Week Note #32: Mar 13 to Mar 19

2025-03-19

I haven't done week notes for over a month now as I kinda have ceased to find use for it. Especially since my days are all the same lately. It's just a little bit depressing to say the same things over and over again. I went to school! I learned things! I listened to music! It's the kind of drudgery that makes me not want to do something.

What's odd is that I like to think that I'm a creature of habit that likes to stick to routines. I had a routine going for Week Notes. The reality is that once I cease enjoying something, I will drop it like a hot potato. But then I feel guilt over it. And I try to make it stick the next time (don't talk to me about the 100 Days to Offload challenge, the challenge that I am currently trying to attempt for like the 3rd or 4th time).

So hello again.

The Week

• 🎉 My friend's birthday was on Pie Day and we celebrated on Saturday. It was a nice gathering. We ate pizza, Korean fried chicken, palabok, and had some Soju.
• 🧑‍🏫 Y'all, I'm a teacher's pet. Er, TA's pet. I attend all the office hours and this week I was the only one who attended, because technically it was spring break (spring break is a joke when you have a paper due and work full time). I like talking to me TA's and professors in office hours. I like asking questions about the content, but also about their lives, hah. Nothing too personal, I'm usually just really interested about why they chose the field they're in, and what their current interests are.
• 🎓 Session A ended and Session B started. I am free from my American history course!!! It was frankly, a really enlightening but dreary course. The revolution and the civil war just feels so relevant these days. In happier news, in Session B I'm taking a philosophy course. My American literature: 1830 to 1945 and American poetry courses spans an entire regular semester so they're still going on strong.
• 🎙️ I am listening to more podcasts. Well. Yeah, kind of. I picked up Acid Horizons and Pill Pod. I used to follow Pill Pod's companion YouTube channel a lot, and I decided to check out their podcast, too. I listened to their first episode where they talked about Bruno Latour, and then when I started reading my Philosophy textbook, Latour was mentioned (insert the meme of Leonardo sitting on the couch, pointing at the TV). I don't think it will happen more than that (Pill Pod is more critical theory, whereas the philosophy course I'm taking is just critical thinking).
• 🐎 I picked up Slow Horses again and finished episode 2 and 3! I like to watch TV while on my exercise bike. But lately I've been watching lecture videos instead of TV. Because of spring break, there was a pause in videos, and I decided to watch Slow Horses! Now the videos are back in full force so it might be a while before I can watch episode 4. I really like it so far, but I am so squeamish and I get soooo into it when there's suspense. I have to pause and unpause a lot.

💿 New Music

Lots of new music this week!! This next part is just me summarizing some Fediverse posts so apologies if you've read this already.

• Ruby by Jennie: I did not like this album. After listening to the album, I have come to the conclusion that I do not really like her voice. There were moments in the album where I thought, "oh this is nice." Then when I looked at the song, it has a feature. It seemed that what I really liked was the non-Jennie parts. Also some of the song writing in this album is... Not my taste. The features had decent lines but compared to the lines Jennie had in the same song, the difference was often stark. I feel bad for not liking it, because a lot of people like it. I want to like a Jennie album! It's okay, at least Mantra was a really good single that I enjoyed.
• HOT by LE SSERAFIM: This time I feel bad for liking this. I know Hybe is a bad company, but why are my current faves under Hybe right now. It's not fair. Hot is a lot of fun. I like how they're doing spoken word intros now, although I never really know what they're trying to say. Ash is my favourite on here. I like this genre of music the most, even if I don't know what to call this genre. Overall, pretty good!
• Vaxis III: The Father of Make Believe by Coheed and Cambria: I don't know why but the subtitle of this album makes me think of Green Day's The Father of All Motherfuckers. Anyway. The first half seemed very vanilla rock, strong Springsteen vibes. Not really the prog-rock I expect from Coheed. To be fair, on their last release, it was a lot more poppy. I prefer the pop over vanilla rock. The album kind of edged on the border of boring at times, which is disappointing. I did enjoy the singles from this album. I'll need to listen to it again.
• Baby, Not Baby by SEULGI: Okay, I haven't listened to the EP, but I listened to the single. I love it. It's very Millennial-core (is that what the kids say these days). It samples Britney Spears, the fashion is very Millennial (the sparkles!!!), and there's references to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. There's probably more that I'm missing. Needless to say, it is a hit. I love it. I'm so glad she's back.

🎵 Most Listened

Top albums:

1. The Father of Make Believe by Coheed and Cambria
2. HOT by LE SSERAFIM
3. TA1300 by Denzel Curry (someone recommended him to me, I think I like him but I need to listen to more!)
4. Ruby by Jennie
5. Tierra by L'Arc~en~Ciel
6. 28 Reasons by SEULGI
7. MAYHEM by Lady Gaga (I don't remember this album at all save for the singles so I can't say much about it but it was good and easy listening)
8. In Love and Death by The Used

What I learned from one month without social media

2025-03-01

Literally, it makes no difference what I abstain from, I will always find a way to procrastinate. Also, my will is weak. I made a few exceptions throughout the month: I got sick and logged onto Fedi; and I posted on Reddit about my Last.fm account's anniversary.

How did I procrastinate?

• Music. The great distractor. Do you know how long it takes to craft the perfect queue for a study session? Too long.
• Obsidian workflow tweaking. I decided to try maintaining an Obsidian vault again, for like the tenth time. I'm still using it. So far so good?
• Playing around with publishing my Obsidian vault on the web. CSS is the time killer.
• Spinning up a Gemini server as soon as I heard The Firefox News. Still a WIP.
• Browsing soooooo many Gem capsules, many of which haven't been updated since 2022.
• Napping with my cat. My unfortunate after-work ritual is to join my cat on the beanbag and be dead to the world for two hours.

Week Note #31 - Jan 30 to Feb 05

2025-02-06

• 🙈 This month I've decided to sign out of my Fedi account and pretty much everything else. I'm just tired of being bombarded by everything, and I have a propensity to doom scroll, or, rather, procrastination scroll. Not the best thing to do as I've been trying to keep on top of my school work. So I've decided to cut it out. I've also blocked Reddit (except for my city subreddit because I am paranoid, infer what you will).
• 🧑‍🏫 Often times, my English lit prof says stuff, and I understand each word she says, but I have no idea what she's trying to say. Other times, she manages to say something in her meandering way, and it just clicks in my mind, and I go, "yes!!!" I can't think of any example at the moment, but when that does happen, I always nod enthusiastically at my screen.
• 🎓 Depending on how things go, I think I might transfer out of my university after this semester, to a local Canadian one (I am doing an online degree). Right now, I don't know if I can trust the U.S. with my education. Some of my classmates have been asking our profs or TAs about it. Everyone is really on edge. One of my TAs said, "I know it's easier said than done, but we need a place where we can just not think about it. I think here is a good place for that." Ironic, because that TA is the TA of my American History course, and for the past weeks we've been talking about the Civil War era. That is the course where I think, "Wow, hm, I'm seeing a lot of parallels," or "That really explains a lot about Americans today," the most.
• 🎥 I finally finished watching Arcane. The pacing for the second season has been... Not good. I felt like I kept getting tugged in a new direction multiple times per episode. I think about the first season, and how I gushed over the writing. I could not do the same for this season. It's a disappointment, really. But, I will say that the finale was, good. Next, I'll be watching Attack on Titan. I never finished season 2 and my brother has been on my case for literally years about getting caught up. I have procrastinated enough on it!
• 📚 I finished reading The Murder on the Links. Love a good Poirot mystery. I also started collecting literary magazine PDFs, and I've been reading those of late. Stuff from undergrad lit mags, indie lit mags, super prestigious lit mags, everything. This all started because one of my classmates mentioned how they published some poetry in one. I've been obsessed ever since. I did, at the end of last year, subscribe to some Canadian lit mags (physical!!) so, they were on my radar before, but now I'm all in. If anyone has any recommendations, please send them my way!
• 💢 I haven't read much manga in a hot minute. I started reading and am now caught up with the English translation of Hibiki - Shousetsuka ni Naru Houhou. It's about a literary genius. The mangaka has a very rigid philosophy around talent, which, I'm not so sure about. It also sent me spiraling into an existential crisis. Maybe more about that later. I also started reading manga by Haruno Nanae. Their art style is so pretty. Not timeless, it's very 90s, but it feels classic.
• 💿 Two new albums came out last week. The Weeknd released Hurry Up Tomorrow. I'm actually a big Weeknd fan, but, this one fell flat for me. I have only listened to it twice, but I find it rather boring. There are some songs that I quite like in the first quarter, but the rest is a bit of a slog. L.S. Dunes also came out with a new release, Violet. I'm listening to it right now! Of the two releases, I like this one a lot more. However, the band has released sooo many singles for it already that I feel like I already know half the album? Whatever, it's a good listen.
• 🎹 Because I've been so locked in with school, I've been listening to a lot of piano music, specifically dark academia playlists. It's definitely reflective in my top albums this week. A little embarrassing, but I can't deny that's what happened this week.

Top albums from the past week:

• Lush by Snail Mail
• "Watch Out!" by Alexisonfire
• Awkward & Depressed by Canadian Softball
• After Hours by The Weeknd
• Serenity by Minoire
• Hurry Up Tomorrow by The Weeknd
• Dark Academia by Imaginary Poet
• Aemeralds presents: Library Aesthetics, Vol. 1 by Various Artists

Tagged in a 2025 blogging challenge

2025-01-23

I got tagged in a challenge by my friend, Joel!

Why did you start blogging in the first place

That's a good question. I started blogging in 2006/2007, on a website called GeekStinkBreath.net. It was a Green Day fansite that had a members only blogging area. I did it just for fun, I guess? I was a bored sheltered 11 year-old with unfettered access to the Internet, and my fellow Green Day fan friends were doing it too, so of course I started blogging. I didn't "actually" start blogging on a proper platform until a few years later. I got my first domain in high school and have been doing it ever since. I think I like the idea of having a place to let out my thoughts and talking to people on the Internet about them.

What platform are you using to manage your blog, and why did you choose it?

I use Grav, which is a CMS. When it comes to doing anything, I need the least friction possible. With Grav, I can access it easily on my phone, tablet, or laptop. I also feel like I'm actually writing. If I were to write in my terminal or a note editor or something, it feels too much like coding. I think I'm easily affected by my environment. I have to be in the right mindset, and where I do my writing influences it a lot. This is something I've learned since using static site generators like Hugo and Jekyll.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

Yes. Yep. Sure have. I'll list them out in chronological order as best as I can.

1. GeekStinkBreath.net (Green Day fansite)
2. Piczo.com (a short lived website builder)
3. Blogger
4. Mibba.com (a fanfic site from the same people who made the GSB site)
5. LiveJournal
6. Tumblr
7. My own websites, on varying domains but using different software
   • CuteCMS
   • FanUpdate
   • Wordpress
   • Boltwire
   • Hugo
   • Jekyll
   • Publii
   • Grav

How do you write your posts?

Because Grav is a CMS, it's as easy as just logging in, creating a new post, writing it, and hitting publish. Most of the time, I just write it all in one go. A really boring setup but just thinking about adding more complexity is a sure fire way for me to not want to blog.

When Do You Feel Most Inspired To Write?

I'm someone who needs something to respond to. If I'm not moved to say something, it's hard for me to say anything at all. I don't like talking for the sake of talking (or in this case, writing for the sake of writing).

Do you normally publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer?

Post immediately. Well, after a read through or two. Usually I catch any typos after it's been published, despite the proofreading.

What’s your favorite post on your blog?

It's a toss up between Sweet Tooth and "I'm in love with this all" (Thoughts about To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf) . "Sweet Tooth" is, honestly, kind of a pathetic post for me to have written. At the same time, it is so genuine that I had to write it. And because it really came from the heart, I'm fond of it. I like how it was written, too, kind of prose-like. Now I want to go back and eat that same cake.

The other post, "I'm in love with this all" is about my favourite Virginia Woolf novel. I don't think I did a proper tribute to it in the post, but re-reading it now, I'm still in agreement with everything I wrote. She wrote the perfect book, and I really hold it to a high standard. I love how she moves from character to character, how she can capture the nuances of human behaviour, how she asks the big questions that we either avoid or pour over incessantly. A great book. Not a great post, but I like it nevertheless.

Any future plans for the blog?

I keep meaning to redesign the website, but I know that if I start on it, I will be utterly consumed by it, neglecting work and studies to do so. I think I'll (again) wait for the semester to be over before I attempt it. Other than that, I guess the plan is just to keep on writing?

Who will participate next?

I explicitly tag melo and Jam, if they are so inclined to do so (no pressure though).

And if you're reading this and want to do it, too, consider yourself "tagged!" Tell them isa sent you.