June 2026

July 1, 2026

Stats

★ I went to the gym 9 times. A poorer than usual effort, but that's okay. My Monday class is currently Too Loud because there's a substitute for the summer who hates noise safety so I haven't been attending. That is not passive aggressive. I spoke to her about the noise. The way I meticulously packed everything up five minutes into class was passive aggressive, though.

I also took some time off to go to Warped. Then I took some time off because I burnt the shit out of my foot at Warped.

★ I read 0 books.

But I put in a good effort! I have been off the fanfic and have been working on the gargantuan Swan Song by Robert McCammon.

For the record, I think reading large amounts of fanfic is fine. It just does not align with my current goal of Reading My Damn Books. The monthly recap helped keep me accountable.

★ I watched 3 movies.

★ I finished 1 craft or personal project.

I knit a cowl!

★ I finished 3 video games.

DNFs: Beyond: Two Souls and Halo CE.

Started playing Mass Effect: Andromeda. It's just okay. It's downright amazing compared to Dragon Age: Veilguard, though.

I haven't been updating my video game log. I'm not sure that I like the format that I started for it and want to rework it. I'm fully at the point of having a website where I want to delete the whole thing and start over. I wont. The only way out is through. I just have to keep building.

★ I saw so much music.

Misc

★ I started using Notepad++ instead of coding directly into the Neocities editor like an animal. I really like the live preview and being forced to have a backup of my site now.

★ My mom was hospitalized, which is obviously not great. She's home now but we're still going to make a trip down to visit her. I'm going to try to digitize a lot of her old photos during this trip. I've previously ripped her old VHS home movies. If I go heav(ier) on the 90s nostalgia over the summer it's because I'm working on the website from my childhood home. I know that I need to see if my ipod nano still works, and I am hunting for a certain pencil. You both know who you are.

★ I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with music in our current stage of capitalism and streaming and algorithm eras. I thought my answer was to collect more vinyl. And while I have been enjoying my record player, I just had such a bad experience with Olivia Rodrigo's new album being an undisclosed unfinished version of what she ended up sending to CD and streaming. It's put me off her entirely. I'm selling my Unraveled Tour tickets. I submitted my first chargeback request to my credit card yesterday because I can't get them to refund the shipping ($12 both ways, because why use Media Mail for media?). It's apparently been a thing with pop music to shaft the vinyl listeners while encouraging people to buy 10 different colors of an album that hasn't released yet.

There is the argument that the vinyl wouldn't fit the entire recording (it can), but then you open the stupid thing and there isn't even a tracklist and the website that it tells you to go for lyrics/credits 404s. I paid $50 for a first draft. I like having a fun colored album but I don't want to participate in whatever this is.

Anyway. How are you all discovering new music? How are you listening to it? I'm going to try to buy more of my vinyl in person. I've been looking through band camp and am interested in seeing what CDs still live at my mom's house.

Speaking of- I was obsessed with this rock band from Lousiana in the early aughts called Meriwether. All of their music is available for free because they've been inactive for a while. I met them after a show while I was a teenager and they were nice dudes. Kept an appropriate distance because of my age but were still very grateful for the support. I hope they're all doing well. I'm delulu holding out hope for a reunion.