#I wasn't in the mood to go through the whole battle for some pics of the end

[sky--phantom]

Solas & Lavellan at the end of DAI, Trespasser and DAV

Congrats to them for finally having an ending together!

(you know, there's something to say about how in every other one, they are separated from each other, but in their end slide they are reunited, embracing and not letting go)

[vocaliveparty]

Night Sky Patrol of Tomorrow - Design, Effects, and Extra Notes.

Design

Designed and Modeled by Maydayfireball, with some touch ups from jjinomu ! I distinctly remember sending him to her and going "yeah i dunno what to do for his shoes" and her sending him back with "no shoes." so free feet pics i guess.

ANYWAY.. Some people caught it, but he was loosely inspired by the vocaloids in the "Empty" sekai of project sekai. He's intentionally fairly monochrome, so that the wings towards the end seem even more vivid. He's meant to appear a bit hopeless and messy, like he's really down on his luck. I imagine a Piko like this would be gentle, but a little sad most of the time.

Effects

There's two Big effect points for this one, so I'll go into both.

The first is the night sky. It has an intentionally painted, flat look. It's suppose to feel like the backdrop of a stage, not like a real night sky. Like he's performing, but his heart isn't in it quite yet. I added a light dust particle effect in as well to make a contrast between it and the still background to really hammer in it's falseness.

And then of course, the climax.

Using a flat black plane behind him, i abused mmd's transparency bug to display the artwork behind him through the wings.

The wings are also directly shaped from the wings shown in the MV.

This moment wasn't just a climax for this song, but a climax for the concert as a whole. Like Piko gaining hope and a better outlook for the future thanks to those who reached out to him honestly.

Extra Notes

BOY. I apologize in advance, i have SO MANY THOUGHTS about these lyrics. If you're an english speaker, I highly recommend watching it with the closed captions on. They're a bit on the nose, even without me digging into them.

「I'm a boy who picks his battles depending on whatever suits his mood」 「No hopes for the future, I wanted to be drawn in a dream.」 「and yet I fear the future- hating tomorrow, wishing for the past.」

These are the opening lines for the song. Coming off the back of our angry streaming heart piko who longed for the past, this version of him has given up. Like there is nothing left for him to do.

「Leaving the old me behind,」 「but that night was different from all the others.」 「You took my hand...」

I like to believe, in a way, Piko would be referring to the first Piko Live Party here. Like a moment of light in a dark future, You reached out your hand and supported him.

「If this is to end as a dream, at least allow me to change yesterday...」 「I won't say anything like that, so let me keep smiling together with you, tomorrow as well.」

I've said it before, but we made the first Piko Live Party assuming it wouldn't get attention. We worked hard, but with the expectation that it wouldn't be seen by many. That's why, during this chorus, the backdrop is flat. Like a kid's play. Or, like not-quite-discovered potential.

「Even if I think that the world truly changed,」 「and even if I tried to hope or change, the future was cruel.」

The screen goes darker, and the colors become fully monochrome. It's a bit like a reality check - We're supporting Piko, but aside from us, there's not much he can do to change his fate as a discontinued vocaloid.

「Even so, the world I always watched with you was truly beautiful.」 「I still haven't forgotten that, I've placed it in my heart so I can remember.」

This is a Piko who's speaking to us from the present. I interoperate it as if he's referring to the rush of support he got, and how he'll always cherish it even if his future is bleak.

Of course, this is followed by what feelings and emotions you've given him. The colors burst forward, creating wings like the summer sky. They're a physical representation of your support and the future it's given him.

「I want to be together with you in the future, however short our time may be」 「so I'll shout "Remember this day someday in the future, whoever we are then..."」

Again, I highly recommend watching this song in particular with the closed captions turned on. It really adds to it.

I was extremely happy when Mio picked this song to cover, because I knew immediately what direction I should take this concert in at that point. I knew what I wanted to do with it from the very beginning, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

[loulougoingsolo]

DIYing a Bold Hair Choice

So, as we all know, we live in troubling times. I've personally been living in quarantine-like arrangements for about a month now, and although I've been mostly doing alright, some things have proven to be hard. I was supposed to have my hair professionally cut and dyed this week, but I had to cancel the appointment, and at the moment, I don't know when I'll get to visit the salon for the next time. So, I had to take matters (or scissors) to my own hands.

I'm a DIYer, but I've never cut my own hair. I've also had it professionally dyed since I was 15 or so. For a short period, I only had it bleached and cut by a pro, but then dyed it myself with a pretty intense cool shade of red - but other than that, and a few toner touch ups, I've always relied on professionals. So I was in a bit of a pickle, when I realized that I'd have to either DIY or have my grey roots grow wild for months. And because my hair is short, the roots way too grey for my age, and I had all this time ln my hands, there was really only one way this could go.

When I go about a DIY project, my first step, always, is thorough research. I had an idea for what I'd attempt to achieve, so I went on Youtube and searched for diy haircuts. I got some good tutorials, but most of them were for long hair - and I also got suggested GMM episode #989, in which Rhett and Link battle in cutting their own hair (wigs). Can I just say, they predicted the Tiger King craze long before Netflix:

So, I immediately figured I would not be able to follow yhe hair styling tutorials of this GMM episode. First of all, I could only find one pair of scissors even remotely sharp enough to cut hair. They were not sharp enough. Secondly, the longest part of my hair barely reaches my chin. I would need to really commit to every snip I make, or I'd end up with a bald hair style, instead of bold. As attractive and gorgeous some people are with a fully shaved head, with my head shape, that was something to avoid at all costs.

Another thing I was worried about was that I'd probably end up cutting my own finger, like Link. I've always found it extra difficult to see my own reflection in a mirror and try to do accurate motions according to the reflection. Simply put, my brain gets confused. Also, I don't really have a way to see the back of my head through the mirror at all. How the crap am I supposed to cut anything?

At this point, I understood that the actual haircut was going to be the tough part, so I decided to focus on the dye. Since I cojldn't just go to a big supermarket to buy the equipment, I had to order the dyes online. At this point my plan was simply to buy a multitude of wild colours to mix and match according to my mood, so I ordered a tub of Midnight Blue, Daffodil Yellow, Flamingo Pink and Cerise dyes, all by the brand La Riche Directions. These dyes are semi-permanent, sonI knew they wouldn't cause permanent damage to my hair, and at this point, that was kind of my goal - whatever I do, I don'g want to ruin things too badly. But, because I'm familiar with semi-permanent dyes, and I've had pretty much every shade on the spectrum on my hair at one point, I knew I might require an extra step to see results. Which is why, "just in case", I added a hair lightening kit to my order. I figured, I'd make some lighter strands on top, to have some colours show properly.

By the time the dyes arrived, I was already pretty fed up with my grey roots. I watched the GMMore which followed the hair cut episode. Rhett, who won the haircut challenge, got to decide what colours would go in Alex's hair. Alex had done the smart thing and bleached his hair professionally to be dyed in this episode, but he somehow agreed to letting Rhett and Link add the colours.

When Rhett explains everyone how he and Link used to dye eachother's hair back in the day, I realize that even though I'm technically watching a DIY hair tutorial, they aren't actually doing it themselves. It's quite different to put dye on someone else's head than your own. (Also, something I didn't notice back when I first saw this episode: Link says it would be crazy for him to have his hair dyed, but looking back, he most certainly had his hair dyed at this time.)

It was slightly alarming to see that Alex was worried about how things would go. I could hardly expect to achieve anything much better than the guys, since at least they had the studio lighting and a full team to help rhem not screw up. I had a mirror in my dark toilet, which is barely big enough to stand in.

I also forgot to buy vaselkne, which was a big mistake - although I don't think it's even possible to buy a container that big here. Why would they have that at Mythical in the first place? But something about seeing how much trouble the guys were having controlling the unmixed streaks of dye and all that vaseline made me worried.

At this point, I need to tell you that seeing the blank canvas which was Alex's hair, I, now the proud owner of a 40 % bleack kit (which apparently is the strong stuff), decided I was not going to waste energy by trying to dye my hair without bleaching, only to find out that the colours didn't show. So, I mixed the bleach, put on a worn-out t-shirt, used hand lotion to vas up my forehead, neck and ears, and then just went for it.

I did watch quite a few proper tutorials. They taught me, firstly, that 40% was a no-no. Secondly, never bleach something that has already been bleached, especially, if your hair has multiple colours. Forth, never start from the roots, as they get bleached faster (this ended up being the only rule I followed). And, above all, go to a professional.

So, I added the bleach to my hair. First I tried sticking to just a few strands, but then a blop of the bleach fell on the wrong spot, and I figured, why not just go full head. I did. I left the stuff on for maybe 20 minutes, and after that I got scared and rinsed it off. Then, I used a silver toner, and was left with a fascinating mix of orange, yellow and white hair - and a strand of persistent green from my previous dye. But it was blond enough for my plans.

Alex had a beautiful mix of blue, pink and purple in his hair - and that accidental splash of green - and after considering thoroughly, I decided to go for these colours, too. I mean, pink, purple and blue are my jam. Also, as much as I wanted to go full rainbow, I figured it would be an impossible task to keep the different colours from mixing, and that might result in brown, which is the colour of defeat. So, I went with midnight blue, flamingo pink and cerise, and wasn't too concerned aboit getting the colours mixed together.

This is how Alex's hair looked on the episode, before he rinsed the extra dye off:

I couldn't find any good photos of his hair after it was rinsed, but tgere was one which suggested only a faint shade of blue stuck.

And finally, here's what happened with my hair. Now, I'm not posting my face here, just the hair. Imagine a white blop with green eyes below the hair, and you'll get the idea. In the first two pictures is my hair during normal times, and just before I diyed it. It looks particularly nasty in the just before hack job pic, because it was adviced not to wash your hair before bleachkng to save the scalp - but as you can see, this was not a fun thing to see in the mirror each morning:

After I had dyed my hair, I did some snips here and there, and also, because I was able to borrow a hair clipper from my dad, some clipping - which in my books, saved the day. The haircut is pretty botched, but I actually absolutely love the colour. And the criss-cross shave despite it being pretty bad - it also looks badass in real life. The picture taken outside shows the pink colours more accurately, but the cut shows better in the other pic. There are a couple of ways I can style this later on, but I kept styling to minimum for starters, because I didn't want to cause extra damage to my hair:

So, this has been the story of how I diyed my hair during quarantine. My mom loves the whole thing (I showed it to her yesterday while taking them groceries), and although there are some spots in the back which could have more colour in them, I'm pretty satisfied. I know my hairdresser is going to weep when she sees me, but she'll get over it.

So, in conclusion: Would I do this again? Yes, but I'd definately leave the cutting and bleaching to the pros. Also, now I can't really bleach again for a while. But I'm actually thinking about taking the dyes I have to my hairdresser so she can dye my hair properly with them, in a healthier way, once all this chaos settles and it's safe again. I'd probably need a slightly darker, permanent colour to the roots, but I absolutely love these insanely bright colours. And I'm so going to try the full rainbow this summer, too.

Would I recommend this to others? Yes, but with caution. The direct semi-permanent colours are safe and won't damage the hair, but bleach does. My hair is naturally a tad too dark to show bright colours properly, so I took the risk. I was also mentally prepared to shave the whole thing off and wear my mythical hat for the summer - but I'm happy that wasn't necessary. If you aren't willing to risk damaging your hair, stick to semi-permanents.

To end this post, here's a selfie I took yesterday on my grocery store trip in full safety gear (I have a paper mask under the scarf):

Stay safe! Do things that make you happy! BYMB! 💗💗💗

[kylo-ren-jepsen]

I'm going through my whole movie collection in more or less alphabetical order. (More or less because some of the kids movies my daughter wants me to wait & watch with her and series will be watched chronologically.) Ima post a pic of my copy, where/why I got it, & a little review.

(I'm skipping around to "spooky" movies for October: horror, sci-fi, thriller, fantasy, etc)

Five years after the events of the first movie, the Ghostbusters are no longer considered the heroes of New York. Sued for the collateral damage caused while battling Gozer & banned from running their business, Ray & Winston have resorted to doing kids' birthday parties (Ray also owns an occult bookshop), Egon is doing psychology studies, & Peter hosts a public access show about psychics. Dana gets caught in the middle of paranormal activity again when her baby's carriage acts possessed and rolls into oncoming traffic on its own. She seeks the help of Ray & Egon but begs them not to involve Peter as things are awkward between them after their breakup and her marriage. Peter finds out anyway & insists on coming along to investigate. Dana is an art restorer at a museum where a portrait of Vigo of Carpathia, a murderous tyrant, has just arrived. There's also a large river of ectoplasmic slime that reacts to emotions. Vigo is trying to come back to life early enough to be ready for the new millennium & needs a baby's body and Dana's son is the target. The mood slime powered by New York's trademark bad attitude not only powers Vigo but causes another surge of ghostly happenings, putting the Ghostbusters back in business.

This could technically be considered a Christmas movie or even a New Year's Eve movie since that is when the climax occurs, but ghosts, evil undead warlords, & supernatural ooze are also Halloween fodder. Plus, we watched the original & just had to follow up with the sequel.

Ghostbusters II wasn't as well received by critics as the first movie. Many considered it a rehash of the first film but not as funny, too toned down for children (the first movie although adult oriented was a surprise hit with kids prompting the creation of the animated series, which affected elements of the sequel). However it did do well at the box office. Peter MacNichol's Janosz, the heavily-accented museum curator who is enslaved by Vigo, was strong competition in the humor department against the original cast. MacNichol developed the accent and a backstory that fleshed out the character. The movie is overall just sillier than the first, with dancing toasters, controlling the Statue of Liberty with an NES Advantage joystick, sight gags and less mature one-liners. It was probably more popular with kids. I was 5 when it came out & I remember it more than the original, which I'd only seen a handful of times on TV until my teens despite being a huge fan of the cartoon & the sequel as a kid. So maybe nostalgia makes me think more highly of it. But it's not a horrible film, just not as good as the original, which is common with sequels.