I liked Christmas a lot more than normal this year. Pretty much all I did was sit inside but it was still nice. I got to watch Eyes Wide Shut with my boyfriend and then I got gifted 2 games from one of my friends and I played one of them (Sam & Max Hit the Road) on call with some people and it was a lot of fun. I spoke to someone whose voice I hadn't heard since I lived in Charlotte while I was in middleschool. It was really a nice day. Most Christmases I've had since we moved back to the midwest about 4 years ago now have been pretty dull and sad. No one in our family really gives a shit about us and I don't have any friends I can go visit without driving out of state or getting on a plane. It was nice this year, I stayed up until 5 in the morning or so doing random shit like that. I didn't wake back up until 3 or so and I didn't see my grandma until 4. Some people might think of that as a kinda pathetic Christmas but it was better than most I've had the past few years
After that I got a nice present in the mail from my boyfriend. I got a tarantula plushie. It's the same kind as one I got from the zoo when I was a little boy. I lost it a long time ago but he got me one from the same company and sent it to me. I like him a lot he's so cute. I named him Terry. King Terry the Terrible Tarantula likes to sit on my cats and my socks. He's nice and soft, I like him a lot. Before Christmas I sent him a package with some stuff I figured he'd like. He got a teddy bear, some pecan cookies, a letter written in my own shitty handwriting, a funny rubber duck, some hello kitty stickers (his favorite is kerropi) and an evil eye necklace I got for him a while ago. I think there was a thing or two I might have forgotten but I dont really wanna think real hard to figure it out. It was so much fun to see him open his shit I loved it so so much. I wish I had enough money to send him things all the time
Today (December 30th, early December 31st) I wasted a lot of time I think. Some of it was fun but it felt kinda wasted. I spent some time trying to recreate the look of vintage photos through color balancing n shit but I don't think it turned out well. I'll show yall the start and what I ended up with. The original is on the left and the edited one is on the right if you couldn't tell.
I spent the day after that looking at old nature photography and took some screenshots for possible later use. It was enjoyable part of the time. I've been really into Boards of Canada lately, especially Geogaddi. It's such beautiful surreal music, it feels like its this music that comes from the subconscious that we all pull from as people. I can't fully explain what makes their music so special. I like some other electronic music but I think BOC's hauntological sound is the perfect embodiment of what electronic music is about, trying to move past the boundaries that instruments set for us. Their music feels very free, it explores ideas in a way that's very unique to the medium. The themes of nostalgia and decay are conveyed pretty well by the old samples and outdated synthesizers. The band has explicitly said they're trying to create a past that never existed which I find interesting. I've always found the way occultism and subliminal messages mix with the themes of nostalgia in their work to be exceptionally creepy. It gives Geogaddi in particular this connection that makes it a cohesive piece instead of a set of cool electronic songs