This Was June 2026
I hope you had a good pride month, or whatever your theme was for the month.
Visit my pride 2026 digital zine!
Accepting My Creative Pacing
I went to a Bring Your Own Craft (BYOC) night at The Rare Bird in Alexandria. After I do things in Old Town, I take a walk down to the water to hang out for a bit before getting food and going home. Since I did a social and creative activity, I was so full of thoughts!
Some of the people there were spinning wool which looked very relaxing and cool, but not something I wanted to do myself. (I will, however, watch videos of others doing it.)
While I was walking, I was reflecting on why I don’t often add new mediums to my plethora of creative branches. There are a lot of reasons for this but one that I thought about was that in the last few years, I’ve been moving into a new flow of creation.
Instead of focusing on one or two things until I finish them, I start a few ideas and then go with those. When I get a few done, I can start more. This allows everything to take its own time/pacing to finish, but I have a few things to bounce back and forth between. It does mean that it takes me much longer to get anything done, but I overall feel more satisfied with the output. Because of that, new styles or methods have to organically find their ways into the flow.
I like to learn about new things all the time still, though. Even if I don’t have an opening for it now, I often file things away for later.
Right now I’m in a zone for doodling, zines, websites/coding, and writing, but other times I might be in zones for painting, papercrafts, collaging, decorating, etc etc. Narratively it can feel like I have picked up things and then never done them again, but sometimes I think I just need to wait for them to come back around again.
As my tremor progresses, I have to modify tools and pacing around doing some of my things, so it's never going to be fast. Where I used to be able to sit down to 8 hours making a zine, now I get tired using my shaky body for that long and need to take longer breaks.
These aren't complaints, they're acknowledgements that things change, even the little things that you take for granted, like how differently your body moves while you age. It's ok just to notice, acknowledge, take a breath, and change your expectations surrounding it.
I move slower than I used to. No reason to be sad about it. Instead, I will find joy in the space to breathe and listen.
Beach Weekend
Good morning from the beach – seasons
an orange sun rises over the ocean inside early morning grey skies So far on my beach trip I've done: Nothing Nap Read Watch the sunrise What a ...
I brought a lot of stuff that I didn't use, including my computer. I thought I'd be creative and colorful but instead I was sleepy and in bed.
This included my new tablet (my FIRST tablet) which was my book during the times I wasn't sleeping or eating.
With my aunt there we had a lot of delicious home made food. I brought some veggies from my farm delivery and they made their way into some of our dishes.
We went to Dairy Queen as our treat and I had a snickers blizzard but all the candy was at the bottom so it was weird. It was not a true dairy queen experience, but it was fun and the door was a giant red spoon.
Because I'm much more comfortable with Zenny (and she is with me) I felt okay opening the door this year. Usually people visit her on our terms but this time I opened the door and let her walk around upstairs, and after the dog left, also downstairs. She didn't like it :)
She was only interested in being in a room where I was, and if I wasn't in the room she was in our room (even if the door was open and she could go wherever). She didn't run immediately if other people showed up.
This year we had two cats and a dog. I am happy we're a pet family now.
Little Predator – Where were we?
<figure> <img src="https://bear-images.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/wherewerewe/20260626_zenny.webp" alt="calico cat with paws perched on a window ledg...
The weekend was quick and rainy and way too hot, and then immediately after we returned home it was above 100°F/37.7°C for 5 days. It was a nice bite-size beach trip and I felt incredibly well-rested after!
Good evening from the beach – seasons
Last day at the beach! I still have done nothing. :) orange glow in grey skies above a beach with pale water reflecting the sunset ...
Claude is Helping Me Sort Of
I downloaded Claude and started a project to organize the music in my library: consistent naming, folder structure, and proper metadata. You actually can't automate much of that if the metadata is messed up currently. First you have to fix that. Then it can fix all your files using that information.
So instead of using AI to help me organize my music library, I used it to help me use Python to extract a list of files in my music library as a spreadsheet. I can clean up the metadata in the spreadsheet file and then use Python to magically organize the library according to instruction.
But at this point, I don't need AI to help me. I haven't learned Python, but there are plenty of existing resources online to help me achieve what I want to do now that I know how to test, input, and trigger changes via Terminal. Plus, Claude already told me what to do next, so it's in our history.
So it helped. What helped a lot more was learning GitHub a few months ago because that's when I learned all the Terminal stuff. I probably could have found instructions for this whole project somewhere without using AI. (It would have taken much longer, though.)
I mean, it's still going to take me a long time to fix the spreadsheet metadata. Turns out AI can't figure out what the song is if the file name and metadata are both incorrect without uploading the MP3 for analysis and then depending on what it is you might get a copyright limitation.
Well, I tried to use AI to do a thing. It gave me the benefit of automation in terms of translating the "how to" to my technical level. It took me a while to learn GitHub from articles written by/for developers. It didn't do the job for me though.
Disable AI features in Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra – Chatscape
I imagine some of these settings align for many of the AI-embedded Samsung products but this is the one I got recently. This post contains all the things...
AI Question Challenge – Chatscape
I've seen this survey going around, enjoying the variety of answers and perspectives. See some other answers: blog.rishabhps.com (original) blog.av...
June in Previous Years
I recently installed an app called AYER that scans your phone gallery and shows you photos from [today] in previous years. I upgraded my phone recently but it has all photos from my last phone, so the gallery starts in late 2022.
Let’s take a little photo journey into June the last few years.
Media Reviews & Thoughts
There’s an unintentional thread of office romance in many things I watched in June.
Korean Dramas: I felt a total lack of ridiculous drama and romance in my life after my watches of Supernatural and Golden Girls/Golden Palace ended and there was only one obvious path to take.
From June alone:
My Man is Cupid (2023): Fantasy drama starring Cupid & his angels involving reincarnation and mythology
Her Private Life (2019): Gallery curator and idol fangirl falls for her boss and together they detangle his ridiculous past which he’s forgotten
Melting Me Softly (2019): Sci fi drama about two variety show stars (actor & director) getting into a frozen capsule and waking up 20 years later
See You At Work Tomorrow (2026): Still new & ongoing - opposites attract office romance
Movies: Because I was watching so many dramas, I didn’t watch many movies this month.
Office Romance (2026): This was mediocre until an incredibly graphic and absurd birth scene, then it became AMAZING.
Obsession (2025): I finally saw the scary movie everyone liked. I liked it too. I liked the part during the game at the party when the girl stands up suddenly with the huge frowny face. #relatable
Posts & Links
Max Wiki articles:
Other posts & photos:
AI things:
News:
A mysterious ‘cold blob’ in the ocean has puzzled scientists. A new study says it’s an ominous sign
Attorney general tells department to stop using X amid UK disinformation concerns
Exclusive: How The New York Times Changed Its Coverage of Trans People
Jail time and unlimited fines planned under conversion practices ban
Other sites & posts:
How to make a website in 5 minutes: (Almost) No code version
EarlyWeb.net: time travel to the digital past
Genderswap.fm: song covers
ifeellikecrap.today: helps you figure out why you feel like crap
climate.us: independent, nonprofit climate information
Volunteer opportunities (US): many are virtual
Poolsuite: music sharing
Exhale Room: quiet space to let go of thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Since I got a new phone there were a lot of pictures this month. I wanted to try it out and do different things. (I found that it’s functionally the same as my last phone but the pictures are better.)
I am also generally feeling more free to be myself and express how I prefer. I think a lot of that has to do with embracing and accepting faults and realities in my life, and pushing through anyway.
I hope you keep cool and safe this month and I’ll chat with you soon!
xo Max
