digital hoard dump

basically this post is brought to you by the fact that i'm trying to not hoard so many of the images i save/screenshots i take while i'm browsing online and if i post it on my blog or put it in a zine i feel like i can delete it from my laptop. 

when i set up my new laptop with Linux i had to clear an external hard-drive and all that was on it was a folder from probably 15 years ago full of images i'd saved while i was browsing the internet. actors i liked, girls in nice outfits, quotes i enjoyed, drawings that inspired me. i just deleted the whole folder. 

it was (and still is) important for me to collect those things and i do like to keep a lot of stuff but for the most part i was looking through them thinking "why the fuck did i save that?" and i knew the folder had served it's purpose and i just deleted the whole thing without even looking at all of it.

and it felt really good and gave me a hard-drive to use for something i wanted to do now. and now is all we really have, right?

i've thought a lot lately about how doing the collecting, making the list, organising the pile, is an activity in it's own right for me. i find these types of activities satisfying and there doesn't need to be a next part, it is what it is and that's good.

(i'm sorry future me that's wishing i'd kept everything, it's actually for your own good)

bandcamp friday ~ mar '26

this bandcamp friday was four dungeon synth albums i've already listened to a lot so thought it was time to buy them, one which i haven't known for as long but was an instant love after i heard the first 20 secs of it and i don't actually know how to describe ICHI but i already know this album really well too.

Yearntale by Gladekeeper

 

Bubblegum Dungeon by Goblet Grotto 

 

More True Than Time Thought by Hedge Wizard

 

Neighborwoods by Hedge Wizard 

 

Dungeons and Dinos II by Primal Beast  (seriously the intro to this is so fun)

 

Maru by ICHI 

 this had a cd option available so i had to get that.  seeing ICHI perform in Yarmouth purely by chance a few years ago is still something i think about a lot, getting to own a physical copy of this album feels very special.

Yarco ~ feb '26

when we went to see Miffy we also obviously saw some of Yarmouth. i also went on a train for the first time in years and had a great time. 

whether you like Yarmouth or not is how i judge whether i like you or not. (joking) (maybe)

a couple of photos from our quick rush round the museum pre-Miffy. definitely need to go back for a proper look at everything.

i saw so much good stuff this day, not all of it photographed, it was very needed during a tough week towards the end of winter. yarmouth heals.

Miffy

we went to the Miffy exhibit at Time and Tide museum in Great Yarmouth and had a great time. here's a lot of photos :)

she's 70. she's perfect.

it was very much a Miffy exhibit but they did also have some of Dick Bruna's other work which was nice to see. he was so clever with so few lines. i love these bear bookends and that is a perfect drawing of a jacket.

original Miffy pencils! getting to see original drawings irl is always so special and i loved getting to see Miffy pencils and framed examples of the layered pieces with the transparent linework sheets over the colour. obviously Miffy's whole deal is being so clean and simple and getting to see the textures and layers of how she comes together was so interesting.

there's just something about being able to see actual pieces, not just prints. the texture of the pencil, the tiny fraction of a mm of space between the layered pieces. the realness of it. a print in a book is a great thing but getting to see originals does a different kind of special to the brain.

Brother Cadbearl was impressed too.

the hands at the bottom this sketch!

this tent set is one with the layers. a transparent sheet with the line-work and cut out pieces of craft paper underneath for the colour. you could just about see the space between the layers, magic.

these were actual models from the stop motion series. incredible.

a perfect owl and some (probably) bootleg Miffy's down on the seafront.

i am playing Stardew Valley. again.

this is my third farm and i've never gotten further than 4 days into spring year 2 but i have always enjoyed myself. we have an old man rat and when we're both going to be out of the house we put Gab Smolder's streams on for him to watch and he seems much happier than when he's left in silence and he's recently been watching her first playthrough of Stardew Valley and i was watching it with him and had a realisation.

i've never really played it as though it's a game. 

i've always just used it as a soothe, as a brain smoothing activity, something to switch off too and just crack those rocks open. if i saw a quest that said Sebastian wanted a sunfish i'd have been like, i'm not doing that i want to go in the mines.

i don't think there's anything wrong with that obviously, it's just a game. play it however it feels fun but watching Gab be so "proper" about it as a game made me realise i'd never treated it like that so i started a new game and yesterday evening i spent a whole in-game day trying to catch a sunfish for Sebastian.

it feels really different. rather than just focusing on the parts of this huge game that i find satisfying and doing them until i don't anymore i'm paying attention to what it's telling me to do. i feel more like there's a goal to what i'm doing each day rather than just making money for no reason and i'm enjoying it. i'm appreciating the game more too because i'm paying more attention to it. 

it's still to be seen if i get past spring year 2 this time but it doesn't really even matter.

bandcamp friday ~ feb '26

i'm making a conscious decision to be more on purpose with things. it's really cool to have access to so much stuff but i've found it means i'm briefly in contact with a lot of different things but i'm not spending much time with any of them, and i'd like to, so i'm gonna.

one way i'm doing that with music is to take advantage of bandcamp friday and actually buy some music and get to know the albums i buy. and i also love the internet of however many years ago where we just shared things with each other so here's a blog post of what i bought on bandcamp friday.

two of these are actually gifts from Will.

Mys & Frox by Faery Ring

 

Sylvania Quest! by Sylvania Quest!

i've been really enjoying dungeon synth for a while. there's a lot of variety and i love all the stories and art that come with the music. also it's fun to support just a guy doing a thing. 

what i bought for myself was the entire back catalogue from The Dream Eaters. 

i've been a big fan of theirs for a few years now and i could have just bought the albums but it just felt right to be a little fanatic about it and get everything. 

i fudge the published dates on here so i can look back at things chronologically even though i'm slow to post so it's actually a week until the next bandcamp friday. i've been enjoying listening to these albums and i already have my eye on a few things to pick up on the 6th.

 

little bits of january