howdy all! the days have continued to fly by for me recently, but there is nothing that motivates me quite like an arbitrarily set, personal deadline. suffice to say that i have not been hit by a bus or suffered catastrophic food poisoning, and i've been slowly plugging away at a like four separate blog entries despite my frankly dangerously hectic out-of-house life. ive got most of the way through one about being non binary, some deep dives on a couple of pieces of media i really like, and even just about blogging itself (and why i think i'm not very good at it). no spoilers though!

i have buried the lead slightly - i broke up with my very long term partner a bit over a month ago, which has had a very predictable effect on my psyche. we both went through a gnarly couple of months trying to figure out whether our lives still made sense together, and while the answer we came to was no, we still care for each other a lot! i (obviously) have lots of thoughts swirling through my head on that point, and i might talk about them a bit in the future. my thoughts during the uncertain period are very well documented, and i like to think that theres something unique or interesting in there that i can share (how unique is any given separation? idk). in any case, we were together basically my whole adult life, which means that i now have to figure out what kind of person i am on my own and which direction i want to take in my life from here! scary stuff 💀! anyway yeah keep an eye peeled for the blog post

that's enough sappy shit for now! i've been listening to music! oh boy have i been listening to music! three albums in particular! here they are!

the flashbulb

this might be a mild copout, but i listened to the flashbulb's entire discography on the 27th of may, basically accidentally. i was already somewhat familiar with his stuff from compositions for piano (which was actually an honourable mention back at the start of 2023) but i randomly watched a youtube video of his on aphex twin, realised the connection, and went "huh, i should give this guy more of a listen". i'm extremely glad i did! benn jordan has been making music for decades, and the irony of learning about him via a video on aphex twin was somewhat ironic because he's very clearly inspired by richard james. i am and always will be a huge sucker for both modern piano compositions and strange electronic experimentation and the flashbulb has that in spades

horseshit on route 66 - the garden

i actually learned about the garden from a neopunk fm video aping on the machine girl / 100 gecs / the garden crowd but waited like a year to listen to them? i don't think its a massive surprise that i'd be into them because their music feels like an art rock version of machine girl's and death grips lyricism - which is not to say that their melodies are simple or predictable. there's an absurd amount of experimentation and style switching between and within songs, but the core tinny-ass electric guitar, thrumming (sometimes ommitted) bass guitar and uncomplicated drum beat bring you back to earth each time. i do find the clownier themed tracks a bit gimmicky, but they're thankfully mostly absent in this one

gaia/rae - dusqk

let me tell you folks, 2024 is a great time to live if you grew up in the 2010s. as much as i despise frutiger aero and frutiger metro as labels, i am the exact target audience for the flavour of ps1&2 / gamecube / sega dreamcast inspired tracks that are starting to really pick up steam at the moment. i originally thought this album was one of those game ost mixes on youtube (although, can you blame me). tracks like under_lust would feel right at home on an actual game score, eternal lightwaves pulls the extremely cheeky move of remixing eternity from final fantasy x-2, while a bunch of other tracks use this general vibe as a springboard for something more bouncy and energetic. eyes/aeon and gaia/breaks are my two personal faves, blending some delightfully catchy melodies with heavily modified vocals

there is no antimemetics division

i normally don't particularly care for sci-fi fan productions, just because the effects can really take me out of the experience, but scp (and a more philosophical scp concept) seems particularly suited to making the genre work. i really enjoyed watching there is no antimemetics division as it came out, but neglected to mention it in my last update, so here it is!

podcasts

i've never really talked about it on here before but damn i love podcasts! i've recently been enjoying well there's your problem, a podcast about engineering disasters, the adventure zone versus dracula, a dnd podcast by the mcelroy brothers (and one of the most fun series they've done in years, imho), and let's learn everything, a science and knowledge show! the latter is a new addition to my big podcast repertoire and it's honestly so much fun! it feels really good to put on some fun goofsters and also feel like you're bettering yourself by learning super interesting facts

ipod

i've become a bit of a music hoarder in the last couple of years, and as i start to collect more and more music that isn't on spotify, the concept of getting an ipod kept ringing in the back of my mind. after a particularly comfortable paycheck and a particularly lucky catch on ebay, i picked up a particularly dodgy ipod 5 (aka ipod video) with the intention of unfucking some of its age related and technically limited issues. the shell of the device is charmingly roughed up and the apple logo and text on the back has completely worn away, leaving only an afterimage. cool👍. the main upgrades i made can be seen here:

notably, i got a bigger battery, a storage adapter and a new 3.5mm / lock switch assembly. removing the old hard drive that used to be in the ipod significantly improves battery life, and lets me use a hefty 256gb sd card! neat! i almost ended up buying from elite obsolete electronics, americas go to for ipod parts, but i got lucky and found ifurb, the australian equivalent, which allowed me to skip some horrific shipping prices and a two week wait. the ifurb experience was completely painless and highly recommended

i also installed rockbox and the infomatrix theme which gives this delightfully utilitarian look to the device, and lets me play flacs directly instead of having to downmix them to mp3!

all this rampant reddit-style consumerism aside, how is the daily experience of having an ipod in your pocket? for starters, i had quietly hoped that moving my music over would help me to use my phone less, but that has unfortunately not been the case. i'm still very dependent on it for maps, my calendar and my credit card, so going without tends to not be an option, even for moving between rooms at my apartment. despite this, it is nice to not have to carry a dongle or bluetooth receiver around for my earbuds, so that's a big plus, but i hadn't realised how important both spotify's radio feature and general interface are when listening idly. i seem to be very reliant on being able to mentally parse albums and playlists by their album art, which isn't an option with an ipod quite this old.

all this said, it's a super fun piece of kit for listening to stuff that i've bought on bandcamp, as a conversation starter and as a little tinkering project. i spent a couple of hours yesterday writing some arcane obtuse configuration code and i wouldn't have it any other way

short animations

i continue to be on the short animation train! i've actually been enjoying them so much recently that i'm starting to put together a list of interesting ones that flow together neatly to perform a screening in my home city! the main hurdle to this concept is that a lot of short animations are A. quite short (~3 minutes) and B. have themes focusing around either friendship, anxiety or love, and while they're all great pieces with great themes, i think an hour of just those ones would get a bit samey. anyway, on that note, heres four animations that all kind of fit that description lol

(these gobelins people in particular seem really neat, might be worth keeping an eye on)

games ive been playing

pepper grinder

pepper grinder is this super nifty 2d platformer with a really satisfying movement system where you burrow underground and pick up momentum by throwing yourself out of the soil towards the next patch. it feels incredible and the soundtrack by xeecee is lovely. they also do some super cool illustrations? i just stumbled onto that by complete accident!

balatro

this one probably isn't a huge surprise, just about everyone i know who plays games has poked their head in on this one. for the uninitiated, its a weird roguelike version of poker where you build high scores using an arcane scoring system and stack multipliers from run-specific conditions. it's absurdly addictive and super satisfying when it all goes right

yakuza 0

i have unfortunately been roped back in to the yakuza series by my darling norwegian friend ed. i'm constantly excited to see what's new stupid shit is around the corner, and i constantly dread the fact that this game is DEFINITELY gonna chew up 60+ hours of my life this year