First Quarter – 2025

The earth is awakening. What a relief.

What have I been up to?

Some things I did

On February 16th, I published Music – A Heavy Metal VHS. This was a digitisation of an old VHS tape that my brother & I had used to record music videos back in the day. The full archive includes time codes for the different songs, stupid quotes, and out-of-context movie clips.

The VHS cassette Sales appeal styling

Then, on February 21st, I released MOOD, or A Martian Anabasis, a very silly .wad for Doom (1993) where you play through the entire game in reverse order. Ostensibly, it was a way to learn about Doom editing, albeit somewhat cheekily.

MOOD cover art Big mood

Things slowed down a little after that.

Some things I’m doing

Ever since botsin.space was shut down, I’ve been considering what to do with my own little creations. Ultimately, I offloaded that thought process to other, smarter people, and decided that migrating to mastodon.social would be Good Enough. In the process, I figured I might try mirroring them to Bluesky as well.

More on that in a future post (when I actually finish the translation & migration), but it’s been enjoyable: I’m converting my scripts from JavaScript to Python; and running the apps myself(ish), instead of employing a weird circuitous loop of having Google Scripts regularly ping a Glitch app; so there’s been some learning & creativity involved. Anyway, again, more later.

Some places I went

Early in February, I visited my family in Halifax. We caught only my second game of the Halifax Mooseheads, which was fun.

The centre ice billboard in a hockey rink, announcing MOOSE WIN MOOSE WIN

On February 28th, I saw Flore Laurentienne at St. James United Church downtown. I didn’t know FL prior to this, but my friend correctly clocked that it was my kind of music, & I couldn’t say no to the venue. It was sublime.

A band of synthesisers, string insturments, organs, and a drum kit, playing a concert in the choir of a dark church Revelation

Afterwards, as we made our way to the metro, my friend noticed a side entrance to le 9e, the recently-excavated and -renovated top floor of the Eaton Centre; once a swinging dance hall in the 1930s, now a swinging bar, restaurant, and reception hall in the 2020s.

A slim martini glass I wasn't going to come all this way to not have a martini

A reception hall with art deco lines, and a wall mural Harking back to the Art BioShock movement

Just the following week, on March 8th, we also went to the Wolf Parade show at Bar le Ritz PDB. Seeing that band, in that venue, was a little surreal—very much a throwback to fifteen years prior. That was a different life. I also learned about (and met a few of) the Wolf Parade fanclub (wolfies? wolf pack?), who’ve been following the band across the world for almost two decades. Wild.

A wall mural near Jarry metro. Not near the show per se, but it was part of the evening. Wall art

Bathroom graffiti: full gay weed communism now Do what it says

Wolf Parade playing at Bar le Ritz. Surreal. This heart's on fire

Finally, sneaking in at the very end of the month of March, c’était le temps des sucres. I was lucky enough to catch a good maple season, and head out to la Sucrerie de la Montagne for a delicious sugar shack meal with some of my oldest buddies, & their families. I think a Regular Human Body can (should) only do this once a year, but it was a blessing.

A full breakfast plate of meats, mashed potatoes, tourtière, omelette, baked beans, and condiments. If you insist

Frozen maple syrup twisted onto a popsicle stick I was already too full but I'm not going to miss some tire s'a'neige

A cabin among the trees, many of which have maple buckets attached, all under a fresh blanket of snow Absolute picture of a day for it

Some media I enjoyed

Early on, I read The Memory Palace, by Nate DiMeo. Like the podcast, it’s heartwarming, heartbreaking, melancholy, & inspiring, in reasonably-sized portions.

Otherwise, I’ve been stuck reading some real hefty volumes—e.g., 1Q84 (which I’m choosing to pronounce as “Qteen Eighty-Four”)—so my velocity’s been a little down, but I’m looking forward to cutting back into my TBR pile soon.

Video games… well, I managed to finish both Star Wars: Jedi: Survivor and Riven. The former was enjoyable, though the environments felt a little contrived. I imagine that’s the challenge with a AAA, photo-realistic, open-world Castletroid/Metroidvania… the game-mechanical gates start to stand out a little when everything is purely representational, compared to the more metaphorical visual language of lower-fidelity games. Anyway, who doesn’t enjoy vmm-vmm-vmm’ing a lightsaber around.

Riven: the Remake of Riven: the Sequel to Myst was incredible. My heart goes out to a very special group of people, who made something enduring & endearing.

Screenshot of the golden dome on Temple Island Sigh.

I’m also slowly getting back into TotK, mostly as a podcast game, with the goal of actually finishing it, finally. And I really enjoyed the demo for Skin Deep during Steam Next Fest! Promising little thing, shot right up near the top of my wishlist, with a bullet.

Miscellaneous

On February 11th, while grabbing something at the dep, I saw a display of Cherry Blossom chocolates by the cash. Since I’d heard that the treat has been discontinued, I decided that this was my last chance to say goodbye.

One of my earliest memories is of my mum buying me one of these things. Unfortunately, it was too big for my toddler mouth, and when I only managed to take a small bite out of it, the cherry syrup got everywhere. I was very confused, and harboured a lingering resentment/fear of the Cherry Blossom for years afterwards, until rediscovering them, maybe around when I first moved out.

Anyway, it’s been a long road with these absurd sweets. I don’t think I’m going to miss them, but I’m going to miss them.

The Last Cherry Blossom

And that’s it for the first quarter of 2025! I don’t have social features on this site, so leave a comment in your heart.

♥🖖