Witch Business {Week 20}

New low for me here, I'm three weeks behind on the blog. What an arbitrary deadline that I set for myself and yet still I miss it. Such is the nature of this blog! Had a mixed bag of a week. Finally went to the bookstore to get my copy of the collector's edition of the new Witch Hat volume, also did some work, and hung out with a friend. Responsibilities are piling up fast. Onwards!

Week 20.

Monday was a work day but I was busy thinking about Tuesday and the Witch Hat event. My nerves were shaky: I was still worried that it would just be me and a bunch of pre-teens. It's why I originally wanted to bring my sister, as a kind of meat shield (and also because she loves skipping school). But alas, she had an exam and couldn't cut class to go to buy a manga with me. If you think it's pathetic for a 27 year old to live life like this you are correct. I don't have an argument at all.

Tuesday morning my brother went to another meeting with Aicha to get a spot in her class. We took the same train and I arrived pretty early before the bookstores were even open. About a half-hour after they finally opened (I didn't want to bother the employees as soon as they stepped into the store) I decided to drop in and see what was happening. It was only me, so already I began to suspect that something was amiss. I talked to the cashier and she told me that the new volume wouldn't be in until after lunch and my train was at lunch, so I was a bit screwed. Luckily, she told me that there was another store that also had the event and the volume.  

I've arrived!

It's a very cute bookshop, if you're ever in Agen I recommend you visit it. It's called Dans ma Libraire and it's got a wide range of stuff but sadly has a very shit website. When I got there I asked when the event would be and apparently it was at almost closing time later in the day. This obviously wasn't on any of the adverts... anyway, I got what I came for which was the collector's edition of volume 15 which for some reason did not want to get scanned. Still, it was mine in the end and I got one of the event's items (the one I really wanted), the dip pen!

It's beautiful...

I met Mo on the train. Grabbed him by the shoulder and he jumped like 5 meters. Apparently when he got to the town where the classes will be there was a bunch of cops outside the station. He got stopped and ID'ed. I asked if anyone else got stopped and he said yeah, some other white guy. There's some criminal running about that's in my brother's demographic. Then again, I assume like 80% crimes are probably committed by some white dude aged 20-30. 

My period started on Wednesday so I skipped work and also didn't burn myself with the hot water bottle this time. Was very unproductive, did make my summer bucket list though and I'm pretty happy with it but who knows how it will actually go. I tried not to make any huge plans this time to avoid last year's problem.

Summer 2026, baby!

Thursday was much of the same but by Friday I was well enough to go work. The usual was happening: we were making more metal cage-fences filled with rocks. It was pretty good. We also had plans to hang out with Tom right after work but for some reason my cramps suddenly came back. I marinated at home a little and we made it to his house an hour late. He hooked up his PS3 to the big screen and we fucked around in Black Ops and Advanced Warfare. 

Now that's advanced warfare...

Uneventful weekend. The cats have been getting lazier which is a very bad sign: it likely means the heat is coming on. I don't want it to... I hate the heat, man. Like, if you think I already don't have any brain function (you'd be right) I have negative brain function in the heat. It's actually horrible... 

Pretty clouds.

Soon I'll run out of flashback trips to include here in the blog, because I managed to misplace a bunch of photos somehow from my time traveling during uni. We'll see if I can dig anything else up... 

Flashback Trip #3: 2019 La Rochelle (+Charente-Maritime) with Mum and Mum's friend

Sometime in the late winter (or early spring?) of 2019 my mum and her friend were visiting France all the way from China as this friend was looking to buy a house in France and my mum tagged a long as a kind of consultant or something. This was years before we ever even considered living in France (and in fact, this friend was a major reason as to why we could even come to France in 2022). I was studying in Finland at the time and had a week off so I decided to travel to France via some incredibly uncomfortable and cheap flights and spend some time with my mum and see the south of France.

I was on a very serious budget so I took the cheapest flight out of Tampere that stopped in Stockholm, I had a short layover after which I flew to Paris. From there, I took a Flixbus from hell. A 12+ hours bus ride from Paris to La Rochelle that was luckily going through the night, though I barely slept with an incredibly pushy neighbour beside me the entire time. I got there in the very early morning. 

Duck.

Tower!!

I met my mum and her friend in La Rochelle, which is a very cool seaside town and where Cousteau's research vessel, the Calypso, was held in the late 90s. 

I don't remember much about all the little towns and villages we stopped in later as we'd traveled a lot by car. I often dozed off or listened to music and didn't even notice where the road took me. 

Me with my mum's friend.

Near a camping area.

At some random gas stop.

The entire trip was about 4 days after which I took the flight back, it stopped in Oslo and then I was back in Tampere. Most of the trip consisted of going house-hunting, eating at some local small restaurants, and going on walks all over totally new towns. It was a weird trip because I rarely ever travel by car but since our friend was driving it was lucky that I got to just sit back.

And that's all for this week and this very, very late entry. Another good time to repeat my favourite mantra: better late then never, always, always.

The end.

This Week I'm Excited For...

Not much, maybe to have some time off to get my life in order. I have a lot of stuff to get done and a lot of things to finish up for other people. I'm really letting some people down right now with my tortoise speed so hopefully all that...

Song Of The Week... 

Again, I don't know if I had a distinctive song of the week but a lot of Midnight Club LA has been on my mind lately so I'd have to say that Dundy Lion by Markus Kienzl is my current choice. It's very moody and has that little motif that's so, so good it will totally become an earworm.

Sugar Overdose {Week 19}

Happy May 4th to all celebrating. May the force be with you! I actually barely celebrated sadly, I'm having another crazy week between jobs and appointments and all that shit. Plus my memory is just so awful still. Forgot to scan this week's layout at the start of the week so we're not getting a before and after type of situation this time. 

On Monday I almost missed a meeting with my social worker as I confused the days and the time of the meeting. Very lucky that the office is just a few minutes away so with a little awkward speed-walking it was almost like I was never late in the first place. Waiting on the last of my salary and the actual salary sheet from our boss meanwhile. I won't lie, I'm a little annoyed at having to keep asking for it. It's that delicate balance of wanting to insist but also not coming off as rude to the person that's holding the quality of your life for the next month in their hands. The worst.

Cave dweller.

In other news, I know that Artfight is doing something a little different this year, there's no vote on the themes because it will be their 10th anniversary. I joined the site in 2020 but only started attacking people in 2022. It's gonna be my 5th year but for some it's a nice round decade! Some of the themes I wish I hadn't missed were: Sun vs. Moon (2017), Dream vs. Nightmare (2019), and Steampunk vs. Cyberpunk (2021). They were floating around the idea or re-doing an old theme but I'm glad they decided to go with something totally new. Basically, this is all to say that probably in mid-June we'll get this year's theme and I'm already excited. Have you ever partaken in Artfight? Have you won and if so, how many times? What teams were you on? I've been on team Wither, Vampire, Seafoam, and Crystals.

On Tuesday me and Mo finished Halo: Reach. I liked it mostly because it was fun to run around with a whole team of Spartans instead of just Master Chief. I liked Kat and Jun the most. RIP Kat. It moved me so that I feel an urge in me to make an AMV set to a nu metal song out of the cutscenes.

I've also been playing the 2005 NFS Most Wanted and having a good time with the music, so I did that on Wednesday some more. Had a Taylor Lorenz video on at some point later and I won't lie I'm becoming incredibly disappointed about her position on AI. I used to really trust her on the intersection of policy and tech but she's been nearly shilling AI, data centers, and so on recently and it feels so disingenuous and out of character. When it comes to AI, I don't care how "useful" it is, I hate it and want it fucking out of here! So I'm probably gonna stick to journalists who are more honest on the topic. Still, a real let down.

On Thursday me and Mo went to help out at Noel's. We're gonna do a bunch of tasks for him but mainly we're building these special stone and metal cage fences to withstand flooding. He's in the flood-heavy area of our department so it's gonna be some serious construction. It's a little hard but mostly time-consuming and also confusing at the start but we were in a groove soon enough. We are probably the most incompetent employees Noel has ever had but lucky for us he has a patience of a saint. Though I've never felt more like a bimbo with some of the tools. I just haven't used an angle-grinder since high school, okay?! At home I watched Scarface because the Al Pacino marathon is never over.

There is always the perfect GIF on Tumblr...

On Friday I woke up with a migraine which was annoying for the rest of the day. While we were at work my mum and two family friends started building the structure for our future rooms on the third floor. It's looking good, some beams and plasterboard are already up. 

On Saturday I went out during the day with my brother and sister and we had some lunch. Then we dropped by the grocery store where I found a super cute hair clip and a My Chem CD on a discount. At home I made more fake melon sodas, i.e. just lemonade with food colouring and ice cream. Honestly, the ice cream melted so bad but they still looked kinda cute. I also made pancakes and sadly the strawberries slid off before we could take a pic so they look a bit like a kawaii headcrab. If you're wondering if this is too much sugar, wonder not. It certainly is.

Sugar overdose? Yes.

The strawberries are escaping...

Sunday was a lazy day, we re-watched You've Got Mail. I honestly do not like that movie but both Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks' apartments in the movie are amazing. Just the whole 90s New York thing is pretty great. The love story? Snore!

I have some more photos from a few travels, this time...

Flashback Trip #2: 2019 Tallinn

My mum has a life-long friend who's from Tallinn. I was also childhood friends with her daughter but we hadn't seen each other in a long while. After they heard that I had an exchange year in Finland they asked if I'd come and visit them in Estonia and of course I said yes.

I can't claim to be an expert but if you're traveling the Baltics or the Scandinavian countries you can probably find some good deals on ferries and ships across the Baltic Sea. We took a super cheap day trip to Stockholm with V a few weeks before this trip so even though I hate traveling by water I felt more alright with it this time. Most of the trip you can see land or other ships so it's not like you're in the Atlantic or something. I'm actually sad I forgot to take some pics in the actual ship because it had a huge viewing deck with an enormous glass panel where you can chill on a couch and watch the sea. The trip to Tallinn is quite short so I did not get a bunk or even a seat and had to just wander the ship during the trip.

Me with my childhood friend.

Don't ask about the hair. I don't know why.

Very cultured, yes.

I arrived pretty late and stayed at my mum's friends apartment with my childhood friend. Most of the trip we stayed in the center of Tallinn, it is an extremely small city. But it was very lovely and I felt super relaxed because my mum's friend decided where we'd go during the few days I was there. She also picked out some great places to eat. 

Me with my mum's friend.

Ye old towne wall!

What I liked most was the Tallinn town wall and the Kadriorg Park. It was a chill trip. Like most cities up north, it's not too busy or large but cozy. Also, Tallinn has totally free public transportation. I think you're supposed to fill out some form of document still, but after that it's free! How awesome is that? I also took a bunch of analog photos during this trip...but have no idea where they are.

The end!

This Week I'm Excited For...

The Witch Hat Atelier Event that will be happening in a bunch of French bookstores next Tuesday. I wanna get some free stuff and maybe try and talk to some other fans of the manga. I'm scared that there's gonna be a bunch of kids and my grown ass. Please, let some adult fans beside me show up...!

Song Of The Week... 

Since I've been playing NFS Most Wanted all week there's been a lot of edgy music I've been enjoying lately but one really stuck with me and was on a loop. If you like some great breakbeat please enjoy Stratus' You Must Follow. Pretend you're illegally street racing!