Writing things down

BooksNo books finished this month! I'm at around 2/3rds of Keigo Higashino's "Guilt" and I'm liking it a lot. Will probably finish it this week or so. Movies 🎥 The Odyssey: I liked the movie but Nolan could've made a Ulysses that wasn't a complete fucking idiot, or at least commit to the bit and not pull "He's the cleverest man I know" out of his ass when this guy kept fumbling every 15 minutes when it wasn't required by the plot for him to 1 gram of brains. I feel the movie would've been…

Today marks the last day of "Let's write every day on this blog for a whole month"! Some personal highlights of mine: Write A Letter To Your Loved Ones: on putting in effort to love actively, not just waiting for it; If It's Broken Don't Fix It: kusoge and wabi-sabi; You Are Not Dich: yet again philosophizing on the meaning of words and context, the bane of my existence; Your World Grows Bigger: probably my favourite of the month, actually; There's No Age Nor Time Limit On The Playground:…

As I've mentioned a couple of times before1, I'm slowly setting up a system to organize my stuff, mostly digital but also analog. I don't want to move work to the background, so I'm not exactly doing so steadily; today, since it's Sunday, I've decided to go all in and tackle my external hard disk (where most of this stuff lives in a partially organized way). There's another reason why I'm slow: I'm afraid. I might not be the most tidy person on Earth, but I do take care of what I do and tend to…

This morning I finally made coffee for my wife after a long time1, using my brand new kettle for a drip brew. A technique that any purist would probably shudder at, but no purist were in the room when I made it so I'm ignoring that2. As I brought it to her in bed, she asked me if I put in sugar; I answered that I didn't and I'd do it right away, but that maybe first she'd like to taste it without. As I anticipated, it was "not as bitter" and, while a bit of sugar would've been more to her…

Some people might know already, but last month I finally caved in and bought a gooseneck kettle to upgrade my coffee brewing setup (which consisted of a normal electric kettle used by pouring very carefully): it's this CHiATO flowPLAY. It's been a bit of an odyssey. It took a while to arrive, mostly (I think) because it needed to be sent outside of the EU (just Swiss things), for which I also had to pay an additional fee I've been notified of by email just a couple of hours after placing my…

AKA I wish I lived like a monk, but in order to do that I have to be that monk. I'm 33 years old and I'm not getting any younger; my gynecologist told me a couple of years ago (the first time I met her, actually) that "Once you hit 30 you unlock your new routine sickness for life", and mine is digestion issues. Nothing surprising as I've always had anxiety-induced nausea ever since I was in elementary school1, at some point the whole system was bound to collapse. I don't eat especially bad so…

A game I've had lots of fun making music for1 came out today, and it got me thinking about the pre-production process. The game is set in a traditional Japanese inn and has a focus on its onsen2, and one of the very first things I've been asked was to go hard on that traditional Japanese sound while retaining some familiar tunes in the series. I don't want to dwell too much on the actual work because this is not the right place to do so, but I'd like to share the titular joy of researching.…

Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 makes me melancholic about summer, again. It's been colder for a while here where I live. I'm not good with lower temperatures nor the humidity1, so I await autumn and then winter with a bit of a defeated spirit. A lot of people argue that "you can dress warmer when it's cold", but they don't feel it in their bones like I do! And besides, you can't compare crazy hot global warming summer to cozy winter fantasy inside your home drinking hot cocoa. It's not fair! You must…

Sounds familiar? I came across this book called Murdoku at the beginning of the year. It sounded right up my brother's alley, so I got it to him real early, planning to give it to him for Christmas. I bought it in June, not expecting him to message me last month asking me about my opinion on it since he wanted to get it for his time on the beach... so I told him the truth, I didn't want to spoil the present but what can you do? The audacity of his reply: "Why the hell did you buy a Christmas…

Playing Boku no Natsuyasumi 2 lately, which is set on a seaside town, is reminding me of how nice the sea at night is. I've already talked about my relationship with being born on an island, so I won't dwell on that. Tomifumi, the town the game is set in, isn't anything to scream about: it's got a hostel owned by the protagonist's relatives, a playground, lots of greenery and a ferry to get the hell outta there. In comparison, I was born at the center of the world. What I find extremely…

My archiving journey continues. Apparently, media is one of those things that should not organized through folder hierarchy, but which benefit from a robust metadata system. The organization of my music library is a matter that will warrant another blog post along the way, but today I took some time to install Jellyfin locally to sort out all the movies, anime, tv series, stage plays and concerts (and the occasional weird mixed stream) that live on my external drive. Not too many things, but…

Yes, I'm being witty. I've got this fond memory of being in the back of my parent's car, driving back from the electronics store, a game box on my knees and an instruction booklet in hand. I used to get car sick like crazy, so reading in the car was a big no-no for me, but this didn't stop me from trying to savour the game before I could put the cartridge in the console. To read the plot, get to know the characters, look at all the pictures, imagine how the game played judging from the written…

As I mentioned yesterday, I wanted to make a custom font for a music video. Here it is! I thought the ideation process would be much harder, but I actually just doodled random shapes and tried to keep the gestures I used consistent, sometimes reusing the same glyphs and rotating and mirroring them, taking inspiration from other glyphs I'm familiar with. This video was eye-opening. I've used Calligraphr again1, but I'd like to learn more and start designing vector fonts too someday. I can feel…

I'm making a video for a new song. The lyrics are in a made-up language (which is just a simple cipher), so I was thinking of making a custom font for it. I went looking for tips on designing conlang fonts, and ended up discovering the neography reddit. What a tragedy for my free time. It happens often: a small detail during the creative process becomes a long, increasingly more exciting chain of "but wouldn't it be cool if I took this as an inspiration?". I'm making a game with three separate…

A song came on shuffle today, as I was coming home from a lovely day at the lake with a beloved friend, so I was in a pretty good mood. All Right part2. I'd say my mood inspired the thought that followed, but I tend to obsess over these things no matter the weather. Anyway, what's important here is that, of course, there is no part 1. I find it hilarious when people comment stuff like "Can I play Expedition 33 before playing the previous 32?", or "Does Super Mario 64 require knowledge from all…

The tags in this blog are a mess. I know. It bothers me. I've been told I'm a messy person as many times as I've been told I'm obsessed with order, to which I can only come to a conclusion: I love sorting things, but when I slip up it's bad. Especially for me, since I love order! Right now, there are a couple of things on my desk that should not be there, and they're only there because I still haven't decided where to put them. So, a couple of months ago I came across an organization system…

I've previously mentioned Austin's Kleon's quote (which is on its own a conclusion brought out by Ann Packer's words): "Let go of the thing that you’re trying to be (the noun), and focus on the actual work you need to be doing (the verb)". Just do the art and forget about being an artist. But does that work? In general: absolutely so. If you draw, you're an artist. If you run, you're a runner. The issue comes the other way around, when you focus on the noun (which is exactly what Kleon…

With a knife sharp heart I shave off these long and thin, meaningless days Piles of things like the past and monotony Throw them out as nonflammable waste Like a letter without an address With no place to go or stay, our Force-fed dreams and hopes Throw them all as nonflammable waste In our world coated by a translucent and precarious film 5 meters worth of reality Inadvertently lost Lost sight of it somehow A blurry light beyond the darkness Phototaxis from loser to the just Could a volatile…

I have a lot of old magazines back at my parents' place: mostly gaming stuff, a lot of comics too. A couple of shelves are stuffed with paper that's going to rot unless I take care of it properly, which I should1... I had my publications I followed religiously, and then those I bought on and off, when they had a cool cover or an article on something I was particularly interested in. The reason I disliked Final Fantasy X so much at launch was that I read about Blitzball on a PlayStation magazine…

I love my home: it's the first house I've fully furnished with my wife (in the last one I was the one who moved in later), it's in a nice quiet area in town, a bit on the upper side, and there's a splendid view of the mountains in the distance. There are a lot of trees and greenery around, and birds chirp happily in front of my studio window. This season we got giant wasps too. Yeah. Let's focus on that for a bit. I'm deeply afraid of bugs, and have been ever since I remember. It's one of those…

Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it, don’t wait for it, just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair or two cups of good hot black coffee. — Agent Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks) Oh, Cooper. You're so wise. On a topic similar to one I've talked about recently already, in my struggle to find something to talk about today1 I've given thought to what's happened today. I've started studying how REAPER works, as my current DAW of…

I quite like Yoko Taro's works, or at least those I've experienced in some way: I've yet to play Drakengard 3, but the first one has a special place in my mind, and NieR Replicant might be one of my favourite games ever. What about Automata, though? I didn't love Automata. First of all, I knew it as "the best game ever that's done things no game has ever done before", and that's always a red flag for me. Second, the first two routes explore certain themes in a way that made me think multiple…

おちこんでいるときには、どうしたらいいか、 いつかの方法を決めておくと便利です。 これはぼくが独自に考えたことなのですが、 胸の上のほう、鎖骨の下ぐらいのところに手のひらを当てて じわぁっと温めるのは、とてもいいです、理由は知らない。 ー糸井重里が『今日のダーリン』の中で At times when you're feeling down, when you're unsure about what to do, it's useful to have a strategy put in place for that time. This is just one I came up with myself, but placing your palm above your chest, approximately below your clavicle, letting it get gradually warmer, feels very good — I don't know why. — Shigesato Itoi in "Today's Darling"1 I love…

As some who read my Now page might've noticed, I'm currently playing through Metal Gear Solid 2 (after playing the first one) with a dear friend. We're both doing our own thing, and this one is a game we've played before many years back (she remembers a lot more about it than I do though), but we try to keep our progress more or less the same: each time I get a bit more further I slow down my pace, and she does the same. This way, we can share our thoughts as we go, even if we're not playing at…

Have you ever been to a library in a foreign country, where your language isn't the one everyone speaks? I like it a lot. There's usually at least an English section, and the selection there sometimes lets you into what the locals like, or how the international community is in the area. But, mostly, I like looking at foreign books: editions I've never seen of books I know well or I've heard of, intriguing covers that make me discover books actually available in my language (or at least in…

Radio calisthenics (ラジオ体操, rajio taisō; literally, "radio exercises") are warm-up calisthenics performed to music and guidance from radio broadcasts. Originating from the United States, they are popular in Japan and parts of China, North Korea and Taiwan. — Wikipedia If you've ever read my Now page, you know I try to keep myself in shape with the bare minimum of less than 5 minutes of stretching every day. Emphasis on try, because I end up skipping several days if I don't put my mind fully into…

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine asked me if we wanted to exchange mixtapes. I was actually deeply afraid. Despite working with music, I'm very self conscious about my taste, probably due to some bullying during my formative years and my brother going "still listening to your Japanese stuff?". Others like me, who listen to a lot of different genres, are often at loss against "What kind of music do you listen to?" and risk answering "You know, all sort of things...". I had this…

Quite a long time ago at this point, a friend asked me: "Hey Cre, since you're so much into journaling, what notebook do you suggest I get if I want to start?" This is the kind of question everybody gets asked when they're "the one who knows about X". Which DAW should I use to make music? What pen do you suggest? Am I getting the right coffee grinder? I think the final answer should always be "something that you find fun to use". Especially if you're building a new habit or are learning a new…

(Translator's note: dich means you) My experience with languages is the following: I grew up speaking Italian, never learned the endangered language of my homeland, studied French in middle school and forgot almost everything until I need it to survive1, studied Japanese on and off for years and floating between N5 and N4 with no good direction, currently locking in on German, attending an A2 course. I was also pretty good at ancient Latin when I was in high school, and I used it to write some…

In Japanese video gaming, a kusoge (クソゲー, kusogē; pronounced [kɯ̥soɡeː]), lit. 'shitty game', is an unenjoyable or poorly made video game. Though the label is usually applied disparagingly, there is a subculture of celebrating kusoge. — Wikipedia I love kusoge. Do I play many? No. I've played the legendary Hoshi wo Miru Hito (which I own in its digital, Nintendo Switch version) several times, and curiously I still have to play the good translation. It's an RPG that's broken on so many levels…