Things have been a bit all over the place since my last post. Some of it was being busy with projects, and a lot of it was personal. I'm not sure what it is about autumn that tends to bring a lot of personal troubles with it, but that's how it is. I haven't even had the energy or focus to take notes on things, so this post is likely to be a bit scattered and short. Apologies.
It took a while, but I finally got started on the process of turning the site into a PHP-driven site. Things started with an already visible change: If you refresh on the front page, you'll see the adjective in my name changes. This is the very first thing I used to test PHP on the site. Following that, things have been a bit slower. Taking, uh, inspiration from another site's code, I started writing a lot of bits and bobs for this one, though most of what's written is more like placeholder code at this point, much of it completely non-functional. Everything has been a little held up by indecision on exactly how things are supposed to work and lacking knowledge of how to accomplish certain things. Notably, I've been on the fence about templating, wanting to roll-my-own as a learning exercise. However, after thinking it over, I believe I've resolved to switch to using Twig, an external dependency that will simplify the matter. The fact of the matter is that I can't write anything nearly as functional and robust on my own, so it's better to just go with a solution that works. It's a slightly frustrating turn, but I'd rather have a site than not. That said, this post is still being written with the old Cobalt-based workflow.
THP stuff has been on the slow side. I've been largely inattentive to what's been going on, and it generally appears that little has happened in that span of time, anyway. The outer communities are fairly quiet day in and day out, and I'm fine with that after some of the events of the year. What's regrettable is that Pantomime of Youth, after continuing for a bit, seems to have petered out again for various reasons. It's understandable, given a lot of things I know, but it is regrettable, considering it was one of the few things I was looking forward to every day. Perhaps that absence is what's spurred me to keep working on ToY side projects for my own thread Scribbles of Youth, started to contain a couple of pieces I'd written in tribute. Incidentally, I also wrote an epilogue for Draft Records on a spur of the moment whim, drawing about as much notice as you'd expect; I was a bit annoyed at one 'reply' in particular that consisted of largely self-centered rambling that didn't even engage with the substance of the story, and I came close to telling them off for it. Even if it's not the most rewarding thing beyond some very kind words, I'm at least reasonably satisfied with it and can consider Draft Records basically done, for better or worse. There have been various attempts at projects that have had work on and off over the year that I could work on, but I'm not that sure about most of them. Right now, I'm just continuing to work on an already lengthy ToY story and finding what respite I can in working on it.
This latter end of the year mostly saw me binging particular anime series, partly out of nostalgia, or at least a sense of looking back at a period of time I was largely inattentive. I'd seen some of the Monogatari series, of course, but not very much. Trying to keep up with its somewhat convoluted and sprawling series proved to be more than I could bear when it was far more of a work-in-progress. The series having generally come to a 'conclusion' in its 'overarching plot', it's a little more palatable to experience at this point, and I spent a lot of time watching all of the various anime available. I won't say that it's great as a whole, but it's at least a fairly entertaining series, with moments that sometimes sidestep the worst clichés and tap into actual human emotions. In certain ways, the same can be said for Konosuba, a series I've been rather harsh on in the past. The thing is that I loathe 'isekai' as a general... thing. Yes, ironic, considering THP's origins, but it's nevertheless something I find myself generally allergic to. That said, Konosuba, taken as just a silly fantasy series that happens to have an isekai premise, is... fine. I won't say it's a work of art, but I'd say that, unlike similar series, it's a series that knows what it wants to do and does it. I can respect that. Besides that, having rewatched the first two series and watched the film and most of the third series, I've had a few good laughs. I do think the degree to which it takes itself seriously towards the latter end of the third series is a bit laughable, but it is what it is, and it's all kind of subverted by the end, anyway.
To cap things off, I guess I'd say everything continues, as always, to be a continuing process of chipping away at things as attention, energy, and mood allow. I've at least had slightly fewer health-related issues in this part of the year thus far, even if my overall state of mind isn't exceptionally productive and hasn't been for a while. I can't say I hold high hopes for anything in the near future, much less the coming year, but I'm trying to keep a stiff upper lip, regardless. Rather than retreating, now is the time to hold fast, and hold fast I'm trying to do. That means that brilliant displays of progress aren't likely any time soon, but I will simply be hanging in there and doing what I can as steadily as I can. Perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised in the future. Mostly, though, I kind of just want things to be fairly boring and steady. Until next time, in 2026.