anhvnModify

2025-12-13 08:00:00

How I’m spending my time these days

and other things I’m thinking about

• I’ve been excitedly using my 2026 planner (a Hobonichi Weeks, which technically starts in December 2025). My desire to use a physical planner ebbs and flows throughout the year. I’m currently really into it, on account of the whole shiny new planner thing. Surely this is the year I will fix myself.
• Related to analogue notetaking: I started a commonplace book, which I’ve been curious about trying for many years now. It just felt—inefficient, to do it on paper instead of in a tool like Obsidian or Notion or whatever. But I’ve never been able to maintain any kind of useful knowledge management system even with such tools, so I should try something else.
• Home organizing/decluttering is ever-ongoing. I’m not very good at housekeeping, but I’d like to adopt a cat in the near future and thus have tangible motivation to get my house in order.
• I’ve been watching a lot of home vlogs lately, which makes me want to lifestyle vlog (/blog) as well, like if I too emulate this beautiful kind of life, then I too will be beautiful and happy and fulfilled. I think a little bit of this aspiration is good for me (due to my aforementioned Being Bad At Housekeeping), but the consumerist nature of it can be offputting and overwhelming.
• I’m counting down the days til the holidays—I don’t celebrate anything, so this time of year is mostly just a reprieve from the work schedule for me, which is exciting. I’m trying not to daydream too much about it, because I know I’ll inevitably spend a lot of time lazing about instead of Being Productive. Rest is good, but I also want to get stuff done.
• Playing games sometimes—cautiously venturing back into the new Destiny 2 expansion (quite fun), and some more Hades II here and there (trying to romance Icarus…)

Creative projects I’m working on

• The year’s media recap, which is probably the big grand thing I’ll be working on for the rest of this month. So far it’s in the vapourware stage of barely existing in my head, but I’m looking forward to spending a lot of time and focus on it over the holidays.
• Drawing, sometimes. I started a new sketchbook!
• Adding stickers and washi tape to my planner is fun.
• Adding to my December Adventure log, where I’m documenting whatever creative bits I accomplish every day. Sometimes that involves not doing anything. I’m enjoying the lowkey nature.

It’s nice to return to this format after a while. I don’t feel the need to adhere to my previous structure. I sat down and wrote this in less than an hour, which is very freeing.

2025-11-02 08:00:00

• i finally got around to buying and reading comics from this year’s ShortBox Comics Fair and wanted to briefly (very briefly!) record them here
• note: as of writing, these are no longer available to purchase on SBCF; i’ve linked to the artist websites/socials instead

Dream Loop by Vakueva Nina (@inkpangur)

• 
• this is such a fun comic about dreams
• in the first one, she dreams that she’s missing her exam despite having graduated
• which is. same. the only recurring dream i have is about uni stuff
• the art is beautifully cross-hatched
• the expressions are so good!! so funny and really capture the chaotic nature of dreams

INJEST by Mapurl

• 
• love the atmosphere in this…a little bit eerie and mysterious
• the use of lighting is so good
• and then the sudden drama/surprise of certain panels…chef kiss

WHEN I WAS A CHILD, I WATCHED A MAN DISMEMBER A DOVE by Alex Siple

• 
• this one is a Berserk fancomic
• i’ve never read berserk but i picked this one up because the style is so intriguing
• while i don’t follow the ‘what does it mean’ of it all, i love the vibe
• it mixes prose styles (drop caps!!) with imagery in such a cool way…

War and the Maiden by riotbones

• 
• i love the art…textures and colours/atmosphere
• this one is more conceptual/philosophical and everything is very moody
• i enjoy watching (reading) these two duke it out…

Song of the Seabirds by Narsid

• 
• THIS SHIT MADE ME CRY! !!!
• incredibly beautiful art. every page is beautifully composed and detailed. the colours are gorgeous. the lines are so clean
• OBSESSED with it. i could look at it forever
• some pages and compositions are like a whammy to the chest
• also: a love story for the ages

2025-09-30 08:00:00

currently

• got back into stardew valley
• paused that tho so i could play freak levels of hades 2 (rolled credits today) (lol)
• listening to hadestown cast recording – saw it in nyc earlier this month and i have thought of nothing else since
• mourning the end of sunny weather

making stuff

• not at all! not working on anything. not doing anything for spooky website season. tons of drafts in general for this website. perhaps that’s fine actually
• i do want to attempt a drawing challenge though for october
• and/or weird web october
• feeling very uncreative and listless lately, which is boring and not new but
• i guess it be like that sometimes
• gradually adding to a yearly media highlights list, which i’m kind of excited to write
• no idea what i’ll do for it yet, if it’ll be like last year’s, but it’s fun to think about. tons of amazing art, entertainment, and creative work out there every single day

• generic i need to redesign my website to solve all my problems sentiment here

2025-08-01 08:00:00

that’s it that’s the post

2025-07-20 08:00:00

This website

I redesigned my website!!!

In some ways it’s not that different—the overall layout is the same, with centered content and all. The fonts and colours are new. I’m excited to look at something new though, because I was getting quite tired of the old design.

Movies

Watched some good movies lately!

• Amélie: just saw this last night at a local theatre—so beautiful!! I’m listening to the soundtrack as I write this! I am also a very shy person with an overactive imagination, so many things about it were Too Real.
• Superman: wonderful, might see it again
• The Godfather: so late to the party here. ok I get it now!! I get the memes!!!
• KPop Demon Hunters: BANGER AFTER BANGER SONGS, GREAT MOVIE FOR MY FELLOW KPOP SICKOS (CURRENT OR FORMER)

Games

I’m playing Destiny again because the new expansion just came out. As of writing, I’m not done the campaign yet! While I’m enjoying myself (except for the orbin’ time mechanics), my enthusiasm is much more muted than it was compared to the previous expansions.

I also didn’t participate in this weekend’s contest mode raid, which I feel glad about because it’s looking like it was an absolutely miserable (and…buggy? who’s to say) experience for everyone involved, including the top streamers, even by normal contest mode standards.

Links

• HTML named colors by Frills — very nice resource for HTML colour names!
• Mildliner Reference by Robb Knight — yes, more colours, I love it. I need to use my mildliners more!

If I had a nickel for every time I found a colour reference site that did its job perfectly, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.

Photos

Some comic/zine purchases recently:

I also bought Watchmen and Hawkeye (2012), two comics I’ve been wanting to buy for years.

2025-06-22 08:00:00

Everything is fine!

Comics

I went to the local comics event: Raincity ComicCon.

• No Thing Beside Remains by Magnus vdM
• Object Head Zine
• Lotus Land
• RED
• Cassandra Cain + Jason Todd charms by alexvndra

Latest DC comics:

• Absolute Batman — chonky batman is interesting, though it’s a tad dark for my tastes.
• Batman and Robin: Year One — I looooove the art for this series, the lines and shadows and colours are so beautiful. I think I’ll buy the hardcover when it comes out.

Interview

I was interviewed on foofaraw, where I talked about my media diary and consumption. It was a lot of fun to answer 😊

Cinema

After not really watching any movies for a couple of months, I have watched a bunch in the past few weeks:

• The Phoenician Scheme — I liked it! Michael Cera—whom I have, actually, only ever seen in Barbie so I don’t have a firsthand understanding of his vibe—is great; the comedy is great; the cinnamon topography is great. Solid 4 stars, I’d see it again.
• Thunderbolts* — as good as everyone says! Florence Pugh is wonderful as Yelena.
• Zack Snyder’s Justice League — lol, I wrote more about it here but I did not enjoy this.
• Batman: Under the Red Hood — I am such a fake Jason Todd fan for not having watched this sooner but ayyy.
• Batman Ninja — fun as hell. I thought it’d be about ninjas but it’s actually about mechas.
• The Lego Batman Movie — I heard this was good and they were RIGHT. Silly and sweet. Contains the best Dick joke as well as my favourite Joker since BTAS.
• Asteroid City (rewatch) — I haven’t seen this since it was in theatres!
• The French Dispatch (rewatch) — and I’ve seen this a bunch already. This time I rewatched it because I just read the companion book for it.

I’m really excited for Superman next month!

Sports aside

I watched Money in the Bank, the WWE event where they climb up a ladder to grab a briefcase. My partner is really into pro wrestling so I’m sometimes roped into watching it. My favourite was the women’s match.

Gaming

My friend lent me their VR headset, so I’ve been playing Beat Saber, which is really fun. Caramelldansen might be my favourite beatmap.

I also played a bit of FBC: Firebreak. It’s fun! I have it on Xbox gamepass for the next couple of weeks.

I haven’t opened Destiny in like a month.

Retro gaming

I went to Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo and looked at a lot of old school gaming consoles, computers, games, and the like.

Books

• I’m slowly making my way through How a Game Lives by Jacob Geller, which is a beautiful book.
• I found House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski at a used bookstore!!! I’ve been wanting to read it for ages.
• I bought the 10th anniversary edition of Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, which has a cool holographic cover. I enjoy this one the most out of the series.