41 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
41 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
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title: "Vibe Check #10"
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date: 2023-02-03T07:16:41Z
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slug: 2023-02-03-vibe-check-10
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author: Thomas Wilson
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---
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Everyone everywhere says last year flew by. Contrarian by nature, it 2022 felt like it took about a year. January 2023, however, felt like it took about a week. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks being a more eventful, more different, and (hopefully) passing a little more slowly.
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January is my birthday month, and so one of the best months. I had a great birthday, by the way. I took the day off work, made myself an almond orange drizzle cake (_dangerously_ good, thanks Anna Jones), and played a new board game. It's nice to take a day to oneself.
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**Music and Film Recs**
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- [Never Going Under, Circa Waves](https://songwhip.com/circa-waves/never-going-under) (Album, Indie Rock, 2023). I think I'm going through my indie rock phase, and that's cool.
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- [30, Adele](https://songwhip.com/adele/302021) (Album, Pop, 2021). There's so much to love in this Album, Adele's just a great artist.
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- [Take Off Your Colours, You Me At Six](https://songwhip.com/you-me-at-six/take-off-your-colours) (Album, Pop Punk, 2008). This album holds up to what sixteen year-old me loved.
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- [The Menu](https://letterboxd.com/film/the-menu-2022/) (Film, 2022). This film popped up in a few (non-movie) podcasts I listen to as something you should watch, and that it's best watched with no prior knowledge. I'm very glad I watched it.
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**Photography.** In December I rediscovered my enjoyment of photography. That's carried into this month. I cracked out my mirrorless camera, and bought an instant camera. I went for the [Fujifilm SQ1](https://instax.com/sq1/en/). I try not to get too lost in deep research over new-ish hobbies, in case I drop it four weeks later.
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The Instax Square film is a good size, unlike some of the other Instax ones, and didn't hit the £1.80/shot price tag of a Polaroid. It comes in at at about £0.60 / shot (that's 33% of the cost of Polaroid).
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I wanted to make an effort to capture the smaller every day moments of people, places, and things that make up daily life. Because one day I will look different and live somewhere else. I wish I had more photos of the everyday life of being a student, or even living in London.
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I like that you get one photo. Despite being only £0.60/shot, that's extortion to the cost of the iPhone camera. Did you blink, or move, or get the framing wrong? Is it *really* worth the extra shot, and the waste of throwing one away? Is the photo bad, or are you just not happy with it?
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I'm experimenting with putting these in journals and displaying them in a grid photo frame ([this one](https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1228774146/instax-square-multi-aperture-wooden), to be precise). I want the photos to be a living thing, part of life. But I want them to be preserved, not crumpled and faded. At very least I'd like them at the wedding (2024).
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**Sewing.** I've also been busy learning to sew trousers, and how to use an overlocker. I've had some wildly varying results on the trousers. I made a toile (too narrow) which I adjusted (just right), then made a pair of simple cotton twill trousers, finding the whole thing rather too big: the waist 2" too wide and the seat 1/2" too low. *oh well*, they're still definitely trousers. I'm currently working through my first proper wool project (a grey-tan), paired with a lovely dusty salmon mosterra leaf print pocketing.
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**Other Projects.** The creative ghost of new year ran through me this month, and I managed two make *two* little projects:
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- [Oddbox Noifier](/blog/2023-01-12-2023-01-12-little-project-oddbox-scraper) - a scheduled web scraper that notifies me of my Veg Box's contents via e-mail.
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- [Sunrise, Sunset?](/blog/2023-01-30-sunrise-sunset) - a daily game where you have to guess if a picture is sunrise or sunset.
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Something I found helpful when building these things was telling myself that I can only work on them for ten (non-consecutive) days. Time-bounding work is important, but I hate how much that could look like deadlines working.
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Whatever, I shipped some fun little side projects that made my life more joyful. Ain't that the whole point?
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