pants

In case you’re as clueless as we were when we suddenly found ourselves standing in front of this enormous thing, wondering what on earth it was: a graduation tower is basically a huge wooden structure filled with bundles of branches. Salt water trickles down through them, evaporating in the wind and making the air around it slightly salty, a bit like being by the sea.

I’d never heard of or seen anything like it before, and it really was a sight to behold. Definitely one of the highlights of our day trip to Lüneburg.

Every single time I’m brave enough to go outside and draw or paint in public, something happens that lifts my mood. It’s not that I particularly yearn for contact with strangers, but whenever it happens, I end up feeling a little more connected to my surroundings.

I ended up talking to that woman and her husband for half an hour. At first, I thought they were tourists because that part of the city is mostly inhabited by them, but they had actually just bought a new camera and gone there to try it out. Very cute!

I’m currently figuring out how to survive winter without getting depressed, and finding a place to draw where I won’t freeze my butt off is one part of my preparations.

I wanted to try sketching people and artwork at the Hamburger Kunsthalle and somehow ended up joining the “Friends of the Kunsthalle.” I can now visit as often as I want without paying €18 every time, and I even got a cute little membership card to flash at the entrance.

I like this comic, even though I didn’t when I made it. It’s pure melancholy, and the whole day felt exactly like this.

On a related note, I always struggle with the end of summer and the beginning of the worst seasons. I will persevere, but it’s not going to be fun.

A cute little day. We spent quite a while in the perfume section of a large shopping center, trying dozens of fragrances. It was fun, and it sent Anna spiraling down a deep rabbit hole of fragrance research. I love those moments when you suddenly unlock a new interest and get to learn an entirely new set of things. I also learned that I’m apparently a big fan of pine in my fragrances. Who would have guessed I’d enjoy smelling like a tree!

Remember how I bought a PlayStation 5 Pro at the end of March because I knew the memory-related price hikes were just around the corner, and because I also knew I’d end up buying one later this year anyway because there was no way I was going to miss GTA VI when it finally comes out?

I remember, and I couldn’t be happier with that decision. Have you seen the extended gameplay trailer? That is a video game I’ll actually be able to play in just a couple of months! It looks incredible. I genuinely can’t wait to get my hands on it.

These spontaneous walks have become less frequent since Ines moved to a different part of the city, and I miss them. It was great having friends in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, there's no way of finding an apartment anywhere else, so I'm stuck here in my absurdly beautiful Winterhude. Oh well...

Gigabyte is so hard to play with. She's always interested in theory, but then she doesn't actually interact. It doesn't matter what game I try. Millimeter, meanwhile, is easy to entertain. I dangle something in front of her, and she has the time of her life. Giga just... watches...

I bought a tube of white gouache to use for occasional highlights in my watercolor paintings and haven't touched it once since. Anyway! I'm very happy with this little hand gesture. It's dorky, funny, and reads well.

Exploring Homer’s world without all the stress Odysseus had to endure is surprisingly relaxing.

Let me know when I start sounding like a broken record, but I love that my adult life looks like this. We’re having fun!

Growing up, being an adult always seemed like such a hassle. Turns out, the adults around me just didn’t have all their ducks in a row. And not even because of external circumstances, either. They’d simply built themselves lives that, quite frankly, seemed to suck.

Mine doesn’t.

I’m now at an age where it’s starting to feel a little cringe not to think of myself as an actual adult, and I’ve recently started embracing the fact that I actually am one. Just not the kind who built himself a life full of stress, drama, and responsibilities I never wanted to deal with.

Every time a long train ride is part of the itinerary, I pack my Switch 2. Every time, I pull it out for maybe ten minutes, if that, before it ends up shoved back into my backpack. You’d think I’d have learned by now and just leave it at home. But I’ll do exactly the same thing next time.

Marcel from four years ago would never have been able to go for a run after a day of travel. For one thing, I wasn’t running back then. For another, travel used to take so much out of me that I’d be completely spent.

But over the last couple of years, I’ve worked on my relationship with travel, and this run felt like one of the clearest signs of progress.

It was such a relaxing day, and I was happy about it. The previous day had been taxing, so just hanging around, reading, painting, and snacking was exactly what I needed. Even though I underestimated the size of that sundae, I certainly didn’t complain, it was delicious.

The cats yearn for non-fiction

I love tax season. The wave of anxiety that hits when it rolls around is exhilarating, and spending a couple of days feeling like something terrible is about to happen really makes me feel alive.

This is the first drawing in a new sketchbook, and I love how it turned out. Anna and I spent the evening in a park celebrating a milestone in our relationship, and I love that I get to share moments like this with her—that she’s interested in them simply because they matter to me.

I tend to keep things to myself because, I guess, I often feel like no one’s really interested. So putting myself out there by sharing something I don’t even think is that special, and then being met with genuine interest and openness, feels really great.

I built a shelf for my art supplies! I now have a whole new section in my office dedicated to storing my pens, pencils, paper, sketchbooks, brushes, and paints. I love it!

The Year of Art has been going on for more than six months now, and I don’t feel like I’ll be stopping anytime soon. This really has a chance of becoming a lifelong project, so it felt worth improving the logistics around it.

I want to feel like I’m winning at the dentist. Every compliment means a lot to me.

Now I need to pack up 93 books and send them to the company buying them.

I’ll actually save money by switching to fiber. I just wasn’t interested in doing all the work (ordering it and making sure there’s access to the area where the thingy can be installed) to get it. Now’s the time.

We drove to Bremerhaven, very close to where I grew up, to visit the Klimahaus and my father. It was a surreal experience to be in those places with Anna. I usually try to avoid going there, but this time it was nice, even if Linus, my father’s ageing dog, tore a ligament later that day while trying to chase a cat.

Last time, my hairdresser Ramona and I slightly misjudged both my hair length and the timing between appointments, and I ended up looking like someone who rather enjoys having far too much hair on their head. I’m fortunate not to have thinning hair, despite being a man in his thirties, so it feels a bit tone-deaf to complain about having too much of it. But with hair as thick as mine, it can sometimes become a real nuisance. But I’m not complaining, and I count my blessings.

Days like this are the best.

This might be my absolute favorite comic from this year of daily comics so far.

Sometimes quality time together means doing things separately, but side by side.

After that, I actively enjoyed the clean windows for two weeks. It was worth it.

I love talking about books with my friends.

Packing is the worst. I’m not even bad at it, it just isn’t fun. It’s like a puzzle where the result will never be perfect, and you just have to live with the compromises. Especially when you’re flying with only carry-on luggage.

Keeping up a long-distance friendship requires sacrifices. Mine is spending the last 30 minutes of Cecilia’s and my regular FaceTime session in agony because I drank way too much water while we were talking.

Running alone and running with friends is like day and night. It’s so much more fun to yap while running for 12 kilometres.

You can tell how often I cook by how long it took me to get these.

I’m trying, once again, to become a bike person. It’s easier to get to Anna’s new apartment by bike than by subway or bus.

I haven't watched a single episode of Naruto in my life.

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My hand felt a bit numb this morning. The doctor said it might be because Millimeter hit a tendon. It got better over the course of the day.

Millimeter sometimes misjudges her strength. She just wanted to tell me to stop petting her, and I didn’t recognize the signs. My bad.

Sant Jordi preparation.

I slept like a baby after this day.

That weird red splotch is from me not noticing my nosebleed quickly enough.

Catching up while walking 10.000 steps.

The walls are thin, and I'm a bit sensitive to noise.

I saved money by buying something I don't need. I guess I could play through those Spider-Man games?

Ended up with some weird Harry Potter fan fiction. Not great.

Running became fun again once I stopped winging it and went back to following a plan.

I actually had to go back to the popcorn person and switch mine, because they accidentally gave me salty popcorn too.

This marks the end of our little Barcelona adventure.

Can't run 10K without clothing, can I?