ehyde | Reading

I knew I was going to be confused jumping in in media res, and I think I've figured most things out from context, but wow, I was not expecting the creepy rabbit in evening dress who runs an alternate mirror dimension (literally accessed through a mirror). He hasn't been mentioned by name, but I looked it up and it's "Laplace's Demon" which is just a little too on the nose.

The premise of the show is that there are a bunch of living dolls created by a guy who studied alchemy, but they have to fight each other in the "Alice Game" so that the lone survivor can become a real girl. What the hell, "Father"?! Why the hell would you do this to your so-called children??! Clearly, he's the bad guy here, but I'm surprised none of the characters have figured it out yet; it seems like a total no-brainer. I get why the dolls would be for it (fucked-up family dynamics; going along with what "Daddy" tells them) but seems weird that their human companions would go along with it. I think they should unionize.

Overall, very 2000s animation, lots of roses as a thematic motif. The contrast between the dark, serious OP and then the comedy antics is wild, though. I like the doll themes (reminds me of TBF puppets) and the general aesthetic, so I'll stick with it for now. Looking forward to learning what the hell is going on in future episodes.

setsuntamew

"I wanna shell out $50 for the next part of the FFVII remake" I said, fully believing the lie was telling myself.

Anyway.

I picked up FFVII Rebirth on Sunday and I basically haven't put it down since XD It's so much better than Remake it's honestly incredible; they very clearly took feedback into consideration with this one. The gameplay is tightened up and modified just enough that it's fun instead of clunky, and while I still prefer the traditional turn-based experience, this is massive improvement over the last one. I still think Crisis Core feels a bit smoother because it leans more into the hack and slash nature of it, but I'm not dying in every fucking fight like I did in Remake.

ALSO THE FEW SECONDS OF ZACK IN THE OPENING IN AN ALTERNATE(??????) TIMELINE GOT ME RIGHT IN THE FEELS. I think because I just finished playing Crisis Core it hit particularly hard, but holy shitttttt, I was about ready to cry ;w;

Cloud looks so good too, like...they really have nailed "anime spiky hair bullshit" mixed with realism...it looks so soft and fluffy and also well spiked. It's just. idk. It manages to nail a lot of the stylistic things that fell short in Kingdom Hearts 3, and while I'm delighted it did...it also makes me sad for what could have been in KH3. It was ALSO an amazing game, but I'm still fussy about the style changes between KH3 and literally every other KH game ever :T

MOVING ON!!!

For the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm playing a game that was made for the PS5. Besides Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, everything else I own for the PS5 is on at least one other system (usually a fair amount), because everything is made for every damn system now!!!! It makes it feel like.....why do I have this system if it's just like everything else on the market?

BUT NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FFVII REBIRTH FEELS LIKE IT'S USING THE FULL CAPABILITIES OF THE SYSTEM!!!!!!! And not just like, oh the graphics are fancy, isn't that enough? No!!! There are so many little details that pull it all together and make it a richer experience *w*

I have a lot of other thoughts about it, but tbh I just wanna go back to playing....

so here's a majestic picture of Cloud with a dolphin XD

( few more screencaps under here! )
OH ALSO!!!! We had to go out to get more food for Lumos, because she's currently on "only the fanciest food money can buy" for her sensitive tummy...which is definitely hitting us where it hurts (the wallet). But we also picked up some groceries, including this absolutely necessary ceramic figure of a balloon animal. What animal? I have no idea, but I love him ♥

I put him on top of the TV with my son who has every disease (the green pumpkin)
BACK TO MORE FFVII I have a mini game I actually like (rhythm game)~

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: Garwyn Oaks, MD
Current Music: ルーファウス歓迎式典 -ジュノンのテーマ- ♪ 植松伸夫
Crossposts: https://kirrianu.insanejournal.com/40215.html

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galadhir

I've found a lady who has the same sort of shape as me, who dances the same kind of dance that I would love to dance. She has such precision and confidence-verging-on-arrogance and strength and lyricism and sweetness. I don't know that I can get my creaky old, arthritic person to do some of the things she does (that back bend!) but I love her sense of theatre. I love how she has combined bellydance with inspiration from sci-fi and theatre to make something that is very unique.

Watch on YouTube

Much though I like dancing, I haven't been able to find any genuine love in my heart for the whole 'scantily clad get in touch with your inner goddess who is also a sexy flirt' malarky, chiefly because I don't think I have an inner goddess of any kind, let alone a sexy one. But as a writer I 100% have an inner Evil Galactic Emperor, or an inner hero or villain character of a sort that I can lean into.

Watch on YouTube

So I the new dance I am now wrestling with is inspired by the plot in Stargate Universe in which Chloe - experimented on by aquatic aliens - fears she is losing her humanity, even while she grows stronger and more intelligent.

My question was, why the heck wouldn't you embrace that? Super strength? The ability to do maths? Sign me up.

I've just got to find a way of expressing this in dance.

china_shop

Previous poll review
In the vegetables poll, 90.4% of respondents clicked fresh vegetables (bought), 46.2% clicked frozen vegetables, and 44.2% clicked fresh vegetables (homegrown). I was surprised; I thought more people would go frozen for the convenience. (I wonder what that says, if anything, about Dreamwidth demographics.)

In ticky-boxes, hugs came first with 78.8%, followed by a tie between "hanging in there until things settle down and I can sort my life out" and "sunbeams playing in a tree, daring each other to peek around the shadowed side" with 63.5% each. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
Still going on The Horse and His Boy (I am slow and distractable) and the Guardian novel read-along (it's on a schedule). Nothing in audio.

Kdramas
We started Tale of the Nine Tailed, a sweeping epic about a powerful immortal, the reincarnated love of his life, and his bratty younger brother. (Nothing at all like Guardian the novel, why do you ask?) I'm hoping it has enough plot and worldbuilding to hold Andrew's interest; he gets bored during extended romance scenes.

More of Sell Your Haunted House with Pru. And in solo-watching, I started Heesu in Class 2; it's pretty adorable, but also Heesu is the living embodiment of Idiots In Love, and sometimes I have to watch through my fingers.

Other TV
This week's Doctor Who

was very silly and meta, set against a background of ominous racism. Hm. But I did enjoy the jokes, and Belinda is great.

Episode 1 of Sherlock & Daughter. We were just going to try out the first ten minutes to get a sense of it, but we ended up watching the whole episode. I can forgive Holmes for being a grumpy old man when he has a reason for it.

Our Deadloch rewatch-with-a-friend continues, plus Jentry Chau vs the Underworld, about which I still have no opinion.

My sister and I watched Into the Night (1985 film; Michelle Pfeiffer, Jeff Goldblum, and a vast number of film directors as extras, the only one of whom I knew on sight was Jim Henson). The caper was silly, and the romance plotline was very thin, but Goldblum and Pfeiffer are so watchable that it hung together despite the weird pacing when it lingered on random extras we were supposed to recognise. Lovely to see David Bowie in a small (albeit violently psychotic) role.

Guardian/Fandom
I archived my Murderbot flashficlet, and wow, Murderbot fans are generous with their kudosing. *hearts so much* (In my experience, some fandoms are just more kudosy than others.)

Audio entertainment
I listened my way through all of The Setup, a romance audiodrama about Juan, an anxious art museum curator in NYC, and Fernando, the con artist who's trying to steal a painting. It's great! I'm really into it. And then I got to the end of the available episodes and realised it's not finished yet, ahhhhh! I need to check these things before I start!

(Is it just me or are depictions of anxiety becoming more common in romances? I feel like there's some wish fulfilment going on: people longing to meet The One who is hot, super into them, and will also be incredibly kind and patient and give them effective tips for handling their panic attacks. Not that romances aren't all about wish fulfilment, so why not? Add dimensions to your dream partner!)

Writing/making things
My little 4k exchange fic is becoming somewhat tortured by all the writing advice I'm trying to enact on it. Hopefully I'm not engineering the spark out of the thing. Also, hopefully I emerge from this process wiser and more capable. (It could happen!) Note to self: this story still doesn't have an ending, oops.

Other than that, I'm spending a lot of my life rolling around in meta discussions, yay!

Life/health/mental state things
Oh, look, let's not even talk about it. /o\

Note to self: I had a flu jab on Saturday.

Online life
I'm switching ISPs on Friday. Wish me luck! If I disappear off the face of the internet, that will be why.

Food
Today marks my first attempt at baked potatoes in the slow cooker. *fingers crossed* I forgot to prickle them with a fork before I wrapped them in foil, so who knows.

Good things
Fandom. Writing. Lunchtime dumplings on the back deck. Cephalopod plushies. Queer audiodramas. Friends coming over to watch stuff. Guardian. Home-made salsa. Trivia quizzes. Music and kindness and laughter and love.

Poll #33020 face blindness extrapolation

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 43

View Respondents

Do you have face-blindness?

View Answers

yes
2 (4.7%)

technically no, but it's not unusual for me to get people confused
23 (53.5%)

especially when they're dressed the same
14 (32.6%)

no
12 (27.9%)

I mix up similar usernames
14 (32.6%)

honestly, they don't have to be that similar
12 (27.9%)

other
1 (2.3%)

ticky-box full of black cats slinking mysteriously in the shadows
28 (65.1%)

ticky-box full of starting a howl
15 (34.9%)

ticky-box of overthinking
21 (48.8%)

ticky-box full of squirrel-dragons with floofy tails, guarding their golden acorns
21 (48.8%)

ticky-box full of hugs
33 (76.7%)

china_shop

( One link behind the cut )

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schneefink

After a long day of classes (on a bank holiday, too) I treated myself to some grapefruit + nougat ice cream and then planned to spend some time reading, do some housekeeping in preparation for hosting a guest (very exciting), and then write some overdue review posts, maybe prepare some recs if I'm feeling ambitious.

Instead I spent most of the evening continuing to play Astalon: Tears of the Earth. I'd seen it recommended quite a few times on r/metroidvania and I was very curious, so when I saw it was on sale I bought it even though it's not entirely smart to start a new game 2.5 weeks before an exam. Ah well.

You play as a group of three adventurers in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that investigate (read: fight their way through) a tower from which comes a substance poisoning their village. One of them sold his soul to the titan of death, and in exchange every time you die you are transported back to the entrance of the tower.

I also saw it described as a "metroidvania with roguelite elements," which made me a bit skeptical because the other game that claims that is Dead Cells and that didn't convince me when I briefly tried it. But that description isn't really accurate because it doesn't have the procedural generation of a roguelike, it has the exploration of a metroidvania, and that's my favorite part of the genre. It just doesn't have checkpoints and very little healing. But there's plenty of shortcuts to unlock so landing back at the beginning is much less frustrating than I'd feared. And unlocking shortcuts is very satisfying; the exploration is satisfying in general, with plenty of secrets to discover. Plus, there are not that many but enough character interactions that I care about the characters as well.

After about eight hours I've beaten three bosses (one of them I'm pretty sure is optional) and discovered around 35% of the map. ( Spoilers )

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china_shop

The Writing Excuses podcast is doing a series on voice (first, third limited, third omniscient), and mostly their discussions have been great. I've enjoyed them a lot. But I found today's episode on second person (2ndPOV) unsatisfying. They got distracted talking about video games, TTRPG, online recipe essays, and Youtube influencers, and when they did discuss fictional prose, they seemed to think the "you" character had to be a reader stand-in. (Or maybe I misunderstood? Quite possible!) Anyway, now I'm itching to ~~procrastinate on my story~~ talk with like-minded souls about the joys of second person.

Note: If you not into 2ndPOV, that's totally cool. Each to their own! But please don't chime in to tell me or explain why; I'm not interested in defending it today.

( Rambling, so much rambling. )

ION, Andrew sent me a link to Secrets of Writing Snappy Dialogue (Banter) (Youtube video). At first I was resistant, but then I watched it and now I'm overhauling my 4k fic AGAIN. This is killing me, lol.

alterkrmn

This week (at least since Wednesday) was a holiday (thanks to the catholics), and though I intended to get some work done, the truth is I couldn’t… I watched some stuff, started reading, and tried to rest, but stressful things happened on Thursday (as usual, hahaha lolsob), and I really had to distract myself.

Currently reading

The Scum Villain’s Self Saving System Vol. 1 (novel) - Chapter 1

Dropped/On Hold

La transmigración de los cuerpos [The transmigration of bodies] (novel) - Chapter 1/5

Finished watching

Kieta Hatsukoi (Japanese BL drama) - 10 episodes
Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung (Korean drama) - 20 episodes (or 40, according to MDL)

Currently watching

Winter Begonia (Chinese drama) - Weekly, weekends - 21/49 episodes
Dakaichi: I'm Being Harassed By the Sexiest Man of the Year (BL anime) - No schedule - 9/13 episodes
Top Form (Thai BL drama) - Thursdays - 6/11 episodes
Perfect 10 Liners (Thai BL drama) - No schedule - 4/24 episodes
El Secreto del Río (Mexican drama) - No schedule - 4/8 episodes

On Wednesday, I started reading SVSSS Vol. 1, and I think enough time has passed since I read MDZS and other danmei for me to feel brave enough to tackle this novel. So far, I’m finding it fun. At least now I have more context about systems and transmigrators. I’ve marked some passages that made me laugh out loud on the bus and outside my therapist’s office. We’ll see how funny I still find it as the plot progresses.i think I have some idea but I want to avoid as many spoilers as possible ( I’m good at that :D)

For now, I’m not sure if I’ll drop La Transmigración de los Cuerpos for good or if I’ll come back to it later… but I think one of the biggest issues was that I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the main character. Though I’ve already talked about other reasons why I couldn’t connect with the story, so I won’t go into detail here anymore.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this here or just thought about it, but I’m on a mission to watch BL series that are considered "must-watch," and this week I watched Kieta Hatsukoi (2021). I really enjoyed it. It was sweet, funny, and a little exasperating in the way only teen dramas can be. There were moments when I genuinely wanted to reach through the screen, grab Aoki or Ida by the shoulders, and shake them so they’d communicate better. But that’s kind of the point… part of being a teenager is feeling lost in many ways, especially if you’ve always thought you only liked girls, only to suddenly realize you have feelings for a boy. Or at least, that’s what I think, hahaha*. And yes, I’ll say it again: Japanese BLs are truly my favorites (I’ve been meaning to reflect more deeply on this, about my own temperament and my high levels of emotional repression, hahaha, but I don’t know, I always end up chickening out).

I also finished Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung. This week, I watched no fewer than eight hour-long episodes, but things kept happening, and as they say, the plot thickened. So I just couldn’t stop. I suffered, I laughed, but above all, I kept thinking about History as a narrative: about what we know of the past and why, and by whose decision. These aren’t new reflections for me, especially as someone who studied literature, but also as a person from a colonized country with a very complex history. But I’m getting off-topic. One thing I liked was that, yes, there’s romance, but the other events and secrets were what really held my attention. And not just that, but the different kinds of relationships between the characters: I’ve already mentioned the sibling dynamics (between Hae Ryung and Jae Kyung, as well as Yi Rim and Yi Jin), but also U Won’s relationship with his father, the friendship among the female historians, and the (reluctant) camaraderie that forms among all the historians (both female and male). In the end, the only thing that left me slightly unsatisfied was the time skip and how some things weren’t explained in detail… but if I had the mental energy, they’d be perfect opportunities to write fanfics. I was surprised to find only 51 fics on AO3… but oh well… In the end, I really, really loved this drama. I grew very attached to the characters and absolutely hated the Second State Councilor. Thanks to forestofglory for the rec <3

Today, I wasn’t really planning to watch any episodes of Winter Begonia because I’m still thinking a lot about Rookie Historian, but in the end, I couldn’t resist and had to check in on my adoptive son Shang Xirui (and he didn’t disappoint, omg). I can’t believe it’s the first time I’ve seen the opening and ending credits (because earlier this week, I opened iQIYI in my browser and discovered there’s an option to disable them… and apparently, I’ve always had them turned off). I like the ending song, and the animation too.

I only watched one episode of Dakaichi, but it’s fine. Maybe I’ll finish it next weekend.

I watched this week’s episode of Top Form, and even though I’d seen this part in the anime and knew what was coming, it was just as stressful as before. And I kept thinking about how I wanted to watch the next episode… because in the anime, things get resolved, but in this case, I have to wait until Friday (or Thursday night, if work leaves me with enough energy… I hate when my job gets between me and my gay shows…).

At some point, I also watched an episode of Perfect 10 Liners because… well, don’t ask me why, hahaha (it is because I want to see JuniorMark as FaifaWine, that’s why).

Finally, I also watched the first episode of Pit Babe to see if this time it would really grab me or spark enough curiosity to keep watching until the end. And out of curiosity, I checked out the first episode of My Stubborn, just testing the waters… I won’t officially add them to my list until I’ve watched at least the second episode…

And that’s all.

*It’s not that I’ve forgotten what being a teen was like... it’s just that I’ve always been attracted to both men and women for as long as I can remember… so I didn't have that kind of confusion, but I can understand it.

forestofglory

I’m once again sharing my thoughts on my recent media consumption. But first some thoughts about my joyful reading project.

I spent several days making a deliberate effort to not read if I didn’t feel like reading or wasn’t excited by anything I had to read. I don’t think it really helped? I was kind of miserable but in a different way than when I read things because I don’t have anything better to do. (I need no screen low hand impact things to do right before bed) But I guess after I did that I did end up reading some things. So maybe it worked? But I would rather not do it again.

I went back to reading not because I was suddenly super excited but because I had a day where I was too sick to do much at all and ended up reading a long fic all day.Which was nice, maybe not joyful, but nice.

( All Systems Red, Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire, The Crescent Moon Tearoom, and The Flash Band )

atamascolily

I forgot it was Bread Day until after the fact, but I did in fact make bread yesterday--twice, actually. I've been trying to recreate a particular kind of flatbread featured in Thunderbolt Fantasy, which is known as shaobing in Taiwan; however, I had run into difficulties because the recipes I found didn't look anything like what's featured in the show. Taiwanese shaobing is rectangular and oblong and covered with sesame seeds, while this bread was circular and covered with round marks.

It turns out that while this bread is known as shaobing in Taiwan, it's actually from the Xinjiang region of mainland China, and known as "Uyghur flatbread" or "Uyghur naan" or "nángbĭng". Thus armed with the appropriate search term, I was able to find recipes and attempt to recreate it at home.

The first version was a vegan form with whole-wheat pastry flour, which I rolled too thin and it came out more cracker-like. The second version was when I remembered I had Greek yogurt in the fridge with all-purpose flour, and which I rolled too thick. Both versions were tasty, but the yogurt one had better texture and heft, and was very filling (probably because Greek yogurt is so dense and proteinaceous). To get the circular shape, I rolled out the dough and placed it in a cast-iron circular pan and folded the edges over, then stamped the center with a circular cookie cutter to keep it from rising. (Traditionally, one uses a bread stamp with more geometric shapes on it, hence the iconic pattern.)

I like homemade bread, but flatbreads are significantly easier because there's no rising time and a lot fewer steps. I think I still need four or five more attempts to really perfect this--ideally shooting for the thickness of a pita, with onions and sesame toppings (which I didn't even attempt either of these times) and I'd like to find the right ratio (for me, anyway) of whole wheat to white flour. I also need to get better at rolling and folding edges, which came out a little lumpy.

Still, I'm really happy with how my experiments turned out, and the fact that it also happened to be Bread Day (an unofficial tumblr holiday) was icing on the cake--er, shaobing. Looking forward to more baking later now that I have the basic protocol down.

umadoshi

Reading: Still working my way through The Spear Cuts Through Water--somewhere past the halfway point now.

Watching: I finished my Guardian rewatch!

scruloose and I finished season 1 of Kingdom and did indeed opt to hold off on season 2 until after we finish season 2 of The Last of Us. (Is Kingdom complete at two seasons? Anyone know offhand? Fear of spoilers makes me not want to search up the info.) We also saw the season premiere of TLoU and the first episode of The Pitt.

Playing: Because the evil 368chickens game keeps track and springs the number on you when you beat it, I know that when I finally rescued 368 chickens a few days ago it was after 454 tries. And for reasons that are not clear to me, the victory screen (at least in the browser version) also informs you that you can't play anymore and is all that shows if you reload. (There are ways around it, of course--incognito tabs, simply using a different browser, whatever--but it just seems weird to me. I have thus far avoided going back to it, but that just means returning to my default couple of games that I play endlessly when my brain is completely incapable of focus but needs to be doing something. >.<)

Adulting: Mid-week,

scruloose and I took the day off for my birthday and both dropped off our tax documents with our tax guy (bless our tax guy) and voted in the federal election at the Elections Canada office. I'm glad we got the voting taken care of so early--sounds like lineups for advance polls have been unusually lengthy this weekend (and here's hoping that's a good sign for the outcome!).

( under the cut: fruit and meat consumption (separately) )

Current Mood: okay

halfcactus

The tree across my window had its first full bloom of the year, the first along its street to turn gold. It shed its flowers two days later, of course, but it felt special, like it was just for me hehe. And hopefully it will bloom several more times before summer ends. :")

2.
It was a long weekend for us and I had so many plans for it: catching up on sleep, catching up on Justice in the Dark, finishing I Am Setsuna, finishing all the episodes/movies I started and forgot to continue, journaling, etc... So far the only thing I've managed to do was game a little, GIF a lot, and finally sub ZXC's latest song, which confirmed for me that Resolve has been misbehaving as far as subtitles are concerned... I should probably check if there are any later versions but I'm afraid that any potential update might make the program stop working!?!?

Watch on YouTube

3.
I actually have been having a lot of complicated thoughts about Anglo cfandom since Justice in the Dark has me drawn back into various fandom spaces (mostly because I dump my GIFs on Tumblr and Twitter) after a long time of only being present on Youtube which was its own can of strangeness.

The drama itself has been... fine. I'm not the best judge because I watch raws (bc there's a provider that has added CN subs... And sometimes it's nice to read bullet comments haha) and can only understand so much... And I'm not particularly invested in the adaptation's plot... And I skip-watch all the parts that stress me out... It tracks fairly close to the novel, but I'm not sure how cohesive it is to an audience who is unfamiliar with the original—a lot was obviously cut (in the sense that scenes are conspicuously missing), and a lot of transitions feel janky, but the emotional storyline between Pei Su and Luo Weizhao has been kept intact. Their relationship is progressing at a different pace, which for me is interesting? For now, at least! Like it's sad that the gay got cut out, but I don't mind this version where Pei Su is still some level of antagonistic towards LWZ (not yet flirting), maybe because I'm just a casual Modu fan. XD

(A little nervous about seeing any SEA rep here since I remember mentions of it in the audio drama, but I'm not sure the universe has a concept of SEA, other than being filmed there.)

Zhang Xincheng's acting seems to be well received across various audiences, but I'm weirdly... indifferent to it (the reception). I guess it's not that weird when I've seen (and have been following) most of his body of work and I tend to avoid the fandom/Weibo side of things; from my POV, watching his performance in a drama he filmed four years ago and was partially released two years ago feels more like a puzzle piece sliding into place... Like obviously I think he was cast well and put a lot of effort to build a character that is more interesting than usual... I just don't do fandom the same way anymore, I guess? My relationship with cdramas has changed, idk. Still enjoying! But from a quiet and more neutral distance. ^^;

Current Music: First Aid Kit - Out of My Head

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setsuntamew

First thing: Lumos is doing better!!! She's been eating more regularly today and we got her some new antibiotics...which she does not like, but she didn't throw them up. So I'm counting that as a win ♥

Now, let's catch up on the rest of my life, since the last few days with Lumos kinda drove everything else out of mind. I finished playing Crisis Core a couple nights ago and basically cried like a baby. Every fucking time I'm like "maybe this time it'll be different" even though I know it won't be. The nature of a prologue like this is to let the tragedy loom in the distance while every bit of the game fills you with such hope that you can't help but get swept up in it. But that's just it- Zack has to die so Cloud can become the protagonist, and it's so damn good ;w;

Seriously...I have only hazy memories of playing the original on the PSP back in high school. I mostly remember ~~GACKT~~ Genesis pulling a whole bunch of anime bullshit at the end, so I somehow forgot the incredible bit of plot integrating into the UI in the final fight. Holy shit it was good. That's the sort of thing that I love about video games; when the menus suddenly become key plot elements I lose it!!!! :D

Anyway, I now desperately wanna pick up the next part of the FFVII remake (despite not really liking the first one), but I don't wanna shell out $50 for it ~~especially with how much everything with Lumos just cost sobs~~ so...I'm replaying the original XD tbh I wanted the next part so I could finally get out of fucking Midgar and I didn't wanna replay the original because, well, Midgar. But I had a save file on the PS3 that's right before the final couple boss fights in Midgar, so I called that close enough and started playing it this evening.

AND I DISCOVERED SOMETHING:

YOU CAN CHANGE THE COLOR OF THE MENUS??????????????????
Literally I first played FFVII in 2004 and I somehow never realized this until today. Okay. I'm stupid XD This picture doesn't quite capture how pretty my color gradient is, but the PS3 doesn't natively take screencaps and I didn't feel running it through the capture card. Maybe another day~

In enstars news: I got both 5* cards from the jp tour last night!!!! I actually have enough whistles and event bonus that I can probably nab a second copy of each pretty easily, because apparently that's just what I do with year end tours in jp?? XD Whatever, I'm not complaining...I'm delighted to have more Rei and Tori cards.

Aaaaand a couple doujins + a small piece of merch came in the mail! Probably the next package from our jp shopping service will be the exciting one - new outfits for the nuis!! - but this one was still good :D

( more pics + enstars screencaps )
Anyway, I started a new community this week as well, because what good is stress if you don't turn it into making sparkle graphics? XD I'd been hoping for a freebie community to pop up on a DW because I didn't feel like I should be the one running it...for some deranged reason???? I ran a bunch of freebie communities on GJ back in the day, idk why I thought I wasn't qualified??? But talking with

thewizardofoz about it the other day pushed me to ignore my nerves and just go for it!

SO!!! Now

vogliaa exists, which is the name of one I ran on GJ. I held onto a bunch of old icons I used to use to post there + I managed to lift the profile from the wayback machine, so I had something to start with. The banners and layout coding are all brand new, tho the layout coding comes from someone who was very big during 00s-era of freebies/requestables. I think it looks very nostalgic and colorful and nice ♥

Everyone has been so nice about it so far btw ;w; I've gotten some really kind comments and it just reminds me of how much I love making icons, honestly. I know that it's a bit rose-tinted, but making requestables on GJ was such a formative part of my life...I know I wouldn't be who I am today if not for the community and friends I made there.

ALSO THE TEMPERATURE JUMPED TODAY FOR NO FUCKING REASON BLUH

Current Mood: hot
Current Location: Garwyn Oaks, MD
Current Music: Church ♪ Fall Out Boy
Crossposts: https://kirrianu.insanejournal.com/40059.html

blotthis

One:
Inspired by

shati 's post about Duolingo, I picked it back up again to use as enrichment. (More on that later if it ever gets interesting beyond "heheheh new sounds and orthographies," but don't hold your breath.)

It's hard to get a sense of where a language is held in the mouth--at least for me--on Duo. No moving humans, and all that. So I was looking up a guide to Greek pronunciation, and I just wanted to share this absolute treasure from the nineties web: http://greek.kanlis.com/phonology.html

Such a fan of the guy-with-hyperfixation-makes-a-website genre. This one thinks the IPA is too precise for Greek pronunciation. I love him. I hope you enjoy.

Two:
I almost forgot!!! I've been really enjoying Fish Dessert, a new podcast about IRON Chef. It's hosted and produced by my friend Lito and his friend Trevor. Lito is an incredible home cook, student of Japanese, IRON Chef fan, and all-around fact-knower; Trevor is a guy who likes food a lot, doesn't speak any Japanese, has never seen any Iron Chef, and is just the most game guy ever.

The episodes discuss whether the food looks good, the cultural and material histories of the food and its ingredients, Japanese literature and its effect on Japanese cuisine, incredible fashion choices, camera angles, whether you can or should put fish in ice cream, the circumstances of weekly translation, and did you know the guy who made Earthbound was a regular on IRON Chef.

The episodes are long (2 hours), and a great way to keep yourself entertained while doing chores. In my experience. Recommend!

EDITED: IRON CHEF IRON CHEF IRON CHEF IM AN IDIOT. if you saw me call it top chef no you didn't

Three:
I meant to update this when the discussion on the Hill House sentences post was actually happening, but time got away from me. I just wanted to share that my friends (

skygiants and b in this case) did, as suspected, have corrections to make about my scansion that I think are delightful.

Becca: even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream is almost a perfect fourteener i'll tell you that much
me: ok, i had to read that umpteen times to get it. does it start with trochees
Becca: yeah EVen LARKS and KAtyDIDS are is a trochee set and then //supposed switches it to iambs
me: also damn now im thinking of to sleep, perhchance, to dream. did she do that on purpose, putting the parenthetical iamb right before it in the same place
Becca: SHE MIGHT'VE

so that's been living in my head and I love it. Eleanor spends so much time quoting "Journeys end in lovers meeting" from Twelfth Night, we know Shirley was on that Billy shit.

Then, b:

b: to me [the start of the second sentence, which I proposed was two iambs] sounds like a trochee and a spondee or even two spondees.. HILL house, NOT SANE,

and of course they're right. It also is a better explanation for the way NOT SANE makes me feel both like a slapped fish and one slapped with a fish.

God, I wish I was better at scansion. If only there was a way to improve! oh well!!

chubsthehamster

This essay is a reflection on this AMV.

Okay!!! So at the beginning of the month I was listening to Hozier’s Psychopomp (Abstract) late at night, as I am wont to do. Unreal Unearth is one of my favorite albums ever, with some of my favorite songs ever, so I’ve listened to it many times. HOWEVER, as one often does with art they love, I discovered something new. When I got to the bridge of Abstract (Psychopomp), I heard a specific line that went through me like a fucking bullet. I immediately thought wait a fucking second, rewound the track, and re-listened to it with my jayvik goggles on.

Plagued by these visions, I then proceeded to feverishly construct an AMV entirely in my mind as I lay there, facing my shadowed ceiling, feeling like I was receiving divine revelation. I’m talking—exact shots, beat for beat transitions, word for word scene associations. I woke up the next morning, downloaded Davinci Resolve, and over the course of a few sleepless nights, painstakingly transferred my Visions to video. Now, even after posting, I STILL have thoughts. Many of them actually came after I’d watched the thing on YouTube, pretending it was something I was seeing for the first time instead of something I’d stared at so long I got eyestrain.

So here we are. Welcome to the kind of essay I wished I could've written in college, complete with swearing and emojis and links to Reddit posts. Buckle up; I have no idea if this is going to cohere, but by God am I going to try (I still feel like I’m possessed, btw.)

(CW: animal death; discussions of death, depression, and suicidal ideation; brief mention of torture)

( Read more... )

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ehyde

April 2025

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atamascolily - Lily watches: "Rozen Maiden: Traumend" eps 1-2
setsuntamew - FFVII got me BAD
shipperslist - Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me by Whoopi Goldberg
galadhir - Belly dance hero
china_shop - Me-and-media update
china_shop - US politics
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schneefink - Started Astalon: Tears of the Earth
shipperslist - so how did this happen?
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china_shop - Come speak to me of Second Person POV
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shipperslist - 20 covers meme: book 6
setsuntamew - Good Things All Around
blotthis - grab bag / edited to add
chubsthehamster - Coda: On Dante’s Inferno, Hozier’s Psychopomp (Abstract), and Jayvik

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