Stay Gold {2025 Week #16}

On Monday we took a trip to IKEA pretty early because we wanted to make it there in time for lunch. We finally have our discount cards for the SNCF (train network) so we can actually afford to go to Bordeaux. 20 euros there and back is kind of pricey for me but it's like 40 for my mum, which is way too much. We took the tram straight there and only stopped by the toy store to check out what they had. I saw some really cute reproductions of the Monster High dolls but I don't need them! I will resist! I also saw some Littlest Petshops, they were pretty cute but not as good as when I was a kid. 

We went straight to the cafeteria and had meatballs and fries. The cook was real generous, he piled those fries high as hell. God bless, sir! 

Lunch.

Later we browsed all the stuff we needed for our house. Me and my brother also started doing cringe improv about solving a homicide while our mum kept ruining the immersion and asking us what colour would be better for our future couch. Gee, how am I gonna get into Julliard at this speed, ma? (I will not be going to Julliard). We decided that I needed a proper desk chair so we picked a reasonably priced one and while my brother and I were loading it up we couldn't help ourselves again and devolved into Italian American mobsters getting rid of a body. Some way through discussing our ranking in the mafia, a girl came up to us, politely waited for the stupid bit to fizzle out and asked us for help loading something heavy for her. I should not be allowed in public ever. Thank god my brother didn't get to the MAGA impersonation...

We were already exhausted by the time we finally left the store but my sister wanted to go to the city center to get bubble tea, she's been begging for it since a month ago at least. My mum and brother went right back to the station and I took her to the center where we went to the Chinese shop first so she could get stuff for her friend who's birthday was on that day. We found the Long Long Man (Sakeru Gummy) candy. If you haven't seen the absolutely epic saga of the Long Long Man commercials, please do it! We got the tea and headed to the station, grabbed the train home. My sister even fell asleep. European public transportation is literally the best. Well, next to China.

Sultry saxophone plays.

Fashionista.

The sunset was insane. There was a rainbow and the colours were vibrant and intense. It was so beautiful. 

Magic!!

On Tuesday we finally finished all of Minecraft Storymode. It was awesome and I wish it didn't end, or that we would get a season 3. It was so good. Petra and Lukas are best girl and best boy forever. And Ivor too. Worked on my site a bit and got an email that I'm having a meeting with an association to see if I can join their French classes in the next town over.

Had my meeting at the bank (what else is new) on Wednesday and then went to the public finance office to pick up my latest tax notice. It was crowded like crazy, everyone in town brought their babies and grandmas to do their taxes for some reason. Me and my sister went to the thrift store and I got a bunch of blank CDs. I tried to burn stuff onto them with my iMac but I nearly crashed the thing. I ordered a CD reader instead. We started Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven but the thing is 3 hours long so we decided to finish it the following day.

Book I spotted. Looks awesome.

I finally made a toyhou.se account as a 32bit Cafe member kindly gave me a code. It's pretty nifty and I think I like it more than Unvale, so I'll probably move over to there. We finished Kingdom of Heaven and since everyone was still in a movie mood I made them watch The Outsiders. I love that movie. Sure it's a bit cheesy but I feel real and aching pain for Ponyboy, Dallas, and especially Johnny. Man, I should probably read the book, huh? 

On Friday we decided that we had enough of good movies and watched the 2011 remake of the Thing. Woah, it's no good. But Mary Elizabeth Winstead is just the cutest. What a babe! I re-read Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks. Excellent comic. I like all her stuff. My sister is officially on holiday for two weeks.

Saturday morning I left to Monique's house to feed her cat, the street cats that congregate in her garden, and a hedgehog that eats cat food too apparently. I got completely soaked on the way back as it was raining hard. I changed and we watched a bit of Wall-E before we had to go over to Tom's house for hot pot. Another friend, Naomi, had a birthday recently so we are celebrating it with her family at his house. Turns out it was a bit of a celebration for my birthday too! I was totally embarrassed and flattered, and I even got some gifts so I felt totally spoiled. We hung out in Tom's garage while he was rolling his smokes, mostly just shooting the shit, gossiping. I haven't been able to meet up with him in a while so we made plans for next week. 

The hotpot was delicious but someone kept losing the ladle in the soup so every time you went in for noodles you got a medal ladle too, on the side. We had some cake too and then moved on to charades. I'm not really good at them so it was a challenge. I prefer movie or pop culture charades but it was much much harder. Here's some we had to guess:

1. Terrorist in a camping car: I actually guessed 'terrorist in a caravan' somehow before the timer run out but was told that caravan and camping car are not the same thing. I get it but in essence they are! In the world of charades they are totally the same thing. Pedantic.

2. The Predator doing drugs in the Millennium Falcon: This one didn't even take me long, I nailed that shit. Thank god Tom and me have the same reference points for certain things. Though I somehow forgot that the Predator becomes invisible which is like, his whole thing. 

Anyway the party eventually wound down and we went home and finished Wall-E. The weekend was ahead.

Easter was upon us but we don't really celebrate. My brother and sister got chocolate rabbits and we fought with boiled eggs. If god is not on your side your egg will crack and you lose. Then we watched Some Like It Hot, my sister hasn't seen it before. An excellent movie. Me and my sister went to feed Monique's cat for the last time since she'd be back soon. After that we went to check out the small vide grenier that was next to the flower market. There wasn't anything good at all, I found a pretty cute choker and my sister got some toy cars but overall it was very underwhelming. The rest was just hangin' and watchin' and vibin'.

I'm back on my bullshit.

This week we are still traveling way into the past, here's Your Love by The Outfield. So, so sappy. I love it. Mullets for days.

Trying, Getting There {2025 Week #15}

Was a very productive person this Monday. I sent all that I needed to this morning at the post office and also picked up my new keyboard and mouse. Finally! I won't have to break my fingers reaching for the shift key ever again. Sort of caught up with my fashion blog but I'm already so late and it's not looking good. I once again come face to face with me making problems for myself. I didn't make any kind of plan and thought I'd just wing it and write on the spot. I used to do it a lot when I was a copywriter but I'm totally out of practice. Lesson learned, make actual concrete plans and outlines. Might already be too late for the A-Z challenge this year though.

Was at the dentist, they had to file down the filling they put in last year and it feels much better now but my gums are still so sensitive for no reason. Didn't feel amazing Tuesday and Wednesday, just did some stuff on the blog and my site. I did start watching Cobra Kai and it's freaking awesome! It's such a perfect imperfect show. The editing is ass, the modern covers of 80s songs suck, some acting is a bit strange, and the most important thing, the fighting, is terribly mediocre. But it has so much heart and drama, I am obsessed. Also I just love Ralph Macchio's cute little face, he somehow still looks like a baby (isn't he like 50 something?!).

Thursday forced me outside because I had my final meeting with Mission Locale, they were really good to me, I'll sure miss them. Now I'm stressed for my meeting with Syllabe (association for people who don't speak fluent French). I'm going to get tested and then if I'm lucky they'll stick me in a class somewhere.

So I went to Syllabe in the morning and the lady there was really nice. She talked with me first to assess my oral French (my worst probably). Then I did a listening exercise, then a reading comprehension one, and then I wrote a text myself. She was super encouraging and that's really bad because it gives me false confidence because I am not that good, I just know I'm not. She did say I already reached B1 and should keep going with it so I can take an exam later. I guess the studying paid off but I'm still totally insecure about my ability to speak or write or read French. It's probably not healthy to assume that anyone who praises me is lying but the brain does not compute, you know? I have an ego about all the wrong things. 

Right after I ran to meet with the social worker, it went fine. The best part about Thursday was that I got a letter (you know who you are!). Read it a lot and listened to the mix that came with it.

Saturday I spent time setting up my locally hosted MediaWiki wiki. It's to keep track of my creative projects like comics and games I'm making (at a snail's pace). We decided to go to Bordeaux on Monday to go to IKEA as a bit of a post-birthday day out. My brother and sister went to watch the Minecraft movie and they say it sucked. We had more fun playing season 2 of Storymode after.

Sunday I spent time drawing things, I have been art blocked for a while now. I'm just feeling really disoriented lately, not sure how to describe it, like I'm barely making way and losing track of a map that's supposed to be taking me somewhere or something. So dramatic! Hopefully there will be some sign posts ahead.

 I've been into 80s music recently, again. Probably because of Cobra Kai and reruns of the Schmoedown. Here is one that I have been liking a lot recently, Love Like Blood by Killing Joke:

Getting Older {2025 Week #14}

Guys, statistically, based on where I come from, I ain't making it far past 70. 75 or 76 if I'm lucky. If you think that's bad, dudes from my area will probably not even make it to 70. Sucks to suck, dudes! 

I'm joking. Low life expectancy is sad. Anyway, this week I turned 26, which means that if I am lucky enough to make it to 75, I am currently in my 2nd third of life. It feels pretty a-okay. I'm being over-dramatic, no one knows when they will die. That would be cheating.

On Monday I finished my mermaid quiz. I let it lose on the world and some very lovely people took it and let me know what their results were, and some even put it on their sites. Krish, if you're reading, I actually had you in mind for the Moonpool mermaid! I wanted a real princess-like mermaid. 

Ow the edge (forever and ever...)

April 1st was a Tuesday. I'm really bad at pranks so I didn't get anyone. Out of nowhere, my mum got my brother good. She was pretending that he had a bug in his hair and he was totally freaking out. I actually kind of fell for it too but when I got close to get it out I realized there was nothing there and played a long. He caught on eventually. Also, started reading Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neill. It's pretty great so far. I hate math. So it's fun to see someone who loves math and is good at it take a step back and see how it's been misused. Honestly I spend so much time on the indie web and on forums that I sometimes forget there's even mainstream social media and that it's a trap. That it doesn't have your best interests in mind. 

I didn't finish my A-Z challenge post for the first day until Wednesday. It got so long. I got a lovely comment on it from a fellow A-Z participant Anne M Bray who is drawing fluevog shoes this April. Fashion girlies got to stick together. Also got some lovely comments on this blog (Hi, Alice, Ari, and Emma!). 

On Thursday I ordered 3 CDs as a birthday gift for myself. It's Elliott's Song In The Air and False Cathedrals. I lie in fear at night that they may be too rare to buy one day so I needed them now. The seller also had Electric President's The Violent Blue which is a stellar album. I love Electric President, I love everything Ben Cooper does. It's awesome. In the afternoon I went to mop a house for that little extra cash, I did it much faster this time because the house is empty so no ones making a mess. It took like 4 hours last time. Trying to tutor Marta in French because she is really struggling but it's so hard to teach when I barely have a grasp on it myself.

On Friday I was in Agen all morning. I left by an early train because I needed to be at the prefecture early to get my resident permit. I waited outside for a while because I arrived super early and I read a lot of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima which is April's bookbug book. I'm thinking of joining in order to develop a better reading habit. Eventually I made it into the prefecture and was met by a guy in a very lovely and bright fuchsia polo. The mood felt celebratory. It took less than five minutes for him to scan everything and give me the permit. I love the country side for this. Sure, some thing barely function but people don't treat you like a hostile evil-doer for breathing and existing like in the city. I was so emboldened I even asked where the bathroom was. And he told me where it was. Grade A human interaction.

Before my train I walked around the center and went into Martin Delbert to browse the CDs. Lucky me, because they are having a special metal sale and I found White Pony and Adrenaline by Deftones and Follow the Leader by Korn. I also grabbed red and black Sony headphones because I needed some for my PC. And a new pen. I am a spoiled brat.

It was pretty awesome and when I got home Marta was already back from school so we watched Phantom Menace. I have the same opinion about this movie as Liam Neeson. Who cares, he got to be a Jedi. Attack of the Clones I love unironically. I feel like I'm morphing into a 12 year old boy circa 2008. All I care about it nu-metal and Star Wars.

Saturday was my last day as a 25 year old. Good times. Not really. Sort of. Mixed bag. My sister has been hounding us to go to Royal Wok again but I really didn't want to so I told her she should bring a friend instead. So my mum, Mo, Marta, and her friend Yolanta went to have lunch out of town and browse the Easycash also.

I was at home working on site stuff. Administrative duties and the like. I was supposed to send something but because I am very dumb I forgot that the post office closes in the afternoon. Alas, the country side drawback, nothing works on the weekend. We wait for Monday.

Then came my birthday. What can be said, once you're an adult and you're broke, birthdays are kind of a so-so event. Maybe I'm just naive and annoying and want things to happen but don't make them happen myself. Who can tell? If you can, don't tell me. I'm gonna stay uninformed. But yeah, 26 now. Got the loveliest messages on neocities. So many great webmasters out there took a minute to wish me a birthday so I just want to say that I appreciate all of you beyond words. Thanks.

So, since this is a special week I'm just going to pick a song that means a lot to me. One of my all time favourite musicians ever is Sufjan Stevens, I especially like his rarities and unreleased-sort-of-released tracks. Woman At The Well is in my opinion one of the best of these tracks. I don't actually understand or really relate to any of the religious references in the song but I just love it's sound. It's so sadly hopeful. Anyway, here's to one more year.