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11/30/25
Update: I added an icon here. Whoa. I guess it was bound to happen eventually. Old habits die hard. I've gone with 150x150 for this one. I know the old LJ standard was 100x100, but computer resolution was a lot different back then. Most old LJ icons just look so tiny now. So, I think I'll be making mine at 150x150 going forward. It's a small increase, but now it looks more like the "size" it looked like back then. I might get back into making icons again for this little blog. Maybe I'll make an icon page at some point, when I have enough of them, so I can reference back to them easily and to give this a little more LJ flavor to it.
Think I'll keep this as a monthly log. Next update, I'll make an archive section for this and a previous page.
Black Friday was weird. We were DEAD. There wasn't anybody out. There wasn't even the usual Friday traffic. Saturday was also really dead out. Feels like everyone used up all their money for the big dinner and didn't have anything left after that. Oh, this is gonna be a fucked Christmas season. Not that I give a shit about Christmas, but you know, if no one has money for Christmas that's not a good sign in general. I'm glad I stocked up on so much rice, beans, pasta, and canned fish since last year. I need to bump up my emergency supply more again though. Got enough protein, but I need more grains. My spice supply is pretty good right now. I could stock up on a few misc things. When Spring comes, really gonna need to get more gardening stuff going than this year. I have a better idea of where things grow well this go around at least. Definitely need to get more seeds and dirt. I've been meaning to get some emergency water too, but I keep putting it off because it's expensive. I suppose I could stock up on tea leaves and coffee beans too.
My boss keeps talking about doing some Christmas party at the building thing. Which is so weird to me because we don't even have that many employees per store and he wants to do some kind of gift giving thing. Sir, everyone is broke. What the fuck why would I buy a coworker an expensive gift? You don't pay me a liveable wage. I don't even celebrate Christmas. Why would I want to come in on a day the store isn't open to hang out with coworkers to give one of them something I don't know them well enough to know they'll want when I could be at home not wasting time and money? Gross. I'll be shocked if it even comes to pass though. There was a lot of stuff he was supposed to do that just never happened anyway.
Affinity just went free. I'm going to try that out. See how it compares to similar software.
I wish it was summer already. I don't like these short days. I need the sun.
I came across some old early TT ban Tumblr posts the other day from supposed Chinese American & Chinese Canadian (read: white people) screaming about how evil XHS and that everyone is just being temporarily nice and the LGBT content is just temporarily there. One of those I had fun sorting through older stuff to see, yeah, just a white person pretending to be Chinese and the others were pretty obvious too. Finding weird white people online pretending to be POC is so easy. If they're blackfishing, there's about a 50% chance they'll overdo the AAVE and the slang will be out of date, and their rage posting has a certain flavor to it that just feels...off. If not, they'll do what they do with other races where they just talk how they normally do and all their cultural knowledge seemed very...surface level Google. Often unintentionally in a way where they're criticizing the faults of their supposed "culture" so hard it starts veering into racism/eugenics/pro-Western imperalism or American exceptionalism. It's really weird, but they all kinda talk the same way, especially when they're pretending to be mad about something. There's certain slang/typing styles between them too, and they always feel like something is...missing? Any use of a non-English language will also be brief and beginner, and selfies will not exist. I'm not saying XHS is a utopia that doesn't have censorship, but I could tell the people posting had...very obviously never been on the app at all. Since the unbanning of TT and several people leaving from XHS, it's still pretty much exactly as it was when I joined. It's the nicest social media place I've ever joined and I'm still there. And still getting tons of gay and adult content. Shit, I saw someone posting about Bible Black, Mezzo Forte, and A Kite.
But I wouldn't want those weirdos there anyway. IDK what's worse, Tumblr or Reddit. I only have a Tumblr account to follow some artists. I don't even have a Reddit account. But so much stuff that used to be on forums or LJ is half-assedly there now. Sigh. The internet is so garbage now.
11/27/25
Gotta work Black Friday, but since I didn't work today and I don't work the weekend, it's almost kinda like I'm getting a three day weekend. Black Friday's just in the middle of it. Everyone's broke right now anyway. Maybe it won't be so bad out tomorrow.
Yesterday, I had a person come in who argued with me about every aspect of my job. Why were they so certain I was wrong about everything? Because Google's AI told them something different. They did multiple speech-to-text searched in front of me and then told me whatever the AI spat out. None of it was correct either. And after they paid, and did more AI searches while arguing with me, they realized what they paid for wasn't what they wanted. Which was somehow still my fault. That I was dumb or running a scam. Because it couldn't be that Google was wrong. This person was around 50. Angry from the get-go (idiots always are). The AI made up prices too.
Also gotta say, customers I really hate: after completing all of a two stage process, when we get to the payment part and they're like "how much is this" and when I tell them they're like "I don't wanna pay that" and they leave. Why did you waste my time, you stupid fuck...
11/23/25
I'm still thinking about Friday. Three customers. Two of them as I'm going on lunch. "You said you do walk-ins. Why can't you see me now?" "I'm going on lunch. I'm required to go at this time because no appointments can be scheduled during this block." "But I'm here. Can't you just not go to lunch." Yeah man, can't you just not eat to take care of my dumbass who couldn't be assed to schedule an appointment or look at your hours? Then when I got back from my not even long lunch break, some guy was like "I have a question". "I'll be right with you let me clock back in real quick". "It's just a quick question. Why can't you answer me right now?!" Because I get written up for taking too long of a lunch break, you jackass. And then he didn't have a question at all. He just wanted me to listen to his fifteen minute sob story about some dumb thing he caused to himself. So I would've definitely gotten written up for that. And the usual at the end of the day. "It's says you're open until X why are you closed down". "Because that's when I leave. I don't take people AT closing time." "Why can't you stay over? It doesn't say you can't take people at close." Because, again, unless I have approval, I get written up for being on the clock outside of my actual hours and the system doesn't even let me log back in after a certain time because I'm supposed to be shutting everything down. A few were angry that I called out sick once. Sorry I got COVID and had the audacity to take ONE day off when I couldn't get out of bed. My bad. Like I'm still sick even now and was sick during the whole week and part of the week before. I just took the one day off when it was unbearable.
At least I finally get Thanksgiving off this year. First time in years. I ain't gonna do a goddamn thing that day.
11/20/25
Got a Weeks knockoff on XHS and it's FPF but only cost $5 and I don't know what to do now. So much for "just buy the Weeks". Well, here we go again. Then again, I may end up not liking it anyway. Guess we'll see September 2026 when it's techo kaigi time again during Hobonichi season. It's new so I might just be dazed by it. There's very few pages at the back, and I have to fill out the calendar part. I already fucked up the monthly view because my brain just decided April wasn't a month, LOL. I guess we'll see if those two factors actually end up pushing me to stay with the real thing or not.
I also stupidly got an A6 techo this year, even though I never fully fill those out at all. I got one for this year too, and it's mostly been a failure. I don't know why I keep doing this. I don't think daily journaling with a forced space size per day is for me. I also bought that long blank notebook from the official site and that's been working so much better as a journal. I think I might actually prefer that size and style more than the typical journal style. Not sure if Hobonichi has carried this size before or not, but I guess I'll be looking for it elsewhere. I might get a second copy of this notebook before the next "season" rolls around. But I'd actually like to be done with HT in general. The company and Itoi have been gradually losing my respect more each year as they get greedier and greedier with things. And that MJ incident def. left a bad taste. It's the "oh, we're sorry to offend we're pulling it" and then still selling and advertising the fuck out of it in Japan. I'd have had more respect if they just did nothing about it. It's the wishy-washy part that's cringe to me. But them letting scalpers run rampant this year re: the Junji Itoi collection (which was the only reason I even had to use the main site this year, because I promised my bro one of them and then it was a Japan exclusive, ugh) was anotherthing too. And two years in a row just absolutely fucking up the launch. Oh, and definitely price gouging American customers under the guise of it being about tariffs. It was fun watching someone do the math that the Hobonichi math wasn't adding up at all for those mark-ups. But LBR, we know most companies are price gouging pretending it's about that just like they did it during COVID. Wendigo gonna wendigo. Oh, and the shipping bullshit in general for years. Europeans always got fucked in this shit, but Americans were mostly getting a fair price for a while and then they switched to an absurd price hike that basically made it so unless you were doing a huge, expensive order, it made no sense for anyone not living in Japan to even order from them. And this year's shipping got even worse. Man, you are selling notebooks with plastic covers. Get a grip.
Also, I kinda hate the HT community and planner community in general. They're all weird, performative dorks, TMI oversharers who basically dox themselves, or influencers hawking shitty stickers. I absolutely hate seeing that white blob thing. I refuse to believe anyone genuinely likes those stickers. Any time I see them in someone's planner, I just assume they're an influencer point blank.
I'm hoping this other planner works out. I'm going to try keeping both and see which one I end up using more. Also, my first order on XHS. It's cool that foreigners can use the marketplace now. When I first joined, it was locked to mainland.
Speaking of XHS, it's always funny seeing Reddit/Tumblr red scare opinions about how censored it is there, meanwhile my feed is full constantly of gay shit. I'm having to dislike a lot of it because I don't need to see that much of it. It was even worse when I first joined. It was gay dude teaching slang (esp. gay slang), some guy transitioning in China detailing the process, crossdressing men, and all the horny lollipop lesbian stuff (IYKYK LMAO). I may be part of the rainbow, but I don't want rainbow content 24/7, thanks. A little is fine. Some tags are blocked! Yeah, and US based companies regularly hide LGBT stuff too under the guise of "protecting the kids from learning sex exists" or whatever. LOL, you are not as free as you think. We're all in hell here.
I think my favorite moment on XHS was me finding out the Wing 30th anniversary hit because so many people on XHS were joking Wufei transitioned and I was just very confused for a sec LOL. I'm not explaining the context of that. It was also interesting to see fandom for Wing in another area. Finally, everyone wasn't going on about how amazing Duo is. Man, fuck Duo. When I rewatched Wing recently, all I could think about was how unimportant Duo is to the plot in an already massive cast and knowing a lot of background stuff got pushed to manga. If you cut Duo (and Hilde by extension of just existing to be connected to Duo) out of the story and split all of his screentime between the other 4 G Boys, the entire story would be improved and nothing of value would be lost. I stand by this. Duo exists for a certain type of fangirl, nothing more. Also, I really don't get 1x2 in retrospect. Heero spends more time having meaningful bonding with Trowa and Quatre than Duo. (And theres nothing wrong with Relena's character at all.) Actually, those three have some pretty good connected character arcs that just...doesn't even involve Duo. Wufei is fine as a loner because that's part of his issues. Even Duo's manga backstory is the least interesting. It's sad and all, but man, look at Wufei. Okay, hell, let me say it. If you cut Duo and gave 100% of the screentime to
just Wufei, the story would improve. Shit, if you gave it to Treize or Zechs, the story improves. Duo adds
nothing. All Duo's really got going for him is a cool looking Gundam. And now that I'm older, design-wise, I actually think Sandrock is the best looking one. (But Tallgeese is the shit.)
Apparently, I'm just in a mood to rant. From Itoi to Duo Maxwell. What is my brain on about.
11/16/25
First entry. Finally. Been trying to have a journal of some kind online for years, but I always end up getting weirded out by the idea. Maybe if this was back on LJ with the levels of privacy type of thing, but LJ's dead, dead, dead and so are all the clones, either totally gone or totally empty. Also, fuck Denise in particular. I still haven't forgotten, well, anything really. But anyway. Then I had an idea. What if I just post asinine shit here? Just dumb, quick thoughts. I feel like I can keep that up and not be worried about it. I have a physical journal anyway with real stuff in it. At some point, I considered scanning that and posting it here, but like my junk journal I also considered maybe doing a few scans from, they're both too personal to post anything. If I kept that in my head, I'd start to change things to make them more performative. And I'm really trying to get away from that shit creeping into my life. (But boy, is it always trying to creep in...modern internet is such garbage.)
Thought about sharing this layout, but I'm lazy and I'm pretty sure no one would want it anyway. If I keep this up, I'll make like an archive page or something.
Unrelated, but theaters near me are still showing the Reze movie and I wanna go again, but my wife doesn't want to because we already went twice (normal and 3D version, though the 3D one was picked on accident, lol....I should really read) and she hates the AMC fancy seats. I do too. They're fucking ungodly uncomfortable, but I don't care. Also, they had these giant pretzels. The lady at the counter was like "I'm gonna warn you, they're the size of a steering wheel" and just like "yes, give me that". I regreted it, but I also did not regret it. I'd definitely eat it again. Ate off that thing all day. I miss the old theater seats though. I think the new luxury style sucks. There was another non-AMC theater showing it, but it was dubbed. Fucking no.
We tried out two different AMCs during that little run. They were out of those Pochita popcorn things. Sad. Opening night was definitely the more fun experience in the city. Theater two was farther out, mostly redneck weebs busy trying to uphold the Reddit aesthetic of total silence in the theater. Like bro, you're allowed to laugh. Are you okay? Dorks.
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