Monthly recap (February 2026)
Another month with a whole load of nothing but things may be looking up soon.
Website updates
Finally completed a bunch of long-overdue changes on my websites:
- Moved TGAA Collab/DOGS to tgaa.milaza.net and updated milaza.net with some placeholder info. Will rework this when I have shit to add to my portfolio in 5 years.
- Revised this site layout and finally nabbed a custom domain at wulfpaper.net. I'm wrangling with Google Search Console to get it to display my new URL!
- Updated multi-image code to accommodate for different image sizes and >2 images. I hate using Elementor site editor for work but it's helped me visualize how flexbox works a lot better and I must say it is so useful for stuff like this.
Laneway
This was actually my first time attending Laneway proper. Last year I couldn't justify the $250 ticket just for Charli XCX so I spent the night sitting in the nearby park with some old man who was walking his dog. I later found out my gay therapist who doesn't care about Charli XCX got tickets to go for free because he's friends with her hairdresser. FUCK MY LIFE! My highlights:
- The Dare: SO fun and danceable. We need more weirdo white boys like him.
- PinkPantheress: Oh PinkPantheress princess that you are. Her production visuals and vocals were so impressive. I got awfully close to her which was such a treat. The twink DJ was a necessity.
- Wet Leg: The main singer was sooo fucking cool.
- Alice Wolf: Rock music is the most danceable after all. I couldn't stop myself from moving while I was in line for mini cinnamon donuts.
- Chappell Roan: Never seen anything like her production even at a solo concert. The castle, the costumes, the animation! Of course Chappell herself was incredible and cool. I'm so glad I got to watch her live. It was lovely to hear how glad she was to see how much LGBT support there was in Auckland, given the current state of the US.
Australia
Went to Australia for Bad Bunny's concert! More on that below, but here's a summary of my other highlights:
- Had dinner with Calamari-san! They are so bigbrained and smart. I cannot for the life of me remember what we actually talked about but I think it did help to recontextualize the years I spent making fanart more positively.
- Before we met up, Calamari-san told me about an anime store called Isekai Gacha. The store rents out display boxes for a monthly fee which artists can use to sell fanmerch or pre-owned goods. To my surprise, I met tovrch while I was there! Neither of us knew what each other looked like nor did they know I was in Australia, so I only recognized them as they were actively rearranging their cube.
- After the Bad Bunny concert, I went hiking in the Blue Mountains and met an Italian couple that had also gone to the concert, so we chatted about it while walking (we only got 1/6 of the way before turning back).
- St. Mary's Cathedral was insane. I've never seen such an intricate building of such scale before and it even had a relic of St. Francis Xavier. Literally kyaaed.
- Peaches and grapes were so cheap and yummy I cried... I bought two whole bags of grapes and they still 2/3 of the price of a single bag here.
Mr Fuzzby had a lot of fun playing at the Australian Museum, meeting his distant relative at the Taronga Zoo, and eating a biiiiig plate of pancakes!
Bad Bunny DTMF World Tour
Bad Bunny was absolutely incredible and showstopping in every way.
The show was split into three sets for DTMF traditional PTR songs, DTMF reggaeton songs, and older Bad Bunny songs. I had picked seats at the very back of the stadium because they were the cheapest and I figured I was just there for the vibes. During the 2nd set, the stage location changed to the back so Bad Bunny was pretty much directly in front of and below my area. HOLY SHIT! HE POINTED AT ME DIRECTLY!!!
The music was so fucking awesome. Bad Bunny vocals smooth ASF, live band amazing, opening act made global warming the hottest bop. I only wish I knew Spanish so that I could sing along more. I loved everything, but especially the first set. During the second set, Bad Bunny high-fived everyone in the front row, even going out of his way to do so when he wasn't being filmed. He also signed someone's book and brought a dude on stage to hug him. I've never seen such level of audience interaction in a concert before. Truly the people's prince.
I was impressed with how many Australia-specific skits they made. It truly showed how much he cares for his fans on this worldwide tour. They also gave out camera-themed PixMob lanyards as a freebie. I want to try reworking it to activate on button press in the future.
It was so 100% worth the price to travel to Sydney to see him. I know he'll never tour NZ and is unlikely to even visit Australia again so this was a once in a lifetime experience and he absolutely smashed my expectations. Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio you will always be famous.
Art log
Manero Brushes monthly challenge, theme: baby ducks.
Monthly LEGO freebuild, based on Strawberry Fields Forever...
Outfit log
✧ indicates thrifted or second-hand item.
- Shirt: Unlabled ✧; blazer: Connor; pants: Moana Clothing ✧; shoes: yd.
- Shirt: Radiac Wulcosa ✧; shorts: Kathmandu ✧; socks: Common Garden ✧
- Shirt: Uniqlo; jacket: Match ✧; pants: Dickies; shoes: Puma
While wearing the second fit, some teenagers bullied me in public. "Hey NERD," they said. "What school do you go to?" I was in shock. When I replied that I am a 24 year old, they asked if I was gay. We were on Karangahape road which is the only road in a 400 km radius that has any gay bars. Every guy here is gay except for me.
Then they tried to siphon money off of me by selling me their watch. It was my first experience being bullied but I didn't care because two women had complimented me on my teddy bear earlier in the day.
Anyway I went to a gay bar a couple of hours after that. I had a Limoncello which was pretty decent. When I popped back in two weeks later, they had replaced the entire menu with Long Island iced tea variations. Guys, it isn't that good.
Media log
- Haus of Bears: Mostly a general gay talent show. I think I was hairier than most of the performers, except for the dragon fursuiter singing Mr. Cellophane. Mr. Bear 2025 was amazing. I've never heard someone with such a strong controlled voice at such a close distance before. He did a very charismatic Italian opera bit about a threesome followed by a funky rendition of Somebody to Love. I was truly impressed by how loud his voice was without straining the mic. And he was massive. A true bear! He made the $20 price tag absolutely worth it.
- Mr. Bear 2026 Competition: The contestants still weren't really bears but they had body hair at least. Plenty of bears in the audience though. Super fun, very raunchy and entertaining. I saw a doctor dress up as a sexy nurse and dry hump a man on stage to dubstep. Plus there was a 72 year old drag king stripping for a half-time show I guess.
- Impact Pro Wrestling - Rumble in the Square: So fucking awesome. Basically the usual stuff IPW does but 3.5 hours long with an epic 20-man fight to end it all.
- Defunctland After Dark - The Capital One Bank Guy
- Bad Bunny - Super Bowl LX Halftime Show: Went to a pub to watch this live and I'm so glad I did. Obviously amazing but I lost it when Gaga came out too. AND RICKY MARTIN!?
- Big Gay Out: Ran into Guy Williams! I told him that I appreciated his pro-trans/LGBT comedy and that my boss kept watching his YouTube videos in the office while I'm trying to work. "Well that's rude," Guy replied. I then told my big boss about this interaction and he said "That's only because you showed me the video!" then continued laughing about the Mt. Albert Barbeque Noodle House mystery.
- Auckland Theatre Company - Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express: My department boss gave me free tickets because she couldn't make it to the show. It was SOOOO GOOD! Super funny and well acted and I absolutely adored the set design.
- LordMinion777- Blue Prince Part 1-11: Couldn't stop watching this for a good while but I'm past the point in my life where I can spend 50 hours on a let's play, at least since this is a very visual-heavy game. The story and gameplay looks fascinating though.
- Alex Casey - Our possums are a problem. Could Selena Gomez be the solution?
- Richard Conway - How to Get to the Top of Google Search: A Practical SEO Guide: Got this book out from the library without realizing it was by one of our competitor's CEOs and everyone was disappointed in me. A bit outdated but fine for beginners. I was skimming through it until I came across a page where he talked about being invited to party with a billionaire on a private island in the Carribean. Curious, I Googled who that billionaire was and you can guess what comes next. Richard, I know that you or one of your employees are reading this since you're an SEO guy. Perhaps time to remove that image of yourself and that man from your website's about page?
- David Foster Wallace on Reading, Consumerism and American Politics: Exactly the type of shit I'm on recently.
- Arthur Conan Doyle - The Musgrave Ritual
- Trolligarch - The quest to build weapons of mass destruction on Habbo Hotel
- Kendra Gaylord - Why home makeover shows feel icky: Kendra produces such high-quality videos about fun architecture topics that are just the right length! Definitely check her out if you want video essays that feel original and aren't too long.
- Auckland Art Gallery - Pop to Present: American Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts: It meant a lot to finally see Pollock and Rothko up close.
- Stephen Ramsay - If You're Going to Vibe Code, Why Not Do It in C?
- Lars Lofgren - The Story of Codesmith: How a Competitor Crippled a $23.5M Bootcamp By Becoming a Reddit Moderator