hello Durian. I am going to try to eat this thing that looks like vanilla ice cream. Just read allllll about the reasons why it’s considered a superfood. It’s really … repulsive tho. Mind over matter.

Knights of Guinevere by Dana Terrace ( and Co.) Pilot episode . . . Dystopian world premise. In a casual interview, she said that the main difference between creating a cartoon for Disney vs. creating a cartoon with Glitch, an independent animation studio, is that it is actually fun now. Hmmmmmmm. It just makes you wonder. Why can’t Disney make it be fun also? They’re already such a rich company, who cares if they make a show that’s not totally on brand, but more experimental? Or if they don’t, they should donate money to the independent animation studios. Out of the kindness of their hearts. Anyways, so the dystopian world premise - POLLUTION, from factories producing merchandise relating to the amusement park in the sky. Serious health problems - also from the pollution from making products to sell. Pervasive poverty and a large working poor class - the characters seem to have to be working all the time. It’s stressful, and it’s a struggle to make enough money. Their living environment also looks dingy and dilapidated. Direct violence and pretty lies from the … ruling class, which is basically a weird dad and daughter duo. There’s a backstory involving a sentient robot (Princess Guinevere) trying to escape the evil dad-daughter duo. Dana Terrace said she’s always liked the horror genre, and that she watched Alien when she was 4 years old. I don’t like the horror genre, although I appreciate dystopian stories. I hope more episodes come out soon. It would be interesting/fun if I start to want to use any of the characters for reference drawing since I’ve never drawn anything in a creepy style before. Something that confuses me is - merch is *always* being made and sold, including for Knights of Guinevere. Usually, in the form of plushy characters or plastic figurines. So, doesn’t that cause pollution in the real world?

Bujo cover page for May & June 2025. Theme: pleasant surprises and unexpected discoveries, which were mainly from nature (although technically, everything is from ‘nature’ including humans and human created things). … We were at a park, and saw a graceful blackbird with a pop of bright, bright orange on the wing. Then, it flew - and the bright orange part was even bigger. It had been hidden in the wing. I found out it’s called a red-winged blackbird. 🐦‍⬛ We walked on and a little ahead were piles of petals on the ground from a tree. The petals were large, light beige colored, and each one had a streak of vivid orange at the base. I didn’t take a photo because I was running out of storage on my phone at the time, but hope to go back at around the same time next Spring and find those petals again. The bright orange color - first hidden in the blackbird’s wing, then on the petals that were otherwise drying and neutral in color, was surprising and pretty. Another pleasant surprise was that I actually found an art prompt challenge that I wanted to do. The flower challenge. This was the first, and so far only one I have done. It was very helpful to my mental health at the time, to do this as a daily thing. The Bitcoin pizza day rally was also a nice surprise, but I suppose that is just because people like to do something meaningful on a special date. After 3 years, I finally figured out a place to hang the wire flower lights from our previous apartment. So those were the highlights of May and June. When drawn onto the same page, it shows some themes and meaningful connections. I think the theme partially comes from choices I made. Like how one choice will lead to another similar choice, because it’s based on my values and interests. I guess I value observing things in nature, helpful things that people do, and stories that are encouraging, while showing pain and hardships, including, how do you respond when encountering human violence.

bujo page for May & June 2025 - went back and did it in August, and finished the last part around the middle of November. theme: pleasant surprises and unexpected discoveries, which were mainly from nature (although technically, everything is from ‘nature’ including human created things). The process also became part of the unexpectedness … though not in an entirely ‘pleasant’ way because I realized everything needed a reference (as in you can’t just think it, then draw it). But then, the way the layout came out was sort of unplanned also. I think it just happened as I tried to fit the various things onto the small page. #artstr #coloredpencil #drawingfromreference

An AirBnB with a Bookshelf This was the first and only AirBnB I’ve stayed in that had, as part of its displays, a slim bookshelf filled with books. It was in the corner between a squashy couch and a small rocking chair, which had a seat of woven plant material over an antique wooden frame. There were favorite picture book series the Berenstain Bears, popular chapter book series The Magic Treehouse (a *huge* selection). Some Great Illustrated Classics. Art books. A boxed set of 5 books by Madeleine L’Engle. (I did not know it was a 5 book series! Even though I read a lot as a kid, I somehow missed or didn’t get into ‘A Wrinkle in Time’.) I decided to start with Book 2, ‘A Wind in the Door’, and it was an unexpectedly emotional reading experience. There was also a thick hardcover art book that looked like it would weigh 25 pounds. I sat in the small rocking chair with it on my lap. ‘World Famous Paintings’, edited by Rockwell Kent (1939). It was the last book I picked to look through. I didn’t think I would like it. However, the descriptions were interesting, and the introduction was really honest … and actually quite kind. A note was jotted on an inner page, angled in the upper left corner, which had piqued my curiosity. This huge, old, boring looking but also intriguing book was a gift from a grandma to someone named Kyra. “This is such a treasure of great artists, you’ll be inspired. Love, Grammy B.”

“What are roots and how long have we had them? If our species has existed for a couple of million years, what is its history? Our remote ancestors followed the game, moved with the food supply, and fled from evil weather, from ice and the changing seasons. Then after millennia beyond thinking they domesticated some animals so that they lived with their food supply. Then of necessity they followed the grass that fed their flocks in endless wanderings. Only when agriculture came into practice – and that’s not very long ago in terms of the whole history – did a place achieve meaning and value and permanence. But land is a tangible, and tangibles have a way of getting into few hands. Thus it was that one wanted ownership of land and at the same time wanted servitude because someone had to work it. Roots were in ownership of land, in tangible and immovable possessions. In this view we are a restless species with a very short history of roots, and those not widely distributed.” Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck (1962) #bookstr

Items drawn: • FIJI water bottle • Tamagotchi • Goosebumps and Fear Street series books • Colorful candy-like yoyos • Animorphs series books • Jansport backpacks • Jawbreakers the size of a fist and lasts for weeks Tiny giant things that are mostly fun to remember ~ I distinctly remember a girl saying, though I don’t remember who it was, “my dad went on a business trip to Hawaii and got these for me.” The FIJI water bottle was like a work of art. I think everyone else used Poland Spring, Dasani, Arrowhead. The FIJI water bottle was rectangular (!!!), smaller, and had a Hibiscus in the foreground and a misty waterfall in the background. It was 3-dimensional like a stage set. I never got one, although when I was getting my 2nd BA I would sometimes get a ‘special’ drink like a Vitamin water or a Naked protein smoothie or a Starbucks bottled Frappuccino in lieu of lunch. And then I stopped because those have too much sugar and are overpriced. Eventually, the culture changed and people now use reusable water bottles mostly. Everyone also had Jansport backpacks. There was pretty much no other backpack brand that I knew of or remember. The Jawbreaker candy also seemed like a specially designed candy. Colorful circles or rings that would appear inside, and rainbow flecks on the outside. Never got to try one, and also something I have no desire for now. Kids in 5th grade mostly read the Goosebumps books. The Fear Street series was slightly more scary maybe? In that, it featured older kids / teens? I think I read a few of them … don’t really remember. Animorphs was a really good series that I would want to reread now. It was scary that Tobias actually got stuck being a red-tailed hawk forever, although I think he could still communicate telepathically with his friends. Not too many kids read this series actually, I just remember one girl who often had the books on her desk, or would be reading it while the teacher was calling on her. Then it would be, “Andrea??? Earth to Andrea?” Spacing out was kind of her thing, and she never really got in trouble for it. In other book related memories, one time, the teacher was passing out copies of <The Whipping Boy> by Sid Fleischman. She flipped the pages of the book like a card deck and said with a look on her face, that she could read this book in 10 - 15 minutes. She was a woman in her … 50s? The class was impressed. I was thinking, I could read it in maybe 30 minutes. And also wondering, why would you want to read it so quick? Like, why is that a good thing? If you finish it that quick, you’re just going to be bored?

Episode 2 started with banter and chatter … but then, Rachel talked about her experience going on a road trip with some friends, and going to see a tarot card reader just for fun. *trigger warning: topic of family illness and death* 🙁 . . . . . The person right off the bat, flipped over the first card and told her, someone in your family will die in the next 6 months. (Rachel’s dad had recently been diagnosed with Cancer, and it turned out that he did die in 5 months.) So, the consensus between the 3 people on the podcast (Rachel, Irene, and Amy) was that the tarot person - any tarot person, should not say this kind of thing to people… and certainly not as the very first thing. I think I agree. At least start with a more general statement like, ‘you may experience a difficult loss this year’ and leave it at that? It’s ok to be blunt, but that’s just cruel. *sigh* Glad that she can talk about it now with some humor.

Today there was snow flurries, while also having a couple hours of bright sunshine. Now it’s cloudy with a gale warning. Loudly windy outside. So I finally figured out where to listen to Woo Woo, the Rachel Dratch podcast. It was just on Spotify. I had been googling it and the results did not make it clear where I could listen to it for free. A similar thing had happened when I first looked into Nostr. I googled it on my laptop, found a website that said a bunch of things about how awesome Nostr is. Could not figure out how to make an account and join. A couple months passed. I kind of forgot about it and thought maybe it’s just too new and not ready for most people / the public. Then, one day, decided to look up a how to video on Youtube … and while watching it, realized, oh maybe it’s an *app* Went to the app store, figured out how to download it. Up to episode 2 of Woo Woo. Episode 1 was intriguing. Episode 2 had a stunning personal experience that is quite sad.