love & pop vol. 1

fireworks, music, books.

15th of august, 2026

welcome to my first serious entry in here ! i decided to call my personal blog in here <love & pop>, because not only sounds adorable, it's the name of one of my favorite movies (also a very weird one) which, to me, represents the absurdity of youth, both good and bad parts. this entry is quite long, so don't feel forced to read, this is mostly self indulgent and a way to encapsulate moments from my life! enjoy ~

the day started great!! one of my online friends, ryleigh, got me minecraft. i know it's pretty cheap but i always pirated it, so i didn't feel the need to actually purchase it. however, now that i have more friends to play with, i'm really glad i own it now! 

yesterday, i went out with my mom to see the fireworks my city prepared as a reenactment of the defense against the attacks of the english navy in 1589, when they tried to conquer the city before moving onto portugal, but ended up failing (thankfully). i'm not a big fan of fireworks (bad for environment, bad for animals, and bad for me due to hypersensitivity).

regardless, first we went to this store that sells everything. i had ordered a few days ago a red velvet's album, <cosmic> specifically! (lowkey disappointed they didn't have the standard version, so i got the poster ver. 

before picking it up, i decided to browse the music section to see if there's anything i'd like.

to contextualize; in spain once you turn 18, the government gives you 400€ for you to spend (with requirements of course), 200€ for live performances or entertainment, 100€ for physical media (cds, lps, dvds, books, stationary) and 100€ for digital purchases (subscriptions and such). 

i normally don't buy stuff at all due to my economical situation (still searching for a job lol), so this was very exciting for me since i rarely get new stuff and i mostly buy secondhand. i really wanted to buy a bunch of kpop albums but all the ones in stock were either from groups i didn't like/know or boygroups... so i moved into the cd section to find something i might like more. i was looking forward finding <detour> by kim petras but i guess she isn't that known where i am from... the only album i did know and like was <brat> by charli xcx but i didn't want to spend money on an album i'm not really excited to have in my collection. 

since i didn't find anything of my liking i moved to the books section. my mom was waiting in the graphic novels/mangas section and i decided to see if there were <oyasumi, pun pun> volumes. of course, second volume was nowhere to be seen but i could find the first!! so that was my first pick. i'm really happy because even though i haven't finished reading it, i love the story a lot.

then i moved to other books and decided to look for a few books i've been wanting to read. my main priority was to get <tender is the flesh> by agustina bazterrica, but they were out of stock... so i ordered one! then i moved to other 2 books i've been wanting to get and read for a long time; <the stranger> by albert camus and <no longer human> by osamu dazai. i know they are pretty basic choices... i feel like whenever it comes to book seen as 'deep' or 'introspective', people take it as performative and not genuine. i'm trying not to let myself be controlled by those thoughts and do what i enjoy and love. and to read will never be a bad thing!

after getting those, i finally picked up my album!! it was smaller than i expected, but i'm happy i got some red velvet merch after years of being a fan. later when i arrived at home i opened it and... i got my bias (favorite member) !! which is joy. i got her photocard and postcards. she looks absolutely gorgeous. the album came with a poster (two faced), cd, stickers of the members and the logo, 4 postcards and the photocard.

the album has 6 songs, my favorites are probably <bubble>, <last drop> and maybe either <cosmic> or <love arcade>. it's not red velvet's best album, but i like it a lot and the title track, <cosmic> is really excellent. if you like dreamy, bubbly and calmer songs i recommend you this ep!

after that, my mom bought me an oreo shake (that i really enjoyed, i'm obsessed with anything oreo/chocochip flavored!) but i didn't take a picture :( i was too focused on eating it and talking to my mom. later she bought herself a mango + orange chocolate(? ice cream.  then we walked to the site were the fireworks were supposed to happen (at the beach) and found a sit. and quickly the spectacle started. i had to wear headphones and listen to some music and even then the noise was too overwhelming. i got some pictures but with the camera i took, it was quite hard to get a good picture.

thankfully it started pretty soon. it was quite pretty and finished soon enough. then we automatically went back to our car to go back home. it was around 1am and i was dying to open my album. i was tired but i danced a little bit when i arrived to de-stress. it was a pretty busy day and even though i was overwhelmed, i managed to enjoy it!

this was supposed to be done by the 15th.. but i got distracted so i finished it now!!!