#07 - Treating myself kindly - 16/05/2025
Every day recently has been super warm and sunny. I'm definitely not complaining; with how the UK actually is at times, such as rainy or overcast with clouds, the sunshine is really nice to have. It's definitely hot outside and I definitely need to get protective cream for the sun and the increasing temperature when I have the chance. I say this mainly because I want to enjoy the sunshine and the temperature as much as I feasably can. Thing is, with my current circumstances, it's hard not to feel a little demotivated to go outside - I have no issue with the latter, it's more just having the energy to even get through my days sometimes, to keep a strong face on while I deal with some admittedly frustrating things that make me lose patience. So finding the right mood, energy, to get outside and enjoy myself is difficult. But it's not impossible. So that's why recently, when speaking with one of my partners, I said that i'd enjoy summer as much as possible, because I genuinely want to and I genuinely want to appreciate these things more. So appreciate I shall! Hopefully things look up a bit from here and i'll keep myself motivated.
On that note, I'll be spending the next week resting and spending time away from getting LSD Dream Emulator footage. I've gotten up to day 175 when it comes to the footage, but I figured that with the pace i'm going plus a few other reasons, I should rest and settle a bit. I've been having fun, certainly! The game is endlessly fascinating to me. But i've been getting headaches when it comes to the past two sessions i've had, and I also just want to not feel a bit fatigued in all senses when it comes to the game. Thus, in addition to wanting to pace myself, i'm treating my recording sessions with a healthy mindset and resting. I've been giving myself the occasional two day or one day breaks, but a week is in order I feel for rest. I've decided recently that I'll be treating myself and a few other things to do with me and my crafts with a lot more tact, a lot more care, and this decision is an effect of that choice. So, rest it is! Just for a week though. After all, I can't pry myself away from the game forever. Not that i'm implicitly trying to do so, but, yknow, it's a game that's on my mind. Sometimes at night, I get a random idea about the script that I've yet to write and i jot it down in my phone's notes app. I think it's safe to say that I'm brainrotted by it.
But hey, not a bad thing~
Starting off my rest, I decided to get myself a bottle of cola and put my feet up while catching up with some Lucky Star episodes. A lot of people don't really know this side of me but i'm a huge enjoyer of old anime, partially thanks to the influence of my sisters. They grew up with a lot of this stuff and are super tech savvy when it comes to finding this stuff, and it lead to a lot of crossover in our tastes in anime as I'd follow them like a shadow. I was always immensely fixated on whatever they had interest in, or what they glanced over with some sense of curiosity. While I admit that I was WAAAAY too young to be watching anything like Clannad, for example, when I was nine or ten, I was incredibly fixated on it and still am because of that choice. Being kind and aware as they are, they kind of ensured i'd never be exposed to anything horrendous when I was a kid in that sense, so Clannad being one of the first anime I had interest in out of a sense of my own choice was something that I'm glad that they, while they didnt directly influence, influenced to extents, if that makes sense. But anyway, Lucky Star! Funnily enough, my early memories of it are faint - the opening theme is what sticks with me, being on an mp3 player my sister gave me when I must of been around...nine or ten, probably nine. It's got an infectiously energetic sound to it, and when I did get glimpses of where it came from, I found it so interesting. But actually watching the episodes on and off over the years and doing a dedicated watch this year, Lucky Star is immensely comforting to me. I'm not sure what it does per se to make it so comforting in that sense, but there's a lot of relatability when it comes to the simple conversations that Konata, Kagami, Miykui and Tsukasa have. Stuff like the cornet conversation linger with me because it's just so wonderfully human, simple, and silly. But the anime can be so ballistically random in a way that's so kyoto-animation, that you cant help but smirk a little. Like, the random Initial D reference in like...episode six, I think(?), caught me offguard and made me chuckle a bit, because it was genuinely accurate to Initial D. But in general, it's simplicity is why it's so endearing to me. I had friends like this, back in places like my first and moreso my second high school. Unfortunately, they werent really fully like these four in the anime, who could run with jabs or compliments and make fun banter out of it. But, it is what it is.
My friends currently, especially the group chats or servers im in, are much like these four. It's no wonder why im so comfortable.
But I love Lucky Star dearly. Gonna keep watching these episodes when I get the chance; they're genuinely great to wind down from the day with, and I will always vouch for how good this anime and Lucky Star generally is. Old anime feels comfortable to me. It's made with love. Not saying new stuff isn't, but it's hard not to feel a little like it's HARDER to find new stuff that has the same level of comfortability and quality to it like Lucky Star does.
It's all just a vibe. Makes me happy.