Checking in – May 2023

There had been no post last month because I didn't manage to do much then. And also this month as well, but I feel like there should be some update, so here we go.

I have gone to my first doujin convention ever. It's basically like any other convention: lots of people and it's very hot, but there is an additional component of cosplayers everywhere. It's a bit weird but really it's all about buying stuff here so I haven't bothered to bring a camera and take pictures.

And yeah I did buy some stuff, mainly acrylic stands of various things. Some of these are quite affordable, and overall I got away only losing the equivalent of £20, including the price of the ticket coming in.

Somewhat surprisingly perhaps for those west of Istanbul though, it's not all anime; I've seen a bunch of South Park and Harry Potter things too, though it's not by any means the majority. Instead, the biggest majority to me feels like vtubers, which you might have heard of – if you haven't, they're basically people who stream but instead of using a camera on themselves they puppet a model specifically prepared for this purpose. It's the zeitgeist of the internet entertainment world right now, and the names involved can grow very large indeed. Several companies have made a ton of money "producing" (that being the technical term) the "talents" (ibid.).

And indeed, I have managed to find one or two that I like, which I have now made some effort to watch. However, streams take ages to watch and it's not easy to actually see a stream to the end (plus, some of them are only on Twitch, which has to be one of the least pleasant website to ever exist while still purporting to be attractive to a wide and general audience) so it's not actually something I can sustain for a long time and definitely not in a monetary sense, but it is quite fun.

Finally, I have managed to rearrange things in and around my desk so that there's now more space and less clutter on the desk surface. This is rewarding even though the actual change is fairly minimal.

That's about it right now. Hopefully the following month gives me the power to hunker down and Do Things.