10-18-25 12:41 AM
(Diary entry #7) Pokemon romhacks, taking a break from art, discovering high fashion, new phone case, breakfast wins and Poptart fails
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Man, it's been so long since I've written a diary entry. I got pretty sick the other week which set me back for a couple days. I've also been taking a break from webdev and writing in general. Mostly just playing my 3DS again.
I started with a new Pokemon romhack called Heart & Soul; it's a hack of Heartgold and Soulsilver crammed into an Emerald decomp. Tbh, I haven't played a single Gen 3 game, so the assets are new to me lol. I had fun with it but it made me wanna get back into other romhacks, so I started a new Volt White save and I basically forgot about Heart & Soul for now lol.
I LOVE GEN 5 so much. Volt White is a great hack. I've played it before, but only for a couple hours. My current playthrough is around 4-5 hours now. I even injected some AR cheat codes. Getting that to work was a whole thing--I had to find an R4 DS cheat code editor, which of course was a .EXE. So I had to run it through Wine, but then none of the font worked, so none of the characters rendered, it was all just blank squares, even after I injected some winetricks fonts and some other fixes. In the end, I took a screenshot and put it into ChatGPT, which spit out the UI text. I'll make a proper "gamelog" blog post eventually with more info and screenshots.
It's been nice having "fun" lol. I feel like I turn most of my hobbies/interests into tasks/work/goals, which takes away the enjoyment aspect. I guess that's why I've drifted away from gaming recently. It's not a "productive" hobby.
Speaking of being productive, my professor is gonna be disappointed to see that I haven't worked on my art series AT ALL. Last week we had a mini "fall break", and the week before that I was sick. Before that we had a critique--it was really cool, and I got a lot of good feedback on my work.
But, y'know. I'm not a student anymore. I'm enrolled in practicum, which means I just sorta do whatever. That, on top of being sick and working etc, I think I just needed a break from art. Getting back into it after 5 years of not making any serious work, and jumping back into an academic environment, and working for 2-3 hour sessions twice a week, took a lot out of me.
I feel refreshed though, and I'm excited to start working on it again. I don't like the pressure of it being an "obligation" though. I've thought to work on it here and there, but idk--it just feels forced, and I don't want to force anything, because it's really obvious in my work when I'm not in the flow of things lol.
It was Jem's birthday this past Wednesday! We spent a lot of time talking, and then we watched some fashion runway shows on a random whim. Idk why. But I "get" fashion now lol. It's just art you wear--the shows we watched were really interesting too, lots of cool colors, shapes, textures, etc. Once I looked at it from an abstract perspective it just clicked for me.
The show that really blew us away was the Maison Margiela Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2024 runway by John Galliano. Just absolutely insane. Jem and I couldn't stop talking about it and what it meant, symbolized, etc. The atmosphere was just incredible. I want to rewatch it again, I feel like it needs a few watches to really absorb the designs and narrative and visual language.
I've also been watching a lot more overconsumption/minimalism/deinfluencing videos. And dumbphones. It's just so satisfying to me to see how other people "decentralize" their tech, and what devices they use to do so.
I'm in a LDR so I can't use a dumbphone. I thought that it would be a cool experiment to try and put some sort of "physical block" on my smartphone. It's so easy to pick up, unlock, and start scrolling (I am also trialing stuff like App Block atm).
I picked up a folding wallet case from Amazon, and it just came in tonight. Tbh, I'm surprised at how effective it is. I keep glancing at my phone, see that it's shut, and it's enough to make me stop and pause. The physical act of picking it up and "opening" it is like a little switch in my brain. Likewise, seeing it "closed" stops me from wanting to check stuff, etc. I think having that sort of literal physical boundary will be really helpful, in a way that having app blocks, timers, etc still doesn't stop me from just opening my phone. I wanna make a blog post about my phone setup sometime, too.
What else...idk. I feel like I've done so much, but also not that much. I went shopping today. I'm trying to be more mindful of my money. I spent a lot today which sucks--but it's stuff I've needed for a minute. Cat food (Marley and Charlie eat special prescription food), new heads for my electric toothbrush, etc. I also picked up a tripod for my phone/camera so I can start recording art stuff and 3DS gameplay, as well as a new candle for fall (Snickerdoodle Swirl <3).
I picked up some pumpkin pie Poptarts too. My coworker had them at work the other night and I tried one, and it was really yummy. Tonight though, they aren't hitting like they did then. I guess it's a flavor with a really short half-life. Too bad I've got 7 more packs to go lol...oh well. Next time I'll get smores or something haha.
Speaking of Poptarts reminded me about breakfast, which is my favorite meal of the day. I picked up some proper British Heinz Beanz from Kroger a couple weeks ago. I forgot HOW FUCKING GOOD THEY ARE!!! I love them sm!!!!! If you haven't tried any yet PLEASE do urself a favor and pick some up if you can find any!
Can't think of what else to write. Certainly, I am back into "pressuring" myself to try and be "productive". I'll take it as a sign to chill out and play my 3DS for a bit. :)
✘ Originally posted on — 10-18-25 at 12:41 AM
✘ Main site location — xavierhm.com/notebook