This is late because I was sitting in The Nest for most of yesterday evening and I didn't want to move. (What's The Nest, you ask? I explain below.)

Week 51: December 23 - 29, 2024

Travel so that when you come home your cat has a whole bunch of stuff to sniff.

On Monday I flew home from Phoenix, I can't believe that was only a week ago. It feels like weeks. I love this zone away from work where time ceases to exist because you don't have anything going on where the day of the week matters. This is how my life should be. I thrive most when time truly isn't real! I've got a really long time to go but I cannot wait to retire so that I can slip into the void of timelessness for weeks and weeks. Anyway, flying was a really good start to the week, and when we landed we were greeted with the most beautiful sunset on the drive home.

Looking out at the sky from within a building, the sunset is full of deep greys and blues and pinks and purples

Christmas proper was uneventful, my nephew was out of the country so we had Christmas on Sunday (the 29th) instead. I spent some of Christmas Eve watching Santa traverse the world on YouTube while classic Christmas tunes played, opened a few gifts on Christmas morning, then went to a Brazilian restaurant with my family where none of us ordered the special Christmas meal because we all wanted fish.

The market salad bar was the best salad bar I've ever had in my life, though. It would have been untoward to take a photo but I wish I could recreate it for you. Just thinking about it makes me hungry and there is nothing in my house that even compares with how good it was.

Overcast day nearing sunset overlooking a large lake so it seems the sky is in the water too

After lunch I came home to watch some Christmas movies and one of them was Christmas Evil (1980), which I had never seen before. If you are into holiday horror I absolutely recommend it. It's more of a psychological horror and less the slasher that it's advertised to be. This kid sees Mommy kissing Santa Claus and is traumatized for life.

Christmas Evil (1980) movie cover

In the void of the week since Monday I have moved a lot of furniture, set up my records and record player, gave myself a little area to build Legos, made myself The Nest which I might turn into a fort next week, and did a lot of cleaning around the house that I had been putting off. I've rested a lot, taken lots of naps, and watched a lot of movies. This is everything a holiday break should be.

Close-up of a calico cat's face, she's looking up

The top portion of an IKEA Kallax shelf showing 1 1/2 cubes containing records. On top sits various figurines from Monster Hunter, a phrenology head wearing an aviator hat, a suitcase covered in stickers, and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein looming behind on a wall poster

It's so nice to finally have my records set up again. Yes, I love listening to records and I have a lot of my favorite albums... BUT I am also here for the aesthetic. I love to walk in that room and see all of them nicely laid out and waiting for a listen.

I call this room "The Cave" as it's in the back corner of my home and has no windows. Structurally it's underground and at the bottom of my 4-floor building. Feels very much like a cave. I've been using The Cave as storage since I moved here 5 years ago but decided I didn't want to use an entire room for storage. Over the last year I've been minimizing and donating, and now I finally have enough room to build a little space to hang out! (It's still a storage room though.) The Cave is a sensory room with lots of textures, moods/lights, and candles to choose from, and an "unplugged" room in the sense that no TVs and no electronics live there except my record player.

Here is where I've put The Nest which is a large bean bag chair covered by a sheet in front of a small brown couch covered with pillows and blankets.

What I affectionately call The Nest - the bean bag chair is covered by a TMNT sheet

During this time I also worked on the website a little bit and created a travel journal where I posted my thoughts about going to Arizona. I also finished my two submissions to the 32-bit cafe New Year's event (winter and 2024 in review) and made a Teeny Tower room!

I don't know if the Teeny Tower room captures my idea well but it's my first pixel art in 20 years so it'll do. I started with my place, put in the furniture, then added the Lego sets to make a Lego room. You can see the sequence here:

  1. First layer showing a room with light grey walls and hardwood floors. Out the window there is a mountain range. Though the style of the room matches my home, I have a parking lot (not a mountain range) out my window.
  2. The second layer adds a bookshelf and rug.
  3. The third layer adds a table on top of the rug.
  4. The final layer adds several Lego sets on the shelves and a Lego train with a mountain matching the one outside.

Sequence 1: My Teeny Tower pixel art first layer. Sequence 2: My Teeny Tower pixel art first and second layers. Sequence 3: My Teeny Tower pixel art first three layers. Sequence 4: My Teeny Tower pixel art with all layers applied.

This week I am having mild withdrawal from the TV show Supernatural. I see the name Winchester in a book and my heart flutters. I'm at a ghost town and I wonder if they did an episode around here or in a similar place. I dreamt about Sam.

I started watching it in September and blew through Seasons 1-9, but then I had to take a break in November. That was an intense amount of TV watching, but I became obsessed. There are still many seasons left to watch, which I will do in a few months. I wonder if it will hold up since it's not driven quite as hard by the first couple of seasons, which were much more remarkable than the last few I watched.

The Monster Hunter Now festive event has been okay. I always get to a point where I just cannot progress any further but luckily they give all the prizes before then. I really like the Lagombi sweater, I would buy it if they sold this in real life.

Four Monster Hunter Now players wearing a Christmasy red and green Lagombi sweater. My Monster Hunter Now character wearing a Christmasy red and green Lagombi sweater along with other red armor to complete a Christmas-themed set.

I read the book Digital Minimalism and I had a lot of thoughts about it. I'm sort of percolating in my reflection so I'll probably end up dedicating a whole post to the book, which I actually didn't totally agree with, but which I also found validating in some ways. It's been a long time since a book has made me think this much so I can at least say that I do recommend it for that reason.

If you're interested, you can read my review on Storygraph.

Christmas Evil (1980) movie cover

Another thing I did during the timeless void this week was browse sites and read lots of things online. Here are some highlights, many of them are zines:

Creepy slim shape hovering over the Pringles aisle in a convenient store. The text reads: Your Result: pringle guy. he likes snacks and going out pretty tall too.

This entry wraps up my goal to post every week until the end of 2024 (started Dec 1). As predicted, it has gotten me in the mood for writing down my thoughts more often, even if I don't turn them into blog posts.

For 2025, I'll return to what I used to do which was make a month in review post. This structure will be a little better for me right now because it's a lot of energy to create more than one post a week, but way less energy to post more than once a month.

Happy New Year! Take care of yourself.

Gif showing animated fireworks in the backdrop to a Happy New Year banner and two cats wearing celebratory hats.

The below was made using Cinni's Globe Maker and then I posted it to Snapchat with the song and screenrecorded for you here.