This is your weekly reminder to fill out the Glass Scientists: Volume 2 pre-order gift form, if you haven't already!

There's often some pretty strong dissonance between what I'm drawing and what I'm listening to while I'm drawing, but this week, the contrast is particularly strong--I'm trying to take up Japanese classes again, and I'm trying to incorporate a bit of immersion by listening to Japanese learning podcasts. The first one I found, Nihongo con Teppei, has a particularly chill, Animal-Crossing-like tone, and during this particularly stressful week, listening to it has felt like throwing a weighted blanket on the severely overtaxed emotional side of my brain that would otherwise be hurling itself against the sides of its enclosure like a stressed-out elephant or, like . . . that scene in Evangelion where Unit 0 goes berserk and starts slamming its fist into the observation deck where Gendo is standing?

I'm not sure who Gendo is in this metaphor. The part of me that thought I could handle a full-time boarding schedule with an hour-long commute while crunching to finish Volume 3 by the end of the year? What I'm saying is, work's been tough, the commute has been tough, but at least this podcast is cute.