Early in the month, when I visited a mall and saw stores like Tokyo Hands and MUJI already putting out 2025 planners, I could clearly feel that 2024 was nearing its end.
Post Structure
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Input
Learning: books/novels/good articles, videos/podcasts, any format, anything that feels rewarding after finishing
Anime: new shows / old shows, TV season / movies, notes on what I watched
Others: movies, TV series, etc., put here -
Random Thoughts
Maybe I will write down whatever I’m thinking -
Output
Maybe a blog, but I’m not good enough, so maybe I have no output for a whole month (lol) -
Travel
If I went somewhere, I’ll jot it down. If not, then whatever -
Misc
Small things that don’t fit in the categories above
Input
Learning
Eloquent JavaScript
Welp. Didn’t study JavaScript this month (
はみだしの人類学 ともに生きる方法
I started this little book last year, read the beginning, and then completely forgot about it.
Recently I picked it up again and kept reading, treating it as Japanese study.
Some viewpoints in the book are pretty interesting. When I finish, I’ll整理 some notes and publish them.
Dug a new pit again (
Anime
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Watching
- 败犬女主太多了
Congrats on the finale. The production quality stayed high throughout.
Not perfect, but good enough. Recommended.
I didn’t quite understand Komari’s emotional shift in episode 11 (and I also didn’t fully get the conversation between the protagonist, Yanami, and Sosuke in episode 4).
Episode 12 is an original episode where the author “shows up”: basically a Toyohashi tourism promo. Animation quality maxed out, Yanami’s little expressions are cute, and Komari has exactly one line in this episode: 「し…死ね」 🤣
- 败犬女主太多了
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Paused for now
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恶魔的破坏 (DEAD DEAD DEMON’S DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION)
Abbreviated asデデデデ. The TV version is CR exclusive, started airing in May, and I almost forgot about it.
I’ve already watched the movies, so I don’t really want to follow the TV version, even if it has quite a bit of new content (
I’ll catch up after the TV plot surpasses the movies (catch-up list +1I saw comments on bgm saying the ending of the movie’s second part is original, and the TV version might follow the original manga plot.
No wonder I felt the movie’s ending was so warm…If I’m not satisfied with the TV ending, I’ll just treat the movies as the true ending -
义妹生活
Higher than expected. An art film. -
魔法少女与恶曾是敌人
Getting a bit tired of it.
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Dropped
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鹿乃子大摇大摆虎视眈眈
No motivation to continue. -
靠废柴技能【状态异常】成为最强的我将蹂躏一切
I’ve read the novel. The anime production is okay, but I’m not that interested anymore. -
這是妳與我的最後戰場，或是開創世界的聖戰 第二季
万策尽。 -
學姊是男孩
Watched two or three episodes. After the novelty wore off, I didn’t want to keep following ( -
杖与剑的魔剑谭
The plot is too dumb. Is this really by the same author as Danmachi? -
我要【招架】一切～反误解的世界最强想成为冒险家
Not interesting.
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Added to catch-up list, maybe I’ll watch later (copium
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物语系列
Too many previous works. -
小市民系列
Same author as Hyouka. Heard it’s pretty quiet. -
擅長逃跑的殿下
Heard Umehara team production is strong.
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Dropped after 1 episode
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疑似后宫
No plot. Boring. -
不时用俄语说真心话的邻桌艾莉同学
Well-made industrial sugar. The OP visuals are carefully produced, the ED is half-assed, and the plot is too boring. Can’t keep watching.Turns out the ED isn’t half-assed: it changes each episode. Still boring though, not watching.
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异世界自杀小队
Cheesy. Dropped after 1 episode.
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In the July season I only finished one show (败犬女主). Not sure how the October season will go.
Others
Recent TV/movies. I try not to spoil.
機動警察パトレイバー 劇場版
A 1999 anime movie directed by Mamoru Oshii.
The dialogue is a bit complex. I couldn’t understand a lot.
Plus I haven’t watched the Patlabor TV series, so I didn’t recognize a single character.
I was completely confused by the plot. It’s over.
Random Thoughts
Time
Recently I feel my mindset has changed a bit, especially toward time: more “selfish”. I want to protect time that belongs to myself.
I was lost for a while, struggled for a while, and squeezed out some clichés. I originally wanted to write them here, but unfortunately the space is too small, can’t fit it.
New pit: tentative title What kind of life do I want to live (at 2024) (a neta of Miyazaki’s film title).
This pit probably won’t be filled any time soon (
A Japanese student in Shenzhen was killed by a Chinese man
2024-09-18: A ten-year-old student at Shenzhen Japanese School was killed.
It’s heartbreaking. A life of only ten years ended like this.
By the way, 2022-09-18: during COVID in Guizhou, a transfer bus rolled over, killing 27 people.
I saw news on Twitter saying the boy was attacked in front of his mother, and the attacker only targeted the child and didn’t attack others.
I recall a harsh line: “People often bully the weak and fear the strong.”
The attacker’s motive? For any normal person who has lived in mainland China for a while with eyes open, it’s hard not to see it as the product of years of hate education by the Party-state.
An isolated case? Like I said above, we’re all Chinese, no need to pretend to be an outsider: whether it’s one rat turd or a pot of rat turds, everyone knows.
Impact? Imperialists ran away with their tails between their legs (taking foreign capital with them), while the Party-state marched from one great victory to the next.
After the anger comes helplessness and sadness. I don’t really want to say much.
After Dr. Li Wenliang died in 2020, I wrote a sentence: “No one is innocent.”
At the time it felt like an emotional outburst, condemning everyone with one stick, perhaps too extreme.
But I never deleted it. It’s still on the Kassadin’s Blog - About page.
This time I can repeat it again: “No one is innocent.”
The title of this section was originally
深圳日本人学生遇害, but it didn’t feel quite right.
After thinking, the short phrase遇害makes theperpetratordisappear from view and become invisible.
So I changed遇害to被中国男子杀害. It looks a bit wordy, but I think it’s more precise.
Output
Opened several new pits, but haven’t filled any of them (
Travel
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Went to an exhibition. The name was:
いわいとしお×東京都写真美術館
光と動きの100かいだてのいえ
―19世紀の映像装置とメディアアートをつなぐ
https://topmuseum.jp/contents/exhibition/index-4818.html
The name is as long as a Japanese light novel title
What was interesting is that there are lots of little things you can play with hands-on. Very participatory.
Seeing exhibitions offline is totally different from experiencing them through a screen.
The most impressive exhibit was 岩井俊雄 《時間層Ⅱ》 1985年.
When still, it’s a bit sanity-dropping. When moving, it feels so silly-cute.
Chemicals for developing film. The packaging is so interesting.
I also checked out another one: 今森光彦 にっぽんの里山.
Just a landscape photography show, split into four areas by spring/summer/autumn/winter.
Some photos were truly great. Some others made me think, “that’s it? I could do that too” (
Riverside Walk
The temperature dropped, so I can occasionally go for walks.
The temperature dropped, so I can occasionally go for walks.
Evening light is really good.
Misc
Planner
I got a 2025 planner. I also want to record why I write a planner.
What do I record in the planner?
Simply: what I did each day.
For example: watch anime, zone out, kill time, scroll videos, read, walk, eat, sleep, be a wage slave.
Why keep a planner?
At first I started recording because I felt my memory was too poor. I can barely recall a few things from two or three days ago.
But for last week, last month, last year… as time moves forward, memory blurs quickly. No matter how hard I try to recall, I can only remember a few fragments.
Sometimes it feels like something happened not long ago, but it’s actually weeks ago.
Sometimes I’m not even sure whether something happened at all.
So I can only write it down. Otherwise these trivial memories will probably be forgotten forever, like a part of the past time is completely missing.
After actually recording, I do feel a sense of reassurance: I know I can always flip the planner to confirm where I went, what happened, what I was doing.
Although in reality for these years, the number of times I review my planner is countable on one hand. Most of the time I’m too lazy to look back (
Which planner do I use?
For 2024 I bought MUJI’s planner. When I first bought it, it felt pretty good and basically met my needs.
But unfortunately I later visited Tokyo Hands and found a new world: so many different kinds of planners. I regretted buying the MUJI one.
But it’s already bought, so I just used it.
After waiting a whole year, it’s finally planner-buying season again.
This time I carefully selected and finally bought the NOLTY 「エクリ Plus B6」 series, product number 2313.
Pros of this notebook:
- Vertical timeline
I’m already used to a vertical timeline.
I saw products with a horizontal timeline, but they feel inconvenient. I don’t want to write vertically. - Latest time goes to 24:00
A timeline from 7:00 in the morning to 24:00 at night.
The MUJI one I use now only goes to 22:00, not enough for a night owl. Sure I could write below it myself, but it’s still extra trouble. - Minimal design, looks okay
The cover only has the recessed word2025. Simple and low-key.
The MUJI notebook is even more low-key: you can only see2024on the cover with reflected light.
The inner layout and formatting are also simple. Some other products are too flashy. - Nice cover texture
The cover is thin, light, and soft. Feels good.
The only downside so far: the pink cover is a bit hard for me to hold (
Personally I prefer the blue cover color in the same series, but the blue notebook’s inner pages use a horizontal timeline, which doesn’t meet my needs.
I looked left and right at the counter and realized the cover color and inner format are completely bound together. You can’t freely mix-and-match.
When I have money in the future, I’ll buy both: take the blue cover and the pink inner pages and combine them
Another seemingly famous brand is 「手帳は高橋」. I touched a few and felt the cover was too hard. Not only did it feel bad, but twice when I reached for a notebook on the shelf, I thought my fingers got cut.
Keeping my distance.
Cat Spay
Finally got the cat spay done after拖 for so long. I hesitated about having kittens first and then spaying, but I don’t have the time in the short term, so I just did it.
Pre-check plus surgery cost a bit over 50,000 yen, which seems normal. Female cats are around this price (male cats just need 10,000 yen for cutting the balls).
I specifically picked a pet hospital where the cat doesn’t need to wear an Elizabeth collar after surgery, so she can still groom.
Not long after the surgery, she was already lively as usual. No烦恼 after cutting. She became an eternal 17-year-old cute girl.
Closing
Read a bunch of web novels, didn’t study JavaScript, slacked for a month (
Happy time is about to end.