Journal / Reflections, Ramblings and Reading
Reflections, Ramblings and Reading - 01/20/2026
So I guess ive been reflecting on my site as of late. I feel like i have learned, and seen a lot more of what my site can look and feel like. At least to when I first started. I also have gotten a lot more foot traffic then I thought I would when I entered a contest for my site. Which is cool of course don't get me wrong! I just never really expected to even get more then 300 views or so to be quite honest. I dont think I even really planned to spend this much time on my site either. Plus it being the new year, its always creates a space in which your reflective I suppose. I always find myself reflecting after the year ends more. December can be quite a busy month, So January leads me to just have more time to myself as well.
I never really made any new years resolutions. However, I keep finding new ones to do. For one, I have started reading again. I used to read all the time in middle school, and it was the one thing I really prided myself on. I never suffered from "gifted kid" burnout growing up - math was really hard for me, I had trouble spelling even basic words, my writing was difficult to read as well, and I never learned my times tables. I think reading was really the only thing I didnt stuggle with. I think art and reading were really my only two things I felt a bit prideful of. When i entered high school though I kinda stopped reading for fun. Maybe the rise social media and the smart phone may have been partly at play. But I don't really like have a concerte memory of me like giving up reading persay. Its just a hobby of mine that I kinda lost. So It's really been a joy picking up and reading again. Its not really even that I started reading in 2026 - I have a earlier journal entry talking about it if you scroll down bit in 2025. But i guess now since its 2026 I have made the offical new years resolution to read! I just finished the book "Howl's Moving Castle", and I really enjoyed it!
Kinokuniya
When my cousins were visiting me and my family, we went to Mitsuwa Marketplace in the suburbs - its a really big grocery store, but it also has a food court, and other small vendors. Inside Mitsuwa is a book store called Kinokuniya. Its a bookstore that has anime, books, stationary - from japan. My cousins are really into anime so they really wanted to go check it out. Ive been to Mitsuwa many times, and now that I live in chicago, its not really as novel to me as it used to be - but I thought it would be cool to check out the book store. Plus my mom wanted to make ramen for the family, so I needed to go to get ingredents for that.
At the store I bought a few things. An Art book by the illustrator Mateusz Urbanowicz titled: Toyko Storefronts - The Artworks of Mateusz Urbanowicz which I didnt realize I bought it at the only us store that sells it :o!
If you (the reader) didnt already know, I do a lot of watercolor paintings, so i thought it would be a good idea to get a nice art book with watercolor illustations as inspiration and also guidance for my own practice. I really like art books as well, its something
I want to build a large collection of. I think it would be cool to have enough to have a mini library one day. I was always frustrated when i would go to my local library and there were like no art books at all! An additional bonus thing as well is just discovering this artist.
I feel like its only social media where I find new artists, so its just cool to find an amazing watercolor artist in a bookstore of all places! His site that I linked before is also a good resource as well, I will def being checking that out more as well.
I also got Frieren Beyond the Journey's End- Book 1 & 2 - story by Kanehito Yamada and art by Tsukasa Abe. There were more books then that, but I didnt want to get all 9 books before making sure I liked reading the first 2. I also don't want to spoil the most recent season to myself haha (also the books are 11.99 each ;-;). Season 2 just came out!
The last book I got was Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynee Jones. One of my favorite movies is Howl's Moving Castle,
and I thought it would be fun to read the orignal book! reading the book, it was kinda funny to find out how many creative changes the movie had made. For one, in the movie, Sophie's sisters are just a footnote - barely having any plot relvance at all.
where in the book, both the sisters are much more fleshed out and actively contribute to the plot. Also, some how howl is even more meledramatic and moody then in the movie omg. its so funny. Sophie is also really sassy and bossy in the best way. The story
its self is also just very different. I still really like the movie, dont get me wrong, but I actually think i like the book even more to be honest!
I might honestly re-read the book again, and the movie and write a more fleshed out post comparing the the two.
Diana Wynne Jones has also written over 40 books, so I do want to check out other stories that she has written. I also just found out there are 2 additional books in howl's moving castle, so that is on my reading list. Maybe I need to make book list. I already have a movie list on my phone. I think it might be cute to move over my watch list to my site at some point. Maybe with a table, so I can like add my thoughts about the movie too.
Reading to avoid doomscrolling
A big theme of my life recently has been slowly reducing the amount of time I spend doomscrolling. Reading has been a great outlet for that. I think eventually I want to delete my instagram tbh. I don't really feel a reason to use it now that I have my site. I also want to get rid of tiktok too. As much as its fun to stay on top of memes and trends, I just really have hit a breaking point. Ive been using social media since I was 13 years old, and I used to really enjoy it! but now im sick of it. It didnt feel also so consuming and attention draining. I mean doomscrolling wasn't even a term when i was high school! However, i also realize that so many events, news, and artists primary use social media to inform. I tried to find a way to subscribe to two different event site, and neither even have news letters anymore! Its all social media. Very frustating. I think the only social media I might keep is facebook. It kinda feels the oldest and takes up the least amount of time in my life lol. Also is the most web friendly social media site compared to instagram and tiktok.
Writing this took me down a rabbit hole, and now I want to explore even more from Mateusz Urbanowic and Diana Wynee Jones. Im really happy I brought theses books!
ok bye!! thanks for reading my journal today :)