Hi everybody, how’ve you been this past month?

Happy new year! If you’re reading this at any other point in time, then have a happy new day… you know, at least one size should fit.

It’s a beautiful afternoon at the time of me writing this… I say this a lot, but it’s always true. I think it probably helps my mood when writing, though I have written some of these at the dead of night (#017 was almost entirely written from 1AM-5AM).

Nonetheless, I have paid more attention to the weather and seasons this year than at any other point in my life. This transitional period between spring and summer makes me feel much differently than it did years ago – I lived on automatic for so long, I forgot what it was all about… It encapsulates all the good and all the bad: the bright, long days; clear skies; light rain; shade from under the trees – and also the mosquitoes; stuffy commutes; the miserable crunch period at work due to the holidays; just nonsense…

I’ve had some odd interactions on the street lately. The other day at the bus stop, a guy from the passenger seat of a truck emptied his water bottle on my head as soon as the red light turned green. I think it was a prank. The water was so warm (it probably sat on the dashboard all morning) that I got freaked out for a split second thinking it might’ve been piss… but it wasn’t.

Actually, a butterfly landed on my shoulder today, at the same bus stop. I thought it was kinda cool, but I have to admit I’m a little freaked out by how they move, so I tried to telepathically shoo it away. This all took place in the span of 3 seconds, and the butterfly just flew away, but I like to believe that it sensed my concentration and then decided it was time to leave. You really can’t be messing with guys like that.

All of this to say, some stuff will change, other stuff won’t, sometimes life is good and sometimes it’s bad (all the secrets of the universe shall be revealed here). Compared to a year ago, I already feel like an entirely different person. But my life is materially, socially etc. more or less the same… funny how that works, isn’t it?

YEAR APPRAISAL

I’ll say this: I’ve tried harder this year than any year before it. I took a lot more advantage of the time I had; in fact, I’ve basically used all of it in favor of this hobby stuff. There were a few detours along the way, but of such miniscule proportion in comparison to these past 5 years that I’m willing to call it as it is: mission accomplished. It was the plan from the start… I promised monthly updates, and you don’t know how glad I am that I was able to make it…!

I knew of the consequences of being so single-minded for a whole year, obviously – career-wise, I’ve probably careened a few steps back, and I have no money now, but I don’t really care about that; I’ll take this kind of pain in the ass, especially considering all the other kinds of ass pains that exist.

★ As far as music goes, I got to work on a lot of cool projects with/for friends, and there’s still a bunch that will come out in the next few months!

★ I finally made a proper comic…! It’s way harder than it seems, but I really liked doing it. It feels good to know I can still feel embarrassed about my art! I’m looking forward to the next ones. It’ll be out soon.

★ I wrote a bunch: posts, stories, ideas, lyrics, drafts… the blogposts were by far the hardest, but my friends were of great help and proof-read most of them. “Maybe take out this part about you being drunk on a random hill”, they’d say. “Seriously, take it out”, they’d say again. You’d think that would be a one-time thing, but I was doing that every month, so it was probably a good thing to cut out! By the time they were begging me to stop using so many ellipses, I was dozing off already. Still, it was of great help.

★ I drew quite a bit. For the sake of the monthly posters, I took a shot at doing vector art, lineless, collages, paintings, sketches, all that jazz. Commuting was less annoying now that I spent most of them sketching or planning things. Still, I want to dedicate myself more towards drawing in 2026. I’ve seen the limits of what I can do currently, and I want to go past it!

★ The website itself changed quite a bit. There was the big layout change back in March, and since then we’ve incrementally improved a lot of the workflow and structure of the thing. I couldn’t have done it without t-sc’s help, to which I’m very thankful. I’d like to hone my skills next year, so that I can more readily work on my ideas (and feel like less of an idiot whenever someone asks me for advice regarding websites).

★ There were also art books and booklets in the mix. I’m glad I found an opportunity to work on my design skills, even though I have zero clue about what I’m doing! I want to learn more about it.

So, what to expect from zona.plankton in 2026? I don’t know!

The energy for monthly update covers and posts will be redirected somewhere else… I just have to figure out where. I’ve been completely consumed by The Project for quite a bit, so you can imagine how disorienting it’ll be to get used to not working on it after it’s out. And, while it is the most fun in the world to dedicate myself fully to zona.plankton, I can tell this is gonna bite me any time now—I mean, so far it’s just been nibbling, but man, I don’t want to try my luck. I don’t have much of it. So, I’ll just have to pay more attention to my actual life next year. I want to learn how to really cook, get sumo huge (going from 55kg to 150kg at 1,65m and being able to lift cars – do you think it’s doable?!), maybe learn how to drive, definitely get a better job, you know… it’s boring, but it’s life. Someone has to do it, and, from what I’ve heard, it turns out no one else can do it for me?! What a fucking rip-off!!

Even with the uncertainty of the next couple months, I’ll probably be working–maybe not more, but better–than I am right now. If I go a week without drawing or doing any of this stuff, I start turning gray, shedding patches of hair, my eyes get real big and dark, you know the deal… and after a year like this, I’m not sure I could go back to how I was doing things before. No matter how much radio silence there is, unless I die (statistically unlikely, though who knows?), rest assured, I’ll be fixing away.

I’m not any more clued in than I was at the beginning of the year in regards to who is reading this stuff (I promise that adding some form of comments is at the top of my to-do list now) – but if someone’s out there, I appreciate it, always. In my heart, I think it to be true: we are pirate radio.

Nevertheless, 2025 was the best year of my life so far. For the past few months, I’ve been constantly pacing around my tiny room at 3AM, at every moment thinking “this is the life”. I remember all of those punk records from when I was younger, and I feel a little closer to getting there… I am doing it myself! This really is the life…! I just can’t help but want to live. I want to jump through the text and tell you this, but it’s not the kind of knowledge you can just impart onto others. It feels indescribable, it really does. Man.

The zona.plankton Manifesto (somewhat)

I want to see the world that me and the people around me live in being able to exist outside of where, when, why, who and how we are.

A job is hard to find nowadays, an electric guitar is still serious cash, and none of our parents were artists; but we still feel art all the same…! We have always sung the same songs: facts of life may add more steps, but there exists absolutely no force in the world that could make a goal like expression impossible.

If you have creative aspirations and you happen to like (or dislike) zona.plankton, I hope you are motivated to do everything we do even better than we do… because I am motivated by that, and I can guarantee to myself before I go to sleep tonight that I will do exactly that. If no one is making the art you’d like to see, hear, feel, it might just be a sign for you to do it yourself.

Going one step ahead, if no one else is moving in favor of our world and future, dedicating yourself to the fullest of your abilities is the only guarantee you’ll ever have… but the helping hand you raise for those around you in the process shouldn’t be underestimated. I think that’s where it all starts. You don’t need an idiot like me to tell you this – we all know how it is – but I’m reminding ya, just in case…

For now, I could be doing it all wrong, but I’m trying – I’m really, really, really, really trying… and tomorrow might just be the day. We could all do something, is how I feel at this moment in time. No matter how small the step, I want to walk forward together.

Thank you endlessly for everything that has happened so far. I hope you have a beautiful 2026… That’s all!!

PS. “Wasn’t The Project coming out this update?” Yes… but I changed my mind. It’ll still be out pretty damn soon though. Thank you for da patience…

Signed, with love,
noo.dll__〆(￣ー￣ )
see ya!