Weeknotes 20

21 October 2024

Table of Contents

An extremely long post because I haven’t written this in a month and there is so much to catch up on. More like MONTHnotes amirite??!?!?

A glass sculpture installation, reminiscent of the sea floor. In the front are slim, winding tendrils in neon green and black, resembling seaweed. In the background are glass spheres of varying sizes, colours, and patterns, as well as a large column of countless tendrils. — *Mille Fiori* (2012), Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle, Washington

A New Homepage (Spooky)

I updated my homepage for spooky season! I’ll hopefully write a longer post about it sometime soon (aaahhhh lol) but I’m happy I finally did something for Halloween, after aspiring to for several years now.

Screenshot of the first comic panel, which features a hand grasping a hanging string on a black background. It's titled 'a new haunt.'

It’s another short comic, with a little bit of an easter egg type thing at the end. Read it here.

Weird Web October

This month I’m trying to participate in Weird Web October, which has a daily prompt for making a weird website every day this month.

For example: #3 Colour and #6 Notifications. I’ll be adding them here throughout the month.

Internet links

Using static websites for tiny archives by alexwlchan — I’ve been thinking about doing something similar so this was nice to read.
I stumbled upon A.C. Esguerra’s blogging about their journaling/sketching, which was such an exciting discovery. This is exactly the kind of blogging I was looking for and wish I found more of. Some samples: Autumn Travel Sketching in a Passport TN and Catching Up with Calendar Drawings.
A most unusual brightness by Chase McCoy, written about the Digital Divinity project — whoa, how cool.
Cabel Sasser’s XOXO talk — what a joyful presentation about an incredible artist.

Media diary

Notable things I enjoyed over the past few weeks:

Film/TV

Fight Club — I finally watched this! And somehow never got spoiled for it. Now I understand why it’s associated with toxic masculinity.
Suzume — just a really beautiful journey around Japan, with magical music.
Look Back — saw this in theatres, not knowing anything about it, and felt all the emotions. Why do you draw?

I’m going to see The Fall (2006) next week. I first watched it probably 10+ years ago, on a shitty not-legal streaming site, so I’m excited to see it in 4K on a big screen—it’s a visually striking movie.

Music

I went to see Michael Kiwanuka and Brittany Howard perform.
I’m listening to a lot of Kenshi Yonezu.
Suzume by RADWIMPS is very good.
an oldie but le temps des fleurs by Dalida is a bop.

Books

I finally read Framed Ink (volumes 1 and 2) by Marcos Mateu-Mestre and they were great. Sadly, I did not become a brilliant comic artist upon reading them, but I do feel an even deeper appreciation of the craft.

Here’s an example page (forgive my crappy photo quality) from volume 2, Frame Format, Energy, and Composition for Visual Storytellers, where he discusses how to adapt a frame to different aspect ratios. Hello, responsive webcomics ?!?!?

A scene of two figures standing on a low cliff edge. It's framed in three different aspect ratios—landscape, portrait, and square—each keeping the same proportion of visual mass.

Games

Destiny 2 — happy new episode/season! I like the new Vesper’s Host dungeon. As a Witherhoard enjoyer, I’m excited for the grenade launcher artifact mods.
I got back into playing sudoku — mostly through the excellent Good Sudoku app. I’m trying to learn the advanced techniques now.
- Related watching: The Miracle Sudoku by Cracking the Cryptic on YouTube. I think my brother sent me this way back when it was making the rounds during the height of the pandemic lockdown, but I didn’t watch it. Now though, I actually understand what’s going on and it’s delightful. He makes it look so easy to solve!
I finally tried Balatro. It’s fun! I like it a healthy amount, which is to say, I don’t feel inclined to hyperfocus on it and play for hours (thankfully). I downloaded it specifically to play while travelling, which it was great for. According to Wikipedia, it’s partly inspired by the card game Big Two, which I played a lot of in high school. (I link to Steam here, but I played it on iOS. It worked perfectly on my phone.)
I played Minami Lane while procrastinating on writing this post. It’s cute and very short—I finished it in under 3 hours. The cats meow and mrao when you pet them!
There’s a Neko Atsume 2? I’m trying it.

Sojourn: Seattle

I went to Seattle for a couple of days to see Across the Spider-Verse: Live In Concert, i.e. the live performance of the movie’s soundtrack. Here are a bunch of photos from my trip.

Train ride

I took the train there and back from Vancouver, which is a slow 4+ hour journey. (Imagine if we had a high-speed train!!!) Fortuantely, during the daytime the views are spectacular as you go by the water. These are from my early morning train.

A view of the water, which has a mirror-like surface and reflects the dramatic clouds. Viewed in the morning, so some clouds reflect golden light.

The same striking scene, now with many birds on the water's surface.

Seattle Art Museum

My third time here. It was fun to go around and recognize items from the permanent collection that I saw five years ago.

An installation of text in the form of white neon all caps text on black that reads, 'I've composed a new American National anthem. Take a knee and scream until you can't breathe.' — *Neon American Anthem* by Nicholas Galanin. There was a warning sign prior to entering about sudden screaming, which I did indeed hear, but I didn't understand what was going on until I came to the installation.

A sculpture of coral and broken porcelain that form an intriguing, messy shape. — *Neon American Anthem* by Nicholas Galanin. There was a warning sign prior to entering about sudden screaming, which I did indeed hear, but I didn't understand what was going on until I came to the installation.

Seattle street view

I ended up walking around a lot. It rained when I got into the city and on the morning on the second day, but was otherwise agreeable walking weather. (It seemed like not a lot of people used umbrellas? I felt out of place with mine. Is this tourist behaviour?!?)

Street view of Seattle, where tall glassy buildings loom overhead and many pedestrians fill the sidewalks. — Seattle has a more interesting skyline than Vancouver, because Vancouver has that specific look to it due to the condos that all look the same.

The Public Market Center sign. Many people mill about in front of the market under the sun and clouds. — Seattle has a more interesting skyline than Vancouver, because Vancouver has that specific look to it due to the condos that all look the same.

Coffee shop interior, which features plush seats, pink and green tones, and a bright pink neon sign written in Spanish. — Moore Coffee Shop

My sketchbook, pencil case, phone, and coffee scattered about on a round marble table. An ornate candle holder, which features dangling clear gems, sits next to them. — Moore Coffee Shop

Across the Spider-Verse

I love this movie, I love the music, and I loved watching it again while a live orchestra played the soundtrack.

View from my seat, which is on the second level. The interior features high, arching ceilings, like a fancy church.

Chihuly Garden and Glass

This was my first time visiting! I watched a glass blowing demo, which was very cool.

A huge glass installation suspended from the ceiling of a tall greenhouse. The installation is a winding structure of countless red, orange, and yellow flowers.

A glass sculpture of a chandelier, of countless clear tendrils. Warm light comes from within.

Photography

In other news, as part of my Getting Back Into Photography thing, I bought another lens: the Fujifilm XF 35mm f/1.4. Here are a couple of birb photos I took with it last month.

A brownish grey bird stands on a pier, looking majestically to the side.

Misc. things

I’m gradually switching from Arc back to Firefox for work. I can’t stand the sidebar, sadly—I need the horizontal real estate, and I detest the hover interact to show/hide sidebar pattern.
I ordered a new planner for 2025 and I’m excited to start it.
I’m tentatively (?!?) trying (?!?) to use Are.na (privately). I dunno! I’ve been collecting stuff on Pinterest but it’s kind of messy there.