PINEWIND

weeknotes 16/26

General happenings

This week was OK overall. One of those weeks that's not unpleasant, but also one where nothing truly exciting happened. I'll chalk that up as a positive. Did some drawing / painting with friends in the park on the weekend; I think I'm starting to get the hang of watercolour again. I really should start using "proper" watercolour paper (not standard notebook paper that I have to fight with to make the paintings look semi-decent), but I'm still a bit afraid of wasting "good paper" with bad sketches / paintings. Still: At some point, I have to start using it!

The blog

Last week, I added my contact info to the blog's home page, and I've been getting some feedback on my posts or blog in general. Honestly, it's more than I was expecting - it's not like the contact info is right in the footer or at the end of each post. People have to find it on the bottom of the home page and then type it in manually. But this is precisely why it feels so good to get feedback, because it shows me that the people cared enough to do this. All of the feedback has been positive so far, a real motivation booster. But I think even constructive criticism would have the same effect.

Watched

I discovered these videos when I was collecting material for my post thoughts on the Monogtari series. I rarely watch reaction videos, but every now and then I get pulled in, especially when they're about a series that I like or was a fan of in the past (a few years ago it was ATLA, and K-On! earlier this year). I also like the reviewers in these videos; the discussions after each episode are pretty thorough and interesting. Through these videos, I "accidentally" started doing a pseudo-rewatch of Monogatari this week, which reminded me of all its good parts, as well as its awful parts (again). But like I said in my own blog post on the topic - I want to focus on the positive elements and utilise them in my own creative projects somehow.

Listened to (non-music)

I've said it before, but I'm a big fan of DLF. I wish their programming was also available in English so that I could actually recommend it to more people. I've been thinking about digitalising my handwritten "listening notes" and putting them on the blog, together with some of my own thoughts or commentary on the topics.

Listened to (music)

The anime songs came from the pseudo-rewatch. The openings and endings are very nostalgic to me, and I still think the instrumental soundtrack is really good overall. The Abzu soundtrack is a nice, unobtrusive background music album for writing sessions.

Read (physical books)

Still reading Strawberries, and it's not even that long. I have to finish this! I'm spending too much time on Bear Blog during my commute. Paused Pearls and Diamonds for now.

Read (digital / online)

The Substack is a Bear Blog post find (I don't remember the exact blog or post). It was an instant add to my Shelf, even though some of the content (like the second half of the Kazo Oga article) is paywalled. The "How to Paint Like..." post was really encouraging; instead of feeling bad about myself for only doing loose watercolour sketches on bad paper, I can now proudly proclaim that I'm "painting like Hayao Miyazaki", haha.

I found the Haraway text while searching for some (re)sources for my personal philosophy / worldview. I like her ideas, although I think the writing is a bit hard to understand / deliberately obtuse at times.

#weeknotes