This week in squirrels…

Summary

  • Merry Chryster ~
    • I don’t have a lot to say this week, but Merry Christmas, Solstice, Yule, and a few other things to those who celebrate.
    • I spent time with the family
  • Supporting Switchers
    • Lately, a lot more people in my circle have been making switches, like Windows to Linux and Spotify to Self-hosted.
    • I have been working my fuzzy tail off trying to support and help those people, and it’s felt really great.
    • While most of my non-weekly posts have been about self-hosting and buying music, I am diversifying to listening to music, daily driving Linux tips, and streaming on Linux
  • Working
    • I didn’t take the holidays off this year, so I actually spent most of this week working on cleaning up things at work. It’s kinda nice when it’s so quiet
  • Passings
    • This week, several people in my sphere passed away, so I may be feeling extra touchy. Of all the times to be hitting even more tragedies, this is a rougher time
  • Year Wrapped
    • A lot of services dropped their wrap, and while I don’t use a ton of services that do that, and what I do, I often have tracking turned off…
    • Bandcamp sent me its version of its wrapped, and I was floored when they sent me how much I spent on music this year. I knew it was a big number because I was rebuilding parts of my collection, but HOLY MOLEY. Wow. Ouch.
  • Health
    • Better?
  • Mental
    • Looking forward to getting past the holidays

Books

  • Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary Vol 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • The story kicks up a notch, and even though it still features a weird creeper stereotype, it also humanizes Kaya in some good ways. Also, it’s creepy af
  • This Monster Wants to Eat Me Vol 5 ⭐⭐⭐
    • The anime has now moonshot well past this manga, which poured some water on me
    • This volume is where all the big reveals happen, there is a ton of moping, and some time where we learn about the monsters a bit more
  • The Moon on a Rainy Night 8 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
    • Gorgeous art? Check. Drama around a girl being a picky princess? Also check. Character realizing she is gay? Check. Whole six pages dedicated to “screams in lesbian” moment? Check.

Music

  • Jane Remover’s “Revengeseekerz”
    • This one topped a lot of year-end lists. I can’t say it hooked me like some other people’s stuff, but I hear what people are saying when they call Jane Remover the current bar of hyper pop.
  • Miffle’s “goodbye, world!”
    • This popped up on a year-end list and has really found a spot for me as “most fun chill music” with its dreamy, warpy tape sound
  • Ninajirachi’s “I Love My Computer”
    • Another one on so many year-end lists, I had to run it back. While amazing EDM in general, when I sat down with the lyrics, it hit so, so, so much harder
  • Geese’s “Getting Killed”
    • I bought this out of sheer bullying into listening to it because like, who hasn’t talked about this album? If this were a CD, I would have traded it in at the used record shop by the end of the week. Not for me.

Reads and Videos

Quote of the Week

“As we enter the New Year, remember fear of making bad art is holding you back. Fear of people not liking your work is holding you back. Rejection is holding you back. You’ll make bad art, you’ll have people not like your work, and you’ll be rejected. Moving past it is half the job of being a creative.

@samanthamash.bsky.social