I have wanted to migrate away from using a smartphone for a while now, but it’s something I’ve had to slowly work myself up to doing as the options for non-smartphone cellphones are actually pretty limited nowadays. There are a number of reasons I dislike my smartphone, but primarily a) I don’t like how modern smartphones are designed for both technical and aesthetic purposes, and b) I find like the modern internet landscape is transitioning to cater to distraction over efficiency and simplicity, and I’d rather have the ability to curate my exposure on my own terms. I really only carry my smartphone around to call and text and for the rare instances I need to look something up on the go – but the rest of the time I use it is admittedly to distract myself when I don’t feel I have anything better to do.

The device I’m attempting to migrate to is a Kyocera 701KC keitai – a mid 2010’s Japanese style consumer flip-phone running a dated version of Android. It turns out there is a pretty large community of people in North America interested in reviving these keitais as everyday cellphones (mostly Weaboo/Koreaboo types wanting fun accessories from what I can tell, more power to them), but personally, choosing one is a no-brainer as my only other options for decent flip phones is a Motorolla Razr V3 knock-off or elder cellphones. I’m used to using T9 keyboards, so hopefully making the switch won’t be too much of an adjustment. Luckily, my carrier seems to support this particular keitai from a cursory IMEI search so I will be able to make calls in North America just fine… hopefully.

Despite my newfound appreciation for old tech, I’m being really careful not to fall for the digital minimalism lifestyle. Thinking about my life as a brand is the very last goal of mine right now, and I feel like digital minimalism is more or less geared towards the kind of people who are addicted to posting their shitty daily carry getup on /fa/ threads. I want to use things that I enjoy, not adopt an image that would ironically require me to purchase new, expensive devices to become a true digital “minimalist”.

I don’t have much to say besides that, other that I’m feeling much better and think things are on track once again. Currently playing guitar poorly and proudly, attempting to put together some songs and build a little RPG Maker game in time.

I think there’s a lot of value in art that only exists in an unfinished or “limited release” state, the half-formed creations people have for big projects and standalone teasers that only exist to suggest at their final products. The media I find the most interesting could probably fit into this category: old demos for albums that never released, devtests of games never made, sketches for an unfinished piece, pilots for obscure shows, etc. I’ve recently learned that there’s entire creative communities centred around recreating experiences in a similar vein, such as making strategy guides and entire OSTs for games that don’t even exist. There’s something about finding art like this and exploring it in a limited space that feels deeply cathartic, like you’re finally laying all that abandoned ambition abandoned to rest or allowing it to put on a performance from an alternate timeline. Maybe this is in part why some people can get so rabid about finding lost media, even the most mediocre of work: there’s a natural mythos to have fun with with when uncovering and sharing a wealth of creation that exists in such a limited, conceptual way. All this to say, I really miss how prevalent media like demos, samplers, devtests and the like felt like in culture than they do now. There’s something really beautiful about how much of an impression they can leave by doing so little.

It’s the New Year, which means new opportunities, new the opposite of opportunities, and new secret third things. As much as I tend to dislike New Years resolutions, I do appreciate the opportunity to “reset” the way I think about about my life with the passing of the year and will be enacting at least a few hard goals I know I’ll want to stick to this time around. 2024 passed by pretty quickly for me, and some of the more memorable things that happened were not pleasant, so one of the resolutions I’ve made is to take one photo of my surroundings each day, regardless of what the photo is. I’m hoping it’ll give me a more comprehensive understanding of what my life is like and an excuse to take more photos for myself, a personal album of memories and life progression that I can attend when things are difficult. I have not felt any better over the winter break, but I do think my life is getting objectively better despite that. I want 2025 to be a better year for myself and will be more insistent about making it better instead of just hoping things change in that direction.

In other news, my website recently had its 1 year anniversary on Neocities (yippee!). It’s quickly become one of my most favourite creative time sinks and will hopefully encourage me to continue creating personal things into the future, however that looks like. Maybe someday I’ll even have all of the main pages up and running (although that requires me to actually finish a zine, so we’ll see). I find having a semi public void to scream into helps organize my thoughts immensely, so I don’t see it going any time soon.