but every cat my family ever had was also family.
On Sunday we all helped out my sister with re-organizing her room. She goes through many phases and I think the current one is comic book stuff. I remember also moving shit around as a kid all the time, though I didn't really have a style or anything. Maximalism, I guess.
The end.
This Week I'm Excited For...
I wasn't really excited for anything. I kind of wanted everything to just stop. I have an important meeting on Monday so I guess I'm excited to see what they tell me and for it to be over. Lately I've been mostly excited for things to end and I don't really like that.
Song Of The Week...
I actually didn't really listen to much new music this week except a really bad album that tricked me because of it's super 2000s cover. I've been listening to Threes again, this time I got really stuck on Atlas. I just feel awful, man. Don't worry though, just need to wait a little longer and things won't get better but I'll have some time to myself.
