July 2025 Breakdown: More Rebranding Updates!

July was exhausting in a lot of ways, but it was a relatively productive month. Sometimes I feel like I’m taking on too much or feel like there’s a lot going on, and maybe there really is a lot going on. Or I’m just being a ball of anxiety like I usually am.

I’m making some changes to the headings here as I get closer to rebranding, which you’ll see in this wrap-up. I usually use reusable blocks, but I opted out of them for this month and next in case I change them to something else entirely (there won’t be much editing there at least).

Anyway, let’s talk about July! I’m here to yap quite a bit about rebranding updates.

July in Blogging

• [1 Jul] How My Blogging Style Has Changed Since 2012
• [8 Jul] June 2025 Breakdown
• [19 Jul] Volcano Princess (Xbox Game Pass)
• [25 Jul] Fateless by Julie Kagawa ★★★½

Book Hauls and Reading

I combined these two sections since I’m being more mindful of the books I purchase, which results in fewer book hauls happening (it also helps I have ready access working in a library). I’m also requesting less, since I’m trying to catch up with my old eARCs, so I don’t think there’s a need to keep the book haul section — I’ve been removing them entirely a few times from wrap-ups. There’s been a few thoughts about changing how I want to approach this section, too, but I think that’ll be a future me problem — I’ll likely be doing some experimenting maybe in the future!

July had one book I purchased: Immortal Consequences by I.V. Marie, which I think will be one of my favorite reads of 2025 if it’s not my favorite.

In reading, I’m doing my usual streak of mostly mangas/manhwas/graphic novels and an average of 3 novels. There are fewer books than my usual this month, but I’ve been focusing a lot on rebranding and getting some tasks done there, so that’s been affecting numbers a little. But I finished one old eARC from years ago!

• Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah – this was originally acquired as an eARC like a half-decade ago, but I didn’t get around to reading it until 2022. And then life happened where I was experiencing work burnout, so this book (like a few others) ended up in currently reading purgatory until this year.
  • The review is currently sitting in post drafts, but since I opted to do a mini review for this, I’m waiting until I have additional books before I post it.
• Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 11-12 by Ryuko Kui
• Stars in Their Eyes by Jessica Walton
• Belle of the Ball by Mari Costa
• Paranorthern and the Chaos Bunny A-hop-calypse by Stephanie Cooke
• Batter Royale by Leisi Adams
• Hungry Ghost by Victoria Ying
• The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
• How to Piss Off Men: 107 Things to Say to Shatter the Male Ego by Kyle Prue – look, there was a copy on the summer reading challenge table my coworker left (they were reading it), and conveniently enough, a friend of mine had just texted me about this book the day before. This is so clearly satire, and I had a grand time reading it.
• Fateless by Julie Kagawa
• Girlmode by Magdalene Visaggio – this one reminded me too much of my elementary and middle-school years, frankly, and those were not good years. I’ve mostly erased those years from my brain. Art was great, though.
• Immortal Consequences by I.V. Marie

Media Consumed/Discovered

I’m not entirely sure how I want to change this section just yet. Part of me enjoys having the list that I do each month and the occasional tidbit about what I think when I feel like it because there’s less pressure for me.

I’ve also thought about adding images of what I’m watching/listening to throughout the month, but I’m not exactly a fan of using images just once and calling it a day which is hilarious since I do that for book reviews all the time! But anyway, I’ll figure it out. I might just keep the usual GIF I have for each section, or just flip back and forth depending on the post (I’m a bit fond of Jerry eating popcorn…).

• The Wedding Banquet (2025 remake and the original 1993 version) – I kept seeing the remake in the few times I was on Instagram throughout May and then one of my coworkers informed me it was a remake of the 1993 version, so I ended up watching that not long after. I loved both! The 1993 version is less chaotic than the 2025 version, but both were delightful and charming.
• Masterpiece and In My Fantasy by ATEEZ
• Deja Vu by Kevin Woo
• Girls Will Be Girls by ITZY
• TV and Idontwannaknowyou! by Mico
• Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is by Ella Red
• Takedown, Free, Golden and How It’s Done from the KPop Demon Hunters Soundtrack
• DIY by Jolin
• Miserable by Vicky Chen
• 天下五剣 (Tenkagoken) by HAGANE
• The Moon – It’s like they tried to pack an entire K-drama into a movie, but can’t make it into a drama because it’ll be too short to be a drama and takes away from the actual main plot.
  • I love EXO’s music, but DO’s acting was pretty subpar here.
• DAM by SB19 – The music video is peak cinema.
• Pa-Pa-Pa-Palaban by G22
• Burnout Dynasty by Jasmine Sokko

The Breakdown

What catastrophes have the universe handed us throughout the month? Let’s find out. 🧐

Easily the only section I didn’t change the title for.

Rebranding Updates!

July has been a lot of “what can I do now to make the rebranding process somewhat easier for myself when I actually disappear for give or take two months?” and working on those things. And well, bugging my web host with questions as they come up.

Also, I just think it’ll be fun to share the process behind the scenes a little for this month and next!

• I’ve downloaded all of my existing featured images that have the (soon to be) old name and started working on rebranding those — you’d think it’d be easier this time around because the color palette is literally going to the same in the new one (I didn’t feel the need to change it) and I have them as templates in Canva.
  • Honestly, it’s not that bad. I just hate this part of the process. It’s not even the part I’ll likely break my blog with.
  • The upside of this is I’ve been clearing out my YouTube watch later playlist (which has been collecting more videos since I last went through it) while working on images because it would be terribly boring otherwise.
• A new theme has been acquired! It’s been a few years since I gave the blog new clothes, but a rebrand is a perfect time to change things around a little (plus the original designer stopped, so I had to break the credit link that was going to a 404). I decided to go with a Kadence child theme instead of Genesis (which is what I’m currently using), and I’ve been playing with it on a staging site.
  • I think I might like it better than Genesis — I’ve found that I can do some pretty neat things and not have to bug the designer to do a minor tweak regarding a function. (It’s a bonus; I usually find an alternative way that makes things work.) Some things I think will work really nicely with my portfolio!
• Redesigning the media kit and updating pages! You know it’s been a while since you’ve updated your media kit when you don’t even remember when you last updated… and I know some of my pages could use some updating, too.
  • It’s been weird using my actual first name instead of the pen name I’ve used for so long. Who the hell is this person?
  • I honestly like the new look of the media kit more than my current one .
• I’ve been shopping around for artists to potentially commission for a new header and logo. One of my friends recommended VGen as a good start, so I’ve been browsing portfolios and have a few in mind.
  • I did a little snooping around last year, so I still had that list.

That’s all the updates I have regarding the rebranding process for July! I did a lot of stuff throughout the past month, so August will probably have a smaller update. It’ll be one of the last posts in early September before I zoom off into the virtual sunset until November.

(If you miss me during that time, I’ll likely be hanging out more often at The Arts STL depending on my reading and reviewing.)

July in Life and Gaming Era

It has been way too hot and humid to clear out my room of the books I’ve started to pull out for unhauling, so my room’s still a walking hazard of a maze. I did get rid of a few gently used/unused notebooks I no longer use and gave them new homes, though…

But hey, until the temps cool a little, I can do other things!

My free 3-month Xbox Game Pass that came with my laptop that I got a couple of years ago was expiring in early July, so I’m back to playing games a little more now. I’ve been keeping myself preoccupied with Volcano Princess and Minami Lane currently*, and I’ve got a few others I’m interested in playing. Some of these have been on my Steam Wishlist that I’m uncertain I actually want or feel they might cause motion sickness, so it’s a good time to take those games for a whirl and see if I want to keep them on my wishlist or yeet them off into the sunset.

*Too bad Turnip Boy Robs a Bank left Game Pass recently. I’d like to be a turnip robbing a bank. (Disclaimer that I don’t encourage actual bank robbing. Unless you want to go deal with our justice system… but hey, it’s your life, not mine. I’m not the customer service representative of your actions.)

Unfortunately for Cookie Clicker, it’s going to sit on the back burner for a few months.

No-Buy August (and Possibly Longer)

I noticed I’ve acquired more stationery (especially washi tapes) this year, but especially in the last couple of months. There’s a lot to unpack from that probably buried deep within the recesses of my life, but we’ll leave that for my therapist to handle.

Anyway, I’ve made it a goal of mine to do a No-Buy August and possibly longer so I can cut down on some of my collection, though I have a few exceptions like placing a preorder for The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten Fairyloot Special Editions so my collection can finally be complete (I’ve been waiting at least 3 years for it) and getting some washi cards for a couple friends that I’m going to be exchanging some washi samples with.

It also lets me use some of the stickers I haven’t found a layout for — with each day I successfully make it through, I’m using those stickers to mark that success (look, I’m just being creative here). If I run out of those stickers somehow, I’ll probably pull a washi tape roll out and use it.

Back to Physical Journaling

I started a physical journal in July again, and that’s been helping me cut down on some of my collection since I’ve been gravitating to a few more often (not that I haven’t been adding to it, which is exactly why I’m doing a No-Buy August). I decided to set out a few washi tapes I have a goal of using the most throughout the month, and so far it’s been working pretty well.

My layouts are made about a week in advance, and I don’t always use the ones I set out since I choose whatever I feel like using, but having them set out calls my attention to them more often. There’s usually a theme with the washi tape that matches the cover: July was fruits and food, and August is bears and frogs (I had some giant bear stickers that came with my STICKII Club subscription I thought would be great for a cover).

Despite my goal of not abandoning digital journaling, that’s exactly what I ended up doing, but I know it’ll be there for when I’m ready and when there’s a longer, more stream of conscious/rant entry that requires faster typing and throwing words out into the open rather than handwriting them.

On the plus side, though, it allows me to not fill in my memory book for a few days because I make it an effort to put something in for each day in the physical one*. I usually sit down about once a week and pull the most significant entry to put in the memory book. I think I’d be stressed and completely abandon it otherwise — I was starting to do that around the beginning of July.

*I also carry that around with me everywhere because I don’t trust my family not to go through it.

Let’s talk!

Tell me about your month and what you’ve been up to lately! And if you have any tips for “no-buy,” feel free to drop them below (I have friends who are keeping me accountable, too, and a friend who’s doing this with me; they’re truly the best).