November 4, 2025

October was kind of a weird month for me. Good things yes, as it is my birthday month, also did a lot of hanging out with friends. I also try to watch as many spooky season / horror movies as I can in October, which I will talk about some of my favs from this year that I watched. Unfortunately though, right at the beginning of October, my beloved cat Cami crossed the rainbow bridge. Got back from a trip with my mother and noticed there was something wrong with her mouth, she was having issues eating and drinking. Took her into the vet, vet couldn't get a good look so he was like come in again in a couple days, we can sedate if needed to get a better look. Mom took her back, and met with a different vet, who was able to get a good look without sedation and determined it was advanced mouth cancer, which nothing can be done for. Mother called me, and my girlfriend and I went to the vet office with her to spend some final time with Cami before it was time to say goodbye.

It was really hard. I had some fish growing up, a couple betta fish who I did love, but Cami was my first like walking around the house, mammal pet. It felt different from saying goodbye to my fish. I am doing better, but it was still very very hard and it's so weird going back to my mom's house and knowing Cami isn't going to greet us at the door anymore. She lived to be 16 years old, and she lived with my family for 14 of those years. I feel so fortunate that she was in my life and I got to be in hers. I will probably make a shrine page for her eventually on the site, as I think that'd be a nice memorial to her. I also want to create like a Shutterfly photobook of her. So that's kind of why I haven't made as many blog posts as I wanted, as I just felt so overwhelmed with this the past couple weeks. I am doing better now though, hence why I'm writing this.

Okay, on to other stuff now.

Fav Movie Watches of October (presented in the order I watched them, very vague spoilers)
Summer of 84 - Random library checkout that I did end up enjoying. Was actually heartbreaking to me. I think they did a really good job showing the boys as real friends, with complexity. The starting and ending monologue about how you don't know what's going on behind closed doors, and how it does actually apply the entire film. The two overhead shots of the "manhunt" parallels, man. Score was also a vibe. Nikki's character I feel was a bit lackluster, but not a bad film at all to me.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum - This one was scury to me, I never do very well with found footage type stuff LOL! Very scary, loved how it was filmed and the messiness of the characters. Watched with my friend who had already seen it before, and I'm glad cuz I am a baby and would have had a rough time watching it by myself LOL!

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters - I had fun watching this! I thought the action choreo was actually really fun, and kinda liked how even though they are "heroes" they do get their asses realistically kicked. Mina's character left things to be desired, but this wasn't a flop film for me at all. The copius action and gore honestly carried, this probably would have really bombed if it was a PG-13.

I Know What You Did Last Summer - First time watching the OG, and man I reallllyy liked it. I knew I was going to like it when it opened with a grungy, slow rock version of Summer Breeze, like are you KIDDING ME?! Slay. Cast was great, awesome soundtrack, very fun time.

As Above, So Below - Another found footage, RIP to me!! Hated hated hated when Benji got stuck in the tunnel I wanted to yarp from how uncomfortable I felt. You just have to sit in his panic and desperation and UEGGHHHHHH AWFUL!! AWFUL! The fact they got permission the day before filming started from French authorities to film in the catacombs, both in the public and off limits areas. Wild. Scary as hell to me but very well done.

Scream 2 - Very fun time, just like the first one. The twist did get me, I had some suspicions about a killer but the twist I was not expecting. I thought the characters were well written and the pacing was great. Also before watching this, I had been listening to my halloween music playlist which has Red Right Hand in it, and then to hear it in this movie? Iconic. The deaths in this one did make me sad, like Sidney girl I am so sorry.

So those were the ones I enjoyed the most this month! Not saying all of them are masterpieces (as Scream 2 is definitely higher on the list than like Hansel & Gretel), but I at least had fun watching all of them. Also! Not an October watch as I saw it just yesterday, but I got to see Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein in the theater! I had 0 clue it's a limited theater release, and the theater I saw it at is the only one showing it in my entire city. WILD. I am so happy I went and saw it cuz it was stellar. Guillermo always slays with the themes in his movies but this one was especially tasty. The score, the actors, the framing, mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Very tasty. If you have the chance to see it in theaters I highly recommend doing so.

Other random things as we are talking about movies, a new independent video store opened near me so of course I had to go check it out and buy a bunch of stuff. I am now the very proud owner of the Criterion Collection releases of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and Mulholland Drive! Also obtained Blue Velvet and Carrie (1976) on blu-ray. I also found someone online selling some VHS versions of Fire Walk with Me and Sinners, which I of course had to obtain. I still need Sinners on dvd / blu-ray, but at least I have it on VHS which is a format I adore. I might not be as hardcore of a tapehead as some other people, but I do like having VHS versions of my favs.

September 8, 2025

I am so ready for fall AHHHHH! Fall is my favorite season, I just loving the changing of the leaves and the cooler weather, and Halloween is also my favorite holiday. September and October are the best months of the year imo. I put up my fall / Halloween decor today~ Hey, if people are putting up Christmas stuff in November, I can put up my Halloween stuff in September!! (ง'̀-'́)ง I've also been doing spooktober the past few years on letterboxd (just trying to watch a horror / halloween related movie every day) so I'm always excited for that every year.

So I've done some traveling recently, and thought I would share some things I recommend from my travels. Debating on sharing negatives (like, restaurants I did not like that I visited) but I will at least share things I like. First up, I did a trip to the Munising, Michigan area. Spent a bunch of time around the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore area. I have never seen Pictured Rocks before, and pretty much the only way to see them is to do a boat tour (cuz you have to go out on Lake Superior). I enjoyed the boat tour I went on, it was Pictured Rocks Cruises. TBH I don't know the price because someone else in my group paid for it LOL! But I liked the guy piloting our boat, he had lots of good info about all the cool rock formations. The boat was also very large and spacious, you could sit below under total cover, or go up top and sit and get a nice breeze. If you get motion sick very easily, I would maybe not recommend because them Lake Superior waves can be a little rocky. Or at least take a nausea medication or something.

In the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore area there are tons of waterfalls you can go see, and a bunch of them are very simple trails. None of the ones I went on were crazy long or arduous to go and see a waterfall. Miners Falls trail is 1.2 roundtrip, and fairly easy and level. You walk through a nice forested area to see Miners Falls, which is a 50ft waterfall cascading over a sandstone cliff. There are stairs to a lower viewing platform. The Miners Castle Overlook is chill, as it is more of a parking area with three viewing platforms to look at Miners Castle, one of the more famous landmarks in the area. The upper viewing platform has a gorgeous view down into a little cove like area. Sable Falls was also very nice, not a far trail at all but oof lots of stairs. We also saw the Wagner Falls scenic site (which is not a part of the National Lakeshore area, but it is near Munising and so quick to walk through and very pretty). The 1.2 mi trail (2.5 roundtrip) to Chapel Falls was also very nice, no crazy elevation gains or anything. We did witness a proposal at Chapel Falls which was very cute. The 1.0 mi trail (2.0 mi roundtrip) to Mosquito Falls (same area are Chapel Falls) was definitely a bit more physically exerting. Tons of tree roots in the trail, whereas the trail to Chapel Falls was more even. Still a very pretty hike, but you are going up and down in elevation and really have to watch where you are stepping. Nearby in Au Train there is a super nice and huge beach as well.

Non hiking / nature things I recommend: Tacopotamus was so good. I was shocked. Their Happy Happy Hippo taco was LOADED UP with whitefish and coleslaw it was so fucking tasty. Their elote was also AMAZING and came in a HUGE serving. We took our food over to East Channel Brewery next door and had a flight to try out their beers while we ate. My favs were "In the Notch," a raspberry lager, and "Paradise Waitin'," a blueberry lager. We also stopped by ByGeorge Brewing Co, but I didn't have anything there. Travel buddy liked the beer there though. We did buy some art as well at UP~Scale Art, a very cute gallery with all kinds of stuff. Nearby in Au Train there is the Northwoods Outpost, and they had very tasty meat and breakfast pasties.

August 8, 2025

Woaaawww, slowly but surely making edits and tweaks to the site. Added a "this site is always under construction" blinkie to the home page because yes, that is accurate. There is no end in sight [affectionate], and I'm just going to keep adding to this site in all sorts of ways! For example, added a little credits page (linked at bottom of home page). I've added hovertext to all the graphics I have credits for, but also wanted to specifically link them somewhere, hence a credits page. I see lots of other sites have a similar sort of page, like credits or just links. Thought it would be good to have one. It was honestly very fun finding and linking all the site badges - now I need to figure out one for me!

My BG3 page officially has all my characters on it! I take so many screenshots when I play, so I had to dig through my Steam screenshots folder and figure out what ones I wanted to share (ᵕ—ᗜ—) Still brainstorming what else I want to have on my site. Too many possibilities TBH. I also changed the theme for the landing and home pages - I wanted the vibe to be more like, "flying through space you come across an interesting space rock that has a... house on it?" So ya, changed things to be more spacey but still homey feeling. I know so many sites are space themed but man, I like it. It's my vibe.

August 5, 2025

First blog post! Hello! I will eventually figure out how to put in a guestbook so there is some sort of interaction element because I have no idea how to actually code a like real blog page LMAO. What to expect from this page? I think it'll be like stream of consciousness standard blog posting, talking about stuff I'm consuming / interacting with, random non-specific life stuff, literally anything else that comes to mind. Newest posts will be at the top, and I do plan on making a sort of navigation bar at the top. So once 2025 finishes, I'll copy all those posts to a separate like Archive 2025 page, and then posts for 2026 will be here. But for now, we are in 2025!

Was perusing the YouTubes today and was recommended a behind the scenes video for Sinners, specifically about the makeup fx and vampire makeup fx. It was soooo cool, click here if you are interested in watching. I just thought it was so interesting how Mike Fontaine, the special effects artist, talked about the fx, how it feeds into the story and characters. Specifically talking about the Remmick fx, how to use the makeup fx as a substraction instead of addition, creating the illusion that it is subtractive. I just really enjoyed how Fontaine talked about the work, it was super super neat. And of course it made me want to watch Sinners again LOL! Physical copies do seem to be available, so I'll have to pick up a copy soon. Physical media supremacy! ୧(๑•̀ヮ•́)૭

Bit of a topic change, but recently I finished reading a book for the first time in two years. Which feels WILD, because when I was younger, pre-college years, I was such a voracious reader. Like you could not get me to put books down. In the summer, my brother and I used to PLOW through the summer reading challenge at our local library so so fast. And even in high school I was reading quite a bit, not as much as pre-high school but still doing it. College really took it out of me, as my degree was more towards the humanities side of things, so reading was just constant for assignments and such. And I just fell off casual / personal reading. And now that I'm not in academics anymore, my executive dysfunction issues have migrated over to reading instead of assignments. So it's very very hard for me to start reading a book. It's the classic neurodivergent issue of like, oh it has to feel like the perfect time to do the thing, and of course it's never going to feel like the perfect time. Just grab a book and read it lmao, but that's hard! Which is still crazy to me that's just how I operate now with reading. Sucks. BUT! Celebrate the small wins, I did finish a book. It was The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall. I thoroughly enjoyed it (ignore that it took me 2 years to finish it, that's a me problem, not a problem with the book). To keep it very broad, it's a fantasy-mystery-detective novel. To go a little more specific, it's like what if Sherlock Holmes and Watson were recontextualized in a fantasy world as completely different characters and the whole book is very queer. It was a lot of fun, I loved following the perspective of the narrator, Captain John Wyndham (who is the Watson inspired character). Just how he speaks is so good, how he talks about other characters and recounts the events of the adventure. Chefs kiss. Highly recommend.

Slowly but surely figuring out how to make adjustments to my site. I realized while I was editing my site and refreshing pages to see if the edits took, that CSS edits I made would just not appear. Finally figured out that I needed to clear my cache. (－‸ლ) I thought I was going CRAZY and that I was doing something wrong in my HTML and CSS. GUH.