#I'll post a review when I get back hopefully

[nabwastaken]

EEEEE IM GONNA SEE HEATHERS

[linghxr]

4 years of Anki: How I make my Chinese flashcards

My first post on this blog was about 4 years ago on July 12th, 2019! That's also around the time I started consistently using Anki. I still review flashcards on Anki nearly every day, but a lot about how I make my cards has changed.

Fields:

Front: The word/phrase, in simplified characters.

Traditional: At some point I decided I wanted to improve my recognition of traditional characters, so I added this field. If the simplified and traditional forms are the same, I leave this field blank.

Back: The definition, written in Chinese and/or English. I try to use Chinese as much as possible, but sometimes I have to resort to English or mix both languages. I didn't start using Chinese definitions until a couple years ago, so my older cards only have English definitions.

Example: Example sentences or phrases that I usually get from Pleco or some other Chinese dictionary source. I replace the word/phrase in question with underscores because I used to mimic cloze deletion-style cards. Now I mostly do it this way out of habit.

Pronunciation: The pinyin with numbers for tones (since that's easier to type on my laptop). I also include variant pronunciations. Above I have both the Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese standard pronunciations.

Alternate: If I notice in the dictionary that there is some alternate form of a character or word, I'll often include it here.

Card front:

Here's how the front of the card looks. I use a cursive-style font called Swim the Wolf to hopefully improve my ability to read others' handwriting. It also forces me to slow down and focus on the example sentences.

This is how the front template looks in Anki:

{{Front}} {{#Traditional}} / {{Traditional}} {{/Traditional}} {{Alternate}} {{Example}}

This template is configured so that if there is text in the traditional field, the card will be displayed with a "/" separating the simplified and traditional text. If the traditional field is empty, the "/" separator will not be displayed.

Card back:

And here is the back. When I started using Anki, I actually had the definition on the front and the word/phrase on the back. That was back when I only wrote the definitions in English. I would try to guess the Chinese word/phrase based on the English definition and Chinese example sentences (thus why I had to use underscores in the examples). At some point, it got unmanageable, so I switched to word/phrase on the front and definition on the back.

Here's the back template:

{{FrontSide}} {{Back}} {{Pronunciation}}

So there we have it, my Anki set up! My method for making cards has changed so much over the years as I've learned more about what works for me and as my goals have evolved. I don't use any add-ons or extensions (unless the added font counts), so you definitely don't need to do anything fancy to get a lot out of Anki. I hope you can glean some inspiration from this!

[yullalightk]

WOTFI IS HERE!!!!!!! WHOOO!!!!!!

I'M SO SORRY I'M LATE! But! I watched it after the livestream countdown, and, BOI! Do I have a lot to say!! and I'll make a part 2 of the WOTFI review cause, I don't think I'll be able to fit everything in one post. And with a lot of school projects on the line. So, I'll work on pt 2! and post it tomorrow!

!Also, spoiler warning!

So... we good? Okay! strap in!!

First off the thumbnail looks AMAZING!!!!! It really got me excited as soon as I woke up at 1 in the morning lmao😂

As soon as I watched it I was actually surprised they decided not to go with the horror route like in the trailer.. But personally, I'm not gonna complain I mean that should've been expected imo.

Also, the poster is soo fricking cool!!!! Like, I can't get enough of this art style and THE WAY IT WAS ANIMATED WAS LIKE A MOVIE INTRO!!!! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!✨

The intro/Puzzles' backstory

So, I'm glad that Mr Puzzles gave us a more clearer explanation to his backstory. Even though it was something a lot of us knew already. None the less it was nice! I'm curious about the mother though, like, what was she like to Puzzles? Was she someone who didn't believe in her son's dreams as well? Or maybe someone who encouraged him to keep trying? Idk honestly, but maybe we'll get that answer in next year's WOTFI!

I also don't think he just sat in his room all day to adulthood, maybe he left his home to chase his dream but failed on multiple occasions. (Kinda like in the series where he tries to kill the crew but fails all the time) or, he watched TV all day as a coping mechanism. Trying to escape the cruelty of the world he lived in.

Also, wdhm when he said "The rest is history" like, we need more. Like how you got godlike powers? maybe that'll be explored more in WOTFI 2025!

Side note: Leggy's face when she dropped little Puzzles was funny for some reason help! IT HAD NO REASON TO BE THIS FUNNY!!😂😂

HE SWORE!!!!! YESS!!!!!!!! I swear he needs to let his anger out more, You gotta give kudos to him for enduring Mario's chaos😂

The casts!

I really LOVED the character designs! I can see how they are freaks now!

My all time favorites are SMG3, Bob, and Karen! They're designs stick out the most in the cast and I do like how they are all under Puzzles' control, like the PV movie!

Wish Saiko had more screen time though, I'm just a little disappointed at that. They could've done something interesting for her. Heck, they even gave the rest of the main cast more screen time than her.

But, maybe we'll see that in the next WOTFI? Hold up- wait a sec, I'm seeing a pattern of sorts... are, the stuff that felt lackluster in the 2024 WOTFI coming back as something better in WOTFI 2025?? That could be a possibility. I might make a theory on that, but hopefully when I'm not busy.

Side note: I swear this episode made me ship Mario and Puzzles so much!!😂😂 I mean- It's just hilarious to me!

Like when he said "Dear Mario" I know he hates him but like the way he says it made it feel like he likes him, or just toying with him!! Marware fans are eatin' good today! And he also complimated Mario on his performances on the fire perfomance!!! I know... he was doing what a judge does, try say something nice to the performers. But! That won't stop me from shipping them! And don't forget! Mario also still wanted to stay despite the hell Mr Puzzles put them through, in the rap Mario still wanted to have some fun in the amusment park! But, also glad he attacks him when Puzzles harms Mario's friend. And can be scared of him sometimes.

Now listen, I know he was trying to get Mario back so he won't ruin his show again but to me it also looks like he wants Mario to pay attention to him! kinda like a yandere😂😂 I'm just letting Marware infect my brain at this point haha.. it's becoming a curse.

Anyway that's part 1 for now. Part 2 will hopefully come out tomorrow as well, and I also have some projects to do so I know I said I will post every Saturday but that may be a little difficult, I'll get part 2 out tomorrow and I really hope that'll be the end of my review of this year's WOTFI!

Thanks for reading! hope ya'll enjoyed my WOTFI 2024 review pt 1.

[canonicallyobserving911]

9-1-1 Episode 8x4 Review

It's been a few days since I watched the episode but I took some time to gather my thoughts about it because I wanted to provide a fair and balanced assessment. I rewatched it more than once but truthfully, it's been a long time since I've done that with any 9-1-1 episodes because I haven't been impressed for a while, especially after seasons 5, 6 and 7. The last episode that I rewatched more than once was 6x13 "Mixed Feelings" and that was because Buddie and the Buckley-Diaz Family were heavily focused.

However, since that time, episodes have been lackluster at best, the pacing, timing and continuity were off and they didn't feel like the old 9-1-1 of seasons 2, 3 and the first half of 4. Whole seasons could have been yeeted to the sun and I wouldn't miss them one bit but most of episode 8x4 was surprisingly good and I appreciate them for trying to find their footing and returning to their roots. There were a sufficient amount of emergency calls and the personal storylines were nicely intertwined. Since I didn't see KR's name in the opening credits like it was in episodes 8x1 - 8x3, it appears she's gone and she took her horrible pacing, bad timing, retconned characters, the redeeming of underserving $hitty parents (Margaret and Phillip Buckley, Helena Diaz and Sang Han) and her ability to let important character development happen off-screen with her (looking at several missing scenes from seasons 5 and 6). Hooray!

Before I get into this, I have to mention my favorite parts of the entire episode were... everything that included EDDIE DIAZ!

Eddie's my favorite character and after 7 seasons, he's FINALLY being given the individual screentime he deserves. His storyline covered everything that makes Eddie spectacular including his time in the Army, his combat medic skills, the fact that he's smart, talented and sexy as hell. Furthermore and most importantly, he's a great dad! He loves Chris and he'll sacrifice anything for him including his own happiness. Also, he encouraged people the way he always has. I'm so happy and excited that his storyline IS NOT attached to his deceased wife or her doppelgänger! After the way season 7 ended, hopefully, it's been dealt with and his character won't be regressed to relive it yet again.

RG is an excellent actor and he's finally getting the attention he deserves!

Now back to the regularly scheduled program!

Even though I enjoyed most of the episode, it wasn't all sunbeams and moon pies. Therefore, I'll start with the things I didn't like first and continue with the things I did.

Dislikes

The Gerrard redemption was ridiculous 🙄 and IMO, it shouldn't have ended that way. His character was completely changed from the racist and bigoted captain that Chimney and Hen endured during their begins episodes and was made into a hard nose captain who got an undeserved redemption arc. Do people change? Yes, they do and can but it's difficult to connect how they got there when it isn't shown or addressed in CANON. Viewers shouldn't have to do mental gymnastics to figure out what happened to them and it appears whatever happened to Vincent Gerrard is a direct result of lazy writing. They could have easily brought in a different captain if they weren't going to address his past and especially if they weren't going to let Hen and Chimney remind him of it so he could explain that he was different but I digress. (I have an idea that involves why the character received an attitude transplant and his demeanor was changed but I'll include it in a different post.)

Overall, the way the Mara storyline was handled wasn't the best and I don't like how Madney's storyline was connected to Henren's. I get it, they became foster parents at the end of season 7 to help but something about the way Maddie and Chimney never had an on-screen conversation with Hen and Karen before they did it doesn't make any sense. This has partly to do with the fact that in 6x5, Maddie and Chimney hired Magda as Jee's nanny but after Maddie let her go, Chimney said they were back to the friends and family plan for babysitting. Well, the Lees were already helping them with that so whenever Maddie and Chimney were at work at the same time (like they were throughout the first 4 episodes), who was assisting them with Mara's care. I know this is a TV show but there should be some logic and reality based in it. Finally, I didn't like how there was supposed to be tension between Madney and Henren but it appears that storyline was ixnayed or it was changed and I'm glad.

Madney not having a storyline of their own since their wedding in 7x6 is not cool and I really don't appreciate it (also, it focused entirely too much on Doug instead of the bride and the groom). Let's be real, at this point, if all they're going to do is write them in a way that just allows them to support the other main characters then... WTF are the writers doing because they should have their own storylines just like everyone else. It seems like they don't know how to write them now that they're married and that's just ridiculous because there are lots of storylines they could have.

Metro Dispatch is heavily focusing on Maddie and I've posted about it before but things there are completely unbalanced when they didn't used to be. Now they have Maddie as the center of attention with Josh standing behind her or across from her but where is everyone else in dispatch? I'm not talking about the background characters; I'm talking about Linda Bates and Sue Blevins. IIRC, neither of them have been included in any episodes thus far in season 8. Dispatch was a lot more balanced with them included so it would be nice if Maddie's allowed to interact with someone other than Josh.

Bathena's at home arc was interesting and it's unclear what exactly the writers are trying to show with it. For starters, they've had communication issues since they began dating back in season 2 but after 7 seasons, they should be past this stage by now. Their whole cruise ship arc demonstrated how they needed to learn how to talk again but for some reason, Athena didn't consider Bobby's feelings about the old house and Michael before she contacted him. Even when they were viewing the new home, it appeared they weren't properly communicating. It just doesn't make any sense and even though it's a TV show and it's all about the drama, there should be some realism. Additionally, the way they're being portrayed makes it seem like the only time they talk is when they're about to lose each other forever, i.e. Bobby getting shot in season 4, Athena needing Bobby's help after Jeffrey kidnapped Harry in season 5, Athena catching Junior in Florida in season 6, the cruise ship in season 7 and the airplane landing in season 8.

Henren needs a break from their children being traumatized. They just got Mara back and now Denny's going to be hit by a car on Halloween and I have no words. Can the show please give them some good storylines for once? Even though Karen's not a main (she should be after 8 seasons), she's a rocket scientist and they should find a way to incorporate her job into the show the same way they did Michael's. He's an architect but that didn't stop them from having Bobby call him in 2x15 to get the blueprints for the bank.

Likes

Ortiz is finally gone and that's all I'll say about the character and hopefully, she'll never return.

T.K. 2.0 wasn't in the episode. 🥳🍾🥂 Hopefully, Buck will dump him in 8x5 and it'll be his last.

The emergencies were good. I really liked the one with the tiger even though it was horrible CGI. TM posted the tiger is real but clearly, everyone watching could tell the tiger wasn't in the actual apartment with Patty, Buck and Hen.

Brad Torrence's comment about everyone else on "Hotshots" thinking it's an ensemble cast was funny.

The overall message about them being a found family again HAS BEEN LACKING FOR A LONG TIME but 8x4 appears to have brought it back.

The ending montage was great (except the Gerrard part) but I'll do a separate post about it to share more thoughts.

Chimney doing the rope rescue and being competent with that dart gun was fantastic and he looked sexy as hell doing it. I love it when they give Chimney a good storyline that demonstrates his skills and hopefully, it'll remain this way. He's an excellent paramedic and his experience should be highlighted more.

Eddie was so great in this episode (see above) and seeing him go out of his way to help another father because of his own experiences with both his dad and his son was excellent to see. As mentioned earlier, Eddie gives good advice to other people, he always has but now it seems like he's applying it to himself and he might be finally getting ready to move on from his past.

The Buddie moments were THERE like they have been since TM (showrunner) returned and it was great to see Buck and Eddie being setup for the start of Buddie CANON. I've done a lot of character analyses and posts about Buddie so IMO, the way they were portrayed in this episode is leading to one thing and one thing only, CANON BUDDIE!

The pacing and timing elements were great and if they keep it up, future episodes will continue to feel like the original 9-1-1.

All and all, it was a good episode and it was one of the best that they've done in a long time. There's still more work to do but hopefully, it'll include some professional development for the mains. I've been posting about this since season 6 but for some reason, TM is focused solely on their personal lives but that's not realistic because people apply for job promotions all the time. The day will come when Bobby has to retire for good so he should be training his replacement and Athena should be doing the same. Hen and Chimney should be moving forward on the paramedic side since they've been with the department for more than 13 years. Maddie should be a senior dispatcher by now but she isn't and it doesn't make any sense. Eddie should be a certified paramedic and Buck should be training for his next role too.

Hopefully, 8x5 will include more good emergency calls because currently, I don't want to see Denny get hurt. #TheWilsonsDeserveBetter

[smartgirrl]

meet smartgrrl

hello and welcome to my blog! i'm smartgirrl (or just call me kohane) and i am now in my junior year of high school. i'm not new to tumblr, however this is my first time actively posting to my blog.

about me

kohane, she/her

i'm waisian (white/japanese) and live in the US

16 y/o, taurus, enfj

˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌

classes

anatomy + physiology

english 3

AP chemistry

AP psychology

AP precalculus

french 3

physics

˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌

hobbies

piano

I've basically been playing piano my entire life. it's such a great outlet for stress and low-key a good workout (especially if you're playing rachmaninoff or beethoven)

art

admittedly, i don't do as much art anymore because of burnout that kinda started sophomore year, but i hope to get back into it. i do love painting and doodling, tho

sewing

because i thrift, a lot of my clothes were too baggy so i decided to pick up sewing. it's fun when i want to make my own designs as well <3

˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌

my studyblr

why did I make a studyblr?

accountability -> having this blog will remind me to make posts, and hopefully you all will keep me accountable

motivation -> owning a cutesy little blog will motivate me and keep me in my 'honeymoon' period of studying

community -> the idea of having a community to be apart of is such a key motivator. having a blog is such a great way to reach out to others and if having this blog will help motivate others as well to achieve academically, then sign me up

what to expect:

you'll see me posting about study tips that work for me, as well as review methods, resources, and other academic related content. i love aesthetic things so maybe i'll (attempt) to post some aesthetic studyspo... to help myself understand concepts, I'll be summarizing ideas and using this blog as a 'database' for my classes like AP chem and psych.

˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌ ✧˚ · . ˚ · . ༉‧₊˚. ‘˚ ͙۪۪̥◌

navigation

original posts -> #grrloriginal chemistry -> #grrlchem psychology -> #grrlpsych reblog -> #grrlreblog day to day posts -> #grrldiaries

studyblrs I really like <333

@studyrenaissance | @kraro-school-life | @shoosiopao | @tokidokitokyo | @nenelonomh

[nanamis-bigtie]

lucid love

↬ kinktober 2024 x voting event | round 6 | masterlist

cw: fantasy elements in modern setting, smut, sexual dreams, fictional stimulants, reader with a vagina, BDSM & dark themes present in some rounds, aged up characters available as options in some votings, further warnings vary by story summary: starved for more sensations, you appear in your now favorite potionary even when your night stand drawer is still filled with unopened potions. could it be a little addiction? a/n: i haven't been able to write lately because of mental health problems and i don't think i'll be ready to publish the fics before weekend hits - so i thought a new voting will dry tears at least just a little :') three winners (prev two rounds + this one) would be published one right after another as soon as i'll have enough peace of mind to create tag list: @thesacredfanfics

You haven't tested your two latest purchases yet. You couldn't properly relax and, knowing it may interrupt potion's effect, you decided to not waste your precious dreams. This is not the cheapest entertainment, after all. 

Yet, you find yourself in front of the potionary again without a second thought. It's become your ritual and you're ready to assume that unplanned closing was the source of your latest stress. Lucid Love has been recognized as the safest among dream stimulants though, close to none addictive properties, confirmed by 1000 testers and unaffiliated reviews all over the social media. There's no way it could affect your brain with only three doses, not when you kept yourself in the line of instructions. 

But here you are…

"Well, good evening." Shoko welcomes you with a warm smile. "I had a feeling you're going to appear as soon as I get my hands on those."

She waves herself a thick fan of leaflets, then spreads it on the counter.

"I've just got a delivery. Have you heard of the new collection? Oh, I bet you have. Everyone's talking about it."

You're not here because of it—but yes, you know what's the trendiest on the Lucid Love market. So far, every potion they introduced allowed you to "interact" with one person only, side characters appearing either as artificial memories or background, faceless noise. 

But the new collection, released just yesterday and storming the socials like a tsunami, finally fulfilled the most demanded wish of customers: introduced a multiple partners fantasy option, up to even ten participants in the most exclusive models.

"Do you have any recs?" None of the titles of dream fantasies spells a word to you.

"Only to not get too wild, those haven't been reviewed well…yet." Shoko scoops some leaflets back into her hand and turns them, hiding the content away from your eyes. "How about a blind choice of three and a final decision out of them?"

Your fingers brush hers as you reach. Was it a little electric shock running between you two—or just your imagination?

The three leaflets quickly peel your attention away, though.

There are 45 prompt & character(s) combos divided into 15 votings, 3 options to choose from per each round. Option with the highest number of votes wins.Themes vary, from very vanilla, through kink and fetishes, towards dark content and monsterfucking. Everyone will (hopefully) find something for themself 😤

If you don't want to miss fic posting time and next votings, you can ask to be added to a tag list! I'll try to keep more or less the same time of publication (so, 3pm CET) but I can't promise I will always fit there.

[lacunafiction]

How would the ROs react to someone asking for their number when they are dating the MC? 

Hi Anon,

I hope you’re doing well.

For this ask, we are going to pretend cellphones are common in Fernweh despite the lacking signal. :D

B: I feel like B might actually almost give it before realizing this was meant in a romantic way. Let the backpedaling begin! “Oh yeah, I'll add you too. My partner has all the heart emojis though. They are also, like, my emergency contact, so... What's your name again??” Hopefully, their sheepish flush isn't misinterpreted as a blush. It was an accident! They are going to tell you once you come back and/or rescue them.

S: “I’ll pass, but thanks.” Polite, nonchalance helps to soften S's rejection, although any persistence/insistence from their admirer will cause S's sharp wit to leave a mark. They will likely try to create some distance after that answer, walking away or going back to reading, etc.

R: “483-003-21—My partner will kill you." 🥴 No hesitation with shutting the person down with a slightly playful edge to it. Yes, they would say this even about the sweetest and shyest MC just to make it clear that they aren't available or interested. R doesn't understand how the person missed the hint from earlier, but they are willing to remind them. 

J: “...I don't have a phone.” 😐 Very calm, possibly too calm, and neutral. Before the person could even ask for their number, J was starting to look for you since they lost interest while still not yet cluing into their admirer's infatuation with them. If the person insists, J leaves. They don't have time for this and would much prefer finding you again. (Also, yeah, J has a phone, only very few people know their number.) 

Mal: “Now why would you want my number when your phone's broken?” The admirer might grow confused, lighting up the screen of their phone to prove a point, just in time to see Mal's polished smile turn sharper. They get the hint and back off, possibly backing away. Zero tolerance from Mal, especially since this person must have timed asking them this question given how busy our enigmatic server can be.

I hope you all have a lovely week ahead! 💚

Book One Launch Post💚 |TFS Patreon🌲

If you enjoyed your time in Fernweh, please consider reviewing/rating it. 🥰

[eldaryasharbinger]

MCL New Gen Ep. 5 Review

Played the episode last friday and finally I'm sharing my thoughts on it (hopefully I still remember what I wanted to talk about...)

Since the episode is out for everyone, I will go straight into it so no spoiler free version this time! (still adding the cut cause this is a long post...)

I'll start by saying that this episode felt somewhat "empty"? I'm not sure if it was me playing it in a rush before leaving for the weekend but there really wasn't much going on?? at the same time the more I think about it the more I think it was just me lol

This time I didn't stop to take many screenshots cause again, I didn't have much time and I'm still not sure about how long it takes to play each episode, I only took a couple that I thought were intresting enough to share

This was of course very very important, as many of us were wondering about it, if it was actually poliosis or just idk design I guess

Turns out that whoever came up with this theory first was right! Love to see that especially after his reaction and expression during this scene, I'm sure there's more going on!! (if it ends up that we never talk about it again I'll just turn to dust)

SECOND VERY IMPORTANT THING HERE TOO!!

Some people thought that Jason came from a rich family, turns out that wasn't the case! I'm not really surprised since I really wanted him to be "self-made", like some ordinary guy that now got this horrible rich-person personality, he already looked like that to me so all I needed was confirmation!

----------

Now I want to talk about our interaction with Jason... I'm so so happy about it I kept giggling while playing lol

I could feel Candy's stress like it was my own because I've been in a similiar position back in april and It made me cry in front of 2 of my co-workers, only diffrence is that candy made a big mistake, I was too prideful to destroy my work for the client's ALWAYS changing "preferences"(?) (also I recently completed it, I just swallowed my pride and the client actually forgot about it so they didn't care as much and didn't remember what they wanted at first,, the audacity,,)

I'm not sure how everyone else feels about it (I haven't checked tags yet,,) but it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO weird to me that Candy accepted Jason's offer to do HER job for her? I could understand a little help but Jason literally got her everything, all she had to do was call these people? I don't get how she didn't feel more guilty about it, isn't it like cheating in a way?? Jason isn't just this random guy helping us but the RIVAL COMPANY doing our job?? What was the point of calling us for the job if Goldreamz did it in the end, they just don't know

Everyone else congratulating her on the well done job too... I was dying inside I hope Candy was too, I felt so guilty replying "thank you" to Devon's text about the little gilr's birthday party like,, the f did candy do??

Now... I love that Jason helped her, I wasn't expectin him to do THAT MUCH (it still blows my mind) but I really loved how kind of non-chalante he was trying to be?? Also, Candy said a couple of weird things while joking to which Jason replied so bluntly but also what surprised me the most was the fact that he replied at all?? Like if I'm not mistaken, his dad died when he was a teen or something, and he just told her that? he shared something personal about himself like that??!! Mentioning the poliosis too and how it's hereditary, he just told her about it?

To me that sounds like a big deal because usually you wouldn't expect someone like Jason to share personal details to some random girl he wants in his bed once, so that leaves us with one true conclusion

he loves candy already and really wants to get to know her, so maybe he feels like he has the need to tell her more? maybe I'm just running with my mind again but I think this could be what we could expect in the future?

The illustration is absolutely GORGEOUS, I've already made an edited version with Petronilla here!!

I just really love Jason's expression, he's so pretty he's so beautiful,,,,,, I can't wait till we get more ;w;;;;; I could stare at him all day and I probably will end doing that at this point

ALSO!!!!! I GOT AMANDA'S ILLU WITHOUT SPENDING MORE GEMS!!

They're both so pretty, this illustration was finaly crafted I can see that, just look at all the details!! Girls having fun!! They might kiss each other!

This time I didn't pay for her special scene because I want to save up on the gems,, (I did get Jason's tho)

Not sure if I unlocked it as a bug, during the episode I unlocked it like normal but in the library it has the locked icon?

Still, bug or not I don't care cause I LITERALLY CHEERED when I got it, I wasn't sure I was gonna get it if I chose to work on my own (to meet Jason) instead of asking her for help, I apparentely made the right choices (I winged it after seeing the illu online) and THANKFULLY the outfit was the same one as Jason's!

I think I've said everything I had to, or better to say "all that I remember", I'm sure there's more from this episode to address that I forgot about so If anything else comes to mind I'll make separate posts about it!

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading!

edit: I am not proofreading all that

[waterfrontcomplex]

thoughts/review on 2.4 (and a little bit of au talk)

i got yunli!! and e3 yanqing on huohuo's banner... at least i have guaranteed sunday now i guess

ouhhhh i finished the new quests... yanqing i love you....... (spoilers under cut)

skip to the next pink text if u dont wanna read the au stuff

seeing the designs for the borisin reminded me of an au i thought of a while back. i just call it the 'abundance swap' au. the idea is that instead of the xianzhou following the hunt, what if they were denizens of abundance? so like, xianzhou natives would be wingweavers, foxians would be borisin, and vidyadhara.... could be cobrakind...? or still vidyadhara. idk. the xianzhou fleet would be the cloudseizer fleet(?), the plaguemarks would instead be worshipped and nurtured, and they would spread the 'blessings of abundance' to each world they stop by. the arbiter-generals would instead have spirits bestowed by yaoshi instead of lan.

blondies would be more common, philosophies of the hunt would probably be forbidden, and most people would likely know some form of healing. what do they do with the mara struck? im not sure, actually...

ok one of the reasons i thought of this au was bc i liked the thought of wingweaver/borisin yanhuo but shhh... girls should be allowed to be beasts...

i had more thoughts abt this au but lowkey forgot like half of them... maybe ill make a follow up post once i remember

anyway, back to 2.4

oh maaaan oh man oh man oh man im glad yanqing's finally getting more attention in the main story!! he was kinda tossed around in 1.2 and in kafka's companion mission but got some attention during the huohuo event (fav event <3) and now he's a major part in the main story... this patch was made for yanqingers by yanqingers<33

hes depressed just like me fr... also, this pic was so pretty....

ok but seriously, im glad that his confidence issues were talked about here. it was brushed off in 1.2 and sword essence ended with an off screen conversation with yanqing and jing yuan. it talked about his problems a bit, but was left sorta unresolved, yk? im glad that he's not just instantly fine and recovered right away.

this conversation also gave me more insight on yanqing's feelings and personality. theres a lot of pressure being the cloud knight lieutenant, but when he uses his swords, that pressure is lifted, even for a moment. he's free, like a bird, but must eventually return to his birdcage.

this version rlly helped me understand yanqing's character more, and hopefully i can improve bnp(som) when i rewrite it, but for now i'll stick with practice oneshots.

i haven't finished much for the new march event, but HUOHUO!!!! HUOHUO IS HERE!!! AND SHE'S BEAUTIFUL!!!<333

LOOK! LOOK AT HER!!!

i decided to color her in!! here's canon huohuo

and here's my huohuo! (more yellowish-green, just personal preference)

these are free to use with credits since they're just colored<3

anyway thats all for now... might make another post if i have more ideas. sorry for the lack of art and fics :( ive been busy with artfight but now since it's ending i should hopefully be posting more art soon :)

[unquietspiritao3]

hecklers welcome vinyl review and thoughts on how the heck james did this

excessive and spoilery comedy-nerd thoughts on the hecklers welcome vinyl/kettering recording below the cut!

James was not lying when he said this recording was of a very chaotic gig. The amount of heckling got so out of hand, he had to give up on his planned material in the end. Which I was expecting going into it, because I'd seen someone on tumblr who was at the Kettering show saying the same thing. If I hadn't had that warning, though, and if I didn't have my own bootleg recording of the NYC show I went to, I might've been disappointed at just how little of the actual material made it onto this vinyl.

All that said, I'm glad I have this recording, because one of the things I love most about comedy is dissecting how it works! And thanks to my relatively-heckle-free show, I didn't really get to see how James was managing his concept for the tour without totally losing control of the audience. The vinyl definitely gave me a lot of fascinating insight there.

I've only listened all the way through once, so these are just initial thoughts. I'll probably find other things when I listen again and again in the future. Also, most of this is me guessing things. I know from a friend who was at the RHLSTP live recording James did a few weeks ago that he talked more about his process for the tour there, and I'm looking forward to hearing if any of my speculation is confirmed when the podcast drops.

The main thing that stood out is that James seems to have jokes/bits that are reserved specifically for getting the audience back on course. If you were at a more well-behaved show, you might not have heard them!

To wit: In the planned material, very close to the beginning, he explains that he doesn’t like doing standup comedy and that he’s had a pattern of getting angry at his audience. He tells a story of a particular gig early in his career where he didn’t handle a heckler well. Then it’s supposed to be sort of a record-scratch-‘you’re-probably-wondering-how-I-got-here’ thing for the rest of the show, with lots of stories from his childhood and such.

The important part to understand is he establishes the ‘I hate my job’ concept early enough that hopefully there are no heckles to derail it, so he can count on being able to do callbacks to that material at any point. This was demonstrated about 15 minutes into the Kettering show, when he went from managing a heckler, to doing a bit about a list of reminders/affirmations he keeps on his phone and reads through before each gig. I didn't get to hear this bit at all in NYC! And it was a delightful additional insight into James’ psyche and very funny, so I’m so glad it made it onto the vinyl.

I’ll share what he revealed of the list in a separate post instead of burying it in a bunch of meta. For my purposes here, the only thing to know is the last item: ‘you don’t have to keep on doing this if you don’t want to.’ To which he added, ‘I could run out here and play the drums’, and immediately started playing the child-size drum set he has on stage. And once he was done playing, he went straight into more of the material I'd heard at my show.

So that's the other half of the ‘get the gig back on track’ strategy I didn't see until now. In NYC, he went over to the drums or the tetherball set occasionally, but it wasn’t even acknowledged in his material. He'd go over, play, then continue with the next bit. But in this ‘list’ routine, he uses the drums very specifically to sort of reset the show. He goes from dealing with a heckler, to doing a joke he can stick in anywhere as needed, to playing the drums, to picking up roughly where he should be in the actual sequence of the material.

I imagine the drum solo also gives him a pause where he doesn’t need to talk and can think through how he might have to cut or rearrange things to manage his timing. Not that it mattered in the end for the Kettering gig, but I can see how it would work quite well when half the audience isn’t unruly teenage boys, haha.

So interesting!

[emeryhiro]

Hello, I always find your posts so comforting, so thank you for that, I appreciate you. I just read your post about whether to watch s1 or 2 of dd. Based on what you said about whether isabelle and daryl will go anywhere... I don't want to tell you the exact spoiler, but it does go further than you think it will. I'm finding this really hard to process. A lot of fans have given up bc they feel it disrespects carol and daryls characters. I feel similar. I'd really appreciate hearing from you about how you process this? I understand you don't know the exact details and I don't want to spoil it for you in case you'd prefer not to know in advance.

Hey Anon 😊

Thank you for the kind words; they mean a lot. And I'm so glad that you find my posts comforting; that's really one of the main reasons why I share them.

Regarding the spoiler you're hinting at, I'm aware of what happens between Daryl and Isabelle, and that's kind of what I was referring to when I said, "Daryl is confused" because I don't think he would have any other motivations for something like that, and also because I didn't want to spoil it for anyone who doesn't know and fuel the fire unnecessarily.

Regarding how I process something like that, I always try to do my research, step back for a moment, and look at the whole picture. I remind myself of what I've learned about the characters and their motivations and dynamics. And 99% of the time, I realise that, like always, when things get passed around through word of mouth, they get exaggerated, leading to unnecessary concern and undue disappointment.

Regarding what happens, It's really not something that bothers me or worries me about Caryl's potential future. I mean, Carol has done the same thing several times in the past, and we never judged her for it (which we never should) or thought that it was disrespectful, because that's what she needed in that moment, and I'll say the exact same about Daryl. They're both working through so much, and that's the whole point of season 2, to work through their trauma and, hopefully, by the end of season 2, start to figure out what (and hopefully who) they want, making it the perfect lead up to season 3.

I'd also like to point out that a moment like that could be a massive catalyst for them to finally be honest with themselves and each other. And in the end, who knows how that moment will play out on screen.

Also, not to bring more spoilers into this, which you may already know about, but specific details that were revealed through the leaked pages from the final episode emphasise my point that regardless of what happens between them, it's not going anywhere.

Lastly, just as a reminder, there were many moments hinted at in the season 1 (and basically in almost every season of TWD before) reviews that also left people disappointed and concerned, but in the end, once the season came out and we saw the scenes for ourselves, they were nowhere near as bad as they were initially described.

~~~

I hope this kind of clears up my thought process a little bit and hopefully helps some others work through what they've heard. Also, thank you for being respectful and not spoiling anything without confirming with me first 🩵🩵🩵

[mx-piggy]

I really missed writing Hulurama reviews. I had no idea that a new episode was out until Wednesday, and I was too sick to want to watch and review it until today. I'm really looking forward to writing these reviews again, and I'm hoping to start working on my Hulurama review and ranking that I'll post to my website at some point. For now, here's my review for The One Amigo. Spoilers ahead!

I think it worked well enough as a season premier. I definitely preferred The Impossible Stream as an episode and as a season premier, because I found Impossible Stream a lot funnier overall. But, I think I preferred this episode's social commentary a lot more just because I found it funny, whilst with Impossible Stream it was the same old tired commentary about streaming services, from what I can remember. I'm not overly knowledgeable about NFTs, but I did find most of the episode's jokes about them to be quite funny

I think my enjoyment of this episode exceeded its objective quality.

I found it to be quite sweet, with Bender getting to spend time with his family and with the Planet Express crew caring enough about him to do a museum heist to steal back his NFT and hopefully make him feel better.

The solid humour elevated this episode enough for me to make me like it.

That said, I do think that narratively it was kind of a mess. As far as Bender has a crisis episodes go, this one is probably one of the weakest. The set-up of Bender's crisis felt quite poorly justified, and overall the Bender's family plotline and NFT plotline, for me at least, didn't link very well together. I understood what they were going for. That said, I think a 'Bender finds his family' story should have been set up with a more explicit 'Bender wishes he has a family' set up. I'm glad they didn't just abandon the NFT thing once Bender went to Mexico and that they actually did more with it throughout the episode, but, again, I think that there must have been a better way to set up this Bender story. At the very least, I think that having the NFT story actually carry on throughout the episode was better than doing the Family Guy thing where there'll be 7 minutes of Peter having a falcon or something, and it sets up the rest of the episode but has no actual significance to the story.

Additionally, I didn't think the story was given the weight it warranted. Bender finding his family is so significant, but it never felt like that the episode understood that. I was fully expecting the reveal that this wasn't Bender's actual family with how little weight this was treated with, but nope. It struck me as odd that Bender was so emotionally unaffected by his cousin's betrayal. I think that the only way they can salvage this is to do a follow-up episode, but, at the same time, I think it'd be a bit weird for them to follow up this episode when a lot of us are expecting follow ups to episodes earlier in the show (like how Children of a Lesser Bog followed up Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch).

I think that this had the opportunity to be a good Bender crisis episode, but it missed the mark for me. Fry's family stories and Leela's family stories are typically really emotionally effective (Luck of the Fryrish, Leela's Homeworld), but this one just wasn't, when I think it really should have been. For what it is, though, I think it's alright, a solid 6 or 6.5/10 episode.

There were things about this episode I appreciated. The setting was interesting, and I like that Hulurama is giving us new and unique settings for episodes. Despite thinking that the NFT story and the Bender's family story didn't connect well, I did enjoy the museum heist as a fun little subplot. Seeing more of Amy's kids was really fun, and I hope to see more of them this season. I loved that Fry was at the table drawing with the kids. Leela's line 'thanks for springing us from the joint, kids' was so fucking funny to me. The return of the Fing-Longer was fun. I loved that we saw iterations of Bender from episodes past in the gallery of NFTs, like the gold version of him we see in the Farnsworth Parabox, or the knight version we see of him in Bender's Game.

I wouldn't say I was disappointed by this episode. I enjoyed it for what it was (i.e. a fun little Bender episode with a fun little subplot with the other guys), but I am a little frustrated about how it wasn't what it could have been (i.e. an emotionally resonant character episode). With this episode falling flat in that respect, I'm hoping that we end up getting some emotionally resonant episodes this season like we did last season, and that we get some good character episodes like we did last season. Honestly, though, this is a pretty mid episode and I still had a good time with it overall, so suffice it to say it takes a lot for me to dislike a Futurama episode. I just like seeing more of my little guys, I guess. But, I'm also prepared to find out that I'm the one person who liked this episode (it's a familiar experience for me lmao).

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts about the episode, so feel free to comment or reblog with your opinion!

[pikespendragon67]

Pikes Small Fall 2024 Check-in Post!

I technically can still talk with friends but eh why not

IRL: o ye gods i have 2 interviews next week, one in person and one over the phone that may lead to an in person interview. They pay way more than my current job but I fear deceiving my supervisor to go to the in person ones. I'm in the middle of my annual review for my current job though so I think I'll get like. A very small raise and get asked why I've been coming in late for a while now (mainly due to traffic). Hrm.

It’s gonna rain for 2 weeks fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

In December I'm making up for not walking for my college graduation since I graduated during quarantine! I met Jamieson Price at my brother's graduation back in 2016 since he was announcing so my foolish hope is that he announces for mine. Sadly not a SoCal school so highly unlikely (especially with BS technology nowadays) but a fish can dream.

I also...spent way more than I realized this year so once I replenish enough funds I hope I can stick to a budget that my mom helped formulate. Getting the new jobs will help a bunch in those. Terrible timing since the Switch successor is coming out next year and who knows what guests will arrive at cons I can potentially go to. (Like if Jamieson Price, Akio Otsuka, Kenjiro Tsuda or Junichi Suwabe got invited to a con I might need to sell a kidney or 3). I tried using a Windows 11 laptop and it is somehow much slower than my 2019 laptop. Like. How. It's more recent. So I might need to invest in a tablet (like an iPad) or something instead since those tend to be faster. If it has HDMI ports I'd be set.

Also terrible timing for going on a budget since I want to get the Shunsui blind keychain in stores like GameStop or BoxLunch. I have Ukitake at least. I'd be willing to trade a spare Soifon that I have. Oh, and also Squishables plushies always tempt me as well as physical DVDs/games/manga but I am running out of storage space aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I want to get back into art but I need a bag to carry my art supplies and hopefully I can sneak in doodles when I run out of tasks at work. I'd draw on weekends but my computer takes up way too much space on my desk.

And I'm in a bit of a music rut, need to find new stuff to listen to. I usually like smooth cadences in things like electroswing, R&B or pop punk rock, but maybe with how hectic the world is becoming I can get into a new genre of music. Maybe folk? Maybe a ska renaissance that I keep hoping to happen in the public attention?

Animu: I just finished rewatching Digimon Adventure (1999)! I rewatched the dub since I'm nostalgic towards it. I recognized more voices than I did in my rewatch from 6th grade wrow. (I forgot Doug Erholz was in the OG series as Joe's brother and MachineSeaDramon). As a kid my favorite was probably TK or Kari but these days I relate way too much to Joe. I think my favorite arc is the Myotismon arc, and I really loved the Piedmon fight. The show really started feeling special after SkullGreymon appeared. It went from regular monster of the week show to something that explored more character depth, like when Sora felt she couldn't use the Crest of Love. Gonna start 02 next week.

I'm about to finish Delico's Nursery (thank GOD) and Moribito so I can finally move onto other stuff to either watch or rewatch. Maybe Big O, maybe ID: Invaded? Who can say. ...Probably after Beastars season 3 comes out.

Pokemon Horizons' next dubbed portion will air in February so I will see who voices Hassel and Larry then put it on hold until another character I like shows up. Unless something plot relevant happens. It's a good show but hhhhhhhh I only have so much time in my days now.

I'm liking Ranma 1/2! Originally I was a bit squicked about the bathing scenes but I really like the character interactions and the over-the-top jokes (like using your brother as a weapon, hilarious)

Tower of God season 2 is...there. Definitely in the gambler's fallacy where I want to finish this and have it be done with. I really miss season 1's animation.

Orb: On the Center of the Earth is a really intriguing drama. I'm hoping it has a scene that makes me think about life like with other dramas that I've enjoyed. It has sparks of it, so only time will tell.

I’m really enjoying Dandadan so far. I might not delve into the fandom side but I’m loving the art direction and the main character bickering. Dare I hope for a Mothman arc?

In my Jojo rewatch I’m 4 episodes away from finishing Battle Tendency. I’m not the biggest fan of Stardust Crusaders though so I’m gonna see if I can watch the OVAs instead

And finally, I'm not sure how many episodes Bleach TYBW part 3 will have but I'm lowkey waiting for when Shunsui's big moment happens. Hopefully it doesn't feel too rushed, as if we do follow the 13 episode structure we'd only have...5 episodes left to finish this. I'm also hoping that the light novels get animated. Or that Kubo makes the rest of the Hell arc an anime exclusive thing.

Videya games: I thought I could switch between Brothership and Dragon Quest 3, but hoo boy do I feel the grind more in 5 minutes of DQ3 than I do 20 in Brothership. Aside from the Luigi A controversy and odd way to do basic jumps/hammer attacks, I'm liking the combat again. Makes me want to go back to play Dream Team more.

I got Webfishing and I made my avatar Ogata. Life is goooooooooood. Also on some weekends I play with some buddies in either Granblue Versus, 100% Orange Juice, and recently we went through the prologue of Paranormasight. I grinded with some other friends in Granblue Relink and man I need to assemble that squad again so I can get Ambrosia.

Oh yeah, an IRL friend helped me start up collecting for Wii again! Meaning I can hopefully get Gamecube games too because while I do have Dolphin and Parsec, I still have trouble opening files, configuring my controller and configuring a memory card. True there's a risk of scratched discs and spending way more than I need to. Hm.

[jasper-tarot-reader]

Hi! My name is Rena! (irl name initials-HH)

My pronouns are she/her and I was wondering if u can ask the cards if/how i will become a magical girl!

I have been try ing to become a magical girl for 3 years now, but no luck. I almost succeed making a contract with a familiar, but i was too scared T-T (goofy ahh younger old me)

I want you to ask the cards this so that i can have a fruitful joinery!

I hope u can do et :333

Also um..do u know a website where i can practice tarots? It seems cool :0

Hello Rena, you have come to the right person! Not only do I do tarot readings, but I am also a practicing pop culture occultist over on @jasper-pagan-witch! While I am not, myself, a magical girl, I know of quite a few blogs who are! So we'll start with the reading and then I'll drop some blogs and links of interest for ya at the bottom, yeah?

So to start with, let's get into the reading part! I'm going to rephrase your question a little bit, into "How can I continue my goal of becoming a practicing magical girl?" just for ease of reading. I have selected The Guardian of the Night Tarot thanks to its strong animal theme, as I know that many magical girl series have a lot to do with animal companions. This is a beautiful collage-style deck (unfortunately, I do have to clarify that it's not AI-generated, because we live in a world where creative endeavors are being shilled to art theft machines) and it has given us the Nine of Wands upright.

Look at that beautiful fucking porcupine.

Anyway, the main theme of this card is boundaries according to the deck's author herself. Sometimes, you've gotta step back and take a break - you can't go at 100% all the time. You gotta let some things happen to you. The path you are looking to tread involves a lot of responsibility - any contract with a spirit typically does, but especially so when you're setting yourself up to be a magical protector. You've gotta pause and take a look at yourself and your motivations. What about being a magical girl appeals to you? What are your lines, and how likely is it that they will be crossed?

These are things that you should definitely keep in mind as you read on for my recommendations.

My first recommendation is to find your community. I know of a few blogs who are at varying points in their magical girl magic/witch/occult/pagan practices - @majokkid, @cl0udii, @noctuarie, and @kuhli-mahou are just a handful that I know the existence of! You can also check tags here on Tumblr like #irl mahou or #mahoublr.

As for book recommendations, while it's not an overtly witchy/occult book, The Magical Girl's Guide to Life: Find Your Inner Power, Fight Everyday Evil & Save the Day With Self-Care by Jacque Aye could be an interesting read for you! It's more self-health or self-care focused, but it's only a few degrees off of being a pop culture magic book in its own right! My review of it can be read on @jasper-pagan-witch at this link! I quite enjoyed it.

When it comes to learning tarot, my best advice is to get a deck you really like and to jump right in. You can find magical girl series-inspired decks all over Amazon and Etsy and Ebay, but you don't even need to limit yourself to that! There are tarot decks for nearly every theme you can think of, from animals (including specific animals) to mythology to queer decks to the run-of-the-mill Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Just getting a deck that you like and find easy to read will do much for you. Beyond that, I also have a bunch of posts saved in @jasper-grimoire under the tarot section that you might find interesting! There are nearly a million different ways to read a deck and to do divination, so you've just gotta jump in and learn.

Ultimately, this is your practice, and you've gotta put in the leg work. But hopefully this has given you a place to start! If you feel so inclined, please feel free to send feedback in my ask box and/or reblog my new reading guidelines!

~Jasper

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Weeks in Review (July 16-29, 2023)

Legendary announced a pair of Monsterverse comics during a panel at San Diego Comic Con. They've said nothing further since, and no one posted the panel online, so I have less to tell you than I'd like. Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted is the obligatory prequel comic for the film. From the pages they showed off, it looks like Zid has art duties again (well-deserved) and the monsters that Kong is fighting could be the "swamp kitt[ies]" cut from Godzilla vs. Kong. Release date is February 27. Monsterverse Declassified is going to spotlight some of the series' original monsters, with the previews showing Behemoth, Amhuluk, and Tiamat. (Supposedly Scylla, Doug, and the previously-unseen Abaddon will be in it too.)

Toho is finally letting Togen's 4K scans of some of its Godzilla films out of satellite TV jail as tie-ins to Godzilla Minus One. Godzilla (1954) and Mothra vs. Godzilla are coming to 4K Ultra HD on October 25, with Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, and Destroy All Monsters on November 22 and Godzilla vs. Hedorah and Godzilla vs. Biollante. Expect them to be as English-unfriendly as Toho's other releases - but a vague promise of "unused special effects footage", combined with some very crisp-looking photos in a recent book, means there's a chance the Frontier Missile sequence from Godzilla vs. The Thing will be included with Mothra vs. Godzilla. That'd be a godsend, considering how elusive an uncropped, uncut, high-quality version of the scene has proven to be.

These releases will easily be the best Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah, Astro-Monster, and Biollante have ever looked on home video. But with Togen shutting down, it's unclear when the rest of the pre-Shin films in the series will get upgrades. (It's also unclear when Toho will permit anyone outside Japan to use these versions for streaming or home video.) So this announcement feels bittersweet to me.

We have a release date for GAMERA -Rebirth- (September 7), a second trailer, and a reveal for the final monster: Viras! As @starestream pointed out, there's a lot of Legion in that design (along with Iris in Zigra). And as Maser Patrol pointed out, this is the same enemy kaiju lineup that Trendmasters chose for its toyline back in 1998. Poor Barugon, no one wants to taste the rainbow (and it probably hurts that he's so visually similar to Jiger too). To be honest, this trailer didn't do much for me; a bit too chaotic. Hopefully it'll be easier to tell what's happening in the show proper.

Bandai, of course, has readied Movie Monster Series figures of Viras, Zigra, and Guiron already. We're also getting a prequel manga set 100,000 years before the show.

Decades after his rampage through the Marvel Universe, Godzilla is barging into the world of DC (where he'll finally meet Batman). Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong is a seven-issue limited series launching October 17, written by Brian Buccellato (who also penned the short "Fight or Flight" comic that will be included in Legends of the Monsterverse: The Omnibus later this year) with art by Christian Duce. The inciting incident is a battle between the Justice League and the Legion of Doom, which tears a hole in reality to let the Monsterverse through.

I'll confess, I was more jazzed for last year's Power Rangers crossover, thanks to the tokusatsu link. This could just be more of Warner Bros. Discovery bashing its toys together. I'm most curious to see if the Legion of Doom makes a bid to conquer the Monsterverse, which with Godzilla and Kong out of the picture is far less prepared for them than the DC universe is for a couple of giant monsters. Superman beats them all, as Ken Yano once said.

Hiya is stepping further out of S.H.Monsterarts' shadow with a figure of the female MUTO, a character long neglected by toymakers. They showed her off at San Diego Comic Con. Playmates meanwhile releases an ad for Titan Tech Rodan - I'm glad they're not giving up on this delightful subline.

Summer Smash concludes IDW's middle-grade Monsters and Protectors storyline, which has spanned the entirety of their second go-round with Godzilla. You can tell it was supposed to be another miniseries; Godzilla, Jet Jaguar, and Mothra send Mecha-King Ghidorah and the Xiliens packing pretty quickly. Art's still great though.

Godzilla Rivals will persist into October with Vs. Mechagodzilla, the magnificent machine being the last of the Toho's Big Five to headline one of these comics. The intriguing logline:

IS YOUR CITY BESIEGED BY KAIJU? DO YOU LIE AWAKE AT NIGHT ANXIOUSLY LISTENING FOR THE MONSTER SIRENS? HAVE YOU HAD ALL YOU CAN TAKE OF GIANT LIZARDS, MOTHS, PTERODACTYLS, AND SHRIMP? THEN CALL TRACER TECH TODAY! OUR STATE-OF-THE-ART ANTI-KAIJU TECHNOLOGY HAS ALLOWED DOZENS OF CITIES AROUND THE WORLD TO FEND OFF THE THREAT OF MONSTER ATTACK. San Palomar, California. It’s a sleepy city with not much going on. That is, until Tracer Tech built their new corporate headquarters there, displacing lifelong citizens and forcing out local businesses. But what is the source of Tracer’s amazing, almost alien technology, and why has it put San Palomar in Godzilla’s sights? And what can a couple of local kids like Alex and Jaz do to protect their city when the King of the Monsters and its robot doppelgänger clash?

SRS Cinema has opened preorders for The Whale God, revealing this cover art by Bob Eggleton. Special features aren't anything spectacular (they're vaguely described, but I think a couple of essays are included, plus the obligatory trailers). Should be out by the end of the year.

The disc replacement program for Cleopatra Entertainment's misbegotten Shin Ultraman releases has resulted in an only marginally better product. The opening montage has subtitles now... but like the rest of the movie, they're just copied from the English dub. Dubtitles in 2023... and for a film that already has a perfectly good official English translation, no less. Oh, and they threw in some new visual glitches too. If your local library picks up a copy, I recommend telling them about the disc replacement program (as I've done), but don't give these clowns your money.

[cyclogenesis]

The past couple of years most of my writing has been in the form of book reviews in which I'm, tbh, not afraid to be extremely critical (my two most liked reviews are among my harshest 1/2! they love it when I'm a hater) and now that I'm actually finishing a story for the first time in 2.5 years it is SO interesting the effect this has had on my fic writing. It's always been easiest for me to think in terms of what I don't like or want (usually in relation to life choices) rather than the more nebulous and broad aspects of what I do like, especially with a verrrry novelty-driven ADHD brain (what DO I want? idk lol probably something new and differently stimulating that I haven't come across yet) so I would think that would just make it more difficult to create because you can't build something new out of what you're trying to avoid.

But it's ended up being really helpful because I notice things like structure and pacing a lot more, and being able to articulate what I identify as bad in those areas has I think greatly improved my ability to step back and see a story from a distance - to see the whole shape of it, and figure out what I'm trying to say with it/what it's about, and thereby more easily see what I need to do to fill it out so that it gets my point across. It's also been helpful because there are a lot of books out there that I think are badly written, or have catastrophic missteps that should have been caught by literally any editor along the way, and yet those books still land on the shelves, while here I am over here like "what if people think I didn't completely justify the inclusion of temporary vampirism in this MCU fanfiction story I'm posting on the internet for free, and that the tonal shift from situational comedy to rough sex is too jarring, and they think the story sucks, and that I also suck?" What then?! Well, nothing. It's all fine, and as I know from seeing all the five star reviews on books that I think are an egregious crime against the written word, most people just aren't reading that critically, nor should they be, because who cares. Anyway, hopefully I'll get this thing posted before I go to bed tonight. Writing!! AAAAAH!!!!