#conventions #site update #life update
big site update
edit from the future: this was written on 01/27 but this will probably be posted at a later date
finally made a proper theme for this site & moved most things over to eleventy. things feel sooo much more organized and convenient to edit, I'm almost tempted to say I'm motivated to update this site more often (when I know I'll probably come back to this maybe five more times this year lol). I hope this font is more readable, I really like pixel fonts but they're usually kinda small and don't scale well. as much as I love Helvetipixel it strains my eyes when it's a lot of text. this one's called Bigmalist by Chase_333.
vacation with da girlfriend
I went on a trip to Taiwan with my girlfriend recently! technically. we both had family trips there anyway so we met up and hung out. She finally found the flannel and leather jacket she's been looking for, I got a denim jacket and my grandma gave me 2 inch platform shoes lol. I also had the best beef noodle soup I've ever tasted in my life. It had tomato broth, of course. #TomatoLover
After getting back home I went out for Haidilao for the first time with friends. I get the hype now. The tomato broth was so good we were drinking that shit straight from the pot LMAO. Kiiinda pricey but I really want to go back. idk maybe I'm just hungry while writing this.
started hrt
I *did* actually start testosterone in January! My anniversary's on the 16th, just a day after Fiore's birthday (so close). Coming out was really smooth, my family was really supportive of me wanting to start HRT so soon. I started off with tgel first because I'm kind of bad with needles, I almost passed out during the blood draw. Not out of fear or anything I hope, but I didn't sleep a lot & didn't have a meal before it. Not the first time this has happened. I was fine after like 30 minutes though.
maybe it's just placebo but I've been told my voice is slightly deeper! awesome. i can also feel the bottom growth & the libido increase, they were right it did hit like a truck. I think I also have more energy and a bigger appetite but the latter was already pretty big pre-T (rubs my belly). I also still got my period, but it was meant to start around this time anyway so starting T probably wouldn't have made much of a difference.
convention & nostalgia & websites
finished my first convention of the year! it was a nostalgia-themed event so I had a lot of new merch (mostly fruitiger aero -- I still have a little bit of FOMO from missing out on my Australian art market last August). It was really fun overall! They played nostalgic songs and had a karaoke machine near the stage, the line for that was crazy. I also profited this time, after three shit events so that's really nice LMAO. not by a lot but it makes a big difference not being bored and doomscrolling most of the event, or suffering from food poisoning and period cramps.
I recently learned that the originals-only con I was part of last year was actually the lowest attended event the organizers had in 2025! that sucks. I do feel less bad that I didn't do well but GOD i've gotta get better at judging whether an event's gonna do well or not. the bigger originals-only con they had earlier in the year had more than seven times the attendance. that sucks. I got waitlisted for that one but I've yet to hear anything back. I hope I can manifest something by posting this entry LMAO.
the event itself is what inspired my site redo in the first place, actually. I made a "you should make a website" zine and I gave out about 15? copies. I honestly wasn't expecting people to be interested at all, I only printed that many because I figured people would just want to take it because it was free. I found it really touching that so many people WERE interested in it, and I do hope I convinced at least once person to pick up HTML and CSS and start working on a site. I was also really glad to meet starrs.neocities.org, who asked me if I had a Neocities and I immediately handed over my zine. I don't know a lot of locals with their own personal sites (not including strawpage or carrd).
I ended up drawing a LOT of fruitiger aero and sea animals, so that's why I'm wetting my site (as in, the water background, if it wasn't clear). I didn't think I'd enjoy drawing water and bubbles so much but now I kinda can't stop.
Here are some artworks and PNGs from this month. I really didn't expect to make three full pieces (not including commissions either) but I'm really proud of how they turned out:
still got a lot of things to work on -- I'm part of 2 zines and there's a third I really want to join that's opening apps on the 31st. i hope i'm not stretching myself thin with this. this is the first time in a looong time i've been excited to make fuller pieces and i hope i can keep it up without burning out.
that's all for now! thanks for reading this far. As a bonus, take this Code Vein 2 Fiore I've been losing my mind over. she's so handsome. she's so hot.
- hal
tempted to make a forum signature style thing to end all my blog posts. i also feel more inclined to write with proper capitalization when doing these longer form blog posts but i think theres a little bit of personality if it's inconsistent (what is this guy talking about?)