1st January 2024 (yearly reflection)

As usual, it is time for my yearly reflection but this one is a little late for a couple of reasons. First, my aunty has been in town so I’ve been making the most of her last week here in Valencia and spending time with her. The second reason is that this reflection has been strangely hard to write and it’s kind of scared me a little. 

I have always been a reader and I love writing yet I’ve started and rewritten this reflection several times and nothing seems to work. So I started thinking about what I had done last year and realized that I had only read one book and that was at the start of the year. I also hadn’t written anything last year. Two of the things I like to do the most and I hadn’t done them at all. So I thought about what else I had done to figure out why this was so hard. 

I moved to Spain this year to start a new English teaching job which was great. I’ve been working at a vocational school which is a nice challenge and has given me a lot of new experiences with teaching older students. I’ve been looking at all the wonderful architecture and art around the place which has been really inspiring (the City of Arts and Sciences is a personal highlight and I highly recommend going there if you come to Valencia.) I’ve been sampling new foods and getting used to the culture (the only paella that is real paella is the chicken and rabbit paella from Valencia and all other paella is just rice risotto - My students.) Fallas was incredible and I’m really looking forward to it again (like 50 or so, fifteen meters high, wooden sculpture things that are all burned down in a single night.) I found out when my contract got renewed that it would start at the beginning of the next school year so I spent the Summer unemployed and burning through my savings from Japan. This was a real shock to me as I was under the impression that my monthly stipend would continue but unfortunately it did not, so I had to figure out a way to support myself which was mostly my credit card, savings and a week long job at the university I got through a teacher at school (absolute lifesaver!) I think this is where it starts to break down a bit. 

I was under a lot of pressure to manage my spending and survive on very little per week. I didn’t go outside during the day a lot so I didn’t spend any money on things like water or snacks (also it was unbelievably humid and gross so I just sat in front of my fan all day.) Everyday I was trying to think of ways to earn money or limit my spending and it took an overwhelming amount of mental space to where I didn’t want to do anything like writing or reading. I started streaming on Twitch ( twitch.tv/rexamillionaire ) to pass the time and potentially make a little money from and as of writing this reflection we have 375 followers which is pretty cool. 

During Summer I also had to renew my visa which was an incredible test of my patience and fully stretched the boundaries of what I knew about bureaucracy (which is insane because I lived in Japan for three years.) Every two weeks for four months, I had to go to the registry office and submit a different piece of paper when they could’ve just told me everything to bring in from the first visit. I had to book a new appointment every time and then pay my payment for the visa to the bank and then take a stamped piece of paper to the office again after the first one was not accepted. At least in Japan everything was clear from the get go. I felt sucker punched every time I went into the office with a new document. However, I did get to go to Barcelona towards the end of summer to pick up my friend Rachel and we had fun seeing the sights (the Sagrada Familia was super impressive but it was quite weird seeing a very religious place being used as a tourist trap) before heading back to Valencia. 

I started getting paid again a month after I started back at school which was honestly just in the nick of time because I was about to run out of everything. School was just as fun as before with the same familiar teachers there and since I had been there for the previous academic year there were a lot of students that wanted to say hi which was lovely. They made me feel welcome after a not so stellar Summer. 

My aunty arrived in Valencia towards the middle of November and I can’t say just how much I appreciated having family here. It was just such a shot of excitement and freshness that reminded me of how wonderful this place can be. Plus she was really hyped about Christmas which helped out Rachel because I’m not a super Christmas person (like I’ll do it but I’m more in it for the food and family aspect rather than the “magic of Christmas” part.) So for the last month and a half we’ve been hanging out, visiting places, enjoying churros, seeing the sights and overall just having a really nice time. She left this morning (1st Jan 2024) to head over to England and I can sincerely say that she profoundly helped me out whether she knows it or not. 

This brings us to the “theme” of the reflection which I think this year is “struggle”. Last year was the first time in a long time that I have had to be so concerned with money (like not since my uni days nearly a decade ago) because of how uncertain everything has been. The amount I’m getting paid per month and the fact that I don’t get paid over Summer is really taking it out of me. It worries me even more that I’ll have to do it again and I’ve got a couple of trips planned for this year but I’m still not sure how I’m going to pull it all together at the moment. I feel like I will have a solution at some point but for the moment I haven’t found it yet and the uncertainty is weighing on me more than I would like to admit. 

I feel like this is a good moment to talk about my plans for this year. It’s what I started this whole reflection with so I would like to read and write more. I’m hoping to add more of my work to my website ( https://www.rexolotlcreates.com/ ) over the coming year so feel free to check in every now and then to see if I’ve actually been doing it. Monetary problems were a big thing in my reflection this year (said almost everyone) so here’s to sussing that out and I know that it’s not an easy fix (I sent a tweet to Elon but he never replied) but hopefully I’ll find a solution before next Summer (maybe I could sell a kidney or something.)

This reflection kind of feels a bit ranty but I just want to say that I have had a fabulous time here in Spain and even if it hasn’t panned out like I had imagined it would, it has still been a great learning experience. 

Hopefully 2024 treats everyone well. 

Happy New Year and look after each other

December 31st 2022

It’s that time of the year again where I reflect on the year that has been and try to make sense of it all. Honestly, I was not really looking forward to writing this because I kind of felt like I’ve just been spinning my wheels this year but as I was going through photos in preparation for what I’m going to write, I realized that I started the year at Pineapple Park in Okinawa which seems like so long ago. It really puts into perspective how much I’ve managed to fit in this year despite being terrified of Covid and money constraints. 

I did so many trips this year with great friends and went to places like Okinawa, Fukuoka, Ibusuki, Nara, Osaka, Shikoku (and all the prefectures on the island), among others. I did so many new things like harvesting and cooking bamboo shoots, I went to Universal Studios Japan and Fuji-Q, I climbed Mount Fuji (like the actual mountain), made my own cup noodles, watched a Beatles cover band in a high school gym in Japan (that’s not even the most surreal experience of the year) and so many other things. 

It’s actually crazy to think about how much I got to see and do this year. That’s why I enjoy writing this reflection each year. It helps to remind me about the things I tend to overlook. I came back to New Zealand in August and seeing my old friends was great but it was hard not to compare where I am to where they are. It’s easy to get caught up in the “milestones” you are supposed to hit at certain ages and like I don’t own a house (not even close), I don’t have a partner (although if you’re rich then hit me up) but like I’m still proud of what I’ve done and where I’ve been. I climbed Mt Fuji (in a hoodie and shorts which wasn’t smart and almost killed me but I did it which is the main thing) and I got to see so many different things with people I care deeply about. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I haven’t followed the traditional path but I have had a great time wandering the trail I’m on. 

This leads me to the next leg of the trail which is to Valencia, Spain. I’ll be heading there in a few days and I’m so keen on it. I’m not sure how long I’ll be there for but I’m looking forward to discovering a new place and meeting some new people. The job and lifestyle should be pretty chill so maybe I’ll pick up my website again ( rexolotlcreates.com ) or just be more active on social media. Or maybe I won’t. I don’t really know what to expect but that’s kind of the fun of it.

Feel free to reach out if ya wanna chat and as always, Happy New Year and look out for one another.

November 9th 2022

Hello again. It’s the time of the month were I decide to write a blog post and talk to the few people that decide to read it. Welcome and thanks for being here.

Speaking of blog posts, I don’t feel like I give the blog section of my website much love so I think I’m going to change that. I’ve found in the past that when I feel like writing, I haven’t had much to write about so I want to just write about whatever and see what happens. Like I might write film reviews or talk about issues that I’m looking at or just what I’m thinking at the time. This is a “thinking” blog post for sure.

So in terms of what I am thinking about as I sit here watching The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, (phenomenal way to keep up with the news btw) there are a few different things. I’m really hoping that people enjoy the work I put out. I do talk to a couple of people that like it but I wonder what the majority of people think. It’s one of those things that I think a lot of people feel where you put something out, make something, bake something, write something and you are anxious to see what people say. And it’s not like I’m worried about feedback or criticism but rather I worry about nothing being said. Like the worst thing for me is for someone to look at what I’ve made and think nothing of it. I would rather someone say negative (but constructive) things about my work so I can either improve it or take a different approach to it.

I think that’s me for today. I’ll be doing more of these so let me know what you think and what you would be interested in reading from me.

As always, thanks for getting this far and I’ll see you all tomorrow,

Rexolotl

October 3rd 2022

Hello again!

This is my seventh straight day of uploading to my website so I thought it would be nice to do a blog post as a point of reflection and to update the good people (like you!) that tune in everyday to see what I’ve done.

I’ve enjoyed the challenge of making or doing something creative everyday. I’ve tried to make it different each day to keep it interesting for both myself and you guys and while it is difficult at times, I also feel like it’s good for me. Even though it has only been a week I already feel less stagnant like the waters of my mind have been forced to move and it’s quite liberating in a way.

Also, I appreciate the kind words that people have messaged me or the reactions to what I’ve put out. It’s nice to know that people are reading/viewing my work and that they have opinions about it. Feel free to leave comments or message me about any of what I put out because I welcome all of it. If you want me to make more of a certain thing, you’ve got ideas or challenges for me or you have things for me to look at then hit me up. I welcome all the interactions.

Thanks to all of you who make it this far. Truly, I appreciate you all.

I’ll see you tomorrow,

Rexolotl

September 27th 2022

Ok, so it’s been a while since I’ve done anything here but I’m back. I think.

It's one of those things where I want to create but don’t know the right words to say or the right thing to make. I find that I don’t quite know what to do and if I start something I tend to delete it shortly afterwards because it doesn’t feel good enough. I have so many half finished poems that I don’t know how to continue with so they just end up sitting in my writing folder gathering digital dust. So I think I just need to make things and not worry about the quality as much.

So as a challenge I have set myself to help me get back on track, I’ve decided to make/do something creative everyday. Everyday I’m going to add something to one of the categories above (art, blogs, photography, poetry and stories) and some of it might be experimental and some of it might not be good at all but I think I just need to make stuff and see what happens. As always, I welcome any comments or feedback. Let me know if you hate it or love it or if it makes you feel nothing at all (I might die if you say this but like you do you).

Also, there is a button on the front page that will take you to whatever the day’s thing is if you don’t want to have to search for it (but searching could also be fun if you’re into that).

If you made it this far, thank you, and I welcome your company on this journey with me.

Until next time,

Rexolotl

March 7th 2022

Hello again,

I’m back with another poem and this one is about the ocean again but this time I added a sea! Two bodies of water for the price of one!

But on a real note, it’s called Where the ocean met the sea and this poem (like many others) was inspired by the music I’ve been listening to. In particular the newest Black Country, New Road album, Ants from Up There. It’s a great album that I definitely recommend a listen to. Very emotional vocals and they have a very poetic way of writing that I quite like. If you give it a listen then definitely let me know what you think in the comments down below.

In other news, there hasn’t really been anything going on except that I’ve finally completed both sets of the 25th Anniversary Japanese Pokemon cards which is super cool but I assume that no one really cares about that. I’ve been playing Elden Ring too but again I assume you aren’t too worried about that. Although, Elden Ring might inspire some poetry coming soon so keep an eye out.

That’s about it for now.

Stay safe, look out for each other and I’ll see you here next week.

• Rexolotl

February 28th 2022

Hello again,

I’m back for another week of fun filled content in a time period that is filled with not so much fun.

I’ve been a bit all over the place this week. I was still recovering from the vaccine symptoms at the beginning of the week. I was out on the Monday and by the end of the week I had a bit of nausea but I was mostly fine. I’m all good now though.

So I’ve written and posted a poem named Six Black Horses based on a Spanish song called Alfonsina y el Mar. It’s a lovely song and it’s a song that I listen to when I’m feeling a bit melancholy or down. I’ve only heard the version by Natalia Lafourcade which is beautiful but I am planning on checking out the various other versions at some point. Anyway, the poem is along the lines of being kind of pretty but also sad. I hope you enjoy it.

That’s about it for now. I’ve got some things in the works for the future that should hopefully be ready to put out soon.

Stay safe, look out for each other and I’ll see you here next week.

• Rexolotl

February 21st 2022

Hello again,

I hope everyone out there is doing well and making sure to do the right thing.

This week, there have been some uploads and changes to the site and a few developments in my life.

The first thing is I’ve deleted the NFT section. The reason for this is that, while I wasn’t a massive fan of the NFT and crypto space to begin with, I still decided to give it a go and see what would happen if I tried it. After trying it I’ve now decided that I really don’t like the crypto space and just wanted to remove it from my site. I’m still proud of the art I made so I’ve moved all of the Positively Chaos collection to the Art section for people to still see. It’s still something that makes me smile to look at and to think of all the work I did for it and I definitely don’t want to just throw it away.

The second thing is that I got my vaccine booster shot and it really took me out for a few days. So during that time when I felt nauseous and incredibly uncomfortable I wrote a new poem called 4am Fever Dreams. It’s a bit weird but I like the way it turned out. My brain wasn’t functioning at the highest level when writing and editing it and I think that shows but I also think that’s what kind of makes it great. Hopefully you enjoy it and feel free to leave comments and feedback.

That’s about it for this week. Make sure to get your vaccines when you can because even though it sucks for a couple of days, you could save someone’s life and long covid looks like it really sucks.

Stay safe, look out for each other and I’ll see you here next week.

• Rexolotl

February 14th 2022

Hello again,

How are you? I hope you are all well.

This week has been sending me a bit, I’m not going to lie. I’ve been watching the news out of New Zealand and seeing that people have decided to emulate the “freedom convoy” that happened in a Canada to protest mask and vaccine mandates.

Now, I’m all for people expressing their views and beliefs and having their own opinions and that, like there is nothing wrong with people standing for what they believe in. What I’m not a fan of is when people don’t do their research to support their ideas. Like, as an English teacher, I try to teach students critical thinking skills and one of the most basic things is to come up with an idea and then support the idea using some sort of evidence. What I’m seeing online is a lot of people that just say stuff without backing it up or using some sort of anecdotal evidence to support themselves which is not a very strong form of evidence when the story is from Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s friend, ya know?

Anyway, as you can probably tell, I have been thinking about this a lot and thinking about the idea of freedom and what freedom is and that’s where this weeks poem comes from. I used Thirteen ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens as inspiration for this and reached out to people on Instagram to find out what they thought freedom was. There were some beautiful ideas that came out of it and I hope that I managed to do them some kind of justice. I’m open to doing this style again if there is a topic for it so if you have any ideas then chuck them in the comments and I’ll give them a jam.

I also posted the rest of my shoe designs up in the art section. I might revisit that project later but for now I think I’m really happy with how it turned out. Let me know which one is your favorite and if you would rock any of them in real life.

I know there is a lot this week but I appreciate you for reading this far. I’ll be back next week with something else.

Stay safe, look out for each other and I’ll see you here next week.

• Rexolotl

February 7th 2022

Back at it again on a Monday.

I figured out that my problem with uploading on a Sunday is that I always plan to do it in the afternoon but when it gets to the afternoon I can’t muster the energy to do it. SO I either need to upload in the morning or keep doing it on Mondays. For the moment I think I’ll stick to Mondays but if I have a busy Monday coming up then I might upload on a Sunday. I will post a story when I upload though so make sure to keep checking in to know when I’ve chucked something up.

This week I’ve uploaded some of my shoe designs in the Art section. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out and I think it would be so cool if they were actual shoes. If anyone out there knows someone at Converse then put in a good word for us please.

I was planning on uploading a poem too but that didn’t quite come together so I’ll try to finish it for next week.

That’s about it for now. I’ll be back next week with something else.

Stay safe, look out for each other and I’ll see you here next week.

• Rexolotl

January 31st 2022

So I said I was going to post on Sundays but so far I’ve only managed to post on Mondays. Hopefully, I’ll get it right next week.

Today I’ve uploaded a new poem which is a first draft and kind of a little rough (feedback is always appreciated). I was going to also upload a picture I drew over the weekend but there I had a look at it this morning and decided it needed a little more work before posting it.

I’ve got the beginnings of another poem that I was thinking of the other day so that might be the next thing I post here although it is still in the very early stages.

I guess I should explain the idea between the poem that I just posted. It’s working title is “Room” and like most of my poetry, it draws on the real world and my real world but I stretch it and usually expand it to fit the idea of what I want.

The start of this poem was me fixating on my suitcases in the corner of my room and thinking about “emotional baggage” (I know, like, I’m so clever for equating the two. Never ever been done before, ever) and that’s how this poem started.

The first half starts with this fixation on smaller things around the room which are everyday problems and then the second half of the poem jumps out into a kind of birds eye view of the person’s life and their place in it before going to this introspective view. The change is very sudden and jarring which is what I wanted but hopefully that comes across in an interesting way and not an annoying way.

I’m not going to discuss it too much because I like people to come up with their own conclusions but if you want to talk about it more then feel free to comment below.

That’s about it for now. I’ll be back next week with something else.

Stay safe, look out for each other and I’ll see you here next week.

• Rexolotl

January 24th 2022

Hello again.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here but I found a bit of time and felt like I needed to chuck some stuff up on my website.

I’ve decided I need some sort of schedule to keep this thing going rather than just dumping stuff when I remember to so I’m aiming to upload stuff on Sundays. I’ll also write a short blog post about what I’ve added and I might include some notes from the week.

I don’t think that everything will be complete pieces of work so I may put up some works in progress or first drafts and that. Feel free to give me some feedback on them to help me improve them.

This week, I’ve uploaded several art pieces and a new poem. I’m hoping to work on a new short story in the near future so keep an eye out for that.

That’s about it for now.

Stay safe and I’ll see you here next week.

• Rexolotl

Welcome

As the title says, welcome to my creative space.

I guess I should probably start with my ideas and intentions around this site. Basically, I have been thinking about making my own website or space for quite a while now but was never sure about how it would look or how it would come across so I just kind of put it at the back of my mind. It was only recently, as I’ve begun to draw and write more that I’ve kind of thought that I could make a space for myself and that people would be interested in what I had to say and make. Hopefully, that turns out to be true.

I want this to be a space where I can post my work and have others comment and interact with it. I want to use this site as a vehicle to improve the things I create. I think most of all, I want this to be a place where I can put my things and if people want to see it then they know where to look and if people want to comment or give feedback then this is the place that they can do it.

I plan on uploading to this site whenever I can. There will be things here that are completely finished, works in progress or just the beginning of ideas. All of it is up for discussion and I welcome any criticism or commentary of my work. My main aim here is to get better so you can suggest things to be improved or things you like or really just whatever. I welcome all of it.

That’s about it for now I think. I’ll use this blog section to just comment on the state of things or things I’m working on or whatever I feel like doing. I have no set plans for the blog and just kind of want to see how it progresses from here.

If you have read all of this, I want to say thank you for being here, I appreciate you and I look forward to sharing my work with you.

Take care,

- Rexolotl