It’s already near the end of the year? Sheesh, alright. This year has been going really fast and I’m having a hard time processing it. Now we’re in the middle of spring and my nose is absolutely hating it, I’m feeling a bit congested and it’s especially bad at night, ugh. October as a whole went by fast, but several things did indeed happen. Let’s talk about them, shall we? Please keep in mind that this post has a lot of pictures, so allow some time for them to fully load.

In general, this month felt uneventful and eventful at the same time, it’s weird. Going in, I didn’t expect it to go as well as September, which did go surprisingly well honestly. So how did October treat me? Well, not too poorly, aside from the expected allergies. I did have a bit of a hard time staying productive at work (I’ll touch on this more in just a sec, please bear with me), but overall I have been feeling a bit more willing to take my usual walks. I swear the shoes I’m wearing are not very good for walking for extended periods of time, my feet are absolutely sore once I come back home. There have been occassions where I did feel a bit down thinking about all the things going on around me, and I have serious doubts about my future. But of course, I just have to keep going no matter what life decides to throw at me. And at the very least, my mental state isn’t as fragile as it was during the winter, so I’m calling that a win.

On the 11th, I went out with a friend downtown. We see each other practically every month, and of course October is no exception. This time, we decided to have lunch at a Korean restaurant once again, but in another location. Apparently, it was a Chinese-Korean resturant at first when it opened in 2000, but with the rise of the so-called Korean wave, they leaned more towards it being Korean. I ordered this big tray of fried chicken and some fries. They were pretty good, but I struggled to finish it with how large the portion was. My friend instead got some kind of beef soup. After we left, we went to a Korean café that was nearby. My friend ordered some kind of dragon fruit juice, while I went with a standard matcha latte. It was good, but they got a bit carried away with the ice.

And finally, we went to a museum, which had an exposition all about urban and natural landscapes from around the country, mostly from the early to mid 20th century. We had a great time together and the weather was quite nice, it was sunny but not overly hot. Here are some pictures from said museum trip, click on them to enlarge.

This month I also had the responsability of taking my sister to school, normally it’s my mom’s ex who has to do that, but he had to go through some kind of surgery and thus he had to rest for an entire week. I have mentioned in the past that I don’t enjoy doing this one bit, but at least this time I didn’t have that hard of a time with it. She didn’t cry at any moment and didn’t make much of a fuss. I guess kids just become more tolerable the older they are. Despite how hectic that was, it was a pretty relaxed week not having that noisy ass dude around for once. I still need to get my health checks, I need to go to the dentist and I also need to go to the doctor again to clear some things out. And I’ll finally enroll at a gym because I really need it, and I do mean it this time. I’m so disappointed in myself for not having done it sooner.

There was a rather strange event that happened to me on a Sunday, though. I was just minding my own business when an older dude approached me and said something along the lines of, “hey, go tell your dad about a specific matter”. I was… confused and I just went “huh?” To which the dude said, “yeah yeah, you tell your dad about that”. But I still insisted I had no idea what he was talking about, but he remained confident that I should do what he told me to do, to which I replied, “you might be mistaking me for someone else because I don’t know who those people are”. But he insisted and asked for my mom’s name, which I refused to answer… and only then he gave up. I don’t think he had ill intent, he just thought I was someone I wasn’t. Still weird as hell, though.

And next, let’s talk about two random topics that have been bothering me lately. I might not make too much sense since I was tired as hell when I wrote this, but I hope it’s understandable enough.

This year has been really strange when it comes to staying motivated to do the things I like, and even my obligations. I’ve been struggling to get myself motivated enough to learn new things, going put for walks, and perhaps the thing that worries me the most, work. I don’t get why this happens to me, and especially now that I should be on my way to learning how to use Vue, a framework that’s used for making web apps and that my boss asked me to learn, as I’ll eventually be integrated into the main team. I’m honestly not too sure if I can put what I’ve been learning into practice, I feel so behind in that area.

I don’t know what it is, but while I do want to learn and eventually put that in practice, I just don’t feel that motivation that I should be feeling when I’m doing all this, I’m struggling to memorize key concepts and I’m often pretty damn lost on what I’m doing. I might just not have the best approach to learning, which y’know, fair. All I know is that I’m going at it really slowly, I know I can grasp the basic things just fine and I can tell it’s not super difficult. Even still, I feel like a complete idiot and I’m trying to do things at my own pace, slow as it may be. I do worry that I will get fired if I don’t fully learn it once it’s time to put those skills to the test. I don’t have a lot of faith in myself, honestly.

Then there’s the thing about walks, I’ve been doing it far less lately. I could blame that on my laziness, but a big part of it has to do with how the world is changing around me. I’ve been seeing so many places become these highly urbanized areas and it bothers me way more than it should, and it’s worse in some places than others. In fact, an area close to a mall I used to frequent is now flooded with tall apartment buildings… it’s quite the eyesore, if you ask me. And I feel bad for the people who live in the nearby houses, it’s just so annoying to see what the cities are becoming. Almost like these goddamn businessmen have a concrete fetish or something. I know it seems like a weird thing to complain about, but it bothers me enough that it makes me lose motivation to go to the places I used to frequent.

Really, I feel rather burned out and I’m not sure how to get out of it. I feel like I need something to boost my morale and I’m still trying to figure it out. But I’ll try to do my best, hard as it may be. I might even need a break, but I don’t know… it’s complicated. And I need to get this sorted as soon as possible, before it gets on the way of my life.

I’ve been on the internet since I was little, but I didn’t have any social media accounts of my own until my teen years. Up until a few years ago, I didn’t really question how a lot of platforms I use come from the US, and thus it’s very common to find people from that country. Of course, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, I’ve met a lot of great folks from the US, I’m even friends with a lot of them. But now I’m seriously starting to get tired of how US-centric the internet is. I’m tired of Americans thinking they’re at the center of the world, or how they think every issue that happens to them somehow affects all of us around the world.

I love you guys, I really do. I am fascinated by many aspects of American culture, and maybe someday, once all the nonsense going is over with, I might consider visiting. But man, you guys are so fucking loud. Especially when it comes to things like politics or whatever important event happens over there, even if it’s something that has absolutely no bearing on my country, I simply don’t care what you guys do. You might just say, “you can just ignore it”, but that’s easier said than done when every social media site assumes you’re American, and you’re being thrown all of their nonsense your way regardless of where you live. While this isn’t exclusive to the US, it seems like everything, regardless of whether or not it happens in the US, is something you blame on politics. The right, the left, diagonals, whatever the fuck– like, stop dude. And I hate their superiority complex, they act like their country is perfect despite its very obvious and dumb flaws that are non-issues in most parts of the world.

I’m not sure if it’s because I never thought about it, but I swear the internet felt more global as of a few years ago. It seemed like people from every part of the world would be out there, and even in my Google+ I didn’t really see too many US-centric posts and such. It seems like after the US elections in 2016, everyone became rather polarized and only began to voice their opinions more and more. And because Americans are the majority, all of us have to listen to them, whether we want to or not. This is a big reason I ended up quitting sites like Twitter/X or Bluesky, it’s practically impossible to escape that in those sites, even if you turn on a bunch of filters or block people. They’ll just keep popping up.

Point is, I’m just tired of how everything is so US-centric nowadays. Again, I don’t hate the US or Americans in any way, I just think I’ve reached a point where it all gets super tiring and I simply don’t wanna hear about anything that happens there. I do like learning about the US and how diverse their people are, but only if I consent to it. Or if you’re my friend, I give you a free pass in that case.

Man… I’m a bit hesitant to show you all what I got this time. But fuck it, I’ll do it anyway, starting off with the phones. Once again, a whole lot of Nokias and some Motorolas. Those just so happen to be the most common brands in my country, it’s not that I have a preference for them in particular. And if you’re wondering how I can afford them, well, they’re usually no more than 5 bucks.

1. Ericsson CF678 (1998): I couldn’t find too much info on this guy. As of now it doesn’t turn on, but it seems like I might be able to rebuild the battery. It’s not on the best shape, but it’s a fine addition to my collection either way. I always had a soft spot for these older Ericsson phones. Made in the USA.
2. Nokia 5190 (1998): The American version of the popular 5110, which runs on the 1900MHz GSM band. It’s in pretty decent shape given the age of this phone, but sadly as of now, I can’t say if it works or not since the battery is completely dead and refuses to charge. I’ll have to buy a replacement online and see if it turns on. Made in South Korea.
3. Nokia 8260 (2000): A version of the 8210 that ran on AMPS/TDMA networks, being one of the smallest phones you could get at that time. It’s seen better days and the front is pretty scratched up, but it does work. Although I have to use a battery from another Nokia in order to power this one up, the one that came with it was completely dead. Made in the USA.
4. Nokia 2272 (2004): A very basic phone that ran on the CDMA network, operated by a carrier that no longer exists. It was being sold by a guy who had several other phones from the same carrier, and I do wonder how he got them. Either way, it’s in great shape and it works perfectly fine. Made in Brazil.
5. Motorola SLVR L6 (2006): Another basic phone and the lowest end from the SLVR series of slim candybar phones. It’s a bit worn down in spots and it only charges when plugged into my computer, but it seems to function just fine. Also made in Brazil.
6. Motorola Q11 (2008): This was Motorola’s last phone with Windows Mobile before going all in with Android. It turns on, but the screen has a circular spot on it and it’s missing the back cover. Yet again, made in Brazil.
7. Nokia 5230 (2009): A cut down version of the 5800 XpressMusic from the year before, it notably lacks Wi-Fi. It was also one of the cheapest touchscreen smartphones from back then, and it sold really well, at over 150 million units. This one works fine and it’s in decent shape, although the ports do have a bit of corrosion. Made in Mexico.
8. Motorola MotoKey XT (2011): A basic feature phone with a QWERTY keyboard. It does actually turn on, but the only battery I have that works with it is too thick, thus the back cover doesn’t fully close. And that back cover has seen better days, too. It’s also super slow. Made in China.
9. Nokia Asha 303 (2011): Yet another QWERTY feature phone, although this one is quite a bit better. It’s the successor to the Nokia X3-02 that I showed off back in May, with a similar design language. I was told it didn’t turn on, but after plugging it in, it did in fact work. Only problem is that the camera lens is missing, but that’s really the only issue it has. Also made in China.
10. Motorola Motoluxe (2012): A basic Android phone, there isn’t much to say about it really. It was absolutely disgusting when I found it though, it was covered in something sticky and I’m not sure what it was. It cleaned up pretty good and it’s in okay shape, with the usual wear and tear. Unsurprisingly, made in China.

And here are three phones I was able to get running again:

1. iPhone 2G (2007): I don’t think I need to tell you just how influential this phone was. Now, this one never came out in my country, but somehow I found one at a flea market last year. It was quite a pain to get it repaired, I ended up buying some parts from AliExpress, one of which broke as soon as I took it out of the packaging and had to ask for a refund. And I also bought a cheap parts-only unit from eBay, which was even worse than what I had. Then at a flea market, I found another iPhone 2G, which thankfully had the parts I needed. The headphone jack doesn’t work sadly, but everything else does. I jailbroke it and now it’s good to go.
2. Sony Ericsson T106 (2002): A really basic phone from the early 2000s. I found this one at a flea market last year, and it was in really good shape. Only problem was that the battery had gotten spicy and didn’t charge. Earlier this month, I found another one in worse shape, but luckily the battery works just fine. I did have to get a SIM card for it, but after that, it worked just fine.
3. Nokia 3320 (2001): A TDMA version of the 3310 with two navigation keys, quite a few online features and an infrared receiver. I originally found this one back in 2018 in the trash, alongside other things. I didn’t have a working battery at that time, so I had no idea if it worked or not. I tried taking it apart, only to realize how brittle the middle frame had gotten, which meant that I had to get another one to take parts from. In the end I got a broken Nokia 2220 and took parts from it, and then I could get it to work again.

Next, the usual toy cars…

This was an impulse buy, but these are a set of Android statues that would’ve been used at retail, specifically stores that sold Motorola products. The lady who sold these to me told me she had another one she forgot to bring, so I had to come again the week after to pick it up, and now it’s a fully complete set. Only problem is that they were missing their antennae, so I had to make new ones with some putty and acryllic paint. They’re not perfect, but they look a lot better now, don’t they?

A Beanie Baby and yet another Classic Sonic figurine.

This was a pretty interesting find, a PSP camera, specifically the PSP-300. These are very pricey online for some reason, but I only paid 10 bucks for this one and it works perfectly. At first it refused to get recognized, but after cleaning the contacts, it worked just fine on every PSP I have.

Here are some sample pictures I took with this camera:

And finally, here are the things I ordered from Japan. Only three things this time, but you might find them interesting.

First is “Be Ever Wonderful” by Korean girl group S.E.S., from the year 2000. This is their second or third Japanese studio album, I’m finding conflicting info online. These three girls were very popular in their home country, and were one of the very first Korean acts to debut in Japan. Unfortunately, the record label they were signed to didn’t know how to market them, and only one of the girls actually spoke Japanese. This meant that by the end of 2000, they had already quit the Japanese market. The CD came with a poster and it’s in great shape, overall.

Next is “PM2” by Paris Match, from 2001. This is a Japanese jazz-pop band that I’m almost certain you’ve never heard of before, and this is their second studio album. It’s also an album I listened to at least a couple hundred times back in 2021, and I have some very specific memories attatched to it. Back then, I had just ended a friendship that wasn’t doing me any favors, so I figured I’d just go listen to music and see if that helped. And one of their tracks showed up on my recommended, the one on the fourth photo to be specific. And the rest is history. It’s in really good shape too, the disc plays fine as well. I’m absolutely thrilled to own this one physically now.

And finally, here’s a Japan exclusive PS1 accessory. The PocketStation, originally released in 1999. Basically, Sony saw what Sega did with the VMU for the Dreamcast, and thought, “hey, we can do that too”. It’s basically the exact same idea, it has a real time clock, a save manager, as well as an infrared reciever for sending and receiving data to and from other players. And with some compatible PS1 games, you can even get minigames to play on this thing. They did intend to sell this worldwide, but due to strong sales in Japan, they had a hard time keeping up with the demand, and they figured they wouldn’t have enough units to sell elsewhere. There are some western games that do support it, notably from Square, but they do warn in the manuals that the accessory may not be available outside of Japan. It’s still a really cool accessory.

Of course, it’s spoopy month, so you can expect every brand under the sun to release Halloween-themed items. This year, Fanta released some movie themed sodas, but we only got two of them. Apparently, other countries got even more flavors than we did. So we have Chucky and FNAF this time, huh?

And what do they taste like? Well, the Freddy one is just your standard sugar free Fanta. Sodas already taste extremely artificial, and it’s doubly so if they don’t use sugar. Not great, and it’s why I avoid sugar free sodas. As for Chucky Punch, well, it has a very artificial fruity taste to it. Reminds me of the old strawberry Fanta that was sold here back in the early 2010s, it’s not bad. Overall, neither is too great, but at least the cans are pretty cool to look at.

Well, you’ve reached the end of this post. Overall, October wasn’t the greatest, but it also wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. I really need to motivate myself to do the things I want to do, because I might be reaching a point where I’m completely burned out. I also need to be more mindful about my finances, I spent so much money this month and I don’t know if I regret it or not. But regardless, I survived yet another October and we’re getting closer to the end of the year. I don’t know how to feel about it, honestly… I feel like I haven’t progressed at all this year, but I don’t know.

Like always, I know you probably won’t bother, but feel free to follow me on Tumblr for more timely-ish updates and cat pics. I really need to step up my posting game, I’ve gotten pretty lazy once again. See what I mean when I say my motivation is weird? Things are weird at the moment, what can I say.

See you all in the next post. And Happy Halloween, dear readers.